The Sun.
London, England, 1835-12-29 00:00:00

two things to be taken into account on the subject : 1
Ist. That we have no evidence whatever of the Radical 1
politics of those who in general have been elected
town-councillors on this occasion, many of them be-
ing apparently persons in respectable stations of life.
2d. That, however disposed they may be, there are
not, except in the very largest towns, and in the
richest corporations, means at the disposal of the new
town-councils for applying the power now vested in
them to any purpose bearing on the election of mem-
bers to the Legislature. -Besides which, the registra-
tions of householders, we suspect, will 'have told a
dfferent tale from that of the miscellaneous burgesses.
—Times. _ _

If we are to believe the prognostications of the
Whig-Radical Journals, the result of the working of
new Corporation Act will be to give a decided prepon-
derance to the Whig-Radical party, not merely in the
local government oeboroughs, but in the return of
Members to Parliament at the next general election.
If the Ministers are really of that opinion, let them
try the effect of an appeal to the country by a dissolu-
tion of Parliament. It is quite certain that the two
great parties in Parliament are too nearly balanced at
present to allow the O'Connell-Melbourne Adminis-
tration to carry its destructive designs into execution
without a considerable increase of strength. Now as
Whig-Radical Town Councillors cannot take their
seats in Parliament, their co-operation cannot
strengthen the hands of Ministers in the Great Coun-
cil of the Nation, except by exercising their official
influence to return Whig-Radical Members to Par-
liament. Let Ministers, then, give them the oppor-
tunity by a dissolution, and if the result be such as
the organs of the Ministry anticipate, then it will be
made manifest the Municipal Reform Bill was not
intended to secure to boroughs a • better and more
honest local Government, but was merely con-
trived for the purpose of giving to the democra-
tized Whig party the means of controlling the choice
of the Representatives of the people by corporate
influence and corporate. corruption. A Ministerial
Evening Journal, which is almost more malignantly
hostile to our Protestant Institutions than O'Connell and
his Irish Priests, had an article last evening anticipating
a great extension of the English portion of the "tail" in
Parliament with the accomplishment of the O'Con-
nellite plan of reform, or, in other words, subversion of
the Irish Protestant Church, as the fruits of the work-
ing of the Municipal Reform Bill. It praises the sa-
gacity of Ministers for devising such a means of keep-
ing themselves in power. We believe that the preser-
vation of their own power is the only object that they
ever had in view ; and that, as Lord Melbourne and
some of his colleagues were opponents of all reform
until admitted to seats in Lord Grey's Cabinet, so they
only use "reform" at present as the instrument of their
selfish ambition, without any regard whatever for the
real interests of the country. Whether 'Ministers, in
their present crippled and distressed condition, will try
a dissolution or not remains to be seen. The results
of successive elections from the time of the dismissal
of Lord John Russell from South Devon to the de-
feat of Mr. lianbury in North Northamptonshire, are
not in favour of the experiment—still, with a dissolu-
tion, they can only be beaten, and without a dissolu-
tion they can hsrdly go on.—Morning Herald.
The accounts from various parts of the country
of the elections under the Municipal Corporations
Bill are pretty nearly such as we expected. The
old town councils have very generally been replaced
by new men. Our Whig-Radical contemporaries
assert that the new men to whom the funds of
the corporations and the local interests of the towns of
England fire thus entrusted are almost without an
exception persons of their party. That there is some
exaggeration in this statement we have little doubt,
because party statements are generally exaggerated—
but we cannot disguise our opinion that it is in the
main correct. If we lament the fact, however, it is
entirely upon social, and in no degree upon party,
grounds that we do so. There needed but this
to convince the inhabitants of our corporate towns
that their late municipal government was not the
worst possible, and to create an early and abun-
dant supply of evidence that the Corporation Re-
form of the Whig-Radical Administration was, cal-
culated to produce anything rather than an im-
provement of the civic institutions of the country. It
was naturally to be expected that the persons to whom
the right of voting for town councils was given by the
Whig-Radical Bill would signalize the first assump-
tion of their powers by the election of new depositories
of local authority, differing as widely as possible in
character, station, politics, everything, from the old.
We believe that they will quickly discover that they
d•-
have not changed for the better ; and that, in propor-
tion as this discovery advances, the Municipal Reform
Bill will work less and less mischievously as the
Parliamentary Reform Bill, by means of a similar
process of experiment and discovery, is already
found to do. Thus, we flatter ourselves, it will at
length be demonstrated, by the unerring test of
experience, that even a Whig-Radical Government,
the most intent upon selfish schemes and the most
prone to desperate innovations, may change the re-
presentative system of the kingdom, and erect new
corporations on the ruins of the old, without per-
manently depriving the nation,of the blessings of good
general and good local Government. It is impossible
that the intoxication which seems to have prevailed in
the election of town councils, on the present occasion
should be lasting. It may reasonably be expected that
municipal authority in the hands to which, by the new-
fangled exercise of a strange franchise, it has been
rashly entrusted, will not unfrequently be degraded and
abused. Aided by such examples, station, property
character, and intelligence will rapidly resume their na-
tural and legitimate dominion. And we cherish, there-
fore, the confident expectation that the errors of the first
election, the result, in most instances,.of inexperience,
prejudice, and passion, will be speedily and effectually
repaired. The Ministerial journals are in an ecstacy of
joy at the result of the municipal elections, or affect
to be so, for we can scarcely regard as sincere their
pretence that a transaction wholly unconnected with
the general politics of the country is any test of the
relative popularity of political parties, when the evi-‘
deuce it affords, if it is to be assumed that it yields
any, is diametrically opposed to that of every recent
election to a seat in the Legislature. There is some-
thing inexpressibly absurd in the inference that the
Government is popular and strong, whose friends and
supporters are invariably rejected with scorn when they
aim at a seat in Parliament, from the mere fact that
the electors of our Corporations have generally been
eager to display their recent power in the appointment
of new Corporation officers, and have generally chosen
Whigs and Radicals in the absence of any Conserva-
tive candidates willing to oppose the ancient possessors
of local authority.—Morning Post.
Now we bid defiance to the Tories I. They vainly
hoped, by the employment of the vilest instrumen-
tality, to oust the Ministry before the Corporation
Reform Bill came into operation. Their organs, in
exulting anticipation of success, announced the
"downfall " of the Melbourne Cabinet as certain be-
fore the expiration of a few days—nay, such was their
confidence, that each individual partisan was speculat-
ing on what portion of the spoils of office might fall
to his share—when, lo ! up starts the enfranched citi-
zens of England, and universal abhorrence of Tory
tyranny supplying the want of a general organization,
they drive the traitorous faction from the field, and raise
the Reform standard in every borough of England. The
municipal elections have been a series of triumphs to
the cause of Reform. In addition to the victories re-
corded yesterday, we have this day the gratification to
announce a number of others equally signal and im-
portant. Everywhere have the Tories been hurled with
marked ignominy from the place of trust which they
had perverted to the basest purposes of fraud and
oppression, and honest Reformers placed in their stead.
Leicester has redeemed itself from the disgrace which
Tory influence inflicted on if, and left not a single
Conservative in its Common Council. Cambridge,
Coventry, Bristol—hitherto the hotbeds of the faction
—have produced rich fruits of Reform in their several
elections. Plymouth, Bury St. Edmund's, MaCcles-
field, &c. &c.--have all sent in their adhesion to the
cause which, in its- consummation, will and must
secure cheap 'and good government, and realize that
ardent wish of the patriot—to identify the law of
,the
laid with the will of the people. These glorious re-
sults are subjects of most cordial congratulation to ill