The Sun.
London, England, 1837-05-03 00:00:00

Westminster may now be regarded as the arena in
which the relative strength of the Reformers and auti-
Reformers must be tested. The result of the ap-
proaching contest will be considered as the criterion of
the state of public opinion throughout England, and
therefore it is more than ever incumbent on those gal-
lant victors in many a hard-fought field—the West-
minster Reformers—to maintain the honour of their
city—to protect the general interests of the country,
and to prove the mettle of their pasture by once more
rallying round the standard of popular freedom, and
returning to Parliament a true representative of the
popular sentiment. To the past services of Sir
Francis Burdett, there are none more ready than our-
selves to accord the due meed of approbation ; and in
proportion to our appreciation of them is our regret
that his recent conduct leaves us no alternative but to
denounce him as a renegade from his former principles,
and a traitor to liberty, or to seek an excuse for his
atrocious apostacy in that,imbecility which exposes age
to the machinations of evil-minded intriguers. We
are pained at the necessity of speaking of Sir Francis
Burdett in harsh terms ; but it is not a time to bandy
compliments, when principles so deeply alrecting public
liberty are at stake. It is not we who assail the fame
of Sir Francis—it is hiniself who has offered it up as
a sacrifice to the most despicable suggestions of super-
annuated vanity. He could no longer be first amonast
Reformers ; and distinction being his great incentive
throughout life, he has, with singular consistency of
motive, become the first of renegades. It has been
said of old, that no man's .life could be pronounced
happy until he died—in regard to Sir Francis it may
well be observed that no political career can be pro-
nounced glorious until it be terminated. A chance
still remains to him to escape the damnatory judgment
with which, instead of applause of an admiring na-
tion, he is about to transmit his name to posterity—
it is at once to retire from public life. We griee to
see him, " the hero of a hundred fights"—" the glory
of Westminster," cajoled in his—what can we sav but—
dotage, by those against whom the energies of his man-
hood were so successfully exerted. It is like the Philis-
tines bringing forth Samson when shorn of his strength
to be the butt of their derision. Oh, it is a fiendish
mockery to couple the name of Sir Francis Burdett
with Toryism. Yet the leading organ of the faction
exults in the announement that he is now the cham-
pion of " Conservatism," the new-fangled term for
corruption. Unfortunately, Sir Francis has put it
out of our power to deny the allegation ; nay, we must
reiterate it—hc is identified with the cause of corrup-
tion. What, then, is to be done ? Are we to forget
the duty we owe our country in our respect for the in-
dividual who has forsaken her ? Westminster is the
pride of the Reform constituencies of England—the
devotion of this city to the cause of freedom has emu-
lated the most celebrated examples of antiquity—it
cannot now succumb to feelings of personal sym-
pathy with the weakness of him whose greatest
achievement was accomplished through their in-
strumentality. In former, and even comparatively
recent times, men have offered up their lives for their
country's good—the Roman patriot made even a greater
effort of self-negation, and sacrificed his son ; and
shall Westminster hesitate at the supercessitin of one
upon whom the greatest benefit that can now be con-
ferred is to debar him from the opportunity of farther
compromising his own character and the interests of
his country ? The conduct of Sir Francis may be
palliated by the plea we have already offered ; but those
who, in the plenary exercise of their intellect, lend
themselves to the treason attempted against the interests
of Reform, by supporting him in his desertion, are
only worthy of contempt. The greater the respect for •
him the greater will be the glory of showing to the
world that, even under his auspices, Toryism could not
reat its envenomed head above the liberalism indigenous
to Westminster.—Morning Advertiser.
The electioneering conflict which is now about to
take place in Westminster' is no ordinary one.' It is a
struggle between monarchy and democracy—between
an old-fashioned English Government, by King, Lords,
and Commons, and the newly-fangled system, by cen-
tral boards and Whig commissions—between freedom
restrained within constitutional limits, and oppression
reduced to a science, under the mask of liberality. We
are sorry to be obliged to add, that the interests of the
reformed religion are in some degree at stake, inas-
much as the party that support the Whig-Radical can-
didate arc harnessed to the car of that Irish agitator
who is the avowed enemy of all Protestant institutions.
The energetic and truly-English appeal which Sir
Francis Burdett has made to the constitutional sen-
timents of the' Westminster constituency proves that
the moral courage of the old champion of reforth is as
strong in the evening of life as in the vigour of his ear-
lier days. But, calculated as that appeal is to touch the
Manly sense and stimulate the patriotic spirit of Eng-
lishmen to bestir themselves in the cause for which so
high-minded a chief has taken the field, yet it must not
be disguised that great exertions will be necessary to
secure the triumph of Burdett, and the victory of the
Constitution, against the efforts and influence that will
be used to defeat the one, with the hope of eventually
facilitating the destruction of the` other: There is no
doubt that the Whig Government will strain every
nerve of their influence to oppose and prevent the re-
turn of Burdett ; and why should they not ? On his
banner is inscribed " Reform," and the Whig Minis-
ters are but " mock Reformers ;"—his battle-cry is
" the British Constitution," and they would destroy, to
construct upon its ruins, their old sordid system of
commission-despotism and oligarchical power. " Un-
der the same banner," says Burdett, speaking of the
banner of Reform, " we shall, I trust, successfully
contend for the support. of he laws, institutions, and