The Sun.
London, England, 1834-11-26 00:00:00

SriRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

There are two circumstances which, though equally
important and undeniable, have not been adverted to
'upon the present occasion ; the one, that Sir Robert
Peel is much more of a Reformer in his notions than
the Duke of Wellington : the other, that for that, or
some other reason, there has not been between the
Duke and Sir Robert any great political intercourse or
cordiality of late. Now, taking these to be facts, the
inferences to be drawn from them, as regards the pre-
sent state of things, are most important. They prove
hat the Duke of Wellington contemplates the ne-
cessity of an Administration formed upon more liberal
principles than would be likely to emanate tfram
himself alone ; and that, to attain that end, he is
not only willing to yield the palm t, another, but to
forego all those feelings, if 'there are any, which
might be supposed to ha
;e emanated from the want
of cordiality which Y:e have assumed. This view of
the subject affora's a tolerable answer to and refutation
of those whq choose to assume that the Duke of Wel-
lington Licans to recommend to the King the formation
of an ultra-Tory, and consequently an anti-Reform
Administration, and who taunt him with the designa-
tions of " Dictator" and " Highness," as if he had
taken the Government by a coup de main, and had
-resolved to keep it to himself. If such were really
the Duke of Wellington's intention, why should he
of himseif resolve to await the return of Sir Robert
Peel, before he makes any one arrangement
could by possibility be dispensed with ? Or if his
ambition be to assume the rank of Dictator, why
has he, as is generally presumed to be the case,
offered the Premiership to Sir Robert, agreeing him
self to take office or not, in any capacity, as may be
deemed advisable ? Surely, if the Duke's views were
such as are imputed to him, the accidental absence of
Sir Robert Peel would have been the Very thing he
most wished ; nor would the Right Hon. Baronet
himself have had any right to complain of having been
overlooked in arrangements which might with great
plausibility have been held to be of too urgent a na-
ture to await his return. Those, therefore, on the one
hand, who are looking to the formation of a Ministry
at once reforming and conservative in its principles, are
entitled to consider the delay in question as highly fa-
vourable to their views ; while on the other those
who are assuming that the Duke of Wellington is
desirous to concoct an Administration on ultra-Tory
principles have the best proof of the untruth of their
suspicions, in the fact that the Duke is expressly and
purposely avoiding the opportunity which Sir Robert
Peel's absence gives him of so doing. Sir Robert
Peel then, it must be admitted, holds at this moment
—as yet, perhaps, unconsciously to himself—a very
important station in the eyes of all Europe. On the
line which he may adopt, both as to taking office
at all, and the terms upon which he agrees to take it,
hangs, perhaps, not only the present and future welfare
of this country, but the peace of the world, and the
progress of free institutions throughout Europe. Sir
Robert Peel, like the Duke of Wellington, has been
heretofore, in many respects, a mistaken politician.
Witness the fatal measure which bears his name—a mea-

sure which has inflicted more wrong and misery upon
every class of the community but one, than a whole
life of political penitence on the part of its author can
redeem. Sir Robert, however, has proved liirnseli a
statesman of a less obstinate and more yielding cha-
racter than the Duke of Wellington; and though,
the Duke, he has been somewhat too late in his con-
versions, we are inclined to think that he sees their
necessity more strongly, and is therefore likely to ad-
here to them more steadily. In a word, should Sir
Robert Peel prove himself, as we suspect him to be,
too much a reformer for the Conservatives, and too
much a Conservative for the Radicals, he is the more
likely to adopt that happy medium which the great
majority of the right-juqgmg part of the country loci:
to at the present crisi.d. At the same time, whether he
will take office at all, under existing circumstances,
becomes every dal more and more a question.—Morn-
ing Herald.

All arrangements relating to the new Ministry are
still in suspense, and are likely to remain so for several
days, waiting the advent of Sir Robert Peel, whom
one of our contemporaries has sent forward to Naples.
None can question the embarrassment and inconveni-
ence of such a postponement of the national business,
however unavoidable it may be. Rumours at the
same time are busily circulated, that when the Baronet
does arrive, and has an opportunity of looking about
him for a little, he will at once decline the honour
proposed to him. One authority for this rumour is
said to be an old Staffordshire friend of Sir Robert
Peel, who heard it from a relative of the Right
Hon. Baronet, Whether Sir Robert, who has
usually been reckoned a close and cautious person,
is in the habit of communicating his secret in-
tentions, especially with regard to matters of grave
importance, to those who would publish them when
his back was turned, is more than we can answer.
But such is one of the thousand reports now bruited.
Had it reached us from a party source, we should not
have deemed it worth the slightest notice. That the
determination against coming into power, naw referred
to, must have been formed long before the late events
at Brighton had called for it, is sufficiently clear ; and
moreover, that if it exists at all, it must have been
founded on some repugnance to office, arising out of
fixed and definite causes, either actually or imminently
probable, having relation to the general state of poli-
tical parties, or of the country itself, and that before
Sir Robert Peel left England. We very much doubt
that the Right Hon. Baronet made any such reso-
lution. In the vigour of life, with strong poli-
tical dispositions—with tastes and habits moulded
by long activity in Parliament, and by long pos-
session of power—with an opening for exertion
produced by circumstances which, if not distinctly
foreseen, must at least have been a subject of
frequent speculation, and with prospects not the
less interesting to a masculine mind, even for the
difficulties and collisions which they presented—one
can scarcely suppose that a man thus situated, hav-
ing a strong and energetic party at his back, would
have fled from a post so fairly assigned to him, and
virtually abandon his profession as a statesman, with
which was connected his social position, from any ge-
neral pressure of apathy or disgust. If that be a rea-
sonable conjecture, therefore, it is still more certain
that the resolution ascribed to Sir Robert Peel cannot
have reference to the special occasion which has been
created since last Saturday week, and of which the
existence could not have been known to him (if it
vet is) while in communication with those who now
assert his reluctance to act upon it by accepting office.
Of course we cannot say that Sir Robert Peel will
take part in the meditated Government, which without
him it is obvious cannot be constructed at all ; but it is
right to point out the great improbability of the
grounds on which others allege that lie will not.
In a letter signed " A True Reformer" will be seen
additional motives for believing that 11,11 y Government
of which the Duke of Wellington makes one must
be a reforming Government. We could, if it were
necessary, give the nairy..'-s of the parties to whom
the declaration of the Noble Duke, as stated by
our correspondent, was addressed, wherein we find
him acknowle,iging distinctly that " no Minister can
now conduct the affairs of this country without im-
mediately proceeding to the reform both ("the English
mad Irish Churches, and also of the Corporations."
Nothing can be more explicit than this recognition of
the principle ; and the same sense of the necessity for
admitting the principle, because the public mind requires
it, must operate in favour of such an application of the
principle, and therefore of carrying the reform to such
extent as will satisfy the national solicitude. In that
case what will be wanting to complete the benefit
looked for ? That it should have been conferred by
a Whig Ministry instead of one hitherto known as
IL Conservative ? We do from the bottom of our
hearts believe that none but an idiot will care one
halfpenny, by what hand the wished-for good shall
have been secured for the people. Nay, there may
be advantages in the accomplishment of extensive
reforms by those who had heretofore opposed them,
even greater in some respects than if they had
been obtained through the earlier advocates of such
measures. When an habitual stickler for " things as
they were" has been brought round, it is not only like
the conversion of an old sinner--a legitimate cause of
gladness to the faithful, but it tends to settle doubting

and restless disputants—it tends to satisfy all objectors '
that the thing was right, or that it had become inevi-
table, and that further opposition was chimerical cr
useless. If, for instance, Catholic emancipation had
been carried by Whigs, against the sense of the Duke
of 'Wellington, Sir It. Peel, and the intelligent, as
contrasted with the fanatical and unreasoning, Tories,
no man surely will contend that the adverse portion of
our countrymen (for such there were) would so easily
or so speedily have sat down contented with the Bill,
as when they saw that it was introduced by those who
had been anti-Catholics, but who, in yielding to what
they acknowledged to be a necessity, gave the most
convincing proof to others that such necessity was of
overpowering force. So will it be with other reforms,
introduced and executed through the agency of old
Conservatives. They will not only enact the law, but
they will do more—they will settle the controversy, and
silence the most inveterate objectors ; not merely en-
forcing the legislative act, but restoring the peace of
society. All this will be railed at by party, we aro
aware, but by party degenerated into pot-house fac:„on
—by those who are attached to names, as
more than principles, and who see
iothi',Jong worth
ng in any law
or Parliamentary motion,bi':. the means of gratifying
some selfish, sordid, vindictive appetite. To such
persons we see.,, to address ourselves ; we are not of
them : object is the country ; our care is not this
or individual Minister, but this or that measure of
general or lasting reform. What will it signify twenty
years hence, which is but a moment in the life of na-
tions, whether the Irish tithe question was finally dis-
posed of by the Duke of Wellington or Lord Durham ?
It may indeed be a family trophy for the statesman, and
the posterity of the statesman, by whom that and simi-
measures may have been achieved ; but what affair is it
of ours ? How does it regard us—the people of Eng-
land ? Those who revile us may save themselves the
trouble, for they will-not shove us one inch from our pre-
dAermined course. We are for reform. As reform Mi-
nisters. we esteemed and often supported—in their errors
or weaknesses we rebuked—in their sudden fall we
sincerely lamented Lord Melbourne and some of his
colleagues. But can we now restore that Cabinet if
we would ? Ought we to restore it, with the foul ad-
dition of Humc and O'Connell, and other dirty radi-
cals, if we could? No. Then how must we act by
the Duke of Wellington ? Show him that he mrs
reform, or write and vote him out of office ; for all or
which we are well prepared; to the whole of which, in
the face of England, we sternly bind ourselves and
those, comprising three-fourths of the people, who do
us the honour to be guided by us. The Duke says he
will reform, and we believe him. If he breaks his
word, on which we not speculate, away goes our
support from under him ; and we pray that all our mi-
serable assailants may exhibit one half of our steady
adherence to principles, disregarding persons. No
challenge of ours have our calumniators ever dared to
accept. That we have praised public men is true ;
and afterwards, for good public cause, accused them.
Is that inconsistency ? Let them point out one sys-
tem of policy which, once embraced by us, we hav,
ever, to the last, abandoned, or one measure which
we have once condemned, and ever afterwards ap-
plauded. There would have been real inconsistency
—there would have been base or imbecile tergiversa-
tion. But of that he is a shameless slanderer who
dares to impeach the Times. The Whiglings, or low
Radicals, or Toryunculi of the day—what are they
to us or the English nation ? The people look to us,
and we support the cause of the people—may we perish
if we abandon it !—Times.

It does not require the gift of prophecy to foretel
that " his Highness" will soon lose the countenance
of the Times. Already we discern the preparations
for hostility on the part of our contemporary : and we
have not a doubt that as soon as " his Highness" quits
his passive state, and affords such an indication of his
• intentions as may give a pretext for assailing him, it will
be eagerly laid hold of. The absence of Sir Robert
Peel, which furnishes " his Highness" with an excuee
for inaction, must be a source of great embarrassment
to our contemporary. But when the Right Honour-
able Baronet arrives, and silence with regard to
his policy can no longer be decently maintained
by " his Highness," the occasion for which the
Times longs will present itself. The speakers
who, at the meetings in every corner of the em-
pire, now give loud vent to their indignation at
the impudent attempt of the great enemy of Reform,
and the champion of abuses in Church and State, to
seize the Government, will all be outdone in their
abhorrence of " his Highness" by our contemporary,
who will wonder that a man could have been found in
the British dominions so blind as not to perceive that
no Tory could hope for success as a Minister without
first openly abandoning his principles. But if he
abandon his principles, he will instantly be aban-
doned by those for whose sake the late Ministers
were dismissed. The case of the concessions to the
Catholics is not in point ; for, as was happily ob-
served at the Liverpool meeting by Mr. Ewart,
" there he maintained his original principles, but
changed his measures ; whereas now, if he would sa •
tisfy the people, he must not only change his
sures but his principles." The people n::,urally sup-
pose that principles will be acted and their alarm
in the case of " his Hie3-.,fiess,,,
is caused by their
knowledge that his principles are opposed to those
entertained by ine great majority of the nation. Will
he, can he,, abandon his principles ? The Times will
say lie may at a moment's notice. But " his High-
ness" may not be able to follow successfully the
example so often set in Printing-house-square. " His
Highness" must cheat the public or cheat his party.
" We might wait for the actions (observes the Scots-
man), as the renegade Times advises, of untried men ;
but this is not the predicament of the Duke and his
deep-dyed Tory associates. The mind has its irre-
gular movements and sudden illapses of new light, we can understand the conversion of an individual
at any time, and under any circumstances ; but the
conversion of a whole squad of veteran politicians, at
one moment of time, to opinions precisely the reverse
of those they had previously held, is a phenomenon
which utterly confounds our philosophy." The
Times, no doubt, miscalculated the gullibility
of the people. It supposed the people would
remain quiescent, on the principle of the unfairness of
exciting " alarm by vague and indefinite surmises and
suspicions," till " his Highness" had succeeded in his
purposes. Having, however, failed in his project, he
must. fall back on his old High Church and 'Tory prin-
ciples,when the Standard will hold him up as a lofty
example for all future ages, and the Times will find an-
other victim on whom it will take a full measure of
vengeance, for its own sufferings. " His Highness,"
therefore, cannot long hope to enjoy the favour of our
contemporary ; and he may as well make up his mind
for the deadly hatred which will infallibly follow.—
Morning Chronicle.
In union is the strength of the Reformers. 'We re-
member with feelings of no ordinary satisfaction that
when an invasion of this country was anticipated from
the Dictator of Europe, all parties forgot their differ-
ences of opinion and separate objects, and united with
enthusiasm in defence of their lives--their homes—
their liberties. Now a dictator appears, and now more
than ever the necessity of a similar union is apparent.
If the Reformers are disunited, the Tories triumph—if
they are united, the people must conquer. We, there-
fore, call upon all who are anxious to save their coun-
try, and to promote, extend, and secure for ever, the
dear-boughtliberties of Englishmen, to unite, and make
one common cause against the establishment of a Tory
Government. 'We have learned, and learned w:.in
Bret, that some Reformers are differing in
'opinim ci, and
are thinking of exacting from Reprer,
entatives who have
always proved themselves true, and
honest Reformers,
pledges on different s
;;ects. e exhort them to cease
from such conduct,
lW
andl to exact only one pledge, viz.
—a dettrmiw,;ton by all legal means to overthrow a
Tory ."-s.dministration. When that is accomplished, it
will be time enough to debate other questions ; but un-
til 4:oat is done, words,. meetings, pledges, for any other
'abject, only strengthen the enemy's hands, and retard
the progress of liberty and reform. As Mr. O'Connell
said at the great Dublin meeting, " Every man, then,
who calls himself a Reformer is a hypocrite, a vile,
paltry, base hypocrite, a man sold to corruption, who
will not oppose himself to the new Administrate on." Let
every reformer, be he Whig or be he Radical—be he
moderate or ultra—combine,rr ow th at the energy is at the

door, and by a common simultaneous effort overthrow
and destroy for ever the hopes of an intriguing Tory
tyrannical faction, whose only object is public plun-
der, and whose only desire is to enslave and press down
the people. When the Tories resolved on the step
they have taken, they calculated on a division amongst
the liberals—their maxim is, divide and conquer;
and we hold him to be an enemy to human happiness
who does not therefore unite, and bid defiance to the
declared opponents to borough, corporation, church, or
any other Reform. We need not say how strongly we
have advocated vote by ballot—triennial Parliaments
—an extension of the suffrage—subjects which have
been considered by many as theoretical, but which we
consider of practical importance. These, however, are
not the questions now—the only one is, whefl-
- we
are to have a Wellington adininistra“.,,- n composed of
the fiercest enemies and cc-- •
rights of the ...cant opponents of the just
or one in unison with their de-
clared wicl es cedillas and expectations. Men of
,
..gland, awake—be united—be orderly, but decided,
and the Duke with all his tactics and his power must
bow before even the whisper of millions of men, who
know their rights, and knowing, dare maintain them.
—Morning Advertiser.

VICE-CHANCELLOR'S COURT, Nov. 25.