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

SPIRIT CF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We mentioned, in a recent number, that one,
and a frequent, weapon of the Conservative party
was false ho od ,—falsehood positive, direct, and
broad. There is, indeed, some satisfaction in
the assurance that the use of foul means argues
the failure of such as would be less disgraceful ;
and respecting the Reform Bill, it may be borne
in mind that the march of calumnyhas kept pace
with the exposure of untenable doctrine. The
nation having pretty generally settled what ought
to be done towards a reform in the Constitution
of Parliament, the enemies of Parliament and of
the nation are now driven to the practice of anti-
cipating what will be done, in contradistinction
to what ought to be. They told us that the Bill
would never pass the third reading in the House
of Commons,—but it passed; that it would be
met in limine by the House of Lords, and
thrown out on the first reading,—but it was re-
ceived without the shadow of opposition ; that it
would be thrown out by a large majority on the
second reading,—but it passed the second read-
ing. How do they now hope to redeem the pro-
phetic character so forfeited ? They prophesy
anew,—they say, that his Majesty will not
create Peers, let the Bill run even the most
imminent risk in the Committee, or undergo the
most mortifying discomfiture. And on what do they
ground this black prediction ? Why the story,
in a few words, is as follows :—These incorrigi-
ble cheats pretend that family, as well as fashion-
able, influence, has been exercised with unwea-
ried zeal, upon the highest and most honoured
personage in the realm, to embroil him with his
affectionate subjects, by the recommendation of
a course which would inflict on millions the
most unlooked for and cruel disappointment,—
would destroy the unbounded confidence reposed
in an upright Sovereign by a manly and grateful
people, and would reduce William IY. from
being the most popular, to a level with the most
odious or despised of Kings. It is, we say,
impossible to believe such slanders. No one
will be persuaded that any daughters of George
111. could so mistake their position in this coun-
try, or so disregard their duty. Queen Char-
lotte was advised by her mother, before she ever
touched the shores of England, to make an en-
tire and religious abstinence from politics the
rule of her life as a British Princess ; and for
twenty-eight years—until the question of the
first Regency forced Queen Charlotte upon the
stage as a reluctant actress, she had satisfied her-
self with being a modest spectatress of the scene,
living in strict observance of the maternal counsel;
and what was the consequence ? Down to the
above-mentioned period of her wedded life, her
Majesty enjoyed, in a degree not experienced by
any Queen Consort for centuries past, the re-
spect and good-will of the whole community.
Is it, then, to be supposed that the leading
maxim of her own existence was not impressed
by that judicious and estimable woman upon the
minds of her daughters, the six Princesses, two
of whom still adorn the Court of England with
their constant presence ? The Princess Augusta
and the Duchess of Gloucester owe little to the
gossips who thus abuse the delicacy of their il-
lustrious names. Is it, again, credible, that a
personage of so much good taste and propriety as
the Duke of Cumberland, would altogether out-
step his place as heir presumptive to the Crown
of Hanover, and incur the imputation of insidi-
ously attempting to destroy the popularity of
William IV. of England, by urging him to sa-
crifice the rights of his people in favour of the
usurpations of some two or three hundred cut-
purses of constitutional power ? The Duke
of Cumberland, we are - sure, has been
grossly slandered by these charges of presump-
tion and treachery combined. His Royal
Highness can entertain no visionary fancy, that
what was lost to King William of the affections
of his subjects, by acting .upon the advice of
a false and evil counsellor, would be transferred
to his adviser. The rank attained to by His
Royal Highness in the public opinion of this
country admits of hardly any alteration. Few
things could raise,—nothing could lower it. He,
at least, therefore, whose lot is fixed, may set
revolutions at defiance. The wretched partisans
who lay such charges at the door of some of His
Majesty's nearest connexions have dared to add,
to many other particulars, that they have de-
scribed the second reading of the Reform Bill to
be a release of that upright Monarch from all
engagements entered into with his Ministers,
binding him to a creation of Peers when neces-
sary. This construction of a Royal promise
may be knavish, or it may be foolish; but one of
them it must be, and is in either case worthy of
—we won't say whom. If His Majesty en-
joined Lord Grey to wait until the occasion for
creating Peers should be manifest, and therefore
to abide the chances of the Second Reading, it
was impossible for him to mean that the prohi-
bition until" should embrace within it a prohi-
bition 4, for ever ;" unless His Majesty had either
so little knowledge of the successive stages by
which a Bill must climb through Parliament,
as that he considered the Second Reading
equivalent to the passing of the -Reform Bill ;
or, what is still more out of the question, that
the King descended to a jesuit's artifice, de-
liberately planning a deception upon Lord Grey,
and a cruel disappointment to 24,800,000 of
people, by keeping in petto the pretence, that
when once the principle of the Bill should be
oforma carried, the duty of both King and
Ministers was at an end, no matter what became
. of the most important clauses ! If this be the
morality imputed by Tory partisans to their
Sovereiy), we giVe them joy of the frankness
with which they have avowed it, and congratulate
his Majesty on the, light thus thrown,. upon the
motives of such aspirants to his Royal favour.
But need we assure our readers or the nation
generally that the imputations are as absurd as they
are infamous ? Need we tell the country that
King William's promises are those of an honest
man, who would scorn to quibble even if he
could do so with impunity ;—that when he said,
,‘ Make Peers when you find it necessary," he
did not mean to limit that necessity to the suc-
cess of the second reading,—and that if Lord
Grey had so understood the promise, his regard
for his own honour and for the public safety
would have compelled him long since to resign.
We conclude as we commenced, that a strong
cause—strong not merely in princple, but in
practical resource—never yet betook itself to de-
liberatefalsehood.—Times.
The Reform Committee of Manchester met
on Wednesday last, and passed the following
resolutions :
"Resolved—Tbat, in the opinion of this Committee, a
public meeting in Manchester on the subject of the Reform
Biil is not immediately expedient—
let. Became the opinion of the inhabitants of this
town and the adjoining district in favour of the Bill, has
already been repeated:), and unequivocally declared, and
there is obviously no reason to believe that that opinion
has undergone any change.
" 2d. Because this Committee, in common with the
great majority of the British people, have entire confidence
in the integrity of his Majesty's Ministers ; sad that they