The Sun.
London, England, 1841-08-30 00:00:00

LONDON:
MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 1841.

Some Radicals are inclined, we see, to expect
a Liberal policy from Sir ROBERT PEEL; we can-
not comprehend on what grounds. They think
he may have opened his eyes to the condition
of the country, and be now disposed to forward
reforms which he must know to be inevitable.
That seems to us to imply that Sir R. PEEL will
place himself at the head of the movement party
directing it, moderating its ardour, and yet com-
plying with its most reasonable demands. Sir
R. PEEL'S whole life contradicts the supposition.
He entered the Ministry as a servant of the
Tories, and he has ever been faithful to his em-
ployers. The only time when he appeared to
forsake them, he submitted to the Duke of WEL-
LINGTON, but even then he acted for their advan-
tage. He carried Catholic Emancipation to keep
them and kimself in office. With a princely
fortune which might make him thoroughly inde-
dependent—sprung from the people—he has had
no higher ambition than to recommend himself
to the aristocracy. He has aped their manners
and aspired to their alliance. He has laboured
to build up and consolidate a party for their sup-
port: By that party, composed of all the cor-
ruptionists of the empire, lie has been carried
into office expressly to uphold their monopolies.
Can he now turn round and kick down the
edifice he has reared ? We believe not, and
believe, therefore, that he is irrecoverably bound
to the doctrines and principles of the intolerant
and plundering party of which he is the head.
If he had become more liberal in opinion lie
might have shewn his liberality out of office.
Has he done any thing of the kind? Has he
ever deviated from the Tory policy of supporting
every coercive, every restrictive measure,
and opposing every extension of freedcro,
and every removal of restriction, unless it
might be some of which the removal promoted
the wealth of a few planters? No man has
laboured so strenuously or employed so much
sophistry to defend the bread-tax and the dis-
critninating sugar duty as Sir R. PEEL. No man
has professed a more devoted attachment to the
Church, or has more strongly urged the
opinion that it is the duty of the State to
provide religious instruction in the State
religion for all the people. For Sir ROBERT
PEEL now willingly to concede reform—for
him to take the lead in promoting the extension
of the suffrage, the removal of commercial re-
strictions, and giving perfect equality to all
sects---is as wild a supposition as ever entered
the heart of man. It is contradicted by the whole
tenor of Sir It. PEEL'S political life, and by his
latest declarations. He is the mere tool of the
aristocracy and the priesthood, to abate whose
unjust power, extorted we nth, and unbridled ar-
rogance is the end and aim of al; .rf!form. Be-
fore he can become a Reformer, such !is 15 now
needed he must change his nature, and cease' to
lie Sir flonEill
The Right Hon. Baronet is now in his 53d
years and it is remarked, we think by GOETHF,
that If a man have not great ideas before he
reach the age of thirty, he will never be a great
man. To this day Sir R. PEEL has never dis-
played any of the qualities of a great Statesman.
He is in no sense an original man. He is a great
actotj a good orator; lie dresses up a case well
for the irintiV 011 Commens, but he has no love
for truth, and he never passed a compre-
hensive plan of national policy. He acts
always by shifts and expedients. He has no
forethought. His world is the House of Com-
mons. His policy is limited to parties. He
knows nothing of the great natural principles
which govern society, and which set at nought
the decree of Parliament. He cannot be the man
of the age, and his attempt to carry on the Go-
vernment for the behoof of the monopolists and
the corruptionists, for
,the. benefit of the priest-
hood and the aristocracy, must end in the total
demoralization of society, or in a revolution.
For us it was a fatal augury when we heard him
express sympathy for the taxed foreigner, whom,
for a party purpose, lie sometime ago described
as little exposed to taxes; and heard him defend
the poll-tax levied on his own countrymen.
He preaches that cheap humanity, which Costs