The Sun.
London, England, 1835-03-04 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

IViscount Polling-,ton, at the Earl of Mexborough's, Dover-
2,treei-, from the Continent • the Earl of Carnarvon, from
fromfßr :s
the Earl of Ranfurly, at the Burlington Hotel,
Colonel and Mrs. Chatterton, in Waterloo-place,
Charles and Lady . Coote, in Connaught-
place
'sses. Southeby, or. a visit to the Dowager Lady
Pg a 4
Cork.rti e...` . ;;
lrlton-terrace, from Admiral Sotheby's seat,
in Essex Sir Edi,
,und Hayes, Bart., M. P., in Jermyn-street,
de Clifford,
thrde, lival. c
eorge and Miss Talbot, in Hanover-
square, from a tour.; 114,2
;
from Ireland ; Sir t.:'
ior-General Sir George Quentin, at
the Royal Mews, Buckinih:'.lll- gate, from Richmond ; General,
Mrs. and Miss Gascoyne, in 47outh Audiey-street ; Sir Alex-
ander and Lady Dickson, in Chi..rles-street; Berkeley-square ;
Major-General Sir Thomas St. G:orge, K. C. 8., in Dover_
street ; Lord and Lady Warren De lisbley, in Lower Brook-
street, from Tabley Hall, Cheshire; Mr. and Mrs. Wadltam
Wyndham, at Simmons's Hotel, from Salisbu."Y ; Lord Marcus
Hill, from Kin,,.stown ; Mr. and Mrs. Crawfort; Antrobus and
family', in Berkeley-square ; Sir Graham and Li.(ll Moore, in
Albemarle-street, from Cobham ; the Dowager CPuntess of
St. Germans, in Park-crescent ; Sir George Staunton/ Dart.,
in Devonshire-street, Portland-place, from Hampshire ; the
Hon. Sir Robert and Lady Stopford, in Upper Harley-street;
the Right Hon. Lord and Lady Sinclair and family, at
Grove's private Hotel, Albemarle-street.

It is now our firm belief that the Whig-Radical
Repealers have expended the whole of their amMuni
tion, and that if they continue their attacks upon Mi-
nisters any longer, it will be a sham battle affair with
blank cartridge, to make a noise, and save their credit
with the populaCe. The grounds of their assaults
upon his Majesty's Ministers have ridiculously failed
this devoted party of the Whigs. Their first hie. no-
tion, after the breaking up of the late Ministry, was
that the Duke of Wellington's ad interim acceptance
of office was a farce, which wanted nothing but Sir
Robert Peel's arrival for the scene to be again shifted,
and the suspended actors to resume their former cha-
racters. But Sir Robert Peel arrived, and did actually
undertake the management, and bring forward a fresh
company, and is about to introduce an improved edi-
tion of the favourite drama of reform. It was then
said that he would not dare to dissolve the former Par-
liament, or that if he did, the next House of Commons
would be still more hostile to him. He did how-
ever dissolve the then existing Parliament, and the
immediate consequence was an increase in that
party which more cordially agreed with him in poli•
tics—of at least 130 votes. After the meeting of the
new parliament, the threats were loud, that the Oppo-
sition would carry a strong vote against Ministers, of
want of confidence, or some especial and formidable
censure, What followed ? The motley Opposition
could not agree upon any one public principle or
opinion as the groundwork of decided assault
upon Ministers, or in anticipation of smell future
measures on the part of those n would
serve for a reasonable recommendation to the Crown
to dismiss them.' So they vented their spleen by
the fejeeth4-1 of an P4PIPpkiTY Spoa•tor, Wi
fled nothing beyond the mere eNpression of party
rage ; and they followed it up by an amendment to an
address, which amounted to a simple declaration that
they (the Opposition) would have preferred a House
of Commons, in whic they theinselves were compara-
tively strong, to one in which their numbers were con-
siderably weakened. Such was the real meaning of
that clause of the amendment which stigmatized the
late 'dissolution ; it was a clause in which the nation felt
and expressed no sympathy—the sense of its value
was confined to this coteries of the enfeebled Whigs,
When, therefore, nothing could be hoped from a pre-
mature condemnation of the policy of Ministers,
without a Vartielo pr cvidcllee or reason Whereon_ to
ground it, • the next mameuvre of the Opposition was
to prevail upon the Ministers to lay (themselves) the,
foundation of some such preliminary censure, by fhh,
ing from them an acknowledgment in ausvier to
interrogatories proposed to entrap them, that their
measures would not be conformable to those which the
majority of the House of Commons or the bulk of the
nation called for. Lord J. Russell accordingly gave
notice, that be would put his Majesty's Ministers to
" the question ;fl and what did the Noble Lord get by
it ? He heard that Ministers would not blink the
Reform of the Irish Church, But that they
had a Tithe Bill ready for Parliament, and, more-
over, that with regard to Church temporalities,
they were ready to discuss and consider favour-
ably whatever measures might be recommended
upon the report of the Church Commission,
saving only the single principle, that ecclesiasti-
cal property should in no ease be diverted to otherthan ecclesiastical purposes. It is nothing to say that
such a principle may not have met the concurrence of
a former Parliament. We allow that we do not our-
selves concur with it. We are anxious that any sur-
plus which might be discovered, over and above- what
was necessary to the ordained service •of the church,
and to the maintenance of ministers already in posses-
sion of their incomes, should go to purposes of reli-
gious education in the doctrines and principles of the
Church of England, as the best and surest moans of ex-
tending the basis of the Protestant establishment, and
the community which recognized its tenets. But the
admission of a right of inquiry and legislation on sub-
jects which were formerly withdrawn from their pale,
ought to be enough to satisfy the people that the ancient
strongholds of Toryism have been quietly evacuated,
and that with a reformed Parliament there is no sacred
or prohibited ground ; but ever~ thing must and will be
brought within the jurisdiction of independent reason-
ing, and left to be determined by the preponderancy of
mere opinion. We know not what more could be de-
sired. Then, with regard to Corporation reforms. A
question was asked by the Noble leader of the Oppo-
sition, from the reply to which vast benefits were no
doubt expected. The Noble Lord was anxious to
ascertain what the Government would do upon that
important branch of our institutions. He looked, of
course, for an evasive answers--for one which might
serve as a peg for a weight of industrious obloquy.
His Lordship, however, must have been cruelly mor-
tified by the answer. Sir Robert Peel declared that
his eagerness for Corporation reform was not damped
by the slightest interest in the perpetuation of
abuses, and that his view of the difficulty inhe-
rent -in the accomplishment of any plan for their
removal was not greater than that which was
borne on the face of .the report which had been pre-
sented by the Commissioners—Mr. Abercrombv, the
Speaker,• being one of those Commissioners—wberein
they touched upon certain inducements to distrust of
the proposed remedies, and to hesitation in adopting.
them, beyond which Sir Robert Peel, in his remarks
upon the subject, showed no disposition to proceed.
The two grand cheraux de battaille, therefore, which
had been so long pampered and so 'studiously trained
by the Whig-Radical faction, for the discomfiture of
the Administration, Church Reform, and Corporate
Reform,—we mean as instruments for the overthrow
of the new Ministry,—have broken down under their
riders at the first onset, and become totally unservice-
able. And so with all the rest. The truth is, that
Lord Howick and Sir E. Wilmot have seen the whole
game in its true colours. The continuance of the
present Ministry is inevitable, because the construc-
tion of any other would be impracticable, which was
not subversive of the monarchy ;. nor is this, we firmly
believe in our hearts, to be regretted. We do most
conscientiously believe that a larger amount of solid
and valuable reform of abuses and redress of griev-
ances is contemplated and will be completed by Sir
Robt. Peel and his colleagues, than could ever be exe-
cuted by Lord john Russell and his colleagues as it
would be possible for him to associate with himself.
We, are sure the country sees this vital truth. It is
obvious that capital and the public securities are alive
to it. The component parts of the Conservative Mi-
nistry are moved by one spring and, directed to a single
object. The component parts of the Opposition are
at irreconcileable variance with each other. They clog
each other's movements—they menace each other's ex-
istence. They are actuated by the most deadly in-
ternal strife. A Government framed out of them
would not proceed—it would break itself to pieces,
but the tranquillity of ..the country and the consti-
tutional monarchy itself would perish in the fatal con-
cussion.— Times.

The real business of Parliament we may now con-
sider as•actually begun. The vote of supply, which
was carried without opposition on Monday night,
shows how grievously the Whig-Radical Press miscal-
• ciliated the strength of faction in Parliament, when it
predicted a stoppage of the supplies as a final means,
if other expedients were not successful, to drive Mi-
nisters from office, and, of course, to prevent them
from ever being able to submit their intended measures
of reform to the Legislature. When we found that
the Opposition did not venture to move such an
amendment to the Address as they had threatened ;
namely, an amendment declaring directly to the Throne
that the House of Commons had no confidence in his
Majesty's Ministers, we stated that the milk-and-
water amendment substituted for it was a confession of
weakness and a virtual defeat. With the inclination
to turn out Ministers, right or wrong, which the
leaders of the Opposition evinced, we were quite
certain that the very moderate course which they
adopted was not the result of voluntary forbearance,
but the consequence of having positively ascer-
tained that if the stronger amendment were
moved they would have been signally defeated.
Subsequently Mr. flume confirmed this view of the
matter, when, upon the bringing up of the report, he
read the amendment which he had wished to have
moved, and which was one directly expressive of the
want of confidence in the King's Ministers. Now we

say-twat if that amendment hal been movol and car-
ried, the ,Ministers might fave reason to conclude that
it would be impossible for then to conduct the business
of the nation satisfactorily, perhaps, at all, in the
present Parliament. Then the question might arise
whether, in this extreme case, an extreme remedy was
not necessary, and whether the Opposition had not
forced the Government on another appeal to the
people, in order to ascertain whether the constituents
agreed with their representatives
iu }preth.ging and
solider:mino. a Ministers before they had a " fair *trial,"
-
upon the only legitiinate evidence of.their intentions--
the production ,sf their m-asures. We are 'd f
g a , or the interests of this country, which have been
too long
suffering from political agitation, that these extreme
proceedings have been avoided. The struggle of
parties for power is not viewed with any particular fa-
vour by the country, while the proper business of the
i
nation s thereby pushed aside and neglected, as if
it were mere matter of mere secondary consideration.
Mr. Hume, who lamented on Friday night that there
were differences of opinion among the Members of the
OjWosition, which prevented a direct and explicit
amendment being moved of want of confidence in his
Majesty's Ministers, was very anxious to impress upon
the mind Of Sir Robert Peel, on Monday night, that
the milk-and-water Amendment, which was carried by
a majority of seven, and whieh could not have been
carried at all bad it been stronger, was equivalent to a
vote of want of ennfilonce, upon which Ministers
ought to have resigned. Sir Robert Peel's intellect
was, however, too obtuse to understand the luminous
reasoning by which ,Mr. Hume supported the para.
doxical proposition, that th© :Amendment which the
Opposition 'had the courage to move and the:good
fostWW toearry, because it was,, as the Globe ex-
pressed -it, very: " inotTensiye,"- was, in. reality, the
same as.the Amendment which they did not dare to
move, bemuse it was-both violent rand offensive. It
was stated at the same time by the lion. Member for
Middlesex, whose boldness of assertion equals his ori-
einalify of reasoninc,) that three out of four of his own
ri
constituents were, opposed to the present Government.
This statement Mr. Hume is not ashamed to make,
in the teeth of the damnatory fact, that it was with
the greatest difficulty, and by an agony of exertion,
that •he got into Parliament at the last election by
a very small majority-_a majority that formed,a sail
contrast with that which had carried him into the
HQrtSa elri former occasions. At the last election his
sentiments were as ‘iolent and factious as at present.
If the expression of such sentiments were acceptable
to three out of four of his constituents, why did not
his place upon the poll testify to his popularity in that
proportion ? Why did his constituents all but reject
him, and that, too, for a candidate unknown to poli-
tical fame, . and whose chief recommendation to the
constituency was, that he wished the Ministers to have
a " fair trial," and that, though prepared to correct
the abuses of our national institutions, he was not pre-
pared to destroy them. Let us look now to the con-
duct of another Radical Member of the House—ols.e
of the supporters of Mr. Abercromhy and bt the
amendment,- but one who never stated that he would
vote " black was white" to keep the Wbe'ige in power
—or again stated that the " coilduct of'the Whigs
was so infamous, that he should not wonder soon
to see Sir Robert Pool carried into office triumph-
antly upon' the shoulders of the people"—one who
never advised the people of Canada to throw off
the baleful domination of the mother county. We
allude to Major Beauclerk, That Hon. Member was
returned for East Surrey when the Whig candidate
was rejected, and the Conservative by a large majority
at the head of the poll. Did that gentleman follow
the course chalked out by Mr. Hume for the Oppo-
sition, or adopt the sentiments which he uttered on
Monday evening ? Far from it. He said he " would-
not adopt any course that might produce the effect of
forcing -Ministers out of office, before they obtained a
fair opportunity of developing their line of action.
He thought the country did not care for Whig or Tory-
-that people thought it little or no matter what was
the name of the Administration, but looked lather to
the measures that might be adopted." Such sentiments
are fair and rational enough. We believe the people
in general care as little as we ourselves do for the
nicknames and selfish struggles of party ; we believe
the people—the whole reasonable and reflecting
part of- the country—all who are not the mere
knaves or dupes of faction—are anxious to see the
Ministers "go to work"—are anxious to have an
opportunity of trying them by their measures, and
therefore view with any thing but favour the proceed-
ings of those who impede public business in order to
serve:the objects of their own party ambition. If the
Ministers, having had a fair opportunity, of laying their
measures before Parliament, do not realise, the pro-
mises which they have made to the country, let the
country resent it. according to the constitutional means
which it has in its hands. Measures of sound and
Salutary iMprovement are promised—measures cor-
rective of the abuses of our institutions, without endan-
gering
their security. If Ministers propose and carry
.
such measures the people will be the gainers. If they
forfeit their pledges the Ministers 'will be the losers,
for then they will justly forfeit the public confidence ;
and, unless the Reform Act be a mere fraud and impo-
sition, they must, along with that loss of confidence,
• lose the power of carrying on the Government. It is
for the sake of the country itself that we have asked a
fair trial for Ministers, as, whatever patty may be in or
out of office, our object is to obtain good government
for the people.--Morning Herald.
The Standard of last night says—" Again, we con-
tradict in the most unqualified terms the rumour that
the Duke of 'Wellington is- about to retire from the
Administration. It is known, indeed, that his Grace
is a reluctant Minister e but the same sense of duty
which brought the illustrious Duke into the service of
his Sovereign and country will retain him in it while
he can he useful---that is, until a better Minister of
Foreign Affairs can bo lound—a sufficiently long en-
gagement to ensure his Grace's continuance in office
for many, we hope very many, future years. We
stand by what we have already published, and stake
our character for authentic, if not early, information
upon. the result. The Duke is not so ambitious of
office, to do. him justice—and it is our invariable
principle to do our opponents justice, in what-
ever way it may be merited—as some (21
colleagues, the mice of the party, who are in-
trigumng
to turn him out—and we agree with
our contemporary, that he will retain office only while
he can be useful—but that period is
,but a brief one
at most, and, ..unqucstionably, instead of years, does
not extend to months. The present Cabinet has been
beaten three times—a fourth time it would have been
beaten, had it not sUrrendered at discretion—and such
is now, notwithstanding the vain boastings of the
Tories, the melancholy and hopeless position of Sir
R. Peel, that between the possession of power, and
resignation, he has only one plea to plead—the adhe-
sion of the Stanley party, in lieu of the Duke of Wel-
lington and the high Churchmen. That adhesion he
has had virtually. He has had the votes of the party, and
all its influence to boot—and yet he has been beaten three
times—and actually though not nominally a fourth. In
what way then will his strength in the House of Com-
mons be increased? He has not been able to muster a
majority, • even on what his • party has termed personal
questions ; and what hope is there, in consequence,
that he will command the voice of the House of Com-
mons in favour of practical measures, less liberal in
every respect than those which the late Administration
had projected, and was determined to carry into effect ?
The expectation is utterly hopeless—and, even if it were
to be realized, the disgust of all sound-minded, moral,
and honest, men, would soon put an end to it. Take it
how he may—let him go on with his present men—let
him get rid of the Wellington and high church clique,
and get Stanley and the waverets to back him—and
yet his position shall not be altered for the better.
There is still not only a majority against him, but a
feeling throughout the whole country of the immoral
concessions which he would be obliged to make, and
of the still more immoral compact by which he would
attempt to remain in office, which would thunder in
his ears; that " time was for him" to have done what
he profesSes to do—but that that "time" is past and
gone.—Morning Advertiser.

The Tory papers affirm, confidently, that there is no
truth in the rumour that the Duke of Wellington is
about to retire from the Administration. The lan-