The Sun.
London, England, 1831-12-06 00:00:00

they may have had considerable effect on many who were
undecided.

" It may be asked how men, with conscientious inten-
tions, could incur the responsibility of resisting a measure
so loudly called for by the people? Let it be remembered
that. the prejudices of many, combined with the feelings
just described, may have incapacitated them from se,ing
this responsibility. The danger most cleirly revealed to,
and deeply impressed on their minds, was that of being
awed into a surrender of their just prerogative; that of
compromising for ever the safety of their rights and
privilege., by a prompt submission to what they
considered the dictation of the people. Apprehen-
sions such as these may have determined the op-
position of many, otherwise prepared to grant what the
country desired. Nor can men, sincerely averse to the
measure, be morally culpable for overlooking, under such
apprehensions, the pressing exigencies o f the occasion.
Blameable they were (with all respect it must be con-
fess d), for not exercising their faculties—for not inquiring
--fur not acquainting themselves with the true state of
public feeling—for not opening their eyes to the " signs of
the times;' but certainly not blameable, as far as can he
seen, for obliquity of purpose or baseness of design."
We must say this is but a lame defence for the
Lords. The privileges of the Lords are given to
tham, not for their own benefit, but for the benefit
of the nation ; and it is monstrous, in a case on
which the opinion of the nation was expressed with
a nearer approach to unanimity than on any other in
our history, to oppose the privilege to such opinion.
Where the House of Commons may be supposed not
to speak the sentiments of the nation, the House of
Lords may interpose their decision; but when the
King has appealed to the nation, and the nation has
expressed itself in such a mariner as to silence the
most sceptical, the House of Lords must yield, or
the State is paralysed. The constitutional remedy
of creating fresh Peers indicates the absurdity of the
Lords standing on the privilege of opposing the two
other States. But truce for the present with the
past. 'Ministers must now be firm and decisive.
They are responsible for the peace of the country,
compared to which, all other matters are but as dust
in the balance.—Morning Chronicle.
To-day the opening of the Session of Parliament
commences a new chapter, and, to all appearance, an
eventful one in the history of England. Among
the many political novelties which distinguish the
present era is a Session of Parliament beginning
just before the festival of Christmas. Urgent must '
be the necessity which causes so peculiar an inno-
vation on the usual routine of Government—and
urgent it certainly is. The doubt and uncertainty in
which the question of Reform has been for some
time past involved has had the deplorable effect of
adding to the embarrassments of trade and industry,
by its paralyzing influence en public confidence, and,
through that, upon the ordinary transactions of
business. This state of uncertainty cannot long
continue without being productive of the most
ruinous consequences. A suspension of the meo
cantile energies and enterprise of such a country
as England, for any considerable time, cannot
fail to bring about some calamitous crisis; there-
fore it is not without a sufficient and pressing cause
that Parliament is convoked for the labours of a new
Session, at a season when the Members of both
Houses usually rest from tie fatigues of legislation.
In assembling Parliament, under such circPt-nstances,
before the holydays, Ministers have acted well. But
whether we shall be enabled to follow up this praise
by an acknowledgment of more substantial benefits
conferred on the country depends upon themselves.
We look to measures, not to men—to acts, and not
to professions. We cannot, therefore, bestow praise
until it is earned, or be lavish of commendation upon
mere conjecture. Ministers are the servants of the
public, and we advocate the public interests. If
Ministers prove themselves able and faithful servants
of the public in the new labours upon which they
are about to enter, we shall be ready to offer them
the humble but earnest tribute of our support and
praise ; if not, not. The experience of the past hat
taught us not to place implicit or boundless confi-
dence in public men. Public rights and liberties
have been always better protected by the vigilance of
the people than by the virtue of their rulers. The
nation that sleeps in confidence may awake to ruin.
The present Ministers have committed many errors
—they have disappointed even the more rational
and enlightened portion of the public in many things,
We assisted, and in some degree led on, that force of
public opinion which raised them into power, and
which proved too strong for the fortunes of the con-
queror of Napoleon. But though they falsified their
avowed principles on some important questions—for
instance, the civil list, criminal jurisprudence, the pen-
sion list, &c.; though their unnatural unto') with the
Holy Alliance in the affairs of Belgium and Poland
severely disappointed us ; though their temporis-
ing concessions to the placemen and dependents of
the Anti-Reformers produced great injury to the
public cause; yet, having pledged themselves to an
efficient measure of Reform, we naturally preferred
their cause to that of their antagonists, who were
opposed to all amelioration of the political condition
of the people. The rumour which has been indus-
triously spread of a compromise between the Mini-
sters arid the more moderate opponents of the late
Reform Bill, on the terms of abandoning some of
the most important, and indeed, essential provisions
of the Bill, we cannot believe ; for an efficient Re-
form Bill is the sheet anchor of the Ministry, and if
that be cut away they are lost—lost beyond the pos-
sibility of redemption ; but as we have never joined
in the silly and ignorant ery for "the Bill, the
whole Btll, and nothing but the Bill," we could,
for the sake of peace, and relieving the country from
its distressing uncertainty, admit of a good deal of
modification of the Bill, provided the new Bill ad-
hered to the great principles of disfranchising the
rotten boroughs—enfranchising the great unrepre-
sented towns, and admitting the middle classes into
the electivefranchise. Let us have this Reform and
we fear nothing.—Morning Herald.

On Tuesday there was a Bible meeting at the
Rotunda, at which a Mr. TA TAM, who calls himself
Reverend, said that nether the Roman Catholics nor the
Unitarians believed in the real God fact, that th.y
were Atheists, Q. E. D. After this comfortable display
of Christianity, his auditory retired, quite gratified at
learning that so many of their fellow-beings were on the
road to damnation !—Dublin Morning Register.

MURDER AT CRAMOND.—It is again our
melancholy duty to publish the particulars of another
most atrocious murder which occurred yesterday forenoon
within a few miles of this city. The unfortunate object
of this villainous proceeding was an elderly widow woman,
named Marrx GEDDES, residing with her daughter in a
small cottage forming the most westerly of " The Long
Row"—as it is called—a line of cottars' houses upon the
summit of a bank overlooking the road between Barnton
West Gate and the old Cramond Bridge. While her
daughter went daily to work in the fields, this old woman,
who was unfit for any hard labour, spent her time in
knitting, which, it appears, she was actually engaged in at
the moment of her cruel murder. Two of her neighbours,
who were in her house yesterday forenoon about eleven
o'clock, hearing that there was a vagrant going about their
doors, immediately left her, and shortly after, it appears,
the some person was seen entering the old woman's
cottage, apparently with the intention of demanding cha-
rity. A lad working at a little distance, saw the man leave
her house suddenly and run down the bank, hut no farther
notie was taken of the occurrence, until about an hour
and a half afterwards, a woman, selling fish, called at the
cottages, and upon entering the inner door of MaTTY
GEDDES'S house, found the unfortunate woman weltering
in her blood upon the floor, the upper portion of her skull,
from the top of the nose to the back of the head, com-
pletely separated, her brains scattered about the room, and
the horrid instrument of murder, a spade, which stood
between the outer and inner doors of the cottage, lying
alongside of her. By this time she was quite cold, and,
from the circumstance of no noise being heard at the mo-
ment, it may be concluded that the whole affair was the
work of a very few second'. At twelve last night no clue
had been obtained of the murderer. He is described as a
middle-aged man, rather thin, dark complexioned, and
about five feet nine inches in height. He wore a black
hat, a darkish green coat, with metal buttons, and a black
or dark coloured handkerchief round his neck, which
Came up so as ;o cover his mouth. He was afterwards
seen going towards town, and being well observed by dif-
ferent individuals, we have no doubt justice will soon over-
take him—Caledonian Mercury of Saturday.