The Sun.
London, England, 1831-03-11 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

If we may judge by the reduced calculation of the ex-
perienced whippers-in of the Tories, ultra and citra—the
Wellingtonians and the Peelers—the great remedial mea-
sure of Reform is in much less danger of rejection than we
at first apprehended. The majority last week against the
Bill was stated at 100—it is to-day reduced to 40, and
before Monday se'nnight we predict that a tithe of that
number will be their utmost hope. We firmly believe
that the voice of the people is exerting its due influence
among the Members of the House of Commons ; those
who feel themselves really qualified and called upon to
take a part in the business of legislation, and to whom it
is an object of honourable ambition to represent their
countrymen in Parliament, shrink from marring their fair
prospect. by adhesion to abuses tolerable only to a few
families and corporations. County Members have to ask
themselves how they will stand, even with their
present constituents, if their rotes should defeat
a popular measure, not brought forward speculatively
by an individual, but practically introduced by the Minis-
ters of the King, and with his repeated and cordial sanc-
tion. Sir James Graham has been taunted for having
said that the plan of Reform would satisfy all moderate
men. We profess to belong to that class, and we concur
with the Right Hon. Baronet; for we are convinced that
the bigoted maintenance of flagrant abuses, even though
the sphere of their operation were limited, which is not
the case of close boroughs, is, in the present day, impos-
sible; and, without using the language of intimidation, we
are equally sure that political convulsion must inevitably
follow from the attempt. Many individuals, now Mem-
bers of the House of Commons, and who have been
tempted thither by the easy access afforded by their mo-
ney, and the total absence of accountability as repre-
sentatives, may, perhaps, withdraw from the occupa-
tion in future; but still they are not mad enough
to risk the tranquillity of the country by flinging
the Bill of Reform, not merely bark upon the Mi-
nistels, hut into the anxious and formidably thoughtful
faces of the people of England. We have heat d even some
desperate Tories say, with all the bitterness of disappointed
pride, " We dare not any longer oppose it; for we dare

not come to issue with the middling classes and the popu.

lace; but we will cherish a most unextinguishable hatred
against those Ministers who, belonging to our order, have
ventured to look beyond it." Those Ministers will in-
deed require the support of all moderate and well-judging
men in the country, and the expressions of gratitude to
the Monarch should be accompanied with declarations of
confidence in his Ministers. Fortunately we live under a
Prince who acknowledges no advisers on public affairs but
his responsible servants ; but no effort will be left untried
to shake the cordial approval of his Majesty to the pia❑ of
Reform, even though it should pass through the Houses of
Parliament. We have heard it asserted by some who justly
deserve the name of malignants—for most fully do they ma-
lign the people of England—that the personal comfort and
interests of our beloved Sovereign would be curtailed and
invaded by a reformed Parliament, and that English loyalty
knows no other asylum but in close boroughs. British
loyalty, we tell those malignants, has its altar in the
hearts of the people. There are amongst us, indeed, indi-
victuals addicted to every crime, moral and political;
there are amongst us other individuals misled by every
species of fanaticism, religious and political, but the people
of England are unchanged in their national character;
they love their King, they are attached to the very trap-
pings of the monarchy, but they are (oh grievous
offence) tired of the autocracy, and parliamentary jobbing
of borough proprietors. We believe that we have some
knowledge—at least our duty leads us to seek for it—of
the middling classes, and we are confident that no dispo-
sition exists amongst them to abridge the comforts or
d•tract from the splendour of the Monarch. It is the
fashion with some petulant and haughty gentlemen in
the House of Commons to vituperate " that corrupt
and profligate thing, the daily Press," of which, however,
they prufrss " themselves to be the slaves ;" and
why should the Commons House of England dread
the press ? Solely because they do not represent the
people. Is it to be imagined that if that House did col-
lectively and individually represent the people at large,
and bodies of respectable constituents, the voice of the
daily press would be more potential than theirs? Why
do the Ministers of the Crown, even after having carried
a measure by their auxiliary and at present indispensable
band of borough proprietors, still anxiously examine the co-
lumns of the daily papers? They wish to ascertain the
feelings of the people, of which these papers are the mere
organs. They know full well that as their measures are
meant for the nation, a body which does not represent
that nation cannot pronounce conclusively on their fitness.
The want of confidence in the House of Commons; aris-
ing mainly from the antiquated abuse of personal nomina-
tion, has given its present power to the press. In com-
mon parlance the opinion out of doors has now more
weight than that within the walls of the House of Com-
mons; hut however mortifying it may be for us to descend
from our cathedra, profligate or powerful as the petulant
young gentlemen may choose to call it, such must be our
fate whenever the people shall be fairly represented.—
Morning Herald.

Few speeches delivered upon the question of Reform
have told more effet-tively than that of the Member for
Hertford, who, in a tone of so much good-humoured
raillery, descanted upon the value and importance of the
votes of Members sitting for rotten boroughs. It may be
that such Members, or some of them, are men anim..ted
by the loftiest and purest principles of patriotism, and that
it is (however hard the thing to imagine) a real concern
for the maintenance of the Monarchy, and the privileged
orders of the State, which prompts their resistance to the
proposed measure. But without any uncharitable estimate
of individual motives, it is not surely to be forgotten how
deep a personal interest these men have in the perpetua-
tion of the present system ; nay, in postponing far the brief
term of their own liver, or a shorter period, the great and
auspicious change now under consideration. What, we
ask, would become of such men as Mr. Goulburn, Mr.
Horace Twirls, Mr. Croker, Mr. Courtenay, et hoc genus
Mlle, the pbalarax of orators and statesmen arrayed against
Reform in the late debate, under a reformed Parliament ?
Would not they sink into total insignificance ? Would
any of them have the smallest chance of obtaining
official distinction or emolument ; nay, how should
such people find their way into the Legislature at all ?
Is is, therefore, a little to much for men of this
stamp, all more or less (not to use the phrase offensively)
political adventurers, that is, men engaging in politics as
a profession—it is a little too much for them to expect
that much weight or importance shall lea attached to their
demure protestations of alarm and 'apprehension for the
happiness and good government of the country, while
people having a deep and real stake in that country look
with hope and confidence to the measure. The arguments
Of such persons, if any they can produce, may properly be
listened to as coining from advocates engaged by every
motive of personal interest and political obligation to do
their beet for the bsroughmongers; but their asseverations
and denunciations ought to be as little regarded as those of
other men having a deep private interest in the subject
matter cf consideration. In the present plan of Reform—
as to any political scheme, and to Reform itself altogether—
as to any other proposition of a great and comprehensive
character, and operating widely and deeply on the con-
dition of mankind—ingenious men can have little difficulty
in starting many colourable objections ; but a wise man,
setting the good against the evil, will decide according
to the preponderance ; and a goad man will avow the
honest convictions of his understanding. A solemn and
powerful exhortation on this head was delivered to the
House on Wednesday evening; we would repeat it, and
earnestly implore men of all parties and sects to approach
the consideration of this momentous inquiry in the spirit
of earnest and dispassionate investigation, not searching
aaer quibbles and objections, subtleties, and evasions, but
largely and comprehensively embracing the question in all
;Gs extent, and forming thereon a cool, wise, and unpre-
jueiter.l judgment. It is said that Mr. Baring means to
propose diminishing by a moiety the number of boroughs
to be disfranchised. The proposition is every way worthy
of his understanding and statesmanlike qualities, But a
man of spirit would feel little desirous to preserve un-
changed the constitution of an assembly in which his re-
ception has been so far short of what even a regulated
oinQur propre might expect.—Morainp Chronicle.

There has been-
something most peculiarly disgusting in
the late prolonged and
d we will not sly improperly pro-
'cVed—debate on approaching Parliamentary Re-
rill. That disgusting :iii,iatter relates to the terms in
ich the rotten boron
them, are spoken of. andith the persona connected
I
, tc,erto it has been usual, in ,
ig to these abominations
pt a style of cautious
insured language : but we observeal that the enemies
and defend openly
rn in the present instance avoNv
,shingly the property of boronz
Can any one
u:rsopfuda rottenence as
lii a consummation of profligate •
what is meant by the
possession O?
t If)
'by, the right of nominating
persons, who,
e of representatives of the people,ne money
y
and vote away the public
ted, any thing can be tolerated. *No.
~ are for ever done with ! 'But
'tint connected with this subject,
e the ,c'necnies of the Reform Bill
—Are they doing no injury to the
'l property, whilst they represent

as such the detestable corruption of nominating members
of Parliament ? They may, by this language, sink the
security of property to the level of rotten boroughs, but
they cannot raise rotten boroughs up to the consequence
and security of real property. There was Mr. Goulburn,
the other night, who repeated (though by the way, he
misapplied it) the well-known story of King James and
his two Bishops, and compared witk these latter Mr.
John Smith and Sir Charles Wetherell, as if the tempo-
ralities of bishoprics were no better than the property in
rotten boroughs. Is this wise, Mr. Goulburn? and will
the Bench thank ycu for the simile c Depart from such
freaks of rhetoric, we advise you ; and if rotten boroughs
cannot be defended without hazarding the most sacred
right of property, desist from the defence of them, and let
us have an honest Parliamentary Reform.— Times.

It is sufficiently known that one leading topic of com-
plaint against the Union by the Irish agitators, has always
been the decay of commerce and its attendant wealth,
assumed to be the effect of that measure upon the interests
of the people of Ireland. As there is nothing like arith-
metic in all such cases, we subjoin two papers which are
calculated to throw light upon the above question under two
points of view—first, as to the amount of live stork ex-
ported from Ireland to this country during the year 1830 ,
second, as to the balance of another kind of stock—namely,
that constitutin4 funded property:--bought and sold by resi-
dents in Ireland during the six years and a half commencing
on the 6th of July, 1924, and coming down to the sth of
January, 1831. The value of cattle, &c., taken off by
the Liverpool market alone, during the year expired
on the sth of last January, was, according to the account
in question, about 1,400,0001., without reckoning a single
cargo of those which may have been delivered in Bristol,
or other western ports of Great Britain, from the north
and south of Irelanl. Then as to value realized by resident
Irishmen in the public funds. It appears, that from the
6th of July, 1824, to tie sth of January, 1831, the trans-
fers from Ireland to England amounted to upwards of
5,000,000/. sterling ; and the transfers to Ireland from
this country exceeded 19,000,0001., leaving a clear balance
in favour of Irish purchasers of not less than 14,000,000/.
sterling, or more than 2,000,0001. per annum ! What
the purchases of Irish land, or other investments of
wealth, by British capitalists, have been, within
the same period, we possess at present no means of ascer-
taining or conjecturing ; but, unfortunately, a large de-
duction must be made from what wou!d have been the
natural amount of such investments, because of the cruel
state of uneasiness and disturbance into which Ireland has
been thrown fur some years past, by the traders in political
convulsion.

• RETURN OF CATTLE EXPORTED FROM DUBLIN TO LIVERPOOL BY
THE CITY OF DUBLIN STEAM-PACKET COMPANY IN THE YEAR
1830.
Horses, 569 ; cows, 43,412 ; pigs, 48,306 ; sheep, 73,177 ;
lambs, 4179.
Valuing the above as follows :—Horses, 30/. ; cows, 101. ; pigs,
1. ; sheep, ‘..)1.; and lambs, 15s. each, the estimated money pro-
duce would be--Horses £17,040 4 0

Cows 114,E20 0 0
Pigs
Sheep
17,3.91 5 0

Total value of cattle shipped on board the City of
Dublin Steam Company's vessels at Dublin, and
delivered at Liverpool, within the year ISSU 711,510 5 0
It has been stated that an equal quantity of stock
has been imported to Liverpool from Dublin by
ether vessels within the above period ; if so, the
total value of the live stock so imported to Liver._ _ . _

pool from Dublin should be increased by 711,510 5 0

Total estimated value as above C1,1'43,020 10 0
Feb. 17, 1831.