The Sun.
London, England, 1835-08-27 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC jOURNALS.

The cry now is, that Lard Melbourne is denied by
the Aristocracy of the Peers a degree of support which
was given to Lou', Grey ; therefore Lord Melbourne
cannot carry oat the Government. Lord Grey, it is
said, had a force in the Peers, short by only thirty of
the whole Conservative Peerage. Lord Melbourne
has only some thirty-six companions in his minorities,
therefore Lord Melbourne ought to resign. This
topic of the Tories—trembling within the meshes in
which, by their own too-daring obstinacy, they are now
netted—discloses the very pinch of the question. at
issue between them and the people of these united
islands. True it is, Lord Melbourne is met by an op-
position more violent. more perverse, more confident,
than that over which Lord Grey triumphed. But why
is this ? Is it because the Incasures of Lord Grey
were more palatable to the Tory Peers than the plain
and necessary results of those measures, which Lord
Melbourne is now working out for the people,
whose government it is his high destiny to lead ? Far
from it. The destruction of the direct power which
dropped from the Peers upon the passing of the Re-
form Act, was the storming and carrying of the citadel.
The demolition of the corporate monopolies will be
only the clearing away of the outworks which still re-
main unsurrendered, and in which the enemy are nest-
ling in dispersed but desperate detachments, able to
annoy, but powerless to conquer. The real causes of
the augmented virulence of the Tory Lords arc the
simplest and the most natural. First, they derive
hopes, from experience, of support from influences
exerted near and behind the throne ; and secondly,
they are encouraged by the strength which the condi.
tion of the registries enabled them to gain at the late
elections in the present House of Commons. The
last is the main stimulating cause of their pre-
sent lofty demeanour. Unhappily, after the refoi m
of the constituencies, the Government and the yo.
ple both fancied that such was the pePon-
&ranee of the reform spirit throughout *.ile nation,
nothing could shake its ascendancy in the House of
Commons. The registries were ner:iected by the Re-
formers. Quietly, cunninly, but Fjurely and effectually,
the Conservatives worked uwin this vital point ; and
we have little doubt, that if another revising period
had intervened before the dismissal of Lord Mel-
bourne, the Tories would have secured a majority of
the House of Co' imons—not by the apathy of the
Reformers, but loy the nearly fatal sense of security in
which they had folded up their arms, and laid them-
selves down to sleep. The Tory Lords now rely upon
the strength which they have thus gained in the
Hotme of Commons, and they therefore venture upon
coeirses which, against Lord Grey, backed by an over-
whelming majority in the people's House, they did not
dare to hazard. rThe question now in contest be-
tween the two antagonist parties is in truth a question
of fact :—Are, or are not, the majority of the Peo-
ple's House of Parliament, and the Government to
which it has given its full, unreserved, generous, and
unwavering confidence, sustained by an overwhelming
majority of the people, and—for that is the
practical question—by a decided and now invin-
cible majority of the constituencies of the empire ? If
the Peers were assured that the fact is, upon this vital
question, against them, Lord Melbourne, compared
with Lord Grey, would be in the condition of a man
reclining upon a bed of roses. It is because they do
not yet believe that the fact is against them, that they
cabal out of doors, and crowd within the walls of the
Painted Chamber, and count their numbers upon re-
peated divisions. We are convinced that the majority
of these Noble Conspirators against a Ministry, pos-
sessing more of the confidence of this great nation than
any by which it was ever ruled, are in a state of utter
and benighted ignorance respecting the certain results
of the registries of the present year. Their Lordships
will soon learn that bitter lesson. When they shall do
so, our lives for a ducat they will flag in their attendance
in the House of their order, even when they shall
not have the apology (for absence from town) of
the torrid weather which they have recently en-
dured, in offering an unavailing resistance to the
fixed, determined, unequivocally-expressed desires of
the nation. All eyes, all thoughts,—the hopes of the
free, enlightened, considerate, but resolute people of
this great empire,—the fears of their worst ene-
mies—are now directed to that small band of tried and
trusted Statesmen, to whom their destinies are confided
in this, the most interesting and trying hour of British
history. There are periods in the struggles of war,
when all depends upon the sagacity, the coolness, the
promptitude, but, above all, the intrepid nerve of the
leaders. Though the troops are marshaled, and their
spirits are roused, and their hearts beat high with exul-
tation at the certainty of speedy triumph, under the
conduct of the men whom they have chosen to guide
them, they will move or pause—they will act or suffer
—they will stand the shock or rush to the onslaught,
as those leaders bid them, so long as they find that
their movements are conducted with courage and inte-
grity. Let confidence be once destroyed, and the dis-
appointment
gives full sway to the spirit of a wild and
indiscriminate vengeance. The enemy to be vanquished
are mixed up in common hatred with the leaders who
betray. Both are trampled on, without quarter, in the
excesses of a victory dearly bought, because the result
of a struggle which begins in confusion, and is fought
with rage. In this condition are now the people of
these islands. Reform, cost what it may, they must
and will have, in those institutions which yet
need it. Reform they desire to have by safe and con-
stitutional courses. Reform they can so have only by
the following up, intrepidly and unflinchingly, of the
firm and bold, yet temperate bearing, which the Mi-
nisters in both Houses have recently displayed. Y.,0
man knows the true English character bettu than
Lord Melbourne. Nene is better aware hen:, near are
the confines which separate the highest wspect from
the lowest contempt of the human charae_ter,
and how
soon the same mind passes from the one sentiment
into the other. None knows bettP-r how to inspire
and sustain the one ;—never w'as any man holding
or deserving a high station mv.e safe from the hazard
of creating the other. We 'therefore do not call on
him and his colleagues persevere—we know they
will. They owe it to 'their fellow-countrymen, who'
have lifted them to ar . eminence, and given them a
degree and a kind rif power never before enjoyed by
a British They owe it to their Royal
Master, wilor", it is their first duty to save from the
awful perilY, which a small, though powerful, mino-
rity of
.11;.s subjects are spreading for him. They owe
it to r„neir own characters and names—to the part
they have hitherto borne —to that consistency
which, to violate, would be the worst dishonour,
fc r it woull be to sneak meanly out of boasting which
t'aere was the boldness to make without the courage to
perform. We do not, we repeat, urge or counsel, or
exhort a Ministry, surrounded by many circumstances
to stimulate, Co inspirit, to nerve them in the high en-
counter in which, after all, they have but to act with
passive firmness to secure an easy and no distant vic-
tory. But we do invoke the BRITISH PEOPLE
to rally around rulers who deserve their confidence and
need, not their support, for they have it—but the
strong and public and repeated demonstrations of that
support in this hour of trial for the destinies of Eng-
land. Now OR NEVER. Let us make this proud
and benighted Oligarchy bend nozu—and without con-
vulsion, without disaster, without even agitation, and
without the hazard of those dislocations in the body of
society, not to be contemplated by any wise good
man without alarm, we shall quietly and
-,;tead'l v work out for the country, the fair and leaitimate results the Great Charter of British ofy
:
a long year of baffit;:l . IHits:which, after many
struggle, the British people at
last won for the'Lselves and their posterity.—Morning
Chronicle.

Th.-e conversation that took place in the House of
Commons on Friday last, and to which Mr. Bulwer's
sham motion for the repeal of the Stamp Duty on
Newspapers gave rise, is probably the last exhibition
of the kind we shall be favoured with this session.
For that reason, perhaps, it ought not to be passed
over in silence ; but we have not, till now, been able
to find an opportunity of bestowing a single word upon
it. AP •arne time, the only speech we think it
worth Wti 'ls notice seriously is that of the Chan-
cellor of the hequer. But our opinion is formed
wholly upon tF onsideration of the post which that
We by 1)0 rah.ns intend to iosuluate

.~/`'

.-
171.-040 d

t,r.>

that Mr. S. Rice's oration was good ; we do not say
that it was even much better than that of Mr. C.
Buller, who, with his usual statesman-like
gravely proposed a tax upon siltWon*, or (what
strikes us as forciltly acute in a legislator) upon any-
thing else of that sort, as a substitute for the tax ttpiM
newspapers. It seems, however, that paraing him-
self—with an excess of prudenet and a degree of cau-
tion that can never be sufficiently admired—by means
of "anything; dse," the Hon. and Learned Member for
Liskeard took par prefirence, as an article of taxation,
sabnorz ; and this he did (bcin liberal and learned),
of course, with a full recollection of all the laws
relative to preserves, whether by land or water—the.
demoralizing effects of poaching—and so forth. Did
he happen to think of the cost and folly of a " pre-
ventive service" in the rivers and lakes or Scotland
and Ireland ? The whole discussion would, in truth,
be the best illustration that has yet been adduced of the
injurious effects of the " Taxes on Knowledge," if one
could believe (and this is the stumbling-block) that
the gentlemen who spoke have no other impedi-
ment to the acquisition of knowledge than what
they call the tax upon it. We are very much
afraid, however, that this is not the case. We
are inclined to think that it is with knowledge, which
Mr. C. Buller is so sorry to see taxed, as it is
with salmon, which he is so desirous to bring within
the jurisdiction of the Excise or Customs,—namely,
that a man cannot digest all he can afford to buy.
There is a certain difficulty in both cases which no
legislation can remove. It may be that time must
be afforded for the discovery of truth in this, as
well as in some (ether matters which, though equally
clear, are not, vet seen through without assistance ;
and while the discovery is in _process, we should
not be at all surprised if the butcher-boys were to
insist upon their Constitutional right to whistle
through town and country their own sweet melodies
in chorus, with accompaniments of marrow-bones and
cleavers, protesting at the same time, that musicians,
whether vocal or instrumental, with a roof over their
heads, are no more than vile monopolists, and that the
laws against street nuisances are '6 a tax upon music.
For, in sober seriousness, what is the meaning of the
outcry of this small fry of politicians, except that, being
bent upon making a noise in the world, and seeing no
means of attaining their end, unless their own penny
trumpets be heard, they are not content with " aggra-
vating" their own barbarous blasts, but desire, while
they puff their own cheeks to bursting, that the notes
of others shall be silenced or made to sound as scan-
dalously as their own ? The fact is, that the whole thing
would be a solemn humbug, which sane folks would
laugh or cry over as their constitutions inclined them,
only that in this, as in other galoppades, with which
another sort of mountebanks take captive the eyes and
cars of shallow observers, the country pays the piper.
There are at least 50 taxes inconvenient and burden-
some to the middle and poorer classes which do not
amount in the whole to 450,0001., and yet that is what
Mr. Hume would call the " Cottle" raised by the tax
on newspapers, without the slightest inconvenience to
any class of the community. But those inconvenient
and burdensome taxes are to remain, in order that
, the cheap and nasty garbage of a few demagogues
or vain pretenders, may be hawked about in re-
ceptacles fitted for such uses. The Chancellor of the
Exchequer, while he will promise nothing definite—
not the reduction even of a fraction of a farthing of
this " tax on knowledge—acknowledges the " prin-
ciple" contended for by these purveyors of " hog-
wash." Mr. Rice boasted the other night that his
skin was as thick as that of the rhinoceros. We sup-
pose he thought it supererogatory to give an estimate
of the consistency of the most fleshless region of his
person, and therefore said nothing upon that head.
We have said that the speech of Mr. S. Rice is, on
account of the gentleman's position, the only speech
really deserving of notice. The points of that speech
lie in a very small compass. It appears that Mr. S.
Rice is convinced that, in the event of the Stamp
Duty being reduced or removed, there should be some
law investing newspaper proprietors with a copyright
for a certain period of time. He said it would be
.monstrous if one paper were allowed to steal from an-
other, within half an hour or an hour after publica-
tion, news which could not have been obtained by
the latter without considerable cost. No doubt it
would be very monstrous, and we are exceedingly glad
to learn that Mr. S. Rice has been made to under-
stand this part of the subject, which, however, is a vast
deal more important in reference to the public than
to any newspaper proprietors. Mr. S. Rice does not
see this, probably because of the occasion on which
he was indebted to persons connected with the stamped
press for pointing out the injury that must result to
them from the piratical system he denounces. These
gentlemen made their representation in consequene„
of the appearance of an unstamped paper, 'Pub-
lished in violation of the law, at 2d. or 3d., ae.
e 4. con-
sisting of matter purloined from the stamped news-
papers. The object of the representat;
in-
duce Mr. Rice to enforce the law a,' Mil was to
,n4:ist that pirate.
He did nothing 9f the kind. Had putting down or
the punishment of such an ire
.raction of the law de-
pended upon Mr. S. Rice, thee offence would in all pro-
bability have continued tiP, the present hour. But the
public should understa'od how this question of cop y-
right bears upon
nem. If there be no such law of
copyright, and
proprietors of papers, who go to a
large expense for the collection of news, whether
foreign or 'domestic, are to be robbed with impunity,
they p' ,1S of course shut up shop. The penny
t•
petty- 'larceners of the Press being thus thrown upon
the:
.r own resources, because there are no longer
P".ny pockets to pick, will be obliged to betake
themselves to some other calling, or to publish
their own lucubrations instead of news. Thus
there will be no such things as newspapers in
existence, any more than there would be found
walking in the streets a man with money in his
pockets, when every one was sure that he would
he plundered within half an hour after he crossed his
threshold. The merchants must, in such a case, go to
the enormous expense of daily expresses from foreign
parts, or be left utterly at the mercy of a few active
stockjobbers, while the public generally would know
nothing of important events, either at home or abroad,
except by accident, or the correspondence of private
friends. Another, the only other, part of the speech
of Mr. S. Rice which seems to call for observation, is
that in which he expressed his conviction that the price
of newspapers has nothing to do with making the Press
better or worse ; that, in fact, a penny paper is likely
to contain as proper matter as a sevenpenny paper.
If this be so, then the frequenters of the Beggar's-Ken
in St. Giles's are likely to be as safe, and to meet as
honest company, as those who dine at the London Ta-
vern ; and the audience in penny theatres, or in the
booths and shows at faire, may reckon upon finding
themselves associated with as decent persons as com-
pose the audiences of Drury-lane or Covent-garden, of
the Haymarket, or the English Opera-house. Of course
the nature of the fare is not to be taken into the ac-
count in either of the two classes of cases ; it is not
desirable to encourage wholesome feeding so long as a
man can get garbage to fill himself withal ; nor does it
matter whether" the murder of Mr.Weare or" Richard
III." be represented on the stage. Such is in effect the
reasoning of Mr. S. Rice, who, though Chancellor of
the Exchequer, cannot see that the embarking of large
capital in a lawful calling is always some security at
least for respectability, while it affords also some chance
that talant as well as character may be demanded.
But Mr. S. Rice goes further. He adopts Lord
Brougham's opinion of the unstamped press, and be-
lieves that, " not content with slandering public cha-
racters, it resorts to personal slander of the basest de-
scription ; that blasphemy and obscenity prevail through
much of it ; that parts of it go so far as to advocate
rebellion and assassination." Therefore, says Mr. S.
Rice, by inference, though not in words, " the thing is
as bad as it can be, and if we take off the stamp to-
morrow, and legalize the sale, we cannot make the ar-
ticle any worse." Perhaps not : the quality may re-
main the same, but what does the Chancellor of the
Exchequer think of the quantity p Suppose any one
were to say, " the cholera morbus in its worst stage
prevails in London and Manchester, and therefore not
only let us abstain from taking any means to prevent
it spreading throughout the land, but let us do all we
can to extend it, for the cholera morbus itself will be

s It Was salaries and not salmon that 21Ir. Buller mentioned. All
the Repirters misunderstood the nan. Gentleman.