The Sun.
London, England, 1831-09-23 00:00:00

answer to the subtlety of the former, we shall not envy
him the clearness of his intellectual vision. Mr. Croker's
speech was ingenious—it was humorous—in some in-
stances it amounted even to wit, and wit in the House
of Commons is certainly not a drug in the market.
But its ingenuity was displayed by blinking the real
question, by shunning the general principle, and giving
point and interest to immaterial and trifling circumstances
which had nothing to do with the substantial merits of
the case.- Let any man take the trouble of going through
the heads of Mr. Croker's speech, and, if he find any one
of them to embrace the principle of the measure, he will
have made a discovery which others have attempted in
vain. But listen to the admission of the Right lion.
Gentleman himself—" He intended to have gone into
more general topics, and to have urged more general
' reasons for opposing the Bill, but he feared to trespass
loneer on the attention of the House, and must, therefore,
draw to a conclusion." What simplicity, what candour,
we have here ! And so it was only the want of time, anti
the casual intrusion of unimportant topics, that prevented
him from saying any thing upon the real question. We
think too hiehly of Mr. Croker's talents to accept his
apology in this instance. No, he knew too well where
the pith and marrow of the question ley not to have ap-
plied him-elf to it fairly, if he could have done so with
any effect; but, like the deserted Manager, he omitted
the part of Harald, mule the Gravedigger his hero, and
turned a philosophic drama into a farce. The speech was
a very pleasant one to listen to, and it was quite delightful
to see the tools of the boroughmongers shaking their sides
with laughter as the joke proceeded ; bat what will the
public say now that it is before them in print ? What
can they say, but that a dextrous skirmisher, in doing
all that he could do for his party conveniently, forgot his
subject, and talked about every thing else? For our own
parts we are of opinion that this speech, fairly considered,
will do more injury to the cause of corruption, which it
was intended to serve, than any that has been yet delivered
from either side of the House. If it is only by a running
fight of this kind, by a display of evasive pleasantry, that
the great measure for which the heart of this great nation
is beating ready to burst—if it is only by such means it
can be opposed, even by men whose talents are of a high
order—then, indeed, we may rest secure in the justice of
our cause, and even join in the laugh, which must amuse,
and cannot harm us.—Morning Herald.
Poland has been sacrificed by the Governments of the
only two great free States of Europe, as a propitiatory
offering to the Holy Alliance. It is not worth while to
divide the shame of this foul transaction, which covers
Europe with infamy in the nineteenth century, and to
apportion to France and En gland their respective shares
of the disgrace with which history will brand the criminal
weakness of their policy ; it is sufficient to know that the
interests of France and England combined with the inte-
rests of civilization and humanity to make it the duty, as
it ought to have been the desire, of the Governments of
both nations to avert the calamity which proclaims the
triumph of barbarism in the fall of Warsaw. What a
triumph !--a triumph where all the glory is with the van-
quished, if, indeed, Poland be vanquished by this blow.
Six mouths ago the immense hordes of the barbarian were
at the gates of Warsaw, anticipating that the very appear-
:thee of their formidable array would have caused the dis-
persion of all the elements of Polish resistance. The
courage of the Polish warriors soon disabused them of that
error. The conqueror of Turkey, at the head of his ve-
teran legions, fled before the despised enemy, whom he
came not so much to subdue as to chastise. The laurels of
fam., which, till then, looked splendid in the eyes'of
Europe, were torn from his brow, and he perished inglo-
trri:7usslye,ffitofrttsertolosrienpglaucepsuypa(r)dustohfe 60,t mu lanepueoiipiltehtehadtisains:
tolerable yoke which they had dashed to the ground under
the inspiration of suffering virtue, and with the strength
of a holy despair. What Russian soldiership could not
achieve, Russian intrigue, and the treachery of the infa-
mous abettors of Russia in some other States, has accom-
plished. Almost ever since the death of Diebitsch an ob-
scurity has tested on the movements, or rather the inaction,
of the Polish Generals; aorie a mystery has covered
_the
affairs of Warsaw, up to the capture of the city, which
time only can enable us to penetrate. That treachery has
seen extensively at work we do not now for the first time
affirm. It is some time since we ventured to condemn the
Fabian tactics of the late General-in-Chief, as appearing to
us to be exactly the opposite mode of conducting the war
to what, in the rel itive circumstances of the contending
parties, a sound judgment would have dictated. After
those successful enterprises which had raised the confidence
of the Polish soldier to a high pitch, and correspondingly
dispirited the barbaa ian troops, he became comparatively
inactive—permitted the desponding army of Diebitsch to
be re-organised atter the loss of its Chief, without making
any attempt to take advantage of its enfeebled condition—
allowed the vast reinforcements of Russia to pour into
Poland and concentrate, when they should have bean cut
up in detail—and gave time to the Russian troops to re-
' cover front their consternation, while the confidence of the
Polish soldier proportionably declined. Perhaps the Polish
Generalissimo and the Government of Warsaw were acting
upon the advice which some Journals told us, some time
aeo, they had received from the English and French Go-
vernments, not to risk a battle, as negociations were going
on which would save Poland. If the Poles did receive
that advice, and acted upon it, how treacherous it must
h eve been, and how fa ally they have been deceived, the
carnage and fall of Warsaw now make manifest to all the
world.—Morning Herald.
The Anti-Reformers claim for the system of corruption
all the good which it cannot prevent. Thus because
England, in spite of the prodigality of a Government
carried on with a view to the profit of those who possess
Parliamentary interest, has made great progress in arts
tad industry, we are to infer that boroughmongering,
and the heavy taxation to which it has subjected tl5, are
the causes of all our improvements. When Admiral Col-
lingwiiod writes home, over and over Hg lin, that lie could
obtain no promotion for skilful and brave officers, while
he was overwhelmed with tintubers of palls, with no
other merit than Parliamentary interest, and who not only
burdened the country without serving it, hut, by hieing
promoted over meritorious officers, left them hopeless and
broken-hearted, we are to infer that to Parliamentary in.
terest we are indebted for the excellence of which it did
not deprive our navy. As far as the system of corrup-
tion has extended influence, that influence has been most
mischievous. The good that we possess, we owe to other
causes, which have to a certain extent counteracted it.
The speech of Mr. Croker on Tuesday night has been much
extolled. We are not aware, however, that amidst all his
appeals to the Aristocracy, and his criticism of the details '
of the Reform Bill, he advanced one single argument to
show that we could only hope to enjoy the blessings of •
good Government by investing a certain number of
dividuals with the power of taxing the rest of the coin-
munity, through the purchase of a comparatively stu ill
portion of that community lay the produce of the taxes. •
The Reform Bill has its defects; but it will not he '
reckoned among its defects that it gives less power to the '
payers of taxes over those who dispose of them, than they
have hitherto enjoyed. Mr. Calker (skilfully, no doubt)
avoided every thing like grappling with the principle on •
which alone a fair representation can he opposed or de-
fended. A Government such as that which the Reform
Bill is about to destroy, cannot long exist with an intel
ligent people. We defy boroughtnongers to carry on the
Government against the conviction of the people by means
of corruption. The increasing resistance to such a
Government must soon prove too great for its machinery.
Every one knows that before the Reform Bill was intro-
duced, the boroughmongering system was falling to pieces
irons the inadequacy of the means of corruption to meet
the continually increasing resistance. The disgust of the
people for the machinery was fed by the perusal of most
the writers ho have become favouritei o f the peple.
The inimitablew Fielding, for instance, n answero to a
Nobleman who asks whether any Minister could support
himself on pure principles, and be able to baffle an oppo-
sition, unless he should oblige his friends by conferring
places, often contrary to his own inclinations and his own
opinion, observes that—
" Whenever merit is liable to be superseded by favour and
partiality, and men arc entrusted with offices without any regard
to capacity or integrity, the allitirs of the State s ill always be hi
a deplorable situation. There is another mischief which attends
this kind of injustice—and that is, that it bath a manifest ten-
dency to destroy all virtue and all ability among the people, by
taking away all that encouragement and incentive which should
promote cumulation, and raise men to aim at excelling in any art,
science, or profession. I will only add one argument more, and
that is founded on the most narrow and selfish system of poli-
tics; and that is, that such a system is sure to create universal
discontent and grmnbling at home ; for nothing can bring men
to rest satisfied, when they see others preferred to them, but an
opinion that they deserve that elevation. With what heart-
burnings, then, must any nation see themselves obliged to con-
tribute to the support of a set of men, of whose incapacity to
serve them they are well apprised, and who do their country a
double disservice—by being themselves employed in posts to
which they are unequal, and by keeping others out of those em-
ployments for which they are qualified."
Mr. Ctoker, a man from 'the people, lends his throat
to the Oligarchy. Ile is an ingenious man ; but will his
speech in behalf of those by whom he has been pampered
rally one disinterested man round the standard of Oli-
garchy? It is easy to persuade those who are in the
possession of usurped power to retain it, but not so easy to
persuade those who suffer from the usurpation to forego
their rights. No sophistry can extinguish in men the de-
sire of living under a fair and equal Government. No
sophistry can persuade them to pass sentence of incapacity
on thenmdeeseeeto renounce for ever the right of controul-