The Sun.
London, England, 1835-01-05 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

This week will, in a great measure decide the fate of
the Peel-Wellington Ministry. The nomination for the
city of London takes place this day, and the polling corn-
unences on Tuesday. It gives us the greatest satisfaction
to be able to state that the canvas hitherto has fully re-
alized the most sanguine expectations of the friends of Re-
form. A morning contemporary of Saturday—a leading
organ of the Tories—attributed the success of the Liberal
Candidates to the want of energy and skill of those who
con,Tliuct the canvas on the part of their opponents. No
skill could gain over the Liberal Constituency of the City
of London to vote for partisans of the present Administra-
tion ; for the hearts of the electors are with Messrs. Wood
Grote, Crawford, and Pattison. It may serve a purpose to
attribute the evidence of the unpopularity of Ministers in
the City of London, which will soon be afforded at the poll,
to unskilful canvassing ; but the real cause will not for a
-moment be mistaken by the country. The constituency of
London share the feelings of the rest of the people of Eng-
land with respect to the present Ministry ; they know that
they are not to be trusted ; that they took the places of
the Whigs not to promote Reform, but to defeat it. In
the language of the address of the Chairman of the United
Committee to the City Electors—
" Will the great questions of civil and religious liberty be
safe in their hands? Can the sincere Churchman believe that
such men will effect those necessary reforms now universally
admitted to be essential to the safety of the Establishment?
Can the Protestant Dissenter believe that by these men his
grievances will be redressed or his just claims admitted? Will
any rights, civil or religious, be safe in their hands ? Can the
advocate of negro emancipation trust to them for the safe, the
peaceable, and the effectual completion of that great measure ?
Can the friend of Corporation Reform trust to them the cor-
rection of the abuses of that municipal system which they have
ever used for their own party purposes? * s • Can the
people of England trust in a party whose confidence they have
never possessed but to abuse it—who have so frequently
plunged the country into bloody and expensive wars against
the freedom of other nations—who at heme have supported
abuses, opposed reforms, and who now feel and avow that they
can only ash for the confidence of the people by disclaiming
all their past opinions, and repudiating all their past prin-
ciples ?"
In the other great commercial and manufacturing capital
of the country, Manchester, the nomination takes place on
Wednesday. On Saturday last, Mr. Poulett Thomson
made his first public appearance on 'Change, where all
the wealthiest merchants were assembled, and ad-
dressed a crowded audience in the large room.
A report of his speech, which was excellent, and
which was received in the most flattering manner,
will be found under the proper head. In noticing
the assertia,n, that the people were tired of political
exeitemer.t—that qniet and repose was what they
sought--he observed, that prior to the event of November,
there never was greater quiet, greater contentment or pros-
perity, than existed generally throughout the country.
di When, indeed, I look at this assembly (he added), and
consider what are your occupations, and what your interests,
and when I take them as a sample of those of the comm.:-
nity, I would ask, what can any man want but quiet, order,
and security ? and I would further say, that c c.iet, order,
and security were possessed by the people of this country
in an unexampled degree." But the ezivent to power of
the present Ministers has produced al; excitement from one
end of the country to the other ; for no one acquainted
with the character of the individuals composing the Mi-
nistry, can suppose that if they prove true to their
principles (arid Sir Robert Peel appealed to their
past conduc'c. as our security for the future), they will not
endeavour co arrest the course of improvement, perhaps to
destroy ,;ne Reform Bill itself. There cannot be peace ;„.
quiet in the country so long as the Ultra Tories possess
powe.r. A resolute determination to oppose, them vigo-
roealy may extort a few hypocritical prof;ssions of a desire
to concede reform ; but if the people were to resign them-
selves to their fate, these insane men, who are constantly
dreaming of re-action, would, instantly be tempted to make
rash experiments on the patience of the nation ; and thus,
the very course lintseed by the well-disposed, to preserve
order, might only lead more surely to confusion ; for the
spirit of the people of this country would never allow
them tamely, to submit to the pranks of a set of blind
andinfurir.ced Tories, eager to re-possess themselves of
the as,,,endancy which they lost for ever in 1832.
The dissolution of Parliament is a virtual declara-
Cott of Anti- Reform. No person, indeed, could ever sup-
pose that the late Ministry were dismissed because they
were Anti-Reformers ; but there are Machiavelians
among us, who would have us believe, that though the late
Ministers were dismissed because they were disposed to
carry reform in Church and State too far, yet their succes-
sors, havint, made the discovery that they can only retain
office by the' adoption of liberal principles, will be ready to
abuse the confidence of their Sovereign, and to concede
more extensive measures of Reform than their predecessors
ever contemplated. It is but justice to Ministers to admit
that they have never held language like this themselves,
ane, it is certain that they are not responsible for all the
pledges th:t the Times, to varnish over its desertion of the
popular cause, may choose to give on their behalf.
" Their attachments and interests (as is admirably observed by
the Examiner) bind them to tho maintenance of every abuse.
They are the veterans of misrule, and cannot but have the
strongest disposition, the most eager desire to return to the
system of malversation and oppression which are their political
inlaeritance, and which they perpetually lauded as working
-well in practice.'"
Our Sunday contemporary justly observes that public
men always appear to the best advantage in opposition ;
that they then make part:de of their noblest motives, their
most generous opinions, their justest principles ; and ap-
plyins; that test to Ministers, our contemporary shrewdly
obar,rves—
" Let, then, tlte electors of the United Kingdom recall to
mind the conduct of the Tories in opposition, and judge from
it what is likely to be their conduct in a Ministry. Is there a
single popular trait to be discovered ; is there a single popular
sentiment to be quoted ; is there a single just and gracious vote
to be recorded ? If then, according to all experience, we
saw them to the best advantage in opposition, what are we to
expect from them in power ? The in side, in these cases, is,
we all know, fouler than the out side ; and the Tory out side
wore the Government features of misrule—tyranny and mal-
versation were the marked expressions. They did not even
condescend to play the hypocrite. They refused the common
Lomage of vice to virtue. Their contempt of the people was
so profound, that they never even vouchsafed a popular pro-
fession. The opposition—according to Tierney's description,
doubtly apt in this instance -,.his Majesty's opposition, to
every measure of justice and improvement was frank and
open, till it became his Majesty's Government, when, for
the first time, it assumed a mask, because it was idle to sup-
pose that a people would submit to the government of
men who were avowedly hostile to all they desired. The
mask, however, can deceive no one. It was put on too abruptly
to impose upon the most credulous. Had the Tories played
the part of patriots in opposition, there would have been some
little colour for the pretences in the Peel manifesto ; but their
open hostility to Reform in every shape, and their obstinate
championship of all odious abuses, up to the very hour of their
summons to the King's councils, baffled the art of the great
master of deceit."

We may now safely assume, that no one really believes
that the present Ministry have the slightest wish to benefit
the people, by the remedy of abuses and the amelioration
of our institutions ; and that whoever pretends that they
-have any such wish, and claims for them a fair trial,
is himself a hypocrite. The people know what to
think of Ministers, and of all those who stand up for
them. A Correspondent, who has had, he says,
extensive experience in election matters, urges the
great importance of going to the poll with as little
delay as possible. Many electors are not aware of tt•,,
change in the period effected by the Reform Bill. 2,a
are apt to delay polling till it is too late. We trut, the
liberal electors in the metropolis and throughout tl-,,oontry
will bear in mind that it is of the utmost impr.rtance they
should poll as early as possible. The hire", bands of the
Tories require no exhortation on this sul.;ject ; they must
work for their hire. But liberal voter', are apt to delay to
the last the exercise of this important duty. That which
can be done to-day ought not to be left till to-morrow.
With the best intentions in the, world, an elector who de-
lays voting to the last may b:e, through various accidents,
prevented from giving effer"‘ to them. We repeat then, let
all liberal electors hastf.,n to the poll. The success of the
good cause will deprad very much on the promptitude of
the voters.—Moming Chronicle.
We cannot tall too earnestly upon the Conservative
electors of tb', metropolitan districts to exert thamselves at
the present, moment to the utmost of their power. And we
call upor, them the more earnestly because we hear of an
appare:at apathy in some quarters where better things
might have been expected, which is altogether unaccount-
aka. For the general result of the elections throughout
great Britain and Ireland there is, we believe, no cause
whatever of apprehension. And what a disgrace it will be
to the metropolis if it should appear to be outstripped by
the provinces in zeal and energy in the cause of the consti-
tution. By the end of this week all the metropolitan elec-
tions will have been concluded ; and, although it cannot be
said that in every district the Conservative electors have been
offered an opportunity of manifesting their zeal and loyalty
in the good cause, there are Conservative candidates—
candidates in every respect unobjectionable—in the field
in by far the greater number. Lyall, Ward, and Wilson,
in the city of London, are from station in society and perso-
nal character, leaving politics out of the question, far more
eligible Representatives of the greatest commercial city in
the world than their four Radical competitors. Among
the City Co • s supineness will therefore be without
an eacus i 'ef Westminster has the offer of Sir
Tho
,-Solo distinguished himself as a faith-
ful an 'cit:-orth tate, haying wielded its power ,
in a „lotiftn 84 manner as to deserve and ob-
tain t ditd _affeoiiox of the inhabitants of every

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class, and whose reverence for the British Constitution,
and determination to defend and maintain it are be-
yond doubt. And Sir Thomas Cochrane is opposed by
Sir Francis Burdett, who has been dreaming and declaim-
ing about political principles during a long life, and is at
last likely to leave the world in doubt what his political
principles are, and whether he ever had any ; and Captain
De Lacy Evans, who, as we showed on Saturday, is all
things to all men—an accomplished courtier at St. James's,
a coarse Radical in Soho—who is a companion equally
agreeable at the pot-house and the club—laughing at the
club at the frequenters of the pot-house, and at the pot-house
denouncing the frequenters of the club. The men of pro-
perty, intelligence, and respectability resident in Westmin-
ster will be unpardonable if they are tardy or luke-
warm ; for it is quite certain that by zeal and activity
they may obtain a splendid triumph for the independ-
ence and welfare of their own city, and of the country at
large. Finsbury has Mr. Sergeant Spankie, Lambeth Mr
Alderman Farebrother, the Tower Hamlets Captain Bur-
ton, Greenwich Mr. W. Attwood, each a better man in
all respects than any competitor by whom he is opposed.
Nothing more is required to ensure success in every one of
these important districts than that the Conservative inha-
bitants should use strenuous exertion, put out their whole
strength without timidity or reserve, and fight the battle as
men who are conscious that they are fighting to ward off
the appalling calamity of a democratic revolution. In the
borough of Southwark, and, what is still more strange, in
the wealthy and respectable borough of Pilarylebone, no
Conservative candidates have yet come forward. Local
misunderstandings, of which we know nothing, may ex-
plain—although
they cannot justify—this scandalous in-
difference to the public cause. Perhaps even yet it
may not be too late for a Conservative cand:date if he
were to rush boldly into the field. In Marylebone at least
it is all but certain that one of the right sort would be suc-
cessful. The inhabitants are really anxious to cast off the
disgrace of being misrepresented as they have been in the
late Parliament. It is incumbent upon the respectable in-
habitants of each of the respectable boroughs to exercise the
fair and legitimate influence they possess, to secure for the
Conservative candidates the votes of their servants and
tradesmen, so far as they can do so without becoming what
genuine Conservatives never can become, the tyrants of
their inferiors. We do not tell them to discharge their
baker if the latter happen to have a political bias different
to their own. Let them leave such arbitrary proceedings
to men like the Liberal candidate for the city of London.
the Governor of the Bank, who turned away his baksa. in
Marylebone because the unfortunate baker is a Conservative,
and does not disguise it, probably thinki.-.:,g this a conve-
nient mode of communicating to that "very numerous body,
the Bank clerks, an intelligible hint how imprudent it would
be in them to show then Ives Conservatives in the City.
But without resortiut: to the extreme measure adopted by
Mr. Pattison :Deli may, without any arrogant assertion of
authority, ts7.nvass their tradesmen and servants for votes in
favour el; the candidate whom they think most likely in
Parliament to promote the welfare and peace of the country.
surely when the bakers in Marylobone are deprived of
custom by the leaders of the Destructive party, in order
indirtctly to influence the election for the city of London,
the Conservatives in none of the London electoral districts
need be so excessively squeamish as to refrain from can:.
vassing for votes among their tradesmen and depe:,;ents in
favour of their own holy and righteous c:,,ge._m-orning
Post.

Lord John Russell, in. ant course of a recent address to
his constituents, ',:ne freeholders of South Devon, alluding
to what Edward Codrington described as the " uncere-
7.onious" dismissal of the late Ministry, is represented to
have said, that " whether it was or was not a prudent or
politic measure, it was kind and considerate on the part of
his Majesty to announce it to Lord Melbourne at once.
the King had allowed Lord Melbourne to fill up the
vacancy which had occurred on the demise of Earl Spencer,
and then dismissed him, it would not have been kind and
considerate." Whether Lord John Russell's late colleagues
will one and all give him credit for the candour and open-
ness exhibited in this avowal, we cannot undertake to de-
termine. To us it appears by far the most honest and
rational view of the matter which has hitherto emanated
from any member of the late Government, not excepting
even Lord Melbourne himself ; and becomes the more
valuable when contrasted with the tirades about treachery
aid duplicity, in which the organs of that Ministry have from
first to last been permitted to indulge ; we say permitted, for
there are evident symptoms that the same surveillance which
directed the measures of the Whig Press, while its patrons
were in office, follows it while those patrons are in retreat.
And what does this admission on the part of the late Pay-
master of the Forces amount to, but an implied acquiescence
in the view which we have all along taken of the subject—
viz., that the dissolution of the Melbourne Cabinet had,
from internal cause, become inevitable, and that the King,
seeing this, adopted the more straightforward, manly course,
of putting an end to it at once, than that of waiting till it
should fall to pieces of its own accord ? It is not a little
material that this view of the matter should be kept
steadily in sight by the numerous persons, who, judging for
themselves, are about to give their votes at the forthcoming
elections. The objects of the two great parties engaged in
those elections may fairly be defined to be—one, that of per-
sons desirous of forcing back the late Administration upon
the King—the other, of those who are desirous of main-
taining the new Ministers in office, by at least giving
them the " fair trial" they ask for. We are not
ignorant that there is a third party (happily far less i!tin,•jr-
tent in weight and numbers) who look to objects ?afferent
to either of these, and whose apt name of Destructives "
amply describe their purpose. To those who, succeeding
in rescuing their minds from the excitement which every-
where meets them, can look calmly and dispassionately at
this state of things, we can hardly conceive what choice is
left them on this importont occasion. In supporting what
are called the Conservative candidates, they are uphold-
ing the King in the lawful and unavoidable exercise of his
undoubted prerogative. Let them not be alarmed or de-
, ceived by any attempts to make them believe that Conser-
vatism is on this occasion analogous to anti-reform. That
there may be and are, among the adherents of the pre-
sent Ministers, if not perhaps among the Ministers them-
selves, some few inveterate ultra-Tories, who have no great
affection for reform, we do not deny. But even if they
had the inclination, they are at any rate destitute of the
means either of defeating past reform, or preventing that
which is to come. The King himself is a reformer—has
proved himself the most steady, honest reformer in his do-
minions. His new Minister has announced himself a re-
former, in terms sufficiently explicit to satisfy every reaso-
nable expectation. Surely then the alternatives are un-
worthy of consideration ; and the man's vote at any of
the elections must be either wilfully misapplied, or care-
lessly thrown away, who gives it to a candidate who would
either resuscitate and force back into office an Administra-
tion which died of imbecility, or would place in the coun-
sels of the King of England those whose object it is to over-
throw both the throne and the altar.—Morning Herald.
It has been said more than once of the Conservati,:i)
Ministers, that if they now go further in the paths Df Re-
form than it was to be inferred from their ha, an Oppo-
sition they were inclined to do, tl7-ey- merit the foul name of
" renegadoes," and the fierce and deadly opposition of all
honest men. We have alb:-dady exposed the factious wicked-
ness of such langua;,, as being that of partisans who have
no feeling for ..:ne good of the country about them, and no
anxiety 13,...a for the return of certain individuals to offis,.
1-he, natural promoters of such an outcry are—si. The
(-Acted Whigs themselves and their dependents. 2. The
ultra-Radicals, who know very well that the restoration
of a Whig Cabinet, unstrengthened by Conservatives,
would be the means of at once expediting their own
seizure of the Government, and the consequent and
inevitable overthrow of our monarchical constitution.
But if the Conservatives be " resiegadoes" for proceed-
ing with reforms which the Reform Bill itself, the
new corner-stone of the Constitution, has rendered hence-
forth unavoidable, and forced by a moral necessity upon
whoever may be Ministers, what must we call those Whigs
who now plunge into measures which while in office they
repudiated and 'abhorred, and who coalesce with revolu-
tionists whom they before hated and resisted, from no
possible motive but the hope that, through such a foul
combination, they may regain possession of Downing-
street ? Are they (the Whigs) who thus shift their
ground, and sell their consistency, and betray their gross
and corrupt selfishness, and record their desperate indiffer-
ence to all else but office—are they less " renegadoes"
than they charge the Conservatives with being, or less
apostates" from the principles which they formerly
avowed ? An " apostate" is he who changes his prin-
ciples from a mercenary or vicious motive. Then,
against which of two persons or parties can such
a charge be most truly and fairly levelled against
him who from a Conservative becomes a Reformer, because
he finds his old views of Government are no longer appli-
cable to the existing state of society—or him who from a
reformer of the State becomes its destroyer, for the sake of
having a small and transitory per centage, as joint agent
with anarchists in the work of revolution ? The latter is
the exact character and position of those Whigs who now
set up as partners with the Destructives, from whom they
accept as a bribe what merchants term " commission," for
engaging in measures which while Ministers they con-
demned, but to which they have become proselytes in the
hope of resuming office under revolutionary patronage.
Now we ask the people of England will they be such idiots
as to incur the risk of what certain evils the ultra-Radicals,
when in power, may bring upon the country, for the sake of
what precarious benefits the Whigs, under such Radical
tuition, may in the masquerade dress of Ministers bestow ?
If the Whigs have been so vitiated since their dia•
missal from office, as to share the schemes of the Destrsse-
lives for separating Church and State—for extending,.