The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-03 00:00:00

PUBLIC OPINION.

The Herald, alluding to the singular case of the bank-
rupt, Cave, remarks as follows:—" The facts disclosed
in a remarkable case of bankruptcy, reported in yester-
day's Herald, cannot fail to be suggestive, to thinking
minds, of painful reflections, too characteristic, we fear,
of the age in which we live. The case to which we refer
is that of an individual named Cave, the failure of whose
mining speculations has involved several Members of
Parliament, and men of title, and clergymen, in ruinous
losses. This person lived in society, inhabited a house
in one of the fashionable squares, handsomely furnished
and crowded with valuable paintings, and without
flaming advertisements or seductive prospectuses, but on
the strength of apparent respectability, and on the offer of
a high rate of interest, had actually thrust on hiin, by
men of fortune, 360,0001. for investment in mining specu-
lations of which they were in utter ignorance, and which
never realised one farthing, although lie paid to these
eager lenders no less a sum than 60,000/...1* interest,
in three or four years, out of their own subscriptions!
It is melancholy, we may add, to know that an
excessive love of gain was the cause of such infatua-
tion, and that clergymen of the''Established Church
so -far forgot the sacred duties of 'their holy calling
as to be led away by this unlawful desire of lucre."—
Respectability has an irresistible charm in the "eyi s of
all conventional people, as we see in the remarkable case
above narrated. It is the " Open Sessame" to their
houses, and not seldom to their purses. Thurtell once
defined respectability as the keeping of a gig ; we here
find it is the living in a fashionable square, giving good
dinners, and lining your halls with paintings. Had Mr.
Cave resided in an obscure quarter of the town ;
eschewed dinner-giving ; and walked about in a coat far
advanced in the autumn of its life, his mining projects,
however judiciously planned, would have been sure to
fail, from his apparent want of respectability. It is this
factitious admiration of conventional respectability—this
hungering and thirsting for its show rather than its '
reality—that is the curse of modern society, confounding
all the distinctions between the true and the false, and
substituting the shadow for the substance.
Th e Post says :—" That the British nation is essen-;
tially Conservative was proved in a manner the most
conclusive and satisfactory by the result of the late gene-
ral election, when a constituency created by the Wshig-
Radical Reform Bill, for the undisguised purpose of secu-
ring to the Whig-Radical party a perpetual majority in
the House of Commons, sent to that assembly a decided
majority of Conservative members."—The late election
did not prove that the British nation is essentiallY.Tory—
we repudiate the sneaking, cowardly aluss of Conserva-
tive ; it proved only that the Tories had longer purses,
and spent more money in bribery than their opponents.
The late Alnwick demonstration in favOur of Lord
Howick, seems to have given exceeding uneasiness to the
Times, which it vents in the following manner :—" It
appears that Lord Howick refuses his valuable confidence
to the Conservative Ministry. This is distressing in its
own way. Pray, shall we encounter the additional
calamity of enduring the whole weight of his Lordship's
opposition--Mr. Charles Wood included ? No such
thing; a gleam of hope breaks through this threaten-
ing cloud to cheer Sir Robert Peel, for Lord Howick
subsequently declares that he ' does not wish at pre-
sent the dismissal of the existing Ministry,' but will
punctually give directions for overthrowing them as
soon as the fitting moment shall arrive, when his
Lordship will do his best to supplant them with
minds of a high order. Altogether this Alnwick demon-
stration has been even more discreditable to Lord Howick
than his memorable waspishness at the declaration of the
Northumberland poll. The creature seems to be lite-
rally bursting with a mingled inflation of rage and
vanity—the foibles, we suppose, of minds of a high
order."—The indignation of the Times is the best pos-
sible testimony that can be borne to Lord Howick's sin-
cerity in the cause of Reform. So long as he is thus ob-
noxious to the Tories, we shall rely on his efficiency as a
judicious and liberal statesman. Were- he Otherwise,
they would not think it worth their while to notice him.
As a mere party-man his Lordship maybe at times
somewhat refractory, but as a Reformer on an enlightened
scale,— who really wishes to further the progress of judi-
cious measures of improvement, we believe. him to be as
conscientious and as zealous as any statesman of the day.
Speaking of Earl De Grey's Irish Administration, the
Chronicle observes:—" Lord De Grey is rather unfortu-
nate in his endeavours to pass for a no-party-man; ft?r it
appears that noparty as yet believes him. Those on the
popular side are naturally mistrustful, seeing the Noble
Earl's actions so widely at variance with his professions.
If he were sincerely desirous, they say, to suppress a
party spirit in Ireland, he would not select the most
noted partisans in the whole country to fill all the posts
of confidence and honour under his Government, and
carry his real purposes into effect. On the
other hand, 'tis clear that the unyielding Orange
factionists do not trust the Noble Lord's own

report against himself ;' otherwise, they would
not be still so full of flattery and admiration. Quite
willing are they that both he and Lord Eliot should
talk liberality by the ell Flemish; but it would be an-
other affair it' they saw 4nything like an approach to ho-
nest or impartial dealing in the administration of the pa-
tronage vested in the Government."—There is an evi-
dent leaning towards Orangeism in the present Irish
Government, but it could scarcely have been otherwise,
considering with whom the appointment of the Viceroy
rested. Sir Robert Peel is not the man to recommend
the practice of a liberal policy—at least so liberal as to be
really useful—in Ireland. He is yet too much hampered
by, stands too much in awe of, the Orangemen. Ireland
need expect nothing more from him than the empty
show of justice, the solid substance must be conceded by
a Minister of a far different calibre.

After alluding to the present distressed state of the
country, the Cambridge Advertiser goes on to observe:—
" In this melancholy state of society, when thousands of
human creatures are starving from want of employment,
we should have expected that those who are placed
at the,,liead .of the ailuire of the country, would
haVe.been employed in devising—nay, would have been
actually prepared with, measures for bettering the condi
tiou, of the people. They cannot help being acquainted
.with the state of the raion—they know well that; misery
exists to the extent which we have desc►ibed.. And yet
they contemplate with the calmest indifference all this
accumulation of human wretchedness."
The Plot, speaking of Mr. O'Connell's election to the
Dublin Mayoralty, says :—" We do not condescend
.to
allude -to it as a triumph over nfallen party. It is wound
up with a cause based upon sentiments too nob!e and
philanthropic to permit us to do so ; but we appeal to it
to draw the Attention of th'e.people to the onward pro-
gress they have 'made, and to tell - them to point to it
whenever they are told that any thing pelitically just is
impracticable—Daniel O'Connell Lord Mayor of Dub-
lin ! • ,It requires but a brief experience to feel that the
change is a signal one."
The Brighton Guardian remarks, in allusion to
MiLeod's, trial :—" The trial will on the whole hare
beneficial results. It was conducted from first to last
with great decorum and gravity. There is in the pro-
ceedings a greater latitude allowed to. witnesses than we
allow, and much is given in evidence . which would not
have been received in an English Court ; but with that
exceptionand we do not think it a disadvantageous one
to the American Court--we see nothing in the whole of
the proceedingsof which our owe highest tribunal might
not be justly proud."

ii.G7RICULTUE.A.L.
An Essex paper states, " it is much to be feared that
the breadth of wheat next year will be much circum-
scribed, .in consequence of the wetness of the present
season, which xemhas..the_sowing a matter of very great
difficulty and uncertainty. Another evil, from Ole save