The Sun.
London, England, 1831-04-29 00:00:00

,-

,

~nsy

to be otherwise dealt with, a fresh dissolution of
Parliament (it would be found less difficult than
the recent one) must be hal recourse to without
scruple ; and at oil risks, even that of requiring a
bill of indemnity for Ministers, no writ should be
directed to certain descriptions of close boroughs,
but a Parliament be assembled representing those
places where election was not a wretched mockery
and farce. No necessity, however, we may all as-
sure ourselves, will or can exist for such strong ex-
pedients, if Englishmen be but true to their countiy.
Repudiating, disdainfully, the unjust ends of our
antagonists, let us imitate their skill, and energy,
and concord. Let us subscribe liberally, and choose
our agents anxiously,—let us canvass all who come
within our reach, acting by every man as a friend
who pledges himself to Reform, and toss all other
question to the winds;—let no man listen to any
terms of compromise—split no votes—require
every thing, or accept nothing. A half Reform i-
no Reform—a half Reform in the actual state
of England might emperil every one of our insti-
tutions. Our advice to our countrymen is—" Be
not nice critics upon those portions of the creed of
any candidate which do not touch upon Reform.
But on that be precise, and rigid, and.inexorable.
We must have a majority of 100 Members to put
the country out of pain.—Titnes.
The first blow has been struck. Dover has had
the honour of routing the first of the boroughmon-
gers, in this great war for the rights and liberties of
the people of England. The election came on yes-
terday, and two reformers, Mr. Poulett Thomson
and Captain Stanhope, R.N., have been returned.
Thus the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports has
seen, in one of his own holds, how much more wil-
lingly the people obey the call of King and country
than the mandate of a proud domineering faction.
The great misteke of the boroughmongers (which
is one that men who keep bad company are but too
apt to fall into) consists in supposing that conscience
is a mere old woman's fancy, and that money is al-
ways all-powerful. In ordinary times, when the
people saw no prospect of the question of Reform
being carried, they did not make the profession of
Reform a sine qua non at elections. They might
see no such mighty difference between A. and B. as
to render it necessary for them to make any sacri.
flees to ensure the one rather than the other. For
the same reason, they might deem it unnecessary to
continue, year after year, presenting petitions for
Reform, when there was no !prospect of its being
carried. The inaction of the people is no proof of
their abandonment of principles once entertained.
However, during periods when no great prin-
ciple is in question, money may certainly do
a great deal. The people are not disposed
to waste their strength in unavailing conflicts; and
hence, where there was no great cause to fight
for, the boroughmongers had a clear field. But
when it has been made evident to the people that
they hare only to put forth their strength to gain
the day—when it has -been made evident to them,
that it rests with themselves whether Reform is or
is not to be carried—that the King and Ministers,
so far frem throwing obstacles in the way, call upon
them for their support—that the cause of • loyalty
and the cause of Reform are one and the same—
then all indifference is at an end—the people iden-
tify themselves with Reform, and give themselves
up heart and soul to it. The insolent borough-
monger who tells the people, you are a pack of
miserable devils, whose opinions on all subjects, if
followed, would involve the country in ruin—and
the only way by which your suffrage can be rendered
harmless, is to let it be at the command of the
highest purse—will find, to his cost, that his money
will have no effect in counteracting the indignation
inspired by his propositions. Once awaken the
conscience of the people, and the vile bribe is
viewed as the wages of infamy. The freemen,
when asked by the Duke of Northumberland, the
Duke of Newcastle, Sir Robert Peel, or any of the
worthies who have contributed so liberally to the
stock purse, to make himself infamous, by assisting
to deliver over his countty to them for pillage,
listens to the proposition us he would to a propo-
sition to sell to them the honour of his daughter or
his wife. The freemen of Dover scorned to pollute
themselves with the accursed thing. Sir John Reid
was instantly driven off the field. The beginning of
the election was the termination of it. Public in-
dignation manifested itself in a way which is to be
lamented, though we cannot be surprised at it. The
splendid carriage with which Sir J. Reid thought
he could dazzle the freemen of Dover soon be-
came an unsightly ruin. We would advise the
Anti-reformers to avoid the risk of these con-
tingencies by stealing to the field of battle, arid
attracting as little attention as possible. Their
cause is necessarily not a little odious at this time,
and it will not be rendered less odious by the at-
tempt to take the understandings of the electors
captive by the ostentious display of splendid equi-
pages. Matrons of a certain description would be
more likely to succeed in their base purposes, by
shrouding themselves in an humble garb, than by
seeking to dazzle beholders by their finery. The
cause of the anti-reformers is sufficiently odious
without their insulting the people by the spectacle
of a wealth, the price of the liberties of the people;
for every anti-reformer ought to be considered as en-
gaged in a struggle for the power of pillaging the
people. We are far from wishing that they should
not be taught, by an expression of indignant feeling,
a valuable lesson for their future guidance; but we
trust that Englishmen, with their accustomed good
nature, will allow anti-Reform candidates to return
in better plight from the field of their discomfiture
than poor Sir John Reid has been able to do. The
people of Dover have slmwn themselves worthy of
their position in the vanguard of Reform. They
have just cause to be proud, and the people of Eng-
land will receive in good part. the recommendation
which they have so well entitled themselves to
give—" Reformers of England—imitate the example
of the men of Dover—go you and do likewise."
The victory at Dover naturally suggests the great
county in which it is eituated. The county of Kent
has, as we have already stated, determined to return
two Reform Members, Mr. Hodges and Mr. Rider,
free of expense. The following vety sensible account
of the plan adopted by the Kent reformers has been
sent to us by a gentleman much looked up to it
that county ;

-

•

on the struggle in the City and in Southwark,
which we trust will not be a long one.
The Reformers arc fortunately unanimous, and
it is only by the splitting of votes that Mr.
Ward can have any chance of success. The example
of the metropolis will be another example to the
country. No reformer, will, we hope, give a vote,
on any consideration, for any but a reformer. There
is no being half righteous in such a case. Let
electors only reflect, if each of them vote for three
Reform candidates, and give the fourth vote for
Mr. Ward, that gentleman may thereby be enabled
to throw out a reformer. We cannot take leave of
our readers without noticing a strange address to the
freeholders of Surrey, from Mr. Henry 'Drummond.
We are far from wishing to confound this respect-
able gentleman w ith the herd of those who quarrel
with the Reform Bill in whole or in part. ME,
Henry Drummond is a truly religious and conscien-
tious man, who does not thank Ciod, like certain
Saints, that he has been permitted to exert himself
successfully in the cause of bribery and perjury, Mr.
Henry Drummond loathes boroughmongering and
boroughmongers, and would not, we are sure, for
the princely revenues of Durham, London, or Carve,-
bury, stain his soul with the approbation of traffic
in the consciences of men. Yet Mr. H. Drummond,
with the best intentions in the world, is exerting his
abilities to perpetuate the system which produces
all the abominations he so much loathes. We
attribute this to no unworthy motive, but to an in-
ability, with all his acuteness in single branches of a
question, to judge correctly of a subject in all its
bearings.
" I have ever (he says) advocated a Reform of the 1-louse
of Commons, because abuses had crept into that body, and
the sale of seats was notorious. I lamented the systematic
refusal of the Government fur the last thirty years to
rectify this abuse, because a tremendous reaction was sure
to be the result, whenever the people, finding the pressure
of the public debt past further endurance, aggravated by
being compelled to discharge in gold debts that were con-
tracted in paper, should be ready to adopt any scheme,
however desperate, which might speciously, but deceit-
fully, offer them the prospect of relief. I was not content
with vague terms, but I specified as the essential details of
Reform, first, the extension of the right of voting for
some one place to all resident persons of property, let that
property consist in what it may, (a point, by the way,
which is but indifferently managed in the Bill) : secondly,
the disfranchisement of non-resident voters ; thirdly, the
reduction of expense of elections by taking votes simulta-
neously in parishes, (arranged by the Bill in a less efficient
mode); fburthly, the shortening the duration of Parlia-
ments from seven to three years, agreeably to the Gone
stitution of 1688. I objected to the ballot, but probably
without sufficient reason : and it might safely be granted
wherever poor voters desire it, in order to screen them-
selves, in the discharge of their duty, from the interference
of the rich. This would have been a substantial and a
safe Reform. The people were resolved to have some Re-
form, and no Government would have been supported
without it : the declaration of the late Ministers against
it evinced their ignorance of public feeling on the subject,
and drove the people to despair ; and the present Ministers
were entitled to the thanks of the country for bringing
forward the question at the first moment of their aseum-
ing the reins of Government. The Bill they introduced
ought to have gone into a Committee, because the prin-
ciple of Reform was thereby established : it was ably
drawn for effecting its object ; and its defects might have
been remedied by alteration of the schedules. That places
like Cotton and Old Sarum should cease to send Members,
is right ; because, being altogether without inhabitants,
their charters have necessarily died out, and the King
should be advi,ed to issue writs to theni no more.
That the franchise in other towns should not be limited to
particular streets, as in Guildford, but be extended to all
the inhabitants, is right ; because no one is injured by
another enjoying the same privilege as himself. That
Boroughs whose franchises have been notoriously bought
and sold, should be disfranchised, is right, because they
have acted contrary to law ; and Members should be given
to such towns as Birmingham and Leeds, because great in-
terests have grown up in them ; but it must not be for-
gotten that the most populous places are often the most
corrupt, and that no scheme whatever can ensure honesty
and purity."
Here then we have a man ready to give a vote to
all persons of property, of whatever kind, to dis-
franchise non-resident voters—to have votes taken
simultaneously, to limit the duration of Parliament
to three years—and even not unwilling to give the
ballot, to screen poor voters from the interference
of the rich; and yet unwilling to disfranchise places
without a population sufficient to ensure an inde-
pendent suffrage, because, forsooth, populous places
are often the most corrupt.
"It is obvious, (he adds) therefore, that I entertained a
strong predisposition to receive favourably the plan which
has been propounded by the Ministers, the greater part of
which is unexceptionable; and that I had no wish to cavil
at trifling faults. But since they have resolved to compel us
to take the Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the
without any modification, it becomes us to pause
before we submit to this dictation ; for to seize upon the
charters of unoffending towns, as they propose, is a viola-
tion of all law and equity, which, like any other act of
tyranny, msy indeed be effected by brute force, but which
leaves no deed, nor title, nor privilege, nor property, in the
kingdom, secured on any durable basis ; and, henceforth,
all we possess is held on the precarious tenure of popular
sufferance, ready to be sacrificed whenever a Ministry,
sufficiently profligate, shall be wiling to retain power by
pandering to the passions of the mob, and to perpetrate an
act of spoliation under the very guise of public expediency.
Nor does the integrity of some, and the experience of
others, of the present Ministers afford a rational hope of
even a transient respite from a speedy repetition of such
acts, since they have suffered themselves to be hurried by
colleagues, famed no less for the unsoundness of their judg-
ment, and the recklessness of their principles, than the
brilliancy of their talents, into a desperate plunge, by a
false representation to their Sovereign that the Commons
had refused the supplies, on a complicated preposition,
novel even to themselves, which least of all required haste,
if it did not peremptorily demand the most cautious de-
liberation; and who, instead of calming the violence of a
suffering and irritated people, the only conduct of wise
rulers, have rather fomented, for the sake of taking ad-
vantage of, their delirium, in order to delude their igno-
rance into the acceptance of a new Constitution."
In this last quotation lies, we fear, the secret of
Mr. Drummond's opposition to the Bill. Mr.
Henry Drummond hates bribery and hates corrup-
tion, but he thinks that large properties should com-
mand the elections, and he has a suspicion that the
extinction of small boroughs would, along with the
extinction of bribery, produce a diminution of the
force of mere money in elections. " The heart of
man is deceitful above all things, and desperately
wicked." How Mammon peeps out in his factious
address. Mr. Henry Drummond would admire Re-
form, so long us its accomplishment should be at a
distance. Many objects enchant ut a distance,
which look ugly on a near approach. 'This
righteous man has not a word of d'sapprobation to
be-tow on those who were manoeuvring to defeat
the Bill by a sham debate on the Liverpool election,
in order to prevent the question of supplies from
coming on, and to open a door to faction in the
House of Lords, but he is all indignation at the
attempt to call this manoeuvre a stopping of the
supplies. This staunch Reformer, in the days
when Reform was at a distance, is all sensibility
now—" guiltless corporations," when he sees them
about to be disfranclsised. "He was no hypocrite,
not he, when he avowed himself for Reform—and
did not, under the mask of renovation, secretly in-
tend revolution ;" and his charity is equal to his
sincerity when he declares, that Ministers " have
suffered themselves to be hurried by colleagues,
famed no less for the soundness of their judgment,
and the recklessness of their principles, than the
brilliancy of talents, into a desperate plunge, by a
false representation to their Sovereign, that the
Commons had refused the supplies," &c. Bravo !
We expect after this to see Mr. Henry Drummond
addressing the electors of Surrey in the-columns of
the John Bull, and discovering that slavery has its
advantages. This comes of having more sail than
ballast.—Morning Chronicle.
There is no one point on which the enemies of
Reform more strongly rely than that of urging the
people into excesses during the excitement of the
contested elections, and that of being able to turn
round upon the country, and point to such excesses
as among the blessings which are to be expected
from " mob Government." Independently, then,
of the fact that violence never yet aided a good
cause, we would strongly urge the people every