The Sun.
London, England, 1831-11-24 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

When a general disarmament shall have actually
taken place upon the Continent we will believe that
the sovereign Powers, whose destructive ambition
has for successive ages subjected Europe to the vol-
canic eruptions of war, are really determined upon
peace, but not till then. We were told, when the
people of the various countries of the Continent were
excited by the promises of their rulers to rise against
the dominion of Napoleon, that the downfall of that
conqueror would be the signal of universal peace,
with vast and expensive
when Kings, dispensing
military establishments, would govern by the cheap
administration of enlightened laws, and " nations
should learn the art of war no more." No sooner,
however, had the power of Napoleon been over-
thrown—no sooner had the collected energies of the
people snapped asunder the chains which bound the
Kings of the continental states in abject vassalage
to the throne of their conqueror—than the deluded
people found that the delivered despots had com-
menced to rivet their own. Hence it was
that, only a year after Napoleon had fallen
under the overwhelming efforts of confederated
nations, he had but to show himself in France
to be received with an enthusiastic devo-
tion, and to overturn, without shedding a drop
of blood or firing a shot, the throne which the vic-
torious Allies had erected for the Bourbons. With
his fall on the field of Waterloo military despotism
fell not. The power of one despot was divided
among many. The " settlement of Europe" was
not a settlement of justice, but of force; it conse-
quently led to new revolutions, arid the most civi•
lized quarter of the globe still groans under the yoke
of military dominion. While Kings keep great
armies round their thrones they will never want pre-
texts for using them—nor will they think it very
necessary to cultivate those honest arts of Govern-
ment which alone can permanently secure the affec-
tions of their people. Large armies cannot be sup-
ported without ample pecuniary means. Tyranny is
always an expensive mode of Government. Am-
bitious Governments are necessarily rapacious.
The exaltation of military power is the impo-
verishment of a people. Armies suck the veins
of national industry. Taxation, distress, discon-
tent, and popular commotion, are the natural
consequences of a monstrous system which su-
persedes reason, deposes justice, and exhausts the
vital resources of a State, to consolidate and main-
tain the physical means of oppression. If we saw
any certain indications of the despotic Governments
of the Continent laying aside their projects of ambi-
tion—their intermeddling policy—their jealousy of
free States—their ancient hatred of representative
systems ;—if we saw any proofs of their abandoning
the Alachiavelian principle which makes them say
one thing and mean another ;—if they afforded us
any certain grounds for believing that they had be-
come enlightened enough to know that it is easier
and safer to govern by justice than by oppression ;
if, above all, we perceived that they had derived suf-
fent instruction from experience to learn that the
rights of Kings can never be secure until the rights
of the people are respected, and that the best pro-
tection of the thrones is the rational freedom of na-
tions;—if we saw these signs of sobriety and wisdom
in the acts and conduct of the rulers of the Conti-
nent, we should consider the reports of a general
disarmament, with a view to a universal and lasting
peace, not difficult of belief, because we should, in that
ease, see moral causes leading the way to such a
just and desirable political decision. But we see
none of those moral proofs of a transition from the
Government of force to the Government of en-
lightened power among the Continental despots:
on the contrary, the fall of Poland is likely to stimu-
late Russia, whose power has been continually
growing in Europe, ever since the retreat of the j
French from Moscow, to push the advantages, both
in Europe and Asia, which the guilty connivance or
the not less criminal weakness of other Govern-
ments has allowed her to obtain. She achieved a
great object of her ambition when Turkey, her an-
cient rival, and our " ancient Ally," sunk beneath
her arm. Now Poland lies crushed at her feet. By
her conquests in Persia she holds the keys of the
I'ea,t; and in Greeee, though her minion Capo
d'lsttia be no more, her influence still struggles to
chain to her barbarous domimien those beautiful pro-
vinces which Turkey has lost, and which would
give her a great naval station on the shores of the
Mediterranean. Will the success with which she
has pursued her conquests of late extinguish the
ambition out of which the lust of conquest springs ?
Alas ! ambition is that passion of which it may be
most truly said, that " increase of appetite but grows
by what it feeds on." Russia has succeeded in her
recent enterprises of aggrandisement beyond her
most sanguine expectations, and, after taking the re-
pose which the destructive Polish campaign !tilde
necessary, will rise to pursue her career of ambition,
" like a giant refreshed with wine." In the mean
time unhappy acid fallen Poland is trampled in the
isles:. Protestations of clemency are made, and in
Ithe reoment of being made, are most cruelly belied.
The capitulation of Warsaw has been treated as
waste paper. The citizens of Warsaw have no se-
eurity of property or life. Numbers of those who
seciained or returned to Warsaw on the faith of the
capitulation have been torn in the dead of the night
from thdr homes, and dragged in chains to expiate
their love of country in the mines or the wildernesses
of Siberia. A Russian Government is established
in Poland contrary to the treaty of Vienna—the
property of such distinguished patriots as Czarto-
ryski and Chlopieki has been confiscated—the
nembere of the Diet are persecuted. The exe-
cetted Constantine, the mantle of whose power
has fallen on the Grand Duke Michael, seems to
have bequeathed him some of his peculiar talents
for government, of which the whole energy might
be summed up in the art of driving a generous
people desperate, A people, we say ; because,
it no more vigorous intervention takes place than
eny which the Powers thatare parties to the Treaty
of Vienna have yet exercised on behalf of Po-
land, that ancient, that noble, that chivalrous people,
no longer exist as a nation. Russia must go-
vern by armies, while her policy is oppression. As
1:9 Austria, has she yet relaxed the iron grasp of
,despotism by which she holds her Italian depend-
enciee ? Has she abandoned her assumed right to
pour in her armies upon the " independent Italian
States," if they should dare °nee more to choose
their own forma of Government ? The true answer
to these questions will show whether she is desirous
of a general disarmament or not. Has the King of
Prussia yet given his people the promised Constitu-
tion which induced them to rise against Bonaparte ?
I-las his Government begun to see the true interest
of the country, and separated from that political
alliance with Russia which renders Prussia the fas-
cinated slave of the gigantic barbarism or the North
Can she disarm before Russia gives the word of
eemmand ? Is there not more than one succesafel
revoiotion—more than one " bad example," as
the Duke of Wellington called the revolution
of France, to be put down in Europe ? Is
not the King of Holland, at the present
moment, endeevouring to put down a " bad
example ?" Is Le not desirous of doing in
Belgium what the Emptror Nicholas
.did in Poland,
and nothing more? Can the }loly Alliance seriously
find fault with him for endeaveniFing to carry their
own principles into effect ? They o,ay temporize,,
indeed, because circumstances make it ni;assary;
but the long-continued coquetry between him and
the " Conference proves that the simple politicizing
who believe the Belgian affairs settled have come-
thing more to learn than any protocols have yet
disclosed. In the face of all this moral evidence
against the probability of a general disarmament—
to which, indeed, we ought to add the increasing
audacity of the Carlists of France, who confidently
count, for some secret reasons, upon restoration—
we have what facts ? We are told that the Prus-
elan landwehr are returning home, and that a great
Dumber of furloughs have been given to soldiers in

the Austrian service. As to the Prussian militia,l
they usually go to their homes in the winter, whence
they can be assembled at a very short notice ; and
28 to the Austrian furloughs, they would rather in-
dicate that Austria intends to continue her armies
on the present footing than the contrary ; otherwise
why not grant discharges to her soldiers, instead of
furloughs, which bind them after a definite time to
rejoin their respective corps? Surely nobody ex-
pected a winter eampaign.-2110rning Herald.
We have copied the full report in the Irish papers
of the proceedings at the formation of the Irish Po-
litical Union on Saturday last. Under the guidance
of Mr. O'Connell, this Union will, we doubt not,
lead to most important results. The object of the
Union was simply, but forcibly, stated by Mr.
O'Dwyer, in a few words. " He conceived (he
said) that the Political Union was established for
the specific purpose of assisting the King and his
Ministers, in the settlement of the all-engrossing
question of Parliamentary Reform, and of demon-
strating to the infatuated cabal, which now sought
to destroy the Monarchy, even with the calamity of
being extinguished in its ruins, that if they contem-
plated insanely a return to office, they assumed it
with the full knowledge that there was attached to
its honours the well-organized hostility of an indig-
nant and determined people." Toryism is essen-
tially at variance with justice and equity. It lays
claim to a property in men. He who claims a right
to take my property from me, without my consent,
and to dispose of it subject to no responsibility, acts
upon a principle essentially the same as that which
gives to one man the property in another. Toryism
is tyranny. All tyrants are not equally cruel. The
exercise of power will be modified by the fear of re-
sistance. In England, Toryism has been confessedly
much modified by the knowledge that the people
were become impatient of the yoke, and would only,
bear a certain degree of injustice. Still the asser-
tion of the claim to take men's property without
their consent, through representatives fairly cho-
sen, is an insult to a nation, and no sacrifice
ought to be deemed too great which relieves
them fiom so degrading a bondage. Toryism being
essentially iniquitous, we are not to wonder that the
acts of the Tories should have been almost uniformly
wicked and remorseless. Religion itself in the hands
of Tories becomes an engine to corrupt and to de-
base. How often must the High Church Clergy of
England have cursed, in their hearts, the simple-
minded Reformers, who laid open to the multitude
the benevolent religion of Christ, in every line of
which they see their own condemnation. A system
of plunder—a system of bribery and corruption,
abetted by ministers boasting of a commission from
the Apostles of Christ ! Even M. de Chateau-
briand, Bourbuuist as he is, shrinks from English
Toryism as an accursed thing, with which no one
can come in contact and remain unpolluted. He at-
tributes to the late English Government an utter
indifference to all principle where interest was con-
cerned. " They have always (he says) been ready
to sacrifice monarchy or republics to their interests.
They admitted the sanctity of the rights of Mah-
moud, and denied the legitimacy of the rights of
Ferdinand. * * * How should England have
disapproved of the efforts of the Russians to replace
under the yoke a country which they looked on as
one of their provinces, while she has poured out
seas of blood to hold in her chains the colonies
which now form the republic of the United States !"
But if ever a partizan of the Bourbons exclaims
against Tory cruelty and Tory Machiavelism, it is
not to be wondered at that Mr. O'Connell should
pourtray it under a still more hideous aspect :
" The first question (he says) I ask the Reformers is,
will they join with me ? Did, I ask, hell ever behold—
did hell ever generate a worse progeny than the Tories
have proved themselves to be?—(Hear.) They have
proved themselves the enemies of liberty of conscience—
they have shown themselves the persecutors of freedom—
they have smothered liberty in Ireland—they compelled
America by their tyranny to declare her independence—
they drove France into all the bloody throes of an infu-
riate revolution. Have they not been monsters in
Europe, in Africa, in America, in Asia ; and how can 1
talk of Asia without recollecting their direful misdeeds
there ? But are not, I ask, all the evils and crimes which
have been committed in all these places to be attributed to
the infamous Tory party ?—(Hear and cheers.) If, then,
we come to Ireland—if we look to her hardy and her ho.
nest people—if we gaze upon her green fields, and behold
her lofty mountains, do we not see the one reddened and
the other blasted by the blood of those people—blood which
the Tories have shed, because the people combined un-
wisely ; but, still, leaving Ireland too well—do we not
find the same Tories attempting to force the consciences of
the people of Ireland, and impose upon them an esta-
blishment in which they could not confide, and which they
did not want?—(Hear, hear.) I speak not now as a
Catholic, but as a Christian. If it were Catholics who
did this, I would speak still more harshly of them : I
would execrate them as I do the despot of Pot tugal and the
tyrant of Spain.—(Hear, hear.) Suppose that the people
of Ireland were Protestants, and the Monarch was a Ca-
tholic, and that he wanted to impose a Catholic Church
Establishment upon them, I would denounce that Tory as
I do his English or his Irish allies.—(Hear, hear.) If, I
ask, the Tories were to return to power—sacred Heaven !
can we conceive any thing more horrible than the idea of
their returning to power ?"—(Hear.)
The Irish have much more powerful motives for
opposing the Tory system of government than the
English have. The Church of -England, in Eeg-
' land, is far from popular with any of its own fol-
lowers, and very unpopular with the great bulk of
the nation ; and the Reform question alone has si-
lenced for a time the outcry against tithes; but the
Church of England, in Ireland, is hated by the
people, to whom it appears as a badge of their
slavery. So long as that Church shall be established
in Ireland, so lung will the Irish feel that a foul in.
dignity is affixed to them. But the Church may
now be spoken of as a tree which still stands, though
the sap ceases to flow :
" I do not think (says Mr. O'Connell) that tithes will
he paid for three years longer in this country.—(Hear.)
In a great part of Ireland they have not now been paid for
two years.—(Hear, hear.) And as to taking the army
and police to serve tithe processes, it will soon be found to
be an useless and expensive proceeding. For the recovery
of five shillings' tithe, some pounds' expence must be in-
curred by the clergyman ; and by the time he has his ex-
ecution ready, the man may have neither goods nor chattels
on which it can be levied.—(Hear, and laughter.) It is
a game which cannot be played.—(Hear.) I am a father
and a husband, and I can well sympathise with the situa-
tion of the Clergymen of the Established Church. These
gentlemen have forgotten every other pursuit for that to
which they arc now devoted, and I am not one who would
turn them out on the world's wide common, with their
starving wives and children.—(Hear.) I know that many
of them are willing to adopt the plan which I have before
r now suggested, of snaking a compromise with the State.
—(Hear.) I am for securing to them a life interest, and I
will not join in any other plan respecting the establish-
ment.—(Hear.) This Association ought while it is time
to make arrangements with respect to the life interest of
those who have devoted themselves to the profession to
which they belong, and of securing the reversion for the
good of the people,"—(Hear, and cheers.)
What a lesson we have here ! The Emancipator
of the Catholics bestowing his pity on the Ministers
of the fallen Protestant Church. Will the Tories
profit by no example ? Is not there here enough
to convince 199 of the most obstinate Tories that
ever existed, of the folly and even danger of their
trying their strength with a whole people ? Know-
ledge is power—that power has loosened the chains
of the people. Civil and religious liberty must be
victorious, and barouglimongering is gone past re-
covery. All that we have now to guard against is,
lest in its dying throes it may create confusion and
tumult—and against this calamity the people are
muting, that they may not be taken unawares that
the great and the low plunderers may not repeat
among us the scenes of Bristol. " I hope (says Mr.
O'Connell) that the object for which England is so
much interested, will be peaceably obtained. I wish
that she tray escape the Tories; and if she do, our
Political Union will, I think, be able to achieve
much; but if there should be a commotion in Eng-
land, I want to be prepared for the time, and that
instead of flying into open warfare, and tearing out
each others vitals, the virtuous men in the commu-
nity
should stand together, determined to put down

'crime, ready to repress the spirit of turbulence, and
resolved to combine together to preserve the peace
and procure the liberty of Ireland."—Morn. Chron.
A different version is presented in this day's
Journal, from that which we gathered yesterday, of
the accommodation-meeting at the City of Lon-
don Tavern, between the Reformers and their enta-
gonists. The declaration was the production of
Mr. Horsley Palmer and his friends, and was only
tendered to the Anti-Reformers by Mr. Pascoe
Grenfell, as a proposal of peace may be brought
from an enemy by a subject of that country to
which it is tendered, without an imputation of trea-
son on the bearer. The first overture was not
made by the Reformers in this instance, but by Mr.
Palmer and his friends, who, with their convictions,
we have no hesitation in saying, acted fairly enough;
and even as to the declaration itself, no one can
have any objection to it, except such as a man may
reasonably have to seven of the commandments in
the decalogue, simply because they do not contain
the essence of all the ten. But when a subscrip-
tion is called for to the seven, in order to make it a
matter of inference against the subscriber that he
thinks the other three unnecessary, then, un-
doubtedly, the subscription ought to be with-
held. However, the Reformers, who appear to
have been good-natured enough, were spared this
pain ; for, incredible as it may seem, an op-
position to that part of the declaration which
requires the extinction of nomination bo-
roughs sprung up among Mr. Palmer's own
friends—those who came with him, or to meet
him, as he might reasonably have expected, to carry
his measure. If ever noodles were like these
noodles, we at least do not know were to search
for them in history, or look for them in common
life; and the most sagacious of the Anti-Reformers
—for there are some sagacious among them ; sly,
but not honest—the most sagacious of that tribe, we
say, may see the issue of their vicious hopes in this
infatuation and folly of their party and allies. It is
proper that the names of such men should be made
doubly public, in order that they may reap their due
honours. Mr. Charles Barclay, Mr. Henry Drum-
mond, Mr. John Drummond, and Sir Coutts Trot-
ter, objected to that clause in the declaration which
referred to the extinction of nomination boroughs.—
We gather from our city article that a foolish expec-
tation still lingers in that region of accommodation,
that concessions are to be made by the King, his
Ministers, and the people; and that the Bill is to
be milk-and-watered down to suit the taste of an
obstinate faction, hostile to every other power in
the State but its own—and hence these attempts at
amalgamating parties. But we again tell the ene-
mies of Reform that if they have not this Bill,
they will have one of a more sweeping and com-
prehensive nature. Not that we would have the
Constitution altered with the sole view of punishing
the refractory, and mortifying their vanity; but let
them learn, that the measure recently rejected was
of so temperate a nature, that it may be considered
as making no inconsiderable sacrifices to antiquated
prejudices. It may be considered as a concession.
One point is clear : whatever compromise has been
attempted at the west end of the town, has experi-
enced the same fate as its eastern parody. The
King's Ministers feel the strength of that eminent
position whereon, in a happy hour of confidence and
public spirit, they first raised the Royal Standard
for Reform ; and they have still the resolution to de-
fend it. The new Bill will not, in any of its essen-
tial principles, exhibit any falling off from those of
its lamented predecessor, nor will it surprise us to
see that in some provisions of great importance, and
affecting most deeply the rights of the inferior orders
of men of property, their just influence on the re-
' presentation of the kingdom has been guarded in
the new measure with increased solicitude and
success. It may be asked undoubtedly, whence,
then, have arisen those apprehensions and predic-
tions of evil which for some weeks, and in many
quarters, have broke forth from Press, and per-
vaded the whole mass of society ? The answer
is, that the stake was so enormous, that the in-
terests depending were so mighty, and the excite-
ment of the passions so general and intense, as to
place the people of England, and not unnaturally
either, at the mercy of each successive day's appear.
ances, and, indeed, to render a satisfactory explana-
tion of those plans by which the final issue of the
Bill must be decided, riot less a duty of discretion on
the part of the Cabinet than a claim of right for the
community. At the same time we are bound to
state it as our belief, that there has, within a short
period, been something more than appearances to
justify the public alarms. And in truth and grati-
tude we feel called upon to add, that a personage,
not responsible for any acts committed in his name,
has been, if we are not misinformed, one great cause
why the grounds of all just apprehension have been
removed, and why the nation may henceforth, it is
to be hoped, look forward to a speedy, honourable,
and tr:umphant termination of its misgivings about
Reform. If where the Ministers wanted strength
they have been supported, or where they wanted
confidence they have been encouraged, it is to the
Sovereign himself they are indebted for all that a
gracious Sovereign could supply. King 'William's
title to the esteem and affection of his people is one
which no time can obliterate. It is gained for him
by a clear perception and an upright discharge of the
most solemn duties, exercised for the benefit of
millions of men, against bad precedent, in spite of
strong temptation—in disdainful rebuke of vicious
counsel—by his regarding the name of an " honest
man" as the brightest jewel of his diadem.— Times.
An Evening Paper, which for several months past
has been singing out the monotonous alarm-note of
" revolution" whenever the Reform Bill was men-
tioned, and which last night honoured us, as usual,
with some abuse for our defence of its provisions,
shows plainly, by the following reply to a part of
our article, that the editor has not read or does not
understand one of its chief clauses :

" Leeds now contains 2,100 freeholih-rs, qualified to
vote for Yorkshire, who do vote, and who, in fact, are
known to be always able to return one Member under the
existing system, Of these 2,100 freeholders, 400, and no
mote, would be disqualified as county electors by their
absorption into the borough constituency ; 1,700 town
freeholders therefore will remain—to vote for what? For
Yorkshire? No ! but for the West Riding [for the county
to be divided], in which, of course, 1,700 will be para-
mount; and the townsmen of Leeds will name the two
county or West Riding Members. The same thing might
and would occur in every county and division of courts
(county) in England, in which there is a great town, so
as greatly to overbalance the amount of new county Mem-
bers,which the Bill pretends to give."

The freeholders of Leeds who formerly voted in
the county of York for property existing in the
town, will be disqualified after the passing of the
Bill for so voting in any Riding, East, West, or
North. The number of qualifications for Leeds is
estimated in a Parliamentary return, entitled " Co-
pies of further information," &c., and ordered to be
printed on the Ist of July last (we are thus particu-
lar for the benefit of our contemporary's reference),
at 6,683. The following explanation is appended
to this and other returns :—" 'This total contains,
according to the best evidence, the extreme num-
ber of new qualifications. To ascertain the probable
number of additional voters, it would be necessary
to analyze the above, and from such analysis would
result this conclusion,—that, included in the gross
number of new qualifications, the number taken
from the county representation would be 5-20ths
(or 1-4th) of the whole." Were we right then in
our statement, or has tile enemy caught us " nap-
ping ?" By the return, the number of voters taken
from Yorkshire by Leeds would be nearly 2,000, as
we foimerly stated.—Times.

The leading Ministerial journal has undertaken
the hopeful task of convincing the men of property
throughout England that the Reform Bill was not a
democratic measure. Before we advert to the state-
ments by which the Times attempts to establish its
new position, we must observe that admitting them,
as we do, to be numerically accurate, and admitting,
for the sake of argument, that the inference deduced
from them is also correct, the obvious conclusion
then would be that the Reform Bill was a mere

delusion—a hypocritical pretence—an impudent
imposture palmed upon the community, the effect
of which would have been to disappoint the desires
and finally to arouse the indignation of the people,
to leave them infinately more discontented than
it found them with the institutions of the State.
We proceed to quote the statements by which our
Reforming contemporary seeks to appease the ap•
prehensions of the anti-revolutionary portion of the
British people, and to propitiate their favour for the
Bill. They are such as we have already repeatedly
laid before the public during the period when it was
the object of Ministers to flatter and delude and in-
flame the lower orders of the community, and when
we could not therefore expect them to be attested
and republished as they now are by the Ministerial
Press. According to the Bill, then, it is now ad-
mitted, or rather contended, by its friends, that in
many places the constituency was to have been left
extremely narrow, and, in not a few, much
narrower than it was under the old system of
representation. A 4, for instance, in the 54 boroughs
in schedule B, the aggregate number of voters resi-
dent within their boundaries would have been 5,040,
or, upon the average, something less than .94 voters
in each. In the 26 large extra-metropolitan towns
or districts the total number of voters would have
been 67,405, or rather less than 2,600 in each upon
the average. And as examples of the diminution of
suffrage we are triumphantly referred to Newark,
where the constituency would hare been reduced from
1,400 voters to 351 ; and to Preston, where above
6,000 votes would have been gradually extinguished,
leaving an actual constituency of less than 1,000.
In these statements there is no novelty; the same,
and many others of the like nature, and equally true,
have often been advanced by the opponents of the
Bill. The only novelty, and a most instructive,
salutary, and gratifying novelty it is, is, that such
statements now proceed from the Ministerial advo-
cates of that measure. This shows that the game
of delusion and excitement is given up; that Minis-
ters no longer expect to force their Bill upon the
country by the aid of mobs; and that now, it being
no longer held desirable to deceive the lower orders
of the people, the organs of Ministers hasten to turn
round, and deride arid insult the lower orders for
having been so long and so easily deceived. The
organ of Ministers triumphantly asks, is this uni-
versal suffrage ?—is this a democratic constituency ?
Before we answer these questions we beg to ask, is
this such a constituency as would have been esta-
blished by an honest, rational, consistent scheme of
Reform ? Is this such a constituency as would
have satisfied or ought to satisfy the nation at
large ? Is it possible that such a settlement of the
representative system as this could be final ? Uni-
versal suffrage truly it is not, for it excludes and de-
prives by far the most numerous class of the people,
separating them altogether from any kind of partici-
pation or interest in the national representation ;
and democratic surely it is, unless where its de-
mocratic tendency might occasionally have been
disturbed by servility or corruption, for of all
classes of the people the small shopkeepers, to
whom it would have given an indisputed ascen-
dancy, are the most impatient of the distinc-
tions of rank, and the restraints of authority,
wherever their own direct personal sordid in-
terests are not visibly and immediately involved.
The consequences of the Bill, we have stated them
upon the authority of the Times, are enough to
convince every reasonable man that the Bill was
not an honest Bill. Why should fifty-four boroughs
returning one Member each have only ninety-three
votes a-piece, determined by the Bill ? Why should
many other boroughs returning two Members each,
have a still smaller number of voters so determined,
when the minimum number of voters was to be
300 ? Why, but that Whig Commissoners might
be enabled to patch out these defective constitu-
encies in a manner most favourable to the future
Parliamentary dominion of their party. Why
in the whole of the large towns to be enfran-
chised should the lowest and the highest
classes of inhabitants have been equally de-
prived of all chance of swaying the elections, for
the purpose of bestowing everywhere upon the class
next the lowest an absolute monopoly of the
representation, unless it was that this class was
known to be the most effective allie; in the neces-
sary preface of agitation ? Why should the exist-
ing rights of any body of electors be annihilated but
that in Preston and elsewhere this was the only
means of restoring the dilapidated influence of the
Earl of Derby and other Whig Peers ? The policy
of the measure was to cultivate rabble popularity
and excite mob clamour in the first place, and as
the only means likely to ensure its success. The
real object of the measure was, there can be no
doubt, to increase and perpetuate the power of the
Whigs as a Parliamentary party, and to impair or
destroy that of their more able, consistent, and
honourable rivals. This project has prospered and
will prosper as it deserves.—elforning Post.
The view which we took yesterday of the prc-
clamation issued by his Majesty's Ministers, against
Political Associations, has been embraced by almost
all our evening contemporaries. Nothing, indeed,
can be more evident to the plainest understanding
than that institutions, of which a whole country
either approves, or which are dictated by its neces-
sities, cannot be put down by mere proclamations,
and that the Government which makes the attempt
is more likely to lose character than to gain strength
by it. It is in this light only that we disprove of
the proclamation for putting down Political Asso-
ciations, having lawful ends and objects in view ; for
such associations are unquestionably unlawful, and
are as inconsistent with responsibility on the
part of the executive, and the due government of
the country, on the one hand, as they have, on the
other, been summoned into existence, in the
bperelisieottrit instance,s
ordisloyaniotly the prevalence
spirit
) amoiigthep of a re-
people, but
by the necessity of supporting his Majesty's Mi-
nisters—of carrying the Reform Bill to a suc-
cessful issue, and of defeating the secret intrigues
of a knot of titled and pensioned enemies to Re-
form, by a public exhibition of the numbers and
passed, when
fwtilireenptehoepile)e.
ersWhialeven litshteeneßdeftoormreasßoirill,
and
the will of the people been obeyed, the Associations,
having no other objects in view, will cease to exist ;
but until these events have taken place there is no
power in this country which is capable of putting
them down. They will yield obedience, we have
no doubt, to the wishes of the Government, as they
are bound to yield it, in order that the interests of
the Reform Bill may not suffer by their existence;
but the proclamation will riot teach any one member
of these Associations to think differently respecting
Reform from what he has hitherto done ; neither
will it prevent the members collectively from using
all their efforts towards its promotion. The Tory
organs, as we anticipated yesterday, are in an ecstacy
of delight with the conduct of his Majesty's Mi-
nisters in issuing the proclamation ; but what
will it avail their patrons or their cause ? The
spirit of Reform is not only as much alive now as
it has been at any previous period during the last
twelve months, but what is more, the Political
Unions, although dangerous to Tory supremacy, had
also at heart the preservation of order, and it is a
question with us, in consequence, whether, in case
that the Tories continue to play the fool, they are
not more likely to suffer in their persons and pro-
perty, than to gain, by their suppression. The
Torres,however, cannot now bring any charge against
the Government, either of having neglected to put
the law in force, or of being intimidated in their con-
sideration of the Reform Bill ; and so far the pro-
clamation may work to a good end, by spoiling many
lengthy and foolish speeches to which we should
otherwise have been treated in the ensuing session.
—Morning Advertiser.

ORIGIN OF NAMES.--The Brabant manu-
facturer Ililixs, gave his name to the skein of worsted,
which still retains it; and THOMAS BLANKET, a weaver
in Bristol, has given a bed-fellow both to ladies and gen-
tlemen,