The Sun.
London, England, 1831-06-24 00:00:00

FRENCH ELECTIONS.

The French Minister has quarrel,' d with Lafayette !
This is unwise and absurd. Lafayette has published
a letter, to which I recently invited your attention.
The Minister has not contradicted the facts stated, nor bas
he confuted the opinions propagated by this distinguished
patriot. But he has raked out an old letter from the
Monitenr, written at the close of the last century, which
he endeavours to torture into something opposed to the
present principles and system of Lafayette. In this how-
ever, he is most unfortunate. T,e letter in question re-
quired that the Royal authority should be respected ; that
the National Guards should be honoured, and that the
Government of the then King Louis XVI. should be con-
stitutionally firm ! and what is there in the recent letter
of Lafayette to the electors of Meaux which is opposed
to this? Nothing whatever. He protests against tumult
and anarchy, declares his opinion that even now it is
possible, by retracing our steps, to march with the July
Revolution, and expresses his hope that Louis-Philippe
will understand his position, and by proceeding with the
people insure their confidence and love. Yet, because M.
Lafayette has told the electlrs of Meaux that at present
we are not marching in the ways of July, the Casimir
Perier Cabinet has taken offence, and the patriot of the
two worlds is held up most absurdly as a min in contra-
diction with himsel'.

To the proceedings of the " Aide-toi, le Ch 1 t'aidera'
Society, and to the approaching elections in France, I
must now invite your attention. The Society has merely
published and distributed notices of the conduct and votes
of each Deputy in the last Chamber. It has pointed
out to the electors the parts taken by each Deputy in the
Revolution of July, either before, or during, or immedi-
ately subsequent to the three glorious days. It has thus
enabled the electors to compare the promises they made
when elected with their recent acts—and as far the electors
are concerned, they will not be entilled to plead ignorance,
if the majority in the new Chamber shall not represent
the opinions and wishes of their constituents. Whilst the
" Societe Aide-toi, et le (:iel t'aidera" is thus usefully oc-
cupied, the electors are actively employed in examining
the qualifications and political creeds of the candi-
dates. They began with M. Casimir 13.-tier, and he
refused to comply with the request made to him. He
Fag since been labouring in the Afo”iteur, llaas, and
lifesaver des ( hombres, to convince the electors
that they have no right to require a profession of political
opinions and determinations from the candidates, and be
maintains that the Deputies ought not to receive their man-
date from their constituents. But ire this, as in every
other pact of his system, M. Perier has been disappointed.
The electors not only require, in all the departments of
France, an answer to the question, " Wily you oppose an
hereditary Peerage?" but they also require distinct and
categorical answers to " Will you vote against a large
Civil List?" " Will you support a large and liberal sys-
tem of foreign policy ?" " Will you obtain for France a
new and national system of education ?" " Will you op-
pose monopolies and sinecures?" " Will you vote for
M. Baude's law, which excludes for ever the Bourbon;
from France ?" and in a great numbet: of arrondissements
they add another question, " Will you seek to procure for
France all the benefits promised by the Revolution of
July ?" Thus M. Perier is defeated. The "electors ob-
tain pledges beforehand from those who solicit their votes;
and in almost every case this is done at public meetings,
and before the majority of the individuals entitled to vote.
Our President of the Council has advised some of hi+
friends not to accede to these demands of their consti-
tuents; but where they have followed his advice, depend
on it they will not be re-elected. 0. P. Q.
—Morning Chronicle.

Sir ROBERT PEEL'S sarcastic allusion to
Lord PALMERSTON'S loss of his seat for Cambridge,
coining from the quarter it did, was in the worst possible
taste ; the Right Hir...ourable Baronet himself having been
so recently discardel by the sister Uoiversity in a mucii
inure decisive and unequivocal manner.-21Iorn. Herald.
LORD CLONCURRY.—We expect to be able
in a few days to announce that the people of lrchnd shall
have one more incorruptible representative of their in-
terests in the House of Peers, in the person of him wh,!
glories in the appellation of the " Poor Alan's MAg•strate:-
--Dublin Times.
The name DI FRITSCH,
signifies in his native language "thievi•sh,•"..
ca,s
as.
the command of the Russian army wLs, T ,
whose name Is OLL,
nunied by another German,
n3eaas " mad!" •
which, in the same language, as we lately onbhsiesrdVa:

"P[RIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The proceedings in the House of Lords last night.
c hough they were of a desultory character,—though
They appeared, as Lord Brougham said, more like a
conversation round a fire-side than the solemn deli-
beration of a branch of the Legislature, and occu-
pied scarcely an hour in duration,_were more inte-
resting and instructive than many regular anti
lengthened debates. The observations of their
Lordships related chiefly to three topics t---Ist, Th,
attack on Lord Plunkett, in the House of Commons,
on Tuesday night; 2dly, The operation of the
Beer Act; and, 3tlly, The announced or n-
tendedd projects for the relief of existing dis-
tress among agricultural labourers—for the removal
of an alleged superabundance of population, arid the
means of preventing the recurrence of the sup-
posed evil. 'fhe vindication of Lord Plunkett
was introduced by himself in a manner which
evinced the strongest indignation against tht
slenderer, and created the most perfect conviction
of the falsehood of the charge. An Honourable
Baronet (Sir Robert Bateson) was reporti in all
the newspapers to have accused the Lord Chancelli r
of Ireland of having, at the late general election, no.
only interfered with the rights of the voters by ad-
vice or intimidation, but of trafficking in the grossest
corruption—offering to barter judicial appointments
and clerical patronage for efeetioneering influence,
and promising to exalt to the beech, or to promote
in the church, men whose only qualifications were
the -venality of their friends or patrons. The Noble
Lord, in giving the lie to those neeeertions, could not,
lye course, consider them as the falsehoods of a Mem-
ber of Parliament, but spoke of them as the fabrica-
tions of the newspapers. A Noble Marquis, forget-
ful of this necessary distinction, seemed seriously to
think it possible that the Lord Chancellor of Ire-
land could accuse en Irish Baronet of tittering
falsehoods, and began to offer explanations which
he had received from the Member supposed to be
the calumniator. The Noble Lord upon the wool-
sack interposed, and put the Noble Marquis
right by stating, " that if any Member in the
House of Commons uttered in his place arty
thing relative to a Peer,—no matter how gross,
base, and groundless it might be,—the House could
take 110 notice of it—they could neither convict nor
acquit him ; but if any persem published out of
doors reflections on the character of a Peer which
had been uttered by a Member of the House of
Commons, he might be called to account by their
Lordships." The distinction thus pointed out was
admitted, with a slight, but necessary, correction by
Lord Ellenborough—that no Editor of a newspaper
could be questioned by their Lordships, for publish-
ing reflections on acts of a Peer, " unless the acts
were performed in the House of Lords." Thus then
the matter stands at present. AU the newspapers
of London have, it would appear, entered into a
conspiracy to libel the Lord Chancellor of Ireland
—to publish concerning him charges " foul,"
" false," and " scandalous," " gross," " base," and
" groundless." This bend of conspirators against
the character and reputation of Lord Plunkett, have
the effrontery to place their fabrications tinder
the name of an Honourable Member of the
other House—to make them appear to be a part
of the solemn proceedings of One Legislature—and
to pass them 0' as a kind of impeachment in the
history of the country. Truly, these are grave
charges against the newspapers, and to follow the
rule in such cases" made and provided," we might
all have expected to have been called to the bar and
sent to Newgate ; but from that fate we rejoice to
be relieved by the distinction so opportunely intro-
duced, that the plot which was formed against the
Noble Lord's character related to something alleged
to be done in Ireland, arid not in his place in the
House of Lords. That, however, does not rescue
us from the charge of libel, which may be brought
before a competent tribunal ; and a, most likely
every journal in Great Britain and Ireland will be
in the same predicament with the original culprits,
the Courts will have work enough for some time, to
punish a tissue of calumnies purporting to be a re-
port of what passed in a debate in the House of
Commons 2dly. Great doubts are expressed
of the beneficial effect of the late Act for per-
mitting the sale of beer on excise licences ;
but it ought to be recollected that the
objections against it are made chiefly by those
Peers who opposed its enactment, and who then
uttered prophecies which their character for sagacity
requires them to support. The new law has not
been tried so long as to warrant any certain conclu-
sion on its ultimate operation. Every change from
high to low price, in an article like beer, must en-
courage consumption for some time beyond the
point at which it may, in the long run, be fixed ;
and perhaps the desire to reduce the price, so as to
meet the excessive competition in a new trade,
may lead to the deterioration of the article. But
there can be little doubt that all these disadvantages
will disappear on further trial ; and that police re-
gulations may prevent tisose alleged dangers to the
morals of the labouring classes which arise from an
excessive indulgence in cheap beer. idly. Connected
—and iniimaiely connected—with this only great
legislative attempt lately made to improve the con-
dition of the poorer classes, were the observations
subsequently hazarded by different Noble Lords on
the necessity of proposing measures during the
present Session to give employment to the poor, or
to relieve the agricultural parishes from the mainte-
nance of surplus labourers. Nearly all their Lord-
ships seemed to take the fact for granted that there
is a redundancy of population beyond the means of
subsistence and the power of commanding employ-
ment ;and making this assumption the basis of their
reasoning, each proceeded to advance his nostrum
for the cure of the evil. For this, some of them
recommended emigration; others, internal coloniza-
tion ; and a third party, a new and improved edition
of the poor laws. All of them confessed the diffi-
culty of the attempt, but none seemed to doubt of
the success of his own individual scheme, if fairly
tried. The Lord Chancellor hinted at some general
and comprehensive project which was the result of
his long studies since 1817,—which he had lately
submitted to his colleagues in office,—which had re-
ceived their approbation, and which he would, as a
Member of the Cabinet, intro Luce in the present
Session or the next. With neither the details nor
the principle of this most important plan did
his Lordship make the House acquainted.—
He evidently, however, takes for granted the fact
yf iedundancy, and looks upon emigration as one of
the means of relieving the country from its pletho-
ric habit. Now, notwithstanding all the examina-
tions which have taken place before the committees
on emigration,—notwithstanding all the depositions
of all the witnesses heard before agricultural and
Irish commissions, we think that the principle of a
superabundant population is still very disputable. If
it is meant to say, that wherever you tinil an idle
people,—a people without the means of employment
on the existing system, there is a surplus population,
then we might declare that Spain and Portugal have
a redundant populat ion,—t hen the Lazzaroni of Naples
are a redundant population,—then all the poor who
were fed at the dams of monasteries in Catholic
countries could respectively maintain, in comfort and
affluence, double, triple, or quadruple the number
of inhabitants which cover their soil with the evi-
dences of its want and wretchedness. Connected
with this subject, we call attention to the announce-
ment of a motion for a repeal of the
coin laws by
Lord Milton. By stimulating industry and allowing
an exchange of its fruits among different nations,
this measure would produce a more beneficial effect
than all the other proposed specifics for our agricul-
t urel distress.. Even Poland had a redundant popu-
lation when our corn law prevented us from enjoying
her produce, and paying for it with our manufactures.

The proceedings in the House of Commons last
night propose an interesting subject for our discus-
sion, whllst,at the same time, they forbid our taking
it up. At the melancholy affray at Newtownbarry,
on the borders of the two counties of Wicklow and
Wexford, much blood was shed in an attempt to