The Sun.
London, England, 1832-02-16 00:00:00

WARWICKSHIRE ANTI-REFORMERS.

The Warwickshire County Papers of this
week furnish a singular commentary on the
busily propagated falsehoods of the Anti-Re-
formers, on the subject of re-action and popular
apathy. An Anti-Reform declaration, with
some few hundred names attached (headed by
the Lord Lieutenant, Earl Warwick !), and
five Lords, chaunts the usual Tory chorus against

Political Unions, new Peers, and the Ministe-
rial Reform Bill, professing nevertheless mode-
!
. rate Reform. This document, like its fellow-
, declarations in other counties, has been snugly
' and privately '' got Up," and is profusely signed
by Clerical Magistrates and such a Lieutenancy
Staff as doubtless exists in a county over which
an Opposition Lord Lieutenant presides. The
Midland Representative states, that not above
100 Birmingham persons signed the protest.
The real public opinion of this county cannot
now he mistaken. The county, the county
town, and the city of Coventry, returned to
Parliament six representatives, staunch advo-
cates of the Reform Bill. No Opposition can-
didate appeared at the hustings throughout the
county—formetly a district in which Toryism
reigned paramount. No Anti-Reformer ap-
peared' at- any one public meeting during the
' last twelve months, and a large portion of the
county Aristocracy publicly declared with the
people. It will be nevertheless conveyed to
Brighton, that the county of Warwick is op-
posed to Reform. We extract the following
strange proof from the Birmingham Journal
of Saturday :
" THE POLITICAL UNION.-The usual meeting of the
Political Cou:,cil took place on Tuesday night, when W.
Bou!thee, Esq., of Herefoid,.was elected a. member. At
the close of the meeting un application was made to the
Chairman, to know when it would he Convenient to the
Council to receive a Voluntary Declaration, sigiiNl by
finly thousand men,' Members and Friends. V the Poll,
tical Union, residing in the town and neidtbout.bdod of
Birmingham, expressing their entire approbation of all, the
proceedings of the Council, and their determination to
support. the Council in any measures which it might deem
necessary to the recovery of the national liberty and hap-
piness. The Chairman expressed his gratification at this
new proof of confidence and enthusiasm on the part of the
Union, and said that it was a subject of great importance,
and that he must take time to consider of it. We under-
stand that the Dec:faro/too contains the age, residence,
and occupation of eatqi,lif the parties signing it."
What sort of re-action might take place in
this county if the Reform Bill was again thrown
out it, the Lords, and how far the Warwickshire
Reformers would accept a sham measure of Re-
form from Anti-Reformers (who, professing
moderate Reform, have all their lives opposed
any Reform), we 'shall leave to' the' imagination
of our readers. Certain we are that Mr. Thomas
Attwood has a larger posse comitaius at his com-
mand than the Lord Lieutenant, Earl Brooke
and Warwick ; and we are not surprised that his
Lordship should, therefore, be . jealous of so
powerful and popular a comtwuer, and should
seek to suppress political organization, which
nothing, however, can put down -but the passing
of the Reform Bill. But to return to the mock
liberalism of these protesting gentlemen. They
profess in the declaration that they are anxious
" for a safe, temperate, and effectual correction
olahuses or defects which may be proved prac-
tically to exist ;" and that for such reformation
" there are no warmer advocates than ourselves.'
When did these gentlemen ever advocate any
Reform, and when did they not oppose every
suggestion of Reform ? Their conversion to
the cause of liberty and political liberty is too
late ; a death-bed repen'ance will not avail them.
And who are these 800 Protestants in a county
which is the focus of public spirit in favour of
the national regeneration ? They are headed by
the Lord Lieutenant, Earl Warwick ; by Lords
Aylesford, Howe, Willoughby de Broke, Digby,
and Redesdale. They comprise a tithe of parsons,
in number sixty-eight, and only nine magistrates,
half of whom are clerical ! The' declaration of
course has the sanction and signature of the
usual number of town-clerks of corporationS, and
other municipal servants, including a copious
proportion of farmers, tenants of the Tory land-
, owners, who naturally follow their land-lords'
opinions and commands. It contains one
hundred-and one Birmingham names only ; and
this small sample of the property, character, and
intellect of this large and wealthy county is, with
infinite assurance, put forth as a proof of re-
action, and decided public opinion against the
measures of his Majesty's Ministers. We apo-
logise to our-readers for bestowing so long a
commentary on a local matter of such insignifi-
cance ; but we have made this minute analysis of
a trumpeted and pompous document,
,to show
in its true colours the arts of Tory imposture.
That it should contain the names of Peers and
magistrates is no marvel when it is considered
by whom and of whom these castes have been
made for the last century. At the WarwickL
shire county Reform meeting in November,
after the rejection of the Bill, Sir George Phil-
lips acutely observed—
" There wes a want of accordance between the Lords
and the people of England on this great question. What
was the reason of that? Why, the people had been go-
verned for the last half century by a Ministry totally de-
void of liberal principles—a Ministry who threw every
impediment in the way of an admission into the House of
Lords, or into any of the honours of the Strte, of men of
liberal principles. In several counties that had been car-
ried to such an extent, that the most trifling thing had
been caught hold of to withhold from men of high rank
and station the honours of even a Lord Lieutenancy."
These remarks of the Hon. J3aronet, which
we extract from the Chronicle report of No-
vember 10th, are extremely appropriate to a just
estimate of the protesting declaration, as also
the following extract from the Address to Earl
Grey, unanimously voted at the same county
meeting, where no Anti-Reformer showed his
face :

" That we observe with deep regret the active opposi-
tion to his Majesty's Councils and Government of persons
holding official situations; and we respectfully implore
your Lordship to terminate the disgraceful exclusion of
men of liberal opinions from civil distinctions, and to re-
commend the constitutional exercise of all those Royal
Prerogatives that may be now or hereafter essential to the
success of the Reform Bill--energy and determination
being necessary to the maintenance and success of your
Lordship's Administration."

That a county of so much public spirit and
energy
bea Noblemandisg ustel
thusNsith
opposedtle
a
Lord-
Lieutenancy should
()fs
Lord Warwick is to the spirit of the times, can-
not be matter of wonder, when a despicable
system of political exclusion proscribes from the
Magistracy (in two flagrant instances especially)
men of acknowledged station, property, and
public character. Such a system must have its
natural termination, and all sensible men would
wish to see enlightened Members of the War-
wickshire County Aristocracy—Mr. Lawlev,
Mr. Chandos Leigh, Sir George Chetwynd,
and Sir George Phillips—raised to the Peerage,
to represent the liberal opinions of the present
age, as Lords Warwick, Aylesford, Willoughby
de Broke, Dighy, Redesdale, reflect the by-
pne opinions and prejudices of past times.
The Ministry cannot fail to discern in the noble

names, thus blindly attached to these- Tory:ma-
nifestounequivocial signs of the second rejec-
tibti.of the Reform Bill- by the Peers, if their
numbers are not increased.—Mon!ing Chroti..