The Sun.
London, England, 1832-12-21 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF Ttir, PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Our readers will perceive that Mr. Hume
heads Sir Charles Forbes by upwards of 1,000,
and Mr. Byng by between 200 and 300. This
is as it should be. Without meaning to under-
value Mr. Byng, who has stuck to his party for
upwards of 40 years, we have no hesitation in
saying that Mr. flume has done more good in
one year than he has done in his life-time ; and
that if we are to estimate the importance of a
return to Parliament by the value of the services
to be performed, there can be no comparison
between the men. Mr. Byng's proper station
is where he now is. We are sorry to perceive
in some of the leading Whigs, during this elec-
tion, a conduct towards Mr. Hume which can-
not injure him, but must have 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
others of the same stamp, 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 Charles
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 exceed-
ingly to see this conduct on the part of those
who are notoriously influenced by them. We
regret it on many accounts. That man must
have looked most superficially at the elections
throughout the country, who does not perceive
that whatever may be the name given to the
majority, they are for the most part independent
men, who will carry economy and retrenchment
as far as they possibly can. We take the favour
shown to Mr. Grote in the city election, to be
in some sort symptomatic of the times. Now
we have no hesitation in saying, that all Mem-
bers of this way of thinking will look with very
great jealousy and distrust at this apparent dis-
position on the part of the leadinn. Whigs to
injure Mr. Hume. It never can be the interest
of Ministers to foster these jealousies and dis-
sensions. The character of Parliament is now
essentially changed ; and they who wish to lead
must not think of giving their opinions to Par-
liament, but of taking their opinions from it.
Why then do we see on this occasion the Tories,
the High Churchmen, and the Whigs, all arrayed
against Nlr. Hume ? Surely they could not sup-
pose that the trash which has been vomited forth
against him on the subject of Providence—the
attempt to make him out an Atheist, because
he, in common with most of the distinguished
divines of the English Church, has advocated the
siish t of free discussion on all subjects—would
ha re the eflect of obliterating from the minds of the
people of England the memory of the services ren-
dered to his country by Mr. Hume. Mr. Hume is
not a man who can be put down, as has been
more than once proved. All the pretty little
sarcasms about the Greek loan might have told
against any poor sensitive creature who depended
for his happiness on the countenance of fashion-
able coteries ; but if a man has only moral
courage to disregard such nonsense, he need be
under no apprehension from the public. The
public took part with Mr. Hume, and not with
his backbiters, on that occasion; and they do
the same now. It is, therefore, a paltry policy to
show the disposition, without having the power
to strike. 'What is it that this secession from
Mr. Hume will prove ? It will prove that, it
he succeeds (and there cannot be a doubt of
his success), he succeeds notwithstanding the
efforts against him of the openly corrupt, and
the would-be liberals, who would rather return a
Tory than a Rlformer. This futile display of
malice can onradd to Mr. Hume's triumph.
We take it for granted that neither open nor
secret enmity could injure Mr. Hume. Open
hostility would only have roused a spirit of re-
action, and the shabby display of ill feeling has
only created dissatisfaction with the conduct
of the party. The best possible feeling
exists with regard to him, especially in
the western districts of the county. A
Morning Contemporary of yesterday, ob-
served, " We happen to know that if some of
the Members of the existing Government had
not, for some cause or other, of which they are
probably now ashamed, given encouragement to
the hopes of Lord Henley, the vehement perse-
cution to which Mr. Hume has been subjected
would not have been heard of ;" and that of
those whose opposition to him was founded on
a pretended zeal for religion, there were some
who took his opponents at their word, because
" they knew that there were some men in power
who thought his presence in Parliament incon-
venient ; they saw that the most devoted of the
Treasury Papers represented him as a man of
crotchets,' a Marplot, and in other ways desig-
nated him as one on whose career the cheering
sunshine of power was not destined to diffuse
its prosperous rays." We know it is much easier
to bring forward accusations than toprove them ;
and till we see some evidence, we shall refuse to
believe that any Minister actually encouraged
Lord Henley to oppose Mr. Hume. But the
conduct of such Whigs as Dr. Lushington and
Mr. Michael Angelo Taylor, who have a tole-
rably good scent, will go far to encourage a
belief that Ministers are at the bottom of the
opposition. Never, however, was there a greater
mistake than to suppose, that by getting rid of
one man, troublesome inquirers would be got
rid of. Mr. flume at one time had no fellow-
labourers ; but in this Parliament he will have
litany. If any faith may be reposed in declara-
tions, there will be many men in the next Par-
liament who will probe our finances to the
bottom, and show no mercy to the hosts of
aristocratical spoilers of the public. We agree
with our contemporary, that " Mr. Hume
has, beyond all other men of the present
day, the great merit of never allowing a
Chancellor of the Exchequer to repose in
luxurious indolence, or to enjoy his seat as a
bed of roses. In the present deplorable state
of the finances of the country, his searching and
indefatigable attention to the Budget and the
estimates of the year, is of more importance to
the public service than any other quality of a
senator. Of what use are the occasional and
flashy speeches of such a lack-a-daisical patriot
as Sir Francis Burdett, or persons of that
stamp, compared with the practical, unceasing
energy energy which distinguishes Mr. Hume, and
vigilant sentinelship which he exercises. over the
public expenditure ? Times are coming when
that unsparing spirit of inquiry into the state of
our finances, and that resolute resistance to the
vices of venality and profusion, which Mr.
Hume has always manifested in Parliament,
will become more important to the country
than ever." We have often made the re-
mark, that, the unceasing energy of Mr.
Hume was not to be put for a moment in com -

parisou with the flash speeches of some of our
children of luxury, who would fain have a repu-
tation for patriotism without labouring for it.
The truth is, that, independently of the indis-
position to labour, most of our aristocrats
have so many points of connection with each
other that, like the Italian Condottieri of the
middle ages, in certain respects they never made
war in good earnest. Fortunately for the country
Mr. Hume was a novus homo, whose amibition
was directed exclusively to labour, who cared
nothing for the good word of fashionables, and
he, therefore, was enabled to do what perhaps
no other man in the House could have had the
heart to attempt. We trust there will be an
end of this system of unreasonable jealousy.
Ministers will obtain the support of the new
Parliament if they deserve it ; but it cannot be
of service to them to display a bad feeling towards
a man like Mr. Hume.—Morning Chronicle.
The Conservative candidate for Middlesex,
as we had anticipated, is, notwithstanding the a -,t-
tivity of his omnibuses, 800 below the second
Reform candidate. It is a pity that the good-
natured Baronet has allowed his Tory friends
to bleed him with such Oriental profusion ; and
all to no purpose ! In South Hampshire Lord
Palmerston and Sir George Staunton, another
Reform candidate, have been returned by a
great majority. The utmost efforts of the Con•
servative faction have been exerted in vain on
the constituency of the northern division of
Northamptonshire. The triumph of Lord
ton is the greater, that his Lordship has pro-
nounced his opinion in Parliament, on the
hustings, and through the press, against the
existing corn monopoly, which the Tory land-
lords have prevailed upon their farmers to con-
sider as essential, if not to their existence, at
least to their welfare. Even " my brother, the
Colonel," who numbers only as a cipher after
Lord Lowther, is likely to be thrown out for
Westmoreland. From the very general and al-
most unanimous feeling manifested in North
Warwickshire in favour of the two Reform can-
didates at the nomination on Tuesday, we think
that the Tory Dugdale has little chance of suc-
cess even in that Tory district. South Derbyshire
has done honour to its independence by returning
two Liberal candidates, and North Wiltshire
must share in the same distinction by its
equally meritorious conduct. The exhibition of
a popular election in the metropolis of Scotland
for the first time has excited great attention.
The Tory candidate has no chance against the
Lord Advocate and Mr. Abercromby, whose re-
turn we formerly announced as certain. We
have all along contended, that those who con-
tributed their zealous efforts in the House of
Commons to carry the Reform Bill were better
entitled to the support of their constituents in
their election for a Reformed Parliament than
new candidates, who, though they might have
acted in similar circumstances with equal regard
to the public interests, had not enjoyed the
same opportunity of performing a public ser-
vice. On this ground, we have frequently be-
sought the electoral body to return their old and
tried friends in preference to strangers or upstarts,
however showy their pretensions or magnificent
their promises. In such cases gratitude might
have been expected to invigorate attachment,
and experience to increase confidence. How
much more, then, is it incumbent on the electoral
body to return to Parliament their tried
friends, in opposition, not to new friends,
but to declared enemies ? In the city of
London, in Westminster, and in many other
places, which we need not now stop to enume-
rate, the claims of old connection and the feel-
ings of grateful confidence have carried the
late Reform Members to the head of the poll.
It is, therefore, with some surprise and more
indignation we learn that a considerable portion
of the freeholders and electors of North Essex
(we hope not a majority) have resolved to sup-
port Mr. Baring, who opposed the grant of
their extended franchise, against Mr. Western,
who voted for the Reform Bill in all its stages.
It would be unjust to suppose tbat Mr. Western
and the other Parliamentary supporters of re-
form acted from any sordid regard to their
future return in promoting a measure which their
feelings of public duty required them to adopt-;
but the disinterestedness of one party does not
relieve another from its obligations. It can
scarcely be imagined consistent with honour
or generosity to accept of a favour and
to refuse its acknowledgment ; it is not
honest to profit by labour and withhold
its reward, although no formal stipulation
wss previously made that the exertion should be
compensated. We still hope, therefore, that the
electors of North Essex will do justice to Mr.
Western,along with the relative of one of our most
stanch Reformers ; and that the miserable trash
addressed to their prejudices at the nomination
by Mr. Baring, against the Reformers and the
?resent Administration, will receive no sanction
iiy their suffrages at the polling-booths. Essex
would be for ever disgraced by abandoning so
old and consistent a friend as Mr. Western, for
a gentleman who (whatever his personal claims
may be) never made a speech of ten minutes'
length without contradicting one part by the
other, or when his speech was too short for this
species of conflict did not neutralize it by his vote.
We have copied some excellent observations
from the address of Mr. E. J. Stanley to the
electors of the northern division of Cheshire
at the nomination of candidates for that district
on Monday last. The creed of the Conserva-
tives is fully developed, and the contingency on
which the ballot would become necessary is for-
cibly stated.— Times.
Of the elections which have terminated, few,
if any, have done more credit to the zeal, the
independence, and perseverance of the reformed
constituency than that for the northern division
of the county of Hants. Previous to its di-
vision under the Reform Act, this county was
looked upon as little better than a Government
borough, the balance being sure to be turned on
which ever side the influence of Portsmouth
dockyard was thrown. By its separation from
dockyards, custom-houses, and the other public
establishments incident to the sea-coast, the
inland or northern division became a purely
agricultural district, presenting every apparent
chance of sending to the Legislature Members
expressing the unbiassed opinions of the class
of which its constituency became then composed.
The Reformers found, however, that though re-
leased from the overwhelming influence which had
formerly neutralised their exertions, they had
another species of influence to contend with, and
which had been exerted to an extent which, in
the result, shows how very little the Anti-Reform
candidates had to hope for without it. This
was no other than finding the whole of the aris-
tocracy, in the persons of the Dukes of Wel-
lington and Buckingham, the Marquis of Win-
chester (Groom of the Stole!), Earls Carnarvon
and Guilford, arrayed against them. Of most
of these personages the Power cannot be de-

Mcd; but the ;neater their purser, the greater and
more honourable their defeat. Such has been
the independence and the spirit of the consti-
tuency that, with " all applicances and means to
boot," not 700 voters could be brought to the
poll in favour of the Conservative candidates,
who, after the most positive boastings of suc-
cess, at the close of the first day, surrendered
at discretion. Such a triumph has rarely been
witnessed ; speaking as it does volumes in fa-
your of the cause of rational reform.—Morntng
Herald.

The annual election of the Members of the
Common Council of the City of London takes
place to-day. Reform has been long wanted
in the Civic Parliament, and, indeed, in the
whole governing system of the Corporation.
Now that the Imperial Parliament has under-
gone the process of a sweeping Reform, we
trust that the Civic Senate will be subjected
to as purifying an operation, both in the Upper
and the Lower House, and that some efficient
restraint will be placed upon jobbing and mis-
management of the city funds, whether practised
by the Court of Aldermen or Committees of the
Common Council. The Court of Aldermen,
' the public are aware, pursue a course less honest
and liberal, and far more " aristocratic," than
that of the House of Lords, for they do not
condescend to admit the public to witness their
proceedings, but carefully enshroud themselves
in the mystery of darkness and closed doors ;
and where that is practised, the suspicion of the
public will ever be, that the " mystery of ini-
quity" is not unknown. As one check upon the
" doings" of this body it is proposed that the
Court of Aldermen should he an open one.
This we think is very reasonable. The Alder-
men do not, or at least ought not to meet there
to discuss their own private affairs ; and if they
transact the business which affects the interests
of the whole Corporation in a way that they are
ashamed of placing under the public eye, the
convenience which seclusion produces to them-
selves is the strongest argument possible why the
Corporate body at large should not tolerate that
seclusion any longer. Another check on Alder-
manic misgovernment is proposed to be the
election of Aldermen periodically, or for a spe-
cified number of years, when, if proved worthy
of that office, their constituents may have an
opportunity of evincing their gratitude, by re-
electing them ; if unworthy, that they may have
the opportunity of putting better men in
their places. Now, as there are some of
the Court of Aldermen who are professed
Reformers of Church and State, we
presume such persons can have no objection to
put their hands also to the work of corpora-
tion Reform. It is certainly a minor work of
patriotism, when compared with the reformation
of the national system ; but whether the local
interests of London are to be well or ill ma-
naged, and whether the funds that were bestowed
on the Corporation for great public purposes,
are to be expended only on objects of utility or
profusely squandered in folly and extravagance,
are matters not wholly unimportant, and cer-
tainly, in some degree, affect the interests of a
large portion of the citizens of London, who, if
they are as active and earnest in pursuit of Cor-
poration Reform as they were of Reform in
Parliament, must obtain it. If there had been
a Reform in the Corporate Government in the
year 1814, it could not be possible that at a
time when, as we are informed, the Corporation
was 30,0001. more in debt than at present, the
enormous sum of 20,000/. should be squall-
. dered on a single banquet. If it had not been
for the spirit of reckless profusion which has cha-
racterized the acts of the Corporation, that body
might have done a (Treat deal more substantial
good with its funds than it has performed, and
yet be much richer than it is at present. We
trust that the citizens will now take up this sub-
ject with energy and perseverance. If they do,
civic Reform cannot long be withheld.—Morn-
ing Herald.

MIDDLESEX ELECTION.—The state of the
poll yesterday was unfavourable to Sir Charles
Forbes, but not one half of the constituency has
yet polled, and there is still in reserve a number
of voters of Tory principles amply sufficient to
turn the scale, and bring in the Conservative
Candidate triumphantly. Will the Conservatives
of Middlesex allow it to be said that, for want
of a little timely exertion on their parts, the great
metropolitan county gave its aid to the cause of
impiety, revolution, and destruction ? Will
they incur the indelible disgrace of holding back
on such an occasion, and allowing an irreligious
and Radical faction to return a man to Parlia-
ment who will be in no sense a representative
of the great majority of the constituency ? Let
them come forward at once ; let them consider
that every individual vote is of high importance,
and the honour of Middlesex will be triumphantly
vindicated.—Morning Post.

A GOOD-NATURED MAJOR.—In the Bank-
ruptcy Court on Tuesday, Major VILLEROY RUSSELL
came up to be examined. The Major, who was a good-
natured soul," had become security for several old friends,
who, however, taxed his friendship too much, by " let-
ting him in" to the amount of the security. One of his
liabilities was contracted on behalf of a solicitor bred up
under the late Judge BULLER, and who, perhaps, not
succeeding in his profession, became gamekeeper to the
Earl of CARNARVON. In this capacity, he shooed the
Major some " shooting," and then induced him to become
security for him to the amount of 2501.—a rather dear shot.
It appeared that the Major had some valuable landed pro-
perty, and the visages of the creditors were illumined
with " a pretty considerable" smile when they heard that
there was a probability of the property not only being suf-
ficient to satisfy them, but to set the Major up in life again,
to which he may add the advantage of some dear-bought
experience.

In the " Life of a Sailor" is the narrative of the
wreck of a vessel off the Havannah. The crew took to the
boat, which upset; they succeeded in righting her, and
while two men were baling her with their hats a shark
was seen to approach. No language can convey an idea
of the panic which seized the struggling seamen. Every
man now strove the more to obtain a moment's safety.
Well they knew that one drop of blood would have been
scented by the everlasaing pilot fish, the jrekalls of the
shark ; and that their destruction was inevitable if one only
of these monsters should discover the rich repast, or be led
to its food by the little rapid hunter of its prey. A few
minutes after about 15 sharks came right amongst them.
The boat was again upset by the simultaneous endeavour
to escape danger, and the 22 sailors were again devoted to
destruction. At first the sharks did not seem inclined
to seize their prey, but swain in amongst the men, play-
ing
in the water, sometimes leaping about, and rub-
bing against their victims. This was of short duration.
A loud shriek from one of the men annonneed his sudden
pain ; a shark had seized him by the leg, and severed it
entirely from the body. No sooner had the blood been
tasted than the dreaded attack took place; another and
another shriek proclaimed the loss of limbs, Some were
torn from the boat, to which they vainly endeavoured to
cling; some, it was supposed, sunk from fear alone. The
with gallant gallant hearts, rest had all
sharks had tasted the blood, and were not to be driven
!imp their feast. By great exertion again the boat was
righted,
vweres e t
so ed
in her
anTdhettwwoo
smuernvir
to redouble their exertions. '111?y lightened the boat
sufficiently not to be easily overset. The voracious monsters
endeavoured to upset the boar ; they swam by its side, in
seeming anxiety for their prey; but after waiting some
time they separated. The two rescued seamen, in spite of
the horrors they had witnessed, soon fell asleep, anti were
the next day fortunately picked up by a vessel.