The Sun.
London, England, 1833-01-08 00:00:00

Ministers applied to Mr. Manners Sutton to
know hisintentions, and fell into the trap of
undertaking to support him from fear ! This is
the plain unvarnished narrative of facts, as cur-
rently reported by the Tories and admitted by
the friends of Ministers. The Times an-
nounced last week that it was settled that the
Ex- Speaker is to resume his duties. The
Court Journal intimates the same strange fact
as follows :
" All is definitively settled for the Speaker's continuance
in office ; and we learn with pleasure that letters of the
most flittering description have been addressed to the
Honourable Gentleman on the subject by hii Majesty's
Ministers."
The Sunday organ of the Ultra-Tories, John
Bull, chuckles and glorifies itself on the capital
success of the ruse ; and asserts on " credible
authority," that " Ministers hake written, in the
person of Lord Althorp, a crawling solicitation,
that Mr. Manners Sutton would be pleased
again to take upon himself the fatigues of the
Speakership—by which we augur that the
Noble Lord will propose Mr. Sutton himself."
John Bull further insinuates that the Peerage
was refused the Ex-Speaker lest be should at-
tain the Premiership, or rival Lord Grey in the
Upper House—a contemptible absurdity ; but
we should not marvel if the Tories, buoyed up
with the success of their stratagems and in-
trigues, should next attempt that enterprise.
The consequences of this morbid Ministerial
policy is now apparent. Lord Grey's Cabinet
must abandon such temporising prudery—such
" overmuch nicety in conduct." The mischief
is now justified by the pretended aptitude of
Mr. Manners Sutton for the office ; and our
strictures are pronounced illiberal and ground-
less,
because all parties admitted the appropriate
performance by the Ex-Speaker of his functions.
We do not concur in the universal meed of
praise to Mr. Manners Sutton, as the Speaker
of unreformed Parliaments, when Lord Castle-
reagh and Mrs Canning led the House of Com-
mons. But Lord Grey will never satisfy the
country—will never content the Members really
representing any large constituency—that a rank
Tory is a proper President of the new Parlia-
ment ; or that the mode of his reappointment is
any credit or strength to a liberal Administra-
tion. The temporary saving of 4,0001. a-year
will not compensate the nation for the evils of a
Tory Speaker. It is " penny wise and pound
foolish," to use a homely English proverb.
The whole business and machinery of legisla-
tion in the Houses of Parliament require amend-
ment. Many larger sums may be saved, and
much additional " money's worth" secured,
through the agency of a Speaker representing
the spirit of the times. The incumbent of the
Chair of the House of Commons has the
power of much " good and evil." The as-
sociations of Mr Manners Sutton are with the
" system." He is, in fact, " part and parcel"
of it. Is it probable that Mr. Manners Sutton
will promote expedient and necessary Reforms
in all the departments of the House ? Will he
bestow the patronage of the office—small as it
may be, but nevertheless important—upon To-
ries or Liberals ? But the most lamentable and
injurious consequence of his re-appointment
would unquestionably be the success of Tory
plots ; it would act as a premium on Conserva-
tive intrigue. We cannot suspect Ministers of
such pusillanimity or folly. The Speakership is
an office of great responsibility, and in the tenure
of friends or enemies of an Administration is
highly important. To place it in the hands of
a back-bone Tory would be about as silly as if
Marshal Gerard had selected a Dutchman to be
chief engineer of the siege of Antwerp. Would
the Duke of Wellington, if Prime Minister now,
appoint either Mr. Abercrombie or Mr. Little-
ton Speaker ? He is too wary a General, and
we don't doubt that Lord Grey will recommend
Mr. Manners Sutton to the Peerage. Suicide is
a horrid crime in the political world.—Morning
Chronicle.

" How will it work ?" is a question which
has been asked respecting the Reform Bill, not
in printed pamphlets only, but in private letters,
in confi.lential whispers,—nay, by every man in
communing with his own thoughts upon our
political futurity. So far as concerns Great
Britain, there is little difficulty in replying, that
the Bill has by its first operation produced an
overpowering majority of zealous Reformers,—
of men, we mean, who define Reform to be a
redress of real grievances, and a supplying of
visible defects within, but not beyond, the re-
cognised principles of the Constitution. Of
those whose notions of a reforming policy ex-
tend to a change in the principle of the Govern-
ment, or, in other words, to the overthrow of
the monarchy and a direct revolution, there are
but very few, perhaps not more than a dozen
Members, returned for England, Scotland, and
\Vales. For Ireland, unfortunately, we cannot
speak with equal satisfaction. If in this country
the bulk of the House of Commons be com-
posed of moderate though liberal politicians,
well inclined to support the existing Govern-
ment, the two extreme factions being compa-
ratively feeble, just the contrary observa-
tion may be made upon the returns from
Ireland, where the ostensible friends of Mi-
nisters are few, and the two rival and unruly
factions comprehend between them at least three-
fourths of her representatives. Indeed, if the
declarations of all Irish Members on the bust-
' inas and elsewhere were to be taken literally, and
0
no restraining power were to be exercised over
their Parliamentary acts by the sounder portion
of the British Legislature, it seems to us that the
country would be exposed to shocks which no
frame of law, of policy, or society, could long
withstand unshaken. It is said that those Irish-
men who have pledged themselves to a repeal of
the Union" amount to 40, on the lowest calcula-
tion. If the whole of these bondsmen were
sent into Parliament, tied as thoroughly neck and
heels as it was their leader's known intention
that they should be, it is probable that there
never existed a party or section in any political
assembly more formidable, under cunning guid-
ance, to the cause of internal peace and good
government than this band of 40 sworn revolu-
tionists. But what is the fact ? We are strongly
of opinion, that besides Mr. O'Connell and his
household squad, the genuine favourers of a
separation between these islands might be re-
duced within very scanty limits. It is not difficult
to understand why one discontented, ambitious,
and restless spirit should with eagerness push
forward a measure which would have for its in-
evitable result his rise for a certain (though pos-
sibly short) period to the absolute rulership of
the Irish Parliament and nation. The returns
to the separate Parliament of Ireland would in
five cases out of six be made by Mr. 0 Connell
and the
.priesthood. The earliest acts of the
separate Parliament would be at the dictation of
the same parties through their nominees. Who
can doubt, therefore—nay, who can be surprised
at the zeal, amounting to fanaticism, with which
these confederates force ion the repeal of the