The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-05 00:00:00

POLITICAL. SUMMARY OF

MORNING PAPERS.

From an unusual press of matter we are compelled to
relriet ourselves to a brief summary of the contents of
the leading articles in the Morning Papers of yesterday.
Tee 7'totes, speaking of Lord Stanley's Irish Registration
Bill and Mr. O'Connell's' determined opposition to it,
says:—" I: needs no prophet to assure us that this well-
considered Bill must pass. The reign of O'Connell over
the people of Ireland has been established on perfidy and
depravity. It is about to be subverted be justice and fair-
dea'ing. Who can wonder that the tyrant shudders at the
risme of Lord Stanley, and cannot utter it without an exe-
cration:" The Morning Chronicle observes, with refer-
ence to Lord Stanley's Bill :—" Again and again we
intreat the British paiblic not to suffer themselves
to be duped by the professions of Tory legislators
and the titles of Tory Bills. The Bill in question
is entitled a Registration Bill. That title is a lie ! 'The
Bill is a Bill of disfranchisement, and nothing else. It is
a measure expressly concocted to co-operate with the system
of extermination going forward with cruel rapidity in Ire-
land, to leirg about a restoration of the execrable Orange
sway." The Morning Post thus alludes to the same oh.
noxious 13;11 :—" Lord Stanley's calm and guarded perse-
vcraece will aucceed, and to him will belong much of the
honour and credit of abating the foulest nuisance which
row ievades the purity and honesty of the representation of
tee people in the Douse of Commons." The Morning
Herald, in a leading article on the subject of the approech-
Mg East Surrey Election, remarks es follows :—" The
Teames must flaw back on its source, before the current of pa-
litical feeling in East Surrey runs in a Whig-Radical chan-
nell. ' The .31,,rning A,kfrtiscr has the following remarks on
the subject of our Eastern policy :—" The glorious vic-
tories achieved on the Syrian coast, and the final settle-
ment of the differences which existed between Turkey
and Egypt, have fully justified the confidence whit h we
placed in the ability of the Noble Lord at the head of the
Foreign Department, and in the good sense of his col-
icagues in entertaining and giving support to his views.
The settlement in ectestion, upon the basis originally pro-
posed by the Powers, parties to the Treaty of July 15, may
now be said to have insured the general peace, and re-
stored the balance of power, by esniblishieg the integrity
and independence of a vital clement of it. Nor has the mode
in which this has been effected by the surrender of the
Turkish fleet, and the good faith with which the Sultan
has acted, in confirming the Viceroy in the hereditary
pachalic of Egypt, at the instigation of the Four Powers,
left any room to 6elieve that the settlement which has been
effected will be disturbed by any more reservations or pro-
tests, on the part of either the disagreeing or consenting
psi-ties. The rapid success of our arms would have
seemed unaccountable, had not the sympathies of the
Mahomedan population of Syria gone along with them,
and in this alto, though much deprecated at the time,
the event justified the completion of the Quadruple
Treaty, at the moment when the Syrian insurrection
broke out. No means could have been better pro-
portioned to the end, nor could any have been used
which gave less cause to other Powers to dread aggran-
dizement or conquest. Neither has there been the least cause,
throughout the whole warfare, of incut ring any risk of the
Evropean equilibrium by calling its the aid of a Russian
army. Oa this ground especially Ministers may fairly
take credit for not having disturbed the peace of Europe,
by attempting an object with which they were not prepared
to grapple. But it would seem, from recent speeches,
that it was improper as a matter of foreign policy to have
undertaken the resteliviou of the independence of the
Turkish empire at all. According to Mr. Grote and
Mr. Hume, the settlement of the Eastern question,
or, in other words, the preventing of Constantinople
and the trident of the sea from passing into 'new
hands, was not an objsct of such importance to England
as the aid and alliance of France. The plain fact is, that
if the Four Powers had not interfered in the affairs of
Turkey, Russia would have interfered of her own accord,
and I.:ar selfish purposes, and that the former, instead of
being, t:s she now is, a main element in the balance of
European Powers, would have been prostrate at the feet
of the latter. Whether this was, or was not, a desirable
object—whether prevention was not batter than cure—and
whether the Ministry is not entitled to the gratitude, not
only of England, but of all Europe, for having prevented
war, and sown the seeds of peace, and of the civilisation
and peace which naturally spring out of it—we leave our
readers, Tory, Whig, and Radical, to judge."

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.)
(From the Globe.)
We hope the ulterior and undesigned effect of Lord
Stanley's Registration scheme, one-sidsd and party-co-
loured as it glaringly is, will be to fix the attention
of Parliament and the public on the whole system—
not as regards Ireland only, but England and Scotland
also. In the latter division of the umpire there arc
anomalies full as great, and some of which were alluded
to by Lord Stanley himself, on Tuesday, as any
which can be adduced as prevailing in the sister
isle. And even in this part of the empire, which
Mr. O'Connell describes as enjoying a system he would
accept for Ireland, "as it is, whether for good or for
bad"—there arc quite enough defects to render an
equal amount of legislation requisite as that wherewith
Lord Stanley is ready to bless Ireland. Indeed more—
for, in Great Britain as in Ireland, the franchise re-
quires to be rendered more simple, and easily ascer-
tainable, as well as the registration efficient.
Neither object can be attained fully without the other ;
for we assume as part of the purpose entertained by
the legislator, the removal of obstruction and annoyare e
from parties entitled to the franchise—the saving of ex-
pense, and the prevention of litigation—and the drying
up of the various sources of fraud and corruption which
prevail at present—as well as Lord Stanley's one object,
of keeping out unqualified claimants. That is a legit mete
object doubtless, pursued honestly—but it is rather un-
fortunate Lord Stanley's party should aim at it only as re-
gards Ireland—only as ; egards censtitueecies which they
are anxious to weed of opponents. Their former
efforts have mainly gone to swamp the more solid
constituency with masses of drunkenness and depen-
dence, unqualified fur all public duties, except those
preached at taverns, and paid for by candidates' hard
cash. Who but the Tories retained sottish vena-
lity and senile dependence as essential elements of a
system which should represent the true public voice ?
Whom but the Tories have we to thank for the freemen
and tenants-at-will ? (we beg pardon—we have also to
thank some ill judging Liberals.) Who hut the Tories
chiefly profit by those practices noticed by Lord Stan-
ley, in Scotland, of multiplying fraudulent votes—
where, the Noble Lord said, " parties are on the regis-
ter without a foot of land in the country—who, as all
the world knew, never had a foot of land in the coun-
try ?" It, may be too much for Lord Stanley, in his
zeal for purging the representation, to aid us to get rid
of fictitious freeholders, and degraded freemen. But
is it too much to ask Liberal and rational politicians to
look comprehensively at the whole system, and not con-
fine their views to one corner of it ? Shall it be said
that party zeal can crowd the benches of Opposition to
pull the mote out of thei- brothel's eye, while a
" House" cannot be made to pull the beam out of our
corn eye ? Truly the children of this world (Toryism)
arc wiser in their generation than the children of light.
(From the Standard.)
The Globe of last night commences an article on the
Canterbury and Walsall elections, with the following
paragraph :
" The Canterbury and Welsall elections have resulted
in the defeat of the Liberal candidates. We will not
affect indifference when we feel regret. We do sincerely
regret the issue: although, with a knowledge of the power-
ful influences brought to bear against the Liberal candi-
date at Canterbury, and of the unfavourable circumstances
under which the Liberal candidate at Walsall was intro-
duced to the field, we are not disappointed."
Then follows a long dissertation to prove that it was
the influence of Canterbury Cathedral which returned
Mr. Smythe ; but as there is no cathedral at Walsall,
not one word is given to explain the defeat of the
Anti-Corn-lew Leaguers in that town. Surely it
was not Canterbury Cathedral that returned Mr.
Gladstone. Su far from doubting that the clergy of Can-
terbury have indirectly contributed to the restoration
of the public mind in the capital of Kent, we
rejoice to believe in the direct influence of the clergy
everywhere in bringing back the public mind to what
Lord Clarendon calls " the ancient good humour and
good temper of the English people." By their lives
and their doctrines such a body as the clergy of
England must engage the aff.ictions of any right-
hearted people ; and we have no doubt that the
hostility against the clergy avowed by Whigs and
Whig-Radicals has gone farther in crowding ti.e
Conservative ranks than any other cause. Tnat the
clergy of Canterbury, however, have exercised no more
direct influence than that naturally arising from their
fidelity in doctrine, their benevolence, and the blame-
lessness of their lives, is pretty clear from the fact,
that no specific charge of interference is made against
any clergyman, but the other fact, that until
men had recovered from the reform passion, which
prevented their seeing enemies from friends, the
electors of Canterbury returned a Rsdical, and the
citizens have now the enduring affliction of a Radical
Corporation incurred during the same fit of folly. And
again, we ask a light from Walsall: there was no
cathedral there : why may not the same causes which
returned Mr. Gladstone have returned Mr. Smythe
also ? There is no escape for the Liberals as to the
two cases. They must confess that the tide has turned,
and that it is making rapidly on the Conservative side.
(From the Courier.)
The certainty that the death-blow of registration
frauds and perjury in Ireland is to be struck this Ses-
sion will be understood, and cannot be better under-
stood, than by the despairing cries and ferocious
appeals of the faction which rankly vegetates only
from day to day upon nourishment derived from
the pestiferous atmosphere of that hot-bed of cor-
ruption. We need no other proof, indeed, that the
last hopes of faction and O'Connell repose on re-
gistration fraud and perjury, than the ravings of the
Chrenic/c this morning, which does not pretend
to deny the wide-spread existence of these enormous
evils, though they are softened down in its columns into
the more courtier-like phraseology of the " existing
defects of the law of registry," but will not tolerate
their attempted eradication by any other hands
than those of Lord John Russell and Lord
Morpeth, which is just the same thing as to say that
the criminal shall only be tried and sentenced by those
f
who are profiting by the crime. Upon the argument o
f
what is somewhat facetiously still denominated the Re-
form party, that Lord John Fussell, as the parent of
ti a 0 Reform Dill for England, was best entitled and