The Sun.
London, England, 1834-12-15 00:00:00

official support to the Ministry of Sir Robert Peel ?
We regretted, and still regrets Lord Stanley's re-
fusal, for the talents and acquirements of the Noble
Lord we have always appreciated fully. We do not
accuse Lord Stanley of Improper motives, or of being
under the influence of personal considerations ;
but we are certain nevertheless that had the Duke
of Wellington or Sir Robert Peel been placed in
a similar position, neither would have refused to
lend their powerful aid, nor have shrunk from the du-
ties which the possession of superior talents, or of a
very great stake in the country imposes as an honour-
able burden on the intellect and wealth of the land. It is
quite impossible, however, that Lord Stanley can with-
hold his support from a Ministry conducted on the
principles which will, we have no doubt, influence the
new Cabinet, nor can any personal considerations be
expected to interfere, unless it be to render that sup-
port more animated and zealous, when we consider that
the prompt and cordial communication made by Sir
Robert Peel, and the liberal terms (if report speak
truly) offered to the Noble Lord, testify the high con-
sideration entertained for his abilities, and the generous
value set upon his services. Had Lord Stanley ac-
ceded to those terms the country must have been, we
suppose, deprived of the assistance of some of those
Gentlemen whose accession to office we have this day
the gratification of announcing. To such men indeed
possession of place and dignity can only be desirable
as enabling them to advance those principles they have
ably and consistently advocated, and to promote the
honour and welfare of the country, in the prosperity of
which they are so deeply interested. Can Mr. Baring
desire to change the comfort and splendid ease which
his exertions and talents have so justly earned for tin
turmoil and responsibility of public life, at no time an
easy duty, but at this moment fraught with labour and
to'.l ? Or is it to be imagined that Lord Chandos and
Sir Edward Knatchbuli, country Gentlemen in the
best and most extended. sense of that truly British ex-
pression, could. "eutrenaer the enjoyments and privileges
which th.:., love and respect of a grateful tenantry and
th; combined power and will of doing good afford in
abundance for the difficulties and harrassing cares
of official life, were they not impelled by a stern and
imperious sense of their public duty ? What a
splendid contrast do these men exhibit to the miserable
faction from whose galling misrule we are just liberated.
Place a Peel against an Althorp, a Wellington against
a Palmerston, a Knatchbull in the scale with a Little-
ton, a Chandos in the balance with an Abercomby, a
Lyndhurst with a Brougham, a Murray with a Hob-
house, and a Baring with a Thomson, and—but we
will not insult our readers by adventuring a further
comparison than the juxta-position of their names. If
the combination of virtue, talent, honesty, intellect,
and wealth, can save a nation, Britain may be, even
now, by the blessing of God, preserved, yet be re-
stored to her pristine posterity, behold her trade re-
vive, her commerce increase, her agriculture flourish,
her flag which has for a thousand years "braved the
battle and the breeze," wave in peaceful triumph under
the auspices of a Christian patriot King, under the
conduct of an able, united, and constitutional Admi -
nisi ration.—Morning Post.
With every respect ourselves towards departed
Royalty, we cannot but think that the mode now
adopted of performing the last obsequies towards its
r2mains is both absurd in itself, and heedlessly cruel
towards those who, either from duty or kind fecEng,
are called upon or induced to take part in those cere-
monies. Why upon earth a Royal corse should be
consigned to its last home at midnight, instead of in
broad day, and why persons officiating on such occa-
sions should be compelled to remain, at such unsea-
sonable hours, on a cold pavement around the damp and
dreary vault of the Royal charnel-house, we cannot, in
the most remote degree, conceive. 'We need not say
how much the danger and inconvenience on such oc-
casions are enhanced, when the season happens to be
that of winter, and when the mourners or attendants
ar.:! persons either of advanced age or delicate health.
We are, unfortunately, not without examples of death
having ensued from an adherence to a practice equally
at variance with reason and good taste. We trust that
no such consequences will he the result of the last sad
exhibition of the kind which we have had to record,
though we cannot help thinking that a warning might
have been taken from the past to have prevented the
necessity of adverting to tile subkct. We might as
well see " touching for the evil ' revived, as these
midnight solemnities persisted in, which, as far as any
r_asonable object or motive goes, have no better foun-
dation.—Morning Herald.
If we could have properly obeyed the impulse of our
personal feelings with respect to the correspondence
which has taken place between Sir R. Peel and Dr.
Lushington, we should very gladly have availed our-
selves of our discretionary power to exclude it from
our columns. The subject is an unpleasant one, hav-
ing relation to a personal difference, and that differ-
ence moreover arising out of expressions such as have
seldom been employed by public men, either in illus-
tration of reasoning, however important, or of the po-
litical conduct of an adversary, however imbittered may
be their strife. The language, indeed, which it now
seems to be admitted that Dr. Lushington had recourse
to, was such that we actually struck it out of our ac
count of what occurred at the Tower Hamlets meet-
ing, from a real suspicion that the report was erro-
neous, and that the insertion of the passage complained
of by Sir R. Peel might have been looked upon by
the learned Doctor as an offence—nay, an outrage
against his own reputation. Dr. Lushington seems
to have forgotten two facts, of some moment on an
occasion like that alluded to, and of which. the re-
collection might have enabled him to enhance,
instead of impairing, the effect of his words,—viz.,
Ist, that he is a Judge ; 2d, that in the case we speak
of, he was inevitably a biassed party. But, turning
from Dr. Lushington's rhetorical figures to his argu-
ment, we must make free and declare our opinion, that
from the frequency with which the latter has been
misapplied, within the last three or four weeks,. and the
equal number of refutations it has met with, the
learned Doctor might more profitably have betaken
himself to some more novel course of remark. The
Doctor explains his object to. have been to support
the position (read supposition) that it was probable
the new " Administration, having always opposed re-
form, ought not to be trusted with carrying into effect
the measures expected to result therefrom." Now this
inaptitude to change their views cf political questions
is rather oddly asserted of men, whose change of opi-
nion. as to the expediency of adopting one vast
and memorable measure did in truth effect the
most essential, and, in ON judgment of the
majority of liberal liolitlcians throughout
Eng-
land, the ver; most beneficial improvement in our
constitn...,oh, which,
next to the Reform Bill, has
ever yet been completed since the revolution of 1688 ;
and to what cause did the Duke of Wellington and
Sir Robert Peel themselves ascribe their final acqui-
escence in Catholic Emancipation ? We pray all men
who are capable of calm reflection, and not the mere
hirelings of exasperated party, to consider this point
well. We affirm, therefore, that the ground on which
those two Statesmen justified their adoption of a mea-
sure which they had before rejected, was precisely that
which goes most powerfully to fortify the conviction
we have all along expressed about their future policy.
They said, that although they still retained their old
opinions, they found the public sentiment too strong
for theirs, and deferred to it for 'the sake of peace !
Then let us ask, can these be the persons whom we
arc daily reviled and stigmatized for representing as
likely to yield to the pressure of opinion, and to ac-
complish, on the demand of the people, those sup-
plementary reforms which the state of the country
calls for ? If it be said that it is better to have
men for Ministers, who, in their sweeping eagerness
after improvement in the abstract, will first hallo on
the nation to try experiments, and then outstrip it in
the race, and hurry forward one change after another,
without digesting or maturing any, by pointing to
their achievments in the gross, that they may be able
to exclaim 4‘ See how much ground we have galloped
over—see 'what a mass of alterations we have made,"
—if, we say, there be Reformers that esteem such Mi-
nisters of more value than men who are satisfied to
wait upon their countrymen, and to follow the lead
poi'ated out by the collective intelligence of the na-
tic,h, we are not of • their school. Whatever may be
4h" case ix ordinary periods, to us it seems all but