The Sun.
London, England, 1831-11-14 00:00:00

s►PIRIT OF THE MLR' JOMALS

The obvious and imperative duty of the Govern-
ment,
on receiving intelligence of the disastrous
events at Bristol, was to have appointed a Com-
mission of Inquiry to ascertain whether the consti- '
toted authorities of that city had, by negligence,
cowardice, or connivance, encouraged the disorders,
which a judicious and energetic defence of the peace
miakt have, in the first instance, suppressed, and
thereby saved a dreadful loss of life and destruction
of property. Government ought not to have waited
to be asked to institute such an inquiry. The
country had a tight to expect a prompt and_ire-
partial investigation into the conduct of tie Ma-
gistracy of Bristol, that if guilty of the charges
publicly made against them, they should be at once,
as a salutary example, derived of the public trust
which they had proved themselses incompetent to
execute and unworthy to retain. But this is not
the first occasion, we regret to say, in which Go-
vernment has shown itself deficient in that moral
eourage and decision which the existing circum-
stances of the country require. To nothing else
but the temporizing policy of Ministers can we at-
tribute the gentled apprehension which has gone
abroad of their inability to carry, on the next
attempt, an efficient measure of Reform. It is
which gives cot:rid:nee to
this temporizing policy
the Tory party, while it damps with corresponding
distrust the hopes of Reformers. Ricked by that
mighty mass of opinion which no power in
England could long withstand, why should
the peaceable success of Reform be doubted, if
Ministers did not, by the timidity of their conduct,
and their anxious solicitude to conciliate their an-
tagonists, turd to place more reliance on petty tactics
and official marceuvr ing than upon that moral force
of public sentiment, which only requires to be
boldly and honestly led on, in a constitutional course,
to overthrow and utterly demolish, without any
violent shock to society, the strong-holds of oli-
garchical power and Parliamentary corruption ?
it because the corporation of Bristol is pre-sminently
Tory that a demand of inquiry into the conduct of
t tie corporate authorities on tire occasion of the late
riots has hitherto been evaded ? Whatever the
motive may be the Tories attribute the conduct of
the Government to fear, and the people will be apt
ro impute to it something wor-e. The conduct of
Lord Althorp has by no means the appearance of
being candid or straightforward in this affair. His
letter, w hich we published on Saturday, as forwarded
from our correspondent at Bristol, is a specimen of
that diplomatic evasiveness which is peculiarly un-
suitable in such an exigency. The public were in•
formed the other day that Lord Melbourne had got
a cold, accompanied by a hoarseness This might
have prevented him giving his opinion viva time
upon a public question, but could not have pre-
vented his writing it. Lord Airkorp, however, •
states that the absence of the Secretary for the
Home Department, from indisposition, prevented
Ministers from coming to any decision upon the
application for a Commission of Inquiry. Is there
not reason to suspect that the indisposition was
more of a moral than physical nature ? Let us see.
The letter of Lord Althorp is dated on the Bth in-
steno '1 he absence of Lord Melbourne from the
Cabinet Council is to be referred, we presume, either
to that day or the day before. Now we find, or •
looking back to the Court Circulars, as published it
our peper on the 9th and Bth instant, that Viscount
Melbourne was present at Cabinet Councils on the '
two preceding days; namely, on the Bth, the day
on which the letter bears date, and on the 7th, the
day before it was written; he was also at a Cabinet
Council on the Gth, so that it is quite clear that his
illness was not so severe as to prevent him from
taking a part daily in the deliberations of Ministers.
If he were absent from any particular meeting ea
his colleagues to which Lord Althorp's letter re-
lates, it is clear that he was not prevented from to-
tending by the severity of hi. bodily indisposition.
Besides, in the letter of Mr. Prothrroe, the Mem- '
ber for Bristol, which inclosed the note from Lor,
Althorp, there is the following sentence :—" I re-
gret that it (Lord Althorp's rioter should cootair,
nothing of the satisfactory inttliigence I had give
you reason to anticipate, and which his Lordship
did not give true reason to anticipate would have
been dependent on Lord Melbourne's presence."
Why, indeed, should the derision be dependent on
Lord Melbourne's presence ? It was a question
that concerned the character of the whole Govern-
ment, and the interests of the whole country. Ii
the Corporation of Bristol are innocent of the charges
brought against them, it is due to them to make
their innocence appear by a strict and impartial
investigation. If they tire- guilty, it is due to the
public that their chartered privileges s!roule
no longer exist. Lord Melbourne spoke of the
necessity of having depositions up from Bristol
betore any thing could be done. It was very kind
of him, but certainly not very wise, to allow the
inculpated authorities to preside over an inquiry
into their own conduce. It was this weakness of
the Government which made the corporate Magis-
trates recover their lost courage sufficiently to talk
of bringing down Sir Charles Wetherell to Bristol
to try the prisoners ! But w e say that no prisoners
ought to be tried for the riots at Bristol until the
cause of those riots shall have been ascertained.—
On the trials of the prisoners no inquiry into the
cause will be permitted ; but justice and public po-
licy require that the pot r and ignorant should not
alone be punished if there be delitiquency elsewhere.
Since writing the above the letter of Lord Met-
bourne, dated November 10, in answer to one from
Mr. Baillie, has fallen under our notice. Two more
days had passel since that of Lord Alt harp, anti it
is quite its unsatisfactory and equivocal as the
former one. The re-appearance of Viscount Me!-
bourne in his wonted health at the Council Board
does not appear to have quickened the decision of
his colleagues' on this urgent question. Two addi-
tional days have been spent in making up their
minds upon a question which ought not originally
to have occupied two hours. Lord Melbourne cau-
tiously avoids any explicit declaration on the snb-
joct. He fences off the appl:c4tion by scying that
Government will undoubtedly give its most serious
and deliberate attention to the disgraceful transuc-
tions which have taken place at Bristol, and then
adds, "I have to assure you that there will be no
delay in acquainting you with the determination to
which Government come on this painful subject."
It won't do, we can assure Lord Melbourne, for
Government to animadvert on those disgraceful
transactions only by the sanguinary process of a
Special Commission, without an inquiry of the na-
ture demanded into the condi:et of those whose im-
puted dereliction of duty led the misguided popu-
lace into error and crime, for which many of them
have already atoned with their blood.—Mom. liee.
Our declaration that it would be madness to think
of arming without the authority of Government, was
meant only with respect to arming in bands. It is
well known that every Englishman is entitled to
possess arms ; and our public writers do not hesitate
to state, that the object of the laws which recognise
this right, is to enable the people to avail themselves
of their natural right of resistance, when the laws
are insufficient to secure them against oppression.
It is well known, for instance, that the late Ministry
were making preparations for keeping down the
people by forcible means : indeed the evidence of
their intentions is in existence. When env set of
men set at defiance the opinions and feelings of a
whole nation, and attempt to govern by force, then,
to use tire words of Mr. Fox, resistance becomes a
duty. What was once contemplated is still con-
templated. In an admirable article in the Scotsman
of Wednesday last, I,eadcd "'National or Conserve.
tive Guard," obr Northert! Contemporary shows
that the Tories, instead of giving way- to the will of
the nation, count on forcing the cation to give way
to them. " The members of die oligarchy who ere
deepest in its secrets (says the Scotsman), tell very
openly that they will not flinch from the ground they
have taken. This is distinctly stated in the Quarterly
Review just published. The article in utood's
Afaiatifte, quoted in the Wethninater Reu'etr, wee net

witteen its sport, as some pariiz.in: of the oligarchy,
who think it divulges too much, would fain persuade
u. It points our the course which the pary
means to follow. We could repeat, if we chose, the
very words used by some of them ; and the lam /nage
of their organs with the attempts now making to
get up addresses, condemning the toto, and
ohtesting the King not to create Peers, show suffi-
ciently that the Oligarchy, like Prince Polignac's
Ministry, are planning their measures on the prin-
ciple oft no concession.' " We apprehend there
can hardly be a doubt with regard to the intentions
of the Oligarchy. The determination to reject the
Bill a second time suppoe4 s also the determination
of attempting to govern by coercion. Were the
people to see any display of power by the present
Ministers, they might indulge in some hopes of their
atmility to carry the measure of Reform. But they
cannot shut their eyes to the circumstance that Mi-
nisters are without power. The Tories ere every-
where in the strong holds of the country—they are
everywhere the delegates of the Royal authority,
and the Government may be said to be in their leseds.
The removal of Edit Howe and Str Byam Martin
are too trifling to be taken into account. The
conclusion at which the people have arrived
is, that Ministers have not the power to do
that which would enable them to be of any
use to the country—that they have been re-
tained till it suits the Oligarchy to throw off the
mask. We do not believe the Ministers possess th,
means of carrying Reform, and it is of importance
that the people should no longer remain under the
delusion that they can carry it. He that is fore-
warmed is forceermed. Believing from a variety of
circumstances, that the Reform Bill will be rejected
a second time, what will then be the state of the
country ? We agree with the Scotsman, that the
object of the selfish faction of Anti-Reformers, is
" to make the empire one universal scene of turbu-
lence and desolation. The fearful scenes just acted
in Bristol are an image of what we shall by and by
witness in every corner of the three kingdoms, if
more effectual means are not provided in time to
preserve the politic peace." In fact, the rejection
of the Reform Bill, as was to have been expected,
has led to a want of confidence in tke manufacturing
districts, and, consequently, to the dismissal of a
number of workmen. This process has been going
on for some time, and has now attained to such a
height as to inspire thinking men with much alarm.
Now let us suppose. the Bill rejected a second time,
with the existence of a number of discontented,
because unemployed, workmen throughout the
country :

" The pool& (our contemporary justly obaerves) will
feel in an instant that their hopes are baulked : they know
that Eat I Grey will not propose an illusory Reform ; and
they will see that none but such a Reform; will he
sanctioned by the Peers. Look at the effect which the
mere postponement of the Reform Bill produced at Not-
tingham and Derby a month ago—look at the riots occa-
-jotted in Dorset two weeks ago, by a single election, car-
ried against popular feeling—look at the awful events of
last week at RI istol—and then imagine what the state of
the country would he, nh, the people felt that, after all
heir prayers and ull their efforts, their last hope had va-
nished ! Grant that the strength of the army were trebled,
we ask whether it could spread itself out so as to afford
adequate protection to persons and property at such a
juncture? To na it is evident that nothing sio,rt of arming
the householders, or a large portion of them, in every eon-
side' able town, could afford a reasonable guarantee for the
,ieace of the country. Nay, we say more—that if such
orecautions are not taken beforehand, when the appalling
evil presents itself, the exigency of the moment will compel
aten to resort to some plan of the kind, which, like every-
rhino got up in a hurry, will he lame and inefficient."

Somethmg has been said by one of our contempo-
aries (the GMe)as to the means which the Ministry
oossess of voting on the House of Peers, should it
again prove refractory through the House of Com-
-lions. But, as is well shown by our contemporary
(the Seotsman,) Earl Grey could not remain in of-
fice afier a second rejection of the Reform Bill. " If
E irl Grey and his colleagues remained one mouth in
office after the second rejection of the Bill, their
power to st rye the country would be at an end. In
the course of that time the army and the people
would be in collision in a hundred places ; the sol-
diers acting under the order of Tory Officer:, Tory
M tgistrates, Tory Sheriffs, and Tory Lord Lieute-
nants, would shed b 100.4 in abundance, the whole
odium of t: high would fall upon the Minister:, arid
f'or ever ruin them in the affections of the people.
The oiiparchs understand this perfectly ; they pray
;'or mobs and tumults, b 4 cause they see in them a
v!eitain means of estranging the people from the Go-
vernment." A new MiMstry would instantly dissolve
he refractory House of Commons ; and let us only
hith of the consequences of a general election in
•he present state of the country. We have a better
opinion of the present Ministers than to suppose for
one moment that, if they had the power, they would
hesitate to allow the formation of armed associations
of householders. They have not the power to con-
sent to a measure which would only be placing the
citizens on a footing with the inhabitants of the
country.

" The nervous horror (observes the Scoonian) ex-
pressed he some wiseacres at the very idea charming the
householders is to its infinitely amusing ! Did it never
occur to these persons that we have thirty or forty thou-
s ind armed volunteers of one d<-scriptien already in the
country—namely, the yeomanry ? We should be glad to
know in what respect the farmers, shopkeepers, master
tradesmen, and small attorneys, in rural districts, are more
worthy of being trusted with lethal weapons, than the
middle classes in towns, who are generally better educatd,
have as great a stake in the country, and are much more
exposed to suffer from tumults and breaches of the peace?
We do not wonder, indeed, that country 'Squires despise
our citizens, considering the pitiful plight they submit to
be placed in. When symptoms of riot appear in a town,
instead of the householders taking arms to defend their
families and property, the poor cravens sit still, or go out
as constables to be mauled and laughed at, while couriers
are despatched to summon the said 'Squires with their
yeomen from the neighbouring fields ; and they, as a
matter of course, arrive at the scene of action some hours
after the mischief is done. Why is there not an aimed
urban guard as well as a rural one? The true snawer is,
that the yeomanry is essentially an aristocratic force ; it
was raised in Tery tiFries, and for Tory purposes ; it is
officered chiefly by members of the Oligarchy, as its ranks
are filled to a great extent by their retainers."
l'elinisters are, of course, well aware of the injus-
tice of the principle which refuses to towns what is
granted to Squires : but their hands are tied. How-
ever, let us do what we can, though we cannot do
all that we wish. We are all by law entitled to arm
ourselves, and we ought to avail ourselves of the
privilege. We can unite, though we cannot attn ;
' and if a time should come when it is necessary both
to unite and to arm, we shall not be caught unpro-
vided.—Morning chronicle.
It is 110 " loss of time, nor hindrance of business,"
to dwell, though at the risk of frequent repetition,
upon that which constitutes the chief subject of ap-
prehension for the people of England at the pee•
sent hour. They fear, then, lest the success of the
new Reform Bill should be endangered. We do
not say that such an alarm must be of nece,sily well
founded, hut merely that, every thing considered, it
is by no means an unnatural alarm, and that it ought
to be immediately and entirely removed. Proofs
are demanded every moment of the asserted fact,
that Ministers have the means of carrying, and
without further disappointment, this measure, so
dear to the bulk of the Enlist] nation. And ashat
proofs are brought forward ? Silence,—silence as
profound asdeuth. Not one word has been uttered
by men in office calculated to persuade the country
I that the House of Lords, which rejected the former
Bill, are inclined to spare that now in the course of
preparation. Not a word lens been breathed by the
Tory Lords themselves to authorize any such hope.
A fortnight has not elapsed since Baron Wharncliffe
assured the Yeomanry Cavalry of the West Riding
that so far from confessing himself in the wrong, or
, lamenting his own motion by which the second
reading was defeated, lie looked back upon the day
on which be made that motion as the " proudest
day of his life !" Is such, then, the penitence which
' the people of England have anticipated ? Is that
the approximation towards Reform, which, consti-
tuted as the Howe of Lords was a month ago, and

still eeeitinuea, we were promised as the sure instru-1
for crowning the new Bill with triumph ? It
is a sound maxim of military prudence, never to re-'
commence an attack upon the same enemy with no
eater force than that which he has already beaten
If you do, you but incur a second overthrow, and
too fiequently add ruin to disgrace. The propor-
tion of reforming arid anti-reforming Peers admits
obviously of but two modes of adjustment. Either
reduce the enemy or recruit yourselves. ‘Ve have
heard that the number of the refractory Piers are
not, in any sensible degree, dimini,hed ; that, on the
contrary, they are gathering greater obstinacy and
confidence from the mischiefs already occasioned to
the Administration by the la cesa of Parliament, by
the bait aide of delay, and by the wicked, but in
some points of view effectual, labours of those base
and unprincipled renegades, who are striving Sys-
tematically to withdraw the working-classes horn all
concert with, and reliance on, their biethren of the
middle and upper. Tke desperate attempts of other
miscreants to set poverty against property, and Igoe.
rance against knowledge, have further served to in-
spire the Tory league with asurances !kit Its own
stubbornness, by the aid of Court intrigues, of in-
stigated riots, and of " blood enough," may in the
end so frighten the lovers of peace,—so shake the
mea of capitid, and so disgust all men of sense and
spirit, at the weakness and indecision of those
whom they had looked up to for protectors,--as to
yield the public enemy yet one more chance of re-
fixing the old yoke upon the nation. It were idle to
assert that infinite uneasiness has not. arisen through-
out society within the last ten days upon this very
topic of the means possessed by Ministers for making
good their engagement to the country. For some
time after the late prorogation the people were sa-
tisfied to look on. It was just, they thought, that
the Cabinet should have leisure to make its inquiries
and selections, and to accomplish its creation of
Peers from among the ranks of the liberal Aristo-
cracy. lint patience has its bounds. It is seen
and felt that there is "nothing doing." It is felt
universally, that Ministers ought not only to have
long since arranged for an extensive creation of
Peers, but ought to have grappled with the grow-
ing Ends of distrust and dissatisfaction, by an-
nouncing positively to their zealous advocates, and
through various authentic channels, that such a erre-
tion had been resolved upon, and would beyond all
question and without delay be completed. This
would have spread rejoicing throughout the empire:
nay, it will do se still. It will go far to convince
the people that there are other means of safety for
them besides the powerful, but irregular—perhaps
dangerous—" Political Unions." It will add unex-
ampled force and reputation to the Government, by
demonstrating that it possesses the unimpaired
esteem of that estate of the realm on which depends
the distribution of honours. It will, besides, and
which is a consideration of vast importance, intro-
duce a liberal counterpoise into the house of Peers,
for the Tory creations and promotions of the les:
hell century : thus, after Reform shall have been
carried, facilirating for a Whig Minister the march
of his Government in matters affecting the general
policy of the empire; er reinforcing the Peerage by
such materials of a patriotic and independent oppo-
sition as may establish a somewhat more salutary
cuntroul Over the acts of Tories, should they re-
turn to (inky, than has existed through the succes-
sive Administrations of Pitt, Sidmouth, Portland,
Perceval, and Liverpool. On one point we agree
with the boroughmonger Journals—" things cannot
remain much longer as they are." They begin to
be disjointed ; and we hive the less scruple in say•
iug so, because at a ward Lord Grey can set them
i ig h t.— Them

In itllusion to the aiticle which appeared in this
Journal on Saturday, respecting the establishment
of " a Peace-maintenance Sucie y," and in answer
also to the question of a correspondent, who a-1;s
whether it is our wish that armed associations, for
the preservation of the peace, should be established
throughout the kingdom, we beg to say, once (of
all, that any other armed associations than those of
which the machinery is already prepared, have never
been contemplated by us, and that their establish-
ment would be as offensive and insulting rt,
!he Government, as it would, in all probability,
be laid hold of by its Anti-Reform opponents
to bring it into discredit. According to the
existing law of the land, every one ma)
have arms for his defence, suitable to his condi-
tion ; and, according to the same law, the country
is divided into parishes and other nominal divisions,
the Magistrates of which are empowered, in case of
need,, to swear in, as special constables, for the pre-
servation of the peace, as many of the inhabitant-
as they may deem necessary for the purpose: All
that is required to be done, therefore, and, indeed,
we are confident all that is necessary to be done, is
imply to organize this parochial force in such a
manner that it may be brought to act with the
greatest possible efficacy on the shortest possible
notice ; and without an organization, or arrange-
menr, such as that pointed out by the author of the
pamphlet which we noticed on Saturday, this cannot
be done. The arrangement, however, is so simple,
that no difficulty would be encountered, so.ther
in
making it, or rendering it effective ; %elide the
amount of the constitutional force which would be
gained, and without expense, itt behalf of the preser-
vation of peace, and against all tumult, riot, or me-
nace of any description, would be so considerable,
that the most timorous would have ample cause to
repose confidence in its piotection of their persons
and property. With respect to armed political as-
sociations, the most base use of the mere mention of
them, by some of our contemporaries, has been at-
tempted tempted to be made of them by the Atiti•Reforers,
We must have none of them, least the Kng and his
Ministers should be embarrassed.—Morning A
The Ministers must begin, we imagine, by this
time to discover that they have put themselves into
the power of task-masters so severe, capricious, and
inconsistent, that the popularity they acquired by
degrading the character, abdicating the powers, and
betraying the trusts of Government, cannot be of a
very durablenature. Already we find the whole lower
orders of the people, the physical force of the com-
munity—with the vengeance of which the Ministers
of the King presumed, a month ago, to threaten the
House of Peers, it it should dare to reject the revolu-
tion that those nniaters had contrived fur their own
party purposes—so fully recovered from the delusion
in which this great body of our fellow-subjects were
then suppose to be held, that the menace, which was
at tht.t time wicked, if not treasonable, would now
be merely ridiculous. In the great manufacturing
towns and districts the people only meet to express
their hatred and contempt of " the Bill," arid of the
Ministry who attempted to palm it upon the country
as a measure of Reform. The people see that it was
such a Reform as could only have bad the effect of
es.ablishing Whig dominion in Parliament; and the
dominion, still more vexatious, oppressive, and re-
volting than any Parliamentary authority can pos-
sibly be, of little knots of base, low-born, purse
proud Oligarchs in every neighbourhood. This they
see, and they declare accordingly, with one united
and irresistible voice, theiropinion that the Bill would
have produced no benefit to the labouring classes of
society, and that it never was intended to produce any.
The same feeling prevails also in the metropolis to
such an extent, that the class of persons who still
approve of the Ministerial measure of petty local
tyranny, and approve of it because they were them-
selves to have been the tyrants, instead of calling
meetings, as men conscious of a popular object and
cause have always done, are compelled to form them-
selves
into clubs, and to hide themselves in holes
and corners. Political Union., whether armed or
unarmed, whether they call themselves temporary
or permanent, so long as they skulk from the view
of the people, and elude by fraud the resolutions of
public meetings, are not, it is evident, an element of
power, but the refuge and disguise of wounded va-
nity and conscious insignificance. We desire 00
better prof than is afforded by the conduct of the
National Political Union, of which Sir Francis
Burdett is at the head, but of which, he says, he
nil! only remain the head so long as such

R,efortners as Mr. Wakley and Mr. Hunt can'
be kept out of bit way—that the cause of
the Bill and the Ministry is a ruined cause. The
only town in England in which any but the merest
drivellers affect to retain their attachment to
the Bill or the Ministry is Birmingham, where a
Political Union, comprehunding 1t formers of all
kinds, classes, and degrees, has been established
long enough to acquire those habits of disciplined
hypocrisy which enable men whose objects are es-
sentially different to act in union up to a certain
point. And this Birmingham Union, the single
association of the least value or importance that
pretends to be on the side of nnistcrs, is about to
forfeit its pledge, to become an of of ridict le to
the world, and to fall to pieces amidst internal dis-
sension and the general laughter of mankind ; or to
embarrass the Government, to act in opposition to
the earnest end pathetic admonitions of the Govern-
ment Press, to force upon the unfortunate Ministers
whom it pteteods to support the unpleasant task of
putting its leading members upon them trial for high
treason; to convert itself, in short, into an association
whose very existence shell he in defiance of the law.
But the task-masters of the Administration, that
portion of the Press whose assistance Ministers have
courted in order no delude the people, chew them-
-elves in the present deplorable condition of their
slaves in ollice to be more secure and inexorable than
their piedecessors of old who tormented and op-
ptessed the house of Israel. The Ministers were
to curry the Bill, but the Ministerial Press was to
make it popular. If they could have passed a po-
pular Bill, are they therefore to be pronounced
equally able to pass an unpopular one ? Is not this
to demand bricks without straw 9 Awl when the
Ministerial Press insists, in &fiance of facts of daily
occurrence, and of the most unequivocal characeer,
that the RH is still popular, what is this but to add
bitter mockery to Egyptian oppression 9 We pity
even Lord Grey when we read in it Paper favoured
so much and so lately by the Administratien as the
Times, and still perhaps patronized by some of its
Members, such passages as this :
" If Lord Grey resigns, rc infeeta—the Crown being
with him, and the nation wi h him, and justice, and wis-
dom, and rstetity, for his allies—we need not tell his
Lordship, b;r he knows it, that he will sink, not into ob-
scurity, let him not lay that unction to his soul—not into
commiseration, great criminals are never pitied—not into
comparative littleness—not into transient disgrace. There
never was sorb a fall since that of Adam as would be the
downfal of the Noble Earl."

The Times, it is plain enough, begins to think it
full time to desert Lord Grey, and this is a pretty
sure prognostic of his early fall. But full when he
may, the simile of the Times will be as inapplicable
As it is profane. The Noble Earl, or we are greatly
deceived, w•.ith all his attachment to officP, has found
,t of late any thing rather than a Paradise.—Morn-
ing Poat.

It is now more than suspected, and the prolonged
silence of Ministers on the subject tends to strengthen
the suspicion, that the hitch has taken place in the
progress of the Reform Bill, which it will require
all the energy of the people to remove. That this
eras arisen front the delay created by the proroga-
tion, there can be no question ; because it is clear
hat, at the time the Lords threw out the Bill, no
other impediment existed to its passing, than what
manifested itself in their House. Such is not the
ease now. The delay caused by the prorogation
has afforded tnne for the enemies of Reform to rally
and collect their forces. These, in many instances,
possess the ad:eve-ages of the ltsyal ear, and are
ever pouring into it poisonous insinuations as to the
consequences of Reform. In a speech made by
Mr. Attwood, to the Birmingham Union, on Mon-
day last, that gentleman thus alludes to the new
impediments which have lately risen up against the
Bill :—" He did not hesitate to say that the Bill
was in danger. It had been rejected by the House
of Lords, end he feared it would be rejected again.
But there were other circumstances which he
could not but consul, r. It was possible—he did
not think it was probable, but it was possible
—that our good arid pa,rionc King tray be
induced, by the wiles of those who surround him, to
withdraw his support from the Bill. It was poseible
that the machinations of our powerful enemies may
detest the Ministers, and compel them to resign."
With respect to the latter part of Mi.. Attwood's ap-
prehensions, we must be allowed to say, that, if the
Ministers again (allow themselves to he defeated—
they will merit their being compelled to resign.
They have the ball a! their foot ; and if they are
too dastardly to move it--they should make way
for those who are less timid or less scrupu-
lous. They have the influential part of the country,
to a roan, in their favour—they possess the con-
fidenee of their Sovereign ; why, then, do they he-
sitate at adopting the only means left to restore the
nation to a state of tranquillity—viz , the creation of
a sufficient number of Peers to get the 13ill through
the Lords. We will make an improbable supposi-
tion :—that the King has signified his unwillingness
to adopt this measure. Suppose that he has, and
suppose that, with the pertinacity of more than one
of his family, he appears inclined to adhere to that
resolution—yet there is a plain path before Lord
Grey. He should boldly, though respectfully, place
his resignation infer/a-position with the non-creation
of Peers. lit should at once tell his Royal Master
that the people will have Reform ; and that he is
un dile to carry on the Government, unless the boon
they iegaire is granted them. This would bring
matters to a crisis; and any crisis would be pre-
ferable to the state of turbulence, doubt, and anxiety
in which the country is now involved. The crisis
could not, however, last long. The King's sound
and plain sense would SOOTI come into play, and the
refractory Peers be taught the futility of further re-
sistance. When almost every Bishop's Palace in
the kingdom is obliged to be defended by the mili-
tary—when the Tory nobility are garrisoning their
houses, and raising lines of defences in their parks
—eviler' in opposition to these, the middle classes
are providing themselves with arms and preparing
themselves for a strenuous resistance,* it requires
but little of the gift of prophecy to foretell that a
collision must soon occur, unless a speedy settle-
ment of the important question of Reform takes
place. Not a moment should be lost ; for the peace
of the kingdom may be said to hang on a single
thread --Newe.

lEsop tell; us that, once on a time, a fox wheedled
a crow out of a piece of cheese ; but we have never
heard that any arts of persuasion or cajolery redeemed
any thing from the jaws of the fox. It is clear that
we have not had a crow to do with. For months
every tongue was employed in assuring it how much
it was respected and valued, what a sweet pretty
creature it was, and ever would be reputed to be, if
it would only open its mouth and drop the morsel
to which it had no right. It turned its tail, how-
ever, most uncivilly upon all solicitations, and showed
itself a sort of animal that thriught a good bit in the
mouth better than any quantity of fair wcrds in the
ear. Our Ministers have obviously great reliance
on their powers of persuasion. Of Lord Ahhorp it
may be said, as Mrs. Hardcastle remarked of Tony
Lumpkin," He would wile the bird from the tree;"
but ah ! not the fox from the goose. If he has not
the blandishment of citatory, he has the oratory of
blandishment: but beasts of prey have no ear for
civilities. We fear, we greatly fear, that wolves
‘
will never answer to the call of " Dilly, dilly, dilly,
come and be killed," however sweet may be die
accent, or urgent the propriety. NA:hen children
commit errors,
,tittmieorpearseerrilts'es consolationconsolation'
get' older." " They
havewill
This seems to have been the calculation with re-
spect to the Peers. Though already the wickedest
old body in the world, it is supposed " they will
know better" in three or four months. When
the sight of a venerable Bencher of the Temple
We understand that Ministers are so alarmed at the progress
of the arming system among the Unions, that they have come to
the resolution to commence legal measures to prevent its pro-
ceeding. Such a step will bring them into direct collision with
the people; a consummation the Tories have long devoutly
wished. Ministers would, however, do far better to disarm the
Unions, by immediately setting on foot measures to pass the Re-
form Bill, than to attempt doing it by force. Besides, has not
every Englishman as much right to arm himself, and to fortify
his house, as the Duke of Newcastle, Lords Plymouth, Middle-
ton, Sc. Ste,