The Sun.
London, England, 1832-05-24 00:00:00

•••I'IRIT OF' THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

On the presentation of a petition from Edin-
burgh last night by the Lord Advocate, signed
by 38,700 persons, the greater part of uhorn
bad fixed their professions and places of abodes
to their signatures, Mr. Charles Dundas ob-

served—
''
That it was with pain he stated Hett an lioncurelik
Friend of his, who held a high commission in his Majesty%
syrvice, and who had recently received 3 walk of his Ma
jesty's favour in being appointed to the command of one of
the most gallant regiments in the army—he meant the
42d—had condescended to take part in the rrocerding,s of
the day, although in various parts of the ground there had
been displayri biinners of a most revolutionary tendency,
such as the warning to Belsfrizzar, and flags declaring the
giorr the revolution in France. lie was convinced,
although every man in the regiment would cheerfully
obey the orders which, in discharge of his duty, that Gal-
/ant .Officer might give them, there was not a private,
among them, if he inherited the spirit of the country that
had given him birth, but would have torn clown the se nan-
ners on the spot."
It was well observed, in answer to these re-
marks by Colonel Evans, " that if the meeting
was legally convened, an officer in the army was
not to be prevented merely on account of his
commission from attending it ; for he trusted
that officers in the army were to he allowed to
entertain political opinions on what side they
thought proper.--(Hear, hear.) He trusted
that the Hon. Member would see the impro-
priety of the attack he had made, an'l would not
think of holding the Gallant Officer responsible
for all that had been done by every individual in
every distant corner of the field where the
meeting had assembled." It was laid down dis-
tinctly, at the Bristol Special Commission, in
January last, by Lord Chief Justice Tindal,
that the soldier did not cease to be a citizen
nit account of the particular relation, with
regard to military duties, in which he stood to the
State : " Whilst I am stating (said the Learned
Chief Justice) the obligation imposed by the
law on every subject of the realm I wish to ob-
serve, that the law acknowledges no distinction
in this respect between the soldier and the pri-
vate individual. The soldier is still a citizen,
lying Tinder the same obligation, and invested
with the same authority. to preserve the peace of
the King as any other, subject." The Mutiny
Act draws the line of demarcation between
the soldier and the rest of the people ; and
he is entitled to take part in all proceedings
which do not interfere with the discharge of
his specific duty, and which do not con-
travene the regulations of the army. If a
soldier may on his own responsibility use
his arms in repressing disorderly proceed-
ings, surely he may take part in the pro-
ceedings of a meeting, legally convened, on a
subject of deep constitutional interest. Not
only the Colonel of the 92d regiment, but every
soldier from the Lieutenant-colonel downwards,
not appointed to a particular duty, incompatible
with the attendance at a public meeting, may
attend such meeting in his capacity of citizen, if
held at the place where he happens to be quar-
tered. This, at all events, is the fair construc-
tion of the doctrine of Lord Chief Justice Tin-
dal. It has been too much the fishion of late
years to consider the arms' as a body not form-
ing part of the people and sympathizing with the
people, but appointed to control them. The
spirit of several Acts of Parliament, passed since
the breaking out of the French Revolution, tends
to countenance this notion,—They have been
lc.ept by themselves in barracks, and Acts of Par-
!lament have even passed, punishing with death
tire talking to soldiers on certain- subjects. The
extent to which these views had pervaded the of-
ficers of the army was seen at the time of the
Barricades in Paris. No sensible man will

How hesitate to allow that the Bourbons

were embarked in an attempt to over-
throw the Constitution of France—that the
Ordinances were illegal and revolutionary—
and yet, so warped were the minds of many
of our officers, that they blamed the French sol-
diers because they did not all take part with the
men who were trampling on the laws, and en•
deavouring to make their country a scene of
confusion and bloodshed. The officers in ques-
tion argued as if soldiers sere bound to lay aside
all community- of feeling with their nation, and
to obey all the orders given to them by the per-
intrusted by the Constitution with the di-
rection of the national force, without concerning
themselves with the question, whether such or-
ders were not destructive of the very Constitution
under which the Chief of the State derived his
authority. The doctrine is as absurd as if it
were maintained that the soldiers of a regiment
were bound to obey the Colonel, when he orders
them to rebel against the Sovereign. A soldier
is bound to distinguish between legal and illegal
commands. The Chief of the State is less than
the State itself; and if the Chief attempts to
dissolve the State, the soldier is bound by his
higher duty towards the State, to resist him. In
England, the Mutiny Bill alone gives the King
power over the army, and were the Legislature to
refuse to renew the Bill, the army would, as a•
matter of course, be dissolved. The French hadro'
Mutiny Bill limiting the duration oldie authority-0
the King over the army : but as the Sovereignty
was in the King and the Chambers, the former was
not alone justified in employing the force with
which he was intrusted against the latter, and
the army were not justified in yielding.obedience
to such an abuse of authority. These slavish
notions would at one time have been strongly
repudiated in this country. Burke, in his
speech on conciliation with the colonies, is at
great pains to show that the citizen should never
be altogether merged iii the soldier, and that the
army receives all its valuable qualities from the
inspiration derived by the soldier from the Eng,
lisp constitution. "Do you imagine (says he)
that it is the annual vote in the Committee of
Supply which gives you your army ?—or that
it is the Mutiny Bill which inspires it with
bravery and discipline ?—No ! surely, no ! It
is the love of the people—it is their attachment to
their Government, from the sense of the deep stake
they have in such a glorious constitution, which
gives you your army and your navy, and infuses into
both that liberal obedience, without which your
army would be a base rabble, and your navy no-
thing but rotten timber." But Mr. C. Dundas
would separate the army from the nation, and
interdict all sympathy with the nation, even at a
crisis like the present, when one feeling alone
pervades the whole community. if the country
were polled, the Reformers would be to the
Anti-Reformers as, at least 100 to one. Thus,
for instance, the Edinburgh petition was signed
by 38,700 persons ; that is, a proportion equal
to the whole of the adult male population. Could
the soldier remain alone unaffected in the corn-

munit v ? Could he forget his early associations?
Could he forget that he had parents, brothers,
and sisters, sharing in the great national move-
ment ?—that, at the expiration of his period of
service, he would again make a part of the com-
munity to which the Reform Bill would bring
salvation, or its rejection ruin ? Every good
citizen rejoiced at the return of Earl Grey to
power ; and the Colonel of the 92d regiment

t.nly discharged his duty as a good citizen in
sharing in the manifestation :of the people of
Edinburgh on this happy event. The Lord
Advocate took this view of the question, ob-
erving " that the Gallant Officer referred to had
acted as the best friend of the Monarchy, when
he assisted in making known to the King the
true wishes of the people."—Morn. Chronicle.
Sir George Murray availed himself of the op-
portunity afforded by the presentation of a
Petition from Perth in favour of the Reform
Bill, signed by 27,000 persons, including five
Peers, to notice a statement made in the House
of Lords so far hack as January last—that an
account of the assassination of the Duke of
Wellington, and another Illustrious Individual,
had been hailed with satisfaction by the multi-
tude at Perth. There is probably no foundation
for the story ; but it enabled Sir George to re-
mind the House and the people of England of
the great services for which we are indebted to
the Duke of Wellington. But who refuses to
acknowledge the services of the Duke of Wel-
lington We were pleased to hear Sir George
on the laurels he had also earned in the
time of peace, " by redeeming the land of his
birth from civil intolerance." But we must not
allow our gratitude to run away with our judg.
ment. The Duke of Wellington is a great
soldier, and raised the character of the British
arms ; but are we, on that account, to allow him
to deprive us of the Reform Bill ? The Duke
of Wellington benefited his country by remov-
ing the civil disabilities of the Catholics ; but
the Duke of Wellington would also have sacri-
ficed the country to a base Oligarchy. When
the Duke of Wellington is consigned to the
earth, the future historian will do justice to
his merit. It is our business, in the mean
time, to hold up his conduct on a recent
occasion to general execration ; and we
are more particularly bound to do so on
account of his former merits; for no principle
is more mischievous than that former services are
to serve as a justification for present misconduct.
One great security against base and unworthy
conduct is the dread ofthe authors that it will draw
down on their heads general execration. But
if we allow a privileged exemption from the exe-
cration to former merit, v:•e diminish our security.
Every good Englishman is, therefore, at this
crisi sbound to forget the soldier in the politician
and to speak of the disreputable conduct of
Arthur Duke of Wellington, in opposing a great
measure strenuously to the twelfth hour, and, on
the pitiful pretext of not abandoning his Sove-
reign, adopting the very measure he had con-
demned as destructive of the Monarchy imme-
diately after lie had succeeded in the object of his
opposition—the forcing of the Ministry to resign.
Indeed, the whole conduct of his Grace, ever
since his &mous eulogy of the shameful parts of
the Constitution, has been disgraceful to him as
a politician. To speak of this conduct in any
terms than those of execration, would be to
corrupt the national morality. Let us therefore
separate the soldier from the Embryo Minister,
and leaving the former to his rewards in solid
pudding and his fame, let us point the finger of
scorn to the latter. This will teach men who
have earned a high reputation, the lesson, that so
far from that reputation covering their politica
transgressions, it may serve to throw their repo.
cation into the shade.—Morning Chronicle.

Yesterday the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and
Common Council of London conferred honour
on themselves and on Mr. T. Attwood, by be-
stowing on that gentleman the freedom of the
City in a box of heart
,of oak. The proceed-
ings of a crowded Court were extremely inte-
resting, and so numerous a meeting of Com-
mon Councilmen has not been held for some
time. The Reformers of Birmingham have
justly received the gratitude of the whole king-
dom. They not only first reared the standard
of Reform, on the entrance of Lord Grey to
office, but they have displayed an unflinching
constancy and determination which has echoed
the public voice through every part of the
empire, and struck terror into the hearts of the
Anti-Reformers. The ability also displayed,
in all the speeches and public documents of
the Birmingham Reformers of all parties, has
preeminently distinguished the inhabitants of that
active and ingenious population. The country
papers of the midland districts this week report
the most extraordinary simultaneous public
meetings on Wednesday last, at Birmingham,
Warwick, Coventry, Bilston, Dudley, Wolver-
hampton, and other neighbouring districts, ever
recorded. Indeed the heart of the people of
England, Scotland, and Ireland, was one vast
political association, and blind and infatuated
was the base and interested opposition given to
such an invincible popular demonstration. We
shudder at the fearful alternative which has been
so happily but so miraculously averted ; and such
a people must indeed be worthy and able to
share, with advantage to every order of so-
3tiety, in the distribution of political power. It
is extraordinary and disgraceful to hear the
jealous and absurd reflections on the danger
and illegality of Political Unions. Most fortunate
is it for the Monarchy and Aristocracy of this
country that these great and revolving political
associations formed a safety-valve for the excited
feelings of the people, and, were headed by men
of talent, station, and property, which guaranteed
the nation against a bloody and devastating re-
volution. Equally absurd is the imputation of
illegality so industriously propagated against
them. Corresponding Societies only are illegal,
and that by modern and wicked laws. Political
Unions are strictly legal; they are sanctioned by
the laws : proclamations and abortive legislation
could not suppress them—their natural, proper,
and certain termination will be—the Reform Bills
passed into law, and the return of liberty and
prosperity. They are inconsistent with good
government ; they could not be maintained
under a free representative system ; but till that
is achieved, they will be the terror and extinction
of corruption. They have formed a convenient
target for the poisoned arrows of the Borough-
mongers, nand an artful use has been made at
Court of their political power and proceedings;
but William IV. has too much sense not to dis-
cover that with the boroughmongers they will
pass to the tomb of the Capulets. Mr. Hume
and Mr. Parkes illustrated, at the Mansion
House dinner, the contentment which the nation
will derive from the pending measures of Re-
form. It is absurd to suppose that men of pro-
fessional and public avocations can or will con-
tinue, but in the present extreme necessity, the
agitations and personal sacrifices of the late com-
bined extraordinary exertions. The Anti-Re-
formers early and shrewdly foresaw that Political
!Unions would undermine and blow up the
borough system, and they, therefore, loudly and
industriously denounced these dreadful batteries
as not destructive to them —the corruptionists—
but to the Crown, which we sincerely believe
they have preserved. The trick was palpable, and
has failed ; but the Tory Press continues to harp
upon this string as the last cord of discord be-
,

ween the people, die Crown, and the King':
Ministers.—Morning Chronicle.
One argument always urged against the ex-
ension of the elective franchise to 10/. voters
in towns and boroughs, is the encouragement
likely to be thereby afforded to " mobs," and th►
certain occurrence of " tumultuous outrages."
We do not believe that a greater outrage upon
common sense was ever committed than by the
use of such an objection. Who are they that
have on any occasion resorted to lawless violence
or tumult at periods of election ? Are they
the freeholders—even the forty-shilling freehold-
ers—of counties ? Or the freemen who choose
representatives for cities or large towns ? Or
even the pot-wallopers ?—the lowest degree of
electors known to the Constitution, and nearly
the lowest members of the community in this
kingdom. Assuredly it will not be said, that
even in places like Westminster, where immense
numbers are combined with an humble scale of
qualification, riots and disorders have been the
work of men who enjoved the right of voting.
Those who possess the franchise make it, in
ninety-nine cases out of one hundred, their or-
gan for expressing whatever opinion guides, or
whatever political passion or prepossession moves
them. They giNe tt eir vote and interest cor-
dially in favour of the cause and the champion
which they mean to support. Yellings, hoot-
ings, filth, and paving-stones, are the weapons
of those whom the law has excluded from the
exercise of more legitimate and effective power.
There is, we will assert, no example anywhere
of voters having recourse to brutal rage and vio-
lence. They can make their hostility felt with
more force in a constitutional form. The sol-
dier who carries a loaded gun will scarcely throw
it aside to assault his:adversary with a brickbat ; it
is not merely pride that would restrain him, but a
consciousness of wielding that more formidable
engine, wherein his capacity of inflicting more
terrible punishment consists. All animals exert,
instinctively, a specific and appropriate kind of
force. The horse does not strike with his head,
nor the bull with his foot ; nor will an English-
man, armed with the lawful prerogative of reject-
ing an obnoxious candidate by his vote, attempt
the child's play of annoying him by personal in-
sults. We have touched upon this subject, be-
cause of its alliance with the general one of po-
pular combinations, undertaken in a spirit of
party impetuosity, and for political uses. The
fact is, that most of such confederacies of men,
whether invested with active and distinguishing
privileges, which raise them ostensibly above the
multitude, or excluded from the enjoyment of
rights to which they conceive themselves entitled
by a substantial superiority of fortune or educa-
tion, are made for definite and strictly honest
purposes. Those which are open, like the Po.
litical Unions, for int.tance, have objects in view
of an avowed and determined nature. Since
there came any chance of carrying a Reform Bill,
the leaders of those associations have li►nited
their efforts, and those of their leagued brethren,
to the accomplishment of the Bill. Here like-
wise, as in the case of mob riots at elections, the
effect has been mistaken for the cause, and an
infinite confusion of Tory intellect has displayed
itself. The Bill, it is said, " will produce riots
at elections," whereas, in truth, it will take from
the ranks of the rioters all to whom it extends

the right of enforcing their sentiments through
a more honourable channel. So the Political
Unions throughout England are described to be
a sort of perennial spawn of the Reform Bill,
and to bid fair for being ingralted by it upon the
body of our political institutions. This is arrant
drivelling. The Political Unions would never have
existed but for the sake of Reform. When the
cause has been promising, they have comparatively
languished. Their activity and energy have
been redoubled whenever Reform seemed to flag.
• The fortnight during which Lord Grey's power
was suspended, and a general fear arose that the
Duke of Wellington might succeed him in of-
fice, produced an accession to the Metropolitan
Unions of many thousands of respectable and
independent men, all resolute to act, by means
of those Unions, upon the interest of the Re-
form question, but manifestly aiming at nothing
more ; and now, by the clearest evidence possi-
sible, demonstrating the sincerity of their inten-
tions. Not merely have many of the county
meetings, which had been summoned in the late
moment of terror, been countermanded from the
confidence reposed by the country in Lord Grey,
but several of those redoubted Political Unions,
which are held up as such bugbears by the ene-
mies of popular rights, have ceased to assemble,
and will probablynever meet again, on the assur-
ance that the Reform Bill cannot be wrested

from them. We warn our countrymen, however,
that the " people's occupation is" not yet" gone."
We conjure them to be alive, suspicious, and
vigilant. There is no safe trust to be placed
in the Anti-Reform faction. Despair will some-
times shake a good man's principles,—it ever
makes a bad man worse. Lord Grey may not
even yet be on his guard against the duplicity of
which his foes are capable. Base though such
an act would be, still the Conservatives, having
gained the grand point of averting a creation of
Reform Peers, may, at the eleventh hour, turn
round;—surprise the frank Minister and the
sleeping country, and throw out the measure on
its third reading. That the empire would be
convulsed from its centre to its extremities is
true,—but what then ? The task of Govern-
ment would be thrown upon the defeated Whigs,
and the conscientious Tories would have another
twelvemonth's " chapter of accidents" before
them. After all the pledges, public and
private, of the Conservatives, it is true that
such an infernal trick would cover them with
a coat of infamy,—but what then ? If the
worst should befall, the Whigs would resign,—
the Tories pounce upon the evacuated benches :
then comes an attempt to revive the reign of real
anarchy : the land promised to themselves by the
Conservatives would be a scene of desolation.
Our Correspondent, indeed, " Radical," overrates
prodigiously the power of the Duke of Welling-
ton to do harm. But were his Grace inclined
to ruin England, which it may naturally seem
preposterous to imagine,—were he to recom-
mend persecuting laws against the Press, the
despot's terror, the Press, at one gripe would
strangle him. Did he try the army, of which
such men as the Duke of Wellington can com- ,
prehend the mechanical constitution but not the
moral, we, in the name of the people of Eng-
land, would set his Grace at utter defiance. We
do not think that any man in England—were he
popular with the army, which our great Field-
Marshal is not—could prevail upon a single
soldier to employ his bayonet against the people,
engaged as they would then be in a sacred war,
for the undoubted rights which are common to all
native Englishmen; but were the troops thus pro-
fligate or frantic, what are they as compared with
gpaeionis)lte paßtroiowticiongwould they
and indignant
Commons ? How long ere they were
1,1_2)
ei4o, Oue
tOsneob,oootd.oi Oedofa
disbanded by " the people's House," and or-

tiered to lay down their arms and disperse, ca:
• lain of high treason ? No ; the contest is over.
The Bill, in spite of all artifices, must eventuall‘i)
pass. Nor will the temporary success of one
manoeuvre defraud us of our chartered rights,
or save its perpetrators from lasting contempt
and hatred. We repeat, however, and wish ii
to be remembered, that such a crime is not ab-
solutely out of reasonable calculation. The
Conservatives have done sufficient to prove their
capability of further exploits. They denounced
Reform, to deter its friends from introducing it.
When it was brought forward, they next de-
nounced it as revolutionary, for the sake of over-
turning the Mioistry whom they had failed to
deter. Arrived themselves at the threshold of
the Council-room, they pledged themselves to
support the principles of this subversive and re-
volutionary 13i11 ; and now, driven back from
the door, they abuse and vilify the original
framers of the-same Bill for adhering to it. Let
Lord Grey be but suspicious of these men, and
he robs them of the faculty to injure.—Times.
To the nomination of the individual members
composing the committee moved for on Tuesday
by Lord Althorp, to inquire into the policy of
renewing the Bank charter, and to examine our
present banking system, as regards the power of
issuing notes in England and Wales, we have
no objection to make. Most of the gentlemen
selected by his Lordship have shown that they
had paid some attention to the subject, that they
have attained some knowledge of its principles,
and that they are acquainted with a considerable
extent of its details, though few of them may
have earned their present distinction by extensive
knowledge or consistent liberality. Neither have
we any particular objection to the secret manner
in which the proposed inquiry is to be con-
ducted, nor to the strict limitation of its range to
certain prescribed topics. If the Bank accounts
are to be submitted to the Parliamentary com-
mittee, the Bank Directors have a right to ex-
pect that the world shall not be made acquainted
with the state of their affairs before the Court
of Proprietors; and at any rate a Parliamentary
investigation should not be allowed to furnish
additional subjects for mere talk in Parliament,
or for mere gambling at the Stock Exchange. From
the speech of Lord Althorp, it would appear
that the whole question of the Bank monopoly,-_
that the whole policy of renewing the charter
upon any conditions, and the entire character of
those conditions, should it be renewed at all,—
that the connexion of the Bank with the Go-
' vernment, and the propriety of' continuing or
modifying that connexion,—that the general
system of ban king in this country, as regards
the issue of promissory notes, and the abolition
or retention of the exclusive right in the lords of
Threadneedle-street to the metropolitan circu-
lation,—that the policy of one great national
establishment for supplying paper currency to
the nation, as the Mint supplies legal coin, in-
stead of' the present exclusive Bank, or a num-
ber of smaller banks of issue in the capital,—
would come under the review of the Com-
mittee. If such be the case, never was a Par-
liamentary Committee intrusted with more im-
portant functions; and never were more delicate
or difficult questions submitted to the decision
of a Legislature. After the Committee shall
have proceeded from the examination of' the ac-

tual state of things, both as regards the Bank of
England and the system of country banking, they
will be offered abundant opinions of a theoretic de-
scription on the nature of paper currency, and innu-
merable suggestions of improvement on the exist-

ing system-Of banking. It will be their duty to
receive candidly, and to discuss calmly, the ideas
of men who have made these subjects the study
of their lives ; but in a matter of so great im-
portance they ought rather to be select than in-
discriminate in the witnesses summoned to pro-
duce arguments or opinions instead of deposing
to facts or statements. Above all things the
Committee should be on its guard against
the interested testimony or partial representations
of the Bank Directors or Bank Proprietors. As
regards them—as regards the existing charter—
we must have an almost entire change ; and yet
in a petition to the House of Commons, agreed

upon some time ago, the Court of Proprietors
pray that their present privileges may be renew-
ed in all their plenitude and extent. Let us for
a moment reflect on the modest nature of this
demand, and the mighty interests which its con-
cession would compromise. The Bank peti-
tioner, then, ask that they may enjoy, without
compensation to the public, ten or twenty
years longer of a lease which gives them almost
unlimited dominion over the commercial or mo-
nied concerns of the nation. In this lease is in-
cluded—first, their right to be the Government
banker, and to be paid for managing the divi-
dends at the rate of 3401. per million, for
600,000,0001. of the national debt, and 3001.
per million for the remainder ; thus securing to
their establishment the remuneration of 259,0001.
a year for a service which, with all its risks,
might be performed for little more than the half
of that amount. In the second place, they de-
mand that the composition for t"he payment for
stamps shall be continued at the rate of 3,5001.
per million, while other banks of issue pay more
than double that sum. In the third place, they
have the modesty to propose that they shall still
be allowed to direct the currency of the country
—that they shall strip the King of one of his
highest prerogatives, or relieve him from its ex-
ercise—that they shall not only act as a mint,
but be both a mint and a mine,—and that they
shall be continued in the power to regulate our
foreign exchanges, and to alter the value or se-
curity of every man's property in the kindom, at
their sovereign will and pleasure. For this
purpose they require that there shall be no
note-issuing rival, or intruder on the cir-
culation, of London,baekef and
there deposit
miles
private
with more than six partners within the same
shai withinbe 6 5
no
range. This is their mighty game preserve,—
and their laws are to be rigid against poachers or
interlopers. It is true that in 1826, from fear of
worse consequences, they relaxed their regulations
beyond the limits of this preserve, and allowed
banking establishments with an unlimited number
of partners to be formed ; but they were well
aware that without the example and support of
the metropolis, these establishments would con-
tinue long feeble and inefficient, and could never
essentially interfere with their monopoly. Con-
sider what calamities the insecurity produced by
this restriction has already brought on the country,
and then try to estimate the enormous mischief
of the monopoly which the parent establishment
in Threadneedle-street had previously brought
on the country. The number of banks which
have failed within the last forty years amounts to
nearly 1,000 in England, chiefly on account of
the system which the privileges of the 13ank
compelled them to follow ; while, in Scot-
land, to which its influence did not extend,
scarcely a single failure has occurred. In

the fourth place, they demand that, in conse-
quence of these privileges, they may be able to

.livide eight or ten per cent. on their immense'
stock, besides having lately increased that stock
i fourth without any advance of capital, am-
having formed a reserved fund of several million
-o be afterwards added to their funds or dis
ributed in bonuses. In the last place, tht
Governors propose, by the petition which they
have thus induced the proprietors to sanction, t(
keep the said proprietors in the same state of
ignorance regarding the management of then
concerns, which they have enforced for the last
50 years. In surrendering their books for ex-
amination at the time of the Restriction Act o'
1797, it was found that they kept the secret of
their accounts by using ciphers, like dip'omatists
in hostile countries. Is this any longer to be
endured in a great public concern, which asks
the support of Government ? We have no
doubt that the Committee will take into their
serious consideration all these points, notwith•
standing the remonstrances of the Directors, and
the petitions of the proprietors ; "and if the com-
mittee should neglect their duty, we promise
not to neglect ours in appealing to the country
against their recommendations or decisions.—
Times.

We thought from the moment we had heard
of Lord Ellenborough's appointment to the rank
of Generalissimo of the discomfited Anti-Re-
formers, that it could not be long before he
would distinguish both them and himself by
some extraordinary exploit. Our prediction has
been verified. His Lordship divided the House
last night, on an amendment, which, if it du not
to he the public by surprise, will prove that the
public know more of his Lordship than his
Lordship knows of consistency. The amend-
ment to which we allude was, that Lancashire
should return six Members to Parliament, in-
stead of four, as contemplated by the Bill. This
comes well from a conservative, who objects to
the measure chiefly on the score of its democratic
tendency. But the great mark of opposition, it
would appear, is not so much the principle as
the party—not so much the measure as th.e
.
men concerned in accomplishing it ; for,
the party can be annoyed, the principle, as in
the present case, may be carried farther than
before, without alarming the conscience of the
anti-Reformer. The reason of this is, that the
anti-Reformers know well enough that the cause
of the rotten boroughs is hopeless, and must be
given up. In short, Lord Ellenburough and
his coadjutor, Lord Wynford, in proposing to
extend the franchise, did only what the Duke of
Wellington was willing to do before them, and
for the very same reason—because, the princi-
ple having been already decided by the public,
there remained nothing to contend for but party
and personal objects, which they were resolved
to prosecute at all hazards of consistency. A
few nights more and the Bill will have passed the
House of Lords, to the great joy of the nation
and the contusion of many pretended Liberals,
who never would have been known if such a test
had not been furnished by Ministers to try the
stamina of such politicians.—Morning Herald.
Another division took place last night in the
House of Lords, when it appeared that fifteen
Members only of the Constitutional party were
in attendance. The great bulk of the late majo-
rity absent themselves now from the House, not
from any remissness of duty, but because they
are aware that the performance of that duty
would be the signal for at once annihilating all
further exercise of deliberate judgment by an
overwhelming deluge of Whig partisans. His
Majesty's Ministers have but little cause to con-
gratulate themselves on a victory obtained by
means which, for insult to Parliament and out-
rage upon the Constitution, have not their pa-
rallel in history.—Morning Post.