The Sun.
London, England, 1835-04-11 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We believe it is three months ago, or more, since
this journal began to point out the difficulties which
would beset the Whig-Radical Opposition, now about
to furnish materials, as is supposed, for a new Minis-
try, from the hour at which one or more of their
leaders should be sent for by his Majesty, in the event
of Sir Robert Peel's defeat. Few days have passed since
the time above mentioned, on which we have not made
it our business to impress upon the public mind the
strong conviction under which we ourselves laboured,
of the nature and probable extent of those embarrass-
ments ; and our motive for doing so was the deep alarm
we felt—first, that the overthrow of the Peel Cabinet,
and thefailure to construct a fresh one by Whig states-
men, might unsettle and agitate the bulk of the nation,
already prone to political uneasiness ; secondly, that
the success of such an effort could be no otherwise
achieved than at the price of admitting into the Go-
vernment some deadly enemies to our most valuable
institutions. Now let us ask any candid and honour-
able man whether we were not justified in the expres-
sion of such alarms ? Is not the whole community
(and we will not except the most distinguished mem-
bers of the Whig party) awake to the painful and per-
plexing alternative which it was our duty so long since
to describe—namely, that of either relinquishing, as al-
together hopeless, the task of framing a Cabinet on
principles inconsistent with those of Sir R. Peel, or of
adulterating the new Government in its subordinate,
but not less effective, members with the leaven of Ra-
dical revolution ? Already the manifesto has been
placarded, that the Administration on the point of
coming forth, must be such as will satisfy, and obtain
the support of, all classes of Reformers. This condi-
tion includes, of course, " Reformers " (as they
call themselves) 'of the extreme Radical party,
otherwise the " Destructives," .both of Great Bri-
tain and Ireland. Now, what sort of Cabinet
is it, and what sort of measures, that are likely to
satisfy the " Destructives" on both sides of the water ?
Mr. Joseph Hume, no doubt, must be in office, and
Mr. Daniel O'Connell must be in office, or their re-
spective cliques will not evince much lively satisfac-
tion with the Russell Government. Then, what is to
be the policy requisite to ensure from such men—we
do not say support, but—tolerance or acquiescence ?
Measures would necessarily be adopted for encou-
raging the disaffected aliens in our colonies to fling off
the " baneful yoke of the mother country." The
estimates would be cut down to a scale utterly incom-
patible with the defensive establishments of the
kingdom by sea or land—the public service would
be starved by dismissing from employment thou-
sands of deserving and indispensable civil func-
tionaries, and so aggravating the labour and pinching
the wages of those who remained, that no respectable
or able man would submit to the wretchedness of being
at once overworked and famished. The most shallow
and stupid devices of low parsimony, without taking into
account any purpose, however great or essential, but
that of saving, within a given time, within a given
space, and in a given department, a certain number of
shillings and pence, would invade the whole system of
the public Administration, so that all would be nomi-
nally cheap as wares in a ticket shop, and nothing
substantially good. Everything would be done by
contract, and the nation cheated in everything, even as
the unfortunate Greeks were choused for the benefit of
their contractors. 11, Church, too, would not be
refonned of her abuses, but stripped of I:cr necessaries,
taunted, trampled on, and degraded. So much for
England. How would it be with Ireland ? The
bloodhounds there have begun to give tongue. The
organs of Repeal arid Popery have lost not a moment
in raising an outcry—against whom,
ye Liberals ?
The Duke of Wellington ? Lord Roden ? The
browbeaten and suffering Protestant Clergy ? No—
no—we tell you. The present object of execration
is no other than Lord Grey himself !—once hailed
by them as the standard of all jest and general
policy—the " glass" of liberty—the " moud" of
Reform—the very beau-ideal of a classic Whig, who
thrice had sacrificed or rejected power for the sake of
the Irish Catholics l This is the man against whom
the organs of the O'Connell faction in Ireland, like
those of the section of English Destructives here,
ore already letting loose their fury. Why ? Because
Lord Grey is known to love the institutions of the
monarchy, and stood in the breach so late as last year
against Irish agitators and incendiaries. The same
London prints which would dissuade Lord Grey, out
of affected tenderness for his age and tranquillity, from
accepting office or forming part of the embryo Admi-
nistration, show their true drift by urging vehemently
the fitness of O'Connell for office. Our extract from
the Freeman's Journal threatens that the re-accession
of Lord Grey to power " would be the signal for a
general outbreak in Ireland." " Lord Grey," says
this worthy Papist, "is hated in Ireland I" He is
the tyrant in a friend's garb ; shall we submit again
to Draco's rule? Never : rather let every man, wo-
man and child in Ireland perish !" What ! war to the
knife with Lord Grey ? It is meet, then, that the
choice should be offered to the Reformers of the king-
dom—" Will you, Whigs, prefer O'Connell to Lord
Grey? Will you countenance, to the abandonment of
Lord Grey, the man who, by the pen of his sworn satel-
lite, menaces the empire with civil war in Ireland, if the
great prescriptive Leader of the old Whig party shall
dare to accept office under the Crown? Good God i is it
come to this ? Will the Whigs of England see their
chief denounced, and rebellion and a dismemberment
of the Empire openly inculcated, and yet pause one
moment upon the question, whether they shall, in al-
liance with, and under the banners of, Lord Grey,
coalesce with Sir Robert Peel, and form a confederacy
of all the gentlemen of the empire, having no regard
to antediluvian differences of the Pitt and Fox party
to defend the throne, and property, and civil liberty ;
or separating from all these, and forgetting their com-
mon obligations, combine with O'Connell and Hume,
and such persons, for the destruction of our Constitu-
tional Monarchy ? Can, we say, any man with free
English blood in his veins hesitate one instant which
of these courses to make choice of ? It is said that
O'Connell is too strong in the House of Commons,
where it seems he has 40 or 50 votes, and if pro-
voked would place the Government in a minority.
We answer—are there not twice 40 Whigs to be
found who would join a Government too proud and
upright to advance the projects of O'Connell for
the ruin of the empire, by dealing or treating with
him at all ? Why should this confounded resolution
of Lord John Russell he made of such preternatural
importance as to sunder the two most valuable sections
of the political world for the sake of.humouring a mere
chimera ? The resolution, whether right or wrong in
the abstract, was, as a Parliamentary manoeuvre, 'des-
picable. But, in God's name, we would a million of
times rather see it either rescinded by Lord John
Russell, or waved by Sir Robert Peel, than made an
instrument for plunging the whole country into con-
fusion. The Ministry was not formed last night. Are
we too rash in stating our conscientious belief that
there are obstacles almost insurmountable in the way
of any Whig-Radical Ministry ? To the disastrous
nature and consequences of such a Ministry what sane
politician can be blind ? Is Lord Grey ? We affirm with
confidence that we are sure he is not. Is Lord Melbourne
blind to the ruin of such a Ministry? We have no diffi-
culty in saying that he isnot. Of Lord Lansdowne, judg-
ing from his former and his recent life, we can pronounce
thatthe noble Marquis, of all men, is not blind to the ine-
vitable destruction which betides the State from the en-
trance into power of a Movement Ministry. We have rea-
son to believe that his Majesty saw every one of these
noble Lords in the course of yesterday ; and it would
much astonish us to learn that any one of them had
hesitated to pronounee opinions as to the real source
of the existing danger to the monarchy differing in the
slightest degree from our own. But if his Majesty be
told that now, while the Conservative spirit is strong,
arid the intrinsic force of our institutions yet unbroken,
that now is the time to rally round him, whatever of
intelligence and virtue, whatever independence and
spirit, can
_bp found within the country,—that now is
the., time to= make his stand, or with his Crown, and
every other emblem, and every solid supporter of
Royalty, to fall and be extinct for ever,—we say that
it is the nation's business to rouse itself on such an
appeal ; that it is the nation's own cause, not that
alone of a Monarch. We adjure, therefore, the
Whig gentlemen to look a few hours before them;