The Sun.
London, England, 1831-05-24 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF TIM PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The elections for England, we believe, have ter-
minated, with the exception of Pembrokeshire.
We were told over and over, about six weeks ago,
that Ministers durst not dissolve the last borough
rt tcreitnri
saisritlai aonmfe
circumstances
tFtsi
tabt;
e—latt
r° coup (i
,iieo)under
hat the
eople
England, the "good people of England," were
against the trumpery Bill brought in by Ministers ;
—that to best che n
soo:
sit.oluai
forth,
ue
reiolid,rlbliolyNa 150
eettltesolt tooitsoiTelegs
House of
bi‘oavoftio-
itect
fs
amilies
too
oairnme
sts would
s, iu the
name of the people of England, and to tax the same
people ad libitum, for the supply of places and pen-
sions to be enjoyed by members of the 150 families ;
—and that, in short, the country wa: so enamoured
of close boroughs, as to " ensure" a Tory Parlia-
ment in case of Minineers daring to appeal to the
people. From others we were ed fist' by bearinF,
that a dissolution of Parliament would " convulse"
the empire from end to end,—that there would be
death and desolation in every county of Great Brit
and in Ireland a regular civil war. Well, what wee
our answer to all this ? The friends of lii‘ertv
said, that if the existing Tory Parliament would
riot agree to the Reform proposed by Mini-
sters, and sanctioned by our gracious King, why,
it would be the bounden duty of his Majesty's
Ministers to a,certain how far the sentiments of the
English nation might coincide with those of the
Tory House of Commons, in rejecting the Bill of
Reform ; that nothing could be more indecent than
for a string of borough nominees to start up in their
places night after night, and pretend to be expressing
the public opinion, when they merely deeldmed on
behalf of their own usurped seats, arid ought to have
been considered as so many hired agents of the sys-
tem of monopoly and plunder ;—that, in short, the
cry about convulsion in this country, and of insurrec-
tion in Ireland, was all pure fudge; the sole aliment
of either being hatred of the Government, and the
single act of dissolution being, in the eyes both of
the English and Irish nations, the strongest claim
that could be offered by the Ministers to popular
gratitude and esteem. Well, who was right, we
ask P Has England been disturbed ? Has Ireland
been thrown into rebellion ? Have tine people
of the two countries proved their attachment to
the " good old" rotten system, by returning a
majority of the tribe to Parliament ? Quite the
reverse. There never, we believe, occurred an
election in either part of the United Kingdom,
wherein so little of actual violence was had recourse
to, for the sample reason, that on the average
the Reformers were to their enemies as a hundred
to one ; arid where Englishmen are so unequally
matched, the weaker party has too mach pr'udence
to provoke a battle, and the stronger too much
spirit arid good nature to accept it. Then what
have been the returns ? Wherever the field was
open, arid the will of the electors had Ur play, in
ninety-nine caves out of every hundred, the borough-
monger candidate was thrown nut, and the Re-
former chosen. What revolution can follow from
events like this ? A nation cannot rebel against it-
self, nor against a King. in whose footsteps it faith-
fully and respectfully advances. William IV.,
watching the aspect of the world, saw what ante-
lioranioes his people ought to look for. Observing
the signs which were abroad among. that people,
his Majesty saw that the'r judgment concurred with
his own. When the borough-faction pre-ented it-
self as a definite and angry obstacle to the accom-
plishment of desires entertained by King and people,
his Majesty said, in the language of the Constitu-
tion," We must get rid of this block which impedes
our common journey." He appealed to the people
of Englend, and they have generously an-
swered him, as they would have done had their
brave Monarch cheered them from the quarter-
deck against any other armed foe. The result is,
as Mr. Bankes himself inform ; us, that '` the Bill,
the whole Bill, is carried" through the House of
Commons. The majority which supports it to the
bar of the House of Lords cannot but have its due
weight with that Right Honourable assembly, who
have never, since the Revolution, placed themselves
in obstinate resistance to the people. An attempt,
however, is making by the desperadoes of the
Tory press to engage the Lords in a meluncholy
conflict with an unanimous nation, by calling on
them to reject the Bill after it shall have passed
the House of Commons ! ! And yet these fools
boast of being friends to the church and the aristo-
cracy, while they strive to plunge both into men-,
sures equivalent to a declaration of war against the
people of England! Where, let us ask these
fanatics, or traitors—(for* treachery we suspect to
be at tile bottom of such advice)—where are there
materials for a contest to be maintained by the
Lords Spiritual and Temporal, against the King,
the Commons, and the nation ? According to the
Tories, the great charm of our present Constitu-
tion is, that the several powers and orders of the
realm co-operate, and must cc-operate in the election
of the national representatives. 'Why, then, the
great body of the aristocracy, including the
House of Lords itself, must have united with the
freeholders and freemen of tile kingdom in appoint-
ing the Members of the new House of Cominons
about to meet on the 14th of June. Do the Tory
journalists wish that the aristocracy should eat its
own acts, and quash the proceedings of an assembly
which itself Las now concurred in nominating ? A
pretty piece of consistency, to be sure ! And if the
new House of Commons has been chosen, not
through, but in spite of, the influence of the aristo-
cracy, then, by virtue of all the Tory doctrines,
and if their panegyrics on the Constitution as it is
be not altogether insincere and ironical, a Reform is
wanting, which shall invest the general mass of pro-
perty with a more wide-spread and more certain
power over the composition of the House of Com-
mons—such a power as in fact it is the object of
the Ministerial measure to bestow. The House of
Lords at all events is much too wise to place itself
in direct. collision with the country, or to bring its
own constitutional prerogatives into distrust or
obloquy with a reflecting people.—Thies.
While the elections in England have been more
than usually peaceful, the Scotch Papers, received
yesterday, bring accounts of scenes of violence in
the northern part of the island, of which we have
no example here. The supreme Criminal Judge of
Scotland, who left his seat on the bench empty, to
vote as a freeholder of Ayrshire against the Minis-
terial candidate, had a narrow escape. " Mr. Lade,
of Port Glasgow," says the account in the Cale-
donian Mercury, "one of the voters, died in the
steam-boat betwixt Ayr and Ardrossan. He had
been previously in very bad health. A gentleman
who came up in the Largs steam-boat describes
the dinner scene as one of the most striking he
ever witnessed. One of the voters was lying a
sat
apartment,hadthei most
ocofrptismeseinwiaton hevandils bound
up with bloody handkerchiefs." At Dumbarton
the ferocity of the mob was as conspicuous as at Ayr.
The violence at the Scotch elections is a pure
waste of combativeness, to borrow a word from
the craniologists. The question of Reform had
been already decided by the result of the English
elections; and as the people have nothing to do with
elections in Scotland, while the freeholders are
deeply interested in upholding the present corrupt
system, there was no danger of the returns being
mistaken for the sense of the country. Some na-
tions will not fight when there is occasion for it,
while others are ready to light when there is no
occasion. We wish the Scotch could transfer a
little of their fierceness to the Italians, for they have
always had enough and to spare. It is.a
matter to account for the diversities of national cha-
racter, but, however acquired, they seem to be al-
most indelible. The contrast between the two
na-
dons in this island, speaking the same lanetri.ige,..,,sl
living under the same Government,e is/jnfi:ll:l;`;,,,
marked at this day as it
Was:ft havet always been,
Crowns. The English are,
an
temper. The Scotch
remarkable for CQOiISCSS and

though wary and calculating when unruffled, are
easily provoked to violence and reckless of conse-
quences when once excited. The great defect of the
Scotch is want of temper ; the English might, per-
haps, be improved by a little more excitability. In
No. 83 of the Qtarterly Review, there is an article
on Vtcairn's Ancient Criminal Trials of Scotland,
attributed to Sir Walter Scott, in which the dark
part of the Scotch character is w.. 11 handled :
" fire Northern Legislature itself," says the Reviewer,
" seems to have been fully sensible of the atrocity of the
nation d temper, and accordingly their laws concerning
homicide were far more rigorous than those of the Sister
Kingdom, which their Jurists gravely defended, by alleging
the necessity of restraining the perferviduln ingenium
Scotorum. The traces of this still remain. The Scottish
law has been so framed as to discountenance all approaches
to personal encounter, that even marked aggressions will
not vindicate the person who receives them. Nor even
at this hour do the Judges receive openly or avowedly the
distinction so broadly marked in the English law, between
the homicide, whose guilt arises out of some sudden strife,
and unpreir.editated quarrel, and the deliberate and afore-
thought murderer. Yet not only did this affectation of
judging with extreme severity the first provocation to vio-
lence fail of producing the desired effect in the elder time,
but at this hour many of their own authors are forced to
recognize the remnants of the fierce and vindictive propen-
sitiea of their fathers among a nation otherwise proverbially
moderate in their passions, and moral in their deportment.
If we consider the criminal calendars of England and Scot-
land in a comparative view, we must, of course, first make
allowance for the population and the wealth of the principal
nation. While our northern provinces are for the most part
thereby peopled, and by a simple race, removed from the
general temptations of higher civilization—a great part of
England is, on the contrary, densely inhabited by a manu-
facturing population, sometimes wallowing in opulence,
which they waste in sensual enjoyment, sometimes reduced
to the most sordid distress—either condition, unhappily,
the fruitful mother of vices which cannot so readidily oc-
cur in a country still mainly pastoral and agricultural. To
this must be added the great effect produced upon the Scot-
tish nation by their excellent system of parochial schools
and general education. Such instruction, almost univer-
sally diffused, has hail potent influence:in ameliorating men's
minds and taming their strong passions. It has taught
them reflection and modtration, as its necessary conse-
quence ; it reminds them, that as sure as the day is fol-
lowed by the night, so sure must the actions of the day be
accounted for, and the indulgence of passion, of whatever
kind, repaid by distress, remorse, or punishment. •
• a • • •
Still, all this being granted—all deduction being made on
the one hand, for the infinite concatenation of crime, con-
nected with the mercantile and manufacturing system—
and, on the other, for such superiority of general educa-
tion as the under ranks of the Scotch can justly pretend
to ;—it is, at least, the common opinion, that Scotland is
even at this day remarkably fertile in producing the darker
kinds of crime, arising out of deep passion, matured re
venge, long-hatboured spite, family feuds, disputes among
neighbours, and casual quarrels, which the good-natured
Englishman forgets, before the sun has gone down upon his
wrath."
As one of the hundred instances which may be
gisen of the singular contrast afforded by English
mobs, we take the following characteristic account
of the Popr-burning mobs of London in 1680-1-9,
from Roger North's " Examiner."
" Whether," he says, "this Pope-burning frolic was
originally an express contrivance, or rose up by accident,
dolt not clearly appear ; the former is most likely, because
it is certain all kind of invention was at work to excite
the rabble, upon all occasions, to make their musters as
formidable as the managers durst appear to encourage
them ; and the pretence of celebrating the 17th of No-
vember (Queen Elizabeth's Birth-night) was apt enough
for the purpose. For the Reformation being settled in her
reign, the -term Pcotestant went off well with it, like
matter and form, insignificant asunder, but joined make a
figure ; and such an one as might best endiablee the rabble,
and set them a bawling against Popery. Others fancied
it was rather accident that lighted this fire; as having no
other original than some tavern caprice, encouraging a
small mob, put in the way by the sth of November doings
not long before, to make a bonfire, by which the disposi•
tion was observed ; and then the faction run into it, as a
kind opportunity proffered to tumultuate the people, for
that was a necessary operation it, the conjunction then
reigning. It is certain the whole party in and about Lon-
don, engaged by all practicable ways and means to exaspe-
rate the rabble upon this occasion, and carried the humour
so high as seemed to shake the English Government; so
much, that foreigners concluded the streets would be alt
bloody and strewed with carcases, so fierce and minatory
were the agitations ! Eut the English are in that sin-
gular from all other rations, especially those towards the
hotter climes, where men seldom tumultuate without
blood ; but the English will bawl and crowd terribly, but
do not love the cry of murder."
Yet the nation had not long recovered from a long
and bluntly civil war, and bad been constantly aft, r-
wards agitated by tumours of plots anti conspiracies.
It is pretty clear that when our Northern neighbours
take any matter up, they take it up in good eatnest
—that they do riot understand joking. We rejoice
exceedingly that the majority of England and Ire-
land will be so great as to secure the passing of the
Bill ; because, if after having their expectations
raised with regard to Reform, they were to have
seen a strong Anti-Reform Opposition in the house
of Commons, the peace of the country might have
been in some danger. Though the English pos-
sess great temper and forbearance, they have more
than once been entangled by the violence of their
Northern neighbours. Reform in our days would
be as powerful an incentive as Presbytery in a former.
But, thank God, the danger is past. The good
sense of the English people taught them that the
support of the Government on this trying occasion
could alone be a guarantee for order and tranquillity,
and their exertions have indeed been wonderful.
When this great exciting cause has once been dis-
posed of, we may consider the peace of the country
as permanently secured. Our moral and religious
neighbours of the North will, it is to be hoped, on
receiving the extended franchise, abandon the savage
practice of murdering those whose votes they
disapprove, and furnish their heads with arguments
for speeches, instead of filling their pockets and
aprons with stones.-11Iorning Chronicle.
The anniversary dinner for celebrating the triumph
of the purity of election in Westminster was held
yesterday, in the usual place. The assembly was
more numerous titan it has been for many years.
Mr. Sturch, who proposed Sir Francis Burdett,
entered on what may be termed the business of the
night, by reading the hand-bill, which he had him-
self assisted in drawing up 24 years ago, inviting
the electors of Westminster to choose their Mem-
bers without being canvassed, and thereby set a
noble example to the country. That example then
set by the electors of Westminster led to most im-
portant consequences. By degrees the people of
England became ashamed of allowing themselves to
be dragged to the hustings as retainers for this or
that candidate; and we have seen that during the
present election they have in general taken the
business into their own hands. The nation owes
much to the small band who first, in Westminster,
t tight the people the secret of their own strength.—
allorning Chronicle.

In adverting again to the ca;es of the two con
victs who are ordered for execution to-morrow
morning, we wish it distinctly to be understood that
we did not and do not object to the infliction of
death in these instances on the ground of a partial
or injudicious selection having, been made out of a
calendar of eighteen condemned persons, who might
all have beenat swept from the face of the earth to-
gether, if Government so pleased, in accordance
with the latter and the spirit of sanguinary laws—
our objection is
made, if these It: any selection for the scaffold being
well
the worst cases in the calendar
—and we are
execution,convinced that, if the sentences
are carried intoit will be under cir-
cumstances that do ne the shedding cf
blood either on moral grounds justify
yr
those of public
Pht--;rB„(t_he Courier) says,
necessity. An Evening
abstracting
wtpeuld probably
in allusion to our remaarbkss%
questionsi as
have been found that,
tle fitness of the law under wghihch
are sentenced, the selection was well m"aedsee,lnfteldl
we hope it will be admitted that, whilst c' p"
punishments for other crimes than murder shaael7el
considered necessary, the Government will, in the
selection of offenders to whom it is intendard to ed to ex-
tend the mercy of the Gown, have reg the
Here is a doe-
genersl character of the convicted."