The Sun.
London, England, 1841-08-13 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

YRON THE DAILY PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
CHRONICLE.—Our recent remarks on Sir Robert
Peel have been described as outpourings of rage, malig-
nity, and we know not what diabolical dispositions.
And yet, what have we said of him that the organs of
his own party have not said before, and that, too, within
a very few months or weeks, or even days ? If we have
noticed the fact that he is most thoroughly destitute of
that personal attachment which has been usually excited
by a political leader, so said the Morning Post, very
lately. If we have noted aught in him of narrow, low,
and selfish, it has only been a coincidence with the Bri-
tish Critic, which resolves his whole character and po-
licy into a hollow selfism. If the sacrifice of principle
to expediency, in his tactics, have earned our censure,
we could have cited the Quarterly Review for the fact,
with or without its indications of bitterness in the re-

proach. Had we been disposed to term him a traitor
to the, " Protestant " cause, as a savage intolerance
calls itself, there had been previous Heralds of his
shanie ; and if we had warned him that not an intellect
in England was likely to be influenced by his opinion on
an important political topic ; or had invited him to play
the " golden card " of adopting the free trade measures
of his opponents in the teeth of the professions that
have just won him his landlords' majority, we should
only have copied from the Times. We do not make
these allusions for the sake of precedent or authority.
Let what we have written be tried by its own truth and
consistency. But charges against us of spite and
malignity are rather curious from any such quarters.
We " attack " Sir Robert Peel. Why, everybody at-

tacks Sir Robert Peel. Every section Of his Own party
has, in turn, complained of the political dishonesty, the
trickiness, the superficiality, the unreliability, of his
political character. They say nothing about such quali-
ties just now, because he is quite necessary to their
prospects. But our mouths are not therefore stopped.
With no more malignity towards him than themselves ;
perchance with not half so much as some of them ; we
say out now the truth which they think and know at
all times. Moreover, we have our own reasons for not
allowing the sayings and doing of Sir Robert Peel at
this juncture to pass uncommented, and those reasons
are at the service of the public. Sir Robert Peel aspires
to be Prime Minister of this Empire, against the known
desire of the Sovereign. Is not this a challenge for a
rigid scrutiny into his pretensions ? Has he the States-
manlike genius that is required to excuse such an ambi-
tion ? If ever man possessed it, George Canning was
that man. Nor was Canning an unacceptable servant to
his Sovereign. And yet then, 'Sir Robert Peel
acted on the principle that the comparatively ple-
beian station of Canning nullified the claims of
his genius to command. Canning wore no coronet,
and Canning was in favour of Catholic Emancipa-
tion ! Such were the tests without which Sir
_

Robert Peel held genius as nothing. We do not apply
them to himself ; we do not ask him to be a noble or a
Canning ; but of his speeches, character and policy,
we do ask that which shall warrant his forcing him-

self, or being forced upon a reluctant Sovereign, with
whom rests, constitutionally, the choice of her. own Mi-
nisters. We look in vain for any semblance of an excuse.
We trust the insolent attempt will even yet be baffled.
Sir Robert Peel has defeated the introduction of mea-
_

sures that promised both to alleviate the public bur-
dens and to increase the public revenue. This, again, is
a challenge to scrutinize his own policy, for the sake of
which he has obstructed so great a good. And where is
it ? Where shall we find it, for the scrutiny thus dar-
ingly invited ? It only exists in negatives, and these very
negatives so ambiguous and equivocal, that his own par-
tisans are recommending him to adopt, at once, the policy
of his opponents. He has successfully resisted even
the proposition for the discussion of measures ,for un-
taxing the common necessaries of life ; and when his
substitute is inquired or, he deems it enough to say
that he will wait, and only produce the prescription
after he has taken the fee. There can be no attack"

upon such conduct in a pretended statesman. Vitu-
peration has no terms in its vocabulary so bitter as the
bare facts,
HERALD.—Manchester will be invaded on the 17th

inst. by two hundred and eighty dissenting ministers,
who, after having captured the beds, and billeted them-
selves on the board of its inhabitants, are to meet and
mingle their " sweet voices " in a Conference on the
Corn-laws. That the object of this politico-religious
'synod is to ameliorate the condition of the working-
people we utterly disbelieve ; its real design is to add
another link to the chain which alone binds together and
supports political dissent. The decadence of that dis-
sent is only to be prevented by its connexion with Whig-
Radical and Republican agitation. " Church-rates,"
" freedom of conscience," and the " martyrdom " of cob-
blers, have ceased to be sufficiently exciting topics ; and
they are now to be laid aside for the more inflammatory
subjects of " cheap bread." and "full employment." Po-
litical dissenting teachers are the Swiss of the priest-
hood; they exist only by controversy ; they are the off-
spring of perversity and heterodoxy ; in discord and dis-
putation alone do they "move, breathe, and have their
being."
" For pleas of right let statesmen vex their bead,
Disputes their business, and their guerdon bread ;
And, with the sworded Switzer, they can say,
The best of causes is the best of pay."
That any actual mischief will result from this confe-
rence of clerical agitators we do not assert ; but the
time and the place of this factious conference are exceed-
ingly well chosen for mischief. These reverend persons
have resolved to assemble in a town crowded to over-
flow with a teeming population, at all times very un-
manageable, but most exeitable when rattleetl, by causes
which we have lately explained, to short work and wageS.
The employers of this population have, for their own ad-
vantage, induced it to attribute all its teftiportd suffering
and privation to the Corii.lavvs, Now throughout this
population there has at all times run a strange Mint!.
cal sense of religion ;' its worst outbreaks against autho-
rity have all been connected with some unjustifiable dog-
mas previously extracted from, or based on some misin-
terpreted or perverted passage of Scripture. The radi-
calism of 1819 and the Chartism of 1839 were equally
attempted to be justified by texts and quotations from the
sacred writings. Some of the leaders of both periods
and both factions were preachers and teachers. The
speakers at all the
.public meetings and festivals of the
manufacturing operatives garnish their revolutionary ora-
tions by scraps from both Testaments; the flags and banners
that adorn their processions and assemblies are inscribed
with mottoes taken from the same holy sources, There
is no religious sect, however extravagant, no religious
opinions, however wild and visionary, but will gain some
adherents and followers and apostles in the district of
Manchester. Day by day new schemes of religion, new
articles of faith, there appear and are adopted; the dress
that signalized the followers of Joanna Southcote is still
to be seen in this neighbourhood, and the coming of the
Shiloh is yet expected by a few in its vicinity.
ADVERTISER.—If any opinion may be formed of
the purposed policy of Sir Robert Peel, from the lucid
intimations of the Tory press, the proximate Premier is
certainly preparing a very f‘ pretty dish to lay before
the Queen." The chief ingredient in the proposed
Ministerial mess is to be Church ascendancy_in its infi-
nite variety of abuses. " If," saith the Timeii " the
Conservatives do not faithfully, steadily, and courageously
adhere to the Church, vindicate ber rights, and assert
her liberties, they will soon have reason to rtgret
that they have assumed at all. They may depend
upon it, that the confidence of the Church is the
real secret of their power, and that the reaction by
which they have been borne back to ascendancy has been
essentially her work." Assuming die accuracy of this
assertion, on the faith of the faithless Times, the ques-
tion which naturally presents itself is, " Are we or are
we not to have a Church Government ?" The whole
merit of the alleged reaction is here attributed to the
Church, and in return for her services she claims a direct
ascendancy in the national councils. Not in England
only, but throughout all the dependencies of the British
empire is the Church to reign paramount, and in this, as
the Times intimates, is to be shown the grand." differ-
ence between Whigs and Conservatives." Not only
where England has authority, but where even she leas in
flseuceunteine,giszetahle,
oCrhiu4cs!iuto exert its proselytising and per-
ptrpyor,
whichi snalut
dr.ewn from the Minisit°e iistnnmoeitvl:tt:;-1-I):oa".sittilto.
have raised into authority. Such are the terms on which
the compact is to subsist between "the Church of Eng-
land and. a Conservative Government." It will not be
enough to carry on a war of extermination against Dis-
sent in England and-Popery in Ireland, but the Moslem
and the Hindoo are to be coerced to participate in the
enjoyments of Church extension and Church intolerance.
Such are the crusades recommended by the Times.
POST,—The opponents of Sir Robert Peel take a
malignant delight in numbering lip the difficulties with
which he will have to contend, if-the Government should
be placed in his hands, and those of his political friends.
We do not deny that the difficulties to be contended with
are very formidable, and enough to cast anxiety upon
the mind of the ablest director of public affairs. But
we must bear in mind that it is the reckless mismanage-
ment of the present Ministers which has called these
difficulties into existence ; and however clouded the
prospects of the country may be, it is at least some con-
solation that the blunderers who have brought us into
this position have now virtually received their dismissal
from a disgusted and indignant public. When we say
this we do not desire to be understood as laying down
the general rule that all national embarrassment and
national misfortune should be laid to the account of the
Government. On the contrary, we believe that the power
and influence of political government over those matters
which-constitute the prosperity or adversity of the mass of
the people, are generally in no slight degree exagge-
rated. Much may indeed be done by political govern-
ment, but much more is beyond its reach •, and in pro-
portion as government is of that kind which men are apt
inconsideent.iv. ...12 _ r,f nnliti-

Chia ice, a.iC acath. pow,.

cal rove-.

over me (testi-fifes-of the people is les-
sened. But with regard to existing national difficulties,
they may almost all be distinctly traced to neglect, misma-
nagement, and absolute desertion of duty on the part of
those who were entrusted with the government. The
Ministers hare palpably betrayed the trust reposed in
them, and of all the effrontery which persons affecting
.to act upon "popular principles" have ever exhibited.
perhaps the very grossest and most unpardonable is that
of the adherents of the present beaten Administration,.
when they
use as weapons of attack upon the Conserva-
tives, the difficulties which threaten the country. It is a
common thing for men covertly to take advantage of-their
own wrong ; but to do so with shameless and brazen os-
tentation, and constantly to expatiate upon the embar-.
rassmentewhich their own gross faults and unpardonable
follies have thrown in the way of the future Governmentof the country, is a sublime of impudence to which it re-
quired the wing of a modern Whig-Radical to soar.
TIMES.—An Irish rebellion, be it threatened from
what quarter it may—be it kindled by
foreign e)nisslries
or ley Riband Conspirators, or by impudent, cowardly,
etiniiow agitators---be it hatched in the turbulent Corn-
Exchange or preached from the altar of peace—must be
put-down, just as a Chartist rebellion must be, by
.the
strong arms of the law. A Minister standing in a mino-
rity, or even in a very small majority, of the House of