The Sun.
London, England, 1841-09-01 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM( THE DAILY PAPERS OF YFSTERDAY.
CHRONICLE.—Lord Melbourne announced in the
House of Lords last night, the resignation of himself
and colleagues ; the acceptance of that resignation by
her Majesty, and their continuance to hold their offices
till their successors were appointed. No man iiehes
better than Lord Melbourne what the occasion demands;
and in confining himself to the bare fact he evinced his
usual tact and Judgment. A change in the Aelministra-
tion of a mighty empire is an important event ; but it is
important 'with reference to the interests of the people ;
and as such a change• implies either a departure from
the system on which the Government is conducted, or a
more factious struggle for place ; there is always
a danger, lest, on the one hand, warmth of manner
should be attributed to personal disappointment,
and, on the other, lest moderation towards op-
ponents should be mistaken for indifference to-
wards the nation, of which the welfare is at stake.
The termination of an Administration which be-
gan its career by the Reform Bill, and ended it by a
measure of commercial freedom, is no ordinary event.
That Administration forms an important section in the
history of this empire. We will not allow ourselves to
indulge in gloomy anticipations, because we do not be-
lieve that any Administration can repress the indomit-
able energies of the nation, or change its ultimate des-
tiny ; but still the substitution of a Tory Government
for one of which the mhsion was institutional and admi-
nistrative Reform, cannot be contemplated with indiffe-
rence by any well-constituted mind. It is a temporary
triumph of the evil principle. Its tendency is to throw
(limp on the exertions of those who have the inte-
rests of the millions at heart. That the intentions
of the departed Ministry were, from first to last,
jaottest toe arls the millions, will be allowed with-
("AU hesitation, even by those who may think that
a /notes decided course might have better ena-
bled thole' to realize their intentions. But then
the parity of their intentions drew on them the hostility
of the party by which they have at last been vanquished.
Their principal mistake lay in supposing that concilia-
tory conduet ,towards their- opponents might disarm their
opposition. A party banded together by selfish motives
:sea to be disarmed by rigour rather than conciliation.
iikt into this wide field we will not now enter. One im-
toortanc fact characteristic of the late Ministry and their
4-oonents we cannot help noticing. The late Ministry
co/moan:led a majority in the House of-Commons tilt
they evinced it determination to prefer the weltere of the
people es the citizus of moaopolists—till, in the behalf
of the people, they heaved the all-powerful class of land-
owners. We do not weafier that some of those who
once four...lit side by side with the departed Ministry.
should, their triumph, feel. the alloy of some uneasy
reminiseenees. Lord Stanley's speech affords, we think,
unequivocal evidence that his Lordship already begins to
?eta thus he is in bad company.
ilMii:esh---The circumstance of none of the Conserva-
tive leaders haethoe. spoken in the recent debate except
Mr. efoulhurn and Sir Robert Peel, and the former of
these geetleraen having risen only on the spur of the
moment to expose the financial fallacies of the late
Chancellor of the Exelicquee, while Sir Robert Peel
confined himself principally to a statement of the views
with win ho is himself about to enter office—these
favourable circumstances enabled Lord John Russell to
make a:plausible speech, in which he affected to com-
plain that the IThige were condemned without having
ale articles Of impeachment against them produced. The
aimple reply is; that the Conservatives did not wish to
re-open all the details of a question which was fully ar-
gued ire the last Parliament. When a prisoner, who has
been fitund guilty; after a Long and patient investigation,.
is bronght up for judgment, it is not customary in Bri-
tish courts of justice to go through the Whale proces ver
Z?4l of the .rial astecond time. It would have. been more
etppropriate, and Tar more seasonable,. it Lord John Ens-
soil had taken the -opportunity Whic was offered him
three months since to make his defenee-before the coun-
try returned its verdict. This, however, does not ap-
peer to have been his own view of the case. He reserved
the cat-elope of Whig successes w:+11 vrleiell he enter-
tained the House of Commons on SaturtLy 11140613 g for
a last dying speech and confession—a funti74l
41.)Vur h:ti daparting Government. He was disposa:7 like
t 7;
it 'Vauxhall rocket, to go off in a blaze. We suspect,
however, that the country will be but little dazzled by
the exhilfition. It may puzzle and amuse people for a
few brief moments to hear men drummed out of a regi-
ment to the tune of " See, the Conquering Hero comes,"
but we daubt much whether there is any one whose rela-
tive notions of success and failure will be at all altered
by thh phenomenon.
ADVERnsER.—RoyaI Addresses are commonly re-
markable only fur their vague generalities, and shallow
rand unmeaning tautologies ; but her Majesty, on open-
ing the present Session, threw off the consecrated gar-
ment of mysticism, and for once spoke to the hearts, as
-vvell as to the understandings, of. her people. Her lan-
guage on the subject of fiscal reform was plain, simple,
and intelligent, conveying her determination to direct
the light of inquiry to one of the most enormous evils
ever tolerated in an enlightened country—that of imPo-
Etic and partial taxation. We have already laid before
our readers the several items representing the aggregate
:amount of our taxation, and from them they may form
awhile conception of its magnitude and importance. But
,lie cardinal error and evil of the existing system,
as the inequality of its pressure on the several
el:tasts of society. The amount of the burden, heavy
as it is, would be but a comparatively small grievance,
did it rest chiefly upon those who have strength to sus-
tain it. If the seventy millions, which constitute the
Government and local taxes were assessed upon the
leeoperty of the country—as reason and justice suggest
mist they should be, and not, as now, in defiance of every
quitable principle, upon its industry, or, more properly
ameaking, upon the fund required for the subsistence of
the popehthon—the consequences resulting from even a
profligate ecale of expenditure would be scarcely notice-
able, because almost wholly unfelt. But very
alifferent is the present system, the evils of which
:are, as we hare already said, almost innumerable.
At each successive step of an inquiry into its details,
some new grievance, operating most injuriously to the
public interests, and pressing with almost intolerable
severity upon the weaker classes, is discovered, and ex-
cites wonder at-the folly or wickedness by which it was
devised, and is still kept in existence. We could have
wished that her Majesty's Address had taken a broader
and more statesman-like view of the question, not con-
fining itself to any one detail of the system, but boldly
*Erect:llg attention to it as a whole ; for, assuredly, no
'ene part of it can be revised, in any important degree,
'ithout involving the necessity of a thorough reform of
Use whole. But however far the Royal Speech may have
fallen short of our desires in this respect, we cannot
fail to recognize in it the admission of a sound prin.
sciple of fiscal economy.
POST.—When the Whig Ministers advised the dis-
solaeion of Parliament, they either expected to obtain a
consiaorable accession of strength in the House of Com-
mons, or they did not. If they did expect such a result
the fact indicates such ignorance of the state of political
feeling among the electors, and such vain unfounded con-
fidencejn the popular regard for the Whig Government,
as prove; the unfitness of these Ministers for the offices
which they held. Under the present constitution of this
.country no man deserves to hold office who is ignorant
of the state of public feeling, or deceived as to its pro-
bable bearing in the event of a general election. On the
other hand, if Ministers did not expect an accession of
streugth by the election of a new Parliament, the object
in dissolving must have been to prevent a dissolution un-
der the Conservative Government, which they saw to
be inevitable. The object must have been to gain
for the purposes of the Opposition, certain seats which
are tolerably well understood to be obtained by the in-
lluence of the Government. If this be so, the managers
who are capable of such a trick well deserve all the ill-
luck which could befal them. The unexpectedly large ma-
jority against them was a just rebuke against such official
perfidy. Bit whatever the true theory of the recent dis-
solution may be, and however vexatious its results may
be to the Whig-Radical party, we cannot but look upon
it as a most fortunate circumstance for the Conservatives.
jf Sir Robert Peel had taken the Government and con-
tinued the late House of Commons, he would have been
eventing in that commanding strength which is so essen-
tial to the vigorous conduct of affairs. If he had taken
the Government and then dissolved the House, his ma-
jority would in that case have been attributed to Govern-
ment influence, and not to the popular preference for
Conservative principles and modes of Government.
HERALD.—That portion of Sir Robert Peel's most
.eloquent speech in advocacy of a general disarmament,
irfull of the most useful truths and the highest thoughts
of a great statesman. The eloquence of his language
pure though it be, was poor indeed in comparison with
the eloquence of the thoughts and opinions it conveyed.
In it he becaraa the advocate of the " hewersof wood
and drawers of water" in every country in Europe. The
Right Hon. Baronet pleaded fur the alleviation of suffer-
ing humanity in every European State. He held up to
.:11lielareos a„-(1 Legislatures the neglected secret in which
the strength of nations really lies. He sternly rebuked
ambition and military glory ; he feelingly pointed
to the " tictories of peace " as the only conquests worth
achieving. He irresistibly demonstrated that the
advancement of one nation was not necessarily based
sin the lowering or degradation of another, and boldly
proclaimed to the world that while England, tinier his
guidance, would submit to no insults or injuries, she
would offer the right hand of fellowship to every State,
whatever be the form of its Government or the faith of
its people. These sentiments, as honourable to his heart
as to ins head, must shortly render Sir Robert Peel as
poplar throughout Europe as he now is in his own
country ; they are wise and benevolent, without being
time-serving and popularity-hunting. Will, then, the
great Powers of Europe adopt and act on opinions so
essential to their real interests ? Will they abandon
the system gradually becoming intolerable, of adding
tax to tea, of raising pile on pile of national debt an.l
liability ? Is there to be no end of burdening the people
only for the purposes of blood and war ? These are the
important questions Sir Robert Peel has put to Europ e
A favourable answer depends on France. The responsi-
bility now resting on Louts Philip and his Minister, M.
Guizot, is stupendous; the progress of humanity and the
ndvancement of the material interests of the world are,
to a considerable extent, in their hands.
GLOBE.—The Conservatives are in high glee a and if
we took a malicious pleasure in seeing them " enamoured
of the fate" that is awaiting them, we should share
in their boisterous merriment. Toryism is 'drunk with
success, and in the excitement of its elevation does not
see the post it is about to break its head against—or,
perhaps, catching a glimpse of the obstacle in the way,
intoxication makes it appear like two, when, in at-
tempting to pass adroitly between the shadows, it
encounters the substance, and falls to the grsund
with stunning violence. The two difficulties that
Toryism is trying
to avoid are Ireland and the Corn-
laws—both tolerably substantial impediments, by the
way, but mere shadows in comparison with the real
stumbling-block, which will consist in the lumpish
obstinacy of a section of its ova body. Tho Weis of
the party are in fact to heavy for the head ; and while

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