The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-19 00:00:00

manded his audience to support Lord Palmerston's
stepgrandson, and told an interpellant in the crowd
that, " if he could get at him, he would soon let him
know who he was," and, despite the great influence
of his family, lost the seat to his party by a majority
of fifty-seven. Everybody understands that the
seat is lost to the Liberal party, which, and not
Lord Palmerston's personal sway, is the real object
of interest to English liberal men. Wholly apart
from all questions of personal taste, and political
propriety, and official decorum, that result is a
failure, and escapades are forgiven only when they
succeed. A scene like that at Tamworth election

never increases English respect for its actors, but
when it results in defeat scorn deepens very rapidly
into active annoyance. Had Sir Robert Peel done
what any other Minister would have done, accepted
a Peel as candidate with pleasure, but deprecated
family monopoly; left a shrewd agent to conciliate
vows, but kept himself wholly out of the fray;
there was strength enough in the old organisation,
backed by Raynham and Drayton Manor, to have
carried the" Liberal" candidate. It must be added
that Mr. Cowper helped his friends as little as he
could. He did not, of course, conciliate Tories, and
genuine Liberals are sick of this repetition of " Pal-
merston," as an equivalent for a Liberal creed, this
eternal demand for homage instead of alliance. Mr.
Cowper had, however, nothing better to offer, did
not propound a doctrine or express an opinion which
gave him any character whatever except that of the
Premier's relation. The result is that with votes be-
coming of vital importance, and a rising feeling that
the Liberal cause is still worth strong exertion, the
Liberal papers all over Great Britain are exulting
in the loss of one seat for Tamworth, simply because
they hope that it may end in the ultimate loss of
the other. Sir Robert Peel himself admitted that his
own seat would be attacked, and the strongest
friends of the Ministry cannot honestly hope that
his apprehension may be unfounded. This is a
severe defeat for both Mr. Cowper and his patron,
Sir R. Peel, whose unpopularity has lost the seat to
the Liberal party. It is reported that so bitter is
the feeling in the locality, that at the next general
election Sir Robert himself will lose his seat, and
the rumour is confirmed by a valedictory speech, in
which that gentleman informed his friends that
when his trial came he should expect them to rally
round him. No true Liberal will mourn should Sir
Robert's fear prove true. A member of her Majesty's
Government who personally interferes in any elec-
tion but his own, bandies jests and threats with a
mob, and finishes by knocking an elector into the
coal scuttle, is only suited to the constituency of
Tipperary or Marylebone. Bernal Osborne and
water is a trying dose for Liberals, but Osborne and
vitriol is simply unendurable.
WEEKLY REGlsTEß.—Wherefore the defeat of
Lord Palmerston's stepson in Tamworth ? Free
trade and ribbons and the French Treaty were not
even mentioned during the contest in the Stafford-
shire Borough • and yet the Premier's candidate,
and that candidate a member of Lord Palmerston's
own family, is ignominiously beaten, though sup
ported to an extent inconsistent with decency, and,
we believe, with law, by the Secretary for Ireland
and Lord of the soil. It is possible, indeed, that Sir
R. Peel's conduct at the election may have caused
the defeat of leis friend, Mr. Cowper ; but there can
be no doubt of its having swelled the majority against
him. We believe the records of electioneering do
not furnish a parallel for such conduct on the part
of a Minister of the Crown. Lord Byron, speaking
of the late Lord Castlereagh, said that he supplied
the first instance of a Minister who dictated to the
House of Commons in the language of Mrs. Mala-
prop. Borrowing the idea, we believe we are jus-
tified, by what has lately occurred at Tamworth, in
saying that Sir R. Peel furnishes the first instance
of a member of the Government of this country,
a Privy Councillor and a Secretary for Ireland,
who exhibits on the hustings as a buffoon and a bully.
Lord Palmerston is proverbial for his adherence to
those whom he treats as his friends, but we question
if the task of sustaining Sir Robert Peel in office,
after the degrading spectacle at Tamworth the other
day, be not too great even for Lord Palmerston's
chivalry. The Times, in its zeal for the Premier,
adroitly endeavours to avert public indignation from
the outrageous conduct of the Irish Secretary by
making it a subject for badinage and laughter. But
that trick, though clever, won't do. The country
will not tolerate the disgraceCul spectacle of a mem-
ber cf the Government riotously interfering, with
freedom of election—knocking down electors be-
cause they think fit to oppose his nominee, and, in
the slang language of the prize ring, telling his
hireling mob to " bonnet" a man for daring to exer-
cise his electoral franchise in favour of the Opposi-
tion candidate. Sir Robert Peel may play the
mountebank—may act the flashman and the pugi-
list if he pleases, and as often as he pleases ; but the
Secretary for Ireland must eschew the blackguard
and behave the gentleman. It is sad enough that
he should bring shame and ridicule, and in Tam-
worth, too, and in view of his illustrious father's
statue, upon the name which that father had made
great and memorable ; but he must not be allowed
with impunity to degrade the rank of a Privy Coun-
cillor, and to draggle the high office of Chief Sec-
retary for Ireland in the mud. If he have the
smallest modicum of common sense, and the slightest
regard for Lord Palmerston, he will relieve the Go-
vernment from the embarrassment of his presence
before Parliament meets, for assuredly if he be in
office at the meeting of Parliament, the House of
Commons will feel it to be its duty to censure the
Cabinet for retaining in office a man who has
committed the gross outrages upon law, decency,
and the Constitution that characterise Sir Robert
Peel's conduct at the recent Tamworth election.
LONDON REVIEW.—The Opposition journals are
naturally much elated at the result of the Coventry
and Tamworth elections Nor do we deny their
right to reckon the first as a substantial victory.
Mr. Treherne is, indeed, hardly the man of whom
a great party ought to be proud, but he will vote as
Mr. Disraeli orders, and that is all that is expected
from him. If we were to accept him as the delibe-
rate choice of Coventry, we should be driven to
conclude that a political reaction had indeed set in
in that borough, for his political creed is no mild
and neutral tint of Conservatism, but the real old
" true blue" of Eldon and Sibthorp. The truth is
that his election represents little or nothing but the
resentment of the electors at the Treaty of Com-
merce with France, which they ignorantly suppose
to have caused the falling off in the demand for
ribbons. At the same time, although it may be
easy to account for each Ministerial defeat, taken
separately, in a manner which may deprive them of
much importance, it is impossible to overlook the
fact that the necessity of accounting for defeats
seems at present to be, imposed only on one side. It
is, to say the least, extraordinary that the special
circumstances should always be on the side of the
Conservatives. The Ministerial majority sitting on
the Liberal benches is by this time merely nominal,
if indeed it exists at all. And although Lord Pal-
merston has hitherto found some of his best friends
on the other side of the house, it le by no means
certain that they will be either willing or able to
help him if Mr. Disraeli is once in possession of an
actual majority. But even if the Premier be per-
mitted to remain undisturbed during the remainder
of the Parliament, there can be no doubt the power
is gradually slipping away from the Liberal party.
We do not consider the result of theTamworth elec-
tion as a proof of this or of anything bat the irre-
claimable rowdy ism of Sir R. Peel. There was little
or no difference betweentho two candidates, but the
hon. baronet's unpopularity in the borough, joined
to his violence and indiscretion, were quite sufficient
to secure the defeat of whichever he might happen
to support. Unfortunately for himself that hap-
pened to be Mr. Cowper. The Government cannot,
however, attribute it to mere ill-luck that his patron
is Chief Secretary for Ireland, nor can they wholly
escape the consequences of the indiscretion which
converted a local feud into a question of confidence
in the Premier.
EXAMINER.—After all the noble proprietor of the
wayside inn at Maam has good cause to complain
of the summary justice done him by the Irish Go-
vernment in removing him from the commission of
the peace on the ground of being politically crazy.
About the fact there can indeed be no question, and
if the Irish executive were constituted upon the nar-
row and exclusive basis of politics, there would be
a certain consistency in limiting the magistracy to
men who are not thus mad. But a department
which is represented in the House of Commons by
the right hon. buffer for Tamworth is hardly en-
titled to be nice about provincial acts of incohe-
rency. Refusal of bed and board for a night in
Conemara to the Viceroy of Ireland, in revenge for
some fancied neglect or slight, is, no doubt, an act
of imbecility and indecency, which affords a fair
presumption of general unfitness for public trusts of
any kind. Yet no one will seriously contend that
one rule in these matters ought to be laid down for
justices of the peace and another for privy council-
lors, or that obvious incapacity and flagrant inde-
corum are immaterial traits in the character of a
minister, while they unfit a man for being a magis-
trate. If toomfoolery, and turbulence, and rodo-
montade disqualify an Irish peer for sitting at petty
sessions, they surely must be held still more to dis-
qualify an English baronet for being sent to Ireland
to frame laws for the government of that country,
and to superintend their execution. When Sir R.
Peel was named Chiet Secretary we entered our
protest against Lord Palmerston's choice, and ex-
pressed our anticipations as to the contempt into
which he was likely to bring the Administration.
We were gravely assured, however, that the selec-
tion was pre-eminently a wise one, because', as cer-
tain of our contemporaries profoundly observed, all
the blackguards in Ireland love a row, and the mem.
Tamworthnevar liltety eqt of one.
,=nroof with all humility, and