The Sun.
London, England, 1835-04-21 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sia,—You are perfectly right in your remark of Satur-
day, that " Toryism is in its nature unalterable. Its very
foundation is arbitrary power." This is a truth which
Englishmen ought never to lose sight of, and they who
neglect to thunder it in their ears are guilty of a gross
abandonment of duty. The -" pressure from without" may
compel the disciples of Machiavelli to varnish their deeds
and lower their insolent tone, but the animus directing the
whole remains untouched, and will pierce through the flimsy
texture of unprevailing caution. A thick wall, of prejudices
encircles Tory movements, impregnable against the attacks
of reason or experience ; in vain does prophetic history un-
fold her pages steeped in human gore, Toryism still pursues
the same path which was traced by barbarian hands. The
encouragement given to the arts and sciences, together with
the immense expansion of useful knowledge, have neces-
sarily polished the frame of society, and superinduced habits
and customs of a more rational and ameliorating kind ; but
the evil genius of tyranny yet hovers over the land, and
does not the less fatally wield its sceptre, because assuming
a milder and more inviting form. We shuddet at the prac-
tices of remote, ages, when the inventor of a new instrument
for excruciating his fellow-creatures was handsomely re-
warded for his ingenuity ; when the whisper of Liberty was
hushed by the poisoned cup ; when the vindicator of his
own and the world's rights was silently removed, and never
again heard of. But some plea can be offered in extenua-
tion even of these dark proceedings. The deep ignorance
in which the mind was immersed fostered the, perhaps,
naturally harsh feelings of the man, and the absence of ail
laws left him.the dangerous power of being able to execute
them. The despotic lords, moreover, were surrounded by
cringing emissaries, at hand, ready and eager to take hints
for wromands ; gloomy expectants,
" By the hand of nature mark'd,
- Quoted and signed to do a deed of shame."
. .

Besides, the unchecked violence and open profligacy were
sufficient to ignite the patriot's zeal, to spur him on in his
noble exertions, and, daring the horrors of the dungeon and
the rack, to glory in the palm of martyrdom. In those
days you were not encumbered with lukewarm friends, or
lured to your fate by treacherous enemies ; there was no
halting-place between a determined adherent .and a relent-
less adversary.
Such was Toryism seated in the Inquisitorial chair, with
all its engines of cruelty. The system is the same to-day,
though it cannot be enforced alike. The Protean demon
no longer appears in the abhorred garb of the murderer,
but like a shadow it flits before our eyes, and thrusts its
pale corrupting hand amid our institutions. Toryism is the
embodied spirit of 'that love of evil which clings to our
natures, and until some Hercules shall arise, it will never
be eradicated. It is a tree Cosmopolite ; and wherever
power and riches exist, there it dwells, encompassed by
numerous votaries, between whom is a Masonic sign, which
confounds all nations without distinction. The more our
faculties develop themselves, the more dim will this shadow
be to our view'; but we must not flatter ourselves to put it
to flight at once. This visionary fabric, so far from being
" baseless," is founded in the mind ; the root of the evil is
there, and can -only.be struck at by the axe of time. A
sudden revolution may hurl the defenders of a principle into
oblivion and contempt, but the lapse of time alone can
destroy principle itself. The influence of Toryism is gone
with the power that kept it in action, but, like the vulture
of Mount Caucasus, it is still gnawing upon the vitals of
Liberty, which, though continually devoured, are never
diminished. It would be a fatal error to imagine the fall
of the Tories implies that of their principles : we have ac-
complished, as it were, a mere manual task, and now is
beginning that mental labour which will require the aid of
the good. Let public indignation settle men, but principles
must be dealt with by the slower hand of reason. We
cannot yet annihilate Toryism, but, by a steady course of
liberal measures, we may render it impotent to do harm ;
our care must be to enlighten the understanding, and firmly
but mildly to clear away the rubbish of superstition which
defaces politics ; it is thus that the mind will at length be
cast in a finer mould, and, fortified by more elevated notions,
indignantly spurn the grovelling views of arbitrary Toryism.
MILO.