The Sun.
London, England, 1832-12-24 00:00:00

The French would, therefore, have acted alene iii
repelling a Dutch invasion. - The absolute Powers
of the continent unrestrained, or perhaps in such
circumstances encouraged by an English Tory ad-
ministration, would have interfered in favour of
Holland, and thus the attempt to reimpose the
treaties of 1815 would have opened again the
widest field for that great struggle of opinion and
ambition,—of the rights of possession, and the
claims of conquest,--which these treaties, however
ill adapted for the consolidation of permanent tut, .
quillity, had for 15 years the effect of closing. By
the return of Liberal Members in such a majority, di,-
posed to support the existing Liberal Government
againq revolutionary violence on the one hand, and
Conservative abuses on the other, neither of these
foreign alternatives can happen. The French Go-
vernment, so long as it forswears projects of ag-
grandizement and labours sincerely to bring about a
peaceful adjustment of European differences, can
rely on that cordial co-operation on our part of
which our good faith and our highest interests
equally impose the necessity. The absolute
continental Powers, which cannot move a step
in hostile array without borrowing the purse or
gaining the forbearance of England, will abandon
their mad projects at the sight of an English
Legislature resolved never to vote a subsidy to
crush freedom or to facilitate conquest. The latter
have learnt, or must soon learn, that the result of
the present English elections has made it a matter
of indifference what particular set of functionaries
compose personally the Cabinet of this country.
Lord Grey could not act like the Duke of Welling-
ton and remain a week in office, and if it were pos-
sible to conceive his Grace again in office, he would
be obliged to act like the bead of the present Mi-
nistry. As the House of Commons is constituted
by the working of the Reform Bill, the arbitrary
Governments of the continent need never again
look to England for an ally in any warlike projects
of conquest, usurpation, or aggrandizement—or in
any attack against the lights of freedom, the
of humanity, or the just claims of national inde-
pendence. It is with no small pleasure and exulta-
tion that we announce this result to the friends and
to the enemies of our country on the continent,—
and we call upon them to believe us implicitly,
whatever may be said to the contrary by certain
iliplomatists who live only in Tory coteries. The
poor King of Holland was grossly duped if he was
ever taught to believe that by holding out somewhat
longer, at the instigation of our Conservatives, he
nould influence our elections, and bring about a
change of Ministry. The artillery of the citadel of
Antwerp, which was no doubt intended to be heard
t the English hustings, spent its whole force on
!he French trenches, and did not knock down a
single vote for a Conservative candidate; nay, we
have seen one of the shells launched from our
Anglo-Dutch garrison, taken up by a freeholder of
Bedfordshire (Mr. Montagu Bourgoyne), and thrown
sack on the enemy like a hand-grenade, with the
malicious label "Dutch peace, not war." The To-
ies may now make it " a war," or " a peace," as
'hey choose, but we shall be satisfied that if it be a
war, it i, calculated to prevent a general conflagra-

At the dinner at the London Tavern, on Saturday,
to celebrate the triumph of Reform, and the return
of Mr. Grote, that gentleman repudiated, in the
,trongest terms, the idea that people were to go
:nto Parliament without any fixed principles at all,
Ind expect to pick up principles on the floor of the
House of Commons. . .

"The present times," he observed, "were such as requireu
men who went to Parliament with principles formed ; and he
should he a recreant to hi.; own principles if he hesitated to
avow that he thought they required iu a peculiar degree men
devoted to the service of the country—men of decision and
knowledge—men possessing the command of large principles
and comprehensive views.—(Applause.) There were faults to
correct, injuries to repair, grievances to redress, which called
for no wavering, or undecided hand—for no men who would
stand aloof till the Minister should set hi,: seal upon a mea-
sure—those surely were not the men for the ensuing Parlia-
ment, but those were the men who drew back from pledges.—
Applause.)
The chairman (Mr. Warburton) observed, that
he saw no distinction between persecution for con-
science sake, whether it had reference to a political
9r religious conscience, and that if they expected to
preserve the independence of the voter, they must
insist upon the ballot. Mr. Hume observed, " that
,ie felt as they all must feel, that the Bill was not a
complete measure—that it did not secure political
freedom without the ballot, and that was a truth
which he should never cease to inculcate upon a
Reformed Parliament until it was obtained." With
few exceptions, the Church, the Aristocracy, and the
Magistracy, have beets throughout the late contests,
eminently Conservative or Tory. What Mr. Walter
ways in his address to the electors of Berkshire, may,
in fact, be subscribed to by every liberal candidate
for the representation of a county :
« With a few splendid individual exceptions, Gentlemen,
owe little to that order which calls itself, or is considered the
aristocracy of Berkshire. The middle and industrious classes,
with whom, as a body, are found in the highest degree io.
which they exist throughout this nation, the noblest charac-
teristics of intelligence, honesty, manly truth, and honour,
are they to whom I feel myself most sensibly indebted for the
eminent, though arduous station to which I have beets raised."
Lord John Russell, even in his canvass through
South Devon, after finding that the tenants were
intimidated by their landlords, declared that the
object of the Reform Bill was to put an end to in-
fluence, and that if the voter cnuld not otherwise
be protected, recourse must be had to the ballot.
Mr. Abereromby at Edinburgh, Mr. Macaulay at
Leeds, to say nothing of men unconnected with
Ministers, have held the same language. But be-
hold Mr. Stanley, not satisfied with throwing Ire-
land into, we had almost said, aremediless confusion,
throws out a challenge at Lancaster, which, if we
are not mistaken, will render it difficult to determine
in which island he has done most mischief to his
colleagues. " The Government (he said) had
come forward with a complete measure of Reform,
which the people had adopted as the new charter of
their liberties; it had been so extensive as to alarm
many, who, however, consented to go the length of
it upon the distinct pledge that it was to be taken
as a final measure. If, therefore, it should be at-
tempted to bring forward any measure for shorten-
ing the duration of Parliament, or still further ex-
tensive alteration by a protection, as it was falsely
called, of the vote by ballot, he now announced (and he
spoke the sentiments of his Honourable Colleagues)
that any such measure would meet their most de-
cided opposition." But is the opinion of the nation
itself to go for nothing ? The Ministers gave a
pledge. But other people have given pledges as
Ministers. If the House of Commons represent the
nation, and the nation be determined to have the
voter protected by the ballot, and the duration
shortened, which ought to give way, Ministry or
the House of Commons ? Ministers have clearly
pledged themselves to what was not within their
competency, if they pledged themselves there should
be no ballot, and the duration of Parliament should
not be shortened. We apprehend that the object
of the Reform Bill was to make the Ministry de-
pendent on Parliament, and not Parliament on the
Mini,ary. However, Mr. Stanley has not only given
a side blow to his colleague, Lord John Russell, but
he has at once called into being an opposition which
Ministers may find some difficulty in overcoming.
This young man seems to posses in admirable pro-
portion the faculty described by Sheridan, of raising
up a wall to break his own head on, as well as the
heads of his friends.-411orning Chronicle.
In commenting upon an article of ours, relative
to the Middlesex election, the Standard falls into a
misconception which we are anxious to rectify.
That Journal takes to itself what we said of a
combination beta een placemen and hirelings of die
late Government and the present one to get rid of
the presence of Mr. llume in the reformed Pai lia-
went. Such an intention as applying the term
" hireling" to the Standard we utterly disavow. It
never entered our thoughts to apply a term expres-
sive of a venal connection with power or party to a
Journal which, al,hough differing with us widely
on some great political questions, we are always
ready to admit has preserved, under different Ad-
ministrations, an independence of tone anti eon.

sistency of character which are not reconcileable
with the notion of a sordid compromise of principle.
Whenever we have thought proper to refer particu-
lady to any statements of our contemporary, we have
uniformly used that language which we use when
iinpugning the opinions of an opponent whose sen-
timents we believe to be conscientious. If our
contemporary had not been misled by a hasty
impression of the sense of the passage which he
has alluded to, he could not have taken the ac-
cusation intended for others to himself. We
had adverted to the simultaneous attacks of
the Whig and Tory Press on Mr. Hume; and then
we went on to observe that certain " Ins and Outs—
that placemen and hirelings, under the late Goverh-
ment and the present one—wished to get rid of this
gentleman in the reformed Parliament." Now,
knowing that the Standard had gone so far in oppo-
sition to the Duke of Wellington's Administration
as at one time to have been threatened with a State
prosecution, we could not have intended to include
that Paper when we spoke of 'the " hirelings of the
late and present Government. There were several,
both Whigs and Tories, to whom this term applies,
who combined their efforts to exclude Mr. flume
from Parliament. Among them were several, both
Journalists and others, who were the " fawning
W
sycophants" of the Duke of
`Wellington when in
power, and who have transferred an allegiance as
servile, and quite as sincere, to the Minister who
succeeded to his office, and who professes principles
diametrically opposed to his. In common with those
persons our contemporary, made great exertions to
give Mr. Byng another colleague than Nlr. Hume.
Nothing could be more natural than that a Con-
servative Journal should have preferred Lord Henley
or Sir Charles Forbes, or any other Conservative
candidate, to an indefatigable Reformer. Nothing
could be more suspicious than that Whigs and pro-
fessed Reformers should have evinced a similar pre-
dilection. A word or two as to Mr. Hume. We
have repeatedly declared, in supporting that gentle-
man during the recent election, that we differ from
him materially on several important questions of
policy. We have taken occasions when those ques-
tions, on former occasions, came under discussion,
to impugn his opinions with all necessary freedom,
and intend to do so again. We have on some oc-
casions supported Mr. Sadler's views against his,
anti should gladly see the latter gentleman in Par-
liament again, to advocate those just and benevo-
lent objects, the Factory Bill, the Poor-laws for
Ireland, and those measures to raise the condition of
the oppressed and defrauded labouring classes,
which have associated his name with ennobling re-
collections of humanity. Regarding what we con-
ceive to be the advancement of the public interests,
and the maintenance of the true principles of the Bri-
tish Constitution, as a more useful and honourable
task than any connected with the conflicts or
triumphs of party, we take that course which leaves
us unfettered to bestow praise or blame accord-
ing to the merits of men, and not in relation
to the political badges by which they may he
externally distingui,hed. We do not look upon
public wisdom or viriue as confined within a parti-
cular circle, outside of which nothing but baseness
or folly is to be found. We can believe in the ex-
istence of a conscientious arid virtuous Tory, and do
not think it impossible that there may be Whigs
who undermine and betray the principles which they
pretend to support. Nay, we expect to see the day
when the mass of the community, no longer hood-
winked by the artificial distinctions of faction, will
estimate the characters of public men as we do, not
by the principles they profess, but )he actions they
perform. If we could give credence, as our con-
temporary of the Standard does, to the calumnies
that have been heaped on the head of Mr. Hume,
we would have opposed him with as determined op-
position; but we do riot believe them. The " dis-
semination of infidel tracts" has been so completely
disproved, that we are astonished to see the charge
repeated. And then to accuse him of holding the doc-
trines of Carlile and others of that class, hecaus-
he disapproved of their prosecution, is an infe-
rence as unfair as it is uncharitable. We hold, in
common with some of the wisest and best of men,
whose talents have adorned the walks of literature
and philosophy, that all prosecutions for matters of
opinion are bad in principle, and of injurious conse-
quences. We maintain, too, that they are opposed
in spirit as well as letter to that divine system of
ethics which Christianity has revealed, and which
teaches its that truth will be vindicated by other
and nobler weapons than those of carnal violence
and persecution. Nothing has done more mischief
in our days to the cause of religion and morality
than prosecutions which shallow Statesmen pro-
moted against low, ignorant, and scurrilous assailants
of the sublime and impregnable truths of the Chris-
tian dispensation. Such proceedings gave importance
and circulation to contemptible ribaldry, which
would otherwise have perished unknown anti inno-
cuous in the obscurity in which it sprung. Thus the
venal speculation of the traffickers in moral poison was
served. In proportion as persecution raged they ob-
tained the notoriety which they wished, and found
more extensive marts for the sale of their infec-
tious merchandise. If Mr. Hume is to be accounted
an Infidel merely because he objects to such prose-
cutions, he must, on the same reasoning, be regarded
as a high Church Protestant and Anti-Catholic
politician because he objected to the prosecution
of the Editor of the late Morning Journal,. whose
zeal for Protestantism had excited the vindictive
hostility of the Duke of Wellington's Government.
We recollect that when, upon the accession of his
present Majesty, an Act of Grace conveyed pardon
for their offences to several criminals, Mr. Hume
endeavoured, in the House of Commons, to have
the convicted champion of Protestant doctrines,
then languishing in prison, included in that Act of
regal clemency, but in vain. The great Greek
orator called the sententious Phocion the " pruner
of his periods." Our prodigal financiers may as
justly call Mr. Hume " the pruner of their Esti•
mates." lie will deserve support as long as he is
opposed to the Treasury system of profusion and ve-
nality.—Morning Herald.
Among our election intelligence will be found
three articles, to which we beg to point the special
attention of our readers—the first, the entertain-
ment given to Mr. Grote by the 8,412, who placed
him at the head of the poll for the city—the se-
cond, the dinner to Lord Palmerston at Southamp-
ton—and the last, the meeting of which we have
given so full an account from the Stamford and
Lincoln papers, at which Mr. Tennyson had
again to come forward in defence of vote by
ballot, and to state his reasons in detail for sup-
porting that mode of taking the sense of the people
upon the merits of those who are desirous of repre-
senting them in the Legislature of the country.
With regard to the first, nothing could be more
gratifying to Mr. Grote's feelings than the enter-
tainment which was given to him—the manner in
which he was received by the company, and the
repeated bursts of applause by which the announce-
ment of his political principles was hailed by one of
the most respectable companies which we have ever
met on any similar occasion. When alluding to the
necessity of vote by ballot—of triennial Parliaments
—of a Reform in the Church, it was with difficulty
that he could proceed—so unanimous, so vehement,
so enthusiastic were the plaudits of the company.
Mr. Hume was received in an equally gratifying
manner, and addressed the company' with a de-
gree of energy and feeling which greatly out-
stripped any previous exertion that we have
known him to make. The numerous and highly
respectable band of Reformers who will this
day accompany him to Brentford, will testily
to the Conservatives, as well as to those who,
basely deserting their " first love," have become
nxious to follow Conservative principles, that there
is a movement in the public mind in favour not only
of all those practical Reforms, which we have a right
to anticipate as the fruits of the Reform Act, hut also
of the improvement of that Act itself, where it is found
to be deficient, which no party, however powerful, can
venture to withstand without putting to hazard the
internal peace of the country—,,the very first and most

mportant principles of the G3nstitution. With re-
spect to the- dinner to• Lord • Palmerston, we may
fairly obsersie that it exhibits the most triumphant
feeling, and that when it is considered how shame-
fully, and by what base arts, the Conservatives have
been endeavouring to defeat his election, his re-
turn is a subject of just gratulation. With regard
to the Lincoln nomination meeting, the main inte-
rest
of it will be found in a dispute between Mr.
Tennyson and Mr. Boucherett, and in the exposure
which it contains of the tyrannical conduct of
certain aristocrats in that county, in attempting to
compel their tenants to vote against their con-
sciences. Mr. Tennyson, it will be seen, was
originally opposed to vote by ballot, and has only be-
come a convert to its adoption from the ❑nfair pro-
ceedings to which we have alluded. His reply to
Mr. Boucherett, who contemptuously termed him a
" low Radical," is manly and spirited, as well as his
defence of his Lambeth constituents, who, alone-
with their representative, caine in for a due share
of abuse from the Conservative party.—Morning
Advertiser.

The elections proceed in the same spirit as they
did last week. In the counties a few Tories have
found admission. Mr. Hall Dare has succeeded to
Nlr. Wellesley in South Esssex—a fair exchange.
Mr. Wellesley has been at Calais since the dissolu-
tion of Parliament : he will probably remain there.
Northampton has returned a Tory and a Whig for
each division. The division of the counties has
been favourable to such divided returns. The Ultra-
Reforming party has- fotnid small favour any where—
less in the counties, as might be expected, than in
the towns. We can mention bnt two Members
who approach to that description—Mr. Hume and
Major Beauclerk : after them' though with an in-
terval, Lord Milton may be enumerated. The
majority for Ministers will doubtless be increased
by the strongly Conservative language of Lord
Althorp in Northamptonshire, and Mr. Stanley in
Lancashire; but it needed not their declarations to
strengthen it. Everywhere, to be a member of the
Government has been a secure passport. Mr. Port-
lett Thomson, chiefly from his possession of office
(though, doubtless, for his abilities and liberality
also), has had the high honour of being elected by
a large majority of one of the most numerous and
respectable of the new constituencies—Manchester,
in opposition to a man of great local influence; and
by a spirited and populous borough—Dover, in
opposition to all the strength which a powerful and
unscrupulous party could bring against him. The
elections in Scotland have begun well. Francis
Jeffrey, James Abercromby, John Archibald Mur-
ray, Robert Ferguson, are names that would grace
any assembly. Ireland sends us O'Connell and
four persons of his own kindred, and a tail of clients
as long as that of the ram of Derby. The Podia.
ment will not lack eloquence. We contemplate its
meeting with no small mingling of fear. If the
Ministry really mean what their members in North.
amptons'aire and Lancashire announce, we shall ne-
cessarily have a renewal of that agitation which has
already operated so injuriously on the welfare of the
community, and without that sustentation of hope
which has hitherto rendered it tolerable. It is true,
we may force theta to return to the right path, as
we formerly forced them to remain in it; but the
shock to public morals would not be the less fatal.
The abandonment of Reform by its originators,
would produce in the public mind a contempt for
authority that could hardly fail to issue in its utter
overthrow. We regret exceedingly, that in several
places, riots, more or less serious, have occurred.
At Sheffield, several persons have fallen victims to
their rashness. The new constituencies, however,
have shown fer the most part a much stronger regard
for order than the old. The causes of the dis-
orders in the latter, are clearly traceable to the
leaven of uncleanness which the second Bill left to
pollute the body of the electors. In the former,
they seem to have arisen from attempts—not a whit
more defensible, though better-motived than the
boroughmongermg attempts—on the part of the
non-electors to control the electors. There are
plain and easy methods of remedy for both, which
we should deeply regret to find Ministers resolutely
setting themselves against. Household suffrage, as
proposed by Lord Ellenborough, would take from
the present non-electors all those whose voices are
in any degree influential ; the ballot would protect
the electors from the aristocracy, and what in many
instances, and especially in Ireland, seems even more
necessary, from the democracy; and short Parlia-
ments, by taking from the novelty of elections,
would take from the excitement which their present
infrequency occasions. These remedies must come
—the two last soon, the whole ultimately. Mi-
nisters may, in their not unnatural love for a work
of their own creation, feel offended at a suspicion
of its insufficiency; but its insufficiency must be
remedied nevertheless, by them, or in spite of thera.
Spectator.

The elections for the English counties have
proved even more satisfactory than those of the bo-
roughs to the friends ofthe Government and of Reform.
In North Hants, the Marquis of Douro, notwith-
standing the utmost efforts of his friends and con-
nections, has been signally defeated. In South
Hants, Mr. Fleming has, in the same manner, and
under the same influence, been rejected, for Lord
Palmerston ; Mr. Buller has failed in Devonshire—
Mr. Murray, in Bucks—Mr. Mills, in East Somer-
set—Mr. Packington, in East Worcester—Mr.
Adeane, in Cambridge—Mr. Posey, in Berks—Sir
W. Geary, in \Vest Kent—Sir George Sitwell, in
Derby—and Mr. Tryon, in Northamptonshire. Sir
Edward Knatchbull, it is true, has been returned
for East Kent, Lord Chandos, for Bucks, Lord
Gtsmston, for Herts, and Colonel Lowther, for
Westmoreland ; and we learn there is some proba-
bility that Mr. Baring may succeed in Essex, and
Mr. Bell, in Northumberland. These, and some
few others, in districts where the power of the aris-
tocracy is not yet thoroughly overturned, make,
however, but a pitiful portion of that band which
once swayed the destinies of the country at will,
and for half a century resisted all the attacks of the
Crown, of the opposing faction, or of the people.
The Tories, as a hotly, are scarcely worthy of the
name ; and the unfortunate few who delight in the
appellation of " Conservatives," cannot too speedily
abandon a title which their number and influence in
the new Parliament will render so ridiculously inap-
propriate, In the meantime, those who look to the
enjoyment of the real fruits of the Reform Bill, in a
calm and dispassionate consideration of the abuses
of the ancient system of Government, cannot re-
flect without pain on the perils to which we may be
exposed, by the ❑nion of the Irish Repealers with
that comparatively small, but dangerous class of
men, the theorists and fanatics, who have been
borne into the House of Commons by the circum-
stances of the time. Isolated as a party, neither
enjoying the sympathies, nor commanding the re-
spect of that part of the community who, in all
seasons, give the tone to public opinion, the Radi-
cals and Repealers would, in a period of quirt, be
utterly insignificant. The first Session of the new
Parliament will, however, throw together such dis-
cordant materials for the use of a Minister—his best
efforts for the advantage of the country will be re-
ceived with so much real or affected distrust—
that it will be exceedingly difficult for those
who hold the reins of Government to command
a power sufficiently steady, a majority which can
be sufficiently calculated on, to control the efforts of
men bonded together on all occasions for one common
object—the overthrow (fevery thing that is. If we add
to this, the melancholy conviction that many of the
disappointed adherents of the dynasty that is past will,
occasionally, with a perverse and fatal blindness, give
their sanction to the views of the opponents of the
Ministry, either out of folly or revenge, we confess
that we cannot contemplate the situation of affairs
without alarm, or without feeling that some changes
—improvements we should say—are required in the
i Ministerial arrangements, before the Government of
I Earl Grey will be in a condition to offer an effectual
resistance to the machinations of its enemies. In
the last Parliament, although sufficiently honest arid
well-intentioned, the lack of men of business in the