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

WITH A

THEATRE ROYAL, COVENT GARDEN.
UNDER the MANAGEMENT of MADAME VESTRIS

THIS EVENING, JAN. 1.
Will be presented Shakspere's Comedy (with Music) of
THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.
Sir John Falstaff, Mr. Hartley; Master Slender, Mr. C. Ma-
thew,; Ford, Mr. Cooper; tenton, Mr. W. Harrison; Mrs.
Furd, Mrs. Nisbett ; Mrs. Page, Madame Vestris; Ann Page,
Aliss Rainfurth, Mrs. Quickly, Mrs. C. Jones.
After which,
The NEW GRAND CHRISTMAS PANTOMIME will Le

repeated, entitled
THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO; OR, HARLEQUIN
AND THE GIANT HELMET.
Harlequin, Mr. C J. Smith; Clown, Mr. T. Ridgway;
Pantaloon, Mr. Morelli ; Columbine, Miss Fairbrother.
Tv-morrow, The Midsummer Night'e Dream, with the New
Pantomime.

Doors to be opeaed at half-past &T.—the performances to
zwinmenee at Seven o'Clock.

Ticket s and plates for the Boat:: to be taken of Mr. Grogan
the Box-office, from Ten till Four, where Season Tickets
may me had upon application.
()Tess Boxes, 7s. ; Second Price, 3s. 6d. ; First and Second
ircles, ss. ; Second Price, 'ls. 6d. ; Pit, 3s. ; Second Price.
2s. ; Gallery, Is.
Private Boat_ to be had solely of Mr. Andz sties, bookseller
167, New I3ond-street.

ROYAL SURREY THEATRE.
Sixth Night of the Grand Christmas Pantomime, and Grand
Dioramic Annual. The principal Characters in the Panto-
mime by the Boleno Family; Mr. Southby, the Popular
CloAn ; Signior Felix Carlo, from Franconis, at Paris : and
Miss Sharpe.

THIS EVENING, JAN. I,
Will be represented a Now Domestic Drama, entitled
MARTHA WILLIS, THE MAID SERVANT.
Martha Willis, Mrs. Henry Vinin.
Supported by the entire strength of the Company,
After which will be repeated the New Comic Pantomime,

_
entitled
HARLEQUIN AND MY LADY LEE ; OR, GOOSE.Y
GANDER AND THE SPELL-BOUND GOSLINGS.

---
HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE THIS iJAY.
Morinlig 57 minutes after 3. I Evening......ls minute! atter 7.

LONDON:
FRIDAY, JANUARY 1, 1841.

We rejoice to find the old year departing amd
the new one commencing with discussions on the
first orineitples of
sibie to co nempiate the abject condition, physics
and moral, of the mass of society throughon t
Europe, while the bounties of Heaven are unspeak -
able, without suspecting that there is somethinig
fundamentally wrong in the mode of administeri
the affairs of society. If discontent be natu rat
to man, we know no reason why it shou;:id
now be almost universally concentrated o n
Government, the creature of man's will, like hi s
houses and his ploughs, which never excite his
anger,—unless it be that Government no longe r
answers the purposes for which it was created. 3.f
h's house, instead of sheltering him from the wi n d
and rain, continually exposed him to the
storm, and acted, like a chasm in a mountain, ;to
draw all its fury on him, if it were also continuali'y
catching fire, and scorching him with its Haze,
wounding him by its down-tumbling rafters, h e
would begin to be discontented with his house, any I
would probably conclude that it would be better ti
give it a prey to the flames than be at the trout A
of continually repairing and upholding it. \
know no other way to account for the general d
content with Government but to suppose it is h:ke
budk a house—a supposition that seems warran pAI
by the manner in which the bulk of the people 3 !-
most everywhere suffer from its proceedings; an d
thy bare possibility that such a supposition may e
correct inakts us rejoice that our Comemporaric s,
at the close of the now departed }ear, have beg :u n
a discussion on forms and principles of Gov& rti-
merit.

We have on two or three occasions lately been
called on to notie,, the doctrines of the Times :m.41
the Port on this subject, and yesterday the latte I-
liad some remarks, transferred to The Sun, %did
seem to give a short explanation of the phenomena.
We do not dispute," it said, " :hat the tendencies
of 4cciety arc towards democracy, but the more pal-
pable the tendency becomes the more incumbent it
is upon dutiful subjects of monarchical governmernts
to resist that tendency." We believe that the Pas t
in this sentence expresses the opinion of the Brea t
majority of the Tories, while it also correctly dc;sig-
nates what has throughout been their conduct,.
They have laid it down as a principle that it is
their ditty to resist the democratic tendencies of
society, and they have acted on that rule midi
great pertinacity and equal rigour. If they
had confined themselves to argument and pe,r-
suasion, we should have had nothing to say
I!2,ainst them, but they have endeavoured to enforce
'Wr own views by many unjust, and not a few bar-
barous and most cruel enactments. Without going
one Sep further, the avowal that the Tories think
it their duty to resist the progress of democracy,
coupled with the fact that they have long acted or.
that prin6ple, both in ofßce and out of office, is
quite sufficinit to account for the discontent of the
numerous democracy who have been coerced and
constrained against their will. To satisfy them:
that this is for ttreir benefit, while they are exposed.
to such an immerse number of physical and moral...
evils, is hopelessly impossible, and as they keenly
feel both the evils, said the rigorous restraints, ca,
any man wonder that the multitude are discon-
tented:

But what is meant, or what can any man mean,
by the ph. ase tendencies of society ? Not surely the
writings or speeches of one or a few persons ? They-
do not give a tendency to society. What is meant,
apparently, is this, that all the members of the
same community being created with a rough kind
of equality, there is a constant tendency, whenever
that equality has been disturbed, to restore it.
That , 'and ever has been, the course of nature. I
,deprives another man of his li-
r- tiv incessantly tries, while he has

BEAUTIFUL PORTRAIT OF
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN,
Can be sent by post free to all parts of the
Empire. Price SIXPENCE.
Sun Office, 112, Strand, London.

MR. AINSWORTH'S NEW ROMANCE.
THE SUNDAY TIMES PROPRIETORS
bt% to announce that they have entered into an En-
gagement with W. HARRISON AINSWORTH, Esq., Au-
thor of Rookvrood," " Crichton," "Jack Sheppard," " Tow or
of London," &c., for the Exclusive Publication of his new His-
turiud Romance, entitled
OLD SAINT PAUL'S,

To be completed in— Fifty-two Weekly Numbery, the first of
which will appear in the columnr, of twat Journa. on SUN-
-1)A. V. Jauttary 3, 1841.
Orders r-Cceived by all Newsvenders. Price Sixpence.
P, inted and published by J. K. Chapman, 72, Fleet-str,,of.

THE CONCLUDING VOLUME OF
SIR E. L. BULWER'S WORKS,
Containing
DEVEREUX,
Illustrated.unifortnly with the preceding Volumes, price Gs. bd.,
IS NOW READY.
Orders received by all Booksellers.
Healy Colburn, Publisher, 13, Great Marlhorough-street.

any hope of success—nothing but an overwhelth-
ing conviction of the impossibility of success puts!
a stop to his struggles—to regain his liberty, and
make himself as free as his tyrant. The course of
European society is an illustration of this on a
large scale.

We know enough of the condition of our Saxon
ancestors to decide that they were divided into
masters and slaves, and that the latter were most
rigorously, and often very inhumanly treated.
What is true of them is also true of almost every
other tribe in the infancy of European society.
Then almost every year was marked by predatory
incursions of contending tribes or nations, which
ended in carrying off men into slavery, or in occu-
pying their soil, and making them slaves in the land
of their fathers. The conquest of WILLIAM of
Normandy, totally unlike modern conquests, though
quite consistent with the freebooting excursions
which were common to that age, ended by his ap-
propriating amongst his followers the bulk of the
land of England. "He bestowed," writes
SNIOL LETT, " upon his uterine brother ROBERT
the county of Cornwall, comprehending 2iB manors,
besides 558 which he possessed in other pro-
vinces. The next brother, ODO, was created
Count Palatine of Kent and High Justiciary of
England with 400 fiefs in different provinces."
His other friends were provided for in a similar
manner, so that the whole of England was ap-
propriated by a very few persons. Now, veer since
that period there has been a continual tendency to
break up into comparatively small portions the
usurpation of the soil thus established. At pre-
sent the number of landed proprietors is almost in-
finite compared to the few among whom WILLIAAL
divided the country ; and only here and there one,
like the Duke of SUTHERLAND, possesses any-
thing like a tithe of the possessions which were
conferred on ROBERT and ODO.
The Legislature indeed has always done all in
its power—by rigidly preserving, as long as possible,
feudal principles, the right of primogeniture, and
strict entail—to prevent this tendency of society,
but its labours have been in vain. When we take
into consideration the many pecuniary bur-
dens which now rest even on the clearest
estates—many of the largest being only
nominally in the hands of one person, the income
going really into the hands of several mortgagees or
annuitants--we shall beCconvinced that the breaking
up of landed property into comparatively small por-
tions has been carried much further than is apparent,
(though the lawgiver, who has been throughout
the landowner, has laboured to prevent this effect),
by the tendency of society to restore the condition of
equality amongst all its members.
But when the soil was so appropriated the people
were in a manner appropriated with it, and for a
considerable period there appears to have been in
general only the two classes of landowners and
slaves. That was the height of inequality, and
gradually the struggles of the oppressed, and the
extravagance and folly of the oppressors produced a
middle class. Towns arose ; opulent citizens pur-
chased parts of the domains of the Nobility ; and
hundreds, and even thousands, came to cope with
the landlords in opulence, and raised themselves
up to be their equals in every branch of ac-
quirement and enjoyment. Finally, to jump to
our conclusion, the numerous middle class, who
could no longer be kept out of political power, were
admitted by the Reform Act to share it. We
maintain, therefore, that the tendency of society,
marked through a progress of a thousand years, is
always to restore that equality which conquest and
oppression originally disturbed, and legislation
sought to perpetuate.
Now comes, at the end of these thousand years, a
still more numerous class, who hare gradually been
throwing off • • . _
were uoorned, and gradually acquiring the rights
and the knowledge of the middle classes, and who
demand their share of political power, as they
have acquired a large share of social power. To
this struggle they are incited by much fell
misery, and by the bright example of their
happier brethren on the other side

the Atlantic. They must be put down, says the
Post, in substance; they must be put down, say
the Tories by their practice, by severe and cruel
laws. Li fact, ever since the Norman Conquest,
one great object of most laws has been to check
the rise of the middle classes, and keep the serfs
from enfranchising themselves. These laws have not
succeeded. The base of the aristocracy has been so
widened as to become almost a democracy, and now
the whole democracy are struggling to acquire an
equal share of power. As the Legislature has not suc-

ceeded in time past, neither will it succeed in future

It will not be able, though guided by Tory coun-
cils, and supported by Tory bayonets, to prevent
the tendency of society ; but it will, as it
has already done, degrade and brutalise the
bulk of the people. Let the Post, or
the Tory principle of setting up Legislation
in opposition to the tendency of society, or of na-
ture, be followed with vigour some time longer, let
the Tories again lay their heavy hands on our h.-
6slation, and the spring of improvement which is
inherent in the mind, and which has hither° en-

abled society to go forward under the many burdens
they have heaped on it, may be too weak to resist
the load, and the equality restored may be the dead
level of the Jumper-fed, priest•ridden population
of Ireland.

The Standard has grown quite complimentary
o the Ministers, but whether from quarrelling with
is own friends or from a mean conviction that it

has erred by abusing them, we are unable to deter-
mine ; we are inclined, however, to ascribe it rather to

temper than conviction, as we know that the appa-
rently tragical pen of our Contemporary is gene-
rally guided by some petty passion. It allowed, in-
deed, its feelings to creep out, when it said that the
expression of its satisfaction with Lord MEL
Bo u RNE's Government " may not be very welcome
at the Carlton Club, or among the people who are
panting to exchange newspaper wages for official
salary," but we believe that it is pretty generally
the feeling of the country.
We should be better pleased with the Standard's
testimony, could we ascribe it to sober convic-

tion rather than to temporary spleen on
account of the rebuke of the Duke of WELLING.
TON, and the general disapprobation of its party.
But whatever motive dictated the language, it is too
remarkable, as applied to that Minister, who has
been so long denounced by the Tories for giving a
" heavy blow and great discouragement to Protes•
tantism," who has been reviled as a semi-infidel,
and spoken of in the Tory journals in the most op-
prob:ous terms, not to be preserved and remembered.
‘Ve copy them from the fiercest foe of the so-called
O'CONNELL Ministry, and the hottest friend of the
Church—we copy from the ultra-Tory Standard
the following wordy

" It would be enough, however, for us to know that
the Premier's conduct is good, as far as England is con-
cerned. We will not rob Lord Palmerston of his just
praise by any reference to the foreign policy of the
Government ; it would be enough—we repeat it—for
us to know, that, with whatever motive, Lord Mel-
bourne governs well, to be satisfied with his govern-
ment ; but when we remember that among the aspi.
rants to his Lordship's succession there are persons,
like Lord Ellen rough, whose fear of a Catholic
question' would cause them to strangle the Reforma-
tion itself ; and when we further know that an Ellen-
borough Ministry would, instead of being, like the pre-
sent, pressed into the right path, be pressed from that
path, we see abundant reason for contentment with

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