The Sun.
London, England, 1833-12-24 00:00:00

I\t, N.44‘ \

SOAY AT ON V O'CLOCK,

?Te7 5 per Cent......•.«..

India Stock

Ditto Bonds.. 23 21 pm.
!South Sea Stock

Old Annuities ........ 671,4
New Ditto -

justed.

per Cent. Ann. 1751
Ex. Bills, .£l,OOO 45 46 pm.
45 46 pm.
Ditto Small
Ditto Commercial
Ditto Advertised
Bank for Account
India for Account

Cons. for Account ... 90 !j3:2:!;,

another column. It appears that the dispute
between the Austrian Admiral DANDOLO and
the Governor of Cyprus has not yet been ad-

An account of the dinner given at Man-
chester to Mr. POULETT THOMSON, and Mr.
M. PHILIPS, on Thursday last, will be found
in our Paper of to-day. It will be seen that
the kind of oratorical battle which we stated
on Saturday having received some intelligence
of, was not of a very desperate description.
Mr. PHILIPS gently blamed Ministers for not

advancing quite so quickly as he thought they
might have done, but ended by throwing the
blame upon the House of Lords. Mr. P.
THOMSON very discreetly said nothing about
the House of Lords, but spoke generally of the
difficulties which prevented Ministers doing
some things that they wished, and mysteriously
of the official secrets which in his opinion
justified other things that they had done, and
of which his colleague disapproved. Doubt-

less both the overt and concealed difficul-
ties with which Ministers have had to contend
are great, and we are inclined to give Ministers
credit for a desire to overcome them ; but we
cannot suppose them exempt from the infirmities
to which all other men are subject. Now there
is no infirmity to which men are more prone
than the avoidance of trouble. We can easily
imagine, therefore, very worthy, excellent Mi-
nisters, exceedingly desirous of governing in die
way most conducive to the public good, who,
not being pushed on by a pressure behind,
would willingly turn aside from a difficulty, and
persuade themselves that the public good
would be more forwarded by their so
doing than by going straight forward.
We must, therefore, with all deference

to Mr. THOMSON, still impress upon the people
the necessity of urging Ministers straight for-
ward. It is wonderful how easily people over-
come difficulties, from encountering which they
know they must not shrink. This may not be
a very palatable doctrine to the sensitive plants
of the Administration ; but it is the true con-
stitutional doctrine of a free state. An active
public opinion is like the bracing wind of the
hills ; healthful, though somewhat uncomfortable
to those exposed to it. Without it thebody politic
would become first languid, then enervated, and
finally decrepid. Nay, with public opinion, pas-
sive or indifferent, we may doubt whether
public service would not lose much of its recom-
pense as well as incitement ; for when a Minister
is pushed on to a particular measure by the pub-
lic voice, although he may feel that he should

like to avoid the troubles and " difficulties" it
places him in, and may therefore be somewhat
annoyed at the clamour which drives him into
them, yet when he has fought his way through
them, when he has done the bidding of the
public, he naturally looks for its applause, na-
turally feels intense satisfaction at receiving it,
albeit convinced, in ordinary times, that all is
" vanity and vexation of spirit." That such
must be the case, is, we think, evident, from
the undiminished avidity with which men seek
the applause of the world, notwithstanding that
its emptiness has been proverbial for two thou-

Having said thus much in favour of occa-
sionally touching up Ministers " upon the raw,',
even whilst intending to support them against
their, and the people's, enemies, we will now
proceed to point attention to one or two por-
tions of i\Tr. THOMSON'S speech, which the
imperfection of the report we had before us on
Saturday precluded our then noticing. Speak-
ing upon that subject which is now beginning to
fill the public mind, and which promises soon
to engross it, we mean the iniquity of the corn
laws, Mr. THomsoN is reported to have said :
"It is not a party question—it is scarcely a political
one. It is not a question on which you can bring men
to agree upon any general line of politics—on which you
can bring persons who may be perfectly united on one
particular course of policy to agree amongst themselves.
The discussions which have taken place in Parliament
bear ample evidence of this. You have not seen on this
great question Whig, Tory, and Radical taking their
separate lines. You have not seen the party designated
—and rightly designated some years ago—under the name
of the liberal party in this country, adopting one course of
policy whilst the opponents of reform and improvement
adopted another. You have seen political friend voting
against political friend, and political opponents joining
hands in unison upon this topic."
This is all literally true, but it nevertheless con-
tains or insinuates a fallacy which cannot be too
broadly exposed. Why is it that you see men
opposed to each other on the question of Reform
united together in favour of the Corn Laws ? Is

it that any man opposed to Parliamentary or
Borough Reform, any Tory, great or small,
comes over and joins the advocate of a free trade
in food ? Not at all ;it is, that the seeming
Reformer, the pretended friends, but from design
or ignorance, the real enemies of the people, go

over to the ranks of the Tories. We cannot call

to mind a single instance of a regular Tory being
in favour of allowing the artizans of this country
to have corn brought to them in exchange for
their labour instead of obliging them to carry
their labour to the corn. No, no ; the Tories,
openly, and so far honestly, say that they want
to draw money from the pockets of the people,
both directly and indirectly. Many Reformers,
on the other hand, men who had not that means
of committing open robbery, declared against
the indecencies of borough jobbing, but
join with the borough jobbers when the
attack is to be made upon a means of
plundering the people which they possess in
common. Hence it is that some of the most

__ ..... ..._.
lusty bawlers in favour of Parliamentary Reform
are quite as rabid on the subject of the Corn
Laws as the most desperate Conservative can
desire. At future elections, therefore, Re-
formers must bear in mind that the freedom of

their labour, the observance of their right to
have food for it from abroad—if there they can
get it more easily than at home—is a fruit of the
Reform Act which they are entitled to gather.
Any man that wants to shuffle off that ques-
tion, that talks of his being a Reformer, desir-
ing retrenchment, reduction of taxation, &c., is
a mere talker, who wishes to distract their minds

from the main point by which his fitness to re-