The Sun.
London, England, 1831-11-23 00:00:00

lated, from inadvertence or otherwise, that the vio-
lation, if persisted in, will lead to prosecution. We
have already observed, that Political Unions will Elie
of themselves when the Reform Bill has secured the

people against the oligarchy. Till then they will be
continued, and they ought to be continued, but
under such forms as are stricey accordant with the
law. The object of the Unions is not to oppose
the present Ministry, but to destroy the hopes
of those who might, by the removal of the pre-
sent Ministry, seek to effect their guilty purposes at
the expense of a nation's hopes. The Anti-Reformers
have caused the Unions; the triumph of Reform
will put an end to them. Nothing less powerful
than the fear of convulsion could induce a people so
immersed in their own private pursuits as the Eng-
lish, to embarrass themselves with the additional
fatigue attendant on Unions. To unite for effect-
ing a political object may or may not be illegal, ac-
cording to the mode of uniting. It is, however,
quite clear, that all which any man can reasonably
propose to himself by union may be effected without
the violation of any law. Let, therefore, those who
are anxious to unite without violation of the law,
look narrowly into the rules of the association, in
order to renounce whatever is illegal. We are in
the midst of agitation ; and till all uncerta'nty as to
the future is at an end, must continue agitated.
When men are agitated, they are, of course, appre-
hensive of evil; and it is by union alone that they
can best obtain what is beneficial, and ward off what
is evil.—Morning Chronicle.

We publish to•day the Proclamation, the forth-
coming of which we announced yesterday, against
Political Unions. Of this document it may be said
that it mingles reasoning with authority, which is
not usual in acts of Government. It applies only to
one species of Union of peculiar organization, in
which there are officers possessing different powers
and ranks ; and it says that by such organization,
men in right of the Union may be entitled to com-
mand those whom by the general laws of the
country they would be bound to obey, in case dis-
turbance should occur. This no doubt would breed
confusion : for example, a Magistrate in the county
may be a private in the Union. In case of riot,
ought he to obey a tithing-man or Alderman in the
Union ? or ought the tithing-man and Alderman to
submit, if called on to be made special constables,
and obey him ? Upon the strength of this reason-
ing the prohibition of the Union is grounded. We
recommend to attention a letter signed by four mem-
bers of the " National Political Union," at the
Crown and Anchor; the purpose of which is to
show that the Royal Proclamation of yesterday
does not apply to that Union, nor to the great ma-
jority of Unions now in existence. A paper has
been issued from the " Political Union," specifying
the legal restraints and exceptions as they exist, and
stating what may still be done by the people, as
well as what they must refrain from doing. Whe-
ther the " Unions" can, under that novel name, be
looked upon as not subjected to the lawful penalties
as " Associations," we suppose will be determined
by Counsel.
" NATIONAL POLITICAL UNION.—ROYAL
PROCLAMATION.
" TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

" SIR,—In consequence of the mis-staterneuts in some
of the Evening Papers, upon the subject of the Proclama-
tion relating to Political Unions, and the strong excite-
ment which it has occasioned in the public mind, we, as
Members of the Council, think it necessary to state, that
the Proclamation does not npply to the National Political
Union, nor to the great majority of Unions now in ex-
istence. The Proclamation is, in fact, little more than
a copy of the laws relating to Political Associations,'
put forth some few days ago by this Union, and now in the
hands of its members.

" H. B. CHURCHILL,
" R. H. FRANKS,
" J. H. POWELL,
" A. REDMAN,
" Members of the Counci
" Crown and Anchor, Strand, Nov. 22." Times.

Our city article relates some particulars of a hole-
and-corner meeting, of which the professed inten-
tion was to bring the friends and foes of the Bill to
an "understanding" by a common declaration which
both parties might agree to support. The " decla-
ration," which went no further than an acknow-
ledgment of the necessity for abolishing nomination
boroughs, and for enfranchising populous towns,
but which, with a tender care for the prejudices
of Atistocracy, forbore to stipulate any thing on
the essential subject cf qualifications, was rejected
by both parties, and so it must have been inevitably,
if both were honest. It is, we see, stated by an
Evening Paper,—and if there be any founda-
tion for the statement, Ministers ought to have
the benefit of it even beforehand,—that after
the Reform Bills shall have passed the Com-
mons, so many of the best friends of Reform in the
Lower House \sill be raised to the Peerage as will
infuse a reforming spirit into their Lordships'
House." If this be true--if Alinisters have really
determined on this manly and efficient policy—there
can be no occasion for a compromise with the Anti-
Reformers ? They cannot court gratuitous dis-
credit when the means of sure and honourable vic-
tory are in their hands. That a large simultaneous
creation of Peers would not be in itself an ad-
vantage, either to that assembly or to the country,
we have all along admitted. Let the Anti-Reform
Lords, then, bethink themselves, ere they drive
Ministers to that last and unwilling resource. A
little pamphlet, which deserves the deep attention of
every member of that Illustrious House, treats with
spirit this branch of the ticklish question—" What
s ill be done with the Lords ?" The answer de-
pends mainly on their Lordships' own patiiotistn
and wisdom. We shall quote some passages from
the pamphlet to-morrow.—Timer.
We made on Monday a partial exposure of an ab-
surd charge brought against the Reform Bill, that it
possesses a democratic tendency, and creates a mob
constituency. This is now the note of alarm sounded
by the boroughmongers to their aristocratic allies,—
the distress-gun fired in their sinking cause to obtain
succour from the unthinking idolaters of rank and
properly. Nothing is more easy than to expose it ;
but there is a danger that in answering one set of ob-
jectors to the Bill, we may lay ourselves open to
the attacks of another,—that by satisfying one class
of the litnitation of the suffrage, we may convince
another that it ought to be more extensive. The
truth, however, ought to be stated whatever be its
tendency, or by whatever party it is most likely to be
perverted. The Bill, then, in its present form, makes
no alteration in the constituency of counties, except
by taking from it the small freeholders voting on
borough property, and adding to it the more re,pec-
table class of 10/, copyholders, and 501. leaseholders.
If the electors, therefore, are to compose a mob in
those divisions of the country, it is a mob which has
existed anterior to the Reform 13111, and which the Re-
form Bill has done much to correct. In till the great
towns which are to be admitted to a share in the re-
presentaion by the measure, about a fourth or a fifth
part of the 10/, householders, who are now to enjoy
a borough vote, and nothing more, were freeholders
for the counties in which their boroughs are situated.
They will now be cut off from the enjoyment of
this latter privilege, and consequently will diminish
to th:r‘t event the mob freeholders (if the borough-
inonger insisi; upon so insulting a term) who are to
frequent the county po4ing,-booths. Thus Man-
chester will detach at least 2,01/Q or 4,0p0 from the
1
constituency of Lancashire, and Leeds about 2,0P0
from that :,if Yorkshire. If it is not to be found in
the counties, is i,:io so much dreaded mob suffrage
to ta;:e refuge in the smaller b3rourrbs ? Let us only
reply to this question by a few fz,ures clmyn from
the Parliamentary returns, which are accessible to all
the woad, The reader has het4d a great deal about
schedule IS., iueluding the horoughs whose re-
, PL.sentation, according to the Dig, arc to be
satisfied with a single Member. These towns
are so comida4ble, that the boroughmongers in
the House of Comaions strongly contended for
the preservation of their complete right of making
Members, even after schedule A had been interred,
from its acknowledged deficiencies. They range
jn population from 2,000 to 4,000 ; and what