The Sun.
London, England, 1835-08-24 00:00:00

branch of the Legislature (the House of Lords) with
becoming respect," by petitioning their Lordships as
well as the Commons. We confess we think the
people of Birmingham were quite right in the reso-
tion they came to ; and notwithstanding Lord John
Russell's coincidence of opinion with Mr. Attwood
on this head, we repeat our advice to our fellow-coun-
trymen to address the Commons, the Ministers, and
the King as much as they like, but to send no peti-
tions to the unreformed House of Lords. To humbly
petition a body like the present House of Lords,
interested, as Mr. Scholefield justly observed, as
they were generally believed to be in the very
abuses it was proposed to do away with, and particu-
larly after the farce of legislation which had recently
been enacted by their Lordships, is not, in our opinion,
calculated to serve our cause so much as that silent
expression of the feelings of the country which will be
conveyed by an entire omission of that House on the
part of the people ; and, indeed, any petition which
should convey the real sentiments of the people as to
their Lordships' conduct would be tossed with con-
tumely from their table. Are we then to approach
their Lordships after the manner of slaves, crouching
down and humbly beseeching them to be graciously
pleased to give us thoce rights which the Tory majo-
rity withhold from us :P. And surely to let them quite
alone cannot be considered as evincing any want of " be-
coming respect." With one sentiment of Mr. Att-
wood we perfectly agree, viz., in the importance of
his Majesty's Ministers putting themselves at the
head of the popular feeling, and thus directing it
to the accomplishment of those great salutary
reforms which the country requires, and which,
moreover, the country will have—the most impor-
tant at this time being, in our minds, a reform in
the Upper House of Parliament. The Ministers
may depend upon the support of the people
in this firm and prudent course. Our columns
contain reports and notices of meetings and addresses
from Northampton, Gainshorough, Beverley, Ux-
bridge, King's Lynn, and Newport (Isle of Wight) ;
all breathing the same spirit of confidence in the Go-
vernment, satisfaction with the Municipal Bill, as
passed by the Commons, and a determination to ob-
tain it in its primary and integral shape. The North-
ampton resolutions are particularly good, and the pe-
tition to the House of Commons prays them to with-
hold all supplies till the desired measures arc obtained.
The last Resolution expresses :
" That after the utter disregard of public opinion which
appears to prevail in the Upper House, this meeting considers
that it is not expedient again to petition it on this subject, and
regrets the effect which a continued opposition to the wants
and wishes of the nation may produce in its sentiments and
conduct to that body."
This is plain and intelligible, and, to our minds, far
better than the language of humble and unavailing
supplication to a proud and prejudiced majority, which
has no sympathies with the people at large. We ob-
serve that numerous meetings and requisitions for
meetings arc in progress. The West Riding of York-
shire meets on the 31st of this month. The Metro-
politan parishes of St. Giles and St. Matthew, Beth-
nal-green, meet to-morrow. Everywhere the country
is alive and resolute in the maintenance of its rights
and the support of a Liberal Government.—Morning
Ch

It appears that Mr. J. flume and Mr. D. O'Connell
have got a new iron in the revolutionary furnace, or
rather have re-reddened an old one, which had been left
cooling between the bars of the said Joseph's kitchen-
grate since the last Reform Bill session. They are
about to stop the supplies it would seem ! unless the
House of Lords will abdicate its functions, and leave
the tyrannical majority elsewhere to make " ducks and
drakes "of all the institutions of this country. Now
that majority has not an inch to spare. It outvotes
the Conservative minority by about 30 members out of
a house of 655.- Tbat Conservative minority, more-
over, conta'ns within it a majority of the members for
England—of the county members—the first class of
gentlemen within the walls of the House of Commons
—a large majority. A majority still larger of the
Peers of the empire support the political system of
the Conservatives, or, in other words, are anxious
to old the substance of our ancient na-
tional institutions. In a state of things like
this it is that such loft personages as Messrs.
Hume and O'Connell presuille to insist on the
refusal of an appropriation act to His Majesty,
being neither i:ure nor less than a stoppage of the
sly Ls, and a breaking up of the whole machine of
Government, or what is tantamount to it, a deposit of
every power, attribute, and incident of the State, the
privileges of the Peers, the Royal prerogatives, the
subsistence of the judges, of the inferior paid magis-
trates, of the army, the navy, and all the civil func-
tionaries, terminating with the Sovereign himself, in
the hands of that precious and unparalleled clique,
who, having the Whig Ministers for their slaves, de-
mand that the people of England shall be their vic-
tims. These men, it is plain to all the world but
themselves and the frail and abject Administration
which fawns upon them,—these men, we say, know
not their own position. It is not what it was when
the Reform Bill was in jeopardy. The Reform Bill
did combine in its favour the real, the decided, and
enthusiastic wishes of the British nation. The Con-
servatives who opposed it were a small body in the
House of Commons. The Lords who opposed it had
a scanty support among the people. There was no
sympathy for them from without. Had the majo-
rity of the House of Commons then meditated steps
of unusual emphasis and vigour, there might have
been imprudence in the adoption of them ; but
they might have found an apology with honest,
nay, with sober-minded men, as means of indi-
rectly fencing off an irregular assault upon the con-
stitution by the reckless multitude. But measures of
precaution, or of admonitory retaliation, which then
might have been called strong, would now be nothing
short of desperate. What then might have been an
unavoidable, though melancholy resource, would now
be a wanton revolution. As between the original
Corporate Reform Bill, struck off at random and in
wedding haste by Ministers, and that which is now on
its way back to the House of Commons, having re-
ceived from the experience- and deliberation of the
Peers many most salutary and wise amendments, one
or two at most being of a more questionable nature,
there is not that difference, nor is the difference in fa-
vour of the Ministerial Bill, on which the Whig Ca-
binet would do well to reckon, as the ground of an ap-
peal to the angry passions of this country. The Bill,
as it stands, is in many essential points a far preferable
measure to what it was two months ago. It is more
impartial in its tenderness for rights, more discreet and
solid in its provisions against local misgovernment,
and more analogous to the ancient and characteristic
principles of the Constitution, in its recognition of the
value of intelligence and property, as a shield against
those who have no tangible stake in the peace and
well-being of the common wealth. If, we repeat, the
Humes and O'Connells fancy that they can get up a
Long Parliament warfare against our mixed Monarchy,
upon grounds like these, they know nothing of the
English people.—Times.
The English public will not have passed over unob-
served the petitions presented to the House of Com-
mons on Friday last, one of which was from " the
undersigned freeholders of the county of Kerry,”,eom-
plaining of the horrible system of priestly and ruffianly
intimidation practised upon the electors of that great
Irish county at the last general election, to deter those
voters who had pledged themselves to support the
Knight of Kerry from fulfilling their promises, and
thereby to secure the return of Mr. J. O'Connell and
Mr. Muffins. The second petition was from the
Knight of Kerry individually, stating similar grounds
of complaint, as also the impossibility of bringing for-
ward in proof of such charges the evidence which
would have been required before an ordinary com-
mittee under the Grenville act, because the same or-
ganized intimidation which had influenced the election
itself, was still in force to prevent the parties who had
been subjected to it from appearing in their own per-
sons to satisfy the minds of the Committee. Both pe-
titions, therefore, concurred in praying that the House
of Commons itself would interpose with the necessary
means of redressing so frightful a grievance. We re-
commend to the close and earnest attention of all
Englishmen for Irishmen—and more. particularly
Protestants, need not be reminded of so grave a
duty, the 406ratious ettutAicied iu tkobv twb petitims ;