The Sun.
London, England, 1831-10-10 00:00:00

(From the Times City Correspondent.)

Nothing can exceed the indignant feeling and the consterna-
tion which have been manifested to-day (Saturday) in the city
on the throwing out of the Reform Bill in the House of Lords.
Men have hesitated to believe that a step so dangerous to that
body from which it has emanated could possibly have been
taken. Early in the day, though the weather was rainy and
tempestuous, groups were collected on the Exchange, and at
every corner, to collect such particulars as they could of what
all considered a common calamity, and the publication of the
Morning Papers being of necessity extremely late, owing to the
hour at which the division took place, the anxiety was wound
up, in some instances, to a most painful degree. On the Royal
Exchange, every corner was occupied by knots of politicians
questioning each other, and endeavouring to form conjectures
on the consequences of this event; most of them at a loss for
any mode of retrieving the wrong done to the people of Eng.
land, and looking with most gloomy presages to the future.
We heard many of them, who had important private avocations
to attend to, confess themselves wholly unfit, through the dis-
tress of mind under which they laboured, to answer any claims
of that nature. Such was the aspect of the city externally,
throughout the whole of this momentous day. In those circles,
however, where active movement in the present crisis is of ne-
cessity called for, there was every possible demonstration of zeal
and energy. A great number of the leading merchants and
bankers who are friends to Reform, and who are also Members
of the House of Commons, proceeded to attend a public meet- ,
lug at Willis's Rooms, in order to put their names to
a declaration of support to the present Ministers, and
to concert such other measures as it may be deemed
advisable for the Parliament to take at such a crisis.
When they came back to the city and reported among
their friends, what soon spread throughout the city at large,
how numerous that meeting was, and how unanimous their de-
termination to stand by the King and the Ministry, it acted as
a cordial to the sinking spirits of the Reformers, and difilised
universal satisfaction. In the meantime, the leaders of the late
meeting at the Mansion-house in favour of Reform, on the part
of the merchants and bankers, were not idle, but set themselves
actively about the arrangements for another meeting, which will
certainly take place early in the week, and from which declara-
tions of the strongest kind may be looked for. It is said to be
the intention, on this occasion, somewhat to extend the sphere
of the meeting so as to include in it all the London resident
householders, but this point is not, as yet, definitively settled.
The meeting at all events will take place, as before, at the Man-
sion-house. Among the Livery and the members of the Cor-
poration of London, the same, or perhaps greater, activity, was
manifested. Not the slightest disorder of any kind has occurred
in any part of the city, which will have the credit of setting an
example in this respect also to the rest of the country. It has
nevertheless been thought prudent not to neglect those precau.
tions which are deemed, under all circumstances of great ex-
citement, the only effectual safeguard of the public peace.
Many of the householders have held consultations on this
subject, and have it in contemplation to take legal steps
for the organization of a civic guaid, in which the respec-
table householders may enrol their names, for the purpose
of repressing at once any tumultuous movements should
they unfortunately take place. We believe that the Bank Di-
rectors, as a body, and referring to their own peculiar situation,
regard this event with great anxiety. There has occurred to-
day a very unusual demand for gold at the Bank, many persons,
connexions of provincial banks, having thought it prudent to
send off a supply to those parts where the greatest degree of
popular excitement is expected, in order to guard against the
consequences of a run. The greatest danger seems to be ap-
prehended at Birmingham and that populous neighbourhood,
at Manchester, at Glasgow, and at Edinburgh. One house
sent off 10,000 sovereigns to Leith, for which an insurance was
effected at one of the offices. The degree in which the issues
of paper by the Bank have lately been contracted, will, it is
hoped, protect it against the consequences of a run, but the ex.
tension of the branch banks, which are all equally liable to such
a visitation, and the approaching payment of the dividends,
will absorb probably a large portion of its available resources.
That a financial crisis has not ensued on this state of general
excitement in the city is to be ascribed to the hope, which every
well-wisher to Reform and to the public tranquillity entertains,
that tho Ministry will not in any case whatever desert their
posts. If they do, it is quite clear, from what has occurred,
and from the feeling that prevails on the subject, that a run on
the Bank, with infinite injury both to public and private credit,
must be the consequence. In the best view that can be taken
of this unhappy event, the city is doomed to a long period of
anxious suspense, during which nothing will be talked or
thought of but the Reform Bill.

(From the Examiner.)

The Lords have justified our expectations. The pill is
strangled by a majority of forty.one. The Ministry must be
constant and bold, or it will have all to answer for. The King,
we are assured, is firm. A prorogation may instantly be expected.
To Government, we say, "strike fearlessly I" or another power
may strike wildly. Safety is now in boldness. There is nothing
to fear but mistimed and misplaced timidity. Meanwhile let
us be of good cheer.
If we had ever said a good word for the Peers, if we had en-
couraged any wild hopes of their sense or justice, we should
now repent it ; but our conscience acquits us of any such in-
discretion. We have never possessed a love for their power in
the state ; we have never pretended to discover any utility in it ;
we have never believed that a passion for liberty runs in the
breed ; we have never protested that the respect and authority
of their House would be permanently secured, if they would do
the poor supplicating nation the small favour of passing its

little Bill for Parliamentary emancipation, the destruction of
the electioneering slave trade, and the restoration of the people's
notorious rights. A reverence for a hereditary Legislature
seems properly contemporary with a belief in witches and
wizards. The qualities of birth and broomsticks should be
pretty well understood at our advanced age. We have thought
that the best thing the House of Lords could do would be to
show itself harmless ; and that as Pericles said of the women
of Greece, their praise should be, that they gave no occasion or
handle to be spoken of. Instead, however, of drawing the decent
veil of cobwebs about their chamber, they have thrust it into im-
portance by insult and injury to society. It is the house of mis-
chief. It is full of mephitic air; and the instant any good
thing passes into it, it falls down lifeless. It behoves the Mi.
nistry to drench it with a purifying stream of fresh Peers.
Ministers will not be deterred by the size of the operation
they have to perform, for in this vain hope the majority has
been raised to its unexpected number. The efforts of Govern_
ment must be proportioned to the efforts of the enemy, and to
whatever extent they go, they are sanctioned by every prin.
ciple of policy, as necessary to counteraction, and the preser-
vation of the public tranquillity. It would be of pernicious
example indeed, were the extremities of faction to secure their
success, because the prerogative is too delicate to carry its re-
medy as far as the disorder. For constitutional modesties the
safety of the Constitution is not to be hazarded. The creation
of a hundred Peers (were so many necessary) is not to be
weighed against the peace of the country. It is surely better
to make titles than to destroy men. This is not a conjecture
for scruples. If the Lords be not increased in number by a
few scores, they may chance to be reduced below figures.
What would we do without the Lords? Suppose, by any
and th me
ethereali
Y were passed away, would any club in
an equal amount of wisdom, disinterestedness,
knowledge of the world ? Would Crockford's be as vir-
tuous, would Boodle's be as bright ? How, but by taking any
four hundred men at random, could we find a better qualified
assembly ? And even by that constitution, we might chance
to miss the inquiring
eloquence and perspicuity of Wellington, we might seek in vain
isLptnoti
dranindtoenf
Eldon,
calamity,ldo furnish
nd o f Lord
essence Londonderry, o
f wn ch sheeLe benevolent
theent
for it in a crowd, unless we took a haul from the Deaf and
Dumb Asylum. If this plan should be disapproved as too vio-
lent an improvement upon the old thing, suppose Harrow or
Eton were made an TT
—PPer House—they would give us a bet-
ter debate and more convincing * scraps of Latin
•

The excitement in the city exceeds any thing we have ever
before witnessed. Requisitions are being signed by all the va-
rious public bodies for immediate meetings—by the Livery_
by the merchants and bankers—and by the inhabitants of wards
and parishes ; and it is understood that a meeting will be held
for the purpose of forming a National Association, to which the
whole ecp:
country will 1;)e invitedto viscl Vegittea tin the support

of Ministers in carrying through the Reform Bill. This pro.
position is supported by advices just received from Sussex, and
other parts of the country, that the people are ready to do their
duty to their fellow.countrymen—to act with them in any course
that may be generally agreed upon—to sustain the character of
the nation before the world—and that to do this, they only
wait to know what measure may be generally resolved upon,
when they will support it devotedly.

The members of the Stock Exchange were yesterday pre.
pared for the rejection of the Bill ; and the correctness of their
information is proved by the fact, that it was then stated that
it would be lost by a majority of forty. It has been generally
understood that Ministers will remain in office, and that the
rejection of the Bill, by the Lords, is not to be considered de-
cisive of its fate, and many, consequently, have deemed it pre-
mature to discuss the ulterior measures which should be adopted
by the people. But it was scarcely possible not to have the ul-
timate loss of the Bill, and to avoid the consideration of the con-
sequences. We have taken some pains to obtain information as
to the indications of the state of the public mind, in the metro-
polis, and the country, on the present crisis. The following
are a few of the facts which have come to our knowledge :
It is known in the City that considerable purchases have re-
cently been made of American stock.
There is reason also to believe that some persons have pro-
vided themselves with sums of gold, and property easily avail-
able in emergencies : but great caution is used not to create any
alarm, and the purposes are seldom avowed.
At the clubs, and other places of meeting of the trading
classes in the metropolis, various plans for the formation of a
National Guard, have been the subject of discussion.

We have been formed that in several districts of the metro-
polis the tax-gatherers have been informed by the inhabitants
on whom they have called, that the taxes which they have re-
cently collected would be the last which they would have to
receive, unless the Reform Bill were carried. The districts to
which we allude are not those in which a determination has
been evinced, with reference to the taxes called rates imposed
by self-elected bodies, to act upon the constitutional principles
that taxation without representation is illegal ; namely Mary-
le-bone, St. Pancras, and Islington parishes. We may mention
as an instance of the quiet mode in which these determinations
will be carried into effect, that the inhabitants of St. Martin's
parish, without calling any public meeting, or making any out-
ward demonstration, have refused to pay their last poor-rate. The
amount which it was expected to produce is, perhaps, 2,000/, ;
and of this amount probably not more than 1001. has been col-
lected, and that it is believed has been paid by those who had
not been consulted, and who knew nothing of the determination
of other inhabitants to refuse payment.

I A petition from one district of the metropolis was the other
day carried by a deputation of tradesmen to a Peer, with a re-
quest that he would present it to the Lords. The deputation
consisted of several of the most wealthy tradesmen of the dis-
trict ; men each of whom could retire from business on an in-
dependent fortune. They informed his Lordship that they
considered the Bill to be a conservative measure with respect to
the produce of their own labour ; that if the present system was
continued, that produce must be dissipated by its operation, or
they would become the mere managers of capital for the benefit:of
others ; slaves, toiling to supply the demands of a body of profli-
gate taskmasters. That they and their neighbours had de-
termined (though they had, for the present, thought fit not to
express the determination by a public resolution), that they
would at once discontinue to pay taxes immediately they found
that all hopes of Reform from the existing Government must
be given up. They declared also that with them, and they
doubted not it was the same with many other manufacturers, it
would not be a matter of choice to take this course, they appre-
hended that other more serious measures would be requisite.
We believe that the sentiments expressed by this deputation,
are those entertained by a large portion of the same class of
persons.