The Sun.
London, England, 1836-10-07 00:00:00

uncontrolled powers, now to find itself so utterly shorn of
all influence that it cannot even make a policeman.
Even a good dinner cannot mollify the sharp sting of
a grievance like this ; and accordingly we find the
Conservatives, at a public dinner got up among them
on Wednesday last, at Hereford, giving vent to their
regrets for their loss of power, in the same heart-felt
strain that the children of Zion bewailed their exile
from Jerusalem by the " waters of Babel." Earl So-
MERS was specially pathetic on this point. He con-
sidered that all public virtue had died with the over-
throw of the Tories ; and that their successors were
remarkable for nothing but their unprincipled efforts to
destroy " the old established, excellent, and well-tried
Constitution of the country." Therefore, his Lord-
ship intimated, he could not, and would not, accord
them his patronage—an appalling intimation, which
will, no doubt, blight all the best energies of
Ministers. True, the country is their friend ; but
what of that? Earl SOMERS is their foe. "He could
not conceive," argued the Noble Tory, " that they had
any other views than to substitute for the Constitution
a more democratic shadow." Surely his Lordship is
not going to take fright at a" shadow I" A democratic
substance might perhaps justly inspire him with ap-
prehension; but" a mere democratic shadow"—what is
there in that to cause paralysis ? For shame, my
Lord ! Stick to " the substantials," as Justice
GREEDY would say, and don't worry yourself about
shadows. Sir EDWIN STANHOPE, the Chairman of
the Hereford dinner, resolved not to be distanced by
the Lord Lieutenant in absurdity, matched his dis-
course on shadows by a still better one on the virtues
of the Irish clergy. " Let them look to Ireland,"
said this brilliant Baronet, " and see how the clergy
there had borne the persecutions with which they had
been visited." Aye, look—do look—to Ireland, and
what will you see there ? In one place a parson
loading a double-barreled blunderbuss with his own
apostolic hands ; in another, a parson superintending
the massacre of dozens of helpless individuals ; in a
third, a parson opening a tithe campaign at the head
of a regiment of police ; wherever you look, North,
South, East, or West, still it is the parson that first
catches your eye, the one prominent figure in a land-
scape dyed by his command, and under his active,
personal superintendence, in blood. Is this the
mlan-
guage
of exaggeration ? Let Carrickshock and
b
Rath-
cormac make answer I If we except these droll
escapades of Earl SOMERS and Sir EDWIN STAN-
HOPE, there was no other absurdity spoken at the
Hereford feed worth a moment's attention. Tame,
lugubrious commonplace was the character of all the
speeches. The constant cry of Yorick's starling was,
" I can't get out ;" but the Hereford Conservatives
just reversed this, for their cry throughout the evening
was, " We can't get in."

The Poor Law Amendment Act is now generally
allowed to be one of the greatest and most beneficent
measures of modern times. Pauperism had advanced,
and was advancing, with frightful rapidity, bringing
with it a train of evils, which must soon have reduced
us to that state in which it would have been impossible
to avoid a servile war, when Lord BROUGHAM ap-
plied the powers of a great mind to the subject, fear-
lessly grappled with a question which had baffled
every other statesman, and defying the clamours of
many well-meaning, but weak-minded persons, and the
most virulent• abuse ever applied to a public man
poured upon him, day after day, by a then leading
journal, carried into effect a simple but effectual plan
for restoring the poor to that independence and self-
respect which had been nearly extinguished. Wherever
this admirable system has been adopted—and there are
but few parts of England to which it has not ex-
tended—the most sanguine expectations of its friends
and advocates have been surpassed by its actual
effects. The prejudices that existed in the minds
of those who were led away by feelings, amiable in
themselves but false in their direction, have gradually
vanished before the incontrovertible evidence of facts

—the improved and happier state of the poor—and all
the opposition which remains to be encountered is an
occasional tirade in the Times, diluted into drivel by
our venerable contemporary of Shoe-lane, or the vestry
speech of some would-be great man who cannot brook
the loss of his parochial importance.
We need only refer to an article in another column,
headed New Poor Law Act, to show the sentiments
which prevail among those who have the best means of
judging respecting the working of this excellent law.

We are happy to see by the accounts from Lloyd's
that the Lord William Bentinck, conveying the 78th
Regiment, has safely arrived at Bombay.