The Sun.
London, England, 1839-08-29 00:00:00

METROPOLITAN POLITICAL

SUMMARY.

The Courier of last evening contains the following
cursory remarks on the Queen's Speech :—" In the
Speech itself there is little to challenge remark. At the
close of the Session, the character of the Royal Speech
must necessarily be retrospective, and where there is
little that is cheering to look back upon, the emptiness
of the topic cannot but infect the discourse. The
matters on which her Majesty congratulates herself,
relate, almost exclusively, to the foreign policy of the
country. This branch of the public service is that
which faction can do least to impede, and the Pa:lia-
mentary labours of the Session, bearing upon it, are
somewhat less barren of result, than those bearing upon
our domestic and colonial interests. The only two Acts
relating to home affairs to which allusion is made in the
Speech are, the Postage Act and the Metropolitan
Police Act. But how comes it that her Maje-:_.l was
not able to comment on many other subje
at of congra-
tnlation ? Had the Tories not put
sures proposed by the SoveTelgr `:heir veto on mea-
and approved by the
people, the Queen wo
..
to congratulate he "et on Tuesday have had
:eelf—on the adoptiom of a
measure to e"..:itarge the constituency of the
country, I'4 a more satisfactory registration of
voter: ; on the adoption of a measure to enable
.ier Majesty to secure to the negro population of Ja-
maica the full enjoyment of all the advantages of eman-
cipation ; on a measure for the reform of municipal
corporations in Ireland ; on a measure for the cor-
rection of some of the most crying abuses con-
nected with Church discipline ; on a measure
for correcting many of the defects of our
existing system of Prison Discipline ; on a
measure to allow inland towns the facility which
seaports now enjoy, of erecting bonded warehouses for
the temporary reception of foreign merchandise. These
are a few of the measures of Reform brought forward
by Government during the present Session, sanctioned
by the House of Commons, and scornfully rejected by
the Tory majority in the House of Lords. Had Fac-
tion not been allowed to rule triumphantly, the Queen
would not yesterday have lacked topics of congratula-
tion on matters nearer home than Teheran and Mexico."
The Globe, commenting on an article that appeared
yesterday in a Morning Contemporary respecting the
conduct of Ministers, puts forth the. following sug-
gestions :—" On the whole we contend that no blame is
deserved by the Ministry for not bringing forward plans
of experimental change in our institutions. To pacify
the discontents which have been stirred into tumult
amongst the workpeople, such changes would be worse
than useless. They are not what they ask for. The
projects founded by Honourable Members on their own
theories, and the scheme for sheer delegation demanded
by tl.e People's Charter, are totally different, as well in
tlae principles on which they are founded, as the practical
objects at which they aim. It is useless to give what has no
resemblance to what has been asked for; if you give
it for the mere purpose of satisfying the popular
claims. There are indeed amendments in the machi-
nery and details of the representation, which we con-
ceive may properly, and ought to be undertaken by Go-
vernment. But the main responsibility which at pre-
sent rests on them is not so much, as it appears to us,
in that department of measures (though we do not un-
derrate their importance) for perfecting the reform of
Parliament, as in the use which they arc called upon
to make of their power (a power which their op-
ponents have been offered, and have feared
to take from them) for the promotion of those
measures which are of most real practical ur-
gency. The adoption of the penny postage is a large
instalment' in this department. There are other mea-
sures of greater importance ; as they press more directly
on the circumstancea of those classes whose distresses
turn them to politicians. It matters not that many
of them may not discern the origin of their own evils,
and may evEn call for dangerous remedies. It is the
office of a Government, deserving the name, to discern
and seek to remedy the real sources of social uneasi-
ness. Amongst these we have never ceased to pro-
claim the burtheus which press on commerce and in-
dustry. To all of these the eye of the statesman
should be anxiously and closely directed ; and his hand
should neither be slow nor timid to relieve or remove
them."

The Standard makes the following animadversions on
the Queen's Speech :—" The very assertion with which
her Majesty is made to set out would be amusing from
its absurdity, were it possible to regard so gross an at-
tempt to practice upon the youth, generosity, and inex-
perience of a Sovereign with any other sentiments than
those of pain and regret. Her Majesty is advised to say
that she performs the ' satisfactory duty of releasing
Parliament from its long and laborious attendance,'
because the public business has been brought to a
close.' Now, there is not a single reader of newspapers
throughout the kingdom who is not fully aware that
the Session has terminated—two-thirds of its legisla-
tion having been hurried over with the most indecent
expedition during the last few weeks—not because
its business has been concluded, but simply
because the period has arrived at which the
Members of her Majesty's two Houses of Parlia-
ment are usually dismissed to their homes ; an excuse
of which Ministers have most joyfully availed them-
selves, to escape for a time from the difficulties by
which they are environed. Not only has much of the
business which Ministers h.d prescribed for itself been
left unperformed, or performed in so slovenly a manner
as to render their measures nugatory and inoperative,
but it has absolutely failed to redeem any one of the
pledges conveyed in the opening Speech of the Session.
The four chevaux de bataille to which public attention
was directed on that occasion, would appear to have been
mere stalking horses, pressed into the service of her Ma-
jesty's Ministers, to enable them to bespeak the confidence
of the country for their policy. The Irish Municipal
Reform Bill was abandoned by its progenitors, because
it was deprived of some of its most obnoxious features
by the House of Peers, and had received at their
hands such amendments as were calculated to ren-
der it a practical measure. But what of that ?
tug have afforded her Majesty an opportunity of
congratulating the country on the " conclusion of
a definite treaty between Holland and Belgium !,