The Sun.
London, England, 1834-09-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

The Lord Chancellor has been received everywhere
in his Scotch tour in the most enthusiastic manner.
Not a city, burgh, village, or hamlet, in Highlands
or Lowlands, but has poured forth its population to
meet and welcome him ; and his journey has been a
sort of civil triumph. Deputations of magistrates
Came 50 and 60 miles to present addresses to him ;
and in places where there were no magistrates, the
people met and chose delegates to draw up addresses,
in the tone and spirit of that from Inverness, which we
have given in another column. At Aberdeen the
Chancellor's patience seems to have been put to a
rather severe trial. He was obliged to speak when
presented with the freedom of the city, in answer to the
address from the Society of Advocates, in answer to an
address from the Marischal College and University of
Aberdeen, in answer to an address from the Incorpo-
rations, besides speaking to the crowd from the window
of his hotel, and then a few times at the dinner given
to him in the County Hall. We were prepared for
the flattering reception Lord Brougham every where
met with in his native country. The people of Aber-
deen, Dundee, and Inverness, &c., feel, with the
people of every other town in the island, that his
Lordship has rendered far greater services to the public
than any other statesman now living. The private
feelings which have filled one Journal (the Times)
with such implacable hostility towards him, are not of
course shared by the public in general ; and the honest
citizens of Aberdeen and Dundee may therefore be well
pardoned for viewing in Lord Brougham the advocate
for thirty years of every beneficial and enlightened
measure, and the great patron of improvement. The
unsophisticated feelings of the people saved them not
only from sympathising with the Times, of which the
unprincipled malignity was obvious, but also from
being the dupes of certain Journalists who delight
in running down men like the Chancellor, for the
reason that a reputation for acuteness and ingenuity
may, they think, be easier acquired by detecting and
exaggerating the faults of a great public character,
than by falling in with the general opinion. There
is no man in the present Ministry (and we say not
this with any wish to undervalue Lord Brougham's
colleagues, some of whom are able and upright
men) who has laboured like Lord Brougham in the
cause of improvement. The very ardour which led
him to make the extraordinary exertions which
we have witnessed, during a period of thirty years,
may have betrayed him occasionally into the use of
language less cautious, perhaps, than would have been
used by cold and cautious individuals, more occupied
wit selves than with the public. But how un-
to pass over a long career of public exertion,
and to twist a few detached sentences into a proof of
abandonment of the cause of the people I There is not
one of his Lordship's detractors who in his heart be-
lieves that Lord Brougham is less inclined at this mo-
ment to promote every description of improvement in
education, in our laws and institutions, than ever he
was at any period of his life. "My opinions and sen-
timents (said his Lordship in answer to the Corpo-
rators of Aberdeen) have been always the same that
they now are since I entered life ; and at my years are
not apt to be changed without strong reasons. When
I change these principles—when I cease to respect the
House of Commons—when I cease to love liberty—
when I cease to wish for the safety and continued
prosperity of those institutions under which we have
so long prospered, and, under their improved state, are
likely still more to prosper, then my mind will be near
a close ; and if I retain any sense, I will send you a
notice of it.--(A laugh.)" He added, however, sig-
nificantly, " Only I hope you will take the notice from
myself, and not from other people." That Lord
Brougham is infallible—that he is less liable to err
than other public men, is what no man would think of
maintaining. But we think it hard that because he
has done more than other men, a less measure of in-
dulgence should be shown to him. There is some-
thing unaccountable in the conduct of one or two of
our contemporaries with regard to Lord Brougham.
The Times began to attack his Lordship at the time
he was exerting himself to promote the success of the
great measure of the Poor Laws Amendment Bill,
which, indeed, may be said to be his measure, as
the Commission, tie labours of which exposed
the evil in all its hideousness, originated with
him. The Times, actuated by motives of the most
discreditable nature, endeavoured to defeat the
measure. That its animosity towards his Lordship
was altogether owing to his share in the Bill in ques-
tion, we do not intend to maintain. It is even possible
that a private grudge to Lord Brougham may have
converted the Times from an advocate of the Bill to
its opponent. But this we maintain, that the hatred
of the Times manifested itself when his Lordship was
labouring for the goall of his fellow-citizens, and more
particularly to raise' the great body of English labour-
ers to independence. Yet the indignation of the
writers in question was not only not directed against
the Times, but the glaring immorality and want of
principle of that journal, so conspicuously displayed
in the case of Lord Brougham, were pardoned to it,
in gratitude for the virulence displayed against him.
It may be necessary to censure Lord Brougham as
well as other public men, when they err. But it is
ungenetous, nay, mean, to select a time for assail-
ing him, when an unprincipled adversary, actuated
by private malice, was endeavouring to destroy
his reputation. It was impossible, however, that
the public should share this moral obliquity. And
the warmth of the reception of Lord Brougham,
wherever he has appeared in Scotland, sufficiently
proves that public gratitude is not a mere name, and
that the man who devotes the days and nights of thirty
years to the good of his countrymen is in no danger of
being abandoned by them, because a writer in a news-
paper chooses to make it the vehicle of private malice
against him. We hold it to be immoral to praise a
public man beyond his deserts. We may think highly
of the Chancellor ; but no mortal, perhaps, ever de-
served the extravagant praise for almost all conceiv-
able excellencies which the Times bestowed for years
on Lord Brougham. However, indiscriminate cen-
sure on. public men is not less immoral. Fortunately,
the success of journalists, in their endeavours to de-
tract from the merit of public men, is often by no
means equal to their wishes. Were it otherwise, were
reputation to be held by the precarious tenure of an
opinion which any public writer could shake, a power-
ful motive for doing good would be destroyed. We
look upon the manifestations of public feeling in Scot-
land in favour of the Chancellor as of great value in
the way of encouragement to public men, while it
ought to afford an useful lesson to public writers.--
Morning Chronicle.
To enter into any discussion on the character and
foreign policy of Lord Palmerston would, we are
aware, not only be superfluous, but in some measure
an insult to our readers; for, whatever difference of
opinion may exist on the present state of British in-
fluence and power in the East, we believe we may
safely assert that scarcely any one, be he of whatso-
ever party he may, is satisfied with the course pursued
by his Lordship and his colleagues in that quarter.
From the time of the untoward event at Navarino
down to the present moment, a most unhappy influence,
as we often had reason to remark, has appeared to
direct the councils of Britain with respect to the
Turkish empire. Either nothing, or worse than no-
thing has been effected. Looking on the conduct of
our Ministers in the most favourable light, we agree
with our Correspondent from Constantinople, who ob-
serves—" Our Ministers are apparently waiting to fol-
low events, and are by no means prepared to lead them;
and until they adopt a bolder course we stand but little
chance of doing much good here. ' And on this we
would merely ask, is such a system creditable to the
councils of such a nation as Great Britain ? Are we
reduced to such a state of ignorance that we know not
how to act ? or are we sunk to such a depth of imbe-
cility and weakness that we cannot, or dare not, take a
lead in the direction of affairs so vitally important to
our interests in every point of view ? We are not,
and have never been, the advocates of war, or of un-
r.iietessary interference with the affairs of other nations ;
but it should be borne in mind that the surest way to
avert war is to put ourselves in the situation in which
we should not fear it. There may be, we confess,
a difference of opinion now as to what direct course
we should adopt towa4ls Turkey ; but can it be
doubted-for an instant that the greater the difficulties