The Sun.
London, England, 1832-12-22 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF rim PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The determined and unflinching support which
the electors of the metropolitan county have given
to Mr. Hume, and which has raised him to so
proud a position on the poll, is the grateful testi-
mony of public opinion to the eminent services of
one who had been marked out in a peculiar manner
as a victim to party malevolence, and against whom
the shafts of political misrepresentation had been,
for some time past,incessantly directed. The triumph
of Mr. Hume is the more important, because it was
gained without any solicitation on his part by per-
sonal canvass—and in despite of a most extraordi-
It/try coincidence of effort between Whigs and Tories
to shut in his face the doors of that " Reformed"
Parliament to the existence of which his previous
exertions in exposing the abuses of Government had
so greatly contributed. That some of the nnister,
of the Crown wished Mr. Hume to be ousted from
the representation of Middlesex will one day not be
a matter of doubt. At present the public must be
contented with presumptive or circumstantial evi-
dence; and as upon such evidence, unsupported
by positive proof, men are frequently put to
death in this country, it may be considered suffi-
cient to warrant a political inference which
serves to explain facts that would otherwise be
unintelligible. If. for instance, there were not
persons in the Government who were known
to be hostile to the return of Mr. Hume,
the conduct of the Treasury Papers, in opening their
batteries of abuse in concert against him, when Lord
Henley took the field avowedly to throw hint out,
would be perfectly unintelligible; but, when it is in-
ferred that they had their orders for what they did,
the mystery vanishes, and the matter is explained.
Slime circumstances which distinguish this election
also serve to elucidate tha nature of the opposition
" got up" against the most indefatigable guardian of
the public purse, that in modern times the people
have sent into Parliament. A contemporary (the
Morning Chronicle) says, " We are sorry to per-
ceive in some of the leading Whigs, during this
election, a conduct towards Mr. Hume which cannot
injure him, but must bave a most injurious effect
throughout the country. We were from the first
afraid of this, and did what we could to prevent the
split. We understand that Dr. Lushington, Mr.
Michael Angelo Taylor, and ethers of the same
s'amp—all professed friends of Mr. Hume, if their
former proceedings and co-operation are to be taken
for evidence of it—actually voted against- him, by
giving plumpers for Mr. Byng. It is to be observed
that, by the general voting, the supporters of Sir
C. Forbes have either given him plumpers, or:split
with Mr. Byng, by which he has been raised higher on
the poll as regards Mr. Hume than he otherwise would
have been. 'We wish well to the Ministry, and
we, therefore, regret exceedingly to see this con-
duct on the part of those who are notoriously in
fuenced by them." It is worth observing that the
attacks on Mr. Hume, by the Whig and Tory press,
were simultaneous. Whether it was a mere coin-
cidence of effort between the two parties, or whe-
ther it arose out of premeditated concert, the public
cared little. They saw that both ins and outs, that
placemen and hirelings under the late Government
and the present one, wished to be rid of the pre-
sence of this gentleman in the Reformed Parliament,
and it is not to be wondered at that a joint attack of
sa suspicious a character produced a proportionate
re-action. Both parties knew that if the new Par-
liament were to sit to eternity, neither Mr. Byng nor
Sir Charles Forbes would ever harass the official
gentlemen about the public accounts, or disturb, by
dogged resolution and unwearied activity, the repose
of the Treasury Benches, Differing, as we do, from
Mr. Hume on several questions, we are bound to
admit that the state of the finances alone furnish a
sufficient reason why such men cannot be spared
from the forthcoming deliberations of the great
Council of the nation.—Morning Herald.

The Middlesex election closed yesterday, leaving
Mr. Hume at the head of the poll, and Mr. Byng
229 below him. Sir Charles Forbes had not half
the numbers of Mr. Byng. Mr. Hume, in his
speech at King's Cross last night, stated " that he
owed his victory to the independent voters of the
middle class—men who were well enough off to be
honest and not too well off to be the reverse. He
bad been opposed for the most part by the rich; by
all the 'Magistracy of the county.—(Ah !) Yet, not
all, for several had shown themselves an honourable
exception, but the large majority of them had op-
posed him with all their might and main ; but these
and their powerful friends had more than met their
match in the uprightness of the 101. freekolders ;
and most rejoiced and proud was he of it, not merely
for the si•uation to which they had elected him, but
because it confirmed his often-declared opinion, that
they were the body the most to be relied on for
uprightness and independence, from whom a free
and unbiassed vote might be certainly expected, and
whose position enabled them to be above the cor-
ruption of distress." The great defect of our unre-
formed constitution of Parliament was, not that
property had no influence, but that property in the
aggregate was not protected, while individual pos-
sessors of property controlled the representation.
The Reform has still left too much influence to
individual possessors of property ; but as the
middle classes—as they possess by far the greatest
share of the aggregate property of the country—
h tve also a preponderance in the elections, by their
returning men who will watch over the expenditure
of the country, and prevent the aristocracy from
maiti,g the revenue apanages for their younger chil-
dren, the undue influence now possessed by indi-
vidual proprietors will be gradually diminished by
the division of their properties. Mr. Hume has
been returned chiefly by the middle class : Mr.
Byng has been returned by a coalition of Whigs
and Conservatives. This ought to furnish an in-
structive lesson to those who wish, for sinister ends,
to force on a separation between Ministers and the
independent representatives of the middle classes, in
the hope, no doubt, that Ministers may throw
themselves on the Conservatives, and that economy
and retrenchment may he defeated. We hold it to
be the greatest of all possible delusions to suppose
that any party can possibly hold the reins of Go-
vernment in this country without the support of the
middle classes ; and we therefore consider the po-
licy that has been followed in the case of Mr. Hume
arid several others, to be anything but wise. There
is throughout the country a disposition to believe
well of Ministers, to suppose them actuated by
fair and honest intentions, to give them, in
short, a fair trial; but the moment they should
depart from such a course as woeld be sanctioned
by the independent middle classes of the country,
no party influence could support them. We sus-
pect that the result of the Westminster election has
led to much of the miscalculation which has dis-
played itself in Middlesex. But because a majo-
rity of the electors of Westminster thought that Sir
J. Hobhouse ought to be returned, and that Mi-
nisters ought to receive support so long as they de-
serve it, it did not follow that they disapproved of the
economy and retrenchnsent uniformly advocated by
Mr. Hume. The same men who voted for Sir F.
Burdett and Sir John Hobhouse in Westminster,
might conscientiously vote for Mr. Hume in Mid-
dlesex. We are pleased with the result of the
Middlesex election—pleased that Mr Byng has
only occupied the second station. We regret,
however, that the animus displayed by the leading
Whigs against Mr. Hume has a tendency to excite
suspicions throughout the country. Ministers are
entitled to the gratitude of the country for what
they have done; but only to the support of the
country for such measures as are deserving
of it. They are entitled to a fair trial, but
it looks ill that an animus should so soon be displayed
against several men who stand high in general esti-
mation.—Morning Chronicle.
The Irish Secretary, in imitation of Burdett and
Hobhouse, has commenced his Parliamentary cam-
paign by-a speech against Uultra-Reform. No tri-
ennial elections, no ballot for him ; and if any such
measure should be proposed (we quote his words
torn the Morning Herald of yesterday), " he now

announced, and he spoke the sentiments of his
Hon. Colleagues, that it would meet with their most
decided opposition." Now that Mr. Stanley is a
would-be Conservative we readily admit. He wishes
to keep his rank, and fortune, and influence at
Preston and at Lancaster. 'What Whig lordling
does not ? But the question as between him and
the Tories in point of arugment is, riot whether
he will try or not to preserve those hereditary
possessions, but whether the lEtadicals and nu-
merical majority of reforming electors will, in
the long run, permit him to lord it over them.
The Whigs, to advance their own selfish ends,
have deluded the people into a belief that the old
system of 61-oveenment was bad, and that they
could make it better; i. e., more pacific, le-s ex-
pensive, and less aristocratic. ilave they ? No.
Will they? Never, with their own free will ; but
they have, dug a pit for their rivals, and into ir,
sooner or later, they must fall themselves. They
have taken power from the great possessors of pro-
perty and intelligence—from the merchants and
bankers of London, from the clergy and electors
sienerally of the three Universities, from the great
landed proprietors of England and Scotland, from
the Protestants of Ireland, and from the owners of
all colonial produce, the employers of all in-
terested in trade and manufactures. They have
g.iven power to labourers, shoprnen, workmen,
Dissenters, Irish Papists, and half-starved arti-
sans, What has been the consequence ? N by,
to return hie, Majesty's Ministers and their Whig
satellites in triumph to Westminster Hall, says Mr.
Stanley, and having thus proved their " sound-
eess," we use the Hon. Secretary's own words,
" by electing no Reformers, we are satisfied, and,
raking our stand upon the past, we shall be stre-
nuous in our resistance of any attempt to carry the
extension further." Bravo ! Mr. Stanley. For
pride and arrogance commend us to a Whig. Not
1-lobhouse or Burdett themselves could have treated
\lr. Place and the 'Westminster Rump, to whom
they owe their all, with more official hauteur. But
will the people, the numbers who now reject
all Tories, because they oppose further Reform,
continue to support the Whigs when they too turn
Conservatives ? Will the Irish Papists tolerate
a Protestant Church because a Stanley or an
Anglesee turn tithe-collectors ? or will the
" No Slavery" cry, by which Lord Brougham
iose to the Woolsack, be lulled by Lord Mulgrave's
revocation of the Orders in Council ? Will the
shopkeepers of Cambridge pay adouble assessment of
house and window taxes with more pleasure to Mr.
Spring Rice than they did the old assessment to
Mr. Goulburn ; or will the manufacturers of the
north, however ignorant they now may be of their
true interests, continue to return a Thomson and
Macaulay in preference to a Peel, a Herries, or a
Baring, when they see the trade of Amsterdam
.ratisferred to Antwerp, and the interests of rival
Belgian and French artisans preferred to those of
Leeds and Manchester ? Lastly, will the friends of
peace dismiss Lord Palmerston unscathed when
they see the train which he has fired involving
Europe in a general war ? If there be justice on
earth, and a retributive Providence on high, it
must not, it cannot be. As the Whigs led the
Liberal Tories on step by step, till they had
gone too far to recede with safety or to ad-
ance with honour, so have the Radicals led
on the Whigs, and will continue to lead them
,o perdition. As, however, the snowball increases
in size, so will the Radical party; and as the Minis-
ers have less and less to give, the cravings of the
mob cormorant which now preys on the vitals of the
State will be more and more insatiable. "If Minis-
ters are strong, as they expect to be, in the new Par-
liament, they will oppose the Radicals," says Mr.
Stanley. What must be the result ? Either they
will lose their popularity among their present sup-
porters, or they will proceed with the movement
against their own judgment and opinion ; but when-
ever or wherever they stop in their career, be it soon
or late, the predictions of the Tories must be verified.
Former Governments, when least popular, have at
least been feared and respected. The present
Ministers depend for tenure of office upon popular
opinion alone. Let the tide but turn then, and
where are they ? Gone, as all whose houses are
!atilt on sand must go, before the popular storm.
But who shall succeed them ? Mr. Hutne, Mr.
Cobbett, Mr. Buckingham, Mr. Gully, Mr. Whittle
Harvey, the five O'Connells, Mr. Roebuck, Dr.
Doyle, Mr. Attwood, Tom Duncombe, and Mr.
Long Wellesley, together with Mr. Walter, the
proprietor of the Times ! A goodly catalogue !
Mr. Stanley may now ridicule the idea of such suc-
cessors, but when these men, and such as these,
taunt him with his no moventent policy, as he now
taunts his predecessors, let him not appeal to Tory
Conservatives for help. They warned him, when
there was yet time, to retrace his steps. He has
sinned against reason and conviction, and all that
he can now gain by resisting further Reform is to
become the first victim under the wheels of the
monstrous idol to which his own hands have given
rnotion.—Morning Post.
We see no new feature in the conduct or results
of the English county elections which demands from
us to-day any particular notice. Middlesex has
shown its consistency by returning its two old Re-
form Members, and rejecting both its new proffers
of friendship and its old enemies. In the other
counties the completed returns, or the state of the
polls, are almost universally in favour of Reform
candidates. We need scarcely mention the newly
created county of the Isle of Wight, where Sir
Richard Simeon, the Reform candidate, has outrun
his competitor so much as to leave him scarcely
visible in the distance; or North Durham, where
the dictation of the Tory Lord Londonderry has
ceased for ever ; or East Worcester, where Liberal
and Ministerial Members have been returned by a
triumphant majority ; or South Cheshire, where,
as we predicted, the Tories would lose, notwith-
standing their appeal to the prejudices of the
farmer; or North Shropshire, where, though
run hard, a Reformer has succeeded. Our
readers will consult these returns for them-
selves, will examine the numbeis as a test of public
opinion, and will be gratified at the result. We
have frequently announced that Scotland would
show herself worthy of the electoral rights which
the Reform Bill extended to that hitherto unrepre-
sented portion of the empire, and we have not been
disappointed in our expectation. The new borough
of Leith has returned a stanch Reformer, and an
able supporter of popular rights, in the person of
Mr. Archibald Murray, the friend of the Lord Ad-
vocate, of Lord Brougham,and of other distinguished
members of the Scotch bar, at a time when liberal
opinions were less diffused than at the present day.
From the state of the poll, both in Edinburgh arid
Glasgow, there can be no doubt that in these two
I great cities the cause of Reform will be triumphant.
In Aberdeen, a newly-created borough, with an un-
divided vote, the Reform candidate has been re-
turned without opposition. The Haddington dis-
trict of boroughs, the Kirkaldy district of boroughs,
and other places from which we have returns, show
an equal zeal in favour of Reform. In fact, the
band of Tories who will cross the Tweed at the be-
ginning of the year for legislative functions will chiefly
be sent from Holyroodhouse,—the seat of an elec-
toral conclave,—which the Reform Bill has not
reached, and where popular feeling has not yet en-
tered. Neither Charles X., however, nor the Tories
can remain always on that privileged ground.—
Times.

The speech of Mr. Stanley at the North Lancashire
election, has created a sensation of no ordinary
kind, and will do more harm, we think, to the just
influence of his Majesty's Ministers with the public
than any thing that they have either said or done
for themselves since their acceptance of office. At
that election he declared that, in his estimation, as
well as in that of his colleagues, the Reform Act
was a final measure, and that any attempt to amend
it, by the introduction of vote by ballot, or extension
of the elective franchise, or a reduction of the qua-
lifications for representatives, would be resisted by
hem. What nonsense is it not to talk thus ? The

Reicrtil Act a final tnciumir. Al well say at one
that the set is dry land ! The Reform Act is but
the means towards the accomplishment of numerous
and important ends—the instrument which is to
operate still greater reforms—the lever by which
the people of England are to uproot the numerous
abuses which Tory supremacy, and Tory misrule,
has heaped upon them—and if insufficient—if not
adapted to its purpose—if not sufficiently powerful
to accomplish its end, why it must be amended
where it is deficient, strengthened where it is weak,
and in every respect adapted to the ends in view.
The public have already decided this matter in their
own favour, and we cannot conceive a more egre-
gious folly than that of attempting to dictate to them
a submission to what is so contrary to their feelings
as well as to their recorded judgment. If Mr. Stan-
ley will but look over the poll-lists of the United
Kingdom, he will see in them enough to convince
him that the times of Whiggism and Toryism are
fairly gone by—that the people care for no party, as a
party—that they interest themselves for themselves,
and for nothing and no one else—and, finally, that in
almost all cases those who have stood up manfully
for the people have received the support of the
people in the most ample manner. Does Hume's
triumphant election for Middlesex say nothing on
this point ? Is Mr. Tennyson's for Lambeth no-
thing ? Is that of Mr. Poulett Thomson for Man-
chester nothing ? is Lord Althorp's return—a
stanch supporter of vote by ballot—nothing ? And
in every other quarter are not the signs of the times
in favour of change—not of revolutionary change—
but of sound, practical, and judicious Reform ? Mr.
Stanley, able debater as he is, is, we fear, a rash man,
not a very tiue discerner of the political almanack.
A retirement from Parliament, as well as from the
Secretaryship of Ireland, for a few months, would
be of essential service to him, as well as a gratifies-
don to his friends.—Morning Advertiser.
Mr. Poulett Thomson sets out this day for Man-
chester, where a splendid dinner, and a numerous
and highly-respectable company await him, on
Wednesday or Thursday next. The return of this
Honourable Gentleman is unquestionably a feature
of the times, and as gratifying to the friends of
liberal princilles, as it must be pleasing to himself.
His return is, in fact, a great triumph in two ways—
a triumph of the principles which he advocates, and
a triumph on the part of his Majesty's Ministers.
Mr. Poulett Thomson not only did not take any
part in the election—or solicit the honour con-
ferred upon him, or in any way, directly or indi-
rectly, caused it to be known that lie was ambitious
of becoming one of the representatives of Man-
chester, but, on the contrary, with a just regard to
what was due to his friends and former constituents in
Dover, declined to be put in nomination when the
offer was made to him some months ago. We be-
lieve, in fact, that no one had more reason to be
surprised at his return for the new borough of Mia-
chester than Mr. Thomson himself; the whole time
of his stay in it not having exceeded three days,
and that time being devoted, not to the accomplish-
ment of his return as its representative, but to an
inspection and investigation of its manufacturing in-
dustry. The return is a proof of great good sense
and independent feeling on the part of the people of
Manchester, and will, we doubt not, prove highly
advantageous to the manufacturing interests of the
country. As Mr. Thomson has accepted the repre-
sentation of his new constituents, we could earnestly
wish that those who formerly returned him, would
bethink themselves of a fitting substitute. Would

they not do themselves honour, as well as advance
the interests of their country, by the election of Mr.
Babbage, whom the people of Finsbury were stupid
enough to reject ? He would form an admirable
colleague to their late representative.—Morning
Advertiser.