The Sun.
London, England, 1832-01-02 00:00:00

THE DEPARTED YEAR.

(From the Examiner.)

Never did a year open with such fair pro-
mise as the last—the antecedent one had passed
as a pageant of glory, as a triumph of the.hu-
man race. Tyranny was struck do mn in France,
and despotism every where reeled with the shock;
the Poles had thrown off their thraldom, and re-
sisted their potent oppressor, with a success so
disproportioned to means, that might seemed to
have sprung from right. At home, the spirits
of evil were downcast and confounded. Power
had passed to the side of justice, and political
reformation appeared an instant consequence.
The heart has sickened with the delay or disap-
pointment of all these fair hopes. France is yet
held by the fragment of one of her broken
chains, and we have seen the Poles, after a long
and gallant struggle, sink under the giant foe,
amidst the sympathies of the whole world, and
without one aiding hand. Yet sad and grievous
as this was, who can say how, without greater
mischief to the permanent interests of mankind,
it could have been otherwise ? In the shock of
a general war, the improvement of society would
have lost a ground which in a hundred years it
could not recover. In England, the enemies of
mankind have rallied and made head ; and at the
close of the year, which so auspiciously com-
menced, our advance is only in project, the way
obscure, and nothing certain but the rashness
and obstinacy of our adversaries. The first Re-
form Bill had satisfied the country, closed all
schisms, bound the whole Epeople round the
State ; men flung away their favourite projects,
and gratefully accepted the measure which Go-
vernment had generously tendered. We received
it as an instalment of a great debt, it is true, but
it was an instalment offered in ready money.
With the nation in this mood, the policy was
rapid operation, to carry the action on in somt
accordance with the warmth of public feeling—
this, too, might have been expected from the
character of Lord Grey ; but an opposite system
has prevailed. The plan of the campaign was
confined to the House of Commons ; it had no
' bearing or reference to the twenty millions of
people outside of those four walls.. How the
most tedious process would agree with excite-
ment and impatience, was probably never con-

sidered. Lord Grey has been
in defeats—he seems to make
what he cannot do. It Was Sc
the House of Commons for-Med t
lington Administration, was unfit
work in hand ; but, nevertheless,
' went on against all hope, till they
absolute check, which left no choice.
solution so compelled followed,
country nobly retrieved the first err(
champions. The people, called into at.
their patriot King, obtained a decisive tri
spite of all the arts of corruption. Afte
things again relapsed to dulness, hesitation,
delay ; enthusiasm languished, attention flagg
The cause of the people was, indeed, in ti
hands of the Ministers; but their spirit was not
there, and a distaste arose at the manner of con-
ducting it, which seemed cold to the public vehe
inencc. Men turned, like Hagar in the desert,
from the sight of the cherished object they could
not help, or bear to see helpless. The deference
or parade of respect to unprincipled adversaries
was wormwood. Earnest action was desired,
and not the prancings, bows, and courtesies of a
minuet de la Cour. The dislike of these
misbestowed civilities was mistaken by the
enemy for re-action, and doubtless that -
impression had much effect upon the Peers.
Long before the Bill passed the Commons,
it was as certain as any event.dependant on hu-
man means, that it would be Yost in the House
of Lords. Ministers were quite prepared fur
the rejection ; they only differed from each other
in the calculation of the adverse majority, some
rating it a little higher than others. But yet
Lord Grey led up to sure defeat, though the
means of victory were at his disposal. The
Lords dared the indignation of the country,
illustrated power, without qualification, or re-
sponsibility,—and had their triumph. It was
observed, that one more such triumph, would be
their doom. There had been much of the Fabian
strategy in Lord Grey's policy, and will he give
the Hannibal the one other costly victory which
is to be his undoing ? We hope -not ; for we
confess we dislike the plan, however profound in
art, of suffering our enemies to beat us to their
own destruction; for not to mention, the disa-
greeableness of discomfiture and delay, it may
happen in such a process that the destruction of
the party to win; in the Paulo post Marc, may
come first. A second such victory would make
Ministers look more foolish than the Lords.
To the new Bill we are more reconciled the
more we consider it ; but it is not to be denied
that the people have received it, comparatively,
with apathy. They are as anxious and resolved
as ever for Reform, but one• single disappoint-
ment has abated-their interest in the projects for
it. Until the question of the Lords' mastery is
settled they see no use in looking at a scheme
for taking the fingers of those Lords out of the
public purse. It is like selling the bear's skin
before he is subdued, against which La Fontaine
warns us. It is also considered by some that
Lord Grey may not have exhausted his defeats,
and arrived by the last process at the residue of
success. The Bill will therefore pass as coldly
through the Commons as it was first received by
the people, and with the demonstration, whether
the Lords shall be irresponsible masters—that is
to say, despots in the largest sense of the word—
or not, the public excitement will again burst
out. For the result we have Ho fear,--Our Ge-
nerals may throw away the victory and themselves;
but the people, whenever called into action, Will
retrieve (as they have always done) the errors,
and turn the tide of battle in titter rout and ruin
upon their opponents. A homely story will
illustrate the present position and- relation of
powers. Two Highlanders set out on an expe-
dition to steal the litter of a wild sow, which lay
in a narrow-mouthed cave. Seizing the oppor-
tunity of the tender parent's absence, one of the
men (whom, as the predatory, we will call the
Tory party) crept in, and the other kept watch
at the mouth. Presently down came the sow
distracted, as if informed of what was passing, by
the instinct of maternal concern, and rushed
with menacing tusks to her door; the guard, as
she slipped into the passage, had but just time
to lay hold of her tail, give it a firm twist round
his strong hand, and throwing himself down and
setting his feet against the sides of the pass lie
held her fast. He had enough to do, and no
breath to waste. The young pigs were
squeaking under the hands of the Tory, and
the old one, to the fondest of pig's hearts
added the strongest of pig's sinews, and the
most wilful of pig's purposes. The Tory was
too much engaged with the screaming little pigs
to hear the tussle, but finding himse!f in darkness
(much as the people do now), he called out to
his mate to know what was the cause ? The
fellow, who by this time had found a pig's tail a
most uneasy tenure, and who had no wind for
explanations, answered thus, .expressively and
briefly denoting the precise posture of the case,
—" An the . tail break, you'll see." The fable
showeth that the Ministry has got the country
by the tail, and if it break, the Tory darkened
in the cave will see, in a very ugly form and
practical way, the cause of some irregular phe-
nomena he has never been able to understand.
But we are leaving our year behind us ; and
bad luck to it, as the Irish would say. Who
was not weary of it ? It passed like a day of
trouble, with some few bright moments which
made the succeeding gloom more cheerless.
This remark is, indeed, generally to be made,
that all which depended on the exertions of the
people, or on the manifestation of public opinion,
went prosperously ; while much that depended
on the energy, resolution, and address of Go-
vernment, miserably miscarried. But Ministers
have had a difficult part ; perhaps more of diffi-
culty than has been seen or suspected. Courage
would have extricated them from all the embar-
rassments pleaded, how truly we know not, in
excuse for their faults ; but the temporising
system adapted to one state of things they have
unfortunately applied to another, most different
in its circumstances. If losses and crosses be
lessons of wit, we have had abundance of them.
Political disappointments and disgusts, hope de-
ferred, rights spurned, and justice defied ; trade
paralysed ; the city of Bristol ravaged by fire and
plunder, at the same moment that the frightful
disease, which had been stealing step by step upon
us, lighted in the gloom of Autumn on our coast;
then came the discovery of the most strange, foul,
and unnatural of murders, the trade in assassina-
tion, which has filled the timid with alarm, and
all with horror and disgust. In addition to the
list of panics, that most cruelly mischievous one
is to be numbered which would have turned
rich against poor, by creating apprehensions
that the institution of property was an object of , r cc;
hostility to the labouring classes. This- is ri:Vat
black catalogue for one year, and we hope-,ligee
to look upon its like again.
.•
A witness at the last au
who said that he was a solicitor by profession,*ft\4oo:
on his cross-examination to be a common beggar

_: •~::
t'-.