The Sun.
London, England, 1839-09-04 00:00:00

METROPOLITAN POLITICAL

SUMMARY.

The Globe of last evening, after an article in which
Lord Brougham is lavishly abused, levels the following
blow, designed no doubt as a political exterminator, at
the Chartists :—" Chartism, having failed in England, is
to be tried in Scotland. A Convention of Scotch De-
legates has been held in Glasgow, where Feargus at-
tended, and, as reported in the Northern Star, ' pro-
ceeded with a very powerful defence of every act of the
General Convention sitting in London, in whose virtues
and whose faults, whatever they might be, he was
ready to take his share, both of praise and censure.'
Great and influential as ' the People's Parliament'
doubtless is, we cannot but regret it should be so ill
furnished with members of the ' fourth estate.' Here
is only the substance of what must have been a very
long speech ; for, as the General Convention has been
sitting some months, and of course has not been so
idle as the Lords and Commons, the mere enu-
meration of its acts, to say nothing of their
' defence,' must have occupied no short time.
Such enumeration would have been valuable ;
for at present we have not been able to ascertain that
the delegates did anything beyond giving advice about
a holiday, which nobody followed ; stimulating the
people to riots, in which they had not courage
ereoe,gh to join ; and voting money to one another,
for services about which they are now disputing,
and bandying charges of jobbing and dishonesty, cal-
culated to bring the young republic into disesteem. If
they have done more, it would have been kind in the
Northern Star to inform us of it. If Mr. O'Connor
entered into these charges, especially the last, we do
not fear that the Delegates will do much harm in Scot-
land. Sawney likes to have a bawbee's-worth for his
bawbee ; and will not give honourable members an op-
portunity of getting five pounds a week for such services.
. . . The Charter has become quite mild; and instead of
telling the middle classes that they deserve to have their
houses ' burned and gutted,' asks them for ' an expression
of generous sympathy' toward Lovett, Vincent, Collins,
&c., and says that ' the exercise of a generous clemency
on the part of the Government would conciliate the
good will of many a sturdy and stubborn Radical.'
This is language which might be expected from those
who have tried to get up a revolution, and have
failed ; but the Charter calculates rather too boldly
on the ienorance of its readers when it asks for inter-
position " on behalf of a number of men, the majority
of whom have committed no moral offence, and who
have sinned, if at all, in ignorance of the law under
which they are suffering. If these men were so igno-
rant as not to know that burning houses and stabbing
policemen were against the law, it is quite time that
their legal studies should commence, and that they
should have a practical lesson on the inconveniences
which may arise from advising such acts, before they
again come forward as public advisers. No public syru-
i pathy can be felt for them : it is universally admitted
that they deserve none."
The only domestic hrticle in the Courier is on the
same subject, and our Contemporary takes occasion to
praise the conduct of the Government in not employ-
ing she illegal conduct of the Chartists, as a handle for
interfering- with the liberty of the Press. " The advan-
tage of possessing, and the duty of maintaining a
Government," says the Courier," that preserves to all
classes of the people the right of free discussion, even
while putting down with a firm hand the disturbances
to which such freedom of discussion may occasionally
lead, have been impressively exhibited in the conduct of
our present rulers towards the Chartists. The policy
of the Governments that had held sway in this country
for a quarter of a century previous to the era of
Reform had invariably been to confound discussion
with disturbance, the constitutional expression of po-
pular.opinion with violations of order, and demands for
the amelioration of the laws with denionstrations of hos-
tility to the State and to society. A meeting for the
redress of grievances was often the forerunner of a great
and grievous addition to the evils complained of. To •
submit and suffer was all the people had to do ; to
meet and petition in the language dictated to
men by a sense of intolerable oppression and accu-
mulated injuries, seemed, and indeed was, the sure
way to increase, for the time being, the malady
under which they groaned What-
ever may have been the faults, and they are
heavy—the weaknessee, and they are numerous—of the
Liberal Governments, that have existed throughout
the last and present reigns, this redeeming virtue they
have in common. Opinion, in this country and in
Scotland, at least, has never been for one hour doomed
arbitrarily to silence ; the political rights and
immunities of all classes of thinkers have been
respected and maintained ; while the sanctity of the law
has been in no one instance violated without prompt
and effectual atonement. Those who scoff at the policy
of supporting such a Government as the present, and
ridicule the little it has performed, should, and if honest
or sane Reformers, would take into account the
much that it has not performed. They will vainly
interpret the phrase as expressing their own com-
plaint, and no more ; granting that they employ it
justly, it may be not less justly employed by the de-
fenders of the Government, as pointing to the absence
of a vast deal of practical and prolific mischief that
must at this instant have been in existence, had Toryism
been the Courtly creed and its champions obtained com-
plete ascendancy in the Legislature."
The Standard, in an article on the Dover Banquet,
affects to discover in the manifestation of Tory politics
on that occasion, the overflowing attachment of the
people throughout the country to Conservative princi-
ples. The following reads so like a humorous equi-
vogue, that were it not from the grave columns of
our Contemporary, we should suspect it to be from
the pen of some witty Whig or sarcastic Radical :
" But what is the complaint of our Contemporaries?
That at a festival professing no political object, and to
which all parties, Tory, Whig, or Radical, who could
afford the price of a ticket had access, the respect
for Conservative . principles was so strongly marked,
that, in spite of the avowed wishes of their illus-
trious guest, in spite of the suggestions of the
Committee, and the neutral and extra-political charac-
ter of the toasts, its manifestation defied all attempts to
repress it, and burst forth from time to time with a
force and an unanimity which has led the organs of the
Government to. denounce the dinner ' as a grand de-
monstration in favotir of Toryism.' We ask for no better
proof of the universal unpopularity of Lord Melbourne
and his colleagues than is to be found in this miserable
confession, especially as we find it admitted in the Globe
that ' several of the most distinguished Liberals of the
district, in and out of Parliament, lent their aid to:carryout
the professed designs of the projectors,and were present at
the banquet.' What, we repeat, must be the general im-
pression of her Majesty's Ministers, when at a festival
having no political character, at which ' many of the dis-
tinguished Liberals of the district assisted,' and at which
it was suggested, not merely by Lord Brougham, but by
the Duke himself, that all expressions of party politics
should he avoided, the respect for Conservative principles
' should have been so unequivocally displayed as to have
given rise to the assertion that this banquet was ' a grand
demonstration in favour of Toryism,' and ' a cheat
upon the country l' There can be but one reply to such
an inquiry. Had the projectors of the ' Wellington
Banquet' designed it for a political meeting, there
would have been no difficulty whatever in making
it ' a grand Conservative dernostration ; ' but,
conducted as it was, and open to persons of all
political opinions, with no other object than to
express the feelings of gratitude which ought to animate
the bosoms of all true-hearted Englishmen towards the
Duke of Wellington, for the exalted services he has ren-
slilmnetl:vetttalhjereerxii.oliri;ibteudt, abs ea-
dered his country, the irrepressible predominance of Con-.
servative feeling, which our Contemporary assures us was
displayed upon the occasion, must be received as_ the
strongest testimony that could possibly be offered of the.
estimation in which her Majesty's Ministers and their
measures are held by the public at large. Instead s
' not having answered its professed design,' itthapnllev%a.ars'
to have accomplished a great deal
It has shown, so
ecnotuhnutsri
ye' s
ftoi cr
ever contemplated by its projectors.
esteemfar a sany
which suc I ceremonial
is
entertained
throng
the
whilst
i t Wellington,has a nott th, onlya
same as
time
politician
yond all possibility of cto the
itrinadoiscttioena,ratehset satnrdencgotnhsotafntthiiitti
party which has been „
its appreciation of his character .
The Times of this morning raves in the following
fashion subject of the approaching election for
;
„ A
g on
Manchesternti hene himself to a constituency
etal
il
da
n c
wa
hmob
pr
irdegs
ee
1:1
with an understood or professed determination to support
the Whigs—and this is the exact condition of Messrs.
Greg and Gibson—not only avows his readiness to
go into Parliament as a slave, but, implores the
electors to forge the fetters whereby he and them-
selves are to be ignominiously bound. The general
policy of these Whigs—their barter of high state-
policy to O'Connell's Papists—their sordid and sacri-
legious sacrifice of the Protestant Church, their base
attempt to play off their successful artifices with a
female Sovereign against the solemn voice of Par-
liament—their declared intention to sectarianize the

_EV RN 1 Nt4 EDITI ON.

education of the people—their systematic encourage- 1
ment of Irish convicts and Chartist Magistrates—their
despotic proscription of a free legislature in Jamaica—
their insolent resolution to enforce their absolutism at
pnmei
nstcthreco
with
icotton
tb
ed
home by an enormous increase of bayonets and batons—
their
ignorant and heartless cruelties to the poor—their
injusticePt Prussian aoh
luerLr
ueninagiumet
hf,anect;trculartreleise,pi
their refusal
their con-
.tetfiuns;ltotooruer-
ancient scats of learning by setting up rival institutions,
whereby Cambridge, with a decaying University, must
necessarily become a decaying town—all this, we need not
say, is perfectly understood. Moreover, since the passing
of the Reform Bill—a measure which, under a Consti-
tutional
Executive, might have been productive of infinite
benefit to the community—the expenditure of the coun-
iio
sws hn es out nadn y"co' irgr ej:pbobni ,ding
tbrays,
bweheant withgreatly
egr
eeaesme
dm,
increase in our national security or comforts.
• ";Now, let the people of Manchester and Cambridge
ask themselves what practical advantage they have de-
rived from a professedly Reformed Government. They
have got a change in municipalmetters—what are they the
better for it ? They have seen the tithe question settled
in Ireland—what gain has it brought to them An
Irish Municipal Bill to suit the purposes of O'Connell
remains to be struggled fhr—if it were carried to-mor-
row, what in all the world could it effect for Manchester
or Cambridge? In short, is there a single measure
passed or contemplated by the Whigs that can do them
the smallest good ?"
[The last paragraph is amusing from the impudent dis-
honesty which it exhibits. So no constituency is to regard
the good done to any parts of the empire, unless they are
directly ham:fitted by it. Their first question to their .
representatives must be, " What bribe shall we have ?
No sop in the pan, no vote !"]
The Morning Cbronicle takes notice of the fuss the
Tories have been making about the Dover Banquet,
and ridicules the idea of its leading to any political re-
sult. " The Eglintoun 'Tournament," says our Con-
temporary, " is not less prognosticatory of a change of
national policy than the Dover dinner. True, the rains.
transfbrined the new field of cloth of gold mto the field
of sloppy sawdust ; but nevertheless that eminent Tory,
Lord Londonderry, was king of the lists ; nor was it
for nothing that shivered lances won chivalric honours
for that devoted supporter of Church and State, espe-
cially in Ireland, the Marquis of Waterford. The
scores of thousands of applauding spectators, and
the gathering of the clana for the glory of Aristo-
cracy, may he said distinctly to evince the nation's
desire for Government by the House of Lords, and.
its preference of the policy of the Peerage to represen-
tation under the 112. form Act. One of our 'Tory Con-
temporaries has begun to open up the subject ; and, if
pursued, but for the untoward weather that swamped
itself, the Eglintoun tournament could not have failed to
swamp the Dover demonstration.
" Drowning men,' says the proverb, catch at
straws.' So catches Toryism at the dinner to the
Duke. We thrixv it the broken lance of the Knight
of the Morning Star' into the bargain. If its hopes of
power can float on either, they must be buoyant as
a bladder. Tee faction has never recovered the
repulse it received (ruin the Queen. Only the despe-
rate game is left of forcing itself upon a Sovereign and a
people who have both evinced their strong aversion.
Unlace this manceac ring with neutralities to manufac-
ture them into demonstrations. But Kentish fire is
harmless in fight. There must be much more formidable
exhibitions before the faction that borrows or steals
credit from the great warrior's name can excite any
apprehension of tee restoration of its discarded and de-
teated policy."
Ti:e IllorningPost examines in detail the late changes
in the Ministry. We have only space for the antici-
patory remarks upon the future career of the new Go-
vernor-General of the Canadas :—" Mr. Pouldt Thom-
son, provided his health be net further injured by sea-
sickness in going out to Conada, will, in cumnion
consistency with his former career, make a great dis•tilay
of philosophy in his government of Canada. lie will. pro-
bably endeavour to show the inhabitants that all their
discontent arises, as it does in so many cases, from
being by far too well off in the world. Ile will
show them how injuriously they have been savoured
by Great Britain in taking their timber at dutint, so much
lower than the duties on Baltic timber. Ha will pro-
pose to relieve them of the over-prosperity which has
been so injurious to them, by prevailing on the British
Government to encourage the import of Baltic timber in
preference to Canadian. In this way Mr. 'Thomson
will be sure to make a great sensation, and ho will have
the additional satisfaction of showing that Horace was
perhaps as shrewd a fellow in his way as even Lord
Melbourte.—

• Clum. non animunt, mutant, qui trans mare currant.'"
The illoraing Herald has an article on the recent
events in Spain, in which the Tory idol Don CARLOS
is denounced as an " io!atuated simpleton !" Upon the
conduct of Maroto, and the 111 wl(Cs abandonment :of
the Carlist cause, we quote the following explication :
" This Maroto, who evidently cute:T(l the service of
Don Caries with the intention of 'defraying nllti into the
hands of his enetnivs, is the o.i'stingttish,..,d per an whom
Mr. Peter Bortimick sharply lectured us for de-
' scribing as an executioner and no soldier. Oar read-
ers will recollect that on hearing cf the tragedy of
Estella, in which Maroto was the principal actor,
and such men as Sanz, Garcia, Guergue, and
others the victims, we denounced the traitor, and de-
clared that if he were allowed to continue in command
of the forces of Don Carlos, with his hands reeking
with the blood of his most faithful Generals, he would
bring upon the Carbst cause the execration of civilised
Europe. He was continued in the command, and from
tout tine we took no further interest in the affairs of
the barbarians on either side than was ❑ecessary to con-
vey to the public an early and simple account of the
events which attended the progress of a conflict more
jisgraceful to humanity than any which Europe has
known since the light of civilization dawned upon her
shores."