The Sun.
London, England, 1833-01-23 00:00:00

There arc among them sects and schisms as
countless as the stars of the firmament or the
sands of the sea, the falsehoods of O'Connell or
the protocols of Lord Palmerston. Some talk
of a final measure; others see but the small end
of the wedge; one pronounces, our Reform is
complete ; another whispers, our Revolution is
hardly begun ; the Whig is satisfied with a
septennial visit to the hustings from his fifty-
, pound tenant ; the Radical will not be happy
till he shall see the sooty hand of his chimney-
sweeper thrust annually into the balloting-box.
Not only in our amended representation is
amendment proposed, but in every institution
which belongs to Church or State changes more
or less violent are daily agitated. The fiercer
philosopher would tear the gown from the pas-
tor's shoulders; the feebler would only pluck
the mitre from the Bishop's head ; the sturdier
rebel would trample on his Sovereign's diadem ;
the more moderate would content himself with
the appropriation of twp or three of the gems
with which it is adorned. Amidst this conflict
of vague and dissonant opinions, one thing is
certain. As the hold which prescription had
over the minds of men becomes more and more
relaxed, the voice of the avowed revolutionist
becomes louder, and the declared robber with-
, draws the mask from his face. " Who," said
one of the most powerful advocates of the Re-
form Bill in March, 1831, " who wants to turn
the Nobility out of the House of Lords ? Here
and there a crazy Radical, whom the boys
point
at as he walks along." Two years have passed
since this expression was received with enthu-
siastic applause by the regenerators of the Con-
stitution ; and the benches from which that cla-
morous approbation was expressed have since
echoed with yet louder exultation when Lord
Ebrington moved the famous resolutions
which, if they have not for ever annihi-
lated, have, at least for a time, suspended the
independent authority of the House of Lords.
We question whether Mr. Macaulay would now
speck thus slightingly of the desperate and dan-
gerous men by whom the utility of our heredi-
tary Peerage is doubted or denied. The un-
settled state of public opinion, which we have
thus hastily sketched, invests the intentions of
the Cabinet, as we before said, with a fearful in-
terest. If they shall determine to make a stand
on the ground which they have selected for
themselves; if they shall redeem the pledges
which they made two years ago to their less re-
solved friends; if, in a word, they shall become
Conservative, not of the Constitution as they
found it, but of the Constitution as they
have made it, there is a hope, a faint perhaps
and a feeble hope, but still a hope, that the
more insane and terrible excesses of revolu-
tionary outrage may he spared us ; that
the Warburtons and Woods may return to
their insignificance, and that the Steels and
O'Connells may be once more harmless
traitors. But if the King's Government I
shall place itself in this crisis at the head
of the party of the Movement, we see no
mortal arm by which the ruin which impends
over this unfortunate country may be for twelve
months averted. " Jack Cade, the clothier,
means to dress the Commonwealth, and turn it,
and set a new nap upon it." There are some
Members of the Administration, holding in it a
more or less distinguished station, of whom we
anticipate, whatever may be their present pro-
fes-ions, that they will move onwards with the
Agitators and the Unions. We anticipate this
of Mr. Poulett Thomson, because we under-
stand his taste ; of Lord John Russell, because
we appreciate his consistency; of Lord Ahhorp,
because he has always been a Radical ; of Mr.
Charles Grant, because he was once a Tor).
There are others, and there is one above all, to
hose conduct we look with a more comfortable
faith. Of such we shall speak to-morrow.—
Morning Post.
The necessary subjection of the 501. tenancy
to their landlords—their political vassalage, or
their certain exposure to ruin at every new elec-
tion, have often been pointed out in this journal,
a=id denounced as a bleaiish of the Reform
Bill. In the late election we have heard
of many instances in which the tyranny of
the bolds of the soil has been exercised
with a degree of rigour seldom exemplified
in recently-established despotisins; but we have
seen no arbitrary interference with electoral rights
so glaring and barefaced as that displayed in the
following circular to a portion of the electors of
East Suffolk:—

" Coddenbam, Dee. 10, 1832.

Sir —I beg leave to request you will attend at my
house on the 1 q day of January next, to pay your half
year's rent, et 10 o'clock in the morning, and bring an
account of the crops on y'•ur faim in every field.

" Yours very rempeetfully,
" MANG. CHAPMAN,

("Sir William Middleton's Steward.)
" R S.—Sir William (Middleton) reques s the pleasure
of seeing you at Stitubland Park, to breakfast, on Friday
morning., the 14th, at a quarter hi.fore 8 o'c.ock, on
hor.a.back, to proceed to the nomination, without fail."

This printed document, extraordinary as it
may seem, i•, as we are assured by a corres-
pondent, perfectly genuine, and must be ad-
mitted to be a masterpiece of its kind. The
steward of Sir William Middleton does not

order a levy of his qualified tenants to the poll,
a: he would have done a levy of feudal vassals
to the field in ancient times : he is too dexterous

and cunning for such an exposure of his power
in the face of a law which guarantees freedom of
choice to ail voters : but how deliberately does

le join a summons to the rent-reckoning on the
st of January, with au invitation to breakfast on

the 14th of December ! ! These things seem
in the circular merely forttntous occurrences,
but the tenant is expected to have in his mind
che connecting link. " Attend," says the im-
perious steward, " at ten oclock, on the Ist of
January, with your half-year's rent,and bring an
account of the crops on your farm in every
field." Such is the terrible prospect held out to
,he alarmed farmer in one part of the missive.
He is not only to bring the rent due for past
occupation, but he is commanded to produce ail
account of his peseta produce, that his rent may
be raised, or his farm transferred to a higher bidder.
But listen to the sontheing postscript, which f-
ficient to correct all the harshness of the previous
command—" Sir William requests the pleasure
of seeing you at breakfast on Friday tnornitw,
it a quarter before eight o'clock, on horseback,
to proceed to the nomination, without fail."
What a humane and kind-hearted landlord !
Did Sir William ever expect " to see his tenants
at breakfast on horseback before ?"