The Sun.
London, England, 1835-05-07 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

As we anticipated the defeat of Lord John Rus-
sel in South Devon, from the moment that we heard
of an opponent upon Protestant principles being in
the field, we are not surprised at the result. It would
have much surprised us, indeed, had it been the other
way ; but we confess we were not prepared to hear of
his Lordship being defeated by so overwhelming a ma-
jority. Nothing but a strong re-action of public feel-
ing against their late Representative, on account of
dangerous and degrading coalition with the party of
the Irish Agitator, whose aim and object is the over-
throw of the Protestant Constitution, could have led
to this decisive rejection. The electors of Devonshire
have not forgotten that their forefathers rallied round
the standard of Protestant liberties, in the memor-
able crisis of 1688. The Whigs of that day were
the supporters of those principles by which this em-
pire was saved from arbitrary power, and the intole-
rable dominion of the Church of Rome ; and though
the Whigs of the present day have deserted the prin-
ciples for which Latimer and Ridley perished at the
stake, and Lord Russell on the scaffold, the men
of Devon have not. They support the same prin-
ciples for which their ancestors contended, which are
consecrated in the Bill of Rights, and constitute the
foundation of the Act of Settlement which placed the
House of Brunswick on the Throne. Friendly, as we
are, to religious toleration in its largest sense, we
cannot believe that to be a spirit of liberality which
encourages the struggles for ascendancy in a system
that silences reason by an assumption of infallible
power, and, bv'prohibiting the use of the Scriptures to
the people, shuts up the living fountains of Christian
civilization. Wishing for the religious and moral
education of the people—that species of education
which improves-the heart while it corrects the errors of
the understanding--wishing, we say, to see generally
diffused that sort of wholesome and Christian educa-
tion, we cannot assent to the Whig policy which
would despoil a Church that commands and
exhorts the people to read the Scriptures, for the
benefit of a religious system which forbids the
use of the Scriptures to the people, and makes
the history of revealed religion a sealed book.
None are more anxious than ourselves for the reform
of all proved abuses in the Established Church ; of
that we have given abundant proofs. We have never
advocated the existence of religious sinecures, but have
zealously recommended their extirpation. We would
have no man paid out of the sacred fund which is to
provide religious teachers and religious knowledge for
the people, but actual labourers in the vineyard. We
have repeatedly written against the abuses which exist
in the English Church and in the Irish branch of the
Establishment. We did so before the Reform Bill was
in existence, and when many who are now ultra-re-
formers, and who would rather destroy than renovate,
rather discountenanced than encouraged such reforms.
Having for years past contended for the abolition of
pluralities--like most of the abuses of our Church, a
Papal invention—the suppression of sinecures and
the practice of holding livings in commendam—
also Papal contrivances, we saw our wishes
about to be realised by the large and sub-
stantial measure of Church Reform proposed by
Sir Robert Peel. But the unprincipled coalition
of Lord John Russell with the Repeal Agitator, for
the gratification of a selfish ambition, has, as yet, de-
piived the country of the benefits of that great mea-
sure, as well as interrupted the progress of many other
measures of reform, framed upon constitutional prin-
ciples, and calculated, by purifying our institutions
from their abuses, to preserve their stability. It is
vain to assert that the monstrous coalition which led to
the displacement of the late Ministry has not alarmed
whatever of sober good sense and constitutional feel-
ing exists in the country. The Whigs have had some
disagreeable proofs of this already, and they will have
mote before the close of the present Session of Parlia-
ment, which, in consequence of the selfish proceedings,
has been hitherto a Parliament assembled for any
thing but the " despatch of business." As to the
result of the North Essex election, the Whig-Radical
journals said it was no proof of any re-action, because,
although the Conservative candidate was elected by
an immense majority, he only succeeded another Con-
servative. Not so in South Devon ; a Whig has been
displaced for a Conservative—a Whig did we say ?
the leader of the Whigs—the champion of the Church.
spoliation project--the leader, according to his own ac-
count, of the largest Opposition that ever was com-
bined against the Ministers of the Crown. Ay, say
the Whig-Radical journals, but this was effected by
influence, by intimidation, and all sorts of unfair means.
But had not the Tories all the same means in their
power, and were they not as well disposed to use them
—nay, were they not charged with using them when
Lord John Russell stood a former contested election
for the same division of the county, subsequently to the
passing of the Reform Bill, and was he not chosen by
a triumphant majority ? Why is he rejected by a
larger majority now ?_ Not because he is a Reformer,
we assert, but because he has passed the limits of Re-
form for the sake of power—because he has leagued
himself with the enemies of the Church and of the Con-
stitution, which, with all their faults, are still endeared
to the feelings of a large majority of Englishmen bygreat
and glorious recollections—by recollections which can-
not fail to exercise a great moral and political influence
until history is forgotten and patriotism extinguished.
The re-action, then, is not against Reform—against
safe, temperate, and constitutional Reform—but it is
against Whiggism, acting under the dictation of de-
structive and Papal influence--it is against Whiggism,
opposed to the principles of the Constitution of 1688—
it is against Whiggism speaking under the inspiration
of Mr. O'Connell. Such is the nature of the re-
action which has so signally thrown the leader of the
late Whig-Radical Opposition out of the representa-
tion of South Devon, to seek the protection of some
Whig nomination borough, or go into Parliament, ac-
cording to " Mr. Bulwer's French model," as recom-
mended in the Ministerial Paper, a Member of the
national representation, relieved from the unpleasantness
of representing any constituency. As to the compara-
tive independence of the two parties in Devonshire,
let us just see how that stands. In our report from the
scene of action was the following description, by an im-
partial eye-witness :—" The appearance of the supporters
of the Conservative candidate afforded a most favourable
specimen of the class from whom he received his sup-
port, and formed a striking contrast both in numbers
and aspect to the adherents of Lord John Russell,
who, without any disparagement, certainly did not pre-
sent the same indication of substantial independence
by which the friends of Mr. Parker were distin-
guished. Some of the Noble Lord's partisans,
however, have evinced an intention of making up
by tumult and violence the deficiency which they
labour under in point of station and influence."
The real influence which has defeated Lord John
Russell is the influence of that feeling which was ex-
pressed the other day in the address to the King, not
from the Tory but the Reform party in Tamworth,
when they said " sincere friends to efficient yet tempe-
rate reform, but determinately opposed to spoliation,
we are compelled to view the proposed measure (fos-
tered as it is by the portentous influence of persons
whom oaths have proved too weak to bind) as tending
to disunite the British empire, by sapping the founda-
tions and the strength of the united Church." " Mind-
ful of those great Protestant principles, for the main-
tenance of which the House of Hanover was called to
the sovereignty of these realms, we earnestly implore
your Majesty to withhold your sanction from any mea-
sure which may be devised for the application of the funds
of the Church to secular purposes, or the propagation of
any other than the Protestant religion as by law esta-
blished." Such are the sentiments or an address which
emanated from those electors of Tamworth, who have
always been consistent and unflinching reformers--and
it is the feeling which inspired such sentiments that
ejected Lord John Russell from the representation of
South Devon.—Morning Herald.

The men of Devonshire having proved themselves
worthy descendants of their brave and pious Protes-
tant ancestors, it is now our duty, as far as lies in our
power, to direct every energy to ensure success in the
West Riding of the great and influential county of
York. The contest in the West Riding is to be
viewed with the most careful and scrutinizing conside-
ration. First, because of the immense number of the

Constituency, there being between eighteen and nine-
teen thousand registered voters. Secondly, because
this district is the stronghold of the political Dissen-
ters, and of the great millowners, who, on almost
every occasion, unite against the proprietors of the
soil of England. Thirdly, because the Reform Bill
enfranchising Sheffield, Huddersfield, Halifax, Leeds,
and Bradford, and giving two additional Members
to the county, produced so strong a predilection in
those important towns, and adjacent districts, in
favour of the Whig Government, that, before the
present crisis, any attempt at opposition to the sit-
ting Member, Lord Morpeth, would have been
considered little better than the result of a disor-
dered imagination. How, then, does it happen that
in three short months, since the last election, a storm
has arisen in Yorkshire that has shaken the stronghold
of its most popular Member ; and threatens even to
drive Lord Morpeth fairly out of the county ? There
is only one answer that can be given to this important
question. It is that which was given in the admirable
resolutions of the Wakefield meeting. The change
has been produced by the factious Opposition of Lord
Morpeth since the assembling of Parliament, and the
utter abhorrence entertained by Yorkshiremen of the
idea that their Representative should degenerate into a
mere tool—and, above all, into a tool of O'Connell's
faction—to assist in destroying the Protestant institu-
tions of the country. Mr. Wortley is comparative')
unknown in Yorkshire ; but he has won golden opi-
nions in every town he has visited ; and the old and
steady friends of Lord Wharncliffe have been forcibly
reminded of that Noble Lord's firmness and intelli-
gence by the intrepidity and quickness displayed by his
son. The contest will, however, be a stormy one.
We learn from Doncaster that the Liberals, as they
are called, have already had recourse to the arguments
of " brickbats and bludgeons," which on some former
occasions were so convincing and conclusive. Yester-
day was the day of nomination at Wakefield, when the
Irish linen-weavers of Barnsley will doubtless have
been reinforced by the stuff-weavers from Leeds. In
Barnsley there are nearly two thousand of this class of
persons, and in Leeds about five thousand, who will
vociferate, " Morpeth and Reform," " Down with
the tithes," " Justice in Ireland," and similar well-
arranged ejaculations. Very strong precautions for the
preservation of the peace will evidently be required.
We understand that several hundred special constables
were sworn in on Monday at Wakefield, and that the
troops at the Leeds Barracks received strict orders to
hold themselves in readiness. Probably before this
meets the eye of the reader, accounts may have
reached the metropolis, of the great majority of
the Liberal candidate on the show of hands at
Wakefield. We shall probably also hear of
gross interruptions to Mr. Wortley, and of cheers,
ad nauseam, for Lord Morpeth. But we can as-
sure our readers, in sober truth, that this will be
worth very little as a criterion of public opinion in
the West Riding of the county of York. Leeds may
very properly be called, as it generally is called, the
Metropolis of the North ; concentrating, as it does,
such an amount of commercial and agricultural wealth.
But it far exceeds London itself in electioneering vio:
lence and trickery. It will scarcely be credited, yet
such is absolutely the fact, that two or three sections
of the Leeds Political Union, under men of congenial
spirit and desperate fortunes, have, on many political
occasions of importance, been drilled and marched from
their respective rooms, to encourage some speakers by
concerted ejaculations, and to prevent others from be-
ing heard at all. The leaders have conspicuous places
preserved for them at the meeting, while their dupes
and tools behold their signals and respond to their eja-
culations, which, in the " Liberal" newspapers, are
ostentatiously paraded as the voice of the assembled pub-
lic. The respectable constituency of the West Riding
have long viewed with scorn these preconcerted exhibi-
tions ; but such is the force and organization of the
bodies in question, that quiet and peaceable members
of society generally shrink from attendance at a Leeds
political meeting. These actors will now, doubtless,
be conveyed to Wakefield, as they were in 1832, at the
great meeting there. Then, however, they had it all
their own way. A late shopman of Mr. Carlile, of
Newgate notoriety, but now a schoolmaster, under the
patronage of a great mill-owner, revelled in all the
glory of mob supremacy. After this worthy followed
another of the same class, known by the designation of
the Bible-roaster, from an insult he had offered to the
sacred volume, heading a second division of "liberal and
enlightened electors." Then came (his horse, as well as
himself, bedizened with orange ribbons), the Secretary
of the Political Union leading his troop, to vociferate
according to the instructions they had received from
the head-quarters of the " Liberal " Committee.
Thanks, however, to the native good sense of York-
shiremen, the time for these exhibitions is fast passing
away. That a revival would be attempted at Wake-
field, yesterday, there is no doubt, after the proceed.
ings at Doncaster. Our readers must not, therefore,
be surprised at the accounts of " the majority at 'Wake-
field," of " cheers," of " immense cheering," of
" indescribable cheering" for Lord Morpeth ; nor at
" groans," ". deep groans," " hisses," " down with
him," " we wont have him," for Mr. Wortley ; but
patiently abide the result of the poll, when we
hope and expect that the men of the West Riding
of Yorkshire will show themselves not inferior to their
countrymen in Devonshire in energy and zeal. The
gentlemen of Yorkshire, who are now really bestir-
ring. themselves in the good cause, possess a vast supe-
riority in wealth—in talent—and in character over
their opponents, and their courage and perseverance are
unquestionable.—Morning Post.
The fact of Lord John Russell's expulsion from
Devonshire being now no longer a subject of specula-
tion, it may be as well to consider two or three contem-
porary circumstances in their bearing upon the proba-
ble fortunes of the Ministry. The Whigs have never
looked beyond their own party, of which a very few
individual men, not principles, have been during the
last age the rallying points, and of which the connecting
bonds, during the same period, have been mainly, until
1831, opposition to the Executive Government, and
the assumed name of " Whig." There was a great
deal of self-deceitful honesty in this party. Its leaders
flattered themselves that there was really something of
talismanic influence upholding them and emanating from
them. They fancied that some traditions from the Revo-
lution downwards, and some others attaching popularity
to Whiggism, because of its supposed merits in resisting
(though from no other motive but because it teas in
opposition) the vast expenses and consequent taxes
rendered necessary by the long war with France,—it
fancied, we say, that such traditions and recollections
had given to Whiggery, as to an independent and sub-
stantial existence, a solid ascendancy over the mind of
the British nation, that it was loved for its own sake
apart from its performances, and that all it wanted to
establish and perpetuate its own power was the re-
moval of certain bars to the expression of the na-
tional wishes, which were presented by the state of
our representative system prior to the late " Reform
Bill." The Reform Bill was framed in the certainty that
its result would be the destruction of the Tory (since
calling itself Conservative) party, and that whatever hold
upon the Government of the realm was immediately
lost through it to the Tories, would be permanently
transferred to the Whigs. The authors of the change,
we are thoroughly satisfied, did not contemplate any
possibility of a resuscitation of the Conservative

____ ......--
party, much less did they speculate on any
troublesome growth or intrusion of that third party
which has become so formidable,--we mean the
party of the Radicals, or the indefinite and incessant

movement party, which seems to be characterized by
no other doctrine than that the greatest possible amount
of innovation, tending to the broadest and most un-
disguised democracy, is the greatest possible good.
Had the Whigs foreseen this issue of their proper
loins, they never would have wedded themselves to a
sweeping Parliamentary " reform." But they were
blind, as they always have been, to everything save
the immediate triumph over a visible and hated
rival ; so the weight of their victot% has crushed
them. They are dethroned and devoured by their
own monstrous progeny. Whatever portion
of the
constituency was monarchical in spirit, or alive to
the use and value of an aristocratic power in
the direction of a great people, has gradually, even
within two short years, been drifting towards the Con-
servative interest. Whatever was changeful or specu-

lative in its tendencies has leaped over Whiggism, and
lighted on Radicalism. The old wax tapers of Devon-
shire-house, and Burlington-house, and Holland-house,
at once the school-rooms and show-rooms of ancient
Whiggery, .are all extinguished by the new gas-
light of Republicanism. Whiggery is attenuated to
a pitiable skeleton. Conservatism has doubled, we
believed more than trebled, in bulk, and swollen a
hundred times in confidence and courage. The revolu-
tionary force has risen, though in a far less proportion
on the ruins of the Whig, but is an exotic which
will not thrive amongst us. The heart of the nation
is with monarchy, property, and an established church.
Whiggism, which has no principle but that of keeping
Whiggism in office, has no lien on the attachment of
Englishmen, Irishmen, or Scotchmen. Neither
Court, nor aristocracy, nor gentry, nor the middle
classes, nor the classes which live by manual labour,
have one particle of sympathy with Whigs. The
Conservatives are associated in the mind of the
country with its most venerated institutions. The
Whigs as a body are now divorced from them, and
what seems remarkable with respect to a set of politi-
cians so long candidates for popular favour and for
official power, there is not a single man of the whole
party now in office who enjoys at this moment the
slightest atom of public confidence, or upon whom, at an
hour of need, any sect, or description of persons, or
:c :ruing individual among the King's subjects, would
think of calling for relief unLr a national emergency,
or for protection against danger. This, we say, is an
unexampled state of things. There is nothing like it
in English history—a Government formed but of no-
thing—leaning upon nothing—kept from falling pros-
trate by the hope that one enemy will lend it a shoulder
on the right side, another enemy on the left, and thus
retain it in a sort of tremulous equilibrium, by succes-
sive violences in opposite directions. There never, we
repeat again, has been a British Ministry whose own
especial force consisted of not more than half the nu-
merical strength of one great hostile power, and not
more than three-fourths of another, inferior like-
wise to both in average ability, as well as in num-
bers. Can such an Administration stand ? We be-
lieve it cannot. It is plain that the Constituency of
the kingdom, wherever they have an opportunity
of speaking their sentiments, are of opinion that it
ought not. It is plain, that if the Whigs had any
sound footing in the country, they would not have
experienced the mortifying defeats which have be-
tided them at so many and such important English
elections. Lord Palmerston, since the beginning of
this year, has been rejected by Hampshire. Mr. Grant
has ceased to be Mr. Grant, because he durst not va-
cate his seat for Inverness, and risk a new appeal to
his constituents, who are now positively returning a
Conservative for that county. Lord John Russell,
the father or man-midwife of the Reform Bill—the
leader of the House of Commons—the known leader,
also (and this is very remarkable), of the movement
or self-called popular portion of the Cabinet—has
been thrown out of Devonshire by a large majority—
above 600, in less than 7,000 electors ; and this
with the Treasury at his back, and the patronage of
the Home Department in his pocket, and in a coun-
ty where the Fortescue interests, and the Bedford
interests, and one or two other great Whig interests,
possess extraordinary power, and have enforced it by
little scrupulous means. Why is all this ? It is be-
cause Whiggery is a disliked and a declining aaribute
of any Minister. It is disliked for itself, being a selfish
and factious name. It is despised for its condition,
being the tool and slave of Popery, of Irish Popery,
of anti-English Popery, of the vulgar ruffianism of civil
war, having for its end the utter subversion of religious
and political freedom. The hatred in which these evil
principles are held throughout the kingdom has shown
itself by the result of the elections above alluded to.
But what if further evidence should be adduced ?—what
if the magnificent 'West Riding of Yorkshire, with its
thriving and wide-spreading agriculture, and its indefa-
tigable, intelligent, prosperous, and illimitable commerce,
what if this vast portion, this prominent example of the
manicoloured greatness of England, should fling defiance
in the face of the Whig Cabinet, by preferring Mr.
Wortley to Lord Morpeth as its representative ? What
then ? Would the nation then be silent upon such a
'testimony to the actual downfall of the Whigs ?
Would the nation, we say, endure a Government, so
spurned in the persons of its most conspicuous Mem-
bers ? Again, we believe not. Lord Melbourne
needs not such a proof that he stands in a position
false, unbecoming, and untenable. His Lordship
knows it well. The consciousness of his own weak-
ness thrills through every fibre. But others must
then be convinced however unwillingly, and the Noble
Viscount, by taking that decisive step, wherein he
obeys the impulses of his own manly judgment, will
have the comfort of feeling at the same time that he
satisfies the most rigid mandates of party honour in
the minds of all reasonable men. With O'Connell
for his only ally, he can make but small fight against
the English Conservatives, backed by the English
people ; but with the Conservatives and the people
for his allies, he may well treat O'Connell and his
machinations with scorn.— Times.
It is not in the compass ,of thought or language to
furnish so indisputable a proof of the necessity of the
Ballot, as is to be found in the management and result
of the South Devon election. A decided majority of
the electors had given distinct promises of support to
Lord John Russell; but held in terrorenz by their
landlords through fear of expulsion—seduced by bri-
bery—or intimidated by threats of persecution, they
forfeited their pledges, and either held back from the
poll altogether, or were marshalled by the esquires and
the parsons to the support of a mere stripling, having
no claim whatever to their suffrages, save as the tool
of a party anxious to revenge their expulsion from
office on a man who inherits the love of civil and
religious liberty, as a birthright from ancestors who
have struggled and bled in the cause of England's free-
dom. It is in vain that the elective franchise has been
extended if voters be not protected in its exercise.—
The Ballot offers the only means of security. It is
futile to assert that secret voting militates against
the independent spirit which should distinguish free-
men—because it serves as a shield from the revenge of
a malignant aristocracy. The rejection of Lord John
Russell can afford the Tories but little cause for ex-
ultation ; their triumph will be temporary ; its most
certain consequence will be to stimulate the country
to a more determined exertion to defeat the future ma-
chinations of its enemies. To gain this isolated vic-
tory the Tories were obliged to employ all the vile
machinery which their ill-gotten wealth ena-
bled them to put in action. All the other Mi-
nisters have as yet been re-elected ; whereas, when
the Tories appealed to the country, eleven of
their Cabinet were ignominiously defeated. Yet
they still had the insolent assurance to assert that they
had the confidence of the country I The general re-
sult of the present elections must teach them a diffe-
rent lesson ; their party is disarmed of its venom, and
in future their thinned ranks may be expected to pre-
sent an opposition, not vexatious, but wholesome in
its consequence of keeping the Ministry in closer con-
nection with the people, as the only basis of a stable
support. Still we must be watchful, and the first ob-
ject should be to secure the freedom of elections. The
Ballot ! the Ballot is the thing. When the fair work-
ing of the Reform Bill will be guaranteed by this neces-
sary appendage, the smile which now plays on the face
of the Tories will be changed to the sardonic grin which
occasionally marks the death-bed struggle.—
Morning
Advertiser.

The Tories, through their organs the Conservative
Journals, are boasting greatly of the result of the De-
vonshire election. We do not begrudge them the
so-2u consolation which they can derive from this source
for the successful icturn of twelve Ministerial can-

didates in other parts of the kingdom. But it may he
doubted whether it is prudent in them to indulge in
such excessive exultation. The defeat of Lord John
Russell is no proof whatever of any re-action of pub-
lic opinion in favour of corruption or Toryism—and
the two words are synonymous. The minority of 3,128
electors who polled for the popular candidate, proves
that the great majority of the nation is decidedly fa-
vourable to the principles of civil and religious liberty.
Mr. Parker had a numerical majority over Lord John
Russell of 627 ; but of whom was this majority com-
posed, and by what means was it effected ? Our inge-
nious Tory contemporaries will boldly ask us, " Was not