The Sun.
London, England, 1834-08-15 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Tory Journals are elated at the result of the con-
test for the representation of the Eastern Division of
the county of Gloucester. We admit their perfect right
to a fair quantum of exultation, provided they will as-
sent to conclusions fairly deducible from the success of
their candidate. Mr. Codrington. The Tories are cer-
tainly entitled to a fair triumph in their defeat of Mr.
Tracy Leigh ; but their idea that the result is attribu-
table to any reaction in public opinion is truly absurd.
Mr. Codrington possessed the advantage of having al-
ready canvassed East Gloucestershire at the general
election in December 1832, and he necessarily had all
the organised influence which such a circumstance
gave him. Moreover, he was in the field several days
before his opponent. The parsons, also, on this occa-
sion, fought for their very lives, and as so many stations
of Toryism throughout the country, formed a power-
ful political union against Mr. Leigh. But does
this contest prove the ekistence of any real majority
against Liberal Opinions ? Certainly not. A third
of the County Constituencies, throughout England
and Wales, are the creatures and mere slaves of the
Tory Landowners, and driven by them to the poll.
The Magistracy and Lieutenancy of all the counties,
with few exceptions, are rank Tories ; and all the civil
offices of authority are vested in the same political
species. The insidious clause of the Marquis of
Chandos, thrust into the Reform Bills, enfranchising
the tenants "without will," brings up to the poll so
many serfs of the land-proprietors. Many of the
county poll-books, at the election of 1832, displayed
a topographical map of political influence ; or, as it is
technically termed, " the tenants followed the land-
lords." . Now, it is notorious that the majority of
farmers. are neutral in politics, ill-informed, steeped
ill prejudices, especially on. the subject of the corn
laws. As a class, they take little interest in
questions of general reform. The squire and the
parson, in open voting, array them at the hustings as
mutes are stationed by an undertaker. But what are
the relative numbers in the large towns and populous
villages, where chiefly is to be assayed the real power
and movement of public opinion ? We advise the
Tories to view this side of the scale, in their next esti-
mate of the comparative advance of liberal and illiberal
opinions. They may occasionally and partially suc-
ceed in liocussing the electors of some of the counties
and smaller boroughs ; but their prudent course, unless
self-deceit be more agreeable, is to change their
standard of calculation. Another test of the conscious-
ness of deceit in the Tories is their vehement objec-
tion to the introduction of the Ballot. They well
know the effect of that great specific for corruption and
intimidation, and that it would knock off the fetters
of their political slaves. If Mr. Tracy Leigh
had won the election by the majority of his suc-
cessful opponent, our remarks would equally apply.
We repeat, that the wonder, under all these circum-
stances,. is the numbers, not the paucity, of the inde-
pendent minority who supported the Liberal candidate.
We direct the attention of the Tories to Cambridge,
Edinburgh, and Nottingham, as a set-off against East
Gloucester. We now turn to one particular incident
in this contest—the exhibition of a political Judas—
a Mr. Jenkm Thomas—a Dissenting Minister, who
appeared as an. advocate of Mr. Codrington ! How
this Reverend. Gentleman can reconcile such conduct
to his conscience, however flexible, we are at a loss to
imagine. Mr. Jenkin Thomas, the partisan of a Tory
candidate, who was the notorious opponent of negro
emancipation, and a representative who will vote
against all measures for the relief of the Dissenters
next session ! We do not doubt that the enlightened
members of the Dissenting body in the neighbourhood
of this curious person will testify the sense of his poli-
tical apostacy. 'We should like to see this election
hermaphrodite.—Morning Chronicle.
We observe from the Scotch papers, that, in con-
sequence of the fatal accident which lately took place
from the bursting of the boiler of one of the steam
carriages which have been running on the road be-
tween Paisley and Glasgow, and by which several
passengers lost their lives, an interdict (injunction)
has beent obtained from a Court of Law, prohibiting
the carriages from continuing to run. We are not sa-
tisfied either as to the legality or the expediency of
this judicial procedure. In the infancy of every at-
tempt which human ingenuity has made to obtain a
command over the elements, and to mould them into
instruments of mechanical power, these attempts have
been attended with repeated, and often disastrous
failures. But, if the law had been allowed to in-
terfere and put a stop to such attempts as often as
any accident arose from the immaturity of the
contrivance, we never should have possessed those
inventions which have made ruch changes in the
state of society all over the world. What would have
become of Arkwright's machinery—of steam naviga-
tione—of illumination by gas ? or, to come closer to the
case in hand, what would have become of steam con-
veyance on railways ? In every one of those cases,
the accidents, attended with the loss of life, have been
innumerable. These have arisen, sometimes from the
imperfection of the newly invented machinery, and
sometimes from carelessness or awkwardness in its
management. But this is the first time we have heard
of the law interfering in the matter. Nobody is ob-
liged to make use of one of these new contrivances. It
is adopted or not, according to the opinion entertained
of its safety ; and the effect of an accident, in putting
an end to public confidence (or at least suspending it)
is the proper check to the danger of any great mis-
chief from the premature use of such contrivances.
We remember, a good many years ago, when
.gas-
lighting was beginning to be introduced into private
houses in Edinburgh, a great sensation was occasioned
by an explosion, attended with loss of life, in a gentle-
man's house ; and a stop was put, for a short time, to
the- progress of. gas-lighting in private houses. This
was the check to the evil arising from the danger of
accidents ; and it was quite a sufficient one. In the
same manner, nobody can doubt that the late accident
on the Paisley-road would have been quite sufficient
to deter any person of common caution from putting
his foot into any of these carriages till the inventor was
able to show that care had been taken to provide
against a recurrence of the danger. It may be ob-
served that the interdict is only the first stage ; and we
may suppose that, after a hearing, the Scotch Local
Judge will refuse to sustain it. At all events, should
the matter come by appeal to a superior Court, this
interdict would at once be dismissed.—Morning
Chronicle.

It is impossible to look at the proceedings of the
East India Directors in apportioning the relative com-
pensations to the members of their civil and their
naval service, who had alike suffered a total loss of
employment from the cessation of the Company's trade
with the East, and not be struck by the enormous
superiority of favour bestowed upon the gentlemen of
the desk and warehouse, over that intended for the
meritorious men and officers who, in the guardianship
of the treasures entrusted to them, had braved the
storm, and met their country's enemies in battle.
There never stepped on the deck of a man-of-war more
skilful, honourable, or gallant seamen than .the great
bulk of those by whom the ships, either regular or
extra, in the Company's service, had been navigated
for the last 40 years. For some time past the oppor-
tunities enjoyed by that class of persons for eking out
their poor wages by small commercial ventures, had
been much abridged by the Company, and now it is
confessed on all hands the remuneration afforded them
in acknowledgment or recompense of what they have
lost under the new charter, and as a farewell from
their old employers, was scanty and penurious to a
degree which hardly any one could approve but some
sordid and skinflint housewife. A vote of the proprie-
tors on Wednesday last handsomely and humanely
corrected the illiberality of the board, and will, we
trust, be confirmed by the ballot for which the Direc-
tors have summoned them.—Times.

rilE ANGLER IN WALES.—This work, for the
spirit and variety of its details, seems destined to great popu-
larity. Its rules for fly-fishing, and for other sports, are
curious and elaborate ; while the numerous adventures by
which it iikitvened will secure for it the eager attention of
theA,eof-st - . 41141e.nt. To enhance this character, the.
t kbc,di .4., pages several welsh legends and.
.: lesz4;fppe rsonal reminiscences and original
' -.f.,144.12aPkiu , particularly of Lord gyron and
. w40'..0 a was very intimate.
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