The Sun.
London, England, 1834-09-20 00:00:00

LONDON,
SATURDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 20, 1534.

The advocates for the diffusion of cheap knowledge

among the people of this country—happily a large;
liberal, enlightened, and influential body—have all but
a solemn pledge, in the speech of the LORD CHAN-
CELLOR to the inhabitants of Aberdeen, that the re-

peal of the stamp duty on newspapers will form one of
the earliest acts of the Legislature in the next sitting
of ,Parliament. His Lordship, in speaking of the
speculative and visionary character which certain inte-
rested individuals gave to his opinions on this subject,
laconically observed, "But there is nothing specula-
tive and visionary in the difference between 7id. and
3d.—a few months, perhaps, will show if there be."
We never read a finer illustration of the difference
between the real and the visionary than is here
given—one, too, which can neither be misunder-
stood by ignorance, nor misinterpreted by sophistry.
The poor cannot mistake it ; and even among the
wealthier classes, there will be found a few to

E whom this mode of reasoning will appear singu-
larly intelligible, and admirably appropriate. But
Lord BROUGHAM need be under no concern about
what others say of the visionary character of his
opinions. They well know that his opinions are not
visionary, else would they give themselves little con-
cern about them. Visionaries are very leniently dealt
with by their opponents, an indulgence which has
never yet been extended to the CHANCELLOR and his
projects. The great secret of the hostility of our
contemporaries against Lord BROUGHAM, will be
found in the opinions expressed by him before the
Committee of the House of Commons, which sat in
June last—for the purpose of suggesting amendments

in the present law of libel. His Lordship on that oc-
casion gave expression to opinions respecting the,
liberty of the press, and the abolition of certain stamp
duties, well known to, be the main support of certain
monopolies, which unfortunately for his " fair fame"
several members of the House of Commons, and the
great majority of the reading public out of doors,
considered by no means of a " visionary character."
This was the first sting inflicted on the fostering bo-
som of his Lordship's self-constituted nurses. From
that hour the scales fell from their eyes, and in the
lovely cherub who had been for some fifteen years the
sole idol of their idolatry, the principal object of their
worship, and the only standard of human excellence,
they discovered an ugly, blubbering, ignorant, mis-
chievous urchin—a very Major PIPER in person and
pretensions. It was not their interest, neither was it
their wish, that this discovery—though a damning
proof of their previous ignorance—should be kept
secret. But still prudence suggested caution in a pro-
ceeding so self-humiliating—so -very likely to excite
the indignation of the public at large. Feelers were
put forth in the form of hints and suggestions, which
a previous knowledge of the firmness and consis-
tency of the high personage to be maligned,
enabled them to be certain would be scorned ; and

a patronizing, pitying, desponding air was as-
sumed, which they were equally certain would
be regarded as insolent assumptions of unrecog-
nized authority. Then happily for the trembling
monopolists came the Poor Law Amendment Bill,
which served for a pretext for throwing aside the
hollow forms of respect—for flinging underfoot the
mask which could no longer conceal the miserable
malignity of the pseudo-admirers of an educated popu-
lace. Had the LORD CHANCELLOR when address-
ing the Libel Committee, assured the Members that
he never would sanction any project for instructing
the people, which the proprietors of Public Journals
would think in any way whatever likely to trench upon
their vested rights; or that presuming such a scheme was
carried in opposition to his influence, he would move that
compensation should be granted to the share-holders,
and that the writers should be appointed to fill certain
lucrative offices under the Crown, the people of the
United Kingdom would have yet to learn in what
Lord BROUGHAM, the High Chancellor of England,
differed from HENRY BROUGHAM, the liberal, en-
lightened, honest, and able representative of the Com-
mons. But his Lordship thought only of his duty to
his conscience and his country on that occasion ; and
even subsequently he was single-minded enough to
suppose others actuated by the same honest motives
which influenced his own conduct, by overlooking the
necessity of providing spurs for the post-boys who
heralded his glory. The Master Walters of our
mighty contemporaries—the newspaper press—are not
less ardent admirers of "belted knighthood" than was
the hero of the Hunchback of a Rochdale coronet.
But

" We'll talk of that anon.'

Meantime, the eyes of the country are opened to the
imposition that has been attempted to be practised.

The baseness of the motives cannot be concealed, so
that even were the truth of the malicious, malignant,
and rabid charges preferred against Lord BROUGHAM
capable of the clearest demonstration, the treachery,
the previous crawling servility, and the moral guilt of
those who have conspired to injure his reputation,
would not be more universally detested than they are
at present among all honourable men. The whole
,lic.pitte—as far 'As it seems_ persamrd_may be disposed
of in a single syllogism. Either Lord BROUGHAM.
was worthy of the praises for several years be-
stowed upon him, by those journals which now
attack him, or he was not ; if he was worthy,
then are they alike destitute of decency and
principle, in attempting to befoul him with slanders
which deny him the possession of talents, the exist-
ence of which do not depend upon the exercise of any
course of political conduct : if he was not worthy,
then were they, for fifteen years, the veriest fools or
knaves in the United Kingdom, and in either case dis-
qualified for attempting the direction of public opinion.
The great importance, in a moral and political
point of view, of the abolition of the stamp duty on

newspapers, has been so often discussed in the
columns of The Sun, that we think it unnecessary at
present to go beyond our expression of the pleasure
which it affords us to see the matter about to
be brought before the public by such a distinguished
statesman as Lord BROUGHAM. The question
is altogether one which ought not to pass into other
hands. To him the country looks as the chief sup-
port of every scheme for diffusing instruction among
the humbler classes of the community—for breaking
up the scholastic monopolies now enjoyed by the par-
tizans of certain religious opinions, to the utter exclu-
sion of the adherents of other creeds—and for basing
the laws of the country on the righteous principle
of equality and equity. To make the people mo-
ral—to make them rationally religious —to make
them observant of every duty, public and domestic—

he only way is to educate them ; and an education to

produce these effects must include a knowledge of
whatever is taking place in the community. This can
only be done by making newspapers so cheap that the
working people may be able to purchase them, and
read them weekly and daily in their families, instead
of the abominable trash which is now circulated by the
enemies of all Government.

Mr. O'CONNELL has addressed a third letter to
Lord DUNCANNON, the burden of which is, as usual,
" the follies, faults, and crimes" of the Whigs. It is
singular that the Hon. and Learned Gentleman should
profess himself a " Ministerial" man at the very mo-
ment when he is tasking his utmost endeavours to prove
that Ministers have not one single redeeming trait
about them. We admit, however, that in his allusion
to the Whig Magisterial appointments in Ireland, he
has something like justice on his side ; but does this,
therefore, justify his wholesale 'condemnation that
there never was any policy more foolish than that of
the Whigs towards Ireland ?" As one specimen of
their folly, Mr. O'CONNELL adduces the fact of their
courting that vile party which suggests in
terms too plain to be misunderstood the ex-

termination of the Catholic people of Ireland."
Now, it so happens that this same " vile party," in
whom Mr. O'CONNELL can now see nothing but
what is villainous and execrable, has for the last two
years been flattered and courted by him with a perse-
verance and assiduity almost, we may say, without
parrallel in the annals of political blandishments. We

do not forget the soft, sugary flatteries with which he
strove to hoodwink the Orangemen, about the time
when he was publishing those incendiary
Repeal
epistles, for one
of which he allowed his " dear
friend," BA RRBTT, to stand his proxy in jail. At that