The Sun.
London, England, 1836-10-17 00:00:00

(76'2Eje

:'LONDON,
MONDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 17, 1836.

At the Reform Dinner given to Sir JOHN CAMP-
BELL last week at Cupar, sentiments were expressed
by several of the speakers, well worthy the serious
attention of his MAJESTY'S Ministers. Mr. FER-
GUSON, of Raith, said, " We must all feel that the
Parliamentary Reform Bill has not worked up to our
full expectations. And I have no hesitation in stating
that, though I have felt some dislike at some of the
features of the Ballot, I now sec its necessity. It

strikes me we arc come to this, that the Ballot is the
best means of correcting our evils, stud although I
never gave a pledge, and never will give one, yet I am
strongly disposed to support the Ballot." Mr. ELLICE
observed, " I have ever considered the Reform Bill as
a beginning, and not as an end ; let us hope, there-
fore, that in whatever ultimate measures Government
may engage for the benefit of the country, they will
follow Earl GREY'S example, and if they find them-
selves opposed in those measures by the intrigues of
the needy and hungry courtiers that infest the Throne;
or if they find themselves thwarted and shackled by an
incurable cabal in a separate branch of the Legis-
lature, they will throw themselves into the hands of
the people." Sir RONALD FERGUSON said, 44 Ex-
cellent as Lord MELBOURNE'S Administration is,
and I entertain all possible respect for it, Ministers
would do well, did they shake a reef out of
their top-sails. The Reform Bill does not go
far enough, but I hope I shall yet be spared
a few years longer to see it so improved as to
give general satisfaction." These sentiments, it will
be observed, bear a striking resemblance to those de-

livered at the late Taunton Reform dinner. There,

too, Ministers were urged to quicken their pace ; and
there also, as in the present instance, those who gave
them this advice were among the most influential indi-
viduals in the county. These are signs of the times',
not to be misinterpreted, and not to be neglected with
safety. Mr. SPRING RICE'S " sooner or later " re-
medies will not avail now ; and still less Sir JOHN
CAMPBELL'S—or " plain JOHN CAMPBELL,'' AS be
loves to intitle himself—promise that, " whatever is
in my power, most undoubtedly shall be done for the
good of my country." We must have more distinct
assurances than these. They might have answered
the purpose two years since ; but now they arc wholly
unavailing. His MAJESIY'S Attorney-General, and

his MAJESTY'S Chancellor of the Exchequer must
both consent to keep pace with the age or else make
way for those who will. Not that either of these
gentlemen are forgetful of their duties as Reformers ; our
charge against him does not extend to this length; we
simply object to them that they were over-discreet in
their language. They do not speak out with sufficient
boldness, taking shelter, the one behind a convenient
" well, well, one of these days we will look into it,"
and the other behind an equally convenient promise
that he will do his best for the country. Now this.
we repeat, is not the sort of language for public men
to bold at the present crisis. The hour demands de-
cision, and more especially on that subject which en-
grosses so large a share of the public attention--
Peerage Reform. It is idle for Ministers to withhold
a declaration on this point, on the plea that the people
are not yet ripe for it. They are ripe for it—as
ripe as they were for the Reform Bill—which,
nevertheless, but a year before, scarce a Mem-
ber would have been found to support in the
House of Commons. It is not the duty of Govern-
ment blindly to follow public opinion, but rather to
give an impulse to, and keep a head of, it. Sound
measures of !policy should voluntarily originate with
them, not be extorted from them by the people. They
should hold fast by the motto " be just, and fear not,"
as the Duke of WELLINGTON did when, in defiance
of the prejudices of a numerical majority of the
country, he carried the only sensible political measure
he ever patronised--Catholic Emancipaton. We
throw out these hints in no carping or hostile spirit,
but merely in order that they may act as a refresher to
Ministerial memories.

On the same day that the Reform dinner was given
at Cupar, a Conservative dinner was given at Ripon,
at which last a more than average amount of nonsense
was talked. Sir C. DALBIAC, in particular, was
lavish in his delivery of no-meanings, observing that the
British " Constitution had stood the test of nearly a
thousand years," that is to say, that a mixed Govern-
ment of King, Lords, and Commons was in vogue so
far back as the year eight hundred ; when every school-
boy well knows that there was no such thing as a mid-
dle class, till the reign of HENRY the Seventh ;
the only recognized authorities up to that
period being those of the King and his feu-
dal nobles. All below these were little better than
serfs, having neither voice nor vote in the management
of the State. Not content with this display of igno-
rance, the gallant speaker—alas, that great Generals
will speak, as well as fight I—proceeded to state that,
" it was the first great maxim of those who founded
the British Constitution (A.D. 800, we presume) that
the union of Church and State was indissoluble." Is it
possible that Sir C. DALBIAC does not know that
at the time to which he alludes, the country was al-
together Catholic, and that the head of that Church
was not the King of ENGLAND, but the Pope of
ROME ? Is he ignorant of the still better-known fact
that it was not until the sixteenth century, that the
British monarchs arrogated to themselves the title of
Heads of the Church, and Defenders of the Faith ?
Had a Reformer perpetrated these egregious blun-
ders, the Conservative journals would have crowed
over them for a month at least ; but because a
Tory has perpetrated them, they are, we suppose, mere
trivial errors, uttered in the heat and hurry of the mo-
ment. In order, however, to prevent their recurrence,
we would advise the Gallant Member—and our ad-
vice, GOD knows, is disinterested !---to take, without
loss of time, a few lessons of the " schoolmaster,"
who is now " abroad," for the express purpose of in-
instructing Conservative Ignoramuses. He will not
be the less attended to in the House of Commons
for knowing the first rudiments of English history.
Lord RIPON, who followed Sir CHARLES DAL-
BIAC, talked nearly as much trash as that Gal-
lant General. He observed, the Lords were " said
to be enemies to religious liberty. How had they been
so ? Till 1828 no Bill was ever presented to the
House of Lords touching the condition of the
Dissenters from the Church of England. From
1792 to 1828 no motion of any kind was made
on that subject in Parliament." Of course not. But
why was this ? Because their Lordships, who
then ruled the Commons, forbade their nominees to
originate, or vote for any such motions in that House.
When we compare the speeches made at Cupar with
those made at Ripon, it is impossible for the most care-
less reader not to see at a glance the vast superiority,
in point of argument and right feeling, the Reformers
possess over the Conservatives.

Two or three of our Tory Morning Contemporaries
have published second editions, with what they arc
pleased to denominate " Alarming intelligence from
Lisbon"—the burden of which is, that the Talavera,
line-of-battle ship, anchored some quarter of a mile
higher up the Tagus than is usual for foreign vessels
—that Ministers were frightened at the circumstance
—that they held a Cabinet Council in consequence
when they resolved upon asking a variety of very fool-
ish questions, which the Commander either could not,
or would not answer to their satisfaction—that they
went in all haste to the QUEEN, whom they almost
frightened out of her wits—and that, finally, they
summoned the National Guards, and kept them under
arms all night, to prevent the British Marines from
carrying off the QUEEN, and re-proclaiming the
charter of Do❑ PEDRO ! The infliction of such trash
as this upon the people of this country, for no other
end but that of casting odium upon the Noble Lord
at the head of our Foreign Affairs, is deserving of the
severest censure. Our Government has no intention
of interfering with the Portuguese nation's choice of a
Constitution. Up to the Bth instant—the date of the
latest arrivals—Lisbon was tranquil.

The whole of the Paris Journals of Friday and Sa•
turday have been received. Their contents arc varied
and interesting.
The following telegraphic despatches, on the state
of affairs in Spain, were received by the French Go-
vernment on Thursday and Friday. We copy them
in the order in which they appear in the official co-
lumns of the Moniteur:—

c, The Government received on Thursday the following in-
telligence, dated Bayonne, 12th inst.
Gomez was at Montero, preparing to recross the Guadal-
quiver and the Sierra, in order to throw himself into the moun-
tains of Volide, in consequence of a movement of the Captain
General of Seville, who had collected 4,000 men on the 28th,
at Carmona.
" Sanz was, on the
6th, within six leagues of 'Oviedo,
which city was occupied by 2,000 soldiers of the line and mi-
litia, determined on defending the place. The Portuguese
brigade was repairing thither from Leon by forced marches on
the 2d inst. —Moniteur of Friday.
" The Government has received the following telegraphic
despatch from Bayonne, dated the 13th inst. Goinez en-