The Sun.
London, England, 1835-04-10 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Earl Grey was sent for at an early hour yesterday
by his Majesty, either to form a new Administration
or to recommend to the Kiug sonic other person ca-
pable, in his opinion, of executing that important
trust. Sir R. Peel's Government, we are aware, in
the precise form in which it lately stood, cannot be
re--animated, now or ever : the loss, nevertheless, of the
chieftain of that Cabinet is altogether irreparable.
The most skilful Statesman, and the most effective
Member of the House of Commons, has been com-
pelled by a motley majority of that body to withdraw
from the guidance of the national councils ; and to
what hands does he surrender a post for which he was
pre-eminently fitted ? It is alleged by some of the even-
ing papers that Lord Grey has referred his Majesty to
Lord Melbourne, as the individual who best can serve
him on this occasion ; and there is just so much ground
for accrediting such a rumour, that Lord Grey himself
must almost inevitably have failed had he undertaken
the task required of him. On close examination of
the crisis, there are difficulties which we apprehend
Lord Grey may consider fatal. His Lordship is known
to have declared himself quite adverse to this resolution
which, by Lord John Russell's wisdom, is made the
corner-stone of the Government, and of the legislation
of Parliament, in reference to the Irish Church. The
Noble Earl could not have the assistance of Lord
Stanley, of Sir James Graham, or any of those seceders
from his original cabinet, who have down to the latest
hour condemned the " Ward" resolution, recalled to
existence by Lord John Russell's majority, were he even
disposed, which of course Lord Grey cannot be, to solicit
from them such an abandonment of their avowed opinions.
Until, therefore, the question of working upon the
church of Ireland by means of this perversely timed
resolution be settled, it is clear enough that some of
the most essential elements of a 'Whig Ministry must
lie wanting ; and that Lord Stanley's friends, under
his Lordship and Sir James Graham as their leaders,
must every day be more and more united with Sir
Robert Peel in strenuous opposition to the whole
ecclesiastical policy of Lord John Russell's party.
That Lord Grey himself would join in a course of
general hostility to anything under the name of a
Whig Government, if headed, for example, by his
friend Lord Melbourne, we do not venture to affirm ;
but that he will assist in supporting, much less in
forming, an Administration of which the principle is
to throw the direction of affairs in Ireland, either
upenly or covertly, into O'Connell's hands, more
especially with such an engine of indefinite mischief
as this resolution might prove to be when played
by such a workman, we shall not believe until we see
it demonstrated by the noble Earl himself. If, in spite
of the repeal and Popish policy of O'Connell, that
Irish agitator should be forced upon the Royal service
by any man who may himself have been forced into
the King's confidence through a House of Commons
majority, the people of England will deem the indivi-
dual who so abuses the power derived to him from
the lamentable duress of his Majesty, as in his heart
no better than an enemy to the United Kingdom, and
to the free enjoyment of the reformed religion by our
brethren of the Protestant Church in Ireland. But it
is not enough that in reluctant compliance with a di-
rect preliminary stipulation of the Sovereign, O'Con-
nell himself should not in person be admitted to public
office. If Ireland be governed on repeal or Popish
principles—if O'Connell, excluded from all ostensible
share in the Government, be suffered, as in the days of
Mr. Littleton, to suggest the means of most effectually
spoiling and putting down the Irish Church, and
undermining the Protestant (that is, the English) in-
terest throughout Ireland—if his secret influence be
felt, though his official authority be rejected, the cause
of good government, and of civil and religious liberty,
will have gained nothing by the substitution. The
word of promise may thus be kept "'to the ear" of our
maltreated Sovereign, but it will be " broken to his
hope." Without raising " a cry " that the Church
is in danger, we may nevertheless be permitted quietly
to warn all friends of the Monarchy, and of its poli-
tical integrity, that the Church of Ireland is in real
danger, and that if she goes, the temporal crown of
Ireland goes with her. Our Protestant countrymen
and kinsmen have no protection, if we once give the
reins to that monstrous power which operates under the
twofold vizor of the demagogue and the priest, and
supersedes all lawful authority. It is the general
growth and encouragement of that unnatural power
which we dread, from seeing the parties who in the
present dearth of talent and character amongst the
faction by whom Sir Robert Peel has been compelled
to resign the Government, are likely to assume the sub-
stantial dominion of the State, and to imbue the whole
march of Irish politics with their spirit. And how
can Lord Melbourne—should Lord Grey himself be
unable to solve the problem submitted to him by the
Crown—how, we say, can Lord Melbourne avert this
terrible catastrophe ? What are the resources of the noble
Viscount? He has to partake his own sympathies, and
smoothly and heartily to co-operate with him, of consti-
tutional Whigs, at the outside, 150. But what of that?
The Destructives, English and Irish, muster nearly 200
members. Will Lord Melbourne obtain their services
for nothing ? Assuredly not. They are gentlemen
who well understand the quid pro quo. They can
construe " meum" even more glibly than "tuum."
For nothing they will give nothing. Their votes
must be paid by something in the shape of power.
Why, the Government of Lord Melbourne will be
like a comet, with a body hardly visible, but a tre-
mendous tail. We fear its course will be equally ec-
centric, as its coming is undoubtedly calculated to
shake more than superstitious minds with terror. There
i. little question but that His Majesty would be anxious
to make now the same proposal to Lord Melbourne
that he pressed last June upon the Noble Viscount—
namely, a coalition with the more moderate Con-
servatives, as the basis of a solid and durable Ad-
ministration. Lord Melbourne then declined the
proposal, on the ground that to form a coalition
there must be on one side, or on both, compromises
inconsistent with the political honour of the parties.
We must confess, we do not see in the existing pos-
ture of affairs, much room for hope that, while the
Irish Church question shall remain unsettled, a coali-
tion can by any possibility take place between the
advocates of the recent resolution, amongst whom we
presume Lord Melbourne must now consider himself,
and Sir R. Peel and his supporters, by whom that
resolution was opposed. How far it may be practica-
ble, through any mediation, to bring together round
Sir Robert Peel (in case of Lord Melbourne's failure
to form a Cabinet such as the country would endure)
reasonable and dispassionate Whigs enough, not yet
pledged to the Radicals, to enable that able Minis-
ter to go on again with even the smallest majo-
rity which would carry a vote, until he could find
elbow-room to act in, and time enough to impress
the real nature of his sound and well-digested po-
licy upon the minds of the people, we cannot decide.
But that-the country, in whose favour he has grown
so rapidly, will long be content to do without such a
statesman, " while puny whipsters" shall have usurped
his honoured place, is to us incredible and inconceiv-
. able. In his last becoming speech the Right Hon.
I3aronet wedded himself for life to the House of Com-
mons. He owes nothing to the hereditary aristocracy,
while their debt to him is one which no gratitude can
repay. But in the House of Commons he stands as
in his proper field of action and of fame ; he is its na-
tural leader, and the official station of Prime Minister,
time only one in the councils of his Sovereign which he
can henceforth ever fill, may extend his power of do-
ing good, but will add not an atom to his personal dig-
nity, or an inch to the space he already occupies in
the sight of England.--Times.
The Reformers having now driven their opponents
from power, we may assume that the govenment of the
country must be conducted by them. We hold it to
be quite impossible that any Coalition Ministry, acting
on a principle of compromise, can obtain the support
of a majority in the Commons. Assuming then that
a Reform Ministry must be appointed, the next ques-
tion for consideration is, in what manner will such a

Ministry best give effect to their principles ? The
Morning Post tells us that " the party of Sir Robert
Feel, with which Lord Stanley and his political friends
Wig, by their character, their position, and their recent
conduct, completely identified, enjoy the entire and un-
reserved confidence of the Sovereign. The have a
decided and unalterable majority in the House of

Lords, and they constitute a united and inseparable
phalanx of three hundred members of the House of
Commons. What, we beg to ask, has Lord John
Russell, or any other Whig or Radical Lord, to op-
pose to these great constitutional powers ?" We
have a very plain answer to this. If the Reform Mi-
nistry do its duty honestly and fearlessly, it must have
the support of a majority of the Commons. We do
not see why we are necessarily to assume (whatever
our suspicions may be) that the House of Lords will
refuse to pass the measures sent to them from the
Commons. Is it true that the Tories libelled the
Lords when they held out to the country that that
blanch of the Legislature would accept of measures of
Reform from a Tory Ministry, which they would re-
ject if proposed by a Reform Ministry ? But we will
not hold the Lords responsible for what others attri-
bute to them. The Lorls as well as Commons are
before the nation. If the Commons carry Improper
measures, the remedy i 3 a known mode of appeal
to the nation ; if the Lords refuse to pass proper
measures, on them be the responsibility of such a
course. The English are a people of plain practical
sense, and if a proof should be aflbrded that the state
machine will not work, they well know how to deal
with the difficulty. We therefore are not in the least
alarmed at the threat of factious opposition on the part
of the House of Lords. But the really important
consideration at present is not how the Lords may act,
or the Tories in the House of Commons, but what is
the course which ought to be pursued by a Reform
Ministry to ensure the support of the nation ? We
hold it to be of the utmost consequence that the policy
of a Reform Ministry be firm and uncompromising.
The great error of the Grey Ministry was that, deem-
ing themselves secure of their friends, they hazarded
displeasing them, in the vain attempt to conciliate their
opponents. All experience is against this system.
No enemy was ever gained by yielding to him.
In fact, such a course only flatters his self-im-
portance, and impresses him with the belief that
lie has only to ask more to obtain more. Men will
not to be driven from a certain course by finding that
their opponents will always allow them to have their
own way. The conciliatory policy implies that they
who are to be conciliated are the strongest ; and to fill
a man with the belief that he is your master, is not
the most effectual mode of inducing him to become
more moderate in his expectations. Reform Ministers
ought to consider only what will justly satisfy Reformers.
They may be certain that the Tories are their invete-
rate, irreconcilable enemies, who would drive them
from office the very moment they cease to be supported
by the nation. To deserve and to obtain the support
of the nation ought therefore to be the end and object
of their policy. While the people repose confidence
in them, they may boldly set the Tories at defiance.
The Reform Bill has transferred the powers of the
State to the middle classes, and neither bribery nor
bullying can enable the Tories hereafter to obtain
a majority in the House of Commons. But there
must be no halting between two principles—no trim-
ming—no concessions to please courtiers—but an open
and straightforward course of conduct, which can be
appreciated by the well informed part of the commu-
nity. Sir Robert Peel boasts that he and his party
have the entire confidence of the King. This is a
strange declaration at a time when his Majesty has to
choose his councillors from a party politically opposed
to the Right Honourable Baronet and his friends. The
old constitutional maxim that the King's name ought
never to be introduced into Parliament, had better have
been observed in this instance. Why ought the King's
opinions to be thrust in our teeth in this offensive way ?
We can know nothing of the King's opinions, and ought
to know nothing of them, further than they are com-
municated to us through responsible Ministers. If the
King entrusts the powers of Government to certain
men, we are bound to assume that they possess his con-
fidence. Fortunately for the nation, no confidence can
now enable any set of men to retain office, who do not
possess the support of the real representatives of the
people. The late attempt of the Tories has proved
the utter impossibility of governing in defiance of the
constituencies. With the termination of virtual repre-
sentation, all private influences in this country also ter-
minated. To secure the confidence of the King, Mi-
nisters must possess the confidence of the country ; for
whoever possesses the confidence of the country, de-
serves, and therefore possesses, as a matter of course,
that of the King. What does the nation expect ? It
expects, in the first place, that effect should be given
to the Reform Bill by such a reform of the municipal
Corporations as shall identify these bodies with the in-
terests of their respective communities, and deprive them
of the power of nullifying the votes of the really inde-
pendent inhabitants. The beneficial effects of Corpora-
tion Reform have been strikingly exemplified in Scot-
land. The Church must be reformed, not by adding
to the number of Bishops, and increasing its revenues
by fresh grants of public money, but by such a distri-
bution of ecclesiastical property as will add to the re-
spectability and efficiency of the working clergy. The
claims of the Dissenters are entitled to notice, and
must be attended to. In the Law, extensive Reforms
are demanded. We need not say that the people are
entitled to have justice brought to their doors. The
provincial administration of justice in this country is
peculiarly defective. But in Ireland the exertions of
a liberal Ministry are imperatively required. We need
not say that the whole course of policy in that country
must undergo a change. Hitherto the object has been
to enable the Ascendency to trample on the great body
of the nation. The depositaries of power have con-
sidered the people as their enemies, and the people in
return have looked for security not to the law, but com-
binations to defeat it. A sinecure Church, useful only
to those who consume its revenues, has, in defiance of
the most obvious principles of justice, been maintained
as a sort of hostile garrison in the country. The Ca-
tholics must no longer be considered as aliens in the
land of their birth. The institutions of the country
must be endeared to them by a sense of the benefit de-
rived from them. Justice must not be an instrument
in the hand of a party to oppress the nation—it must
be administered by men in whom the people can con-
fide. When we are on the subject of Ireland, we need
not say that wisdom and policy demand the con-
ciliation of the men who are in possession of the
confidence of the people of that country. It
would be madness to shut our eyes to the fact
that Mr. O'Connell possesses an extraordinary hold
of the Irish people—a hold the more powerful, as it is
founded in a firm conviction that he is their friend,
and that they owe to him their emancipation from a
degrading bondage. To wish that this were otherwise
is childish. We say then at once, that if it be wished
to smooth the way of Government in Ireland, an en-
deavour ought to be made to obtain the services of
Mr. O'Connell in some way suitable to his qualifica-
tions. It was the great fault of the Grey Ministry
that they shut their eyes to the fact that Mr.
O'Connell was in possession of the confidence of
the Irish people ; and to mortify him, and to
conciliate the men whose chief claim was that they
had uniformly opposed every liberal measure, was
not the way to smooth the path of government,
and to overcome the distrust of the law which centu-
ries of misgovernment had generated in the people.
With intense anxiety for the stability of a Liberal
Government, we deprecate exclusions which must ne-
cessarily lead to weakness. If those now entrusted
with the formation of a Ministry suppose that they
can conduct the affairs of the country by any other
course than that which shall obtain the approbation
of all liberal men, they will be woefully disappointed.
If they do not take firm ground at first—if they do
not look to the people alone, for support, they will be-
come objects of contempt to those whom they wish to
conciliate by neglecting the people. Instead of pre-
serving peace, a shuffling and huckstering policy will
infallibly lead to anarchy and confusion. A bold, de-
cided, and honest course is the only safe course.—
Morning Chronicle.
The present crisis is, indeed, a momentous one.
Human sagacity cannot anticipate the effect which
recent events will have on the future destinies of Eng-
land ; but whatever may be the consequences of the
existing posture of affairs, and whatever may be the
final result of the struggles of party, we have one
peat and paramount duty to perform—to adhere to
the interests of the country. In our independence of
every party, we can speak with freedom of all ; where-
ever there is among our Statesmen ability or virtue to

I,_ie praised, or weakness or Vice to be exposed and cen- •
sured, we can bestow commendation or blame, without
1,11-;p-eet of persons, and without being influenced by
Phase prejudices or predilections which exercise over
the minds of party writers a charm superior to the
love of truth. When the late Ministers acceded to
-power we thought it only right and reasonable that
they should have a fair trial, and that the measures
which they introduced should be taken as the proper test
of their capacity to direct the affairs of the nation.
We said—" If their measures be such as ought to sa-
tisfy all reasonable Reformers—if they be such as
ought to satisfy all those who are anxious to correct
the abuses of our institutions, without destroying the
institutions themselves, let them be supported ; if not,
let them stand condemned." They have been con-
demned, but without a trial. All the tactics of the
Opposition were directed to prevent the developement
of their measures, and to obtain a verdict by the ex-
clusion of the only evidence upon which public opinion
could pronounce, a fair and impartial verdict. Such
measures of Reform as were laid before Parliament cer-
tainly supported the declarations made by Sir Robert
Peel in his celebrated address to the electors of Tam-
worth. They even extorted a reluctant approbation
from many of his opponents, while they declared that
they placed no confidence in his Administration. They
were liberal measures, but not destructive, and the
party by whose assistance the Whigs have driven Sir
obert Peel from office are pledged to measures
of destruction. The interests of an individual are
not to be put in comparison with those of a
country. It is not of the Minister we think, but of
his measures, and assuredly the country will suffer
more than Sir Robert Peel in consequence of the
successful obstruction given by the Whig-Radical
coalition to the course of safe and Constitutional Re-
form. During the whole of the Session up to the
present time, the proper business of the country has
been impeded to gratify the ambition of faction. The
claims of the people for practical measures of reform
and relief have been nothing as in the eyes of the
Whig-Radical patriots, compared with the gratification
of their selfish passion for place and political aggran-
disement. What is the ruin of the agriculturists—
the distress of the shipowners—the misery of unem-
ployed artisans—the sufferings and privations of the
labouring population--what are these matters in the
eyes of Lord John Russell, or Mr. O'Connell, or Mr.
Grote, or Mr. Hume, compared with the grand object
of possessing themselves of the power of the State to
further their own ambitious designs ? The liberality
that sacrifices self on the altar of a patriotic devotion,
is not the liberality of men who oppose good measures
because they do not emanate from themselves. But we
suspect the public will form a proper estimate of the
patriotism which takes care to serve itself before it finds
inclination or spirit to render any service to the country.
We have for some weeks past done little more than re-
cord the opinions of the contending parties in and out
of Parliament. Seeing the real business of the Session
put aside for repeated trials of strength between
the opposing parties, we quietly abided the result
whieh, under the circumstances, we could neither ac-
celeaate nor retard ; but the crisis has now come when
to be silent or supine would be to be criminal. The
Ministry of Sir Robert Peel has ceased to exist, and
we are more disposed at present to bestow the humble
meed of our approbation upon the talents and merits
of the Statesman who gave it life, and energy, and
character, than if his Administration were at this
moment flourishing in the highest condition of political
prosperity. Let the flatterer worship the rising sun—
we honour talent and virtue most when the cold sha-
dow of adverse fortune rests upon it. Of the errors
of Sir Robert Peel's former political carter we have
spoken freely when his power was at the highest, but
we are much mistaken if his conduct during the last
four months—the most eventful of his life—has not
greatly raised him in the public estimation. His
talents as a senator and a political chief were never
displayed to so much advantage—they seemed to rise
and expand with the exigencies which demanded their
exertion ; and though his adversaries succeeded in
preventing him from carrying on the Government
with effect, they cannot rob him of the honourable fame
which he achieved in the conflict, or deprive him of
the dignity of his fall. The formation of a new Ad-
ministration is now, however, the great object of public
interest and anxiety. To construct a Cabinet such as
the circumstances of the country require, will, we ima-
gine, be more difficult than to displace the one which
has just terminated its existence. Nor is it among the
least strange of the strange things that occur in
these times, that Lord Grey should, at the present
juncture, be supposed capable of undertaking the ar-
duous and responsible office for which he had declared
himself disqualified last year, by his age and growing
infirmities. Nevertheless it appears, beyond all doubt,
that he has been with his Majesty ; but whether to
receive orders to form, or merely to offer advice upon the
formation of, a Ministry is not yet known. We agree
with the Watchman, which expresses the sentiments
of a large religious class of British Protestants, when
it says that—
" There is the srongest ground for presuming that no Mi-
nistry can be formed out of the Opposition, without including
Mr. O'Connell ; or, what is tantamount, being subjected to
the humiliations inseparable from securing his support. In this
state of things, the only fair conclusion appears to be that,
whoever may nominally take the lead in any new Ministry so
constituted, the Popish party will be the ascendant in Irish
affairs ; and the inevitable result must be, humanly speaking,
the depression of Protestantism and the exaltation of Popery.
Lord John Russell and his liberal colleagues will resemble so
many nine-pins, set up and knocked down at the beck of the
great Master of the Sports, Mr. O'Connell. We confess,
therefore, we cannot contemplate the possible resignation of
Sir Robert Peel without deep solicitude. The question is not
between the Peel Cabinet and a Whig Administration. If the
one were displaced, the other could not, we fear, under exist-
ing circumstances, assume an independent attitude, and carry
on the Government on a principle of safe and judicious Re-
form. Every successive debate, and every new development
of the state of parties, compel! us to make a near and still nearer
approach to the conclusion, that Mr. O'Connell now occupies
a position which will enable him to demand of any Opposition
formed out of the Ministry his price."
We need not observe that the above sentiments were
published
when Sir Robert Peel's resignation was only
a probable event ; it is now certain. Having before
our eyes the experience of the humiliation to whieh the
Melbourne Ministry submitted in soliciting the patron-
age, and succumbing to the dictation of the Irish
Agitator, we cannot but have our apprehensions of a
degrading compromise of Protestant interests by any
Whig Cabinet which may now be formed, both as
payment for the past services of the Repeal-democrat,
and a retaining fee for future services. This appre-
hension is the more natural when we recollect that the
Whig Lord John Russell used as his lever for sub-
verting the Ministry the very question regarding
the Irish Protestant Church, which the Whigs would
not venture to touch in any show of approval when it
was brought forward by Mr. Ward, only the year
before. But the Whigs, in their adversity, have
sold themselves to one who will exact the penalty of
the bond to the full amount. They must either go all
lengths with him, or he will turn upon them, and with
his tail, at every attempt to shake off his domination,
will lie lash them into submission. In the mean time
a compact body of nearly 300 Conservatives, or rather
Conservative Reformers, rally round the late Premier,
and the numerous addresses which have been pouring
in upon him since the result of the division on the Irish
question was known, afford strollg evidence that in so
doing they are backed by the opinion of a large propor-
tion of the people. Yet the present state of things
reads a great moral lesson to Statesmen. We have
alluded to the errors of Sir Robert Peel's former poli-
tical career, and when we look at the quarter from
which the blow has been struck, which has destroyed
his Administration, we cannot but consider him in
some degree as the author of his own misfortune.
The Bill which, without obtaining any securities for
the Protestant religion, gave to the members of the
Church of Rome unlimited power to legislate for the
Protestant Church—that Bill, which, removing the
barriers of the Protestant Constitution, interposed only
the frail protection of an oath between the Church of the
Reformed faith and Papal hatred and intolerance—that
Bill,we say, hatched the envenomed brood that now return
the misplaced liberality of their benefactors with a ser-
pent's sting,pursuing with bitter and unceasing malevo,
lence both Peel and Wellington, the authors of that mea-
sure,which it was fondly anticipated would bind the po-
pish agitators in the chains of eternal gratitude ! By res-
toring Popery to its pristine vigour, in defiance of the
warning voice of history, those Statesmen sharpened