The Sun.
London, England, 1831-05-23 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF TIIE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We this day give the particulars of the disturb-

onllvyeabbleavtoe
Z(t'ur‘dvaeyre.
pairecseesnatt
aAtbariigeufa,nootifcewhoinch
always had an apprehension that there was a want
of discretion in the interferences of the more religious
part of the community with the customs of the
-laves and their too long-established condition. It
xas right, no doubt, to prevent the public profana-
tion of the Sabbath at Antigua by open markets ;
but then another day should have been previously
fixed for the sale of the little commodities provided
by the slaves. Why not Saturday, which is the
most frequent market-day in England ?By the
way, the fact that the slaves were the venders
here,—that they had articles of their own to sell,—
is some proof that they were not in the totally ab•
ject condition in which they are so frequently repre-

sented. The black population having recourse to
the direful measure of avenging their wrongs by
setting the sugar-plantations in a flame, is a subject
to be greatly lamented and severely punished. We
have that terror of the dreadful agency of fire and

iti indiscriminate ravages, that we should be very
glad, if it were possible, that every one who kindled

nightly fires for the destruction of life and property
%% ere thrown into the midst of them. However,

this whole matter at Antigua is but fluctus in sim;
pulo.—Times.

We have received letters on the subject of the
proposed elective franchise in towns and counties,
which may be thought to merit attention. Our
opinion continues adverse to the admission of
voters who are not in some degree independent of a
landlord's vindictiveness or caprice. A tenant at
will, no matter how large his occupancy, cannot be
an independent voter under any circumstances, in
respect of those premises, or that farm, from which
his landlord has the power of suddenly expelling
him. It is no answer for our correspondent, " A
Disfranchised , Elector," to refer us to the forty-
shilling freeholders, and ask, are they " inde-
pendent ?" We are not bound to defend any given
class of electors, because we find reasonable ground
of objection against a different It may be
quite true that forty-shilling freeholders are, gene-
rally speaking, by no means qualified to give inde-
pendent votes, but they are already in possession of
the franchise, and it might be very difficult to pre-
vail upon Parliament, at this moment, to deprive
them of it, or on the country to sanction such
a deprivation. Again, as we are told by
another correspondent, who signs himself "An
Essex Landlord," a 10/. householder, liable to be
ejected in six months, is no more a free agent than
the tenant at will of a farm of 100 acres. True
enough : and if the Legislature were to adopt the
advice of our correspondent, specifying seven years
as that unexpired term, which every man must have
to qualify him for the exercise of his franchise, we
do not see that much evil could arise from it; but
on the other hand, that, combined with a modifica-

tion of the stamp duties, facilitating both the execu-
tion of long leases, and the addition of supplemental
ones, before the expiry of the old, the leasehold and
derivative interests throughout the country mightibe
considerably strengthened. Let it be well under-
stood, that the actual existence of qualifications to
which a sound objection might be made, cannot by
any means be urged upon a Statesman, as involvi„g
him in the necess►ty of either abolishing them, or (f
greatly adding to their number.—Tinies.

We have received an animated letter from Pem-
brokeshire, which gives some insight into the pro-
ceedings of Sir John Owen's friends, in a county
where the Hon. Baronet, by virtue of his office of
Lord Lieutenant, has had the distribution of the
loaves and fishes for more than twenty years. If
the honest Welshmen will hasten to the poll, there
are yet hopes that Mr. Greville may cut down
below the water's edge the majority of his mock
Reform antagonist. In Northamptonshire, the last
strong hold of Toryism,the good cause has triumphed.
On Saturday Mr. Cartwright saw the folly of con-
tinuing any longer a struggle which could not pos-
sibly end in his favour, and yielded to the superior
popularity of Lord Milton and Reform. With re-
gard to England, nothing is now left to be feared,
hoped, or desired; arid when we shall have received
a few more returns from Scotland arid Ireland, we
shall be able to measure the overwhelming extent
of a success which has long ceased to be doubtful.
—Times.

So,—it is as we suspected. The wretched farce
of the Pitt Club system is on the point of being
once more got up, and with new dresses and deco,
rations, but with this countervailing disadvantage,
that the few smart actors who used to struggle
against the public taste, in the hope of saving the
said piece of dull indecency from " damnation," are
now ashamed any longer to appear in it, and have
left the leading parts to be filled by the scene-shifters
and lamp-lighters of the company. An advertise-
ment informs us that the Pitt Club will meet to-
day • and rumour states, that the Tories are to
render this burlesque institution a " point of union"
for all who think fit to describe themselves as the
anti-revolutionary party; meaning thereby the ob-
stinate opponents of the King's Ministers, of the
King himself, and of the whole united people
'of Great Britain and Ireland, who have with
one accord just manifested their unanimous de-
' termination to possess a Reformed Parliament.—
Tell a foreigner that such things exist in this
country as "Pitt Clubs," and ask him what he sup-
poses to be their meaning. He will search his me-
mory for grounds on which to reply, and will most
likely answer—" Why, Mr. Pitt was a long time
Minister of England, and left a name behind him ;
but let me see—he carried on war against France
for a dozen or more of years, engaging every great
Power on the continent, by turns or simultaneously,
as allies of Great Britain, and paying them vast
sums by way of subsidy. The consequence, how-
ever, as we all know, is, that every one of his grand
coalitions was unsuccessful, and that he plunged
this country over head and ears in debt. It cannot,
therefore, as I conceive, be in honour of the terrible
defeats which he incurred, or of the load of taxes
with which he overwhelmed your nation,—it was
not for exploits such as these, that Mr. Pitt's name
is assumed for a bond or motto, by any association of
Englishmen." " Let us try again," continued the
foreigner. " Mr. Pitt's domestic policy must have
been, in the eyes of his countrymen, of at least
equal importance with his foreign ; and, look-
ing to his chief object as a domestic States-
man, I find that he was, from an early period,
a sworn enemy to the horrible African slave-
trade, and an eloquent advocate of a more humanized
treatment of the West Indian negroes. It is
therefore natural that the friends of negro liberty
should institute a Pitt Club,' in commemoration of
the services rendered by that great orator to the
cause of Africa, and of the human race." The
foreigner goes gh to say—" The debates in your
Parliament afford ample evidence that Mr. Pitt was
a strenuous and inflexible supporter of Catholic
emancipation during hie political life,—that one of
his most urgent motives for pressing the union be-
tween Great Britain and Ireland was, his anxiety to
liberate the Catholics; and that his subsequent inn-
bility to effect that noble measure was the sole cause
of his resigning the Government when at the summit
of his power. lam therefore at no loss to under-
stand why a Pitt Club should have been established,
and gratefully attended, even to this day, by the
friends of religious liberty throughout the empire,
as a just tribute to the exertions of Mr. Pitt on
behalf of his Catholic fellow-subjects." " But,"
proceeds this consistent student of our modern
history, " the chief claim of Mr. Pitt on the gra-
titude of Englishmen is doubtless his early and splen-
did series of endeavours to accomplish a so!id
remedy of political abuses, by striking at the root of
them all, and reforming the representation in f thehig
Commons' House of Parliament; one of
speeches
resfi;ire,t
piroe
ego:
aen
curious:avhdhieecdhp political
s 5 utaib;j:4eicimmtceek3nlnicvroihinisaritof Mr.' Pitt
eiarg;