The Sun.
London, England, 1838-12-18 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1838.

course between the English Ambassador and the Persian
Government.

According to advices from Beyrout of the 9th ult., there
still existed in Syria seeds of discontent and irritation,
calculated to fill the Egyptian Government with serious
apprehensions. The British Government had appointed a
Vice-Consul for Jerusalem, who was already provided with
carats from the Porte. This measure would, it was thought,
greatly annoy Mehemet Ali, who hitherto would not allow
a Consular agent to be established in that residence.

LORD DURHAM.

(From the Hull Rockingham.)
It will be recollected by our readers, that at a late meet-
ing of our Town Council, our worthy Mayor was instructed
to invite Lord Durham to a public dinner. The follow-
ing courteous answer to the invitation was received yester-
day, and though it is expressed in general terms, we
think we may safely congratulate our townsmen on the
probibility of seeing the Noble Lord amongst them at no
very distant day :—,; _

" Cleveland-row, Dec. 12, 1838.
" SIR,—On my arrival in town from Plymouth I re-
ceived your communication of the 30th November, trans-
mitting to me the resolution of the Council with reference
to invitation to a public dinner from the Corporation.
" I beg to assure you that I feel highly flattered by this
proof of their esteem, and shall gladly avail myself of an
opportunity of personally assuring them of the high value
which I attach to the official connection which subsists
between us, and of my earnest desire to render them any
service in my power.—l am, Sir, your obliged and faithful
" DURHAM.

•
servant,
" The Worshipful the Mayor of Hull."

(From the Weekly Chronicle.)
THE WHIG CREED, OR " THE THREE ES-
TATES, AND THE THREE LEADERS."
The times have been full of perplexity and confusion
since Lord Durham's return, and our political Murphys
seem quite at fault as to the almanack of next session.
Most of them take refuge in that obscurity, in which their
prototype delights to veil his meaning.
"sth of Feby. 1839.—Cloudy, with an inclination to snow,
which perhaps may blow off, and perhaps not !
" 6th of Feby.—Weather much worse, if not better !
" 7th of Feby.—A decided change,—one way or the other!"
Such are the prognostications of the press, when they
venture to approach this delicate subject. In conversa-
tion, men are not so much afraid of commiting themselves,
and we have heard every possible theory, that human inge-
nuity can devise, broached and argued upon, in the course
of the last forty-eight hours.
The most singular, and, at the same time, the happiest
state of mind, in the midst of these uncertainties, is that
of your pure old Whig—your real Reform-Bill-finality-man,
who knows no world but Brookes's or Boodle's, and whose
political creed consists in his belief in the star of Lord
Melbourne. With him everything is for the hest in this
best of all possible systems. Lord Durham will come
round, or Lord Melbourne will come round, and Lord
Durham Will be made a Duke, or the Ballot a Cabinet
question—it matters very little which, provided harmony
be restored.
This is a comfortable creed. It's only fault is it's utter
impracticability. But the Whigs do not see this ; they
look at things through spectacles of their own, and seem
determined that, let what will happen, Lord Melbourne is
to remain the chosen adviser of the Crown.
We met with a curious specimen of this class of politi-
cians the other day, and endeavoured to analyse the grounds
of his belief. They are very simple. Lord Melbourne is
a man of much ability.—( This no one doubts.) He has a
complete hold of the Queen's mind.—(Granted.) He
stands now between Lord Durham and the Conservatives,
and if Lord Durham refuse to accept his terms, the Con-
servatives will ; so that his majority, even in the present
Parlioment, is secure. An union between the pure Whigs,
and the more liberal Tories (it is argued), would form the
firmest and most compact Government that England has
seen since the days of Pitt. O'Connell might be bought,
or crushed ; the Whig and Tory Aristocracy would com-
mand the counties and the smaller towns ; while no diffi-
culty could arise as to the distribution of power, for Lord
John Russell would go into temporary retirement, and the
three estates would then have their three natural leaders,
the Duke of Wellington leading the Lords, Sir Robert
Peel the Commons, and Lord Melbourne the Queen!
The constitutional duties of Queen-leader have not yet
been very accurately defined ; but, as they are understood
to comprise apartments at Windsor and Brighton, con-
stant residence, daily dinners, and the choice of the per-
sons immediately connected with the Court, it is assumed
that our present Premier would be perfectly satisfied with
the share in the Government allotted to him, and might
abandon the rest to his new colleagues.
Against this promising plan we can only urge that there
is a something in it, if not contra bonos 11101 W, at all events
incompatible with that propriety of feeling, that sensitive-
ness in all matters in which the sex is concerned, for
which England has hitherto been famed. We know, by
the observations addressed to us from many quarters, that
the country is beginning to look with jealousy at the means
by which Lord Melbourne's influence appears to be main-
tained, and to complain of the duration of this platonic
honey-moon between the Premier and his Royal mistress.
With these feelings abroad(and that they are abroad no
man who knows anything of what is passing in the world
can doubt), we should like to know how many monthspur-
chase the leadership of the Queen is worth, and what value
ought to be attached to it in the political combinations of
the day? To us it seems that those who build upon it
build upon sand. We have a sovereign contempt for all
parties which do not rest upon some well-ascertained prin-
ciple ; and we see no principle in the ascendancy of the ex-
perience of sixty over the inexperience of eighteen. It is
evident, however, that the true principle of such a combina-
tion as that which we have described would he the principle,
of standing still—the stationary principle set against the
movement principle—the preservation of all that is objec-
tionable and rotten in our system against large, well-consi-
dered, and necessary reforms. •
We should like nothing better than to see a well-orga-
nised opposition, with the Ballot, Triennial Parliaments,
the Repeal of the Corn Laws, and Household Suffrage,
inscribed upon its banners, arrayed against such a Govern-
ment as this. It would not stand a single session. This is
what we mean by the Durham policy, as distinguished
from that of the present men. Before twelve months have
elapsed, we foresee that England will be divided into two
parties—the one embracing all the different shades of Con-
servatism, from Lord John Russell down to Colonel Sib-
thorpe—the other comprehending all those who regard the
Reform Bill as a means, not an end—the rational Radicals
—the friends to the extension of popular rights, with Lot.,"
Durham as their acknowledged head.