The Sun.
London, England, 1838-09-11 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS'

How happen; it, if, as the Tory Journals are constantly
and pertinaciously asserting, toe present liberal Government
is so weak and unstable, and the illiberal Opposition so
vigorous and powerful, that the weak and unstable have so
long successfully resisted the vigorous and powerful ? This
question is worth an answer, because, unless it be answered,
the conclusion is inevitable that the liberal Government is
a great deal stronger than the illiberal Opposition. Those
who weary their readers by eternal repetitions of the state-
ment that Ministers cannot stand against their po!;tical
antagonists, seem, strangely enough, to forget the simple
but important fast that they do stand. They re-
mind us of Dr. Neverout, in the basiesque scene
from Molere, who insisted, with the utmost gravity.
that the person he was addressing was realla
(7ead, notwithstanding the strong presumptive evi-
dence of life afforded by breathing, walking, talking, and
thinking. It was held by a great philosopher that the best
proof that people are in existence is the fact that they
think. Upon this rule we should be almost inclined to say
that our Tory Contemporaries have no existence. Think-
ing can hardly be an operation of mind with which they
are acquainted, or they would hardly reason so illogically
as to contend that the present Government is so infirm
that it cannot stand, when it has been seen that all the
efforts of all their enemies, from the expulsion of Sir
Robert Peel and the Duke of Wellington down to the
present moment, have accomplished nothing against them.
What is the real fact of the matter ? Why, the Times, by
accident, told the troth the other day, when it said
that the great body of the population of the three king-
doms is opposed to a Tory Administration. There
is no doubt of it : and until this state of things be
reversed—until the Tories become what they never will be,
popular, they must be content to submit to a Reform Ca-
bioet. During the whole of last Session, when it came to
a aevere trial, Ministers could muster no larger majority in
'the House of Commons than from twenty to thirty votes,
while in the House of Lords they were outnumbered on
every occasion when the depositaries of hereditary wisdom
thought fit to resist a Government measure ; yet the Tories
could do nothing ; and why ? For the plainest of all pos-
sible reasons, a reason which even the Times can perceive,
—because Ministers were supported in their endeavours to
improve the internal and external condition of the na-
tion, and to remedy abuses in Church and State,
by the good will and good wishes of the people.
The peols!e (quoth the Times) were against the
Tories." if we are asked how it came to pass that
Mioi‘te'es, who enjoyed the confidence of the great
body of the inhabitants of England, Scotland, and Ireland,
cwsid only muster, at a pinch, a majority so comparatively
!small, we reply that the cause is to be found in the defects
of the Reform Act. To a certain extent, and only to a
certain extent, it abated the evils of the old system ; but it
introduced some new ones, such as the 501. tenancy-at-will
clause, which the Times, in its day of liberalism, resisted
with all its might, though in its day of Toryism it has
&en abundant reason to support it. If the rights of the
pauper freemen in corporate towns had not been preserved
to anzioury and scrupulously by the Tories, and if the
Marquis crl: Chandos had not succeeded in foisting into the
Reform Act his provisions giving the franchise to small
tenants-at-will, who are almost necessarily under the abso-
lute dictation of their landlords, the result of the last elec-
tion would have been very different. The success of the
Tories in boroughs was owing to the bribery of the poorer
'voters (gererally freemen and relies of the old corpora-
tions), and in counties to the unhesitating appli-
cation of the screw by landlords who compelled
their humbler tenants to vote against the convic-
tions of conscience. In any other times than the present it
would, perhaps, laavebeen impossible:for any Administration
to carry on S'ne affairs of the State with so small a force of
friends ir. the Commons, and so large a force of enemies in
the Lords. It was notorious that the returns at the last
elefetion bore no proportion to the real sense of the nation ;
and that if the voice of the people had had free way, and
if effect cou'd have been given to it, Ministers would have
Possessed a rower even more overwhelming in the Commons
than was the power of their enemies in the Lords. The
real strength of Minister, was and is out of doors ; and so
great has it been that 300 Tories in the lower House, and
nearly as many in the upper House, have been usable in a
single instance to shake them. The Morning Postof yester-
day calls the Tories " a great, wealthy, and powerful party,"
and so undoubtedly it is ; but it is not great, wealthy,
nor powerful enough to resist the earnest desire of the
mass of the nation for the continuance of a liberal
Government. The majority of the people is above the
might of the majority of the Lords. Yet, according to the
Times a day or two ago, it would be the easiest thing in
the world for the Tories at any time to take possession of
• Downing-street and the Treasury. The Spaniards thought
so of Gibraltar in 1782. Why do not the Tories try
the experiment ? What a pity it is, for them that the
harvest is not likely to turn out more unfavourably 1
With the aid of a short crop and the new Poor-law
they might have been able to accomplish something in
the way of converting the suffering inhabitants of ma-
nufacturing districts to Toryism ; but the harvest is
snore abundant and better than the Tories anticipated,
and the new Poor-law, with the aid of Mr. Oastler
to boot, has already failed as a source of agitation in the
north. In England, therefore, matters look worse for them
now than three or four months ago. " But then (says the
Times) loop at Ireland. A little while ago so many abuses
and so reauch discontent prevailed in that country, that it
would have been impossible for any Tory Administration
to have sent a Lord Lieutenant to Dublin with the hope
of governing tke country. Now, however, the case is
-widely different. Peace prevails in every part of the
island : justice is impartially administered, and the law is
triumphant. Crime has almost disappeared from the ca-
lendars at the assizes; so that if a Tory Government
were established in England, there is every probability
that a Tory Lord Lieutenant might successfully ad-
minister the affairs of Ireland." Such was the rea-
soning of the Times last week, and precious reason-
ing it was truly ! This is another specimen of Tory
logic. The argument begins with an admission
that the Marquis of Normanby has conciliated and
secured the confidence of all parties, and thereby most ef-
fectually and extensively promoted the tranquillity of Ire-
land : then comes the sequitur in the Times—that because
good Government by a Whig Lord-Lieutenant has produced
good-will, and, for the first time for many centuries, established
peace and harmony instead of confusion and discord, there-
fore it would now be very easy for a Tory Lord-Lieute-
nenant to govern Ireland. Let Lord Haddington try.
The truth is that the Tories have just as good a chance in
one country as in the other, and if they could, by any acci-
dent, get into power, they could not keep it even for an-
other " hundred days." Sir Robert Peel and the Duke of
Wellington. know better than to make that experiment
agaime--Morning Chronicle.
Several correspondents have written to us on occasion of
the late disgusting and fatal duel at Wimbledon. This ab-
surd practice of duelling has been written against by the
ablest moralists, and preached against by the most pious di-
vines, and the good sense of the high, and especially the
best military and naval circles, has long discounten inced
the barbarism. The custom, indeed, may be said to be
abolished in good society, unless under circumstances of ex-
traordinary provocation. If anything were wanting to make
this sort of deci.:ion of quarrels perfectly loathsome to every
rational person, it would be the late stupid and raffish exhi-
bition at Wimbledon ; and, for the irrational, perhaps the
following extract from a French Paper may serve as a sort
of hint that when ese custom descends even to shop-girls,
its ruffian:stn may he merged in its absurdity
DUELLING EXTRAORDINARY.—A few days ago two gri-
settras of the Quartier Latin, Paris, after exchanging blows
for an inconstant student, decided upon nn appeal to the laws
of honour. The fair belligerents fought with pistols, and
we re attvridef-t., the ground, in the neighbourhood of the
quarries of Nlontrouge, by two dressoi,ikers. After the ex•
change of two shots, happily without effect, the seconds de-
clared that honour was fully sati,fied ; but the feminine corn.
bat ant N, though obliged to submit to the fiat, quitted the tiro Ind
unreconciled. Our informant assures us that the pistols were
loaded 'with ball."—
In another part of our Paper will be found a letter of
considerable length and of very great importance, addressed
by Lord Brougham to Mr. Wm. Tait, of Edinburgh, in
answer to a note from the latter gentleman, requesting to
know whethrr there was any truth in the reports so gene-
rally cireula•ed, that Lord -Brougham meant to 644 Scot-
land this so Isms. It will be seen front the answer of the
Node and Le lined Lord, that there is no probability of
his cro:sing the
Tweed for some fme, and that, conse-
(Fleetly, Mr. Tait and the other Ilaelica!s of Scotland will
cot have the graiiticat.ion of treating him, as they clearly in-
/ Weir: dinner. Lord Brougham 'a letter to
ten,led to do, to
is not only unusually long, but
the Ediuliu-g:; eet-el!er
variety: of topics. The advice- lie tenders
ett.hr3ce a
peculiarly deserving of attention
to the people oF
oli to impress on their minds that
at this nwrni-Ilt• lit'
'al
:us I improvement can be effected
no great measures of nat:one
unles the people themselves show.that their hearts are set
upon those mea.ures. On this
I principles ; and we
point there cannot be two
°Orions among the friends of Li uera
will undertake to say, that there are notiatnoytthe
ndis•iduals in
sentiment
the country who more heartily respond
here expressed by Lord Brougham,
than the Melbourne
that be-
Ministry. It is an egregious error to suppose
cause they have not done more in the way of national
• improvement, they do not desire to do anythin, r more.
that
The great secret of their doing nothing more
_Nye
is
they were not enabled to proceed farther than they lyre
gone, owing to the apathy or indifference of the public
mind on most great questions of public improvement.
Had they been backed, and encoureged, and strengthened
by popular support, they would not only not have failed ,
.in many of the useful measures of reform they introduced

into Parliament last Session, but they would have brought
other measures equally good under the consideration of the
Legislature. The nation are apt to blame Ministers, when
all the blame attaches to themselves. Better late than
never. Let the people now demand, in loud and energetic
tones, those rights and liberties to which they are
Ministers, instead of being disappointed or "c!..",:ntled at this,
will be gratified to find that a i.ZMonstration is made in
favour of more extensive 17:iorms ; and, canseqUntly, will
he delighted to car7y, as far as in them lies, those great
improvement; into effect.—Morning Advertiser.
In ~yne point, we agree completely with a Ministerial
Contemporary who devoted a column of its most excellent
philosophy yesterday evening to an essay upon duelling in
general, and the late shocking one at Wimbledon-common
in particular. " After all," says the Ministerial Journal,
" we have perhaps wasted argument upon those who are
beyond its reach and upon a practice which, for its ab-
surdity, deserves to be assailed with contemptuous sarcasm."
There arc certain kinds of duels which from the circum-
stances that give occasion to them, and the manner in
which they arc conducted, must be lamented undoubtedly,
and in general terms must be condemned, but we do
not See how society is to go on without them.
They appear to be an unfortunate necessity of civi-
lization. Again, there are certain kinds of duels—
like that fatal one at Wimbledon-common, for instance—
winch cannot be contemplated without unmitigated horror
and disgust. No man of common sense—no gentleman,
at all events—can be at any loss to distinguish between
these two sorts of duels which we have in view When
our Ministerial Contemporary asks, in such mock energetic
terms, " Is it come to this—that the civilized orders in
highly-civilized England will not consent to forego the pri-
vilege of mutual slaughter in some shape or other ?"
when our Contemporary asks this question he is so un-
lucky as to fall into rhetorical nonsense. The really civi-
lized orders have no more wish for slaughter than they
have for robbing on the highway ; but there must be
a denier resort when circumstances occur in which
no tribunal that society has yet invented can give re-
dress. As to the late climax of blackguardism and atro-
city at Wimbledon Common, a Correspondent has dealt
with it in so off-hand, and yet so judicious, a manner, that
we give his letter in this place as the best commentary
upon the transaction. We have only to protest against his
finding fault with us for giving publicity to such matters.
We cannot help it. When they take place, the public will
have the details, and therefore we must give them .
THE LATE DUEL.
TO THE EDITOR OP THE MORNING POST.
Sir—l confess lam a good deal surprised at the fuss you
have been making about the late business on Wimbledon
Common. Deprived of the air of romance with which it has
been endeavoured to surround the incident, the whole affair
seems, in plain English, to be, that among a disreputable set
of sea%ps, a homicide took place in consequence of a drunken
row. There appears to me to be nothing so interesting in a
squabble between a broken-down mercer and a broken-down
mercenary, that the public can much care about it, except
from the accidental fact that a death has been occasioned
under circumstances in which a man of good feeling would be
sorry that even his enemy should die. The unfortunate man
who suffered appears to have gone to bed drunk at six o'clock
in the morning, and got up fuddled in the afternoon, just
time enough to be shot.
I an quite ready to admit that there is in this matter for
very serious reflection, but nothing of a nature to elevate
into heroes the parties concerned in this raffish adventure.
Do, for the sake of the character of actual gentlemen, and of
what is of far higher value—public morality—abstain from
giving further publicity to this foolish, though lamentable,
business. I remain, Sir, your very obedient servant,
Monday, Sept. 10. NO NONSENSE.
—Morning Post. _ _ _

The accsunt given in the Jamaica Watchman, brought
by the last West India mails, of the horrors committed on
board one of the slavers lately captured by her Majesty's
ship Snake, is well calculated to awaken the most dormant
philanthropist. Those who look upon the slave trade,
which unhapily still exists, with a general feeling of detesta-
tion, but who have never acquainted themselves with the
details which exhibit in its actual working the atrocity of
the system, will read the following extract from the paper
to which we have alluded, as describing an instance of bar-
barity without parallel or comparison in the annals of
human wickedness. Bat, alas, such is not the case. The
history of the middle passage is a record of such mon-
strous violations of humanity, that the particulars here
recorded can scarcely be said to rise above the ordinary
character of its events. This extract is taken from the
evidence of two of the captured slaves, who described
the sufferings of 2.50 Africans, constituting the cargo,
and communicated the following, in addition to other
statements :

" At first the blacks were taken tolerable care of on board
the slayer, but provisions became short, and then the flesh of
negroes who had died was corned and boiled for them ; that
subsequently live negroes were killed for the purpose on deck,
part of their flesh being dressed, and part being corned for
use ; that more than one or two people were killed for that
special purpose; that the elder negroes, and not the young
people, were taken ; that when selected, those who were to be
killed were kept on deck, the others were sent below ; upon
which the white people (the crew) felled them to the deck
with sticks (their screams were heard by all), and then cut
their throats, when, of course, the work of pickling and pre-
paration for food commenced ; that the slaves did not a: first
understand they were eating human flesh, but afterwards
when they did so, they revolted at it, and much was thrown
overboard."

Horrible, revolting, sickening, degrading to man's charac-
ter and nature as this picture is, it can only surprise those
who are ignorant of the mass of facts elicited from time to
time by the labours of good min to awaken governments
and nations to the diabolical wrongs committed by the hand
and heart of civilised avarice on an unoffending portion of
the human race. The facts brought to light by the illus-
trious Wilberforce and the no less illustrious Stephen,
whose whole lives were dedicated to the suppression of this
great enormity, might possilely be doubted by some, if the
oblivion of time were allowed to operate without counter-
action. But no, a horror springs up in our own day, and
almost under our own eyes—the equal, not the superior, of
the worst horrors which they have been the means of re-
cording. But the instance before us has one advantage—
it is recent. Those who might be disposed to slum-
ber over past recollections, will not, cannot, must
not be permitted to sleep over this. If the Eng-
lish nation has made great sacrifices, it possesses
great claims on the score of these sacrifices to
aid the still greater claim which humanity flings into
the bosom of any power that rushes forward to pre-
vent such heinous crimes. Spain and Portugal, though
they may disregard the laws of humanity and nature, can-
not claim to be exempted from the stipulations of treaties.
Their want of faith is now before the world in characters
so glaring that the execration of mankind must follow if
the course be persisted in much longer. The fact is, and
often and often has it been inculcated by those who have
devoted their time and talents to the subject, that nothing
short of an agreement amongst the powers of Europe to
make the infamous traffis in human flesh piracy, can arrest
its progress. We, as a nation, have so far washed our
hands of the crime as to have discontinued its practice and
denounced its guilt ; but we shall never have made the full
atonement until we shall have succeeded in banishing it
from the world by employing our power an-I influence for
that purpose.—Morning Herald.

ROBBERIES.-Yesterday information of the follow.
ins robberies was received by the police :—Between ten and
eleven o'clock on Sunday forenoon, from the shop of Miss E.
Clark, jeweller, No. 118, Upper Seymour-street, Euston-
square. a quantity of valuable jewellery, consisting of diamond,
turquoise, and cornelian rings and brooches, several lockets
set round with pearls, bracelets. necklaces, &e. The roirhery
was effected by means of skeleton keys. Between six and
seven o'clock the same evening,, from the Rolls' Court West-
minster, a Brussels carpet, not much worn, about nine yards
by four, the property of the Crown, valued at 10/. Informa-
tion was also received that on the morning of Thursday a man,
who called himself Thomas Cooper,
decamped from the house
of Mrs. Godley, who keeps a beer-shop in Doncaster Gate-
head, Rotherham, Yorkshire, stealin, and taking with him
SO/. in gold, in a canvas: purse, which he obtained by break-
ing open a box in the bed-room of Mrs. Godley, having for
some time been a lodger in the house. A reward of 101. has
been offered for his apprehension.
THE MARQUIS OF LONDONDERRY AND THE
CZAR —I should record (says the Marquis of Londonderry,
in his "Tour to the Northern Courts") that, on arrival at
every fixed station I found that the Emperor had graciously
sent orders for all the authoritieF, civil and military, to receive
us with the utmost distinction ; and quarters were provided
for U 3 everywhere, either at public offices or private houses.
To my great distress, arriving often at a station at four or five
in the morning in the bleakest weather, I was forced to wit-
ness, on turning out of my waggon, officers en grande knee,
c:vilans in silk stockings, and troops presenting arms And
what made it more embarrassing, I never was permitted to defray
.ny of the expenses of these receptions, nor was I (Lite an
.inili-,r4sador) in a situation to make presents of diamond boxes
or rings ; I believe no one not clothed with en official station,
and nut a crowned head, ever experienced so honourable and
so distinguished a reception._L it is to be wondered at, after
this, that the Marquis finds the Emperor to be the most cilum
dated of men--with no ambitious views towards the E.lSt--_
:o dream of Constantinople and its Golden Horn—the dearest
and best frien.l of England—and the generous and indul-
geat father of Poland, non obstante such edicts as that for
seuer2.ing the poor Sarmatians into Russian culuttes?]—.47orn-
i,,g h era/ti.
A correspondent complains heavily of the conduct
o: the bakers in keeping up the price of bread, while in all
:to markets of the kingdom the price of grain has declined to
Cle extent of 83. and 103. per quarter within the last few
necks. It appears that the only benefit which tie bakers'
customers in this neighbourhmd have derived from this de.
cli„ in price is a reduction of ld. per gallon, and this did
not take place until Tuesday last. The increase in the price
bread since the advance in the cern markets has been 3d.
a p T „
, non. Wilts Herald.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE•

MAELBOROUGII-STREET,

Mr. brfoi:i;o7),a.Scoteh a;,-fotmetly In the army,
`-etitliils.z at No. 2, Norland:tertace. Netting-hill, was brought
before Mr. DYER and M. CitAMBERS, on a peace warrant
obtained by hi'S
Mrs. bavidson stated, that for a length of time her husband
had been in ;he habit of ill-treating her. He would seize
her by tEe throat sometimes, and hold her with such force
that she was in danger of being choked. When the warrant
had been obtained the defendant had committed an assault of
this description upon her. In addition to this ill usage her
husband did not allow proper necessaries for the support of
herself and family. For many months he had not contri-
buted a single sixpence for this purpose. He was likewise
in the habit of treating his youngest son very badly, and occa-
sionally chaining him up, and fastening him into a room for a
length of titre.
Mr. Davidson denied the charge of assault made by his
isifv, and ass .rted that the differences between his family and
h mself had arisen from his inability to maintain them in that
station in which they had originally been brought up. H.
had held the rank of Lieutenant, and had been subjected to a
protracted Court-martial, but he had been acquitted of the
charge of which he had been accused. He bad, however, sol.l
his commission, and his circumstances were not so flourishing
now as they had been sometime ago.
The little boy corroborated his mother's statement, as did
the eldest daughter also, who, it appeared, supported the
whole family, es she said, by a theatrical engagement. Her
fa:her, however, insinuated that her funds were derived from
a less pure source.
Mr. CHAMBERS, after paying a compliment to the young
lady, ordered her father to put in bail to keep the peace.

HATTON-GA RDEN.
OMNIBUS ACCIDENT. —Fossey, the driver of an omnibus,
was charged with driving over Mrs. Mead, whose life, from
the injuries she has received, is much despaired of.
Three witnesses Mere examined, and proved that on Satur-
day evening, the prusccutrix alighted from the Atlas omnibus,
opposite the church in Islington ; and in endeavouring to
reach the footpath, the defendant drove his vehicle against her,
and she was knocked down and trampled upon by the horses,
and the carriage passed over her.
The Magistrates remanded the prisoner until Tuesday week,
and intimated their readiness to take bail for his appearauce
on that day.