The Sun.
London, England, 1831-11-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The report of a change in the Administration has
again prevailed to-day; but we have not been able
to trace it to any authentic source. There is one
source, however, to which, in the absence of positive
intelligence, we may refer the origin of this and
other rumours of the same kind, without much
danger of being wide of the mark—we mean the
boroughmongers. These who dread Reform, who
long for the overthrow of a Reforming Administra-
tion, and who, withal, may he suspected of an in-
clination to succeed their political opponents in office,
are sufficiently versed in such expedients to be
aware that one way of weakening a party is to give
it the character of weakness. The near approach
of the Session, the silence of Ministers with respect
to the question, on the fate of which their continu-
ance in power must depend, and the constant ap-
peals made both to the Government and the people
by those journals which are most violent in calling
for Reform, have all conspired to countenance the
opinion that Ministers have met with difficulties
which admit of no alternative but resignation. That
the boroughmongers should take advantage of those
circumstances to circulate such a report is probable ;
—they feel they are in a desperate situation, and
have no objection to try a desperate remedy. But
the transfer of the rumour from the East to the
West end of the town (tor it has spent but one
day in each quarter) is a proof that there is
not much stability in its foundation. To
judge from present appearances we should say
thar few things can be more improbable than the re-
signation of Earl Grey and his colleagues before the
meeting of Parliament. Men who have staked
their political fame—nay, their political existence,
upon one great measure, which the bulk of the na-
tion expect at their hands, would ill consult their re-
putation by abandoning the post of danger without
an effort to accomplish what they stand pledged to
undertake. Even if their prospects were worse than
we can suppose them to he, while a Monarch of
such spirit and candour presides over the country,
it is not on the eve of the battle that we can expect

them to retire, unless we could suppose them can-
didates for universal ridicule. There is but one
party more who would cut such a ridiculous figure,
and that is the party who look to succeed them.
Even the success of Mr. Hunt, which has inspired
the Anti-Reformers with renewed hopes, though it
may have attached some of the most ignorant of the
people from the measure of Reform, will have but
little effect in recommending an Anti-Reform Admi-
nistration to the people. But it is as a Reformer
that the Duke of Wellington would take office.
The idea is ridiculous; but the experiment, if it
could be regarded as anything short of madness, is
so improbable as to discountenance the resignation
of Ministers, almost as much as the argument de-
rived from their own sagacity and boldness.—Morn-
ing Herald.
One of the first considerations in building a city,
it will be admitted, without any dispute, we should
think, at the present crisis, ought to be the capabi-
lity of its being well ventilated. London, at least
the central anti eastern portions of it, has not that
advantage. When the city was rebuilt, after the
great fire in 1666, great improvements were un-
doubtedly made ; but though much was done to re-
form it in point of convenience and salubrity, much
was left undone. London has not, like Paris and
some other great cities, large and open public quays
(the Custom-house quay excepted), where the inha-
bitants may promenade, and breathe somewhat Let-
ser air than in the confined streets—all the embank-
ments of the river being covered with warehouses,
and engrossed for mercantile purposes. The open
spaces called squares have been, by an expressive
metaphor, said to be " the lungs of the metropolis;"
bet there are few of such open spaces in that part
of this metropolis properly called the city of Lon-
firm. The city is, therefore, deficient in " lungs,"
and, we cannot wonder if its health be sometimes in
danger. In making the approaches to the new
,London-bridge, a space of ground has been cleared
of buildings which, we believe, is the property of
the Corporation. It was said, some time ago, that
t was intended to erect new buildings upon this
epace. We hope this intention will be aban-
doned. Here a new square might be made,
-which would be exceedingly ornamental, and
very useful to that part of the city, in the way
of ventlation. We would suggest to the Corpora-
tiott the prepriety of improving the beauty anti
healthfulness of that portion of the city, by keeping
this space free from buildings, and surrounding it
with an iron railing, enclosing a dwarf shrubbery, by
which the neighbourhood of the Monument would
be greatly embellished, and rendered more salu-
brious. At present the Monument, which is one of
the most noble columns of the sort in Europe, by
;saving its base uncovered, which, with a consider-
able portion of the pillar, had been choked up by the
old buildings, appears to a spectator, passing to or
feom London-bridge, on that side, in all the magni-
ficent effect of its united grandeur and symmetry.
But thoosh to consult for the beauty of a city be a
cnattee of snow consideration, to improve its health-
fultiees is a far more important matter. As to any
sacrifice of property which this improvement would
cost the Corporation, it would be no more than the
oes of the ground-rent, there being no coat at pre-
cent for erections. The expense, we conceive,
would be more than compensated by the improved
value of the adjoining buildings, and perhaps the in-
habitants of Monument-yard would not object to
bearing the expense, which would be repaid them
in the increased value of their shops, thus secured
from a certain quantity of competition—but this is
only our conjecture. The improvements which,
of late years, have taken place at the West
end of the town, are eminently calculated, not
only to beautify that portion of the metropolis
but to render it more healthful, by promoting a
freer circulation of air. The sweeping away the
Jose derk filthy lanes and courts on the north side
of the Strand—the foui welly of anxious effluvia—
the receptacles of shameless vice, of squalid
wretchedness, and abomination—is, in itself, as re-
rads health and morals, a local reform of a most
lieneAcial sort. We should like to see that sort of
reform introduced into many parts of the city,
where dark narrow alleys, and bark courts, almost
4niperviotts to seri and wind, present spectacles of
onisety and filth that rival what we are told of the
west degraded circumstances of man in barbarous
life, even in the midst of the luxury and refinements
of opulent civilization. The Corporation of Lon-
don has it in its power to do a great deal to relieve
the city from these reservoirs of di.tease, where the
stagnant air, loaded, as it is, with all netts of un•
r.o'holesome evaporations, seems sufficient to gene-
rate pestilence or to invite it. The cleansing avid
lime-washing which the Civic Board of Health are
etideavouring, with the public assistance, to carry
ipto effect, will do much good—but it will be only a
temporary good ; for so long as those receptacles of
filth and disease to which we have adverted exist,
so long will there be a recurring danger to the public
health front renewed accumulations of those offensive
c„„„ which pollute arid deteriorate the air, What
has been done it, ,he west of the metropolis ought
to stimulate the inhabitants of the eastern parts to
;make the ancient seat of eeeenmerce worthy the ad•
lanced state of modern civilize-Wm-214mm Her.
A variety of reports of a change of Kinistry were
yesterday circulated. They must be bol4 evens in-
deed, who, on the resignation of Earl Grey, because
lie is not allowed the means of carrying art efficient
Reform, would think of taking office. The resigna-
tion of Earl Grey would be a sigriel to the country
of the triumph of the oligarchy; and if the people
acquiesced in the indignity offered to them, they
would thereby prove themselves vile sordid slaves,
and the very name of Englishman would stink in the
nostrils of the nations. Heavy, indeed, would be
the responsibility of those who, by compelling Bail
Grey to resign, would thereby drive a nation to de-
spair. We cannot believe that his Majesty would
expose the people cf this country to the calamity of
witnessing itself deceived in its fondest hopes. His
Majesty roust surely have believed Reform indispen-

Bible, or he would not have bestowed his confidence
on a ?tlinistry formed on the principle of Reform.
But vhoso wishes the end must wish the me;ms.

To propose Reform, and yet refuse to consent to the
means for effecting it, would be a mere mockery of
the nation. However, it is time that the nation
should know who interposes the obstacles to the
passing of Reform. If his Majesty is an Anti-Re-
former, and prefers the welfare of the boroughuton-
gers to the welfare of the nation, let it be known.
The time has arrived when there should be no longer

any mystery or mystification on the subject. That
there is a hitch somewhere is beyond a doubt. lithe
course were clear, there could be no hesitation as to
the instantly removing the apprehensions of the

people.—lihrning Chronicle.-
Blackwood's Magazine is well known as one of
the great organs of the Tories, and the champion
of Anti-Reform. In the last number Aristocracy

has found a singular advocate, in a writer who, in
combatting the supposed assertion of some of the
supporters of the Bill that Scotland owed nothing
to its own institutions, and that its prosperity was
entirely to be ascribed to the beneficent Legislature
of the sister kingdom—is at great pains to show
that it has an advantage over England, in having a
number of institutions calculated to benefit the
people, properly so called—such as a democratic
church, the exemption from tithes, the education of
the people, a mild code—and that it possessed these
advantages prior to the union with England. It is
a strange way of combattitag a measure alleged to be
too democratical, to sing the praises of a democratic
church, equality of benefices, and abolition of tithes.
But they who argued that the present prosperity of
Scotland was not owing to its political constitution,
did not mean thereby to contend that the Scotch
institutions were generally inferior to those of
England. They are, on the contrary, for the
most part incomparably better. But the
Constitution of Scotland before the Union is not
the Constitution fixed by the Union, and such a
Constitution as that fixed by the Union could only
have been upheld by the power of the English Go-
vernment. What that of Scotland would have been
at this day, had there been no Union, is matter of
conjecture ; but if it had become anything like what
it is now, the prosperity of that country could have
had no existence. But if the English Government

kept the yoke of the Constitution on the necks o
the Scotch, in order to strengthen corruption is
England, it is but justice to admit that the Scotch
had all the benefits of the English Parliament ; and
for one material improvement of its institutions,
Scotland is indebted to the British Parliament--the
abolition of Heritable Jurisdictions. The Reformers
of England, however, are much obliged to the writer
in Blackwood for reminding them so forcibly at this
time, that the absence of Bishops and Pluralities,
and the permanent settlement of tithes, contribute to
the peace and prosperity of a country. The follow-
ing is the passage to which we allude :
" Have they forgotten, that when the Reformation had
roused the spirit of freedom in both countries, it was
Scottish ardour that first took the field; that years before
a sword was drawn in Eneland on the patriot side, or ti:e
Royal Standard waved at Nottingham, a Scottish army
had fearlessly assembled, routed the English royalists at
Newcastle, and driven Charles to concession at York ;
that when the armies of the long Parliament were sinking
under the efforts of the cavaliers, it was the arrival of
2.'2,000 Scottish auxiliaries which turned the scale, and
gave victory to the arms of freedom at Marston Mo r ;
and that, but for the phrenzy of the popular demagogue.
at Dunbar, Scotland would have crushed the despotism of
the long Parliament, and saved England from the rule of
Cromwell? Have they forgotten, that when tyranny re-
turned its ascendancy under Charles H., and England saw
in indignant silence the blood of Sydney and Russell stain-
ing its scaffoldsthe Scottishenvenanters resolutely continued
the contest, and exhibited,in a hopeless struggle, the inch mi-
table spirit which their forefathers had shown at Stirling
and Bannockburn, and that when the cup of national in-
dignation was full, and James was driven from the throne,
while the English Parliament only ventured to enact that
the throne was vacant, because the Monarch had deserted
it, the Scottish estates at once declared that it was open to
a nation's election, because he had forfeited it ? Have they
forgotten, that when the patriots of both countries set
themselves to establish a barrier against arbitrary imprison-
ment, the Scottish Parliament devised a remedy much more
effective, and much more bold, than the English habeas
corpus act ; that the Act of 1701 is open to none of the
objections of the English statute ; that it absolutely ex-
cludes imprisonment in every case beyond 140 days to
those who apply for its protection, and gives a degree of
security to the subject which English liberty has never yet
attained ? Have they forgotten, that, four centuries ago
the Scottish Parliament conferred absolute security on the
leaseholder against the landlord and his successors of every
description ;an enactment, says Mr. Smith, such in-
calculable importance, that it is sufficient of itself to ac-
count for the present flourishing state of Scottish
agriculture, and conferred a greater blessing on the
people than the Legislature perhaps of any other country
ever conferred on its subjects by a single enactment ?'
Have they forgotten, that two centuries ago, the Scottish
Parliament effected a universal and equitable adjustment of
ecclesiastical property, which has ever since that time pre-
vented, over the whole country, the vexation arising from
the drawing of the tithe in kind ; and that Scotland ob-
tained for itself, even in the arbitrary days of Charles 1.,
a complete exemption from an evil which the English and
Irish patriots have laboured in vain to obtain for their
people up to this hour ? Have they forgotten, that
whereas the unequal division of ecclesiastical estates, and
the weight of the hierarchy, are an incessant and existing
eyesore to the English Reformers, both these evils, if evils
they are, were abolished 250 years ago by the Scottish
Reformers, and the Presbyterian Church established on a
footing of democratic equality, which French enthusiasm
has not surpassed, and English democracy laboured in vain
to attain? Have they forgotten, that while the beneficial
intentions of the English Poor Laws have been defeated by
the multitude of enactments which have grown out of its
provisions, and England in consequence labours under
an inextinguishable load of poor's rates, the relief of the
Scottish poor was settled 250 years ago by its Parliament,
with such wisdom, that abuse has never yet fastened upon
its enactments nor real suffering been denied by its re-
lief? Have they forgotten, that that universal system of
parochial education, which it is the glory of the present
age to have, in some degree, obtained for the English
poor, was established 130 years before by the Scottish
Parliament in their dominions; and that the achievement,
which it is the boast, and the deserved boast of Lord
Brougham, to have partially effected in this age, was
completely effected at the close of the seventeenth century
by the Scottish Legislators ? Have they forgotten that the
humane spirit of Sir Samuel Romiily, the eloquence of Sir
J. Mackintosh, and the wisdom of Sir IL Peel, have suc-
cessively endeavoured to introduce into the English Crimi-
nal Law, was attained three centuries ago in the Scottish
customary pi actice ; that criminal reform has never here
been thought of, because criminal severity never existed ;
and that while the crimes punished by death in England
amounted to about three hundred, those capital in Scot-
land are not fifty, of which above one-half have been in-
troduced by the British Parliament since the Unien?"—
_Morning Chronicl,.
political unions and peace-preserving armed as-
eociationa ai-e now the great bugbears of Anti-
Reform. As permanent branches of our general
system, we have not bean slow to admit that
political unions are hut a clumsy and dangerous sub-
stitute for a well-constructed legislative body. Even
tie transitory excrescences upon the commonwealth,
such unions can be no otherwise justified than by
the depth of the eracrgency which produces them.
One question is, ought such institutions to lie now,
at this moment, encouraged ? That they cannot be
put down by any armed force existing in the country
is clear to every man who can look, and listen, and
compare. That they ought not to disperse or abe
dicate their functions so long as the Reform Bill
arid the Reform Ministry are in apparent peril, is
the belief of every man with whom we have yet com-
municated and that belief is grounded on a fear
that the rejection of the Bill, and the annihilation of
the Ministry, would be followed by worse conse-
quences than is implied in either of these results. if
the Tories have opposed the Whig Reform Bill, it
is
not hoer ar, expectation that they will be able to frus-
trate effectually all measures of Reform, they know
each a hope to he chimerical,but with a determination
to accomplish the overthrow of Lord Grey's Gc.
vErnment, that they may themselves treat the
country to what they describe as a moderate and
safe Reform,—via. one which shall redress the
smallest possible quantity of the national grievances,

and that they may supply what is wanting in conci-
liation by direct and vigorous coercion. To judge
rightly at what might be looked for at the hands of
a Tory Government, succeeding to that of Lord
Grey, we must not content ourselves with recollect-
ing what had been the course of the same faction,
when Toryism is in its high and palmy state. The
Tories would now come into office, trembling for
the stability of whatever constituted tl'. e elements of
Tory power. They would discover on every side of
them people primed with information upon all ques-
tions of political right, and on the history of our
constitutional changes and corruptions. They would
see that authority stripped of reason was of less
weight than before,—that men were apt to discuss
the difference between what was substantial, and

what was incidental in their political relations,—and
that things tolerated from dread of power, or from
a regard to convenience, had no longer, in the eyes
of the mass of Englishmen, the reverence which
they would still pay to institutions established
no less by justice than by time. The battle of
the oligarchy, for their exclusive privileges and
profits, might be fought on other pretences than at
present; but it would be fought with tenfold des-
peration. The new spirit of jealous inquiry mani-
fested by the people would be represented as new
danger to the " Constitution,"—that is, to those
who wished to monopolize its blessings,—and would
serve as an argument for augmenting the military
force. We do not speak without book in asserting
that the scheme of keeping down the nation—
' typifying the nation under the term "revolutionists"
—has superseded every other system of policy in
the breasts of certain Tory Suttesmen. To this end
we are already threatened with vast additions to the
yeomanry force,—a force in its essence oligarchical.
If it be no more, therefore, but for the fear that,
first, the King's Ministers may not be powerful
enough to carry the Reform question; and, next,
that their successors may be powerful enough, after
'obtruding upon us a mock or mutilated Reform, to
stifle our complaints, and trample the manifestations
of our resentment, it is justifiable by every law of
prudence and foresight for the people to anticipate
such calamities, and to prepare in due time the
means of universal and effective co-operation. There
are few things better understood than that a Tory
Government, if in office, would long since have
plunged this country into war. The state of affairs
upon the continent is far from serving to calm the
apprehension that such an event might naturally
and speedily follow their return to power. Ireland,
again, little benefited and not half tranquil, since the
accession of the present Ministry, would burst into
commotion at the first hour of a new Tory Cabinet's
existence. The result of all is, that to maintain
itself at home,tosupport its maxims of foreign policy,
and to subdue the national array of Ireland, it would
be unavoidable for a Tory Administration to increase
enormously the armed force at its disposal, and thus
to render the people of England the victims, that
they might become the instruments of a tyrannical
power. To promote the success of the Reform Bill,
therefore, and to secure the continuance of a Reform
Ministry, let the political unions proceed peaceably
but perseveringly, in marshalling the might of public
opinion against the designs of the Tonie,; and let,
by all means, the gentlemen of the country join
them, that their measures may be at once dignified

and free from suspicion. Let also the people of
England, "gentle and simple," learn how to protect
each man his own castle, and to act, when it shat.
be necessary, for mutual defence. So, by neacefu
national councils, the accession of a Tory Govern•

ment may be averted, as by a timely exhibition o
the national courage its evil imaginings may be frus
trated, and its bad acts repaired.—Tines.
The French Ministry have of late proceeded with
considerable rigour against journals, both of the Ja-
cobin and Carlist factions. The number of their
verdicts has not, however, corresponded with the
number of their prosecutions. The seizure of the
paper at the Post-office is always effective against
any particular number; but unless the public prose-
cutor obtains a verdict on the subsequent trial, tha,
seizure is reckoned unjust, and of course tends to
make the Paper more popular. It is a singular
fact, that the journal which is the leader of the
Bourbon Royalists has been seized anti prosecuted
more than any other—not for supporting the cause
of legitimacy and divine right, but for advocating
the necessity of universal suffrage, or an appeal to
the great body of the nation on the recent changes
of the dynasty and the charter. In order to have
any chance of success against the existing order of
things, the party of royalists whose principles are
supported in the Gazette de France, demand the
abolition of the electoral monopoly, the extension of
the privilege of voting to every householder, and
the convocation of primary assemblies to decide on
the existing frame of government. This might ap.
pear at first sight nothing but a factious combina-
tion of royalist with the republican writers, for the
overthrow of the throne, like that which took place
last year between the ruffians of the different mobs
to produce those disturbances by which they all
hoped to profit ; but the royalist writers endeavour
to acquit themselves of this charge. They profess
to desire neither internal commotion nor external
war, though they evidently push towards both.
They pretend that they are lovers of peace, and
declare that they would resist the entry of their
exiled masters, if they returned to France in the rear
of foreign armies. Their theory on the effect and
tendency of general suffrage to restore the exiled
family is more plausible. As far as we can gather
their meaning from their pamphlets and journals,
they reason in somewhat the following manner
The revolutionary mob which resisted the ordinances
of 1830, under the guidance of the Paris Deputies,
were but a small handful of men compared with the
general body of the nation, in whose name they
pretended to act. The nation did not resist their
decision, but had no opportunity of assenting to it.
The Deputies who were in Paris at " the glorious
days," composed but a small portion of the Cham-
ber, and even the majority which conferred the
clown on Louis Philip did not exceed the half of
the Members. The [Louse of Peers was a cipher,
and, besides, had been mutilated by the Deputies,
before it could deliberate or vote. Yet these Jaco-
bins of the suburbs, and this fragment of a legis-
lature, expelled three generations of Bourbons;
while they gave away a crown, and made a fun-
damental law for the whole people. The south
was discontented,—the west was dissatisfied,—
many Deputies refused to take the oath of
allegiance to the new Sovereign. The Chamber of
Peers, besides being mutilated by a revolutionary
decree, which struck the creations by a whole reign
off its rolls, was reduced still further by a conscien-
tious refusal on the part of many to take the oath to
the new dynasty ; and yet it resisted. It was
found necessary to disband the Royal Guard, and
other corps of the army. It was necessary to change
all the public functionaries, from the Mime Minister
down to the Mayor of a village; it was necessary
to change commanders of milittuy divisions; and, in
short, it was even strongly urged to sweep the tri-
bunals of all their counsellors, that the new order of
things might be safe. This showed, at least, that
France was far from being unanimous in adopting the
new order of things. It showed that the great change
was brought about by the activity of a few, and esta-
blished by the passive acquiescence of the rest.—
The work of a Paris tumult (say the Royalists)
was thus imposed on a great nation as its own
doing, because it received the apparent sanction of
law by being adopted by the Chamber of Deputies.
The nation could not, in July, 1830, be consulted
on the sudden emergency, but let it now be polled
by convoking it into primary assemblies, and the
settlement which it will form may be very different
front the present. To this it may be replied that
the nation has since been consulted through the me-
dium of the electoral colleges, and these assemblies
have sent Deputies to confirm the vote of their pre-
decessors. With such an answer, of course, the
universal suffrage Royalists are not satisfied. They
admit Oat tee body of electors, on whom the exis-
ing law has conferred the right of choosing
lators for France, may exhibit a majority against

them, and therefore that the Deputies returned to
the Chamber may support the present settlement of
the crown and kingdom,—but they deny that the
electoral colleges fairly and fully express the opi-
nions, information, and judgment of the nation.—
The electoral oligarchy, they assert, is too limited
in its numbers, and too uniform in its mass, to re-
present the interests, feelings, and views of a great
and diversified community. It does not exceed
150,000 out of a population of 30,000,000, and it
belongs to only one class,—the small proprietors in
the country and the shopkeepers in towns, who com-
pose the portion of society which profited most by
the first revolution. The electoral qualification, being
the payment of 200 francs in direct taxes, leaves out
of sight the lower classes altogether, and embraces
so many of the middle rank as to neutralize the
votes of the more wealthy. It therefore gives a
monopoly of power to a small but stirring, ambi-
tious, and conceited portion of the community, who
are all actuated by the same passions, and who on
great emergencies may be directed by the same
influence. Hence the uniformity of action and
feeling wttich prevailed over the electoral col-
leges at the three last general elections—hence
the influences of directing committees—and hence,
for instance, the recent concurrence of the electoral
body, in demanding the abolition of the hereditary
rights of the Peers. The strings that move so
uniform a machine, may be held, and pulled, and
directed from Paris. Such is the allegation of the
royalist pamphlet-writers and Journalists, from M.
de Chateaubriand down to the fabricator of a Car-

list paragraph in the Quotidienne, against the present
constitution of the electoral body, and such is the
reason why they demand a more general suffrage, in
order to allow a more free expression to theiropinions.
If the 40,000 communes into which the kingdom is
divided were allowed to choose their delegates by
universal suffrage, the chapel and the chateau,—the
priest and the provincial nobleman,—would have
their influence; but the 200 francs electors is above
such influence, and has no local ties. The conse-
quence is, that neither the higher nor the lower
classes enjoy any political power, or possess any po-
litical controul. This fact may be illustrated by a
reference to the present situation of La Vendee,
where, though the Chiefs arc conspiring against the
Government in their saloons, and the common people
are fighting the King's troops in the fields and high-
ways, the four or fire Deputies elected to the Cham-
ber ale overflowing with admiration for the existing
order of things. The same remark will apply to all
the west and south of the kingdom. As another
illustration of the same fact, it may be stated, that
in selecting the officers of the National Guard, and
in choosing municipal councillors, Royalists are often
preferred to Liberals, though the Liberals obtain
those suffrages in the electoral colleges which are
refused to the Royalists. Such is an outline of the
assertions and reasonings of the Royalist press re-
specting the influence and numbers of their partisans
in the nation, and the causes of their failure in at-
taining their due share of political power. There
is, no doubt, some truth in the view which they
give of the question, though, as we shall perhaps
take another opportunity of showing, their preten-
sion; are greatly exaggerated.—Times.
The more we consider the present moral and po-
litical condition of the country, the more we are per-
suaded that the time is now come, not only for the
most serious consideration of it, but for the adop-
tion of the most vigorous measures to ensure that
pacification of the temper of all classes which is so
indispensable to the prosperity of time country. The
mischief done to his Majesty's subjects, by the im-
perious rejection of the Reform Bill, is incalcu-
lable, not only on account of the ferment which it
has excited throughout the country—the destruc-
tion of property which has resulted from it, and the
injury which it has caused to every industrious pur-
suit ; hut from the strength which it has communi-
cated to that party in the commonwealth—and it is
no inconsiderable party—which considers a House
of Lords to be only a clog upon the operations of
the Legislature and the Executive, and which
would run no small hazard in endeavouring to carry
its wishes into effect. Had their Lordships only
seen somewhat beyond " the length of their noses"
—had they only possessed that cotnmon prudence,
which, however much it may be at fault in
other respects, is, in general, sufficiently keen in
the scent to detect the approach of greater dan-
ger than that which is visible at the moment—
had they only listened to the dictates of justice—
given unto Ceaser the things which are Cmsar's—
and unto the people the things which are the people's
—we say, that had their Lordships done this—had
they merely r. fleeted for a moment that in rejecting
the Reform Bill, they—a body towards whom there
has, for years past, been a growing disinclination, not
to say decided ill-will,—were taking up tams, not
only against the King and the Commons, but that,
being fewer even in number and dependents of all
kinds, than the population of the smallest borough
which the Bill was intended to enfranchise, against
millions for every thousand—they would have passed
the Bill, not only as beneficial to the country, but
as conservative of their own order and privileges
as equally necessary to the tranquillity of the
country. and to a renewal of that confidence in
their wisdom and patriotic principles which is now
utterly destroyed. But they determined on having
all or nothing; and what has been the result?
There have been disturbances, as every one knows
—there have been riots, and apprehensions of riots
—there have been attempts,—failures they have for-
tunately proved, to divide the different classes of so-
ciety, and to induce a war between them, which
would necessarily have ended in the destruction
of the common enemy ; and there have been, also,
other signs of the times with which, we fear, there
Lordships, from their retired and exclusive habits,
are but little acquainted, but which, to the minds
of more attentive observers, appear pregnant with
even greater and more permanent danger to that
existing order of things to which their Lordships are
so fatally attached. We have not only now a very
plentiful growth of twopenny newspapers, and penny
newspapers, and halfpenny newspapers, but " Po-
litical Alphabets," accompanied by explanatory
notes of no doubtful interpretation, and illustrated
by figures whose meaning is even more dangerous
and powerful than the eloquence of the Lord Chan-
cellor himself to all who deal in boroughs, pensions,
or sinecures. Of these we have numbers before us, and
we also happen to know that their popularity anti their
sale come by no means short of the pungency of
their graphic illustrations and explanatory remarks
on the men and things of the present day. The
people have also learned to rhyme of late, and as an
additional proof of the spirit which is abroad, we
may mention that the work of one of these popular
rhymsters, though selling at 4-s. per copy, has already,
reached its third edition It will be long, we sus-
pect, before Craker's Boswell, or the Marquis of
Londonderry's Peninsular War; will have attained
time same degree of celebrity; and the author him-
self is modest enough to express his astonishment
at the circumstance. But we are not astonished at
it, and the reason is because the rhymes are in har-
mony with the people's feelings—because they speak
of their every day's labours, toils, anxieties, and
wishes—and because a quick, but nevertheless deter-
mined, death-struggle has been waged for some
years past by justice against injustice, of which the
verses present a faithful picture. They are entitled
" Corn Law Rhymes," and were noticed by ue
sonic months avo, in a less perfect shape then that
,„ which they now appear; and we shall therefore
.ay nothing farther of them at present ; but we can-
not at the same time conclude without quoting the
following passage ft om the preface, as an additional
argument in favour of that system of timely con-
ciliation and cession to the declared wishes and
known wants of the community, which we set out
with recommending, and with the adoption of which
we conceive the tranquillity and prosperity of the
country—the stability of the throne, and the per-
'patience of the Constitution, to be inseparably
wound e
a upn n : 0
t—
, l conclude without a few remarks on the pre-
sent state of the trade of Sheffield, as connected with the

tendencies of the eorn law. The Germans being able to

buy the necessaries of life without restriction, mitmorning
dangerous competitors to us : but, in consequence of the
troubles on the continent, our merchants have lately re-

ceived many orders which in other circumstances, would
hare been executed abroad ; and the great and sudden de-

"nand for our goods has caused a general strike for increased
wages. The present glut of orders, then, is an accident ;
but gluts and scarcities, generally, are the results of absurd
legislation ; and I might assert, without fear of refutation,
that if trade was universally free, neither gluts nor scarci-
ties could, to any great extent, or for any great length of
time, exist. This then is the favourable moment for the
repeal of the Corn Laws. If we wait until the continent
is pacified, and our rivals enter again into active competi-
tion with us, the advance which has here taken place in
wages will be another premium in their favour. But who
does not see, that until the corn laws are repealed, the
great question of wages can never be settled in Eng-
land ?—that gluts must alternate with scarcities ;
gluts of orders with gluts of goods ?—that the feast
of to-day must he followed by the fanine of to-
morrow ?—insolence by humiliation, humiliation by
insolence ?—and that, with the intemperance and want
of forethought resulting from the absence of a steady de-
mand for goods, the conflicts and heart-burnings of the
employers and the employed must continue ? But how
long will such a state of things yet last? Can we com-
pete for ever with unbreadtaxed rivals? No! capital
will go where it will pay ; skill will follow capital ; and
our manufactories will at length stop, simultaneously, and
for ever ! The immense camp of London will then be
without pay; the immense camp of Glasgow will be
without pay ; the immense camp of the West Riding of
Yorkshire will be without pay ; and almost within shout
_ _

of a still more multitudinous camp, that of Lancashire,
also without pay ! And all this may happen, and, if the
Corn Laws remain much longer on the Statute-book, will
happen, perhaps, in one and the same week, day, or hour!
If I am called upon to produce from history a record of
similar catastrophes, I shall answer, that history can fur-
nish no record of a similar state of things. The British
Government is the only one that ever legislated against
the bread of its people, by impeding the exchange of ma-
nufactured goods for food, at the very moment when such
exchange ought to have been facilitated by all possible or
conceivable means."--Morning Advertiser.

Now that the large and important order of the
community, the working classes, have penetrated
the veil of delusion and fraud ender the cover of
which the Ministry and its adherents intended so to
reform the House of Commons as to deprive them,
with their own consent arid approbation, of that
share of the national representation which they have
hitherto enjoyed—now that the plot of the Minis-
ters and the shopkeepers of England to insure to
the former a long lease of office, let them blunder
as they would, and to the latter a monopoly of con-
stitutional power, let them abuse it as they might,
is detected and in effect already overthrown—now
that the success of the Reform Bill has become ut-
terly hopeless, the conspirators against the rights,
the welfare, the happiness, and the freedom of the
community who proposed and supported it begin,
as is natural on all such occasions, to manifest
the most acute jealousy and the most deadly
hatred towards each other. In estimating the
comparative justice and reasonableness of the
various parties in this turmoil of disappointed
and defeated conspirators—not towards the nation,
for in this point of view reason and justice are
out of the question, but towards each other—
we shall not be suspected of undue partiality
to any of them. We have therefore the lese hesita-
tion in expressing our opinion that his M.jesty's
Ministers are excessively ill treated by toeir late
reforming allies upon the occasion of their common
humiliation, and shall vindicate the judgment we
have ventured to pronounce, by referring to one or
two of the principal accusations levelled against
Minis'ers by the Journals of the shopocracy, and by
proving such charges to be wholly groundless, and
not only groundless, but outrageously absurd.
" Why," say the Journals of the counter.aristocracy,
" do not Ministers permit and encourage our Politi-
cal Unions to arm for the promotion of their and
our cause? Are they afraid of us? Do they not
know that we are as zealous and determined to carry
the Bill as themselves ? Do they not know that
the single purpose fur which we mean to employ the
arms we demand is to coerce the House of Lords ?
And have they not intimated in a thousand ways to
us and to all the world that the coercion of the
House of Lords to agree to the Bill, in spite of their
convictions, would be an excellent thing ? Why,
then, in the name of all that is honest and candid
and straightforward among men, should we be for-
bidden to arm ?" Now, good gentle patriotic
tailore, shoemak, rs, pawnbrokers, and brothel-
keepers, restrain your virtuous indignation for a
moment, and learn why Ministers do not wish you
to arm. They would be as glad as yourselves,
rely upon it, that the House of Lords should for
once be coerced by the constitutional means you
suggest, or by any means; but unfortunately they
cannot grant permission to arm to clubs of tailors,
shoemakers, pawnbrokers, and brothel-keepers,
while they deny it to all the other liege subjects of
the King. And knowing (little as they know)
something more than you do of the state of Eng-
lish society, they are aware that the sight of arms
in such hands as yours, and for such a purpose,
would be the signal for tke instant appearance on
horseback, in every county in England, of one, two,
three, four, or five regiments of gallant yeomanry,
according to its population and extent, whose ob-
ject would be, not to coerce the House of Lords,
but to assert and maintain its independence. Mi-
nisters also know, although you are ignorant, that
arms in such hands as yours would be the signal
for urming to hundreds of thousands of those lower
orders whom you affect to despise and seek to op.
press, and whose object, whatever it might be,
would certainly not be that of supporting a Bill
which imparts to you as a class the exclusive
power of manufacturing every future House of
Commons. These reasons are strong, and we beg
the gentlemen of the select and exclusive Political
Unions to reflect upon them maturely before they
again reproach Ministers with indifference to the fate
of the Bill, on the ground of the reluctance of Go-
vernment to indulge them in their martial propen-
sities. We should be sorry to find any portion of
our countrymen in comparison with whom it could
be said than even the present Ministers of the Crown
are reasonable, honest, or discreet. Another
grievous charge incessantly urged against the Mini-
sters by the classes interested in the success of the
Bill, and the Journals they support, is, that they
have not vet proceeded to destroy the independence
of the House of Lords by a numerous creation of
new Peers. Here again we must be the apologists
of the Administration, for this accusation is if pos-
sible more absurd than the former. Can any man
in his senses imagine that the Ministers who wilfully
convulsed the country for the single purpose of
getting a decided majority of partisans of their own
in the House of Commons are so inconsistent with
themselves as to require to be pressed and goaded
to do a thing so delightful and congenial to their
nature and habit as packing the House of Lords, and
thus securing and perpetuating theirascendency also
In that assembly ? This we take to be impossible,
and therefore conclude that the displeasure towards
Earl Grey manifested by our Reforming Contemp?-
ries, on account of the non-creation of Peers, is
mere affectation, a pretence for deserting him now
that his fall visibly approaches. Is there no diffi-
culty in finding men who will consent to be Peers
upon such terms as Earl Grey can offer? Look at
the last batch. and see if it do not afford evidence
'hitt the Noble Earl had then exhausted his mate-
rials. Or shall the King be advised to assume the
new prerogative of issuing press-warrants to drag
men against their will to the Upper House of Par-
liament ? This is one view of the subject. But
there is another, in which it must appear still more
embarrassing to all .Alinisterialists, however the
difficulty may he overlooked by those who are only
anxious for a pretext to quarrel with an Administre-
t ion likely soon to go out. Suppose the King were
willing to make Peers for the nonce, as many legis-
lative tools as Earl Grey could require; and suppose,
also, that the Noble Earl knew where to find men
ready to invest themselves with the degraded and
polluted ermine—what then ? Does it follow that
Ministers would by such an increase of its Members