The Sun.
London, England, 1838-09-04 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

There is one fault, not unfrequently charged against the
Conservative leaders, of which certainly not even the faintest
imputation has ever been thrown upon the Whigs—the
want of appetite for office. The Conservative leaders are
thought by many of their friends, especially in the country,
to be lukewarm in their efforts for the expulsion of the
anti-Protestant Ministry. The feeling which leads to this
complaint is a true-hearted and manly one ; but it must not
chafe into fretfulness. The Duke of Wellington found it
no easy task to repress the eagerness of the troops at Wa-
terloo, when, from morning to the approach of sunset, they
were called on to resist without retaliating. But the great
commander knew how to " bide his time ;" and when it
came, the long hours of forbearance and self-controul were
amply recompensed in a perfect and permanent victory.
The plea of the impatient is, that possession fortifies the
possessors ; that therefore the longer you leave them, the
stronger you make them ; and thateach successive year en-
ables them to commit more and more waste upon the settled
inheritance of the Constitution. Not altogether thus. We
feel as keenly as the hottest of theirenemies, the annoyance,
the injury, the disgrace, of suffering such a Government ;
but we are not insensible to the means of protection
which Providence has left in our own hands ; nor
can we forget that precipitancy has evils even greater than
those of delay. We acknowledge the general truth of the
proposition that possession fortifies the possessors ; but
there are exceptions, and no exception clearer than the case
of a shabby Government. There, we have the well-
founded confidence, that " upon familiarity will grow more
contempt." And the contempt is growing accordingly.
Only let it ripen. Do not check its increase by premature
interference, and you will find that the nuisance you want
to be rid of, instead of becoming stronger, is becoming
daily weaker, and hastens to its own undoing. But then
the waste they can commit in the mean time—the lopping
off, and the rooting up, and the tearing down ! Irreparable
waste, indeed, if they could really commit it ; but they cannot.
There is a power wielded by the Conservatives which en-
joins and stays it. A turbulent and selfish body may band
up the axe to the destroyer, but a wiser energy in a higher
place arrests his arm. Against the representatives of a
revolutionary faction, Providence has guarded us by a Con-
servative Peerage :
" That treason can but peep to what it would—
Acts Effie of his will."

coming into office would have found it a matter of some
difficulty, on the indication of an adverse temper in the
House of Commons, to apply so soon the screw of another
dissolution. The first sessio❑ of a new Parliament, in the
first year of the new reign, could hardly have beet cut
short without a full trial. There would have been a feeling
and a prejudice against such a measure, which would have
deprived it of all its use. But if, as we suspect, the people
shall be found with us in the approaching year (and if the
people shall not he with us all measures are alike in vain),
th,m the leaders of the Conservative party, on acceding to
office, are placed in this commanding position—that they
have the means of first trying whether the existing
House of Commons will support them, in which event the
necessity of a dissolution will be spared ; and then, if that
support be not afforded, of appealing to the people for a
more available Parliament. Meanwhile the policy pursued
has had a doub!e advantage. It has not only avoided the
danger which we have shown to have been attendant on
any movement in advance of .the people's wishes, but it
his also established in the people's minds the true and im-
portant impression that the leaders of the Conservatives
are not desirous of office except when they can take it
under circumstances of personal dignity and public use-
fulness.— Times.

We have extracted from the Scotsman of Saturday last
a portion of the report of a speech of Dr. Bowring at a
dinner given to him in the northern capital on Wednesday
last. We have confined our extract to the subject of free
trade, though the Learned Doctor's anecdotes of the pro-
gress of knowledge and civilization in Syria and Egypt are
also highly interesting. Dr. Bowring tells us that he made
a convert of the Pacha of Egypt, who, in imitation of us,
had his Coru-laws, to the benefit of free trade, and that
the consequence was immediately felt in the abundance and
cheapness of bread. One of the most striking instances of
the advantages of a free trade in food is to be found in
Switzerland. The Swiss are, Dr. Bowring tells us, our
most formidable rivals in most branches of manufactures.
As Switzerland is naturally one of the poorest countries in
Europe, and produces only a portion of the food consumed
by its large population of nearly two millions, the
Swiss, according to the Duke of Wellington, ought
to be the most dependent •of all nations. It
must be at any time in the power of the King
of Wirtemberg, or any of the Sovereigns of the rich agri-
cultural districts which supply the Swiss with corn, to seal
their destruction. Those Sovereigns have only to say, let
us close onr frontiars against the exportation of corn to
these Republicans, and they must die ; for their own rocky
soil produces but a small portion of what they consume.
The Swiss would snap their fingers at any threat of the
kind ; for they know that it is quite impossible to give effect
to it. The Swiss set all the laws of their neighbours at
defiance, when those laws are in themselves unjust and im-
politic ; for, surrounded as they are with nations imposing
restrictions on every branch of industry, they contrive not-
withstanding to send their manufactures into every country
of Europe. For a small additional per tentage above their
ordinary prices, the manufacturers of Zurich or Basle will
undertake to convey goods to the shopkeepers of every neigh-
bouring state. They know that the grower of corn is as de-
pendent on the consumer as the consumer is on the
grower. But it has been said by the Standard, the
English landowner has peculiar burdens—he has to pay
the interest of mortgages, provisions for younger children,
and be must be able to live as expensively as the rich
merchant or manufacturer. This is a droll sort of defence
of Corn-laws, and our Contemporary the Manchester
Guardian has made good use of' it in an article which we
must reserve for to-morrow. It is a delightful thing to be
a landowner in a country which patiently acquiesces in
such arguments. The foreign landowner is, unfortunately
for him, more burdened than the English ; for he has not
the same facilities in throwing his children on the State or
the Church. Though the children in most parts of the
Continent succeed equally to the estates of their parents,
yet in practice one of the sons generally becomes the sole
proprietor, and the value of the shares of the other children
is made a hypothec on the land or houses. There is hardly
such a thing, therefore, as an estate not hypothecated ; and
in consequence of the fall of prices at the peace, the
land of whole provinces was often hypothecated
above its market value. But however agreeable it might
be to a foreign landowner to throw a part of his burdens en
the manufacturers and traders, he has a less accommo-
dating population to deal with than the English. For pa-
tience under burdens the English are unrivalled. The two
great parties of aristocrats in the Legislature can always con-
trive to get up some dispute or other to stave off the question
of which they most dread the agitation—the Corn-laws.
Powerful as the British aristocracy are, this question will one
day be decided against them. Under the present Reform
Bill, however, Parliament will only consent by some such
process as that which led to that measure, though it has
not obtained for the people tie benefits they anticipated
from it. "It 'was the object of the Reform Bill," says
the Scotsman, " to bring the Government into a condition
in which the Legislature is returned by an electoral body,
limited in numbers, but large enough to embrace the inte-
rest of all classes, and it would have succeeded if
the freemen of the English boroughs, lie longing chiefly to
the class now calling for universal suffrage, had not been
steeped in corruption. We grant that the,!xclusion of the
ballot, and the 501. tenant-at-will in the counties, were se-
rious errors ; but had the freemen of the English boroughs
done their duty like the 101. householders, there would
have been sufficient force in the House of Commons not
only to rectify all oversights and mistakes, hut to subdue
the insolence of the Peers, and give full effect to the prin-
ciples of our new Charter." We doubt this. The English
boroughs are, for the most part, dependent on the Aristo-
cracy ; and if' the Scotsman inquire, he will find that num-
bers of the 101. householders, even in such towns as Ips-
wich, are not merely afraid to vote according to their con-
science, but almost .as ready to sell their votes as the free-
men. The ballot, no doubt, would go some way_ to cure
that, though in the smaller boroughs we are not sure that
great corruption would not be screened by it. However,
be that as it may, the majority of the Representatives of
England must always, under the present Reform Bill, he in
the interest of the Aristocracy ; and we leave it to impar-
tial persons to determine what chance there is of obtaining
a repeal of the Corn-laws, except under circumstances too
awful to be contemplated without apprehension. Yet re-
pealed these laws will certainly be, whenever corn reaches
a famine price, which in the revolution of seasons must
happen. In the mean time every opportunity should be
seized of attacking the rnonopol:sts, and holding them up
as men who legislate on unjust principles for their own
special advantage. The sum and substance of all their
arguments is this—we profit by the injustice.—.-ilfor,iing
Chronicle.

Are we then resigned to an indefinite :prolongation of
the present discreditable state of our public affairs ? In-
tolerable—impossible ! We have mobs of Radicals inva-
ding the Constitution—we have hordes of Dissenters un-
dermining the Establishment—we have swarms of Papists
armed against the Protestant faith—we have a Ministry
affecting to moderate all these wild insurgents, yet truck-
ling to every demand of their madness—and we have
neighbours across the Channel exulting in our distraction,
and flouting the Ministers who submit to live upon it, vaunt-
ing that the British monarchy exists butby their forbearance,
and watching for the moment when they may pounce upon
our weakness. No—a condition like this must not, and hap-
pily cannot, endure. The exertion which, in such circum-
stances, the worthier members of society are compelled to
make for the preservation of themselves and the State, the
bare task of resistance, the mere toil of pumping against
the leak, is more than human strength is able very long to
keep up. But it may be kept up long enough, we
trust and believe, to carry us without material loss
through the brief term which, in the course and very nature
of things, can be left to this baseless Administration ; and
if this may be done, a thousand times rather would we wait
for the season when, exhausted of all their resources, they
fall of their own weakness, to rise no more, than have been
hurried on in the last Session, as some desired, to an attack,
which even if it had been successful for the time, would
probably have obtained for these Ministers, as under Wil-
liam IV., a long renewal of their lease ; and which, on the
other hand, if it had failed, must have given them a great
increase of power by its re-action. A few plain considera-
tions will, we think, be sufficient to make out the truth of
what we are saying. In the first place, we have described
the Administration as a baseless one. A Government to
stand firm in this country, must rest either upon a
strong principle, or upon a great party. Now, the only
principle on which these Ministers have acted with any-
thing like constancy is the principle of hostility to
the Church ; but that principle so far from being a
strong one, is among the chief causes of their, weak-
ness. It is not gaining, but losing ground ; and, instead of
their helping to advance it, it operates to drag them down.
Have they, then, a great party to uphold them ? They have
hitherto been supported by a majority in the House of
Commons, though a decreasing one, but not by a party.
Their party, strictly so called—the Whigs proper—are
too few to keep them in office for an hour : their main-
tenance in office has been owing chiefly to the votes of men
who profess to be of no party, and certainly are not of
theirs—the Radicals of Great Britain and the anti-Protes-
tants of Ireland. The Irish abstain from speaking out,
because their mouths are kept full with patronage ;
and now and then an English Radical is silenced
with an appointment, as in the case of their sly tor-
mentor, Mr. C. Buller, and in the astounding in-
stance of Mr. D. W. Harvey, whose vituperation of
them was equalled only by their reprobation of him.
But, generally speaking, the Radicals of Great Britain
seek nothing for themselves. What they want is to ad-
vance their doctrines—disinterested lovers or mischief for
its own sake. Of the Ministry they speak with the utmost
contempt : they have gone on assisting it in the hope of its
effecting some organic changes ; but finding that it dares
not run the risk of alienating the Court and certain of its
aristocratical allies by doing what these Radicals think in-
dispensable, they are mow beginning to talk a malcontent
language, and to say (ungratefully enough to be sure,
after all the pernicious attempts which the Whigs have
male to oblige them), that if no more of what they call
Reform is to be had from these Whigs than might be ob-
tained from a Conservative Government, it will be better to
let in the Conservatives, who know their business and stick
to their principle, such as it is, than to go on with a set of
people who are not men of business at all, and stick to no-
thing but their places. As soon as one half score of Radi-
cals in the House of Commons act upon this opinion the
Whigs are gone. We know that the Radicals have shown
themselves very patient in practice : they have certainly
grumbled a great deal at getting no more, and yet have
come numerously to the rescue on important divisions.
But this disposition has shown signs of ahatemtMt, and we
suspect can be little relied on for a future session. For not
only in the House of Commons, but out of doors too, the
zeal of the same party has been falling away—so decidedly
indeed, that their organs of the Press are now perpetually
lamenting the dullness of political feeling and decay of pa-
sti eistri through ail the country. Meanwhile the Conser-
vatives have advanced in numbers, knowledge, and organi-
zation : the working classes have taken up the principles of
o id order and good government ; and demonstrations not
a little ominous to many a ‘V hie and Radical representa-
tive are exhibiting themselves in towns where, a couple of
years ago, it Bout! have been unsafe to wear a watch-
rihand of any colour but theirs. The people, in short,
have found out the delusion. As soon as they are
fully knoen to be thus undeceived, a class of Members,
who have n', real sympathy either "with the Whigs
or with the Radicals, and have hitherto voted in favour of
the Ministers only ,row a vulgar ambition or a seat in Par-
liament, at whatever sacrifice of independence, will gra-
dually gel; loose from a position no longer agreeable in t
sight of their constituents, and after absenting themselves
from a few divisions, by way of avoiding the appearance of
too sudden a conversion, will be found in the increasing
lists of the Conservatives. Each successive defection will
giveeneouraaement to more, and till condemned by the
nation, deserted by its allies, and prostrate before its oppo-
nents, its faith broken, its
ords eaten, its pledges aban-
doned, the shabby Government will sink to its dissolution,
unrepentant, unregretted and irredeemable. This is the
fall to which the stream
'
of events is certainly and not very
tardily bearing the transitory adventurers now afloat upon.
its surface. From such a fall they rise not again. The
Conservatives, sothseueeeeding to the Government, will
be relieved from
for existence which ane
\-,,c,l'sisiity of that constant struggle
Opposition, if numerically
powerful, would not fail to enforce.
cir-
cumstanced will possess not MecreteheofliAce, which l
itsh thus
worth
nothing, but substantial power power to save and
serve their country, which is worth everything.during the last Session, by any coup d'etat,
bn But if
ythsuce ciden
niovement in the House of Lords or elsewheL a
servatives had attempted the removal of the Whigs, ointh-
w
the House of Commons and the people not yet fully weaned
from the delusion under which they had been accustomed
to support a Whig Administration, what would have been
the consequence ? In the first place, it is far from certain
that any such attempt would have succeeded, even for a
season. It would certainly have had little countenance
from the Court. But suppose that, for the time, the
Whigs could have been expelled from office. Have we
forgotten the result of such an experiment under William
If.? The present Sovereign would not have been /css
favourable to their restoration than her predecessor was.
Could you then have relied on .the people ? Let the
pulsion be the people's act, and the people will back it; but
Jet it have been the act of the Conservatives against those
'Ministers whom the people brought in, and the people
would have resisted it as an aggression against them-
selves. Restored to power a third time, the Ministers
would have had a new term of office, and begun afresh
that pernicious career which you are so solicitous to
close. Another circumstance, of the greatest importance
to these considerations, is, that the Session which has
jest expired was the opening of a new Parliament.
If the alienation of the people from the Whigs bad been
sufficient for the desired object (which the very results of
:the elections pros e that it was not), still the Conservatives

Were we to judge of the state and prospects of the
country from what is contained in the columns of our Tory
Contemporaries, and, above all, of the cr:alifieationa of the
present Government for the due administration of the
duties of their respective offices, we should be inclined to
aver, first, that the country was almost in a state of disso-
lution ; and, seconcty, that it had never before been dis-
graced by a Ministry so thoroughly incapable, ineffic;eat,
and unwise, as that upon which our gracious Sovereign has
been p'eased to stamp the seal of her approb ition. There
are the French legions in Africa, say they, forgetting that
it was under a 'Tory Government that they made good their
footing at Algiers—there is the Black Sea hermetically
sealed against all vessels of war except those which bear
the Russian flag, forgetting, also, that they opened the way
for this gross invasion of the freedom of commerce—there
is Canada in a state of rebellion, forgetting that by their
unjust conduct to the native population, they laid the
foundation, years ago, of the rebellion which has broken out,
but is now in the happy course of being subdued—
there is Persia ready to be swallowed up by Russia, and
our Indian territories exposed to an invasion which cannot
fail to be successful—and finally, there is the quarrel be-
tween the Paella of Egypt and the Sultan, of which Rus-
sia will take advantage, and which can only terminate in
appending the Turkish to the already overgrown empire of
Russia! What a catalogue of horrors ! What a list of dan-
gers ! " Wars, and rumours of wars," are the daily food of
our Tory Contemporaries; and yet, if we walk into the City
and inquire the price of Government securities, we find
no alarm—no dissatisfaction—no fear of coming dan-
ger—no expectation of any " untoward event." Busi-
ness proceeds pleasantly and smoothly—no one apprehends
the slightest danger for his property by the outbreak of a
War—commercial orders are received and executed with
due regularity, and every countenance is radiant with hope
that every black cloud has passed away, and that a pros-
perous trade,externally and internally,is based upon a sounder
foundation than previously it ever had occasion to boast of.
Strange blindnesses on the part of practical men. The
country is in a state of ruin, according to the Tory jour-
nals ; and yet the sharpest wits in the sharpest and
greatest metropolis in the world, will run headlong into the
et!
A
gulf! Alas for John Bull—he is cutting his own throat,
and
penaltyycannot
,be made to believe that death will be the
what a sad figuie Ministers cut during
the session—all their measures rejected or maimed—
Toryism triumphant, and Liberalism at a sad discount.
Now, we have heard persons asserting that, save and
excepting
snin the world ; buts
boastshame. o”1 the
hreeys result of
not attempt
it,tha ce'ayvataw..serleeftthetomothste reTspeercietasbtloe
Ito hide it. Nay, they
boast of it with greater theboldenmeespLitean"n. l eiY worstglosrtYru inm
pet theirin
.egtraa%lacayebier.!ionour upon
Fleet-street emt -os ts rt e eh te
honourable
lcboastam
They.
are as chastity
haetf
theirever
of
fler in i
disgracedroud
the streets of London.
villainy, and cast that reproach upon Minister':
would
infinitely better suit themselves. The session was,
ever, of good results. Granted, and why aasit so ? how
cause her Majesty's Ministers did dot bring forward good-
measures ? Oh, no—the country pealed with approbation
of them. Why then ? Because the representatives of the

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1838.

people of England disapproved of them ? Certainly not.'
They passed them by large majorities. What, then, was
the cause ? A Tory House of Lords, born to corruption
—nursed in spoliation—living upon the labour of the
people—yea, having the baseness and the meanness to
take a tithe of their hard-earned money in the shape of
pen'io!s, and at the same time holding up their hands
against every resolution calculated to enlarge their pri-
vileges or or to augment their comforts. People of Eng-
land, is this usurpation to be tolerated much longer ? Are
your own representatives to be your law-makers, or an irre-
sponsible House of Lords, over whom you Lave no con-
troul ?—Morning Advertiser.
There is something exceedingly touching in the kind,
heartfelt, and paternal tone of eloquence in which the
Emperor. Ferdinand of Austria addressed, the other day,
the States and Deputies of the Tyrol. In language
that borrows its interest from its simplicity he speaks
without' reserve, and without the cold constraint of the
formality of courts, the emotions of the father of his
people. "It is with joy," says the Emperor, " that I
have some among you, my dear people of the Tyrol and
Vorarlberg. The solemn oath of fidelity which you are
desirous of swearing to me, through your States and re-
presentatives, proceeds, as was the case with your fathers,
from tried and faithful hearts. My heart receives them
with the same emotion as did my ancestors—as did my
father, .who now reposes in God. And so it will
continue to be. The Lord, who governs the desti-
nies of empires, has hitherto, on every occasion,
blessed such a bond with increased prosperity, and
times of severe • trial have only made it more
firm. I will, therefore, my beloved, be yourfather, even as
my father has handed you over to me as his children."
The closing passage of this interesting and pathetic address
is particularly beautiful—" Carefully preserve your religious
spirit—your simplicity of manners—your ancient truth,
vigour, and endurance—your filial reliance on the care of
your Sovereign : and with these be assured, assembled
States and Representatives of the Tyrol and Vorarlberg,
of my imperial and paternal grace and favour." These
are not empty words, coming as they do from the lips of so
good a man—so just and benevolent a monarch as Fer-
dinand of Austria. A Sovereign who is as incapable of
exercising absolute power to grind and oppress his subjects,
like Nicholas of Russia, as he is of practising the low arti-
fices to catch a hollow popularity—theclap-trop contrivances
for public stage effect, which distinguish Louis Pbilippe,who
is only the "Citizen-King" in his speeches, but the despot
in his acts. He who has taken care that the liberties of
France should not endure much longer than the " three
days of July," in which so much blood flowed to secure
them, who has been the incessant, unrelenting persecutor
of' the Press ever since it helped to raise him to a throne,
is, in the tropes and metaphors of the artificial eloquence
of courtly deception, a clever and not unsuccessful actor.
But one sentence of the simple truth—the truly paternal
kindness which the Emperor Ferdinand addresses to his
people is worth all the flourishes of rhetoric that ever ob-
tained for Louii Philippe the momentary acclamations of
the most theatrical people of the civilized world. Dur-
ing the time that Ferdinand has now been on the
throne of his ancestors, the blood of not one of his mil-
lions of Austrian subjects has flowed upon the scaffold.
One man was condemned to death for murder in the
second year after his accession ; but his heart revolted
against the barbarous punishment which the law still retains
for that offence, and he commuted the sentence to im-
prisonment for life—a punishment equally coercive with
death, but which gives the offender opportunity and induce-
ment to repentance, and does not destroy in the minds of
the people the salutary notion of the sacredness of life
which Princes and legislatures should ever cultivate and
guard. The spirit of religion which breathes through the
Emperor's speech—the entire and unqualified dependance
which it expresses and inculcates upon the will of the
all-ruling Providence in whose sight nations are but
" dust upon the balance," while he cares for the meanest
of his creatures, might shame the " enlightened libe-
rality" of many of our British " Reformers," who would
achieve for the people the melancholy—the fatal triumph
of emancipating themselves from the " yoke of religion,"
and exalting their free natures to a level with those of the
" beasts that perish," by blotting the name of Divine Pro-
vidence from their acts and their remembrance. But the
true British patriot will say to the English people in nearly
the words of the Emperor Ferdinand, " Carefully preserve
.your religious spirit—your simplicity of manners—your an-
cient truth, vigour, and endurance—your filial allegiance to
your Sovereign, and hereditary regard for the ancient in-
stitutions of your country." "In these things your high-
minded and glorious ancestors found the elements of em-
pire, and as they are prelerved or abandoned, so empire
will be maintained or lost."—Morning Herald.
We believe that the extravagant vanity and prepoAerous
injustice of mere party were never before carried to such
outrageous and ridiculous exc,ss as they arc now by the
Whig-Radical Ministerialists. Not only all moderation,
but all consistency is forgotten in the violence of their deter-
mination that whatever happens on their side is right, and
whatever is not for their interest is wrong. We can
scarcely point out a stronger instance of this almost insane
extravagance of party prejudice, than the fact that even
they—the Ministerialists—use the term " O'Connellism"
as a term of reproach when they desire to bring into dis-
credit any one who is in the habit of addressing the people
in different places against the policy of the present Go-
vernment. That very O'Connellism which is to their
official existence as the air they breathe is to their na-
tural existence, for if they have it not they die ; even
that, or what they choose to consider a resemblance
of it, is stigmatized by them, when used against
them! And what can we infer from this, but their
inward consciousness that the very means by which
they officially exist is, when considered by itself,
reproachful and disgraceful, but yet rejoiced in by them
• because it serves the interests of their party, and maintains
them in the exercise of authority and the receipt of emolu-
ment ? O'Connellism they believe to be wrong—when
put in operation a7ainst them they stigmatise it as infamous
—but being with thenn it is extolled as the manifestation of
the national will of Ireland in their favour, and against their
Conservative opponents. Again, when they would point
out the danger of " Universal Suffrage"—a danger which
they never thought of warning the public egotist while
the advocates of Universal Suffrage were also advocates
of the Ministry—they become very vehement in their
description of the gross ignorance of the Irish psa-
sentry. They do not scruple to avow that " there are
thousands of the Irish peasantry utterly incapable of
giving an independent vote." But when they have to give
an account of popular meetings in Ireland to make a de-
monstration in favour of the existing Government, we then
hear nothing of the gross ignorance of these peasants. On
the contrary, the multitude is spoken of as a right pa-
triotic and most rational multitude, whose verdict in favour
of the Ministry is worthy of being held in high ac-
count, although opposed to the sense of the English
nation. Universal Suffrage would at once annihilate the
Whig Ministry—thereibre its absurdity is shown by refer-
ence to the miserable incapacity of tne Irish multitude.
But popular support is very much wanting, to the continued
existence of the Whig Ministry—therefore as they can ob-
tain it only in Ireland, the same Irish multitude is referred
to on other occasions as very capable of an intelligent
opinion ! Large assemblies of the people in England for
political purposes are now condemned by the Ministerialists
with the utmost bitterness, amounting even to abusiveness
of language. Such assemblages are attacked as " reckless
mobs." The speeches made at them are called " mob
orations," and the persons who speak are called " mob
orators." \Vhence this change from the language held by
'the very same persons but a few years ago? Simply this :
that now " the mobs" are against the Ministers, while "
the
w
Re-
form o f
teyeengart
ia years
a eof the sn ago
oy
were in
loagitation,nufpibltl,hirgs w
ee n e
the
were
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but the Whig-Radical Ministerialists, so far from having
any, fault to find with them, did nothing but chaunt their
praises. Subsequently to the Reform Bill also, it was their
fashion to designate the resolutions of mobs as " the voice
of the people," and this voice they insisted ought to be of
sufficient force to overbear the decisions of /be Upper
House of Parliament. They complained that the voice of
the people, i. e. the decisions of mob meetings, and the
votes of the House of Commons taken together, had not
the force of law, independently of the House of • Lords,
and vowed that the country never would have justice until
the authority of the Peers was swept down by the united
authority of mob and Commons. And all this was merely
because the !nob was on their side ; for now that it is not
so, they are far more sarcastic and harsh than ever the
Tories were, in holding up, not only to ridicule, but
to hatred, the dangerous ignorance of the political multi-
tude ! Such is the consistency—such the fairness—such
the disinterested justice of Whig-Radical partisans! But
they go even beyond what we have already described ; for
though they are so afraid of the Radical multitude that
they assail it with all manner of hatred and scurrility, yet,
because they are even more afraid of the Tories, who en-
counter th!s multitude and succeed against it, they also are
abused for their successful opposition to " mob orations,"
and " perilous ignorance." We found in a Ministerial Jour-
nal the other day an account of an affair at Kidderminster,
in which it was expressly stated that the Conservatives had
met the Radicals and got the better of them even in a popular
meeting, so that the Radicals had to sheer off, and leave the
ground in the possession of the Conservatives. On turning
to the leading columns of the same Journal in which this
account appeared, we find the Radicals that had even:bled
at Kidderminster reproached with ignorance, self•conceili
and arrogance, while the party who succeeded in rendering
all these charming requisites for interference in political
matters of no avail on the occasion in•question, are repro-
seated as " fawning Tories," and as " a proud and unfeel-