The Sun.
London, England, 1836-10-18 00:00:00

THE SITIr44 LONDON, TUESDAY.; OCTOBER 18, 1:36.

disposed to smother ttee,:ir hate and veil their scorn of
the Irish demagogue, are convinced that many a
sturdy Radical would eta nd out against such base do-
minion if openly avowed.. O'Connell has too deeply
outraged the decency, the feelings, nay, the very na-
tionality of the English people of both sexes, to admit
of his ever being an acknowledged leader of any but
the merest rabble here. And even half of this re-
spectable class is made up of his own rent-pavers
" nate as imported." But the truth is, that, apart from
all this, Daniel has his own work to do just now,
where the general supporters of his policy begin
not alone to fall away from him, but to adopt measures
of virtual and very slightly-veiled hostility against
him. This great setter-up of the Ministers, and
would-be puller-down of the Conservative Peers, is
very likely to close his political career without
his tail—or with only such miserable joints thereof
as will make his exit ludicrous. Thus, all thoughts
of his Leadership is lost to the Whigs ; and, as
to the Radicals, they, from the mild-spoken Mr. Shar-
man Crawford to the infuriate Feigus O'Connor, are
openly denouncing him as the enemy of the poor laws,
and, in short, the friend of no one but himself. We
suspect the death's head and cross-bones must be in
requisition to ensure the next rent. Where then are
the faction to turn, or rather where have they turned ?
To Lord Brougham. I It is highly amusing to see the
eager haste with which the Ministerial papers, when
they found that the ex-Chancellor had from some cause
or other declined the honour of being trotted out, dis-
claimed any participation in the affair. The Whig
organs denounced the invitation as a Radical manoeuvre
to punish Ministers by bringing Lord Brougham into
fashion, and to play off his Lordship against the Go-
vernment. From all this we infer, as indeed also from
the tone of his Lordship's reply, that now, as hereto-
fore, the Noble and Learned Lord's political friends are
puzzled as to what he is to be at next. It is because he
has not declared for the Government that the Ministerial
prints, on a very sound principle, suppose that he is
against it. The " fixed resolution to resist all attempts,
whether to dictate or obstruct his course, let them come
from what quarter they may," reminds one forcibly of
almost the very words of the same personage when a
candidate for the Peerage, and the threatened pro-
poser of a Reform Bill. Yet we need not go so
deeply into the question of his views. There is quite
enough in the way of retrospect to account for his re-
fusal to dine with the Edinburgh Liberals, without
our resorting to speculation. It is a recorded fact, that
of all the exhibitions made by Lord Brougham in his
eccentric tour, none was less likely to be pleasantly re-
membered by himself or his friends than that of the
Edinburgh Reform Festival. It argued, we think,
but little taste in the Scottish chiefs of the Whig-
Radical faction to take advantage of almost the first
week of his Lordship's restoration to health for the
purpose of inviting him to a spot fraught with such
peculiar recollections. However, Lord Brougham has
declined the proffered leadership. Indeed, how he
could join the O'Connellite faction, after having
told the " Big Beggarman" that the rent ought to
make " every fibre of his body quiver with shame,"
and after having been told by that person that he
(Lord Brougham) talked " a greater amount of
nonsense than any man living"—how this could be,
it were difficult to conceive. Nor is his Lordship a
likely man to forget certain personal slights on the
part of others whose greatness he himself unques-
tionably " holp to make so portly." For our part,
we don't see any great practical good that could re-
sult even to the present incapables from a junction
with Lord Brougham beyond this—that he cer-
tainly could, and in all probability would, hasten
the crisis of their fate. His restless energy would
be impatient of the passive office-holding of such
persons as the Premier and his associates, while the
impetuosity of temper for which Lord Melbourne
likened him to a shrewish mistress would bring the
House about their ears. Where, we repeat, can the
forlorn people find a Leader ?--Tirnes.
What say the Tories now ? We are curious to
know how they relished our columns of yesterday.
They contained reports of the proceeding at no fewer
than three great Reform Meetings in different parts of
the country. The most remarkable attribute, perhaps,
of the proceedings of those meetings was the singular
unanimity of sentiment which characterised the speeches
of the various gentlemen who spoke on the question of
further reforms. The language of all was of an " on-
ward" kind. None seemed satisfied with the reforms
already effected : all urged the necessity of pressing
forward in accordance with the spirit of the times.
What now becomes of the Tory cuckoo cry of re-
action ? Where is that re-action ? Is it in Limerick ?
The events of Wednesday last are the best answer to
the question, In the county of Fife ? Let the speeches
of Sir John Campbell, Mr. Ellice, and the other
gentlemen, who spoke at the dinner there, the other
day, speak to that point. Is it in Cheshire? Ask
Mr. Marsland and the 250 independent gentlemen
who dined together at Stockport on Wednesday. Or
shall we seek for this re-action in the smaller villages
of some comparatively retired part of Scotland, where
the people are remote from the turmoil and political
agitation of great cities and populous manufacturing
towns ? The reception, as recorded in our columns of
yesterday, given to Mr. Gilion, by the inhabitants of
Airdrie, furnishes the best answer to the question.
Where, then, in the name of all that is marvellous, is
the re-aethso et) much boasted of of late by the Tories?
ball we answer the question because they will not ?
It exists nowhere but in their own imaginations. We
are wrong ; it does not exist even there, The Tories
can no longer woo themselves, and keep 6i up their
sinking spirits " by even fancying that there is a resale-
tion. That re-aetion has only one local habitation ;
it exists in the reports in the Tory journals, of the
after-dinner speeches of country Conservatives—it ex-
ists nowhere else. There was one remarkable feature
in all the reform meetings to which we have referred:
Almost every speaker dwelt on the necessity of some-
thing doing done, not only to make the House of
Commons more in harmony with the people, but
to give them any chance of removing the obstruc-
tions to sound and salutary legislation interposed
by the House of Lords. Mr. Ellice, junior, one
of the most promising Reformers of the present day,
insisted on the ballot as the grand panacea for the
present anomalous state of things. We have re-
iterated the same thing over and over again. The
people never will have the power to which_they are
entitled, nor the Commons be ever a fair representa-
tion of public opinion until we have the vote by bal-
lot. Give us that, and we will work wonders. Give
ns the fle))0t, and then see whether the Lords will
dare to repeat eery of the fantastic tricks, in which,
for their own amusement, end with the view of insult-
ing the country, they indulged cP largely last session.
The necessity too of the Commons tatting up a more
decided ground than they 4eye yet done is now he-
come apparent to all. Before a can have Peerage
Reform, the Commons must reform thempielves : they
must turn over a new leaf. We must have more litto-
ral measures from them, and we must, too, have more
energy and decision in forcing those measures into
law, be the consequences what they may. The error
last session was to entertain too great a horror of con-
sequences. " Let justice be done though the heavens
should fall," must henceforth be the motto of the Re.
form party in the House of Coinmons,—Morning
Advertiser.

It was natural enough to presume that the delay in
applying their measures of municipal reform to the
most corrupt Corporation in the empire—a step so
creditable to theprinciples and consistency of our Whig
Ministers—would at least have been turned to account
;,)14t Corporation itself, in averting the necessity of
the pruniiig knife as far as in them lay. We are tired
of asking what tl,.a Commissioners are about, or the
their .salaries,whether fie delay their
cause of the delay—at wll4 waterioolaces they may
otigl,4ol)rnwlilnetgiprthey arc not in fact actingin o4eclience
J[4. wiw4er is not in-
I3urke" the
to biober powers ?
be prudent ,or ppsaketq en-
counter altogether,
at esnodni4e ,
wi,fdeohssi htilneJaytonot
counter ? Be this as it may, the had policy of the Cur-
Dorado!' itself, in slighting the loess mitentfrp, thus
afforded them, remains equally gonsPiconous and irra,
tional. To those inclined to fatalism, the conduct of this
extraordinary body would furnish abundant argument.
Of their obstinate resistance to taking timely warning,
almost every one of their acts since the cubject of cor.