The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-09 00:00:00

, were they in earnest, to be so niggard of comparative
trifles. In substance, Mr. Gladstone says to the unen-
; franchised operatives, you may become Prime Ministers
and Lords, but you shall not have votes for a Member
of Parliament ; and, to the half famishing operatives,
Sou may realise immense wealth, and possess miles of
property, but you shall not eat untaxed bread, or receive
more than two-thirds of the loaf you hardly earn. The
" well-disposed operatives" of Wolverhampton and Wal-
sall, in their " humble station of life," will quite repay
this Tory proffer of " the envied and highest honours
which it is in the power of this country to be-
stow," if they answer " thank you for nothing." It
is like the priest's blessing, which he offers the
beggar in the fable, after refusing him a far-
thing. Mr. Gladstone knows well enough that the
chance of elevation and independence which it af-
fords to the lower classes is the mortal objection of
the Tories against Democracy. The people of Walsall
will not be so imposed upon. 'hey want free votes
iin
and not lordly titles ; cheap breaslr,andnot manors
the clouds, or dividends of moonshine. It what street
or lane of Walsall stands the foot of this Jacob's lad-
der whose too reaches to Tamworth and points to
Downing-street ? Where are the originals of Mr.
Gladstone's picture of the successfully aspiring poor ?
Is a poor man a mechanical inventor ? He is robbed
of his credit by a rogue, of 11;s profits by the capitalist,
and what he has of success is embittered arid crossed
by the unprincipled piracy which law and lawyers
seem framed to encourage. What a life was James
Watt made to lead by the ceaseless attacks on his
patent ! And Arkwright was harassed by the
same harpies. True, lie died Sir Richard Ark-
wright ; but none of his services to the commu-
nity raised him so high as knighthood. George 111.
dubbed him one of the much ridiculed " Peg Nichol-
son's knights," for bringing up a complimentary address
from the wapentake of Wirksworth. There's merit re-
warded for the encouragement of the weavers of Wal-
sall ! How many of them will it persuade to vote for
Gladstone and a little loaf? And if mechanical inven-
tion does not raise and enrich the poor, will poetical
genius ? Yes ; ask of Robert Burns—Burns the ex-
ciseman—brow-beaten by Tory Commissioners for his
free thought ; or of Robert Nichol and others, on whom
the spirit of Burns descended, without redeeming them
from the dreariness of' his destiny. Let the Walsall
operatives question Mr. Gladstone strictly about this
way up stairs, which Toryism is said to keep open, and
at the door of which stands the ingenuous candidate,
inviting the weaver boys to enter and mount.
The most familiar instances of tt.at, not ordinary
but extraordinary, rising in society of which the Tory
makes an argument against Reform, have been
achieved in the legal profession ; and while in part
owing to great acquirement and skill, they have also
been owing in great part to the fact that a most con-
venient tool for faction is presented to its grasp in the
person of a shrewd, supple, and fluent lawyer. Politi-
cal pliancy is also a main thing. Let a plausible youth
win his way to a University seat by sophisms on behalf
of bigotry ; let him recommond himself to aristocratical
patronage by intriguing against a plebeian Premier,
though gifted with the commanding genius of a Can-
ning ; when expediency requires, or the command
is issued, let him introduce a large measure of reli-
gious Lberty, in the teeth of every principle and pro-
fession of his political life ; let him then propitiate
the bigotry from which he was apostatized by keeping
his own Bill practically inoperative—a dead letter—
s legal lie—till others call it into action and expose
themselves thereby to the clamours of' his followers ;
let him, by cautious and cowardly silence, unworthy
of any statesman or party chieftain in a free country,
hold together a motley crew, with every variety of prin-
ciple and purpose, whom he seems to lead by adroitly
following, and who allow him that unhonoured sem-
blance from the sordid hope of place and profit : such
is the ideal of a proximate Premier, to whom Mr. Glad-
stone would point the gaze of Walsall weavers as one
enjoying the envied and highest honours," and from
whom the poorest weaver, with the spirit of a man,
would turn away in pity or in loathing. The country
profits little by upward paths like these being kept open.
Thank heaven there are better ways ; those of honest
industry, gradual accumulation, and judicious, yet bold
enterprize. In trade, manufactures, and commerce,
fortunes have been amassed, public ability called forth
into its proper sphere, and benefits largely bestowed
on our country and mankind. This is the tree under
whose shade honest ambition and energy have thriven.
The Corn-laws lay the axe to its root. They have
already wounded its bark, and made its foliage
shrivel. And Mr. Gladstone promises the trades-
people and operatives of' Walsall that he will assist
in the destructive process. The Peel philosophy,
which he parrots after dinner, is left unapplied to the
only, or almost the only, department of English life in
which it is neither a fallacy nor a nuisance. What are
the honours and emoluments of factious lawyers or
sycophantic politicians to the operatives? They cannot
start in that path if they would. The vantage ground
is wanting for the commencement, even if the corrupt
heart and sordid cunning be already there. if any
career be open to them, it is precisely in that which
Mr. Gladstone's monopoly policy threatens to close and
fasten. He will have no more men of Manchester and
Salford to make the cry of the labouring poor for cheap
bread heard in the Legislature. " Cheap bread," says
his friend Lord Dartmouth, the sound is " particularly
agreeable," so pray be " cautious." A precious recipe,
to be sure, that of the Tory doctors for the privations
which abound in such places as Walsall ; cut up the
weaver's work ; slice a third from the labourer's loaf ;
cajole, bribe, or intimidate both out of their votes, and
promise the conservation of a " plum" for the one, and
a peerage for the other.
(From the Morning Advertiser.)

The news of the brilliant success which has attended
our arms in China arrives at the present moment to
add additional lustre to the events of the last few
months. Since the days of the immortal Chatham the
foreign policy of the nation has not been signalised by
so prosperous a career as it has run of late in Syria,
Affghanistan, and China, whether we take into consi-
deration the ability with which " the drift of hollow
states" has been detected and exposed, or the energy
with which their hostility has been vanquished. To all
but the opponents of the present Government, this
unprecedented success must serve as a proof of the
capacity that organised it. To them we should not
wonder, after their conduct in Sir James Graham's de-
bate last Session, if it were attempted to be made to
appear to be wholly the result of good fortune. Be that,
however, as it may, we beg to tell those itnaginators
of " luck" and depreciators of merit, that such " luck"
is not the result of accident, but of a combination
of movements and an exertion of talent based upon a
thorough knowledge of circumstances, and adapting
accordingly the proper means to a proper end. The
Chinese question was one upon which the opponents of
Government attacked the existence of the present Mi-
nistry. Aware that it was capable of being misrepre-
sented as a war of aggression for an unjust purpose,
which we always repudiated, and conscious that the
moral sense of this country was all powerful, they did
not scruple to characterize it as as a dispute got up for
the purpose of forcing on China a poisonous drug for
the sake of mere gain. They even went the length
of justifying the seizure of innocent merchants, and the
demand of the Chinese authorities for the life of a
British seaman, in retaliation for the death of one of
their countrymen killed in a Chinese medley riot, and
the poisoning of wells for the destruction of their unof-
fending fellow-subjects. But when the plain facts of the
case were exposed in full debate, no amount of sophistry
from Dan to Beersheba, from Sir J. Graham, or from Mr.
Gladstone, or of plausibility from the most plausible
person of the day—we need not name hint—could
varnish the Chinese as models of morality, or per.
suede the merchants and people of England that a
vote of censure was justly merited by the Cabinet for
not foreseeing what the Emperor of China intended
to do with opium, and for not sending out instruc-
tions to their superintendent for his guidancce in
conjectural cases which instructions could not,
by any possibility, have reached him until after
the events had happened. They could not, in fact,
concur in thinking that Ministers were worthy of
dismissal for resenting the imprisonment of men threat-
ened with death,until they had obtained delivery of other
people's property, to the tune of two millions, situated
beyond the boundary of the Chinese empire, and the
stoppage of the trade, until a British seaman was im-
molated in obedience to its barbarous laws. Well
might the Duke of Wellington exclaim, with his ex-
perience of the wildness, cunning, and treachery, of
Asiatic barbarians, rebuke his Tory partisans, and tell
them that the very thought of the insults and outrages
of their clients " was enough to make the blood boil in
their veins !" We repeat this sentiment with pride and
pleasure—first, because it is truth—secondly, because
it does honour to the heart and national spirit of the
Duke of Wellington—thirdly, because it is eminently
condemnatory of the policy of the Tories—and, fourthly,
because it cuts away from them any opportunity
of converting the ensuing session to factious purposes,
instead of devoting it to the practical benefit of the
domestic and foreign
of
fo of tnhye
momentcount ry .
to
come
there is no party question
be-
fore the Legislature, so far as we are aware, there arc
questions of
immense importance to meet with its un-
dividedand we hope and trust that no
attention ;
sanctimonious opium opinion—no further legislation re-
specting the observance of the Sabbath—no cavilling
respecting equality of municipal or other privileges—
or questions respecting that greatest of all bugbears, the
repeal of the Union—will prevent them from being taken
into due consideration. The people are tired, and justly
tired,y aorferi
everything
in the shape of legislation, but that
which shall practically contribute to their benefit—and
the
grlibta—tnaenncti itfhienirinterests the coursests b ofe theot ensuingons ute Seds,
sion of Pa
the conseq
horizon at the present moment, will grow into a
course
"aces, though only a speck upon the
dark cloud, and overshadow the land with a
convulsion, which it has never, hitherto, witnessed.
It may be supposed that we have wandered from our
subject, but it is not so. We began with a justification
of the foreign policy of the existing Government, and be-
lieving that there is no point upon which it can be fairly