The Sun.
London, England, 1831-04-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

. The presentation of petitions to the House. of Commons,
or some other accidental cause, is constantly giving rise to
discussions on the important Bill before Parliament, preg-
nant with interest, or productive of amusement. The
conversation which took place on Thursday night between
Mr. O'Connell, Mr. Hunt, and Mr. C. Fergusson, is of
the latter character chiefly,—it is amusing. The " Saw,
ef
eYyandß
electioneering
occasioned
to be as proper there as on the hustings. What a proud
l a r n
wite
laughtery s
(t. nn torto
neat,di
nu ce
the
butwile or
strong)ues
House,
tth he ey: charactere e
as
th
creatureman
e(om„openlacteienincyO'Connell
e It
e will be observed
l!")
could self
not
possibly "
possibly be known to the Marquis of Anglesea,--a Peer
distinguished above all by his frank and Itiendly manner :
h
his Lordship neither practices nor knows any such inso-
Gentlemen intimates
a t
lenee as condescension. Mr. Hunt spoke of the present
Bill for Beferm as indicating a conspiracy of the higher
and middle orders to keep the lower orders down. This
was a very foolish remark; as if the individuals of the
several classes were immoveable,—as if a person of the
middle class were secure that his own son would not sink
into the lowest, or as if the lowest might not rise into the
highest. If the members of the lowest class have not the
right to vote, let them by frugality and industry attain
that rights and we know not a treater incitement to fru-
gality and industry than the hopes of rising* to the come-
. quence of being an elector, whilst it would be absolute
cruelty to take a poor man away from his labour to riot
at elections, and then go back and starve in his cabin.
No, paupers have nothing to do with elections : their
first step in society is to raise themselves above penury,
and then the rights of citizenship follow of course.— Times.
It is the fashion with those who obstinately resisted
every measure for the relief of the Catholics from the in-
flictions of the penal laws, to glorify themselves upon what
they allege to be the truth of their own prophecies as to
the failure of emancipation to improve the state of Ireland,
by pointing to the present excesses and outrages of the
people, and asking, " Be these the effects of your fine Ca-
tholic Bill ?" This species of exultation is quite as un-
i reasonable as the policy which it seeks to justify was ini-
quitous and oppressive. It never was asserted by the
friends of emancipation, that poverty and wretchedness, or
proneness to revenge injuries by violence, or a sudden
veneration for the whole body of the laws,—of laws, the
average spirit of which had fog centuries breathed nothing
but contempt towards the poor of Ireland,—or, fivalle ,
that an absolute and total change in all the relations of
man and man, throughout that country, would instantly
follow the exemption of a Catholic from the penalties im-
posed ott his religion. On the contrary, it was invariably
stated by the most earnest and enlightened advocates of
emancipation, that such a measure would remove an enor.
mous and irritating excrescence from the general surface
of society,—that it would throw aside obstrdetions which
intercepted the view of what was real and inherent in the
condition of the Irish people,—relieving the case from
certain adventitious perplexities which confused it, and
clearing the approaches to that naked substance on which
an observant Legislature would thenceforth have to
operate, viz. the Irishman in his character of a free citizen,
not provoked of compelled into any course of action but
that which his temporal obligations or interestsenight pre-
scribe. The abolition of the penal laws was recommended
as the first point on the path of a great remedial policy,
and as that point to which it would be necessary for us to
retrace our steps, whatever distance we might travel in a
more oblique or circuitous direction. It was further said,
that if a Catholic Relief Bill did not at once reclaim the
peasant from his turbulence, by an immediate relief of his
wants, it would at least take away front the Catholic
gent'esnan all motives for encouraging the lawless proceed-
ings of the peasant, and playing Lim off against the State,
as a ready instrument of political alarm and distraction.
We now, therefore, do contend, that if emancipation Lae
not as yet discharged, in full, the sum total of the en
gagement for which its friends stood pledged to the em-
pire, it has already paid a far more liberal instalment of
that debt than any sober mind could have anticipated.
The crust and slough of religious fury have been wiped
away, and the true nature of the public malady has dis-
closed itself, in the almost universal array of destitution
against property throughout the south and west of Ireland.
It is found, that under what.had heretofore assumed the
colour and semblance of an unmixed religious quarrel,
there lay an ancient, deep, and exasperating grievance, in
the incapacity of the miserable peasant to pay his rent,
and at..the same time to feed his children. Well; then,
we have got thus far. But the Catholic Relief Bill Ilea
done more ; for it has fulfilled to the very letter the pre-
diction of impreving the Catholic gentleman, from beimez
one who, in the contemplation of his own wrongs, LA
either tacitly countenanced, or not effectually discouraged,
the inflammable multitude in their frequent outbreakings
against the laws,—it has, we say, improved that gentle-
man into a supporter of the Kine's Government, and at'
the constitutional authorities, not surpassed in zeal, or
loyalty, or determination, by any portion of the Protestant
aristocracy. What was the confidence of Englishmen
generally, in the Catholic gentlemen of either country, seven
years ago ?—and what is now their confidence? Let the
answer to that question decide the merits of emancipation,
as a measure of high state policy. Let us, moreover, ask
the old sticklers for religious persecution, what treatment
would a Bill for " the Reform of Parliament " have ex-
perienced in Ireland before. the Catholics were relieved
from their disabilities? Why, the Irish would have ex-
claimed, what have we to do with their Reform ? These
Protestants are a pretty set of hypocrites ; they talk of
loving liberty, but it is for themselves alone,—they talk of
rights, but it is that they may usurp therm—of constitu-
tional benefits, but it is to lock them up in close monopoly.
" Give LIA-the Catholics—an interest in the Constitu-
tion, or don't dare to ask for our assistance in restoring
it." Such would have' been the language of the Catholics
before the passing of that great Bid, by which the Duke
of Wellington raised them to the rank of freemen. What
is their language now ? What has become now of the
sepurate grievances of the Catholics? What of the repeal
of the Union ? What of any question, by the passing of
which an Irish plot or interest could be traced as having a
distinct existence from those of their brethren, the united
Protestants and Catholics of Great Britain? They have
vanished—they have merged—in the 'one 'grand family
project of Reform. The cry in support of his Majesty's
Government is not less unanimous throughout Blunater
and Connaught than here. And how have the represen-
tatives for Ireland responded to the call of their consti-
tuents ? Thus—of Scotch Members who voted on the
second reading, a large majority, as became them, were
.against the Bill. Of . English Members,—we record it •
with sorrow,—a majority were against the Bill ; while.
of the representatives from Ireland, a majority of (we be-
lieve) two-thirds voted in favour of Reform ! *To Ire-
land, then, belongs the honour of having carried to its
present stage, this measure for rede•ming the Constitution
from decay, and the people of England from bondage.
Without emancipation, we affirm boldly that no such phe-
nomenon would have displayed itself. Look at the Orange
1 interest of Ireland ; even now it is another name for the
intereit adverse to Reform. But we admit that there is
one greet cure which has not been effected by the übuli-
tion of the penal laws,—one Reform which it has not
'yet achieved. It has not product d a reformation of many
of the Irish landlords. It has not lowered the amount of
ventrilption wrung from the potabeestarved peasantry, as
the price, they-pay for being suffered' to witness the lin-
gering agokiete of their children—unrelieved in the ex-
tremity of Neel' ar,•by even a morsel of the scanty crop,
impounded be b' it !elves the earth until the rent of per-
haps 101. per Seie'has been secured by the agent of sonic
absentee Lord.• Picverty--that is, famine—has not yet
been driven out of 'lreland by the Catholic Relief Bill.
Rents, as. Lord Anglematesteknowledges, cannot be reduced,
nor the hearts of men, haltitually indifferent melted into
charity, by law. But 'laws.,4eay be devised, and we do
trust they are in progress, ftie 'squeezing the sensitive pot
Lion of these gentlemen-etii%it, their pockets—and,
through the medium of a invoke to which we have often
before referred, assessing the priiperties of the rich to re-
munerate the poor man for his labour. There has been a
Reform meeting of the county of Meath, where the ut-
most enthusiasm in support of Ministers was exhibited.—
Times.

One of the best of the measures of the Duke of Wel-
•
lington's Administration. was the Beer Bill, a measure
which nothing but the greatest firmness could have car-
ried against the extent of sinister interests arrayed against
it. That Bill broke up the shameful system of con-
nivance between magistrates and brewers, by which a
property WU created in public houses at the expence of
the consumers, and by which moreover the public were
subjected to the usual evils of monopoly. That magis-
trates, whose power of tyrannising over publicans the Bil I
materially diminished, should dislike the measure, is Vitt'
natural; for who is there who likes to part with power?
of the
pthreetemxtesratiheereef will not npoetebpelewaenfrotirdnge.d preservation
aTphreetex
abuses under the licensing systems and the same pretext
will perceives
will serve as well. -is, ever. We aorfeLsoorrdry. otri Thursday
from what took place in the.
ine kieloamtlisposition to forget al-
night, there is isa,n°t-1- the venality'
and oppression which
ready the exposures of t
of the Beer Bill, and to con-
wok place befure. t4e. .P"smg
the magistracy at the expence of the community.
for

~:~~ :.,~:rj -

Ibe Lail of Atalinesbury moved for certain returns 'dative
to the Beer till, with a view to show that its effects had
been :eve), pernicious in the agricultural counties, where
'ilt population was scattered, although in towns where
eke public-houses were more immediately under thecon-
eroul of the magistrates, it had not done much injury.
file Lord Chancellor said " complaints having been made
from different quarters, the Government had tho.ught pro-
per to cause inquiries to be made, and had applied to the
magistrates of the different counties for that purpose. He
had heard that evils did result from it in some counties in
the south and west, whereas in the north, with which
he was more immediately connected, no complaints had
been made. He had mentioned this on a former occasion
when this subject was started ; and on further inquiry he
found that his information was, to a considerable extent,
correct. He had also mentioned on that occasion that
the evil might be only local and temporary, or that kind
of evil which at first resulted from all chanFes, and he
hoped that it would be found that the evil Was only tem-
porary." The very fact of the alleged effects having been
ao different in the north, and in the south and west, almost
amounts to a proof that Lord Malmesbury remeens, as
other men have done before him, post 1i -c ergo propter
hoc. There have bevel disturbance' in the southern and
western counties, ergo, the P.M houses have caused the
disturbances. Lord Carnarvon said, " the Bill had match
ncreased the disturbances in districts where there had
been disturbances lately." They may just as well say that
the Bill has been the cause of the absence of disturbances
in the north. In the state in which the peasantry lately
were in the south, what is there which would not be
abused? It would be as rational to say, that because
meat is injurious to a man in a state of fever. that meat i,
generally injurious. Are the labouring population to be
viewed only as insurgents—as cenepirators against pro-
perty? The Beer Bill was intended for the comenience
end comfort of the people, and we ought not to abridge
their comforts, and expose them to inconvenience, on ac-
count of what takes place during extraordinary period.",
The Lord Chancellor ruffled a little some of their Lord-
ships, by observing, " that the magistrates had been ap-
plied to for information on the subject, and then he was
bound to consider the magistrate. as having a certain bias
on the subject, since this Bill ttok away from them much
of the patronage which they had enjoyed befoete by the
power of granting licenses, and so far diminished their
iafluence." This is all very well ; but we could have
liked to have seen a more decide& opposition to the at..
tempts against the Beer Bill, on the principle. surely
it is not intended to abandon a Bill for which So much
praise was bestowed on t'ne late Administration ! Any
experience, it seems, is sufficient for a conclusion against
the enjoyments of the people. A hundred years of op-
pression are not enough to prove the mischief of the
licensing system; but one half-year is enough to prove the
evils of liberty. The attempt ought to have at once been
scouted.—Morning Chronicle.

The impudence of the Scotch freeholders is beyond all
bearing. The whole representation of Scotland, as is well
known, is a farce, but an expensive farce to Engles:id.
The rotten boroughs of England are respectability itself,
when compared to Scotch county elections The rotten
boroughs not unfrequently were purtheaied by honest and
Independent men ; but the Scotch have always been thre.
rough-paced jobbers. Examine any division from the time
of the Union to the present day, and it will be !mind that
every base job, every ruinous measure, has been supported
by the Scotch Members, in the proportion of three and four
t one. What is it to the people of England, that the men
who thus sell themselves for patronage to every Ministee,
hold a large share of the property of Scotland. Thin merely
paves, that men who possess property, tomtit' covet to
possess more, and having no check upon them, put their
hands freely into the public purse. The people of England
are as much interested as the people of Scotland in clearing
out this Augean stable; because their own representation.
if good, would be rendered of no avail by the bed compo-
sition of that of Scotland. The people of Scotland are
sager for Reform ; but, forsooth, a number of landed gen-
tlemen, who no.v possess the monopoly of returning
County Members, and are unwilling to lose it, meet in thel
different counties, and pass resolutions against the Reform
Bill, and the voice of a nation is to pass for nothing against
these pretended county meetings. " In Banffshire (said
Mr. Kennedy) where there were 4.3,000 inhabitants, a pe-
ition was agreed to against the Bill, at a meeting where
there were thirteen persons, four of whom were in favour
of Reform and none against it. In Berwickshire, with
33,00:i inhabitants, thirty-three persons met, and then
relrainly they were unanimous against the Bill. Then
Came Dumbartonshire, in which the petition against Re-
form was carried, as stated by the Lord Advocate, by
thirty- six to twenty-fire Then came the
county of Elgin, with 31,000 inhabitants, in witieli there
was a meeting of nine persons—Haddinetons with 35,000,
in which there were eight in favour, and four against; and
Roxburghshire, in which the petition was carried by 4 to'
23. In that county, however, there was a reef meeting
of the landholders and inhabitants on the tenet day, and
they were unanimous in favour of the Bill. In fact,
wherever the real opinions of the people could be collected,
*part from those of the voters for the rotten borough sys-
tem of Scotland, they were unanimous in favour of the
Bill. It appeared to him most extraordinary that under
such a system to many persons of property should be found
to vote at county meetings its favour of the plan of Re-
fortri."--Sir George Murray chose to feel very indignant
at this treatment of the Scotch freeholders—" The lion.
Member (Mr. Kennedy)" he said, " sitting tts be did for a
vet of close boroughs, had been decrying the counties of
Scotland, and applying to them most improperly the s'ame
faeguage which he would use with respect to the rotten
boroughs of England." Rotten boroughs of England, for-
sooth! Well, and bad as the rotten boroughs are, have
eaeir Members been ever half so bast and so eitne-serving
es the County Members of Scotland? The comparison is
in favour of the 'often (nroughs. The Member for the
rotten borough pays his price to the patron, or to the
drunken potwalloppers, and may give an honest vote; but
it is an understood matter that every one of the 40 or 50
freeholders who return a Member for a Scotch county,
must have themselves and their kin provided for at the
public expence, and the Scotch County Member must
vote through thick and thin to have food for their ravenous
nueuthe for which he is bound to provide. These freehol-
ders know right well that their monopoly gives them a
ready access at all times to the English Treasury;. and they
fight for it as pro aris et focis. Sir George. added, " He
could say of Scotland with sincerity, that its county re-
presentation was as pure and independent as any to be
found in England." Conte, come, Sir George, this will
not do. You are not talking, man, to Chinese, or to Hin-
doos, but to Englishmen, who have been enlightened by
lists of majorities and minorities. Will you only show us
a single instance of a barefaced job, the subject of a vote in
the House of Commons, in which the Scotch County
Members were not at least three to one in favour of the
job ? It is moat monstrous assurance to compare togs ther
the English and Scotch county representation. Of all
conceivable constituencies, that of the Scotch counties is
the worst. It is an impenetrable phalanx of conspirators
against the property of the people of the empire. Accident
even, except in the case where a single family commands a
whole county, brings no alloy to the corrupt effects. In
two or three counties, as Forfarehire, Lanarkshire, Argyle.
shirts, and perhaps occasionally another, the overwhelming
properties of individuals returned the Members, and then
the Members, being accountable to no constituency, could
be honest ; but in every independent county of Scotland--
th it is, where property is at all divided, the Member who
did not vote in such a way as to ensure a command of pa-
tronage for the constituency, would never have been again
returned in his life for an independent Scotch county.
The people of Scotland have long been indignant at these
doings. It would be difficult to believe (says the Glas-
gow chronicle of Friday last), if we did not actually wit-
nest it, that a warlike nation like the Scots, 600,000
fighting men strong, would so long have permitted fewer
than 1,400 individuals to make laws for the country. In
India 30,000 British keep in subjection sixty millions of
11i."001. In Scotland twenty times that number of Bri-
tish are leept in subjection by an oligarchy of less than
1;1,00." But the cause was assigned by Sir J. Mackin-
tosh. o The reason why Scotland had increased in pro-
perty and wealth, under the present system, was not be-
cause it was a sound one, but because the Constitution of
England protected her, and the representation of England
was spread over her as a shield, to guard her from the con-
sequences which might have followed the defect, of her
own." In fact, the Scotch system could not hold toge-
ther a day without England. Sir George Cale, strange
thought
" it w
he answered Sir James when he said,aongeantod
hear him extol the merits of the English Constitutrin
speak of the representation as forming a shield for the pro-
tection of Scotland, at the very time he was using his
utmost exertions in support sf a Bill totallyis
the
changing
nature of the Constitution." But forming a representa-
tion from defects, and thereby improving its character, is
not denying all merit to the unreformed Parliament ;
whereas the Scotch representation is, as far as it goes, not
only without any good, but a positive diminution, as far
as it goes, of the share of good possessed by the English.
When Mr. C. Ferguson talked of the voters of Scotch
counties being incorruptible as they never bought and sold
their votes like the boroughs of England—that they were
men of integrity, and independence, and so forth, s
we 17.1,
translate this character into plain English. The en
freeholder does not sell his vote fora few guineas; he is

a rich man ; but he does much worse ; he motes the
representative obtain patronage for tiet, The venality is
nothing compared to such an es4l.--Morning Chronicle.
As the time far I...rigging the grand question of Reform
to its cer.3.urnmation approaches, the rumours of tricks and
treacheries increase. It is now, we find, again asserted
that the King will not consent to the instotetio'.. sirould
the present Parliament violate its to 'tne country by
rejecting the Bill, Are t'heY tire Mends of the monarchy,
we ask ?—are They tit' .-riends 'of the King personally,
who have rac..sa.l and circulated this reron to his preju-
dice ? V. say to his preird'.ce, for even they who
would rejoice in the defeat of the Bill by any means, would
still not fail of Vairning the Sovereign for having suffered
it to be tarried thus far by his own sernon; whilst the
rest of the country, who are wr.an:ted up, as it were, in
the success of the meastrA-e, would vent all their indigna-
tioa against th ri•!-Abor of the defeat. The King's Minis-
ters brie firelight in the Bill with his consent aml. af:proba-
tian : with his countenance, and urrY..- his auspices (for
he could have discharged the s. any time,) they have
fought it through its Ortl• stages. Is it to be believed that
William IV. ia'cipable now of deserting the pledges which
this corn'rt gives to his people of his sincerity in the
causo of Reform, and defeating the Bill with which he is
thus identified, by refusing to allow of a dissolution of Par •
liament, should that be netsessary, fo'r the completion of
the work ? t*.c ; William IV. i 3 ineapahle of any
thing like this ; and he may form an idea of the malignity
of the enemies of the Bill, from such a specimen of their
treatment of himself, to whom they would impute conduct
at which his heart must revolt ; 'and whom. if ".Y.ley could
even persuade him to execute the treacnery with which
they charge him, they would ttili condemn and hate, for
the support which fi'a has already lent his Ministers
in in the organkatia'a and partial execution of the project.
For oursuN-es, we can hardly conceive, nor would we
tvillingly contemplate, the situation of a Kibg of 'Eng-
land who should now strangle a measure of such vast im-
portance, with the suttees of which he has, up to this
point, appeared to be identified. Let it be recollected,
that his Majesty has even dismissed some of his personal
servants front their offices for hot sanctioning the measure
by their votes in PariJament ; and whoever recollects this
will not be apprehensive, we should think, that the same
King should now defeat the Bill, by refusing hit per-
mitsion to dissolve a Parliament by whi,th it should have
been rejected. In repelling this v;alumny upon his Ma-
jesty's fair fame, his eonsittehey, or sincerity, it will be ob-
served that we sea of the dissolution of Parliament
as neces-saer 'ea the success of the measure. The
pewter dissolve is undoubtedly necessary; and this the
adherents of the boroughmongering system see. The
power, unexereised, may be as efficacious as the dissolu •
Lion itself. In the same mariner the report that the power
has not been granted may lie as injurious as the positive
refusal of the possr,r ; and thence it is that the report has
been raiskati by those who are reckless of the effect which
it •iii have upon the King's character, We would wipe
oh.' the false aspersion from his Majesty's reputation, and
' thus remove a considerabk obstruction to the success of
the Tinier,

The motion of Mr, Fowell Buxton relative to the anti-
slaVery question stands for this evening. What the pre-
cise nature of that motion is we do tint pretend to say—it
is sufficient for us to knw that its object is to accelerate
the abolition of a practice which has long stood condemned
by the United sentence of reason, religion, and humanity,
and which tarnishes our moral character, and is a deep
stain upon our civilization. But it is not our cultivated
sentiments only—the pure and honest instincts of human
nature revolt at a state of slavery, and not the proudest
patriot of the classic lands of ancient freedom felt a deeper
athortence of bondage and its degradation than
- the poor Indian, whose untutored mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind.
Perhaps the greatest triumph of civilized opinion in mo-
dern times was the abolition of the "slave trade," for
which Wilbertorce and Clarkson, and their fellow-labourers
in the cause of humanity, hail so long contended under the
most adverse circumstances, until, at length, the Legisla-
ture adopted the principles which justice and Christianity
had consecrated, and pointed the terror. of criminal law at
those

Who delve a loathsome traffic—guage and span
Akld buy the sinews and the bones of man.
But the abolition of the slave trade is, and must continue
to be, incomplete until slavery itself is rooted oat. As
long as there are slaves in our plantations there will be a
temptation to the illicit traffic in the abominable merchan-
dise of hurrah beings—and that traffic must be productive
of more suffering and torture to the wretched objects of a
disgusting cupidity than the open and tolerated trade was,
because the secresy essential t carrying it on makes it ne-
cessary to adopt the, Inost cruelly ingenious modes of pack-
ing the contraband bodies of negroes in the smallest pos-
sitte, space between the decks or in the hold of the vessel
that bears its cargo of misery over the tropical seas, pur-
sued by the curses of den/ ited Africa. We are aware
that the question of the abolition of slavery in our West
India isllt'3B has its difficultie., in consequence of the
length of time in which the acquisition of slaves has been
tolerated, and the property therein said to be acquired; and
we also know that the House of Commons, more than
seven years ago, passed certain resolutions, not merely
declaratory of the sense of the House in condemna-
tion of slavery, but pledging the Government to
adept effectual and decisive measures for ameliorat-
ing the condition of the slave population in hie
Majesty's colonies, with a view to prepare them for a
participation in those civil rights and privileges which
are enjoyed by other classes of his Majesty's subjects. Now
we believe w e are correct in stating that no " effectual
and decisive measures" have since been adopted or en-
forced in the Weat India islands to ameliorate the condi-
tion of the slaves, and prepare them for their long-
deferred emancipation. It is time that something should
be done ; but we think the case of the unfortunate
woman, Kitty Hylton, which we published, on the
authority of an official statement of Lord Goderich, in
our paper of Wednesday, sufficiently proves that in
Jamaica, where the barbarities occurred of which that
woman was the victim, slavery preserves all its original
horrors, while the outrages which it stimulates power to
exercise upon the helpless objects of its capricious cruelty
are as unrestrained by any sense of decency or manly
feeling as they are free from the grasp of criminal justice.
When we hear the situation of the poor of England com-
pared with that of the West India negroes, and when we
find that a bill of indictment i referred by the Attorney-
General of Jamaica, under the directions of the Secretary
of State, against the perpetrator of the cruelties upon
Kitty Hylton, was thrown out by the Grand Jury, we
must say that nothing can be more absurd than to draw
such a comparison ; for, however scanty the wages, how-
ever hard the lot of the poor man in England may be, he
has rights which the law practically recognises, and which
no man, however great or opulent he might be, could dare
to violate as the rights of humanity were violated in the
case in question, without having to pay deeply in damages
for the wrong, or undergoing the sentence of a culprit at
the bar of public justice. Indeed Lord Goderich says—
" Were I to assume the judgment of the Grand Jury to
he correct, it would follow that the laws of Jamaica
afford the slave no protection from such sufferings as are
shown by evidence upon oath to have been undergone by
Kitty Hylton." Is it not then clearly established that
something ought to be done, without further loss of time,
to accelerate the extinction of a system so allied to bar-
barism, and so productive of crime?—Morning Herald of
Friday.

We congratulate the country upon the union and firm
resistance of the Nobility and Gentry of the county of
Northampton to the attempts of the partisans of the Revo-
lutionary Bill, who endeavoured to get up a county meet-
ing, at which they might pass their own resolutions, and
then palm them upon the country as the sentiments of
Northamptonshire. The Gentry attended the meeting,
and notwithstanding the clamour and violence, and even
danger to which they were subjected, manfully opposed the
proceedings of those who supported the Revolutionary Bill.
The Sheriff was induced by violent clamour to adjourn
the meeting to the Market-place, where it was joined by
a promiscuous mob. The Tory Noblemen and Gentle-
men, feeling that the Sheriff had yielded to an adjournment
while the majority in the county hall was against it,
would not be present at the adjourned meetirg, but pre-
pared and signed a protest and a declaration against
the Reform Bill. We have further to offer our cordial
congratulations to the friends of the Constitution on the
admirable declaration of the freeholders of the county of
Southampton. This gratifying document is given in an
advertisement in our first page, and we beg to direct the
attention of our readers to it The county of Essex,
highly to its credit, is pursuing a similar course ; some
towns in the same county have laudably come forward in
the same constitutional spirit ; and, even in defiance of the
low radical clamour at Leeds, in Yorkshire, a most spi-
rited declaration irk defence of the Constitution has been
entered. into by the respective inhabitants. We are re-
j(o>nac.ee dta add that the true constitutional spirit, which Was
the true characteristic of Britons, seems now to be
every wl,ere reviving ; and we may
indulge the hope that our beloyed therefore reasonably
from the terrible gripe of anarchist,,
horrors of revolution, which sooner or later saved
the attendantbeli
inevitable result of the projects of our resent'w:lllinblest the
1
Atoning 120,45,