The Sun.
London, England, 1831-01-27 00:00:00

servile men, whose eves are averted, from. the
people's good, liberty and peace; the objects of
such men being their own private and ambitious
views and pursuits : who, under the mask of pre-
tended patriotism, and their country's goad, and
bawling, perpetually bawling, about loyalty, betray
her liberty, and sap her very foundations. It is said
of our Constitution,—" Ponderibus libratd Buis;"--
" Poised by its own weight"—and so it was in-
tended to be, but time, that greatest of all inno-
vators, so called by the philosopher Bacon 200
years ago, and the selfish passions bf men, have
sadly disturbed the lever. S;r, a practical Reformer
of any ancient and long-established institution, well
knows that every individual phantom is called forth
to affright him, by bigotted men, and especially by
those who profit and live by the continuance of the
defects and abuses which time, and the selfishness
of men, have produced. These bugbears are pre-
cisely the same, and succeed in the same order, and
go through the same antic tricks, each time that
any amendment or reformation is proposed, and they
troop it as nimbly, and look as horrid, when the
very smallest change is named, as when there would,
by any inconsiderate and intemperate Reformer, be
a proposal of uptearing the building from its founda-
tions. The bigotted cry is always the same, and
always loud and boisterous—!et things alone! doiNf
touch the building! veneration for old establish-
ments ! wisdom of past ages ! pillars of the state
torn down ! moving land-marks! unsettling the
whole order of things ! ignorance! rashness! and
louder still, no innovation ! lie innovation! no inno-
vation ! till the bigot is exhausted and breathless.
This has been the cant and cry of the bigotted
and selfish from the beginning of time; and will
always continue till Governments are made as
perfect as the capabilities and the talent of
man will permit. I might here ask, where
would Britons now be, but for gradual improve-
ment from age to age ? Why, Sir, he would
remain a Piet, with his body painted, or perhaps
tatooed. But, though the wary and experienced
Reformer well knows all these • bugbears, and is
' proof against them, his well-meaning, but less. dis-
ciplined supporters, know them not; and with the
multitude at large, they exercise a fearful sway.
How often soever the phantoms appear, they are
always clothed.in terror for the ignorant and unre-
fleeting ; and they render the task of the upright
Reformer always difficult, often hopeless. At pre-
sent, however, we have every animating hope before
us ; the voice of the people is with us. Thank
God, the mind of man is upon the march; not un-
holy triple armies, however numerous, nor all the
armies of the whole earth, can conquer public
opinion ; its progress may be retarded by violence
and bigotry, but it is our happiness to know that it
will finally prevail for the ultimate good of mankind.
It is a grand and most interesting spectacle we have
before us, by the mind's march ; and another half-
century, most probably half that period, or, perhaps,
a much shorter time, will work wonders throughout
Europe ; and afterwards, or, perhaps, simultaneously,
throughout Asia and Africa, and regenerate the
whole world. Mr, P. then read the first resolution.

MATTHEW BRIDGES, E 511.2 in rising to second the
resolution proposed by Mr. Palmer, said will any '
one deny that we are on the eve of a crisis ? Will
any one affirm, that a real lover of his country, or
mankind, may now sit down with his hands before
him ? That we are to let things, take their natural
course, careless of the event, and unconcerned in the
result ? Where is France now ?• We have described
her on a former occasion. Where are Spain and
Portugal ? Both sound asleep in the torpedo torpor
of despotism, under the spell of priestcrafr and super-
stition, such as no human arm has yet been able to
burst asunder, and rouse its wretched victims into

moral, or political, or intellectual vitality ! Where
is Italy—the land from whence liberty once sprang,
and where liberty once, yea twice, has gloriously
reigned ? The eagle of freedom is driven to the
-lone rock of St. Marino, while that genius, which
preserved and handed down the torch of literature
for ail Europe, lies bound, like another Prometheus,
on his native mountains, writhing in foreign fetters,
and with the vulture of Austria at its liver !
(Cheers.)—And why are they thus, gentlemen ?
Why, but because they have either lacked, or they
have lost, the blessings of representative Govern-
ment—the blessings of which amounted to an As-
sembly of Deputies, to a Cortes, or a Parliament.
And what is the state of the whole Continent at this
time ? I might almost say of the whole world : for
whispers of something like constitutional Govern-
ments are being wafted, as we all know, from Arch.
angel to Alexandria—from the tide, across the Red
Sea and the Deserts, to Persia—from Persia over
all India—and even down to New South Wales and
Van Dieman's Land—yes, the Paella of Egypt
and the Shah of Ispahan are said to have mentioned
a constitution! I say, what is the state of the world,
more or less, at this time ? Has not the Angel of
Liberty lifted up her banner on the field of nations?
and is it riot hailed by the emancipated millions of
France—the wealthy, though as yet unsettled Bel-
gian►—the awakening Poles—the states and prin-
cipalities of Germany—from the kingdoms of Ba-
varia and Wirtemberg down to the Electorate of
Hesse Cassel and the Duchy of Brunswick ? Are
not even Prussia, and Hungary, and Bohemia, cast-
ing a longing eye to this standard from afar—now
looking backward at their chains, and now forward,
for the moment to be free ? Arid if you ask all
these what it is they require, they will point to Eng-
land, to France, to Holland, to North and South
America; and all those vast, and opulent, and power-
ful countries, from Inverness to Gibraltar, from
Amsterdam to Philadelphia, from Canada to Cape
Horn, will answer with one voce, " Give them re-
presentative Governments—give them Parliaments
—give them a pure Constitution." And who op.
poses their having these benefits? who but the holy,
or rather unholy, alliance abroad, and those who in
the spirit of that unholy alliance, are afraid lest Eng-
land—happy and free—England, our own beloved
country, should enjoy the benefit of her ancient, con-
stitutional, but until now almost forgotten liberties
at home I I need not dwell on the present state of
our representation ; for it is known and understood
throughout the land. It is notorious that large
masses of our fellow citizens are nearly as much re-
presented in the present system of the House of
Commons, as in the Divan of the Urand 'Yolk at
Constantinople. Great Britain and Ireland groan
under the borough system. There is the whole
kingdom of Scotland, or•.e vast rotten borough, which
produces for each Parliament not many more mem-
bers than another cluster of beautiful boroughs, at
the other extremity of the island ; I mean the county
of Cornwall. Then there is the borough of West-
moreland, in the county of Lowther, as Lord
Brougham once described it, and so forth; so that
the Throne and the Constitution have been almost
undermined by boroughs. Had it not been, under
Divine Providence, for our county members, the
public press, and the growing intelligence of the
people, we might have• lost every vestige of our
liberties ! The late events in France, however,
seem to have roused the world; arid, John Bulls
himself, is at length broad awake;—his chits is
lengthening in most ominous proportion; the very
hairs of his wig and whiskers are uncurling with
horror—(Laughter)—iii spite of their powder and
pomatum The way in which this honest and good-
natured personage has been so thoroughly excited,
I am persuaded, is through his having lately become,
in some degree, aware of innumerable harpies of cor-
e ruption, which for generations have fattened upon his