The Sun.
London, England, 1831-11-15 00:00:00

would know them no more. If once they raised
their heads against the people, their fate would be
expulsion from the soil which they had polluted,
and exile and beggary for themFelve: and their chi!.
lren. A nation is very different from a caste. The
power of the caste is aniticial, it depends for its
existence on law, and when the bonds of law are

dissolved, it expires ; but a nation never dies. If
:he oligarchy provoke the people of their country by
wanton outrage, their doom is sealed. They cannot
destroy the nation ; but the nation can easily destroy
them. The object of the Unions now forming is
the preservation of the peace of the country against
the two classes of incendiaries now leagued together
for purposes of plunder—the boroughmongers and
he lowest of the rabble. It was well observed by
Mr. Beaumont, when he proposed " that such inha-
bitants as were willing to serve as special constables
should enrol their names," that as the Government
had expressed its dislike to the formation of armed
Associations, they would confine themselves to the
Above object. lie added, that for his own part, he
should like to see all young men throughout the
country trained to the use of arms; and that if they
could not now form armed associations, should the
Goren ment at any future period require the services

of an armed association, the materials for one were
ready. It is well to make no secret of our strength
and our means of making it available. There is an
eastern saying, that one sword drawn keeps another
.n the scabbard. If the peace of the country is to
be preserved, it can only be by the knowledge of the
lioroughmongers that the people ere prepared for
he worst. To their humanity, to their justice we
rust not. They are robbers and plunderers, and
partake of the nature of all who live by preying on
their fellow creatures. They are hard unfeeling
men, between whom and the people there can be no
peace till they are stripped of the power, for the pre-
,er vation of which they are ready to resort to all man-
lier of wickedness. Much has been said of the pas-
,izes from Blackwood, quoted in the Westminster
Review for October, 1831, as containing a rather too
frank revelation of the designs of the boroughmon-
gets. The extracts are from the number of Blac4--
wcod for August and September. Some of the
passages are certainly curious :
" The Committee will cut the Bill well dov.,n yet More
it goes to the Lords, and the Lords will do the rust of the
business; and Lord Grey will resign next morning, and
William the Fourth, nolens volens, will send for Sir
Robert Peel, and Sir Robert Peel will make up a Cabinet
.within eight-and-forty hours, and deliver a plain perspi-
cuous oration, detailing what Reform he is willing to pa-
rronise, and dissolve the Parliament.
" TICKLEK—And what then?

" NORTII—Why, nothing uncommon. The majority of
the House of Commons are not—not being fools, more
tool. they cannot possibly be—sincere; and they will be
delighted to find their Bill destroyed, and they will vapour
tad palaver, and do nothing. By that time, however, the
horrible stagnation in every branch of internal trade, for
which the nation has to thank Lord Grey, and of which
people in lofty places even are beginning to feel the etr-cts,
sill have come to such a pass as to command attention in
.11 quarters to something much more interesting, as well
important, than any Reform.
• a • • •

" TICK LER—Acid if a general att tck upon property should
••ally take place, where are tle individuals fer anything
ike a defence?

" NORTH—Why I can easily soppose that the present
,•oncern being got rid of—the agricultural population at
huge—excepting of course those counties in which the
;11 gal system of the Poor Laws has had time to work its
roper consequences on the mind of man, woman, and
chili—might very properly be stimulated to take the side
of the conservators.

• • • 4 4 • a a
" TicKLEft—What if the. army should be a disunited
as the reA?

" NORTll—PotBibly. ':s.nd in that case we should see
campaigning There are possibly amorg the
Regimental Officers abundance of old Peninsulars, who
would have no great objection to play for such stakes as
they have read or heard of elsewhere.
" TICK LHR—It must be some comfort to you that, pc-
eordinz to your theory, Scotland here %coal escape.
" Not:Tit—We mn't not be too sure of that, neither ;
I suspect we should have a fierce tussle even here, though
eomparatively a brief one. Most probably our yeomanry
—the finest fellows, I do believe, that ever were embodied

in military corps since the world began
Our yeomanry would most probably put down any insur-
,ection in this quarter in one month—but granting that.
good God, what a month ! It would be a horrid time, in-
deed, for o!d cocks like us, that could not mount and take a
hand in the came. Only think of Glasgow or dear Paisley,
.n the power of the ra,..cals fur a week—yea, for a day.
..e.ea a

" strongly suspect, if there was a r.•ar
either at come or abroad, the army would expect to see
Ilardinge as far forward as anybody but the Duke.
" NORTH shall have work for Murray here among
ourselves. Scotland will look to him in the first in-
stance," &c.
These are the idea.; on which the boroughmongers
gloat.-111-orning Chzonicle.

Whether that disease called the Indian cholera
rnorber be contagious or not, is a question which no
competent authority exists to determine, for " who
can decide when doctors disagree ?" but certain it
is that another disease, by which it has been pre-
ceded and accompanied in this country—we mean
the plague of idle disputation—is exceedingly con-
tagious. Not only are medical men of all grades in-
fected with this distemper at the present time, to a
degree of virulence of which the desperate symp-
toms may be daily seen in the columns of the Press,
but doctrinaires of all daises have caught the ma•
lady from the doctors, and, ranging themselves under
the opposing banners of the contagionists and anti-
contagionists, rejoice or despond as the progress of
mortality elicits facts which appear to be favourable
or adverse to their respective theories. Practical
men, whose minds are not of that speculative
genius which disdains the trammels of common
sense, are content with taking practical mete.
sures to prevent the spreading of the distemper,
as far as human means can prevent it, whe-
ther the disease be contagious or not. The
moment when the enemy prepares to storm the
town, and already carries his scaling ladders to
the foot of the walls, is not exactly the time when
the garrison ought to desert the fortifications for
the purpose of discussing the abstract principles of
the art of gunnery. If so, the town would be
taken before their guns could be charged—and we
suspect all England might be overrun by cholera
morbus before the anti-contagionists and their
learned opponents could bring their theoretical dis-
pute to a satisfactory termination. For our own
part, we believe it very probable that the Indian
cholera,
.like many other destructive distempers, is
contagious as to certain constitutions or habits of
body, and riot contagious as to others. But it be-
hoves all to use precautions ; and whether the dis-
ease be conveyed through the infected air, or com-
municated directly from the person of the patient,
it is equally necessary to take those measures which
experience shows to be the most effective in re-
moving the predisposing causes. The London
Board of Health deserve great credit for their prac-
tical exertions. In Mr. Pearson they have an
equally intelligent and indefatigable Chairman. To
cleanse away the filth of the by-lanes, the alleys, and
the obctire courts of the metropolis—to lime-wash the
rooms and hovels of the poor—to clothe thousands of
families in new flannel, to whom the comfort of
warm and cleanly raiment was long unknown—to
explore the dark regions of accumulated wretched.
ness, and stop the sources of contagion at the foun-
tain-heads of impurity ; these are the duties—the
real, substantial, and benevolent duties—which the
London Board of Health have undertaken to per-
form, while the contagionists and anti•contagionists
are waging a furious paper-war, which is not likely
to be productive of the least benefit to the interests
of humanity. We wish the London Board of
Health had influence enough to prevail upon the
lower classes of the metropolis to give up the intem-
perate use of ardent spirits—the deadly poison of
their health and morals. If a change could be
wrought in this respect, not only would a prediepos-
I ing cause of cholera, or other pestilence among the
• lower classes, be removed, but the breaking in upon
the bad habit, through fear of immediate calamity,
might eventually be turned to a permanent ranifit,