The Sun.
London, England, 1841-06-25 00:00:00

THE HOUR AND THE MAN ARE

COME !
(From the. British Queen.)
It is not often that the cause, and the representa-
tion of the cause, are so well matched as in the pending
contest in the City of London. The courage which has
always led on Lord John Russell, let the difficulty be
what it might, has not failed him in the present in-
stance. And how strongly does it contrast with the
shuffling plausibilities, and more than diplomatic silence
of his adversary Sir Robert Peel ? What the latter
dares not do, Lord John does boldly and unequivocally.
The one puts hiniself forward as the champion of the
great unprotected interests of the people at large, and
states fearlessly on what he rests his case. The other
is the advocate of the great protected interests, but
shrinks from the avowal of the grounds of his advocacy.
' As Mr. Ward has very happily stated, in his address to
the electors of Sheffield,—the present is a strug-
gle for the real fruits of the Reform Act. De-
terred by the strength of the interests arrayed
against them, the Government forebore to urge on
I Parliament the full concession of the rights of the
people. But when events offered them a reason and a
justification, which even the anti-monopolists must feel
the force of, they did not shrink, even in their day of
I weakness, from fully avowing their policy and enforcing
the necessity of yielding to it.
It was to be expected that those classes whose self-
will has been fostered by their ascendancy in the State
during half a century (and some, indeed, for centuries),
would arise, and with one voice proclaim their dissatis-
faction with measures which would in some measure
lower that ascendancy. We had expected even more
energetic opposition to the Government measures ; but
we are rejoiced to find that so many of the friends of the
people, who have served them so long in their struggles
for political liberty, have been true to them in those for
commercial freedom, in which a narrow self-interest
might have dictated a different course. In fact the Li-
berals, as a body, have been true to the people's cause.
On the other hand, the Tories, as a body, have been
opposed to it.
The mask has been thrown aside. The solemn pre-
tence, by which Sir Robert Peel has veiled the more
earnest purposes of his party are, we will not say
abandoned, but not used for the present, simply be-
cause the party are too conscious of its futility. Whe-
ther to damage his own advocacy or not we will not
pretend to determine ; but Sir R. Peel's repudiation of
the views of the anti-slavery party, which were the only
ones that gave any moral sanction to the iniquitous re-
sistance of his party to the alteration of Sugar Duties,
was a foretaste of the reckless presumption with which
the Tory policy was henceforth to be enforced.
The recent rejection of the Administration of Justice
Bill was another.
But all this is matter for the rejoicing of Liberals.
We know our men ; and the people will soon know them
too—unless, regardful in time of the consequences of
bringing back the Tories to power upon an anti-free
trade policy too, they shall resolve to give to Ministers
a majority in the next Parliament, and to establish fur
ever the principle of free trade. .
We are glad that Lord John Russell has put the
matter upon this plain issue. Never were people ad-
dressed on grounds so palpably accordant with their own
interests ; and if they forego them, in order to place the
Tories in power, and to defeat, perhaps, for half an age,
the beneficent efforts of the Financial Ministers of Go-
vernment, then the people must be vastly in love with
Toryism, and more fond of party conflict than of the
substantial fruits of good legislation and good Govern-
ment.
If this be so, it may still be worth the while of peace-
loving people to inquire what their friends the Tories
will do with the Chartists. We have before us an ex-
cellent address by the Council of the Chartists at Bath,
addressed to the Chartists of that city. In this document
they recommend that Lord Duncan and Mr. Roebuck, the
Liberal candidates, should be supported by the Chartists,
on the ground of the excellent measures of the Govern-
ment, and of the prospects which these measures afford
of more equitable legislation in future. In other places
similar language and similar conduct are held by the
Chartists; and though they express themselves distrustful
of public men, they seem disposed to show themselves
more reasonable and practicable, on account of the im-
provement in the policy of the Government.
They naturally ask themselves—lf the Tories were to
come into power, would they exhibit a policy like this?
Now, is it of no consequence to give a reasonable turn
to the. ways of thinking, and to the conduct of the great
masses of ourpopulation ? to make them feel that they
are governed in justice ? that if the coercive part of Go-
vernment be applied, it is accompanied by its- opposite ;
that the men who rule are friends of the people, and
attached by habit as well as by principle, and willing, by
publicity and by free election, to render themselves
amenable to popular control.
The absurdest part of the pretensions of the Tories,
and of the blindness of the Tory-Radicals, is, that the
former claim credit for having been successful in defeat-
ing the good intentions of the Government, while the
latter refuse credit and support to the Government, be-
cause they have not had strength to give effect to those
intentions. Why, this is not a case for withdrawing
confidence in the Government ; it is, on the contrary,
a case for giving them more active and vigorous support.
The men of business of London would say, that
should be very cold language to use in regard to a banker
or a merchant, of deserved credit, but by some sudden
exigency put in jeopardy, that assistance and support
should be withheld because the support was needed.
But, in point of fact, the cause is our own, and we
are net going to be so silly as to suffer our friends to be
beaten, simply because they are weak, and to allow our
enemies to take their places, because they are already
too strong to do mischief.