The Sun.
London, England, 1839-04-08 00:00:00

nant in these realms, and the blue coat will soon be
exchanged for a red one, the staff for a cutlass, and the
liberties of the people be prostrated at the feet of those
amiable representatives of the aristocracy—policemen
an:] their satellites.

It is evident, then, that the Tories will not amend
the Reform Act—repeal the Corn-laws, or abandon
the police system of centralisation ; and as far as Ire-
land is concerned, they arc opposed to a system of Go-
vernment which would give justice to that unhappy
country. Are they, therefore, men fit to hold the reins
of Government? Are they the men that should be
permitted to step in between a people and their burning
desires for enfranchisement ? We say, no ; and we
believe that the people are prepared to exclaim with a
united voice, " We will not have these men to rule
over us." The period of Sir Robert's last reign in
office was 118 days ; but if he should again have the
temerity and foolhardiness to accept the reins of
Government, he will not, must not, hold them for
as many hours. " Down with the Tories," therefore,
shall be our cry. Down they are—and down they must
be kept, if the reign of bloodshed and plunder, of mis-
rule and corruption, is not to be restored. For forty
years the eyes of the people have been gradually open-
ing to the iniquities of the Tories, and hatred of their
principles has been imbibed by the present generation
even with their mother's milk. The present attempt of
the blood-besmeared miscreants to regain office will raise
a shout of " Down with the Tories," throughout the land,
that will shake the throne to its centre, and peril the
safety of the monarch who would admit to her councils
men so justly hated and despised as the insolent, blood-
thirsty, and tyrannical Tories.

MEANS FOR ENDS.
(From the Examiner.)
Alluding to our last article on the Radicals and the
Ministry, the Morning Chronicle observes—
" We arc told that until a basis can be prepared and
support obtained for a Ministry on the principles laid down
in our articles of last week, it is better to bear with the
backwardness of the present Ministry than to incur the
evils of a Tory restoration. Be it so. We have not
counselled its demolition ; but our position is, that against
the systematized operations of the Tory party the perma-
nent support of the present Ministry is a moral impossi.
lity. Besides, how is
a basis ever to be prepared, or support had, for a Ministry
on the principles in question, unless some attempt be made
to define the poin's about which a general agreement of
Reformers may fairly be anticipated, and to show the prac-
ticability, the advantages, and the necessity of such union."
We answer that, only by the progress of opinions,
through time, experience, and discussion, can the
basis be prepared and support had for a Ministry on
the principles of the protection and Extension of the
Suffrage and Triennial Parliaments. For a bare ma-
jority fbr the most advanced and the most important
Radical question, the Ballot, a hundred and twenty-
five votes, or thereabouts, are still wanting, and not
more than a score of these can be supposed to be con-
trolled er suppressed by the adverse Ministerial in-
fluence.
What the Chronicle seems to us to overlook is the
step with which the prudent Mrs. Glasse commences—
First catch your hare. First get your majority—first
advance men's minds to an approximation, at least, to
agreement on certain objects, and then call upon them
to waive small differences and unite. on a definite plan of

operations.
We have not got so far as this point, though good

progress has been made towards it within the last five
years. There is a large minority in Parliament, and a
larger in proportion in the country, in the town popu-
lation, who are agreed as to the necessity of the Ballot
and the fitness of Short Parliaments ; and many of them
who are disinclined to extend tl:e Suff-age might, and
probably would, for the advantages of a complete union,
yield up their prejudices against the enlargement of the
electoral pale.
So far union, as to objects of Parliamentary Reform,
is practicable ; but so far it would be the union of a
minority of the people and of the representative body ;
and the smaller section of the Whigs would be wanted
to raise it to a majority in the country and in Parlia-
ment.

The question then is, whether the step which the
Whigs are asked to take, in order to put themselves in
a position of perfect concord with the Radicals, is or
is not a wider transition than men can reasonably be
expected to make per sallum. Can we suppose that,
like weil•trained poodle dogs, they will jump over
the stick when it is held breast-high for them ? Can
we imagine it possible that, with their arguments
against the Ballot and the Extension of the Suffrage
yet in their mouths, they can eat their own words,
renounce their own opinions, and embrace the prin-
ciples which they have hitherto shrunk from as
dangerous to the institutions of the country? When
the sudden perception of truth dictates so abrupt a
conversion, we all know that the common pride of
men stands in the way of it ; but bow much more in-
vincibly must shame revolt against it when the change
is publicly demanded, not on the ground that the fitness
of it is at last discerned by the Whigs, but that it is the
sacrifice of opinion necessary to their retention of place
and power. Less humiliating were the terms on which
Pistol ate his leek.
flaying attentively watched the progress of opinion in
our time, we never despair of conversions to sound opi-
nions; it is, indeed, our creed, that whatever ought to
succeed will succeed—that whatever ought to be ob.
tained will be obtained : we have seen, to the Ballot
_Especially, convert after convert coming in with a fre-
quency beyond our hopes ; but we know that time must
be allowed for these changes, and that they cannot, they
will not, be made upon word of command, or sudden pleas
of expediency. In morals, as in space, the passage from
one extreme to another lies through a middle. The maxim
to build a golden bridge for a retreating enemy should
have a correlative rule, to build a bridge of precious
stones for the accession of allies ; but, instead of build-
ing the bridge, the Chronicle requires them to leap over
the river.

We may be told that the conversion of the Whigs
to measures of further Parliamentary Reform is to be
despaired of ; but, if their gradual conversion is to be
despaired of, with what reason and what prospect of
success is the demand raised for their most sudden and
abrupt conversion ?
The desirableness of complete union and co-opera-
tion, for the attainment of certain political objects, can-
not be over-estimated ; but, if that complete union and•
co-operation cannot be brought about at the present in-
stant, is the next best thing a diminution of the degree
of union whichsdoes exist, by angry divisions? Because
we cannot have more union, are we to have less union ?
Because we cannot make the Whigs better friends, are
we to make them enemies ? Are the Liberals to
strengthen themselves by lessening their body, and to
make their approaches to unanimity by the process of
paring down a majority to a minority ?
The Chronicle indeed denies that it has counselled
the demolition of the Whig Ministry ; but what was
to be understood when it advised that advantage

should be taken of the present circumstances of the
Government to make conditions? The conditions
demanded could only be enforced by the refusal of
support. It is to this implied menace on the part
of our Contemporary that we object, because the
mere menace, publicly conveyed, was certain to
defeat the object, if it were otherwise practicable ;
and because the fulfilment of the menace would be
productive of injuries to the popular cause, which
few of us who have sat by the cradle of Reform

would live to see repaired. In the Chronicle's opi-
nion of the failure of the Reform Bill, we need
hardly say that we agree, as we have frequently dis-
cussed it in detail, and further, as we have the satisfac-
tion, such as it is, of reflecting that we alone in the
press pointed out the faulty parts of the measure when
passing through the House of Commons, and antici-
pated the consequent disappointments, when our Con-
temperaries insisted on regarding it as without speck or
blemish, and would listen to no suggestion for its im-
provement. We cannot, however, concur with the
Chronicle that, under the old system, the Melbourne
Government would not have been in any such predica-
ment as the present, nor the fate of Ireland thus trem-
bling in the balance. In one sense only can this be
true—namely, that under the old system the present
Government could not have existed, and the fate of Ire-
land, instead of trembling in the balance between good
and ill government, would have been fixed under the
heel of the Orange faction.
We heartily agree:with the Chronicle as to the extent
of the remedies requisite for the completion of Reform in
the Commons ; but the Extension and Protection of the
Suffrage, together with Triennial Parliaments, having
bounded our views of Radical Reform, we cannot ra-
tionally hope to make our frontier line the middle ground
on which the Whigs may agree with the Ultra-Radicals.
To employ Horne Took.'s old illustration of advances,
such an overture is as if we were to invite the Whigs to
go with us half-way on the road to Windsor, and to fix

the place of meeting at Eton. It is very desirable that
they should make such advances, but they will not, they
are very slow travellers, and move almost imperceptibly;
but they do move, and the point of prudence is to keep
open the objects and motives for their movement in the
right direction.

That by a more rapid advance to ground of popular
favour and support, Ministers would recruit their strength,
we have never doubted, and never ceased to urge upon
every fitting occasion ; but while we deplore their back-
wardness, we repeat that we see no one good object to
be obtained by throwing them down for it, and raising
a Tory Ministry upon the only foundations on which it
can stand—the divisions between Whigs and Radicals.
The plea is, that Ministers will destroy themselves if
they persist in their opposition to Parliamentary Reform
—that they are on the verge of a precipice crumbling
from under their feet—but to prevent their committing
suicide, are the Radicals to become their executioners ?
Are we to murder our neighbour in our zeal to save him
from febo de se? We will warn him of his error ; ex-
hort him to renounce it in time, and endeavour by dis-
cussion, and the public verdict, to convince him of it ;
but we will not have his destruction on our hands, the
more especially as upon his dissolution the Tory tyrant
stands next in succession.