The Sun.
London, England, 1831-08-31 00:00:00

within these few months—Mr. Spring Rice, Lord
Limerick's son-in-law, and a few other gentlemen of
that island, seem much disturbed by a notion of
" the difficulties" which are to beset the poor law
system. The poor under the present system find a
difficulty quite as serious as any that affects the ima-
gination of Lords and Gentlemen—the difficulty of
existing at all. The hardship of dying for want of
food seems to us, at least, not far inferior to that of
a rich man's refunding something from an exorbitant
rent, or contributing to an impartial poor-rate. In
fact, Mr. Stanley told the simple truth, the necessity
of poor laws has become so much a matter of gene-
ral conviction, that no Government can much longer
oppose them. The Reform Bill crawled along last
night through part of a stage. If we were to mea-
sure the energy and determined spirit of the people
of England by the standard of the managers of this
Bill, we should indeed despair. But we cast our
eyes over the general mass of our countrymen—we
mark their ardour, checked only by its own sincerity.
We see their indignation only not bursting forth
because they still honestly conF.de in the representa-
tives of their choice, and our courage revives. The
cause of Reform must triumph.—Times.

We regret to see, night after night, motions made
in the two Houses on the subject of the conduct of
the French Government, which afford occasion for
imputations of a very irritating nature. The French
are a high-spirited nation, and it cannot but be ex-
ceedingly galling to them to see every step taken
by their Government not merely canvassed in the
British Parliament, but canvassed in a way arro-
gating an insulting superiority over them. Last
night, for instance, Mr. Robinson wished to know---

Whether his Majesty's Ministers were apprised of the
endeavour of the French Government to obtain for them-
selves from Portugal commercial advantages, by which
the interests of this country would be seriously injured ?
He wished, also, to know whether they had heard of eight
Portuguese ships of war sailing from the Tagus tinder
French colours, and as French vessels, being considered
by the French Admiral as prizes? In the course of that
short war which France carried on in the Tagus, forty
Portuguese mercbantment were captured before Don Mi-
guel consented to make the reparation demanded by the
French Government. But the value of the captured
ships greatly exceeded the amount of the pecuniary com-
pensation claimed by France. He thought that the
forcible abstraction of the Portuguese navy was a viAs-
tion of that neutrality which both the French and English
Governments professed to maintain towards the two hostile
Princes—Don Miguel and Don Pedro."
Lord Palmerston said he was assured that no en-
deavour had been made to obtain any such treaties,
and that the Portuguese ships were lawful prizes,
and the Government had no right to interfere with
regard to them. lie added, that the French squa-
dron had been recalled, and that one vessel was to
remain there for the protection of the French sub-
jects. Then followed Mr. Alderman Thompson,
who regretted that we had set an example of send-
Mg a hostile fleet to the Tagus, and that it was most
degrading to this country that France should have
been allowed to seize on the whole of the Portu-
guese navy. Now these very men who now clamour
against Ministers for having sent a squadron to the
Tagus, would have been the first to exclaim against
the inattention of Ministers to the interests of Eng-
lish commerce, had Ministers refrained any longer
from demanding satisfaction from Don Miguel. But
on this we do not now mean to enlarge. But we
complain of those incessant attempts to produce
jealousy and ill-blood between two nations which
have so many reasons for being on terms of amity
with each other. Were there any colour for the in-
sinuations
incessantly thrown out, in the conduct of
the French Government, there might be some jus-
tification ; but 111. Perier carries to a failing, per-
haps, the wish to be on good terms with the Eng-
lish Government. He is essentially a pacific Mini-
ster. It is peculiarly unbecoming in Members of the
British Legislature to assume these bullying and
braggadocio airs towards a Government bearing
itself with so much mildness. In no one
case has there been the least foundation fur
any one of the numerous insinuations thrown
out against that Government. Singular, that while
a gallant nation is now in its last struggle against
the Despot of the North, and Prussia is aiding that
Despot in every possible way, not one generous
expression should be heard in either House of Par-
liament. It used to be the boast of Englishmen,
that the oppressed of every clime could always find
sympathy in the House of Commons. English
magnanimity seems to have changed its character.
The great oppressors are no longer the object of
indignant eloquence. But the great nation which
has set an example to every people, and with the
well-being of which the hopes of our species are
in some manner bound up, is selected for incessant
insult. All the sympathies of Englishmen are re-
served for a brute, upheld by the priests and the
Inquisition, that the people may be retained in
gross ignorance, whose reign is a libel on human
nature. We had almost forgotten the other object
of English sympathy—the.Stadtholder—who would
have involved Europe in war that he might have
the gratification of reigning over the Belgians against
their will. No wonder that the French popular
journals should be surprised at the littleness of Eng-
lish public men. Their sole endeavour seems to be
to revive forgotten jealousies,and to throw obstacles
in the way of a cordial intimacy between two great
nations that have so many reasons for beim', on a
good understanding with each other.-Itforit7Chron.

A sort of discussion took place in the House of
Commons last night, en the presentation of a peti-
tion from the Westminster Political Union, by Mr.
Hunt, praying for annual Parliaments, vote by
ballot, and universal suffrage. The Hon. Member
took the occasion to make the strange declaration,
" that wherever he went in society, high or low, he
found that the public opinion regarding the Reform
Bill was essentially changed, and that the majority
of the inhabitants of the country now began to dis-
cover that they had been deluded." A number of
Members deemed it necessary to declare, that the
measure had not lost ground in the parts of the
country with which they were connected. They
might with as much propriety have declared
that the people of England are not canni-
bals, or that they are not all in a state bordering
close on lunacy. Why should the people of
England have changed their opinion of the Re-
form Bill? Have they had any new light on
the subject? Or is the Bill so changed by the
alterations made in it in the Committee, as to
deprive it of the character which obtained from the
people their approbatien of it during the late elec-
tion ? To suppose the people indifferent to a Bill,
which, with all its defects (and we are not blind to
its defects), will be an immense improvement on the
existing state of things, would be to suppose them
sunk to a state of the lowest idiotcy. The Bill
will cut up the existing system of corruption; and
when boroughmongery is cut up, the energies of the
nation will have fair play. We dread nothing but
close corporatioas. With a numerous constituency,
improving every year in political knowledge, we defy
any cracy in the world to re-organise a system of
virtual representation. We ere not afraid of the
tenants at will. But even allowing them to be by
no means all that might be wished, still we defy any
Junta hereafter to thrust themselves between a po-
pular Ministry and the country, and to command
them, as in the days of yore, to govern in the inte-
re:A of the oligarchy. Lord Valletort prudently
avowed himself somewhat sceptical as to the extent
of the popular change. There would, he thought" be
a difficulty in persuading people to retract opinions
already expressed ; otherwise he was sure that the
national sentiment was now hostile to the Bill; or,
at least, that it had very considerably retrograded.
He appealed to the proceedings of the last week to
show from which side the delay had proceeded." if the
conduct of the Members pledged to Reform were,
indeed,t to be taken as an evidence of the sentiments
o
tthuetrewNeVrOeUtlidiebree
asogmeentehrairl;elienettitins last
t.
observation.he na
suspect several of the pretended Reformers, but
se-
cret enemies of the Bill, would find the
disapproba-
tion of their constituents manifested in a way by no
means palatable to them. The people at present are