The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-14 00:00:00

Ztt

LONDON:
wa;yESDAY, JULY 14, 1841.

and which the Whigs have not been allowed to
alter.

The Times of Monday contained the following
observations, which describe the principle on
which Tory, statesmen essay to govern man-
kind:—

In a small volume of fragments from the prose writers
of Germany, not less remarkable for the taste with which
they have been selected and illustrated, than for the ele-
gance with which they have been translated by Mrs.
Austin, we have met with the following passage from the
letters of M. Gentz—a man of whom no more need be
said than that he was the confidential friend of Pitt and
Metternich :
" Two principles govern the moral and intellectual
world. One is perpetual progress ; the other, the neces-
sary limitations to that progress. If the former alone pre-
vailed, there would be nothing steadfast and durable on
earth, and the whole of social life would be the sport of
winds and waves. If the latter had exclusive sway, or
even if it obtained a mischievous preponderancy, every-
thing would petrify and rot. The best ages of the world
are always those in which these two principles are most
equally balanced. In such ages every enlightened man
ought to adopt both principles into his whole mind and
conduct, and with one hand develope what he can, with
the other restrain and uphold what he ought."
We have quoted these words because they describe
with truth and with authority the real principle on which
the policy of those statesmen who are called to war with
the angry state of agitated nations must perpetually rest.
If that policy was confined to mere resistance to change
—if it were a mere negative and denial of improvement,
the barriers so raised would speedily be o'erleapt and
carried away by the stream. But whilst the Conserva-
tive party uphold what they ought, that is to say whatever
belongs to the solid basis on which the social edifice
rests, they are ready to develope and improve what they
can, that is to say whatever admits of practical improve-
melt not purchased by the surrender of more certain and
permanent benefits.

The Tories assume to themselves the power of
placing necessary limitations to the progress of
society. They develope what they can, and re-
strain and uphold what they ought. They war
with the angry spirit of agitated nations. But
we should like to know what are these necessary
limitations, and how are they ascertained ? We
should like to see some definition of what ought
to exist, and we should like to have some better
authority for condemning the agitation of na-
tions than the assertion of those mischief-ma-
kers, of whom nations seek to get rid.
Certain notions of what ought to be preserved
exist in the minds of the Tories, formed not from
what will be,—for of that they know nothing,—
but of what has been. For example, in the
country in which M. GENTZ wrote, no per-
sons but the aristocracy are admitted to be hold-
ers of land, or to possess certain offices of the
State. The soil cannot be freely sold and freely
purchased, nor is merit sure of its reward. To
maintain those means of ensuring in Austria the
domination of a class, is for the Tory statesman of
Austria a necessary limitation to the' progress of
society. It is one of the things which he ought
to uphold, and which he does strenuously up-
hold, at great cost to the country.
For example, too, in our country, the right of
primogeniture, and the practice of entailing
land, though pregnant with evil to all the mem-
bers of those families for whose advantage it is
instituted, and an invasion of the rights of pos-
terity, which posterity is not bound to recog-
niie, are conceived to be necessary limitations to
the progress of society, and statesmen war with
the angry spirit of the agitated nation to uphold
them.

Unquestionably there is a necessary limit to
the progress of society, set by the laws of the
progress itself; and the cherished limits of Tory
statesmen, whether in Austria or England, are
mere arbitrary and unfounded assumptions—false
and baseless theories, in endeavouring to give
effect to which they wreck society.
The quotation made by the Times admits a per-
petual progress in society, which admission is of
infinite importance, because it demonstrates that
social progress, which has taken place under
every form of government, is independent of
varying and arbitrary legislation, and is deter-
mined by the natural laws of society. But the
progress being perpetual and not periodical, or
returning into itself like the motion of the
earth in its orbit, and man having only a very
imperfect means of conjecturing the future from
the past progress of society—however certain it
is that this progress has necessary limits, it is
plainly not given to man, and certainly not given
to Tory statesmen, to ascertain those limits.
They are continually thrust further off. For
them, however, Tory statesmen substitute their
own fancies, or some institutions heretofore esta-
blished, which, far from coinciding with the future
of society, do not agree with the present, and
plunge statesmen into a perpetual war with the
angry spirit of agitated nations, in order to up-
hold what they think they ought to uphold.
This theory of M. GENT; of the Times, and of
the Tories, which they are now to act on, is, we
believe, quite modern, and is a greater innova-
tion on old thoughts and practices than the de-
mands and schemes of " democratic innovators."
To the period of the French Revolution, which
frightened all the statesmen of Europe out of
their senses, it was not supposed that statesman-
ship consisted in setting bounds to social pro-
gress; on the contrary,the feudal Governments of
Europe, the subsequent Governments which gra-
dually abated the power of the feudal nobles, Me
Governments which nourished commerce and pro-
moted the reformation—the Government of the
revolution in England, and the Govern-
ment of the United States, were all founded
on the principle of forwarding, not re-
sisting and restraining, the progress of society.
The French Revolution was an attack on
Government, and since then Government has
been organized to oppose social progress. M.
GENTZ was brought up in the anti-revolutionary
school. Germany was filled with dread at the
revolution in France, and from that time the
Governments of Germany have assumed the
character of antagonism to social progress, and
have elevated their own theories and fears into
its necessary limits. According to the Times, the
Tory statesmen of our day are now to adopt this
false and exploded theory, the birth of a momen-
tary panic, and are to form the Government on
a principle of " warring with the spirit of the
agitated nation."

The elections are now so nearly terminated
that the few which rem to be decided can
make no important difference in the great result.
We do not conceal our mortitiz•ation that it is
extremely different from our expectations. We
anticipated at the very worst only a small ma-
jority for the Tories; that all the large towns,
which have so vast an interest in freedom, Would
have returned Liberals ; that all the counties in
which manufactures prevail would at least have
retained their Liberal Members, if they did not
oust anti-free-trade representatives; but our an-
ticipations have been much disappointed.
Not only will the Tories have a majority of
upwards of sixty in the new House of Com-
mons, but no inconsiderable number of that
majority consists of Members for large towns
and manufacturing counties. London, West-
minster, Leeds, Dublin, the West Riding of
Yorkshire, and North Cheshire, making a dif-
ference of eighteen votes on a division, have
turned out Liberals, and have deprived us even
of the power to say that the town and manu-
facturing population is on our side. The fact
certainly is so, and it now becomes our business
to draw from it what instruction we can.
From the first we ascribed great influence
to the metropolitan elections, and when we
saw the half of the City lost, notwithstand-
ing the utmost exertions, and the half of West-
minster lost without any exertion at all, we were
at once convinced that little or no enthusiasm
was felt in favour of the Ministers and their
measures. We then saw no hope of success in
a battle to be fought on ordinary electioneering
principles, and decided by the length of the
purse and the previous attention to registration.
On both these points the Tories had a pre-emi-
nent advantage. They assert that they have
paid attention to the registry, and their oppo-
nents confess that they have neglected it.
Both parties accuse each other of pur-
chasing votes wherever they were to be pur-
chased, and the Tories having the advantage on
this point, as well as attending to the registration,
explains their success. The present failure must
snake the Liberals look better in future to the
registration of their friends.
But why was there no enthusiasm in favour
of Ministers, and in favour of measures
which promise much if they fall short of
men's hopes ? The Leeds Times, in the
paragraph we copied yesterday, headed the
West Riding Defeat, partly accounts for it by say_
ing that the Ministers had lost the confidence of
the Reform Act constituency. It would be folly
now to deny their loss of popularity-, and the
mistrust they have excited, however unfounded
and unjust ; but these circumstances are not the
sole causes of the great loss of the Liberal party.
It must be remembered that the Anti-Corn-law
agitation had been directed to the total abolition
of the corn and provision laws; and the modified
measure of the Ministers fell fisr short of the
hopes which the League had excited. In fact,
tile fixed duty encountered no inconsiderable
h9stility from the population of the manufac-
turing towns, while it found few or no friends in
the agricultural districts. We derive from that
circumstanee one consolation. It would have
have been as easy, or easier, to carry the total
abolition as a fixed duty. The compromise of the
Ministers has failed as completely at present as
the ultra and extreme opinions of the League ;
and-while it is manifestly as unjust as the slid-
ing scale, it is at present as impracticable as total
repeal. The compromise did no good to the
Ministers with the Tories, and it put an end to the
enthusiasm of the total repealers.
Another
most important filet is, that the ma-
facturing districts are in great distress ; and
when men suffer intensely, they are not nice
•discriminators of causes. In general, the Exe-
cutive Government is confounded with the Le-
gislature, and the Ministers for the time being
are always blamed for the consequences of un-
just legislation. The present distress is not
caused by null-administration, but by Tory-
xuade laws. The Ministers, therefore, are pun-
ished, by a mistake of the constituencies, for
y , the sins of their opponents. With the people,
they are e ually the victims of landlord legisla-
, titin,whielig, uldmakethem,wherever they have
~ ,
*4.1,._i;.,.. the means, er to redress the public wrongs,
i‹.:::.
tot ianduillresirtot, e national prosperity. According
,t.,-;e temporary triumph of the Tories
, , e 5.....
,24.14 a eto the laws which they enactedri
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For that the Conservatives are to take office;
they are to affix limits to social progress, and
to uphold, not what society requires, but what
in their opinion ought to be upheld. For ex-
ample, they take office to uphold the monopoly
of the West India planters, the monopoly of the
Canada timber cutters, and London rotten-ship
owners, and the monopoly of the Lords of the
soil. Their war against the angry spirit of the
agitated nation is a war of wrong against right—
of plunder against honesty—of idle opulence
against industrious poverty. It is an avowed
war against the bulk of the people; and to this
perilous contest our Tory statesmen are prepared
to commit the Government. Depend upon it,
as Sir ROBERT PEEL frequently
s
and emphatically
p says,et
u a
ls o
progress sure
of
st
society,hey d o
whicho can be no more
sure will the per-
stopped and restrained by such puny whipsters
as Tory statesmen than the sun can be plucked
from the sky, come into collision with the Go-
vernment, and sweep it, with all its depen-
dencies, out of the way.
M. GENTZ, the Times, and the Tories, speak
as if there was nothing steadfast and durable on
earth, except—GoD help the mark !—the theories
of GENTZ and METTERNICH, of the Times, and
PEEL. But there is steadfastness in that per-
petual progress which they admit. There is
steadfastness on earth as well as in the sky,
though absolute rest is utterly unknown in both'
The desire for social improvement exists in
every age, and is permanent and steady. The
increase of population is regulated by laws quite
as certain as those which regulate the seasons.
Commerce gradually and regularly extends on
definite principles, and it only becomesirregular,
and therefore inappreciable, when your GENTZES,
your Times, your PEELS, your STANLEYS, and
the rest of the Conservatives, undertake to regu-
late it, or divert it from its ordained channels,
under the very modest assumption that they are
appointed by heaven to war with the angry spirit
of agitated nations. Let us remind this arrogant,
self-sufficient crew, that, it is said on high au-

thority, he who appeals to the sword shall
perish by the sword, and the Government that
established on the principle of warring against
the spirit of the nation, will certainly perish in
the conflict it begins and provokes.

Lord MORPETH has long been conspicuous as
a steady friend to Liberal principles. We deeply
regret, therefore, that he should have been re-
jected by the manufacturing population of the
West Riding of Yorkshire. Though Lord
HOWICK will act on his own opinions, and is
therefore not favoured by either party, he is an in-
dustrious,pains-taking man, who generally masters
every subject he undertakes. All his speeches
ou trade in the House of Commons have
been conspicuous for good sense, and we can-
not but say that the freeholders of Northum-
berland have done themselves no honour in
rejecting him. Nor have the manufacturing
population of North Cheshire merited the ap-
probation of the country for preferring Mr.
LECH to Mr. STANLEY, who is a fast friend to
Liberal principles and the manufacturing inte-
rest. The termination of the elections for
North Cheshire, Northumberland, and the
West Riding of Yorkshire against the Liberal
cause, has made the Tories wild with joy, and
has certainly excited in us no little regret. At
the same time, it is a great compliment to these
three gentlemen that the Tories exult so vehe-
mently in their exclusion from Parliament. It
is a testimony to their power and their useful-
ness, which will recommend them the more to the
constituencies whenever a favourable opportunity
occurs of sending them again to Parliament.

We have received the whole of the French Journals of
Sunday. The joy of the French Ministry at the success
of the Tories in England knows no bounds, and M.
GuizoT, who in reality has no cause to complain of Lord
PALMERSTON'S condescension towards him, is antici-
pating the day when his Lordship will be one of the
" outs," and he himself hand in glove with one of the
" ins." The Court of Neuilly is also much gratified at the
improved prospects of its friend and unexpected apologist,
Sir ROBERT PEEL, and the anti-constitutional propen-
sities of the wary despot who now rules France, will re-
ceive a tenfold impetus from the countenance which is to
be afforded by a Tory administration. It will be rather
a curious spectacle to see the Tories for their own tem-
porary purposes coalescing with the French Conserva-
tives ; but that such will be the case is confidently anti-
cipated at Paris.

Our correspondence of Sunday, from the French
capital, shows us that the loan—the projected loan of the
French Government for 450 millions of francs, is still
the practically absorbing question there. The house of
ROTHSCHILD (which is stated to have had to pay fifteen
millions of francs on the last settling day), is believed
to have encouraged the emission of the Austrian loan,
and the remaining series of the Russian loan at
Amsterdam in order to depress the French market and
beat down the French Minister of Finance, M. HumANN,
to reasonable terms. • It is certain that the Minister has
considerable difficulty in getting capitalists to listen to
his prices ; the receivers general have fought shy of the
matter, and it is almost impossible but that sooner or
later he must lower his terms. Meanwhile he is furiously
and blindly pursuing his illegal and unconstitutional at-
tempts to increase the produce of the revenues by fic-
titiously increasing the population returns of large towns,
and employing his fiscal agents as a kind of spies to aid
him in his views. The riots at Toulouse, which have
been very serious, have had no other cause than this ;
and they come at an awkward moment to increase, if
that was possible, the hatred and contempt universally
felt for Louis PHILIPPE and his subservient minions.
Many of the more moderate of our Parisian contempo-
raries express their alarm at the threatening look of
affairs, and predict that the opposition to M. HUMANN'S
measures may very possibly end in a gene-
ral refusal to pay taxes. When the profli-
gate expenditure of the Government established
in France since 1830, on the soi-disant econo-
mical principles is taken into consideration (the total
deficit in the French financial department incurred
since 1830, amounts to nearly 1,000 millions of francs,
besides the national debt of 6,600 millions), it is impos-
sible not to foresee that the people will, some day or
other, become aware of who the real swindlers are that
cheat them out of their hard-earned money, and that
another lesson of popular vengeance will be read to
those who come into power, professing the purest prin-
ciples of political virtue, but who have turned out to be
a set of selfish speculators, with no more principles of
political consistency than MACIIIAVEL himself.
M. MAIIUL, who has been sent to Toulouse as the
new Prefect, and who is about as welcome to the inha-
bitants of that manufacturing town as Sire. WETHERELL
used to be to the Bristolians, is said to have been given
over as tin ame-damnee to the Minister of Finance-
by the Minister of the Interior, M. DUCHATEL. M.
MARuL was Director-General of Police, and was the most
busy, officious, and troublesome individual who ever filled
that office. He was always getting his superior into
scrapes by his over-zealous interference, and DUCHATEL,
who is a quiet good-natured man of the world, was fond
of his own pleasure, and not liking to be bothered by an
understrapper, turned him over to his hot-headed col-
league, IluasANN, as one of the right sort to perform his
dirty work. The result has been the riots at Toulouse.
It is said that the reason why General BUGEAUD'S ex-
peditionary columns are so slow in getting back out of
the Arab country is that the number of invalids they
have to drag after them is tremendous, and that some of
the men are severely afflicted by opthalmia. As usual,
the French reports of the operations of the campaign will
be grossly exaggerated.
The efforts of Marshal Soult to get his son appointed to the
Embassy at Vienna, have been baffled by the peremptory re-
fusal of Prince Metternich to acknowledge the new Ambas-
sador by the title of Duke of Dalmatia. It is Count d'Appony
who has been entrusted by his Government to give to IN.
Guizot the answer that the Cabinet of Vienna, having de-
dared once for all, that it would not recognise any title de-
rived from its provinces formerly conquered by the French
army, it could not make an exception in favour of the Duke of
Dalmatia. This now has been transmitted by M. Guizot, by
telegraph, to Marshal Soult, which is said to have induced the
speedy return of the latter to Paris. It is added that M.
Guizot, having as some consolation left to the Marquis of Dal-
matia the choice between the Embassy to Rome andt hat to
Naples, he will end in accepting the post of Ambassador at
Naples, and in that case, as we said two months ago, the Duke
of Montebello will be sent to Vienna.—Le Commerce.

SHERIFF COURT, LOCHWINNOCH.— NON-
LIABILITY OF A MINOR.—A young man, verging on
majority, who was qualifying himself for the important
department of manager of a chemical concern, applied
to Mr. Morton, then manager of Moorshiel Barytes
Work, to get instructions for manufacturing of Barytes,
and to dye green, yellow, blue, &c. ; and for this im-
portant information he agreed, by a holograph letter,
to pay Mr. Morton 61. Much attention was bestowed
by him on the pupil, and having fully initiated him
into all the secrets, and properly taught him all he was
desirous to learn in various nice scientific departments,
on applying for payment of the promised stipulated
recompense, it was from time to time evaded, but not
refused. Mr. Morton being compelled, from this un-
grateful and unhandsome conduct, to prosecute the
pupil, he pleaded the legal privilege of minority as his
only defence, while he admitted the employment, and
being taught. His father being also in Court, was ex-
amined and questioned respecting his knowledge of the
transaction, and his son's getting the benefit sought by
him. He admitted that he was cognisant of the fact, but
denied his liability to pay for this important branch of
his son's education, on the bare plea of minority. Mr.
Morton then wished to make him the onerous party, and
examining the son as a witness, but the Judge refusing
to allow this, the only alternative left was to make a refe-
rence to the father's oath. After much hesitation and de-
murring respecting his knowledge and approbation of the
agreement, and of the benefits procured by his son from Mr.
Morton, he denied having become responsible, and the
son was accordingly assoilzied from the action and pay-
ment of any remuneration whatever—solely, however, on
the plea of not having yet attained twenty-one years
complete.— Glasgow Courier.
A Strathaven correspondent mentions, that, at a
remote part of the moor on the Sidehill of Avondale,
there was discovered on the 12th June the remains of a
human body imbedded in solid black moss, about 2i feet
below the surface. When carefully opened up, the body
appeared to be that of a man fully six feet long, regu-
larly laid out east and west, without any coffin, but in a
full suit of clothes, which appeared to be of very
antiquated form. The cloth and the body went to
pieces on handling, but by careful inspection the coat
was observed to be long in the skirts, with only one
seam down the back, and ornamented there with rows of
buttons made of cloth, and without any neck or collar,
one outer vest of the same texture of cloth, and an inner
vest of a finer fabric and lighter colour, both of which
reached far down the body, and had a great number of
buttons and holes ; for breeches there was a piece of
cloth like an apron or kilt, bandaged down with a broad
waist belt or sash of strong cloth, ornamented with tas-
sels ; and for stockings, plaiden hose with garters and
knots ;no shoes. It cannot be ascertained how long the
body may have lain there, the skull was not found, only
the under jaw with a very long bushy beard resting on
the breast, and from the circumstance of there being a
large cairn of stones on the top of the hill, about 150
yards from the grave, it is supposed they may have been
raised to commemorate a battle, or the death of a war-
rior.—Glasgow Herald.

ELGIN, JULY 9.—We are glad to learn that
the late genial rains and warm weather have had the
most beneficial influence on the crops in the upper parts
of Moray and Banffshire. The growth in the corn fields
has been very rapid during the last ten or twelve days;
and the pastures, which before the rain were bare and
brown, are now rich and green, Potatoes generally pro-
mise an excellent crop; and we have not heard of any
failures in the upper districts. Turnips, which, from
the cold dry weather at the time of sowing, made for
some weeks little progress, are now coming on finely;
and with a continuance of favourable weather, will make
a close crop.—Edinburgh Courant.

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 1841