The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-08 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

(FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.)
(From the Morning Post.)

•
The Morning Chronicle, jusiiy apprehensive that the
British Parliament will not tolerate !Or i.nother year the
continuance of an unconstitutional fraud, destructive of
the rights of the legitimate constituencies of Ireland, and
at once derogatory to the character and adverse to the
wholesome action of the entire Legislature, has begun
to prepare for the dangerous conflict in which it foresees
its party, which maintains and abet; these fl tgrant
abuses and incalculable evils, will speedily be involved,
by opening against Lord Stanley, the determined and
irresistible antagonist of perjury and fraud. the flood-
gates of foul and senseless invective. Lord Stanley and
the strong and virtuous party in the House of C,,mmons
will see in this conduct of the Ministerial organ a new
proof that his Lordship isa vigorous and forwidable assail-
ant, and is sure to he a triumphant one, of the abominable
corruptions and vices which pollute the registration sys-
tem of Ireland, and pervert it, from its legitimate and con-
stitutional purpose of presereing and purifying, to the
wicked and pernicious purpose of vitiating and destroy-
ing the national representation. We cannot resist the
temptation to cull a few of the choice flowers of Minis-
terial eloquence with which it is thought decent to gar-
land a measure the principle of which has the sanction
of a sure majority in both Houses of Parliament, and
the enactment of which Ministers were only able to post-
pone in the last Session of Parliament by the fraudulent
introduction of a measure of their own, avowedly for the
same object, but never meant to he carried. " Infamous
attempt," " Impudent pretext," " Outrageous aggres-
sion," " High crime and misdemeanour," " Pestilent
hostility to Ireland," " Tory harpies," " Unclean birds,"
" Vulgar assassins," " Viper." These are a few of the
amenities by which the organ of the Administration
shows its respect, and that of its patrons, for the
majority of both Houses of Parliament, and seeks to
prepare the Irish people for peaceable and dutiful sub-
mission to a future enactment of the Legislature. But
the duty of obedience to the Legislature is inculcated,
and the feelings calculated to produce it are instilled, by
this organ of the Administration in terms yet more
direct and impressive. The Registration Bill is, ac-
cording to our Ministerial monitor, " an attack upon the
vital principle of Irish liberty, and will, of course, be en-
countered with the fierce determination of men fighting
for their being. The vital spark will survive his (Lord
Stanley's) envious thrust, and serve to excite a flame
that will scorch and blast him ! The people of Ire-
land challenge him ; strong in their cause and in their
union, they call for their destroyer, hold forth the tem-
pered steel, and bid the viper try his teeth again."
From all this, for it is not mere raving, rational people
will draw only one inference, viz., that the present
Ministers of the Crown have arrired at the conviction
that they must go out, and have begun already to ope-
rate upon the established system of Whig tactics, in
the persuasion that when ence more upon the Opposi-
tion benches an insurrection in Ireland might be a
useful and convenient incident enough. The Whigs
and the Morning Chronicle are doomed in this instance
to be disappointed. Lord Stanley's Bill will be car-
ried, and there will not be an insurrection in Ireland to
compensate and console them.
(From the Morning Herald.)

Amongst the many important questions bearing upon
our foreign and colonial iatereSts, little has been said,
for some time past, about one scarcely less mo-
mentous than any which has recently occupied so
much of public attention—we mean,
__ the question of
the north-eastern boundary line. The adjustment in
a satisfactory manner of that point is indispensable to
the maintenance of our North American possessions.
We have justice on our side,—and, we may be said to
have necessity. It is impossible to yield to the de-
mands on this subject of the Republicans of the United
States, without virtually ceding to them possession of
the Canada:. The Canadas are of infinite consequence
to Great Britain. In itself, the country is of prodigious
value ; and its race of British colonists is unsurpassed-
in all the best social qualities by any people on the
face of the earth. Of the political importance of the
Canadas, it is difficult to form too high an estimate ;
their commercial importance is absolutely incalculable.
The United States were lost to Great Britain by
gross mismanagement on the part of our rulers. The
coaversion of these States from dependencies of the
British Empire into noisy democracies has not (as we
venture to think) added much to the sum of human
happiness. England lost, at the time of the change, a
large portion of her dignity and moral influence ; while
she has since gained an extensive, precarious, and at
times unprofitable foreign trade, she has, to at least the
same extent, lost a secure and most valuable colonial
commerce. The United States have become scenes of
bustle, noise, and money-getting. In that country—
" the new country" as the inhabitants delight to
term it—many of the least amiable feelings of our
nature have full scope, and amongst these unamiable
feelings, we may be permitted to class the sentiment.
of deep hatred with which Great Britain is regarded
by all in America who incline to the democratic
faction. Let the deep devotion with which the inter-
ests of England were defended by the loyal Canadians
during the late troubles, be contrasted with the bitter
enmity which the democrats of the United States en-
tertain towards the mother-country, and then let the
most profound adept in the casuistry of " liberalism "
venture to say, whether the stock of kindly feeling has
not been lessened by that, the first of our modern " glo-
rious revolutions," and whether any cause that shall
suffice to weaken the bonds of affection between men of
the sante race, be likely to stregthen the solid interests
of the human family. Whatever be the value of these
suggestions, about one fact, at all events, there can be no
dispute ; and that fact is, the longing desire of the whole
democratic party in the United States to wrest the Ca-
nadas from England. The northern republicans have
learned to regard every portion of the soil of America
as theirs by a sort of indefeasible right. They do
exterminate the red Indians without scruple ; and
they would, if they possessed the power, exterminate
the Canadian asserters of the supremacy of England
with quite as little hesitation. The English power in
Canada is a source of weakness to the federal re-
public. That federation is, in ail probability, destined
to endure for but a brief period. Often already has
it been on the verge of disruption. Let, however, the
period of its existence draw to a close, while the
power of England shall remain unshaken in Canada—
and it is far from being impossible, that the next r-
neration of Englishman may witness the re-union of
a large portion of the United States with the British
Empire. The possession of the Canadas, at any rate,
places the United States, in the event of a war, to a
great extent, at the mercy of England. The posses-
sion of the Canadas places at our disposal the ener-
gies of a hardy, intelligent, and most loyal race—fur-
nishes harbours of the best description for our vessels
of war—and enriches us with the materials of a colonial
trade, which, if wisely prosecuted, might render the
expenses even of a formidable war of little moment.
In point of real value, a colonial trade is second only
to a home trade. Compared with the colonial trade
which England might easily create, her foreign trade
is absolutely contemptible. Tire advantages of a colo-
nial trade are, in fact, the advantages of a home trade
on a smaller scale. A colonial trade is free from
the insecurity that attends all foreign trade. A colo-
nial trade is never afflicted with " panics." A colonial
trade is, in thott, susceptible of regulation by the
rulers, with whom it rests to regulate our home frade.
The colonial empire of Gre A Britain might :afford
endless scope to industrial enterprise, and might
be made to minister, in a degree scarcely calcu-
lable, to the wealth and power of the mother cowl
try. True it is, undoubtedly, that the tendency of
modern " philosophy" is to rin es Tat color.i.:s as worse
than useless—as " burdens" on tire parent State. Let
it not be forgotten, however, that the tendlncy of the
sane " philosophy" is to represent a large portion of
our labourers—the real strength of every country—as
" a surplus population," and, consequently, as " a bur-
" den" on the country which their energies enrich and
defend. 'The beautiful t• philosophy" in question de-
scribes, in like manner, the monarchy as a '' burden"—
the order of nobility as a " burden"—!.l,e Church as a
"burden." Private charity, too, is, (if the tenets of
"liberal philosophy" may be accepted) a pernicious
thing ; while a public provision for the helpless poor is
classed amongst the unforgivable sins. The best affec-
tions dour nature, as well as our most honoured insti-
tutions, rank, in short, according, to the Alalthusian and
free-trade " philosophy,"in the category of " burdens"—
if not in that of " nuisances." Our noble colonies can
afford to be classed with our labourers, our monarch,
and our nobles.

Morninglc,r Co hr
ireosn i ctlea.t)
It is a lu(eFltryemthitnhge fnr t Sir Robert
Peel is the son of a cotton-spinner Having himself
turned the fact to account in one of. his speeches,
admirers follow their leader ; and the glory of institu-
tionshie
that allow tha lowest in origin to become the
highest in station,
in addressing
now an established common-place
of Tory rhetoric addressing the multitude. In the
dearth of poputar topics under which the party labours,
such a theme is quite i
a godsend. At Conservative
Operative Associations it s invalu ible. On the hus-
tings it may be used as a set-off, against cheap bread
and extension of the suffrage. The Walsall Tory can-
didate has grasped it greedily, and we beg to add the
following passage from his 'Wolverhampton speech to
the beauties of Gladstone already enumerated ;..._
" The object of the Conservative Associations was to build
and not to destroy. The well-disposed operatives of the
couutry felt they had a common welfare and a common in-
terest in tisa noble institutions of the land ; they felt that
their benefits were not confined exclusively to the rich,
the noble, and the great; but that, under the happy and
well-balanced Constitution of England, the poorest subject
might rise IP attain the highest position in the land, and
that his interest, his comforts, and his welfare, were equally
protected and studied with that of his more fortunate neigh-
! bonirs:—(Loud cheering.) They saw numerous instances
of persons who once walked in •a humble station of life,
enjoying the etyied and highest honours' which it was in
the power of this eneutr •
y to bestow ; and he hoped and
believed that they would be enabled to witness many simi-
lar instances."

On the face of it, this promise goes rather too far.
Those who hold out so magnificent a lure ought pot,

( were they in earnest, to be so niggard of comparative
trifles. In substance, Mr. Gladstone says to the mien-
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 reaiisc immense wealth, and possess miles of
property, but you shall sot eat untaxed bread, or receive
more than two-thirds of the loaf you hardly earn. The
" well-disposed operatives" of Wolverhatrpton 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 nothine." 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. They want free votes
and not lordly titles ; cheap bread, and not manors in
the clouds, or dividends of moonshine. It what street
or lane of Walsall stands the foot of this Jacob's lad-
der whose top 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 h;s profits by the capitalist,
and what he has of success is embittered and 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, he 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 Mat, 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 recommend 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 liberty, 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—
' a 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 sveavers 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
wart in that path if they would. The vantage ground
ie wanting for the commencement, even if the corrupt
heart and sordid cunning be already there. It any
e,s.r,er be open to them, it is precisely in that which
Mr. Gladstone's monopoly policy threatens to close and
listen. He will have no more men of Manchester and
S,..itord 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
-greeable," 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
e (net r'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 Chatbam 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 servo 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 imaginators
of " luck" and depreciators of merit, that such " luck"
is not the result of accident, but of a combination
of movements end 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 !mgt.'s
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 unot-
fending fellow-subjects. But when the p!ain facts of the
case were exposed in full debate, no amount of sophistry
from Dan to Beersheba, from Sir J. Graham, or fiom Mr.
Gladstone, or of plausibility from the most plausible
person of the day—we nce.l not name him—could
varnish the Chinese as models of morality, or per-
suade the merchants and people of England that a
vote of censure was justly merited by the Cabinet for
riot foreseeing what the Emperor of China intended
to do with opium, and for riot 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 bad obtained delivery of other
people's property, to the tune of two millions, situated
beyond the boualary 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
p rensdplyir,itbeocfatubsee
because
itledaoseush—onfiorusrt, to
time it
heart is
andut national
Duke of Wellington—thirdly, because it is eminently
traTiosencaol
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 interests of the country. Although
there is no party question of any moment to come be-
fore the Legislature, so far as we are aware, there are
questions of immense importance to meet with its un-
divided attention ; and we hope and trust that no
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, of everything in the shape of legislation, but that
which shall practically contribute to their benefit—and
they are right—and if in the course of the ensuing Ses-
sion of Parliament their interests be not consulted,
the consequences, though only a speck upon the
horizon at the present moment, will grow into a
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