The Sun.
London, England, 1835-06-25 00:00:00

drawn which will be final. If faith be kept—if consis-
tency be attended to—we shall now hear no more of further
and more important reservations ; and the freemen, from
what took place last night, ought, and we believe will, see
that where their claims are founded in justice, and sup-
ported by argument, they will meet with the consideration
they deserve from a Reforming Administration and a Re-
formed parliament.—Morning Chronicle.

The course pursued by the Ministerial press, in refer-
ence to the 9th and 10th clauses of the Municipal Corpo-
rations Bill, shows that its conductors are admirably fitted
for the discharge of the dirty work which their employers
require of them. Next to the conduct of the Ministers
themselves, this is perhaps the most disgraceful occurrence
in the whole history of Whigism. The public, however,
whom it is sought to hoodwink and to humbug, will. we
doubt not, visit both masters and men with the punishment
they so richly merit. In the mean time, whatever opinion
any class of persons may entertain of the merits of the
clauses, we are quite sure that none but the thimble-rig-
gers and their touters will deny that their real nature and
effect should be plainly and clearly understood. It
shall not be our fault, if there be any mistake in the mat-
ter. First, then, let our readers clearly see the reckless
and cruel violation of property, of which the framers
of the clauses are guilty ; and we cannot illustrate this
bearing of the enactments more strongly, than by put-
ting two actual cases the most familiar, perhaps, it
is possible to select. Take, for instance, the case of a
youth who, being the son of a freeman, has a right to re-
ceive his education gratis at some grammar-school, founded
and endowed for the sons of freemen, by some benevolent
townsman. The clauses take away this right ; and we
should like to know how such a proceeding is more justi-
fiable than it would be to deprive children of the sums left
by their fathers, their grandfathers, or other relatives, to
provide for their education until old enough to be started
in life,—which are extremely common cases ? Take, how-
ever, a much stronger case. The clauses destroy inchoate
rights to freedom by servitude : so that a youth whose
parents have apprenticed him to a freeman, and paid a
large premium with him, will, though he may be within one
week of completing the term of his apprenticeship,
lose both the money and his labour, because he will
be deprived of that for which his parents and he ex-
pended both. Now, what would be said if an attorney
who had received 5001. as' a premium with an articled
clerk were to enforce the five years' service, spend the
money, and, at the end of the time, refuse to give the clerk
his articles ? Why, the law would give the clerk redress,
and society would' hold the attorney to be one of the greatest
rogues in Westminster Hall, aye, and in its purlieus too.
But wherein consists the distinction between the two cases,
except so far as regards the redress? We cannot help re•
peating the expression of our hope that when the Members
of the House of Commons come to reflect upon the vote,
into which we are willing to believe they were unwittingly
entrapped on Tuesday night, they will rescind it ; especi-
ally as it has no, not even the most remote, connexion
with Municipal Reform. In the same harsh and unjust
manner do the clauses operate politically. The son of a
freeman who, when this Bill comes into. operation, may be
within a few days of attaining his majority, and the appren-
tice who may be as near the end of his servitude, will
neither of them be able to acquire the elective fran-
chise, though the Reform Act expressly reserves in per-
petuity the right to that franchise, to all who were or
might become freemen by birth or servitude. This is the
plain unvarnished statement of the case ; and with regard
to the conduct of Ministers in the affair, we do not believe
there are two opinions either in or out of the House, even
among those who supported them in carrying the 9th
clause, and those who approve of it. The politicians, whe-
ther Members of Parliament or not, who desire to see the
Parliamentary constituency narrowed, and those whose
only wish is to make a gap in the provisions of the Re-
form Bill, through which their ballot and universal suf-
frage may be pushed in, were quite right in voting for
the political change which the clause effects, though to
our thinking nothing can justify them in sanctioning, for
whatever end, the aggression it makes on the rights of pro-
perty : but neither of these political parties can fail duly to ap-
preciate the course pursued by, Lord J. Russell and his col-
leagues. On every hustings they have ti od, at every public
dinner they have attended, they have invariably used the
same language—" The Reform Act is a final measure
of Parlianzentary Reform," and with the same words
have they met Mr. Grote whenever he proposed the ballot,
and Colonel Evans and other Members whenever they pro-
posed to enlarge the constituency by repealing the condi-
tion that their rates and taxes shall be paid up. or by other
means. Since these observations were written Lord J.
Russell has made one amendrnent, and promised to take
another, suggested by Sir W. Follett, into consideration,
with the view of preserving all inchoate rights of -property
to persons now alive. These amendments obviate the ob-
jections we have made above to the Bill on the score of its
infraction of the rights of property : but we trust thak when
Hon. Members consider what the Bill would have been
without these amendments, they will see the necessity of
scrutinizing its provisions most narrowly, especially after
the speeches that were delivered by Ministers, and the
supporters of Ministers on Tuesday evening, against the
principle of the very amendments.now proposed or conceded
by Lord John Russell himself. Our political objections to
the measure remain untouched.—Times.

•
REFUSAL OF A RATE AT EALlNG.—Yesterday
a meeting of the rate-payers of Ealing was held at the
Cross-house, the Rev. Mr. Smith in the Chair, for the pur-
pose of making a rate for the .support of the church for the
ensuing year. After some preliminary business had been
gone through, Mr. Churchwarden Weatherley proposed a rate
of feurpence in the pound, which he said was the lowest
amount with which the churchwardens could undertake to
discharge the current liabilities.—Mr. Paine moved as an
amendment. " that the granting of a rate be adjourned sine
die." He was opposed to all compulsory payments for the
tupport of the Church, more especially as the last rate had not
been appropriated to the purpose for which it was granted._
The amendment having been seconded, was put by the Chair-
man, and carried by a considerable majority, when Mr. Church-
warden Jones declared that, as they had for the third time re-
fused the rate, he would cut off the gas at the Brentford
Chapel, and likewise discharge the pew-openers, organists,
&c., both there and at Ealing Church. The meeting then
broke up.

COWPER'S WORKS.—In Mr. Greathead's Memoir
of Cowper the author observes, " It is much to be regretted
that his correspondence with Mr. -Newton, by which the real
state of his mind was most likely to be unfolded, closes in
Hayley's publication with the year 1784." This defect, which
has so long been felt will now be entirely removed in the com-
plete edition of his life, and works, by the Rev. Mr. Grim-
shawe, which will contain the whole of his private correspon-
dence, thus forming the first and only complete collection of
his admired letters that has ever been published, or which can
appear, a large proportion of them being still copyright in the
hands of the publishers, Messrs. Saunders and Otley, Conduit-
street. The most beautiful edition of this favourite poet that
has yet been given to the public."— Tait's Magazine.
A company has been formed in Norwich for rearing
silk-worms. They are possessed of 120,000 of these valuable
insects, in a most healthy state, and have planted 1,000 mulberry
trees for future provision. In the mean time contributions of
mulberry leaves have been liberally afforded by many gentle-
men who are desirous of encouraging the undertaking.