The Sun.
London, England, 1834-11-18 00:00:00

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„?.K, fif.N.77

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The country from one end to the c
vulsed with the events of yesterday.
end. The reformers of England have
them the Duke of Wellington, the gre.
reform, in characters never before assumed
Minister—the First Lord of the Treasury, the L.
tars of State for the Home Deprrtment—the onty AO
Minister possessing the seals of office—all, yes, all the
seals in his possession, and this great country placed
under the direction of one great military chief. The
whole has been effected with a precipitancy unequalled in
our modern history. This is energy and vigour indeed ;
but, alas, how is it applied, and for what ends ? A
great General, bred in camps, accustomed to conflict
and to victory, seizing all on the powers of the
State, at the moment when important reforms had be-
come inevitable, to conduct the struggle against the
people. There is no mistaking what is intended, and
every person must see the coming storm. There will
be but one voice throughout the land, and the opposi-
tion will be equal to the exigency. Soon will the de-
luded corps discover that their confidence in their
military chief has involved them in a contest in which
the great majority of the people of England are their
opponents, and from which they must retreat with
shame and dishonour. " His Highness" the Great
Captain is now the avowed adviser of the King, respon-
sible for the dismission of the late Ministers, and for
all the perilous consequences of thus hastily and
impudently assuming all the functions of all the
great offices of State. The people of England will
ask, Why all this unheard-of precipitancy ? What
have the late Ministers done to warrant all this ? We
will tell them what they have done, and for which
they will never be forgiven by a Tory faction. They
have, by reforming the House of Commons, given
the People of England the means of controlling the
Government of the country—of rooting out the cor-
ruptions of the Church—improving the administra-
tion of the law—destroying the corrupt and blight-
ing influence of old Corporations—and, greatest
of all, paving the way to a change by which the
House of Lords would be made to conform to the
sentiments of the majority of the nation. The foun-
dation-stone of this great work, the reform of the House
of Commons, has been securely laid by the late Go-
vernment, and the contemplated results which we enu-
merate were in a very forward state of preparation to
be submitted to the consideration of Parliament. These
are the offences of Ministers. To stop the progress of
these reforms, they are dismissed ; to counteract them,
the avowed enemy of Reform is thus hastily invested
with all the powers of the State. And who will not
consider this more like the attitude of a Dictator, than
than that of a constitutional Minister of a free country ?
—Morning Chronicle.
We may venture to clear up some doubts hinted of
Lord Stanley's joining the Government formed .of the
bitter opponents of the Reform Bill. There is as
much chance of this as of Lord Spencer (Althorp)
giving them his assistance. On one point, and on one
point only, Lord Stanley may agree with them ; and
on that point he was so much at issue with the great
majority of the House of Commons, that he was
obliged to resign his place in Lord Grey's Administra-
tion. True it is, that the new Government is to be formed
on a decided resistance to an appropriation of any part
of the enormous church revenues of Ireland to other
purposes than those to which they are now applied ; and
it may be possible that on that particular question
the Tories may have the benefit of Lord Stanley's, Sir
James Graham's, and possibly some half-dozen votes,
which, on all other subjects, must be given in favour
of measures of reform, to which they are pledged
equally with the members of Lord Melbourne's Go-
vernment. The public will not be deceived by such
stories. The AdministratiOn is to be the military one
of " His Highness," who has already united in his
own person the two offices of First Lord of the Trea-
sury and Home Secretary, aided by the good reformers
who we see, from the Court Circular, formed the
council at which his Grace was sworn in yesterday,
Lords Lyndhurst, Jersey, Rosslyn, Maryborough,
Cowley (the whole family), the Speaker, Messrs.
Goulburn, Hardingei &c. &c: Were,• or are not
these men the bitterest enemies of reform ? and
can it be believed that it is possible for them
to carry on the King's Government by any measure
short of a virtual repeal of the Reform Bill ? The
question, then, for the people to decide is, whether that
Bill shall be maintained on the statute-book or not ;
and on that point the electors of Great Britain will be
called upon to take their stand at the impending disso-
lution. We believe it is true that the dissolution may
be deferred, and some other arrangements post-
poned, till Sir Robert Peel's arrival, or until it
is ascertained how far he will make himself a
party to this insane crusade against the liberties
of his countrymen. But there cannot 'be the
most remote doubt that a dissolution must soon
take place ; and we entreat electors and repre-
sentatives to be equally on their guard against the
manoeuvres, the tricks, and the means that will be ap-
plied with little scruple by these hoary and experienced
dealers in corruption. It is their last stake. A large
proportion of the wealthy and landed aristocracy,
already smarting under the economical reforms of the
late Government, and seeing the little hope of pro-
viding for their hungry families and dependents in
future out of the pockets of the people, are willing
to make large pecuniary sacrifices in an effort to
overthrow the Reform Bill, and will apply their
means to oppose popular candidates in the coun-
ties and cities, where tenants and freemen are
supposed to be within the reach of their influence.
The struggle will be a severe, but it cannot be a
doubtful one. If it is the last stake of the Tories—it
will be the last struggle of the people. The Duke, it •
appears, selects the office of Home Secretary for his
especial protection. The people will probably require
keeping in order. That may be the opinion of some
Court sycophants and candidates for promotion in time
of profound peace at the Horse-guards ; but we mis-
take much, if any excuse is given for military inter-
ference. There will be no disturbance of the peace.
The people know what advantage the least excess will
give to their enemies.—Morning Chronicle.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC•

The arrival of his Majesty in town yesterday was
the signal for the formal resignation of the Ministers,
who assembled at the Palace shortly after half-past
two o'clock, and delivered up their seals of office.
We need not ..here particularize the different mem-
bers of the Administration who were present, as they
are all enumerated in the Court Circular. After they
had retired from his Majesty's presence, the Duke
of Wellington, Sir Henry Hardinge, Sir C. Manners
Sutton, and some other influential members of that
party were admitted. We give elsewhere what we
conceive to be the best authenticated list of the
new Ministerial arrangements. There is one fact
which cannot be too soon or too generally circu-
lated, connected with this great political change,
which our readers will remember was ascribed by
some of our Morning and Evening Contemporaries
to the Queen. It now appears, by the acknowledg-
ment of those who propagated the rumour, that the
Queen had nothing to do with it. But this is not the
only instance in which the name of that illustrious
lady has been most improperly dragged before the
public. The Court of Chancery is seldom the scene
of strong excitement, but yesterday was an exception
to that remark. The Court was crowded. Every
mind was occupied with the one subject, and all the
old Tory Lawyers seemed to have been disinterred,
and to have come crowding into their old haunts under
the influence of some powerful sympathy. It will be
seen from our report in another part of the paper, that
the Lord Chancellor thought it necessary to declare his
determination of resigning. There were some manifesta-
tions of party feeling in favour of the Whigs, or rather
in opposition to the Tories. The most important of these
was a meeting of the Common Council, at which a re-
quisition to the Lord Mayor was agreed to for calling a
meeting on the subject of the dismissal of his Ma-
jesty's °Ministers. In the discuSsion which took place
one thing was quite apparent, that the members pre-
sent were as much in the dark as any other class of
his Majesty's subjects, though they had not all of
them the candour to acknowledge it. Meetings were
also held in the borough of Marylebone, and in the
parish of St. Pancras, preliminary to other meetings
at which addresses to the King are to be moved, Au