The Sun.
London, England, 1832-06-07 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We communicate to the country, with deer
and sincere grief, the fact that his Majesty will
not attend in person to give the Royal Assent to
the English Reform Bill. A more unfortunate
deteimination could not have been imposed on
the King, and it must have been instigated by
courtier advisers surrounding the Royal Person,
actuated by a desire to sow jealousies between the
Monarch and his people. The utmost excite-
ment pervaded this great metropolis the whole
of yesterday, from an anxiety that his Majesty
should avail himself of the golden opportunity
of this grand national occasion to renew his so-
lemn covenant of affection and liberty with his
loyal subjects. Arrangements had been made
for his Majesty's popular reception by deputa-
tions from the different parishes of the metropo-
lis. Up to a late hour yesterday afternoon, the
King was at St. James's, which was naturally
considered as an indication of his intention to
go down to Parliament in person this day ; anda
report was current that the Royal equipages were
prepared for the joyous event. His Majesty,
however, took his departure, last night,
fir Windsor, and, with feelings of deep
regret, we deem it to be our duty to allay
the public anxiety and certain disappointment by
this previous communication. Such a grievous
decision cannot, v.e are confident, be attributed
to the Cabinet ; it must emanate from those
despicable minions who have unhappily misled
his Majesty, and who, for their own base pur-
poses, endeavour to estrange him from the af-
fections of the people. The back stairs in-
triguers—the miserable whisperers in the Royal
ear, are the responsible agents of this national
disappointment ; they have destroyed themselves,
and they now seek to involve the Monarch in
their own fall. On their heads be the respon-
sibility and consequences of the act. His Ma-
jesty must be surrounded by deceivers and ca-
lumniators of the people ; his own natural
impulses would otherwise have gratified the
ardent and loyal hopes of his subjects. The
Royal Assent will be given to the Bill, in the
House of Lords, this day, at four o'clock, by
commission ; the usual State Officers will attend
for that joyful purpose—Lord Grey, Lord
Brougham, Lord Durham, Lord Lansdowne, and
other official organs of the Government.—
Morning Chronicle.
The Political Unions are the favourite sub-
ject of abuse and vituperation by the Anti-Re-
formers in Parliament. These desperate and
sagacious party politicians have various motives
for their malignity and hate. First, they are
sensitively aware, that these Political Associa-
tions have mainly contributed to break up the
borough system, and, by their energy and union,
to defeat the base machinations of the Tories
and " Red Tape" placemen. Secondly, they
ingeniously and artfully hope to increase the dif-
fictf ties of the Government in regard to Politi-
cal Unions, and the natural jealousy of the
Crown of their existence and possible continua-
tion. These are the double motives of the pre-
sent factious opposition. We have only to sub-
mit their hollow and base devices to the test of
fact and common sense, to expose their titter
insincerity and baseness. Mr. Thomas A ttwood
is denounced as the Father of Political Unions.
But what is their real parentage ? The Duke
of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel are the
real parents of Political Unions—the father
and mother, who have indeed begotten mon-
sters that devoured themselves. The ever-
memorable consequences of the East Ret-
furd votes are notorious to the whole king-
dom. The craft and blindness of Sir Robert
Peel insulted and outraged the hopes of the
public-spirited and energetic inhabitants of Bir•
iningham. The loan cunning and short-sighted
policy of Sir Robert Peel terminated all expec-
tation of any the smallest quantum of Reform.
The subsequent insane and infatuated declaration
by the Duke of Wellington, on the opening of
the autumn session of 1830, notwithstanding
the important events and solemn warnings in
France, that the constitution of the House o

Commons was perfect, filled the minds of the
British people with dismay and despair, and
nerved their hearts with bold and patriotic de-
termination. The Birmingham Union, at that

momentous period, stood alone—a lighthouse
in the ocean of corruption. It formed, in the
centre of a vast and intelligent population, the
nucleus and point d'appui of political combi-
nation. In a short period the radii of its central

influence extended to the remotest part of the
United Kingdom. The Reformers made com-
mon cause, and buried in oblivion their various
differences of opinion—forming a solemn league
arid covenant to depose the infamous faction and
oligarchy which had so long tyrannized over the
country, And how were these Political Asso-

ciations constituted ? We assert, strictly within
the law ; and it is a remarkable fact Chat, sub-

sisting for months before the breaking up of
the Wellington Administration, they were

ogoicr even in any single instance arraigned

for a breach of- the —law ! Happy would
the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert
Ppel have considered themselves if they could
1-see discovered a plausible excuse for supressing
these formidable bodies, or blackening them by
sfr-gal persecution ! But it was impossible,
though often sought ; and the Ex-Ministers who
now taunt the present Government with corre-
spondence with these strictly legal bodies, actually
aila frequently exchanged communications with
xhe Linions ! Facts are stubborn things, and.
the records of many Political Unions attest the

truth of this assertion. Assuredly it is cues-
4cely natural, that Sir Robert Peel and John
Wilson Croker should bitterly hate the instru-

Men ts which have thus contributed to dose their
. .

political existence ; hence the bitter animosity of
the ex-placemen against the clubs of the people.
Pitt Clubs, Boodle's, Constitutional Associations,
and Charles-street Gangs, were righteous and
!evil in the eyes of the Tories as combinations
againat the rights of the people ; but other
Political Unions, to renovate the Constitution,

to enforce a new distribution of power, called for
by time and the diffusion of knowledge, were,
formooth, illegal and unconstitutional ! The
boroughmongers early foresaw the germ of their

destruction in the union of the people. Sedition
And riot were anciently the only illegal objects or
unconstitutional acts of political associations.
The common law was the sole requisite se-

curity against illegal proceedings. In the
year 1780 was formed the Society for diffusing
Information on Constitutional matters, and in

the memorable year 1792, the London Corre-
sponding Society and the Society of the Friends
of the People were formed to promote Parlia-
mentary Reform. At the head of the latter Political
Associatioi stood Charles Grey and twenty-
two Members of the House of Commons, with

all the popular and influential Reformers of the
day. Mr. Pitt soon discerned the certain ruin
of corruption in these societies. 'rile infamous
and rotten system of representation was soon
exposed to the public `;sae and abhorrence, and

the whole country roused to a sense of its politi-
vat 'degradation: Green-bag plots, secret com-
mittees, and reports, were speedily contrived, to
keep down the rising spirit of the people. Every
possible political bugbear was invented by an
infamous Ministry to " put down" Reform.
The bug-a-boo of a French invasion was the
most successful diversion, and a foreign war the
ingenious contrivance to cheat the public mind.
The Habeas Corpus Act was suspended, and
warrants from the Privy Council were profusely
issued against every young and indiscreet Re-
former. Pitt's Sedition Act was the first statute
against the political liberties of the people. This
infamous sample of a scandalous legislation ex-
pired 1798. In 1799 an ACt was passed (39th
Geo. 111., c. 79) " for the more effectual sup-
pression of societies established for seditious and
;treasonable purposes, and for the better prevent-
ing seditious and treasonable practices ;" in other
Iwords—for the felonious purpose of postponing
!Parliamentary Reform. This statute ren-
dered illegal all political tests, delegations, and
'correspondence, enacting certain penalties for
evasion. Prosecutions succeeded against Horne
Tooke, Hardy, Muir, Palmer, and the un-
fortunate and noble-minded Gerrald. The heart
shudders at the remembrance of these cruel sa-
crifices of victims, whose sufferings were the
fertile nurture of Reform. In 1817, the popu-
lar demand for Reform again burst forth. A
new political extinguisher became necessary.
The boroughmongers provided one in the statute
of the 57th Geo. 111., c. 19. This iniquitous
act of legislation was similar to its predecessor,
it prohibited correspondence and delegation. But
in no single instance have the political unions
of the present era of Reform violated the letter
or spirit of the law. They have been strictly
lawful and constitutional associations, for the ac-
complishment of Parliamentary Reform. If
revolution had been the ostensible or secret ob-
ject, as asserted by the Tories, excellent oppor-
tunities existed in October and May last. Sir
Robert Peel and his footman, John Wilson
Croker, taunt the Government with the imputa-
tion that the Proclamation of November last
was intended to suppress these political bodies.
They well know that its only object was to pre-
vent an illegal police organization, which com-
menced in Birmingham, and that no proclama-
tion can over-ride the law, or make political as-
sociations illegal which are strictly constitutional.
But it is convenient for these two " veritable
Statesmen" to make Political Unions the ful-
cruin of their party levers, and to endeavour art-
fully to excite the fears of his Majesty against
them. The Unions, however, have eman-
cipated the King from the thraldom and
vassalage of the boroughmongers. They have
redeemed the people from political slavery and
from fiscal extortions, more intolerable than the
oppressions and plagues of Egypt. Mr. John
Wilson Croker, N' ho is extremely choice in his
precedents from the United States, cites the
opinion of Washington against the impe-
rzum in imperio of political associations. Un-
questionably these bodies are inconsistent
with good government and national peace. But
what is their cause and origin ? They are
the effect, not the cause, of bad government.
The countrymen of Washington combined and
united to emancipate themselves from the domi-
nation of a tyrannical and foreign Legislature;
and the sole spirit 01 the denunciation of
Washington was the inconsistency of such
bodies continuing agitation when the causes of
their formation had ceased. If Political Unions
are " let alone"—if unprovoked by false and im-
prudent legislation—they will naturally and
certainly expire with the causes and objects
which called them into being. When the Re-
form Bills are carried, men of station and
worldly pursuits will never continue that labori-
ous and anxious devotion of time and mind to
political agitation which they have so honour-
ably and successfully bestowed on the present
contest for Parliamentary Reform. Unions
will then die a natural death. The only pro-
longation of their existence would be an
unjust and persecuting Legislation ; and it is the
cunning and unceasing object of such disap-
pointed°and hungry ex-placemen as Mr John
Wilson Croker and such prostrated politicians
as Sir Robert Peel to endeavour to embroil the
Ministry with the King, and in mad crusades

against the unions and the people. The arti-
fices will not succeed, notwithstanding the in-
dustry and machinations of the Opposition, who
sigh for the places of Ministers, and are ever
plotting to retard the great objects of a reformed
House of Commons. Lord Grey, on Monday
last, wisely appealed to the Reform Bills, as the
only effectual mode of terminating the political
combination of the Unions ; and Lord John
Russell, with statesman-like wisdom, stated on
Tuesday that " the good sense and right judg-
ment of the people of England, when they had
the opportunity of choosing their own Repre-
sentatives; would not continue associations in-
jurious to themselves, the Government, and the
Constitution."—Morning Chronicle.

However, or in whatsoever form, the Royal
assent shall be given to the Reform Bill, matters
not, as we said yesterday, a single straw to the
people of England. Whether his Majesty
(seated on his throne and crowned) shall, as is
customary, make a.signal to the Clerk of the House
of Lords, authorizing that officer to pronounce
the ancient formulary Le bile veal, or whether
the Lord Chancellor, as spokesman for the
Commissioners, shall, in his Sovereign's name
and absence, declare to Parliament that the King
has consented to pass the Bill into a law, matters
to the validity of that law not a single farthing,—
to the purgation of future Parliaments not a
farthing,—to the permanent interests of the
country, nothing : but to the King—William
IV., we mean—it is every thing. The Royal
presence, on the appointment of a commission,
will be regarded universally throughout the em-
pire as a proof that the Sovereign is a liberal and
patriotic King, a champion for the constitution
in its purity,—true, constant, and religious in his
fidelity to England, his wedded and devoted wife,
or that he has taken Toryism for a mistress, and
been intimidated by her termagant brawling.
The people of this country are by habit most loyal
and attached to their Kings. That they should
deliberately violate the strict duty of obedience
to the law, or of prescribed and outward respect
to the Sovereign's office, is not to us conceivable.
But there is a wide difference between cordiality

and punctilio,—between obedience to the autho-
rity and affection to the person of a prince.
King William, if we mistake not, is of a nature
to feel the loss of his people's heart for its
own sake, far more than for that of any formal
weakening of the Sovereign power, which might,
and indeed must, flow from such a calamity.
We assure his Majesty, in a spirit of profound
solicitude for the ease and happiness of his
future life, that the appearance of disre-
people's wishes, or of sym-
gard for his
pathy with the mortified spite and inso-
lence of ;the defeated borough faction,—the

mere shadow, we repeat, of that disregard on
one hand, and of that complaisance on the other,
which must be implied by his voluntary absence
from among his subjects on so glorious an oc-
casion, when they cry out and pray for their
good King William to " bring home his own
finished work,"----to be, as becomes him, the
High-Priest of' the nation, and officiate for
them and with them at this vast solemnity, would
make the difference to oui Sovereign of being
for life the most honoured and beloved of Kings,
or one who had irrecoverably flung away more
of public affection, more of public gratitude,
than ever before was at King's or man's disposal.
If his Majesty hears no truth within his Palace,
let him search for the treasure out of doors. His
high estimation of' the people of England has
long been wormwood to many of the persons who
infest the Court, and would fain monopolize, or
share with old partners in bad government, the
Royal authority and councils. They move
Heaven and earth to break off the alliance be-
tween King and people, that his Majesty may
cease to have any dependence but on their own
faction, and may then be driven unresistingly
into their toils. If they can succeed in now
detaching William IV. from a nation so
eager to applaud and love him, as the
people of the United Kingdom have again
become since the reinstatement of Lord
Grey's Ministry, the immediate consequence
must lie, a corresponding alienation of the
public mind from the Monarch. But we
augur more encouraging prospects than these
on behalf of our kind-hearted Sovereign. The
people of England yearn towards him, and
pant for the opportunity to wipe out from his
imagination the chimeras with which it has been
filled. Let his Majesty despise the folly or
the mischief which lurks in the remonstrances
of stupid women against his suffering himself
to be styled " the People's King." Is it not a
prouder title than that of " the Tory King ?"
Let his Majesty trust his faithful people, and
take and cherish their affectionate gratitude as
frankly as they tender it in all loyalty and ho-
nour. Let him indulge them with a spectacle
of Imperial state, made tributary to the solid
happiness of unborn millions of Englishmen.
Whoever dares to insinuate suspicions of the
possibility of insult being offered to King
William IV., while engaged in the performance
of the sacred duty to which the business of
this day invites him, knows worse than no-
thing of the British mind, and ought to retire
from a scene which little suits such a slanderer.
—Times.
In the House of Lords last night there was
little said. The Duke of Wellington, however,
made his appearance, and the Reform Bill, which
was returned from the Commons, was laid upon
their Lordships' table in profound silence. After
the Duke of Buckingham had presented a peti-
tion from the Queen's county on the state of Ire-
land, the Earl of Roden gave notice of a motion
on that subject for Tuesday, June 19. The
iVlarquis of Lansdowne informed the House that
the Commission lately appointed in Ireland had
proved itself adequate to the enforcement of
the law, after which the conversation dropped,
and the House adjourned. In the Commons
several petitions were presented by Mr. O'Con-
nell, Mr. Ruthven, and others, upon a variety of
subjects, amongst which were the Irish Reform
Bill, and the Irish Grand Jury Bill. It was
stated by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and
Mr. Spence, in answer to questions from Mr. J.
Campbell, that Bills would be introduced in the
course of the present Session, for regulating the
salary of the Lord Chancellor, and arranging
the business of various officers connected with
his Lordship's Court, but it was not expected
that both Bills could be completed and
passed before the prorogation. A brief, but
not uninteresting, discusson took place
on the question for the commitment of Mr. Ba-
ring's Bill respecting Parliamentary privilege.
The object of this Bill, as described by its author,
is to prevent the privileges of the House from
being made use of to keep poor people out of
their money ; and the way in which it proposes
to do so is by vacating the seat of the Member
so indebted, if after due notice the debt be not
discharged. Mr. O'Connell, Mr. J. Campbell,
Mr. C. NV. Wynn, the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer, and others, objected to the Bill, though
they generally approved of the object it had in
view. The chief objections insisted on were the
possibility of its interfering with the freedom of
debate, and the partial manner in which it was
likely to operate in favour of the moneyed, and
against the landed, interest. Mr. Baring hoped
the House would consent to go inrtoofoCroimnam,iattnede
pro forma, for the purpose of filling up the
blanks. After a division upon the question, the
House went into Committee p
the Bill was ordered to be recommitted on Wed-
nesday. The Scotch Reform Bill in Committee
occupied the greater part of the night afterwards,
—Morning Herald.