The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-24 00:00:00

bear looking at. They are as well aware as we
are, or better, of the hollowness of the pretences
on which they demand the respect of the people.
They know the utter falseness of their claims to
be the messengers of the Divine will, and they
are sensible that every day's experience—with
the Press, as the real instructor of the people—
demonstrates their uselessness to society. From
this consciousness the bulk of the priesthood are
necessarily and essentially the enemies of a Re-
forming Administration, and they have given all
the support in their power to men who profess a
steadfast devotion to the ignorance of the past.
They are the determined enemies of social pro-
gress, and have done all in their power to push
Sir R. PEEL on the back of society, that he may
keep it from going ahead.
They are undoubtedly a powerful and wealthy
body of men,- numbering somewhere about
20,000, trained and disciplined, like the JeSuits,
to one end, and possessing amongst them, while
they are at most one 900th part of the popula-
tion, at least one 200th part of the national in-
come; but they happen to be much divided
amongst themselves, both as to their own merits
and duties, and as to the merits of Sir 1. PEEL.
They consist, moreover, of High Church and Low
Church Rationalists and Evangelists, Puseyites,
and Simeonites, with other ists and ites ; and the
influential part of them, who have lately rekindled
the once bright embers of their faith, to whom
is mainly due the zeal, however mischievous, of
the priesthood, suspect and dislike Sir R. PEEL.
A Puseyite, under the signature of " CA-
THOLICUS," has attacked him in the Times, while
the British Critic, the organ of the Puseyites,
has furiously assailed him. Other ites have
drawn their pens. in his defence, and we have
now lying before us a pamphlet, printed by an
orthodox Church printer, signed " VERUS,"
which defends Sir R. PEEL, and bitterly attacks
the Critic and Mr. CATHOLICUS. The zealot
' party in the Church are uncompromising,
thoroughgoing, downright men, and they
hate tritnmers and treacherous c9mpromisers
more keenly than they hate the Whigs. The
priesthood, then, are divided amongst them-
selves, and one part of them only want to be re-
lieved from the apprehensions of the Whigs to
make a vigorous attack on the worldly-minded
Sir R. PEEL.
Another body which thrusts forward Sir R.
PEEL are the landlords, to keep up rent. They
have no love for the cotton-spinner's son. They
use him for their purposes, and that is all. Should
he not have the power to keep up rent, they
will desert him. We believe that he will not
have such a power,—that the effect and intention
of the Corn-laws to starve down the population
to a number very little greater than our own
soil will, on an average, supply, ensures a great
fall of rent, and a great injury to farmers, when-
ever one or two good harvests occur, as certainly
as water finds its level. The selfish crew will
then desert Sir R. PEEL, if he do not anticipate
them, and try to preserve his seat, by kicking
them off. These two bodies are Sir R. PEEL'S
great supporters : they amount, combined, to
less than 100,000 persons, and, by their help, he
is to set justice at defiance, and turn aside the
course of society.
We make no account of the constituencies
which the parsons and the landlords influence,
because they will follow their leaders whenever
they find it convenient to desert Sir ROBERT.
They will feel in their pockets, sooner than their
leaders, the ruinous effect of preserving mis-
chievous, selfish, and scoundrel laws, and will
be more ready to cry out " Down with PEEL !"
in a season of low prices, than ever they were to
shout " PEEL for ever !"

Neither do we prize as very forcible the an-
cient prejudices of the unreasoning, and the ap-
prehensions of the timid. The former lean on
authority more than they support it, and look
out for other help when it seems likely to fall to
pieces. The latter will lose their fears in the
reality, and a period of distress, surpassing their
apprehensions, will make them look out for new
leaders. Lip only effectual support Sir ROBERT
will find are the landowners and the priesthood,
both of which are daily declining in influence and
power, from their arrogance and their avarice.

If Sir H. PEEL be a prudent man, and look
before he leaps, encumbered, as he now is, by
the principles he has of late defended and sup-
ported only by a wrangling and disturbed
priesthood, and a selfish body of land-

owners, whom he cannot possibly satisfy,
he will hesitate to take the perilous spring.
Either he must throw off his iniquitous prin-
ciples, or he will fall to the ground. Loaded with
them, no power on earth can enable him to

alight in safety on his feet, and their help will
only the more surely and. swiftly cast him down.
To govern this commercial and half free country
for any length of time on the principles of main-
taining the present system of class taxation and
class plunder, whatever majority may at present
vote for it, now that the toil-worn and suffering
population are aroused to a sense of its injustice—
now that our moral and religious people are
aware of its iniquity, and see the immense
danger it involves—and now that our manufac-
turing. classes are made painfully sensible of the
ruin it is bringing on them, is impossible; and
whoever undertakes the task will be, as a politi-
cian, ruined for ever.