The Sun.
London, England, 1847-08-14 00:00:00

rntn Inn;

LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 1847.

Those who are curious as to the position likely to
be assumed by the newly-elected representatives on
the re-assembling of Parliament will be rejoiced to
have all their conjectures reduced to a certainty. The
benches of the House of Commons are already ar-
ranged in respective divisions for the reception of the
different classes of politicians. The Liberals are to
occupy an elevated place analogous to the Mountain
of the National Convention ; while the Protectionists
are to be grouped in a lower range, like the mem-
bers of the Plain in the same memorable assembly.
For, be it understood, henceforth, the Liberals are
Jacobins, the Protectionists are Constitutionalists,
and the Peelites are Girondists. Sir
ROBERT PEEL
is the new VERGNIAIID, and RICHARD C ORDEN is
only another MAXIMILIAN ROBESPIERRE. Such are the
sapient discoveries announced in the columns of a
Contemporary, and announced, too, with a gravity
worthy of DESCARTES or TOSCANELLI. The visionary
who endeavours to impress the minds of his fellow-
countrymen with a sense of the magnanimity of the
Protectionists—the weakness, if not the pusillani-
mity of the Peelites—and the disguised blood-thirsti-
ness and inherent agcity of the Liberals and Radi-
cals, draws his deductions—not from the experiences
of common sense, that would be beneath his philoso-
phy I but from the poetic history of M. ALPHONSE DE
La.sa.kamtsiz. It is something odd, we must acknow-
ledge, to find a disciple of the good old school of
Toryism quoting one of the most eloquent and im-
passioned Radicals of the age, and referring espe-
cially to the pages of a work which is, in its way,
the very text-book of r . •
epublicarusm We con-
gratulate this Conservative theorist on *the exquisite
obtuseness of judgment which he evinces in raising a
Tory hypothesis out of the suggestions of a demo-
cratic narrative. To say the least of them, his argu-
ments are as extravagant, but scarcely as indecent, as
those which yesterday prompted another of our Con-
temporaries to compare one of the greatest statesmen
in the world to a notorious concubine.

V hen we and, however, the avowed organs of
Conservatism tracing analogies between the bloodiest
demons of the French Revolution and the pacific
advocates of Free Trade, we may, at least, esti.
mate the extent of their political bigotry,
and the violence of their political hatred.
~ Hi
When we find them quoting the story of the
Girondists" to show that the Hon. Member for the
West Riding of Yorkshire, and for the borough
.of
Stookport, is in disposition, as well as in principle,
akin to. those ferocious monsters who were the
despots of the Reign of Terror, w%may conceive to
ourselves the degree of animosity with which the
popular representatives are regarded by the lovers of
Conservatism. This chapter of nobsense about the elec-
tions of France in 1793, and of England in 1847, is in
itself a sufficient taken of the sentiments entertained
by the Country Party, and the rationality with which
those sentime.its are enunciated. It is the straw
showing which way the wind blows, and inasmuch as
47,11 straw 13 valuable as a kind of exteraporaaeop

weathercock, the article we are alluding to is, in a
proportionate degree, worthy of consideration.
Whatever may be the distribution of the three
classes—Liberals, Peelites, and Protectionists—over
the benches of St. Stephen's, it is already quite
manifest that the latter will be incapable of
interfering with the measures of the Govern-
mint in any more important manner than
that of prolonging the discussions and giving
vent to their ignoble feelings of spleen. Day
after day the relative strength of the three classes
just mentioned is published in our columns, and day
after day the numerical and intellectual strength of
the Liberals becomes more manifest. About six
hundred out of the six hundred and fifty-eight
Members entitled to sit in the House of Commons,
have been already elected by those possessed of the
franchise in England, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland ;
and out of those there are no less than three hun-
dred and seven avowed Liberals. Coupling these
with the free-trade followers of Sir ROBERT PEEL
it is obvious that the Protectionists are in a deplor-
able minority, and that the cause of the people is in
no very alarming degree endangered.
Much reason, however, as we have for exultation
in the gradual removal of obstructions from the path-
way of constitutional reform, there is yet greater
reason for our evincing moderation and unanimity— :

moderation in the calmness with which the next
session shall be opened, and unanimity in the
support afforded to the generous endeavours
of the present Administration. So essential are
these qualities just now, that the measures
which are most requisite for the national wel-

fare cannot by possibility be carried triumphantly
through the Houses of Legislation without them.
Some would be overlooked in the enthusiasm of the
moment, were not that enthusiasm tempered by mode-
ration ; others, again, would be in peril of rejection,
were not the supporters of those measures unanimous
in opinion and untiring in attendance. The elections
are, in fact, merely the conscription of the forces
and the equipment of the conscripts ; the session will
be the campaign, and in that campaign good genera].

ship and effective manoeuvring will be necessary for
the attainment of victory. Courage, then, soldiers of
the nation ! and champions of constitutions' reform !

Courage, and your success is even now assured.
Yourselves, led by a Liberal Prime Minister, and
that Prime Minister clad in the armour of popularity,
you must prove in the end invincible.

A letter appears this day in our columns from Dr'
GEORGE MOBERLEY, Head Master of NVinchester
School, in which that Learned Gentleman attempts
to show that the severe and dangerous illness of the
young gentleman, referred to in the letter signed
" HUMANITAS," which some time since appeared in
The Sun, was not wholly ascribable to the system of
fagging, and in which also he not merely justifies,
but in the highest degree eulogises that practice.
We generally find that a defence of a bad case ex-
poses its weakness, and exhibits its defects in a
stronger point of view, than the attack to which it
is intended as an answer. In this respect, the Rev.
Gentleman's epistle forms no exception to the general
rule; indeed, it more than confirms everything stated
by HumANITAs. It admits that " the boy was sent
to watch out at cricket for some of the pre-
fects," or senior boys, who possess the privilege
of compelling their junior fellow-students to
discharge the moat degraded menial offices, to
become the abject slaves of their taskmasters; but
adds, " that at the end of two hours he was at
liberty to leave off, according to a rule laid down
some years ago by the present warden, and, as far as
I know, always most punctually and cheerfully
obeyed. The day being one on which the usual
arrangements of time were broken up on account
of preparation for the holidays, other prefects came
to play, and the game was continued. The boy in
question was well pleased to go on watching out
without claiming his exemption, and did so much
longer than was good for him, and the result is,
that he is very ill—not, as the surgeon assures me,
dangerously, at present, but still very ill." Here,
then, we have the circumstances at once deducible
from the admissions of the Reverend Gentleman,
We find that the fag, obliged by the
regulations of the school to attend the behests
of the juvenile despot to whose tender mercies
he is consigned, no matter what his own pursuits or
desires may .b _ , vssraot fcmrs.en. tivsm 161L.c. io GOTT'S
pelled to relinquish his recreations during the brief
space allotted for them ; nay, he cannot devote
the time to preparation for the ensuing school hours,
however deficient he may be in the tasks in which
he is expected by the master to be perfect. He must
give up every thing to watch out for the prefects at
cricket, or to discharge any other duty they, or
rather his peculiar tyrant, may choose to dictate.
But he is at liberty, forsooth, at the end of two
hours, to leave off, a rule which, as far as the head
master knows, has been most cheerfully and punc-
tually obeyed. Why, what a mockery is this. What
boy is there who, so long as the system is sanctioned
and tolerated by the school authorities—so long as
his master is authorised to punish and tyrannise over
him,' to deprive him of every comfort, and make his
life itself a burden to him, would dare to complain of
any breach of the regulations, or refuse to
remain as long as his attendance was required without
claiming his exemption ? Should he even venture to
do so, and to report to the masters the violation by
the prefects of that rule, in what manner would his
complaint be received, and what future protection
would be afforded to him against the vengeance to
which he would be exposed for his audacity ? The
master would most assuredly be the very last person
to hear anything of such a transaction, and hr may
very truly say that, so far as he knows, the rule is
cheerfully obeyed, when the very contrary may be
notorious to every pupil in the school. The outwork
at cricket, without any admission to the bat or the
more agreeable portions of the game, is not so very
fascinating a sport that a boy would voluntarily con-
tinue at it for several hours on a broiling day in the
month of July, until he actually fainted on the
ground, unless some strong method of persuasion
was used to induce him ; the result, in the words
of Dr. MOBERLEY, is, that he is very ill,
although not dangerously so at present—that is, at
the end of five weeks from the attack ;—in the words
of HIIMANITAS, he has for that period " lain in a
state of lifeless insensibility, and remains at this
moment unfit to be removed, a most miserable picture
of human suffering."
Whichever of these statements may be the most
correct, either is amply sufficient to startle the
atrocious
of
every
ouspra
ti lad sent ento a
still t
maintained.
school
. Whey
ywwheilr th
le
ask
themselves, is it for such objects that they have parted
from their child, that they have undertaken
heavy
expenses on his account ? Is it that he may become
the dutiful and obedient servant of a schoolboy
that he may do the out-work at cricket, clean
shoes, run messages, and discharge all the
menial offices required by his senior ?—offices
under which the manly vigour and brilliant

intellect Of PERCY BYSCHE SHELLEY had almost suc

cumbed, and the recollections whereof excited his

horror and indignation at every subsequent period
of his life. Is a course of slavery in the first in-

stance, succeeded by the most despotic power, the
only way by which the character of our English

youth can be formed and prepared for future

success ?

Dr. MOBERLEY asserts that " where a large number
of boys are assembled together there is a great
danger, indeed, a certain prospect, that strength
will often overrule and tyrannise over wf,‘akness."
This is undoubtedly the truth—it is th-e tendency
of human nature, against which the most stringent
laws are required in every station •and position ;
there is no doubt that if left, wholly to
themselves a fearful
amount of cruelty, wan-
tonness, and suffering is sure to take place;
but we join issue at once
with the Riev.
tlemen in his conclusion that the system. of Den-
fagging
is the only way in which it can be cheeked, or that
it furnishes the noblest method of fon, ling the cha-
racters of those who exercise it, and
those who live
under it. As well might he assert tt iat modern lawn
should be set aside, and that we shoe Al return to the
patron and client system of ancient times, when the
middle classes were obliged to became the retainers
up teir ilndheopeyndiregnicneiainn
roeftusornme
for patrician,
theprotection d yieldo
na..mordehd .
a

planter may assert that tbere is na better method of
Forming a character than in slaking a man