The Sun.
London, England, 1837-01-14 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We have ever made allowance for the untoward
circumstances with which Sir Robert Peel has had to
struggle, and have even attributed to these circum-
stances the unfortunate tone and manner Which sug-
gested Joseph Surface as the model on which his cha-
racter was formed. The endeavour to stave off the
convictions which a naturally good understanding were
continually suggesting, led him to affect a more inti-
mate persuasion than he really felt, and thus commu-
nicated to his arguments something of a false and in-
sincere tone. That his understanding and his argu-
ments were often fighting with each other, was appa-
rent to every close observer ; • and the facility with
which, in his famous speech in favour of Catholic
Emancipation, he scattered the arguments he had
himself urged only a short time before, sufficiently
proved that his former errors were not chargeable
to his intellect. But we must not allow our fa-

vourable opinion of Sir Robert's understanding to
blind us to the circumstance that that understand-

ing is yet in thraldom. We have no doubt, for in-
stance, that in his Glasgow speeches Sir Robert
will lay down many liberal positions, and utter many
generous sentiments ; but the question is not so much
what he says, as what he will he allowed to do. The
Right Hon. Baronet is in bad company. He cannot
break from his associates if he would. They will have
no objection to his quasi liberal sentiments so long as
they aid in deluding the people ; but these sentiments
will have no effect on the Tory policy. Sir Robert is
banded with men who are opposed to all measures con-
ducive to the benefit of the whole people. The terms
of the union are resistance to the just demands of the
people. Though personally incorrupt, he is bound to
support a system of corruption. `'Were he to abandon
the colours under which he has hitherto fought, and
take refuge among the advocates of popular rights, he
would be received with open arms. But so long as he is
connected with the enemies of the people, his good quali-
ties (and he has many) only render him a more dangerous
opponent. Lord Lyndhurst is too openly the soldier of
fortune, who gives himself up recklessly to those by
whom he is retained, to be formidable to the people.
The Duke of Newcastle, the Earls of Winchilsea and
Roden, and the rest of the blind and fanatical oppo-
nents of popular rights, are not the enemies whom the
nation has most to dread. The men who really give
strength to the bad cause are statesmen like Sir Robert
Peel, whose private virtues, purity in office, and secret
wishes for the good of their country, throw into the
shade the vices of the system to which they are
wedded. The people of Scotland have always
had the reputation of shrewd discernment. As
Sir Walter Scott observed, the logical predomi-
nates in them over the imaginative. They will
stare at Sir Robert, and listen with satisfaction to his
oratory ; but they will not allow themselves to be be-
trayed into anything like confounding satisfaction with
the speaker with approbation of his cause. They are
not easily led away by flourishes. John Wesley, who
tried hard to gain converts in Scotland, through which
he often travelled, was at first highly delighted with
the calmness with which the Scotch listened .to him ;
but at last he. exclaimed, " Oh ! these Scotch, they
listen to me as patiently as if they were stones ; but,
alas ! they are also as hard as stones." We are much
mistaken if Sir Robert find much cause to plume him-
self on his conversions to Toryism in Scotland. He
will find the people on that subject hard as stones.—
Mdrning Chronicle.
A question has been pertinently asked, " Would
the New Poor Law have passed prior to the passing
of the Reform Act ?" Having given the latter our
cordial, though humble, support, it is not without
some regret that we declare our conviction that in the
unreformed Parliament no measure of such unchristian
and unsvmpathising severity would have succeeded.
This is an unfortunate admission for the cause of re-
form ; hut, believing it to be the case, we feel com-
pelled to make it. The reverse of this might naturally
enough have been expected, and that by widening the
constituency, one consequence would be to place a pro-
portion of the representation in the hands of persons
nearer approaching to, and consequently feeling greater
sympathy towards, the labouring classes than had
hitherto been the case. It is true that much of
past experience was opposed to this theory ; and
that it was to the wealthy and higher classes, as well
in the capacity of neighbours and employers, as of
Magistrates, that the labourer had experienced that
succour, protection, and justice, which his situation and
that of his family, so loudly called for. From this class
much of the elements of representation were drawn, and
however faulty the elective, or rather nominative sys-
tem may have been, we fear that in many respects it
has been but ill replaced by the Roebucks, the Bul-
wers, the Wakley's, and the other Members of the
tribe of Radicals, whose Parliamentary labours, next
to their own aggrandisement, appear mainly to consist
in inventing artificial wants, while overlooking real
ones. It is to the tribe of Doctrinaires, with Lord
Brougham at their head, that the country owes the
measure of harsh and grinding injustice to which we
allude—a measure which in its operation is doing
more to unhinge society, and to dissatisfy the labour-
ing classes, than any measure which ever passed the
Legislature in its unreformed days. It is true that
there arc some among the Radicals themselves, and
among the organs of the Press, that are beginning to
trim upon this subject ; but, besides having postponed
their recantation under this head till the eleventh
hour, they almost universally express a readiness
to abandon their present sentiments should they
embarrass the Ministry ; and evidently deem the
cause of the poor and helpless as of infinitely
minor importance to the ballot, church rates, and
other mere party or theoretical objects. If in ta-
king this view of the matter, we do the Members
of the Reformed House of Commons any injustice,
they will speedily have it in their power to refute us by
their actions. Let them, when Parliament meets, show
the country that they prefer and know how to distin-
guish practical utility from mere theoretical objects. Of
the many topics which present themselves for legislative
interference, the two most important are the establish-
ment of a judicious system of poor laws for Ireland,
and the repeal or great amelioration of the new Whig
poor law for England. Let us see whether these will
be the first objects taken up, and pursued with the
zeal and earnestness which tests sincerity. If they are,
we shall be among the first to applaud men, of whatever
party, who so conduct themselves. But if, as we too
much fear will be the case, we arc doomed again to see
those interesting topics among " dropped orders" and
" postponed notices," while the plunder of the Protes-
tant Church of Ireland, the abolition of church rates
in England, and the ridiculous affair of the ballot, are
put forward in their stead, we shall naturally be in-
duced to ask, " What have the people gained by a
Reformed Parliament ?"—Morning Herald.
We received at a late hour this morning, by express,
a full report of the interesting proceedings on the in-
auguration of Sir Robert Peel as Lord Rector of the
University of Glasgow. This report forms the most
prominent portion of our paper, and will, without any
recommendation from us, command the general and
earnest attention of our readers. It will be seen that
the University of Glasgow, at which, for many
years, Whig politics maintained an unequivocal, if
not an uncontested, ascendancy, now vies with the
great seats of learning in the southern parts of
the island in the expression of ardent and en-
thusiastic attachment to Conservative principles. The
cheers and the groans by which the students of the
northern University manifested upon this occasion
their political predilections were as intense as ever
shook the domes of Oxford or Cambridge ; and
their distribution among the public characters of
our day seems to have been governed at Glasgow
by the same just laws which have always guided the
decisions of the British Universities on similar occa-
sions. Yet the change and the temper and principles
of the youth of Glasgow, conspicuous as it seems, is,
we believe, much dire apparent than real. The stu-
dents of the northern University now express contempt
for a school of Statesmen whom they or their prede-
cessors were wont vehemently to applaud ; but it is be-
cause that school, once associated, in the ardent ima-
gination of youth, with the principles of the British
Constitution, and with the general cause of human
freedom, is now seen in alliance with the irreconcileable
enemies of both—it is because that school has degene-
rated from its former character, or (ought we not ra-