The Sun.
London, England, 1838-05-14 00:00:00

ing any explanation or apology, it would, indeed, have been most ex_
traordinary, if, after a great change had been made in the three compo.
nent portions which formed the balance of the empire, giving an addi-
tional, and as it might appear to some, an alarming power to the
democratical branch of the constitution—it would, he said, have been
rioast strange if there had not been many men who, previously apprehend-
ing danger from the too great influence of the monarchial or aristocra.
Veal branches, should not, when a great change was made, diminishing
the power of those two branches, have had the honesty to throw their
weight, however small,into that balance which seemed the lightest.—
(Cheers.) This, then, without disguise or concealment, the offspring of
no intrigue, negociation, or compromise—this was, he would not say
the secret,but the reason, the ground and foundation, the solid and en.
during foundation of their union. Such were the motives which in-
fluenced his conduct, and, passing by any allusion to the sacrifice, the
course he had adopted had induced, and which he should have been
ashamed of himself not to have made—he did not mean the mere sacri-
fice of power, which cost him nothing, nor the sacrifice of office, which
was a burden while he held it, and a relief when he resigned it—but the
sacrifice of those kindly feelings and friendships, which he knew he
must incur, which he had incurred in many instances, but of which he
had never repented. Passing by all reference to that topic, he would
at once express how high a gratification he felt at having, in such so-
ciety, been selected as the organ to bring before their notice
that which was in truth the keystone and bond of their union,
that which was the main-spring of all their strength, that which
they were fully prepared to uphold, strengthen, and confirm, that
which was the very essence of all their Conservative feelings, the British
Constitution in Church and State.—(Rapturous cherring ) It had been
truly observed by one who well knew what he spoke of, that there was a
vast difference between the Whigs of 1935, and the Whigs of 1932—
(Hear, hear)—but if gentlemen would refer to history, he thought they
would find, when they compared the Whigs of 1938 with the Whigs
of 1684—(Cheers)—that there was indeed a wide difference between
the political principles which actuated the great men of the former
Period, and the principles which were professed by those who called
themselves the Whigs of the present day. If he read history right, he
found that the great men of the former period considered as indispen.
sably connected and interwoven with our mixed Constitution, and as
giving strength and stability to all its parts, and forming the strongest
bulwark of our civil liberty—the maintenance of a National and Pro-
testant Establishment (Cheers.) It was true, indeed, that those who
called themselves the Whigs of the present day also appeared to regard
these great elements as combined ; but in their mind they seemed com-
bined only for the purpose of being made one and each the object of
uniform and constant aggression.—(Cheers.) The Radical party,
wise in its generation, knew, and, knowing, steadily and per-
severingly acted on the knowledge, that no one of those great elements
could feel a blow, without the blow being felt by all the rest.—(Hear,
hear.) They looked out for the feeble place whereon to make the first
assault, and when they could not succeed by violence, they sought to
undermine by fraud.—(Hear, hear) To meet their endeavours required
not only much coolness, but as much perseverance and industry, in a
better cause, as were displayed by their opponents.—(Cheers.) Not
many years since the favourite object of attack was the independent
exercise of the powers of the House of Lords ; and the exercise of those
powers was not opposed alone by the low and insignificant, but by some
among the learned of the land and occupying high places.—(Hear, hear.)
It was true that the chorus raised against that body had sunk into a
snarling whimper; but the party only waited for another occasion to
renew its attacks. How had those attacks been met ? By concessions ?
by yielding to any of the demand; made by those who attacked the
peerage ? No. They had been met by a forbearing, but unflinching
exercise, on the part of the House of Lords, of their constitutional
potters; they had been met by an appeal to the good sense,
prudence, and judgment of the British people.— (Cheers.) What
was now the favourite object of attack ? Scarcely any one of
the Institutions of the country could be pointed to with respect
to which a desire was not manifested to depreciate and injure them. He
saw a systematic desire to degrade the magistracy—(Cheers)—to weaken
the bonds which bound in:legitimate union, the gentlemen of the coun.
try with the population of their neighbourhoodseand to draw seldom on
them for the discharge of those duties which they conscientiously and
unpaid performed.—(Cheers.) He saw a systematic desire to overthrow
every thing which appeared not to forward the democratic will; but
above all, a determination supported by all the malignity of bitter hosti-
lity, and favoured by indifference and lukewarmness on the pant of
those who ought to oppose it—a determination, he said to destroy, to
weaken, and undermine the foundations of our Established Church
(Loud cheers.) They were sometimes taunted with raising without
cause, the cry of " The Church in danger ;" but when he saw how many
gentlemen were then present, who would go forth into their respective
neighbourhoods, and scatter and desseminate over the whole country,
among their neighbours, dependents, and cennexio, s, the principle of
attachment to the sister Ceurchee of England and Scotland; when he
knew how strong a hold those Churches had on the affections of the
people; how the attacks made on them had called forth increased energy
in their defence and maintenance, he began to hope that the
" Church was not in danger."—(Cheers.) But this lie must say,
and he said it in a voice of learning and counsel, if he might be
permitted so to speak, that if they relaxed in their endeavours, if they
became lukewarm in their support of the Church; if, while they ad-
mitted and supported, and eeceuraged the reform of the Church and
the removal of abuses, th y relaxed and flinched from the first principles
by which that Church was maintained and uphold, they had an adver-
sary ever vigilant to take advantage of the slightest concession, ever
watching for an unwise admission, ever desirous to entrap them into
the adoption of some insidious expression which would afterwards be
used against them in a different sense, and ever ready to assault an .1
to assail everything they held most sacred.—(Loud cheers.) He called
upon them to remember this, and as they valued that Church—as they
tvettal answer to their constituents who sent them to Parliament
to defend that Church—as they would answer to their country, to
whom that Church was a national blessing—as they would answer to
sir consciences, he ca'led upon them not for one moment to relax in
sir exertions from a too confident or overweening estimation of their
wn strength.—(Hear.) He was told that no less than 313 Members
f Parliament had joined in the present magnificent public tribute of
respect, regard, and affection, to his Right Hon. Friend. Hove many of
hese men would flinch from the expression of the same devoted attach-
ent within the next forty-eight hours.—(A burst of cheers, which
sated for several moments.) If the energy or zeal which were mani-
sted that night, was not a mere hasty and evanescent feeling which
bt evaporate in a short time ; but if, on the contrary, it had its
n in the strong and mature conviction of this mighty party,
en the Church and the institutions of this country were indeed safe.
•—•',Cheers.) Let them remember it was rot zeal atone—it was not the
hasty expression of excited feeling which must win the battle--it
Was patient struggling against toil and fatigue—against maneeuvres—
against, perhaps, defeat—it was untiring industry, it was unrelaxed
energy, it was indomitable confidence in their leader.—(Loud ap-
plause.) It was that confidence which sustained the British soldier,
in apparent apathy, behind the lines of Torres Vedras—it was the
same confidence with which the troops of Waterloo lay couched in in-
action, until the time when their great chieftain gave the word to charge
—it was the determination to hazard the great cause by no trifling proceed-
ing, the offspring of personal caprice—it was the determination not to flinch
from the great cause from too nice an estimation of some expression
which might chance to be used; it was the determination never to
affirm a principle which they did not believe in, and never, under any
circumstances, to shrink from the affirmation of the principle which
they did believe in.—(Loud applause.) If in this laborious and weari-
some course they should at any time feel inclined to falter in their en-
deavours and relax from the struggle, let them reflect what it was
they were to sacrifice, and then he was sure that no personal interest,
no light or trifling consideration, would deter them from the course
they had adopted, and their conduct would, under the blessing of Pro-
vidence, be the means of maintaining and preserving, that which was
the object of their respect and love, that which lie now gave them as a
toast, " Our Constitution in Chbrch and State."
The toast was drunk amidst tremendous cheering.
The CHAIILHAN proposed a bumper toast to the health of Sir James'
Graham. In drinking that toast, they drank, he said, the health of an
honest, independent, and enlightened statesman.—(Loud cheering.)
Sir JAMES Ciamtax said his Right Hon. Friend had explained in far
better terms than he could the motives which had induced him to leave
the friends of his youth and join the ranks of their opponents. As
Sir Robert Peel had told them that step was not the result of any in..'
trigue, nor Indeed could he (Sir J. Graham) forget that night, when
driven almost with contumely from the ranks of those with whom he
acted, he crossed the floor of the House of Commons, and joined the'
party of the Right Hon. Baronet on principle.—(Cheers.) He now
thanked the great assembly of gentlemen whom he saw before him for
the generosity he hid received at their hands—a generosity as great as
the autipathy with which he was regarded by those once his friends.
—(Cries of " Hear, hear.") Why was it that he stood there that
night? He was there because he was opposed to the policy of
withdrawing the colonies from their connexion with the mother
country ; while a gentleman, who had given the traitor sPlCenzie the
benefit of his advice, had received the favours of the Government, while
another gentleman, who had expressed a wish for the success of the re.
bets in arms, obtained the votes of some of the members of the Admi-
nistration, at the period of the general election.—(Hear, hear.) He
stood there, because he was pledged to resist the extension of the suf-
frage.—(Applause.) He thought that the great measure of constitu-
tional reform, which had passed a few years ago, added greatly to the
influence of the democratical principle, and he said that that should be
his ultimatum, and that he would resist any further democratical
change.—(Hear, hear, hear.) Lord Durham thought differently,
and her Majesty's Ministers had seen fit to prefer Lord Durham
to an important situation, while, under the cover of his character
as a Reformer, the constitution of one of our colonies was
to be suspended.—(Loud cheers.) He stood there because he was de.
termined to resist " vote by ballot." On this subject his Right Hon.
Friend had referred to the words of Lord J. Russell. As far as words
went, they were satisfactory—but let them be compared with the con

duct of the Government. How did the Members of the Governmen
. _ _ _ .

vote on the question of the Ballot ?—(Cheers.) Sir H. Vivian and Mr.
R. Steuart voted in favour of that question, and nevertheless they still
retain their places.—(Hear.) Nay, he would undertake to say that
whenever an opportunity presented it, by the vacancy of a Government
office, Mr. R. Steuart, who was now one of the Lords of the Treasury,
would be preferred to some higher place; and that the gentleman se-
lected to succeed him as Lord of the Treasury would be a person not
only in favour of the Ballot, but pledged to some extreme opinion with
regard to the Church. He stood there because he was pledged to resist
the repeal of the union; and Mr. Sheil, who had declared himself a
friend to the repeal, had been received into an hospital and made a
pensioner of the Government.—(Loud cheers, and laughter.) But
more ; he stood there because he was determined to resist the expulsion
of the Bishops from the House of Lords. What had the advisers of the
Crown done on this subject i They had preferred to office a gentleman
who voted in favour of the expulsion of Bishops.—(Hear, hear.) He
stood there pledged to resist the spoliation of the Church, and he trusted
that on Monday next Sir T. Acland would give them the opportunity
of showing their determination that the Church should not be spoliated.
_(Loud cheering.) He stood there, above all, to resist any attempt to
destroy ,'..l)e independence of the House of Lords.—(Cheers.) They had
been told by hi Right:Hon. Friend, that for the purpose of effecting their
object great attention and great patience on their parts were necessary;
And he would tell them further, that implicit confidence in their leader
was necessary. He thought he had heard a quotation made from

Clarendon in favour of what he conceived to be spoliation; but he

would, with their permission, call their attention to apassage which he

had lately read in Lord Clarendon's history. At an early period of the
Long Parliament, a motion having been made in the Mouse of Corn.
mons for the extirpation of episcopacy, Lord Clarendon observed—
" The House was very thin, those only who prosecuted the Bill with

impationoe remaining in the Howe, and the others, who abhorred it,
growing weary of so tiresome an attendance, left the Iron3e at dinner_

time, and afterwards followed their pleasures, so that Lord Falkland was
wont to say that they who hated the Bishops hated them worse than

the devil, and that they who loved them did not love them so well as

tiwir dinner.' I know not how CI 5'Z. men have already an3wered it to

slupir own consciences, or how they will answer it to Him who can discern
their consciences, who having assumod their country's trust, and it
may be, with great earnestness laboured to procure that trust, by their
supine laziness, negligence, and absence, were the first inlets to these
Inundations, and so contributed to those licenses which have over-
whelmed us. For by this means a handful of men, much inferior in the be-
ginning in number and interest, came to give laws to the major part, aid
to show that three diligent persona are really a greater and more signifi-
cant number than ten unconcerned; they by plurality of voices in the
end converting or seducing the whole body to their opinions. It :s true,
men of activity and faction have many advantages that a composed and
settled council, though industrious enough, usually have not, and vane
that gallant men co not give themselves leave to entertain, for they
contract a habit of disingenuity necessary to their affairs that liberal-
minded men would not persuade themselves to entertain, even for the
prevention of all the mischief the others intend. Whosoever observes theill arts by which these Inca use to prevail on the
people in general—
their absurd, ridiculouslying
to win the affections and corrupt the under_
standing 3 of the weak ; the bold scandals to confirm the wilful; the
boundless promises to the ambitious ; their gross, abject
flatteries to the
ulgar.spirlted, would hardly gilt himself leave to
use those weapons for