The Sun.
London, England, 1841-06-17 00:00:00

re,.

PRICE 5d

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS

FROM THE 310 ;KING PAPERS 0? THIS DAY.
CH R ONICLE.—The " Committee for conducting the
election of the four Conservative candidatee "fur the City of
London has put teeth an Address, accompanied by end adopt-
ing e well-keown fraudulent statement on the comparative
" reduciien of taxeti in " by the Reform Ministries, and hr the
Tory Ministry %ich pieceded them. On this statement they
rely for steiwing " who they are that add to the taxation and
burdens of the country, and which party it is that really prac-
tise* economy aria retrenchment." That is to say, they rely nil
it for a deception. Can any Government be fairly praised for
comparative economy, as this (torment praise; the Tories,
which, basing the-power to eff et every possible reduction, and
profes.ing to have actually effected every po•rible reduction,
leaves its sueeeseers the opportunity of retrenching -to the
amount of three indium= more anntsury? Now this is what the
Tory Government did, by the figures in the Conservative din
eument. After ten yea: sof settled peace, the transition from
war having bad time previously to subside, holding power eon.
tinuonelv, and supported in every attempt at economy by their
political opponents, they can es. to not having carried te.
iron:lime:it so far as they might have done by thri c mil-
lions of pounds sterling per annum. In economising. every
thing &peels epee* the first trial. The Whigs had not the
expenditure of left/ to reduce from. They only came in afier
ten year. ef retrenchment professedly carried to the uttermost.
Tory eeenomy had knocked ap. Had it beetles vigorous as Whig
eeenomy, nothing would have been left for reduction.' Yet
-Messrs. Lyal! and Company confess to three millions lett. The
balatice, which is that of their own figures. demolishes their own
arenment. The character of the reductions has something to
do with the question. The Tories, resting on the corn mono-
poly for support, while they enabled that monopoly to tax the
people's bread for the increase of rents, also consulted the in-
erease of tents by netaxing agticultural horses, malt, hides,
stFee„ thus working the fiscal machinery of Government both
ways for the benefit of a class Their opponents have taken a
different course, untaxing, for instance, the means of informa-
tion, in uewspapers and correspondence, for the whole commu-
nity, and at bligth lay ing the axe to the root of fiscal mi,go-
vernmeut by striking at the imposts which keep down industry.
Besides, what an omiseion from the debtor side of the Tory ae-
count is this monster tax of ell, the bread-tax itself INV hose
week is that? . Or is it the less onerous becaueb the revenue
gets noting by it? As to the party whieh put on that, it
last,er very little what else such a party may have taken off.
TIMES. eaThe wretched insincerity of the Whigs as a poll-
sleet coterie has Lane teen proverbial, even among t.ho.e who,
front various moiiree, still continue to support them. When •
their conduct is talked ores tete-a-tete in the Liberal clubs,
• the prevalent feeling respecting them, how much soever a re-
gerd to party interests may refrain from giving it publicity, is •
one of reproachful and deep-rooted distrust. Some of the
more plain-spoken Radicals, such as Sir W. Moleswm tie, Mr.
Leader, and Mr. WaLlev, have, on earions occasions, had
the msnlioess to tell the Whigs in Parliament what their no-
minal followers really think •of them—nay, even Joseph
Hume himself has sometimes culled the selected
phrases of invective, to hold them up to the scorn
and detestation of the county. " What signify their fine
promises and professions." (say the club oracles of
"we cannot. trust to one of them. Like all other hypocrites,
their disclaimers and pledges are invariably a time-serving
cloak for beee deception and perfidy." Whether they promise
to organize a free and easy style of education, or assure the
Dissenters that Church-rates shall be abolished, or positively
declare that there shall be no settlement of the Irish Tithe
que,tion without an appropriation clause, or vociferously depre.
cate the insanity of alter lig the Corn-laws—these vows of theirs
have either vanished into nothing, or ended in absolute evil.
Perhaps, lam-ever, there are few things that more palpa-
bly illustrate the political profligacy of the Whigs thare,;,
their phaiisaieal diatribes egainst bribery and corruption.'
" Purity of election" hvs been their cant cry for a good many
seers past. _ln professing an anxiety to secure that object,
which of course is infinitely desirable in iteelf, they have Ind_! formly east the most foul and slanderous aspersions upon the
er, at constitutional party who, on other points, are opposed to
their Min sterial policy. 'Toryism and bribery, they have re-
eatedly declared, are synnnymous terms ; and ahhoulth the
Conservatives have either devised or supported every feasible
ineaure that could tend to suppress a practice which
they generally bold in abhorrence, still the Whigs have
! perseveringly calumniated them as the systematie abet
tors of corruption and perjury ; nor here the Govermnept
Newspapers been slow to insinuate that they have gained their
preponderance in Parliament rather by the luree of filthy lucre
than by the spontaneous and unbought suffrages of the coun-
try. Now, language like this in ihe mouth of the Whigs—
the Whigs who bought Mr. Kennedy out of Tiverton—the
Whig► who parchesed Celonel Fox out of Stroud—the Whigs
who battered Sir Leith Hay out of Elgin—is surely not very
decent. The humiliating fact, too, that they have recently
been compelled to order their own Attorney-General
to prosecute the 'nefarious bribery whereby, in a sore strait,
they secured St. Ahean's for one of their Bedchamber de-
pendents, will not soon be forgotten.
HERALD.—It is especially in the practices of the phari •
saieal Refermere—who are so rigid, so pnnetilious, so delicately
susceptible to the ;at-amount claims of the elective franchise to
be exercised iii ies unspotted
.purity and freedom_that the
hypocrisy of our days is must monstrous. Show us
the man, represen'tlive or elector—show us the constituency,
county, or borough—who are most declamatory on the hustings
or in Parliatnent—or who exilt• iate ever most Irge:y and ,
indignantly in placards, letters, and hat dbills, on " triumph of i
the representative principle;". " duty of electors ;" " integrity
of the elective franchise," &c. ; and we shall venture, in three
casts out of five, to detect the moe wholesale
jokers In " seats," in " candidates." in " votes,"
in the "establishment. of Lifluenees " (as local bribery
is delicately called), in all the &fit, and crooked ma.
mgercent by which teen's c insciencec are bought, sold, and
‘• worked to profit." To this set of intriguers belong your
poliiical agitators, of every elese under whatever denomina-
tion. To obtain some objects which the law will not enable
them to accomplish, and to the accomplishment of which they
earliest rend the law—they agitate by means that are in them-
selves un'autid. On these principles (we speak new only of
Engltsb ele. tioiis a d proceedings connected with them), the
.dical Registration Clubs, such as that preposterons ore-
els which has e,tablished its mummeries and i is juggles inislam
Ic-
bot:e, atel the I tel;erous but active lodges of the Anti-Cornlaw
Association,— avail themselves of means which neither the law
of the lan.l nor the theory of the Constitution, nor the antici-
pations of common sense ever recognised,—or can recognise as
compatible with the very notion of " election." Where ex-
ternal forces like these are brought into action, with all the
intimidation that ateompsnies, and all the had frith that re-
sults fro:si them, what becomes of that free will—that on-
Easse t keigmente— that unrestricted declaration of conscien-
tious °plane' which arc of the very essence of " election," in
the proper acceptatieu of that. word ? Such forces,—like
pledges exacted from candida es who are trembling in a balance
of return or rt jection, that is controlled by the finger of the lead •
ine constituent or body who dematel those pledges,—such forces
really eliminate no " election." Returns thus procured,
and pledges thus extorted, are results due to intimidation,
and to " duresse," net to choice. There is, however, another
section of this crass of pseudo-purists, who are not guilty of
bribery, who abstain from all intimidation, who (for aught we
know to the contrary) are not s yen members of Registration
Clubs, nor Anti-Corti-law Associations; and yet, who by their
very acts and deeds, and even still more by the influence of
their example—do quite as mach violence to the real principle
of election. There arc two notable facts to be remembered of
this section, to nhirh we ieseeettnlly invite the serious atten-
tion of the Citi:ens of London. They are, That the offenders
we speak of are among the most strenuous advocates, and the
meat eager chosen champions of " purity of -election :" That
the most deeply-comme' ed of such uffenders, and, in his own
peison, the most flagrant violator of that principle, is—Lord
John Russell.

POS E.—We never read anything more grossly unjust and
unreasonah'ei than the complaints of the beaten Ministerial
party, that the Conservatives will not encourage any tlis-
cusieon in the House et CommonS upon the Corn-law ques-
tion. DJ not iLse complainers remember that they and
their 1 aders have apicaled to the country ? Why, then, do
they net go to the country ? Lord John Russell has himself
stated that, circumstanced mite and his party are, a discussion in
the 'louse of Commons would he wrong. He has eclared that he
had advisedhis colleagues in the Cabinet to that effect. What,
then, can be more absurdly unjust than the complaint of his party
that the Conservatives give no encouragement to such a die-
cussien, but rather avoid it? To be sure they da. They
want to co to the country. The Ministers have said that the
country is with them, though the House of Commons is riot.
The Conservatives deny the truth of the aeseetien, and de-
mand that it be put to the proof with as little delay as possible.
But from this proof the Ministerial party recoil. 'f hey are very
reluctant to make that arpeal which they say will show that the
country is with them. '1 hey shirk it upon all sorts of
small excuses. They invite the battle, and then seem
mushdisposed to rue away from it, or at all events to keep it
off 43 long as possible. They are like condemned criarrials
erying nut in the dock, " A long day, my Lord." 'lie -Con-
Fervat ives have no fear of the discussion;. hut they wish to l 1 ave
it ie the place to which Ministers themselves Lave appealed,
namely, the hustings in the first instaece and subsequently .
the netv Parliament. There I.l,oevewnalirtilhelefreetava,rd,:
the battle, but err challenger; seem afraidytov„ehoimie to
l'l'Tthleiseyan'qduauk
vern-
hatr„e ti,i-iiaten i n
fixed.the
'the; thhaZtlirdnits7-
tinet presen'iment that the hour of their defeat
, is at hand.
ADVEIt'fISER.—Like Yorick's skull quite chop-fallen,
without a word to mark its own grinning. appeared the Tunes
ye,terday morning, reference to the%.gl
at the London 'tavern. The effects
ferrous demonstration
this demonstration
wire at once felt throughout the who' iehmet metropolis, inspiring the
advocates of free trade with confident and. ove.rwheiming
the monopolists with hitter ees air.
sustaitied by their party, the
Tinter
published the
in the shockd
ithout comment are
atol the lieraidland Post contented
sett C. 3 with indnlging in most doleful, yet ludicrous, complaint%
of the imi.ropriety anti indelicacy of Lord John Russel;
loeing, himself to he
put in nomination as a candi-
date for. the representatioa of the City. With the impotent
iudguation of drivelling scurrility, the Herald exclaim's, " We
fosarud gin
mil
t take leave to express, ire
our strongest protest
against the step
which Lord John Russell has cdopted in
offering himself to represent the City of London." And, iu
support of this pompous protest, our querulous Cotemporary
continues to argue, " His Lordship is still a Minister of the
Crown. cwcupyinge probably, among all its Ministers; the
second rank in the persenal confidence of the Sovereign, and
in virtue of leading tbelr party in the House of Com-
mons, filling, perhaps, the first staion iu that Ad-
ministration in point of political importance, and of
loilil.e consideration. In this three-fold capacity of a principal
:Meister .1 the Crown—of a c•ndidential servant and e.elrtser
of the Crown—and of the organ of communication, a- it were,
between the Crown and people io virtue of his position in the
House of Commons-- can Lord John Russell hope to discharge
Os duties of a Representative of the City of London ? Can he
at once discharge his Nlinisterial duties to the Crowe], and his
repteeentative dutks to h's constituency ? Can he, even with
all the advantages of • the ' absolute wisdom' attaching to
e
the Council of three' with which he hopes tocrav bel foarls
of i‘
eoeiated, by the coincident return •
Sir M. Wood, and Mr. Patison with him, can he is-uany
e—as a
f
oistrr sworn to uehold, maiwaite and vindicate the privileges
aaci‘4l"eittntie3'r himself
hoe igrirse greatduties
pOsr iatt ai o t Secretarythet furprodthue Col.onis and
e
of the Monarch, and as ne delegate of a constituent.y at all
tim s to the last degree jealous of and opposed to every di,tinet
assertion of them? Is there nothing indelicate ie the leader
of the Howe of Commons. aml in that pesition almost as
nof the Exchequer controlling the
Is
purse, being _Member for Lori-
:sue:sr a
ofs a
tic Chance
publ l
eer
4,4002 v.hiuhi is, of teccesity, constantly appealing to
She Leei.lature for advances from the national (hods to
enable her to carry cut public works and improvements of a .
character more or less doubtful or disinterested, according to
circumstan CC9-110 w anticipating- its coal duty for the comple-
tion of a magnificent street, or mortgaging irs orphan dues'
to ot,l lan orection of a stiipzudous bridge ; hut. not omitting,
occa,,i'ariliy, to matte sales of corroratiou lands or renta under