The Sun.
London, England, 1831-05-07 00:00:00

by the Reform Bill, of which these concurrent
powers are the authors and supporters. What as-
sailants of the Protestant Church it has been deter-
mined to provide, by means of the Miaisterial' mob
measure, as it must operate upon the Irish portion of
the House of Commons, we have already sufficiently
explained on several former occasions. The Irish
Bill will insure the introduction into the House
of Commons of seventy or eighty determined as-
sa]ants of the Protestant Church, agents and in-
struments of the Popish Hierarchy of Ireland—se-
venty or eighty O'Connells. The English Bill, if
we rrimy infer its effects from the manifest wishes of
its chief supporters, will probably provide, as th” Par-
liamentary champions of the Church, an equal purn•
ber of persons, confirmed disciples of Paine and
Voltaire, the Alumni of the Rotunda, seventy or
eighty Taylors or Carliles. The present Ministers
of the Crown have excited a storm which they al•
ready begin to discover they can neither assuage nor
direct. Seasons of fierce commotion or of immi-
nent peril are usually fatal to the cohesion of parties,
having no similarity of di,position nor any commu-
nity of principle. The public, we have reason to
think, will very soon be apprised that there are some
of the colleagues of Earl Grey and Lord Brougham
whom nature never destined for revolutionists.—
Morning Post.

MEETING IN DEVIZES TO ADDRESS

HIS MAJESTY.

A numerous and highly respectable meeting
of the town and neighbourhood of Devizes, was
held on Monday last at the Bear Inn, in this town,
for the purpo.e of agreeing to an address to his
Majesty, thanking him for the magnanimous manner
in which he has acted at this crisis, by using his
royal prerogative in dissolving Parliament; and also
an address to his Majesty's Ministers, approving of
their liberal principles. There wrie present on the
occasion, officers of the navy and army, magistrates,
clergymen of the Church of England, and dissent-
ing clergymen, yeomen, tradesmen; in short, a finely
mixed representation of almost every class. To say
that the meeting was barely unanimous in support-
ing the cause for which it met, would give but a
faint idea of the feeling which prevailed—it was
most enthusiastic!
Mr. Loexe, at the unanimous request of the meet-
ing, took the chair, and addressed the company in
an appropriate speech.
Mr. SCOTT moved the first resolution.
Lieutenant-Colonel NAPIER—I rise to second the
resolution just proposed, and I rise with pleasure,
because it is in the performance of a great duty. We
are here, Sir, to express our gratitude to the Sove-
reign, for having dissolved a Parliament that was
opposed to the rights of the people. We have to
thank the King for that he, by one honest blow, did
extingtesh a House of Commons, in which a majo-
rity of the Members, forgetting that they were the
servants of the people, did most insolently deny, arid
tyrannically endeavour to trample upon those rights,
Which they should have been the foremost to de-
fend. Sir, to dismiss such a House of Commons
was a eise policy—it was an act befitting an eft-
lightened Monarch, and it deser% es the admiration
and the gratitude of an enlightened and high-minded
people. Hereafter, 'when history shall spread her
pages for the instruction of posterity, she will point
with delight to this period—she will say that the
reign of George 111. was marked by unjust wars
abroad, and by encroachments upon public liberty
at home! She will say that the reign of George
IV., with the exception of one brilliant, one bene-
ficent moment, was chiefly remarkable for sullen pride
on the part of the Monarch, insolent pretension on
the part of the aristocracy, for wasteful extrava-
gance, for ostentatious journies, and, for vast and
useless structures. But of William IV., she will
say that he was the first monarch of his family that
honestly acknowledged the full rights of -his people !
She will say, that his was the reign of good
government—that it was the reign of a pa-
triot King ! A glorious title—too glorious to
be either lightly given, or lightly withheld. But,
Sir, I do think that posterity will be as ready as we
are, to bestow it upon William IV.; for no sooner
did he ascend the throne, than, despising the tinsel
of state, he cast a penetrating glapce upon the poli-
tical condition of the realm. He saw on the one
side an impoveished, oppressed, and insulted people,
on the other,
an insolent oligarchy, powerful from
combination and from wealth,—an oligarchy, proud,
menacing, sordid, corrupt, corrupting,—fiercely
pointing to their penal statutes, while they tore the
bread from the hands of the famishing labourers.
Seeing this, the King came down from his throne,
and turning his back upon the oppressors, with
genuine majesty stretched forth his right hand to
his suffering people. For this he will be justly
called the patriot King; for this we owe him our
gratitude ; and for this we are to show ourselves
such men, that history *hall not say these people
were less sensible to their own wrong, less inte-
rested to recover their right, than the King was.
Yes, Sir; we must take care the historian shall not
be able to put down, that the Monarch was high-
minded, and loved liberty, but the people were
slavish and base. But there are those, tilt, who
assert that the present cry for Reform--this earnest
cry, which is heard:alike from the palace and from
the cottage—this cry of a whole nation—is but the
beginning of a revolution, an unprincipled and fear-
ful revolution, which both King and people will
have ample cause to rue. Sir, I the truth of
this assertion my reason mocks at it, my feel-
ings repel it. It is incapable of present proof.
It is devoid of propriety. It is an assump-
tion on the part of our adversaries, and thus I
will answer it—countrymen, I appeal to your
breasts, does not conscience sting you when you
hear this accusation ? Are your hearts so full of
gall, are your minds so perverted, your judgment so
clouded, that the frank and jiet conduct of your
Sovereign will only excite your worst passions ?
IV3II you at once repay hint with ingratitude, tend
drag :down ruin on ) our own heads ?—( Here the
cheers shook the room.) I thank you for that loud
and honest shout. I kne -v you would epel the
calumny. But this foolish and insulting assertion is
an artifice by which the more cunning of the oli-
garchs who have so long misgoverned us hope to
perpetuate their power. It is a cry set up to drive
away the timid, to deceive the credulous, to baffle
the wise, and to overbear the resolute, whenever
they would examine too closely into the system
"which hes I.,ro9ght us to our present degraded state.
I say degrade& became, although the country has'
all the outward signs of gloiy and eseelth, the people
within are for the most part-a miserable and a Wog-
glir.!e. pee. The people of England Ere more eller-
gette, more ingenioes, more industrious, than any
other people on the face of tha earth ; and yet, ill
the midst of plenty, created by their own toil, they
are scarcely able to procure bread for their suste-
mince, and while a certain number of persons, a
pri-
vilc:iged few, are gorged with wealth and swollen
whit powee, the bulk of the population are desirous
to emigrate; that they mu seek in distant foreign
countries that food'and raiment,ent, tin 4 indepen-
dencc, which they cannot obtain in their Own. This,
Sir, is an urejtne.an oppressive state Of things, and
therefore a degraded 'vette. The system under ,
esbist.ls w has ariseni is a false ana injurious sYs-'
sem, ft weer', kear examination; it et"'"°t
bear the approach of ,i-c.4spii
the touch of freedom ; and betwe riipziwO profit hY
its enormous abugei very early bethought '
of Lwils:.::g such acry this
as tcf Beware," they sold.
" sl'il'jng matter; bear
present evils with
cannot endure
patience, for if' Op s,e c Eo ..emerlv them, you will
find worse behind I" Like ''the peieses el old they
said..-evosehip at a distance—believe with tut in
quirt'.—pry trot int!) our mysteries—approach not the;
sanctuary ;—touch not the sacred veil, lest the God
should awake and deetr-oy. tit' '7
the
the
King, we have braved. f3del: aided by
uneiatio:ts of
these false priests. We have rent the veil asunder.;
We hare dared to ID4 into the 'innermost recess,•
and we have found not a sanctuary, but a ein:k; not
holiness, but corruption; not God, but mammon.