The Sun.
London, England, 1832-06-05 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TheYthiidt-leading of the, •Entglis)l:lßefotm
Bill has, at last, passed through the fiery ordeal
of the House of Lords. The majority was 84,
the numbers being 106 for the Bill, and 22
mal-contents. And such a minority ! We
must record the names of these infatuated Peers
follows:
LIST OF THE MINORITY ON THE THIRD READING
OF THE REFORM BILL;
EARLS,
Mansfield
Powlett
POWig

DUKES. 13ARONS.
Newcastle . Bexley
Gordon - Carrington
EARL!. Elionborough
Westmorland t VISVOUNT. 7%tonson
Dartmouth Gage Delamere
Guildford - - BA RO!'M. • Cartere4.
Roden Rolle ,Strathallan) WiPonghby de Broke
Malmesbury Doneraile rantley.
Thus nearly the whole ,eody of Opposition
Peers swamped themselves, the Mite of the
Lords only stieleime, fast to their stupid preju-
dices. Even the Bishops were scared, and did
not attend the burial of the boroughmongers.
Bishop Phillpotts retired early in disgust ; and
no Spiritual Peers divided. The Right Rev.
Prelates have a remarkable scent, and discern,
afar off, the indications of a falling house, The
sole object of the Anti-Reform orators appears
to have been to get rid of their black Bill, and
to blacken the Government by the repetition of
eeery stale misrepresentation of motives .and con-
sequences in which they heretofeeelndulged.Never
did political infatuation display such suicidal acts ;
and among the most contemptible objects of the
public scorn, the Waverers occupy a prominent
station.We shall hereaftercretemmn watt a secret his-
tory of their cabals, in which the real characters of
Lord Harrowby and Lord Wharneliffe, with the
" Judge," will be duly exposed. That, neat young
man, a son of very green nobility, and a Represen-
tative of a rotten borough, Mr. Wortley, on the
announcement of " Message from the Lords,'
announcing the passing of the Bill, denied that
the Alessage was " from the Lords," and gave
himself many youthful airs in an attempt to prove
that the Lords had been overpowered. The
Duke of Cumberland retired early in the con-
test ; the Duke of Wellington must be reported
missing. Thus end all the despicable cabals of
Court ; the labours of the wives and
Foreign Ambassadors—of those hopeful party
days, weeks since—in the words of Dryden—
" When each, by curs'd cabals of women, strove
To draw the indulgent King to partial loce."
The Amendments will probably be passed in the
House of Commons to-roorrow,after some sharp-
shooting by Col. Sibthorpe.—Morn. Chronicle.
We could scarcely believe, until we had as-
certained the fact from inquiry, the statement in
the Times of yesterday, that Sir Robert Peel,
the great Political Joseph, had added to his
other claims upon the national confidence the
dastardly discretion of refusing to attend the two
important Committees, now sitting in the House
of Commons, upon the Bank and the Currency,
and upon the abolition of Colonial Slavery.
1,1 hat ! " Peel's-bill Peel "—the statesman upon
whose wisdom and counsel our monetary and
financial systems, since the Peace, have mainly
been founded—the philosopher who voted with
Lord Bexley that a one-pound note, then de-
preciated about thirty per cent., and a shilling
were equal to a guinea—and subsequently re-
presented to the nation that the restoration of
the ancient standard would only be an inflic-
tion, to be measured by the difference between
4/. ls. and 3/. I7s. 10d. upon the public as a
national debtor, and upon all private debtors in
the community—to shrink from an examination
into the fruits of his own system—to endeavour
to escape the responsibility which he is so will-
ing to throw upon other men, of attempting to
devise remedies for his own blunders, and to re-
enact the part which he has lately been playing in
the farce with the Duke of Wellington, hoping to
be considered " pure and undefiled " before the
world at the expense of those upon whom, knowing
the embarrassment of their position he wishes to
impose the enviable duties of being his scape-
goats. Oh, Joseph—Joseph ! this is too bad ;
but you shall not escape. The pretence of be-
ing interested in the inquiry, as a holder of Bank
Stock, is too contemptible, and quite worthy of
your whole conduct. Are there no other Mem-
bers of the Committee, like yourself, proprietors
of Stock—and have they ever dreamt of urging
this as an excuse for their non-performance of a
great public duty, of equal delicacy .and import-
ance ? Do you really think that, be the result
of this inquiry what it may, the complicated and
difficult point to which our artificial system has
arrived will be ascribed by an intelligent public
to any measures which this Administration has ei-
ther adopted or neglected since they succeeded
to the precious legacy you bequeathed them ?
They would have been equally to blame ifa crisis,
hitherto averted by good fortune or blind confi-
dence, had been brought on by three or four days'
further suspense during the iosane attempt of the
Duke of Wellington, which you so much encou-
raged and applauded, but from the responsibility of
which you had noscruple in shrinking with as much
horror as you instinctively feel at being impli-
cated in the proceedings of this Committee.—
The Ministers have hitherto acted with supreme
folly and blindness in not exposing fairly to the
country the bed cf roses to which they suc-
ceeded in every branch of our affairs, in every
department of the Administration. But above
all, the state of the Bank—of the Savings-
Banks—of the circulation—the dreadful effects
on trade, agriculture, and manufactures—the
ruin on all classes engaged in I hem, which had
been the necessary result of the Peel system—
of an alternate expansion and contraction of our
paper money, since that experienced quack
doctor did us the favour of undertaking the di-
rection of these transactions. He knows full
well the desperate condition to which -his altera-
tive remedies have reduced the patient; and is
quite willing to abandon to others the credit and
responsibility of attempting a cure. He recol-
lects his propositions of 1819—his reduction
of the debt to the Bank from nineteen millions
to nine—the consequent contraction of the cir-
culation, and the miseries of 1822—the subse-
quent re-borrowing of money to pay cff debt, and
for dead weights—the re-issue of 1/. notes -7..
the doubling of the paper money, and the neces-
sary doubling of all pricts in 1824 and 1825
the panic which succeeded—the withdrawal of
notes—and he is now perfectly aware of the
distress and wretchedness which have been gra-
dually and silently overwhelming all debtors and
persons engaged in productive industry, from
1825—the period possibly of the greatest de-
preciation of currency, and marked by the most
aggravated prices of commodities—to the at-
tempts which have been since made to place the
Batik in some position of security and ability to
meet its. engagements. When The information
now before the Committee is communicated to
the public, it will be seen in- what state the late
Ministry, after all its efforts to improve the con-
dition of the Bank, left that 'establishment on

the hands of the present Governmera.:We_ knew
little of the case beyond the struggles which we
constantly witnessed on the part of the Directors
shortly after the formation of this Administra.
non, to maintain the exchanges by a contraction
•