The Sun.
London, England, 1834-12-16 00:00:00

Colonies, and one Ministerial sinecure, the Chan-
cellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster, have not yet
been filled up. The Standard says that messengers
have been sent to the Earl de Grey, and the Earl of
lladdington, requesting their immediate attendance in
London, but whether to occupy those offices or others,
not of the Cabinet, is not known. It will be recol-
lected that upon Saturday the Standard and other Con-
servative papers announced the name of the Marquis
of Chandos, as that of one of the Members of the
House of Commons to whom a place in the Cabinet
had been assigned. If such an arrangement had
taken place at that time, and we rather think our
contemporary was not misinformed, it must have been
altered since. The circumstances suggests some re-
flections in which we cannot avoid indulging, and to
which we will in very concise terms advert. The
Marquis of Chandos is, in personal character and in
point of moral worth, one of the most respectable in
the younger ranks of noble politicians—he is known
to be the steady and determined advocate of the agri-
cultural classes, both farmers and labourers, whose
cause he makes his own—he is pledged, moreover, to
support a measure essential in the way of relief to the
agriculturists, the abolition of the malt tax. Now,
when we heard that the Marquis was to be a member
of the new Cabinet, being quite convinced that lie was
incapable of going back from his solemn promise to
the farmers, we naturally inferred that the new Premier
who is also Chancellor of the Exchequer, had made
up his mind to propose, as part and parcel of his first
budget, the abolition of the malt tax. We confess that
the not finding the name of his Lordship in the com-
pleted, or all but completed, list of the Cabinet, has ma-
terially shaken our opinion of the probability of such a
measure being brought forward as a Ministerial one.
It may be, indeed, that Lord Chandos has declined an
offered seat in the Cabinet upon grounds wholly dis-
connected with this question—if so, we reason from
false premises, and shall be glad to find that his ad-
vocacy of the agricultural interests, and his determina-
tion to procure the farmers of England some sub-
stantial relief, has not been the cause of preventing the
Noble Lord from conscientiously accepting a seat
among the responsible advisers of his Majesty. That
the Government would have presented au appearance
of more strength and solidity had Lord Stanley, Sir
James Graham, and the Duke of Richmond accepted
office, there can be no doubt—but that Lord Stanley
at least approves of the act of his Majesty, in exer-
cising his undoubled prerogative by dismissing his
late Ministers, we think may be fairly inferred
from his letter to the Chief Magistrate of the
burgh of Hamilton, which we copied yesterday from
the Glasgow Courier. That letter refers to an Address
from the above-named burgh in support of the exercise
of his Majesty's prerogative, and which Lord Stanley
was requested to present to the King. An Evening
Whig Paper, however, wishes it to be believed that
Lord- Stanley expresses no opinion upon the late Mi-
nisterial changes, in stating that his own sentiments
are in perfect accordance with those expressed in the
Address: Now the Address is certainly neither a
Whig nor a Radical Address—all the Whig Addresses
either stated or insinuated that his Majesty had acted
wrong in changing his Ministers, and all of them de
precated, in language more or less strong, his calling
in the Duke of Wellington's assistance to form an Ad-
ministration. The Address from Hamilton, on the
contrary, expresses gratitude to the King for the ad-
vantages which the country has drrived from his liberal
and paternal Government. It states that the liberties of
the people, as well as the rights of the Crown, are guaran-
teed against infringement by the Reform Act, which has
secured the independence and freedom of Parliament.
It goes on, not to dictate to his Majesty, and to say
who shall be his Ministers or who shall not—no, its
intelligent and patriotic framers know the Constitution
better than to attempt such an insulting invasion of
the King's lawful prerogative—the Address, instead
of attempting to dictate, assures his Majesty that it
will be a source of heartfelt satisfaction to all who are
well affected to the principles of the British Constitu-
tion to " see the powers of the Executive Govern-
ment intrusted to Councillors who, acting in the spirit
of the Reform Bill, will correct every abuse and en-
courage every improvement, but at the same time
firmly maintain the Constitution of the kingdom,
ecclesiastical and civil, in opposition to every endea-
vour to disorganise and subvert it." To those senti-
ments not Lord Stanley only, but all Englishmen can
sincerely subscribe, with the exception of those ex-
treme politicians on both sides—one party of which,
but they are very few in number, are for preserving
all abuses untouched—while the other party, who
are more numerous, would subvert the institu-
ons themselves, under pretence of getting rid of
the abuses. The language of this excellent Address
conveys our own sentiments, being, as we are, anxious
that every abuse should be corrected and every im-
provement encouraged, while the Constitution of the
kingdom in Church and State is maintained, in oppo-
sition to every endeavour to disorganise or subvert it—
whether it be by crafty and insidious efforts of politi-
cians, more ambitious of low and spurious popularity,
than of honourable fame—or whether it be by the
more open and violent efforts of Political Unions, Ja-
cobin Clubs, and other forms of popular terror and
intimidation. But the most gracious answer of his
Majesty to the address of the Common Council, pro-
mised a Government based on the very principles so
well put forward in the Hamilton address ; for his
Majesty stated that " it ever was, and ever would
be, his most earnest desire to correct all abuses, and
improve the condition of the country." Reform,
rightly understood, is only the " correction of abuse."
Here we have the Royal word pledged to reform and
improvement--and the King adds, " I trust that
the Ministers who may be chosen will carry into
effect these, the first wishes of my heart," ' or
words the same in substance, for we cannot im

mediately refer to them. If, then, Sir Robert
Peel's Administration are prepared to realise those
wishes of his Majesty as to the correction of abuses,
and the improving the condition of the country, what
can the people of Fngland want more ? His Majesty
does not say, like a leading member of the late Whig
Administration, " there has been rather too much re-
form already than too little. We did little last Ses-
sion, and we will do less the next." No, his Majesty
does not say any such thing—he does not pretend that
it is right or even expedient to stop the current of re-
form while any abuses in our institutions remain to be
corrected. He has in the exercise of the prerogative
with which the Constitution has invested him, chosen
a Ministry who, he trusts, will carry the needful re-
formatory measures into effect without " disorganising
or subverting" our institutions, ecclesiastical or civil.
We wait to see what those measures are. If they be
really such as are calculated to carry into effect the
Royal intentions, " to correct abuse and improve the
condition of the country," they shall have all the
support which it is in our power to give them ; but if
not, not. A sensible and reflecting people, like the
people of England, will, whatever the busy emissaries
of faction may tell them, judge of men by their mea-
sures, and not of measures by the men. They are
only man-worshippers who pin their faith to names,
and prostrate their reason at the altars of the party.
As to whether Lord Stanley has a friendly or
a hostile feeling towards Sir Robert Peel's Adminis-
tration can no longer be a matter of conjecture. The
Standard says it has authority to state that " Lord
Stanley, in his reply to the application made to him
to join Sir Robert Peel's Government, expressed
the strongest approbation of the political course to be
expected from that Government, and the most sanguine
hopes of its prosperous career." The same Journal
adds that the Noble Lord's " objections to joining
the Cabinet are wholly unconnected with politics."
Though we consider this not unimportant, and though
we could have wished that no obstacle existed to pre-
vent Lord Stanley from joining the Administration,
yet we do not think that England has yet come to that
pass when her fate can depend upon any one man.
The existing Administration will soon " put itself
upon the country." It must be tried by the only evi-
dence that can avail it before a Jury of the people of
England—the evidence of its measures. If those are

good we have no doubt the verdict of public opinion
will be in its favour.—Morning Herald.

Now, " by St. Paul, the work goes braveli on."
The administration is announced, not, indeed, in the

grand Gazette, under the rubric of the ancient " Royal