The Sun.
London, England, 1840-12-21 00:00:00

TILE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY, DECEMBER 21,1840.

Government as respected them, was hostile and op-
pressive. We stated also that this person, notwith-
standing his revolutionary sentiments, was one of the
Ministerial party—one upon whom the Minister relied
in close divisions upon " vital questions," and whom he
has been in the habit of summoning to his support by
Treasury circulars. This statement the Ministerial
Journal -does not deny, but it says—
" Until some instance is adduced in proof of that 'su-
perior virtue' in a Government which refuses the votes
of Members, who, though agreeing with it in most, do
not approve of all its measures—notwithstanding the
high authority which asserts that as the Government
numbers among its supporters such persons' as Mr. Wil-
liams, it ' cannot be firm or respectable'—we shall con-
tinue to think that to accept such support is good in
practice." _ _

- This is, no doubt, the Ministerial way of thinking ;
but we knew that very well before. It was that
against which we contended. We say it is impossible
that a Government can be in the habit of asking and
reckoning upo❑ the support of any Member of Par-
liament—especially in close divisions upon which the
place of the Minister depends—without yielding some-
thing in exchange, and appearing to the world as in
some degree identified with that Member's political
views. We appeal to the sober judgment of all men of
experience whether this is not true, and whether it is
possible for such a connection as we have described to
subsist between Mr. Williams and the Govern-
ment, without the taint of Mr. Williams's politics
being more or less imbibed by the Government.
Therefore—having Mr. Williams's politics displayed
before us in his published harangue, and con-
sidering not him alone, but the class of English
Members to which he belongs—we have said, and we
submit that we are justified in continuing to say, that
a Government connected as the present Government
has heretofore been with that class cannot be firm or
respectable. So long as that connection subsists, the
Government is dependent upon the aid of men who are
trying to subvert all government, and all public peace
and harmony in this country, and, therefore, cannot
have the respect or the confidence of a very large body
of Englishmen, loyal to the monarchy and constitu-
tion, and without whose aid a monarchical Government
in this country cannot be strong. It is very true that
a Government cannot justly be blamed merely because
revolutionary people choose to support it. But this is
not the case upon which we have remarked. What we
complain of is, that the Government depends for its ex-
istence upon these revolutionary people, and asks their
support upon the most trying occasions. It is in
this that we see something very disreputable and dan-
gerous ; and we feel morally certain that the
continuance of such a system would lead eventually
to the confounding of right and wrong in politics,
the degradation of the Government, and the weaken-
ing of every function of the State. It is the business
of her Majesty's servants to seek such support as they
may obtain without any sacrifice, direct or indirect, im-
mediate or remote, of constitutional principles or insti-
tutions. If they cannot obtain such a support they
ought to abandon their service. They ought not to
retain it by any sort of alliance with men whose object
is the disorganisation of society as at present consti-
tuted—the disturbance of the lower classes, and the
overthrow of those above them. It is hinted to us that
the Tories in their party conflicts do not object to the
occasional aid of men whose ultimate political views are
very opposite to theirs. The statement is true, but the
case is not at all parallel to that upon which we have
remarked. It is natural and reasonable that opposition
to the Government should bring into common
exertion all who think that the Government is acting
erroneously. In politics, as in logic, negatives are
universal. But the policy of the Government is a very
different matter. It should be something particular,
fixed, and definite. If the Tories were in office, and
if it appeared that they could not carry on the
Government without asking and habitually receiv-
ing, the aid of men who avowed violent Radical
opinions to their constituents, we should certainly
say that the time was come for the Tories to quit.
But we have reason to be well aware that there is no
probability of the Tories condescending to be kept in
power by the aid of those with whom in ultimate poli-
tics they lifer. It would have been easy enough to
have patched up an alliance with the Irish Radicals at
the opening of the session of 1835, but the Tory Minis-
ter scorned such a proceeding, and apparently relied
upon the Whig party doing the same thing. But if
he had any such reliance he miscalculated. The Whig
party was not so scrupulous, and the very man who
after the close of the session of 1834 was proclaiming
to the four quarters of the world that the Whigs were
a " base, brutal, and bloody " political party, and de-
serving of the active hatred of every good man, was
found at the beginning of the session of 1835 closely
leagued with the Whig party in its attempts to put
out. the Tories. The Whigs regained office, but the
Tories maintained their integrity and honour as a poli-
tical party. We are not sorry for the choice which
the Tories made. From that time the Whig party has
been continually losing power and influence in England,
and never again is it likely to bold the position or a great
political party.

(From the Times.)
Rumours have for some past reached us from various
quarters as to the, instability of a portion—and the most
able and upright portion—of the present French Mi.
nistry. We attach infinitely little importance to the
schoolboys in the streets and the schoolboys in the
press, who amuse themselves and annoy the public by
calling '• Traitrc" in the market-places. But if we are
correctly informed, there are political causes at work of
a more serious character, which may materially affect
the policy and even the composition of the Sault-
Guizot Cabinet. To these we shall presently advert.
But in speaking of M. Guizot as an unpopular Minister,
unpopular as statesmen usually are whilst they are
discharging the most manly and patriotic duties
which they can he called upon to fulfil, it is im-
possible not to contrast that illustrious unpopu-
larity of wisdom and virtue with the revolting
idolatry lavished before the defied representative of
force and oppression. From the fifth, eighth, and
eleventh legions of the National Guard under arms at
the funeral of Napoleon, cries of "A bas Guizot, a bas
lea lraitres," were heard to proceed ; by the side of
these blockheads was a battalion of fanatics, also in the
National Guard, who knelt at the passage of the gilt
hearse of Bonaparte ! Power is a heavy burden, and
mankind a hard taskmaster, to' him who struggles
against their passions and their errors." The words
were suggested to P.I. Guizot by the career of Wash-
ington, but they may be applied by others to his
own ; and if the pacific exertions of Washington
in 1794 exposed even him to a deluge of insult,
who shall hope to perform similar ciuties unscathed?
Toe absurdity and insignificance of these popular
demonstrations prove, however, that they can have
no serious effect in shaking the present French
Ministry ; and if we entertain any doubts as to its secu-
rity, they preened, not from the menacing attitude of an
Opposition which has descended to the very kennel, but.
fromubut.from the difficulties which arc said to exist in the Go-
vernment itself and amongst its supporters, in the
Lhambers and in the Royal closet. In the Chamber
of Deputies there is a section commonly known as the
partv of MM. Passy and Dufaure, which derives con-
siderable importance from its position between the two
extremes, to either of which its adherence would give
a majority. The strength of this particular phalanx is
admitted by the Opposition PapJrs to amount to 50
votes ; and, in the discussion on the Address, M. Passy
took so prominent a part, that it was inferred that
his ambition aims at the Knistry of Foreign Affairs.
Although it is impossible that this party should
abandon the Ministry at the present moment to re-
turn to the ranks of an Opposition which they directed
on a former occasion of far less importance, yet they
naturally exercise a formidable influence over the policy
and the composition of the Government ; and, whether
from past animosities or from private motives of a more
interested kind, that influence is by no means favour-
able to M. Guizot. The leaders of the party refused
to join the Cabinet of the ;29th of October, which they
felt they must support ; but it would seem that they
nourished a secret intention of claiming a more de-
cided share in the command the day after the victory.
M. Guizot was the foremost man in France to stand
in the breach whilst the assault was made by the
desperate and disappointed Ministers of the demo-
cratic faction. All the shades of Conservative opinion
in France rallied round him at that crisis ; and he
retrieved the nation from a situation of great peril and
disgrace by the authority of his character and the
dignity of his language. But it does not follow that
the same support will be given him in the course of
foreign policy which he may subsequently pursue; still
less probable is it that he will conform that course to the
schemes which may be formed in other quarters. It is
no secret either in England or in France that the dif-
ferences which have lately been kindled into all but
direct hostility between the two countries originated in
the construction put by the French Government on the
Spanish Quadruple Treaty, and in the equivocal mea-
sures adopted on the French frontiers during the late
civil contest in the Peninsula. That difference, how-
ever, assumed a more serious shape when it was disco-
vered that at the very period when Russia was pursuing
a course of policy in the East which.was met by the strong-
est remonstrances and the most energetic demonstrations
on the part of England, France was (under the Mole Ad-
ministration) making decided advances to the Cabinet of
St. Petersburgh. The consequences of such advances
were necessarily fatal to
it
Anglo-French alliance ; for,
by accepting them, Russia had t in her power to detach
France from England ; and by betrayingtheimmp,rtuodseenvtelyr
England from France. Russian diplomacy did not fail
to make the best use of the opportunity so
and treacherously afforded to it : and the Eastern
question itself was thought more important as an occa-
sion for breaking up the alliance of the Western crowns
of Europe, that as an occasion for attempting to break
up the Turkish empire. O. n the Spanish question,
then, and on the Russian alliance, there has long been
an opinion in France totally at variance with the union
of that country with England. If such an opinion
existed three or four years ago, if it was professed
by the heads of former Cabinets, and batletiouud by
the King himself, at that time, we cannot flatter our-

selves that recent occurrences have weakened it. We
hailed with great satisfaction the other day M.
Guizot's declaration that it was the policy of France to
abstain not only from intervention, but from inter-
ference in Spain. That declaration was a satisfactory
reply to the observations we had made a short time
before on the relations which seemed to be springing
up between Queen Christina and the Court of the
Tuileries, as far as the Minister is concerned. But the
Bourbon policy towards Spain has too deep a hold in
Bourbon Courts, for its influence to bo lightly aban-
doned. In like manner the Court may turn its eyes in
that direction from which it has hitherto obtained
nothing but contumely, and from which, for every con-
cession gained, ten must be granted. To bring back a
favourite Minister to office, to employ M. Mole in
those negotiations to which his policy has already
been directed, and to use those negotiations as a means
of thwarting the views of England elsewhere—these
are objects too remote to be commented on more posi-
tively at the present moment, but far too probable
and too important not to be pointed out to notice.
To such views we believe that M. Guizot will not
lend himself. After having succeeded in rescuing his
country from one foolish war, he will not readily affront
the chances of another war, as wicked and causeless
as the one we have escaped. The petty satisfaction
of annoying England by an alliance with Russia,
would be a miserable compensation to France for the
sacrifice of those great interests which are common
to herself and to us, but which will ever be subjects
of contention between herself and Russia. M. Guizot
will not, we trust, be the man to do what was repro-
bated by the French press as much as by ourselves
—to bring Baltic men-of-war and Russian influence
down to the seas and shores of southern Europe. If
is but fair to some of the most violent declaimers of
the anti-English Prees in Paris to acknowledge that
they have stopped short of the extreme length of advo-
cating a Russian alliance. They bellow for ven-
geance ; but such vengeance as that would be found to
cost them somewhat too dear. But we are not equally
sure that the same convictions reign in higher quar-
ters ; and we listen with anxiety to the rumours which
we have alluded to, from a conviction that M. Guizot's
retirement from office would indicate the influence of a
sinister policy in the hands of very unscrupulous agents.
On the other hand, his continuance in power strengthens
our hopes that such views, if they exist, may not prevail.
FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF SATURDAY.
(From the Globe.)
The " rights of property," as contended for by the
Tory journals in behalf of the landlords who adopt the
system of extirpating such tenants from their estates
as are bold enough to act upon their own religious or
political convictions, are as destructive of national peace
as they are submissive of private morality. The Sir
Wm. Maxwells aad Lord Montagues—the former of
whom has expressed his determination to rid his estates
of those tenants who refuse to vote in consistency with
his politics, and the latter, who has expressed a deter-
mination equally strong to pursue the same course to-
ward his tenantry who set up rival schools to those he
thinks fit to provide—are the representatives of the
class of landlords in justification of whose conduct
the Tory Press is taxing its powers of sophistry.
The course of argument employed is worthy of the
cause it is designed to vindicate. The end proposed
is good (say these apologists); the means, though
they work injury to individuals against es 'loin they are
directed, are sanctified by the objects they are intended
to achieve. Though persons who are dependent for
their own and families' subsistence on their retention of
their holdings under Tory landlords are coerced by
threats of expulsion into virtual perjury, when voting
under the influence of fear for candidates whose politi-
cal opinions they regard as calculated to work injury to
their country, though by the same process they are in-
duced to abandon their religious opinions, and to offer
to their Maker a form of worship and to profess a sys-
tem of doctrines contrary to what they believe is pre-
scribed in their Bibles, although the man is thus ren-
dered a hypocrite before God, and an apostate before
men, although the barriers of morality be thus cast
down, and the conscious dignity of truth and honesty be
prostrated in the breast of the individual thus reduced
from the rank of a freeman to the abject condition of a
serf—still, say these casuists, " Look at the result !
See how Toryism triumphs I Compare the numbers
polled for our candidate now, with the state of the poll
before the rights of property' were enforced. See
what a re-action has taken place. The Ministerial ma-
jority is diminished--the advent of Sir R. Peel to place
and power is thus rendered less hopeless—the Dissen-
ters are driven from their conventicles to the perish
church—and all this good is effected by the landlords
merely using their legitimate authority over their tenantry.
..way with the cant about the rights of conscience—the
freedom of election—the odious hypocrisy involved
ie coercive voting and compulsory faith and worship !
We scatter these considerations to the winds. For
tenants of our property to vote out of that tenancy
against our candidate, is to pervert our hereditary pos-
se,sions into instruments of rebellion against our autho-
rity. For our tenants to adopt a religion other than
that we profess, is a reproach to our Church and an in-
sult to our understandings, who pronounce it to be the
best and purest in the universe. Away with such fel-
lows from our earth—it is not fit that they should
live !" Such is, in substance, although not exactly in
form, the way in which the Maxwells and the Mon-
agues are justified in their mode of dealing with their
tenantry. .

(From the Standard.)
The Times had yesterday an excellent leading article,
pointing out the promise of an improved state of society,
efforded by the proceedings of what are called " Con-
cervative eervative Operative Societies ;" that is, " societies of
loyal working men," a name which we should prefer as
moreEng/ish and more significant ; but this by the way.
The article of the Tinsel was, like the subject of
it, well calculated to alarm and annoy the Whig-
Radical Ministers, and accordingly. we find one of
their evening organs abusing our Morning Contem-
porary in its most violent manner, and manifesting a
sort of hysterical contempt of the loyal working men,
who:n it not very indirectly stigmatised as little less
than common thieves, angry with the Ministers because
they (the Ministers) have obstructed by a police esta-
blishment the prosecution of all predatory enterpri,es,
ex. gr.:—
" The rates' referred to by the Bolton idlers, who
followed the canvassers for the election of Poor-law
guardians with the cries mentioned by the Times, and who
were most likely hired for the purpose, were the rates'
imposed for Poor-law purposes. Out of these rates the
newly-appointed police are paid. In Bolton, and in other
large towns, there are but too many whose p-edatory and
violent habits render them anything but lovers of a body
whose duty it is, by vigilance and, if necessary, by force, to
guard the peaceable inhabitants from robbery and violence."
This is not a very complimentary strain in which to
speak of any class of Englishmen, and least of all is it
becoming in the organ of a party which climbed to
people,l)o we r uponand the
indseuert,ip support
upon
nf the very
s
t
t
onars,
ehrriyt
corie..l
sgutr.issohisrßtae:
thatuEcbiisv
odgaonbyril
dishonourable
ot
onifhounofdif:l.:caogilbuteBl
rliew3abs
fellow-subjects.
classes
aosat anv
motivesn.
propensityssiutitd
ott
ivn
ilsf,tj.et loarwi yi)dpni
shorul wit
dislike
oetteesolf
to the
I theft:eotistsheee Ministerialespercaroloenasts
hetsinenel
r
not
eamey t a s
)ed themselves as peculiarly descr'tprecedingny T hlneN.influenceV ) gsysoe years,
describedthe cha, pions of the
I working classes, and promised that their Reform Bill,
whenever they should have an opportunity of passing
one, would greatly improve the condition, and add to
the comforts, of those classes. An unhappy blunder of
she Tory leaders opened the doors of office to these
lavish professors, and their first step was to remodel the
House upon a plan studiously excluding the working
classes from all share in the representation, depriving
them even of that virtual representation which they
had previously enjoyed through such places as
Westminster, for example, without substituting
any equivalent. What has followed has been
perfectly in harmony with this beginning. The Whig-
Radical Ministers have made many turnings upon
scionsquestions of State policy ; but in one depart-
mentof legislation they have kept the straight and
consistent line—they have never omitted an opportunity
of legislating against the working classes. Their Poor-
law Bill is an example instar omniu'n.
(From the Courier.)
The Paris papers of Thursday do not contain any
news of importance. They continue to discuss the
Napoleon ceremony with
great avidity ; and it is
evident from their general tone, that it was consi-
tiered as a failure. The opposition journals seem dis-
posed to avenge themselves for the disappointment
they feel at the harmless and apathetic turn
of the affair, by reporting all sorts of apocryphal stories
aboat what was intended to be done. For instance,
one of them says that the authorities being informed
that it was the intention of several regiments to cry
‘. War, war !" when the funeral car passed, directions
were given that those regiments should not form
part of the escort, and they were accordingly ab-
sent. The Conslitutionnel asserts that eight at least
of the twelve legions of which the National Guard of
llatraicsh is composed,
forts." r
tsrtraitors, down with the cowards, down with the
i
In short, if some of the journals
detached
were heard to cry Down with the
are to be believed, there were innumerable cries,
varying in their degrees of absurdity and folly.
For instance, how singularly appropriate was the
cry of " Vive Napoleon" on the occasion of the
second burial of a man who had been dead something
like a score of years. The result of this peculiarly
French
there is no chance either for a Republican
or a Bonapartist movement. The silly inventions to
which we have alluded may be considered as the natural
however, proved one thing pretty
result
oft
he
disappointmentha,
expesienced by the anar-
chists and revolutionists at finding this look-looked-
for opportunity has passed by quietly. The Univers,
in allusion to the subject, says :—" The present Go-
vernment has been fortunate enough to bury in turn
t
Lafayette, the victims of July, and Napoleon. Would
God it may have definitely interred the insurrec-
tionary and Napoleonian spirit—revolt and despotism."
The renorted determination of the Porte to insist on the
and caused some decline in the funds.
deposition of iMeheinet Ali reached Paris on Thursday,

SUPPLEMENT TO FRIDAY'S

GAZETTE.

LORD CHAMBERLAIN'S OFFICE.—DEe. 19.

Orders for the Court's going Mourning to-mor.
row, Sunday, the '2oth instant, for her late Serene High-
ness the Dowager Princess of Reuss Knestritz, Great
Aunt to her Majesty, viz.—

The Ladies to wear black silk, fringed or plain
linen, black gloves, necklaces and ear-rings, black or
white shoes, fans and tippets.

The Gentlemen to wear black, full trimmed, fringed
or plain linen, black swords and buckles.

The Court to change the Mourning, on Sunday the
27th instant, viz. :

The Ladies to wear black silk or velvet, coloured
ribbons, fans and tippets, or plain white, or white and
gold, or white and silver stuffs, with black ribbons.
The Gentlemen to wear black coats, and black or
plain white, or white and gold, or white and silver stuff
waistcoats, full trimmed, coloured swords and buckles.
And on Thursday the 31st instant, the Court to go
out of Mourning. .

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.