The Sun.
London, England, 1831-11-08 00:00:00

cion. No proof, indeed, of the contrary has yet
been adduced, nor any facts which carry much weight
or authority on the face of them. If, therefore,
Ministers, once already deceived and disappointed,—
once already instrumental, no doubt innocently, in
the heavy disappointment of the nation,—if they
have not more materials for confidence in the self-
eformation of the House of Lords than have yet
reached the public eye, and still do not lend them-
selves with instant vigour to a re." adjustment" of
the Peers, the concluding passage of the following
extract may be found to express a feeling by no
means confined to the am hor, who begins with some
caustic, though grave reflection on the Bishops, and
on the Scotch and Irish Peers :

There are soma powers lodged by the Constitution
which never have been exercised ; from which a strong
argument might he derived against their exercise at the
pre s!nt time. But this is not one of them, for it has been
exercised, and exercised one way, viz., against the people.
There is no rea.on therefore, in the outset, why it should
not in turn be exercised in their behalf.

" And first, of the Bishops, it may be asked, whether
as conscientious and honest men they will deny, that they
or most of them are individuals picked fur their zeal and
talents by former Ministers, to he placed in the House of
Peers for the express purpose of upholding the system of
tl'ose Ministers by their votes whenever the occasion should
arrive. It is not mentioned as matter of blame to tern ;
the sin and duplicity would 1),, if it were possible it should
he Oenied that they are the elite of the troops of former
administrations, distinctly posted where they are, for the
purpose of acting against the present. And if so, is the
country bound to submit a secular question to their votes,
when the Constitution has provided the moderate and per-
fectly pacific measure of neutralizing them by the introduc-
tion of new Peers ?

" Of the Representative Peers of Scotland a different view
must be taken. It is not intended to deny, that they are a
highly respec al le, and even venerable, remnant of the
feudal :ages ; possessing much of the interest attached to
the relics of gone-by grratnts4, and the dignity of decay.
It is not intended to assert, that, though they undoubtedly
gratified their own inherent notions by falling in with the
opportunity the borough system offered them, they were
the crewures of the Ministry for the time being, or are to
be viewed in any light hut as a race of faded territorial
sovereigns, s horn the progress of the times has happily de-
posed. But what it is intended to assert is, that the Peers
of Scotland are not the men to settle an English question.
—th at they were not brought into the House of Peers for
any such purpose, and that the modeand instrument through
which the Constitution provided against their being ever
applied to such an end, was the authority lodged in the
King to neutralize their power by making Peers in the
event of the case arising. If at the p-riod of the Union
with Scotland, the qua stion had been asked of the English
people or Government, Do you then intend, if ever the
sixteen Peers of Scotland, or a majority of them, should
be opposed upon some English object, that the carrying of
the English object shall be prevented by the Peers of Scot.
land ?' The answer would instantly have been 'No ;
there is a provision for such a case as that ; there is the
power of the King to make sixteen new Peers.' With-
out an understanding of this kind, the Union with Scot-
I and would have been to'ally impracticable and unreason-
able ; no man durst have proposed it, no man would have
submitted to it ; the existence of the Union is evidence of
the existence of the right.
_ _ _

" If it should be asked whether Peers will be created
to support the Peers of Scotland in resistance to Scotch
Reform, the answer is, that the nece'sity of Scotch Reform
is conceded on all aides. The parallelism of the case is
non tat inr•entns.

" Of the Irish Representative Peers, the most moderate,
conciliatory, and tranquillizing thing that can be done or
said is, to point to their names and ask them whether it
is not the boast and glory of the greater part of them, that
they were selected for their personal merits and capabilities,
is support of one side of the great question now at issue;
and whether they can in honour aver, that in this light
they are fair referees of the English people, without an
equal number being put in on the other side. It may,
in the actual circumstances of a country, be avowedly
proper and expedient that the decision of a question should
be referred to the ancient magnates of the land. Rut it
never can be fair, that it should he referred to a portion of
them selected by the influence, direct or indirect, of one
of the parties at issue, without the other party having the
opportunity, at all events, to put in an equivalent. It
would be like deciding by a Jury where a known portion
of the Jurymen had been nominated, it matters not how
many years ago, by one of the parties to the case. If this
portion cannot be removed, let the other side put in an
equal number in its turn, and then there will be a chance
that the remainder, who were neither put in by one side or
the other, will effect a fair decision. But till this is done
it is plain that justice does not stand straight upon her legs.
" This last operation with a Jury, if a case can be con•
ceived where there should be no other resource, is what,
in the metaphor that has been facetiously put forth, would
he called swamping a Jury. It is left to the common sense
of mankind, whether the proper phrase would not be, that
it was bringing it to an even keel.
" The claim, therefore, on the part of the people of the
portion of the United Kingdom called England is for the
immediate neutralisation of the Spiritual, Scotch, and Irish
Lords, by the creation of 4.2 more Peers; and when this
piece of naked, abstract justice has been performed, it will
be time to debate the expediency or non-expediency of
creating new Peers to carry a particular Bill if required.
There can be no mistake. What is advanced is, that till
this is done, the English people labour under a denial of
justice ; and that where justice ends, and not before, the
question of expediency begins.
a a a a a • a

" If the reasonable, limited, and moderate demand for
an adjustment is not acceded to, the people of England
must sit down under the consciousness that their Reform
has been withheld because it displeased the Bishops and
the Scotch and Irish Peers: and because the Whig Mi-
nistry, for reasons known to itself, refused to go forward
after being lifted to the top of the rampart on the shoulders
of the people, and declined advising the exertion of the
constitutional power provided for the case.
" Why an Administration which has hitherto led gal-
lantly and been gallantly followed, should in this manner
turn round when all the enemy's defences are at its mercy,
is what, if the case happens, time will show, and pos-
terity assuredly inquire.
" The only conceivable excuse is, that the Ministry has
not been asked, or not been asked sufficiently. There
is time left for the people to correct this want. If they
do not con ect it, and effectually, in a fortnight, the Reform
Bill may be held to be withdrawn by the consent of the
English nation.
" A mode of arrangement that may suggest itself to
same is, that if the Bishops and Scotch and Irish Peers
would agree not to vote, the necessity for creating Peers
would be removed or reduced to something of inconsider-
able amount; while any number of individual recusants
might be balanced by creations as before. And it is riot
clear, that when we are told to shut our eves and open
I our mouths and see what Heaven will send us, some ex-
pectation of this nature is not at the bottom of the advice.
" To such a plan the objections are,—
" First, That there is no reason why the Whig4,—who,
though nut the abstract idols of the people's worship, are
undoubtedly more the friends of the people than the oppo-
nents of the Bill,—should lose the advantage of permanently
establishing a battery of 42 Peers upon the breach.
Hei mihi rusticitas, non pudor ille fuit.'
" Secondly, That such arrangements are sure to end in dis-
content and charges of misconduct on one aide or the other ;
and, therefore, the wisest way is to use the power in hand,
and court no arrangements for the comfort of the enemy.
" Thirdly, that it would cut off the effect the creation
of Peers would produce in foreign countries ; where the
character of the English nation is at this moment tra-
duced and vilified i❑ a way which nothing but a vigorous
movement can put an end to.
" Fourthly, which is of vastly more importance than
all the others together, that if it its not done, and that
without delay, the people of England will conduct them-
selves as on the certainty of final disappointment, with all
those evils to the country which are the necessary conse-
quences. Give us our 42 Peers, and then Ministers may
take a month or two of recreation without danger; and
the nation will he content to have Reform when it can
get it. The pretence that the Peers would reject the Bill
in revenge for their numbers being increased, is an inven-
tion of the enemy ; they would no more do it than they
would jump overboard to revenge being crowded in a
steam-packet. Refuse it, and whatever may be the con-
sequences, let it be stipulated that one is—that there shall
be no ill-will against the people for believing, that as sure
as man ever cheated woman, they are going to be de-
ceived. The perils of delay are great and manifest.
There never was a British Sovereign to whom the people
would more gladly say, 0 King, live for ever ;' but the
King will not live for ever, and if he should die now, it
would be hard that the nation should be deprived of the
legacy of his good-will. The cholera may come and put
the people beside attending to their temporal concerns,
which would be a perfect god-send to the opponents of
the Bill. The test is, whether the Bill shall be anchored
in safety now? If it is not, the plan is clearly that it
shall be cast adrift.

There may be plain speaking in all this, but ao man