The Sun.
London, England, 1837-02-02 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Those who are acquainted with Scotland, laugh at the idea
of any re-action having taken place in that country. There
is really no re-action either in England or Scotland. In
Scotland fictitious votes have been created by the Tories
to an almost inconceivable extent,' to say nothing of exclu-
sive dealing and harassing opposition to the registration of
Reform voters and the application of money. There is an
union and fellowship among the Tories, who are most in-
defatigable in effecting their objects, for they feel that the
cause in which they are embarked is one of life or death
to them, The produce of the industry of this country,
and of the resources of its colonies affords such ample
prey to the Tories, that they naturally make the most des-
perate exertions to prevent any portion of this source of
supply from being dried up. It was the object of the Re-
form Bill to give a controul over the public expenditure
to the classes interested in opposing corruption, but the
host of- corruptionists in this country is so great, and the
Reforwilill left so many openings to abuse, that the ob-
ject in question has been defeated in but too many in-
stances. The squire of 2,0001. a year, who has three or
four sons whom he wishes to provide for as gentlemen at
the public expense, has so much more powerful a motive
for bestirring himself' to uphold a corrupt system than the
industrious citizen imagines -he has individually in pro-
moting a system of economy, that the latter in too- many
instances yields after a faint struggle to the well or-
ganized system of intimidation, of which the rami-
fications pervade every corner of the country. We
fear. that if the evil be not boldly met in time, Renfrew-
shire is not the only county in Scotland that will be
lost to the Reformers. In England, from- the long
sway of the. Tories, the Lord-Licutonants are of that
party ; and the magistracy are with few exceptions the most
violent of their partisans, and from their local connections
are very formidable agents. The clergy are everywheie
incessantly at work in the Tory cause, so that in several
counties it might be supposed there was an eternal general
election. The Rev. Sydney Smith interprets correctly the
feelings of the Church when he states that the clergy arc
constantly looking- to the grand prizes ; and where some
poor creature of a working clergyman is without lia-Pe of ob-
taining any of these prizes, he is placed ;a such a state. of
abject dependence on the more wealthy that he is compelled
to become their tool. That the clergy are far more oc-
cupied with politics than with divinity noeessarily re-
sults from the object after which they strive. They have
at present a thousand ways of influencing their parishioners,
and it must be owned that they are too often successful.
The Church is enlisted on the side of corruption, and the
education of the higher classes in the Universities and pub-
lic schools being almost exclusively in the hands of parsons,
we can be at no loss to understand why there have been so
many defections from the Liberal aristocracy to the Tories.
Indeed, it was made the subject of boast some time ago by
one of the headi of Eton, that all the young mon of that
seminary were made Tories. The administration of the
Horse Guards being in Tory hands, we can be at no loss to
understand why the officers of' the army are almost univer-
sally Tories, it being notorious that the purchase of com-
missions is allowed only to the sons of those who sup-
port Tory politics. We do not allude to this cir-
cumstance as a reason for the people of these king-
doms abandoning the ascendancy given .to them by the
Reform Bill, and to crawl in the dust before their enemies,
hut that they may be impressed with the magnitude of the
danger which threatens them, and may properly meet it.
One thing must not be forgotten. Every reduction, every
retrenchment, weakens the enemies of the people, and in
the same proportion, strengthens the friends of good go-
vernment. The expenditure of such enormous sums dur-
ing the war gave an organization and a power to the Tory
cause which it never before had ; but as a man cannot eat
his-cake and have it, the cessation of loans with the war,
and the oppressive burden of the heavy taxation necessary
to meet the charge on the debt caused by a wasteful and
extravagantly-conducted war, gave a blow to corruption,
under which it continued to stagger till the passing of the
Reform 13ill. We do not by any means despair of the
good cause, but once more we say the battle which still re-
mains to be fought with the Tories will be a tough one.
But we must fight the good fight, and endeavour to " lay
the proud usurpers low."—Morning Chronicle.
We believe that it is pretty generally understood that
the.speeches of movers and seconders of addresses are not
fair subjects for criticism. There is a proverb which for-
bids us to look a gift horse in the mouth, and a mover or a
seconder appears to be equally protected. Were this not
so, we could hardly resist the temptation which Lord Suf-
field's speech holds out. " There was- no one," said his
Lordship, " who would not admit that the policy which
produced the greatest happiness to the greatest number was
unquestionably the best policy for all countries." We were
not before aware that this piece of Benthamite cant had cir-
culated so generally in Westminster that there was any
danger of a member of' the House of Lords catching it.
Such, however, appears to be the fact, and how much
farther from Queen-square it may spread we will not
venture to predict,; for though, in fact, the wildest ab-
surdity or the tritest truism in the world, it is a most bene-
volent, and therefore a most taking sound, as well with the
soft-headed as with the soft-hearted. But for the sense of
it ? There-are savages who think tattooing, or natural
" buff" and " blue" paint, instead of clothes, and oil,
tallow-grease, or an undergone young child by way of
food, constitute the height of happiness : the Turks delight
in opium and tobacco, and other tribes and people have
ether tests -of happiness which it would be very difficult to
reconcile with Christianity or civilization. Yet 'this Ben-
thamic benevolence would continue to all such the bles-
sings of blundering on in their own benighted and vicious
ways. Verily modern philosophy is playing strange antics
and getting into strange places ! But, as we have said,
his Lordships speech on this occasion is not a fair subject
for criticism, and we therefore resist the provocation it
affords. Yet how came his Lordship to read the speech
of the Lords Commissioners so carelessly, or how happened
it that the Ministers did not give his Lordship earlier no-
tice of the alterations they resolved to make in the speech
after his Lordship first saw it ? That one of these little
centre-temps - must have occurred, we take to be manifest
from the observations Lord Suffield made in- seconding the
address ; for he laid great stress upon the effects of the
Poor Law Act, and attributed to it results which never did
and never will appear ; while he gave a most flattering
view of almost universal blessings that had been conferred
by the Tithe Commutation Act--a measure from which
we anticipate much good, bUt which we beg to assure Lord
Suffield can hardly yet be said to be in operation. All,
therefere, that fell from his Lordship on these subjects was
pure hallucination ; but the subjects themselves must surely
have been originally touched-upon in the speech, however
and whenever they •disappeared from it. To this rather
curious phenomenon our readers must attribute these ob-
servationk,- and not by any' means consider them in the light
of: tEbreath -or Pitilinnientiffy 'Courtesy, which formal criti-
cism upon the speech- of a 'seconder of -an address would
unquestionably be.—Times.
In the reception of Mr. Roebuck's speech on Tuesday
evening we have an illustration of the truth of the remarks
we made the other day upon the envy„hatred, and malice
with width the leaders of the Movement party regard each
other. Mr. Roebuck did not assert a sirgle opinion, nor
express a single desire, which has not been twenty times
asserted and twenty times expressed by twenty other of the
democrats by whom he was surrounded. The perfidy of
the Whigs in their daily preference of their own interests to
the interests of the people is the favourite topic of the Jaco-
bins of 1837. The proofs upon which the charge is uni•!
formly based are the resistance !Atha Whigs- to the Ballot
the resistance of the. Whigs to the repeal of the rate-
paying clauses of the Reform Act ; the resistance of the
Whigs to Peerage Reform ; and the resistance of the
Whigs to Church demolition. Mr. Roebuck on Tuesday
evening preferred publicly the accusation which his
compeers privately whisper'; and he supported it by
the arguments on which they profess to believe it is
sufficiently maintainable. Without travelling out of
our way to flatter an individual of whom we think ex-
tremely ill, we may venture -to say that Mr. Roebuck's
oration, compared with the orations of Mr. Hume and Dr.
Bowring, was full of point and full of power. Well. This
harangue was heard- with the most frigid silence by about
a hundred Members, who have no wish to disavow Mr.
Roebuck's opinions, and who have certainly no right to be
critical on Mr. Roebuck's style. We perceive that the
friends of the Government draw from.. the neglect with
which the poor Member for Bath was treated a favourable
augury for the continued popularity of the principles of the
Melbourne Cabinet. We are told to observe, that when
Mr. Roebuck bawled .for the Ballot nobody listened ; that
when Mr. Roebuck denounced the Peerage nobody cheered ;
and, therefore, we are ordered to conclude that the policy
of the Cabinet, which is to reject the Ballot and- defend'
the Peerage, is still in favour with all who were so chary
of their attention and so stingy of their applause. No-
thing can be mare fallacious than such an inference.
If it be true, and we have not heard it denied, that.
Mr. Hume, that Mr. Grote, that Mr. Clay, that
Mr. Buliera and oher4 whom We might enumerate, ,

" by dozens and by scores," have all averred their desire for
the organic changers .which Lord Melbourne abhors, it is
too much to conjecture that they are suddenly apostatizing
from the doctrinee, merely because some whim or caprice,
which it is hardly worth while to analyze, induces them to
turn their backs on an unpopular expounder of them. In
/he Totness Meeting, and the Tewkesbury Meeting, and
the Bath Meeting-, and the Drury-lane Meeting, Lord
Melbourne has still his chain of evidence that the majority
of his followers are more at variance with him than he with
the majority of his opponents—that he is a Reformer sup-
ported by men who look for revolution ; an aristocrat, sup-
ported by men who strive for a Republic ; a Churchman,
supported by men to whom a Church is an abomination.
We called Mr. Roebuck an "unpopular "expounder of
these doctrines. Why is lie so ? With us, of course, he
is in no great esteem ; but why should he not be admired
and trusted by gentleme'n who take Mr. C. Buller for a wit,
and Mr. Joseph Hume for a philosopher ?—.3forning Post.
Never was there a more complete failure than that of
the late attempt to create disunion amongst the Reformers
of the House of Commons, and never was it more necessary
than at the present juncture for those really anxious for the
improvement of our institutions, to concentrate their un-
divided energies in support of those great meow:cos upon
which the representatives of the people pronounced a ver-
dict of approval in the past session, but which were refused
admission to the statute book by the hereditary lawgivers.
It is not that we consider these measures sufficiently liberal
in themselves, still leap sufficiently comprehensive of
the subjects on which an ameliorative -process "of legis-
lation is desirable---but it is because we consider them
to be more immediately necessary to the safety, tranquil-
lity, and prosperity of the empire, that we haVe urged, and
do urge every friood of Britain and of freedom to make
these questions the first object of his pursuit and support.
Let not the energies of Reformers be wasted in at-
tempting the impossible, It is very well to keep the
public and the senate iti mind of the lull amount of
the popular claims, but it would be folly to sacrifice great
and. ;nlmediate advantages by looking after those more re-
mote. Besides, the stronger the express of public opi-
nion, and the more unequivocally the repreientativeS of the
people pronounce their decision on the questions to which
we refer, the less pretext will be afforded to the Lords for
a course of policy adverse to the national sentiment. The
Peers should not be left the shadow of foundation for the
pretence that they hare the support of the people in their
outrages on the public rights, nor be afforded an opportu-
nity of seeking a palliation of their conduct in the diver-
sity of opinions and the instability of the public mind. The
proceedings in the Rouse of Commons, on Tuesday, with
one insignificant and contemptible exception, were in
every respect most gratifying to the friends of Re-
form. This exception' occurred in consequence of
the Honourable Member for Bath having, after six
F months gestation, delivered hiinSelf of a piece of flip-
pant and frothy declamation, without any intelligible object,
save the pleasure of hearing his own sweet voice, and ascer-
taining to what extent overweening vanity and meddling
impertinence could influence the representatives of the Bri-
tish people. The result was conclusive. Those against
whom this mighty little politielan directed his observations
did not think them deserving of notice, and Mr. Hume,
whose opinions are at least as liberal as Mr. Roebuck's, re-
plied to his laboured harangue in a manner that left the
splenetic senator but little cause to exult in the result of his
labours. All' his strutting, and fretting, and fuming had
no other effect than to excite the derision of his enemies
and the pity of his friends. The principles to which Mr.
Roebuck has attached himself are, for the most part, those
which the Morning Advertiser has ever advocated, and
therefore we the more regret the necessity of censuring his
conduct, which we are impelled to do solely on account of a
desire to prevent the contagion of his example, and to impress
upon others how far preferable it is to exercise limited ta-
lents in a limited sphere, and on matters within the range
of their comprehension, than by taking flights beyond their
strength to exhibit deficiencies which otherwise might have
ever escaped observation. There are many men, of even
less political sagacity, and far less pretension than Mr.
Roebuck, whose exertions, if properly directed, would
prove highly beneficial to their own and their country's in-
terests ; but if such men, in vexation at their own incapa-
city to achieve any high and lofty object of laudable ambi-
tion, desert the post which circumstances and a moderate
share of ability assign them, and seek distinction, not by
the good, but by the evil which in their perversity they
may have it id their power to accomplish, they deserve to
be denounced by every honest man.—Morning Advertiser.