The Sun.
London, England, 1834-12-18 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Whether it is intended to have an immediate disso-
lution of Parliament or not we do not pretend to say ;
but, if there be an immediate dissolution, we trust the
electors, whatever may be the political principles which
they expect their Representatives to uphold, will, at
least, look to respectability of character as an indispen-
sable requisite for their suffrages. It cannot be denied
by the warmest friends of what is called the Liberal
cause that many individuals found their way into the
House of Commons, during the Reform excitement,
whom no rational man would like to trust with the
management of his own private affairs ; yet a more
important office than that of making ]aws for a whole
people cannot be intrusted to human hands. What
good laws can be expected from men whose minds are
grossly ignorant, or whose habits are irregular and
principles dishonest ? Who would employ as an agent
in his private business a man associated with bubble-
projectors, and upon whose word'or promise no human
being would rely ? Who would allow his own fortune
to be managed by a reckless young spendthrift, or a
veteran roue who mounted the hustings fresh from the
gambling-table, and became a patriot to mend the bat-
tered and bankrupt fortune which a passion for the
dice-box had marred? If a person of such training
and habits would not be considered trust-worthy in any
commercial concern, why should he be qualified to be-
come one of the trustees of the national purse and a
manager of national affairs ? There were persons also
who made their way into the Reformed House of
Commons, whose accomplishments were of such a na-
ture as to make them any thing but an agreeable ac-
quisition to any assembly of gentlemen. We fearlessly
ask if the manners cf the House of Commons were
not, since the last general election, sensibly- deterio-
rated ? And if the House, though presided over by
one of the most dignified and accomplished gentlemen
in the kingdom, did not exhibit many scenes during
the last two sessions, that would have disgraced a bear-
garden ? The silly cry of " Oh, oh ! " unknown until
within a few years, was actually polite and decorous
compared with some of the strange noises which were
latterly introduced into the House. Those gentlemen
who played the parts of owls and cocks in top-boots,
hooting and crowing, would make capital legislators
for the Zoological Gardens, but in St. Stephen's
Chapel they were strangely out of place. We have
only now thrown out a suggestion to the electors, as to
individuals whose habits and manners, without any re-
ference to political opinion, ought to exclude them from
the great council of the nation, under whatever colours
they may seek the suffrages of the electors.--Morning
Herald.

How much flattered must the members of the new
Cabinet be by the language of the Ministerial organ of
yesterday, the Times ! Our Contemporary, after
having sorrowfully brooded over the lamentable cata-
logue of nonentities which compose that august body,
and turned in despair and disgust from the hopeless
task of urging anything in praise of the individual Mi-
nisters, finds out, de desespoir de cause, this singular
advantage which the Peelo-Wellington Cabinet is in
possession of, beyond all others: " With the exception
of three individuals, the subordinate members are not
likely to exercise any independent power." And are
we really come to this ? So out of the fifteen person-
ages who are dignified by the title of confidential ad-
visers of the Crown, twelve are declared by the confi-
dential adviser of the Chancellor and the Prime Minis-
ter to be mere negative quantities, arm-chairs (we be-
lieve we only borrow that appellation from the Times)
—mere manikins to fill niches in the walls of Down-
ing-street, and to be guided as it may please the Dic-
tator to pull the wires which regulate their limbs.
What a subject for the pencil of H. B. ! The word
of command is given by the Field-marshal—Joseph
Surface acts as fugelman—" To the right-about face
—Reform." Away go the Church-and-King decla-
rations of Goulburn, the Ashford-speech of Sir Ed-
ward Knatchbull, the waverings of Lord Wharncliffe,
the alew lights of Mr. Baring. The Dictator changes
his mind, the wind sets the other way, and
" As you were," is the word of command. The
Home Secretary lapses again into the Member
for the University of Cambridge ; the Kentish
Baronet raves again of Protestantism and ancient
institutions ; the Golden Weathercock repeats
the last part of his speech, which of course
was an answer to the first ; and all is as it was.
What a happy state of things I This country may
indeed ask, if this be so, why have these puppets at
all ? Why keep up an expensive machinery, when a
clerk would do as well to register the decrees of the
triumviri of the Times? But if it is so, how will the
morning organ of the new Cabinet settle the matter
with its evening authority ? If the Times be right,
what becomes of the galaxy of talent, consistency,
integrity, and morality which the Standard congratu-
lated the country upon possessing, in that long cata-
logue of names which it announced as the Adminis-
tration of the Empire ? When doctors differ, who shall
decide ? For ourselves, we profess to believe neither
the one nor the other. The shout of derision
with which the announcement of the Cabinet has
been met, wherever the account of it has yet
reached, at once laughs to ~scorn the bragadocio
language of the party. How can it be other-
wise ? The consistency of a Peel !—the talent of
an Aberdeen or a Goulburn I—the integrity of a
Herries I—the morality of an Ellenborough I Nor
yet do we believe that the Dictator's rod will be sub-
mitted to so easily as the Times would wish to make it
appear. Already symptoms of disunion, or, to speak
the language of the Cabinet itself, of mutiny, have
shown themselves. Although, more easy than Lord
Chandos, who is gone to pout in Buckinghamshire,
after having quarrelled with his would-be colleagues,
in the first council, Mr. Baring and Sir Edward
Knatchbull may consent to swallow their Malt-tax
votes and speeches—though Lord Aberdeen may give
up Miguel, and Lord Wharncliffe may stomach the
refusal of the Seals of the Home-office—there are
already symptoms of disagreement. The dissolution
has been, we are confidently assured, the first. But
let it be agreed or disagreed, the people of England
will never consent to bow their heads before such crea-
tures as these, whether they are, as one of the journals
eve have alluded to asserts, the mere tools of one or
two amongst their body, or whether they pretend to
govern each in the fulness of his own incapacity and
disrepute.—Morning Chronicle.

We yesterday endeavoured to impress on Re-
formers the necessity of acting in such a manner as to
prevent the opponents of Reform from profiting by
their divisions. The leading Reformers should every
where meet, and canvass the merits of the different
candidates in the field ; and having once fixed on their
men, support them with energy and determination.
Finsbury would be for ever disgraced were a trimming
lawyer, who entered the borough under the colours
of Reform, who now seeks to betray the cause, to
be returned. No old Tory would have ventured to
go the length of this Whig deserter, in calumniat-
ing the party through whose exertions he obtained
his seat ; and the success of such a man, after
the sophistical addresses which he has been writing
and distributing so sedulously, would be quoted as a
proof that the electors of Finsbury have equally
abandoned the cause of Reform. Mr. Duncombe
will of course be returned. To throw out the Ser-
geant, some candidate who can hope for the suffrages
of all classes of Reformers ought to be put forward.
We observe that Mr. Wakley has issued an address.
That gentleman, we know, has a number of supporters
in Finsbury, and his conduct in the late contest was
deserving of all praise. But from all that we can learn,
he could net hope for success against Sergeant
Spankie ; and we fear if he persists in going to the poll,
the result will be disastrous to the cause of Reform.
We yesterday learnt that Mr. Henry Hobhouse, who
has acted so nobly in Bath, has been called on by a num-
ber of electors to stand for the borough. If he come
forward, and Mr. Wakley consent to withdraw in his
favour, the Sergeant will be beaten. But if both stand,
the Tories will point to the victory of Sergeant Spankie
as a proof of the triumph of Toryism and High Church
principles, and Finsbury will be disgraced by having
inflicted such a blow on Reform. We hope this mat-
ter may be arranged. The candidate who has the
best chance of success ought to be supported by all
the electors. We understand Mr. Wakley has received
requisitions from other places, where his chance of suc-

cess is less questionable. His retirement in this case
would tend greatly to promote his election elsewhere.
In our election notices will be found a letter referring
to the state of Mary-la-bonne. We wish Sir William
Home were anywhere but in that borough. He is in
the way of a good candidate, and we fear he will prove
a very uncertain Representative. We would not even
trust him with pledges. One gentleman of high cha-
racter, and who would be strongly supported in the bo-
rough, considers himself not at liberty to stand, so
long as Sir William Home is a candidate. This is
unfortunate. We trust the electors will soon see their
way.--Morning Chronicle.
The only new " convert to Reform," announced
yesterday, in consequence of his appointment to the
Secretaryship of the India Board, is Mr. Winthrop
Praed, whomight be safely enoughldesignated Mr.Sin-
ole Speech Praed—inasmuch as the whole of his Par-
liamentary reputation rests upon one speech, and that
one by no means the first of its class. Upon no other
occasion do we ever remember him to have opened his
lips, though his pen, if general rumour may be cre-
dited, has been for some years past busy in bolster-
ing the decaying cause of Toryism, in the columns of
a contemporary morning journal. However, every
accession of strength (?), at a time of such utter
Tory dilapidation as the present, is as unquestionable
a benefit, as a straw coming in the way of a drowning
man. Both are eagerly aid hold of by the sub-
jects of despair. Lord Lowther and others are
talked of for different offices ; but so far as
we arP hitherto aware, without any just ground.
When there are places vacant, however, there
will never, as his Majesty's chief rat-catcher
proved upon the Catholic Bill, be any lack of aspirants.
In the meantime, the " United Cabinet," as it has
been termed by the Conservative party, in contra-dis-
tinction to the late Whig Ministry, and no doubt on
the ground of a more decided union among the
latter, in so far as tenure of office is concerned,
than the former—is, according to general report, any
thing but " united." There is a split, it is said, upon
the subject of the approaching dissolution, and ano-
ther upon the malt tax question. Upon the former,
it is averred in well-informed quarters, that a re-
gular battle has been fought, and that the deci-
sion which has been come to for a dissolution on
Friday, the 26th instant, was carried by a very
small majority ; while with regard to the latter,
as well as to the necessary quantum of Reform
in the Church which, like "a tub to the whale," it
may be necessary to give, it is averred that no distinct
understanding has yet been brought about among. his
Majesty's " united advisers," and that the conclusion
of the debate may lead to the retirement of Sir E.
Knatchbull from any fellowship with his new asso-
ciates. However, let the Tories continue their
squabbles, as well as their efforts—what signify they ?
The people are up—they are on the alert—they are
determined, and that there is no absence of unanimity
among them we quote the following passage, in every
respect most applicable to the present crisis, from the
preface to the last number of the Westminster Review,
and no doubt from the pen of its eloquent conductor
Colonel Peyronet Thompson :
" If an American a few weeks ago had insulted an English-
man by asking him how he could live under a Government
where the arbitrary power of arresting the whole course of
public policy at a moment's warning was lodged in a single
individual, and that individual not in any shape selected for
the purpose by the nation, but taken by hereditary descent,
and consequently liable to be, in the celebrated words of
Archdeacon Paley, ' the feeblest and worst of the whole set,
a child, a woman, a madman, or a fool ;' and who, moreover,
through the operation of absurd laws, was exposed to almost
the necessity of surrounding himself with an illegitimate off-
spring in his youth, and with the counsels of a foreign wife in
his old age, thus systematically providing an inlet for the exer-
cise of the two influences most wounding to national honour,
and coolly making them integral portions of the Government :
" If he had asked him how a nation was to be respectable
in its connections with foreigners, when in the midst of the
most prosperous negotiations, every foreign agent might twit
the Ambassador with the possibility of his being upset next
post by the agency of such a perilously contrived machinery at
home, and the people's interest in the most important scheme
of policy might be peremptorily stayed at the pleasure of an
individual as above, and laid under the same kind of loss and
disadvantage that would accure to an army from the power of
at any critical moment inserting the enemy's general in lieu
of it own, and leaving to the army the chances of future
recovery;—

" If an American had said all this, he would have been an-
swered boldly, that it was an exaggeration and a falsehood.
That though many of the rules of the British Government
were not written in express statutes, they were laid down
in the great common law of history, and stamped there
in characters so plain, and enforced by recollections so
notable, that the man must be entirely ' dement' and void
of understanding, who should attempt to charge the British
people with any such absurdity as was conveyed in the
statement. That though the way in which the liberties
of the citizen had been constituted by gradual accumulation,
had prevented points of this kind from being arrayed in
writing, as might have been the case under different circum-

stance's, yet every man in his heart and conscience knew it
was a filthy libel to say, that what is called the prerogative of
the Crown in the appointment of its Ministers, was the power
of exercising arbitrary and personal fantasy or feeling, but on the
contrary, it was a power limited in its application by acknow-
ledged rules, and guided by particular facts. That it was
well understood, for example, that on the existence of a cer-
tain degree of avowed dissension among the ministers them-
selves, or of a certain degree of demonstrated inability to
carry with them the support of Parliament, the Crown was
to exercise its constitutional right of change. But that it was
no more understood, nor wrought into the minds and appre-
hensions of Englishmen, that the Sovereign was endowed
upon this point with the power of acting without concert with
responsible Ministers—than that he was placed there to choose
his Ministers by the cut of their beards or the colour of their
hair; or if he did, that it would be wilfully carrying back the
country to those old and too fatally celebrated periods of
struggle, which the public believed to have passed without the
probability of recurrence.
" All this confidence has been blown into the air by the re-
solution suggested to the enemies of the people and the crown,
through the lamentable refusal of the people's reputed friends
and leaders to secure the post against the return of the enemy
when they had it in possession. There is nothing to be done
now, but to try to get him out again by unanimity ; though it
would be but decent, and for the common good, that, after the
Whigs have given such awful proof of their incompetency to
direct, they should invite at least a mixture of better men.

But with this reservation—there must be no unfriends, except
such as are found trying to sell the common cause for tome
sneaking advantage to themselves. The country, with the
single exception of the increased power in the hands of the
people for setting things right by Parliamentary resistance, is
carried back by advisers behind the throne, to the state of
things which preceded the eruption of 1640. In the exercise
of that resistance in such a manner as to prevent the probabi-
lity of a recurrence of the necessity, is the one hope of peace-
ful individuals. The country cannot be put on the verge of a
civil war every two years. The Tories have recklessly played
their last stake; the people must play theirs and successfully,
or consent to see themselves led, with more or less of grada-
tion and delay, to the infamous days of the Second Charles,
through the miserable ones of the First.
" The error committed by the extra-Ministerial counsellors
has been enormous, except as desperation covers all faults.
They have done what Ham did to his father,—in sweeping
away the decent reserves and modest conventional limitations
that veiled the grossness of the prerogative ; and they have
forwarded the advances of Republicanism some twenty years,
by setting up a practical Republican party in a country where
there was before only a theoretical and abstract one. The
beard has grown during shaving, and the Tories dare not dis-
solve. Liberals of all shades must hang their judgment upon
the single point, whether their Representatives, upon the call
for the Supplies, or for the Mutiny Bill, will vote for the
amendment, that ' The advisers of the formation of an Admi-
nistration from the opponents of the Reform Bill, were enemies
to the People and the Crown.' "—Morning Advertiser.

Our contemporaries have again struck their " single
string," and, appreciating, we presume, the taste and
intelligence of the select few who peruse their lucu-
brations, indulge once more in abuse, actual and an-
ticipatory, of the new Ministry, blended with praise
present, past, and future, of the luckless individuals
who are unfortunate enough to merit their approba-
tion. Young Mirabel complains in Farquhar 's clever•
comedy that marriage is " soup for breakfast, soup
for dinner, soup for supper, and soup for breakfast the
next morning." Now, apologizing to that institution
for comparing it with the topics of the ex-Ministerial
journals, we do wish they would vary their tone,
and give some original views of what they think
the policy of the new Administration should be.
This, however, does not suit their factious views.
If our contemporaries of the faction speak of
Church Reform, they dread lest an efficient and
safe measure should be brought in, one which
may secure the rights, privileges, and independence
of our admirable establishments, and at the same time
remove every reasonable ground of discontent. If they
speak of economy, they are well aware that the strictest
economists are to be found in a Conservative Admini-
stration ; that the Duke of 'Wellington set the example
of public frugality, which the ex-placemen were obliged
to follow for a few paces, howbeit profligate Commis-
sions and useless jobs testify how zealous and sincere

they were in pursuit of the excellent precedent his
Grace had established. (We should like to see a
catalogue raisonee of the places, temporary and per-
manent, carved out by the self-styled " Reforming
Administration." We have not yet given up the pro-
ject of presenting such a catalogue to our readers.) If
they speak of reforms in the civil establishments of the
State, they fear lest well-advised and well-digested
improvements, judicious adaptations of institutions to
the existing state of affairs, based on accurate infor-
mation, not on ex-parte and declamatory statements,
should convict them of misrepresentation and fac-
tious opposition. " Discretion," says the humorous
" is the better part of valour," and our con-
temporaries have in this respect so much of the "better
part" as to leave no room for the other ingredients in
its composition. They find it far more safe to bawl
diurnally " anti-Reformers ;" it is easy to escape from
general assertions, however void of truth ; but let them
hazard a reference to facts, and then even bluster is
scarcely- an available material. The world is aware
that the Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, and Sir
Edward Knatchbull opposed the enactment of the Re-
form Bill. We know, however, that Sir E. Knatch-
bull was to a considerable extent favourable to Parlia-
mentary Reform; we know also that the Duke of Wel-
lington and Sir Robert Peel advocated many measures
of civil improvement, and were unwilling to enter upon
the question of a change in the representative system
because they were acquainted with the immense difficul-
ties attendant upon any material alteration, and unwilling
(to use the words of the consistent Lord John Russell)
to exchange " old lamps for new." They return to
office, and find the measure in question the law of the
land : and our Contemporaries arc not ignorant
on this point, whatever they may be on others, that it
;s the full determination of both these eminent States-
men, and of every one of their colleagues, religiously
to observe both the letter and spirit of its enactments.
As a suppkment, however, to the cuckoo cry of
" Anti-Reformers" our ex-Ministerial contemporaries
have recourse to the desperate expedient of calling
upon Reformers of all grades to unite. It is, forsooth,
inconsistency when Sir Robert Peel invites Lord Stan-
ley to join the Government, as the strongest practical
proof that the new Administration intend to proceed
cautiously but efficiently in the work of Reform ; but
when Sir John Hobhouse folds Mr. John Arthur Roe-
buck in his political embrace—when Messrs. Littleton
and O'Connell reconcile their differences—and when
Lords Brougham and Durham are entreated to exclaim,
like Peachum and Lockit, 'Brother, brother, we are both
in the wrong,' then it is " a noble oblivion of private
quarrel.s,"—" a generous sacrifice of personal feelings."
Let us at least learn the proper meaning of words,
and not pervert their true signification to factious pur-
poses. By the country must all parties be judged. It
is for that tribunal to decide whether England shall or
shall not be preserved. Let the electors of the King-
dom decide between honesty, ability, patriotism, con-
stitutional Reform, and the maintenance of the insti-
tutions of the country on the one hand, and falsehood,
selfishness, incompetency, innovation, ruin, and revo-
lution on the other. We own we look with confidence
to their verdict ; although we do not deny or conceal
that the period is one of anxiety and difficulty ; but we
repudiate with indignation the slander that the sons of
England, the descendants of martyrs, patriots, and he-
roes, will surrender the religion, laws, and liberties of
the realm without a determined struggle, knowing, as
they must, that on the issue depends the safety or the
ruin of the empire, the question whether England shall
resume her proud place among the mighty powers of
the earth, or rapidly become the most feeble, impo-
verished, degraded, and despised of nations.—Morning
Post.

Rumours manifold and various are afloat respecting
the dissolution of Parliament. Some of them, doubt-
less, are circulated in good faith ; others, as unques-
tionably, with a view to deliberate deception. How-
ever frequent may be the latter source of grave and
positive " assurance," that Parliament is to be, or is
not to be, dissolved, either before a given day, or not
until a later day, it is a base and criminal practice,
which every English party ought to be ashamed to
countenance. There are persons who go about retail-
ing speculations upon this subject, which we suspect
to have been cut and dried for use in the manufactory
of some interested and not very honourable firm. Can-
didates, moreover, or pretended candidates, and (pre-
tended) friends of Ministers to boot, are profusely com-
municative of what they feign to be the strategic of the
Government, for the campaign about to open. We need
not say what limited reliance ought, in our judgment,
to be placed on such unauthenticated statements. We
are told, then, by these quidnuncs, that Parliament is
not to be dissolved until the second week in January,
because it is desirable " to give the people time to re-
flect," which would be obviously an admission that
the present condition of the public feeling is unfavour-
able to the actual Government ;—an odd ground, cer-
tainly, to be assumed by those who are professing
to canvass in its interest. A second reason for the
delay is more curious still, when considered as
proceeding from such a " friendly" quarter—namely,
that there may be time to exercise in the most effi-
cient manner all the Government influence on behalf
of the candidates who come forward to support it.
The folly of such an avowal is not inferior to that of
the attempt, if indeed the attempt were to be made
or meditated. Government influence, by.thc good old
methods of intimidation or corruption, would go but a
short way in commanding the votes of our existing
constituency, thanks to the Reform Bill for that !
It has been asked, and we have assented to the reason-
ableness of the question as a general one, what can an
upright Administration fear from an upright House of
Commons ? Let the Ministers manfully stand upon
their measures ; and then let us see, provided those
measures be comformable to the sense of the nation,
what Parliament (net being a boiniiglimonger Par-
liament) will dare to treat them with hostility or dis-
respect. If the Government cannot go on with this
present Parliament, because of Parliament being in
advance of it on principles of Reform, might not the
very act of dissolving from such a motive itself excite
an angry spirit throughout the country, and through
the medium of a new election serve to produce a
wider breach between the Crown and the new House of
Commons than had existed with the old one? Reason.,

ing, therefore, from these common-sense premises, Mi-
nisters must doubtless feel averse, except in case of
necessity, to a premature dismissal of the present Parlia-
ment. But, whatever may be the grounds alleged in favour
of or against a dissolution, still we are bound t 5 admit
that much as We are indisposed to having recourse to
such a proceeding as a general election at a time like the
present, they who desire an appeal to the people without
delay may really believe that course to be inevitable.
They remind those who desire tliat the old Parliament
should be called together again, that the acceptance
of office by the present Ministers, vacates their seats in
Parliament ; and that consequently, if the house were
summoned to meet under such circumstances, the op-
poncnts of the Ministers would have " full swing'
for some two or three weeks without a single check
from any functionary duly authorized to expound the
policy of the Government. For this view of the case
there is doubtless very strong justification in the sense-
less pledges which some members have already pub-
licly given to oppose the Government of Sir it. Peel
in limine and for ever. The principle, or rather the
want of principle, of such people renders them, we
confess, liable to all suspicion : and we can readily be-
lieve that there is no advantage, however dishonour-
able and unfair, that they would not take, especially
when they could avail themselves of it with that im-
punity which the absence of the objects of their
factious vituperation would afford. But is the
House of Commons generally—is the majority of
it—composed of such men ? We hope and believe
not. We have very little doubt that a sufficiently
commanding number of the House of Commons would
negative all attempts to prevent an adjournment imme-
diately after the King's speech, until the Ministers of
the Crown should resume their seats, and that a majo-
rity of the House of Commons could never be induced
to censure either by their votes or by their speeches a
Government that has not been heard, or measures that
have not been propounded. But, whatever be the re-
sult, dissolution or no dissolution, we have no wish to
throw the country off its guard, or to leave liberal can-
didates unprepared for any sudden emergency. On
the contrary, the part of prudence is to act as if the

dissolution were certain and immediate. Sir James
Graham's address to the electors of East Cumberland
appears in this day's paper. There is nothing parti-
cularly tangible or striking about this cautious docu-
ment, beyond:its being remarkably well written. Look-
ing to that part of it which relates to the reforms
which Sir James thinks necessary, we see nothing in
it implying any serious difference of opinion from that
likely to be entertained, by the new Government.—
Times.

EAST INDIA HOUSE.

(Concluded from The Sun of yesterday.)

EQUALIZATION OF THE DUTIES ON EAST AND WEST INDIA

SUGARS.

Sir C. FORBES wished to submit to the Court the policy
of renewing the petition to Parliament for the equalization
of the duty on East India Sugar—(Hear.)
....

The CHAIRMAN said there could not be a stronger ad-
vocate than himself for the equalization of the duties on
East India Sugar. He bad for twelve years co-operated
with the Hon:Baronet, and was ready to do so again, to
obtain the change. Such a course would be the best means
of increasing the political power of the government in
India, and at the proper time the subject of renewing the
petition to parliament might be brought forward. He had
received an assurance from the President of the Board of
Controul that in the next session the subject should have
the favourable attention of government. What course
would be adopted under the new order of things be could
not state, but he thought they should be ready to present
another petition—(Hear.)
Mr. FIELDER said a sort of pledge was made that the
subject should be favourably considered by the govern-
ment.

The Court then on the question adjourned, it being un-
derstood that at a future Court the subject of again pe-
titioning parliament for an equalization of the duty on East
India sugar should be discussed.