The Sun.
London, England, 1838-04-30 00:00:00

WITH WHICH

" THE TRUE SUN" IS NOW
INCORPORATED.

LONDON :
MONDAY EVENING, APRIL 30, 1838.

The GrAdsmiths' Company gave a splendid ban-
quet ort Saturday to a splendid party of Tories. The
Company, their rooms, their hall, and their massive
show of plate, are splendid like their banquet, and
like their guests ; though the speech of Mr. War-
den TWINING offers no very convincing illustration
of the public good done by the Company, which is fitly
rewarded by so much splendour. The greater part of
their wealth is derived we believe from estates which
were given to them in Ireland, on condition that they
should promote Protestantism and English civilization
in that backward and benighted land. It would have
bean more honourable then to the Bawdy Company,
and more satisfactory to the public, if they had exhi-
bited thousands of happy and enlightened tenants,
civilised by their means, and occupying their property
in Ireland, instead of a massive sideboard of gold, as an
evidence that they had not preferred their private ad-
vantage to their public duty. Such splendour, de-
rived from the people, while the duty towards them is
grossly neglected, is no unapt type of Toryism, and
it was fitting that all the guests at this show of
gold, wrung from a starving population, should
he Tories. The great leader of the party, however,
seems to be at variance ..with his hosts. Sir RO.
BERT PEEL, in returning thanks, alluded to the
Bench being represented—not by Lord Chief Justice
DENMAN, but by Sir NICHOLAS TINDAL—and he
was proud to see the bar represented by Sir EDWARD
SUGDEN. Mr. Prime Warden COPELAND, however,
having another name down in hin list of toasts, as the
representative of the Bar, and could not, or did not, take
the expectant Prime Minister's hint. He gave the
health, not of Sir E. SUGDEN, but of Sir CHARLES
WETHERELL and the Bar, plainly informing Sir
ROBERT PEEL, that the Goldsmiths' Company pre-
ferred the Attorney-General, who deserted him when
he deserted the principles of bigotry, to the lawyer
who kept company with the deserter. Sir CHARLES
WETHERELL, we all recollect, was Sir ROBERT
PEEL'S Attorney-General in 1829, and honestly
threw up his place, because he would not draw the
Bill to emancipate the Catholics. The Goldsmiths'
Company, by preferring his name to that of Sir E.
SUGDEN, after Sir ROBERT PEEL'S hint, plainly told
the formerly apostate Baronet, that he must, if he
have not already, apostatise once more, to merit their
confidence and support. Sir ROBERT must be
nothing—or he must again be the foremost
leader of the bigots whom he overthrew in 1829.

The Times is quite in love with the Yeomanry as a
Constitutional force. It likes to arm neighbour
against neighbour. To sow the seeds of discord, and
to warm them into vigorous and branching life, is its
daily occupation. We cannot go along with the Times
in praising the Yeomanry, which is composed of one
class, and officered by the partizans of one faction, as
a proper instrument for preserving peace. If, indeed,
the Yeomanry were a really popular body, selected
indiscriminately by ballot, or otherwise, from all
classes, who chose their own officers, like the old
militia here, or the militia in the United States, we
should admit that the Yeomanry was a constitutional
force, and proper to preserve peace and order in the
country. But the Yeomanry consists exclusively of
farmers, and their officers are landlords. Now the
riots which have of late taken place, or which may be
expected, are riots of the belly. The hungry and
half-starved people sometimes, though very rarely,
grow outrageous. They do not like, as the Times daily
informs us, the new Bastiles, and the Somerset House
despots. They do not like to be starved by the Corn
Laws. Our Contemporary is one of those who have
deliberately excited them against the Poor-law, and now
he praises the practise of arming that class exclusively
who have an interest in maintaining the starving Corn-
law, and what it calls the Bastiles for imprisoning the
suffering poor. We hope the Ministry will in clue
time carry out their principle, and abolish all the Yeo
manry, for at present there is no apprehension of riot,
•
41 44