The Sun.
London, England, 1832-12-24 00:00:00

Government departti,ents was obvious to all who
turned attention to their movements, and we hope
that they will not venture to encounter those who
have been by some of their own friends named the
young giants of Reform, without closing up their
ranks in a manner suitable to the exigencies of the
occasion.—Observer.

LORD ALTHORP'S PLEDGES.—Upon one subject
Lord Althorp goes into the House of Commons
pledged—fettered, bound down, tied neck and, heels,
an automaton; or, according to Sir Francis Burdett
either a rogue or a fool—we forget which. Lord
Althorp, the head of the Government in the House
of Commons, pledges himself most specifically against
Parliamentary Reform. " You all know," says he
to the electors of Northamptonshire," that in bring-
ing forward the Reform Bill, I professed it to be a
final measure ! I make the same profession still,
ind I intend to act on that profession. It is my in-
tention, in case any alteration should be proposed in
the Reform Bill, to resist it to the utmost of 711.1 i
power !" What is a pledge, if this be not one
Why Sir John Hobhouse refused to pledge himself
concerning vote by ballot, and the Septennial Act,
is now fully explained. The Ministers, it seems,
intend to treat the Reform Bill as a " final measure"
—to oppose vote by ballot and triennial Parlia-
ments—to support the Lords Ailesbury, Exeter,
Salisbury, &c., in doing what t'oey like with their
own, and to enable all the Sneaks, who have got
into Parliament by calling thetilves Reformers, to
set their deluded con,tituents at defiance. The
language of Lord .John Russell, and of Lord Althorp
too—honest Lord Althorp I.—during the debates on
the Bill, led the public to believe that the Whig
•Ministers thought their Bill imperfect ; but that they
had left it imperfect, in order that it might pass. By
holding this tort of language, the Whig Ministry
obtained the support of the people, and were en-
abled to carry their Bill. Within a few days of
Lord John Russell's speech on the Ist of March
1831, the Spectator raised the cry of " The Bill,
the whole Bill, and nothing but the B:11." How
useful that cry was to the Ministers, and how we
strove to promote union amongst Reformers,
in order that the Whigs might keep their
places and carry their Bill, our readers well know.
But they know also, that we thought the Bill im-
perfect—that we supported it as a step in Reform,
and that we have supported the Whig Government
for two years, because, as we have often declared,
Lard John Russell expressly reserved the questions
of Ballot and the Septennial Act for a Reformed
Parliament. We were mistaken, it seems ;in other
words, we have been deceived. Lord John did not
mean what he said ; and Lord Althorp meant, by
silently acquiescing in what Lord John did say, to
" profess that the Bill was a final measure." What-
ever both of them meant, however, they both allowed
the public to believe that they meant the reverse ot
4-..vhat Lord Althorp now says that they "professed."
t The week before last, we said—" Let us hope
thA the Whigs are not bent on treating the Reform
as a final measure ; that the Tory language of

the Times (which described such men as Messrs.
Hume, Grote, Thornely, Babbage, and Tennyson,
as " Destructives") is not sincere, but is held for
the temporary purpose of- injuring those candidates
who are not pledged to support the Whigs through
thick and thin ; and that as soon as the elections are
over, our influential contemporary will be•once more
a Reformer of abuses—a Destructive if he will,
of the corruption which pervades every department
of onr Government, and which will be destroyed
even in spite, if so it must be, of the Times and the
Whigs." A cloud comes over our hope. The
Whigs, according to Lord Althorp's last pledge,
will treat the Reform Act as a " final measure."
Mr. Tennyson gave a pledge to the electors of
Lambeth—he pledged himself to introduce a Bill
for establishing vote by ballot, for putting an end to
such scenes of riot and cases of wholesale bribery
and shameful iutimidation as have taken place under
the " final measure." He will keep his word; but
Lord Althorp in effect tell us, that the Whigs, sup•
ported by the Tories, will throw out Mr. Tenny-
son's Bill. Lord Alt horp pledges himself to " re-
sist it by all the means-in his power." In a word,
if the leading Minister in the House of Common•
speaks fur the whole party, the Whigs must now
be called Anti-Reformers. Lord Aithorp's pledge
at Northampton is the most impartant event that has
occurred since the Interregnum. Instead of three
parties in the House of Commons, as was expected,
there will be but two—Anti-Reformers, including
Whigs and Tories, and Reformers. If the Whigs,
being in power, had been disposed to proceed with
Parliamentary Reform until the House of Commons
had fairly represented the nation, the question of
R form in Parliament might have been considered
as settled. In that case, those improvements in the
system of representation which the nation yet re•
quires, would have been effected speedily, easily,
almost without debate. But as it is now put, the
question must remain to divide Parliament and the
nation, the majority in Parliament and the majority
of the nation holding opposite views. Thus the
result of the " final measure" will be division, de-
bate, discontent, agitation, and, worse than all, a
state of things which must postpone indefi-
nitely the desired consequences of Reform in Par-
liament—Reform of the Church, of the corn laws,
of the poor laws, of the laws that cheek the spread
of knowledge—and a vast number of improvements
for which there is ample room. As to the corn
laws, indeed, Lord Althorp further pledged him-
self to " leave them untouched." He might as well
have said, pledging himself to side with the Tories
as to Parliamentary Reform, that he would use" all
the means in his power" to preserve untouched the
whole mass of abuses which depend on the corrup-
tion of Parliament. The moment chosen by Lord
Althorp to declare that the Whigs are Anti-Re-
formers, is worthy of notice. If the declaration
had been made a month sooner, would Sir John
Hobliouse have been returned for Westminster ?
Sir John would give no pledges—not one; he would
have lost the election if he had told the electors—
pledging himself as Lord Althorp has done—;hat
Ministers intend to treat the Reform Bill as a" final
measure." Until nothing could alter the result of
the borough elections, the Whigs allowed the public
to suppose that they intended to proceed with Re-
form. But with a view to the county elections, in
which the Tories have so much influence, an Anti-
Reform declaration from Ministers was calculated
to serve Whig candidates. Honest Lord Althorp
—plain, simple, candid Lord Althorp—makes that
declaration in the very nick of time, just when the
borough elections are virtually over, and the county
elections are about to begin. Practice makes per-
fect ; and the Whigs are becoming not less adroit
than the Tories. Lord Lyndhurst and Mr.
Holmes never managed more skilfully. In
another respect, Lord Althorp's pledge sa-
vours much of Tory trickery. He says that he
" professed the Reform Bill to be a final measure,"
and " that he intends to act on that profession now."
But which Reform Bill ? Lord John Russell's,
or that as altered by Lord Chandos? Lord Al-
thorp never did profess that the Bill which has be-
come law should be a " final measure." On the
contrary, he opposed, or pretended to oppose, that
clause of the Act which has made so many rotten
counties and so many converts to the ballot. What
with the tenant-at-will-clause, which has given us
nomination counties instead of the boroughs in
schedule A, arid some of the registration clauses,
which have prevented a vast number of electors from
voting at the election, we have got a law very dif-
ferent indeed from that Bill which Lord Althorp
says that he " protessed to be a final measure."

• * Divines illustrate the meaning of Scripture by collating
parallel texts. Some days after the publication of Lord
Althorp's Northamptonshire pledge, quoted above, Mr. Stanley
appears also to have pledged himself and his colleagues, to the
following effect, in a speech delivered at the nomination of
candidates for the Northern division of Lancashire :—" If it
should be attempted to bring forward any measure for shorten-
ing the duration of Parliament, or a still further alteration, by
the protection, as it was falsely called, of the vote by ballot, he
now announced (and he spoke the sentiments of his Honourable
Colleagues), that any such measure would meet with their most
decided opposition,"