The Sun.
London, England, 1837-07-04 00:00:00

PRICE sd.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

There is a well-known adage
on the difference be-
ween preaching and practice. The Times tells us
that on no previous occasion have the constituency
)f this realm been called on to ciect a Parliament
indcr circumstances of. graver interest and responibi-
lity than are involved in the approaching struggle ;
nor can our countrymen be blind or indifferent to the
fact, that according as they give their votes judiciously
.)r otherwise at the present crisis, they either save the
Monarchy or accelerate its doom." But what does Mr.
John Walter tell the electors of Berkshire in his address
declining again to solicit their votes ? That " whether
from theclass of gentlemen, who, under the Reform Bill,
have constituted the bulk of the House of Commons,
from the individual characters of the present Ministry,
or from the position in which circumstances beyond
their own control have placed them—it appears to me,
that by an expedient novel in Parliamentary records—
viz., the multiplication of Committees and Commis-
sions, as well as by the systematic dexterity with
which both have been constructed for the furtherance
of their respective ends, the Executive Government has
contrived at once to deal with the progress and the
practice of certain measures according to its own pe-
culiar views, and to shift from itself the responsibility
of expediting, retarding, embarrassing, or facilitating
the operation of. such .measurea—of disparaging or
unduly exalting them in public esteem—just as
suited the objects of its immediate policy." But if
the Tories succeed in saving the Monarchy, may not
Mr, John Walter reasonably hope from them an
alteration of the mode of conducting business which
the Whigs have introduced since the passing •of
the Reform Bill ? To retire to private life at a
crisis of so much importance—when the Times, with
heartrending pathos, tells us that " the Queen of
England, God bless her, is not at this moment a free
moral agent," and that " until the country shall rise
for her Majesty's rescue she is neeessarily concussed,"
and that "so far as regards the peculiar position of
Queen Victoria, the real question to be determined by
the electers of Britain is, whether they will rivet her
fetters, or s•t- her Majesty free"—because the Whigs
do not conduct matters in Committees in the present
Parliament according to Mr. Walter's taste, is a strange
sort of non sequitur. But the Times is dealing with
the figures of rhetoric, while Mr. John Walter is think-
ing of very different figures. The Hon. Gentleman indi-
cates that he is convinced the general election will
give the Ministers in the new Parliament a very large
majority, and that his nostrums will have less chance
of finding favour than they have at present. The
Times vapours about vital struggles and the durance
of the Queen, because, like Katerfelto, its vocation is
to vapour ; but Mr. John Walter is not the dupe of
the flourishes of the Times. Mr. John Walter is sa-
tisfied, from what he has encountered in his efforts to
humanize the administration of the Poor-laws, that
no independent and disinterested man can hope for
clear, fair, and impartial justice i n his exertions for
what he conceives to be the public good ; and yet if
we were critical, we might deem it an odd sort of proof
of this position, that " within these three or four days
assurances have proceeded from certain official quarters of
a willingness to inquire further into the working of the
law, and to adopt measures for softening its rigours. I
cannot refrain from expressing mysincere conviction that
such symptoms of tardy penitence have been in great
part produced by my own exertions, humble as 1 am,
and by those of two or three of my collegues in the
Committee who concurred with me in opinion upon
the measure ; while in part, no donbt, this relenting
spirit has arisen from the Inear approach of the general
election, and from the terror of meeting bodies of con-
stituents ready to bring to a severe account the reputed
authors of a policy which bears hard upon the most
helpless classes of the nation." But there is no use
in repining about the matter. Mr. John Walter fore-
sees a great accession of strength to the Reform cause
from the approaching election, and he is determined,
though the monarchy be lost, to save his money.
Did Mr. John Walter inspire the B. D. who
gave
such a melancholy account of the indis-
position of the rich Conservatives to open their
purse-strings at this election ? The Reformers do
not intimidate or bribe ; but the Tories without in-
timidation and bribery can expect no success. • The
detestation of Sir James Graham's apostacy has in a
trice obtained the signatures of 1,300 independent
" Statesmen" of East Cumberland to a requisition to
Mr. Aglionby, and the next post will bring us an
accession of more than will turn the scale. against Sir
James. To counteract demonstrations like this, the
Tories must do something more than rave in the co-
lumns of the Times—they must do more than croak
at the Carlton Club—they must spend twice as
much as they spent in the election of Sir Robert
Peel's Parliament, now about to be dissolved.
After all, it may well be questioned whether it
be prudent in the Times to call upon the Tories to
consider this election as a struggle for life or
death. If they employ all their funds in this elec-
tion, they will still be in a considerable minority. But
let us take the most sanguine accounts of their most
sanguine writers. No Tory anticipates a Tory majo-
rity ; but let us suppose that the Tories, with all the
power of the ExCcutive against them, with the known
inclinations of the Queen against them, arc more suc-
cessful than they were at the last election—that they
even balance the Reformers— they cannot then under-
take the Government without a dissolution. But if
they spend all their money' in this election, what will
be their fate in the next, which is to give them a ma-
jority to conduct the Government ? Without bri-
bery—on a large scale—the Tories, as we have said,
can do nothing. After all, therefore, those Tories
who confine themselves to croaking, and refuse to un-
tie their purse-strings, or who, like Mr. John Walter,
get up an unintelligible pretext for lying by for a
whip, are not the most foolish of the party. The
Tories cannot hope to repay themselves from the pub-
lic purse their advances in thiS election. Ail that they
can hope for by bribery is to prevent the majority of
Reformers from being so large by two or three, as it
would otherwise be. But this will not answer their
purpose. They may, therefore, at once reconcile
themselves to tirkir hard fate with the consolation, if
they can derive any from the circumstance, that the
conviction of the certainty of power remaining long in
the hands of the present Ministers- must every day add
to their strength and weaken their opponents. Tory-
ism .must now live on its recollections of fifty years
access to the public purse.—Morning Chronicle.