The Sun.
London, England, 1848-10-16 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON,

THE NOBLE WHIG STATESMAN'S

SOLICITATION OF REBELLION.

(From the Examiner.)
The three black crows have been r;duced to the
small ntom of truth which serves as the foundation of
every well-built lie. it turns out that no nobleman
high in office wrote to Colonel Napier, inviting him
to put himself at the head of 150,000 men at Birming-
ham, and to march on London ; but that Air. Thomas
Young, then private s.cretary to Lord Melbourne,
the Home Secretary, having given a frank to Mr. J.
Parkes, which he was afterwards informed was in-
tended for a letter on the subject of the leadership of
the Union in the event of extremities, bad the curiosity
to write to the Colonel to know what answer he
would have sent to the proposal had it been made to
him. And this inquiry was accompanied by the
avowal of the dissuasions which Mr. Young would
have interposed had Mr. Parkes's letter been forwarded.
The passage runs thus :
" Ate you aware that, in the event of a fight, you
were to be invited to take the command at Birmingham.
Parkes got a frank from me for you with that view, but
had no occasion to send it. Had he written I should
have fired a dispatch at you with my friendly and
anxious counsel and entreaty to keep you quiet, and not
to stir from Freshford. It is not well to enter early into
revolutions; the first fall victims. What do you think
would have happened? The Reformers (Place, &c.)
talked big to me, and felt assured of success. The run
upon the banks and the barricading of the populous
country towns would have brought matters to a crisis,
and a week they—the Reformers—thought would have
finished the business. They meant so to agitate here
that no soldier could have been spared from London,
and the army is too small elsewhere to have put down
rebels. In Scotland, I believe, the most effectual blow
would have been struck, and it seems difficult to have
resisted the popular movement. The Tories, however,
say the Duke would have succeeded. No doubt the
discipline under which soldiers live might have proved a
stronger element than the public enthusiasm,—i.e., un-
less the latter was universal or extensive, and then it
would have carried all before it. The task would have
been to bring back society to its former quiet state!
Thank God, we have been spared the trial; but, as a
matter of speculation, tell me what you think would have
been the result. Am I right in my conjecture that you
would have refused the Birmingham invite, and kept
your sword in its scabbard ?"
Now we assert upon sure grounds that Mr. Young
did not know the use intended to be made of the
frank, and that it was not till the crisis was passed
that Mr. Parkes informed him of the purpose in-
tended. Mr. Young's part in the affair is then re-
duced simply to some knowledge of. the talk of the
Radical agitators, and an idle curiosity as to how
Colonel Napier, then a red-hot Reformer, would have
dealt with an overture which might have been made
to him.

As for Mr. Parkes, it is notorious that he did
much, very much, to keep the political unions within
bounds, and to control the disposition to violence ;
but at the same time it is not to be denied on his
part and the part of many other Reformers, that
there was the firm resolution to carry the Reform
Bill, and that their measures would have been
adapted to the extremities to be dealt with. The
Reformers had with them two of the three estates
of the realm, and they would not have succumbed
tamely to the obstinacy of the Lords interested
in the corruption of the Commons. In the last
resort grave resolutions were contemplated un-
doubtedly, and we believe the least fervid and de-
termined at the time was not the present Lord Stan-
ley. But it was not the Reformers only who con-
templated the possibility of a struggle out of the
bounds of the laws. The Tories, too, talked freely
of fighting—the Duke of Newcastle proclaimed re•
sistance by force of arms to be justifiable, and set
about fortifying Clumber and arming his retainers.
The Tories denounced the Reform Bill as a revo-
lution fraught with greater revolutions, the Liberals
accepted it as a revolution estopping greater revolu-
tions; but a revolution in the view of both contend-
ing, it was not to be effected without irregular meaes
and exertions. Many things were said and done in
the struggle, the justification of which is only to be
found in the peculiar circumstances and the success—
bath immediate, and in the beneficial consequences--
the great criterion in all such mighty junctures.
Upon the breaking out of the French revolution of
February, and the subsequent and consequent Char-
tist attempts, the prevailing sentiment of the Conser-
vatives was one of thankfulness that the Reform Bill
had been carried. But it could not have been carried
without the organizations and threatening demon-
strations to which they are now reverting back with
a prudish horror. To the bloodless revolution of '32
is owing the peace of England in '4B. Had there
been less resolution in '32, London last spring would
in all human probability have been streaming with
blood, the prey of the robber and the incendiary, and
the country. plunged in commotion, or torn with civil
war. To complain now of the means by which the
peaceful revolution was effected, which has averted
violent and extreme revolution, is like the impeach-
ment of Gulliver for having saved the city of Lilliput
from destruction by means not in conformity with the
strict laws of etiquette.
The argument that the extremities to which Whigs
went or were prepared to go to carry Reform in-
capacitates them morally for the prosecution of trea-
son or the suppression of rebellion is of monstrous
absurdity. Did the expulsion of James 11. afford
carte blanche for treason in the reign of William, or
were the hands of Cromwell tied against revolt
because he had waged war against a king ? Or to
put a nearer case—have we held the Provisional
Government of France bound to submit passively to
insurrection because its members had overthrown the
authority of Louis Philippe ? We have cited these
extreme examples for the broadest trial of the ques-
tion. If the Whigs had carried the Reform Bill by
force of arms, the fact would not a whit have inca-
pacitated them morally for the suppression of rebellion
and the punishment of treason. To hold the contrary
is virtually to contend that revolution once begun is
to be revolution without end, the right to resist re-
bellion being forfeited by whatever party through
force has obtained ascendancy.
But the parity alleged between the proceedings of
the Reformers in '32 and the Irish Confederates in
'4B is utterly false. There is no parallel or approach
to parallel. The Confederates have not a cause
sanctioned by two of the three estates. The object
they have proposed has not been one sanctioned by
one of the two Houses of Parliament, and approved
by the Sovereign. The means hare differed as much
as the end. The Reformers did not invest the Duke
of Newcastle in Clumber, or besiege the Duke of
'Wellington in Strathfieldsaye. They had organiza-
tion, and had their resolution in the event of extremi-
ties ; but the might of a just cause, and the might
which could belong to none but a great and just
cause, enabled them to carry their object by peaceful
means. If Ireland had the same sense of grievance
which moved England in '3l-'32, the will of nine
millions of people would prevail without any overt
act of rebellion; and it is because the cause is so
weak that it has endeavoured to prop itself precipi-
tately with arms, and has so abjectly fallen.
It is curious to observe how the Conservative or-
gans have fastened upon and distorted the purport of
this letter to Colonel Napier to discredit political op-
ponents, even at the cost of sanctioning and encourag-
ing Irish rebels.

The loyal Morning Post enriches its columns with
an extract from an Irish paper, in which it is asserted
that the Whigs compromised, as alleged, in seditious
incitements, dare not punish Mr. Smith O'Brien,
who, it adds, "is never pretended to be guilty, save
as the great, the good, the ;llustrious are guilty."
Tile great, the good, the illustrious, then, defy the
laws, and at the head of an armed rabble call upon
the police to abandon their allegiance and desert from
their duty, and upon refusal, attempt to murder them,
and failing, run away and hide.
Upon the conduct of General Napier in disclosing
the contents of a letter written in the indiscretion of
confiding friendship, we need not offer one word of
remark—every one knows what to think of it.

MR. J. PARKES'S PART IN THE STRUGGLE

FOR THE REFORM BILL.

The Birmingham Political Union was constituted on
the 25th January, 1830, at a Town's Meeting, Mr. Muntz
in the chair. Mr. Joseph Parkes attended that meeting,
and opposed the organization of the association. His
speech, we see, stated that the object of the then local
leaders was an action on the currency; and that the
Marquis of Blandford's proposed Bill of Parliamentary
Reform, the Union programme, was not the proper creed
of the Reformers. Mr. Parkes also urged that " Politi-
cal clubs were generally composed of the extremes of
different parties, with different ends in view. Excepting
the Catholic Association, an exception to the general
rule, they did not succeed in their pretensiot:s. They
were landmarks of division among common friends; they
were always perverted from their original intent; and
they had this general effect, that they tempted Govern-
ment to make laws which invariably abridged the liber-
ties these clubs intended to promote."
By the subsequent proceedings of the Birmingham
Reformers, we find that Mr. Parkes first took any part
in their proceedings in December, 1830 (after the French
Revolution and the Duke of Wellington's " unfortunate"
declaration against all Reform), and when on the 13th
of that month he moved the adoption of the Ballot by
resolution at a Town's Meeting. Mr. Parkes never ad-
vocated Parliamentary Reform as a demagogue. We
extract his words on that public occasion :
" He would now merely say, that they must not de-
ceive themselves, even on the value of Parliamentary
Refurm. It was only a means for an end. It cannot
with a talisman cure at once, or directly, accumulated
evils. A Reformed House of Commons would be only
the means of obtaining reformed and new institutions ;
of the difficulties of the country being met like the em-
barrassments of an honourable individual, boldly and
equitably ; of establishing municipal institutions for
local justice ; restoring and improving corporations,
those dens of stagnant corruption ; of carrying on the
reformation of the Church, and of commutation of its
tithes ; in short, of fearless and general reforms."
In November, 1831, we find Mr. Parkes attending a
meeting of the Union Council, though not a member,
honestly and boldly contending against a plan of arming

and local organization propounded to the Union. His
speech induced a unanimous resolution to abandon an
illegal and mischievous project. Mr. Parkes denounced
the inchoate scheme as necessarily tending to revolu-
tion. He received a public vote of thanks on that occa-
sion, advertised is all the Londcn newspapers ; and his
speech, circulated throughout the kingdom by the press,
had great effect ,in arresting the popular indignation
caused by the first ill-success of the Ministerial Reform
Bill. At that period he was still not a member of the
Union, but he pledged himself to join the Association if
thereafter the Reform Bills were again in peril.
On the sth of May, 1832, at a great Union Reform
meeting of Birmingham and the midland districts, we
find Mr. Parkes addressing bold but constitutional
language to an assembled and excited multitude. " I
appear before you with mingled feelings of hope and
fear (the Lords had just passed the second reading of the
English Bill), and the predominance of the latter com-
mands my attendance here this day. The vote amounts I
only to the concession that their Lordships will
take the Ministerial measure into consideration ;
and when I see the balanced state of parties in the Upper
House of Legislature, I cannot but discern that we are
yet in the hands of our political enemies. It is there-
tore that I come forward with a resolution in my
hand, and although not a member of the political unions,
having been, as you know, early in this contest opposed
to their formation, and disliking two governments, yet I
should feel degraded if I did not now admit the powerful
effect the associations have produced on the public mind,
and how much is due to that Chairman (Mr. Attwood) '
who is their great parent, and who now presides over a
public meeting, unparalleled, I believe, for numbers and
real political zeal and intelligence. Fellow-countrymen,
having said thus much of my opinion. on political
unions, I will now tell the Peers of the United Empire,
that if the great national measure of Reform is ultimately
rejected, and Lord Grey driven from office—or if it be
mutilated or rendered inoperative, the unions will be
trebled and quadrupled in numbers;—l speak from
personal knowledge, and I know that the majority of
young men of all classes in this town and neighbour-
hood, not now members, are resolved to enrol them-
selves in your ranks, and to stick by you in the breach.
Friends and fellow-countrymen, God forbid I should ex-
cite you to the Bernier resort of a civil and physical con-
tention for your liberties as Englishmen, or that I should
seek to influence British noblemen by any unworthy or
false terror of revolution. lam one of those who fore-
see that a violent revolution in this country might
destroy public credit, might depose the borough-
mongers, and utterly destroy their wicked domination.
But, my countrymen, the mass of the people might be
plunged into the most woful want and personal strife.
Who can think of the channels of industry choked up in
this vast oce..n of manufacturing labour ?—who can con-
template a complete cessation of the demand for labour,
without discerning that this generation would make a
tremendous sacrifice for the liberties of posterity? But
Ido solemnly warn—l implore the House of Lords not
to force the Reformers to a civil contest. I call on the Peers
to open their closed eyes to the revolution, which for six
months, since their fatal rejection of the Bill in October
dwl
hst
ate,rt
yhhearLs ifingl
iligenl das
at
ontrhesei
npublic
ipmtii
rioinnt du
taool n
tLthhoi esr
dsgsu.rbej
ae
rctenovation
ki
i the reem-
of the British Constitution will not produce a certain
and ultimate disaffixtion to, • and dissolution of, our
boasted form of Government."

The success of Lord Lyndimrst's motion in the Lords
only tested the firmness and good sense of the British
people. In Birmingham, on the day following that
motion, Mr. Parkes, and every Reformer of every grade
and quality, from the'clerk to the merchant and the
banker, appear to have instantly joined the Birmingham
Union; and a similar increase of numbers in the London
National Union and throughout the kingdom simulta-
neously took place. The Reformers waited for their
opponents to precede them in any illegal or unconstitu-
tional acts; but the good sense, sagacity, and fears of
the Tory leaders happily came to the rescue of the
Constitution. Oa the great muting in Birmingham on
the 16th of May. 1832, for the purpose of presenting an
address to Lord Grey on his reinstatement to office, Mr.
Parkes, in his last words to the Union, justly charac •
terizod the popular victory: " This great national strug-
gle stood unexampled in the history of nations. It
afforded the most signal example of what a people could
accomplish who were worthy to be free! We had been
the last ten days within the crater of a political ♦olcano,
the eruptions of which might have momentarily covered
with devastation all that was valuable in this great coun-
try in the common ruin of corruption."
Is Mr. Parkes, or such like men who abounded
throughout Great Britain, now to be stigmatised as
" revolutionary?"

(From the Times of this day.)
Sir,—l beg leave to state, through the medium of
your journal, that a letter written in the confidence of
private friendship, and of a gossiping nature, which
recently appeared in your columns as having been ad-
dressed to Colonel Napier in June, 1832, in a moment
of giddy excitement, was written without the knowledge
of Lord Melbourne, who was completely ignorant of the
matters alluded to in it, relating to the wild views of
certain Radical Reformers, with which I did not become
acquainted till after the crisis in the first or second week
of May, 1832. I alone am responsible for the contents
of the letter in question.

The indiscretion of my making (in a familiar note) a
communication so inconsiderate I readily admit, but the
construction now attempted to be fastened upon my care-
less expressions was as remote from my mind, and as
alien from my sentiments, as was the idea of the possi-
bility that a letter so written should become public, and
the subject of ungenerous and unfair interpretation, after
a period of sixteen years.—l remain, Sir, your obedient
servant, THOMAS YOUNG.
London, Oct. 14.

SUNDAYS ON THB SCOTTISH CENTRAL RAILWAY.
FRIDAY.—More than ordinary indignation
has been evinced towards the officials at the Scottish
Central Railway, in consequence of the unwarrantable,
if not unfeeling conduct they displayed, in declining to
convey her Grace the Duchess of Sutherland along their
line on Sunday last, on the occasion of her being sum-
moned to the bedside of her dying parent, the Earl of
Carlisle, at Castle Howard, in Yorkshire. On the
Friday evening previous, the Duchess, who was sojourn-
ing at Dunrobin Castle, in Sutherlandshire, received in-
telligence of the alarming and dangerous illness of her
venerable parent, and summoning her Grace with all
speed to Castle Howard. She instantly posted off to
Montrose, where she arrived on Saturday evening, and
taking the last train reached Perth on Sunday morning.
The mail train for the south was then preparing for de-
parture, but to the astonishment of her Grace and attend-
ants, on applying for seatsin the train they were told they
could not be allowed to travel by it or by any other train on
a Sabbath, it being against the regulation of the directors.
Letters having been previously sent to all the stations to
have engines ready to convey the Duchess through, it
was imagined some mistake had occurred at Perth, and
the secretary was immediately communicated with, and
the sorrowing circumstances which compelled her
Grsee's attendance at Castle Howard. The train was
delayed for a short time in order to hare a final answer
from the secretary. But the reply was " No; the rules
of the company could not be departed from." The mail
train started with the empty coaches besides the ne-
cessary mail carriage, leaving the Duchess standing upon
thepos
post
platformonwards. actually
sShe hired
hi ed
crying.,
Nothingsteamer d
and crossed theas left but to
ferry on to Edinburgh, which occupied the whole day.
By the time her Grace reached Castle Howard the Earl
of Carlisle was no more. her Majesty recently travelled
to London on a Sabbath morning, and that fact so vividly
in our remembrance leads us to presume to think that
her Majesty cannot but be indignant at the treatment
her Mistress of the Robes has received at the hands of
the majority of the Scottish Central Railway Directors.
—Glasgow Scotch Reformers' Gazette.
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Medicine Venderr.

EMIGRATION.—PLYMOUTII, OCT. 14.—The llar-
binger, 751 tons, Captain 1). M. Sampson, arrived here
yesterday morning, bringing with her 161 souls, infants
and adults. On the passage down the Channel the wife
of one of the passengers was delivered of a son, and both
she and the child are doing well. Since arriving here
105 souls have been shipped, and about 50 more are
wanted to complete the complement. There are 104
females on board at present. This vessel is the property
of Mr. E. H. Chapman, of London. She will probably
sail for Australia on Tuesday next. The Thetis, an-
other vessel, about the same tonnage, sailed from London
on Monday last, and arrived here yesterday morning.
She has on board souls equal to 1101 adults, 24 being
single women, the remainder married people. She is to
take on board at Plymouth 97 souls. She is expected
to sail on Thursday next. The Trafalgar, 715 tons,
Captain Richardson, was abreast of Deal on Saturday
last, and after weathering some very rough gales, arrived
in the Sound yesterday morning. She has on board
souls equal to 159 adults, and when her complement is
full will have in all about 236 adults. The Candahar,
another emigrant ship, bound for Australia, the property
of Messrs. Marshall and Edridge, also arrived yesterday.
The passengers have all paid their fares out. Mr.
Woods, one of the Emigration Commissioners, accom-
panied by the Hon. Mr. Wellesley and the Government
emigration agent here, inspected the ship to-day. She
will probably sail early in the forthcoming week.
POST• OFFICE APPOINTMENT.--MT. John Tilley
has been appointed Assistant-Secretary to the General
Post-office, in the room of Mr. James Campbell, deceased.
The assistant-secretaryship is a lucrative and important
office. Mr. Tilley has hitherto filled the situation of
surveyor to tho General Post office for the northern dis-
trict of England, the duties of which will be performed
in future by Mr. J. P. Good.
PROBABLE MITIGATION OF MR. O'BRIEN'S SEN-
TENCE.—We understand that soon after the verdict of
the jury was given against Mr. O'Brien, his family re-
ceived a communication that it was not intended to carry
the extreme !sentence of the law into effect. We areglad that his life will be spared,--Leeds Mercury.