The Sun.
London, England, 1831-01-29 00:00:00

r2FIRIT OF THE PTYBLIC JOURNALS.

is
A pamphlet, entitled ..Question of Reform Consi-
flered, opens with an admission and an explanation
of the dillicullies which Ministers will have to con-
tents wiih in their promotion of that great national
good. " The proposal of Parliamentary Reform,"
says the author, " which Ministers are pledged to
introduce after the ri cese, is, unquestionably, one of
the most important measures that ever was sub-
mitted to a deliberative assembly,; and whether it
shall obtain the sanction of the whole Legislature,
or be defeated by the weight of interest, prejudice,
and opinion, arrayed against it, the consequences
cannot be indifferent to the public welfare and tran-
quillity. It must be acknowledged, that Ministers
have undertaken a task of prodigious difficulty
They have to encounter the active, ecalous, and dis-
ciplined hostility of the whole host of the late dis-
banded Administration and their connexions,—ef the
4 general camp, pioneers and all,' who have grown
up in the employment of Government ; they have,
fuither, to combat the interests of many powerful
and respectable individuals, and of the class to
which they belong, who have long enjoyed
the personal benefit of engrossing the actual
nomination of a large portion of the mem-
bers of the House of Commons." The writer's an-
ticipation of hostility from certain portions of the
" late disbanded Administration," we have reason to
believe is correct. There has been hatched, ac-
cording to the best intelligence,--and in fact we
have already denounced it,—a plot for thwarting
the measure of Reform at every stage of its progress
through the House of Commons. Almost incred ble
as such an enterprise might appear, in the nresent state
of public feeling and opinion throughout England,
we are told that the thing is undeniable. The par-
ties to this plot have agreed among themselves in a
conclave, held lately at a certain country seat (it-
matters not where), to oppose Parliamentary Re-
form to the uttermost, and to make their systematic
stand on this opposition. The parties express them-
selves (so profound( is their knowledge of the state
of Parliament and of the national temper and feel-
ing) with a perfect assurance of success; reckoning
ou it as a necessary consequence of their victory that
the present Cabinet must be dissolved,—that a new
Administration will be formed by Sir R. Peel him-
self—(how must the Right Hon. Baronet have been
amazed at the intelligence!)—and that, to reinforce
still further the vast power of the conspiring Poten-
tates, some members of the existing Goverrtrnent
will be solicited and persuaded to serve under Sir
Robert Peel ! We understand that one main re-
liance of the contracting parties is on those staunch
and sturdy veterans, the Daubers (miscalled Re-
presentatives) for Scotland—a description of allies
which must tend no doubt to enhance the popularity
of the whole proceeding, and to facilitate the return
to office of those Englishmen who avail themselves
of such creditable agents for prolonging, in this part
of the island, a system of representation, than
which none but that of Scotland herself can be
more execrably vicious. As it seems desirable
that all Members of Parliament, especiaily mo-
derate and unsuspecting men, should be made
acquainted with the tactics which are to be employed
on this occasion, we think it right to announce
as our conjecture, that, so far as the plotters now
alluded to are concerned, no direct or open resist-
ance will be made to the principle of reform. No,
no ! that would be too dangerous. But a wily and
plausible course will be pursued; professions will •
be made of a full acquiescence in the abetreet ex-
pedieticy of some Reform ; but ample vengeance
will be taken fur that unsavoury acknowledgment,
by opposing, clause after clause, and syllable by syl-
lable, all and every item in the details of the men- •
sure to be laid by Ministers before the House. In
this way will the fight be conducted. The shadow
will be spared, the substance massacred. The
" prin&ple"—worth nothing, because it is a mere
word—will remain unmolested; and the credit will
be assumed by some of those who vote for it as if
they were themselves Reformers but from behind
the " principle," as a screen, the conspirators will
attack the body arid reality of Reform, and will so
contrive, if they can win over a credulous majority by
thus exhibiting false colours, that the same House of
Commons which glorifies itself for consecrating theab-
stract right of the country to a Reformed Parliament,
may effectually strangle every hope of improving the
right into the possession. if Sir R. Peel should,
by same accident, not have learned the great tidings
of all that is intended to be done for him, we would
respectfully beg of Messrs. Goulburn, Twiss, and
one or two others, to acquaint the Right lion.
Baronet. As for looking for any succour from the
hard old Tories, we advise the agents of the Peel
party riot to take labour in vain. The Tories, par
exeell: nee, hate Sir R. Peel : they Will have
nothing to do with him—nothing to say to him,
either towards badgering the present Ministry, or
towards forming a new one; nor will the Duke of
Wellington be apt to serve under an old colleague
whom his Grace is said to regard as but his own
lieutenant. But there is another party which
may, perhaps unconsciously, cause as much mis-
chief' as the regularly organised opponents of
Reform : we mean the radicals, who, with
their hopes excited by a reforming Ministry,
aim at procuring by one `stroke all those
results which few but themselves think of para-
mount importance. We warn this party, whose in-
tentions we believe to be good, but whose seal we
think too exacting, to be careful lest they fall into
the snare already prepared for them by the Tory
conspiracy : they would, we arc sure, be the first
to regret the ineffable mischief of upsetting an
honest Cabinet, and would never forgive them-
selves for having contributed to such a catastrophe
by their junction mith men whose principles they
abhor, and by whom they themselves would be
laughed at and abjured as soon as the baneful victory
should be achieved. It is, however, to the people
we chit fly look ; unless the people—the people
every where—come forward and petitioo, ay, thun-
der for Reform, it is they who abandon an honest
Minister—it is not the Minister who betrays the
people. But in that case, Reform, and Minister,
and people too, are lost.—Tin:es.
Rumour speaks every day more loudly of the
efforts that are making on the part of the Aristo-
cratic Borough-holders to resist Reform, and by
combining to withhold their support when that great
question comes on, to force Ministers to resign, by
driving them into a minority. Such a combination,
for such a pui pose, we conceive to be the greatest
calamity that could befitl the nation. Its success
be equivalent to a declaration of hostilities,
and dreadful will be their responsibility who hazard
the result. If a war of vengeance is once provoked,
no human foresight can predict the calamities that
may—that must follow the train of it. It is mad-
ness to. hope that the cause of corruption can be
brought to prevail against the cause of the people.
Nothing can endanger the latter but the apathy of
the people themselves. If the reforming spirit of
the Government is backed by the energy and active
zeal of the great body of the nation, • there is no
counterection that can defeat it. A Ministry,
strung in the strength of the people, is irre-
sistible. If the many are content to sow and
reap for the few---if they are content to dig and
sweat that the rich borough-owners may riot in
the harvest, leaving to them the gleanings of the
field, as matter of grace and favour were it
so, our opponents would have everything to hope,
for their confidence would be well justified. The
powerful support of Lord Bronglotria would be Pa-
ralysed, and the efforts of Lord AlthOrp be brought
to nought. But happily the case is far otherwise,
and the opening of the campaign against Reform
will only manifest the insane calculations of the
Council of War by which it was planned. The
policy of oar Aristocratic Rulers has ever been to
guard against admitting any one to office who had
not previously given good proof of his devotion to
their views, and to their will. The instant any
thing like a sense of duty was seen to oppose itself
to intrigue and jobbing, and to side with the pub-
lic, the offender becomes a marked man. The case