The Sun.
London, England, 1837-07-15 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF PUBLIC JOU RN ALS.

The Tory Journals give us a strange idea of the
state of the Tory mind. " What would Lord Dur-
ham be at ?" exclaims the Times ; and we, with more
justice, ask, " What would the Times be at ?"
On
Thursday our Contemporary showed such a disposi-
tion to be delighted with his Lordship's letter, that the
Standard of the same day, resolving not to be out-
done in the way of compliment, at once inscribed him
a member of the Conservative Cabinet which we arc
to have " before the close of the year." One phrase
was said by the Times to be intended " as a severe
sarcaim launched at the heads of the Whig Cabinet."
A sneer was " intended for the edification of Messrs.
Hume, Roebuck, Grote, and Co." On the faith of
these passages it. thought it might " almost claim Lord
Durl
;2_in as one of the Conservatives." " But," added
p‘-:fary, " there are, indeed, other passages
our Cotem
quite .intelligible. But perhaps it is
Coe
temp.._
the letter not
only reasonable to infer from tnus,3 sentences which are
perfectly plain the scope and object of others which
are involved in a more diplomatic diction. Assuming
this mode of interpretation to be correct, the,whole
address becomes a model of Conservative wis •
dorm" Next day, however, a new light seems
to have broken in upon the Times. Lord Dur-
ham is now " a personage whom circumstances
have at times made a noisy one, but whose period
of eclat seems to be pretty well worn out." On
Thursday his Lordship's address " becomes tl model
of Conservative wisdom;" on Friday the question of
what he would be at " may be answered without diffi-
culty. Lord Durham's object is the same as Lord
John Russell's, the tone of whose address ha has
closely mimicked. Both these worthy persons renounce,
in words at least, extreme Radicalism ; they both
make professions of loyalty, &c.; the aim of both is
to impress the nation with the belief that the Queen
cordially supports the policy of the Ministers, and that
in opposing the Government, the Conservatives are
opposing the Queen." The " severe sarcasm launched
at the heads of the Whig Cabinet" grows in a single
night into a close mimickry of Lord J. Russell address.
Not even for one day can the Times keep up even an
appearance of consistency. Thissort of everlasting chop-
ping and changing must greatly perplex the remaining
readers of the Times who have sense enough to
connect sentences together. The readers of that
journal who swear by it had need to lose no
time in giving utterance to its oracles. The traveller
who leaves Birmingham in possession of one set of
opinions derived from the Times may count with cer-
tainty on obtaining another before he reaches London.
Will this example tempt the Standard to strike Lord
Durham out of the Tory Cabinet that is to be, and to
back out of its prediction, " derived from his personal
character, from his public addresses just before his de-
parture from St. Petersburgh, and from the general
report of his excellent and manly character at the
court of the Czar ?" With every wish to do justice
to the Standard's powers of assurance, we must own
we think it will be distanced by the Times. Alas for
the statesmen who are so weak as to believe that the
Times can either give or take away reputation I Who
has not been both praised and reviled by that most
vacillating of all unprincipled journals? On the 11th
December, 1833, the Times was pleased to speak of
Lord Durham in these terms :
" The Tory party seem well aware of the impression
produced upon public opinion by the meetings in the north,
held as a tribute of esteem and honour to Lord Durham,
but especially by the manner in which that nobleinan im-
proved the two occasions thus afforded him of explaining
his sentiments on the vast question of Reform, and on those
high principles of constitutional liberty, by the assiduous
and judicious enforcement of which alono can any mea-
sure bearing the name of a Reform Bill be made available
to results of much practical benefit to the nation. No
circumstance appears to have stung the anti-constitutional
factions on both sides more severely than the declaration
of Lord Durham that the principle of Reform must be
laboriously followed out in its details, until the great end
of solid good government shall have been securely accom-
plished. The Tories have been rendered desperate., because
they see that not an inch of ground whereon to rally, and
not an hour of breathing-time, will be left to them. The
Destructives are dismayed at the full redress of constitu-
tional grievances which has been recognised as inevitable
by one so lately an important member of the Cabinet, and
still the near connection of its Chief—a redress of griev-
ances which must extinguish all pretence for the assaults of
political mountebanks on the body of our institutions, and
must thus cut away the whole influence of incendiary de-
magogues over the simple-minded, who might otherwise
be deceived by the plausibility of their schemes, and over
the unprincipled, who might join in them from the possible
chance of their succeeding. We observe that our contem-
poraries are perplexing their readers with statement and
counter-statement upon the question whether any recent
effort has or has not been made to restore Lord Durham to
the Cabinet, and what has been or is likely to be its re-
sult. We cannot, of course, know what has passel within
the walls of the secret Council-chamber, nor will the public
be inclined to measure the credit due to the assertions of
other journals by the loudness or pertinacity of those who
risk them ; but, whether Lord Durham comes into the
Cabinet again or not, one observation will meet with many
approvers—viz., that the Noble Earl ought to be there.
Lord Durham's health may not be vigorous, nor have we
any materials for judging as to his Lordship's disposition
upon the subject of returning to office ; but sure we are,
that if energy, firmness, the love of liberty, political con-
sistency, and sagacity, possess claims to poarer in a free
state or to Royal confidence, Lord Durham is one of the
men in England who ought most speelily to be invested
with the insignia of both."

Who knows how soon the Times- may again hold
the same language in speaking of this statesman I It
is time to be silent respecting the American press.
There is nothing in any American newspaper to be
compared in turpitude with the limes. The Tories
tolerate this because they have no fixed principles.
With them it is tout pour la tripe. They would even
fain believe that the people of England are generally
as indifferent to, right and wrong as the Journal which
had the assurance to boast that it dictate:l the political
opinions of three-fourths of them. As to Lord Dur-
ham, the nation has not his character to seek from the
Times and the Standard. A year or two ago his
Lordship was the god" of the idolatry of one of these
Journals, and the peculiar abhorrence a the other.
Their praise or blame cannot b.! indifferent to his
Lordship, because a good man must always feel un-
easy under praise from such a quarter. But Lord
Durham has been before the public now fur nearly a
quarter of a century, and during all that time his bit-
terest enemy cannot reproaCh him with one act of
political inconsistency or vacillation. With strong sense
and first-rate talents, he has benefited largely by his
experience ; and we are sure that, whether in a public
or private capacity, he will never abet a policy which
lie is not thoroughly persualed will redound to the
honour and advantage of England.—Mo? n. Chronicle.

The Conservatives are determined, it seems, to exert
every nerve to prevent the return of Mr. Hume for
Middlesex. A triumph in that quarter would com-
pensate for a score of defeats. It is impossible for his
constituents to appreciate too highly the public ser-
vices of Mr. Flume. He has assisted, perhaps more
than any other man, to raise that spirit of reform
which within these few years has (mined so extensive
an ascendancy. He has done this unswayed by the
love of place, and with no other motive than an
honest regard for the true interests of the people.
He was a Ileformer when reform was stigmatised as
synonymous with
r ei)orrtealvido
olii:ioond report;, . He has struggled on
through ,
He w4s the terror
of the Treasury in the Tory flays of LQI4 Liverppo,
Attacked 17 ridi,
vent
n d
all
werethe
em mopdl modes
employed against of annoyance whiPh they eol4ld
im,

cute, blackened by calumny, assailed by abuse, he
went on steadily, turning neither to the right nor
to the left, until the Corruptionists, to their great
discomfiture, found that slander and sarcasm
had no more effect upon him than so many
pellets from a pop-gun upon the hide of a
rhinoceros, and they were fain, at last, to leave him to
himself. He has gone on labouring to obtain and to
deserve the confidence of the public. He has done
this with a perseverance which nothing but great phy-
sical strength could have boi ne him through, and with
no hope or prospect of reward but the honest appro-
bation of his constituents and of his country. If the
Conservatives were to succeed in throwing him out, it
would actually be a stain on the national character.
Public gratitude would be an empty name. There
would he no longer any stimulus to the exertions of
public Men. It is an absolute libel, on the voters of
Middlesex for the Conservatives to imagine that they
would not only betray the cause of Reform, but would
repay the labours of a life of public service with ingra-
titude and desertion. When the days of election
come they will point to the poll-list as an answer to
the calumny. It is to the corrupt and vicious mis-
government of the Tecies that we owe the present
enormous weight of our public debt. It is to the prin-
ciples upon which they ruled the country that all
our grievances, pecuniary and political, owe their
origin. The people are, happily, rescued from
their misrule, and they will take good care how they
bring themselves again under the yoke ; and yet so
infatuated are the Tory party as to presume them-
selves strong enough to effect their return to power
They will speedily be convinced .of the insanity of
such an expectation ; for what man in his sound
senses will assist in restoring the reign of oppression
and abuse ? What Englishman who knows the value
of civil freedom will give his vote in favour of a fac-
tion leagued against Reform, and opposing every mea-
sure that would forward it ? With what desperate
violence did they resist the reform in the constituency
of the. House of Commons. They foresaw how greatly
it would strengthen the influence of the people, and
they resisted it to the last. When it was torn from
their grasp, then, indeed, they approved the change and
made a merit of their acquiescence. In what a bitter spi-
rit of resistance did they oppose the Corporation Reform
Bill ! That integrity and independence should be in-
troduced into these municipal bodies, that they should
hold the important trusts of office for the benefit
of their fellow-citizens, instead of making them—
as from time immemorial they had made them—subser-
vient to electioneering influence and Tory intrigue,
this was an innovation not to be endured. They em -
ployed all their energy and all their artifice to defeat
it. They declaimed . against it as utterly destructive of
all social order. It was loosening all those ties of sub-
ordination which bound them to their proper chieftains,
the Tory aristocracy, and they never ceased to quote
language of that renowned authority, Mr. Burke, when
he had become Conservative, " When you.separate the
common sort of men from their proper chieftains, I no
longer know that venerable ebject called the people in
such a disbanded race of deserters and vagabonds."
So long as we are contented to put our trust in
Tory rulers, so long as we look up to them as the
only fit depositories of power, and in a becoming spirit
of humility,- obey them as our proper chieftains, so
long, and no longer, are we to be reverenced 1 It is
only in this state of submission that we are to be recog-
nized as having that constitutional and legitimate.
shape which entitles us to be called the people. But
the instant our eyes are open to the systematic corrup-
tion`anti abuses of Tory Government, the instant we
resolve to remove that corruption, and to reform those
abuses, from that moment we are accounted as no bet-
ter than " deserters and vagabonds," and according to
Mr. Burke, their great law authority, " may lawfully
befought with and brought under, whenever an advan-
tage offers." Unluckily they cannot avail themselves
of this legal privilege. They have tried their utmost
strength, and have found the people too much for them.
They now decline the trial by battle : they have had
enough of it. They look forward to the hustings as
their Court of Appeal. We shall see on what evi-
dence they ground their claims on the popular suf-
frage, and on what evidence it is meant to be sup-
ported. We shall see, more especially, on what plea
they can have the impudence to solicit the electors of
Middlesex to unseat Mr. Hume, and take a Tory to
their bosom. Such a canvass would form an instruc-
tive page in the history of elections.—Morn. Citron.

The Reform Association of Cleveland•rory has just
sent forth a publication on the subject of the election,
the substance and spirit of which is of the deepest im-
portance at the present crisis, and equally seasonable
as important at the period of its publication. It is an
abridgement of the evidence given before the Select
Committee relative to bribery at elections. It is pub-
lished in a condensed and cheap form, in order to im-
part to it as wide a diffusion as possible. It, indeed,
would be well if all the electors of the country, now
upon the point of exercising the most important func-
tions which devolve on men in a social state, could be
rendered familiar with the startling facts which it
brings together, and thereby be enabled to defeat a giant
evil which is in daily action and growth—which has
frustrated to a very great degree the political benefits
contemplated by the Reform Bill,—and which, at the
time when we write, threatens the most serious dangers
to the liberties of the country. "Forewarned isfore-
armed." The digest of the evidence to which we
refer, exhibits corruption in all its audacious and in
all its insidious forms. 'While it demonstrates its ex-
tensive character, and analyzes its mode of operation,
it points out to the people the only mode which they
possess of counteracting it. Supplied with a know-
ledge of the bane and of the antidote at the same
time, it will be the people's own fault if they allow the
common enemies of popular improvement to deprive
them of the political advantages now within then
grasp, and to induce them to "sell their birthright.for
a mess of pottage." The abridged evidence with-
draws the curtain from as foul a scene of political cor-
ruption as ever was
,exhibited to the startled and
indignant eye of honest patriotism. An indictment is
brought and proved, of bribery, intimidation, and un-
due influence, redneed to system, and employed in a
specific list of counties and boroughs, the names of
which are given, and which are arranged in alphabeti-
cal order. The abridged evidence also contains sug-
gestions for remedial measures. The chief of these
remedial measures is the ballot. To our view this is
not only the most effectual, but the only really effec-
tual measure which can be resorted to for entirely
eradicating and finally suppressing the mischief. The
argument in favour of it—without drawing on
Tocqueville, whose conclusive evidence in its
favour is given in the digest before us—lies in the
smallest compass. It may be, indeed, considered as a
self-evident axiom. The-mere enunciation of it is sufficient
to convince unperverted common sense. The intimi-
dation, bribery, and undue influence exposed in the
stigmatizing record of public disgrace now before us,
would be extinguished at once by the ballot. Why ?
There certainly requires no verbose argumentation nor
long-winded declamation to convince Wain reasoners
that this must be the result—as certainly as effect fol-
lows cause. Bribery would be useless, and therefore
it would not be used. No one (not even a❑ idiot)
would purchase what is not purchasable ; and such is
the real character of a vote protected from the know-
ledge of the corruptor by the ballot. But the'ballot
not being as yet law—(although it must one day be
so, or the English nation will stultify itself)—the
next best thing is to look the political mischief of cor-
ruption manfully in the face—to pour the light upon
its detestable features and proportions—to grapple
with it and overthrow it. To know our enemy is half
the battle. To this knowledge the useful work before
us fully introduces the people. The whole play of
the machinery of which their Tory adversaries will
shortly avail themselves to reseat themselves in power,
to obstruct the march of popular measures, anti to keep
their heels fixed on the necks of the people, is here
exposed. If the great body of the electors do not re-
sist the open villany or insidious treachery of the ma-
chinery thus set at work for their eventual degrada-
tion—for the destruction of all that is dear to civilized
men—and for the deterioration of all their best hopes
and- prospects—then they richly deserve to be made
the rphbed and branded helots of Tory predominance
for ever. hotiltl they §qccllaib pgw to the arts of
their adversaries' 001 rotist ealeulitt; 90 a log

reign of political abuse. Once fairly in the saddle,
the people will not easily be enabled to unseat
them. The Tories know this ; they know the
vital stake for which they are now playing ; and
knowing this, it is our firm persuasion that they will
be more profuse in the outlay of the funds of cc:erup-
tion in the next election than they ever were at any
period of their pernicious history. Judging from past
experience, indeed, the Tories would be right,—look-
ing at the matter in an arithmetical point of view,—in
spending their annul income in order to secure
their return to power. The patronage and the joss of
a long reign (and such our present youthful Sovereign
promises), would, according to their past system, '
amply repay tire outlay. But whatever they expend
will he merely as a sprat to catch a whale. Let the
people look to this, and prepare themselves to defeat
the profligate calculation. They can only do so by
imbuing themselves body and soul with the conviction
of the momentous character of the conflict which is now
impending. They can only do so by estimating the
eternal stake which they and their families, for genera-
tions to come, have in the issue. No bribe propor-
tiouiate to that can he offered to them. They must
rigidly and immovably determine to sacrifice every pre-
sent interest, and every present gratification—to defy
danger, and to scorn fear,—for the sake of the great
cause of popular Reform. So determining and so
acting, the cause of progressive liberty—their cause—
is safe for a quarter of a century.—jiorn. Advertiser.
Did we bear any personal grudge to Lord Durham,
it would gratify, instead of paining, us, to learn the
manner in which his Lordship and his somewhat " un-
toward" letter are spoken of where any mention is made
of them throughout society. The main question which
this superfluous appearance before the puhlic has oc-
casioned we have already and briefly stated—viz.,
" what would Lord Durham be at ?" Those who
pretend to know his Lonhhip give him credit for ra-
ther a busy, meddling, arrogating spirit, an impatience
of inaction, while there is bustle near him, and a de-
sire to do as well as dictate. But, without professing
that we ourselves are satisfied with any one or all of
the solutions given to the question, " What would he
be at ?" it may amuse others, if it do not edify them,
to detail some half-dozen of the most probable con-
structions put upon the Noble Lord's advertise.
ment of his return from St. Petersburgh, under the
form of an address to a specific body of electors :-
1. It is assumed that his Lordship has no objection
by honied words to pay court to his young Sovereign,
or by vouching the wisdom of her Royal Highness the
Duchess of Kent, to strengthen his own repute for.
penetration and sagacity. 2. His unctuous and diplo-
matic professions of zeal for Crown, Lords, Commons,
and Church, are fitted, say the admirers of Lord Dur-
ham, to administer a soporific to any fears which might
be raised in the mind of an inexperienced Sovereign,
by a knowledge of the former connexions and declara-
tions of his Lordship, and indeed by certain simulta-
neous symptoms, which the Noble Lord did not find
it suitable to his other purposes to efface from the pre-
sent letter. 3. The same expedient of a mysterious and
solemn, though somewhat abstract attachment toChurch
and State, is deemed by the admirers of Lord Durham
a skilful trap for the " liberal Conservatives," who, like
her Majesty, might otherwise be in some small de-
gree alarmed. 4. On the other hand, while such are
presumed to be the intentions wherewith he describes
what he would do for Crown, Lords, &c., the Noble
Earl proceeds with equal solemnity and vagueness to
tempt the Liberals by a shadowy programme of what
he means to do for the destruction of Crown, Lords,
&c., by encouraging the schemes of the Movement
party, under the name of " Reformers." 5. There is
likewise, as the admirers of Lord Durham insist, in
this masterpiece of diplomatic mystification, all the
contradictory sentiments and principles of which
seem to body forth the actual condition of the
country under Whiggeiy, and to bring each other
to "a dead lock"---there is, say they, a latent
readiness to throw the ancient allies of his Lord-
ship—namely, the ballot-mongers, triennial-mongers,
household-suffrage-mongers, &c., overboard, as being a
faction equally intractable and unprofitable; and at the
same time to promulgate to the political capitalists of
the day, " Here stands Lord Durham, who bids
highest ?" 6. The last and most recherche experiment
in this fine letter, say the admirers of the Earl of
Durham, is one upon gobemoucherie of the people of
England, by availing himself and whomever he per-
suades to be his friends of the Queen's name, and to
lean upon her universal popularity as a fulcrum for
their own machinations. When a shake of 'Lord Bur-
leigh's head indicated so much to the mind of the spec-
tator, what is there that may not be inferred from a
shake of his inkstand by one so vastly greater than
Lord Burleigh ?—Times.

The accounts from Hanover, since the event which
has given to that crown a separate existence, have not,
from the details which they gave of the ascent to the
throne of the present possessor, been hitherto without
interest ; but by the extracts which we make elsewhere
from the papers received last night, it will be seen that
they now assume a very considerable political import-
ance. His Majesty appears to have taken the first
political step in his reign by publicly disclaiming and
refusing assent to the existing Constitution of the-king-
dom of Hanover, which, it will be recollected, was not
very long since presented to that kingdom by his late
Majesty William IV. The King states that he cannot
perceive " either in the form or substance" anything
in that political organization to bind him or his suc-
cessors to its adoption; but, on the contrary, much in it
of which he disapproves, " as in many points not cor-
responding with his wishes, which arc solely directed to
the promotion of the good of his faithful subjects ;"
" and not affording guarantees for the permanence of
the prosperity of his faithful subjects ;' and that he
will, thereforo, shortly, but not hastily or inconsider-
rately announce the modifications which he proposes
in it. This Royal declaration appears to be marked
by some peculiar characteristics.- It is entitled " let-
ters patent," and has not been promulgated by the
usual channel of the Cabinet. It is countersigned by
a private Secretary, not a Minister of State, and avows
upon the face of it that the King did not publish it in
the usual way, because the Ministers " had sworn to
the Constitution." The document states that his Ma-
jesty was considering whether he should not altogether
abrogate the modern Constitution and return to that
which preceded it, or restore the old electoral organi-
sation of the country. He recalls the recollection
of the Hanoverians to the tranquillity and assurance
which marked their former systems of Government, and
concludes by expressing his entire confidence in their
loyalty and patriotism that they will patiently await
the developement of his benignant intentions in their
regard. Till, however, further changes are announced,
his Majesty requires that the State continue to be go-
verned by the existing laws. The new Constitution is
to be communicated to the " States" (the legislative
body) after it has been resolved by the King, and it
will be their duty to cnregister, not discUss, the terms
of it. Every possible publicity is to be given to these
" letters patent," which are to be " posted up in all
public places ;" and though we have as yet no evidence
to
as to the effect which the notice may have upon the
public mind, it is not unreasonable. to supposet io thato t
et
has produced some sensation. We call attention
document itself, which will be found under the head of
en
Hanover.—Morning Herald
Yesterday her Majesty's Ministers had an oppor-
tunity of bidding for the support of the Dissenters at
the ensuing elections, and of course the occasion was
not lost. In their answer to the address from the
University of Cambridge the Queen was made to ex-
press an anxiety that the " sphere of utility" of that
" should be extended," seeming to mean
therebyinstitution
that the Dissenters should be admitted. Some
may be caught by this bait, but most assuredly not the
religious Dissenters. They are not indifferent, though
her Majesty's Ministers may be so, as to religion form-
inc.,- an essential part of the education of their children,
and, therefore, they have no wish to submit them to
that comprehensive " extension" in which religion
would of necessity become--
TWahli,ebhynbervoeardeseparseeathdintog,enitladrigspeeirtsseeltf;
" Like a circle in the water,
naught.
—Morning Post.

Richmond, on the dm, of the late King's funeral, had
its full share or steam -14(w Yiiitorai hearty 2,000 had reache4
041, dolightfol shot by water on that dap