The Sun.
London, England, 1833-08-26 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

Haring already called public attention to the
11, of which notice for next session has been
liven by the Chancellor, "to provide for the
better government of certain boroughs when in-
corporated," little more remains to be said, but
that as nothing can exceed the value of the
o bject proposed by this important measure, so it
would be difficult to imagine any means more
judiciously adapted to its fulfilment than the
detailed provisions of the Bill itself, of which
the printed copy is before us. The principles
of it are those which we have already stated.
The power of incorporation by charter remains,
of course, with the Crown ; and this measure
goes to prescribe the mode in which the corpo-
ration under such charter shall be constituted.
Each corporation is to be denominated " the mayor,
aldermen, common council, and burgesses, of
the borough of," &c. The 101. electors are
to be the burgesses, and on them, as a
substratum, is the whole corporate edifice to
be erected. The limits of the corporate
borough are to be those assigned to it as a body
represented in Parliament. Each borough is to
be divided into wards ; each ward is to choose
a certain portion of the common council of the
bdrough : no mayor, alderman, or common coun-
cil-man of any such borough, shall be eligible
for such respective offices, unless he be a resi-
dent burgess, and possessed of property to the
amount of 1,0001. The common councilmen
are to be elected triennially by the burgesses of
their several wards, and occasionally vacancies
are to be filled up by fresh elections ; the Al-
dermen of the borough are to be elected by the
common council out of its own body, and arc
to serve for life,—a provision which, in our opi-
nion, might be much improved by rendering
them liable to a new election triennially, like
the common council. The Mayor is to be an-
nually chosen out of the body of Aldermen
by the common council. The parties elected
mayors or aldermen must serve underaflne. The
Mayor is to be a justice of the peace for the
borough and the county ; the Aldermen
are to be justices for the borough
only. An important provision of this
Bill, and one which must tend to insure
respectability in their pecuniary circumstances,
as well as in their conduct, of the persons
chosen common councilmen, aldermen, and
mayors, is that which constitutes bank-
ruptcy, insolvency, and a fortiori, felony,
a forfeiture of their offices in the corporation.
The Itecorder is to be appointed by the Crown,
Stith a veto, we presume, reserved to the Cor-
poration, and is, like the Mayor, to be a magis-
trate for the county as well as for the borough.
Detailed and effective provisions arc made by
enforcing, by summary process, the accountabi-
lity of the subordinate officers of the Corpora-
tion. The powers in local acts now existing
are to be transferred from the present Commis-
sioners to the Common Council of the borough.
All existing contracts, debts, &c., are to be en-
forced and recovered. The peace of the little
t.'.ommunity is to be provided for by the institu-
tion of a Police Committee, consisting of Mayor,
Aldermen, and 20 Common Councihnen, who
are to appoint a police force for the borough ;
and the police constables are to act for the county
as well as for the borough. All regulations for
the government of the police are to emanate from
the Police Committee. The expenses of the
police force are to be subject to the approbation
of the Committee. The magistrates of the ha-
rough have the additional power of appointing
annually a certain number of special constables,
to act in case of need, subject to penalties for
refusal. It would be impossible here to go
through all the details of this well framed and
workmanlike measure, than which one more pre-
cise, considerate, or effective to its declared
purposes, we have seldom, if ever, seen. The
recognized principles and scientific analogies
which arc observed throughout its several clauses,
in connexion with the whole and with each
other, must impress every one with respect for
the Constitutional spirit in which the Bill has
been brought forward by Lord Brougham, and
cannot fail to supply sound guides and examples
from which to construct the reforms of those
Corporations which already exist, but against
which the whole country cries out, as having un-
dergone for years the grossest perversion of their
original uses.— Times.

The recent motion of Colonel Williams for
the introduction of a Bill to repeal the "Act for
the better regulating the future Marriages of the
Royal Family," passed in the 12th year of the
reign of George 11., opens an important subject
of national discussion, and has excited consider-
able interest. The Solicitor-General noticed a
vulgar error on the construction of this Act, in
its supposed interdiction of the intermarriage of
members of the Royal Family with natives of
these realms, and the consequent coercion of
their matrimonial alliance with foreign royalty.
The law, however, simply renders all marriages
of descendants of the body of George 11. (other
than the issue of princesses married into foreign
_ families) void, if solemnized without the previous
consent of the King, signified under the Great
Seal. But the Act iu question also provides
that any descendants, above the age of twenty-
live, may, after twelve months' notice to the
King's Privy Council, contract and solemnize
marriage without the consent of the Crown, unless
• both Houses of Parliament, before the ex-
piration of the year, expressly declare their dis-
approbation of such intended marriage. We need
not now refer to the object of this enactment, the
political circumstances under which it passed, or
the well-known controversial discussions on the an-
coitenatlipßriirlictiipsilte oAf Royal. Assent, formerly necessary
ristroeratic and Royal marriages.
The time, is subject mayhowever,beeom
approaching when this
portance; but great interest and im-
dweebaafeereoef with Lord Althorp that
its legislative atin the close of this Ses-
sion, would have been
convenient and absurd.
W sie apprehend that the mple repeal of the Act
of George 11., as apparently contemplated by
Colonel Williams, would still more display the
niic l form of
..inconveniences" of the Monmarocal a
Government. We do not to question
the, expediency of abolishing the practical mo-
nopoly enjoyed by the Continental Protestant
dynasties of intermarrying with the Royal F
mily of Great Britain. There might be " Holy
Alliances" which would cause no little " a,gita-
lion" among the Reformers of these realms, and
a British Queen committing matrimony with a
French Catholic Prince would vastly shock the
political and religious notions of the Tory Con-
servatives, though the people might approve the
libertine connection. If the subject is revived
next Session, we hope that it will be dispassio-
nately discussed, without party feeling, or any
unnecessary retrospective, allusion to failings of
members of the Royal Family, common to hu-
man nature in all clases of society.
the meanwhile, it must be a great satisfaction
to the country to observe the laudable and wise

education of the heir presumptive of the throne,
by her parent the Duchess of Kent. Her Royal
Highness had been unjustly classed with certain
other " Illustrious Females," who contend against
the spirit of the times, with much the same chance
of success as King Canute when lie opposed
himself to the flow of the tides. The Duchess
of Kent, however, is evidently aware that in the
present age the only real titles or safe tenure of
her daughter to the British Throne are the affec-
tions of the people, and a respect for their con-
stitutional rights. We have extracted in another
column, the recent answer of her Royal High-
ness to an address of the inhabitants of Torquay
on the anniversary of the accession of the House
of Brunswick. In reply to the loyal well-wishes
of the people of Torquay for the Princess Vic-
toria, the Duchess of Kent, with true nobility and
wisdom, answers—" On this particular day I feel
myself called on to observe, that the Princess,
communicating as she does with all classes of
society, is deeply conscious of the sacred impor-
tance of the Trust which nay be eventually
committed to her charge, and fully impressed
with the conviction, that to be the Constitu-
tional Sovereign of a Free People is the most
exalted object of human ambition." These
patriotic sentiments ought to be known to the
country, and will afford a grateful hope for the
future. If the Princess Victoria is educated
in these sound political principles, adorned with
the private virtues of her sex, she may preserve
the monarchical form of government which, in
other countries, exhibits no very promising
aspect. The Duchess of Kent, by such pa-
triotic instruction of her Royal daughter, dis-
plays a distinctive knowledge of the people, and
a just observation of the political necessities of
this country. We shall hereafter advert to the
present law which regulates our Royal marriages,
and to such alteration as time and circumstances
have rendered expedient.—Morning Chronicle.
The extraordinary and disgraceful circum-
stances attending the last election for the borough
of Warwick, and the honourable and able report
of the recent Select Committee appointed speci-
fically to investigate all the circumstances of the
foul corruption and scandalous mal-influence
of the agents of Lord Warwick and Sir Charles
Greville, are fresh in the recollection of the
country. It will be recollected that the first
Committee unseated Sir Charles Greville for
bribery, and prematurely closed its inquiry—the
legality of the return being the simple question
before an election committee. On the special
report of that Committee, the Reformed House
of Commons honestly directed a further and full
inquiry into all the allegations of the petition of
the independent electors. At the period of the
first Committee, in May, the Earl of Warwick
was in London voting in all the divisions of the
Upper House with his political ally the Duke
of Wellington. He was necessarily affected with
notice of the criminatory allegations of the peti-
tion against him, and of the nomination of
the second Committee appointed to consider
them. He leaves England for the Continent
pending this serious trial of his personal and
political conduct ! We will not comment on
the fact of his Lordship's extraordinary ab-
sence at a time when most Commoners, espe-
cially if innocent of charges preferred against
them, would have faced their trial. Tll e report
of the second Committee is made in due course,
containing the most grave and penal political in-
dictment of the " Noble" Earl. The Ministry,
after the presentation of the report, publicly
state, that as responsibleadvisers of the Crown,
they have written to Lord Warwick, requiring
explanation from him as the Lord Lieutenant of
his county and the recorder of the borough of
Warwick. No answer of his Lordship has yet
been made known to Parliament, and it is there-
fore presumed that no reply has been made by
the Earl of Warwick to the communication of
Ministers. In the meanwhile, and as the Com-
mittee evidence is not wholly printed, Mr.
Peter advisedly postponed his motion for an
address to the Crown to remove the Earl of
Warwick from the Lord Lieutenancy. After
this postponement, the Earl of Warwick reap-
pears, and takes his seat in the House of Lords;
he does .not, however, condescend to give any
public explanation of the conduct imputed to
him by the Select Committee of the House of
Commons. But in the Court Circular of the
Levee of Friday last, we find that " his Majesty
gave audience to the Earl of Warwick." On
Saturday last some personal and injudicious
friend of his Lordship, probably in consultation
with the Noble Earl, transmitted the following
fulsome and irrelevant explanation" to our
contemporary The Globe
" We hear that Lord Warwick has returned to England,
and was present iu the House of Lords on Thursday even-
ing. The Noble Earl was no sooner informed of the
decision of the Warwick Election Committee, and the
charges made against him, than he set off for this coun-
try, leaving Lady Warwick, we believe, in Switzerland.
This step became the Noble Earl, who has ever been
considered a man of unimpeachable character for honour
and integrity. We wish it niay turn out that the illegal
and scandalous interference of the Noble Lord's agents in
the election for Warwick, of which the Parliament and
the public so justly complain, has been made without his
authority, and that he may be able to prove this to the
satisfaction of his friends. Lord Warwick was bred a
Tory, and bas always manifested a regard for his Tory
connections; but it is perfectly notorious, that whatever
political influence he possessed was never employed to
advance his personal or family interests. His bro-
ther, 6ir Charles Greville, the late M.P. for War-
wick, obtained every step of promotion in the army
by purchase, except the last, and that was given him
sinus the present Ministry came into office. He en-
tered the army very early in life, was aide-de-camp
to the 'Marquis of Wellesley in India, and thence accom

panied Sir David Baird, in his expedition through the
Red Sea to Egypt. He was at Walcheren, and afterwards
distinguished himself in the peninsular war. He had a
brigade in the battle of Salamanca—a command at the
siege of St. Sebastian...and was entrusted by the Duke of
Wellington with the command of 4,000 men upon the
' heights of Montmartre, when the Allies were in the
occupation of Paris. Yet never was Lord Warwick's in.
lluence or his own employed to gain for him a regiment
all the while the Tories were in power. Hence it may be
inferred, that if Lord Warwick sought political power, it
was not for selfish purposes ; and we hope it may turn out
that the agents of the Noble Earl, and not himself, are
the parties who deserve the reproach which has been
heaped on the owner of Warwick Castle."
We will make no remark on the absurd and
ungenerous attempt, in this piece of sticking-
plaster and gold-beater's skin, to excuse the
" patron of the borough," at the expense of his
foolish local partisans, because it will impose on
no man of common sense. For whose " inte-
rest" was it that the shameful scenes in the
Warwick election were acted ? Who, by the
os:et of Lord Warwick's money, and the
illegi-
titnate use of his rateable property, was falsely
returned as the representative of the coerced,
bribed, and oppressedeommitte burgesses
specifically assigns
? The last Re-
port of the Select
that Lord Warwick,
uticonstitutionally, and in
violation of the standing
orderso of Parliament,
bodies of the t enantry,' supplied by his steward
3,
Clerk,
bb i t
large
t s fo r corruptlire
tO the Town
Os parp es of the
election—that
non-
resident labourers of Lord Warwick, for
days
perpetrated the most scandalous rio.ts_thath
Lordship's agent, Brown, systemattcally created

with the Noble Earl a property numerous fictitious
and fraudulent votes—that this notable Steward
was subsequently missing, and did not appear
before the first or second Committee—that the
cost of all the bribery, treating, and expense
of the hired fighting men was provided from the
funds of Lord Warwick ; and further, the evi-
dence substantiated that Lord Warwick's pri-
vate purse had always supplied funds for his
nominee on former elections ! Will any sane
man believe that the Principal (Lord 'Warwick)
was ignorant of the acts of his agents and poli-
tical partizans ? Could such transactions of
his steward, agents, and dependants have passed
under his very nose and Castle walls unknown
to and unsanctioned by the Lord Lieutenant
and Recorder of the borough ? Dare his
Lordship aver that he was ignorant of these acts
for his interest, performed by his means,
anal to obtain the return of Sir Charles
Grevillc to Parliament ? If he have the te-
merity to do so, the country will scoff at
his insult of its understanding. Lady War-
wick, and her son, Lord Monson, in their
unlucky purchase of Gatton, well understand
the nature of "borough property!" We do not
know what was the object or result of the audi-
ence of the Earl of Warwick with the King on
Friday, but it is the public opinion, expressed
by all parties, that the most decent, discreet, and
politic course of Lord Warwick will be the im-
mediate resignation of his municipal offices, from
which a Reformed Parliament and an indignant
people will otherwise assuredly remove him. Oa
the appearance of the Committee evidence, in a
few days, we assure his Lordship and his politi-
cal puppets that every fact of this scandalous cast
of election corruption shall be known from .Thhif
o'Groats to the Land's End. The British Consti-
tution declares that elections shall be pure and
free, and the time is past when the scenes and
debauchery of the last Warwick election can be
transacted with impunity. Lord Warwick's quiet
retirement will be some atonement for political
offences originating in and perpetrated for his
interest, and Mr. Peter would be thereby re-
lieved from the trouble of his notices of motion
standing in the Commons' votes of Tuesday for
" early next Session."— Morning Chronicle.
It is amusing enough to hear an evening
Treasury Paper, which has solemnly announced
an " immediate settlement" of the Belgico-
Dutch question a hundred times, now indulging
in such agreeable reflections as the following,
upon the prospect of an indefinite non-settle-
ment of that question :—" As there is a kind
of perpetual truce between Belgium and Hol-
land, the Dutch King may gratify his disposition
to delay to the last possible moment the final
settlement between the two countries, without
any very great loss to any other persons than his
own subjects. All the great points being settled,
no one cares about the petty details, and his
Majesty may be allowed to take his time until
those who have to defray the expense shall think
it worth while to urge him to bring matters to a
close." Now we take leave to say there can be
no such thing as a perpetual truce. The ex-
pression is a solecism. A truce is but the sus-
pension of hostilities between belligerent powers.
It is not, like a peace, the cessation of hostili-
ties. A peace may be perpetual, but a truce
cannot. It must end either in a renewal of
active war, or the ratification of a peace. A
truce may- be for an indlfinite period, and such
is the truce between Holland and Belgium. To
say it is perpetual, is to say it never can end i!s
a peace ; and yet the diplomatists of the Confe-
rence told the world that the truce was wend
into with the view of finally arranging a firm
and lasting peace. But then the delay only in-
jures the King of Holland's subjects, says our
ingenious contemporary. Does it so ? There
is optimism, at least, in this way of looking at
the subject, if it have nothing else to recom-
mend it. It would be well if the Belgians could
be brought to look at it in the sant'
They, on the contrary, believe that the delay of
the settlement of the question, in which they
are so deeply interested, is producing to diem
great and probably irremedial embarassment.
Their trade languishes—their system of govern-
ment is merely provisional, and their indepen-
dence is a mockery. But then " the great
points are settled." Are they ? Which of the
great points ? Not the greatest, which is the
recognition of the Government of Belgium by
Holland. That is certainly not settled ; nor is
the next great point—the acceptance by Hol-
land of the treaty dictated by the Conference.
Nor is the next great point—the claim of the
Belgians to the free navigation of the Scheldt.
Whatever relaxation of the strict claim of sove-
reignty, in that respect, Holland admits at present,
she has expressly reserved the right for future
consideration ; nor is the great point settled
relative to the evacuation of Belgium by the
Dutch troops. It was, indeed, for the osten-
sible purpose of settling this point that the
iniquitous Anglo-Gallic Convention was en-
tered into, which let! to the "amicable slaugh-
ter" of Antwerp, and enabled Louis Philippe
to prove pretty clearly to the world that the
independence of Belgium was but the " inde-
pendence " of' a French province. But the
Anglo-Gallic Convention did not fulfil its
avowed object of clearing the Belgic territory of
Dutch troops ; for the flag of Holland still floati
over the Belgic forts Lillo and Liefkenshoek;
and there, upon Belgic fortifications, Dutch
cannon still command the Scheldt. So. much,
for the actual freedom of that river. The simple
truth is that, after three years of protocol nego-
tiations, the great points involved in the Belgic°.
Dutch question are still as unsettled as ever.
The stupid and mischievous embargo of Lord
Palmerston achieved nothing except wanton
injury to the merchants of Great Britain and
Holland—the injury being greater to the
British commercial interests than the Dutch.
Our Government, that unjustly laid it on,
had the mortification of being obliged to take
it off, without having advanced a step nearer
the settlement of the main question than they
were before. But we are told that King
William, in the whole of this affair, acts as
he does because he makes his own will the supreme
law, and does not consult the wishes of his
subjects. So far is this from being the truth
that the most unequivocal demonstrations have
been afforded by the Dutch people all along that
they sympathise with the feelings which animate
their King in the course of uncompromising re-
sistance to concession which he has pursued.
We do not say whether the King and hie people
are light or wrong—whether they act justly or
unjustly—we only speak of the fact that they
go together. They make common cause—they
mutually support each other's determination
not to concede what France and England have
demanded of them. Never was there a struggle
that partook more of the character of a national'
One. Never was there an assertion more con-
trary to fact than that which would represent it
the mere result of personal obstinacy on the part
of the King of Holland. Nor should we have