The Sun.
London, England, 1838-02-28 00:00:00

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WITII WHICH
" THE TRUE SUN" IS NOW
INCORPORATED.

LONDON :
WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 28, 1838.

The debate on Lord MainsToxit's party and personal
motion was resumed last night in the House of Com-
mons. Mr. PENDAIIVES, willing to prevent further floun-
dering in the stinking mire of faction, proposed an amend-
ment. After referring to the declarations made by seve-
ral Members, that they believe Election Committees
to be blamed, and to the Bill for amending the law on the
subject, he concluded that the House should proceed no
further in the matter of Mr. O'CONNELL. After some
speaking rather against time than to state facts or elicit
truth, the House decided against the amendment, which
was lost by a majority of 24. Mr. H. GRATTAN then pro-
posed to add words to the motion, which would have the
effect of declaring that Mr. O'CONNELL alone should be
reprimanded, though many other persons had com-
mitted the same or worse offences. After a noisy discus-
sion, in which Mr. ROCHE deliberately repeated again and
agan ti e same breach of privilege, the House decided
that Mr. O'CONNELL only should be reprimanded by
29, and that Gentleman is ordered to attend in the ,
House to-day to be reprimanded by the SPEAKER. Some
farces are very amusing to the spectators, but tiresome and
in.;tuious to the actors. The active labour of GRIMALDI
to excite the laughter of the public shortened his life.
Whether such will be the effect of the farce we have
just alluded to we cannot predict ; but we believe, however
much it may gratify the malignant passions cf some in-'
tli‘idnals, that it is neither amusing to the reflecting public,
nor will it lengthen the political lives of the actors.
On the first division, only 225 Liberals divided, and on
the second only 197, in favour of the amendments. The
estimated strength of their party is 340, and of these only
225 were present. We called on them yesterday to at-
tend, but they were deaf to our admonitions. We regret
this for their sakes, and for the sake of the empire at large.
It never admitted of a doubt that The attack on Mr.
O'CONNELL was altogether dictated by personal and party
motives. Similar language has, been held by other persons in
the House of Commons itself ; such language has been reite-
rated by several newspapers of both parties, and Members
were content to lie under the imputation till it was re-
peated by Mr. O'CONNELL at a tavern after dinner, and
then the Tories went out of their way to bring it before the
Hou3e. They conveniently closed their ears to the lan-
guage uttered in the face of the Speaker by Lord JOHN
RUSSELL, Mr. C. BULLER, and Sir ROBERT PEEL, charging
Members with perjury ; but they put trumpets into both
ears to catch the distant tavern whispers of the Catholic
Leader. If any doubt could possibly hare existed as to
the attack being wholly a personal and party one, it would
be removed by the language of the Tory journals. Through
two columns and a half does the Times this morning exult
at the victory obtained over the Ministers and their master,
" the very LUCIFER of the guilty work," of keaping the
Ministers in office. The Liberal Members who
did not attend, and could have attended, have
been fulse to their party, and have given a quasi
triumph to the Tories. But a still stronger reason should
have made those who represent English and Scotch con-
stituencies eager to be present. Many of them are ac-
cused of entertaining feelings of personal hostility to Mr
O'CONNELL. The gist of that Gentleman's accusation
is, that Ireland is treated with injustice ; such of the
Liberal Members as absented themselves last night, or
still worse, voted against Mr. PENDARVES'S amendment,_
will be suspected of deserving the accusation, and of sacri-
ficing both the interests of their party and of the country
to their personal animosity to Mr. O'CONNELL. He is
great as the representative of Ireland, and the careless-
ness or perverseness of those Liberal Members who did not
support him will be ascribed to their hatred of that country.
The sectional animosities of the empire, which it has been
the noble object of the Whig party and policy to lessen
and soothe, and the great pride of the young QUEEN'S
reign to terminate, will be exasperated by the same act
by which some Liberals have struck a suicidal blow at their
own party.

It will not be possible for the House of Commons to
atop where it now stands. Last night, as the night be-
fore, Mr. HUME had the words of Mr. Rocini and of Mr.
Gtr,LoN taken down by the Clerk, and they are on the
records of the House. Those gentlemen hare committed
a much greater offence than Mr. O'CONNELL ; for they
have knowingly, and in opposition to repeated warnings,
bearded the House and defied it. Mr. HUME cannot
take any further steps in the matter ; but the Tories will
make it manifest to the whole world that their conduct has
been dictated by poor and pitiful spite against Mr. O'CON..
NELL; should they neglect to follow up the at-
tack on him, by moving that these other Members
be committed to Newgate. Their character for consis-
tency will not rise in the country, after having gone
out of their way to attack Mr. OTONNEEL, prying into
tavern speeches for the mea if they do not also prose-
cute all the newspapers all the public speakers at any
public meeting will s all violate the privileges of the
House. But cannot be consistent : passion is blind,
and the public will hare to add to the privileges of the
House of Commons that of setting at naught, like other irre-
'sible bodi he god sense of mankind. The Spectator
le on the arrogant Commons, justly
for mimicking the Lords, and arro-
our masters. Next Sunday, we
anonstrate that their ambition
and that they aim at being the
its, the language, and the reason of
,y us, and called the Reformed Par-
un-reformed privileges of the House,
J. The evil is, that the Tory•framed
privileges, the privileges which the boroughmongers esta-

blushed for the protection of their tyranny, and for stifling
the voice of the people, are still in existence, and now it
appears arc to be hurled, sharpened, and pointed, by those
who have stolen as Reformers into the national confidence,
to strike down the nascent liberties of the people.

All the City authorities are up in arms against Lord
JOHN RUSSELL, for presuming to interfere with the City
Police. The Court of Aldermen passed resolutions on
Monday against the proposed plan of the Home Secretary ;
the Court of Common Council followed the example yester-
day ; and deputations were appointed to wait upon his Lord-
ship, in order to impress upon him the necessity of leaving
the City of London to manage the Police in its own way.
Whig, Tory, and Radical, unite against his Lordship, and
were the public to judge from the language used, they,
roust come to the conclusion that the Government and
Legislature will be satisfied with nothing short of the total
annihilation of the rights and privileges, nay, the very exis-'
tense of the Corporation. Sir PETER LAURIE said them
was a desire in Parliament to " clip the wings of the Coral
',oration." Mr. GALLOWAY denounced the plan as are
attempt " to undermine and destroy the rights and libertieel
of the citizens of London ;" and Mr. WIRE, appealing to
the spirit of their ancestors, trusted the Corporation
would show that " they knew their rights, and were deter-
mined to maintain them." The attempt, in short, is
compared to the seizure of the Charters by the profligate
CHARLES 11. It is really astonishing how men of sense
can be thus carried away by their passions and selfish in-
terests, from the real merits of the case. They complain
that, while ail other Corporations are allowed to regulate their
own Police, the City of London should be singled out as
an exception. The answer is simple : there is no Cor-
poration in a similar position ; and with equal justice all
the parishes around the City might have complained of the
Bill introduced by Sir ROBERT PEEL. That was as
direct an interference with the rights and privileges
of vestries, and churchwardens, and parish constables ;
a similar cry, it is true, was got upby the interested parties on
that occasion ; but the state of the old Police was such as
to justify the interference, and the clamour was soon put
down by the voice of public opinion. The city of London
was exempted from the Bill, on a distinct understanding
that Reform was to be introduced into the eity Police, and
they have been allowed now nearly ten years to carry this Re-
form into effect ; but, according-to the evidence of various
witnesses examined before the Police Committee of last Sf,'S-
sion, it is hardly yet begun. These witnesses stated that the
;day Police had been improved (as it well might, there being
formerly hardly the shadow of a day Police), but that the
night Police was extremely defective—that owing to the
watchmen being confin el to their respective wards, two
men were required to do the duty of one—that thieves
escaped in consequence—that for an hour and a half be-
tween the night-watch coming on and the day Police going
off, the most opportune period for pick-pockets, there was
❑o Police whatever in the streets—that the duties were
performed, not by the watchmen appointed by the City
authorities, but by substitutes, who also hired, as
substitutes, the old night watchmen—and that thieves
and notorious characters were allowed to escape, be-
cause these guardians of public property received more
from the thieves they suffered to remain, than for
their services from the public. These are but a few of the
evils of the present system. It is evident something must
be done, and as the City Authorities have slumbered so

long, an i suffered for years this nuisance in the heart
of the metropolis, what right have they to impugn
the conduct of the Home Secretary for proposing
measures to abate it ? We care not by whom the Reform
is effected, but it is evident something must be done ; and
if blame attache any where, the citizens of London will
see that it attach more to their Civic functionaries than
to Lord JOHN RUSSELL.

We insert in to-day's paper a valuable letter on the
subject of the queries relating to Church-rates, put to us
by our Bingham C •rrespondent, from Mr. COURTAULD, of
Braintree, and are gratified to find the correctness of °Tee
replies corroborated by a " legal friend," so well versed in
the law of Church-rates. Mr. COIIRTAULD'S remarks
on the powers •of cx officio chairmen at vestry meetings
deserve the earnest attention of the public, and particu-
larly of all who have the misfortune to be subjected to
this species of clerical domin ttion in parochial: matters.
Nothing can he more arbitrary than the conduct of those
Reverend Gentlemen who preside at parish meetings in
virtue of their office—generally, we believe, in conse-
quence of some local Act smuggled through Parliament.
It not unfrequently happens that a Chairman of this de-
scription refuses either to put a motion made and seconded in
the most regular way, or to vacate the Chair ; thus setting
at complete defiance the will of the meeting, of which he
is, and can, according to analogy and common sense be,
nothing but the organ. Is a Chairman, then, it may
he asked, bound to put to the vote every mo-
tion so made and seconded ? We answer decidedly
not ; but if he doubt the propriety of any motion,
he is assuredly hound to take the sense of the meet-
ing as to whether the said motion shall be put or not.
Having ascertained this point, he has, we ecnceive, no
alternative but either to obey the wishes of the assembly,
or to retire from the chair. We cordially agree with our
intelligent correspondent, in the hope that the question
regarding the powers of these cx Obstructives may
speedily be brought to issue, and determined, in a Court
of Law.

_ -
We extract from the Hanover Gazette of the 21st inst.
the following account of the opening of the Chambers,
summoned by King ERNEST, to deliberato upon the draft
of the new Constitution, promised by his MAJESTY to his
" beloved subject.," in his letters patent of the Ist of No-
vember. Previous to the assembling of the Deputies
his MAJESTY set aside the election of M. MEYER for the
capital, on suspicion of his attachment to the Constituticn
granted by WILLIAM the FOURTH. No Deputies have
been returned for Hildeshiem, Oseaburg, and Emden, the
electors of these cities having refused to exercise such a
political right, lest it might be construed into an ac-
quiescence in the justice of the decree promulgated in the
Royal letters patent. Our readers will bear in mind that the
liberty of the Press is abolished in Hanover, and that the
following account, as far as relates to the popularity of the
KING, was probably dictated in the Royal Cabinet :
On the 20th instant King Ernest opened in person the ses-
sion of the States of Hanover. After the celebration of divine
service in the Castle chapel, the members of the States re-
paired to the Hall of the Legislative Body, and took the oath
tendered to them by the Hereditary Marshal of the Kingdom.
Count Munster. The Prince Royal also attended at this ce-
remony. At a quarter past two o'clock the Royal cortege left
the Castle, and on reaching the Legislative Palace his Ma-
jesty was received by the Hereditary Marshal and the members
of the Boards of both Houses. The King, having then en-
tered the Hall, seated himself on his throne, the Prince Royal
being on his right, and the grand dignitaries of the Crown on
his left, and delivered the following speech :
" Noble Lords, worthy and faithful Deputies—My anxious
desire to see assembled around my throne the worthy States of
I this kingdom is at length gratified. It is for me a great satis-
faction. When I determined on abrogating the fundamental
law of December 26, 1833, by the promulgation of my Royal
patents of November 1, 1837, an attempt was made to create
a belief that it was my intention to arrogate to myself an ar-
bitrary power over the subjects Providence has committed to
my care. I have ever detested an arbitrary form of govern-
ment, and I wish to govern my beloved people only according
to law and justice. In order, worthy States, to give you an
unquestionable proof of the uprightness of my intentions, I
will shortly cause to be laid before you the draught of a new
Constitution for my kingdom, based on the principles which
have so long secured the prosperity of the people of Germany.
I indulge the hope that my views will perfectly coincide with
yours on all the main points of the new Charter. Various
other important Bills will also be submitted to your delibe-
ration. I declare that the Session of the States is opened."
_ _

After delivering this speech, the King left the hall to re-
turn to his Palace. The Royal cortege followed the same
order as on its way to the House, and his Majesty received on
his passage through the streets, as well as on his arrival before
the Palace, unequivocal proofs of the satisfaction and affection
of his subjects. At five o'clock there was a grand dinner
at the Castle, to which the Members of both Houses were
invited.

Immediately after th© King had retired, the Members of
the First Chamber of the States repaired to the hall of their
meetings to name the candidates for the Presidency. The
following were elected :—.Messrs. Oberschenk, Count Platen
Hallermund, Counts Junh and Knyphausen, and de Wense.
The list of candidates having been submitted to the King, his
Majesty appointed President Count Platen Hallermund, who
immediately took the oath of office.
The Second Chamber likewise elected its candidates for tho
Presidency. They were Messrs. Jacobi Lang, Doctor of
Law, and Hcnicken, Councillor of State.

The Paris Journals of Monday, the whole of which we
have received, contain no intelligence of any moment.
Application has been made to the Chamber of Deputies
for leave to prosecute a Member, M. EMILE GIRARDIN,
for swindling. The request has been refused by a Com-
mission appointed to decide upon it ; felony being the

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