The Sun.
London, England, 1839-05-11 00:00:00

spect, of Mr. LABOUCITERE7 this was, on his part,
an act of great personal sacrifice, for the sole, dis-
interested purpose of public good.
\Vete there no other ground of alarm to the
Empire at large, the appointment of Lord STAN-
LEY to the Colonial Office would have been the
immediate proclamation of Colonial calamity, and
consequently vast excess of public expense.
Most earnestly do we impress these considera-
tions on the minds of all who have any regard for
the prosperity of their country, and the well-being
of the people.

There is a strong resemblance between the atti-
tude assumed by Earl GREY in 1812 towards the
PRINCE REGENT, and by Sir ROBERT PEEL in
1839 towards Queen VICTORIA, and what dis-
tresses the Tories above all things is, that they

cannot complain of their adversaries. They have
themselves only to blame—they have followed the
example of Earl GREY—they would have all, and
have got nothing, and the advisers of her MA-

.TESTY have only followed the example set them by
the advisers of the REGENT (Tories of course), who

encouraged his Royal Highness to cling to his
friends, reject the humiliating conditions, and

leave the country to judge between them.
The country did judge—decided in favour of
the PRINCE, and there was no end to the
shouts of the Tories in honour of what they called
his spirited conduct, and in derision of " the tyran-
nical Whigs, who would not allow the SOVEREIGN
to choose even his own companions." Mr. CAN-
NING, in the exultation of the moment, told the
Whigs they might wait long for such another op-
portunity, and they had indeed to wait and repine
for eighteen long years. We trust the resemblance
will be complete throughout, and if eighteen years
of banishment from Court was fixed by destiny as a
punishment for exacting too severe conditions from
a Prince, twice that number will hardly atone for
the ungallant and ungenerous attempt to impose ten

times more severe restrictions on the intercourse and
attachments of a youthful QUEEN. Can her MA-
JESTY ever forget the rude attacks made, on her
accession, against her illustrious mother's family
and the friends of her youth, by the leading organ of
Sir ROBERT PEEL and Lord LYNDIIURST ?

We are filled with regret, at learning from the
proceedings in the Convention, and from the Bath
letter elsewhere adverted to, that the magistrates
and yeomanry and constables at different places are
acting in a hasty and angry, if not illegal man-
ner. We have not the slightest wish to extenuate
the violent language of the Chartists, or their vio-
lent conduct, but still less can we extenuate or
excuse the violent or illegal conduct of those whe
would by force suppress them. We have never
approved of the objects the Chartists have in view,
and have never sanctioned the means by which
they sought to attain their objects. We have, in
fact, more than once brought on ourselves their
anger and animadversion, by censuring their opi-
nions and their conduct. We shall be held, there-
fore, we hope, to be quite disinterested in the ad-
vice we now beg leave to tender to their ene-
mies, and be considered as actuated only by a
sincere desire to promote the welfare of all our

fellow-citizens.

The country may prosper, though the Govern-
ment be distracted, and the Legislature be only an
arena for contending factions ; but when the great
masses of her population enter into contests, and
take arms against one another, prosperity will
speedily come to an end. If there be therefore
great and abundant reason at all times for wishing
that the Government may be steadily conducted,
and the Legislature be all harmony, reflection,
and calm discussion, the reasons are infinitely
stronger for desiring that the masses shall
be friendly to one another, and live in harmony
and peace. We would beg the upper and middle
classes therefore, we would beg all Magistrates
and constables, we would especially request her
MAJESTY'S Ministers, to adopt no hasty or harsh
measures provoking and increasing the bad feelings
which now exist in the working classes. It is
plain to us, from the proceedings in the Convention,
from the language adopted by the Chartists at Ash-
ton and other places, that the opulent classes have
really nothing to fear from violence. The Chartists
are obviously at variance with one another ;
the strong language used by some ruffians, per-
haps designedly used to provoke mischief, is ab-
horrent to the good feelings of the great majority,
and totally at variance with the habits of the bulk
of the people. If they are not goaded by insults
and injuries, by hasty and unprovoked attacks,
neither the property nor the lives of the
opulent and middle classes will be exposed
to the least danger. By precautions they
may be effectually secured ; if dread and terror,
shall hurry them into furious attacks on the people,
the consequences may be for them most disastrous.
Acts of violence they may prevent, opinions they
cannot put down, and acts of violence will be sanc-
tioned and promoted if begun by them.
The opulent classes are much at their ease, the
working classes are in a state of great suffering.
They bear all the burdens of civilization, and are
almost excluded from its enjoyments. The sublime
inventions of modern art, which have so much
abridged human toil, and on the whole added to
human enjoyment, have only condemned them to
more incessant labour, without augmenting their
rewards. They believe, and they have Lord
JOHN RUSSELL'S authority and the practice of
all legislators for the belief, that laws can correct
moral and social evils, and they are, as he states,
seeking political reforms, perhaps erroneously, to
correct the moral and social evils they obviously suf-
fer under. Admitting that they are mistaken, their
case is one to be corrected by time and greater
knowledge, not cured, which it cannot be, by the
policeman and the soldier. Their sufferings do
not excuse any violence, but they who are in the
daily enjoyment of plenty of food and clothing and
well-warmed apartments, and who see their children
well educated and nurtured into health and strength,
ought to have no other feelings but those of kind-
ness for the classes who are not so well off as them-
selves, and only compassion for their errors when
they go astray. We tell the Chartists it is their
duty to abstain from violent acts, and from violent
language ; but we also tell their opponents that
they. ought not to be alarmed at the intemperate
words of suffering men, and are not, above all
things, to augment those sufferings, by any kind of
hasty injustice.
The Ministers cannot require to be told that at
present there exists a contest in this country between
capital and labour, between legal property and in-
dustry, and that the claims of the Chartists are but
one branch of that contest. They demand ex-
tended representation to place them on a footing
with their opponents. Now it is the business of
the Government, if it mean to do justice to all
classes, to mediate between these opposing inte-
rests, not to side only with property and direct
the whole force of the Government against industry.
It should be the organ of the universal nation, not
of a party. The Orange faction in Ireland was
universally reprobated as the Government of a
small party ; and what difference will there be be-
tween it and the Government of the empire, if the
latter side exclusively and wholly with property,
and against those who have nothing but their
labour. Five-sixths of the people are excluded
from representation ; they are now struggling
to obtain a share in it, and it is the duty
of the Executive Government, instead of treating
the unrepresented masses with harshness and
severity, to throw its shield over them, and refrain