The Sun.
London, England, 1833-04-12 00:00:00

all may repent in sackcloth and ashes. It is
quite clear that no reforms of more than a very
gradual and tentative kind would be sanctioned
by the House of Lords, without a severe strug-
gle. It is quite true that, at present, we are all
at the mercy of the Crown and the Conserva-
tives. Were the King to withdraw his confi-
dence from the Whigs, and a dissolution to
take place at the present moment, the next Par-
liament would be Conservative. But, however
fond most men may be of power, we question
whether the Conservatives would encounter the
risk of re,uming it under such circumstances.
Their policy is rather to allow the Whigs to act,
and to remain on the defensive. The present
unpopularity of the Whigs would soon be fill-.
gotten were the Conservatives in power, and the
reaction might be tremendous. Were our advice
to have any %Neight with the people, we should
say, avoid what may lead to extremities. Con-
sider the very artificial state of this country---
what masses of men subsi.t by credit—.and
what incalculable mischief might result from
any interruption to order. Push Minis-
ters, if you please, to retrench and repeal
taxes ; but still, though the effect should
not correspond to the expectation, set hounds to
your discontent. We are far from thinking
the conduct of Ministers to have been uniformly
governed by absolute wisdom. The tone of
some of the Ministerial organs was at one time
not merely impolitic, it was even offensive to-
wards the people. The affectation of wishing
to conciliate the Conservatives was too marked,
and it seemed as if it were wished to produce
this very split which is now producing its effects.
But let bygones be bygones. Ministers are
honest, and determined to proceed as far as
they can, with the existing constitution, in the
course of amelioration. We ought to consider
that ito Ministry, under the existing constitu-
tion, can go farther, without hazarding con-
sequences which all friends to their country
ought to deprecate. Let us bear in mind that I

the aristocracy of this country is powerful, and
that any violent measures would make but one
party of both divisions, and rally a large body
of the people round them. They who have
influence with the people, ought to be moderate
at this conjuncture.—Morning Chronicle.
Captain Berkeley's rejection is another awk-
ward circumstance for Lord Grey's Government,
which, when pressed, can scarcely find itself in a
majority with a House of Commons elected
under the most favourable circumstances, and
which, as it becomes thinned by any cause, in
nearly every instance sees the Member replaced
by an opponent of the Government. In the
single case of Captain Barrington alone the Go-
vernment has, in the space of a very few days,
lost two votes ; one in the case of the Captain
himself, who is succeeded at Sunderland by
Alderman Thompson ; and the other in that of
his successor, Captain Berkeley, who is ousted
from Gloucester by Mr. Hope, who was the
other day so far upon the poll above the Govern-
ment candidate for Marylebone. If the fact he,
as stated by our contemporary the Standard,
that Captain Berkeley is a cavalry officer, we
naturally ask what could induce any Minister to
place the member of such a service at the Admi-
ralty Board ? And here we must also borrow
the answer, humorously enough given by our
contemporary—viz. " We are three,"—mean-
ing, that Captain Berkeley having two brothers
besides himself in the House of Commons,
they feel themselves as much entitled to consider

that a passport to place, however otherwise in-
compatible, as the owners of schedule A did
under the old rotten borough regime. We do
not know how Lord Grey may personally feel
under these humiliating defeats; but this we
know, that some men grow wise by experience,
while others rush on ruin in despite of every
warning. Under which of these heads the
Noble Lord means that posterity shall class the
latter years of his political career we are igno-
rant ; but no one can long be ignorant of what
will be the result if such an infatuated career is
persisted in. Friends to reform ourselves, we

have been anxious, whenever we could, to give
to a reform Ministry our zealous and honest
support. Looking neither to the right nor to
the left, this has been our polar star ever since
the question of reform was first agitated. But
we again and again repeat that tertian without
its consequences can be of no value to the people.
They look for more substantial blessings than
the mere name ; and it is, we apprehend, solely
because Lord Grey's Government seems uncon-
scious of, or indifKrent to this, that it is
now experiencing the effects of that change in
public opinion to which we have adverted.—
Morning Herald.

The defeat of the Ministers at Gloucester in
the person of their newly-made Lord of the
Admiralty has imparted universal satisfaction.
They have been completely beaten upon their
own ground. Gloucester waa intended by the
manufacturers of the Reform Bill to be a

Berkeley borough, and they considered oppo-
sition to the NN hig interest there as entirely out
of the question. What adds to the calamity of
this misadventure is its coming so closely upon
the defeat at Sunderland) another or the boroughs
which the constitution-mongers thought they
had effectually and for ever secured to them-
selves, and the constituency of which were
honoured at the recent election with Lord Dur-
ham's order, " Return Barclay for Sunder-
land." These reiterated disappointments have
been too much, we understand, for the
equanimity of temper of more than one offi-
cial person. Crimination and recrimination have
been bandied about since the close of the Glou-
cester election. But there seems to be no cause
for this ill humour, for the Mmisterialists did
their best, as the following extract from a letter
dated Gloucester, April 10, will very sufficiently
prove:—

" The insolence of the I3erkelevs has met with a signal
check. They considered this town as their• own close
borough before the last election; but the moment an op.
position was talked of all their agents were in motion,
and nothing was left untried to secure the return of
their candidate. The influence of the Government was
also exerted to the uttermost. Their disappointment is
great indeed."
Of this no better proof need be adduced than
the ravings of the Ministerial Press, There is no
deception here. They cannot conceal their
mortification--Morning Post.

LONGEVITY.—A Scotch paper notices an
old woman living at Gloslough, who is 130 years of
age. She never took a doctor's drug in all her life, nor
was a lancet ever applied to her frame; she is perfectly
free from affections of the chest, and during the last century
of her life she has been a perfect stranger to pain, and her
pulse does not exceed 70. Her grandfather died at the
age of 129, and her father died in the 120th year of
his age.
THE FFESTINIOG (NORTH WALES) RA IL-
wa Y.—On Tuemday the ceremony °flaying the first stone
of this undertaking took place on the hill of Criers. This
under taking has been commenced, after many obstacles
had been overcome, through the exertions of HENRY
ARCHER, Esq. The ceremony is described as having keen
of a very imposing description. A fterit had concluded, a
numerous company sat down to a splendid banquet at Plas
Tan-y-bylcb.