The Sun.
London, England, 1834-11-05 00:00:00

he mentioned Mr. Shelton as an individual of whose
posthumous suggestions he had availed himself, as an
argument in favour of the Bill, and Lord Wynford ac-
knowledged Mr. Shelton's great experience. The
Chancellor avowed that he had availed himself of all
the information he could collect on the subject, and
that he had received the assistance of the Judges. It is
well known that some such plan, or, at least, some
substitute for the old system, had long been considered
desirable by the practitioners at the Middlesex and
neighbouring Sessions. The judicial authorities, how-
ever, and the Government had allowed the evils to
remain ; and the public are greatly indebted to the
Lord Chancellor for having at length interfered. The
Bill, as is well known, was the production of several
hands. Some of the clauses were drawn by Mr.
Charles Phillips, from the materials he found among
Mr. Shelton's papers; others were drawn by the Chan-
cellor himself. Mr. March Phillips, the Under Home
Secretary, drew also several ; and the Judges, who
were all consulted, gave many hints. This is the first
time we ever heard of a Minister's merit being tried by
the test of the Times. We never before heard that a
Minister was deserving of praise according to the de-
gree in which his measures were original—that a le-
gislator, instead of drawing on all men of experience,
capable of supplying him with the best information,
ought to shut himself up in his garret, to hold com-
munication with no one, or to withdraw to some se-
cluded farm-house, like Goldsmith, when composing
She Stoops to Conquer, in order to strike out some
new touches with which to startle the town. But a
new light has flashed on us. The law-giver must now
study the labouf,s of his predecessors merely to avoid
availing himself of them ; and carefully avoid profiting
by the aid of experienced men, lest he should be
charged with plagiarism.--Morning Chronicle.
A large proportion of our columns are this day
devoted to the proceedings of loyal and Constitutional
Meetings, to which we direct the attention of our
readers with a degree of genuine satisfaction propor-
tioned to the strength of the conviction we have long
felt, that such manifestations of public spirit are of the
greatest importance, not only as a proof of the actual
numbers, energy, and zeal of the Conservative party
in Great Britain, but as the best means that can be
devised to recruit its forces, to diffuse its principles,
and to stimulate its efforts. We need only appeal to
the dinner given at Aberdeen to the Hon. Captain
Gordon, the Representative in Parliament of that
county ; the dinner at Tewkesbury to C. W. Codring-
ton, Esq., the Constitutional Member for the eastern
division of the county of Gloucester ; and the Meeting
of the Church of England Association at Cheltenham
all of which we have this day the happiness and
the honour to record, as affording a satisfactory
demonstration that the Conservatives of England are
not inactive, that they are determined to do their
duty to the country, and that they know how their
duty to the country may be most effectually dis-
charged. We triumphantly point to these assem-
blages of conscientious and uncompromising Con-
servatives. We call upon the British public only to
compare their proceedings with the low and inde-
cent orgies of the Whigs at Edinburgh and the Radi-
cals at Glasgow, and then to ask themselves which
class of persons are most worthy to be entrusted with
the controul and direction of national affairs? Our
limits will not permit us to dilate upon the many gra-
tifying topics to which the occasion invites us ; but we
cannot refrain from directing attention to the honour-
able and manly terms of cordial esteem and affection
in which, at the Scottish celebration, the Earl of
Aberdeen spoke of the illustrious chief of the adminis-
tration of which his Lordship was so distinguished a
member, and of his eminent colleague, Sir R. Peel,
nor from contrasting this Conservative conduct with
the low jealousy and paltry competition for mob ap-
plause that characterised and disgraced the hollow con-
vivialities in which the Whigs and Radicals have re-
cently exposed themselves to the derision and con-
tempt of society. We feel also that we should be
guilty of injustice to our readers, were we not to direct
their special attention to the powerful eloquence and
unanswerable arguments which distinguished every
passage of the admirable address delivered by Lord
Ellenborough at the Tewkesbury dinner.—Morning
Post. ' •

The public are expecting, not patiently we fear,
some further insight into the plans of his Majesty's
Ministers for accommodating the two branches of the
Legislative Body with chambers wherein to meet. To
say the least of it, the mystery observed is rather un-
gracious towards the public. It is more than ungra-
cious, because the questions raised upon the subject do
not involve merely considerations of taste or judgment,
—they involve the expenditure of the public money,—
the disposal, which having once taken place is irre-
deemable, of no slight portion of the national property,
a matter on which we presume to think that, if only as
a feeler, some indications of its designs might with
propriety be thrown out by the King's Government,
for the sake of hearing the opinions of intelligent
men, or even of ascertaining through the press the
inclination of the general sentiment. The only data
which the country has to go upon are, that prepara-
tions have been already made for fitting up a part of
the buildings which suffered from the fire as Houses of
Lords and Commons ; that the Painted Chamber is to
receive the Lords, and the old House of Lords to
shelter the Commons ; and that the total expense of
these operations has been estimated at 30,0001.
If we be given to understand that the Painted Chamber
and the old House of Lords are to form the two per-
manent receptacles for the Peers and representatives
of the people of England, and that these two apart-
ments are fully capable of answering the purposes to
which they have been respectively destined, most per-
sons will agree with us that 30,000/. is a moderate
charge for so important an object ; and that if there
be nothing behind the curtain, the country has got off
cheap. But if, as has been suspected, and as we
have heard, this 30,0001. be no more than the esti-

mated cost of a temporary and transient " fitting up,"
and if the Legislative Bodies are to be finally deposited
elsewhere, at an expense of double, treble, or qua-
druple that amount, we may very well ask whether it
be justifiable, or, in other words, whether it be wholly
unavoidable, that so large a sum as 30,000/. should

be wasted on a momentary use ; and whether 9-10ths
of the amount might not be saved by lodging the
Peers and Commons in buildings which the fire has
not devastated, and which may be inhabited without
expensive repairs and alterations. Should it be in-
tended that the House of Lords, though not well

adapted, under any circumstances, to the use
of the Commons, shall, after the provision of a
permanent chamber for that assembly, revert to the
Peers themselves, the same arrangements of benches,

galleries, &c., or nearly so, being made equally to
accommodate either body, there is on that score little
objection to be offered. The Peers will succeed to the
popular representatives, and there is an end of it. But
if the House of Lords is now to be dressed up at an
expense of some 15,0001. or 20,0001. for the Commons,
and afterwards, on the return of the latter to their own

permanent house, the same House of Lords is to be
realtered at an equal or still higher cost for the lasting
reception of their Lordships, we know not by what
term short of " spoliation" of the public purse such
conduct deserves to be designated. What again be-
comes of the Painted Chamber after its approaching
ephemeral service shall be over ? Is it to be alteredr'
for the Peers—only to be realtered for a room of con-

ference, and with an additional outlay ? We cannot
comprehend all this. If architects and builders are to
turn viceroys over ministers, the case ig intelligible
enough. The poor men must live, and must do some-
thing for a livelihood. When thousands of labourers
were perishing for want of work, that profound states-
man, the late Lord Castlereagh, thought every-
thing preferable to sheer idleness, were it .no more i:12!,
digging holes and filling them up again. We should
nevertheless hardly venture to recommend such an im-
provement on the Noble Lord's political economy as
the present case exhibits—where apertures are wrought
by spade and pickaxe for no imaginable purpose but to
be filled up with—gold. If St. James's be indeed
holy ground, sacred exclusively to courts and guard-
rooms, and not to be defiled by any presence so gruff'
and intractable as that of a modern Parliament, there

still remains, as we have often said, Exeter-hall. But
in the name of common sense and national dignity, let
not the country be insulted by two successive tiers of