The Sun.
London, England, 1837-08-24 00:00:00

mexion with the Anti-Protestant and Anti-Establish-
ment policy, which they have hereto ore endeavoured
to prosecute. If they be not actually out-numbered
by the Conservatives, the opposition will, at least, be
strong enough to convince Lord Melbourne that his
heavy blow system must for the present he discontinued.
-Nor have the organs of democracy and dissent hesi-
tated to avow their conviction, that in the present state
of parties, the only possible means whereby the Whigs
can expect to retain office must consist in their aban-
donment of all disputed questions—in their resolute
defiance of Lord Althorp's puritanical disclaimers
about patronage, in their bringing forward only such
uselukaeasures as the Conservatives will support ; but,
especially, in so abusing her Majesty's name and pre-
roe,ative, as, without actually sanctioning the avowals of
Mr. Shed, shall irreverentle compromise the Queen's
deserved popularity by involving the Crown in a
Popish and Radical partizanship, against which the
electors of Great Britain have just recorded their solemn
protest in almost every polling-book in the kingdom.
But with all the shifts and expedients, by the adoption
of which the Whigs will probably make a desperate
effort to retain power in spite of the condemnatory
'voice of the British constituency, it is quite evident that
the success of such a mean and insolent attempt is
viewed with very serious misgivings even by their own
jourvls. One Liberal print has actually declared its
belief that a Conservative Ministry is now inevitable.
Indeed, the whole of the revolutionary press speak
despondingly of their patrons and projects. Their tone
and phraseology have undergone a corresponding,
change. The absolute has given place to the condi-
tional., and dogmatism is superseded by doubt. Never-
theless, it were hard indeed if in the hour of adversity
there were not a single point upon which they could rely
for consolation or hang an illusive hope. Happily
there is one such point--a point which we shall endea-
vour to state and examine as frankly as may he, not
more from a desire to reciprocate the explanations
which the Whigs have given of their plan for managing
a restiff Parliament, than from our anxiety to show that
we are neither blind to the possible embarrassments
which may beset the Conservative cause, nor inattentive
to the resources that may be looked to for their removal.
The point in question is simply this :—lf the Whig
Ministry shall prove unable to conduct the Go-
vernment by reason of possessing only a small ma-
jority, how can the Conservatives, who actually form a
minority, expect to be more efficient than their rivals ?
To the solution of this poser we shall now address our-
selves, and, as we desire to view our case in no over-
favourable aspects, we shall proceed on the assumption
that Messrs. Grote, O'Connell, Hutton, Brotherton,
Gibson, Lord Belfast, Vigors, and many others in si-
milar circumstances, will hare the luck to find Parlia-
mentary Committees with nerve enough to maintain
them in their seats. Setting aside, therefore, every pros-
pect of gains derivable from petitions, we are content
upon the whole to take Parliament as it stands ; and in
the event of a Conservative Ministry being formed, our
Opinion is, that that Parliament will be as much predis-
posed to give such a Ministry a " fair trial" as its prede-
cessor was pre-engaged to a directly opposite course.
First of all, although we promise the Whigs and the
duped minority of British electors who have supported
them, that the shameless abuse of patronage which a
venal press has recommended to a still more venal
Government as the only chance of averting its downfall
will be utterly repudiated by a constitutional Cabinet,
there are two facts connected with the new representa-
tives which afford a strong presumption that a Con-
servative Administration will meet with their support.
They are not pledged to the contrary. At no election
since the passing of the Reform Bill have fewer
pledges been exacted than during the contests now
closed. The reason assigned for this by the Whig-
Radical papers is, that no question of commanding in-
terest has excited the enthusiasm of the people. Be
this as it. may, we are not aware that in any instance
gentlemen have pledged themselves to give a factious
opposition to every Ministry but a Whig one. On the
contrary, they have neither been asked nor expected to
do so : while, if it be true that the disuse of the pledge-
system is mainly attributable to the indifference of the
Liberal constituency in regard to public questions, the
conclusion is irresistible, that whereas a great majority
of British voters have returned representatives to ex-
terminate Lord Melbourne's Government, the remain-
der have felt little concern to secure its preservation.
It being thus evident that Members have generally
been invested with an unfettered discretion in regard
to the party who shall conduct the Government, our
second observation relates to the mode in which the
more reasonable among them are likely to exercise it.
Their minds are comparatively free from unfounded
prt7julrces. When Lord Melbourne was abruptly
dismissed by his late Majesty at Brighton, a suspi-
cion was extensively entertained that the Court was
treacherous to the cause of Reform, and that Sir
Robert Peel's Ministry were to be the instruments for
giving that treachery effect. That the belief of this
had a considerable influence in awakening and aggra-
vating the opposition which the Conservative Premier
received from the last Parliament, no person can deny.
But now the matter is wholly altered. The Whig
gentry entertain no doubt whatever as to the sound-
ness of Court politics at present. Moreover, they
hare no resentment to assuage, on account of party in-
dignities experienced at the Royal hand. There are
no pretended beck-stairs intrigues, whereby many
were formerly imposed on to resist a constitillional
Government aileged to have been so for7ned ; and,
let Sir Robert Peel be cr fled to power when he may,
everybody must admit that he asks the confidence of
Parliament under circumstances.of advantage to which
his former position could lay no claim. Add to
all this the fact, that the Conservative party having
expressed their willingness to put an end to exclusive-
ness in the Irish corporations, and having cheerfully
co-operated in redressing the matrimonial grievances of
Dissenters, cannot with the slightest regard to truth be
chargeable with hostility to sound practical reform.
Now, we are of opinion that many Members of the
new Parliament, even though disposed generally to
support a Whig Ministry, will neither be unmindful
of these truths nor indifferent to their force.. Com-
pared with the irritation and high party feeling which
existed at the assembling of the last House of Com-
mons, a more candid and impartial temper may be ex-
pected to prevail ; and, as affording another certain
source of stability to a Conservative Government, we
have reason to know that not a few respectable Whigs
of moderate sentiments are literally longing for a legi-
timate opportunity to rid themselves of the O'Connell
domination. Various other remarks to the same pur-
pose may be satisfactorily adduced, but we must defer
them till another day.—Times.

Parliament, as we hare before intimated, will meet
for the dispatch of business in the middle of November.
The interval between that and the present time will be
but short. On the way, however, brief as it will he, in
which the intervening space is improved by the Re-
formers, much of the character of the future policy of
England will depend. If we, the people of these
realms, are inactive, that section of the inhabitants
contra-distinguished from their fellow-stlbjects by the
ominous epithet of Tories, will not be idle. Every
hour of The interveniiic* period will be as eagerly im-
proved by them as if
their individual lives, instead of
the mere des,tinies of a party, were dependent on the
amount of zeal and energy with which they prosecute
their purposes of mischief. Shall the Liberals of
England subject themselvestheireir
to the serious •
omfobt
ee i
trigi
ne less
le;a ernaeussteeni;tll aetve in
_efforts to protat;ol-'
wrii. Leh they have eenbarked
than their oimonents are in the prosecution of their'
despotic machinations ? We hope better things of
them. To be inactive at such a juncture would,
indeed, be to incur a deep and lasting reproach. It
would be to plunge themselves into the lowest depths
of national degradation. And yet the voice of warn-
ing is often needed by the best of men ; its tendency
is salutary at all times. At the present moment, when
the interests at stake are of incalculable importance,
and when there is a danger of the Reformers under-

estimating the strength-and activity of their oppo-
nents—at such Er moment the voice of warning comes
at a peculiarly seasonable time. We will not even
indirectly do the people of England the injustice of
assuming that they need to be told by us what as the
duty they have to perform between the present time
and the meeting of the new Parliament. That they
know as well as we do. They are well aware that if
the present Government, which may now be said to