The Sun.
London, England, 1831-01-27 00:00:00

vitals. Circumstances, little dreamt of, have unfolded
before his wondering eyes the accumulated horrors
of the Pension List ; the publication of this list
has electrified him ! His amazement at the size
and stature of the whole system of corruption, may
remind us of the fisherman in the Aiabian Nights'
Entertainments, who having accidentally drawn rip
railer a small casket,broke the seal, and took off the
lid to ascertain the contents ; when, to his over-
whelming astonishment, a gigantic phantom rose up
graduslly before him, reaching from side to side of
the horizon, with. his feet on the affrighted shore,
and his head in the clouds of heaven! 3ust such a
frightful colossus is that political corruption which
we now behold : just as powerful in its ability to do
mischief—just as enormous in its dimensions—just
as malicious io its designs—and just as shadowy in
its legitimate origin !—(lrnmense applause.) But
the scene, gentlemen, is changing, Earl Grey has de-
clared war against this gigantic monster ; with the
assistance of the public voice, he is going to bind
him band and foot—to decapitate him with the
sword of patriotism; and, having consigned his
corpse to its native casket or coffin, he means to cast
it at once into the ocean of oblivion for ever.—
(Cheers.) And shall we not support MS :Lordship
in this mighty task---gets .tremendous, this eventful
operation ?—(Cries of " Yes.") The appeal is
made from the heart to the heart, and shall it be
made in vain ? Survey the present state of parties
in this country, which may, perhaps, be classified
under a threefold division. There is, first, the Aris-
tocracy, now out of power, and yet yearning for
places and emoluments, like fishes out of water. Sir
Robert Peel protests that he hopes to vegetate in
his quiet park at Drayton, never again to return to
office, and yet, all the time, wishing " No I thank
you" hanged. There is, secondly, the country
party now in power—the party to which so many
amongst ourselves belong—the party who were in-
strumental in procuring us the revolution of 1688—
the party pledged to the repeal of vexatious laws,
the removal of unjust monopolies, the alleviation of
public burthena, by strict economy, the extinction
of all unnecessary expenditure, and the abolition of
sinecures and useless places. The third party com-
prises those who are supposed to wish for radical
changes in the Governinent—for the revolutions of
France rather than the good old English reforms-
, dons of 1831—in one word, for a total overthrow
of our present form of government. Earl Grey and
his friends are therefore placed between two tremen-
dous enemies; and it is to support them that we are
here assembled. But now, Gentlemen, there are
two sets of assertions thrown upon us to cajole us
out of all reason, on the one hand, or frighten us
out of our seven senses on the othe;. And, with
regard to the first of these,—numbers of noble and
respectable persons, assure us that the present sys-
tem works practically well. I thank these gentlemen
for their admission, and there is a sense, moreover,
in which what, they assert is true. I will tell you
what that sense is :—I can conceive a certain Duke,
who has declared " he may do what he will with his
own," stepping from his chariot and four into the
treasury of the kingdom, to receive certain pensions
for his family out of the civil list. I say Lean con-
ceive him consigning a cheque for 5,0001. of the
public money into the velvet of his most noble
pocket, and driving away to the west end of the
town to receive 5,0001. more, as the price of one of
his seats in Parliament. Why his Grace, it is mani-
fest, has ten thousand reasons to think that the pre-
sent system works practically well, and indeed it
does so both for him and all kis family. Take dre
other case—of one of the clerkships of the Privy
Council, as matters lately stood. lt,; former posses-
sor is scarcely cold, ere the honourable son of a Right
Hon. Earl succeeds him. Conceive this sprig of the
Aristocracy throwing himself into the soft embraces
of an elbow-chair, or ssretching himself upon his sil-
ken sofa in all the latitude and longitude of an enor-
mous salary for doing as little as possible, and then
declaring how well the present system works!
Well, indeed, most capitally well, for the honourable
Mr. this, and the honourable Mr. the other !
(Laughter.) But what say the public, out of whose
pockets the salary comes ? This is the point, and
here is the trial of the present Ministry. But we
are also assailed with a second set of alarms, and we
are told that we are urging on a revolution. Do
these gintlemen intend to assert that we are foster-
ing a revolution of opinions—merely a moral revolu-
tion ? Why that was done centuries ago at the Re-
formation ; it occurred, also, in 1688, when the
three kingdoms sat down in the beauty of constitu-
tional freedom, the wonder and envy of the world
But now there are two lines of conduct opening be-
fore the country, and we will glance for a moment at
both. I will suppose, first, that what we wish will
happen. Who will not hail this event—who does
not wish, in the words of our motion, for a repeal
and vexatious laws—the removal of
semonopolies—the alleviation of public burdens
uoefyolpestspesriee tssiveconomy—the extinction of unnecessary
expenditure—and the abolition of sinecures ? Yet,
on the other hand, conceive, but for err instant, the
reverse of this picture—suppose that the present ad-
ministration is worsted—that the old regime returns
—that those
into rho
power. are. erfor " things as they were,"
come again
Why,
then will be the hour
of the triumph of tyranny the knell will be tolled
of all intelligence and liberty—the patriot's voice
will be hushed in a prison or quenched on a scaffold.
I say their may be the hour of tire triumph of des-
potism, coeval with that of, perhaps, the suppression
of Parliament. But, mark me, it will lie the hour
also in which the young earthquake shall be born,
which is to overwhelm our social order.—(Cheers.)
It will be 'he hour, when universal discontent, like
some
sorceress
of hell shall draw her magic circle
ariridst the obscurity and horrors of darkness ; when
conspiracy, and rebellion, and rapine, arid violence,
and hatred, and war, arid massacre, and assassination
shall listen to her exorcisms, and whet their wea-
pons for vengeance ! It will be the hour, when deep
shall call unto deep, while the spirits of the abyss
assemble, although unheard and unknown in the
world above; far the sound shall go forth as before,
that all is safe—that the nation is prosperous—that
there are no complaints—that there is no distress—
and thus shall the last sun of England go down
amidst that calm, that horror of silence, during
which the lightning is beckoning to the thunder,
and the thunder to the hurricane and the whirlwind !
I say all may be one external and yet awful and
ominous serenity; the tide of pleasure shall be flow-
ing on as before—the banquet shall be spread, and
the wine poured out—the votaries of luxury—the
sons and daughters of opulence—shall congregate
for the feast, the revel, and the song ; until the fin-
gers of a man's hand inscribe on the wall their cha-
racters of flaming fire; and the mantled prophet of
a nation's doom shall be at length summoned to
read and rehearse and expound ; but, ere his voice
can be heard—ere be can inform a guilty faction that
" they are weighed in the balances and are found
wanting"_,the fearful sentence is fulfilled—the vol-
cano bursts—Government has exploded into atoms
—amidst a crash, and a groan, and a cry, and a wail,
and u roar, and a din, compared with which the
very cataracts of Niagara are but as the whispers of
a stifled conscience !—(Cheers.)—Worse than
Egyptian gloom, encircles and envelopes our shores
—the brother is armed against his brother—anarchy
and civil contention in confusion thrice confounded,
impel their scythed chariot from gate to gate, from
city to city, through clouds of smoke acid torrents
of gore, over piles of tottering ruins,—while the
throne and the altar, the prince and the priest, the