The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-20 00:00:00

POLITICAL SUMMARY OF THE

MORNING JOURNALS.

The Morning Advertiser of yesterday contains a leading
article on the subject of Lord Stanley's Irish Registra-
tion Bill, in the course of which our Contemporary ob-
serves :—" Had not his Lordship and his followers been
encouraged by seeing the professed friends of Ireland
hesitate to use the advantage of their position to place
the general interests on a more secure basis, Lord Stan-
ley and tke Tories would never have dared to introduce
their abhorred Bill." The Morning Herald returns to
the subject of the late vial of Lord Cardigan in the Howe
of Peers, and observes, with reference to the verdict,
" had the Earl been triei before the fifteen Judge', all
sitting together on a special commission, we have no hesi-
tation in saying that they would—that they mutt—have
come to the same decision as did the Pee,-composed
Court of the Lord High Steward." The Times
in a trading article suggested by the state of
our foreign political relations, remarks as fol-
lows:—" Nobody can tell what is to he the result of
the present state of our relations with France or with
America ; and this incapacity of judgirg as to results when
it is so nearly general, and under existing circumstances so
apparently irremedi dile, must be considered among the
beasiest evils that can afflict a nation, short only of war it-
self." The Morning Post contains a lengthy article on
the subject of the Church, the object of which is to show
that strict Church principles and discipline are making
rapid progress throughout the country. The Morning
Chronicle remarks, with reference to the Earl of Cardigan's
recent trial in the Lords :—" Let us hope ti at the di' grace
of this t ill sill not bane been incurred in vain, and that a
purer and more rptional system of judicial procedure will
one day take the place of the present contemptine system."
FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTREDAY.
(From the Globe.)
We yesterday drew attention to the inferiority of
Lord Stanley's Registration Bill, as compared with that
of Lord Morpeth, and slightly glanced at the inconsist-
ency and injustice of the threatened opposition to the
second reading of the latter, on the weak pretence that
the propoied franchise is a violation of the integrity
of the Reform Bill. The self-stultifying arguments
by which the Tories endeavour to justify their prefe-
rence for Lord Stanley's Bill, and their determination
to effect the rejection of Lord Morpeth's better mea-
sure, receive a characteristic illustration from the Post's
attempt to aid its party in their work. To show why the
Conservatives ought not to vote for the second reading of
Lord Morpeth'sßill, although they approve of its principle,
the Post has recourse to a curious process of ratiocination.
The priuciple of it is, the prevention of false swearing.
It aims at the very object they have professedly most at
heart ; and yet the Conservatives ought not to vote for
the principle they approve and the object they supremely
desire, because the bill threatens to invade the Reform
Act, and re-opens the mighty question which so agitated
the country ten years ago! Now, this would have
been a very good reason for not introducing Lord
Stanley's Bill of last Session. If disturbing the Re-
form Act is a thing so much to be deprecated, that
no Conservative can consistently vote for a Bill which
does it, then no Conservative can consistently vote
for the Bill of Lord Stanley. Sir R. Peel, we re-
member, used to check the ardour of his partisans, when
they wished to attack the Reform Act, by telling
them it would not be long before its authors would do
so. He thought the pascion for Reform would outrun
the passion for re-action. But he was mistaken ; and
be who took up his Conservative position upon the Re.
form Act, has allowed his partisans—the zealots of re-
action—to cut away the very foundations of the posi-
tion he professedly took up. Curiously enough, the Post,
without meaning it, tells the Conservatives what they
ought, according to every rule of duty and logic, to do
respecting the second reading of Lord Stanley's Bill :
" The logicians tell us of a sophism, plurium interroga-
tionum, where several propositions are put together which
cannot be either affirmed or denied in the lump, because
part of them are true, and part false. They further tell
us that the way to avoid the meshes of this sophism is to
take each of the propositions separately, and affirm or
deny it, according to its truth or falsehood. Now, this is
just the way to meet the legislative sophism of Lord Mor-
peth's
We quite agree with the Post. This is the logical
reply to the B:11. 'rhe second reading is the time for
affirming one of the propositions of the Bill—the prin-
ciple of the repression of perjury at the registries ; and
therefore the Conservatives are logically and morally
bound to affirm this true principle. To affirm what is
to them a true proposition, is as much a duty as it is a
duty to deny a false proposition.
(From the Standard.)
Vs e have put two plain questions to the admirers of
Lord Morpeth's Bill, neither of which any of them has
condescended to answer. First, we have asked, why if
the Bill is in other respects an excellent Bill, as Mr.
O'Connell says it is, is it necessary to engraft upon
it a reduction of the qualification ? It might be
very well to say, after abusing Lord Stanley's Bill for
12 months, this is a vile Bill, but we will take the
sting out of the " Scorpion "by throwing Universal
Suffrage into it by way of parenthesis. This might
be plausible enough as regards Lord Stanley's Bill ;
but surely it will not be said of the excellent Bill of
Lord Morpeth, that to be at all palateable it must
be seasoned with a revolution. Once more we crave
an explanation of thiet seeming diffieulty- Oar second,
luestion regards the same topic—the Universal Silt-
irage parenthesis. The reason given for this extra-
ordinary injection is, that of persons qualified to
exercise the elective franchise, according to the scale
eof qualification established by the Reform Bill, there
£re not enough in Ireland. Now we ask, if such
be the case, is not the proper remedy, accord-
ing to the theory of the Reform Bill, a reduction in the
number of Irish representatives y In Great Britain the
Reform Bill gave to one-fourth of the population—
namely, the inhabitants of cities, towns, &c., three-fourths
of the representation, because the towns were supposed
to contain qualified electors in that proportion. The num-
ber of qualified electors was thus made the test, and the
very foundation of the constitution of 1832 : and why
should it not be applied to Ireland, when we are
told that the number of qualified electors in that
island is likely to prove insufficient. But is this likely ?
What ought to be the number of electors for an
Irish city or county? The City of London, we
believe, has 14,000, or thereabouts; and vie Soo by
a return moved for by Mr. Hume, that the city of
Dublin has 17,090, Cork 8,000, Belfast 5,400, Gal-
way 3,267, and so on—so that the disparity of
numbers in cities and towns is not very gm ate The
average of electors in the Irish counties appears by
the same return to be above 3,000, and this we sub-
mit is an average that scarcely calls for an augmentation.l
But it is said that the number is diminishing; the reverse
is the truth. In the county of Dublin and the county of
Longford only is there any decrease since 1835, whereas,
in nine citi s there has been a great increase. The total
decrease in five years has been 878, the increase
11,297—leaving a balance of increase considerably be-
yond tee thousand. In the cities and b >roughs the
cducretse has, in five years, amounted to a solitary unit
—Coleraine Las lost one elector : the increase has
ireea, on the ether hand, 2,241 ; leaving a balance of
2,240 in favour of the increase. These, surely, are not
symptoms of decline in the constituencies.
(Flom the Courier.)
During some days past reports have been in circula-
tion touching certain misunderstandings between Sir

John Harvey, Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick,

and Lord Sydenharn, (late Mr. Poulett Thomson),
the Governor-General of Biitish North America, which
have resulted in the recaliof the former functionary on
the demand of the latter. The kroundwork of the dif-
ferences is stated to have been the expression of an opi-
nion adv,!rse to the propriety of employing the regular
troops for the defence of the Madawaska settleormr,
the frontier British station on the territory in 'dispute
with the State of Maine, such troops having been
ordered there by the Governor-General himself. The
gravamen of the charge, however, is to be found in the
f►ct, as fact it is assumed, that Sir John Harvey not
only ent2rtained the sentiment imputed, but that he
should have chosen, of all men in the world, to im-
part it by letter to that hair-brained person Governor
Fairfield, of the State of Maine, with the addition
that it would hate Leen more wise to hay!! committed

the care of the settlement „„ a posse comitatus, rattier
than to troops. Now here ,n act both of insubordina-
tion, of weakness, and of iinpoliey. It could not be other-
wise than prejudicial to the puLlic scrvice,as rutting arms
dor arguments into the enemy's hands, wherewith to resist
or deny the just claims of this country to deal in the mat-
ter of her own territorial occupation and pcsses6ion
as
might best be for the protection of the subjects entitled.
And it cannot be denied, that the :node itdoptcd for

giving publicity to this dingreement in opinio❑ was
i,oth offensive' and disrespectful towards the superior

ofEeer, the Governor-General.

At all the dinners and meetings in lloss-shire to
cornwemorate the marriage of Sir Cliarles Ross of Balna-
gown, the health of his excellent factor, Wi;liim Laidlaw,
F,sq., was duly remembered. Mr. Laidlaw, it will La re-
collected, was the intimate friend of Sir Wzher Scott—
his early companion in hunting for legendary lore and old
,ballads among the wilds of Liddesdale—his friend and
lend-steward in ma•ure life at Abbotsford—and one of the
few who witne;sei the kit moments, and soothed the dis-
tresses of the illuntrims novellist. Looking back on these
e/ents, we hav: heard Mr. Laidlaw say, that the whole
seemed to him some bright aid svlendid dream whictl
had ended suddenly in darkness and dcsolition. Many of
our Southern readers will thank us for thin iocidental men-
tion of Mr. Laidlaw, and will he happy to L.aro that he is
tranquilly and usefully employed an factor or mankzer of
the extensive estate; of Balnagown.—hiverness Courier.
THE ELGIN BURGIIS.—The statement men-.
funned in our last number, that the Hon. Fox Maule had
consented to stand again as a candidate for the represen-
ation of the Elgin burghs, caused a strong sensation here,
and no little rejoicing among our Conservative friends, as
it was obvious that a division of the Liberal rankswi,h Sir
Andrew Leith Hay would have the effect of returning
Mr. Duff, the Conservative candidat". We now It
from an elector, that, though a requisition was set on foot
to Mr. Maisie, that gentleman has no intention of stand-
ing a.c.raio for these burghs, and will be no party to a divi-
sion of the Liberal rardu. " There is no doubt of the
fact," says our correspondent, " that Mr. Made has de-
dined to stand again, or be a,,y party to divide the Libe-
ral intereit." In this ca-e Sir Andrew ail be returned,
for there is a large majority of Liberals in the district.--
:Inverness Courier.

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