The Sun.
London, England, 1836-08-13 00:00:00

to them from the Commons. Such a proceeding would not
be a whit more absurd than their present course of conduct.
However, all things have their advantages, and even the
caprices of our bereditary. Solons-.—who are wise by the
flattering fiction of the Constitution, despite a thousand
flagrant proofs to the contrary—are working favourably for
Reform. A few years since we only distrusted the legis-
lative capacity of the House of Lords ; now, thanks to its
own frank exposure, we are convinced of its utter imbe-
cility. We know now what we have—or, rather, what we
have not—to expect at its hands, and knowing this, we are
prepared to act accordingly. It is no longer a factious
section of the community that is convinced of the necessity
of a Reform in the Upper House—it is the united people
of three kingdoms, who never yet expressed a sense of
wrong without having that wrong redressed.
Yet Lord WHARNCLIFFE, forsooth, taunts Ministers
with an ignorance of their true position ! He even hints
that they do not understand the feelings of their country-
men. Mark the Noble Waverer's language on this subject.
" He (Lord MELBOURNE) appeared to be altogether blind
to the position in which be and his colleagues stood. In
the House of Lords they had no power whatever, and in
the Commons it was barely kept up by the precarious sup-
port of a party, who on all occasions unequivocally declared
their political opinions to be far in advance of those of Go-
vernment, and their determination to promote the full success
of those views by every means in their power. Rut for that
party, Government would be in a very slender minority. He
was jealous, then, of Ministers, because they had no power
in the Commons without the support of that party." It is
evident from this insulting language that Lord WHARN-
CLIFFE imagines that Government is supported solely by
faction, and has not the slightest hold on the good opinion
of the country. Now, how preposterous is such reasoning!
Granted, that Ministers are to a considerable extent d-
pendent on the HUME and O'CoNNELL party, who sent
that party to Parliament ? There are few or no
rotten boroughs now-a-days—certainly none sufficiently
numerous to return sixty or seventy strenuous Reformers
to the House of Commons ; they must then, as a matter
of course, be the free choice of a free constituency ; and
being so, how can Lord WHARNCLIFFE object itas a fault to
Ministers, that they rely on them for support ? But then,
says this astute Aristocrat, Government " has no power
whatever in the House of Lords." Why, this is the very
reason why the people place such confidence in it, knowing
right well that, as the Upper House is now constituted,
Ministers could only gain its support by abandoning the
cause of Reform !

So much for WHARNCLIFFE logic ; and now, since the
Noble Waverer has condescended to show Ministers how
little they understand their position, we, in turn, will
show him and his party how little they understand theirs.
Deceived by the present tranquil appearances of the country,
these men think that such appearances are the result of
popular contentment—of popular apathy ; and that be-
cause the provinces betray no symptoms of convulsive
agitation, that therefore they approve of the freaks of the
House of Lords, and are utterly careless whether it be
reformed or not. Now, never was there a more mistaken
notion than this. John Bull is a shrewd, far-sighted, old
gentleman, who is ever on the 100k-out, even when he ap-
pears most lethargic. His quiescence is not the result of
irresolution, but of a mind collecting its energies for an
expected emergency. He is slow to strike, but when he
does, be strikes home. He has no occasion to repeat his
bloW. Has Lord WHARNCLIFFE no recollection of the
general calm that prevailed a few months previous to the
dismissal of the WELLINGTON, and the establishment
of the GREY, Administration ? All was a dead hush
then ; and yet but a short time afterwards, the coun-
try was stirred from its depths, and convulsed from
one end to the other! As it was then, so will it again be.
The present apparent lull is no more to be depended on,
than continuous sun-shine on a fickle April day. If we
be just now tranquil, it is, not because we are enamoured
of the hereditary system of legislatibn, but because we see
that all remonstrance, whether gentle or violent, is thrown
away on it, and that therefore nothing remains for us to
do, but silently gather up our energies for the great day of
battle which, we foresee, is fast approaching.
Let not Lord WHARNCLIFFE then, and his Tory colleagues
" lay the flattering unction to their souls" that the calm-
ness of the country is a test of the popularity of the Lords ;
and still less let them suppose that Ministers are wholly
ignorant of their true position as respects the people. That
they are not sufficiently awake to it, we, who are their sup-
porters, but not their sycophants, will readily admit ; Svc
will admit also that they have alienated many of their best
friends by their utter want of address, and skill, and energy
on some recent occasions; but we will not admit that
the blunders they have committed •are past reparation.
They still have it in their power to rectify their errors ;
to gather the Reformers, as one man, about them ; and
place themselves on such high vantage ground, that neither
the Court nor the Tories shall be able to occasion them the
slightest molestation. But to secure this impregnable po-
sition, they must exert skill, diligence, and above all and
before all, energy. They must not be scared by every sound
that issues from the Tory camp. They must not swoon
because Lord LYNDHURST frowns ; or be lifted into "the
seventh heaven," because Sir ROBERT PEEL smiles. They
must be octet] on by popular influence, and this only. All
other is factitious, and not to be depended on from hour to
hour.

The present Parliamentary Session has well nigh closed,
and the Reformers can count the gain of more losses than
ever befel them in the Session of a Boroughmongering,
Parliament. We have the spectacle of a Ministry, pro-
fessedly liberal, commanding a good working majority in the
Commons, defeated on every principle they have advocated,
and on every measure they have declared essential to the
welfare to the country.
If ever a period was known at which it was incumbent on
an Administration to concentrate their strength, and to
array all their supporters for a vigorous and united resis-
tance to the enemies of good Government, this has been
the time ; and we might have reasonably expected that,
when the Lords were falling back upon the old defences of
pure Toryism, Lord MELBOURNE would secure the hearty alli-
ance of the Dissenters. Their influence is that of a class
commanding a majority in the State, pervading the middle
orders, who think and act with effect, and demanding only
what nearly every body allows to be a claim of justice.
Amongst their grievances, the old form of Marriage was
by no means the most prominent, while the payment of Church
Rates is an annoyance odious and unjust, perpetually recur-
ring in a form the most offensive to a man of principle, and
involving daily agitation and heart-burnings. It is, in short,
one of those irritating stimuli by which in all the history of
nations great changes are brought about. A Tory Govern-
ment, if we had one, could do nothing more politic than
to abolish Church Rates, and get rid of a question, by
the agitation of which men are driven to think about the
Church and its enormities. Yet a Liberal Government suf-
fer it to remain open—they have ventured on deducing an
argument for their neglect from the quiescence with which
their friends have confided in their assurances, and awaited
their time of action—they have perhaps suffered themselves
to believe they might do this with impunity, and rely on
the fancied dread of an active Tory Government as the only
alternative of do-nothing Whigs.
We find, however, the Dissenters are stirring; they see
in what their confidence has resulted, and are taking vigo-
rous measures to show that in future their trust shall be in
themselves, and their public friends be held at just so much
as they are proved to be worth.
Every provincial paper brings some account of Church
Rates contested or refused, and it will be seen from an ad-
vertisement in our columns, to which we direct special
attention, that united measures will now be adopted
for driving the question to a settlement. The resolutions
emanated from a number of highly respectable ministers and
laymen from various parts of the kingdom, who had met
at Bungay, on the occasion of a piece of plate being pre-
sented to Mr. JOHN CHILDS, by a deputation from the
Dissenters of Ipswich, " as a testimony of the grateful re-
membrance they entertained of that moral heroism, which
induced him to sustain the privation even of personal li-
berty, that he might expose the injustice of compulsory
payment to the State-Church, and vividly exhibit the
tyranny of its Ecclesiastical Courts." It was fit that some
practical uses should result from such an assemblage, and
we are glad to see that a course of action has been
sketched out, which ought to be followed by the friends of
civil and religious liberty throughout the empire.
Those resolutions very properly recommend the adoption
of EVERY legal means to prevent the levying of Church-
Rates, for, even when unsuccessful, the resistance is in
itself a most effective kind of agitation. Parishioners, in
Parish Vestry assembled, have a right to hear every item
of expenditure read, and a discussion may be raised on
each. Thus, instead of permitting a charge to pass of
thirty shillings for washing surplices, the bill for each wash-
ing of each surplice should be read, and there may be thirty
opportunities of asking the Churchmen present, if they are
not ashamed of coming to the parish table, to ask for pay-
ment for the washing of their shirts ? There are nume-
rous other payments of a similar kind, which may
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thus offered, may make the Church party ashamed of their
own doings, and compelled, rather than encounter the an-
nual exposure and the annual shouts of derision, to have
recourse to voluntary subscriptions. It was thus that the
war commenced in Manchester. The opponents of a rate
satisfied themselves at first with comments on the shameful
nature of the items. Next year there was a large attend
ante from mere curiosity, and an attempt was made to
throw out some of the items. On the following year the
attendance was still more numerous, and the rate was re-
duced from three-pence to one halfpenny, and thus the
contest went on till the Churchwardens were compelled to
abandon the compulsory rate, and adopt an "optional" one.