The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-29 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOU RNALS.

FROM THE DAILY PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
TIMES. —We yesterday endeavoured to sketch out
the limits within which it would be open to the Conser-
vative Ministry to pursue a variable line of policy, to
accommodate themselves to circumstances, and to make
considerations of immediate expediency their rule of ac-
tion. Those limits were sufficiently wide, embracing,
as our readers will have perceived, the whole class of
subjects relating to trade and revenue, which the Whigs
have recently endeavoured to draw into the category of
party questions. There is something in the very nature
of those questions which obviously distinguishes them
from such as are capable of being determined by fixed or
uniform principles ; and it would be an absurdity to deal
with them by any inflexible method. The fluctuations
of price and supply, the vicissitudes of seasons, the
state of the producing countries, and our moral, social,
and political relations with them,—the revenue laws
and commercial systems of foreign states, the pro-
spects of peace and war, the state of credit and cur-
rency at home and abroad, the exigeneies of the Ex-
chequer— these are all circumstances which must
be taken into account in settling the time, the
manner, the direction, and the degree, in which those

commercial maxims on which all parties are agreed, and
which were first acted upon under the Tory Govern-
ments before 1830, are to be practically applied. To fa-
cilitate the operations of trade, and to provide for the
necessities of the public service in the manner the least
burdensome to the community, are objects which recom-
mend themselves so plainly to the ordinary sense of man-
kind, that no Minister, however stupid, could avoid ap-
preciating them, or, however dishonest, could have any
motive for disregarding them. There can never be any
fundamental difference between Whigs and Conservatives
upon points like these ; and it is idle for either party to
seek to invent one. The only difference is, that the
Conservatives desire to promote the interests of com-
merce without hazarding any disturbance of the
framework of society, without doing injustice to one
part of the nation under the pretence of conferring a
boon upon another, and without holding out to the
people the promise of utopian advantages which no
Legislation can ever confer. The Conservatives do not
aim at accomplishing everything at once ; but they will
do what they can—discreetly, cautiously, and gradually,
with a constant regard to circumstances, and with a re-
solution not to sacrifice commerce to agriculture, or agri-
culture to commerce. It is not by class-interests, either
of Manchester or of Kent, that a Conservative or any
other Government can be permanently supported ; it is
only by giving all their due, and governing for the be-
nefit of the entire nation. What we have exemplified in
the instance of fiscal and commercial questions is equally
true of every other question which cannot be referred to
the category of fundamental principles. Upon all such
questions the Government of Sir R. Peel must be a reform-
ing Government; by which we mean not a Government
which presumes that " whatever is is wrong," but simply
one that does not make the contrary presumption,—a Go-
vernment which knows that society cannot stand still—
that human institutions are corruptible and imperfect
at the best—and that in things indifferent statesmen
can hardly do better than pay homage to public opinion.
There may be even many things not strictly indifferent
in which opposite considerations may be so nearly ba-
lanced that public opinion is entitled to turn the scale.
It would, however, be the greatest possible mistake to
suppose, that because in such matters as these Sir
Robert Peel's will be a reforming Government, it
will therefore be a Government of concession. No
man can be fit to govern any country, who fancies
himself to be making concessions when he is removing
abuses, remedying imperfections, or earring into effect
improvements. Concession implies a departure from
a man's own judgment in consequence of a pressure
from without ; and he who makes a concession ' when
he follows the dictates of reason and common sense must
be either very dishonest or singularly foolish. Conserva-
tism does not mean the preserving everything, but only
such things as are worth preservation ; and, in many
cases, this cannot be done without cutting off a mortified
member, paring down an excrescence, scraping away an
accumulation of time, repairing a breach, or adding a
support. A stationary policy is impossible, and even if
it were possible, it would be not conservative, but de-
structive. Advance, we must ; the only question is, in
what direction ? and when means not ends, the physical
and not the moral department of politics, are under
discussion, all must agree to answer—in the direction of
the greatest practicable utility. Bit there are ends as
well as means, principles as well as details, fundamental
as Well as secondary institutions. It is here that the
true difference between the Conservatives and the Whigs
is to be found, and this difference must be exemplified
by a widely, an essentially different scope of policy.
In being " not disposed to resist such changes as the
altered circumstances of society may require," the Con-
servatives merely agree with every other class of poli-
ticians, and the profession of such a principle would have
been ridiculous if the misrepiesentations of the opposite
faction had not made it necessary. The peculiar and
distinctive character of Conservatives consists in this—
that they are the champions of those positive principles
of Government which we have inherited from our ances-
tors—the principle of civil liberty under the supremacy
of law, and of religious liberty consecrated and justified
by the homage of the nation to religious truth. They
are " determined to maintain on their ancient founda-
tions the institutions of the country in Church and
State." "On their ancient foundations." Not because
they are ancient, but because they are wise, and safe, and
good ; because they answer the purposes for which they
were intended ; because experience has shown that
every encroachment upon them has done nothing but in-
troduce confusion and promote demoralization, retrench-
ing liberty without adding to the strength of Government,
and pandering to popular passions without increasing
public happiness.
CHRONICLE.—Sir Robert Peel, we are told, is to
have a giant's strength, and intimations are given, that
if he expects to retain the confidence of his party he
must " use it like a giant." Speculations are afloat as to
the theatre on which the first grand exhibition of
dynamics is to take place. The Emperor of China is a
protege of the Tories, and Young France is in a less
pugnacious humour than he was a year ago. Besides
this, it is more agreeable to stand by and abuse others
for not fighting than actually to engage in battle, and the
time is past for embarking in a foreign war to withdraw
attention from misgovernment at home. In this exi-
gency, we think Ireland will be selected as a scene for
military operations and vigorous government, and an
effort will be made to grow war as well as corn at home.
But times have changed ; the Irish cannot be dragooned
without some plausible pretext, and the immediate doub-
ling of the army in Ireland, would excite a commotion
here which might weaken the strong Government.
Preparations are, therefore, made, by giving horrible
accounts of outrages at the late elections, most of which
we suspect are grossly exaggerated, and some. we have
reason to believe, purely fictitious. That an election in
Ireland should go off quietly we did not expect. The
prospect of Lord Stanley's Bill, and the recollection of
the continued pourings forth of scorn and contempt upon
the whole nation, in which the Tories have indulged for
some years, might have excited the irritability of a much
milder people ; but had the violence which has been
talked about really occured, we should have had a muc
fuller account of the persons intimidated, and the atroci

ties of the Teetotallers would have been put in a more
tangible shape. It is remarkable, that in most of these

accounts the Orangemen are represented as going to the
poll well armed, and as generally overcoming the obsta-
cles opposed to them. In none of the contests does it
appear that the " mob " used fire-arms ; but in seve-
ral they were fired upon with very telling effect.
At New Birmingham the Conservatives are said to
have retreated " with the loss of two car-

ringes," after firing twice, and bringing down five of the
rioters. In the neighbourhood of Nenagh a contest took
place, and " the multitude, finally foiled, withdrew to
look after their dead and wounded." At Borrisoleigh the
Conservatives routed the mob with their levelled guns,
and found on the heights "barrows of paving-stoles [this
looks like London manufacture] ranged on the moun-
tain's brow," and " a huge rock was detached from the
cliff, and bounded down in the direction of one of the
carriages," still "the electors reached the end of their
journey without the loss of any of their number." Now,
from this account, it is clear that, whichever side gave
the provocation, the Conservatives' were the better pre-
pared for action, and that among the mob many were
killed and wounded. The writer who, belonging to the
victorious party, must have had ample opportunity of as-
certaining the amount of loss, omits the names of the
Magistrates and others who were wounded by the mob,
but makes honourable mention of "police constable
Lyndon," which is very like a bulletin reporting the
loss of Corporal Stubbs and several general officers. We
strongly suspect that, on this occasion, police constable
Lyndon does duty fur the whole "casualties" of the
Orangemen of Tipperary.
HERALD.—A healthy re-action appears to be gain-
ing ground upon the moral constitutions of the Whig-
Radical organs of Ministerial opinion. We are glad of
it. It is a symptom of most favourable augury for them,
and of very agreeable promise to us. They seem to be
impelled, at last, to make admissions which embody a
great deal of truth. 'Whether they do so from the love
of truth itself, or under a force greater than_truth itself,

we cannot yet determine. Are these admissions gra-
tuitous advances, on their part, to a principle from which
they have been so long estranged ? Or are the parties
we speak of but unconscious recipients of the sacred influ-
ence ? Are they magnetised into a state of passive vera-
city ; and only giving active indications of the new intel-
ligence within them, at the pleasure of some unseen

master of the informing spell, who, like M. La Fontaine

. -
at the Hanover-square" Rooms, ever and anon reclaims
the lethargic "subject" on whose deathlike stupor the
electro-magnetic machine and the voltaic battery have
played their artillery in vain,—to animation and vivacity
by a toti4 of the point of his finger ? Whatever be the
true solution of theenigma, it is certain that some of our
Contemporaries can give it. There are some, before
whose eves the startling evidence of facts has from day
to day, developed the fatal tendencies of the career
which their patrons were running—into whose ears the
appalling denunciations of an indignant country against
political compromise and imbecility, without example,
have been thundered from sunrise till midnight,--and
all equally without effect, in recalling them to a sense
of the external condition of public affairs, and the in-
disputably
adverse current of popular opinion setting
in against them ! It is certain, however, that they have
the sagacity to perceive, at last, and the grace to acknow-
ledge,—these " signs of the times." We take great
shame to ourselves that in the Herald of Monday last we
did not recur to these manifestations as the leading poli-
tical " novelty" of the day. They are most observable
in an evening journal ‘vhich takes in high dudgeon our
ent
anticipated articles.
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remonstrances on the inflammatory tendencies of some
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oabtienrgtQß
Peelt hediffiuli difficulties
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andhis
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the depressed condition of trade in the manufacturing
districts and the superadded burden of additional
taxation rendered necessary in order to meet the
hiiteshr it recent
demands of a declining revenue, as the elements of a