The Sun.
London, England, 1833-12-14 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Parliamentary reform means in substance, if

it means anything, a security lodged in the hands
of the people for the redress of whatever they
conceive to be a national grievance, authorized,
or not prevented, by the existing law. But the
right and power to redress all grievances which
afflict the people collectively involves the duty of
legislating for the redress of whatever grievances
affect a particular portion of the people,
otherwise the most precious of all rights, viz.,
that to equal justice, might be altogether ex-
cluded from our idea of upright government
and of civil liberty. The class of oppressions
which men feel most deeply are in general those
which are imposed upon them because of their
opinions, and they re'er.t and murmur at more
than all those which are inflicted on them be-
cause of their religious opinions, inasmuch as,
first, a man's opinions upon any subject are,
strictly speaking, involuntary ; and 2d, those
which he entertains concerning his relations to
the Creator are not merely matter of necessity,
but of conscience ; and the law or political insti-
tution which visits him with penalties on their
account invades the most sacred sanctuary of
his whole being, and constitutes, in his eyes,
the most intolerable species of persecution. It
is no wonder that since the day of Catholic
emancipation, and the repeal of the Test Act,
froth of which measures recognized the principle
of unrestrained liberty of conscience, the pro-
testant dissenters should have felt at once the
sense of their remaining vexations aggravated,
and the hope of their removal strengthened.
That sense and that hope have naturally derived
fresh vigour from the great temporal emancipa-
tion bill of all—the reform of the legislative
power. They are little acquainted with the
condition of our protestant dissenters who sup-
pose it to be one approaching to equality with
protestants of the Established Church, even in
points which concern vitally the domestic inte-
rests and comforts of men, or their self-respect
and honest pride as Britons, notwithstanding the
repeal of the Test Act. They know still less of
the protestant dissenters, who judge them to be
indifferent to such inequalities in their condition.
The mind of that body has been undergoing
a very considerable, and by no means unna-
tural or reprehensible, excitement, and, we
believe, that a strong sympathy, with them,
has so far gained ground among the represen-
tatives of the people, as to insure an en-
forcement of the claims of dissenters, to relief
from certain legal disabilities early in the ensuing
Session. A pamphlet has been submitted to
us, in the form of a letter to the Lord Chan-
cellor, entitled " The Case of the Dissenters."
It is a temperate but decided and unflinching
work. It states much in the way of burden
which ought to be, and must be, speedily re-
moved from the shoulders of our Dissenting
brethren ; but it puts forth also much in the
shape of objection to the first principles on
which the Church of England is politically and
legally established in this kingdom, and to the
means by which it is upheld, which undoubtedly
will not be acted upon by Parliament ; nor, we
believe, be concurred in or encouraged by the
bulk of the nation. The heads of grievances
numerated by the Dissenting author are six : I
1. The state of parochial registration, as it affects
Dietenters.

2. The present state of the marriage law in its operation
upon them.
3. The law regarding the burial of the dead.

4. Their exclusion from the Universities.

5. Their being " compelled to contribute towards a
church from which they have withdrawn, and from which
they derive no benefit."
6. The preference afforded by the state to one deno-
mination of religknists before others.
It will be seen at once from the foregoing
catalogue of alleged grievances, that the three
first in the list are of a nature vshich renders them
severely oppressive upon the comfort and feelings
of private families, as well as detrimental to their
worldly interests ; that the fourth is partly in
the nature of an exclusion from the benefits of a
system of education to which Protestants of the
Established Church have access, and which,
therefore, to that extent, savours of palpable in-
justice to individuals, and of grave impolicy to-
wards the state itself: We shall see, however,
in the course of some future references to this
pamphlet, that " exclusion from the Universities"
means a good deal more than a mere repulse
from the opportunity of classical and mathema-
tical tuition, and from the power of acquiring
th grees, and that the: redress demanded by 1
this volunteer champion of the Dissen-
ters would imply both an invasion of the
rights of property and an encroachment by
the ministers of one Christian sect upon the
performance of those sacred duties to which
the ministers of another sect have been specially
destined, and for which they only by creed
and instructions have been qualified. This can
never be conceded by any just or rational legis-
lature. The sth and 6th heads represent as a
grievance the existence of the Established Church
itself, and if the Dissenters do not mean to in-
dispose towards themselves the feelings both of
the large majority of Parliament, and of all the
zealous friends of the Church of Scotland, as well
as that of England, they will not set on foot a
resistance to the settled prepossession of both
countries, that some religious establishment is
an institution conducive to the ends of civiliza-
tion and morality—a matter, therefore, of fun-
damental importance to the nation as a whole,
and one for whose maintenance a public fund
(not tithe, unquestionably) may with justice
and wisdom be appropriated. On Monday we
shall enter more into detail upon the statements
and reasonings of this pamphlet or manifesto of
the non-conforming Protestants, specifying what
appears to us well founded in both, and what
untenable, or at least impracticable, in the pre-
sent stage of our national opinions and existence.
—Times.

Mr. Sadler has been haranguing at a great
rate At Huddersfield. On Monday and Tues-
day last he delivered orations which are extolled
to the skies by the Conservative journals, and
which, as they throw some light on the policy
of that party, are deserving of more notice than
they otherwise ought to receive. Mr. Sadler
boasts of being the universal favourite, both at
Leeds and Huddersfield. " I am happy," he
says to the people of Huddersfield, " in being
able to tell you that I have lost no friend in
Leeds, and at the time I was called upon this
morning from all parties, except that party that
I hardly know how to designate—the ses!itfishh and
interested Whig party—l say that,
that
exception, all parties have come to support me."
And no wonder that he should be so general a
favourite, seeing that he is so much superiorAm to
"
any Whg, according to his own account.
I a Whig ? God forbid ! Look at the conduct
of the Whigs. Always patriots when out of
place, but mark their conduct when in place.
When out of place much was said by them
of the necessity of doing something iorj

the good of the people—of shortening the
duration of Parliaments—and of extending
the suffrage. What did the Whigs do in for-
mer days? Parliaments being originally short,
and the Whiga being then in office, they decreed,
by a most flagitious Act of Parliament, that
they who were elected For three years should sit
for seven years." Oh ! the wigged Whigs !
Before we proceed to notice further the orations
of Mr. Sadler, we will devote a few words to
the chapter of Whigs and Tories. That since
these party names were known among us, the
conduct of the Whigs has always been free from
objection, is what no honest man would think
of maintaining. The Whigs, in fact, have
always had great difficulties to struggle with in
reducing their main doctrine to practice. The
Whigs not only maintained what even despots
affect to maintain, that Government ought to be
conducted for the benefit of the people, but
they maintained besides, that the Governors are
accountable to the people. Now, as the en-
lightened and well-disposed part of the people
are not always the majority—we have seen of
late that in Spain they are but a comparatively
small minority—the asserters of liberal opinions
are always in danger of seeing the people become
the tools of those who have sinister objects in
view. Mr. Sadler, for instance, instances the
Septennial Bill of the Whigs as a desertion of
their principles. If the people of England
had been polled at that time, the Tories,
High-Church Parsons, and Jacobites and
rabble, would have carried everything before
them, and the House of Hanover would have
been driven from the throne. The Whigs were
reduced to all manner of expedients to prevent
the people from becoming the blind instruments
of those who wished to enchain them. We find
the Tory Swift actually advocating annual Par-
liaments and universal suffrage ; and it is quite
certain that the Whigs were the first great
organizers of boroughmongering. In the last
number of the Edinburgh Review there is an
ingenious article, attributed to Mr. Macaulay,
in which the corruption by means of which Sir
Robert Walpole, one of the best IVlinisters this
country ever had, carried on the Government,
is not altogether correctly accounted for. " Now,"
he says, " that the Court was at the mercy of
the House of Commons, that large body of
members who were not returned by popular
election, had nobody to please but themselves.
Even those who were returned by popular
election did not live, as now, under a constant
sense of responsibility. The constituents were
not, as now, daily apprised of the votes and
speeches of their representatives. The privileges
which had in old times been indispensably ne-
cessary to the security and efficiency of Parlia-
ments, were now superfluous. But they were
still carefully maintained—by honest legislators,
from superstitious veneration—by dishonest le-
gislators, for their own selfish ends. They had
been a useful defence to the Commons during a
long and doubtful conflict with powerful sove-
reigns. They were no longer necessary for that
purpose, and they became a defence. to the
Members against their constituents. • * *
The Government could not go on unless the
Parliament could be kept in order. And how
was the Parliament to be kept in order ? Three
hundred years ago it would have been enough
for a Statesman to have the support of the
Crown. It would now, we hope and believe,
be enough for him to enjoy the confidence and
approbation of the great body of the middle
class. A hundred years ago it would not have ,
been enough to have both Crown and people
on his side. The Parliament had shaken off
the control of the Royal prerogative. It had
not yet fallen under the control of public opi-
nion. A large proportion of the Members had
absolutely no motive to support any Admini-
stration except their own interest, and in the
lowest sense of the word. Under these cir-
cumstances the country could be governed only
by corruption. Bolingbroke, who was the ablest
and the most vehement of those who raised the
cry of corruption, had no better remedy to pro-
pose than that the Royal prerogative should be
strengthened. The remedy would no doubt
have been efficient. The only question is,
whether it would not have been worse than the
disease. The fault was in the constitution of
the Legislature ; and to blame those Ministers
who reanaJed the Legislature in the only way In
which it could be managed, is gross injustice. They
submitted to extortion because they could not help
themselves." The constitution of the Legislature
no doubt rendered corruption necessary ; but we
very much question whether matters could have
been much mended at that time by any other
constitution of the Legislature. Richard Baxter,
in his Holy Commonwealth, written at the in-
stigation of the celebrated Harrington, towards
1656, states it as then admitted by all men of
political experience, that wherever the elections
were popular, the people were mere tools in the
hands of rich men, who treated them to drink.
The intelligent few were everywhere overpowered
by the mass. It is notorious at this day, that
the Democratic Cantons of Switzerland are, in
reality, Oligarchies, as one or two families use
the people for their purposes, and these Cantons
have always been the most illiberal of all. By
the system of corruption, Sir Robert Walpole
was enabled to withstand the popular clamour
for war, and under his long and peaceful admi-
nistration, the industry of the nation struck deep
root,whence we obtained a numerous and substan-
tial middle class, without which no Government can
be stable. The principles of the Whigs, if ri-
gorously acted on, would more than once have
ruined the country. The Septennial Act was a
departure from their principles, but it neverthe-
less was essential to the salvation of the country.
It was much easier for the Tories to preserve
their constituency. The Czar of Russia is con-
sistent, because his principle is, whatever his
mandates, the people must obey them. The
Tories allowed no freedom of movement to the
people, and therefore they had less to dread
from the ignorance of the people. Sir Robert
Walpole organised corruption, to prevent the
Legislature and the people sacrificing the liber-
ties of the country. The Tories, since their
accession to power, availed themselves of the
command of venal boroughs, to plunder the
people by taxation, to a degree of which there is
no example in the history of the world—wasted
the produce of the taxes and loans in wars, in
support of despotism abroad, and to keep up mis-
government at home. The Whigs might not
always be able to preserve consistency, and
their principles and practice might occa-
sionally be at variance ; but the object
of the Tories was uniformly dishonest.
They did not lament the ignorance of the
people, and wish to remedy it, in order to
prevent them being made tools of by their
enemies. They, on the contrary, rejoiced that
the ignorance of the people made them the
more available to their purposes; and they
unifbrmly opposed themselves to education, and