The Sun.
London, England, 1846-07-30 00:00:00

none of your efforts to promote the spread of en-
lightment upon all legislative topics ! Persist in that
discriminating agitation for reform—whether civil,
municipal, religious, or commercial—which you have
evinced so conspicuously of late years ! Continue
manfully and peacefully to plead to your rulers for
the erasure of every irksome and injudicious enact-
ment from the statute-book ! Proceed courageously
and hopefully upon your new and glorious mission
—avoiding any of those detestable appeals to
violence which have so often proved destructive
to your ancestors, and whit's, if resorted to by
yourselves, would prove equally pernicious and
inefficacious—proceed upon that wonderful mission
of reform, which has already commenced so wonder-
fully, reason your guide and moral force your
weapon, and your success is certain. Your voice
will be obeyed; your rational demands will
meet with a rational compliance ; and every
unsightly and poisonous weed will one by
one be rooted from the Constitution !"
That is the language virtually addressed to the popu-
lation of Great Britain by the present Houses of
Parliament. That is the language of wisdom, of jus-
tice, and of benevolence, which no man of liberal edu-
cation, or even of merely common sense, will for a
moment doubt. It is language, moreover,
eminently worthy of this extraordinary age, and
such language as will be listened to with the most
benign sentiment of satisfaction by RICHARD COBDEN,
in his seclusion amongst the mountains of Wales.
The majority of 130 verifies the remark of that
patriotic man that although the body corpo-
rate of the League were dissolved, its spirit
would survive and diffuse itself over the
surface of the whole earth. The spirit of the
League has survived its dissolution : it lives in the
Hall of the Legislature, though the great head of the
association has retired from that august assemblage.
Now that we possess proof positive of the accept-
ance which awaits the Ministerial measure, it becomes
interesting to observe the line of conduct pursued
by the different leaders of the House of Ceinmons.
It becomes even more than interesting—it becomes
of the utmost importance. From their behaviour
upon the occasion of the first development of the
principles of the RUSSELL Administration we may
rationally deduce the prospects which exist in regard
to the acceptation of those principles, and the stability
of that Administration. Of the stability of the one
in office, or of the popularity of the other among the
principal portion of our statesmen, no single doubt
can now exist: the representatives collectively have
sanctioned both by a majority of very nearly two
to one in a House of exactly four hundred.
The ex-Prime Minister has pronounced himself in
terms the most magnanimous, declaring himself re-
solved to renounce all considerations of rivalry, to
waive all previous distinctions of party, to for-
get all personal influence, to quell all indivi-
dual ambition, for the purpose of ensuring the
prosperity and happiness of this great nation.
By giving such a splendid evidence of disinterested-
' ness and patriotism, Sir ROBERT PEEL will render
the gratitude of his contemporary countrymen per-
manent, while he will assure to his name that noble
and beautiful immortality for which it is well
known his heart yearns with so much
ardour. He is the passive Minister-maker of
the House of Commons, the Parliamentary Earl of
WARWICK; and by continuing to use that eminent
and enviable authority, with this admirable forbear-
ance and discrimination, Sir ROBERT will acquire
both the reipect of the present generation,
and fame from posterity. Lord JOHN RUSSELL,
on the other hand, has declared himself ready to
continue in office only so long as he can do. so with
the utmost independence, and by expressing himself
in that dignified manner has ensured for his Adminis-
tration the esteem even of its antagonists. Of
the healthy and hopeful character of the
principles of the RUSSELL Cabinet, we can-
not give a more explicit exposition than by
transcribing a few sentences delivered by the Prime
Minister himself—sentences which contain great ora-
torical beauty, and which display very eminent and
statesmanlike abilities : ,
" Sir," said Lord JOHN RUSSELL, " the Honour-
able Gentleman also made some very curious re-
marks as to the general policy of this coun-
try, and the experience he has derived from
what he has observed with reference to our
practical history ; and his observations, he said,
led bim to the conclusion that this country
had always retraced its steps. I must say a
more extraordinary discovery, and nna =•-•
unexpected, aR, 1.-4, 1._., ____, __RA, .. —A have oeen
maae.—(Hear, hear.) No doubt there may have
been particular vuzes in which Parliament hasirepealed
its own Acts, and cases in which reasons may have
been found to modify some parts of a system; but
that this country has ever gone back, after it has
adopted an improved system, and thrown aside the
fetters of a prejudiced age, to errors which had be-
come exploded, I entirely deny, and I say it is not the
characteristic of the history of this country.—(Cheers )
I do not refer now to what occurred in those times of
violence when the Throne and the Parliament were
scattered by the decisions of a House of Commons,
which, with usurped authority, governed solely by
the sword ; but, speaking of those days when we had
anything like regular government, after the restora-
tion of the house of STUART, I think there can be
nothing more apparent, nothing more clear, nothing
more beautiful to the reader of history, than the
progress which this country made, and the deter-
mination with which she kept, the conquests of
reason.—(Hear.) In those days personal liberty
was not safe, and the freedom of the subject
was exposed to the will of the Sovereign, but the
Habeas Corpus Act was passed in order to remedy
thit state of things, and I ask, has the country ever
retraced its steps in that respect ?—(Cheers.) Have
we ever since that period said that the personal liberty
of the subject should exist at the will of the monarch ?
—(Cheers.) The Revolution next took place—the
Bill of Rights was passed—have we ever repealed
the Bill of Rights ? Has any one ever proposed the
restoration of the dark and slavish political system
which prevailed in the days of CHARLES IL ?—(Hear,
hear.) The press was then under a censorship ;
it was set free; and I ask has any one pro-
posed a restoration of the system from
which the press was then relieved ?—(Loud
cheers.) At that time the Dissenters were im-
prisoned for preaching religious doctrines which they
believed to be true. The Act of Toleration was
passed, and they were relieved from the injustice
under which they laboured. Has the country gone
back to persecution ?—(Hear, hear.) Has it re-
traced its steps in this respect ? In these days is it
punishable for men to do and preach what they he-

lieve to be the will of GOD ?—(Hear, hear.) Sir, the
country has not retraced its steps in these respects, but
with regard to the proceedings of later days—with
regard to that great Act in which Mr. WILBERFORCE
took so great a part, the abolition of the slave-trade,
has there ever been a proposition made in this House,
or in the other House of Parliament, to have the
slave trade restored ?—(Hear, hear.) I might allude
to many other measures, if it were not likely to cause
a difference of opinion amongst the Members of this
House, but, with respect to the progress of religious
liberty, I would remark that we have now in this
House Protestants, Dissenters, and Roman Catholics,
persons of different shades of religious belief, and I
do not suppose that there- is any Member of this
House who would wish to change that system by re-
, restoring the religious disabilities and disqualifications
which formerly existed. This
.is my opinion, and I
soafyt,hose of the Hon. Gentleman
.—(Hear
the
cheers)"
eeopposite
Those sentiments should teach the people to confide
in the wisdom of the new Government, and it should
convince them that they are realising, not merely the
importation of cheap corn and cheap sugar, but that
they are incorporating the principles of free trade for
ever and for ever with the Constitution of Great
Britain.

The Break of Gauges Bill was on Tuesday read a
second time in the House of Lords. From the obser-
vations made by several Noble Lords, it mould appear
that the present measure is intended to be only tem-
porary, and that some great and comprehensive
measure for establishing an entire uniformity of
gauge throughout the kingdom is in contemplation.
We sincerely trust that such. may be the case,
and that what has been most justly termed,
not only an inconvenience, but a great
uatiomil agefigtune, may be got rid of by every pro. I