The Sun.
London, England, 1838-01-30 00:00:00

tacle to excite the strongest disanrohation. Such
exhibitions have a most injurious influence upon the
political morality of the masses, who are thence
easily led to infer that professions of political virtue,
principle, and consistency, are but the veils in which
venal ambition shrouds itself from the hatred of man-
kind.

In expressing our opinions thus freely of the blun-
ders and follies of the Whigs, it is very far from our
intention to intimate that we would not regard the
advent of a Tory Cabinet with the most serious
alarm. The blundering of the Whigs is had enough
—the more annoying because easily avoidable—but as
we must choose between them and the peculating,
despotical, and corrupt Tories, we prefer, a million of
times over, a MELBOURN E to a PEEL Administration.
But we will not on that account yoke ourselves to
the car of any Ministry. We will not be deterred
from an apprehension of diminishing public confidence
eve❑ in the leaders of the Whig party, from censuring
in strong terms any portion of their conduct which
betrays a weak vacillating policy. In so acting we
consider ourselves better friends of Ministers than
those who, affecting to receive all their measures
with rapturous applause, blind them to a knowledge
of the impression which their conduct is likely to
have upon the opinions and sentiments of the reflect-
ing people of England. The Whigs have committed
many blunders, but none so fatal to them as a party
as those of last week upon the Canada question.
Such blunders are the necessary result of the temporiz-
ing juste milieu system, upon which their policy, in-
ternal and external, is conducted. Unless, as we stated
above, this system be changed, Ministers cannot long
hope to direct the Councils of their Sovereign. The
Tories will ruin them by their support, and when
they have succeeded in estranging from them the con-
fidence of the people, they will then hurl them with
ignominy from office. In vain will they invoke the as-
sistance of the people in the moment of their peril,
unless they now heartily co-operate with them against
the common enemy. Lord JOHN RUSSELL must virtu-
ally, as well as nominally, direct the policy of the Cabinet

thelloume of Commons, and there must be an end of

the coquetries now carried on between the leaders of the
Whig and Tory parties. The Whigs are nothing without
the people at their back ; and the people will soon

. .
leave them in the lurch if the mean, coquetish absur-
dities and blunders of last week be repeated. Ireland
is now the ?linisterial pedestal—the rock of their
official salvation ; and dangerous indeed will be the
position of the Government, if the measures for its
tranquillization are left to be re-cast in the same mould
in which the Canada Bill has been re-fashioned.
We now come to the conduct of that section of the
Radicals of which the Hon. Member for Kilkenny is
the ostensible leader, and which figured last night as
the " glorious minority" of eight against the Bill.
However honest and well-intentioned may be the views
of the Honourable Member for Kilkenny—and
we would be the last to call in question the
honesty of his intentions—we strongly repudiate
the obstinacy with which he persevered in wasting
the time of the House upon this Bill. When he
found, and those that voted with him, that a fleeting
minority of sixteen could only be mustered at a roll-
call of the Radical camp—a minority which has
grown on every subsequent gathering—
" Small by degrees, and beautifully less"—

it was the excess of obstinate folly to persevere in
making martyrs of those who preferred every sacrifice
to the dishonour of breaking pledges, of which he
assumed the right of being considered the interpreter.
When Mr. Hums saw that opposition to the Bill
was utterly hopeless, it was his duty to have consi-
dered the effect of a factious hostility to the Govern-
ment upon the character of such men as Mr. GnoTE
and to have rested content with the putting his own sen-
timents and those of his friends upon record.

Notwithstanding the recent most creditable attempts
of the British Legislature to put down for ever the
accursed system of slavery; notwithstanding the enor-
mous grant conceded by Parliament for that express
purpose ; and the loud, indignant outcry raised on the
subject from one end of the country to the other ;
notwithstanding all this, the system, we regret to say,
still continues, nay, flourishes, in more rank luxuriance
than ever. For a long time we were sceptical on this
point, thinking that those who maintained a con-
trary opinion had derived their knowledge from
authority not entitled to implicit credence ; but the
speech delivered by Lord 13nouGHAer last night in
the Upper House—a speech, the main points of
which were not denied by Lord MlNTO—has con-
verted our scepticism into certainty, and we are now
compelled to adopt the disheartening conviction
that man still persists in holding property in his
fellow-man. The Noble and Learned Lord attri
butes the continuance of this atrocious system
in a great degree to the practice adopted of giving
head-money for the capture of a slave-ship--
that is to say, a certain sum for each slave.
In consequence of this practice, plausible enough in
theory, but most injurious in act, the slavers are al•
lowed to ship their human cargo, before any decisive
steps are taken against them ; the forcible separation of
friends and relations is permitted to take place ; the
parent is torn from the arms of his child ; the wife
from her husband ; all the home affections, all the en-
dearing ties and connections that bind the poor negro
to life, and impart a charm even to the burning suns
of Africa :—all these are rudely torn asunder ; he
is loaded with chains like a malefactor of the
deepest die ; marched down to the sea-coast ;
shipped, just as one would ship a bale of
goods ; thrust into a pestilential dungeon where
the air of heaven is denied him ; hurried out to
sea, a prey to the most horrid sufferings that can afflict
human nature ;—and then, and not till then, steps
are taken by the cruisers in his behalf ! Then only is
it that they make attempts at his rescue—attempts,
however, which in six cases out of ten, arc attended
with the most frightful results ; for the slave-merchants
finding themselves chased by one of the British
cruisers, and apprehending the worst, toss their hu-
man ballast overboard by way of lightening the vessel
and securing their chances of escape ; and in case any
of their wretched victims should contrive to keep
afloat, and so become the means of giving evidence
against them, these infernal miscreants actually attach
heavy weights to them, so as to ensure their instant
destruction. Is this exaggeration ? Is this the wild,
distempered language of romance? Would to God,
that it were so ; but, alas, it rests upon the authority
of many British naval officers, whose statements arc
not to be impugned, for they have themselves been the
eye-witnesses of such, otherwise incredible, atro-
cities ! Surely, it were high time that this sys-
tem of head-money were done away with,
for it holds out a bonus to cupidity ; and
aggravates the sufferings of those whom it is intended
to befriend. But, say the advocates of strict law,
what other plan can you pursue ? How can you seize
ships, before you detect them dagrante delicto, with
their human cargo stowed securely on board ? Our
answer is, let the form of the ship, her fittings up, her
hulk-heads, and her numerous preparations for the re-
ception of live stock, be sufficient evidence against
her. To act otherwise, is to act upon a principle of
maudlin squeamishness, defensible on no grounds what-
ever. With respect to head-money, let this temptation
be taken away, and the sums be paid, not on the cargo,
but on the tonnage of the vessel—a plan which would

:-Icarcely fail to ensure the requisite dispatch. Agan,
why not let light steam vessels, which can run up
creeks and shallow waters, be substituted for the pre-
sent cruisers ? To he sure, this would be at-
tended with an extra expense for coals ; but
the doing away with the head. money system, would
cause this to be lightly felt. But suppose it
otherwise, is the cause of humanity to be jeopardied
for the mere consideration for a small extra
SUM of money, after we have spent twenty mil-
lions in endeavouring to further that sacred cause?
This would indeed be swallowing the camel, and
straining at the gnat ! For his speech last night, Lord
BitouGnAm deserves the heart-felt thanks of every
well-wisher to humanity. He discussed his subject
with all the skill of the statesman, and all the z2al cf
the philanthropist. His peroration in particular, is
one of the most splendid specimens of reason and
feeling that even he has ever exhibited ; but indeed his
whole speech was attempted to be answered in one
point only—that, we mean, where he was supposed to
impute neglect on some of our naval officers, a suppo-
.iition which Lord IVIINTo declared to be without
foundation. 'We subjoin the Noble and Learned
Lord's peroration, for iti is pregnant with truth and
earnestness :

The greatest of all slave dealers are the Spanish, Portuguese,
end Brazilians, and we still continue quibbling with them on
the meaning of a Treaty, and endeavouring to obtain from the
Courts of Madrid, Lisbon, and Rio, the right to search
their ships, while we suffer these enormous evils to con-
tinue. When I say we, I mean France and England—we
suffer those hideous enormities to continue, when, if but an ordi-
dinary pirate disturbed the highway of the seas, we would
not suffer the flags of those nations to protect him—we who
threw ourselves single-handed into the breach, against ail Europe
combined, when our clients wero the dethroned monarchs of
the Continent—but now, when our clients are only the mil-
lions of Africa—when they have only the claims of right
and justice, we pause ; if a word would do it, a
word would not be long in being pronoun fed--if a
wave of the hand would put it down, our consent would
not be long withheld ; but when anything active—when
anything beyond the waving of a finger is wanting to
put down the greatest enormity that ever stained the
annals of mankind—our tongue cleaves to the roof of our
mouth—our arms are instantly paralized : we shrink, and
blanch, and quail, before the very ancient and very powerful
monarchy of Brazil—before the established and consecrated
might of Portugal—before the consolidated, established, and
all powerful empire of Spain in the old world.—( Hear.) My
Lords, I trust we shall quail, and blanch, and faulter no
longer--and I trust that one of the distinguishing glories
of the reign which has just comraenced will be that this
accursed traffic shall be at length put down. I would
not surround the throne of this young Queen with the
triumph of arms and with the glories of war. I would not
build it on military or even naval greatness ; but I
would have it founded on rights established, liberties ex-
tended, humanity secured, and justice promulgated to the
world ; and I would have it go down to the latest posterity,
that our young Queen, in the first year of her reign, adorned
her country, fortified her throne, and embellished her Crown,
by gaining the greatest triumph in putting down the worst of
crimes—the greatest triumph ever mortal won—and the worst
of crimes that ever man committed.

We have inserted elsewhere a letter from Sir J. DE
BEAUVOIR, on the New Houses of Parliament. We
agree with our Correspondent in almost all that he
says on this subject, though we feat it is now too late
to offer objections, with any hope of their being listened
to. The site of the new building is perhaps as bad
as any that could have been selected. The only argu-
ment that was brought forward in its defence was, that it
vas intimately connected with associations of a highly
interesting nature, which it would be desirable not to
dissever. It was urged that it would be a sort of sa-
crilege for senatorial assemblies to deliberate in any
other chambers than those which had been sanctified
by the inspirations of a CHATHAM, a BURKE, and a
Fox. Now, we are as much alive to the benefit to
be derived from these associations as our neighbours.
‘Ve wig even go so far as to allow—and it is surely
a large concession—that by the simple circumstance
of delivering himself under the same roof, Mr. BEN-
JAMIN D'ISRAELI may in tune arrive at such per-
fection in the art oratorical as to make us forget there
ever was such a man as the elder PlTT—that Mr.
BURKE shall be little better than a fool compared
to the profundity which represents the Borough of
Evesham—and that the mantle of Fox may fall upon
ROBERT CAMPBELL SCARLETT ; but then it must
he borne in mind, that every thing depends upon the
identity of the locality. St. Stephen's Chapel and the old
House of Lords are the only scenes on which the metamor-
phoses we have alluded to, or any similar ones, can be
expected, by any chance, to take place. If the new
liouses of Parliament do not occupy the precise sites
of the old ones the charm is broken—they are good
for nothing, askiadlers of latent eloquence, through the
influence of association. Sir JOHN DE BEAITVOIR
says they are not to stand on the same spot. Is this
so or not ? If it is, the only reason for choosing a
site attended with all manner of inconveniences is
knocked on the head. In Sir Jo H N's remarks on
gothic architecture, we think all sensible persons must
concur. It is eminently unfit, both as regards inter-
nal arrangements and its external forms, for a parlia-
mentary structure in the smoky atmosphere of London.
nv.
Buildings in this style of architecture are adred,
not for their beauty, for generally speaking they
transgress all the principles of taste, but solely on ac-
count of their antiquity. They connect us with the
ages that are past. This, however, is an attribute
that cannot by possibility be communicated to a mo-
dern edifice. What, then, can be more absurd than
to erect structures which have neither convenience nor
beauty to recommend them, except such beauty as
cannot be acquired before the lapse of centuries ?

We have before us an article of the forthcoming
Eclecticßeview, on " The Canadian War, its Causes
and Consequences." As this Review is known to be
one of the most distinguished organs of the Dissenting
body, having been formerly conducted by the cele-
brated ROBERT HALL, of Leicester, and now by Dr.
PRICE, the historian of the non-Conformists, assisted
by some of the most popular Baptist and Independent
Ministers, we give the summing up of the article,
which contains several novel and startling propositions
as the views of a great section of the Dissenting body ;
though, in some respects we should not altogether con-
cur with them. The Reviewer, after combatting the
plan of an Elective Legislative Council, or House of
Peers, goes on to submit the following views :—.

There might be a plan, however, for forming a Legislative
Council, which would embrace all those objects, and which
would, we think, be popular even with the French Canadians
themselves. Our plan of future government would be as
follows :-
1. Let there be but one House of Assembly, or House of
Commons for the whole of the British dominions in North
America, to which representatives may be sent, according to
population, front Lower Canada, Upper Canada, Nova
Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, &c,
2. From such House of Assembly let an upper House, or
Legislative Council, be formed, to consist, besides the present
councillors, of all members who have been returned for (say)
14 years by the same constituency. These gentlemen, en-
joying public confidence, may be supposed to be devoted to
public interests ; and, with the experience they will have
gained, may be fairly considered the best fitted to correct the
errors of the lower House ; and, being made independent of
both the popular and the monarchical influences, by holding;
their seats for life, will form the best and read:est Court of
Appeal to which both may refer.
3. The Executive Council, and all Placemen, save the
Governor-General and his Secretary, should, as the present
holders die, resign, or are dismissed, be North Americans by
birth or adoption, and should sit in both Houses, or either
House, as they might consider expedient from time to time ;
but must not be permitted to vote, and, of course, teed not be
returned by any Constituency.
4. The three Estates so formed, to be enabled, by an Act
of the Imperial Legislature, to unite the British tenure of
Cana lian lands, " free and common soceage," or which our
readers will better understand as
.freeholds in fee, with the
French law of descents, in cases of intestacy ; so that, in seek-
ing to induce them to abolish and abandon their feudal te-
nures, which promote fraud and prevent improvement, we may
not deter thrill from so doing by the injustice and inhumanity
of our laws of primogenii,ure.
5. To give to the House of Assersably ,71? formed, the full
and entire controul and appropriation of all the Crown and
other re;y-enees., duties, &c., upon the distinct stipulation, that
out of such revenues and iiuties 4 permanent Civil List should
be forthwith passed.
6. To leave such three Estates all questions regarding cmi-