The Sun.
London, England, 1831-09-24 00:00:00

Now, we are prepared to proVe, that if the above con-
siderations have had, as they ought to have, a
weighty influence over the Bishops, so ought most
of them, and indeed must, have it with the Peers
who vote in the same assembly. For them, too,
their best general position is by the side of the Crown,
and as the people's guardians and mediators. So are
they, too, the.highest Judgesof the land,—the most
appropriate purifiers of whatever in our practices
or institutions is most unjust, mo't criminal, uncon-
stitutional, and foul. So are they too, equally with
the Church, a body which feels the deepest interest
in engaging the affections of the people on behalf
of their own peculiar order, with its vast conco-
mitants of wealth, privilege, authority, and legi-
slative power. Secure the love of the people to
Peers and Bishops, and they are both alike secure:
exasperate them, by dashing the expectant bless-
ing from their hands, and who can predict what an
angry nation may, in the fever of its disappointed
hopes, require ? But are the people in earnest, it
is still most absurdly inquired ? We answer, look
round and judge. In Dorsetshire, where the Tory
prints have been vaunting that nobody could ap-
pose Mr. Bankes, and were even founding on the
truth of that boast a prophetic triumph in the
re-action of the public sentiment, poor Mr. Banker
dares not show his head, nor any other Tory—Mr.
Ponsonby's election is secure Lord (late Mr. Caven-
d s' ) has been elected for Derbyshire without the
shadow of a contes'. Meetings are now in their course
of action all over England. Derbyshire has been
announced for the Ist of Oetober ; Northampton is
moving; the Political Union of Manchester has sent
up to Lord Grey an address full of grave and cool
determination, and the resolutions passed at the
great meeting of that most important town on
Thursday last, are models well fitted for the adop-
tion by the whole country. In them the pertina,
nacious and perverse oppsition to the Bill is ex-
posed; the falsehood of the imputation upon the
people, of indifference to the Bill, is indignantly re-
futed; the safety of the realm is declared to be in-
volved in the adoption of the measure by the Peers;
and from its rejection the most dreadful evils are an-
ticipated ; all the most distinguished commercial
names at Manchester arc named upon the Commit-
tee. But we must have done, space and time
equally demand it of us, adding only, that as the
second reading of the Lords takes place on Mon-
day week, the greater expedition is used in
getting forward meetings of the people in all di-
sections, the more complete will he the evidence
afforded to the sceptic Peers that the eyes of the
nation are bent upon them with unsirevinF vigi-
lance.—Times.

The extraordinary interest taken by the people id
the Reform Bill, will hardly now be questioned by
the most obstinate Anti-Reformist. One fact com-
municated to us by a correspondent from Newcastle,
speaks volumes on this subject. " The petition (he
says) to the House of Lords, in favour of the Re-
form Bill, adopted at a general meeting of the
Northern Political Union, held on the town moor, on
the day of his Majesty's Coronation, was last night
forwarded for presentation, signed by 30,742 persons.
Some parchments have since been received, which
swell the whole number to upwards of 32,000." A
petition from Newcastle, and its environs, signed by
32,000 persons ! Why this must include the whole
male population. It would not astonish us if the
only names withheld from this document are the
parsons. We need hardly observe, that it is impose
sible there can be such a rising en maw in one town
alone. As well might it be said that a storm by
which an ancient forest is uprooted, is felt nowhere
else. So completely has the desire for Reform
taken possession of the whole British mired,
that when an Anti-Reformer is pointed out, tits
singularity leads to inquiry. Is he connected
with a Borough Proprietor ? Is he eccentric ?
It is always presumed that there must be either
sinister interest or some warp in the understanding,
to detach a man from the cause which all have em-
braced. Hence no Anti-Reformer dares to show his
face at any meeting of the people. He knows that
he might as well hope to prevail on the people to
pray for the cholera morbus or the plague as to de-
mand that the Reform Bill should not pass into a
law. Our correspondent, after stating the purport
of the petition, observes :—" Should the Bill be re-
jected by the Peers (which God forbid), the conse-
quences, in this district, might be such as no good
man can anticipate without horror and dismay. Alt
people here are Reformers—calm, steady, and, de-
termined—men too sensible to be led by dema-
gogues, and too spirited to submit to usurpers, how-
ever exalted and powerful." There are some per-
sons on whom all lessons are thrown away, who, in
order not to be thought to act under the influence
of intimidation, would maintain the foolish opinions
they have once uttered, though the consequence
should be destruction to themselves and all around
them. Thank God, however, the number of these is
not great. We take it for granted, that a man with
his eyes open will, in 99 cases out of 100, step aside
when a mad bull is running towards him. There are
few men so fond of fighting, as to look long on a
battle from a spot reached by the balls of the com-
batants. In short, discretion to a certain extent is
a characteristic of all men not in a condition for a
mad-house. Where a whole nation, minus those
who have an interest in pillaging ir, rises in its
might, and says an end should be put to this evil, to
oppose their determination, is not firmness, but a
'degree of folly approaching to insanity. What does
Government rest on but the opinion of the go-
verned? Even the Autocrat of All the Russian,
warned by striking examples, if lie knew that the
army, by which he reigns, was determined on a cer-
tain measure, would be careful not to refuse it. They
who affect to be unmoved by circumstances are soon
corrected. The Pythian oracle gave out what it
received. It would be strange, indeed, to see a
Legislature deciding one way, and an united people
another. Firmness and determination on the part of
the people must produce these effects. The very
statement of such a circumstance, as that an assem-
bly of three or four hundred individuals arrogated to
itself a power of determining that Om will of the
rest of the nation ought not to be taken into ac-
count, appears so monstrous as to stagger belief.
A total want of prudence must not be imputed to
any body. If the people do their duty, then, as we
have already said, we have no doubt that the Lords
will do theirs.—. Morning Chronicle.
Oii Thursday the inhabitants of Manchester, the
Boroughreeve in the Chair, supported by the other
authorities, met to petition the Lords. We have
received an account of the meeting, which did ho-
nour to that great manufacturing capital; but we
regret that our limits preclude our giving insertion
to it. Yesterday the merchants, bankers, and
traders of London met in the Egyptian-hall. The
procedings at this meeting will surely satisfy the
Peers, that the people ofEngland are in earnest with
respect to the Reform Bill. Several of the speeches
on this occasion were admirable. When men so
deeply interested in the welfare of the country as
Messrs. John Smith, Lewis Loyd, T. Tooke, Gren-
fell, Grote, Norman, and other eminent merchants
and bankers of the first city in the world, place
themselves in the front of the battle of Reform, the
issue cannot be doubtful. Mr. Grenfell observed
" that the Bill must be carried. There was no
power, either physical or moral, in the House
of Lords, or out of doors which they could
command, that could successfully resist the feel-
ings and expressed wishes of a united people, gal-
lantly headed by the greatest and most patriotic
Sovereign that ever swayed a Kingly sceptre."--
Loud cheers.) When the Duke of
wellmgron
assigned as a reason for concession of theire Juste
rights to the Catholics, that the sagely of the D
all sensibler menu je' ni .
r 9 bue
demanded it, he was applauded
sin a Statesman.
Civil prudence is the first o
tracibr t alarmed his Grace,
ißut what was the danger
"Co which a rejection or
compared with the
i. d forint Bill would now expose
mutilation of re
not aware of the extent of that
u 7 f tthee ,LLrdeeshaarnets and bankers of London ate.
s danger,l h