The Sun.
London, England, 1836-11-26 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF TILE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Those who expect from Sir Robert Peel some such
exposition of his sentiments, in an address at Glasgow,
as was conveyed in his famous Tamworth manifesto will
in all probability be disappointed. The times are dif-
ferent. The Tories, in their naked character of cham-
pions of abuses, opponents of Reform, and enemies of
civil and religious liberty, had been beaten at every
point: To Sir Robert, who hail had the misfortune of
entering political life under the banners of a party
whose bigoted principles he never sincerely espoused,
(and the effort to obtain credit for a conviction lie
did not himself feel gave that canting tone to his
speeches to which he is indebted for the name of Jo-
seph Surface), and whose career had been an aban-
donment of one principle after another as the age grew
more and more liberal, the conjuncture in 1834 ap-
peared favourable for stealing a march on the Re-
formers, by producing the Tories in the new cha-
racter of Conforming Reformers. Lords Stormont
and Roden, Sir Edward Knatehbull, and Mr.
Goulburn, were to be sure rather odd Conform-
ists, more especially as the demands of the crisis
came so suddenly on them that they had hardly
well expressed at public meetings their " detes-
tation of the very name of Reform," when they were
called upon to. make a profession of their new love.
The Times newspaper, which had been purchased for
the occasion, could not openly tell its readers that all the
questions which it had advocated for four years it would
thenceforward oppose, and it appeared necessary for
the success of the system of deceit that it should begin
with pledging Sir Robert and the Duke of Wellington
to more efficient measures of Reform than would have
been proposed by the• former Ministry. The attempt
on the gullibility of the nation was thus resolved on,
and the more stubborn Orangemen and ultra Tories
were regularly drilled for their new vocation of Re-
formers. Sir Robert tried hard in his manifesto to
dupe the nation ; and by way of persuading the people
that the Tories had abandoned all idea of combating
reform, he ridiculed the idea of fighting the battles of the
Constitution in the House of Lords. The nation, how-
ever, refused to be duped. Professions were liberally
madf on the hustings • money was lavished on free-
men and
.on the needier classes of electors; intimi-
dation wag tried on a grand scale ; but all would not
do. Sir Robert 4'14 big hand of Conformers, though
aided by the apostate Times, and other organs which
took their cue from it, were, after all their efforts, fairly
driven from power, and the min of Reform was
wrested from its bitter enemies, and once more confided
to those under whom it had been victorious. But
though wolves sometimes appear in sheeps' clothing,
yet the envelope is still felt by wolves an encumbrance.
The Tories were ill at ease in their constrained gait of
Conformers. They soon, therefore, broke loose, and
displayed their old deadly hatred to all liberal and just
measures. Sir Robert had reprobated the idea of op-
posing the House of Lords to the House of Commons.
But the out-and-out Tories found a man I lees scrupu-
lous than the Tamworth Baronet, who offered to fight
their battles in the House in which their strength lay.
In the House of Commons Sir Robert Peel had
deemed it unwise to run counter to the strong national
determination to reform the insufferable abuses of
Municipal Corporations : but Lyndhurst, in the
House of Lords, boldly endeavoured to rally
round him all that was base and corrupt in these
sinks of iniquity, and the Lords ivete overjoyed
to think that so good a stand could be made for
the rotten parts of the Constitution. However, when
it came to push of pike, their hearts failed them. They
durst not provoke the people of England by a down-
right rejection of a measure the necessity of which was
so generally felt, and they tried to steer such a course
as might enable them to throw on the Commons the
odium of rejecting a measure which, though not so
perfect as it was left by the Lower House, was still a
great improvement on the existing system. Here,
however, they were disappointed. Municipal Reform
deprived the Tories of a powerful arm, to which they
were indebted for no small share of their ability to re-
turn so large a minority in the Commons. But in
1836, as the Reform of Corporations was demanded
for Ireland, the Lords thought they might venture to
"go the whole hog" in insulting that country. By
mixing up the question of political rights with reli-
gious creeds, they thought they might succeed to a
certain extent, in perplexing the middle classes of
Englishmen, w.ho are particularly attached to the Pro-
testant religion. We have no doubt that, by this po-
licy, they have gained little in England, and
Scotland, and we are sure that they have lost greatly
in Ireland, where all classes feel the insult of making
religion a pretext for refusing to them their political
rights, and where Protestant and Catholic do not allow
difference of creed to influence them in the administra-
tion of their local affairs. However, the die was cast.
Lyndhurst and open hostility to Reform became the
watchword of the Tories. The House of Lords was
proclaimed by Tory organs as the Tory House. The
Commons were repudiated. The Tories now place all
their hopes in being able under the leadership of
Lyndhurst to set the nation and the Representatives
of the nation at defiance. Conformity to Reform is
now the ridicule of the Tories. In their corps the only
name uttered by them is Lyndhurst. Lyndhurst and
the House of Lords is the watchword of the party.
Sir Robert Teel is hardly ever mentioned by them. He
is now a historical personage, whose name only serves
to remind them of the time when they conformed to
" what they detested" in their hearts. How, then, can
Sir Robert find an occasion for any manifesto at Glas-
gow ? He cannot tell the students that he is aware of
the cause of theirsending for him in preference to Lynd-
burst—that he is aware that in Presbyterian Scotland,
and more especially in the capital of the west, which
has always been ultra-Presbyterian, appearances are
yet necessary, and that Lyndhurst is not exactly such
a character as John Knox would have eaten salt with.
On the other hand, he cannot disguise from them the
fact that Lyndhurst has taken the Tories out of his
hands; that there is no use in mincing the matter; that
the Toriee are now determined to reject all measures
for the reform of abuses, and that if he were in power
Pi-morrow, he must consent to play second fiddle to
Lyndlmrst., as anti-Reformer. Sir Robert has great
confidence in skill, in plausibility, and his power to
deceive ; but after all that has passed, we hardly think
that he will avail himself of the opportunity of ad-
dressing the Glasgow students to persuade the-nation
that, if lie were in power once more, he would honestly
give effect to the Reform Bill. Being unable, there-
fore, to deceive with any hopes of success, it is not
in his adore to play the other part—the bold, impu:
dent Mephistophiles. We are, therefore, of opinion
that Sir Robert will confine himself at Glasgow to a
few unmeaning common-places,--Morniner chronicle.
It is needless for us to inform the readers of the
Times, that as we have never been parties to an outcry
against Roman Catholics, because of any articles in
tibeir religions creed which we might have felt our-
selves in conscience bound to condemn, so have we,
a fortiori, abstained from all expressions of disap-
proval or disparageinent inwards Protestant Dissenters,
merely Dissenters on religious grounds, from the
ciocici n
e a
ties,
or,
to use a more appropriate language, as
n o
sts to the discipline of the Church of
En n
gland.coiifo rni
Whenever it has fallen in our way to notice
t
unfavourably the proceedings of English Dissenters,
our animadversions have been scrupulously and strictly
confined
onduct ,ro sa
,to what c regarded as their political mis-
time truth, wg do not believe
that any large proportion of those wi-so are sv y
pro-
perly called Disseithirg, have taken an active part hi
politics, and more especially wt discredit the fact of
any respectable or religious Disseotepe having at
any time within the last 20 or 30 years exiaiiiite4
an hostile feeling, or luilolged themselves in unbe-
coming bitterness, towards the Established Church.
As for the Wesleyan Protestants, we hie ImppY
to consitier them in the most substantial points so
identified with our Wwo Established Church, that we
cannot class them with bisseuttrc, The individuals
or confederacies against whom it has hear pur 4tltl to
testify, under the name of Dissenters, were those to
whom the name alone applied—men, who, so far as a
judgment can be formed of them from their actions,
assume a religious designation to cloak their worldly-
minded restlessness, turbulence, and sedition—min,
who detest the Church of England, not for its doc-
trines or discipline, about which they are utterly
careless; but because £t 401,itutIon epdowed