The Sun.
London, England, 1833-03-18 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Lard Durham's resignation of the expensive emo-
Itr.ents of office, when his health no longer per-
mitted him to discharge official dut;ea, and his ad-
vancement a step in the cheap honours of the Peer-
age, from which the public can suffer no loss and he
can derive no advantage or distinction, have, as
might have been expected, been made the occasion
of a most rancorous attack on his character and ser-
vices by the Tory press. The violence and in-
justice of this assault in a paper of Saturday may he
reckoned a measure of the energy with which his
Lordship has always supported his liberal priii&ples,
and of the efficiency with which he resisted the
enemies of popular rights. The Tories and Anti-
Reformers can never forgive his persevering con-
sistency in the cause of Reform, or the able speech
in which be maintained the claim of the metropo-
litan districts to have Parliamentary representatives.
We shall not remark on the elegant parallel drawn
in the journal in question between a nobleman
of great landed property who happens to have
coai•mtnes on his estates, and the keeper of a
coal-yard on the Paddington canal, who may
happen to have no estate of any kind, because
we are quite sure that that great leader of the
Tories, and that Leviathan proprietor of coal-mines
the Marquis of Londonderry, can settle this point for
us with the Tory journal when lie comes to town, or
when he resumes for the session his eloquent career
in the House of Lords. Meanwhile, it would be
absurd in us to argue with such an antagonist as
the writer of the article against the claims r f Lord
Durham, when his Lordship and his friends can find
such an ally in the Noble Marquis to vouch for the
perfect comoatibiliiy between nearly the highest
title in ti e P e age and the ownership of coal-mines.
No other objecting being offered to the advancement
of Lord Durham to the rank of Earl, except that he
is so fortunate as to derive many thousands a year
from a species of property from which a Noble Duke
and a Noble Marquis in the same county ieceive a
large income, we shall say nothing further on the
alleged obstacles to his promotion, to which we
think him as fairly entitli-d as any Earl on the roll-

of Parliament. But the paper in question does not
stop at di-qualifying his Lo:dship for the receipt of
additional honours on account of the part cular
species of property which he possesses. It goes
farther, arid hints that he has derived an amount of
money from the public for his Russian mission,
which more than repaid his services,and for which
lie ought to be called to account in the House to
which he belongs There is nothing more
easy than to asoribe sordid motives to the
most disinterested actions of public men, with-
out the slighter: foundation for such charges.
No species of c:lumn, presents so fair a chance as
this of gaining reputation for its author, at so small
a risk of charac'er in case of failure. Any man
may say, and fain credit for saying, that Lord A.,
that Sir A. 8., or Mr. C., who have been employed
in the public service, have pocketed so much of the
public money without performing an adequate
amount of pub.;c service. In doing so, the calum-
niator hazards no reputation for veracity, because,
when challenged, he may pretend profound ignorance
of the whole transactions to which he alludes; and
he exposes himself to no personal collision, because
he is assured that he can throw the whole blame of
the intention on the general rumour, which he has
only aided in propagating. This general remark has
been suggested not only by the article in the paper
we allude to, but by the absurd reports which had
got abroad, and which had reached our ears, re-
specting the expenses of Lord Durham's recent mis-
sion. While the Noble Lord was in office, we
abstained from any allusion to the subject ; but,
as he has now resigned, it may be proper to
mention, that all these attacks on the extra-
vagant expenses of his embassy are utterly de-
void of truth. His Lordship undertook a very
delicate and very difficult task, in circumstances
where an extra expenditure might have been
warranted, but the following account will show
that he took no advantage of his position to incur
unnecessary charges either to gratify personal vanity
or to acquore a silly reputation for splendid extrava-
gance. The expense of Sir Stratford Canning's
mission to Rassia, in 1824, was 5,400/. The ex-
pense of the permanent embassy went on at the
same time. Sir S. 'Canning was lodged and enter-
tained by the -Minister Plenipotentiary, Mr. Ward.
The expense of the Duke of Wellington's mission
to Russia, in 1826, was 4,536/. 16s. 3,1. The ex-
pense of the permanent embassy tinder Lord Strang-
ford went on at the same time. The Duke of Wel-
lington ~as lodged and entertained at the Emperor's
expense as a Russian Field Marshal. The Duke of
Devonshire received for his special mission to Russia,
in 1826, I() 0001. The expense of Lord Durham's
mission to Russia is 5,440/. 13s. 6,1. Lord Durham
had not only the duties arid expenditure of the spe-
cial mission, but of the permanent embassy, imposed
on him, there being no resident Ambassador; and
Lord Durham, who was instructed to act in that
capacity also, had to entertain the Ministers, Corps
,Diplomotique, and the English resident at St. Pe-
tersburgh. Lord Durham was obliged also, in fur-
therance of the objects of his mission, to return
home by Berlin, Frankfort, and Brussels.—Times.
The people of Leeds, and indeed of all the manu-
facturing towns, cry out against the danger to which
they conceive that the Ten Hours Bill is exposed
by the threatened motion of Mr. Wilson Patten.
We would not say anything which might by possi-
bility have the effect of lulling the friends of the
Bill into false security, but we think that, without
incurring any such risk, we may state our candid
opinion (advising, at the same time, their continued
exertions in favour of the measure),—and our candid
opinion is, that no motion, ho.sever dexterously
contrived for the purpose, can prevail against the
universal sentiment of the people of England, so de-
cidedly expressed upon this subject. Whatever
hesitation we might have, as to the decision even
of a Reformed Parliament upon a measure affecting
either the liberties or the pockets of their consti-
tuents, we cannot entertain any doubt—it would he
doing injustice to human nature herself—,‘e cannot
entertain any doubt but that, in an assembly con-
taining many fathers of families, the lives of chil-
dren, of infants, will meet with some protection, af-
ter such a body of evidence as has been collected on
their behalt. The question is not how, or to what
extent, such evidence is likely to affect the Legis-
lature,but whether the Members of the Legisla-
ture have heads and hearts capable of being affected
by any evidence. The Bill is a Ten flouts
Bill. It gives the master nianufacturets a
power of working children ten hours a day.
Let any man who knows what working is, whe-
ther with mind or body, ask himself how
an application of ten hours a day agrees with him ;
how it affects his animal spirits 1111(1 Ins heal h, and
then let hint say whether, in the case of a child,
there ought to be, or on be, a hesitation as to the
propriety of limiting labour to that period. If, in the
strength and setiateness of mature lite we shrink
from the over-,training of the animal or intellectual
powers, how must it be with childhood, which na-
ture designed for a pleasant holyday, to be passed
amongst the novel its of our first sensations ? The
butterfly, sporting from flower to flo ‘‘. er, is a picture
of ynath ; but it is not the youth of the poor factory
child, even with the indulgence of a Ten Hours
Bill to lighten itt premature toil. We feel a cu-
riosity, not unmixed with indignation, to hear what
will be said against the granting of this indulgence,
or under what pretext an attempt will be made to
fritter it away. Will they talk of the necessity of
compromising with the masters ? Why, the Teri
Hours Bill was itself a compromise. Who will
say that Mr. Sadler consulted only the im•
pulses of his own heart when he stretched
the limit of infant labour to ten hours ? No,
it was to insure his object, it was to negotiate
the safety of the measure, that he moderated his de-
mands, and curbed his inclinations, and checked the
ardour of his benevolence, lest it should interfere
with the consummation of a great object of practi-
cal humanity. Arid even that, it seems, was not
enough. A further compromise is desirable. More