The Sun.
London, England, 1831-05-04 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Every day brings proofs of the still growing
power of the Reform principle over the minds of
the people of England. There is, in truth, no stand-
ing before it. *The personal and petty views which
are here and there opposed to the national feeling in
favour of restored institutions, serve merely to render
impotent men as odious as they are helpless, and to
refute the slander so provokingly repeated during
the last days of the expired Parliament—that the
country did not wish for Reform ! Mr. Bell, the
nominee of the Duke of Northumberland, has been
forced to resign his pretensions to that county, for
which Lord Howick and Mr. Beaumont come in.
Sir Charles Greville, the Tory candidate, is hind-
most in the race for Warwick, as is Sir Roger Gres.
ley, the Duke of Newcastle's forlorn hope, at the
bottom of the poll in Newark ; while Seijeant
Wilde stands far and high at the head of it. As
another illustration of the force of popular opinion
throughout England, we have the pleasure to state
that Banbury, heretofore tinder the trammels of
Lord Bute, has manfully rejected his Lordship's
dependent, and chosen Mr. Easthope, a thorough-
going reformer, as its representative. We cannot go
through the long and gratifying list. In every
spot where the people have a voice, no word but
" Reform" is pronounced by them. The borough-
mongers, by their foolish resistance to the commu-
nity, will not prolong the life of their corrupt sys-
tem by a single week. But they add somewhat of
fierce and vindictive spirit to the certainty that the
public enemy, which has so long existed in the heart
of England, ought to have been crushed much sooner.
It 18 perfectly manifest, however, that the incorri-
gible Tories have themselves alone to blame, for the
sweepingness, which they ascribe to the Reform
Bill as its chief and most alarming evil. Had they
voted for even the smallest shade or particle of Re-
form, when the opportunity was presented to ahem
two years ago, when the most glaring abuses were
exposed to the whole world, and the most intelli-
gent and affluent bodies in the kingdom humbly
craved to have a definite share of legislative autho-
rity conferred upon them, an act of justice might
have passed for one of generosity,—the Tories
might have been suspected of some faint sympathy
with their countrymen,—the Wellington Adminis-
tration would have been still in office,—and the
measure of Reform now impending over the
boroughmongers, might have been railed at with
impunity, or laughed at as a dream. There
is no more important or valuable counsel, than
to be wise in time. The Tories, who were foolish
when folly was fatal to them, are now doubly foolish
in pretending to be wise, when their wisdom
amounts to no more than a pretended confession of
their former idiotism. They. affect to be Reformers
now ; but if we revert to their preceding and uni-
form conduct, we shall be satisfied that they seek no
more by the hypocritical cry of " Reform," than
through means of it to slide into Parliament, and
once more vote against every species of Reform,
which would subject themselves or their connexions
to the slightest chance of popular controul. Let
this entire subject be taken to heart by the educated
and well-meaning class of electors, who are just
on the point of determining the representation of
Cambridge. Has the church no enemies ? Are
there no abuses in the church ? is there no danger
at such a time in any gie at portion of the English
clergy exhibiting themselves to the empire at large,
as acted upon by prejudices or feelings wholly op-
posite to those of the English nation ? If the
church, instead of going fairly to work, and in-
viting remedies to the abuses which may have crept
into its own government, shall rashly take under its
protection the abuses which belong to the state
likewise, we, the staunch and consistent friends of
the Church of England, cannot refrain from warn-
ing the clergy of the consequences to which they
expose all that is really defensible and valuable in
the church establishment. The wretched condition
into which political Tories have fallen, ought to
make the clerical Tories beware. A slight conces-
sion to public opinion in the Peel party two years
ago, might have saved concessions of fifty times the
amount at this moment; and a moderate concession
by those who are r'garded as the unreflecting sup-
porters of Mr. Peel's brother, in his attempt upon
the University of Cambridge now,—a concession to
the national demand of a free Parliament,—may
avert the necessity of changes which we tremble to
think of, if the members of the Church of England
imprudently draw upon themselves the suspicion
that they are allied with the boroughmonger-crew
in a league against the public liberties. Our honest
and friendly, as well as earnest advice, to our bre-
thren of the University is, to vote on the side of the
King and people. Since this was written we have
received the result of the first day's poll at Cam-
bridge. The enemies of Reform have made a desperate
effort, and have collected all their force to strike an
imposing blow at the beginning. The friends of Re-
form will only be stimulated to more strenuous, and
active, and prompt exertions, and will, we doubt
not, this day pour an overwhelming majority
into the field. The enlightened energy of those
who fight in a good cause must overcome the blind
zeal of those who fight to maintain the worst abuses
of our glorious Constitution. As to the cause itself,
the King and the nation have already decided it ; it
is already triumphant ; but, alas ! for the poor infa-
tuated men who resist the mighty will of this great
nation ! Again, with tie most friendly earnestness
we warn them to be wise in time : for the sake of
themselves,—for the sake of that church which we
admire as much as its most ardent partisars,—we
conjure the clerical electors of Cambridge to con-
sider, that though their efforts, if even successful,
cannot affeet the general cause, they will be bitterly
remembered as having been violently directed against
the people's undoubted right—the right to choose
their own representatives. What ! Is it for a seat
of learning and knowledge to protect and preserve
those frightful corruptions of our system denounced
by good and wise men of all ages and parties ? In-
stead of a benevolent eagerness to cure the diseases
which are eating into the vitals of the State, will it
endeavour to entail them as irremovable curses, new
and for ever ? No !no ! It cannot be but that
Cambridge will rouse itself, and sweep away so foul
an indignity.—Times.

We are every day deafened with the cry that the
Bill is a step towards anarchy. Now it seems clear
that no anarchy can exist where the rights of pro-
perty arc t•tudiously and efficiently protected ; nay,
where propel ty itself is made to wield the powers
which constitute its guarantee. Let us, then, com-
pare the amount of property invested with political
power under the old sys'em and the new, and, con-
fining our observations to the boroughs marked out
for total or partial disfranchisement, we will take the
proprietors at 50, the voters amounting to 4,000 or
5,000, being in fact but servants of the said patrons
and representing no opinions of their own, but only
the wills of their masters. The possession, then, of
the right to make Members of Parliament, by,these
boroughs, co-exists with (and in consequence of)
the exclusion from all such privilege, of between 30
and 40 rich and populous towns, averaging above
20,000 inhabitants each; it co-exists, likewi,e, with
the inadequate representation of e7ght-and-twenty
or thirty of the greatest counties in the United
Kingdom,—that is to say, that about 50 noblemen
power to inflict law-makers of or gentlemen have a
their own choice upon the people of England, while
all the other noblemen and gentlemen are excluded
from any share in the election of that number of
representatives. Very well; the new Bill proposes
__what ? Not to exclude from all share in the rights
of election and representation, the small compara-
tive amount of wealth by which they have hitherto
been monopolized; but to relieve from their un-
merited exclusion one hundred times the property
and numbers which are now domineered over by
the above usurping power. It says to the 50 borough
patrons, you shall not any longer return one-third
I,
of the whole representative body of Englan , but
you shall have henceforth your due proporlion of
the privilege, and you shall take for your partners in
it 500,000 of your fellow-subjects, whom you have