The Sun.
London, England, 1835-10-28 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

;•., Alit closed the Parliamentary Registration of
I,pvglanci " 011. Ales—the most severely-contested elec.
Lral scititiiii; pro ably, ever conducted by opposing
political parties,? ,u der any Representative Govern-
''y'- imap' t. The two' at contending forces of this moving
\,-
C, ..._
; nation—th mers and the anti-Reformers—are
~ ,
. therefore now airly arrayed on the field of battle, fully
fi
ier4bil respectively for the next dissolution of Par-
ament. The result of the recent conflicts in the Re-
gistration Courts is generally and decidedly, with very
few exceptions, in favour of the Liberals. Of this
fact we have before us the most indisputable proofs ;
and we have reason to know that some shrewd calcu-
lators for the Tories are equally well informed of the
large numerical gains of the Reformers by the scru-
tiny of the old registers, and the addition of a new libe-
ral constituency in England. In Scotland, it is noto-
rious that—on a balance of " profit and loss"—
several country seats will be rescued from the
Conservatives, who now temporarily enjoy them ;
and on a new election the entire representation of
the Burghs will be Liberal. Ireland, which is
daily gaining by the enlightened Government
of Lord Mulgrave, and the depression of the Orange
faction, will certainly improve its representation in any
new Parliament. Thus, therefore, we are happily de-
livered from all danger of a return of the Tories to
power. No heterogeneous coalition of disappointed
or dishonest public men, seeking office, or restoration
to office, at the sacrifice of their integrity, could be
maintained ; no Administration, compounded by Sir
Robert Peel of rank Tories hypocritically professing,
conformity to liberal policy, for the purpose of cheat-
ing the people, can possibly avail themselves of the
Reform Acts of 1832, to defeat the objects of the
recent legislative amendment of the Representative
system. The last Registration just closed, has placed
the cause of Reform beyond the reach of the faction
which so long misgoverned the nation. The im-
portant results of the Registration are most ,
gratify-
ine, o • for although few politically informed persons
could doubt tho probable gains in Scotland and
Leland, different circumstances affected the con-
stituencies of England and Wales. Scotland, in
1832,, bursting the fetters of her previous mock-
representation, and delivered from the Aristocracy
and self-elected Burghers, who had, monopolised her
electoral power, naturally turned the Scotch Reform
Act to the best account, and moreover further acquired
in 1833 the popular power of Municipal Reform.
Ireland, the unhappy land of bitter party dissensions,
was also represented as liberally as the existing elec-
toral system would allow. But in England anal Wales
the Registration had never been systematically or ac-
tively attended to by the Liberal party. The general
election in 1832, after the passing of the Reform Bills,
wss almost a passive contest between the two opposite
political clas:ces of the State. We - shou'd say that
both over-estimated the democratic power of the
English Reform Act. The Tories also, depressed
by recent defeat, and by the memorable national
election of 1831, did not put out their full force ;
they did not contest many counties where . Libe-
rals walked over the ground ; they abandoned
-almost in despair their old electioneering arts of
bribery, treating, intimidation, and other corrupt
means ;' they relaxed their undoubted property
" influence" ov;.r the lauded tenantry ; and the
liberal returns in Christmas 1832, under these
circumstances, exceeded the real power gained by a
Parliamentary Reform, undoubtedly imperfect as a
faithful expression of public opinion. In 1833 and
1834, the Reformers, lulled into a destructive and
deceitful security, most grievously neglected the re:ris7
tration of those years. In the meanwhile, the To-
ries, entertaining the design of regaining the execu-
tive power of the State, playing off the King and the
Peers against the people, and attempting the regene-
ration of Toryism, covertly, and by their superior
means of local agency, through municipal self-elected
officers, by the influence of hired attorneys, land
stewaids, and parish clergy, in those years exclusively
added to the Registers of the English and Welch coun-
ties. We have before us ample evidence of these facts,
and we know, moreover, that in a majority of the Eng-
glich cities and boroughs, the registration was wholly
neglected by the Liberals. The Court manoeuvre of
last autumn was then played off on the nation, and
when Parliament was dissolved, and the Reformers
taken by surprise and off their guard, we never doubt-
ed that the new House of Commons would contain
.250 rank Tories. Imposition on a credulous consti-
tuency also, placed in the present Representative As-
sembly many political impostors, waverers, and shab-
bies—wolves in sheep's clothing, against whom the
Electors, at the next hustings, will be fully prepared.
The temporary accession to office of Sir Robert Peel
—the only member of the ,Tory party who could have
been used for the plot—and the gain of the " Conser-
vatives" in the new House of Commons, emboldened
the Tories, who thence resorted to a re-organization of
their clubs, and affiliated societies throughout the
country. The reformers, thus insulted and roused, in-
stantly took the field, and, on the speedy overthrow of
the mock-liberal Cabinet of Sir Robert Peel, founded
their counter-association. The artful leader of the
Tories saw the iv-pending danger ; he pronounced
at the City dinner the alarming and novel doc-
trine to the 'Tories-, " the battle of parties must hence-
forward be fought in the Registration Courts," a new
reading of the Constitution to their dull understandings.
Now a fair conflict has taken place, the more satisfac-
tory to all reflecting Reformers, because the Tories
have done their " best and their'worst." The two
contending classes have fought the 17yst battle in the
contest, which must end in the signal def.e.st of Toryism.
We write advisedly from a mass of inforrnition before
us, and from indisputable data. The result 9f the ye-
ffistration just closed has placed the national cause of
Reform beyond all possible danger. The great ma.-
jority of CLAIMS, the test of calculations, has beer
considerably in favour of the Liberals, and the average
results of the objections of the two parties have ena-
bled them to maintain the advantage. It had long
b 0
been obvious that no additional force could accrue to
the Tories from the great preserve of their county fran-
chise, the tenants-at-will, as that class had been gene-
rally fully registered in 1833 and 1834 ; whereas the
1833 and 1834 non-registered qualifications of the
Reformers, and the continual increase of small free-
holds in their interest,left a preponderating increase
of liberal claims beyond doubt. In the cities and
"boroughs the Registers have been, actively sifted by
the local Reform Association. The last 'Register,
1834, contained a list of numerous non-resident free-
men (freemen living more than seven miles from
the places of election), who either voted for the
Tories, or were fraudulently personated at the De-
(cember general election, hut who are now ejected from
the town-registers. A considerable increase of ten
pound household qualifications has also taken place
during the last two years in the towns—an additional
gain to the Liberal cause. The extraordinary in-
crease per cent. on the county constituencies, in some
parts of England, would scarcely be credited. In a
question of numbers the Reformers always triumph.
We are, therefore, now prepared for a dissolution of
Parliament at any time or under any circumstances,
whether by a Liberal or Tory Government ; though
we have reason to believe that Sir Robert Peel feels
the utter hopelessness of erecting a Tory Administra-
tion. ' E.vents have fully demonstrated that the people
have politically profited by every attempt of the " Con-
servatives" to stay the march of Reform, and such
will be the inevitable result of any new conspiracy to
give the Court or the Hereditaiy Peerage the su-
premacy over a Reformed House of Commons.- By
the " tyrant majority " of the present House of
Commons Sir Robert Peel has been tried and
found wanting, and a new Parliament would still less
advance his personal designs, or the factious desire of
. the Tories to destroy the Whigs. In the meanwhile,
the last base means of acting- on the electoral body
possessed by the Tories, the self-elect Corporations,
are about to be destroyed. The popular Town Coun-
cils, aided by- the recent examples of Great Yarmouth,
ipswich, and York, will effectually defeat bribery and
corruption.q We may, therefore, safely congratulate
the counvy on the recent successful exertions of the
Reformers, the result of which will thus amply repay
them. We are well aware of the personal sacrifices of
their recent attention to the registration, and, of the

the
We
will

Grievous defects of the system. But in a little time,
good government will be safely established. Next
session the machinery of the Reform Bills, the imper-
fections of which we shall hereafter demonstrate, must
necessarily be improved. Perhaps that discussion will
not be so offensive to the Peers as the controversy on
constitution of the Upper House of Parliament.
are sure that any Reformed House of Commons
abate the nuisance of the existing system of re-

gistration.—Morning Chronicle.
A; we fearlessly attacked the French Government
when we had every reason to believe, from the tone of
their official organs, that in their conduct towards
Spain, they were openly departing from their engage-
ments under the Quadruple Alliance, so we are ready
to hail, what we now hope to be a better understanding
with our Cabinet upon that important subject. We
have always admitted the difficulty of exercising an
efficient control over the long line of frontier which
extends from Bayonne to Perpignan, and the conse-
quent impossibility of preventing supplies from being
forwarded across some parts of that line to the troops
of the Pretender. But our complaints have been
founded on the well-ascertained fact, that no vigilance
whatever was exercised on any part of the frontiers
with a view to intercept those supplies ; that, on the
contrary, the French authorities in the southern
departments not only neglected, with impunity,
the instructions which were originally transmitted
to them in compliance with the terms of the
treaty, but even facilitated the transit of all
kinds of munitions of war to the insurgent forces in
Navarre and Biscay. These acts of the French local
authorities, connived at by their Government, were
calculated greatly* to extend the material resources of
Don Carlos ; but what was of still more injury to the
righteous cause, to lend a moral support to that Prince,
which has encouraged him to persevere in his rebellion
longer than he would have done under less
auspicious circumstances. Other facts, implicating
individual members of the French Cabinet, connected
with communications which have passed from time
to time .between Bayonne and the head-quarters
of the Pretender, have come to our knowledge.
But we forbear adverting to them 'at present, as
we have strong reason to hope that the Duke de
Broglie has succeeded in his efforts for causing the
Quadruple Treaty to be more scrupulously respected.
He has, in the first place, declared to Lord
Granville, that the Journal des Debats is no longer
the organ (y. the French Government. It was the
decidedly Carlist tone taken during the last two
months by that journal, that excited the indignation to
which we have lately given unreserved expression,
whenever we felt it to be our duty to animadvert on
the faithless policy avowed by a publication so long
ender the declared patronage of the Doctrinaires, and'
notoriously maintained out of the funds of the secret
service department. Those supplies are now discon-
tinued. The ,Journal des Debuts is sold to the Car-
lists ; and we shall, therefore, in future, attach no
more importance to its views upon any Spanish affairs,
than they may deserve from their intrinsic merit.
We recognize in that paper an antagonist of great
ability and acquirements ; but the vizor has 'been
drawn up, and we now know the real character
of the champion against whom we shall have to
contend. The determihation of the President of
the French Council to have the charge which was
made against him of 'sanctioning General Lata-
pie's Carlist articles in the journal just mentioned,
openly investigated in a court of justice, affords
another decisive proof of his sincerity in the as-
surances which he has just given to our Government
with reference to the Quadruple Alliance. How far
that investigation may tend to involve some of his col-
leagues in the crime, as we should consider it, of deal-
ing falsely by him upon. the Spanish question, remains
to be seen. Should it turn out that niers or Guizot
had interviews with Latapie, and obtained access for
him to the .lournal des Debuts, we take it for granted
that his high sense of honour will at once point out
the only course worthy of his character—no longer to
sit in the same council with persons upon whom no
dependence can be placed. A third measure has been
adopted, within these few days, with reference to the
observance of the treaty, which affords us still more
satisfaction. The War Minister has represented to
the King the necessity of paying more attention to the
guard and defence of the Pyrennian frontiers.
" The inconvenience," he remarks, "of not being,
able to place under the command of the local mi-
litary authorities the supplementary forces which
may be-collected on the frontier, has long been felt."
In order to remedy this inconvenience, the Minister
has issued a decree creating two new military districts,
the head-quarters of one of which is henceforth to be
at Bayonne, and another at Perpignan. Hitherto,
the whole frontier has been included in one military
district, the head-quarters of which were at, Bordeaux
—a distance obviously incompatible with the strict
execution of- the duties required to be performed on
that' station in the present circumstances of Spain.
If; in addition to these measures, a little friendly ad-
vice were given to the Count Rayneval, to dissemble,
with somewhat more of French courtesy, his hostility
to the new Ministry at Madrid, it would be advanta-
geous to all parties. To recal the Count, and give
him leave to pass the winter at his country seat, would
be a proceeding infinitely more desirable. No repre-
sentative of France, who is not frankly liberal in his
opinions, will ever have the slightest chance again of
exercising any influence at the Court of Spain.—
Morning Chronicle.
The want of a statuteable provision for the poor of
Ireland has a very serious effect upon the agricultural
interests of this country, and upon the condition of the
jEnglish labourer. It is not, therefore, exclusively an
Irish question, and the electors for the agricultural
j districts would do well to insist upon the question being
energetically taken up by their Representatives in the
next cession of Parliament, and no longer left to the
shuffling discretion of the Irish Government, who
shoved it overboard last year, or to the treache-
I rous tactics of Mr. O'Connell, who would much
rather fleece the poor than feed them, and who,
yehile he extracts 15,0001. per annum out of the
paCkets of an impoverished people, mocks their
mistry with promises of poor laws, that, like
every patriotic declaration of his which does not
tend to his own personal aggrandisement, end in
smoke.
The increasing agitation of this man is a
continued
curse to Ireland—it deprives thousands upon
thousands of his unfortunate countrymen of the means
of earning an honest livelihood by the labour of their
hands, on t heir own soil, where, if it were not for
the system of outrage, and the general sense of inse-
t curity whicl i that agitation produces, British capital
would longs ince have been poured forth in abundance,
to turn to ac .count tiio great natural capabilities of a
country, endoni red with various sources of national
wealth that hit. ve been lying waste since the deluge.
By his preventi rig the outlay of British capital in Ire-
land, ever since the " healing measure" of Catholic
emancipation t ,vas granted, Mr. O'Connell deserves
the execration of that destitute, betrayed, and de-
frauded peasant! -y, who, in their deplorable ignorance,
follow with ; shouts of frantic enthusiasm the
man who sac rifices, without remorse, their inte-
rests, and eve ry chance of prosperity for his
country, to the g ratification of his own sordid ambition.
We observe thk t recently Mr. O'Connell has ad-
dressed the iinha.
bitants of Limerick in favour of a
system of poor IaIN 's, and made magnificent promises
on the subject as to his own future exertions. He
enacted a similar
spoke loud an d L ai.l. tgvce at Dublin last year, where he
of his intentions to obtain a pro-
vision for the tam •vi.ng poor, in the Session then about
to commence. 1,1 lell, he came to Parliament, and cer-
tainly he was not ; silent there upon any subject that
concerned himself he was silent on the poor laws I
A new famine sprung up in the north-west of Ireland ;
it slew its thousat ids—the cries of the sufferers rang
through the land; but still the patriotic O'Connell was
Bilent- His frien d Lord Morpeth, the Secretary for
Ireland, spoke, bu tit was to deprecate premature dis-
cussion upon the s uestion of a provision for the famish-
ing poor. The work of starvation went on, Lord Mor-
peth folded his ha nds to sleep in his Secretarial chair,
and Mr. O'Corael 1 was still -silent upon the wrongs of
the perishing poo until he prepared to fill his own
begging-box once-, .nore by a new tour of agitation.—
Morning Herald..')