The Sun.
London, England, 1836-12-10 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Sir Robert Peel's prospects are brightening. The
reaction in 1-15; favour, which begun with the Glasgow
boys, has not been without its influence on our un-
principled Contemporary of Printing-house-square.
A new light broke on the Times. It found that not-
withstanding the fervour with which " Lord Lyndhurst
and the Peers had been drank at Conservative meet-
•
f_nd the sort of oblivion into which Sir Robert
Pe it had fallen, all was not gold that glittered about
the Noble and Learned Lord ; that the more moderate
and respectable Tories had their scruples With rer:,ard
to character, and could not so easily fromdismiss their
memory the changes and vicissitudes of V,s Lordship's
political life as the Times could tu:ii round on Sir
Robert. The Examiner and ourF,elves have indeed
some claims on the gratitude of the Tamworth Baronet.
It is reported of an eccentric Englishman, that he hewed
gto the statue of Jupiter at Rome, and heed his
godship to remember, if he should again come into
vogue, that he, the Englishman, had paid ho-
yours to him in his adversity, When Sir Robctt was
apparently forgotten by the Tories we
(..tl not forget
him. Na}, by pOilltin7 out to the Times that the
Morning Post was 'making prize of the Right Hon.
Baronet, we excited the jealousy of the Times, which
is now all for Pcel. We arc almost reminded by its
-yesterday's lucubrations of the period when it lectured
the Conservatives on their leaving that great man un-
snpported in the House of Commons on the most
important and critical occasions from their fondness
for the hells and stews of the metropolis, and when
the public were told that he nearly engrossed all that
was virtuous and good in the party:—" The first deci-
ded check," says the Times," to the revolutionary im-
pulses stimulated by a factious perversion of the Re-
form Bill, was given unquestionably by Sir Robert
Peel in hiS address to the electors of Tamworth ; and
from the moment when this generous and confiding
nation extended to the Right Hon. Baronet that con-
fider) ce which he so nobly ratified by his subsequent
Gevernment, scarcely a day has passed without fur-
ni.shing new evidence of the re-ascendancy of reason
-and judgment among the constitutional Reformers
p-1
of England." . • • • • • • • " What ha
pened immediately on the back of Sir Robert Peel's
resignation is not yet forgotten by our readers. Trans-
mitted from all quarters, and signed by millions (!!!) of
our countrymen; we had those numerous addresses of
congratulation presented to the ex-Government which
were so fittingly pioneered by that proud document
from the city of London, whose splendid array of sig-
natures by thousands occupied for days the co-
lumns of this journal." Runnymede and the glories of
Lyndhurst are thus in a fair way of being erased
from the memory df our Contemporary. The Times is
now riotously " indulging" in triumph at the honours
paid to the Right Hon. Baronet ; and we may expect
the interval between this and the meeting of Parliament
to be devoted to a record of his ovations. But we
must say a word in turn for Lord Lyndhurst. With
all due submission to the Times, will the Noble and
Learned Lord, after having snuffed up so much in-
cense, quietly consent to be once more snubbed by Sir
Robert Peel ? That there can be any cordial union
between statesmen whose views are so much opposed
to each other, is quite out of the question. When Sir
Robert clapped an extinguisher on the Noble and
Learned Lord in 1835, he was but. on his trial as it
were. A yer..r's success in leading the Peers from one
dangerous step to another may have convinced him
that in t.'ne extent of their fatuity he has a powerful
safegviard. When, therefore, the Right Hon. Baronet
ret'jrns from the North, flushed with his triumphs, and
not indisposed to seize the first opportunity which
presents itself to set the Noble and Learned Lord
right with regard to his true position, it would
not surprise us if Lord Lyndhurst, instead of making
signals of distress to Lord Brougham, and calling for
certificates that he was not an, intruder into the Tory
councils, but had received a retainer from the party,
were to turn on Sir RcJbert and show fight at the head
of the incurables. An appeal from the Noble and
Learned Lord would rally round him the Winchelseas,
the Rodens, Newcastles, and the rest of those
brainless 'oeings who have contributed so much to ob-
tain for the House of Lords the reputation which it
enjoyi throughout the country. There is no want of
pl.tvzk in Lord Lyndhurst ; and if the Lords will only
stick by him, he will lead them far enough. Sir Ro-
bert Peel in 1835 saw that under the leadership of
Lord Lyndhurst the Peers were about to throw the
country in confusion, and as the Right Hon. Baronet
has some interest in its well-being, he returned from
his 'retreat without delay to London, to destroy the
handiwork of his Lordship. Every one knows that
the town•clerks were the grand movers in the des-
perate attempt to perpetuate the corruptions of
the existing corporations ; that Lord Lyndhurst
was called into requisition by them, and under-
took at their instigation to destroy the authority
of the reports of the Commissioners, by means of
the disgraceful evidence given at the bar the
Lords. Sir Robert Peel saw into the designs of
this holy alliance, and greatly contributed to defeat
them. Lord Lyndhurst had reckoned mainly on the
countenance of the aldermen for life, aided by the town-
clerks for life, in his scheme to defeat the reform of the
Corporations. As King James had been taught to
cry, "No Bishop, no King ! the Peers were taught
to exclaim, "No Aldermen, no Peers ! " But Sir
'Robert Peel at once struck down the Aldermen—" He
did not hesitate to say that he did not consider the in-
troduction of aldermen for life an improvement to the
"Bill." What he said also about town-clerks,
"the great
object of Lord Lyndhurst s solicitude, greatly facili-
tated the course which was ultimately adopted with re-
gard to them. When the Commons' amendments
were under consideration, his Lordship could not con-
ceal his mortification. Speaking of the aldermen, he

said :
" Why should they remove from office individuals who
bold their authority under charter from the Crown, against
whom-no well-founded complaint had hitherto been made,
and who had hitherto performed their duty respectably,
ably, impartially, and to the satisfaction of those persons
among whom they lived, and with whom they were con-
nected ?"
lie afterwards proceeded to observe—
" He could not conceal from himself, and he could not
conceal from their Lordships, that several of his Noble
Friends, who he knew entertained the same opinions, and
felt as strongly as he did upon this subject, were inclined to
look at some circumstances which had recently occurred
in the other House of Parliament. l'he opinion which he
had just expressed to their Lordships had found no sup-
port whatever in that House ; on the contrary, it had
been opposed by a Right Hon. Gentleman (Sir Robert
Peel) in whom they were accustomed to place great confi-
dence, and in whose judgment and experience they had
every reliance. He could not, he repeated, conceal from
himself that many Noble Lords whose confidence he ge-
nerally enjoyed, and for whom he felt great public and per-
sonal regard, did not feel themselves justified, after the
course adopted by Sir Robert Peel, in objectinc, to the
amendment which the other House of Parliament had made
upon the amendment sent down to it from their Lordships.'
When his Lordship came to the town-clerks, the
dear town-clerks by whom he had been inspired, there
was, naturally enough, a good deal of laughter in the
House. This a little nettled him :
"Oh ! the town-clerks," he exclaimed. "He did not
know why that should provoke the laughter of the oppo-
sition benches; but if it were at his expense, the Noble
4 *
Lords were at full liberty to laugh on.
Why should they be turned out of their different offices ?
Why should their Lordships assume that they would ❑ot
discharge their duties to the new Corporations as faithfully
as they had discharged them to die old ?"
However, the new town-councils were, notwithstand-
ing this testimony, enabled to dispense with the ser-
vices of those able and honest gentlemen. And now.
the Noble and Learned Lord, who had been so unce-
remoniously defrauded of his laurels by Sir Robert,
turned his -discourse to himself.
" Your Lordships must be aware," he observed, " how
much I have been assailed during these discussions, both in
and out of Parliament, and how many attacks have been
made upon me personally on account of the course which I
have felt it to be my duty to pursue with regard to this
Bill. Allow me also to say, that I should not be ashamed
to have been a volunteer in my attacks upon this Bill ; but
the fact is, that I have been no volunteer. Many Noble
Lords with whom I have been in the habit of acting for
years, and who thought that from my professional habits I
was calculated to lead their efforts to a successful re-
sistance against the objectionable clauses in the Bill,
requested me to undertake the management of the op-
position to it. I yielded to their solicitations, and, having