The Sun.
London, England, 1841-09-02 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC J9URNALS

FR.OH THE DAILY PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.

GLOBE.—It is fortunate for the Tories, that on com-
ing into power they find the country in a state of order
and tranquillity which many former years of their own
misrule had rendered exceedingly rare, until" the acces-
sion of a Liberal Government, by making proper conces-
sions to public opinion, has removed all excuse for ex-
travagant demands by satisfying those which had justice
ter their foundation, and - reason for their advo-
cate. It will not be denied that the late Minis-
try
leaves our domestic policy- in a tranquil, if not
in a prosperous, state ; and while we claim
for the Liberals the merit of the freedom from any-
thing like convulsion or agitation which the people
at this moment display, we unreservedly charge upon
the obstructive policy of' Toryism a great share of the
distress which afflicts a considerable portion of the com-
munity. While the Whig Government has kept the
people obedient to the laws, the Conservative Opposi-
tion has deprived the mass of the population of the bene-
fit that would most probably have arisen from the mea-
sures proposed by the late Cabinet ; and if the country
is tranquil under the disappointment it has sustained,
the cause is not to be found in the overthrow of its
friends, but in the expectation of receiving relief, how-
ever reluctantly granted, from the more powerful hand
of its enemies. In plainer language, the starving mil-
lions of our population, who show nu symptoms of vio-
lent excitement at the accession of the Tories, are calm
and unmoved only because. they hope, from the policy
and fears of the Conservative body, such a revision of
the Corn-laws as never would have been conceded from
the same quarter on any nobler or wiser principle.
The leaders of the Tory party in Parliament, and
their principal organs among the press, have declared
that something must be done. The Times has threat-
ened to cast off Sir Robert Peel, if he does not at least
moderate the burdens that press on food ; and the new
Premier himself has declined the support of all who
require the inviolability of the Corn-laws as the price
he must pay for obtaining it. As far, then,, as the lan-
guage rd himself and his principal journals can bind
him, the new Premier is pledged to do something ; and
it is to know what that " something" will turn out to
be, that the people are waiting—in an attitude of repose,

it is
srrtrAu, Neib)uAilouct—heimheosst ipiiritietnosfethad
enfo:xu
iiinolvioings.
pinatsesraegs.
etof
Sir Robert Peel's speech of Friday night is that which
ought at present to animate all Conservatives :—" I
have been opposed to the Hon. Gentlemen opposite for
a period, with a short interval of nearly ten years.
I have attempted to conduct that opposition—
reconciling, at the same time, the frank ex-
position of my opinions, and the open and direct
condemnation of their measures, with the absence of
every expression of an acrimonious nature—the absence of
every feeling betraying in the least degree any personal
hostility. Placed in that situation in the opposition
where some latitude is necessarily allowed, I have in this
way endeavoured to discharge the duties imposed upon me;
and it certainly is not upon this occasion, when, accord-
ing to the apparent feeling of the House, that opposition is
likely to be attended with success—it is not, I say, upon
this occasion, that I shall allow myself to be betrayed into a
course different from that which I have hitherto pursued."
They who hare had to fight the Conservative battle
in the ranks, carefully as it was their duty to guard
themselves from all feelings of a personal na-
ture, cannot claim the praise of having always ab-
stained from acrimonious expressions and violent hos-
tility—to them, it would be no praise ; for, as in actual
combat, the common soldier must meet blow with
blow, fierceness with fierceness—though a serene and
gentle temper always becomes a leader—so in the politi-
cal struggle, the tone of controversy on the one side must
always serve more or less as an example to the other.
But, if it has unfortunately not been in our power to
imitate the dignified equanimity and courteous demea-
riour of our great chief hitherto, there is nothing to pre-
vent our following his example now that the battle has
been won. A certain vigour, not to call it ferocious-
ness of resistance, was necessary while the strife lasted ;
i
not as a mere retaliation ; mere retaliation s unmanly
and unchristian, but in order to prevent the triumph of
our principles being snatched from us. Now the same
description of resistance would not be innocent, because
the necessity for it exists no longer. The triumph of our
principles has been secured, and it is unworthy of good
and generous men to look for any other triumph.

THE FALL OF THE LEAF.
(From the Non-Conformist.)
The amendment on the Address has been carried by a
majority of ninety-one—Ministers have resigned—the
reform season has terminated—the leaves, long since
brown and withered, which gave some appearance of life
to the tree which the people once prized so highly, have
been whirled from off the twigs to which they adhered
—and now comes winter—stern, cheerless, unproductive,
but not useless winter.
Of the outgoing Ministry we need not speak. Our
opinions of them have been declared frankly and fear-
lesAy. The spring-time of their official career was in-
deed promising—but the fruit they produced was not in
proportion to the profusion of early bloom. That they
gave the country several valuable measures we have no
disposition to deny. But we affirm, without fear of
contradiction, that their liberality always increased
with their difficulties, arid as uniformly died away
in the day of their power. When they could have
done " the State some service " they were most unwilling
—when they were most willing their ability was gone.
They have managed to dispirit and divide reformers—
to fritter away an overwhelming majority—to produce
general distrust .in the professions of liberal men—to
leave the constituencies of the nation. in a state of un-
precedented corruption—and to hand over at last the
powers of office to a .Tory majority of fearful strength.
The advent of Sir Robert Peel to power is the com-
mencement of a uew era in the progress of reform—the
setting in of political winter. Toryism, like frost and
snow, may have its uses, but like them it is pinching in
its operation, possesses no kindliness, and serves only to
cheer one in the prospect of the nearer approach of
another spring and summer.
Let those who will, expect liberal measures from Sir
Robert—we cannot. Putting entirely out of view the
whole past course of the Honourable Baronet—his edu-
cation, his evident tastes, his measures and his no mea-
sures, it is impossible to anticipate anything more than
a seeming reform out of the materials with which ho
will have to work. Were his political tendencies less
aristocratic than they are, and his ability far greater
than he has yet displayed, he would be loath, we think.
to risk his present supsemacy by attempting to work out
any extensive measure of good to the people by means
of his present supporters. We doubt much whether the
attempt would not _bring down upon him instant defeat.
The Buckinghams and the Winchilseas, and the hun-
dreds of others who now tolerate Sir Robert because he
can better do their work than another man, are not
likely to turn at his bidding and do his. Peel is but an
apparent leader—he is a rea fag.
And now, let us mark the likelihoods of the case.
The Corn-laws constitute, at present, the great burden
of the suffering people. Are these likely to be so effec-
tually modified by the Tories as to afford seasonable re-
lief ? We answer, No ! The wily Premier will make
a show of concern for the people, as he always does, and
will attempt to cozen them out of every sound principle.
We have his own word for it that la :3 will adopt the
sliding scale—we have his further assurance that he will
not pledge himself to details. We deem it somewhat
worse than foolish to attempt to build hopes of such re-
lief as the country craves, upon so narrow and so nnstable
a foundation. By adopting the sliding scale, he gets rid
of the free trade principle, which gave to the measures
of his predecessors the only value they possessed—he re-
tains u!I the evils of the present system—its fluctua-
tions of price, its encouragements to gambling, its fre-
quent derangements of our whole monetary system—
and he shuts out the advantages which even the mea-
sures of the Whigs would have partially secured—steady
and extended commerce, general employment, and fo-
reign markets for our manufactures. Sir Robert will
give the poor man a slice more bread for his
.penny, if
he can earn it ; but he will do nothing to assist the in-
dustrious artizan in finding and making the most of his
employment.
If, however, the elementary materials which go to
make up the party of which Sir Robert Peel is leader,
coupled with the Preinier's -declarations, are considered
insufficient to contradict the new-born expectations of his
liberality, surely the dictum of the Duke of Richmond,
and the avowed satisfaction of the Duke of Buckingham,
ought to dispel the dream. Men's wishes, not their
reason, must be father of the thought. Nothing what-
ever in the professions of the party, nothing in their
past history, nothing in their known character, nothing
in their present conduct, fairly prompts art idea that
they will prefer serving the people and saving the
country to carrying out the objects of the landed in-
terest. The very necessity of a great change in our
commercial policy, in so far at least as the importa-
tion of corn will be affected by it, is in so many words
denied. Is Sir Robert to be liberal " mnljre lui?"
Will not the country take his own word for his fu-
ture course, backed by the emphatic declarations of his
own friends ?

A NEW ISLAND.—For a long series of years
an island has been gradually forming between Witton-
'less and Oyster-ness, in the Humber, and its present ex-
tent, if we are correctly informed, is not much under 300
acres. Mr. Read, of Burton Stather, has taken it from
the Woods and Forests, or in other words, the Govern-
ment, and on Thursday week entered into possession. Se-
veral steamers were plying between it and the adjacent
coast the whole day, and many of the neighbouring gen-
try visited " Bead's Island," the name by which the new
settlement is to be henceforth distinguished. The sur-
face is covered with a fine crop of grass, and about a
hundred head of cattle are already feeding where nothing
but fishes ever fed before. There is, as yet, but one
house, the occupier of which is the person tkppointed to
look after the rest of the inhabitants.--Hull Rockingham.
SILLY HOAX AT THE LONDON HOSPITAL.
—ln the papers of Friday last appeared a paragraph,
headed " Mysterious Affair," in which it was stated that
on the previous Wednesday night an Italian had been
taken to the London Hosital, owing to having re-
ceived some dreadful injuries in an affray which had
shortly before taken place between him and some fellow-
countrymen. The statement has since turned out to
be false from beginning
to end. It originated in a
very silly hoax played by one of that giddy class cfyoung
men called " medical students." A book is kept at the hos-
pital, in which it is the duty of a person appointed for
that purpose to enter all cases of accidents, &c., brought
into the hospital. On 'Wednesday night this person
happened to be absent from the institution, and on the
following morning he found a memorandum lying on his
desk stating that an Italian, named Giovanni Rosalio,
had been admitted to the hospital with his skull fractured,
both legs broken, and that he had received a stab with a
dirk in his hip, in an affray which had occurred inFetter-
lane. This " mysterious affair" was sent to the papers,
anti thus the 404 was disccwered.