The Sun.
London, England, 1831-06-20 00:00:00

has been actually in contemplation. We beg that
we may not be understood to offer the least ob-
jection to the Usual exercise of the Royal pre-
rogkive in the creation of Peers, or to insinuate
even that any thing has yet occurred in the
rise of it, since the preSent Administration came
;tit° power, which affords much ground for jea-
lousy or animadversion. The King was not to be
deterred from the moderate and ordindry enjoy-
ment of his prerogative beitatOi we and others of
his subjel!ts gee rrasOri to believe that the advisers
who at the present moment surround his throne are
disposed to urge him to its immediate extraordinary
and unconstitutional exertion: But if ,the daily ore
ens of thosi:i advisers etin he suppo,t,d to speak the
sense of the King's Ministers upon the subject of
treations, there is indeed abundant ground for alarm
to all who believe the interests of Great Britain and
the spirit of the British Constitution to ferbid that
in any circumstances, or to promote any purposes of
any Administration 14;hatcvbr; tit`e. 110nsis of Peers
shall be finally and irrecoverably degraded, and rens
dceed henceforth and for ever worthless and useless
as an estate of the realm. We will state the argu-
ment of the Ministerial writers succinctly but fairly.
" The Whigs have for a long series of yeah been in
Zee very seldom and for very short periods At a
time. Hence it has arisen that a great majority of
the Peers created in modern times are Tories. It
follows," say these Constitutional reasoners,—
" that the Whigs b ing now in power, and having a
great point to carry, ought at once to nominate a
number of Peers of their party, sufficient to court:
terpoise the Tory creations of a century." If this
otight to be considered as the manifestation of a puts
pose, it is, wt repeat, s'ufficiently alarming bttt if it
be merely a piece of speculative reasoning, it is the
most exquisitely absurd tee have ever had the
fortune to encounter. Let the principle it involves
he established by a single successful example, and it
follows of necessity that until the Peerage be as
cheap and as common as dirt—so cheap and coma
mon that no man of average talent or respectability
would degrade himself by accepting it—every Mi-
nistry that may henceforth be formed will have
some great and popular point to Carry, of which the
chief and only essential characteristic will be, that
it is repugnant to the sense and feelings of the ex-
isting Peerage. Suppose Lord Grey to nominate
his fifty Peers, and the House of COMmdtis (no im-
probable supposition) to be seized with immediate
disgust upon so monstrous a transaction, or (which
is equally probable) to turn sick of the stupidity of
Lord Althorp, thefary'arronnada of Sir J. Graham,
or the tricks of Mr. Powlett Thomson--s-what then ?
It would ((Tow of necessity that the next Minister,
upon some pretext or other, must nominate his fifty
new Peers also, and so on, ad infinitum, or at least
until it would be necessary for the House of Lords
to meet in the open air upon Salisbury Plain. Why
do not our contemporaries advise Ministers to abo-
lish the House of Lords at once ? This would be
infinitely more creditable to their integrity and un-
derstanding, than the course now recommended.
The Constitution of England supposes the House of
Lords, as well as the House of Commons, to be a
check upon the Sovereign in the appointment of his
Ministers, and a very whimsical sort of check
indeed the former would prove, if the doctrine now ad-
vanced should prevail. According to this doctrine,
a King of England might select his Ministers from
the hulks, and as the whole existing Peerage would
have been appointed on the recommendation of Mi-
nisters of a very different description, it would fol-
low of course that the new Minister, in conformity
with the spit it of the Constitution, should double
at once, or rather more than double, the number of
the House of Lords, by a plentiful infusion of con-
victs. We needed not this suggestion of the ft iends
of Ministers to convince us that their situation is
desperate, nor should we be much surprised by their
adoption of the desperate counsel now offered them;
but we hope and believe that the King will not per-
mit, and that neither House of Parliament would
tolerate, so daring an experiment. The House of
Commons is supposed to be friendly to Reform. It
w;11 remain for it to show, whenever Ministers dis-
play any disposition to pack the House of Lords,
that the Reform it is disposed to promote is not
identical with revolution—that, in its judgment, the
Reform of one House of Parliament, however de-
sirable, would be too dearly purchased by the de-
struction of the other. Earnestly do we implore the
British public, the House of Commons, the
House of Peers, every Member of the Royal
Family in particular, to watch with vigilant jea-
lousy the proceedings of the present Ministers.
There is much reason to believe that some of their
oxn body prompt the writers, or are themselves
the writers who affect to advise them. The advice
now offered is to degrade the House of Peers from
its rank, and to divest it of its whole power as an
independent estate of the realm. Is not this in itself
a ground of alarm ? Is it not a still stronger ground
of alarm w hen viewed in conjunction with other
notorious circumstances ? If the House of Lords
may be debased at the pleasure of the present Mini-
sters, why should we expect the succession to the
Throne to be held sacred ? The sacrifice of one
constitutional principle enfeebles every °tin r.—
Inroad leads the way to inroad upon established in-
stitutions. To perplex and stupify the public mind
by a succession of bold and hazardous changes is the
natural policy of those who would willingly pro-
mote the success of any illegitimate pretension. We
do not say that it is intended to pack the House of
Lords. Notwithstanding the ominous indications
presented by the Ministerial Journals, we have some
doubt whether the Ministers contemplate, and still
greater doubt whether the King could be brought
to lend himself to so desperate a course. But we
would be understood to speak with all the serious-
ness which befits the occasion when we ask whether
any man can be certain that the degradation of the
House of Lords
.41 1831, should such a calamity
take place, might not in less than two years be
followed by the elevation of the Earl of Munster to
the dignity of Prince of Wales ?—Morning Post.

There is daily a great run for proxies in the
House of Lords. Lord ROSSLYN is said to be daily car-
rying away pockets full of them. It is to be hoped that
the Ministers will not forget the long experience, the disci-
pline, and the activity of their opponents. There may be
such a thing as an amendment to the Address, and then
proxies will be useful. An amendment is talked of, and
is not improbable.

We understand from gentlemen recently re-
turned from India, that the reply to the memorials of the
Bengal officers, on the batta question, has excited a very
indignant feeling among them, and that a great majority
of them have resolved to appeal, by petition to the KING
and the two Houses of Parliament, against the decision of
the Court of Directors.

It was the Marquis of CLEVELAND, and not
the Marquis of BATH, as stated in some of the public
Papers, who sent to Lord SLIGO the munificent contri-
bution for the starving Irish of three hundred pounds ;
Lord BATH sent his donation of fifty pounds earlier in the
season.
Messrs. DEVAUX and NoTtiomß, the Bel-
gian negociators, with the ten Deputies who accompany
them, dined yesterday with Prince LEOROLD. Lord PON-
soNnY was also present. It was understood that some de-
finitive arrangement of the Belgian question would be
made before the party broke up.
PIN MONEY, BY THE AUTHORESS OF
"MANNERS OF THE DAY."—" This is a novel of extraor-
dinary merit, and may rank amongst the very best of its
dam The plot is exceedingly simple, and it developes an
admirable mural. The system so universally adopted by
fortune-hunting parents of settling upon a young lady on
her marriage an income independently of her husband, is
held up to ridicule in masterly style. The miseries which
are the natural consequence of this ill-advised parental
policy are judiciously pourtrayed. The characters are very
well drawn, and the conversation of the different indivi-
duals is admirably suited to the habits and feelings of the
class that are described."—Morning Post.
On Thursday the Buffalo, late shore-ship, ar-
rived from Woolwich, towed by the African steamer,
Lieut. HARVEY, to be employed with the Ramilies, 74,
from Chatham, as temporary lazarettos at litangate Creek,
during the prevalence of the cholera morbus in Russia and
adjoining countries. The African returned the same day
to Woolwich