The Sun.
London, England, 1835-03-03 00:00:00

SPilirl OF THE PUBLIC JOURN A

The opposition papers are amusing, or buoying up,
their readers, with stories of dissensions (" splits" we
think they call them) in the Ministry. This is all
pure fudge. If the Duke of Wellington were to go
out of the Administration to-morrow, it would be to
accommodate the responsible Prime Minister, and
in full accordance with his Grace's declared senti-
ments before the Cabinet was formed—when he said
that he would take any office, or no office whatever—
just as might best su:t the general well-being of the
Government. But there is nothing of the sort in con-
templation—nor ever has been. We cannot, however,
say so much for the opposition. There, indeed, we
find marked symptoms of a " split ;" for when Mr.
Hume last night thought proper to declare , that
the King's answer to the address did not deserve
the thanks of the House, because his Majesty said
nothing about the measures of corporate reform,
&c., alluded to in the amendment, which certain
Honourable Members presented to him in undress
and dirty boots, Lord John Russell said that
"he did not agree with the Hon. Member for
Middlesex." Surely Lord John might at least have
called Mr. Hume his " hon. friend," or his " hon.
colleague !" Besides the " splits" in the Ministry,
there was yet another mare's-nest uncovered last night,
but it was in the House of Commons. Lord John
went down with a long-tailed attendance, to " ques-
tion" Sir R. Peel, or, according to the ancient sense
of that term; to put the Right on. Baronet "to the
torture." It was a Miserable exhibition on the part of
the Noble Lord, the torture being administered to, not
by, him, and that with much dexterity. Lord 'John •
mixed up among the " rumours" which he had an-
nounced beforehand that he would lay as the founda-
tion (a solid one !) for the interrogatories of the even-
ing, one to the effect that Ministers projected an early
dissolution of Parliament (within " a fortnight," was
it not ?), and as an expiration of the present Mutiny
Bill was in that case certain, and its speedy re-enact-
ment altogether impossible, Sir Robert Peel and his
colleagues were, under such untoward circum.
stances, to keep up a standing army without the
authority of Parliament I Our readers may judge
of the good sense and sobriety of such an attack upon
the Government, when they are assured that the Noble
Lord who made it was hailed no otherwise from the
Ministerial benches than by cries of " Oh, oh !" inter-
spersed with here and there a loud laugh. Sir R.
Peel afterwards hinted a conjecture as to the origin of .
such an alleged " rumour," by protesting that the first
time he ever heard of it was from the lips of the noble
Leader of the Opposition. Lord John appeared to
have profited in some degree by the day or two which
had elapsed since his notice for asking questions was
given, inasmuch as he put his interrogatory with re-
gard to the " rumoured dissolution of Parliament
into the shape of a declaration, that he would not ask
it at all—leaving it entirely to the Right Hon. Baronet
to grant explanations or withhold them, or allude to
the subject of a dissolution, or pass it by without the
slightest reference, just as he might fancy. The Noble
Lord was even so considerate as to offer Sir R. Peel
time to consider the subject matter of the questions
which his Lordship had, with so great a flourish,
threatened to put, but which he did not put.
TiMC !—time to answer a question, when he presses
the Minister for measures, before the commissions
upon which those measures are to be founded-have re-
ported ! But Sir R. Peel had no such silent fancy to
indulge. He knew his own game too thoroughly. The
Right Hon. Baronet pounced at once upon the cow-
ering Leader of the Opposition, and spoke out upon '
the matter of the rumoured, or quasi rumoured, disso-
lution. He taunted the Noble Lord with having
" receded" from his threatened interrogatories touching.
the (non-)expected dissolution of the present Par-
liament. He did not, it is true, advert to Mr. Pitt's
time for precedents how he should answer when sifted
on the point in question ; but he took an authority
somewhat more biting in relation to Lord John Rus-
sell ; for it was no other than that of Lord Grey, who,
on the 21st of April, 1831, was asked by Lord
Wharecliffe, on the ground of certain rumours being.
in circulation, " whether he" (Lord Grey) " had ad-
vised his Majesty to dissolve the Parliament ?" To
which 'the Noble Earl gave a reply which Lord John
must have felt to be a smasher, for it was as follows—
. viz., " I believe the Noble Lord's question -will be
admitted to be one of a very unusual nature, and I can
hardly bring myself to believe that when he put it
the Noble Lord expected an answer. But, whatever
the - Noble Lord's expectations may have been, I have
only to say, I must decline answering his question."
submit
" If," said Sir It. Peel, " theNv,oillillenoLtord
object
11
to a
to a rebuke from any one, pre
re-
buke coming from Lord Grey. However," added the
Right Hon. Gentleman, " I will be more explicit than
Grey," and he accordingly went on to state that he
had never, by any act or expression of his, directly or
indirectly countenanced any such rumours, nor had he
even discussed with any person a case hypothetically
in which a dissolution would be justifiable. With re-
gard to Corporate Reform, we are sure that we but
anticipate the sense of the country in stating that the
Minister's reply to Lord John Russell on that point
will be looked upon as • most satisfactory—satisfactory
and encouraging in the highest degree to those who
had been most apprehensive as to the designs of Mi-
nisters. After a scornful disavowal of any interest
whatever in keeping up Corporation abuses, and of any
lurking prejudice in their favour, the Right Hon. Ba-
ronet pledged himself to bestow upon the report of the
Corporation Commission, and the evidence presented by
it, the best consideration that he could command. But he
made.rather a home appeal to the members of the com-
mittee of the House of Commons (which recommended
the Commission) and to the Speaker, who had been its
chairman, in reproof of those impetuous spirits who
are for letting violence, under the name of prompti-
tude, on all occasions usurp the place of circumspec-
tion ; Sir R. Peel referring to the report founded on
its authority, that certain remedies which would suit
small Corporations, would not suit " great ones," and
that the most popular Corporations were " not the
most pure." It stated likewise many other circum-
stances tending to show that time materials afforded by
the Commission may possibly not be so favourable as
sonic imagine to sweeping, and at the same time rapid,
legislation, even under the guise of reform ; though of
reform, and that an extensive one, we make no doubt
that our municipal institutions are susceptible, or that
they stand wretchedly in need of it, and Sir It. Peel
emphatically declared that he had no inclination to blink
it. With respect to the Church of Ireland, the leading
and most important announcement of Sir Robert
Peel, was that he did not feel himself precluded from
the adoption of any measures proposed by tire Church
Committee appointed under the late Government,
provided such measures should not be inconsistent
with that which was his fixed opinion, viz. " that
church property ought not to be diverted to any but
ecclesiastical purposes." If religious education in the
doctrines- of the Church of England he considered
among such purposes, the Prime Minister will have
many able and honest Statesmen to agree with him ;
and among the rest, unless they have changed their
minds with their political emergencies, the major por-
tion of the late Cabinet Ministers. Upon this sub- •
ject we shall just add our gratification at observing
that Sir H. 1-lardinge has announced the inter Pion of
Government to increase rather than diminish imme-
diately the estimate for the education of the poor in
Ireland, on that which is usually called Archbishop
Whateley's system, or, in other words, the system in-
troduced under the last Government, and by which the
old Kildare-place scheme was superseded. sNow as
the new plan of education is allowed on all hands to
operate admirably, and to conciliate the goodwill of
Protestant and Catholic, and as it was one of those
reforming measures which the enemies of the present
Ministry have been incessantly predicting its eagerness
to overturn, we submit this case, as we did that of the
negro emancipation, and the conduct of the Conserva-
tive Government relatively to both, for practical evidence
that the main objection ever started against Sir R.
Peel and his colleagues—we mean the impossibility of
their lending an efficient support to reform mews-ores— _
must be given up as captious and untenable. The le
discussion of yesterday, short as it was, w:ife:l to 1), e_, .
of vast importance to the country, A
light than -had hitherto been thrown Jett Tihe views
*sepeoesils more •f,
.- 1---•
se •:esse .
..) .-...- ,
7
(
'.4