The Sun.
London, England, 1849-04-21 00:00:00

tffienlin int;
\

LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 1849,

•r- Pamphleteers are so generally the Mere mouth-
pieces of faction, the partizans-of the tOvernment, or
'of the Opposition, that itbscomes vita refreshing to
encounter a political essayist possessed of that most
effectual talisman against prejudice, the characteristic

-Of impartiality. Afore agreeable still are' the: lucu-
brationS of any such publicist, if his theme is np mere
part,y4iiestion, but one embracing the whole range of
those principles, And of that consistency,• which con-

stititte the sinews and the symmetry of legislation,

writer of this-aaracter we now welcome,' in the
!person of a former critic of that most fallacious of all
financial policies which suddenly raised the Antago-
nist of the rilackl egs into the Leader of the Protee
tionists. The brochure here submitted to our!consi-
` Aeration is a catechism of politics, and a touchstone of

- -consiatency.
While, however, we are ready to acknowledge un-
.3,Xonditionally the pervading impartiality of thi4 very
~miscellaneous chapter on statesmen and the art of

government, we cannot
.but recognise at a glance
that the tendency of each sentence is (with a con.
-sci9usnesi, and not only with a consciousness, but
vrith.a purpose on the part of the author) the vindi-
iation of the Right Hon. Baronet the Representative
:Am worth.. Regarding that eminent man as the
very incarnation of political consistency, the
Pamphleteer Occasionally dohs the livery of
- Peelisrn, and enderivOurs to' sidle into the sur
" of Sir Roitaax'S popularity by assuming the at
of bi 4 avowed Apologist. As it would doubt',
a most erroneous surmise, we, of course, do not
it to be understood that the writer makes a bard
" bid" for the patronage- of a future Premier
that he looks forward to the chance of receivingicom-
pensation for his panegyrics, neither that he Oalcu-
_• laths upon the pOssibility of acquiring a snug berth
under the next Administration. Such an estimate of

shine
itude
Fes be
wish
faced
nur

his laborious treatise would be altogether too
invidious. While, nevertheless, we disclaim
any such blunt charges against one who
shields 'him-self under the mask of an anony-
mous bookinan, .we are compelled to say that
the warmth of the eulogiums passed upon the most
popular statesman in England are as suspiCious as
the elaborate arguments employed to justify those
encomiums are unnecessary. Sir ROBERT is too
High in the estimation of his fellow-countrymen to
require any supplementary glorification : his conduct
hat been too vividly patriotic: and disinterested to
need' the eatenuations of commentary.
Infinitely mote to our own taste are the generali-
ties With which`' Plain-Fa-eta" precedes his sketches
of CANNING, PEEL, and RUSSELL. In this
portion of the treatise there is much sound reasoning,
. the beauty of which is yet somewhat deteriorated
by • a flavour of what we may designate, for want of
' a better term, school bred ostentation. After 're-
minding us, for about the millionth time, of the political_
principles of the Stoics, as represented in the person*
0.1 the inflexible CATO, and of the political principles
of the Academics, as embodied in the voluble and va-
riable
etalto, the writer gives us a hackneyed quo-
' MIDDLETON, and then, through
a seiatOtiOu' remark hO;rowed " from kan,
surd, • I;l#Tl‘!bes off " into a review of the
faults of the monarchical system under Louis
I.; and' of the direCt and indirect causes of the
Great nevelu ion. Here it is that the excellence
of `ti.e pamphlet really ComMences, and that the force
of the urgupients us to the precise nature of political.
conbistency becomes discernible..
Of -all things,. perhaps the one least capable of se-
c4iviog so accurate definition is that same phrase
Poi tical Cosmistency. ".When lam told," says the
ek:•ei:" that a man has acted -through the'
course of is kong, lite in strict attachment to the same
principles of Government, and that he has been an
unswerving` friend of tis-‘-party,' I cannot believe
thst that elnan haw al-ways pursued a con-
scientious and deliberate course, nor that his
sole object was to forward the pros-
perity of his country." Assuredly not: the
test of a man's consistency is the very reverse of such.
an instance ; for, as it is certain that no two men were

" Political Principlrs. and Political Consistency. I
Plain-Facts." !IVO'. pp. 68. London: 011ivier, 1848.

ever seen whose features were exactly alike, so it is (
certain that no two men ever existed whose opinions
upon every subject invariably tallied. [The
two DROMIOS existed only in the imagina-
tion of the Great Comic Dramatist.] The one
would be as astounding a miracle as the other ; and,
this being the case, it is quite manifest that any one
continually and implicitly following the dictation of
his " party" must, instead of being a consistent
politician, be a most egregious partisan. Better
to us are the derided Trimmers, of whom HALI-
FAX was the ornament, than the eulogized
Tantivies, amongst whom COLLIER was con-
spicuous. Better to us the yielding policy of a
FERRETTI, which delayed the calamities of a Revolu-
tion, than the stubborn system of a GUIZOT, which
provoked a general bouleversement of society. It was
because of the independence of his votes, when a
representative in Parliament, that COBBBTT was at last
being perpetually rated as an example of inconsistency
and tergiversation. It is because of his disregard to
men and "parties" that ROEBUCK--now taunting the
Whigs, now scoffing at the Tories, now har-
rying the Radicals, and now again discharging '
the whole torrent of his sparkling sarcasms at
the conservatives—has been charged with
the same shortcomings and traduced .as a
merely hybrid politician, Yet we rather think
that the impartial biographer of either of those two
men would be unable to say otherwise than that COB-
ESTT and ROEBUCK strove undeviatingly to forward
the progress of- reform, and to 'diffuse wider and
wider the blessings of civil and religious freedom
among the mass of the population. Those who most
deserve the title of Consistent Politicians are generally
the very persons who are most abused for their incon-
sistency ; while those who have splintered the
mirror of their conscience on their servility—
those" who play over again in the F House
of Commons, the degrading pastime of i" Fol-
low , the Leader " are. the individuals most
flattered with the covetted designation. What says
Mr. MACAULAY, in one of his " Essays " upon an-
other of those blemishes which disentitle any one to
these panegyrics for political eminence and purity ?
We well remember that in delineating the character
of Sir WILLIAM TEMPLE, one of the most respect-
able names in our History, he mentions, with just
opprobrium, that timidity which is more culpable
than temerity, that " habit of coddling," which is
more contemptible than the most glaring inconsis-
tency. "He never," says the future historian,
speaking of TEMPLE, " he never put himself pro-
minently before the public eye except at con-
junctures, when he was almost certain to gain,
and could not possibly lose, at conjunctures when
the interests of the State, the views of the Court,
and the passions of the multitude all appeared for an
instant to coincide." This we take to be an indirect
eulogium upon the daring of the policy adopted in
1846 by Sir ROBERT PEEL—an eulogium written
nearly ten years before the possibility of its applica-
tion to the. Right Hon. Baronet—and deliberately
enunciated by the most illustrious writer whot.e
name has yet been inscribed on the roll of Whig
statesmen. Nobler such moral courage as that spoken
of by Mr. AIAcauLAT and evidenced by Sir ROBERT
PEEL than the dolce far niente habitudes which,
in moments of danger and dilemma, iuduced
TEMPLE to " retire to his library, and his
orchard, and, while the nation groaned under
oppression, or resounded with tumult and with the
din of civil arms, to amuse himself by writing me-
moirs and tying up apricots." With such time-
servers the business of life appears to be a masquerade
in the midst of rose-bushes and fountains. They
would seem to chaunt together that luscious verse of
old RAl:lmam—

"Saulter, dancer, faire des tours,
Et boyre rin Wane et vermeil:
Et ne faire rien tons les lours
Qua compter escuta au solieL"
So great is the Whig Historian's detestation of this
political pusillanimity that he says of Sir WILLIAM
TEMPLE, that, although he had been brought before
DANTE'S infernal tribunal, though " he would not
have been condemned to the deeper recesses of the
abyss, though he would not bave been boiled with
DUNDEE in the crimson pool of Bulicame, or hurled
with DANDY into the seething pitch of Malebolge, or
congealed with CHURCHILL in the eternal ice of
Guidecca : he would perhaps have been placed in
the dark vestibule next to the shade of that inglo-
rious Pontiff—' Chefece per viltate it gran rifiuto! ' "
In regard to this, what says the Government?

Nothing, we plainly see:but the peremptory inter..
ference of Parliament will save the public from the
impudent domination of Fanatacism. The saints
have set their hearts so entirely on the acquisition of
despotic authority on all Sundays, that the multitude
will soon have the alternative before them of open
riot, or of the assistance of the Legislature. There
is no longer any mistake about the matter. Each
day brings the belligerents nearer and nearer ; the
struggle will soon be hand to hand; and it is quite
evident from the previous conduct of the Pharisees of
Scotland, that they at least are resolved upon giving
no quarter. So be it. We are prepared to encounter
these redoubtable physical-force moralists upon their
own footing, with their own choice of weapons, and
with the common understanding that the battle is to
be no make-believe, but one whose close shall be de.
ailive.

Petitions, we observe, are every now and then
sneaking into the Lords and the Commons whining
for the aid of the Imperial Parliament against a
system which these flagitious pretenders to sanctity
have the absurdity to designate the desecration of
the Sabbath. Often as we have exposed this mon-
strous misapplication of terms—often as we have
reminded these sticklers for stagnation, that the Sab-
bath of Holy Writ is the Saturday and not the
Sunday—they still reiterate the phrase : with
an unction more appropriate to the DoxOlogy,
and screen the impertinence of their arbitrary; pro-
ceedings under the mask of obedience to the Scrip-
tures. The population have been long since sick to
very nausea of all this humbug; and the Sunday
saints—if they have any serious intention of forcing
their regulations down the throats of the multitude—
had better set their wits to work to find out
some more palatable anodyne. As well expect
the people to roast a pig at Highgate to the
memory of that demented harridan, Mistress SOUTH-
COTT, as look for sympathy from the masses in a
scheme the hypocrisy of which has been a byeword,
and a mockery, during the last half dozen genera-
tions—an assumption of purity that has been
pilloried over and over again on the stage by
the dramatist, and held up to deserved derision
by the satirical contributors to general literature.
As well' expect us to pay homage to the remem-
brance of that most melodramatic gentleman, Sir
WILLIAM COURTEXAY, and to sing of the glorks of
Taou in the suburbs of the archiepiscopal city of
Canterbury, as look for the swallowing of thilf ab-
surdity by the population. Why we have acqui
perfect familiarity with the pscychological excel
of the Sabbattarians from the contemplation of the

apple-ruin-loving Sniaoxris down to that of the

but adulterous CANTWELL. A square-cut coat

longer the accepted symbol of virtue. The 1;)

garb has been so frequently associated with
impurest morals that the public no longer fin,

red a
lence

mne-
'odly
is no
wrest
the
is it

orms
No

possible to go by appearances. As far as mere
and ceremonies go—the game is up long since.
'man can now-a-days acquire a reputistion
for sanctity by eating cold meat after tvirelve
o'clock on Saturday night, or by walking; out
in unpolished wellingtons on Sunday morn ngs.
The very fact of his doing so, if he parade: it b fore
us ostentatiously, is sufficient of itself to justify us
in looking upon him as a most unmitigated humbug.
And so it is with regard to these very pious fan4tics,
v-itio are not content with trotting out ;heir
virtues for the purpose of showing us their paces; and
of extorting our admiration, but are striving; by
every. possible contrivance, to force everybody • else
into
Ihe acmh.earaveilt of
e adoption of their conventionalities.
about a
oner these sanctimonious gentry' is
fanciedbot ono
every
a
wwiatsh a
sthat
mad
as
sf
him,
ti holes e l
fl uanadt i cw a
1:i wfloi or
putting even his moat rational friendsea and o
relations straitwaistcoats. 411 we
n say,
both
it
rt
ao thee r
one and the other, and we can't help
saying
defiantly, is=:--Tax. . •,..

We speak upon the subject of this so-cailled
and absurdly so-called Sabbath-Desecration, out of
the fullness of our devotion'to the cause of Religious
Tolerance. We loathe so heartily-the applicatiod of

force to the liberties of the subject, whether it
be in regard to matters civil or ecekaiastical, that
we. write with the whole of our heart's
earnestness. We would see no one subjected against
his- will to the dictation of another, and much less
would we see a wretched fanatical minority domi-
neering over the vast majority of the population. If
any individual be conscientiously opposed to
travelling on Sundays, why in GOD'S name let him
abstain from risking his neck and his salvation by
entering a railway carriage—but, in GOD'S name,
also, let him abstain in like manner from thrusting
his preposterous notions of religion vi et armis
on the rest of the community. All we ask
is iliberty—liberty to the fanatic as well at to the
indifferentist. Surely it requires no very elaborate
reasoning to show that a compulsory morality is no
morality at all, but the reverse—that an obedience to
what are supposed to be the commands of Revelation,
simply because a disobedience to those commands is
rendered impracticable, is in no degree creditable,
but the very opposite. Liberty to sin or to ibe vir-
tuous, to choose the good or the evil, to go, to the
right side or to the left, to be numbered on the Day
of Judgment with the sheep or with the gqats—is
permitted to man by his CREATOR. All we ask from
th!se saintly personages who would improve
upon the ordinations of the OMNISCIENT, is a
similar freedom to travel or not to travel, by highway
0r...1)y railway, on Saturdays or on Sundays. We
ask this in the holy name of Liberty, and ;in the
sacred cause of true morality and Religion.