The Sun.
London, England, 1836-12-08 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

At the Wakefield Conservative. dinner Lord Wharn-
cliffe said he would much rather see the Catholic reli-
gion established in Ireland
,than consent to the
voluntary system in that country. Between Lord
Wharncliffe and Lord Roden there is a very wide
interval, and yet the Conservatives are united. January
and May are united in the fable. Lord Lyndhurst
and Sir Robert Peel are closely united. The Times
(which, by-the-bye, was proud of its public house
circulation when it had one, but which now calls
public-house readers snobs, as the fox called the grapes
sour) places the cordiality of this union beyond a
doubt by its decisive communication yesterday, that
" it was and is notorious in all other circles of society
(i. e., than the snobs—What a change since the days
of Queen Caroline I) that Lord Lyndhurst has
been prevented from going down to Drayton
to meet the Duke of Wellington and a large
party of friends, no otherwise than by engage-
ments made at Paris previously to Sir Robert
Peel's invitation." What can be a more conclusive
proof of a cordial Union than this ? Had Lord Lynd-
hurst not been better employed in the Rue de la Paix
he would have been under the same roof with Sir Ro-
bert, and this love feast would :have been proof, strong
as holy writ, of the identity of their political views,
and their love for each other. Sir Robert will, of
course, take an opportunity at the Glasgow dinner to
express his regret that the Glasgow boys had not given
effect to their first intentions in favour of Lord Lynd-
hurst, and to inform them that they were really unneces-
sarily scrupulous with regard to his Lordship—that he
is a much more sanctified man than the Glasgow
Prebyterians took him to be. But let that pass.
Well, then, the Tories are united, but the Re-
formers are, it seems, not united; and the united
Tories hope to prevail over the disunited Re-
formers. The hope is very flattering to the Reformers,
fur it merely supposes them destitute of anything like
common sense. This subject is viewed, in all its
aspects, in a very able pamphlet, published within these
few days, under the title of " The Conservative Peers
and the Reform Ministry," which, judging from the
abuse heaped on it by the Times, is felt by the Tories
to contain what they deem rather unpalatable truths.
" The complaints of the Tories," says this clever writer,
" and of the Radicals, take an exactly opposite direction.
The Tories complain that they go neither fast nor far
enough. The latter, in the course they are taking, inspire
the former with the hope of returning to power. The chief,
indeed the only, reliance of the ConservativeS, is upon the
alienation of the Radical party from the Government. It
is the hope of this desertion that gives them confidence ;
and it is to this hope that we owe the extent and intensity
of their efforts to recover the reins of Government."
The Reformers have but to ask themselves this
plain question—Do the Tories hate Ministers because
they are not disposed to go far enough in the way of
reforming abuses ? Certainly not. What, then, would
he the effect of driving the present men from office ?
To have the Ministry sucepedeil by the men who pre-
vented them from carrying more extensive Reforms,
and who, hating " the very name of Reform," would
give much less than their predecessors, and even that
only if compelled. Mr. Daniel -Whittle Harvey, for
instance, is a very clever man when he has a purpose
to carry, and we have too high an opinion of his
shrewdness to suppose for one moment that in seek-
ing to carry a private object he would go to work in
the bungling way in which he would have the Refor-
mers further the public cause. ,His capacity for Church
Reform is so great that because he cannot have the
whole Church of Ireland swept away at once as a great
abuse, he would put the reins of power into the hands
of Lord Lyndhurst, who• would cling with pertinacity
to every abuse. We should recommend this pam-
phlet to the Hon. Member for Southwark if we sup-
his understanding required any aid. The Times, no
doubt, exaggerates the strength of the Conservative
party when it tells us that it comprehends the great
majority of the Nobility, the Magistracy, almost every
Landowner possessed of 5001., a year and upwards,
and all the Parsons. This would be libelling foully
the higher orders of the country. But the statement
would hardly have been made were not, from the dis-
tribution of landed property and other circumstances
in this country, the Aristocracy and Clergy too gene-
rally,
opposed to the cause of Reform. This at once
accoulits for many of the difficulties which a Reform
Ministry have to encounter. The Church Reform
Bills of last year, for instance, were far below what
the public is entitled to demand. But could Minis-
ters have possibly prevailed on cither•House to sanc-
tion efficient measures of Church Reform ! On this
head let us hear what the writer of the pamphlet
observes :
" Ecclesiastical abuses have stood their ground longer
than any other. Why is this ? Because they have been
interwoven with the abuses of the State. The rulers in
the Monarchy have been always more or less connected
with families of great hereditary property and influence in
the kingdom. The Church has ever been the great engine
for keeping down the power of the people. Tree Clergy—
whether in conduct or in doctrine, never lose sight of the
enrichment and supremacy of their order. Clerical Magis-
trates throng the judicial bench in every county, and every
city, and every borough town. The pulpits of every vil-
lage are employed to give the minds of the multitude that
direction which best accords with the wishes and interest
of those in power. Do the Radicals in Parliament imagine
that the deranged movements of all this machinery can be
regulated by a single effiort ? Do they really believe that
its accumulated imperfections can be rectified in a single
session, and this, too, amidst the bitter hostility of an ad-
verse faction ? If they separate' themselves from the party
of the moderate and rational in the heat of such an intem-
perate expectation, they will well deserve to lose that res-
pect and consideration which they deservedly possess with
the country, and which it is essential they should retain.
Such a disunion, though it might not he fatal to the cause
of Reform, would long delay its advancement, in spite of
every effort in its favour on the part of the governing
power. At this crisis, with all. the power and stratagem
that is employed against them, the Reformers cannot afford
to narrow the foundation on which they stand. As it is,
their strength is barely 'equal to the struggle. If weakened
by distrust and dissension their power is gone, and their
usefulness is at an end." -

The Church, as was observed by the Rev. Charles
Boyton, is desirable to the Aristocracy because it is a
main prop of their existence, as they monopolise the
rich prizes, and leave the drudgery to poor devils from
the inferior classes who possess no interest. The Church
is truly, therefore, the stronghold of corruption. But
what Ministry could hope to carry such a stronghold
by storm ? The number of those who perdeive the
real importance of Ecclesiastical Reform is now great,
and constantly increasing ; but Church abuses are,
after all, a ticklish ground for Reformers to fight their
main battle on. In the time of the Commonwealth,
though the struggle was as much religious as civil,
the Puritans always dreaded the multitude. Richard
Baxter, in his " Holy Commonwealth," ridicules the
idea of placing any reliance on the mass of free-
holders who for a little ale would always vote as they
were bid by the Squires ; and the great problem of
the Ecclesiastical Reformers of that day was to de-
vise a scheme of government which should have the
moral and religious welfare of the People at heart,
without being dependent on their suffrages. Since that
time no doubt a great change
.for the better has taken
place, chiefly from the great increase of the town po-.
pulation ; for, except in towns, the people are yet the
slaves of ignorance and prejudices. As an instance it
has been stated, and not contradicted, that in a certain
western county an individual celebrated as a wizard,
materially aided the Tory Members at the last election
by his threats against all who should vote for the Re-
formers. When it is considered that the Tories have
in the parson in every parish a thick-and-thin parti-
san—that many of those who profess liberal opinions
in other respects identify themselves in some way with
Church abuses, and certainly would not support
heartily any efficient reform, and that at present we
cannot afford any material deduction from our num-
bers—the Reformers ought to make allowance for the
difficulties in which Ministers are placed. One great
argument of the Times may serve to point out to Re-
formers the importance of not being too inflexible.
The Radicals, says the Times, are honest men,
though their designs are not the less mischievous.
They wish to "go the whole hog." The Whigs, how-
ever, do not wish such searching Reforms, and do not
hesitate to pronounce them pernicious. What insin-
cerity then in the Whigs, contends the Times, to
court the alliance of men between whose views and
their own there exists so much difference. We are
not now to combat this objection, which amounts to