The Sun.
London, England, 1841-09-08 00:00:00

what is on record as to their past characters and con-
duct. Fortunat. ly for the country, which is naturally
anxious to know as much as possible of the fate which it
awaits, if not equally to the advantage of the Govern-
ment, their history is matter of notoriety. The nation
has seen with astonishment, now rapidly merging into
deep and settled disgust, a Cabinet formed of statesmen
only remarkable for their former disagreements, and
whose present association with each other is not less
surprising than it is dishonourable to themselves and
dangerous to the country. Whether we look to the
measures which are likely to emanate from such a Cabi-
net, with respect to our Foreign, Colonial, or Domes-
tic relations—their influence upon our position with
other States, or their necessary influence upon the pros-
perity and tranquillity of our own, we will not con-
ceal our apprehensions that clouds will overspread,
if storms do not disturb, our hemisphere. The only
hope which the lover of his country can indulge in its
present circumstances is, that the distractions, which
cannot fail to exist in the councils of such a heteroge-
neous mass calling itself a Ministry, will be speedily
followed by an open rupture ; and the nation be thus
relieved from a visitation not more injurious to its real
interests, than it is derowatory to the honour and
honesty which constitute the bases of its character in the
estimation of the world.

STANDARD.—In the House of Commons no less
than twenty-six election petitions were presented. Thi:
is the last day for presenting such petitions. Severa
notices of motions, of greater or less importance, were
given ,
• among others, a notice by
Mr. Roebuck, as fol-
lows :

" On going into Committee on the re-enactment of the
Poor-law Ameadment Act to move—
" That the Board of Commissioners be abolished, and
all such discretionary powers as may be deemed neces-
sary for the due administration- of the law now possessed
by the Commissioners, be transferred to the Secretary 01
State for the Home Department."
It -is difficult to understand what Mr. Roebuck intend
by this motion ; for his attachment to the New Poor-
law in principle and detail has been too recently ex-
pressed to leave any doubt of his wish to continue the
system exactly such as it is in its operation upon
the poor. What lie proposes is clearly impracticable.
The Secretary of State for the home I)epartmele
already has his hands completely full ; and even i;
this were not the case—if the system of centralisation
is to be continued, as Mr. Roebuck plainly intend,
it to be—some intermediate authority between the
parochial governors of the: poor and one of the
Queen's principal Secretaries of State, would be ab-
solutely necessary in a constitutional view. It would
be extravagant to suppose one of her Majesty':
principal Ministers called nightly to account in Par-
liament for every case of alleged locarmismanagement.
But this is the only; remedy whiCh Mr. Roebuck':
proposed arrangement would leave, and this after a
little time would prove in practice no remedy at all. Tit\
truth seems to be, that the'Vstem of centralisation must
be abandoned sooner or later, and the management of the
poor once more assigned, under whatever terms the legis-
lature may think fit to impose, to bccd authority, subject
only to the courts of law. Meanwhile, if there is to be a
central authority, it is much better that that authorit \
rest where it does, than in the Home Secretary of State's
Office.

COURlER—Scarcely had four days elapsed from the
resignation of the Whigs, before it was officially an-
nounced that Sir Robert Peel had completed the task as-
signed to him, and obtained for his Cabinet his sanction
of her Majesty's gracious approval. To this important
fact we wish to direct the special attention of our Whig-
Radical Contemporaries, as signally falsifying all their
reiterated predictions regarding the obstacles, perplexities,
and difficulties which Sir Robert Peel was to have en-
countered on his way to pose: and office. It must still
be fie,h in the public mind with what unabashed assur-
ance, and in what a tone of anticipated triumph, our
Contemporaries were in the habit of menacing him
with the most complicated disasters should he pos-
sess the incredible hardihood of approaChing the
precincts with no higher recommendation than the
unbounded confidence of his country, as expressed
in both Houses of Parliament. Woe betide him,
was their incessant exclamation, should he adventure
the formation of a Ministry, for beside the resistance he
will be sure to meet with in the highest quarters (and the
mysteriousness of their language on this head gave fear-
ful force and significance to their ominous threatenings),
the jarring jealousy and impracticable stubbornness of
the materials from which the Cabinet must needs be con-
structed, will render the task, if not absolutely impos-
sible, at least one of the utmost difficulty. Such were
the prophetic croakings of the Whig Press, and such
their mode of administering consolation to their patrons
while still in possession of the seals of office. But the
extreme facility with which ,Sir Robert Peel has been
enabled to form a Cabinet, and the unprecedentedly
short time he required for the completion of all his other
arrangements, show how wretchedly- deficient either in
veracity or foresight were these self-constituted political
prophets.