The Sun.
London, England, 1836-10-21 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

On Monday last Sir John Campbell met his con-
stituents, the electors of Edinburgh, in the Waterloo-
rooms of that city, in order to render an account of his
stewardship. From the disjecta tnembra of his speech
preserved in the Edinburgh papers, we have no hesita-
tion in pronouncing it equally worthy of the Right
Hon. Gentleman, and the enlightened audience he
was addressing. In his review of the proceedings of
last session Sir John did not seek to depreciate the
benefits which had been obtained ; but on the other
hand, neither did he endeavour to prove to the Con-
servatives that they had over-estimated the mischief
they had wrought through their majorities in the House
of Lords. " If the Tories (he said) had not the
courage to seize the reins, they were at all events de-
termined to bring the machine of Government to a
dead lock." The Right Hon. Gentleman certainly
drew up a very formidable Bill of indictment against
the Lords, in his enumeration of the various im-
portant and necessary measures which they had re-
jected, for no other reason than that they would prove
beneficial to the people. He showed that they
had hazarded the peace of Ireland ; and that
with regard to England and Scotland, the meanest
spite governed their conduct. The Scotch—
thanks to the valour and spirit of their ancestors
—are free from those deep-seated maladies which
madden our unfortunate brethren of Ireland ; and the
two thousand five hundred soldiers stationed in Scot-
land, are rather kept for parade and show than for the
purpose of preserving peace. But though the Lords
could not disturb the tranquillity of Scotland, they
could not resist the temptation of seizing every oppor-
tunity that offered for subjecting its people to annoy-
ance. Thus, for instance, the Lord Advocate brought
in a Bill for extending the powers of Sheriffs in
cases of small debts—a Bill approved of by the
Sheriffs,.by the Law Officers of the Crown in Scot-
land, and recommended by a special report of the Fa-
culty of Advocates. But though it passed the Com-
mons unanimously, the Lords did not even deign to
urge one reason for their rejecting the measure. All
other measures of law reform in England and Scotland
were treated in the same way. But, as Sir John truly
observed, it is for the people to deprive the Lords of
the pretext, that in acting thus unjustly, in thus treat-
ing the people with contumely and contempt, they have
the people with them—that the people of England,
Scotland, and Ireland, like spaniels, love to be kicked.
If this were the case, the prospects of the nation
would, indeed, be most gloomy ; for public opinion is
al:-powerful. The proper mode of undeceiving the Tories
is not, as Sir John observed, to resort to the bludgeon
and brickbat, but to express opinion in a constitu-
tional way, at public meetings to petition, and, in case
of a dissolution, by the return of an overwhelmin7,
majority of liberal representatives. We agree with
the Right Honourable Gentleman that public opinion
will prevail against Lord Lyndhurst and his associates;
but we direr with him as to the means by which that
change will he effected. " If a time should come,"
said Sir John, " which I do not anticipate, that ine.7.-
sures approved of by the King and his Ministers, and
by a large majority of the representatives of the people
and in favour of which the public voice has been de-
clared--if these measures shall be rejected by one
branch of the Legislature, then it will be necessary
for us to consider what other measures shall be resorted
to. But I do not anticipate such a crisis. My opinion
is that the Lords, as judicious and intelligent men,
nwst be induced to consider the public opinion as a
most important ingredient in deliberating on the expe-
diency of any public measure ; and that as the Duke of
Vv'ellington and Lord Lyndhurst have done on former
occasions, they will bend to the public voice—
and thus a dangerous crisis will be prevented."
I.Ve have no doubt, any more than the Right Hon.
Gentleman, that the Duke' of Wellington, Lord Lynd-
hurst, and all those Lords who have sense enough to
be entitled to be left at large, will in all cases yield
before matters come to the last extremity. But the
judgment and intelligence for which the Right Hon.
Clentleman gives them credit, will, we fear, be always
exerted in endeavours to injure instead of benefit the
people, and to discover the measure of mischief to
which the people will patiently submit. The fact can-
not be disguised that the Lords as a body (whatever
individual Peers may have) possess interests opposed
to those of the people ; and beneficial measures will
never be voluntarily conceded, but must always be ex-
torted from them. It is said by travellers in the East,
that a monkey is so prone to steal, that the peasant
who wishes to preserve corn or other food accessible to it,
must stand with a stick in his hand in constant readi-
ness for a blow at the thief. The Lords are some-
what like the monkeys—the people can only be
secured against them by constant exertion—and the
moment they slacken, the proneness of the Peer to
mischief displays itself. It is hard that the people
of these kingdoms should have been subjected to
this everlasting necessity of keeping the Peers in
order. Might it not be as well, when the im-
patience of the people has fairly driven them
to resort to the measures alluded to by Sir John, to
endeavour once for all to obtain a machine which will
work without a constant recurrence to the clumsy ex-
pedient of throwing the whole nation into agitation to
overawe the Peers for the time ? However, we can make
allowance for the difficulty of the position of the Right
Hon. Gentleman. He certainly displayed no impro-
per eagerness to present the Lords in a more fa-
vourable position to his constituents than their
Lordships are entitled to. When Sir John had
closed his address, various questions were put to him,
which he answered to the general satisfaction. We
are glad to learn from him that he believes Church-
rates will be abolished in a way that will give satis-
faction to the Dissenters. The thanks of the
meeting were voted by acclamation to Sir John, for
the manner in which he had discharged his duties as
one of the representatives of the city during the last
session, and also to Mr. Abercomby, the other repre-
sentative, for his long and uniform attention to the bu-
siness of the city, and his able and dignified conduct
in the chair. It will be observed that there is this
marked difference between the Tories and the Refor-
mers. The former, in their public exhibitions, take
care always to pack their audiences, while the Re-
formers boldly meet their constituents, and challenge
the most unsparing inquiry into their conduct.-34 orn-
ing Chronicle.
We had yesterday the good fortune to publish ex-
clusively, we believe, in a second edition, the highly
important speech of the Attorney-General to his con-
stituents at Edinburgh, on Monday last. At all events,
we are not aware that it appeared in the columns of
any other Morning Journal. As it was not contained
in the whole of our impression, we now give it in an-
other part of this days paper. The practice of the
representatives of the people rendering an annual ac-
count of their stewardship, is at once highly neces-
sary and wholesome. It offers opportunities for the
represented and their representatives interchanging
their sentiments on all questions of great public im_
portance, and it has the further beneficial effect of
cementing the union between the Members of the
House of Commons and those who sent them thither.
Sir John Campbell, we are glad to perceive, has given
his sanction to this practice by his example. His speech
to his constituents on Monday, will be read with much
interest. It was bold, straightforward, and manly, as
was to be expected from a gentleman of Sir John's cha-
racter. The Hon. and Learned Member took a rapid
review of the events of the last session. This has been
done before by at least fifty other Reform Members ;
but the Attorney-General's review appears to us to
be far the clearest and most comprehensive we have yet
seen. We will not follow the Right Honourable
Baronet through that review. Our opinions on the
various measures brought into Parliament last Session,
and of the fate of those measures, have been recorded
too often on former occasions to require repetition now.
A word or two rather on what the Attorney-General
says respecting the course of conduct which the Liberal
party ought to pursue in the approaching Session.
Speaking of the grievances under which the people
still labour, Sir John says, " that the first remedy to
be attempted, is a general union among all sections
of liberal politicians, and an unequivocal expression
of public opinion." Nothing can be more desirable
than this. Time after time have we enforced on Refor-
mers the paramount importance of a cordial union.
In that union, we are thoroughly persuaded, consists

not only the interests of the Reformers, but the
salvation of the country itself. But then it is to be
hoped that the Ministerial party will propose to the
extreme Liberal party such a basis of union as the
latter can consistently approve of. The Radicals
have already made great sacrifices of their individual
opinions for the sake of a general union among
Reformers. The advances, indeed, have been al-
most wholly on their side. Let the more moderate
Reformers now meet them, at least, half way. This
is only a reasonable request. It is so reasonable
that we are sure the Ministerial party will comply with
it without a moment's hesitation. We trust that the
basis of the union among Reformers, which the At-
torney-General so strenuously recommends, will be so
well defined, and so distinctly understood by both
parties, as to exclude all possibility of any future divi-
sions among them. We press this the more earnestly,
because in the event of any future split among the
Liberal party, after the union had been formed, that
split would be attended with most disastrous, though
not ultimately fatal results, to the people. The Tories
would regard any future division among the Reformers
as a providential interposition on their behalf, and they
would not fail to turn it to the best account. The
second part of Sir John Campbell's advice to the Re-
formers of the United Kingdom is, that there be an
unequivocal expression of public opinion. The Re-
formers stand in great need of this counsel. We hold
it, indeed, to be more necessary at the present moment
than that to unite cordially among themselves against
the common foe. The importance of union, indeed, is
generally felt by the Liberal party ; and all are pre-
pared to make every honourable sacrifice to secure it.
Their great error has been to keep their opinions too
much to themselues. The indignation, mingled
with disgust, with which they, night after night,
last Session, witnessed the various measures of
reform sent up to the House of Lords either
butchered or mangled in that House, knew no
limits ; but still it was in a great measure confined to
their own bosoms. Had the people on that occasion
only given the " unequivocal expression" to their opi-
nions, which Sir John Campbell urges them to do in
future, we have not the slightest doubt that such an
expression of public opinion would have filled the
Peers with a dismay, which would have arrested them
in their daring and infatuated career. The Reformers,
however, will, we trust, now profit by the lessons of ex-
perience which last Session afforded them. Let them
now meet and pass resolutions in all parts of the coun-
try, strongly expressive of their opinions of the con-
duct of the Peers, and of their determination to have,
at all hazards, those measures of good government to
which they are entitled. There must, in other words,
be agitation in England arid Scotland, as well as in
Ireland ; and the sooner this agitation begins the bet-
ter. There is no time to be lost ; the Session of 1837
will arrive before we are aware, if we do not set to
work immediately. Let there be but a cordial union
among all sections of Reformers, and a bold and an
unequivocal expression of their opinions, and there is
no hope for the Lords. They will at once shrink from
the unequal conflict. and the Reformers will triumph
without a struggle.—Morning Advertiser.
The consternation and dismay which the progress of
Conservatism spreads among the Ministerial ranks is
not to be wondered at. The alarm of the Melbourne-
O'Connell Government is ludicrously visible in the
awkward attempts of the Treasury Journals to con-
ceal it. Their alternate bullyings and whinings in-
dicate the fear with which Ministers view that
powerful re-action of opinion that will save the
threatened Constitution, and sweep them from their
places. Even the Irish Agitator himself has been com-
pelled to confess that the majority of the British people
are hostile to the destructive schenies which he—the
avowed enemy of the institutions, the religion, and the
very name of the " Saxon"—has attempted to force
upon the nation, by the instrumentality of a subser-
vient Government. Dismal as the raven's croak to
the ears of Ministers was the startling voice of truth for
once uttered by their truth-hating oracle of Derrynane.
They had listened to lying predictions, and the spirit
by which they were deceived and duped seemed to
take a malignant pleasure -in suddenly revealing to
them the prospect of political perdition. Every day
deepens the gloom of that prospect, while they
vainly try to shut their eyes against their fate. The
multiplied manifestations of Constitutional feeling
which we have had lately to record in the gatherings of
various classes of the people round the standard of
enlightened Conservatism, in all parts of England, are
indeed both the result and the evidence of the disabused
understanding of a community whose native good
sense cannot long tolerate mischievous quackery, and
whose honesty revolts against imposture. The people
now see that the specious name of " reform" has
been made the covering by political impostors for the
most sordid and ruinous ambition that ever sacrificed
to selfish objects the interests of a mighty empire.
It was to be expected that the higher and more af-
fluent classes would be the first to come forward and
defend the Constitution, in whose security they have
so great a stake, against the destructive assailants who
hoped to establish the grinding tyranny of their own
licentious and rapacious power upon its ruins. But
to see the tradesmen and operatives of England form-
ing themselves into societies for the protection of our
menaced institutions—even in cities and towns where
it was supposed democratic doctrines had taken the
firmest root, and where, certainly, the apostles of evil
had taken most pains to disseminate them, is indeed a
sight to cheer the eyes and gladden the heart of every
real lover of his country—a country the first among
the nations, not on account of its territory, its cli-
mate, its soil, or its natural resources, but because
of the moral and political greatness of character
which has been created for it by those very institutions
which the mock reformers of our day are revening to
destroy ! The last, and perhaps the most important,
of those constitutional manifestations to which we al-
lude was that at Liverpool, of which we gave a full
report (by express) yesterday. That was, as our rea-
ders are aware, the Liverpool tradesmen's first anni-
versary dinner as a Conservative Association. One
great good effected by such associations, conducted
with the good order, the temperance, and decorum
which distinguish Conservative associations is, that
they bring into familiar and kindly contact different
classes of the people, and thereby tend to break down
that exclusiveness which has too long been a reproach
to English civilization, and no small injury to the so-
cial habits and manners of Englishmen. A system of
exclusiveness which, in society, none cultivate with so
much of the offensive assumption of superiority as the
aristocratic Whigs, though to gain political power and
its emoluments they are mean enough to succumb to
the vilest political adventurers whom they believe to
have any popular influence ; and though they are not
ashamed to doff the blue and buff uniform of their party,
and put on the green livery and shoulder knots of the
mendicant Agitator of Ireland. Who does not recol-
lect the servile assiduity with which they courted poli-
tical unions to assist them in their ambitious views,
and the disdainful ingratitude with which they cast
them off when they served their turn ? Who does
not recollect the hangings of Reformers at Bristol and
Nottingham, and the transportation of unionists at
Dorchester? Who does not recollect how the Whigs
used when out of office to have themselves trumpeted
in the journals devoted to their service, as the
" friends of the people ;" and yet one of their first
acts of
was goodPoawnedrtrwualys
hteonedfieepernitvien tthhee
ppoeoorpmle
man's all s
Magna
Charta, while • th a t
pretending to reform its defects, and to
substitute in its
place that Malthusian tyranny, which
treats poverty as crime and treads the law of Christian
benevolence in the dust. While, however, we ac-
knowledge the social, as well
as political advantages,
which are to be derived from Conservative Associa-
tions, conducted as they now are, we only think the
formation of such societies justified
by the peculiar
circumstances in which the conduct of a Government,
without any fixed principles, and continually worked
upon by the democratic " pressure from without," has
placed the country. We quite agree with Lord Sandon
in the sentiments which he so well expressed upon
this subject at the Liverpool meeting He felt,
indeed, that it would be desirable if every man could
live under the shade of his own fig-tree and gather
the fruits of his own vine, without being called so
often into public life as the present state of public af-
fairs obliged them to be. But he believed it was a
necessity—nay, more than a necessity—
animperious

THE SUN, LONDON, FAIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1836.

duty to stand forward at the present juncture. He
believed that, by the Constitution as it now stood,
every man was called upon to come forward on every
occasion, and unite himself with those of similar opi-
nions, and not allow a faction, as he believed it to be,
to usurp the name of a majority, owing to the supine-
ness and tranquillity of those by whom the Constitu-
tion ought to be defended. They had no secret meet-
ings—everything was open to the public eye—there
was no combination against the law—no rewarding
the conspirators against justice—their association was
open to the general eye. Theirs was the common
and national, and beneficial object of communicating
their mutual sentiments, and strengthening each other
by the consciousness of the numbers who entertained
the same sentiments. With such feelings and such
views, he had the greatest satisfaction in seeing such
associations rising around him in all directions—in
seeing associations not only among the richer and weal-
thier, but springing up among every class, as they had,
he could say with confidence and pride, when he
looked before and around him—as they had amongst
that particular class which formed the very bone and
marrow of society." It is, indeed, as defensive asso-
ciations, that Conservative societies are not only jus-
tifiable, but necessary. As such, we trust, they will
also be successful in the patriotic and glorious task
which they have undertaken—that of saving from de-
filement, pillage, and destruction the noblest fabric of
civil polity that ever human wisdom erected for the
protection of a people's liberties.—Morning Herald.
More than once we have had occasion to remark
that in England the Ministers have not vouchsafed to
furnish what the people of France call a compterendu
of their doings during the session of Parliament. Mr.
Charles Wood's break-down at Halifax we put alto-
gether out of the question. In Ireland, however, the
matter has been different. There Mr. Rice has at-
tempted to say something about what he and his col-
leagues have done ; or, to speak more correctly, what
they have not done. It is true that, after all, Mr.
Rice's speech was as little explanatory as an explana-
tion could well be—a sort of last chapter of " Rasse-
las—" " the conclusion, in which nothing was con-
cluded." Still there was an appearance of giving an
account. Appearances, too, have been made in Scot-
land ; but the pieces represented have been made old
stagers, and the performers mere " walking gentlemen,"
without even the merit that is sometimes attributed to
the same class at the regular theatres, of being " ex-
ceedingly useful actors." The other day we gave all
the notice it deserved of one of these performances—
that of Sir John Campbell, at Cupar. We have now
two similar affairs to refer to ; and of one of these our
account must of necessity be short. The excellent
Conservative local newspaper, the Kelso Mail, was
prevented from having a reporter present at the din-
ner given on Friday last to Lord Minto at Hawick. In
a pecuniary sense this refusal was injudicious ; the
feeding fund was thereby deprived of the price of a
ticket—four shillings, sterling. But, politically
speaking, it was not so foolish ; it put a stop to any
espial of the weakness of the land ; it kept secret the
fact—as far as that could be done—that the Reformers
are at loggerheads among themselves. It is not there-
fore in our power to say what may have taken place
between my Lord Minto and the Reformers of Ha-
wick : or whether our recent anticipations were rea-
lized, that the latter would enact the part of " the
curious impertinents," touching his Lordship' interfe-
rence, as a Peer, in the election of a member of the
House of Commons. Our readers are left at perfect
liberty to imagine what they like upon the subject.
They may fancy either that the affair was very grand,
on the principle—to use such a quotation as Mr. Gis-
borne might use—omne ignotum pro magnifico—or
they may feel persuaded that the dinner at Hawick
was, like the debauch at Halifax, a mere drunken
brawl, productive only of such moral as might he
found the next morning in bruised bones, aching heads,
or sick stomachs. But, even supposing the last to have
been the case, we are bound to admit that the same
charge will not apply to the other exhibition that has
just taken place in Scotland, and of which we have an
account in the Edinburgh Advertiser. The meeting
in Edinburgh, at which poor Sir John Campbell was
first fiddle, was, if we except his own performance,
strictly a temperance piece of business. Whatever
other slip-slop may have been administered to the
worthies of Auld Reekie, not so much as a cup of tea
was allowed them. It must have been a very drouthy
affair. To sit, for we don't know how long, with no
other amusement than to hear the Attorney-General
speak from the same brief, which was thumbed till it
was greasy during the late Parliamentary session, must
have been an infliction on the patience even of people
in Scotland. To remark, however cursorily, upon what
the Learned Gentleman said, will be almost as great a
trial of patience ; yet, as the brief was furnished by the
Ministry that pays him, we ought, perhaps, at least to
look it over, as giving those views of public matters
which his masters, for reasons best known to them-
selves, have abstained from giving. We may observe,
generally, that the speech of Sir John Campbell bears
internal marks of having been dictated by what we call
the Government. It is at once wordy, weak, and super-
ficial. . Sir John begins with asserting that the Tories
founded their hopes of victory over the Ministers
upon two points—the O'Connell and Raphael affair,
and the case " Norton against Melbourne," in the
Court of Common Pleas. Speaking of the first, Sir
John says—" I wish, gentlemen, you had seen their
long faces when the report of the Carlow Committee
came out, and acquitted Mr. O'Connell, and proved
to demonstration that the charge against him was foul
and calumnious." Now, tee did happen to see their
faces ; and we can safely affirm that we discovered no
longitude. Nay, so far was the report considered as
an acquittal of Mr. O'Connell, that even his own friends
were quite chopfallen when it was read. Even by an in-
dulgent audience a tragedy of Lord J. Russell's could
not have been received with more ominous silence than
was the report by which Mr. O'Connell was cleared,
indeed, of having still in his possession the money
he had extorted from Raphael—but certainly cleared of
nothing else. As to the Norton affair, we trust we
have too much good taste to imitate Sir John Camp-
bell, in his reference to it. We think his mention
of the matter must have been an interpolation of
his own in the instructions he received from the Trea-
sury. The Attorney-General proceeded to make a
succession of attacks on Lord Lyndhurst, as mode-
rate, as gentlemanly, and as well-founded, as those
that have been directed against the Noble Lord by
the newspaper to which in former days, if report speak
truly, " plain John Campbell" was no unfrequent
contributor. These attacks, for aught we know, might
have been suitable enough to a newspaper, as some
newspapers were then, and are now, conducted ; but
they were hardly becoming in a person filling, by good
fortune, one of the offices that Lord Lyndhurst had
once filled. The Parliamentary resume of Sir John
Campbell does not require any extended notice. It
abounded with sophistries, an hundred times refuted ;
with misrepresentations, an hundred times corrected ;
and with assertions, as often satisfactorily contra-
dicted. We know these are grave charges, and such
as require evidence to substantiate them. Of that
evidence scarcely a day has passed, during or since
the Session of Parliament, in which some portion
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to mere sophistry or vague assertion. However he
may think it politic to suppress the truth, he ought to
know that it is never excusable in a gentleman to pro-
pound a falsehood. Yet something exceedingly like
this is to be found in his speech at Edinburgh. He
alleges that the Orange Society in Ireland was sup-
pressed. This was not the fact. The Orange So-
ciety dissolved itself. Even the garbling of letters,
printed in a Parliamentary Report, would not have
accomplished such an object, if the Irish Protestants
had not voluntarily bowed to the implied desire of their
Sovereign. There are two points, indeed, on which
there can be no doubt of Sir John Campbell's sin-
cerity. He does not anticipate the crisis that
that has been dreaded in some low societies as
likely to arise out of the relations between the
two Houses of Parliament. He knows that his
masters like their places too well by any mea-
sures of theirs to tempt such a result. More-
over he announces his joy that Mr. O'Connell has