The Sun.
London, England, 1836-08-18 00:00:00

The people of Bristol deserve great credit for the
exertions they have made to baffle the designs of the
promoters of the Common Fields Inclosure Bill. In
another column will be found " a case of the great
towns against the Bill," which has been drawn up and
printed in Bristol, and extensively distributed, and to
which the public are in a great measure indebted for
the improvement the Bill underwent in the Lords.
iVIr. Leader presented last night the petition from
Bristol which forms part of the case. It appears that
the Bill, as originally introduced, applied only to "open
and common arable fields," and that no opposition was
made to it, on the express understanding that it should
not be made at all to affect the rights of the inhabitants
of great towns to frequent the commons in their vicinity ;
but that upon a second recommitment the words " or any
open and comnzon meadows orpastures" were introduced.
So defective is the constitution of the House of Commons
for matters of legislation, that it is well to have a se-
cond ordeal to which its measures should be subjected,
though that ordeal may be the House of Lords. Ever
since we have known any thing of the House of Coin-
mons, it has constantly happened that some Bill con-
taining most objectionable provisions has all but passed,
and that the discovery of these clauses has been purely
accidental. 'We remember when Sir Samuel Romilly,
happening to look into the Spilsby Poor Bill, found, to
his astonishment, that it gave to the master' of the
workhouse the power to flog the paupers at his dis-
cretion. But all the objectionable Bills are not dis-
covered before they have become law ; for it not
unfrequently appears that most obnoxious clauses
are not discovered till years after the passing of the
Acts containing them. By far too great facilities are
given to rich men in this country, to exclude the public
from all but the dusty high-roads. Twenty-five years
ago, there was hardly a field to the south of the me-
tropolis for some miles through which there was not a
path of some kind, and now every spot is inclosed.
Year after year Bills are furtively introduced into that
laboratory for all manner of fraudulent designs—the
House of Commons, and the public are only made
acquainted with the evil when it is too late to remedy
it. What with the law, now fortunately repealed,
allowing two justices to stop up footpaths, and with
Bills like the one now under consideration, the open
fields have almost disappeared round all our great
towns.—Morning Chronicle.
If ever there were a period in the fortunes of these
realms when much depended upon the character of the
Monarch, it is the present A weak or a voluptuous
Sovereign, one who had not the sagacity to compre-
hend his situation, or the strength of mind requisite to
struggle with its difficulties, might, by blind, vacillat-
ing, or neglectful conduct, inflict at this moment such
injury upon this famous and ancient kingdom as might
require half a century to recover our curbed power,
and revive our blighted civilization. Fortunately, we
have upon the throne a patriot King—a Sovereign,
keenly alive to the wants and necessities of his subjects,
and resolved upon all occasions to act up to the full
demands of his august and imperial duty. It is no
phrase of course, to say that William IV. reigns in
the hearts of his subjects. The throne of Albion
was never filled by a Sovereign more ardently and
more justly beloved. And his Majesty has gained
this glorious property of a nation's devotion alike
by the sympathy which he has always shewn for his
people, and by exhibiting on all necessary occasions
those great qualities which befit the ruler of a great
nation—sagacity, decision, firmness, generosity, a love
of truth, and a right royal courage. The English
people feel, and they feel it with pride and joy, that
their King is not a mere pageant of state, a mere
illustrious personage, to be crowned on rare occasions
with gems and jewels, clothed in velvet and ermine,
and glide a glittering apparition in some gorgeous pro-
cession. The English people recognize with delight
that their beloved Monarch is the most important and
influential individual in the country, and that their
renowned and ancient monarchy is a most powerful
section of the State. The English Constitution has
given the King of England, to use our popular
phrase, " a will of his own ;" and William IV. is
not one tamely to relinquish the constitutional discre-
tion with which our ancestors have intrusted him. It
is his boast and happiness to exercise his prerogative
for the welfare of his subjects. We know that we owe
much to our King ; that he has on all necessary occa-
sions spontaneously come forward to protect the nation,
whether it might be necessary to expel a band of
boroughmongers from their nestling places, or to dis-
charge a discordant Cabinet bankrupt in every quality
befitting statesmen. If there be at this moment,
as in truth we believe there is, a most nefarious and
unconstitutional stratagem on foot to inveigle his most
Gracious Majesty into a step very injurious to his for-
tunes and to those of his dutiful lieges, we repeat the
warning which we sounded yesterday, in a tone to which
the whole country has responded, not from any idle idea
that our popular and truly English Monarch requires
at this conjuncture either warning or succour. We have
in his Majesty's prudence and patriotism illimitable
confidence. We are as certain as of our existence,
that a Sovereign so distinguished for accurate know-
ledge of our Constitution as William IV., will never
consent to the slightest action, or sanction the slightest
phrase repugnant to the genius of that Constitution.
King William IV. will do, as he has always done, his
duty. No one knows it better ; no one can perform it
more efficiently. But it is as well that the nation should
be aware of the position of their beloved Sovereign, and
of the difficulties which his Majesty has to encounter
on their behalf. The people of England did not know
that at this moment the King is fighting their battle ;
the people of England must be prepared to rally round
the throne. 'We claim for ourselves some right to the
confidence and affection of the people of England.
It is our highest gratification to feel that we possess
them. We call, then, upon them, with no dread of
their lukewarmness, to support the Sovereign ; and IN'e
tell Lord Viscount Melbourne that the King and his
subjects have borne much, but that if his reckless
Lordship have the audacity to counsel his Sovereign
to an act so insanely unconstitutional as to inflict a
stigma on the estates of the realm for performing
their constitutional duty, and in the very face of.sult the
assembled Constitution of the country thus to insult
its •
its spirit, he will be the silliest Minister since Polianac
—Times.

Like conscious criminals about to be called up for
judgment, the Tories are quaking in anticipation of
the King's speech, fearing that some reflection should
therein be cast on that last sanctuary of political mis-
chief, the House of Lords. .And well may they
tremble at the tremendous responsibility they have
incurred. They have not only falsified the promises
which his Majesty made to his people on his opening
of the Session, but they have committed the grossest
outrages on the rights of the people themselves, whom
they have slandered and maligned, and on whose
re-
presentatives they have heaped all manner of insult
and contumely. These are offences, which, though
for a titne they may escape with impunity, must sooner
or later encounter the penalty which they merit, as
well from the insulted dionity of the Sovereign, as from
the aggravated wrong committed. upon the people. How-
ever, seeing no chance of escape in the justice of their
cause, they attempt to play the bully, and to charge the
Ministry, whose measures of amelioration they have
defeated, with the sterility of the Parliamentary session.
" What has the Ministry done ?" asks the Times
of yesterday, in an article evidently written under
some potent stimulus, to which the writer appeared to
have had recourse for the purpose or raising his cou-
rage to the sticking point, and which, in overcoming
his apprehension, overthrew his reason at the same
time. The maudlin advocate of Toryism forgot that
in exposing the barrenness of the session, he was
proving to conviction the guilt of those whose oppo-
sition to the intentions of the Ministry defeated the