The Sun.
London, England, 1838-02-19 00:00:00

solution of the riddle, though not as speaking with
authority, as may, perhaps, satisfy the curious and
convince the sceptical, who are disposed to doubt
the prudence or distrust the motives of the self-
denying policy of the Conservative Opposition.
That a " Tory minority, more than three hundred
strong, in the House of Commons" should " shrink
from a direct assault on the Whig Administra-
don," may be admitted to be, politically ••pealting,
an act of " unprecedented forbearance." " The oldest
and most consistent organ of Toryism in the daily
Press"—thus truly does our Radic:ll Contemporary
designate the Morning Post—" had already ascribed
this forbearance to a pure and prudent patriotism on
the part of Sir Robert Peel and his friends." That
such a motive should appear fantastic and incredible
to Whigs and Whig-Radicals was natural—was, in-
deed, inevitable. How should, how could, they be-
lieve in the influence and agency of motives which had
no counterpart in their own consciousness—no parallel
in their own practice? But from the Spectator, or
independent Radicals, whom, though pestilent politi-
cians, we believe to err in honesty, we might have ex-
pected a more candid interpretation of a forbearance so
ostensibly disinterested. Ironically assuming, how-
ever, that the Tories are content " to rule the country
from the Opposition benches, regardless of patronage,
careless of quarter-day," our Contemporary goes on to
say—

" But it will still remain a question with those who cannot
implicitly credit this assumption of rare disinterestedness,
whence the reluctance to achieve power proceeds? And
such unbelievers in Tory virtue will find it difficult to con-
clude otherwise than that the Tories abstain from attempting
to displace the Whigs, either because they fear defeat, and are
conscious of their own inability to carry on the Government
when in °trice ; or that they are perfectly satisfied with the
Whig method of working out the Conservative policy."

We unhesitatingly repudiate both the alternatives
proposed by our Contemporary as from the unbelievers
in Tory virtue. The Tories do not abstain from
ousting the Whigs either from apprehension or mis-
carriage in the attempt, or inability to carry on the
Government when in office, nor because they are per-
fectly satisfied with the Whig method of working out
the Conservative policy. The latter supposition is a
gratuitous absurdity, seeing that the policy worked
out by the Whigs is any thing but Conservative.
Witness their systematic prostitution of the patronage
of the Crown to the enemies of the Royal family,
the enemies of the Established Church, and the
enemies of British influence and British connection.
Witness their systematic support of whole-hog
revolutionists and quasi traitors at the late ge-
neral election : witness the infamous oligarchical
conspiracy by which they forced themselves into
the Council Chamber of their late Sovereign—
witness the intrigues by which they monopo-
lise the Royal ear. The former supposition, that
the Tories are unable to expel the Whigs or to sup-
ply their places when expelled, is little less untenable
than the former. Had the Tories been merely an oli-
garchical faction like the Whigs, instead of being, as
they are, a great national party—had party success,
not national advantage, been their object—had they
descended to imitate the infamous and unprincipled
scheme by which the Whigs overthrew the Govern-
ment of Sir Robert Peel, what was to have prevented
their ousting the sybarite Melbourne, the sleepy
Glenelg, the pettyfogging thimblerigger Russell, and
their Cabinet " Helps," on the Canada question, or,
more recently, on that of the Ballot ? In both in-
stances they would have commanded the sympathies
and the assistance of the Radicals (a few traders from
taste like Mr. E. Bulwer only excepted). Had
this, the true policy of the Machiavelian Whigs,
been adopted by the Tories the spurious and epicene
things that now occupy the Treasury bench would have
been not only defeated and dispersed but extin-
guished. The Tories did not imitate the unconstitu-
tional and factious example of the Whigs. In both
instances the Ministers and their men happened to
be more or less right—and the Tories were too proud
and too generous to make use of those lapses into right
as levers by which to upset the Cabinet of thimble-
riggers. That the sneers of our whole hog Contem-
porary are without sting or point is more than we will '
maintain. The reluctance of the Tories, however,
to return to office under existing circumstances may
be easily explained, and almost, if not altogether,
justified by the circumstances under which they
quitted office ; and by the systematised prostitution of
patriotic and public to party and personal purposes in
the Whig and Whig-Radical sections of the House
of Commons. Sir Robert Peel resigned because
a combination of Radical dupes and Papists
schemers united under the banner of " all classes
of Reformers" to effectuate the selfish and factious ob-
jects of those Whig oligarchs whose practice and
whose principle it has ever been, and is, to excite and
mislead the people, in order to acquire the means of
dictating to the Sovereign—succeeded in placing him
in a manority in the House of Commons. That
something of a Quixotic and exaggerated deference to
what he conceived to be the true principle of the Con-
stitution may not on that occasion have betrayed the
patriotic Tory chief into a premature surrender of the
reins of Government is more than we shall take upon
ourselves to maintain. At all events, the same un-
principled confederacy still exists—numerically di-
minished indeed, by the result of the late elections,
but still sufficiently powerful and unprincipled to pre-
sent an organised and formidable impediment to the
steady and consistent following up of a constitutional
and Conservative line of policy. To a Whig expectant
Prime Minister a difficulty of this nature would be a
matter of derision rather than respect. He might be, in-
deed, a mere political puppet, alternately bullied by
his friends and rescued by his enemies ; but, what
matters that ? He would still be Prime Minister of
England—he would still be the dispenser of stars and
garters to his aristocratical accomplices—of loaves and
fishes to his subaltern confederates ; he would still
abuse the confidence, and enjoy the hospitality of the
unsuspect:ne, Sovereign he betrayed ; nor would hie
political impotence be any drawback on his personal
enjoyments.—Probatunz est. But Sir Robert Peel
is neither personally " a porous de grege Epicuri,"
nor politically an impotent and intriguing profligate.
The Conservative leader disdains the official trappioge
which would condemn him to be alternately the play-
thing and the " utensil" of his friends and of his
foes. If Sir Robert Peel take office it will be with
the objects of a patriot--not of a partisan or a parasite.
Sir Robert Peel is a statesman, nor is he ambitious to
merge the character in the frivolous pursuits. and
emasculating enjoyments of a courtier. Sir Robert
Peel would be in fact, as well as name, the leader of
the house of Commons—the guide and the guar-
dian of his country—the Minister, not the Com-
plaisant, of his Sovereign. Sir Robert Peel
would be all that England knows Lord Melbourne
ought to be, and is not ; and the reverse of all
that Lord John Russell is, and has ever been.
The line which divides the " posse" from the
" esse" in this respect is already little more than
imaginary. Feslina lente is, in such a crisis, pride
as well as prudence. The mischievous effects of
Whig domination (if a double servitude deserve the
name) arc already neutralised by Tory ascendancy.
Precipitation, however pure and laudable the motive,
might spoil all. Let us wait yet a little, and the
duped and deluded Radicals will desire nothing better
than to unite with the Tories to extinguish the Whip.
The oligarchical and odious faction of the Whigs once
disposed of, the two great national parties, the Con-
servatives and Republicans, might then fight out, on
the floor, or in the field, the battle that will decide the
destinies of England. Before this final combat be
commenced, patriotism, pride, and prudence, all com-
bine, as it seems to us, in prescribing to Sir R. Peel
and his Conservative array this rule of conduct—give
the Whig rogues line enough, and they will hang
themselves.- Morning Post.

THE WEATHER.—" Oh, never mind the Wea-
ther," says the old song ; but the weather will make you mind
it, and in regard to it, we have to remark, that it has lately
been of such a character in this neighbourhood as to com-
pletely contradict, and set at naught, the predictions of all the
astronomers, astrologers, and almanack makers in the King-
dom ; fairly proving their " Weather Guides" to be " blind
guides."— York Courant.

A report having appeared in several of the Journals
of the Prince de Talleyrand being in a dangerous state of
health we are happy to be able to contradict this statement.
The health of this distinguished diplomatist is as good as it
has been for some time past.