The Sun.
London, England, 1837-08-12 00:00:00

b elieved to be hollow. Most certain it is, that these
arofessions have been shamefully violated. Whig
43ornmissionerships 'have notoriously become a very
y-word for their umber and profligacy. But mind,
?up to this blessed clay, the imputation of ruling h!,7
-patronage, so justly charged upon the Whigs, has
been strenuously denied. They were ashlenect of it.
They never would confess it. But coral, Invitee lost
the elections, and along with them every scnsc of
decency, they arc prepared, it seems, to glory unblush-
ingly ill what they formerly disclaimed. They tell you
-.flat, that henceforth they arc to govern by patronage.
Bishoprics are to be battered for Whig votes. Peer-
sees, as in the Roxburgh casq, arc to be given away,
en order to ingmence county elections. Partisans arc to
be appointed to lucrative situations. Places under Go-
vernment are to be disposed of to nephews, cousins,
Lind kitr,men, according to the force they can muster
on a division. It is not enough that her Majesty's
Whig controller has concussed the expectant trades-
men of the royal household to vote for Radical candi-
dates. It is not enough that the Whigs actually com-
missioned Lord John Churchill to he their broker for
negociating the purchase of the Woodstock borough.
No ; the accredited expositor of Whig policy now as-
sures us, that the system of governing by patronage,
instead of principle, is in future to be prosecuted on is
scale of enlargement and effrontery corresponding to
the desperate circumstances of the faction. So much
for the first part of the recipe for managing an ad-
verse Parliament. 2. But we learn from the same
quarter that the second expedient for accomplishing a
similar end is, that the Whigs are to be " more
guarded in the measures which they propose to
the Legislature." Did not we always say that
rather than quit office, these wretched mercena-,
fie.. would rush into the extremes of democracy
or Conservatism according as a Parliamentary pres-
sure might impel them ? Their forlorn organ pro-
claims this to be the fact. The Whigs, he says,
are now to he more guarded in their measures : or,
in other words, as they enjoy the prospect of facing a
more Conser motive Senate than the last, they are ready
to adapt r.nd shape themselves to a more Conservative
policy. O'Connellism, we suppose, is to he at a dis-
count. The Irish Municipal Bill will be framed so as
to (lien the Corporations without handing them over
to the Popish rabble. The Irish Tithe Bill, minus
the appropriation clause, will neither insist on so large
a deduction from the income of the clergy as formerly,
nor attempt to abolish the Protestant worship in a
single parish. Of course the Church-rate measure
will also be modified to correspond. We long ex-
ceedingly to see the peculiar phraseology of the " no-
tices of motions" in which such retrogressions shall be
announced. Already our ears seem to ring with the
deafening cheers that will accompany the enormous
eating-in which Lord John Russell and his colleagues
are about to sit down to. 3. The last resource
wherewith the Whigs are to meet their difficulties
is the exclusive possession of the Queen's confi-
dence, and the profitable use they can make of it.
How far her Majesty is prepared to be a party to the
realization of this vague and mysterious intimation,
will be. seen when the sentiments of Parliament are
definitely tendered to the Throne at the election
of % Speaker, or in answering the address. But
fiat the Whigs are deeply solicitous to fortify them-
selves in this " tower of strength," is abundantly evi-
dent from the ostentatious pertinacity with which even
now they are daily in the habit of repairing to it. Dur-
ing the late King's reign the Whig Ministers were
scarcely ever within the precincts of the Palace.
Everything was done by means of written communi-
cations and messengers. At present, however, they
are literally besieging and boring the Queen on the
most frivolous occasions. As regularly as the morning
comes, the Court Circular informs us, that " yesterday
Lord Me.lhourne had the honour of an audience of her
Majev.y." Nay, so disgustingly are the Whigs over-
acti:ng this unworthy part that even the sanctity of the
tioyal devotions cannot escape from their intrusions.
Now all these Court flourishes on the part of Lord
Melbourne are obviously meant to influence the current
elections, and as the issues of the present week were
understood to be vital to the existence of the Whig
Ministry, so even on Sunday we had the Premier of
England forcing his selfish secularities upon the pious
retirement of the Palace, in order to delude her Mao
jesty's subjects into a belief that the Melbourne ascen-
dancy at Court is apparently paramount to the highest
and most sacred obligations. But: all will not do.
Lord Melbourne's fate is sealed by his own Parlia-
ment. The Queen's confiden.;:e is not quite the exclu-
sive thing he takes it to be, and we are far in the
wrong if her Majesty be not panting to transfer it.—
Times.

Hitherto we have only had to record instances of
bribery, corruption, intimidation, and undue influence,
employed by the Tories in winning the few electoral
victories which they boast of—if victories they can be
called. We have now, however, to drag before the
public a greater crime committed by their party, and
to strike a deeper note of indignation. The "brickbat
system" has produced its fruits. Men have been
mutilated, violently maltreated, and left for dead, in
many places ; but in Canterbury a man has been ac-
tually deprived of life. The editor of the Kentish
Chronicle charges the commission of the crime against
the Conservatives. We give beneath an extract from
the last number of that paper, in which he refers to
the odtrage in terms of vehement indignation ; but
not more vehement than deserved :—" Citizens of
Canterbury ! your streets have been defiled with
human blood One of those reckless hired ruffians
of which a host was brought into your city at the late
election, and who were plied with drink to inflame
their passions, and supplied with bludgeons, that
they might be the better prepared for the violence
they were so well disposed to commit—one of
those desperate-bludgeon men has deprived e. peace-
able fellow-citizen of life ; and has tine; made his
wife a widow—and his seven childre: fatherless
Who can conceive the vast aggre,;ate of misery which
this deed of blood has occas'.oned, and will occasion,
to this heart-broken farnil:y ? Conservatives of Can-
terbury !—CommittPc of Messrs. Bradshaw and
Gipps ! we address ourselves to you. We divest our-
selves of the feelings of partizans—we address you as
hu..76ands, as fathers, as brothers, as MEN ! You
cannot call up from the grave, and restore to life, the
festering corse of the poor man, slain by the hired ruf.
flan who received your pay. But you can prevent his
widow and orphans from pining in starvine solitude.
Though not answerable to the widowed wife and or-
phan children by the laws of their country--we cite
the employers of this hired ruffian to the bar of con-
science—to the bar of public opinion--and we aver
that they are morally, if nut judicially, responsible to
those whom they have thus, by their hired agent,
bereaved of a husband and a parent." The edi-
tor of the Kentish Chronicle hat always been
a consistent and useful Reformer. But he has
also been hitherto opposed to vote by ballot. The
disgraceful scenes which the last elections have
exhibited in Canterbury—and especially the cruel out-
rage to which we: have above referted—have, neverthe-
less, induced him to change his opinion, and added
him to the numerous and augmenting list of converts
to the necessity of that measure. We have the great-
est pleasure in extracting the words in which he makes
the avowal of his conversion. The former extract stig-
matizes the cause ; the latter records the effect. " There
is another result which we fervently hope will be pro-
deiced by th:s deed of blood. We see in it one of the
torneroua evils which can only be remedied by the
Ballot, The intimidation—the bribery—the d'ebau-
chery—.the rioting—which disgraced this city previ-
ously to and during the late election we have before
referred to as having made us unwilling converts to
that mode of voting. We little thought that we were
So soon to have this additional most damning proof
of the evils of the present system placed before our
eyes. The present elections will convince Ministers,
as they have convinced the country, that by the Bal-
lot alone can the Reform Bill be carried into
effect. Without its protection to the tenant, the
shopkeeper, the tradesman, the mechanic, the elec-
tive franchise is a mockery, and a mischief ; and
the Act aaainst Bribery at Elections of no more
worth than a last year's Almanack." We were
not wrong in saying yesterday that the Tories, by the
disgraceful scenes of corruption which they have exhi-
bited during their last desperate effort to recover the
power of misgovernment, have been " making a rod

for their own backs." We were not wrong io predict-
ing that the usual circle of
.eettibUtive reaction (by
which the affairs of this world are governed) would
natelnet L'Z'avoy result ; that good will sprig; cAt
.
of ; and abuse work its own rem*. tile fortes
have Unintentionally conferrjele. temeht on the people.
They have been (.leeleA the last election laboriously
!wor'sing out the necessity of that
and triumehatitii?
vote by ballot which they deprecate am? felt; Well,
indeed, may they deprecate and feat it ; for well they
know that it will deprirc them of the powerful, but Wit-
hallowed instroments which they now ennaloy to sub-
vert the public liberties, and to reP.:*3.e their mischievous
ambition. Let the Reba...lnes be equally determined in
carrying the mea&a....;; as the Anti- Reformers erkt',Vi op-
posing it. Let all. good citizens
joinl.ll to heart and
hand to hand in the acquisitiee object now become
vitally paramount—in 'pint of morality as well as
freedom—and without which the Reform Bilk inuy
considered from this moment as a ileask rhe
time is now come when the tatikkot s'lroul.t be carried,
and when a little excrtien 4::4'*vreqy swill be sure to carry
it. It will become, !herreefosrth, we predict tttt pri-
mary, vital, and paramount question. lit Will become
exclusively the Question. What is to prevent it being,
Cariied? It may be said to have been carried
itttli-
rectly in the Coli-Lena during the last Session, when
Mr. Grote brought it forward ; for the ;umbers against
it are scarcely worth naming as a proof of legislativt.
opinion. But henceforth nothing will be able to resist
the accumulation of tonverts to its inaat's'Sity, and the
unanimous and indignant demand for its protection by
all that is worthy to be called the public—by it that
is moral, honourable, independent and respectable in
soelety. We hest already to anneunce the first pledge
of its eventual triumph. Already numerous petitions,
grounded on the abuses of the present elections, and
demanding the protection of vote by bollot, are pre-
paring in alt parts of the country. The number of
those petitions in the first Parliament of the new reign
wilt enforce attention. One of the first of them will
be presented from Canterbury ; and most of them, as
we understand, and indeed recommend, will be backed
be a prayer of permission to product evidence of its
flagrant and insuperable necessity before the bar of the
House of Commons.—Morning Advertiser.
The conduct of the present Administration has
completely changed the character of political contro-
versy. In former times every public man, whether be
belonged to the side of Government or to that of the
Opposition, was identified with some certain course of
policy, and was dealt with accordingly by those who
approved or who opposed that policy. There was no
room for mistake as to the politics which a public man
really favoured. No one could doubt whether men
who were constantly in the public eye, were the ene-
mies of the Constitution or its friends—whether they
wished the public institutions of the country to pros-
per or to perish. All this, however, is now changed;
So far as Ministers are concerned, we are frequently
compelled not to attack their policy, for we cannot
make out what it is—not to attack their measures, for
it may be said they are a Government without measures,
but to complain that there is no honesty or straight-
forwardness in their public conduct, and that, from
the contradictions which appear in it, nothing certain
can be inferred, save its duplicity. At this moment
there does not exist any certain ground from which a
reasonable opinion may be formed of the political views
of the Administration. The thing which is publicly
avowed one day, receives a practical contradiction the
next, and at last they who do not jump to con-
clusions from the passions or the prejudices which
exist within themselves, are driven to this view—that
there is nothing fixed or determined in the resolutions
of the present Government, except that they will do
whatever seems most likely to keep themselves in
place. To show that we do not make this representation
concerning the Government on any vague conjecture,
or hastily formed opinion, we shall cite another exam-
ple, in addition to that of Mr. Spring Rice's Conser-
vative speech at Cambridge, which on a former occa-
sion, we adverted to. After the Secretary of State for
the Home Department (Lord John Russell) was
elected at Stroud, he made a speech, in which he as-
serted that he thought our ancient Constitution well"
calculated to provide for the welfare and happiness of
the people, and that by that Constitution, he, for one,
was prepared to abide: If others thought differently
from him, he continued, let them stand the risk of
making the experiments they desired to see tried ; but
they could not call upon him, holding the opinions he
had stated, to maintain otherwise than he had done—
that the ancient Constitution of Queen, Lords, and
Commons, was capable of upholding, as well as calcu-
lated to uphold, that which they all desired to see up-
held—namely, the prosperity and the liberty of this great
empire. Now who would not think upon reading this
speech of the principal minister in the House of Commons
that he, and the Government to which he belongs, were
opposed to the Radicals. We have read this state-
ment over and over again, but we can find nothing in
it which does not go in direct opposition to those
whose avowed political object is to overthrow the ex-
isting Constitution, and to substitute for it a demo-
cratic assembly, with a nominal Sovereign, and with-
out an established religion. Now let us turn to the
elections, where men professing this sort of Radicalism
have endeavoured to get seats in Parliament for the
purpose of working out their objects. Does Lord
John Russell oppose them ? Does the Government
oppose them ? No such thing—the Ministers do all
they can to support the candidates who profess prin-
ciples directly oP7osed to those which Lord John Rus-
sell at Stroud., and Mr. S. Rice at Cambridge, have
professed. What can honest men make of such per-
plexity ati this, but that these Ministers are not ho-
nest? How can men who thus say one thing and do
':.,other just the opposite, expect that they are to be
believed and trusted ? We know that they are neither
the one nor the other. Wherever they are supported,
it is out of no respect to them, but because they are
considered the most convenient instruments of a de-
stiuctive faction. Their duplicity deceives none but
those who are devoid of thought, and it is the duty of
all honest men to oppose them.—Morning Herald.
That much difference of opinion has arisen in esti-,
mating the result of the general election, so far as it
has proceeded, can excite little surpsise. Partisans on
either side are eager to persuade the community, having
fi...3t perhaps succeeded in persuading themselves, that
they, or the party to which they belong, have obtained
an unequivocal accession, or sustained but little dim-
tuition, of strength. And when, in addition to this
source of delusion and of error, it is considered that,
the elements of all such calculations being, in fact, no
other than the tendencies and predilections of each in-
dividual of a great number of men, must, for the
present, at least to a considerable extent, be inde-
finite or unascertained, there will appear reason
enough to withhold from all estimates of this
nature any very confident or implicit reliance. It
may, however, very fairly be inferred from its own
language and conduct, not only that the Ministerial
party has lost ground in the elections, but that it has
lost so much ground as to produce among its most
zealous and active adherents a painful apprehension
that the Government of the country must speedily pass
out of its hands. The adherents and partisans of
Ministers exhibit all the ordinary symptoms of con-
scious defeat. The question among them seems no
longer to be whether they have been beaten, or with
what degree of severity, but merely why they have been
beaten so completely. The underlings reproach the
leaders, and the leaders the underlings. The former,
vehemently insist that the case of the party would
have been less deplorable had its inferior members
attended more assiduously to the details of the re-
gistration, canvassing, &c. ; while the latter express
with still greater bitterness and warmth their vexa-
tion and displeasure that the superior men of their
party have not done enough to stimulate and reward
their exertions, in the way of appropriating to
them a larger share than they have been permitted
to enjoy of general and local patronage. With the
Whig-Radical party nothing is right. The conduct
pursued by the Reform Government, and even the
Reform Bill itself, are altogether wrong. Lords-
Lieutenant and County Magistrates should all have
been displaced at " one fell swoop" whenever they
were not partisans of Mr. O'Connell. Local Boards
should everywhere have been broken up if they con-
sisted of any other description of persons. There
should not have been so much as a turnpike trust or
a body of commissioners of the highway left in exist.