The Sun.
London, England, 1834-11-19 00:00:00

MELANCHOLY EVENT AT LIVERPOOL.

UPWARDS of THIRTY PERSONS DROWNED.
LIVERPOOL, Nov. 17.—1 t appears that on Monday
morning, the 17th inst., a pugilistic combat was appointed
to take place between two men, named M'Fee and Robin-
son, near New Ferry, on the Cheshire side of the River
Mersey, and opposite to the port of Liverpool. There not
being any regular steam-boat plying to the Ferry nearest to
the field, several parties of the working classes hired boats
on this side of the river to take them across and back again.
The fight being over, the crowd of spectators proceeded
about three o'clock in the afternoon to enter their respective
boats. The liability to accident was increased by the state
of intoxication in which a great part of the passengers in all
the ferryboats returned to their homes. When about mid-
way across the river, one of the -boats, having been from
the first greatly overloaded, and containing about forty or
fifty passengers, chiefly anchor-smiths and chain-cable-
makers, began to fill, and the directions of the boatmen, to
enable them to avoid the consequences, being in a great degree
neglected, soon afterwards swamped and overset. At this cri-
tical juncture, the boatman who held the foresheet let it fly,
careless beyond his own immediate preservation, and sprang
over the' stern of the boat so as to get clear of the strug-
gling individuals who were thus in a moment precipitated
on their fate. The other boatman unfortunately became
entangled in the flying foresheet of . the already filled boat,
and was further encumbered by the drowning persons who
in the vain hope of thereby protracting their inevitable fate,
grappled with him so as to render it difficult for him to get
clear of them. He succeeded, however, in effecting this,
and swam towards the Liverpool side. In a short time, but
not before he was nearly exhausted, he was picked up by
one of the boats which, on observing the accident, imme-
diately put off to render assistance. Another almost equally
crowded boat made up to the scene with the humane in-
tention of preserving some of the unfortunate sufferers.
This dangerous attempt was attended with the most un-
happy results. The victims of the previous accident having
lost all presence of mind, and the passengers in the other
boat having scarcely more command of reason at the mo-
ment, the very means most likely to involve the whole in a
common ruin were resorted to, and the event was that the
second boat overset likewise. The party whose sense of
humanity had thus put their own lives in the most imminent
peril, were however more fortunate than those whose rash-
ness had originated the distressful calamity ; the greater
number (about twenty) of the passengers in the second
boat having been rescued from a watery grave.
At the present moment we are unable to ascertain the
precise number of the individuals who have thus been
drowned. Crowds of females hurried in every direction
towards the docks in the hope of gaining some intelligence
that might either dispel their sorrow or convert it into that
certainty which, however horrible, is still more endurable
than suspense. At every step they were encountered by a
corpse borne by those who had rescued it from the retiring
waves that had thrown it on the strand.
MONDAY EVENING, SIX O'CLOCK.—Up to this time
we believe only thirteen of the bodies have been picked up
on the Liverpool side of the river ; but we understand that
several have drifted to the Cheshire shore, and have there
been deposited in a place of safety. It is probable that a
L great number of the bodies will be carried a considerable
. way down the river, as the tide was setting out with rapi=
dity at the time of the accident. The boatman who was
saved from the first boat, and whose name is Rodrigues (a
Portuguese), now lies in a very precarious state at his own
r house.

The Episcopal Palace, at Wells, displayed, on
Wednesday last, a scene of considerable animation and interest.
A semicircular range of tables, spread before the entrance of
the edifice, and fronting the lawn, laden with beef, pudding,
and their proper accompaniments of vegetables, ale, and cider,
accommodated 250 poor tenants of the Bishop of Bath and
Wells, who enjoy, under that kind-hearted Prelate, the ad-
vantage of so many allotments of land in the immediate vicinity
of the Palace. Nothing, perhaps, could speak more power-
fully of the good effects of these allotments, in meliorating the
condition and improving the habits of the labouring poor, than
the decency in garb, and cleanliness in person, which marked
the appearance of the assembled multitude, and the universal
civility, decorum, and sobriety, exhibited in their behaviour.
It was, in truth, a scene which the Christian philanthropist
could notcontemplate but with unalloyed satisfaction ; and
from which the honest and enlightened Statesman (and let us
hope that we have still such characters among us) might have
derived a highly useful lesson of practical legislative wisdom.
—Bath Journal.

THE SCHOOLMASTER IN CHlNA.—Literature
and science in the celestial dominions are unacquainted with
the visits of the schoolmaster,
is and are consequently not parti-
cularly flourishingly. Physicians treat all diseases on the sup-
position that the body composed of five elements—water,
fire, metal, wood, and earth ; success, it may be reasonably
supposed, is not a constant attendant on their prescriptions.
In religious matters the Chinese are strangely remiss ; it is
not well known what they believe or what they deny. Con-
fucius, their great theologian, did not question the existence
of one Supreme, but he did not inculcate his worship, nor
the immorality of the soul. In the ceremonies that are
observed in China the most absurd superstitions are practised,
but the performers therein do not seem to be cognisant of
their meaning. Christianity is, however, gaining ground ;
and Mr. Gutzlaff anticipates the happiest results from its
adoption. For historical details relative to innumerably dynas-
ties we are referred to the Ming-she, in 63 volumes I

EXTENSIVE BURGLARY NEAR WIGAN.—Early
on Friday morning week, two ruffians broke into Miss Clegg's
house, about a mile and a half from Wigan, and took away
plate and money to the value of 2501. One of them presented
a pistol at Miss Clegg, and threatened to shoot her if she did
not give up her keys, or if she made any noise. They made
both ladies go into a room, where they locked them up, and
then decamped.—Sheffield Mercury.

SPIRIT OF T

JOURNALS.

" The Duke of Wellington will be gazetted this

evening, as one his Majesty's Principal Secretaries of

State. His Grace will superintend generally the affairs

of Government until the return of Sir Robert Peel."

So says the Standard of yesterday. We are also told that
Sir Robert Peel cannot return to England in less than
three weeks. The great Dictator will, therefore, have
time to show the people of England his new method of
governing. We hear that he will, in a few days, be
also sworn into office as First Lord of the Admiralty
(pro tenzpore, of course). We shall then have this
" great personage"—it is difficult to give him a name
to suit his new position—we shall then have him avow-
edly at the head of the Finances, of our domestic

Government, the Army and the Navy. Whether
we may hear of his summoning Councils of War, we
know not. Cabinet Councils, we suppose, will
be out of fashion, as he will- be a moving Cabinet,

and need take counsel only from himself. How long
this ambitious Chief is to enjoy his delusion, or how
far he is to be permitted to insult the country, we
know not. Neither can we know what means he will

employ to retain his power; but this we know, that
the people of England will not consent to be cheated
out of the advantages of the great measure of Reform,
either by the deceit and cajolery of his emissaries, or
by the menacing attitudes of " his Highness" himself.
The flame of resistance is lighting up. The effort of
the people will speedily dispel the illusion under which
the insolent Tory faction appear now to labour. The
storm is coining, which will certainly overwhelm
the enemies of Reform. The people begin with a
steadiness which shows that they see their object,
are confident in their strength, and know how
to put it forth. The Reform Bill has happily
given them the power to obtain the redress of
grievances without tumult. It is not needful to
enjoin tranquillity : there arc no indications of
a contrary description. Meetings are convened
in every direction. The constituency of England will
do their duty: the struggle may be severe—it will be
directed against a proud and corrupt faction making a

last effort to enslave us. If we prove true to ourselves,
we must succeed. But the united energies of all the
friends of liberal opinions and of good government will
be required. If we deserve success, we may command
it ; for in that case the issue is certain. We shall

now conclude by an extract from the Times of the
23d of June last, in which our contemporary then gave
its opinion of the Great Dictator—an opinion from
which few persons will now dissent, except those who
are embarked with him in his desperate undertaking, or
interested in continuing abuses in Church and State:—

" The Duke of Weilington was celebrated (says the
Times)as a Minister, for his ignorance of public opinion.
He was honestly and profoundly in the dark as to al-
most everything that men thought and felt throughout
the larger portion of society ; and he took the right
method to keep himself irretrievably misinformed,
never looking for intelligence beyond the circuit of
Downing-street and the Court, or listening to any sug-
gestions but those of flatterers among coteries of fa-
shion." Has the darkness of a whole political life been
at once dispelled ? Or has he not afforded another
illustration of the truth of the position of our contem-
porary, that he is utterly ignorant of public opinion ?
He will soon receive a lesson on this subject—a
striking lesson.—Morning Chronicle.

We call attention to the resolutions in our adver-
tising columns, agreed on at a meeting of the United
Committee of Dissenters, held yesterday at Williams's
Library, in Redcross-street. The Committee regret
the sudden dismissal from his Majesty's councils of his
late confidential advisers, approving generally of their
measures, and attributing the delay on the part of the
late Government, with regard to the just claims
of Protestant Dissenters, chiefly to the obstruc-
tion to which they were subject both from eccle-
siastical and political opponents. In the probable,
event of a general electionohe Committee anticipate
from the Protestant Dissenters throughout the empire.
the most decided and uncompromising opposition to
that political party who have avowed themselves the
itylinching opponents of their interests, and whose
speeches and votes on the Bill for the admission of
Dissenters to the Universities ought never to be for-
gotten. The Dissenters, in these resolutions, show
their practical wisdom. They ask the simple question
—Why did the Tories procure the dismissal of the
Whiabs ? There is but one answer—That the Whigs
were disposed to reform abuses in Church and State.
Then would it not be the height of madness to expect
reforms from those whose hostility to the Whigs was,
because they were reformers ? Men do not gather
figs from thorns, or grapes from thistles. The
united Committee do not content themselves with
mere declarations of approbation of the conduct
of the late Ministers, and of distrust of the
present Dictator, but they recommend to all
classes of Dissenters throughout the country,
" the immediate adoption of measures best calcu-
lated to ensure the return, as representatives to
Parliament, of men liberal and enlightened in their
views, the tried friends of religious liberty, national im-
provement, and universal freedom." This is a recom-
mendation deserving of universal imitation. 'What
chiefly insured the success of the Reform Bill, was the
organization which was everywhere adopted. Com-
mittees ought to be formed without loss of time, to
communicate with the metropolis on points connected
with the election, and to devise the means best calcu-
lated to secure Reformers heartily devoted to the good
cause. A Committee will be formed in London, as
during the reform struggle, to assist and advise local
committees ; and the best results may be hoped from
this state of preparation in town and country. We
cannot for a moment doubt of the result. The confi-
dence everywhere manifested by the people is anything,
but symptomatic of weakness. Let but the occasion ar-
rive for putting forth their strength, and the Conser-
vatives will be signally routed. One more struggle,
and the enemy is crushed for ever.—Morn. Chronicle.
We heartily agree with the Times of yesterday, that
" one course and one alone is possible ; it is to sup-
port, under all changes of men and circumstances, the
practical reform of every definite and accessible abuse.
On this point there can be no retrogression, there can
be no stagnation. Every grievance unredressed, every
source of corruption unpurified, every unsound speck
in any one of her national institutions, is a depository
of the seeds, and an assurance of the return, of that
malady which the Reform Bill itself was destined to
extinguish—the pestilence of unjust government."
The Reform Bill was, no doubt, destined to extin-
guish the pestilence of unjust government, but it can
only secure to the people good government if they
return good men. The people must not sup-
pose that if they return bad men, these bad men
will give them good measures. Let people,
then, return good men, and they may then count on the
Reform Bill producing the results which the Times
specifies. But who are the good men, who, if returned
to Parliament, will redress every grievance—purify
every source of corruption ? The men who opposed
Reform precisely because it would enable the people
to return representatives disposed to protect the inte-
rest of the many instead of sacrificing them to the few?
The men who, even since the Reform Bill became law,
have by their majorities in the Lords thrown out
every measure which promised to benefit the people
The men who stood up for every abuse in the
Irish Church, and threw out the Irish Tithe Bill,
in order to involve Ireland in tumult and blood-
shed ? It is clear that these men never can do
any good for the people—that if they were to be
returned, their only, object would be to abuse the
confidence reposed in them. The Whigs have not.
done enough, it is true ; but who prevented the Whig::
from doing more ? Would it not then be the most stupid of.
all infatuations were the people to allow themselves for
one moment to indulge in the belief, that they who
hated the Whigs because they carried a Reiorm Bill,
because they wished to reform the Church, to purify
Corporations, to admit the Dissenters to the Univer •
sities, and to remove the various grievances under
which they laboured, will, if entrusted with power,
make a better use of it than the Whigs did ? Nay,
would not the people deserve their fate, if, by re-
turning Conservatives, they enabled them to destroy
the efficiency of the Reform Bill ? _ It is not,
then, a matter of indifference who is Minister.
or who are representatives of the people. Thy

Tinges, indeed, tells us that it is. " When the
reign of party (says our contemporary) is utterly at an
end—when the whole 'people, a name unknown, as
Burke said, in his time, to any text book of the Eng-
lish constitution—when the public has become its
predominating element—when the essential
.power of
the State, the representation of the people in Parlia-
ment has devolved upon themselves, and on their own
free choice, and when no given number of individuals or
of families can by any concert, however skilful, or de-
termination, however fixed, present the least effectual
barrier to the declared wishes and resolution of the
people,' names become, as we have already stated
in a comparison between the French and English
Governments—names become as much a matter ap-
proaching to indifference in England, because of the
real supremacy of the nation—as they do in France
from the absolutism of the Crown. The Duke of
Wellington, therefore, whose Conservatism has hitherto
shown itself to be of a somewhat mitigated colour, in
contrast with that of many of his supporters—the
Duke, we say, must have the countenance of a freely
chosen House of Commons for his entire policy, and
for each separate measure by which it is illustrated, or
he must from the hour at which that countenance is
withdrawn from him cease to be Minister of Great
Britain. To imagine that the Duke of Welling-
ton, or that any man with a tithe of his sagacity, could
undertake the administration of a country so per-
vaded as this is by a universal consciousness that the
application of the reform principle to many gross
abuses of Church and State still remains uneffected,
and that without its further and systematic progress the
peace and well-being of every rank of society must
be altogether insecure—to imagine, we say, that the
Duke of Wellington could undertake his present office
in the expectation of being able to obstruct the regu-
lar advancement of the reform principle, and in doing so,
to resist the whole intellectual and moral force of En-
gland,
would be to stamp him for a maniac." For
maniac, read fool (for only on the 23d of June last
the Times pronounced him what amounts to the latter),
and then we may observe that the Duke must make
his election between fool and knave on the showing of
our contemporary. He has hitherto declared himself
the determined opponent of Reform ; and he must be a
knave, if, believing in the indispensable necessity of
all that the Times has enumerated, lie yet constantly
opposed it. But we think better of the honesty of
the Duke than to suppose for a moment that
he wishes for power for any other purpose than
to prevent Reform. The Times now assumes the
possibility of the Duke of Wellington beinat'
good Reformer, and that lie can patch up a Ca-
binet of Conservatives equally good Reformers.
But would not all men in that case have a just
right to repeat after the Times (15th May, 1832),
" Who is there that would now change places
with the Duke of Wellington ? With a hardi-
hood of infatuation of which there is no example,
he goes on doggedly in this miserable work of building
up a Cabinet without one sound material—a Cabinet
of which the first condition is that every man who
enters it must leave his good name behind him ;—yes,
let it be written over the door-way, Principle and
reputation are the price of admission here.' We
really cannot think so ill of his Grace and the whole
body of Conservatives as to believe they have hitherto
been always speaking and voting against their convic-
tion ; and we are satisfied that if the Duke should
show himself so reckless with regard to principle, he
would disgust many of the Conservatives, on whose
support alone he must necessarily count. That the
Times may think lightly of professing a devotion one
day to what it repudiates the next, is far more
probable than that the Duke should act on
the views it ascribes to him. With what face
could the Duke stand up in the House of
Lords even to adopt the principles so charitably
given to him by the Times? "W e stated yesterday,"
(says our contemporary) "on the allegation of the Duke
of Wellington's friends (friends !), that he is deeply im-
pressed with the necessity of a thorough Church reform.
If his Grace be so convinced with regard to the Church
of England, how much more profoundly must he en-
tertain the conviction as to what concerns the Irish
Church ? In persuading ourselves, however, that
the Duke meditates reform,' we must wait for
his actions before their sufficiency can be relied upon ;
and if they fall short of what the evil requires ; if they
touch but the surface and leave the roots unmolested,
the country will soon display its sense of the failure by
taking the remedy into its own hands. So, respect-
ing economy at home and in our distant possessions
—so for reform of the manifold abuses of our Corpo-
rations—so, with what is wanting towards a better ar-
rangement of the criminal law and the law of real pro-
perty. If the Duke of 'Wellington proceeds with
these in sympathy with the people, and in a spirit of
good faith, there is no man from whom Englishmen
will accept a benefit more cordially or gratefully than
from him who has already served them." This as-
sumption is really one of the coolest affronts ever
offered to the people of England. They are to put
faith in a man whose claim to their confidence is his
having proved that he is a hypocrite and a knave ! If
the people were to allow themselves to be juggled for
seven years out of their power on the vague promises
of the Conservatives to act fairly by the Reform Bill,
and to introduce effective improvements in Chureli and
State, how can they prevent a bad use being made of
their confidence ? Is it not more prudent now to
withhold power from men of suspected principles, than
to confide in them, trusting to the ability to resist in
case of abuse of the power ? To be consistent, we
ought to pray his Majesty to exclude such men from his
Councils—to carry into effect those measures of Reform
in Church and State which the country requires, andpar-
tictilar/y to exclude all those whose conduct, while in
office, and subsequently in opposition to the Reform
Bill, and the measures to which it has led, has justly
exposed them to the DISTRUST of the people. Only
let his HIGHNESS once get a majority in the Com-
mons, and then we may expect a return of the Gag-
ging Bills—a re-modelling of the Reform Bill—an
increase of the ten pound to a twenty-pound franchise
(twenty, the favourite sum with the Conservatives).
The attempt would be madness—the country would
resist it, our contemporary will exclaim. But we can
resist it better by constitutional than by unconstitu-
tional means. If we confide in the Conservatives, and
the Conservatives vote the mutilation of the Reform
Bill, we can only prevent them by violating the law.
It is better to trust to honest men ; men who do not
need to violate their principles to do justice to the
people. We repeat, then, to the Duke, the language
held by the Times to Dugdale, the Tory candidate for
Warwickshire, at the election for the Reform Parlia-
ment (17th December 1832) :—" What right has
Dugdale to the support of the new constituency ?
Had his opinion been followed, or had his exertions
been successful, none of the tenantry voters would
have been in possession of their new franchises. In
every division on the Reform Bill, during 1831 and
1832, we find his name in the list of its opponents.
If the freeholders and new electors of 'Warwickshire
(10 not unite to throw out such a candidate, and to
bring in his two Reform antagonists, they will render
themselves the tools of a degraded faction, and prove
that they are unworthy of the privileges conferred
upon the nation by our new Bill of Rights."—
Morning Chronicle.
The Lord Mayor has acquired a claim to the appro-
bation and gratitude not only of every loyal citizen of
London, but of every man who entertains any respect
for the principles of the British Constitution, by the
manly, spirited, and just rebuke which he has just ad-
ministered to the officious and self-important Common
Councilmen, who manifestly wish to wrest from their
Sovereign the prerogative of appointing his own Minis-
ters, and to keep, exalted and enlightened personages as
they are, this power in their own clean hands. The oc-
casion upon which time Lord Mayor, thus early in his
year of office, has had the good fortune to make this dis-
play of good sense and sound Constitutional feeling, was
the presentation of two Requisitions from certain noto-
rious members of the Common Council, calling upon his
Lordship to convene that body for the purpose of taking
into its high consideration the state of the nation, now
that it is bereft of the Whig Ministers, who did so
much for it and so little for themselves. The first
Requisition of these city senators to the Lord Mayor
spoke of " the general alarm of the citizens of London,"
an alarm of which certainly nobody but themselves can

perceive the least symptom ; of the measures of re-
form " for which wise and extensive preparations had
been made by his Majesty's late Ministers"—although
of such preparations these sages of the Common Coun-
cil could know absolutely nothing, unless, for their in—
struction, some Privy Councillor had violated his duty
and his oath ; and of a distrust, premature, even if it
were not unfounded, of the Ministers whom they suppose
Ins Majesty may be pleased to call to his councils, in
contempt of the Royal prerogative, and in defiance of
the general feelings of their fellow citizens, and of the
community at large. This requisition the Radical faction
of the Common Council were obliged to withdraw,
and to substitute another in its place, less ofilmsive
and unconstitutional in its terms, less mischievous in
its import and probable consequences, and in exactly
the same proportion less agreeable to the individuals
who concocted both. The excellent Chief Magistrate
of the City of London knew his duty too well to
listen to the first of these requisitions ; but he has
so far complied with the second, as to promise to
convene the Common Council on this day se'nnight.
The Duke of Wellington's Administration is to be
assailed accordingly, on 'Wednesday next, by all the
power of eloquence and weight of character for which
Mr. Galloway and Mr. Stevens, Mr. Richard Taylor
and Mr. Pritchard, Mr. David Wire and Mr. Ashurst,
individually and collectively are so much distinguished.
The crisis will be an awful one. If the new Administra-
tion survive the attack of Wednesday next, what more
can it have to fear? Our readers will naturally
enough be impatient that their time should be intruded
upon by any notice of persons so insignificant as those
we have named, and the only apology we can offer is
that we have the strongest reason for believing that
these persons are merely puppets, and that the wires
which govern them are held by more important and
able although not more respectable or loyal men than
themselves. We wish some of these requisitionists
• would be so kind as to answer two or three questions
which, in consequence of information we have received,
we deem very fit and proper questions to be put to
them at the present moment. Did a deputation, con-
sisting of one or more of their number, pass a
considerable part of last Sunday morning in
conference with a Noble and Learned Lord ?
Supposing (as we believe) such a conference to
have been held, were the terms of the first Requisi-
tion to which, on account of its disloyal and unconsti-
tutional character, the Lord Mayor refused to listen,
settled at that or at any subsequent conference with
the same individual ? Was it in consequence of any

suggestion thrown out at that or any subsequent con-
ference with a Noble and Learned Person that the
Requisitionists in their discussion of yesterday with
the late Administration as creating an emergency in
the affairs of the nation equal to what would be pro-
duced by a demise of the Crown ; and intimated with
so much correct taste and manly feeling their opinion
that the death of her Majesty would have been in
comparison a very trivial calamity ? That such con-
ference or conferences were held we have not the
slightest doubt. All that is doubtful in the matter is
whether the Requisitionists have not gone a little be-
yond the spirit of their instructions, as low people, too
zealous m their servility, are sometimes prone to.—
Morning Post.

Our evening contemporaries—a few of them at
least—are busy in the gathering of the slightest morsel
of intelligence respecting the new Administration and
the persons who are to figure in it. One will have it
that Lord Denman has been called upon by the
King, which we can scarcely believe, to resign the
Chief Justiceship of the King's Bench, to which he
was raised not less by his own character and talents
than by the unanimous voice of the people—another,
that the greatest and most recognised enemies of the
people are to fill the most important situations, in
order to strike terror into the people. We cannot,
we confess, enter into these feelings. The Duke of
Wellington, the declared opponent of all Reform, is
the Prime Minister, and who his official adjutants
are, is a question of about as much importance
as that of the name of his butler or groom. His poli-
tics must be their politics—his course of action, their
course of action—his commands, their will. To fish
for the lieutenants would be to fish for things that are
not worth catching—having the salmon, we know of
what complexion the sprats are. When the new Minis-
try—how long will it last ?—has been formed, if ever
it shall be formed, we shall, as faithful journalists,
chronicle it from the Gazette. Till it appears in that
cheap and interesting channel of useful knowledge-,
we really, the chief being settled, shall not take the
trouble to walk even so far as Whitehall to ascertain
who is to wipe the dust from the Duke's feet.
Having got the master—the men are of little import-
ance. We agree with our evening cotemporary, the
Globe, which, with ourselves, has " nailed its flag to
the mast of reform," and we doubt not will stand true
to the principle of honest and good government—
that expectations are propagated and entertained that
the Duke of Wellington will accomplish most excellent
reforms in Church and State—but vide the com-
mentary—look at the position in which he would place
himself by such conduct—look at the apostacy of
which he would be guilty—think for one moment of
the confidence which, in consequence of such conduct,
he would acquire with the honest people of England,
and say—we appeal both to Tories and Radicals—
ought he to be trusted ? In what the Globe says on
this subject we perfectly concur :
" Had his Grace," says it, " never linked himself with the
opposition to Parliamentary reform, never declared an uncom-
promising attachment to the worst of existing abuses, we
should think him ill qualified to guide the people in the
thorough and careful correction of our institutions. But it is
absurd to overlook the events of the last year—to forget that
the Duke of Wellington has been the unbending enemy of re-
form ; that he has been brought into collision with the people
on that point ; that he has been thrown into close alliance
with the most bigotted adversaries of popular opinions ; that
he has contracted or strengthened enmities and partialities in
the cause of Parliamentary hostility and co-operation ; that he
has pledged himself to principles of conduct to which he never
was linked before ; that he is specifically committed to the
maintenance of the very abuses precisely the most obnoxious
to the people, and the most urgently requiring correction.
It is vain to expect concession of opinions so recently and
distincly avowed. It is disgraceful to the character (yr
the Duke himself to imagine that he will fling by the pro-
fessions of opposition the moment they have served him to
gain power, and as preposterous to imagine that he can do it
with safety as with honour. We are told, indeed, of the reli-
ance which is to be placed in the Duke's candour and good
sense, and sufficiently reminded of the facility with which he
retracted opinions and flung over political associates in the

matter of the Catholic question. But we have always thought
that the Duke acted honestly and wisely in that matter, and
we do not know how we can well draw from thence the infe-
rence that he is now prepared to act basely and foolishly. One
change of faith on sober deliberation and honest conviction
confers the merits of a noble sincerity : the infamy of apos-
tacy or the contempt of disgraceful levity is incurred by the
renegade to repeated vows. How could the Duke retain power
on terms such as these, if he would? He has been bolne into

power on the shoulders of the supporters of abuses, and he
must do their work. He is supported by the House of
Lords—is it that he may destroy the abuses by which the
aristocracy thrive? He relies on the activity of the Orange-
men and the clergy—will he retain their support on the con-
dition of eradicating the abuses of the Irish or the English
church? He depends on the support of those who fatten on
the abuses of the corporations—does he think they will fight
for him except as the champion of municipal corruptions ? "
Of the Duke of Wellington and Sir R. Peel, there
is but one opinion to be entertained, after their gulp
of the Catholic Emancipation Bill, against all of whose
provisions they had repeatedly declared themselves,
and that is, that they will find no obstacle in eating
any other Bill which it may be necessary to past,
in order to keep them in power. One lie is enough for
all honest men--one roguery a proof that the person
guilty of it is not to be trusted. We do not trust the Duke
of Wellington, whatever he may do, or promise to
do—and for the special reason to which we have
already adverted, that having been guilty of one
unaccountable conversion, we do not know of what
other conversions, upon other grounds, but under
the same pretexts, he may not be guilty. How-
ever, we care not much what his Grace may or may
not do. The result must be in favour of the people
—the only danger to be apprehended is, that he will
trick them out of a few months of the enjoyment of a

large and extended franchise. Our fears, however,
are not strong on this subject. The people are meet-
ing and resolving in all quarters—they are up and do-
ing—they are awake to the crisis—they are about to
make a staunch and determined stand against the rob-
bers and plunderers of their purses, and the enemies
of all reform ; and if we do not greatly mistake the
import of the numerous communications which reached