The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-07 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 1t541.

SPIRIT of the P ÜBLIC JOURNALS

FROM THE DAILY PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.

(From thePlorning Chronicle.)
We lay before our readers the Revenue accounts for the
years and quarters ended sth January, 1840, and 1841.
The decrease on the year ended sti, January, 1841, as
compared with the year ended sth January 1840, is 254,009/.
On the quarter ended sth January, 1841, as compared with
sth January, 1840, there is an inercase of 80,602/. On
the Customs there is a decrease on the year of 85,8731.,
and on the quarter of 308,3991. On the other hand the
Excise, which on the year has increased 622,3101., has ex-
perienced on the quarter the very large increase of 589,093/.
"fee-totalism dces not certainly appear to be much
felt in the Nxclse. The great decrease has been in the
Post-office. On the year it is 1,078,0001., and on the
quarter 253,000/. Yet, though in the Post-office the de-
crease on the quarter ending sth January, 1841, is no less
than 253,0001., still there is on the quarter's revenue, as
compared with sth January, 1840, a positive increase of
80,602/. Can there be a stronger proof of the elasti-
city of the resources of ibis industrious country ? With
respect to the decreas-e in the Post-office revenue of
1,078,0001- for the year, and 253,000/. for the quarter,
we must keep in mind that the increased facilities of
communication must have added greatly to the ability of
the people to bear taxation on other branches. Many
trades have experienced the greatest benefit from the
facilities afforded to them through the reduced po,tage.
When the means of supporting taxation have been so
much increased, it would be to take a narrow view of
the subject to look merely to the net revenue of the
Post-office. But there are causes for the Post-office
revenue for the quarter b2ing somewhat lower than in some
former quarters. First, the gradual substitution of payment
in advance for payment on delivery ( Id. for 22.)—•a cause
which is now nearly exhausted, as nearly all letters are
now paid in advance. Second, the greatly increasing ex-
penses at the Post-office, arising chieflf:from the employ-
ment of the railway's, where the Government has no privi-

lege. The increase in expense in clerks, &c., arising out
of an increase in letters, is comparatively small. We
are happy to say that the number of letters, the true
criterion of the success of the measure, is steadily ad-
vancing from month to month.
(From the Times.)
If there were a change of Administration, say the pa-
triots of Downing.street, what would the Tories do with
Ireland ? Very likely they would relieve her from the
blistering operations of her present agitators. Very likely
they would apprehend her sturdy beggars, silence her
bullies, lay and clerical, advance the arts of peace, and en-
courage the investment of capital. But a much more for
midable question remains behind : what in case of a change
would the Whigs do with Ireland ? Their master knows
well enough what they will do with it : he announces that
they will join the Repeaters. At present they will con-
fine themselves to questions connected with the registra-
tion of voters and the election of Members : that is the
sort of business which the Ulster Association professes to
look after. " Respectable men," says Mr. O'Connell to
his Corn- Exchange followers : " those are Lords Gosford
and Charlemont, Messrs. Caulfield, Ross, and Sharman
Crawfoi d. So far, indeed, it has been a mouthful of
moonshine, but I believe that ere long they will be Re-
peaters." We don't venture to speak quite so precisely
as Mr. O'Connell does to the conduct of particular
individuals, especially where they chance to be men of
character—a class of persons of whom he is peceliarly
qualified to judge. But of the Whigs in geocral we are
persuaded it is no scandal to prognosticate that " ere long,"
that is, when their party shall have been turned out of
office, "they will be Ittpealers." Yes, they will be Re-
peaters, ay, or Ribandmen, if it will help them back to
place ; but it must be the business of the Conservatives,
;hen Parliament re-assembles, to intercept that line of
march. They would fain avoid the subject just yet ;
and so woeld he who has vowed to live and die for it ;
neither the dogs ncr the bears having any stomach for
the baiting, but the fight must come off, for, unless
they be set to worn each other, they will join to worry
the rest of the world. No doubt they hate each other
already with as equal a mutuality as the difference
in the sources of their hatred will allow : the Agita-
tor hates the Whigs with the bitterness of contempt,
and the anger excited by their occasionally trouble-
some though impotent restiveness; and the Whigs
hate the Agitator with an irritating sense of their own
humiliation, aggravated by a well-bred loathing of hits
coarseness. But that is not enough. These
.are only
private feelings. The general good requires that the
parties be committed publicly to an extent which shall ;
spoil any future coalition for the purposes of repeal between
the Whig Rump and the O'Connell Tail. Now, it will
take a good deal to prevent such a junction. No mere
accumulation of insults from Mr. O'Connell will affront
the Whigs, if they had anything to get by keeping
terms with him. He may again call them "brutal,'
or " base," or " bloody," or all the three, and
they will still take it in the best possible part,
so long as it shall be worth their while. lie may tax
them with " insolent contempt, and malignant, but
treacherous hostility to Ireland," as he did in
October, 1834; and they will presently make a
" compact alliance" with Lim and his Irisbry for
the spoliation of the Protestant Church, as they did
in January, 1835. Thus it is by no means sufficient
for the prevention of future conspiracy on the subject of
repeal that the sewers of Mr. O'Connell' s invective should
be disernbagued upon his accomplices. Thew must be
forced forward, individually as well as collectively, to dis-
avow, to deprecate, to condemn, and to denounce the dan-
gerous and treasonable project of repeal : in the debate '
we must have the speeches of the principals, and in the di-
vision list the names of the subordinates. With many of
there, even that public pledge will be insufficient ; but if
there he only a few deterred, those few are secured to
assist, however unwillingly, in the defence of their coun-
try ; and the rest, beginning their race of apostasy by the
breach of such a pledge, will be broken down in
their course by the very weight of their infamy. In
some sort, too, the invectives of the Repealer
against the non-repealing Ministers have their use
and value. Not because they hurt those Ministers—
that is a result which only just and honest censures can
effect—but because the Repealer's invectives must react
against the utterer himself, so long as he continues to
lavish his patronage on an Administration which opposes
the restoration of independence to his clients, the " here-
ditary bondsmen." He is not bound, indeed, to aid the
Tories in expelling the Government ; but, at least, if he
were sincere, he would be neutral. There is only one de-
fence which he can possibly set up ; and that is, a " com-
pact" utiderstaading with these Whigs, that they are really
to fulfil his announcements, by " becoming Repeaters ere
long." The Whigs, when censured for their communion
with Mr. O'Connell, deny it hotly. "If Mr. O'Connell
chooses to support us," say they, "how can we help that?
He has as good a right as any Tory leader to have his vote
and the votes of his followers counted in a division, and
we do not sanction his measures, though he is pleased to
sanction ours." That would be a good excuse if it were a
true one ; but it is not true. They have sanctioned measures
of his, and even perilled their own existence upon them ; and
so they will again. Whose measure was the scheme for paying
the Popish auxiliaries with the plunder of the, Protestant
Church ? The measure of Mr. O'Connell, adopted as the
price of his adhesion. And adopted at what season ?
While the Whip retained the Parliamentary strength
which had been conferred upon them by the first election
under the Reform Bill ? No : in those days, when they
could keep their places without his help, they treated him
and his projects with the due disdain. It was not till a
change of fortune, at the beginning of 1835, had reduced
their own force to a minority as measured with the force
of the Tories, that, like the invaders of the new world,
they resolved to employ bloodhounds in their campaign.
Then it was that the brawler, whom they had rejected,
vilified, and even advertised by their Sovereign's lips as a
notorious malefactor, became their guide and master. As
he supported them in Downing street, so they abetted him
in Ireland; each had his own end to answer, and the coa-
lition was complete. There is now between these same
disinterested friends a revived topic of difference—the re-
peal of the anion. So long as the Whigs remain in office, it
must continue a topic of difference still. But as soon as
they can balance themselves no longer in their seats, what
cheek is there to impede :a fresh arrangement, which shall
be based upon national severance, as the last was upon
Church spoliation ? Therefore it is that we are anxious
to know what, on a change of Administration, will be done
with Ireland, not by the Tories, but by the Whigs. That
great confusion will ensue, and some danger to the public,
peace, we sec but too much reason to fear. The chair of
the Repeal Association will be taken from time to time
by men of more consequence and character than belong to
the present prolocutors ; and the people will be deluded
into hope, and perhaps into open sedition, by an array of
names which they have been accustomed to regard
as respectable. They will form a false estimate
of their strength, and too probably presume upon
it. But, if a Conservative Government stand firm—if
it be true to the Crown, to Ireland, to the Protestant reli-
gion, and to the British nation, the Whig accession anti-
cipated by Mr. O'Connell to the ranks of repeal will be
paralyzed, as in the case of the disgraceful league of 1835,
by the indignant resistance of Parliament and the people ;
and, we trust, without even the misfortune of another re-
turn of the Whigs into office. If, however, that evil should
ever recur, it is at least satisfactory to know that it will
not really bring repeal any nearer. It is not because the
Whigs shall have promised repeal when in opposition that
they will effect it if again in office. They have no silly
bigotry or pertinacity about such matters. They work a
political object, like men of the world—not as an end, but
as a means. If it will lift them into office, they take it
up. If it will embarrass them when they have got there,
they lay it down. That was what they did with the appso-
priation clam° ; and that is what they would do with the
repeal.

(From the Morning Post.)
Great is the force of political cant, but happily even that
wears out, and people at last see the truth. The political
cant of " keep out the Tories" has been of no inconii-
derablc practical influence ; but it has had its day, and
now it begins to be pretty generally recognised as mere
fudge, by which many have been deceived. This cant
chimed in with long-cherished enmities and prejudices,
and for a long time the crowd looked no further than the
words. Tile Tories had been a long time in the Govern-
ment, and as every Government must be more or less set
against the excesses at the popular body_against their
hastiness, and violence, and impatience of the restraints of
law—the Tories were looked upon by the great mass with
jealousy and disfavour. Beaidcs this inevitable position of
unpopularity to which all Governments are so liable (and
the more liable in proportion as they do their duty without
fear or favour), it may be that the Tories had faults which

deserved in some degree the retribution of popular dislike
They may have been as governors, too cold, and distant, and
disdainful. They may have been too neglectful of honestly
and frankly explaining to the people the reasons which
impelled them to a policy that seemed harsh. They
may have been too much intent upon carrying on the mo-
narchy. and too little intent upon the great duty of satis.
lying the minds of the people and making them content
with the Government and the laws. Be this as it may,
there was a prejudice—a feeling of enmity; and upon
this feeling the incompetent Whigs have hitherto built
their little edifice of official power. By it, and by it
alone, they carried the Raform Bill. The people were
weary of the Tories, for it somehow happened that, after the
days cf George the Third, there was, in any quarter, but
little affection for the Government ; they were excited
and angry, and they caught at the suggestion which men
of the stamp of Mr. Edward Ellice sent forth among them,
that the time and the opportunity were come for throwing
off utterly and for ever the ascendancy of the Tories.
Antipathies that had slumbered leaped up into new life—
hypocrites who had long served the Tories from interest,
while they hated the constraint of their principles, broke
out into glad revolt. Ambition—jealousy—revenge—which
had been kept under for half a century, all rushed out, to
partake the battle and enjoy the triumph. Thus was the
Reform Bill esrried ; and, for a while, the Whigs ventured
to rest upon this as a soineting positive—something which
they had done, and which entitled them to confidence and
respect. This illusion, however, soon passed away. With
the usual tactics of the Whigs they had been content with
pleasing the people for the moment by exaggerated and
ridiculously absurd statements of the popular advantages
which would necessarily follow from the legislative reform.
They never dreamt for a moment of telling the people the
truth, and taking the consequences. But time soon told
the truth, and the' masses who had gone into theoretical re-
bellion to gain the " Reform Act," and were ready to go
into practical rebellion, found that it was all a cheat or a
misteke, and that they were no whit the better for it, but
rather the worse, inasmuch as the domination of a class
but._a little above one in station; manners, and intelligence,
is far more painful than'the mere remote control of a much
higher class. As soon as the Reform Act became un-
popular, the Whigs were forced to adopt some other party
and gathering cry. They had done nothing to
which they could appeal. All they had attempted
to do had failed. The Reform Act had failed—the
base conspiracy with Mr. O'Connell against the
Established Church in Ireland had failed. But the
old prejudice against the Tories was not worn out. Though
not linger hated so much as they had been, a good deal
of fear of the Tories remained, and they who had turned
against their were especially afraid of what might happen
were they restored. The " Reform Bill" had been pa-
pular on the ground that it would annihilate the Tories.
That blunder had been found out ; but much might still
be done with the sentiment on which that popularity was
founded. The cry was raised of " Keep out the Tories."
It was humiliating enough that a party which had been
for fifty years :vaunting its capabilities for extraordinary
improvements in the principles and details of Government
could, after trial made, say nothing better for themselves
than what this cry implied. But what did the Whigs care ?
Once in the Government, their great ambition was, and is,
to stay there; and they cared little about the character under
which, or the means by whist], they gained that point. Let
them stay in, said their champions. It is true we have no-
thing-good to say of them, It is true that they want the ma-
r-age, or the will, or the power, to do what ought to be
done for the people ; but remember that by keeping them
in you " Keep out the Tories." The force of this cant,
we are happy to say, is pretty nearly spent. It will
serve but for very little longer. People are weary of its
sound, and as for sense, it never had any. " Keep out
the Tories." Why or wherefore should you, 0 people?
A.k yourselves, what harm are the Tories likely to do you
of which the Whiga are guiltless ? Ask again what good
the Whigs can do you, unless the Tories give their as-
sent and their aid to the measure? The Wings tell you
of tlie:r " liberal" principles—they are never weary of
boasting how " liberal" they are, but do you not mark
dot their liberality extends only to themselves? They
keep in their places—they have good salaries—good re-
sidences—much patronage—great influence at Court.
All these things they share among themselves, and this
is their " liberality." But what good thing do they give
you, 0 people ? They tell you of many things which
in their opinion you ought to have, but do you believe
them ? Do you suppose they would sacrifice anything
for the accomplishment of that which they tell you
ought to be done for you? Do you think they
would risk a single hour of office, or even their
share of tickets to a single State Ball at the Palace,
in order to obtain for you or to bring you nearer to any
one of those changes which you imagined would be for your
good ? Experience must have informed you ere this—at
least such of you as observe and reflect—that they would do
no such thing. And besides this, they themselves conress
and indeed proclaim it as their only excuse, that unless the
'Furies consent they have not the power to do what you
wish to be done. " Keep out the Tories " is a very good
cry for the placemen and their connexions, since it is but
another way of saying " Keep in the Whigs ;" but beyond
the interests of place we defy any man of a sober and
rsdorming temperament to point nut what benefit
acezu,s to him or to his cause by " keeping out the Tories."
This is the feeling which is spreading day by day among
the people. This is the conclusion which now actuates so
many of the electors of towns, who have been too long
cheated by the fair words and very " liberal "promises of
the Whigs. Our knowledge of such matters is necessarily
limited, and yet even we could tell of numerous sacrifices,
of painful estrangements and natural losses, to which ten-
ants in the country and shopkeepers and tradesmen in towns
have submitted for the sake of keeping in the Whigs. But
e hat have the Whigs done for them in return ? What sacri-
fice have the Whigs made ? What struggle have they made
for any one of those prineipies which they have declared to be
so important ? What public point have they gained of all
that they have described as desirable, except the one of
retaining official advantages for themselves? What is
there that they have at first insisted upon that they have
not at last given up, in order that they might have the as-
sistance of the Tories to bring the matter to a conclusion?
Why, then, should the people go on making sacrifices, and
quarrelling with their landlords, their clergy, their best
friends in times of domestic trouble, their wealthiest CLIR.
turners, their oldest patrons? What is the gain? The
Whigs can du nothing for them but talk and try--talk and
try, for ever ; but as soon as any matter is really to be
settled, give way to the Tories. Why then keep the
Whigs in office? It is absurd, and all sensible people
.begin to see that it is. The Whigs are not able to be the
efficient rulers of this country. They lack the elements
of seeingth. Like a badly-hung pendulum, they keep ir-
regularly oscillating between the aristocracy and the popu-
lace, but one inch beyond the limits of their official clock-
case they net cc can proceed.
( From the Morning Herald.)
The official statement of the quarter's revenue was pub-
lished last night. It contains little that calls fur com-
ment. There is a decrease on the quarter of more than
80,0001. On the year, the deficiency exceeds a quarter
of a million. The quackery of cheap postage has entailed
on the country a loss of nearly 1,100,0001. during the last
year. The loss upon the last quarter is 253,000/. To
counterbalance this loss, the increase in the assessed taxes
is very considerable. Most people, we suspect, would now
rather submit to the old rates of postage, than be doomed
to meet the increasing demands of the tax-gatherer. It
it worthy of note, that the returns under the head " Ex-
cise " present an increase of upwards of half a million.
~'sf.er all thst has been stated as to the march of teetotalism,
a very different result might, reasonably, have been ex-
pected. We shall, doubtless, be favoured, during the ap-
proaching Session of Parliament, with the imposition of
new taxes, or with an additional per-centage on some of
the old. Our expenses increase in every direction. The
costs of the vast expeditions which we have recently un-
dertaken rema-n yet to be liquidated; nor is it by any
means certain that we have yet escaped our proportion of
the expenses of a general European war.
(From the Globe.)
The Standard last night " out-heroded Herod," or,
to describe its credulity and extravagance yet more
strongly, excelled itself; by the illustration of these dis-
positions. An article headed " Rewards of High
Treason by Lord Melbourne's Cabinet," introduces a
letter from Liverpool which is so full of incongruities
and absurdities that its deceptions would have been ma-
nifest to any one not predisposed to credit anything that
would serve for a peg on which to hang a tirade against
the Government. The writer asserts that he has received
" exclusive intelligence that Frost has been pardoned,
and has been appointed to a respectable clerkship in the
to all
osaewnmdn each of
ordinary
nt
rey statementsconviconvicts
ioctohnle-
Commissariat Department of the colony ;" and that
this is the prelude to seitioiiemd
associates,
sytdyneyeosi
Wtn,at
hseobairttrneoatyedsrree
tapl i
seat to
department
eis
their
ir:evaoie_rf
for him ! We give the most absolute and comprehen-
sive
petition for a
tecontradiction
in
tthis
works, it is ns convicts, under the se-
aad which t
he convictseedsar c
uu
tcpioiotirnodnoiynn, ttioiaesltbrrecoaestntmaren
Cltroalicle
destination with the ordinary directions ; and if Frost,
in
prevalence
raleciaiasee
justified a departure.
the
(From the Standard.)
in the rural districts, of Great
ct:ire' the
se-
verely Government
stringentranss': ni at
tdess 'c
discipline to
d from which
linvari-
ablya'Theuva i
sjatei;eo.
vi,naga ns
harp
of Whig-Radical or Conservative principles in the save-
Britain respectively. Into this controversy we do not
but a
design to interpose ; passage in the Morning
ral large towns, and
Chronicle's article of this morning suggests considera-
tions which, if carefully vieighed and expanded into a
full inquiry, would, we think,
lead to the most
The following
useful results. is the passage
to which we refer A man is not made a
Tory (Conservative) by not living in a town." Cer-
cuidtac rejected.
fabricated letter.
Cer-
tainly not made, but a man is born and educated a
Conservative, because he is born
and educated in the
country, and of country parents; because he is born
G(:d mPlede we say it without irreverence),the country, and man made
free from evil influences, and receives a Christian edu-
is
cation at his father's hearth, and in the church of his
at
inwe etsot
,ovrns,.”
e hope
or true in the moral as in the physical view. When
relieved from all self-application by removal to a coun-
try which is not our own, we can all see this very
clearly. The F Nachman of the country or of the village,

!is, whether gentleman or peasant, almost universally
amiable, honourable, and religious ; the Parisian is what
all the world has too much reason to know him to be ;
and it is just the same in principle with ourselves,
though practically in a less degree, arising out of the
more constant and extensive intercourse between town
and country. Towns are the great corruptors of morals
and the greater consumers of population. This latter
function is the happy counterpoise of the former ; for,
were it not for the constant influx of moral as well
as physical health from the country, to repair the
waste of the town life, the morals of great cities
would in a little time be utterly corrupted. How,
then, stands the matter as regards the proposition of the
Morning, Chronicle. "Men are not made Conserva-
tives by not living in towns ;" but they are born and
educated Conservatives, when they arc born and edu-
cated in the country. They go to great towns, and
there they become Liberals with, and because of,
other town vices. The process is simple and obvious.
The town presents lessons and opportunities in cor-
ruption which are wanting in the country. The
experienced cheat is seen and applauded amid
the rich temptations to fraud, which a town
affor,!s envy and discontent are provoked by
the presence of wealth and grandeur which ;cannot be
enjoyed : then follow the sensual vices, for which
the town affords a field, leading to looseness of life,
which necessarily leads to looseness of opinions, and
looseness of opinions leads to liberalism—more
properly speaking, is liberalism. It is idle to
tell us that town populations arc more intelli-
gent than rural populations. The education re-
turns referred to by Lord Brougham prove that the
children of London and Middlesex are the
worst•educated children in the United Kingdom ; but
the more intelligent, any class, the more anxious will
they be to bestow the blessing of education upon
their children, if they can ; nod it must he the greater
indifference of the parents, not the want of opportunity,
which causes the children of London and Middlesex to
be worse educated than other children. The truth is,
that in mankind generally, as we see it too often in the
higher classes, there is a natural companionship, a sort
of " elective attraction," between vice and Liberalism.
Al, n in their simple unsophisticated state are, with
Christian education, naturally virtuous and Conservative.
This accounts for the predominance of Liberalism in the
abodes of vice, and for its comparative absence from
places where the agencies of moral corruption are unfre-
quent or weak.