The Sun.
London, England, 1831-03-25 00:00:00

vote money nominally for the Crown, to be shared by
themselves) was in the (Nurse of !Bost material diminu -
tion." To expend only as much of the money of the
people as is necessary for the service of the State, is cut
ting up the interests of the country by the roots—that is,
the interests of those who subsist on public plunder. They,
however, who say this, may he fool-hardy men, but they
are not hypocrites. The Bill, we will concede to the
Duke of Wellington, " does make a complete alteration
in all the existing interests of the country," for it will
protect the interests of the great majority of those possessed
of property, and curtail the interests of those who wish to
live at the expence of other people. The Horse Patrol
which put down highwaymen, made in like manner a
great alteration in the existing interests of the people of
this metropolis. Lord Grry proposes the measure, be-
cause his notions as to the interests most entitled to pro-
tection, differ from the notions of the Duke of Wellington
and the Marquis of Londonderry.
" The Noble Marquis (said his Lordship) has said that he sup-
poses that I have too great a regard for my order—a regard which
at one time was imputed to be almost as a crime—to desire to
promote any revolutionary measure. I have supported, and will
support that order, because I think that it is necessary to the
preservation of the Constitution that it should exist. lam by
station, and still more by disposition and habit, a member of the
aristocracy. But I support it as an order, only because it is a ne-
cessary order in the State, because it is a necessary link between
the Crown and the people, and because its existence contributes to
the good of the community. Whenever the Aristocracy cease to
be this, then lam no longer a Member of the Aristocracy. But
while it continues to be this, and while its rights and privileges
are conducive to-the preservation of the rights and privileges
of all, I repeat that I am ready to stand or fall by it. It is to
support and preserve that order that I have taken from them by
this measure a power which renders them odious to the people,
and restored to them the means of cultivating a good under-
standing with the people, and of satisfactorily discharging those
public trusts for which their privileges were given to tnem."
This is plain and manly. To pronounce of a measure of
Reform, which merely enables the possessors of property
to name those who are to have the power of taxing them,
that it is calculated to destroy the aristocracy, is to pro-
nounce the strongest possible libel on the aristocracy, for
it is saying that the aristocracy can only exist by possessing
an irresponsible power over the properties of the whole
nation. If we must choose between the welfare of the
aristocracy and the welfare of the nation, the choice m
be made without difficulty. But Lord Grey wishes to
prove that the interests of his order are best consulted by
placing them in harmony with the Interests of the people,
and by declaring that the aristocracy ought not to exist a
moment longer than it was found conducive to the wel-
fare of the community.—Morning Chronicle.
If peculiar crises of great excitement produce great
crimes and vast aberrations from moral rectitude, they do
no less afford illustrious examples of disinterestedness and
virtue. The Reform Bill has produced actions propor-
tioned to its magnitude ; for as there has been most dis-
gusting baseness in the conduct of many of its oppotutts,
so have there been instances of the most noble self-sacri-
fica, and generous indifference to private interest, in seve-
ral of the supporters of the Bill. We have spoken of the
manner in which various Members have voted for a mea-
sure by which they must be deprived of an interest which
had either been derived to them from their ancestors, or
been the purchase of their own money, on the public con-
fidence that the boroughmongering system must continue.
Sir Sandford Graham, the Dukes of Norfolk and Devon-
shire, Lord Cleveland, Lord Grosvenor, Lord Radnor, Mr.
J. Smith, and others, have been mentioned, and to this
list must be added the name of Mr. William Russell, the
representative of the county of Durham, who generously
gives up four Members by the proposed Bill, which
he supports with all his strength—two for Saltash,
in Cornwall, and two mote for Bletchingley. At
what a time are we now at length happily arrived,
when we can speak as boldly and freely of the pur-
chase, and sale, and proprietorship, and bribery of bo-
roughs, as of the less knavish proceedings of a police-office.
To suppose that these things can continue, now that the
Press can expose them at will, is madness. And what a
state of slavery was that which prevented, on the pain of
imprisonment, all mention of illegal acts, which every
man knew to exist. People talk of intimidation, indeed'.
Was there no intimidation in silencing Britons to the
grossest invasion of their rights, which they saw passing
daily before their eyes? Lord Grey's speech last night,
in the House of Lords, was a specimen of manly elo-
quence, and a model of plain dealing with his political
antagonists and the country. We beg particular attention
to two passages. In the first he clearly demonstrates the
principle on which our noble-hearted Sovereign accepted
the services of his new Ministers :
When the situation which he now filled was offered to him—
under circumstances which, he conceived, made it his duty not
to decline the proposal—by his Gracious Sovereign, in a manner
which would command his respect, gratitude, arnhaffection, as
long as he lived, he strongly urged to his SovefEign—and his
services were accepted on that condition—that lie could not
faithfully and usefully serve his Majesty if he were not permitted
to propose a measure to Parliament of the description which had
been submitted to the other House."—(Hear, hear.)

In the second, his Lordship, in unequivocal language,
and with un earnestness of expression worthy of the great
cause of political regeneration to which he is devoting all
bio energies, thus proclaims his fixed determination, that
in order to maintain his Bill, he will shrink from no pro-
ceeding dictated by public duty
The Noble Marquis had also complained that threats had
been held out of a dissolution of Parliament in the event of the
rejection of the measure, and had called on him for some ex-
plicit declaration on that point. He would make no such ex-
plicit declaration.—(Hear.) All he would state was this,—that
he considered himself as committed to the proposed measure,
without the possibility of compromise or retreat—(Hear, hear)—
by that measure he would stand or fall ; and he was determined
not to consent to any thing which would detract from its effici-
ency.—(Cheers.) He was not presumptuous enough to say that
the measure was so complete and perfect that there might not be
some matters requiring correction ; but to nothingin any degree
detracting from its efficiency would he ever consent.—(Cheers.)
He said, again, by that measure he would stand or fall—(Hear,
hear)—and, without wishing to throw out any threat, yet he de-
clared that, to carry a measure which he believed was calculated
to do the greatest good it was possible for any measure to do, by
silencing the voice of complaint, by removing the cause of dis-
content, by uniting in confidence and affection to the Govern-
ment of the country the people of the country,—to carry a mea-
sure of this description, to which he stood committed, there was
no proceeding dictated by public duty from which he would
shrink."—(Clieers.)
People of England, such is your King—such is his
Prime Minister. Will not you, in support of your own
rights, stand by such a King and such a Minister? Every
corner of the empire answers—Yes. It seems needless
after this to refer to the absurd reports that the King was
opposed to a dissolution of Parliament, if a dissolution
should be necessary. Yet it was asserted, till his Ma-
jesty's dealings with some of his own servants refuted the
fa'sehood, that the King was opposed to the Bill, and'
above all was afraid of the excitement of a dissolution.
Ye Powers ! what would the excitement of a dissolution
and a general election be, under the hope that the popular
rights might still thereby be reclaimed and re-established,
when compared to the excitement of the Bill's simple rejec-
tion—when put in competition with the announcement that
it was irrecoverably lost, and that the boroughmongers
would adhere to their usurpations ? It you are afraid
of excitement, dread that which would be con-
sequent upon the cruel disappointment of a kingdom's just
expectation. If the Bill could be rejected this night, before
the departure of the mails from London, every guard would
announce the fatal tidings to the towns and villages as he
passed, and Poland itself would not be in a greater conster-
nation and commotion on the entrance of the Russians, than
would England be, though unarmed, on the knowledge of
so dreadful an event. Why, men, cannot you see the signs
of the times ? Every day we have to report the meeting
of some great county; in yesterday's publication York•
ohire, and in to-day's Kent, uttrr their mighty voices to
Parliament and the Throne. Every county, city, town,
and hamlet, petitions for Reform. Say them .‘ nay," if
you please ; but if you do, pretend not that you are afraid
of excitement. It is our apprehension of excitement that
impels us to lay these truths before you. We repeat, be
wise in time : open your eyes, your ears. All England
calls aloud for the Reform
The Jacobin Ministry, by which the British nation is at
this moment convulsed and endangered, threatens by
means of its organs the Press to dissolve the Parliament
which has determined to withstand its revolutionary de-
signs. We think the men who, for the mere sake of
maintaining themselves in office, could propose a measure
to the Legislature so destructive as the Reform Bill, may
be &operate enough for any thing. We should therefore
not be surprised if they were to realise the menace their
adherents and advocates so loudly proclaim. But should
they do so, it was evident, beyond the possibility of con-
tradiction or doubt, that they adopt this course in the
revolutionary hope that the elections which must
follow will be controulled and governed by revo-
lutionary mobs. Has the constituency of England
undergone any such material change since last
summer, that the Ministers of the Crown can reasonably
hope to procure, by any other means than that of revo-
lutionary terror, an assembly essentially different from the
present House of Commons, and yet 'emanating rom the