The Sun.
London, England, 1830-11-17 00:00:00

namely, the choice or nomination of a Ministry;
and the Materials on which the Royal Will hes nod
to *et are of a nature more chaotic than chaol
It is only to look in the celumns of a newspaper for
the capital letters indicating the chief and most fre-
quent speakers, to see who are named and are the
candidates fot. office; but; of course, nothingls dt-
&ded, much less known yet 4: we should impose
upon our readers were we to attempt to present
them with even a conjectural list. On the score. of
personal friendship, to assist in the private delibe-
rations of the King, Lord Anglesea may have been
sent to; and it appears from the Court Newsiness,
that Lord Grey had an interview with his Majesty
between four and five o'clock. It is thought, we
know not how correctly, that his Lordship will be
empowered to form a Ministry. Some doubt hiss
been expressed, without, however, any ground
stated, whether the Chancellor retires, but if he
does, he has, on the Regency question, taken _leave
of the House of Lords as a Minister, in one of the
ablest, the most clear, historical, and appropriate
speeches, that was ever uttered Within its walls.—
fames.

The resignation of his Majesty's Ministers, which
was officially announced to Parliament last Oight,
was an event for which the public were somewhat
prepared, in consequence of the result of the divi-
eine of the previous night relative to the Civil List.
That division was not on a question of form, as the
CoUrier of lust evening wished to represent it ; on
the contrary, it was a question of substance, and of
deep and vital importance to the financial interests
of the country. If it were but a question of form
us to whether the arrangements of the Civil List
should he referred to n Select Committee, what are
we to say of the wisdom of Ministers in forcing on
such a collision between themselves and their oppo-
nents in Parliament, by obstinately refusing to con-
cede such a formal matter? And what are we to
say of their sagacity in not having anticipated the
result ? The Evening Paper to which we have
alluded gravely tells the public that the question of
the Civil List was, to a certain degree, a surprise,
and that a large portion of the adherents of Minis-
ters were not aware, and could not have guessed,,
that a mere question of form could have taken so
serious an aspect. We believe that the serious con-
sequences of the division was a surprise to both
the Ministers and their adherents. 'What does
this prove ? That Ministers were lamentably.ignc-
rant of the insecurity of their own position--
that they strangely miscalculated their strength,
and inspired their followers with a blind confi-
dence, which prevented them from contemplating
the possibility of a defeat. It cannot, however,
be said that the opinion of the House was not
fairly tried on a question on which 437 Members
voted. And we believe it will be found that the,
regular and staunch supporters of Treasury influence
were in their places. We have said that the guess
Lion of referring the Civil List to a Select Com-
mittee %sus one not of form but of substance. Here
are our reasons :—The Chancellor of the Exche-
quer, when he introduced the subject on Friday
night, made a statement which for the greater part
was wholly unintelligible to the House. The more
he professed to explain the question, the more he
involved it in mystery and confusion. Having re-
viewed the subject with some degree of detail in
our publication of Monday, we need not enter into
it at present, further than to remind our readers that
we urged the adoption by the House of a Select
Committee, on several grounds, the principal of
which were—thst, that the speech of the Chancellot
of the Exchequer was unintelligible, and that the
HotiSe ought not to vote die immense sums required
for the Civil List in the dark; secondly, that the
ditretence between the proposed Civil List and the
extravagant one of the former reign, should be fully
and satisfactorily ascertained before a contract was
made with the Crown, which could not be afterwards
reecinded ; and, third y, that it was just and proper
the expenses of the Royal Household should be
separated from other public expenses, to do away
with the popular impression that the maintenance of
the Royul establishment is u greater burden to the
nation than it really is, and also to prevent the
hands of Parliament from being tied up, with re-
gard to making such reductions es circumstances
might resider practicable and necessary in all branches
of the public expenditure which are not applied to
the support of the just splendour and dignity of the
Cream. The use of a Select Committee is, there-
fore, to inquire into the whole of the statement of
the Chancellor of the, Exchequer, to disentangle
that which was perplexed; to make intelligible
that which was obscure ; to suggest the alterations
and improvements which the true interests of the
Crown and the public service required; and to re-
port upon the whole to the House of Commons ;
that so the representatives of the people might
clearly understand the great question on which they
were called to deliberate, and not vote away the
public money upon the delusive representations of
one who, as financier, seems to have peculiarly
studied the art of " darkening knowledge by words
Without wisdom." The real question, as rightly
stated by Sir Henry Parnell, was, whether the re-
presentadies of the people of England would, with
pledges of economy fresh upon their lips, proceed to
vote so vast a sum without Adopting any previous
inquiry ? Wus this a quadrat of mere Arm?
Those who live upon the taxes may think so, but
those who pay them will consider it a very essens
tial duty of the Constitutional guardians. of the pub..
lie purse; a duty, the neglect of which, under any
circumstances, would justly attach to them the guilt
of being unfaithful and derelict stewards of the
commonwealth, but, in the
.present state of the
country, would involve them in the disgrace of pe•
cushier treachery to their constituents, and of gross
disregard of the obligations of their high national
trust. It is true, the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
and other Ministers, argued that, inasmuch as
it was not intended to invest the Select Corn-
mittee with the powers which would enable it to
send for and examine persons, papers, and revolt's,
it would be nugatory; but this was another
attempt at delusion, for the object of uppity-
ing the Committee was only to examine the details
of the Chancellor of the Exchequer's statement, and
to see to what purposes the various items of expense
were in reality to be applied; and also, to ceasider
the propriety. of Nepenthe? the expenses of the Royal
Household from those that were no way connected
with the peculiar income of his Majesty, finless by
the arbitrary stub absurd classification of heanciers,
who, under the pretence of supporting the splendour
and dignity of the Crown, wished to entrap the
House into a contract which would have the etrisci
of protecting from scrutiny and revision, during the
continuance of the present Kingfe reign, other bur-
densome items of expenditure which ought to be lie
much under the annual control. of Parliament as the
estimates for the artny and navy. The Chancellor
of the Exchequer also relied on the want of a pre?
cedent for the mode of proceeding in this ease by a
Select Committee. Perhaeo it might have beet,
that the present state of the country we«
also without a precedent; but a good reason for u
new practice is stronger than a bad precedent against
it. Mr. Wynn rightly observed that it " did not
follow because former Houses of Commons neg.
lected their duty that the present Houle should 'do
the same." To go wrong because others have
gone wrong before us is certainly a bad principle
both in morals and politics. When the Chancellor
of the Exchequer produced his memorable sugars
aelieme he claimed credit for it, not en the ground
ofprecedent, but of novelty; and certainly its being
without example would have bean no objection to it
if it lied not been us absurd as it was original. The
proper quest* in the present case would have seep
sun whether the mode of proceeding proposed wee
*Alembicd by precedent, but whether it was jaStified
by necessity ? We think we have pieced that be-
yond a doubt. After what we have stated, it he
perhaps, superfluous for us .to arid, that we perfectly
concur with the position laid down by Lord Althorp,
who suit! he 4' was desirous, 44 every one must be,
that Ministers should propose the plan they though
tit; but it was quite a different-thing to call upon