The Sun.
London, England, 1836-12-13 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Although the election of a Representative for the
county of Longford, in place of the late Lord Forbes,
has not as yet taken place, no doubt is entertained by
the Liberal party of Mr. White's success at the hust-
ings. The interest of the Earl of Granard—father of
the deceased Member—is cordially given to the po-
pular candidate ; and this alone is sufficient to pros-
trate the fanatical clique who have for a few years
thwarted—it is not now necessary to describe by what
means—the feelings of the people. To be sure an
Orange journal, with characteristic Hibernicism, tells
its patrons and partisans that the tenantry on the
Granard estates are not the tenantry of the Earl of
Granard, but of the deceased Lord Forbes ; and that
they will to a man " vote for their late landlord ;"
to wit, the deceased Viscount. The votes of his
tenantry, Lord Forbes does not now require. These
votes they cheerfully gave to the deceased noble-
man for a quarter of a century ; he received them
reluctantly since 1830, when he committed the
fatal error of coalescing with an intolerant fac-
tion, his own and his country's enemies : now that
the dishonouring tie is severed, the tenantry, freed
from undue controul, and left to exercise unshackelled
the elective franchise, will, almost to a man, vote for
the popular candidate, and in concert with the declared
wishes of the venerable Peer who has ever been their
own steadfast friend, as well as the zealous advocate of
their country's rights and freedom. So sure of defeat
are the Orange bigots, that they already give expres-
sion to their frenzy in the columns of their newspa-
pers. The Evening Mail asserts that if Mr. Fox, the
Lefroy cat's-paw, be defeated, " he is pledged to peti-
tion against the return, and to prosecute the same to a
decision. This is manifestly a signal of distress, as
well as a clumsy artifice to cloak a disgraceful defeat.
If Mr. Fox and his friends (?) were not pretty certain
of being soundly thrashed by the electors of Long-
ford, they would not have said a word about that
derider resort of defeated candidates—a petition.
A pledge to petition, even before the candidates
have been nominated, and that, too, in a county
which had been recently represented by two To-
ris, is strong evidence of a reaction against Toryism in
that locality. It is more—it is incontestable evidence
of the turpitude and factiousness of the Tory party. It
demonstrates the implacable hostility of that party to
freedom of election and popular rights. No matter
what may be Mr. White's majority at the election—
supposing, him to obtain the unbought suffrages of
tiara-fourths of the constituency, still he and the elec-
tors are menaced with a petition ! We shall take care
when the petition is presented, to recal this fact to the
notice of the House of Commons. The premature
pledge betokens distinctly a vexatious intent. Mr.
Fox, and the Lefroys, who are making a goose of him,
Lad better take into their calculation of the chances the
probable issue of an investigation, the corrupt object of
which would be established by their own indiscreet re-
velations. They would look much bluer than usual were
D. committee to declare Mr. White duly returned, and
the petition against that return " frivolous and vexa-
tious." We can easily comprehend why the Messrs.
Lefroy would strain every nerve to defeat Mr. White.
So sure as he obtains and retains his seat, so sure will
Mr. Anthony Lefroy march, whenever, Ministers shall
dreide upon sending him, inter alios, to give an account
of his stewardship ; for, strange as it mav appear, the
return of two Reformers in Longford would be achieved
with much less trouble at a general election than the
return of one, under the existing circumstances ; and
of the return of that one the Orangists and Tartqfjes
themselves are sure, and the conviction galls them bit-
terly. Still such is their malignity, such their per-
. v.er:-.iencss, such their hatred of the people, that they
mean to fight a hopeless battle at the hustings, and
then to contest before a Parliamentary committee the
free choice of the electors And this is the party whom
self-styled Reformers—the pink of Radicalism, for-
sooth—arc labouring might and main to restore to
power. What care they for parties—what is it to
them that a Liberal Administration does all it can to
reform abuses and -to extend the privileges of the
people—that it has reformed Corporations in this
country, and has striven to reform them in Ireland
_that here it has commuted tithes, and there it has
attempted to adjust that impost in a manner satisfac-
tory to the present generation of tithe-payers and
tithe-receivers, and will do so again—that it is daily
purifying the public departments in a country where
Oraneeism and jobbing have hitherto oppressed the
people, and ground diem to the earth—that if To-
ryism were to, morrow in the ascendant, a brood of fac-
tious and partisan barristers would swarm upon and
pollute the judicial benches, which are yet grievously
over-burdened by the minions of former Tory Admi-
nistratious—that Irish corporations would then he pre-
served in all their vice and profligacy—that tithes
would then be collected at the point of the bayonet—
that the spirit of Saurin and Lefroy, of Blackburne
and of Shaw, would animate the Viceroy and his
Council and the law officers of the Crown—that the
Chief Secretary would again, as Sir Henry Har-
diT7e did before, abuse the powers of his office, and
violate the law in the attempt to trample upon the citi-
zens, and to carry the election of Orange candidates? For
all these things what care your flaming Radicals—Torv-
Radicals, as they have been aptly called ? Ministers
will not initiate the proposition that a corrupt House of
Lords should be reformed, nor will they initiate another
equally valuable but still more difficult proposition—
that the union between Church and State should be dis-
solved ; and, therefore, the Whigs should be turned
out, and the Tories let in once more to power ! Such is
the reasoning of certain individuals in this country who
are magniloquent in their professions of love of liberty;
but whose idol we fear is malice or revenge, and not
the " mountain nymph. In quite a different fashion
do our Irish fellow-subjects reason and act ; as the
reader will see by a reference to our report of the last
day's proceedings of the General Association. The impe-
tuous Irish are setting the sober English a good example.
• They will not quarrel with their friends because these
friends will not or cannot at present concur in all
their views. They will not open the door to Baron
Lyndhurst or Sir R. Peel, because Lord Mel-
bourne cannot at once reform their municipalities
or settle the tithe question. And yet are they not
• inert and inattentive. Mr. O'Connell has laid the
foundation of a systematic agitation. He saw that the
people themselves, and not Ministers, should press
upon the Legislature the questions of Church and Mu-
nicipal and Parliamentary and Peerage Reform, and
he has set his, and gotten his countrymen to set their
shoulders to the wheel. This is the right way to pro-
ceed. If the people are silent, unless when they com-
plain of Ministers, the latter cannot undertake any
great measures of Reform. When the public opinion
is manifested, Ministers will then know how to pro-
ceed ; so, too, will the Tories in both Houses of Par-
liament. The Irish are taking effectual steps to keep
Toryism in opposition. Let the e
people of England
evince a like spirit, and the measures of Government
will be more comprehensive, more popular..... Morning
Chronicle.
publish in
It will be seen by documents we another
column, that the Whig Government have at last
openly thrown over the so-called London University in
Gower-street. These honest statesmen actually voted
in March, 1835, in favour of a motion for an address
to the Crown for a charter for that institution, which
should give the power of conferring degrees, except in
divinity and medicine ; but at that time they happened
to be out of office, and Sir Peel, being Minister, op-
posed the motion. No sooner had they regained digit
places and their pay, than they flatly refused the char-
ter which by their votes they had thus virtually pro-
mised ; and, after a vast deal of shufilina and sneaking
they hit upon a plan which they have at length car-
ried into execution, "by writ of Privy Seal." It is
shortly this :—A board of examiners has been ap-
pointed, with the power of conferring degrees, and with
the title of the " University of
from Gower-street "its good name," and degrading the
ex-University by dubbin, it " a
College," merely. Oh
what a falling off was there, my Radicals !" Our
readers will, we think, be not a little amused
with some of the names in this list of Privy-Seal
.sages, who are thus licensed to manufacture Doctors,
_Masters, and Bachelors ex quovis ligno, all out of love
fer learning of course, and not at all out of 'Whig spite
to our Universities. But we confess we do not see
the necessity for this long array of new functionaries.

Why was not the power of conferring degrees given
to the Poor Law Commissioners, or to the Boards of
Excise and Customs ? Or why not have revived the
Board of Hackney-coach Commissioners for the pur-

pose ? The degrees would, in these cases, have been
quite as legitimate, and, we will venture to say, would
have carried with them quite as much weight and credit,
as they will when conferred by this new tribunal,—in
the appointment of which, by the way, we are sorry to
say we observe strong proofs of partiality. For in-
stance, there is Lord Brougham, but where is Lord
Teynham ? there is Mr. Warburton, but where is
Dr. Bowring ? there is an homoeopathist among the
Doctors, but why is Mr. Morrison the Hygeist
passed over ? there is Dr. Arnold, but we miss Dr.
Wade : there is a Master in Chancery, but not a single
new-policeman, nor even a police magistrate. But
the drollest part of the whole affair is Lord Johnny's
letter to the Earl of Burlington, which precedes the
charter, and which his Lordship has taken care to have
published, as he always does, no matter how much bad
sense or bad grammar the epistles he perpetrates may
happen to contain, and they are usually replete with
both. This miserable abortion of a statesman tells
Lord Burlington that this University of London is
" an institution destined to confer the distinctions

justly due to proficiency in literature, science, or
art, witho'ut imposing a test of Religious Opinions,
or binding by the fetters of the seventeenth century
the talent and merit of the present enlightened age."
If there is to be no test at all of religious opinions—

if the University will not require that persons upon
whom they confer degrees shall be Christians (we
speak not of forms of Christian faith or worship, but of
Christianity itself), then the following passage in the
charter is utterly false and fraudulent ;—" Whereas we
have deemed it to be the duty of our Royal office,
for the advancement of religion and morality, &c.,
to hold forth, &c. an encouragement for pursuing a
regular and liberal course of education." If the pro-
fession of Christianity is to be required from candi-
dates for degrees at this University, then Lord John
Russell has .misrepresented the institution to Lord
Burlington. We are afraid, however, that his little
Lordship is right, and that this passage in the charter
is a disgraceful and deceitful piece of humbug. But
what can this very silly and ill-informed Home Secre-
tary of ours mean by sneering at the seventeenth cen-
tury, and setting up against it what he calls " the ta-
lent and merit of the present enlightened age ?" Has
the Church in this age divines who rank higher than
Jeremy Taylor, Chillingworth, Cudworth, South,
Barrow, Usher, Burnet, and Tillotson ? Have
the Dissenters of any sect a Baxter or a Ca-
lamy among them ? In pricking for physicians,
has this Lord Small-wit been able to find any that
have rendered the world as much service as Harvey

and Sydenham ? Does he knoW where to look for a
Milton, a Dryden, a Cowley, a Waller, or a Butler,
now ? Ilas this " enlightened age" a Newton or a
Locke ? Does he happen to know that besides these,
there lived in the lith century, Bacon, Spelman, Coke,
Raleigh, Hale, Holt, Clarendon, Falkland, Sidney,
Hampden, Pym, Selden, Somers, Temple, Evelyn,
and fifty others whose name, we doubt not, will occur
to most of our readers. When Lord John Russall'S
own narrow mind and small and superficial acquire-
ments are made the standard of "talent," and he him-
self is accepted as a sample of what should be called
" enlig,litened," while his factious, unconstitutional,
and unprincipled conduct as a politician is assumed
as the test of "merit,"—then, and not still then, will
" the present enlightened age" bear comparison with
the seventeenth century in " talent" and " merit."
Really the friends of this very presuming and priggish
person do not act fairly by him when they allow him
so constantly to intrude such exhibitions of his igno-
rance upon the public.— Times.
In the Number of the Quarterlg Review publishet.
on Saturday, there is an article on Church-rates—the
only article, by the way, which has even the appearance
of a political character. The writer is, of course, a
violent advocate of the justice and propriety of com-
pelling Dissenters to pay these obnoxious imposts.
Their conscientious .scruples go for nothing with him.
He can see no injustice—no oppression—in exacting
money to support a church which they never enter,
and from which they can consequently derive no benefit.
He has some forebodings, however—some gloomy
apprehensions, that the Government and Legislature
may
.be forced to give way to the urgent demands of
the Dissenters for relief from these grievous burdens.
He sees in the union, determination, numbers, and
moral force of the Dissenting body, the impossibility
of any longer extracting, per force, from their pockets,
any amount in the shape of Church-rates ; and as he
thus sees that the Dissenters can no longer be oppressed
by Act of Parliament, he puts his inventive powers
on the rack to devise some other means by which they
may still be persecuted for conscience sake. Our
readers would hardly guess the result of this exercise
of his inventive faculties. It is none other than this—
that the best way to punish the Dissenters for their
audacity in refusing to contribute to the support of an
establishment which they regard as altogether unscrip-
tural, will be for Churchmen to cease having any fur-
ther transactions in the way of trade with those of
them who oppose Church-rates. The reviewer forgets
one very important circumstance, in the intensity of
his anxiety to punish Dissenters. He forgets that
Churchmen are not the only buyers in shops and in
the markets, and that Dissenters are not the only per-
sons who have goods to sell. If Churchmen adopt
the advice of the .Quarterly, and have recouse to ex-
clusive dealing, then the Dissenters will be driven, in
self-defence, to do the same ; and if they withhold
their patronage, in the ordinary transactions of trade,
from Churchmen, we suspect that the latter will find
in the long run that they are the greatest losers. Does
the reviewer not, know that in all large towns, where
of course most business is carried on, the Dissenters
are far more numerous than Churchmen ?—Morning
Advertiser.
The heartless agitator O'Connell struggles against
a statutable provision for the poor of Ireland, as if he
felt an irresistible conviction that the relief of famine—
the alleviation of the most pinching and poignant mi-
sery that ever breathed its withering curse on any por-
tion of the human race—would impair his mischievous
power, and diminish the yearly gathering of sordid
alms, which he makes by the lucrative traffic that con-
verts patriotism into pelf. But it isin vain that he
struggles against the increased and increasing convic-
tion that the destitute masses of his countrymen must
not be allowed to starve, in order that his wallet may
be filled to overflowing. It is true he has long been
successful in preventing, both in and out of Parlia-
ment, the adoption of any measure for the improve-
ment of the physical and social condition of the
2,300,000 whom he himself has acknowledged to be
in a state of deplorable wretchedness and beggary.
That number, in our opinion, is greatly exaggerated,
as every statement almost of Mr. O'Connell is. But
supposing only one-half of that number—supposing
only one fourth to be in the condition of forlorn po-
verty—of savage destitution—of which so many
heart-rending and almost incredible instances are
given in the Report of the Irish Commissioners of
poor law inquiry, with a glorious achievement of
Christian benevolence it would to 4' emancipate " so
many myriads of our fellow-creatures from the horrible
tyranny of unmitigated want—destroying its victims
by the slow tortures of famine, and brutalizing the fa-
culties while it breaks the heart. How many victims
of this excruciating misery have gone down to the
grave since
O'Connell first obtained that power, which
he has so selfishly exercised for his own selfish pur-
poses, and
which he has never yet employed to im-
prove the condition of the mass of his starving coun-
trymen. On the contrary, he has always contrived,
n freer opposition,oheieoufsou t v
o%l'l
dm
t a artfull.ai at 0-
ring
by
abortive the humane and benevolent designs of
rieleialtgli
di cell: where e
others. this respect we must admit that he has
consistent on had very zealous co-operation from some Whirr Minis-
ters,ially Mr. sp •
Rice, who has the
more espec
merit of being- rig icily
one public ques-
tion‘, and that is the one upon which Mr. O'Connell
'' Legislature would spoil his
admitted to Feargus O'Connor that a really liberal
and enlightened act of the
trade." But looking to o Connell s conduct towards
the infant white slaves of the factory system, who can
wonder that, like the slave-drivers of America, he shall
always have the cant phrases of liberality on his lips,
while his actions prove that the most illiberal propensi-