The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-24 00:00:00

AUL

LONDON:
SATURDAY, JULY 24, 1141.

Look before you leap is a homely proverb,
pregnant with wisdom. Sir ROBERT PEEL, aided
by Lord STANLEY and the majority of the repre-
sentatives, is about to leap into the Govern-
ment—has he looked at the means by which he
is to carry it on? We think not, or he would
foresee that his jump must end in a terrible fall.
It is remarked, however, that every individual
expects to draw the prize in the lottery of
life, as well as in the lottery of Mr. litstr,
and in the lottery of the criminal law, though
there be a hundred or a thousand to one against
him. Probably Sir ROBERT PEEL is no excep-
tion to the rule, and, like the burglar, he trusts to
his luck to escape the fate which, in the majority
of cases, overtakes him who violates the rules
of prudence, or the principles of morality.
Sir ROBERT PEEL is to jump into office to
maintain and preserve our unrighteous legisla-
tion. he is to govern the people of England
for their benefit, asking obedience on that

ground; and he is to preserve a tax of 3d. per
lb. on their sugar, in order to enrich a few hun-
dred planters, or maintain in splendour a few
thousand emancipated negroes. He is, at the
:same time professing throughout the same prin-
ciple of governing for the benefit of the people
of England, to tax all the timber they use cent.
per cent., to enrich a few shipowners and Ca-
nadian lumberers. He is also to maintain a tax
on their bread, amounting at this moment to
nearly 40 per cent. on the price of corn, for the
purpose of adding to the wealth of a few thou-
sand idle landlords and mischievous parsons. Sir
Ronma PEEL, then, is to jump into office to
promote the splendour of the few at the expense
of the many, contrary to the very principle he
professes, of promoting the happiness of the
many, or the public benefit, and on adhering to
to which alone, gives him, or any other Minister,
a title to ask or expect the obedience of the

people.
Sir ROBERT PEEL IS to jump into office, also,
expressly to prevent society from going a-head.
.He is to mount on its back as a strong man
mounts a horse, and reinin the whole popula-
la hanging or banishing
tion) starving some,
other:,—to run just as he bids. He is to make
Government, and that Go-
society subservient to
vernment a Tory Government, not Government
subservient to society. ithout knowing, or
Leineat all able to
•
conjecture what will be the
condition
of the community
in the next few
years, and without, therefore, having the most
be required, will
re-
mote conception of what laws
lie jumps into office to maintain and preserve
va-
both the institutions which have no other
being
of but their antiquity, and those, which
yesterday's date, like'the Corn-
laws, serve no
other purpose than to maintain the power of the
aristocracy. Sir ROBERT PEEL is to wage
war
a, 'list the progress of society, and the odds are
that society will throw him.
By what force is he induced to make the
spring, and what means will help him to keep
his seat? First and foremost we place the priest-
hood. They are filled with dreadful alarm at
the reforming sheers of the Whigs, who have
already docked some of their superfluities. Their
consciences tell them that their vocation will not
bear looking at. They are as well aware` as we
are, or better, of the hollowness of the pretences
on which they demand the respect of the people.
They know the utter falseness of their claims to
be the messengers of the Divine will, and they
are sensible that every day's experience—with
the Press, as the real instructor of the people—
demonstrates their uselessness to society. From
this consciousness the bulk of the priesthood are
-nectNsarily and essentially the enemies of a Re-
forming Administration, and they have given all
the support in their power to men who profess a
steadfast devotion to the ignorance of the past.
They are the determined enemies of social pro-
gress, and have done all in their power to push
Sir R. PEEL on the back of society, that he may
keep it from going ahead.
Tlixey are undoubtedly a powerful and wealthy
1)04- of I)
•, men, numbering somewhere about
'l'; tiairiedand d' ' 1' d •
iscip ine , like the Jesuits,
to one end, and
possessing amongst them, while