The Sun.
London, England, 1831-10-21 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The King yesterday prorogued Parliament, after
a patriotic speech delivered with the firtnnees and
dignity worthy of the great occasion. As nothing
is of greater moment than concord and unanimity
between the King and his people at this important
crisis, so is that union of sentiment and action most
completely established by the Speech. What have
the people done ? They have moved,—they have
bestirred themselves,—they have met,—they have
resolved,—they have addressed. Does the King
discourage these ac's ? People of England, listen
to his words :—" The anxiety which has been so
generally manifested by sny people for the accom-
plishment of a Constitutional Reform in the Com-
mons House of Parliament, svill, I trust, be regu-
lated by a duo sense of order and moderation in
their proceedings." " In their proceedings !"
You are to proceed—then; you are not now
to sink down into supineness. No, you are
to continue to act; your Sovereign expects it
from you : but you are to act, not riotously,—not
in contumely of the laws,—not by plunder and
arson ; but, " under a sense of order and modera-
tion." Mark and observe both clauses of the sen-
tence. None are worthy of the enjoyment of liberty
themselves who do not respect the liberties of others :
none deserve to have their rights, who do not pro-
ceed fearlessly and firmly till they have got them.
Countrymen, the King " proceeds," and therefore
he has a right to expect that you do not lag behind :
for, in his speech at the beginning of the session, he
thus expresses himself on the subject of Parlia-
mentary Reform :—" Having had recourse to that
measure" (the dissolution) " for the purpose of
ascertaining the sense of my people on the expedi-
ency of a Reform in the representation, I have now
to recommend that important question to your earliest
and most attentive consideration ; confident that
in any measures which you may prepare for its ad-
justment, you will carefully adhere to the acknow-
ledged principles of the Constitution, by which the pre.
rogatives of the Crown, the authority of both Houses
of Parliament, and the rights and liberties of the people,
are equally secured." But at the end of the Session
he says—" To the consideration of this important
question the attention of Parliament must necessa-
rily again be called at the opening of the ensuing
Session ; and you may be assured of ray unaltered
desire to promote its settlement by such improve-
meets in the representation as may be found neces-
sary for securing to my people the full enjoyment of
their rights, which, in combination with those of the
other orders of the State, are essential to the sup-
port of our free Constitution." You will observe
with how much more strength and energy his M.
jesty expresses himself in the latter clause than in
the former. Such be your course : as you approach
snore nearly to the attainment of your object, move
with accelerated force,—with augmented resolution,
—with that confidence which certainty of success
inspires ; but clemency and moderation become con-
querors, or those who are sure of conquest. Let
your proceedings, then, while they ere thus resolute,
be regulated also by a due sense of the necessity of
order and moderation. The prorogation is for a
month, and Parliament will meet for the despatch
of business in the first week of December. The
Bill, it is expected, will have passed through the
third reading before Christmas in the Commons, and
have been from thence transmitted to the Lords for
.discussion.—Times.
Among the Bills presented to his Majesty yester-
day for the Royal assent, before the prorogation of
Parliament, was the much-contested Bankruptcy
Court Bill. We are glad that this has been brought
to a conclusion. Its consummation was noticed
with great propriety in the King's speech, as a mat-
ter of the first importance in the commercial world.
Let its enemies watch what evils it produce:, or
what mischiefs it fails of correcting. To say that
we augur unmixed good from any human act would
be absurd : we can only anticipate as much from
this, as usually attends the efforts of geniu.,
prompted by disinterested motives, and guided by
prudence and discretion. The Bankruptcy Court
Bill was no sudden ebullition of mind in the Lord
Chancellor. It sprang from a Committee of the
House of Commons, with whore it was the result
of painful thought and a long investigation on
tile subject, and of a deep sense of the exist-
ing insufficiency of the law. As to motives,
whether they were disinterested or not, will ap
pear from the disclosure of the following fact :
—The official assignees under the new Act are
to be thirty in number; the nomination of these
assignees, the Chancellor, if he bad pleased, might
have reserved in his own bands, but tile patronage'
has been frankly given away from himself : commer-
cial persons are better qualified to judge who of their
body is fit for the task, than the highest legal officer
of the Crown, and to commercial persons of the
first character is the important duty confided. The
gentlemen appointed to make the selection are—
the Governor of the Bank, the Governor of the
East India Company, Messrs. John Martin, John
Smith, George Norman (the Bank Director), Lewis
Loyd, and four Commissioners of Bankrupt.—Times.
Nothing could be more satisfactory in the address
of any Monarch to his people, than that part of the
King's Speech yesterday:which related to our foreign
affairs. Without alluding to the vindication of Bri-
tish honour, and the protection of British interests it,
Portugal, which had been referred to in the Speech at
the opening of die session,—without adverting to our
influence in effecting the amicable adjustment of the
affairs of Italy, by which we have been enabled to gua-
rantee the late insurgents against the consequences of
their own acts, and to promote the constitutooel free-
dom of the Romish Legationse—without even a Clef
of what we had done, or attempted to do, for se-
curing the indepence of Poland, his Majesty men-
tioned enough, in announcing the termination of the
negotiations respecting Belgium, to deserve the ap-
probation of the country, arid the applause of all
the lovers of peace in Europe. At first sight, no-
thing could be more unworthy of general attention
than the dispute between the different provinces of
the Belgic Netherlands. " Why," it was asked,
" interfere between the Dutch King and his re•
volted subjects ? Why not let the contest be brought
to a conclusion by themselves in the mutual inde-
pendence of both parties, or in the establishment of
the dominion of the strongest ?" In ordinary
cases this reasoning may be correct. An interpo-
sition of third parties in the settlement of an indi-
Tidual question, or in the establishment of a core-
teated right, often extends the circle of warfare,
and enlarges tire scene of calamity, instead of pre-
venting or limiting the mischief. But in this case
a mediation of the Great Powers could not have
been avoided, because a coalition between these
most insignificant members of the European
alliance must have led to a general war. The
only chance of preserving the peace of Europe
was to impose restraints on the two combatants,
by the authority of foreign Powers, which, but
for their concert in such a work, must have taken
the part of one or other of the belligerents. The
kingdom of the Netherlands was the result of an
European treaty,—the offspring of an Europese:
afliance,—the creature of a geneeal Congress. The
United Provinces of the North, and of the Austrian
Netherlands, had been forced into a reluctant union
by the parties to the treaty of Vienna. A revuL-
sion had taken place without their consent, and the
King of the Netherlands, whom they had placed
upon a throne which a causeless revolt had shaken,
naturally claimed their interference to restore him to
the rights which they themselves had conferred, or
to relieve him from the obligations which they had
imposed. They could tiot therefore, resist his call
Provisional Government had
for mediation, as a
been established in one part of. Ins dominions, to
which one of the allies was disposed to lend iss
countenance and support. Had there been uo
concert arid no understanding among the five great
Powers to arrange the affairs of the' etherland the
contest between the King of Holland and the junta
of Brussels must, in thecourse of a few months, nave
evolved Prussia and France as the friends of the re-
pective parties, and consequently have extended hos-

tilities to the whole of Europe. The general principles,
therefore, which forbid foreign interference in the
contests between different parties of the same state,
do not apply here, and the jokes about the inno-
cence of a dispute between the Dutch and Belgians
are thrown away. Flom the beginning of the civil
contest at Brussels, and especially from the bom-
bardment of Antwerp, all hopes of an amicable ad-
justment of the differences between the Belgians
and the House of Nassau had ceased, and France
having declared that she would permit the hostile
interference of no third party to give the prepon-
derance to Holland, the only alternative was a Con-
ference to enforce an armistice and to settle the
terms of separation. The Members of this Confer-
ence were assembled at London, in the Duke of
Wellington's Administration, and its existence and
objects were announced in the King's speech on the
3d of November last year. Ever since that time it
has continued its sittings, and has probably engaged
in more laborious duties than would at another period
have been sufficient to settle the general policy of
Europe. It had to determine on the conditions of
an armistice which both parties were desirous of.
resisting ; it had to threaten each party in its
attempts to break it ; it had to adjust rival pre-
tensions, urged on the one side with overweening
pride, and opposed on the other with unreasoning
obstinacy ; it had to settle the limits of indepen-
dence, in a state which was never before indepen-
dent, and which claimed every little piece of
revolted territory as its own ; it had to divide a
debt, which it had partly created by its construction
of a kingdom, between parties by which the forced
union was repudiated; it had to appease one part
of the Belgic provinces without exciting the jealousy
of the other ; it had to bear the insolent abuse of
the Belgic press and the Belgic Congress, without
being able to revenge the insult by any other means
than a war, which it had engaged to prevent ; it
had to draw up protocols—to answer protests—to
form preliminaries of peace—modify those prelimi-
naries by other protocols—to answer other pro-
tests—to hear other complaints—to arrange the ac-
knowledgement, if not the nomination, of a sovereign
—to repel an invasion by auxiliary forces—and to
recall these forces, when more dangerous than the
invaders ; it had, finally, to make a convention
differing in its stipulations from all previous sug-
gestions, and to procure the consent of both parties
to conditions of which the vanity and the interested
views of neither could approve. Well, therefore,
may his Majesty say, that the Conference as-
sembled in London has terminated its difficult
and laborious discussions, by an arrangement unani-
mously agreed upon by the Plenipotentiaries of the
five Powers for the separation of the states of Hol-
land and Belgium, on terms by which the interests
of both, together with the future security of other
countries, have been carefully provided for." Whi-
ther the hope expressed by his Majesty will be
realized, and the treaty agreed upon in the Confe-
rence be accepted by both parties, and particularly
by the Belgians, time will soon disclose. But whe-
ther the experiment be successful or not ultimately,
it was surely worth making. It has warded off the
calamities of scar and bloodshed for a whole year,
and twelve months of peace and international se-
curity is surely worth the labour of fifty protocols,
and the inconvenience of fifty meetings of some
half-dozen of diplomatists in Dawning-street ! We
mentioned a few days ago, the chief stipulations of
the treaty to which the Royal speech alludes. Ir
is proper to state that the Conference is now at an
end, and that it can listen to no further modifications
of its award. Should, therefore, the Belgians re-
fuce to accede to the stipulated conditions, the
Allies must enforce them by arms. It is in this
final rejection of the treaty, and in the consequent
measures to compel submission, that we discover
the whole probable danger of our negociations,—
the contingent legacy of a war prepared by a whole
year of peaceful and honest negociation.—Times.
Several correspondents are applying to us, on the
propriety of retaining Lord Hill as Commander-in-
Chief, during the present struggle for the Reform
Bill. To us it appears, that it would have been
just as proper (and it is paying no bad compliment
to Lord Hill) to make or retain the Duke of Wel-
lington as Commander-in-Chief. Ministers must
not keep enemies or neutrals, upon that question en
which their own existence depends, in official sta-
tions, and with official influence. By doing so, they
would justify a suspicion of their own sincerity, and
comprise the unsullied fame of their Royal Master.
Let it be understood that the way to power under
their administration is, to support the Bill ; and the
Bill will be supported, not with lukewarmness or
indifference, or a selfish misgiving of the future, but
with a zeal proportioned to its high and paramount
importance.— Times.

To the Welch election, now in progress, and that
of Cambridge, about to commence, we have not
time to advert at this moment. The enormous folly
of the boroughmongers in attempting to re-open the
argument (or, indeed, any argument) against the
late Bill, on account of its being injurious to the
landed ! interest throughout England, is to us one
of the most pregnant instances of infatuation that
have yet come under our notice. Why, the
" landed interest" has heretofore been at the abso-
lute mercy of the borough interest,—an indefinite,
precarious, and ignoble despotism, which, exercised
as it used to be in numberless cases, we are asto-
nished that gentlemen of independent property
would submit to. One excellence of the new mea-
sure has been its cutting away the usurped and
spurious power of a few, and giving to many a
power that would be essentially just, wholesome,
and conservative. The eKisting constituencies of
counties may not in every instance be fair organs
for the expression of the general feeling ; but in
the Reform Bill, if similar to the last, there gill be
scarcely a clause (bating that only for the division
of counties, and for the qualification of tenants at
will) the tendency of which is not to bring inde-
pendence, both of property and feeling, to bear di-
rectly upon the choice of Members of Parliament.

he Paris Papers of Tuesday, in addition to the
prolonged digcussion on the Peerage Bill, contain a
new proposal by the Minister of Trade, for regu-
lating the commerce of grain. The French like
ourselves have had their corn laws, end like our-
selves have felt their injustice and oppression.
'their legislation on this point, however, though
mere absurd, has been lass mischievous than our
own. It is more absurd, becausa the French having
no bur&r:a that press peculiarly on the production
of grain, like our poor-rates and tithes, have no pre,
tence for interfering to protect home-grown corn
from foreign competition. f t is more absurd, be-
cause it fixes very narrow limits betwecn a prohibition
of exportatiou and a prohibition of importation, It
was less mischievous, because there was a smaller
class of the population devoted to trade and manu-
factures than in England, and corg;e9uently a smaller
body who could benefit by the exchanges of their
manufactured productions, for the agricultural pro-
duce of other lands, o; suffer by the loss of foreign
markets. M. D'Argout, the I,linister who intro-
duzzli the Bill, tells us that the cultitiatipri of the
earth for corn occupies 15,000,000 hands in France,
or about one-hair of the population; and though this
must be a great exaggergion, considering that no less
than 3,000,000 of people are L'a;d by French statis-
tical writers to depend on the rearing of the vines,
and the manufacti4v of wine, still there can be no
doubt that the proportion of the persons employed
exclusively in agriculture is much grpter in France
than in this conatry.. A much smaller proportion,
therefore, could supply ii.rti,2les to purchase foreign
grain, :md to create a competition of the foreign
with the docilostle grower. In England, the usual
estimate of persoos occupied exclusively with the
production of the means or subsistence, is only about
one-third of the population. 'Con.secuerti a much
greater propori,ioir of our fellow-Citize.;Y is e--"-
ployed in preparing arUcies for foreign markets g
for exchanging against the produce of foreign so' or
soils.
The old corn law of France, which the new Bill
propoFe2 to supersede, divided the country into four

sets or classes of districts, in which exportation or
importation was permitted at different prices, or
within certain limits of a maximum and minimum.
In the highest, importation was permitted at 24
francs the hectolitre, and exportation prohibited at
26 francs. In the next, the limits were 22 and 24,
in the next 20 and 22, and in the last 18 and 20.
Two francs were therefore the limit within wisch
the trade in corn was free, and importation or expor-
tation was equally permitted. But even between
these limits importation was liable to a duty. In
the departments where exportation ceased at 26
francs the hectolitre, and importation was permitted
at 24, a duty was exacted of 34 francs on imported
grain, if sold at 24; of 21, if sold at 25; and eve►►
at the price of 26, 1 of duty was paid. The Mi-
nister, after pointing out the vices of the old system,
described his own project of improvement, in which
he proposed to suppress the prohibitions of importa-
tion, and to supply their places by a graduated scale
of duties—to subject exportations to variable duties
—to form only two divisions of the kingdom for the
scale of prices—to substitute weight for measure in
ascertaining quantities, and to abolish the tax on
foreign vessels freighted with grain in times of scar-
city. These are no doubt improvements on the old
system, but the great improvement would have been
to abolish the corn-law altogether, and to allow the
trade in grain to be perfectly free. As no peculiar
burdens press upon the land, or restrain cultivation
in France, there cats be no pretext for any peculiar
protection, and no harm, but much good, would re-
sult from an unlimited freedom of the trade in corn.
—Times.

Parliament was yesterday prorogued to the 22d
November. This, however, is not the period when
Parliament will meet. The Speech commences
with an account of what has been done during the
last Session to improve the law, and in the way of
relief from taxation. Where there is a will there is
a way, as the proverb says. Notwithstanding the
all-engrossing nature of the Reform question, Mini-
sters 6have succeeded in hewing down two of the
greatest abominations in the country—the odious
Game Code and the Bankruptcy System. The new
Game Act may he susceptible of amendment, and
the Bankrupt Courts' Bill cannot be supposed to
have come perfect at once from the head of its
author. But a blow has been struck in the one, at
the vilest remnant of the feudal ages; and in the other,
a most important branch of the Judicature of the
country has been placed on a respectable footing. The
interests of the commercial world will no longer be
made subservient to the creation of incomes for the
children and toad-eaters of the Aristocracy. The part
of the Speech which will be most looked to, is that
which relates to the question of Parliamentary Re-
form. It is in accordance with the recent declara-
tions of Ministers—" You may be assured of my
unaltered desire to promote its settlement by such
improvements in the representation as may be found
necessary for the security of my people and the
full enjoyment of their rights, which, in combina-
tion with those of the other orders of the State,
are essential to the support of our free Constitution."
In a document of the nature of a King's Speech,
it is impossible to speak of so important a question
in any other than general terms. However, we
have no doubt that the new Bill will effectually se-
cure to the people what they most valued in the
last. It was stated by Mr. :Maberly, at the Surrey
meeting yesterday, that Parliament would not meet
for the despatch of business before the middle of
January.—Moreing Chronicle.
The Session is now over. A long, laborious, and
stormy Session it proved. The discussions on the
Reform Bill had called into action the angry selfish
passions of one party, and the decision of the
House of Lords upon the Bill had given to those
passions a momentary but a dangerous triumph
over the hopes of the nation. It still remained to
be seen whether the Government, and, above all,
whether his Majesty, as the head of the Govern-
ment, was prepared to mark the conclusion of such
a Session with an explicit declaration of unchanged
and unchangeable sentiments respecting a measure
which agitates the community, and shakes the
political frame of this great empire to its base. We
now have the result before us. The King has
spoken out—distinctly and manfully spoken out. He
has expressed his approbation of " the anxiety so
generally manifested by his people for the accom-
plishment of a constitutional Reform in the Corn-
mons' House of Parliament." Hear this, ye Lords
and Bishops l—the anxiety of the people for Re-
form contrasted with your anxiety against Re-
form, is a general anxiety, and has been described
as such by the patriot 'Monarch who reigns over
them and you. Where, then, is the triumph of
your boasted majority of forty-one ? "To the con-
sideration of this important question," continues his
Majesty, "the attention of Parliament must necessa-
rily again be called at the opening of the ensuing
Session, and you may be assured of my uualtered
desire to promote its settlement by such improve-
ments in the representation as may be found
necessary for the security of my people, and
the full enjoyment of their rights, which,
in combination with those of the other
orders of the State, are esential to the support of
our free Constitution." When we remember the
sort of equivocal stuff which, in times gone by, a
party gone by also used to put into the mouth of the
King—when we remember the care that used to be
taken to construct sentences without meaning, and
to skim over subjects of the highest interest and
importance in a manner calculated and intended to
mystify, not to inform—when we remember this, the
former style of speeches from the Throne, and com-
pare it with the honest intimation conveyed in the
above paragraph, it is impossible not to feel that a
new era has commenced, and that plain speaking is
recognised at last as the proper language of Sove-
reigns. That his Majesty's speech will afford
general satisfaction we cannot doubt ; that his
Majesty's recommendation of order arid modera-
tion in their proceedings will be attended to by
the people of the United Kingdom, we are con-
vinced of, for the same reason. They will show
their confidence in the King by showing their re-
spect for the laws ; knowing that the King is with
them, they will prepare for renewed efforts with the
calmness, but at the same time with the energy,
which belongs to men who have the victory in their
own hands. The King has told them that the ques-
tion must come on again--he has informed them
that his desire for its settlement remains unaltered—
he has stated to them that the representation will be
improved, and improved in such a way as shall en-
sure to his people the fall enjoyment of their rights.
These are cheering assurances, conformable to the
hopes and confirmatory of the expectations of the
country. He who doubts of the ultimate success of
the measure after this must be an incurable sceptic.
Let us hope that the Lords themselves will open
their eyes to the real posture of affairs, and that,
though late, they will recognise in the Reforming
spirit which has gone abroad—a power too mighty
to be resisted by the artifices of a faction.—Morn-
ing Herald.
Every thing appears to have gone on well with
the Ministers. Their conduct in the removal of
Anti-Reform Officers received approbation and en-
couragement from Mr. Ilurne, Sir Francis Burdett,
and other popular Members in the House of Com-
mons yesterday. The dismissal of Sir Byam Martin
shows that they do not mean to confine their opera-
tions to the Royal Household alone. The case of
i;ortl Howe has been much canvassed. A Corre
spondent asks how do the opponents of that pro-
ceeding reconcile it with their justification of the
Duke of Newcastle and others, in turning off their
tenants for the votes they gave ? We may refer to
Sir Charles Wetherell for an answer.—Morning

It was most gratifying yesterday to his Majesty's
subjects that he appeared among them in full health,
and in the enjoyment of the best spirits. His Ma-
jesty's Speech was delivered in the most distinct and
audible voice throughout, but presented no other
feature wm thy of remark, except that when he
came to that part of it in which he had to address

the House of Commons exclusively, he pronounced
the words, " Gentlemen of the House of Com-
mons," in a tone and manner which drew universal
attention. They were most emphatically pro-
nounced, as well as every line of the remainder of
the Speech on the subject of Reform. No one could
doubt that his Majesty's heart was in the cause of
Reform, or that he would fail to employ any and
every means for its accomplishment.—Morn. Advert.