The Sun.
London, England, 1836-12-28 00:00:00

" 'We are seven" has been curiously and comically
criticised before ; but it does certainly appear to us
that this magic number never presented so farcical an
appearance as when Sir Robert Peel, late—and cer-
tainly proximate—Prime Minister of England, was
rejected by a majority of seven as unworthy of receiv-
ing the distinction of the freedom of Glasgow. Is not
this, we beg to ask, a political compliment to the Right
Hon. Baronet ? All that is respectable in Glasgow
has rallied round the standard of Conservatism. The
champion of this Conservatism in Scotland, equally as
in England, is Sir Robert Peel. The voice of the
empire with grateful cheering acknowledges the past
services, and anticipates the future exertions, of the
Right Honourable Baronet ; and a majority of seven
in the Town Council of Glasgow endeavour, as best
they may, to insult the first commoner in England.
Of the two modes of conferring distinction, we unhe-
sitatingly say this is the most striking. That the young
gentlemen of the University of Glasgow, that the
wealthy, influential merchants of that, important city
—that the respectable classes, howsoever engaged in
the paths of honourable effort, should have hailed the
advent of Sir Robert Peel as a greatly desirable dis-
tinction, is perfectly natural. But—with all respect
for these distinguished citizens—belonging, as they
do, to that class of noblemen, gentlemen, clergymen,
magistrates, and independent members of society, who
—by the open admission of Lord Melbourne—are
opposed to the present Government, we must say that
by far the most complimentary act we ever could have
anticipated in honour of Sir Robert Peel is the refusal
of the Town-council of Glasgow to inflict upon him
any public compliment. It is impossible not to rejoice
at this. We silently wished that no " half-faced fel-
lowship,, might in any way discountenance the Con-
servative manifestation at Glasgow. Yet we should
have indulged no stronger feeling than a generous dis-
dain towards the unhappy adherents of the Whig-
Radical Government had they controlled their inborn
vulgarity. But having presumed, in a frog-like fas-
hion, to inflate their political insignificance to very
bursting, we have thought it proper to mark signifi-
cantly the scorn with which such paltry insolence must
be received by independent-minded men.—Times.
Alas, for the poor Tories now ! All their fondly-
cherished visions of a split among the Reformers are
utterly dissipated. Need we add, that they have fled
—never to return ? The Liberal party, of all shades
of opinion, are now more closely united than ever.
The Conservatives will find this, to their cost, on the
meeting of Parliament. We are sure our readers will
anticipate us in our expressions of unbounded joy at
this determination of the Reformers to merge all minor
differences in their opposition to the common foe. We
rejoice at this, on account of the great cause which all
have at heart. We farther rejoice at it, because of the
mortification it will cause to the Conservatives. And,
lastly, we rejoice at the circumstance, because we were
among the first, the most earnest, and the most perse-
vering, among our Contemporaries, to press on all Re-
formers the infinite importance of union at the present
eventful juncture. How far the advice we so
urgently tendered, on this point, to the advocates
of liberal principles, has contributed to bring about
that cordial union which now subsists among Re-
formers, it is not for us to say. Nor is that a
matter about which we are disposed to trouble our-
selves. It is enough for us to know that such union
does exist ; and that in its existence we see the conti-
tinued 2.nd yet more complete defeat of Toryism, and
the continued and yet more decided triumph of right
iirinciples in the Government and the country.
We believe we are justified in saying that the union
to which we refer is not only more cordial than any
which heretofore existed, but that it will be much
more lasting than any previous compact, expressed or
implied, into which the different classes of Reformers
had ever entered together. It is a union grounded on
the principle of both parties—the extreme Reformers
and the more moderate class—making corresponding
concessions to each other. Hitherto there has been a
want of reciprocity between them, or if there was any,
it was like Irish reciprocity, all on one side. The Ra-
dicals have heretofore been the only parties making
concessions ; they have conceded much for the sake of
the common cause to the persons calling themselves
Whigs. The latter arc now to meet the Radicals half
way. The Government of Lord Melbourne is, if we
must be still more explicit, to be yet more extensively
popularised. This is the basis of the new alliance
between the two reforming parties in the country. It is
a broad and satisfactory basis ; it is one which cannot
fail to cement and perpetuate the union which heretofore
existed. We speak advisedly when we say that immedi-
ately on the meeting of Parliament Lord Melbourne will
furnish the country with proofs which must be satis-
factory to all, that he duly comprehends the spirit and
necessities of the times, and is determined to act with
the energy becoming the occasion. It will then be
:seen that the confidence of time Radicals in the libe-
rality of Lord Melbourne's forthcoming measures has
not been misplaced; but that he is deserving of all
the support they have agreed to give him. We are
grievously in error, if eight days elapse after the
meeting of Parliament, before his Lordship unfolds
a course of policy to be steadily pursued by his Go-
vernment, which will inspire an unbounded joy in
the breast of every genuine Reformer in the coun-
try. The Tories, if we are not mistaken, are begin-
ning to have some shrewd suspicious of what
a few weeks will reveal. Of this we are cer-
tain, that they look forward to the corning Session
with fear and trembling. They see that all their late
feeds run a great risk of going for nothing. The
prospects of Conservative ascendancy, which were
then so rife over the well-covered table, and while
the bottle was kept in due circulation, are all blasted
now. It is no wonder that with coming events cast-
ing their shadows before, the Tories should be mor-
tified beyond measure, and that their journals should
be giving vent, as they have been doing for the last
few days, to the most bitter denunciations of the
Reformers, because they will not act on Tory ad-
vice, and divide themselves, that they may be con-
quered.—Morning Advertiser.
During the long and arduous contest which we have
had to maintain for the reform of the criminal law,
against prejudices, and passions, and inveterate habits,
opposed to the suggestions of calm and dispassionate
reason, and even repelling the unanswerable evidence
of facts, if we have experienced much of the painful-
ness of ignorant or interested opposition, we have also
learned the value of perseverance in a right course.
When, for instance, it was the received and settled
opinion of a large and influential class of society—
when it was the undisputed, because the unexamined,
doctrine of a great many otherwise intelligent persons
—that to remove the law of blood from the offence of
forgery, would be to take away its firmest support from
the system of paper credit, and thereby ruin the com-
mercial interests of England, we did not fear to' grapple
with the prejudices, the ignorance, and even the into-
lerance which were opposed to enlightened legislation
on this important subject. Day after day did we
labour to show that the law, by its unreflecting severity,
counteracted its own object, and actually encouraged
the commission of the crime which it was intended to
repress. Having at length succeeded—not without
support which we have at other times acknowledged—in
clearing away the unreasoning opposition given to the
principle of a mitigated law of forgery, and having had the
satisfaction to see the views which we had so long pro-
mulgated upon this question sanctioned by the decision
of the Legislature, what next occurred ? Who can
forget that, during the very year following the repeal
(with two exceptions) of the capital provisions of the
law of forgery, a serious and systematic attempt was
made to alarm the public mind on the subject, and to
make it be believed that forgery was in a state of rapid
and fearful increase ? Who does not recollect what co-
louring and currency was given to that notion by the
proceedings at the Mansion House, where, upon every
occasion of a charge of forgery, though such charges
Were still more frequent under the capital law, it was
said to be a natural consequence, which every sensible
man had foreseen, of the abolition of the punishment of
death—though that punishment was notoriously as in-
eirecgve in practice as it was objectionable in principle ?
IV E nieat,timpt—obstinately as it was carried on for
, , e to enlist the fears of society in favour of a
: --, ,
its,
r 7,, 04. • law of blood, did not alarm us. We were
~.; ,
.a+.3''' # d 411; it; of time enabled to give an answer which
.--#1 N.--.:iiagtlie, ; _ ,4-.11; aat rest. We laid before the public the

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