The Sun.
London, England, 1834-12-01 00:00:00

WAITING FOR PEEL

( From the Examiner.)

The Tories are waiting for Sir Robert Peel—eagerly
longing to sit down to the substance of the people, but
waiting dinner for Sir Robert Peel. How keen are their
appetites, how tedious is the period of delay, how fidgetty
their anxiety, how dire their tears lest every thing should
be spoiled—and in every ear rings the adage, as a knell,
" there is many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip !" The
Cabinet dinner of the provision-all Government waits for Sir
Robert Peel.

" Why is his chariot so long in coming ?—why tarry the
wheels of his chariot ?" is asked with the impatience of those
who expect it to be laden with their own fortunes—freighted
with the spoil of a people. But, while they wait for Sisera,
the 'country is very diligently driving a nail into his head,
end fxing him to the ground.
The Quarterly Review tells us that the head of the table is
res.:rved for Sir Robert, and not a seat is to be taken or a
dish served till his arrival. Sir Robert is their Destiny,
but Sir Robert is not the Destiny of the nation ; he may spin
the life of his party, but the country will take the ground-
faekle of its own security into its own hands. Those Tories
have no other object than office, place all their hopes
in "he slippery parts of Sir Robert, and as Croaker, in the
Grf,-4,-,naturf-,:d Man, would say, Peel rhymes with eel.
Moreover they have the modesty to feel that he is their
only presentable man. thmigh pretty well under-
stood, seems a more decent man than. Black -Georl(e
his gunpowder face. The Duke, therefore, is only to keep
the front places till the great arrival, or to perform the part
of ;varming-pan and so fiercely i 3 he warming the country,
that it is pretty certain Sir Robert will find the place ton
hot to hold him, by the time of his advent, notwithstanding ,
all the current jokes of the aptitude of a peel for an oven.
The Tories, however, cannot draw their bread without him.
The loaves and fishes cannot be touched but through his
instrumentality. The Quarterly Review tells us that—
The Duke of Wellington, with a magnanimity unparalleled
in political history, has assumed all the difficulties and respon-
siLilities, v bile_ he declines the personal honours and advan-
tages naturally belonging to the circumstances in which he was
placed. He has advised his Majesty to make Sir Robert Peel
First Minister, and has generously undertaken to carry on the
routine of Government until the Right Hon. Baronet's return
from Italy. Until that event, no permanent appointments
will take place ; no more will be done than is necessary to
secure ne quid detrimenti re.spublica capiat.' The Duke of
Wellington will exercise his temporary authority with equal
firmness and moderation ; he will maintain the honour and in-
terests of the country abroad and its tranquillity at home, and,
in a truly constitutional spirit, will have preserved to the new
Prime Minister a full, free and unfettered power to select the
persons and policy by which he may find it expedient to con-
duct the affairs of the empire."
All this is plain enough. As Lord Stanley would say, it
is a thimble-rig. It is a juggle between two damaged cha-
racters—an attempt to make a whit&of two.blacks. When
the Duke finds that the people will not accept him, he puts
Peel before hiin, and says, This is' the chief. This. is the
change of hats and cloaks between •Giovanni-andZeporello.
If your quarreL is with the one, .you .are baulked.. by the
discoiery of the otber in his habiliinents. If yoUr objection
is to'the Duke, Oh- Peel is to be Premier. If Peel be un-
ripped and his chaff exposed, why then the Duke is to
pr#l,lie wires. These devices are far too shallow ; the
country will neither havethe Duke nor his Deputy-Premier.
Yet we admire the modesty of the Duke in giving out
'that he withdraws himself, and setting the other at the head
of the table.' It shows that a fine passage in the history of
his friend Bruinmell has not been lost on him. A wealthy
citizen, who yearned- for aristocratic society, asked the
Prince of the Dandies how he could get men of a certain
class to his house ? The answer was, nothing can be easier.
" Engage Ude, and give some dinners ; I (Brummell) will
invite the company, whose names in the Morning Post will
do you honour." The invitations were accepted—the am-
bitious citizen happy. The arrangements for the important
'dinner all complete. Some doubts arose in the mind of
the host as to a point of etiquette in placing his guests,
upon which he asked Brummcll's advice, who, with every
expression of surprise, answered, " Why, what in the name
of wonder, are you thinking of my good 140 w.? Non
place :Par guests ? What are you dreaming of ?"=-The
citizen answered, that of course in taking the head of his
table he must give the place of honour to some one.—
" You take the bead of the table, you give the pas," -re-
peated the Dandy, with mingled horror and amazement.
" Why, my dear fellow, you are raving. All that you are
to fake is the credit of having such company at your
house—all that you are to give is the dinner. I will do
all the rest. As for you, you have nothing to do but to
keep yourself handsomely out of sight. If you were to
appear it would spoil all."
The Duke has profited by the great moral lesson incul-
cated :n this anecdote. He gives the dinner—serves up the
substance of the poople—but it would spoil all if he were
to take the head of the table. The present Prince of
Coxcombs is to preside, and the Duke, handsomely out of
sight, is so be satisfied with the credit of the company
which, by such contrivance, can be mustered. But it won't
do. The country will upset the tables.
Poor Sir Robert ! was ever gentleman called home from
a pleasant tour on such an errand !—like the wise man in
Swift's Polite Conversations, " who ran nine miles with all
speed to milk a bull." By the time he gets within view of
our coasts, his prospect will be black as pitch—he will
not like it, good man—the aspect of things will be quite
tnough for a man of his prudence. It is hard to be so
crossed in ambition—a disappointment, as they say, "of
the tenderest sort." It is, indeed, a case for legal redress.
Sir Robert should bring an action for breach of promise
of government against the Duke. Pray Heaven it ends
promises of a hoary
l in
it errrnit:i
en e seduction.
of
the relying n
c on
lu
di thena
wording passage in the Quarterly
Review mightily amuses us ; it is curiously characteristic.
oo
Sir Robert is to "select the policy by which he may find it
expedient to conduct the affairs of the empire" (that is, if
the people will let him). There is no policy (save, perhaps,
a policy of assurance) necessarily connected 'with his own
principles, but the wlDole collection of policies—High Tory,
Red Tape Tory, Whig, Ultra-Whig, Radical Whig, Ra-
dical, Ultra-Radical, Anti-Reform, Sham Reform, Little-
as-can-be-Reform, Progression and Retrogression, are to
be laid on the table, and he is to pick and choose, saving,
this is too dark, and this is too light, and this is too Much
out of fashion, and this is vulgar, until ho pitches on one
of a colour which he thinks will not show dark—the
Brighton dust shade.

COURT OF KING'S BENCH, Nov. 29.

SYLK V. RADFORD

Mr. MESSMER stated this to be an action brought by
the plaintiff against the defendant, who was a sheriff's of-
ficer, to recover the penalty_ of 50/., on account of his
having carried the plaintiff to prison within twenty-four
hours after the arrest, against the statute, which provided
that no person should be taken to gaol within twenty-four
hours after being arrested, without being asked if he
would wish to go to some house. In this instance the
plaintiff, a lady, had been arrested by the follower of the
defendant and taken to Whitecross-street prison imme-
diately, although she had requested him to take her to other
houses.

The plaintiff, not being able to connect the transaction
with the defendant, was nonsuited.

COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, Nov. 29.

HODGSON V. PRITCHARD, GENT.
Mr. Sergeant ANDREWS stated the case. The plaintiff
was a tradesman at Paddington, and the present action
against the defendant, who was an attorney, arose out of
these circumstances :—ln 1832 the plaintiff caused pro-
ceeding to be taken against a German calling himself the
Baron de Bode, for the recovery of a debt of 731. 10s. Bd.,
and that person having given a cognovit for the amount, to-
gether with costs, judgment would have been marked, and
execution issued against bim but for the defendant, who got
the proceedings stayed by undertaking, on the 17th of May,
1833, to pay the amount of the costs, viz., 291. 45., on the
30th of June following, and to render the Baron de Bode in
satisfitction of the judgment on the cognovit at any time
and place the plaintiff should specify on the same day, in
the event of the Baron neglecting to pay the sum due for
debt. There was no dispute respecting the liability of the
defendant to pay the 291.45. ; but he now contended that
he was not bound to pay the 731. 10. Bd.
Mr. Sergeant SPANKIE shortly addressed the Jury on the
part of the defendant, who, under his Lordship's direction,
found for the defendant so far as related to the debt, and
for the plaintiff for the costs, amounting, with interest, to
thirty-two pounds.