The Sun.
London, England, 1834-08-22 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOULC.:-.LS.

Our Ministerial contemporary the Globe announces,
with oracular solemnity, that during the Parliamentary
recess the -constituent body will have important duties
to perform. Our worthy contemporary is unquestion-
ably right. The fact he asserts is beyond dispute.
The constituent body have always very important du-
ties to perform. Many of the constituent body are
bakers, whose cbnstant and most important duty it is
to supply theii:CUstOmers with good and wholesome
bread, taking-especial care that it shall be of the sti-
pulated weight. Many of the constituent body are
butchers, Whose duties during the present hot weather
are not only very important but very harassing and ar-
duous withal, since it depends in a great degree upon
them whether their fellow-subjects shall not have rather
more of the venison flavour with their mutton, than
would generally be thought desirable. Many of the
constituent body, again, are shopkeepers, upon whom
devolve " during the Parliamentary recess," and indeed
at all other times, the important duties of preserving the
strict accuracy of their weights and measures, and keeping
a strict guard that the various commodities in which
they deal shall be protected from adulteration. A vast
number of the constituent body are the masters of small
alehouses and palaces for the retailing of gin, whose
important duty it certainly is to assist in the mainte-
nance of good order and the preservation of the public
health and morals, so far as they can do either, without
too great a sacrifice of their own separate interests.
Several of the constituent body again are master chim-
ney-sweepers, in a respectable way of business, whose
important duty it is " during the Parliamentary re-
cess," as the Globe has it, to take care that the little
boys in their employ be clean washed as much as once
a week, and be jammed as seldom as possible into
flues so narrow that there is no chance of their ever
getting out again alive. Nearly all the constituent
body are besides fathers, brothers, . or sons, and
have various relative and social duties to perform
in these several capacities, which (" during the Par-
liamentary recess ' at least) we .sincerely hope
they will not forget. Such are the import-
ant duties of the constituent body, and we
must do our fellow-countrymen the justice to say
that in the main we believe these duties to be tolera-
bly well observed. But we must not permit our
r2aders to fall into a misconception so derogatory to
the dignity of our Ministerial contemporary, as that
his grave admonition to the bakers, butchers, shop-
keepers, master-sweeps, and proprietors of alehouses
and gin palaces, has anything to do with the per-
formance of any of the foresaid duties. • The duty
assigned to them by our shrewd and liberal contempo-
rary, is of a nature entirely distinct from any of those
we have. Mentioned: We might leave our readers to
guess what the great and paramount duty is, but this
would be merely to puzzle and perplex them to no
purpose ; they certainly would never hit upon the
right. The duty, then, which, in obedience to the
wise recommendation.of the Globe, the above classes
of persons are to undertake " during the Parliamen-
tary recess," is that of deciding for the Houses of
Lords and Commons, which shall bend to the opinion
of the other, in respect to the questions upon which
these two assemblies have differed during the past ses-
sion.
."-The two Houses of Parliament are in colli-
sion on the exciting questions • of religious liberty
and tithes." And this' awful colliSion the worthy
bakers, butchers, chimney-sweeps, alehouse-keepers,
&c., who
.form the constituent body, are to termi-
nate " during the Parliamentary recess." " And by
what process," the reader will exclaim, " is this to
be done .?" This is the easiest thing in the world,
according to the estimate of the sagacious Globe.
Nothing more is required than simply that the
enlightened constituents above mentioned should each
make up his own mind coolly, finally, and irrevocably
upon the " exciting questions of religious liberty and
tithes," and promulgate. his matured opinion by sign-
ing a petition to the two Houses of Parliament, and
that the two Houses of Parliament should then forth-
with abandon and repudiate all judgment, deliberation,
and choice in the, matter of these " exciting ques-
tions," and regard thenceforward the counting of
names upon some hundreds of skins of parchment the
whole sum and substance of legislative duty, so fat as
these exciting questions are concerned. This con-
trivance, it must he admitted, is clever, judicious, and
eminently constitutional. There is, however, we la-
ment to say, One little difficulty in this way. It may be
doubted whether this mode of terminating the collision
is practicable. Some of the constituent body will, we
fear, he hardly able to make out what the questions are
upon which the two. Houses of Parliament are in col-
lision, a preliminary which would seem to be indispen-
sable to their decision of these questions. Somebody
must explain the questions to them more clearly than
the Globe has done, or they certainly will not under-
stand them. " The exciting questions of religious
liberty and tithes." These words may seem to our
contemporary to coney :some very distinct proposi-
tion, but to .us they certainly do not appear to state
any proposition-so clearly that the " constituent body,' .
with a view to any practical result, ought to be called
upon to give an opinion upon it in this form. What
does the Globe. mean by " religious liberty ?" Or has
it any meaning at all ? Do-es not -the Globe know
that if the questiOn w-ereput Whether religious liberty
ought.to:eXist in England,
,it would be answered in the
affirmative by the..constituent body, by the non-con-
stituent body, and by both bodies of the Legislature,
with' one- unanimous acclaim ? Does not the Globe
know that if the question were put whether religious
liberty actually exists in Great Britain and Ireland at
the present- moment, the reply would be as unani-
mously in the affirmative ? Religious liberty, then,
it appears, instead of being the question, is
entirely 'Out of - the question. And what, again,
can be -more vague and unmeaning than to speak
of the question .of ' tithe as the subject of the
recent difference. .of opinion between the two
branches of -the Legislature ?- This question of tithe
is.nnt one but a thousand. In the hands of his Ma-
jesty's present Ministers, and even during the last session
of Parliament, this question, which the Globe would de-
scribe ag 'fixed'and definite, has assumed a dozen dif-
ferent form's,. and has undergone a dozen substantial
transmutations. In the same hands it will probably
undergo as many changes of substance and of form
during the next, session. We will suggest to our con-
temporary how he may put his questions far more dis-
tinctly and to the purpose : let him call upon the con-
stituent body to declare that the Whig Ministry are
necessarily in the right equally when they propose one
measure to-day and when they alter it for an opposite
measure to-morrow—equally when they resist Mr.
O'Connell and when they coalesce with him---equallv
when they Profess .that the law should be enforced and
when they declare that they will not enforce the law—
equally when they acknowledge the duty of providing
for the maintenance of the Pr6testant clergy of Ire.
land and when they make it. their boast that the Pro-
testant clergy of Ireland shall be left to starve. This
would be au honest and intelligible mode of putting
the question, and the constituent body of the empire
would then know what answer to give.—Morn. Post.
Earl Grey, the late Prime Minister of Great Bri-
tain, has „now, as will be seen front the North country
newspapers, retired to
.that quarter of the kingdom
where, on many grounds, his Lordship might fairly
expect to. be regarded. with a consideration, not perhaps
more respectful, but more personally cordial and affec-
tionate; than in one remote from the scenes of his
youth, and from the influence of his private character
and connexions. Nor has that hope been disappointed,
individuals and public -bodies are flocking in to con-
on his return to his native
county.;'and to pay an
gratiilate the noble Earl
earnest, and, it will be allowed,
a w-ell:inefited tribute, to the unswerving honour, high
principle, -and consistency of one of the longest public
lives on record, as well as to those valuable and endu-
ring yervices on behalf of England and her impaired
institutions, in the accomplishment of which that life
has be6n politically closed. Front North Shields and
Tynemouth, from Newcastle, South Shields, and
Kirkby, addresses were on Tuesday last presented to
the noble Earl, expressive of the gratitude entertained
towards his Lordship in those populous and commer-
cial ;places,.4_ regret that his Lordship had
relinquish ~ ' Ne:,ot,he completion of those prac-
tical 'i!ef .
~.- . ~...thQ.n?Ctir ical administration of our
N
towns a 'CV pr O Vii,- It -h h the reform wrought in
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Parliament itself was meditated by the country as the
great, precursor. Lord Grey's speech, in acknowledg-
ment of the honours thus conferred upon him, con-
tained a brief and becoming sketch of his opinions
from the dawn of his political history—of the efforts
which he made to act upon and enforce them—of the
obstacles by which he was so often frustrated, and
obliged to suspend his exertions in the cause of consti-
tutional liberty, without ever deserting it for a moment,
The retired Minister then added some exhortations
upon the necessity of prosecuting the ends of reform in
the spirit of moderation and peace, and in subservience
to the authorities and interests of regular and settled
Government. It is plain the noble Earl was not address-
ing that assembly in which his eloquence had been most
frequently, though not always most successfully, exerted,
or he would hardly have deemed it worth while to dis-
suade his audience from too great eagerness and rapi•
dity in their measures of political reformation. When
accounting for the confessedly inadequate progress
made by. Ministers towards the fulfilment of their pro-
mises, and indeed of their known intentions, during the
two last sessions of Parliament, which had been at
once so long protracted, and so little productive of real
good, Lord Grey appears to. have taken the same irre-
verent view of the wisdom and efficiency of the House
of Commons as an instrument for doing the public
business, as we ourselves ventured to present to our
readers on Saturday and Sunday last. If electors will
send silly persons into Parliament, and will further
push them on from inert and obscure stupidity, into
a course of absurdity, active, intermeddling, and lo-
quacious,—wasteful of time, irritating to the temper
of all sensible men, and utterly obstructive of all ra-
tional and wholesome legislation,—we must admit that
the people of England have not got reform gratis.
However, the evil is likely to cure itself. Even in a pack
of hOunds the unmeaning yelpers are brought at last into
silence and sound discipline, by finding that the other
dogs will neither follow nor heed them. :Where is,
therefore, a sort of common sense among quadrupeds,
so that we do not yet quite despair of seeing Members
of Parliament take a leaf out of their book. Lord
Grey, contrary to his usual custom, does not mince the
matter in speaking of the. session just elapsed. He
begs the gentlemen who had addressed him to consider,
that, "if every person, however good his intentions,
kept the House of Commons in the discussion of par-
ticular questions, some of them of an objectionable
nature, casting ridicule on legislation," (this is pretty
strong-from so courtly a censurer as Lord Grey,) "
it
was natural that distussion on those measures proposed
by Government Should be prevented." We, however,
must ask leave to go a little further than this, and say
that an over bland, fluctuating, hesitating, undecided,
obsequious manager .of the House of Commons ought
to be looked upon as dry-nurse to all the babbling block-
heads who infest it, and as more than accessary to what-
ever delays or obstacles in the path of serious business
which such men occasion. If the steersman is as in-
capable of decisive command, as the crew of rational
discipline, then certainly Providence must interfere to
save the Ship from wreck. Lord Durham, at the same
meeting, was called up, and, in' a strain of respectful
concurrence with his noble relatiVe, bore the highest
testimony to. the public conduct of Lord Grey, and to
the essential importance of that Noble Lord's " deter-
mination, energy, and influence, bOth with the county
and the :Sovereign," in promoting the great mea-
sure of Reform. A public dinner is to be given at
Edinburgh, in honour of Lord Grey, and amongst
other personages whose presence there is anticipated.
we have read the name of Lord Brougham. Having
notoriously caused Lord Grey's Ministerial downfall,
the learned Lord goes to celebrate his own work. Him
whom he has slain with his own hand, he proceeds to
bury with ostentatious honours, and tire a volley over
his victim's grave.— Times.

THE -SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY, AUGUST , 1844,