The Sun.
London, England, 1835-01-02 00:00:00

•
2004, -
J -
t •
'

RYE.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURN:ALS.

A more impudent claim never was ai inced than' •
that of the present Administration to the support of
the Dissenters on account of the repeal "of the Sacra-
mental Test. It will be seen that the only merit of
Q;r Robert Peel and the Duke of Wellington is their
ss.
determiP. pds opposition to the measure to the last, and
yielding whd,„; a defeat satisfied them that further re-
sistance would be pnavailing. The Dissenters are
nothing but hostility to the present illiberal Ministry.
To attribute to the Tories the merit of repealing the
Test Acts, as was well observed Lately by Lord John.
Russell, would be about as absurd ar: to attribute to
the governor of a garrison which capitulated the merit
of taking the town, instead of bestowing )t on tile
besieging forces.—Morning Chronicle.
When the ultra-Reformers of the reigri of tenor in
France were conducting the liberal Madame Roland,
to the scaffold, because she refused to accompany them
in their march of destruction, the spectacle of the sail.-
guinary mob cheering a newly-erected statue of Liberty,
as she passed in the cart to the place of execution,
caused her to cry out, " 0, Liberty, what crimes are
committed in thy name ! " When we observe the
many foolish doctrines and practices which ultra-Re-
formers at the present day introduce or advocate, it
may well be said, " 0, Reform I what absurdities are
committed in thy name I " Scarcely had the Reform
Bill effected the extinction of the nomination borouglia
when an attempt was made by pretended Reformer
to establish a new sort of nomination system. The
formation of a society was announced in the me-
tropolis, with its board of directors, its privy coun-
cil, its secretary, and so forth, the object of which
society was to kindly relieve electors in various
parts of the kingdom from the trouble of thinking for
themselves in the choice of their Representatives.
We forget the name which this generous and liberal
society assumed, but we recollect that they offered
to provide Reform candidates, per order, for all consti-
tuencies, at the shortest possible notice. The terms
were not sisscified, but public subscriptions—the life of
all such generous and disinterested speculations—were
called for. We took up this new nomination-system
and handled it in such a way as induced thepublic very
soon to let it down. If it had been established what a
grand depot for Parliamentary puppets it would have
been ! A most motley assortment of these wooden
automata of legislation would have loaded its shelves—
Parliamentary travellers would have been sent, through
the kingdom with cards of terms, and descriptions of
candidates ready to be supplied upon order, like the
variegated contents of a tailor's book of patterns. This
ingenious project, to make amends for the loss of the
nomination boroughs by a grand nomination depot inn
,metropolis, was, as we said, one of the earliest
practksklabsurdities attempted to be palmed on the public
as a patriotic undertaking calculated and intended to
follow out the principle of reform. Truly the freedom
of election would have benefitted as much by it as its
purity. It was suspected, however, that the design was
not altogether original, but was stolen from a servants'
registry office ; but whether the fees were to be paid in
proportion to the goodness of the places procured we
cannot say. Had the project succeeded, we suppose
that, in the course of tune, Ministers, to fill all de-
partments of the State, would be supplied upon a
similar plan—so that the Xing and country might
never be at a loss for a Chancellor of the Exchequer,
or a Colonial, Home, or Foreign 'Secretary, fashioned
out of the best radical materials, and on the cheapest
terms. We are just now reminded of this ingenious
project of the ultra-Reformers, by another which has
lately been devised and called into action in Maryle-
bone, and probably in one or two other places. We
mean the notable project of vestries constituting
themselves political bodies for the nomination of can-
didates. The public are aware that the vestries of
three parishes constituting that new borough, or
some small but active knots of agitators in each,
have usurped the power of dictating who are to appear
as candidates on the " Liberal" interests, and who
are not. Thus, before the Reform Act has been
in existence two full years, we have a nomination
or close-borough system attempted to be introduced
among the new constituences, the difference between
it and the old system of nomination being, that the one
was of aristocratic origin, and the other is democratic,
both being equally at variance wit'.: the Constitutional
principle of free election ; but this former was an ho-
nest mode of neutralizing the representative principle
compared with the latter, which, limier the mask of
" Reform," would filch the people's franchise, and
render the respectable electors the slaves of a compact
little ambitious junta, sitting in secret conclave, and
exercising the most objectionable part of the usurped
authority of some unreformed CorporatiOns. ,Ti;e pro-
per and only business of vestries is parochial business
—the individuals who compose them have a- right, of
course, to take what part in elections they please, as
individuals, but they have no right whatever to, inter-
fere as bodies in elections. Their constitution is pa-
rochial, not political. Two great evils must follow
from vestries making themselves political bodies—the
one, that the freedom of election will be improperly
interfered with—the other, that the proper business of
the vestry, the parish business, will be neglected or
badly done. The system is pregnant with mischief,
and we trust the respectable parishioners, over whom
such insolent domination is attempted to be exercised,
will put it down at once and for ever. The public
have already had a specimen of the actual working of
this monstrous abuse, both of the name and principle
of. reform, in the case of Sir "William Home. We
that we have an unqualified admiration
cannot, `ay
of this gentleman's whole conduct in Parliament
—but he is a reformer of character and great per-
sonal respectSbilitY• He supported the late Whig
anner that, perhaps, did more credit
Ministry in a
to his fidelity to a
isarty than his judgment as a legis-
lator for a whole 'lade' u. Yet no man was ever worse
treated by any party thai'S he was by the Whig Mi-
nisters. The circumstances' of the case are fresh in
the recollection of the public. Suffice it to say that he
was as cleverly jostled out of the office of Attorney-
General by his Whig friends as Lorsi Grey was worked
out of the Premiership. He has been' ever since de-
scribed as " the worst used man in England," and
certainly the electioneering vestries of Narylebone
seem determined that he shall not lose hie, claim to
that melancholy distinction. A cooler piece of as-
surance we never heard of than the communication
addressed to Sir William Horne by those parish' jun-
tas, informing him that they had chosen one of the
Radical, Whig-courting Mr. Bulwers, along with Sir
Samuel Whalley, to be proposed to the electors for the
representation of the borough, and requiring Sir Wil-
liam, the Reformer, to withdraw his pretensions f
SuI:L.4Y we have here a specimen of the sort of freedom
that, eider a pure democracy, people would be allowed
to enjoy who have not the qualities to raise them to
eminence in
political unions, Jacobin clubs, and .de-
mocratic Arc we not, therefore, justi-
fied craitn ic
0, Reform I what absurdities
m
and abuses are committed in thy name !"—Morning
Herald.

TO 2-71 - EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sir—The dissolution of p!trliament, and the result of it
—an approaching election contest—'s
caused this town
to be the scene of great bustle and exciteme.t:
at
Major Curteis, who successfully opposed Col. t.c.7lis
the last election, will have to contest the borough on this
occasion, with Captain Monypenny, of Rolvenden, in Kent,
a gentleman much respected in the neighbourhood in which
he resides. He is the popullr candidate of the town, and
is the advocate of Triennial Parliaments, Scot and Lot
Household Suffrage, and Vote by Ballot. Major Curteis
has opposed, by his vote, the shorter duration of Parlia-
ments. He has never advocated an extended suffrage, or
the Vote by Ballot. He is mainly supported by the rem-
nant of the Tory party, who were patrons of the borough
during the last century, and by the landed tenantry of his
father, who is a very considerable proprietor of land within
the precincts of this borough. The disgraceful system of
treating, commonly known here by the name of the " pig
and punch parties," has been again resorted to by the friends
of Major Curteis.

It is evident, without great caution and perseverance on
the part of the electors, this borough will become again a
family nomination borough. An extended Suffrage, and the
Vote by Ballot, are the only certain remedies, to prevent
that calamity ultimately taking place. The spirit of Re-
form, does not, however, abate. There is no re-action
here, as the Tories would have it, as a proof of which, the
Times newspaper has been expelled from all our public
rooms, and substituted by other popular journals.
The attempt of the Ultra Tories to oust Messrs. Ca-
vendish and Curteis has likewise proved a failure ; they
will, no doubt, be re-elected for the Eastern Division of
the county of Sussex. They can only be superceded by
more determined Reformers, though the latter gentleman
assumes the character of a radical in one part of the county,
a Whig in another part, and that which approaches to To-
ryism in another.

The ensuing fortnight is probably a more important
period than any corresponding space of time in the an-
nals of this country. On the result of the struggle
about to commence depend the praspenty, the peace,
the welfare of Great Britain. How vast, then, the
responsibility of those engaged in it I Neutrality at
such an hour is a crime only inferior in degree to the
mischievous activity of the miserable demagogues and
agitators who convulse this realm and our stiil more
unfortunate sister country with their delusive plans.
It behoves each individual in his own sphere, be that
sphere limited or extensive, to use his influence—that
legitimate influence which education and property be-
stow—on behalf of the cause of order and good go-
vernment. Let him point out mildly, but plainly and
clearly, the real objects which the Radical faction have
in view ; let him show how their schemes strike
at the root of all social and moral happiness affect-
ing alike with their pernicious influence the interests
of the noble and the peasant, the opulent and the
humble ; that confiscation (the necessary and perhaps
immediate, consequence of their designs,) threatens
alike that the abundance of the rich and the, pittance
of the poor will be swept away to glut the, hankrupvor
the traitor, who may be strutting his beief hour on the
stage which anarchy and confusion have erected.
. Let
him, moreover, exhibit in its beauty and simplicity the