The Sun.
London, England, 1836-10-08 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Conservative meetings multiply throughout the
kingdom, and in each successive meeting the true
Conservative spirit not only maintains its constitutional
and manly tone, but strengthens in firmness, confi-
dence, and power,—summoning to its side an undis-
puted accession of property and numbers everywhere,
and exhibiting in a more conspicuous manner than it
has done hitherto at any period, that harmony of sen-
timent, and singleness of purpose, by which the whole
Conservative body in all parts of the empire ought to
be animated and directed, if it would secure the
triumph of the sacred cause which inspires it. We
may remark here, that perfect union of design is a
characteristic which belongs to the defenders of an
honest cause, and of none other. Where selfish views
and motives govern the confederated supporters of
that which calls itself a " cause"—such, for instance,
as the nicknamed " cause of Reform" in this country
—it is impossible that anything like cordial harmony
should be found amongst them. Every man, or every
distinct knot of men, going to form the aggregate of
the alliance, have particular aims to accomplish, not
indicated by that general object which gives its title to
the whole. The political Dissenters have for their pe-
culiar end the overthrow of all Church establishments.
The Papists of Ireland have merely the substitution of a
Rornish Church for a Protestant. The extra-sectarian
and out-lying democrats would supplant the consti-
tutional monarchy by a republic. The Whigs want
nothing but to keep their places. Now, let us ask
any man who is not quite an idiot, whether a more ab-
Surd piece of impudence was ever witnessed than the
assumption of a common name by men engaged with
such a diversity of purposes, and that name " reformr
Is it "reform" that there should be no Established
Church whatever? Is that, we repeat, necessarily a
" reform" in the eyes of Protestants of the Church of
England ? Is it in the eyes of Protestants, and espe-
cially Whig Protestants, necessarily a "reform," that
Popery, which was crushed by the revolution of 1688,
should, in less than 150 years afterwards, be raised to
absolute power over Ireland, by another *revolution—
an hypocritical revolution—effected under the mask of
liberty ? Is it not a gross mockery of " reform" to
apply the word to an extinction of one estate of the
realm, and the corruption of this ancient monarchy,
under which equal freedom has for centuries been
protected by equal law, into a coarse, crude, short-
sighted, passionate, and unrestrained democracy ?
Can the subversion of a fundamental principle of go-
vernment be rightly termed a " reform" of that prin-
ciple ? And lastly, is it—must it be—a " reform" in
the Administration of the British monarchy, that
such a lame specimen of statesmanship as Lord
John Russell should officially lead the House of
Commons, to the exclusion .of Sir Robert Peel ?
Let us bring words to their proper and accustomed
meaning. What is it that each individual in society
understands by the term " reformer ?" It is a politi-
cian who inclines to at least as much of change as we
do ourselves, if not one who goe:i a little further. Then,
apart from the consciousness which every man in the
community er_tertains, that the Whigs, so long as they
remain in office, desire no change at all—no, not
even a change of wind, hut such as would promote
some selfish and sordid fruition—we would just inquiro
by what section of their Parliamentary supporters is it
that the Whig Ministers would be permitted to come
within that category which is implied when all " Re-
formers" are appealed to, and importuned by secret
circulars from the Treasury, to keep out the vile Con-
servatives, and keep the Whig " Reformers" in office?
ho Melbourne Whigs have. proceeded thus :—They
yield a little bit to Irish Popery, but not half enough,
sacs O'Connell, and what you give me I will use,- in
spite of you, as a steppimi-stone to more. They give
a little bit of voluntary principle to the tur'mlent poli-
tical assentors, who thank them not for what they
have conceded, but taunt them for what they with-
hold. They coquette a little with the out-and-out
Radicals by abusing the House of Lords, and flatter-
ing, the movement that when " the public mind
shall be sufficiently prepared," but not till then, they
may perhaps succeed iii " carrying out" their chimeras;
but the dogged " carriers" tell them, " We want acts,
not words. We have voted for you long enouoh, and
would rather Lave prompt than long-winded' post-obits.
Indeed, we should have no objection to exchange
some of our principles for some of your places—a
barter which you, Whig Lords and gentlemen,
seem not much disposed to cultivate." But it is a
curious fact that these shuffling Whigs lay claim to the
rank of " Liberals," " Reformers," and so forth, in ad-
dressing the several divisions of their multiform task-
masters, when really and substantially, with reference
to and in the estimation of every one of the latter, the
Whigs arc mere Tories, with the honour of being
hypocrites to boot. Then, in speaking of the " dis-
putes" between Radicals and Whigs, we find of
course the Ministers and their tools are deprecating
the " folly" of such discord on the part of the°
Radicals, reprehending them, for that they foolishly
and furiously fight about a " bone," which the
" crafty Tories" are about to come in and seize upon,
and beseeching them to make up matters " speedily
and amicably ;" the bone, we must remember, beim-,
all the while between the jaws of the Whigs. It
is, therefore, not at all unnatural that the master of
petty cunning, Lord Duncannon, even in small things
little, should set up a newspaper, with his own name
as chief of the directors, foremost in a list of Whig
and Radical dunderheads like himself—should set up,
we say, a weekly newspaper, which he, a member of the
Cabinet, has the modesty to call an "impartial" paper I
—begun (certainly not established) to supersede all the
other journals, by reason that they are devoted to
" one party or another," while his wise Lordship lets
his " cat out of the bag" in the next sentence—tries
to abuse the " ultra Tories," and professes himself one
of the Movement. Heavens that the press, even the
"Whig press, should be so degraded I As for the
friendly counsel he administers to the Radical bull-
dogs and Downing-street curs, to leave off fighting like
"foolish fellows" about a bone, which they of Down-
ing-street have been gnawing at these five years, it is,
as we have before said, vastly edifying advice. But let
him tell us how it is to be followed. Here are a set of
people, intrinsically opposed to each other on distinct
and irreconcileable public grounds—Papists and Pro-
testant Independents—Whig professors of monarchy—
Radical professors of republicanism. Such adverse
parties may, no doubt, say they agree ; but will they
agree? Is it possible they should? They may bar-
gain with each other to stir " no disputed points ;"
but how are they to manage, when all those points
to which the Papists, Dissenters, and Radicals attach
ostensibly the gravest importance, are disputed by the
Whigs ? They must all go to sleep, we suppose—a
fox's sleep, like the sentries in the Critic, watching a
favourable opportunity to start upon their legs and
peach. Verily they are a reputable and efficient body,
and beautiful is their concord I We have left oar-
selves no room to do more than draw the public recollec-
tion to the Hereford Conservative meeting in yester-
day's Times. It was one of those manifestations of
right English and gentlemanly spirit, which prove the
impossibility of destroying, or even for any long time
deceiving, this powerful and enlightened country._...
Times.

We refer our readers to an excellent letter in another
column on the subject of the Tory feed at Hereford,
of which so much was made by the Times and other
Tory papers yesterday. The principal performer was
the well-known Mr. E. L. Charlton, who gloried in
the charge of being "a changeling, an apostate, a
turn-coat," a species of glory of which few will envy
the Hon. and Learned Gentleman the possession, any
more than they may wish to relieve him of his repu-
tation in other respects. He was not an apostate, a
changeling, a turncoat, who slunk cowardly into cor-
ners, to avoid public opinion and public censure, from
which other people may be inclined to conclude that
Mr. Charlton is a good deal indebted to his impu-
dence. He candidly informed the meeting that he
had been bred in Tory politics ; but the little sense
he had enabled him to question the propriety of
these principles, as the Tories were corrupt rogues.
Lord Castlereagh was far too corrupt for him,
and so he quitted Toryism. The mystery of the
Honourable and Learned Gentleman's re-conver-
_.

sion to Toryism was not very distinctly accounted
for by him ; he thought that Catholic Emancipation
vas not accompanied by sufficient securities for the