The Sun.
London, England, 1834-12-19 00:00:00

fair
trial" ...words of despondency—and candidly ad-
mits his own " distrust" of his "qualifications. His
apprehensions will be speedily realized. As he is
pledged not to repeal the Reform Acts, the pseudo-
eformer will soon come to understand them better
than again to advertise such quack medicines for the
Church and State.—Morning Chronicle.
The address of Sir Robert Peel to the electors of
Tamworth appeared in our columns of yesterday with-
out note or comment, except merely a notice to direct
public attention to the document. Before this time it
has been eagerly read by Englishmen of all classes,
and all 'varieties of public opinion, as far as the
wings of the Press have carried it. Its merits as a
literary composition, though great for the chasteness,
perspicuity, and polished vigour of its style and dic-
tion, sink into comparative insignificance when com-
pared with its importance as a political document—a
manifesto of the principles and intended course of
policy indited by the Premier, and addressed, through
the constituency of Tamworth, to the people of the
British empire. In the early enunciation of its prin-
ciples, the new Administration has paid a proper de-
gree of deference to public opinion—we mean that
sober, enlightened, and constitutional public opinion,
-which we never did, and never can confound with the
voice of factious clamour and turbulent agitation. On
Wednesday last we said—" the Ministry having been
formed, in spite of the threatened convulsion which
was to shake the kingdom to the centre, the public
have a right to expect, that, with as little delay as
possible, some opportunity will be taken to give the
country a view of its intended course of policy. We
do not say that a reasonable time ought not to be given
to Ministers to mature their measures ; but if those mea-
sures be such as are likely to obtain hereafter the sup-
port of the country it will be for the advantage of Mi-
nisters to make them known as soon as possible."
Now, although there is as yet no exposition of specific
measures, the earliest opportunity has certainly been
taken by the Premier to give an exposition of the prin-
ciples and general course of policy upon which the
Government is to be conducted. Let us examine what
those principles are. Let us see whether they arc
such as, if honestly acted upon, will satisfy all reason-
able and right-minded men that the current of. Reform
will go on to the purification of abuses, without sub-
verting institutions—that it will not, on the one hand,
fall off, and subside in a stagnant reservoir of corrup-
tion, nor, on the other, grow into a fierce and impetu-
ous torrent of wild innovation and revolutionary vio-
lence. The first impression which the mind receives
from the most hasty perusal of this document is favour-
able to the impartial and deliberate consideration of its
contents. All men, of whatever political creed they
may be, who have not sacrificed their reason to the
bigotry of party, cannot fail to be prepossessed by the
air of decision, at the same time frank and prudent, by
which it is distinguished. Whether the views which
it developes be correct or erroneous, it cannot be ob-
jected that they are not explicit. There is nothing of
the studied diplomatic obscurity, so prevalent in poli-
tical documents at the present day, to baffle penetra-
tion—nothing of specious rhetorical artifice to mislead
the judgment. It is equally free from the evasive and
shuffling ingenuity of the timid Doctrinaire, who
" uses language to conceal his thought," and the vague
or exaggerated pretensions of the boastful politician,
whose promises are equally magnificent and unmeaning.
This testimony from us will, perhaps, not have the less
value because we have never flattered Sir Robert
Peel, nor, thiaugh admitting his capacity for business,
and his ready eloquence in debate, have we ever re-
garded his talents as a Statesman with inordinate ad-
miration. There have been occasions when we thought
his ingenuity more remarkable than his candour, and
his political discretion superior to his moral intre-
pidity. But it is in times when feeble men fall that
superior natures display their better qualities, and rise
upon public estimation. Such times are the present---
the dangers of the country are great and pressing--
the hopes of its salvation, under Heaven, rest upon the
Government avowing boldly and acting honestly upon
those principles of enlightened policy which may
obtain for it the confidence of the considerate, the re-
flecting, the moral, and religious portion of society. It
is a season when artifice would be worse than useless,
and when deception could only lead to ruin. Of this
Sir Robert Peel seems thoroughly convinced, and we
adduce in proof of it the following passage :
" I have the firmest conviction that that confidence cannot
be secured by any other course than that of frank and ex-
plicit declarations of principle ; that vague and unmeaning
professions of popular opinions may quiet distrust for a time,
may influence this or that election, but that such profes-
sions must ultimately and signally fail, if, being made,
they are not adhered to, or if they are inconsistent with
the honour and character of those who make them."
This is exactly the principle:on which we wish to see
Statesmen act. There is no act of statesmanship equal
to honesty—an honest Government, even in error, will
induce respect, while that sort of cleverness whose re-
sources are trick and deceit is sure in the end to fall
into disgrace and contempt. The Whigs, who were
floated into power with a greater tide of popularity than
any Ministers enjoyed for a long series of years, " ulti-
mately and signally failed," not so much from their in-
capacity for business, though that was great—not so
much from their ignorance of the position which Eng-
land ought to take among the nations of Europe
though that was remarkable—it was the desertion
of principle that lost them. character and influence.
One day courting a Conservative alliance by the
falsification of solemn promises, the next bowing
down in abject compliance to the demands of de-
mocratic intimidation, they disgusted all parties, they
conciliated none. No man could tell at last
what their principles of government were, or what
their course of policy was intended to be. Men's no-
tions became unsettled, and the affairs of the country
still more so. The hopes of the destructives were
raised in proportion to the despondency which such
compromising weakness and want of moral and poli-
tical firmness brought upon all sober and enlightened
reformers, and all honest lovers of their country. Who
can wonder that such loss of character was followed
by a loss of power, unlamented by all but those 'who
were bound to the Whigs by the ties of self-interest,
or who wished them to continue in • office long enough
,
h to
ou g
to serve the purposes of faction—long en
make sufficient breaches in the Constitution to let in
the resistless tide of democratic principles ? " Any
loss," said the Duke of Wellington 'aeon one occasion,
"is better than the loss of char-at:ter, which is the
foundation of public confidence,:" Sir Robert Peel
has well judged that to obtP.in public confidence he
must be candid and explicit i'a declaring the intended
policy of Government, le:Piving nothing unexplained
that ought to be renderea_ clear, and making no pro-
mises which it may I,e contrary to his inclination or
beyond his power to fulfil. He, therefore, makes this
manly avowal—
" Now, I say r,G once that I will not accept power on
the condition declaring myself an apostate from the
principles on which I have heretofore acted." He then
goes on to say, "at the same time I never will admit
that I have been, either before or after the Reform Bill,
the defan.anr of abuses, or the enemy of judicious re-
forms. I appeal with confidence, in denial of the charge,
to the active part I took in the great question of the cur-
rency, in the consolidation and amendment of the crimi-
nal law—in the revisal of the whole system of Trial by
Tory--to the opinions I have professed, and uniformly
acted on with regard to other branches of the jurispru-
dence of the country. I appeal to this as a proof that I
have not been disposed to acquiesce in acknowledged evils,
either from the mere superstitious reverence for ancient
usages, or from the dread of labour or responsibility in the
application of a remedy."
On the question of the currency we have differed,
Ind still differ, from Sir Robert Peel. In reference to
that most important subject we always regarded, ar.d
still regard, him as an innovator, not a reformer i and
great was the evil which that innovation worked.. The
nature of pre-existing contracts between creditor and
debtor was most unjustly altered, to the injury of the
latter; the man who borrowed a sum of money, whe-
ther on mortgage or otherwise, in a depreciated cur-
rency, was compelled to pay the same nominal amount
in a currency greatly enhanced. In much the same
proportion that the currency was enhanced the prices
of produce were depressed. We derived from the Cur-
rency Bill the highly prejudicial combination of a peace
-dirieney with a war taxation—at least, with a taxa-
/ 4.r. •
tron which, though not quite so high as that of the
- war, its quite too high for a time of peace—too high,
allow a return to a metallic circulating me-

dium without aggravating the embarrasments and distress
which were consequent upon the sudden transition from
war to peace. If Sir R. Peel adduces the part which
lie took on the question of the currency as an example
of former wisdom of statesmanship, we join issue with
him, and let the country decide ; but if he only refers
to it for the purpose of proving that he is ready to alter
that which is fixed, when he believes such alteration to
be improvement, we admit the force of the appeal. At
all events, it is not for the 'Whigs and political econo-
mists, who persuaded him to make that innovation, to
cast it in his teeth. His conduct in reference to the
currency showed that he had no inflexible attachment
to an established law or usage, if he became persuaded
that the interests of society demanded its alteration.
With regard to the criminal law, we admit that the
Right Hon. Baronet did that which was most ex-
traordinary for a man in office at that time to do—
commenced a reform ; but it was a reform of the
law more as to consolidation and arrangement, than
as to its vital spirit. He cut off some obsolete Sta-
tutes, the dead branches of a code which had be-
come too cruel and barbarous to be capable of any
other than a comparatively limited execution. He en-
hanced the price of human life in some instances, which
it is not necessary now to particularise, and in a
few instances, where the law was liable to be executed,
as in some cases of forgery, he repealed the capital en-
actment ; but still it cannot be denied that the criminal
law came forth from the crucible of his reform not very
substantially refined or cleansed from that dross of bar-
barism which made it a disgrace to a civilised age and
a Christian land. Indeed Sir Robert himself admitted
that it was still the most sanguinary of any in Europe.
We contended, when the Right Hon. Baronet was
in office before, for substantial, effective, and vital
reform of the criminal law, not merely because it re-
volted the feelings of humanity, but because the
cruelty of the law counteracted its own intention,
and by making it in a great measure inoperative,
rendered life and property more insecure than could
be the case if its penal sanctions were proportioned
to the degrees of crime, and not at variance with
the conscientious feelings of civilised men. When
Sir Robert Peel went out of office we did not fail to
advocate with persevering zeal, and we trust not
altogether without effect, this species of reform. Many
substantial improvements have taken place, but only
with regard to two Bills did Government lend its as-
sistance—the others were brought in and carried
through Parliament by the efforts of individuals, who
had often great obstacles, thrown in the way by
Ministers, to encounter. The last two Bills upon the
subject which passed the Commons were stopped in
the Lords, and, we regret to be compelled to say, by
the intervention of Lord Brougham. Here there still
remains a noble field of exertion for an enlightened
Statesman—a field of exertion which has given a glory
to the name of Napoleon, such as conqueror never yet
gathered in " iron harvests" of the field of war. May
we hope that, as Sir Robert Peel looks back with
some degree of justifiable pride upon the commence-
ment of that reform, he will now think it not unworthy
an enlightened ambition to proceed with the work,
and bring it to a happy conclusion. Let us now
glance at what the address states with regard to the
Reform Bill. It will be recollected that the Whig
papers have not merely insinuated, but openly told
the people that the country was to apprehend from
the new Government the repeal, or at least the dis-
turbing, oF the Reform Bill. Now, what is said in
the address upon this subject ? Let us hear.
" The Reform Bill, it is said, constitutes a new era,
and it is the duty of a Minister to declare explicitly, first
whether he will maintain the Bill itself ; and, secondly,
whether he will act upon the spirit in which it was con-
ceived." As to the first of these points " with respect to
the Reform Bill itself, I will repeat now the declaration
which I made when I entered the House of Commons
as a Member of the Reformed Parliament, that I con-
sider the Reform Bill a final and irrevocable settlement
of a great constitutional question—a settlement which
no friend to the peace and welfare of this country would
attempt to disturb, either by direct or by insidious means."
As to the second point he says--" Then, as
to the spirit of the Reform Bill, and the willingness j
to adopt and enforce it as a rule of Government—if,
by adopting the spirit of the Reform Bill, it be meant
that we are to live in a perpetual vortex of agitation—
that public men can only support themselves in public
estimation by adopting every popular impression of
the day—by promising the instant redress of anything
which anybody may call abuse—by abandoning alto-
gether that great aid of Government—more powerful
than either law or reason, the respect for ancient rights
and the deference to prescriptive authority—if this be
the spirit of the Reform Bill, I will not undertake to
adopt it ; but if the spirit of the Reform Bill implies
merely a careful review of institutions, civil and eccle-
siastical, undertaken in a friendly temper, com-
bining with the firm maintenance of established rights
the correction of proved abuses, and the redress of
real grievances, in that case, I can for myself and
colleagues undertake to act in such a spirit and with
such intentions." In the sentiments of the above pas-
sages we believe all friends of sound and constitu-
tional, as distinguished from destructive, reform will
agree with Sir Robert Peel—that such a course of
policy should be adopted as would cause the country
to move in a "perpetual vortex of agitation," could
not conduce either to the security of the State, the
prosperity of the industrious classes, the advancement
of the arts of peace, or the happiness of society.
`With regard to the demands of the Dissenters, the
Premier acknowledges his willingness to remove their
grievances, and satisfy their conscientious scruples as
to the payment of Church rates and the question of
marriage, on neither of which, after many promises, did
the late Government give them any satisfaction. We will
only advert to one more topic, but that a most important
one. "As to the great question of Church reform,"
he goes on to say, "on that head I hare no new
professions to make. I cannot give my consent to
the alienation of Church property in any part of the
United Kingdom, from strictly Ecclesiastical pur-
poses. But I repeat now the opinions that I have al-
ready expressed in Parliament in regard to the Church
Establishment in Ireland, that if, by an improved dis-
tribution of the revenues of the Church, its just influ-
ence can be extended, and the true interests of the
established religion promoted, all other considerations
should be made subordinate to the advancement of ob-
jects of such paramount importance." So much ej.,,
the leading topics of domestic policy. As tr., rorelim
policy, he declares " our object will ti,e the mainten.
ance of peace, the scrupuloil; and honourable fulfil-
ment, without reference '`.,o their original policy, of all
existing engagemTnts with foreign Powers, the support
of public credit, the enforcement of strict economy,
and the just and impartial consideration of what is due
to all interests, agricultural, manufacturing. and com-
mercial." Supposing all these things are done in
good faith, and done in a Statesmanlike manner,
the country will have less reason than ever to re-
gret the change which has taken place in his Ma-
jesty's Councils. Then, indeed, may it be expected
that all other real demands of enlightened public
opinion will be eventually satisfied. The Church
reform which we have always advocated is that
which, while maintaining ine integrity of the Es-
tablishment, would purify its abuses, particularly
those of plurality, non-residence, and sinecurism,
making also such a distribution of its resources as may
raedfeoqruma,tely provide for all the working clergy. This
and the relieving those who are not members
of the Church from the payment of church rates,
ought surely to be sufficient for all whose object is not
destruction. As anxious for the purity of the Church,
we cannot require less ; as desirous of its preservation,
we would not concede more. To conclude, that this
address will disappoint the violent democratic party
we believe, for it will take away much of the surmised
illiberality of the new Government--much of the fuel
of discontent with which they have endeavoured to in-
flame the passions of the people; that it will, bed
as-
sailed and vilified by all those who,
the most
w
e r i
eag
slender resources of talent and chare-•
destitute of principle, live and sh, With talent
ration, there can be no dor.:ot. In the same -
propor-
tion we are disposed to think it will give hope and
confidence to the enlightened, the respectable, and the
really industrious classes of society, whose interests
suffer from the continuance of political excitement and
uenficeecrttianign yrteni
gent En;
; gl
In fine, we t
r Wink it probable that
..sh
reform, not the sub
ver ,OA our institution!,l
'will re.
m en, whose object the

5 ceztainly' fo
•
< '
414e,n.rd0",,*