The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-26 00:00:00

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SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE DAILY PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.)
l!‘rom the Morning Chronicle.)
The great Reform Meeting at Leeds was followed by
a dinner in the evening, the account of the proceedings
at which will be found in this day's Chronicle. Mr.
O'Connell, who, in consequence of accidents did not
reach Leeds in time for the meeting, was present at the
dinner. The great feature of the proceedings at Leeds,
w et the approximation towards a better understanding
toreeeen the Radicals and the Chartists. The Leeds
.Itlercury observes, that " the result of the great fea-
tival is, that the household suffragers have gone over
eri mas.,:e (so far as the public have any means of
judging) to the universal suffragers." The Leeds Mer-
cury has been endeavouring, with more zeal and indus-
try than success, to show that the towns in which- Li-
beral principles prevail, have at present a preponderance
in the representation, and that the changes contemplated
by the advocates of household suffrage would give an
undue ascendancy to the ar:stocracy. On this subject
it observes, in :newer to a charge brought against it by
Mr. James Marshall, the Chairman of the meeting, of
having openly and prominently appealed to the pre-
judices, the unfounded fears, and •self interest of the
middle classes of our town population—
" We have advec,ted what we most conscientiously and
firmly beiieve to be that constituency and that system of
representation hick will best secure good and liberal go-
vernment. This is cur object. We avow in the broadest
possible manner that our views are practical. We cannot
rush with our eyes open into the adoption of a constitu-
ency that wont.' give us a worse and a less liberal Govern-
vernment than we have at present. We cannot consent
to destroy the Constitution, for the sake of destroying
Liberal Government. We cannot abandon the firm ground
on which the English Coustitution placed our liber-
ties, when it gave to the towns a larger share in
the representation than their mere numbers would en-
title them to. We cannot admit that the rural
population are either so independent or so intelli-
gent as the town population, and therefore we can-
not scamp the latter under the false notion of ab-
stract justice to the former. We cannot and will not
slaughter the English Constitution, and give up
the moderate, well-tempered, well-principled, and en-
lightened democracy of the middle classes of our town po-
palatien na the main bulwark of English liberty. If we
thought the rural population as well qualified as the town
population to use the entire ascendancy which the new
Reform would give them, so as to promote civil and re-
ligious liberty, and wise and fair Government, we would
advocate the scheme with delight. But who is there that
does think so? All our principles and feelings would lead
us to advocate evPry extension of rights and franchises that
we think the people are fitted for."
We wish we could believe with the Leeds 31er-
cury that the English Constitution has placed our li-
be Nees on a firm ground when it gave us our town re-
pfaret .ation. Dia small borough
s are notoriously
delndeet anti venal, and ever since the passing of
the Referin the evil has been on the increase.
A small borne -h in an agricultural district is in-
flue.•ced by the surrounding squires and parsons,
and cannot to fairness be included among the town con-
stitucncies. " There," said Mr. O'Connell at the din-
ner, "is the town of Harwich, with but 79 voters,
rending two Members to Parliament, while this Riding
cf I'o:lest:ire, with 85,000 voters, has only the same
number of representatives." The great constituencies
are swamped by the small. The meeting nt Leeds,
wire it to have had no other effect than the bringing
together the middle and working classes, who have for
sonic time been neutralising the cffarts of each other,
will have been productive of great good. What said
Mr. Moir, the delegate from Glasgow ? " Tne Char-
tists of GI isgow are so numerous that neither Whigs
nor Tories, nor both of them united, can call
a public meeting at any hour of the day or night
with a shadow of chance of success. I can tell you
the Chartists of Scotland arc not an inconsiderable
body of men, for there is not a town of any cense-
quence, when a public meeting may be called,
where the Chartists cannot carry their own views.,
'I hie account may be somewhat exaggerated ; but,
making every allowance for exaggeraticn, there is
enough in it to show the danger to the cause of Re-
form from such an untoward state of things. The Char-
tists arc much lees to be apprehended in union with the
middle classes then in a state ci separation. Mr.
O'Connell threw out an admirable suggestion. " You
ought to have a central association at London, so formed
that, whilst acting in perfect concert with you, it would
soil be within the bounds of the law. Let that asso-
ciation bring cut such arithmetical facts as I have been
&alit-vs with to-night." By means of the labours of
such an association, correct information may be ob-
tained cf the real condition of things with reference to
the representation in the three kingdoms. During the
short period that has elapsed since the passing of the
Reform Bill, a number of boroughs, then supposed to
be independent, have become completely rotten. The
association will ferret out those things, anti by con-
necting them with their causes, it will enable us to
des ise an appropriate remedy for the evil.
(From the Morning Post.)
The proceedings of the great Conservative meeting
at Belfast, to which many columns of our paper are de-
voted, will be read with intense interest at this particular
moment. This manifestation is a mosttriumphant one,
and it has the advantage of having been made exactly
at the right time, on the eve of the commencement of a
session of Parliament which will probably witness the
ascendancy in the legislature of those wise and exalted
and constitutional principles which the loyal and patri-
otic men of the north of Ireland met in such over-
whelming numbers, and in so splendid an array of talent
and virtue, and rank and wealth, to proclaim and to
support. The able letter of Lord Stanley to Mr. Emer-
son Tennent, which was read by that gentleman in
the -course of his speech, breathes a spirit entirely
cang- nial with that which actuated the meeting. It
proclaims that the Noble Lord will proceed with
vigour and alacrity in the noble task he has under-
taken of enforcing real and substantial " justice to Ire-
land." We will not believe it possible that the exer-
tions cf such a statesman as Lord Stanley, supported
by the full sympathy and the stimulating applause of
such a body of Irishmen as were assembled on Thurs-
day at Belfast, can fail of success. The electing ex-
pressed its opinions of the repeal agitation in 'a resolu-
tion, the language of which ought undoubtedly to be
rc-echoed by both Houses of the British Parliament
in their addresses to her Majesty on the opening of the
Session. It is intolerable that a project for dismember-
ing the Queen's dominions, by means of a seditious agi-
tation tending directly to civil war, should be actively
and zealously prosecuted, without rebuke, by the special
friend (might we not rather say the only friend ?) of the
Queeis'i Ministers.

(From the Standard.)
Notwithstanding the apprehensions that seem to have
been entertained by our Whig Gontemporaries, the
" grand" Whig-Chartist demonstration at Leeds passed
off as harmlessly as Mr. O'Connell's attempt to disturb
the good humour of the Protestant population of Ultter
—the " black North."' We shall not pretend'to analyse
the dozen columns which the Morning Chronicle has
devoted to the subject. No description, sacs our
Contemporary, can afford an adequate idea of the
violence of the language employed in speaking of Mr.
O'Conne.ll. Notwithstanding the bitter animosity ma-
nifested at the purely Chartist meeting of the morn-
ing, however, old the vehemence with which its
finning ratriots denounced Lord Melbourne as the
" most incompetent" reckless, immoral, and bloodthirsty
profligate tl at has ever held office within the memory of
man,' the usual coalition (" a sort of compromise,"
sa3s the /1/10snis.g Chronic/e), toe k place between the
supporters of Ministers and the Chartists, by means
of which the latter were allowed a shelter from the
cold in Mr. Marshall's mill, on the condition of pay•
ing half-a-crown for the superior, and eigteenpence
for the interior scats ; which, if the numbers amounted
to hiifthe 8,000 for whom seats had been pro-
vided, nri:t hive 3 fielded a very pretty profit to the
,t • • owner of the establishment. 'ibis sul
forsib;e provision
the exclusim of the poser order of
chartists was, n o doubt, cleverly contrived, but does
not, nevertheles?, appeart to have produced the desired
Mr. Baines testimony—and he
effect. According t o
may Ur)/
of all victories.
friends—the
he pronounced a pretty tolerable authority
far an account of tic
discomfiture of his
Chartists obtained the completestus,
the entire army of
'' They took captive,
lie tells
the fuste
the enemy" (i. C. the temporisers ofdoor Mr. Hume
and household suffrage classes).
was constrained to bats) himself hoarse ; but such
was the distaste exhibited by his ungrateful audience for
its attention
his oratory, that it became necessary to call s
to his admonitions byathe blast of a trumpet.
Notwith-
standing the compact entered into by the Whig-
lta-
Picals present on that occasion with the Chartists, that
the resolutions should be confined to asimple declaration
of the utter failure of the Reform Bill and the necessity
of conceding a due share of the representation to all •
classes of the people; and the astute precaution of
demanding money at the doors ; the Ministerial party
cut a most miserable figure throughout, and were
compered to swallow their own opinions almost as
icon as they had uttered them, and listsn.with patience
to .t lot-rota or indignant denunciation of the great pa-
tron,of her Majesty's Ministers (Mr. O'Connell) the
guest whom they had invited to a snug breakfast on the
ensuing morning, at which, under the protection of the
pia:: constables and the ladies, he practised his accus-
tomi i location unmolested. He had evidently been
hiling in sowe hole or corner whilst the grand demon-
stration was going on, and was at length only induced to
make his appearance in the more limited arena, which
had questionless been carefully packed for his reception.
(From the Globe.)
We never wish to speak with mere indifference of
any attempted demonstration which, however unsup-
ported, unsuccessful, and incongruous with itself, we
nevertheless believe to have partly originated in
popular wants and feelings. Such is our opinion
of the double demonstration last week at Leeds, which,
though a thorough and total failure in all the os-
tensible objects of its two sets of movers, is notwith-
standing, by no means witoout its political lessons.
Not lessons in politics. Not a particle of direct in-
sci
science was to be gleaned from the
' isti
Suffrage more than from the
aft c.
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