The Sun.
London, England, 1831-05-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

So far as the elections have yet gone, they afford
eis a reasonable hope that the feelings of the British
nation will be fairly represented in the Parliament
which is now in progress. Not only has Lord Grim-
ston been beaten out of St. Alban's ; Lord Ingestrie
out of Hertford ; Lord Brecknock driven from Bath ;
Sir John Shelley from Lewes ; and best of all, Mr.
Ilan Davis from Bristol ; but
Mr. Mundy is
threatened with an almost certain overthrow in
Derbyshire ; and all the " wisdom of our ancestors,"
personified by Mr. Bankes, is on the point of getting
a severe rebuke from their posterity, the living elec-
tors of Dorset. But facts as well as expectatiehs
so thicken upon us, that we cannot enumerate them,
and have indeed little space for comment. Nothing
can surpass the public enthusiasm, or the success
which has hitherto attended the exertions of the
people. We tell them, however, that these still is
ample ground for apprehension, if the lovers of
liberty suspend or relax their efforts but for a single
day. In more than one of the close boroughs which
have always been reckoned on as returning Mem-
bers in the interest of the Government for the time
being, and the seats for which have been usually
filled by representatives forming part of that
Government, the unhandsome example has heen
followed which was set by Messre Retriesand Dawson with regard to Harwich, the old
Subalterns and tools of the former Tory Ministry
having stepped into their wasters' shoes, and pre-
vailed over the virtuous burgesses, for their own
personal use and profit. Were this practice to be
carried to any great extent, it is obvious that the
good results of a substantial election by the people
in more open places might be considerably neu-
tralized. Those commonly called the Government
boroughs, sending to the House of Commons per-
haps twenty-four Members, from a constituency of
eome two hundred individuals, bribed and trammelled
by eugagernents to certain old Treasury sharks, would
thus countervail the voice of Yorkshire, Lancashire,
arid eight or ten other of the most important counties
in Englaed ! while, in the very debate preceding the
division which exposed this• frightful state of our
Parliamentary system, the modest per-ens who ex-
hibited in themselves the most striking illustrations
of its foulness, would exclaim against the lolly of
seeking any Reform at all ; or, per-adventure, with
Sir John Malcolm, adduced their oust return to
the House of Commons as proof paramount that
the representative Constitution admitted no amend-
ment. Since the above remarks were written, fresh
triumphs in the cause of liberty have been announced
Westmoreland, the enthralled, the all-but chartered
vassal, the prisoner and victim of the Lowthers—
Westmoreland, on whose head an eveelastieg night
appeared to have closed in, is said to have caught
one glimpse of the luminary which now shines blight
e'er Great Britain. Two friends of Reform, we are
told,'are likely to contest the representation with the
Lonsdale dynas.y, and thus in part to redeem the
disgrace entailed en that unfortunate county by her
former rejection of the claims of Henry Brougham.
So Lancashire and Yorkshire in the north, Worces-
tershire, Shropshire, and Hereford, in the west,
Norwich in the cast, in the south of England, Kent,
Devonshire, Dorset, and Su-sex, and Bedford among
the inland counties, are about to vindicate the na-
tional spirit of independence, by returning honest
advocates for Reform. Of Cambridge Univer-
sity we shall say little more, but that the mere
suspicion of her wavering between two tried
men like Lcril Palmerston and Mr. Cavendish,
and two new pretenders like Messrs. Goulburn and
Peel, is in itself a deplorable stain upon the reputa-
tion of our Alma Mater. The sympathy between
the mother of learning and all that exists beyond
her walls of whatever is most distinguished for
knowledge, ability, and public virtue, throughout
the King's dominions,—the sort of sympathy, we
repeat, ‘'rhich must ba inferred from the mere notion
that Cambridge would ever think of choosing a dull
Tory in the person of Mr. Goulburn, anti a pure
nonentity in that of Mr. Pe, I,—is, of course, highly
flattering to the wisdom and integrity, to the con-
science and honour, of those who ought to be no
less examples than instructors to the liberal youth of
England! Faugh upon it ! We turn, if not to Ox-
ord University, to the county of Oxford, with cheer-
ing and animating hopes. There Mr. Weyland,—
a gentleman of high character—a strenuous reformer
—has been called upon by the spirited gentry in all
quarters, to rescue their county from disgrace, and
endeavour to throw out that young gentleman who
made himself the laughing-stock of half an hour in
the House of Commons, by a namby-pamby farrago
against the measure of Reform. If it be true
that Lord Norreys sues to the holders of the bo-
rouglorionging stockpurse, and rests his hopes of
becoming member fur Oxfordshire on their charity,
it surely enhances the shame of suffering him to
shoulder out Mr. Weyland or Mr. Harcourt. It at
all events doubles the obligation upon the friends of
the public cause to subscribe munificently for the
support of the liberal candidate. We hope most
heartily that Mr. Weyland will succeed. Read,
people of England, the advertisement of Mr.
Bankes, to Dorset,—of Bankes the old Tory,—
Bankes the Reformer,—Bankes who would have
had any person to tl.e bar of the House of Com-
mons for nicknaming him a reformer only twelve
months ago ! The old fox declares himself a re-
former ! Look at his vote on the East Retford
question. Look at it ; then tell us what his love of
Reform ought to sell for. It will not fetch the re-
presentation of Dorsetshire, we reckon.
.Old
Bankes, the reformer ! " Hark, to Calcraft," the
old fox breaks cover—Tally-ho !
A statement has appeared in.a Sunday Paper, and
a similar one in a Morning Paper of Saturday, con-
taining a charge—so monstrous as to be almost
incredible, and scarcely worth noticing—that on
Wednesday night, when the illumination took place
" riot and confusion were prepared and got up under
the authority and regulation of the Secretary of
State for the Home Department ;" that " under his
sanction the streets of the metropolis were delivered
up to the rabble ;" that " a desperate mob pro-
ceeded in a sort of military array through the streets,
thronged with policemen directed not to interfere;"
and that " the miscreants acted under the sufferance
of Lord Melbourne." We need not waste a remark
on so absurd an assertion as that of the Secretary of
State ordering or sanctioning any excess which
occurred on that oceas on. We have the authority
of the Commissioners of Police to state that they
received the fullest and earliest directions to make
every arrangement, and take every precaution, for
guarding and securing the public peace in Westmin-
ster, and preserving good order in the streets. They
were directed expressly to guard all houses which
were likely to be exposed or threatened if not illu-
minated, and the names of the owners were par-
ticularly mentioned. Among them were included
the 'lames of those Noblemen and gentlemen whose
houses are described in the Papers as having suffered.
Upon these directions the Commissioners acted, and
made the most effective arrangement in their power.
The police force in Westmicister was ve,y conside-
rably increased, and kept on duty the whole of the
evening, and through the night. A great [norther
of persons, nearly two hundred, were taken by the
police from among the crowd for the offence of
breaking windows, and secured; the greater part
of these were afterwards handed over to the Ma-
gistrates of the several police-dices, who were di-
rected to attend, and be ready at their posts, in case
any thing serious had occurred. The reports in the
Papers referred to of the occurrences of Wednesday
night have been grossly exaggerated. There was
no military array in the streets—no desperate
mob—with the exception of breaking windows,
no violence was committed, and less excess occurred
than has been usual on such occasions. In every
part of Westminster the pot ce force was most active,
and never did their duty better. We believe it
never before happened, in the history of Illumine-
tioes, under the establishment of the old parochial
watch, that there were not many broken heads, shops
broken open, and pockets picked. We have riot
beard of one such instance on Wednesday night :