The Sun.
London, England, 1832-03-20 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Duke of Newcastle, not content with the
opposition wh:ch he can give to the Reform Bill in
his place in Parliament as an hereditary legislator,
together with that illegal and reprehensible power
which he possesses as an eminent borough-master,
and which it is the object of the Bill to destroy, is
also publishing a pamphlet on the subject of—that
ig, against—Reform. His work is entitled An Ad-
dress to all Classes and Conditions of Englishmen, by
the Duke of Newcastle. Now, before we enter
into the discussion of this pamphlet, or present any
extracts from it, we will frankly confess that it
gives us pleasure to meet with a person of his
Grace's exalted condition in the character of an au-
thor. The act is a credit to him, however it may be
performed. It speaks well, also, for the
aristocracy of the country generally, to find
in its ranks so many Members capable of
;nstructing their countrymen, or at least of
giving efficacy to their own opinions by their
pens, and through the press. And if, which
we verily believe, there never was a time when
so many persons of this talent and capacity appeared
among the Nobility, they owe it to that universal
diffusion of knowledge, in which it would have been
shameful to them to be left behind, and which it is
the aim of his Grace and those who unhappily share
his opinions to counteract and suppress. The man-
ner in which his Grace was " pricked on" to write,
is appropriately described in the Preface, and re-
minds us of Falstqff's" Catechism" in Henry IV.:—

" This addrecs was commenced several week; ago, and
the first part written at intervals, as leisure or the state of
health permitted. The original expectation was, that the
substance would be comprehended in a few pages ; but as
the writing proceeded, it was found impossible to accom-
plish this consistently with the object in view. It was
then laid by for some time; but anxiety would not suffer
that the attempt should be abandoned. In spite of strong
disinclination and a painful onsciousness of inaptitude for
the task, it was lately resumed. Nothing hut an irre-
sistible desire to contribute his best endeavours fur the
public weal could have induced the writer to persevere
under the many circumstances which seemed to oppose the
completion of his undertaking."

It is impossible for us to dedicate our columns to
give currency to opinions which we contemn, and
which it is the object of our daily labour to contro-
vert : we shall therefore take a passage in which the
author summons his strength, and seems to comprise
all he has to say against the Bill; and we shall
number and mark in italics those passages on which
we bestow a comment :

" A measure professing to remedy all the evils com-
plained of was proposed. Some estimate of the value of an
article may be formed by considering the qualifications of
he manufacturer.

"The present Ministers entered upon office under circum-
stances of a very advantageous nature. Their accession to
office was greeted with satisfaction and considerable expec-
tation. It was the same party which on a former occasion
obtained the appellation of ' all the talents.' The sequel
has proved how little this title was merited, and how often
tel qui brille au second rang, s'eclipse au premier.'
But what must have been the confidence of those persons
in the'r own profottnd ability, when they presumed to lay
before Rirliament a measure, not to amend and ameliorate,
but one to destroy and reconstruct ? They find a constitu-
tion, the admiration and envy of the whole world, and
which, until lately that we are grown ' unkind and un-
natural,' was the pride and boast of every Englishman;
they cAll it imperfect—and to make it better, they destroy
the work of the practical wisdom of successive ages, and
substitute in its place a new one, no doubt the work of
the Birmsngham artisans; but by whomsoever composed,
it is the arrantest counterfeit, the most barefaced cheat,
the most tangled masa of incongruities, impracticabilities,
injustice, and nonsense, that ever emanated from the
brains of rational men, or o'er was ushered in under the
auspices of a talented Cabinet. I put it to the common
sense of auy one, whether he does not laugh to scorn this
new Constitution, as much as he pities the obliquity of judg-
ment which could have led any set of Englishmen to ima-
gine the overthrow of the old and approved British Consti-
tution, by the substitution of a vain conceit, a palpable,
di-executed counterfeit.

" T' alter the composition of Parliament is to alter the
Constitution ; for, as Parliament frames the laws, so may a
bad P:uliament overturn every institution of the country.
" (1 ) The Bill remedies none of the evils which it
professes to cure. Does it make the constituency more
pure ? No ; all the impurity, if such it is, is by Me
last Bill to be preserved. Does it destroy the influence
of Peers ? No; on the contrary, one of the chief argu-
ments in favour of the new scheme is, that every Peer will
now have the power of ingratiating himself with the
electors, and rendering himself popular : if he can do
this, then he will he able to influence the elections, and
may obtain Parliamentary power. Does it equilize the
reprrsentation? No ; it proceeds, in the most arbitrary
manner, to select those who are to form the Utopian con-
stituency. (2.) I say, if' you admit the inherent right of
every Englishman to vote fur a representative, you must
grant the right toall ; for, if it be a right, it must not
be withheld; if it be not a right, and that the qualifica-
tion is to be given by an arbitrary rule, why then, I say,
continue to us what we have hitherto had; we shall not
be henefitted by the change, it is merely robbing Peter to
pay Paul,—taking front a consetvator to give to a re-
former ; but you, my countrymen, the nation at large,
will gain nothing—absolutely nothing ; you may lose every
thing you now have, but you can by no possibility gain
any thing but a loss. Then, again, by the most unheard-
of injustice and tyranny, the small boroughs are to be to-
tally annihilated and robbed of their chartered rights;
(S ) convicted of no crime, accused of no delinquency,
not even allowed the form or semblance of a previous
trial. but by the arbitrary will of a reckless Ministry and
a packed Parliament, they are to be blotted out of the
constituency, unrequited even by a bare allowance of corn-
pensation. For, as writes a noble author on the English
Constitution, and who, we must conclude, may be an au-
thor of the Reform Bill also,—

•' By such means, if applied with judgment and sin-
cere desire of improvement, the balance of the House of
Commons might be thrown once more on the side of the
peopl., without so violent a measure as declaring the privi-
lege of the small boroughs to be forfeited. Undoubtedly
those privileges ate a trust—but so is the Crown ; and we
ought to have as good, and as strong, and as cogent rea-
sons for disfranchising Old Sarum as we had for expelling
James IL'

" Mark here the gross injustice and partiality of the
last Bill : in those places where the boroughs are preserved,
there the right of voting will also be preserved to the pre-
sent voters ; but in the places which are to be disfranchised,
there not (4) only will those boroughs be deprived of
their chartered and inalienable rights and privileges, but
the voters of those places will also be deprived of their
votes. Mark again the scand dous partiality in the selec-
tion. Observe—a Reformer's borough is seldom to
be touched, and is always favoured ; whilst the great
spoliation is levelled against the boroughs of the conserva-
tors. And why is this? Obviously because party-advan-
tage, not the good of the country, is the whole object of
the Bill. The reforming party see clearly, that if they can
pass this Bill, they are settled in office fur half a century
perhaps ; or, at all events, that the conservative party cm •
not obtain an entrance, and that the future choice must be
between them and something still worse."
'Was there ever such begging of the question, or
rather such a naked assertion of all the matters in
dispute, as the passage in this extract marked No. I.
contain, ? Might not the questions be answered,
with equal claim to attention, in the affirmative?
But in reply to the last, if the Bill of Reform does
not destroy the influence—that is, the arbitrary in-
fluence—of the Peers, would it not be kind in his
Grace to suggest better provisions, and more clinch-
ing clauses, by which that influence might be con-
trolled? But what absurdity ! The Reform Bill,
he says, taking up our argument, leaves " to every
Peer the power of ingratiating himself with the elec-
tor." Why who ever thought it useful, or at-
tempted, to subvert this power? Long may the
Peers possess and exercise it ! It is the power not
of ingratiating, but of commanding votes, and
nominating Members without appeal to the will or
wishes of the people, that we quarrel with,
and are determined to overthrow. The passage
marked 2 presents an instance of the man-
ner in which extremes meet, in which ultra-
Toryism embraces radicalism—the Duke of New-
castle shakes bands with Hunt. Because we
would extend the elective franchise to ostensible
householders and substantial tenants, all paying rates
arid taxes, therefore we may not stop short of uni-
versal suffrage! What does his Grace mean by say-
ng (No. 3) that the small boroughs are to be anni-
hilated, though convicted of no crime, accused of
no delinquency ?" Can there h,- a greater political
offence—is grosser deviation from moral rectitude and

truth—than their pretending to return, as Members
of Parliament, those whom they have not the power
to refuse, and whom another nominates over their
heads ? " A compensation" indeed For what,
and to whom ? No one can claim it, without laying
the ground of his claim in such a violation of the
privileges of Parliament, as would forthwith entitle
him to Newgate. It would sound well in a string
of petitions to the Lower House to state, that
" whereas it was notorious that there were no such
boroughs as Old Sarum, or Gatton, or St. Mawes,
or scores of others, but that individuals had
usurped the power of sending Members to Parlia-
ment in the name of those places, that this power
had been bought and sold contrary to all the princi-
ples of our Constitution, and that the present pos-
sessors, being unexpectedly entrapped by a law
which restored that Constitution to its first intention
and original practice, claimed compensation for the
loss of their usurpations !" As to the disfranchised
boroughs being " deprived of their chartered and
inalienable ►ights," (No. 4), how ridiculous to call
that inalienable which it is the effect of the present
and last Bill to alienate ? And they are deprived
not of their chartered rights, but of that power
which they possessed, and can only possess, by a
violation of the charter. Neither are the voters in
nomination boroughs deprived of anything whatever
by disfranchisement. If, for example, the Duke of
Newcastle has the power of nominating Members
in a certain borough by an absolute command of the
majority, of what use is my vote to me ? If I hold
under him, my vote is his. If I hold under ano-
ther, or by personal possession, I aal in an endless
sninority,—my vote is a nonentity.—Times.
The third reading of the Reform Bill, that pre-
cious compound of injustice and absurdity, was
moved last night, and, this being the leave-taking
ceremony, the leading opponents of the Bill availed
themselves of the opportunity of once more record-
ing their sentiments respecting it. As for the Re-
formers upon the Treasury Bench, having long ex-
hausted their very minute store of argument, they of
course preserved that dignified silence for which they
have been noted throughout the whole progress of their
measure. That the Reform Bill will pass through
the final ordeal of a third reading with a considerable
majority is a question which will not admit of a mo-
ment's doubt. As far as the force of numbers will
carry them, Ministers are certain of success through
the instrumentality of their Committee of Delegates,
but we trust this circumstance will not induce the
Members of the Conservative Party to flag in their
exertions. The radicals have already sent forth a sum-
mons to all the supporters of the Bill ,urging the neces-
sity of a punctual attendance, in order that the majority
may be such as to have an effect upon that branch of the
Legislature into whose presence it is now about to be
carried. For the •ame reason also we now call upon
the faithful friends of the British Constitution to
put forth their whole strength upon the ensuing di-
vi-ion. The lamentable falling off in the numbers
of the Tory party which the second reading of the
Bill in December last exhibited is still remembered
by many with regret. Upon that occasion, out of
upwards of 250 known and decided opponents of
the Reform Bill, 162 only attended ; and the conse•
quence was that Ministers, being wisely upon the
alert, had a majority of two to one over their op-
ponents. It is to be hoped that the Tory Repre-
sentatives will now feel the necessity of exertion,
and that the division upon the final reading of the
Reform Bill will form a brilliant contrast to that
upon its second reading in December last. Although
the Anti-Reformers may riot be able to overpower
the pledged majority of their opponents, they may
at least mutter in sufficient numbers to convince the
Peers that they are still resolute in the performance
of their duty. Not alone, however, to the avowed
Members of the Conservative Party do we address
ourselves uron the present occasion. Although the
majority of the supporters of the Ministerial mea-
sure are pledged to vote with the Government under
all circumstances whatever, there are still many con-
scientious and independent Reformers in the House
who have opposed many of the leading details;
such, for instance, as the clause giving an increase
of Members to the metropolis, and others of equal
importance. To these Hon. Gentlemen we would
say, that the third reading of the Bill is an occa-
sion upon which they are imperatively called upon
to record their sense of the bungling manner in
which the labours of the committee have been con-
ducted. We are far from wishing to propose any
sacrifice of principle on the part of the independent
Reformers, but as they have supported many amend-
ments to the Bill, and as those amendments have
been resolutely opposed by the Government, we
think that they are bound in consistency to object to
the passing of a measure which they have repeat-
edly declared to be faulty and imperfect. The
adoption of this course will afford them an honour-
able distinction from the pledged majority, proving,
as it will undoubtedly prove, that they have acted
as rational and unprejudiced Representatives of the
people. By consenting to the second reading of the
Bill they have recorded their approbation of the
principle of Reform ; by oppo•ing the third reading
they merely record their objection to that particular
measure which Ministers have produced, as being
in many respects unjust arid imperfect, and, there-
fore, unfit to be sent forth as the deliberate act of
the British Legislature.—Morning Poet.
Lord John Russell moved last night the third
reading of the Reform Bill. The public now know
pretty well all that can be said for and against the
Bill, and would not have been sorry if the debate
been concluded last night. It was, however, ad-
journed, to be concluded, we hope, this day. The
debate was opened by Lord Mahon, who occupied a
good deal of the time of the House with what may
be called, without any want of charity, by the term
palaver. The Noble Lord observed, that " When he
looked upon the slur which this Bill east upon for-
mer Legislatures, he could not call it less than an
act of impeachment against their ancestors." All
alterations of the law are a declaration that that
which has been altered was bad. We do not know-
ingly, and with our will, change from good to bad.
The question is, will the change promote the good
of the nation ? That it will, is the opinion of the
whole nation, with the exception of those who
profit by the abuses against which this Bill is di-
rected. The Constitution of England is the work
of what the Noble Lord would call a constant suc-
cession of libellers, for in every age it has under-
gone alterations more or less extensive.
" The historical record of the British nation," says the
able author of the pamphlet on The Prerogative of
Creating Peers,' which we yesterday noticed, " are the
annals of a people originally pastoral and barbarous;
thinly scattered over an uncultivated country; conquered
and mixed with foreign invaders ; their language, laws,
religion, and Government perpetually changing ; the
Feudal System supervened on Saxon principles of freedom
—a nation progressively increa•ing in numbers, wealth,
knowledge, and maritime intercourse with every quarter
of the world. The history of the Constitution displays
the changes consequent on the struggles of Monarchs,
Nobles, and People—alternately contending with, and
coalescing against, each other for power and superiority ;
the Reformation superseding Papal dominion; a system of
representation adapted to the past, but not to the pre-
seat times ; a Republic sweeping away A dynasty; the
Restoration (' the worst species of Revolution,') repro-
ducing it ; the Abdication ; the Revolution of 1688 ; and
the wonderful creations of new society in the eighteenth
and present centuries. •"
What are we to think of such twaddle as the fol-
lowing observations of the Noble Lord ?—" Was it
nothing in their estimation to unsettle the minds of
the \N hole people ? Was it good to tell them that
there was nothing sacred in our institutions ? Was
it prudent to teach them to be continually discussing
the first principles of all Government? Was it even
decent to make all these important subjects topics of
every day's debate ? The respect of the people for
the law was, in his estimation, even of more conse-
quence than to have a good law."—(Hear, hear.)
What is the use of a Parliament at all, if the laws
are to be like those of the Medes and Persians, and
to demand respect, whether good or bad ? The
" The Introduction prefixed to the Parliamentary re•
print of Domesday, records the most remarkable evidence
of the changes in the distribution of population and wealth.
Is our political Constitution alone to remain stagnant ?"

Noble Lord should close the doors of the Legisla-
ture, and prohibit, under a severe penalty, all dis-
cussion whatever; for if people are allowed to dis-
cuss, they will-take the liberty to condemn as well
as to approve. The most philosophical view of the
subject was taken by Mr. Macaulay, who, in criti-
cising the existing Constitution, distinguished be-
tween that which was good in it and that which
was bad; and pointed out the good and bad conse-
quences respectively produced by them :
" He respected the Constitution," he said, " and be-
lieved that there was in it much good, but associated with
its good he believed there was much evil—it was in con-
sequence of the Constitution we enjoyed that we were
powerful or prosperous, that our mines produced us
wealth, that our manufactures at Manchester were dif-
fused all over the world ; it must also be acknowledged
that it was in consequence of the Constitution, as it
now existed, that we were oppressed with the heavy
burden of taxation ; that we suffered from a stagnation of
trade; that in some parts of England the wages were so
low as scarcely to support animal life; that in them the
labourer considered the parochial labour not as a means of
occasional relief, but as a regular source of his support ;
and that throughout thete existed a most distempered state
of society. Under these circumstances, he could not
avoid being led to the inference, that as in the present
condition of society he saw a great good alloyed by a great
evil, so in the Constitution he thought he saw a sound
principle defaced by a great corruption.—(Hear, hear.)
It was not difficult to know the parts of the Constitutio❑
to which our prosperty was to be attributed, and to those
which were to be attributed to our distress. The Consti-
tution of the country had undoubtedly been the cause of
much of our prosperity. It afforded ample security for
individual property against the claims and power of the
Executive. It preserved for the people this freedom of
discussion. It gave them a House of Commons in which
whatever were its defects, there had always been some
Members advocates for the people. These were the ad-
vastages which they proposed not to take away but to ex-
tend and to secure. On the other hand it had its disad-
vantages. He could not but attribute to the Constitution
in its present state much of the distress that now existed—
distress caused by unthriftful stewardship, by partial and
injudicious legislation ; to a Government from which re-
sponsibility was taken away, by that House of Commons;
to a House of Commons from which the defects of the
system of Representation took away all the responsibility;
to wars which, if not more unwisely begun, were more
rashly and feebly conducted than any wars could lie under
a Reformed Parliament—(Hear, hear, from the Opposi-
tion)—to years of peaee not employed in adopting a sage
economy ; to laws made for the benefit of particular classes;
in short, to Ministers who had not before their eye the
fear of Parliaments, and to Parliaments that had not be-
fore their eyes the fear of constituents.—(Hear, hear.)"
This is a very suitable valedictory address to the
unreformed Constitution. It prevented much evil, it
caused much evil.—lt allowed a free scope to the
energy of the people, and that energy has wrought
wonders; but it also opened a door to a corruption
without example in the History of the World. The
action of the Government has been at the expence
of virtue, honour, and every moral and religious
principle. The share of freedom possessed by the
people, was insufficient to controul the ruling caste,
but it compelled that caste to secure its ascendancy
by sharing the spoils of the nation with that part of
the nation possessed of the franchise. The re-
straints opposed to the O.igarchy by the Constitu-
tion were like the obstruc,ions opposed to a flood,
which only serve to extend the devastation. The
ruling caste were but the heads of an extensive
firm. A large army of corruptionists, according to
their shares of influence, devoured the sub-
stance of the people. If the action of the
Government had been more direct, much good
might, no doubt, have been prevented; but the
corruption, which has made such inroads into English
morality, that the very existence of honour and ho-
nesty among us, in any other shape than as a means
of deception, has been questioned—would have been
rendered unnecessary. The King of Prussia, for
insta-ice, is not such a fool as to incur unpopularity
for the sake of giving thirty thousand pounds a year
to an Archbishop of a sinecure church, to give regi-
ments to men who could not be trusted with the
duty of a corporal—in short, to lavish money on
hosts of persons incapable of rendering efficient ser-
vice. In such a country, the Government pays only
those who really teach religion, those who
really administer justice, those who really per-
form efficient service in the army. The first
Kings of the Hanoverian family were so shocked at
the profligacy arid rapacity which they witnessed in
this country, that they were tempted to abandon a
Government which could only be carried on by the
most wicked and disgusting means. But corruption
may in the long run produce an extent of evil against
which the energy of the nation may struggle in vain.
We believe that the conviction is now general that
Reform can alone now prevent the social system of
this country from falling to pieces. Can a social
system hold together long in which every seventh
person is a thief or a pauper? And for the
sake of the Aristocracy themselves, is not a
Reform essentially necessary ? Is it not notorious
that the behaviour of the higher classes of England
would be tolerated in no other country ? Is it not
true that they are objects of disgust in the eyes of
all strangers ? Is there riot much truth in the cha-
racter which Prince Puckler Muskau attributes to
them in the conclusion of the fourth volume of
" The Tour of a German Prince."
" England (he observes) is now—viewed certainly with
relation to a certainly different universal spirit of the age—
in a similar state to that of France thirty years before the
Revolution ; and it will fall out with her as with her
great rival, if she does not avert the storm by radical, but
continuous reform. Nearly allied fundamental evils are
present here as there. On the one side, the undue pre-
ponderance, misused power, inflexible stony arrogance and
heartless frivolity of the great : on the other, selfishness
add rapacity are grown into the character of the mass of
the people."
Let us hope that Reform will in time put an end
to the hard exclusive system caused by an aristocracy
founded on corruption.—Morning Chronicle.
It has been repeatedly observed, both by ourselves
and others, that the delay in passing the Its-form Bill
has been extremely injurious to trade; but it re-
mained fur a cotemporary to discover that " it is the
fear that the Bill will pass which injures trade !"
Admirable discovery I most wonderful insight into
the state of human affairs ! Oh, Sarum, what would
the merchants of London do without thee ! Oh,
Garton, how would the manufacturers suffer from
thy disfranchisement ! And verily, Birmingham,
Manchester, Leeds, arid Sheffield, as well as all ye
Metropolitan districts, how could ye be so cruel to
yourselves as to pray for the passing of a Bill which,
when it does pass, will destroy your trade! But,
verily, ye shall have your reward. The Bill will and
must pass, and then will ye reap the bitter fruits of
your wishes for equal representation, equal laws, and
economical Reform !—Morning Advertiser.

The Sunday press, like the daily press of the pre-
ceding week, teemed with articles on the creation
of Peers; the small anti-Reform portion of it depre-
cating such a measure as " the fullness of iniquity,"
and the remainder, which constitutes seven-eighths
of the whole, as strenuously insisting that there is
no safety for the Bill but in the speedy adoption
of such a measure. For ourselves we have de-
termined to repose every confidence in Lord
Grey until he has proved, by his conduct, that
he-is undeserving of it ; and although, therefore,
we now join in re-echoing the sentiments so strenu-
ously urged by our cotemporaries, it is not for
the purpose of dictating to Lord Grey either
the when or the how such a rwvore may be
most advantageously carried into effect; but for
the purpose of declaring our unaltered conviction
that riot only is there no hope of the Bill
being carried unless such a measure be adopted, but
that also there is no hope of the continuance of
Earl Grey in power, to effect the many other
changes in the various departments of the Stnte
called for by public neces-
An evening swithyicahs av‘r.ee sl oa
si mppuebrliiocu
feeling.sly
contem-
porary of Saturday's date, indeed says " We hear
that the Reform Bill will pass a second reading in
the Lords with a majority of certainly not less than
from twenty to thirty. Twelve of the Episcopal
Bench, including the Archbishop of York and
the Bishop of London, will support the Bill."
But what does the =econtl reading of the Bill

signify, if the same Bill is afterwards to be
mutilated is the Committee ? What does the
support of a majority of twenty or thirty
signify, unless not only these twenty or
thirty, but all the other Peers composing the
majority, were certain to give both their attend-
ance and support on every individual clause of the
Bill ? Now, that such would not be the case, even
our cotemperary allows; for, it is added in the next
two sentences, that—" If it should be found neces-
sary to make Peers, there would none be created
but persons of such reputation and fortune as will
do honour to, rather than degrade, the House of
Lords. The parts of the Bill which it is desired to
alter are, we are told, 1. Those which relate to the
metropolitan districts; 2. The qualification clause,
the amount of which it is wished to raise
in large places, and to lower in smaller ones ;
3. The clause which enables the freeholders
of towns to vote for counties. Some changes
will also probably be attempted as to a few
of the new places to which it is proposed to grant
the franchise." Now, if what is here stated be
correct, we possess proofs that it is not only just to
entertain suspicions of the sincerity and continued
support of the anticipated accession, but that the
repentants make no secret of their intention to side
with the enemies of the Bill in mutilating some of
its most important principles; and can Lord Grey
rely on such troops in the great battle of which he
is to lead the van? Can he imagine for a moment
that he will stand excused in the estimation of the
British people, for losing a measure on which be
has staked his fame, and on which they have fixed
their affections, when he has it in his power to
carry it entire ? The two hundred and one adverse
Peers would, no doubt, bawl out lustily against
the measure, as swamping them ; but are the
united wishes of the King, of his Ministers, and of
a whole people, to be thwarted for the sake of ad-
ministering to the interests of such a party ? Are
they to constitute the virtual rulers of the country,
—and its virtue, its property, to have no voice, no
protection, but through them ? Away with all
such whims—such false delicacy—such insignificant
deference to the deadly enemies of the Bill. The
people have willed the Bill;—they will have it en-
tire, as it leaves the House of Commons; or, if
they be a second time th warted in their sanguine
wishes, laborious exertions, unwearied perseverance,
and hitherto unshaken confidence in the Adminis-
tration,—woe, we say, to the delusion of the states-
men who permitted matters to come to such a crisis
—woe to those who were its authors and abettors-
-and woe, also, for the future tranquillity and
peace of the country.—Morning Advertiser.

THE ABSOLUTE NECESSITY of a LARGE
CREATION OF NEW PEERS,
IM3IEDLITELY on the PASSING of the REFORM BILL
THROUGH THE HOUSE OF COMMONS,
AND NOT BEFORE

(From the Birmingham Reformers' Magazine of March.)
We have been a good de 11 surprised to find the liberal
and enlightened conductors of the London Press, without
one solitary exception, urging Lord Grey, for months past,
to lose no time in creating a large accession to the Peerage,
in order to insure the passing of the great Bill of Reform
through the How of Lords. In spite of the clamours
by which Lord Grey has been assailed by the most pow-
erful friends of the Bill, he has refused, and most wisely
refused, to yield to these clamours, not only on the
score of general expediency, but in justice to the able and
indefatigable friends of the Bill in the House of Commons.
Is it necessary to say, that of all men in the country most
deserving of a Peerage, and who in justice ought to take
precedence of all others, are the enlightened Members of
the House of Commons, who, through evil and through
good report, through smooth and through troubled water,
have fought the great battle of freedom, with such talent,
energy, and perseverance, as are perfectly unexampled in
the history of this or any other country in the world,
America excepted ?

Had a new batch of Peers been created in November
last, who, we would ask, would have been selected ? Un-
doubtedly many from among the leading and most talented
Members of the House of Commons ; and in that case—
which would have been clearly one of justice, though not
of expediency—we should have trembled for the fate of
the Bill in the Lower House, knowing, as we do, the fac-
tious elements of which it is composed. Lord Grey's
political sagacity foresaw that the present session would be
as stormy as the last; that the dogged obstinacy and the
impenetrable ignorance of some, and the deadly enmity to
the renovated liberties of the country of others, in the
Lower House, would require the presence of the best and
most enlightened spirits among the friends of the
Bill ; to have removed them, therefore, would have
argued in his Lordship such an ignorance of the Op-
position as would have rendered him justly chargeable
with incapacity for the performance of these arduous
duties to which his country has called him. The
stormy character of the present session has amply justified
the course Lord Grey has pursued, and which has, in the
opinion of his more enlightened supporters, earned for his
Lordship even a higher character for political wisdom
than they have hitherto been disposed to yield to him.
Let any impartial man take a retrospective view of the
Parliamentary proceedings of the last six weeks, and he
cannot help being filled with disgust and astonish-
ment at the paltry, the pitiful character of the Op-
position,—their lingering attachment to corrupt influence,
and their mortal enmity to political liberty, on the one
hand, and the incredible forbearance of the Ministry and
friends of Reform in the House of Commons, on the other.
This attachment to corrupt influence, the ancient curse of
England, on the part of the present Opposition, which is
as dear to them as the ruddy drops which revisit their sad
hearts,' we are free to confess, has not been met, either by
Ministers or their friends, by that vigour of intellect, that
strength of purpose and decision of character, which a
righteous cause might naturally excite, and which the
country had a right to expect from men who set themselves
up as the rooters out of their country's corruption, and the
regenerators of their country's liberty. It was not thus
that those execrable tyrants, Castlereagh and Sidmouth,
acted when they wished to impose some vexatious impost,
or still further cripple the liberty of the people. In their
hands an act to suspend the Habeas Corpus could be accom-
plished in twenty-four hours. But now that a measure of
vital moment is proposed, the bare announcement of which
has gladdened the heart of a whole nation ; that comes
with balm and healing on its wings; that will lay a firmer
foundation for British liberty and happiness, for the mil-
lion, than was ever contemplated by an Utopian Reformer ;
that will bring out the stagnant capital of the country, let
free the right arm of labour, and gloriously compensate its
toil ; that will enable Englishmen to stand up and say, not
in derision, but in truth, that they are the ' noblest body
of freemen in the world :'—when a measure, we say, of
this vast consequence is proposed, the courtesy and dalli-
ance of a drawing-room appear to be the rule by which
Ministers regulate their conduct, instead of that straight-
forward unflinching firmness which their benevolent cause
must infallibly inspire, and which should urge them on-
ward to the goal of their wishes, with the least possible
delay. The best friends of the Ministry and the country
cannot but lament that so much unnecessary delay has
taken place in the House of Commons, which we trust
will be a lesson for Lord Grey when the Bill is again in-
troduced into the Upper House, and induce him to act
with an energy commensurate with the importance of the
measure. And here we take leave to implore his Lord-
ship to be en his guard against a new, insidious, and ulte-
rior attack, which we have the best reason fur believing
the Charles-street Gang, as the leading Tories have been
called, have in contemplation. The apparent opposition
of the Tory Lords is daily diminishing, and we have no
doubt, before the Bill is introduced to the Upper House,
that the opposition Lords will announce to Lord Grey that
they have ceased to entertain any hostility to the Reform
Bill ; that it has again passed the House of Commons with
a considerable majority, and the country generally are in
favour of
trust
ennsoct
hisw
obviously Lordship
ehey will
cease
oa will s ea
t reasonf
s
opposition,inocrr
e assu eethhe Peer-
age, r
aaneda
some concession to them for the sacrifices they are willing
mea-
sure.aioge eint'latehkeeAe they u
being
no trifling confirmation of what we believe to
ultimate intentions of the Tory Lords, we copy the
following announcement from The Sun Newspaper of the
18th ult. :

We learn, on what we deem competent authority,
that at the last interview which took place between Earl
Grey and Lords Wharncliffe and Harrowby, the two leaders
of the moderate Reform party, after a long and animated
conversation, in the course of which they suggested a va.
riety of amendments, which were all successively rejected
by the Noble Earl at the head of his Majesty's Govern-
ment, came to the resolution of giving in their adhesion
to the Reform Bill The Bill,
will, in consequence, be carried with very slight modi-
fications, not one of which which will trench even in
the remotest degree on its great leading principles.'
" Should Lord Grey, in an unguarded moment, fall into

this trap, and rely on the promise of adhesion of my
Lords Wharncliffe and Harrowby and their friends, his
career as Prime Minister of this country will be of exceed-
ingly short duration. It may be flattering to his Lord-
ship to feel that he can carry the Bill through the Lords
without an increase of the Peerage, but it is not within
the range of belief that he can be insensible how utterly
unfit the House of Lords is, as at present constituted, to
discharge those duties which will be forced on them by a
reformed House of Commons. It may be said that Lord
Grey can at any time increase the Peerage, whenever the
necessity arises ; we doubt this, and the country generally,
we are persuaded, participate in our fears, that he may
live to repent the postponement of a measure till he be
left in a minority, when in all probability be may feel
such unconquerable disgust, and so worn out by fatigue,
and so heart-sick at the venality and corruption which
surround him, that neither the commands of the King,
nor the avowed wishes of the nation, may prevent his
resigning his post into other hands infinitely less compe-
tent and less honest to discharge its duties. To avoid
this catastrophe so fraught with mischief to the whole
community, and which would not only annihilate the
hard-earned fame of Lord Grey, and strip him of those
laurels to which he is eminently entitled, we implore him
not to desert his post, as he would thereby sacrifice his
country to those whose lust for dominion is only another
name for tyranny and injustice.
" No man can be ignorant that the first and last wish of
the Tories is to break up the present Government, and
elect in its place one of their own. To insure to the ex-
isting ministry the only chance of rendering this detestable
faction innoxious and powerless, and to enable the Go-
vernment to introduce those beneficial measures which
must arise from a reformed House of Commons, it is in-
dispensible that the House of Lords should be assimilated
in principle to the House of Commons, that its members
should be willing to act with the spirit of the times ; that
it should no longer maintain its existence by usurping
any influence over the representation of the people, which
it has turned to its sole advantage ; that it should no
longer be considered a series of jobs, a coinage to repre-
sent, place, pension, commis-ion, civil employment, go-
♦,rnment contract—in one word, public money.' And the
most effectual way to counteract these monstrosities is, by a
large creation of new peers, selected from the best blood
of the country, and brought into the House of Lords, the
moment the Reform Bill passes the Commons. Let my
Lord Grey do this, and he and the country are safe : let
him not trust to Tory promises, or Tory support ; if he
do, he will infallibly dash the state vessel on a rock, which
will shiver it to atoms."

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MANSION-HO USE.

Mr. Peter Chalmers appeared voluntarily before the
LORD MAYOR, to meet a charge preferred by Mr. Cohn, of
Guernsey, of having forged the acceptance of Captain
Freeman to a bill of exchange for 1311. 18s.
Mr. Cohn stated that Mr. Chalmers had been his agent
for the sale of ship•stores, and in 1831 be remitted him the
bill in question, drawn by himself on a Captain Freeman,
and purporting to be accepted by him in payment of stores
furnished to his ship for a voyage to the Swan River. In
due course the bill fell due, and on being presented for
payment it was dishonoured, by reason of there being no
provision for it. Upon Captain Freeman's return to Eng-
lind intimation was given to him that his acceptance was
lying in the hands of a respectable firm in Broad-street,
under protest for non-payment. Upon being shown the
bill, Captain Freeman directly pronounced it to be a
forgery, and as he was compelled to go to Portsmouth, he
made an affidavit of the circumstance before a Magistrate.
Captain Freeman had admitted that he purchased stores
from Mr. Chalmers, for which, however, be stated he bad
paid the greatest portion with cash.
Mr. Chalmers Lad sent for a solicitor, but as he had
not arrived, he was placed in an embarrassing situation.
Mr. Chalmers then questioned Mr. Cohn as to certain
transactions relative to money matters betwixt them, and
attempted to show that Mr. Cohn had overdrawn his ac-
count at one period very considerably.
The LORD MAYOR advised Mr. Chalmers to make no
statements, but to negative, if possible, the very grave
charge which had been brought against him.
Mr. Chalmers then called a person of the name of Field,
who, he stated, could swear that Captain Freeman had
promised to take up the bill.
Mr. Field, on being examined, had told Capt. Freeman
that a bill, with his acceptance, was lying unpaid in Broad-
street, upon which Captain Freeman said he would call and
take it up. When he did call, and was shown the bill, he
directly said it was a forgery.
Mr. Chalmers asked the witness if Mr. Cohn had not
employed him to go to his father-in-law and require 3001.
to hush up the transaction.
_ _

Mr. Field denied this to be the fact, though he admitted
he had been instructed to arrange matters if possible.
The Loan MaYoa said it was his duty, considering
the nature of the evidence, to remand Mr. Chalmers till
next Thursday, in order to procure the attendance of Cap-
tain Freeman.

Mr. Chalmers was accordingly removed from the bar
in custody.

BOW-STREET.

Yesterday Joseph 'Volker, printer, of Bell-yard,
Temple bar, was summoned before Mr. HALLS and Mr.
MINSHULL, for selling a Paper called the Cosmopolite,
without the usual newspaper stamp. The defendant
pleaded not guilty to the charge, by direction of Mr.
Arnold, the harrister, who appeared as his counsel.
George Colley, a police-constable of the C division, No.
97, purchased the Paper now produced, called the Cos-
mopolite, and dated Saturday, March 10, 1832, at the
shop of the defendant, situate as aforesaid. Witness was
served by the defendant, to whom he paid a penny, and
received in return the Paper produced.
Mr. ARNOLD, for the defence, contended, that in order
to prove the offence with which his client was charged,
there must he proof of a continuous publication. The
Paper produced appeared to have been published on the
I Otis of March, but there was no proof offered that a sub-
sequent number had been published.
Mr. HALLS said, that the Paper itself furnished proof
of the intention to continue the publication ; fur, besides
being called " a London weekly newspaper," it was no-
tified " that No. 2 of the Cosmopolite would be published
on Saturday, March 17, and every following Saturday—
for ever."—(A laugh.)
Mr. Arnold said, that this announcement went for
nothing, unless it could be shown that a second number
had actually been published. A man might express his
intention to commit a murder ; but it would not, he sub-
mitted, be conformable with either law or justice to hang
him for the mere threat, unless some overt act could be
proved against him. I❑ this instance his client was
charged under a highly penal statute with a specific
offence; and unless that offence could be clearly made out
in evidence, a conviction could not take place.
Mr. HALLS said, that in his opinion the offence under
the Act of Parliament was fully established by the publi-
cation of the number now produced, without inquiring as
to whether any subsequent number or numbers had issued
from the same source.

Mr. MlNslium. concurred in this opinion, and observed
that the penalty for the offence was mot leas than 51., and
not exceeding 201. He was desirous of knowing if the
defendant meant to plead any fact in mitigation of the full
penalty. . . . .

_ .
Mr. Arnold said that it was not his intention to say one
word in mitigation of the penalty, it being his intention
to appeal to the sessions against the decision to which their
Worhips had come.
The defendant was then fined 201.

He was then charged a second time with the same of-
fence, and fined in the mitigated penalty of 51. There was
another charge against the prisoner for selling the same
number of the work on a subsequent day, but in conse-
quence of a clerical error, the information was withdrawn.
_ _

The defendant was then charged on flesh informations,
with printing and selling on the reverse side of the sheet
on which the Cosmopolite was printed, an Almanack for
the year 18372, without being duly stamped. He was con-
victed on one of the informations, and fined 5/. He then
gave notice of his intention to appeal against the several
convictions, and put in sureties to appear at the sessions
for that purpose.

. .
HA T T ON- GARDEN.
Yesterday John Willis, a young man of respectable ap •
pearance, was brought to this office in the custody of
police constable 163, E, charged under the following
circumstances :
The policeman depo.ed, that about nine o'clock on
Sunday evening he saw the defendant offering for sale, op-
posite Mr. Owen's Institution, Gray's-inn-road, the Poor
Man's Guardian, and a new publication called the Cos-
mopolite, upon which he (witness) collared him and con-
veyed him to the station-house.
Mr. LAING—What have you to say to the charge ?
Defendant—l was not offering them for sale.
Mr. LAING—How many times have you been in prison
for the same offence? Defendant—Four times.

Mr. Lair—Then I shall commit you for two months'
to the House of Correction. .
The defendant was then locked up.

• MAR YLEII ONE.

Yesterday William Rowe, who bad been nearly nine
years a butler to Sir Robert Smirke, the celebrated archi.
tee, of Stratford-plvo, o,cford.9!l,2et, was charged with

robbing his master of silver plate and other articles to a
great extent.
William Horsford, police serjeant of the D division, was
upon duty on Saturday, at half-past four o'clock, when
he observed the prisoner come from the area of No. 5,
Stratfard-place, with a bundle. He had seen the pri-
soner in the same situation at different times, and suspected
him of doing wrong, as he always made up Gee's-court
and Barrett's-court, from Oxford-street, which led exactly
to the door of his own house in Edward-street. Prisoner
had always something with him, and therefore he now
stopped him, and insisted on knowing what he was carry-
ing. On taking him to the station-house, he found that
he was carrying some coals away i❑ a bundle, wl en he
ordered him to be detained, and proceeded to search his
boos., where, in a drawer, he found a small box contain-
ing a number of duplicates, and which led to the discovtry
of the depredation he had committed on Sir Robert
Srnirke. Prisoner's wife wanted this witness to give up
the little box to her, which he refused. On going round
to the pawnbrokers, he gave them notice to produce the
articles which had been pledged with them. Several of
them were, in consequence, in attendance at the office.
The first was Henry Livermore, from Mr. Cotterell's,
pawnbroker, 163, Oxford street. He produced a quan-
tity of plate, pledged from between the 24th of September
last to the 16th of the present month. Among these were
a silver cup, pledged for 205., in the name of John Rowe ;
six dessert knives and forks for 15s. ; 24 table and 24
dessert knives and forks for 255. ; six tea-speons for
255. ; another six tea-spoons for 255. ; two dessert-spoons
for 15s. ; a wine funnel and ladle for 12s. ; and a pair
of shoes, all which Sir R. Smirke identified as his property.
There was also a quantity of bed-furniture and wearing
apparel, which was produced from Baylis's, in Mortimer-
street, and some plate, pledged in the name of Mary Ann
Watts, which, however, Sir Robert declined to identify.
Sir Robert here added, that the prisoner had been in his
employment nearly nine years, and that he never had en-
tertained any suspicion of him.

The prisoner in his defence said that the wearing appa-
rel was his own, that he meant to replace the plate the
moment he got his quarter's salary from Sir Robt. Smirke,
and that he should now throw himself on his mercy.
Mr. RAwmisoN—You can't do that; you are in my
hands now, and you are committed to Newgate.