The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-02 00:00:00

SPIRIT of, the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM Till .DAILY PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
CHRONICLE.—The present General Election will teach
the public in how far the Reform Bills have secured the pur-
poses for which they were intended—to obtain for the people
a due control over the administration of their affairs, and relief
from the long course of Oligarchical misgovernment, which
had existed from the commencement of the reign of George
the Third. The Tory f mtion was stunned by the passing of
the Bills. The first Parliament returned showed some symp-
toms of sympathy with the opinions,_ the wants, and the in-
terests of the people. The Tories, however, soon recovered
from the shock. The impatient intrigues of their adherents at
Court, already forced upon them, in the last days of the reign
of William the Fourth, a premature attempt to rally and re-
gain their old ascendancy. Although that failed, the second
election, in 1854, satisfied them that, great as had
been 'the power given to the people by the franchise
extended to large towns, the 501. clause, and other alterations
in the provisions of the bill, secured to them the counties, the
corrupt constituencies of freemen, and the smaller agricultu-
ral boroughs. All parties seemed to-rejoice in the preponde-
rance given to the landed interest by the bills. Beyonl these
elements of power, there were others in their hand., with
which the Reform Bills had not interfered. A large majority
of the House of Peers had been of their own creation. The
aristocracy and squirearchy remained attached to a system so
completely protective of their exclusive interests. They had
been long cogrupted by the allurements of titles for them-
selves ; employments in the professions, and at Court, for their
families,- as well as by the temptation of sinecures and places
in the Revenue departments, and the Colonies, for their indi-
gent and hungruelatives. The Church, the Megistraay, the-
Array and Navy, the Bench and the Bar, the Public depart-
ments, the, Bank, the East India House, anal other
monopolist. instieutions (for nothing escaped .the 4igi-
lant'eye ier keen 'grasp-of the Pitts, the George Roses, the
Dundases, the Castlercaghs, the Jenkins'ons;the Seymour', and
their retainers), werenearly.exclusively filled with Tory crea-
tures and dependants. The Toiiet submitted in a.tspeararice
te, but never in reality accepted, the new Constitution.. The
Reform Government remained constantly in a minority in the
House of Lords. In Seotland and in Ireland. where the new
constituencies returned large majorities of Liberal Members,
the Scotch and Irish peers have never elected one single repre-
sentative peer to support a Liberal Government. No fact can
illustrate better the resistance steadily and constantly in action
to the measures of 1832. At last the silent preparations of the
oligarchical faction for another attempt to seize the Govern-
ment, and commence a system of reaction, have been matured,
and we see them in full action in every direction around as.
Luckily for the cause of Reform and the people, they have
chosen an occasion for their momentary success—if they are
to succeed in attaining a majority in these elections—which
necessarily insures their ultimate and complete overthrow.
HERALD.—We have scarcely space or tune enough left us
to call attention to the remarkable coincidence of the results of
the Westminster election with the election for the city of Lon-
don. Yesterday Westminster returned (like its elder sister)
a Conservative at the head of the poll, and, oddly enough, as
in the case of the City return, so in thii of Westminster—
there is, as yet, a dispute, which of the other candidates is
duly elected, with the candidate at the head of the poll. We
cannot anticipate the returning officer's proclamation of the
numbers to-day ; and therefore reserve until to-morrow a
few words which we have to offer on the pretensions of
one of the candidates whose fate remains undetermined.
In all the Saturnalia which enliven our streets at
this exciting period of a general election we have witnessed
nothing comparable to the grave assurance—nay we must call
it the effrontery of the Globe of last evening. The Globe was
one of the offenders, the tricksters, whose practices we have
denounced in a preceding article. It thought proper, on the
launch of the enormous—invention, which announced Lord
John Russell as heading the poll—to " pursue the triumph and
partake the gale" with ° all sorts of exulting demonstrations.
Having thus been a party to the deception—(for this argument
it is indifferent whether we consider it a designed or accidental
deception )—which was thus practised on the country, it avails
itself of the Sheriff's proclamation—what to do ? To apolo-
gise for the " mistake," so to call it, into which it hal been
betrayed? To point out to its readers, with some little touch
of candour, the gross m'srepresentationt of the Whig-Radical
Newspapers on the subject? No. But to abuse—in terms
selected from the vocabulary it studies (in common, we pre-
sume, with the " leaguers" of which it is the accredited organ)
—the " Tory Press" for publishing the return list of the Con-
servative Committees.
ADVERTISER.—Though it is perfectly impossible at the
present moment to arrive at any accurate conclusion as to the
ultimate result of the struggle now agitating the country, the
Tories are daily making the welkin ring with their shouts of
triumph, as if they were already secure of victory. It is true
that the foul blot which London and Westminster have per-
mated to be inflicted upon-their escutcheon—by allowing
their representation to be divided with the Tories—may well
serve to encourage the feetionists in their onslaughts upon the
other constituencies of the empire ; but in the manufacturing
districts, where the more galling pressure of monopoly stimulates
;victims' into more determined resistance—where the elector
is daily jostled by the starving operative, to whose support he
must either contribute in the shape of poor-rates, or to whom
society must look with apprehension as its enemy through ne-
cessity—the Tory threat and bribe become less effective before
a more potent influence, end monopoly has les; chance of
triumphing over the interests of trade. Such, for instance,
was the case in Nottingham, where Mr. Walter, who, but a
few weeks Since, by a heavy purse and a hollow profession of
sympathy for the poor, succeeded in usurping the representa-
tion--has been, with his 'fory colleague, Mr. Charlton, re-
*ttiel-edr• rather, we rutty s.g2 which .would
hart been literakefilie ease had lie-tverees46- the 'poll—with
the strongest eXpression of 'Npular. isidignation.• In recording
this defeat of its champion, the Times treats the labouring
classes of Nottingham, in whose, " sweet voices " it recently so
much exulted, as a " riotous and lawless mob," a 'S ruffianly
portion" of the community with whom the Tory candidates
felt a laudable horror of coming into collision, and
therefore abandoned the contest. The fact is, the " ru'ffianly
portion" of the Nottingham community were all in the pay of
the Tories, as was shown by the reports of the riots which
lately appeared in the Advertiser; but this portion was, for-
tunately, too small to hold out the least chance of their carry-
ing the contest by the bludgeon. Mr. Walter and Mr.
Charlton accordingly resigned—as the Times would claim
credit fur them—to prevent " civil strife," and the " almost.
certain loss of life." The Times, however, speaks truly when
it asserts—" That the tranquillity of the town has been pre-
served by the retirement of Mr. Walter and Mr. Charlton, is
certain; but it adds,—" very general regret has been ex-
pressed by their supporters that they did not allow them to
register their votes in their favour"—which in plain language
means, we infer, that the bludgeon-men were anxious to.break
a few heads for the credit of their craft.
POST.—How much—how very much prouder is the posi-
tion of young Mr. Attwood, who was within ten votes of beat-
ing Lord John Russell, the leading Minister of the Crown, in
the first city of the empire ! He, who has been known to the
public but for a few years as Member for Greenwich, who has
no lordly title to attract the vulgar, who has no Ministerial sta-
tion to appeal to, who has no Government patronage tobestow,
who has had no lofty opportunities such as his opponents has so
long possessed, of earning the public confidence and applause—
he polled 6,212 votes, while Lord John Russell, with so many
advantages which Mr. Attwood has not, polled no more than
6,221. Surely, then, the position of Mr. Attwood, though in
a minority of nine, is a far prouder one than that of Lord
John Russell. He came so near his titled and influen-
tial competitor by the force of high talents, indomi-
table energy, sound knowledge, and unvarying good
humour. These were his claims to support, and they
brought him within nine of Lord John Russell,
the leader of the House of Commons, and the most influential
of all the Ministers of the Crown. Such titles to support as
he possesses will not wear out, but for many years may be
hoped to go on increasing and improving. It is a noble and
just excitement to his ambition that already he has been so
near defeating the leading Minister in a contested election for
London. But suppose his opponent stripped of his Ministerial
influence, as he soon will be, what would become of him ? Sup-
pose Lord John Russell a private man, again attempting to
contest the City with Mr. Attwood on equal terms—who can
doubt the result? For ourselves, we have no doubt of the
matter. Meantime, let us congratulate our readers that, not-
withstanding the great confidence of the Ministerial party, that
the new policy would enable them to carry all before them in
London, they have lost two votes—a London Conservative
merchant has come in at the head of the poll, and Lord John
Russell only escaped being beaten by nine votes out of 6,221.
TIMES.—We wish the Poor-law Commissioners and their
masters joy of Nottingham for a few weeks to come. The
dearly-bought and much-prized victory comes too late. The
sound of anti-Poor-law triumph may seem to have died away
for the motnent at Nottingham, but its echoes have by this time
spread irony one end of England to the other ; and if the man
who first raised the standard in that town (and whom neither
this temporary discouragement nor the scurrility of the NVhig
press-can deprive of his true position in the country)—if that
man has been tricked and jostled out of his post, a hundred
others have alredy stepped forward to follow where he led.
" Non Hydra secto corpore firmior .
Vinci dolentem crevit Herculem."
The work has been already done ; the decision of public opi-
nion has been already spoken ; and the Treasury is not bottom-,
less (thouglt the deficiency is), nor is there so accomplished a
purist as Sir J. C. Hobliouse to superintend the processes of
" gagging" and " thumbing" in every town. However " ge-
neral and unequivocal" may be the " delight" of the Pooor-law
faction at Mr. Walter's failure, we tell them as confidently,
nay, snore confidently than ever, that their days are numbered.
The Whigs may have gained a seat, and the men of Notting-
ham may have lost a character ; but the cause of the poor is safe.
GLOBE.—Lord John Russell, with that confidence in
the integrity of his principles and purposes which has
marked the-whole course of his public life, cast himself
upon the support of the City of London ; founding kis
expectations of being returned as one of its represen-
tatives on its approval of the great measures of fiscal
and commercial Reform which he, as the representa-
tive of the Government in the House of Commons, had
brought forward, and on which an appeal was to be
made to the country. From the moment on which it
was known that his Lordship hair determined on taking
up this bold and proud position, the whole artillery of
Tory rancour was opened upon him. The power-
ful corporations, which hold their central seats in
the City of London, interested in the perpetuity
of restrictions upon trade, put in force the mighty
influences at their command against the statesman
whose liberal .policy was diametrically opposed to their
exclusive systems. His enlightened and. expansive
views rebuked their selfishness. The determined pur-
pose with which lie pursues the course dictated by a
sense of what is required for the promotion and secu-
rity of the public interests, convinced them that their
attempts to perpetuate the monopolies to which they
cling would prove abortive, when assailed by his
arm,
nerved by a sense of right, and encouraged
by public opinion. Hence the extraordinary exer-
tions used to defeat his election by the close corpora-
tions and combined class interests of the metropolis.
The advocates of corruption in the Corporation also
aided in the general design. Lord John Russel's at-
tempts
to include the City in the great measure of Mu-
nicipal Reform, and his subsequent endeavours to abolish
its senseless and injurious exclusive jurisdiction—which
is at once a source of enormous expense to the citizens,
.and of embarrasment and delay in the prevention, detec-
lion, and punishment of crime—were industriously
charged upon him as a contemplated innovation of the
City s privileges ; and urged upon the livery as a reason
why they should exert themselves to prevent the invader
of their chartered rights from being elected as their re-
presentative in Parliament. These, and other considera-
%KWh were employed as auxiliaries to aid the Tories in