The Sun.
London, England, 1840-04-17 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS NAT.
(From the Morning Herald.)
The reluctance of cur Whig Ministers to undertake the
duties of government in New Zealand may, perhaps, be
thought, in some respects, to harmonize with the mode in
which they allow matters to take care of themselves at
home ; yet, in other respects, the reluctance to nominate
governors and councillors to enforce law in New Zealand,
or, at all events, to receive salaries for the presumed en-
forcement of law, does appear an act of abstinence alto-
gether astonishing on the part of our patronage-creating
Government. How wonderful that a flight of commis-
sioners has not been directed towards New Zealand by
the Colonial-office ! Is there no member of the Tail for
whom a snug appointment might have been fabricated in
that distant region ? It is utterly disgraceful to a British
Cabinet that applications for the enforcement of law and
order in a British colony should have been made, and not
complied with. The emigrants to New Zealand are a
race of men well deserving of protection.
(Frain the Morning Post.)
An idle attempt has been made within the last two or
three days by the partisans of the Melbourne Ministry to
persuade the public that they have been very successful
;Igoe the commencement of the present Session. The
real truth of the matter is, that there have been six serious
divisions, or what are called " pitched battles," between
the Ministry and the Opposition, and in four of these the
Ministers have been defeated. In the two in which they
succeeded, their majority was so very small, and the mino-
rity against them so very considerable, that any other Mi-
nistry but the present would have considered such divisions
' virtual defeats, and have resigned the Government in con-
sequence. Under such circumstances, to assume airs of
victory is to insult the common sense of the public.
. , . (From tlrs, Thstra.,_} _. -a ---
We are aware of a current and very convenient sort of
prattle in the camp of Downing-street, to the effect that a
clique of trumpery Radicals, like those scraped together
be Lord Melbourne, can govern the country with a ma-
jority of half a dozen, although a Cabinet of Conservative
'i 6s tlemen could not do it without as many as half a bun-
L i
tired. Now, so long as they leave their terms unex-
plained, there may be some pretence for the use of sucn
expressions. We beseech the Ministers, therefore, to
inform us what they mean by " governing" the country !
The Duke of Wellington, in one of his double-
shotted broadsides, eight or nine weeks ago, stated his
chief matter of charge against these Ministers to be,
that under them the country was " not governed" at all.
That is not a " Government" worthy of the name
which stimulates all the factions of the country into
restlessness, and while they torment and worry and
persecute each other--shaking the foundations of all pro-
perty, upbraiding the Magistrates, undermining the laws,
and settim., at nought the most sacred institutions of the
realm--rubs its hands and looks on with delight, and
cries " Hurrah ! the Court is with us, and the rabble is
a ith us, and all the scoundrelism of the land is with us.
A fig for the Church, the law, the aristocracy, the agricul-
turists, the capitalists! While O'Connell tramples on us,
degrades us, agitates for, and protects us, what have we
to fear ? We keep our places and receive our salaries."
The definition, therefore, of Government, as furnished by
the O'Connel Ministry, is—vassalage to the ignorant and
worthless, intolerance towards the honest and enlightened,
open inroads upon the Exchequer and the Church, and
secret war upon the Momrchy of England.
(From the Morning Chronicle.)
The Tories arc in one respect the greatest of all De-
structives. They would fain annihilate every public insti-
tution that cannot be moulded or perverted to their own
uses. Like the Esquimaux dogs, as soon as a yokefellow
breaks down, or is rendered unfit to work with them any
longer, they incontinently fall upon and devour him.
Hence are they now whetting their teeth against the Irish
Corporations. They know that further attempts to keep
those ancient turnspits in their team must be not only un-
availing, but positively mischievous; and being conscious
withal that any proposed improvement of the breed must
lead to the infusion of new blood into the system, they are
most anxious to swallow up the whole pack with which
they ran together for so many years, and so lovingly, in
couples. On the same principle they now propose to deal
with the elective franchise in Ireland. While it was " a
property vested in the tenant, for the benefit of the land-
lord," they cherished it as one of those time-honoured
institutions which render the Constitution of Great Bri-
tain the envy of all surrounding nations. But that notion
of nteunt and tuum having been disturbed by the progress
• of political information among the people, the Conservative
veneration for freedom of election has proportionally de-
clined.