The Sun.
London, England, 1832-05-17 00:00:00

mation, and it is, therefore, fortunate that it is not Dr:.
cessary. The public feeling is unanimous on all points if
which the public ought to think alike ; and there are none
of our readers, we are confident, who will not prefer th.
perusal of the reports of the various great meetings which
have been held in favour of Reform in different parts o'
the kingdom, to any abstract which it would be in our
power to furnish of them. Still it is necessary to taly
something of the spirit of these meetings ; but in them
times, when a Tory and an anti-national Attorney-
General would find a pleasure in pouncing upon us, it is
necessary to say it with caution. But still what is their
spirit ? Our first answer to the question ought to regard
the King, as the first man in the State, as well as the
first in another concern, which we care not much to
mention. How sadly has he fallen in public estima-
tion! How deeply must he deplore the step which fatal
counsel has induced him to take ! We have spoken of
him so often in terms of the most loyal affection, that it is
truly a pain to us to say that " he has now fallen from
his high estate ;" but, verily, our gracious Sovereign,
" who can do no wrong," hut who has refused to create
the number of Peers necessary to carry the Reform Bill
succesfully through the House of Lords, has indeed " fallen
from his high estate," and rendered himself as obnoxious
to the public as he was once its idol! The fault cannot be
his, for "he can do no wrong ;" but the fault is some-
where, and now that he has had sufficient notice that he
" has done wrong," the public, we suspect, will not be
very apt to forgive him, unless he drive far away from
him his evil counsellors, and do again that which is right.
Secondly, with regard to the public feeling, it is anani•
mous on every point on which it is important that Eng-
lishmen, at the present crisis, ought to be of one
mind— it is unanimous in condemning the trea-
chery by which Lord Grey and his colleagues
were turned out of office—it is unanimous in con-
demning an illustrious personage for having yielded
to the blandishments of an un-English faction—it is una-
nimous in declaring for the Bill, the whole Bill, and
nothing but the Bill—and, finally, it is unanimous in say-
ing that it has no confidence in the Administration now
forming, and that it will not receive, as a measure to be
acted upon, any Bill which may proceed from their hands.
These matters are facts ; and these facts, if they come
fairly before the King, ought to determine him to recall
immediately those whom he has dismissed from his Coun-
cils; but we fear that, according to public report, the die
is cast, and that the King having interposed between the
public and himself a new Administration, has already placed
the public in array against him—in other words, that lie
and the House of Lords are against all England, as well as
Scotland and Ireland, are now against them. The issue
of the contest remains to he seen. We are loyal subjects,
and regret that the King should,even nominally, be a party
to the contest ; but at a moment like the present there
can be no distinction of persons, and if his Majesty set his
face against the people, the people cannot well he accuse.,
of setting their face against him, Extremities will be the
result.—Morning Advertiser.
We now come to the prospects of his successors, a list
of whom—a precious set fur private character in public
estimation, and for political consistency—will I e found in
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the Duke of Wellington, prior to his resignation in No-
vember, 1830, was understood to have given to King Wil-
liam, the quondam reformer, "Not to dine in the city"—
in other words, not to show himself too much in public,
lest he should meet with something unpleasant to his feel-
ings. Such is the state to which the King is now re-
duced. It will, perhaps, be proper to give the same coun-
sel to her Majesty, for the English people, though kind in
the extreme to the wives of their Monarchs, are jealous in
the extreme as to any undue interference of theirs in the
affairs of the country. Thus much for the popularity of
the new Ministry. From the Duke of Wellington being
at its head, we may denominate it, a Polignac Ministry—
and such, if persisted in, we firmly believe will be its end.
The plan proposed by these men is an immediate disso-
lution of Parliament—for in truth they cannot go on
with the present House of Gimmons. And what, we
will ask, will they gain by another, in the present state
of fervid excitement into which the King's conduct has
plunged the country? Can they gain a better? In any
county or town, in which the people have a voice, will
an Anti-Reformer dare to show himself on the hustings?
If he does, it must be at the risk of life or limb. But in
the interim, will the people be doing nothing ? Ve ill not
" agitation" proceed like a rolling snowball, gathering
and enlarging as it goes? Where will be the revenue, if
the people refuse to pay the taxes? and diet they will re-
fuse, and generally refuse, there is now no doubt. We
are convinced, that in the ensuing quarter, unless the Re-
form Bill is passed, not one-third of the assessed taxes
will be collected—and public subscriptions will be opened
to furnish the sufferers with legal means of resistance, and
with indemnification in case of loss. But where, we
would ask, will be found the tax-gatherers, who, flying in
the face of their fellow-countrymen, will venture on the
invidious parts of their office?—where the appraisers
to sell the confiscated goods ?—where the Jury to find
the non-payers guilty, in case of replevin ? All
these fearful contingencies the English Polignac will
have to encounter; and if the people prove true to them-
selves, of which we have no doubt, for the flame is ex-
tending from one part of the empire to another with
added fierceness, he will, with the whole English army at
his back, be disgracefully beaten, as was the fate of his
French predecessor. There is another matter which
might not be above the consideration of these advocates of
corruption. In the olden time there was such things
as impeachments by the Commons—bills if impeachment,
by which mitred priests and statesmen lost their livings,
and some their heads. This is a point that, if history is
not a fable, some public men of the present day seem fast
verging towards. We would say to them, beware.—News.