The Sun.
London, England, 1836-06-21 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 1e36.

agriculturists-are made the stalking-horse of the Tories.
Were the landlords as ready to sympathise with the
farmers under the pressure of high rents, as they are
under the annoyance of farthing taxes, the agricultu-
rists would be indeed a moss happy race of mortals. _

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER dwelt with
laudable earnestness on the fact that Government had.
entirely failed in putting down the Unstanyed Press,
and that unless the law was so modified as to crush

that organ of sedition, the Stamped Press would soon
exercise but a secondary influence over public opinion.
" To allow," said the Right Hon. Gzntleman, " the
Stamp Duty on Newspapers to continue as it now
existed, would only be laying down a principle which
wauld lead to a general violation of all law—a disre-
gard of all ' obligation—and a culpable forget-
fulness on the part- of the Legislature to pro-
tect those whose rights were in danger, and
who had ever shown themselves obedient to the
authority of the State."' This is the view of the
question which we have always taken. Though
it is bad policy in an Absolute Monarchy ever to be-
tray inefficiency in the execution of any law which

has passed, the very contrary is the case with respect
to all Representative Governments. Equally excellent
and to the purpose, are the following observations with
respect to the moral necessity of a free Press in Eng-
land :

" Setting the financial view of the question on one side, Ce
changes which had taken place in this country of late years,
rendered it more ban ever desirable that every facility shoe ld
be given to the cheap and extensive diffusion of accurate and
sound political information amongst the people. It was es-
sential to the security of that House itself—a security which
was based alone upon the affections of the people—it wes es-
sential to the security of the Government which depended on
the confidence reposed in it by the governed—it was essential
to the security of the Monarchy itself, for no Monarch could
be secure who did not reign in the hearts of his subjects.—
( Hear, hear.) They had given to the 101. householders poli-
tical suffrages ; they had given municipal institutions and po-
litical rights to the inhabitant householders of the various
towns of the kingdom, and how could they expect the people
to exercise their rights with discretion unless the means of ob-
Wining sound political information and an accurate knowledge
of passing events were placed within their power ? "
Such language as this, coming as it does from the
mouth of a Minister of the Crown, must sound
strangely in the ears of the people of England.
They will now, at least, perceive that the Whigs in
giving them a Reform Bill, did not intend that it
should remain a dead letter. They will see that Go-
vernment only delays the effecting of many radical
changes in the corrupt part of our institutions, till the
great bulk of the people are sufficiently instructed to
be able to distinguish between what is sound and
what is radically defective. In answer to the observa-
tion of Sir CHARLES KNIGHTLEY, that Newspapers
could be easily procured at coffee-houses and beer-
shops by all who wanted to read them, the CHAN-
CELLOR of the EXCHEQUER well observed
He would rather see a Newspaper obtaining admission to
the cottage than to the public-house, and as he thought any-
thing that could attract the poorer classes to stay at home
would be more conducive to the cause of morality than if they
were obliged to go abroad to obtain the information which they
were desirous of possessing, he should feel it his duty to advo-
cate the reduction of the stamp on Newspapers, because be
thought it would have the effect of bringing knowledge more
to the cottage."
We have here the true parental feeling of an honest
Government—a feeling unknown the country, so long
as the Tories retained possession of the Treasury
Benches. To debauch the morals of the people—to
brutalize their feelings—to estrange them from their

homes—and to associate their ideas of politics with
beer and blue-ruin—were necessary preliminaries to the
wholesale system of plunder and peculation carried
on by their rulers. Habit, in some men, begets a
sort of second nature, and hence the Tories talk of
sending the working-man to the beer-shop to read his
newspaper, with as much unconcern as Sir ANDREW
AGNEW would send him dinnerless to his devotions
on Sunday evening. They can see nothing at all
wrong in the father of a family, who has a
taste for political knowledge, leaving his home
ivery evening for the tap-room of a beer-shop—no-
thing at all demoralizing in sending a hnndrod compa-
ratively innocent persons every month to the tread-
mill at Brixton, and thus for ever depriving them of
their former good character. The morality of any
measure—unless it' be compulsory psalm-singing---is
of no account with such sages as GOULBURN, BA R-
CL AY, and the farmer's wife-washing Member fur
Northamptonshire.

Seldom or never does a night now pass in the House
of Commons, without a " skrimmage"—as O'CON-
NELL would call it. It would really seem that Hon.
Members waxed pugnacious in exact proportion to
their increased facilities of escape from the conse-
quences of a quarrel, for the SPEAKER settles all
these matters now-a-days, Parliamentary duels—and
we are not sorry for it—being nearly, if not quite, out
of fashion. Last night Mr. KEARSLEY was the
Great Belligerent, and afforded in his speech, voice,
and gesticulation (which passing the boundaries of
the grotesque, verged upon the incredible), a striking
proof of the strange tricks a certain Deity is apt to
play those who. are too enthusiastic in their worship
of him. The Hon. Member chose to take offence at
some remarks let fall by Mr. ROEBUCK Oil the sub-
ject of the Newspaper Stamps, and in the ferocity of
his wrath pronounced them to be " disgusting." For
this lapsus he was called to order by Mr. PAUL
M'EniVEN, which of course turned his anger on
that Gentle:Tit:D, whom he instantly pounced upon
as follows :—" PAUL, PAUL, why persecutest
thou me ?"—an allusion more remarkable for its
pathos than its piety, and which produced such
an effect on St. ANDREW AGNEW, that he was
within an ace of swooning As, however, the irreve-
rend speaker was a rich man, instead of a poor one,
the ghostly Baronet soon recovered the shock which
his pious auriculars had sustained. But not so the
House, as appears from the subjoined extract, which
we quote from a Morning Contemporary :—" The
scene which followed Mr. KEARSLEY'S exclamation
defies description. Hon. Members were literally con-
vulsed with laughter, and continued in that state for
several minutes. Mr. KEARSLEY at first remained
standing in his place, looking calmly on the scene of
uproar. After the lapse of a few moments, he quitted
his post, and descending from among the back benches
to the middle of the floor, turned towards the Chair-
man, and bowed three several times,mt findingretre his egress
ating a step at
each bow, and accompanying it with a wayeaofghitselria and
towards
to his seat.i The laughter the bar,
obstructed,l ie
te
retired
returned
uproar continued, but were mingled with loud and
frequent cries of Order,' and Chair.' In the midst
of this confusion Mr. KEARSLEY again quitted. his
seat, and again descending to the floor,' went through
the same evolutions as before, amid redoubled laughter
and appeals to the Chair." Was ever buffoonery
(qual to this ? Talk of Punch ! Punch's antics are
dull compared with it. We wish Mr. OSBALDISTON
would engage the Hon. Member as one of his "stars."
He would make the fortune of Sadlers Wells—to say
nothing of the Olyinpic,where even the illustrious "Lubin
Log" would find his popularity sink before the K EA RS-
LEY " how," and the KEARSLEY " wave of the hand."
Why, indeed, should we pay four shillings to go and
see LtsToN at the Olympic, when for half-a-crown we
can go and see KEARSLEY at St. Stephen's? We
should not omit to mention that the Honourable Mem-
ber is a Conservative—that is to say, one who has
graduated in the braying and -cock-crowing school—
and such being the case, we think he cannot do better
than play for the benefit of the Conservatives at their