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

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Some of the Radical Journals are
taking
great credit
to themselves and to the Radical party for giving
their utmost support to the present Administration,
though not one. of the Members of their party has re-
ceived the slightest notice from the Whigs, save, per-
haps, Mr. Ward, to whom some small and uninfluen-
tial office was proffered, but which was declined by the
Hon. Member. Such being the case, we are assured,
nevertheless, that even those Radicals who may be
the least pleased with the present Ministerial arrange-
ments, are yet resolved to suliport the present Govern-
ment, and it is added that their support will not be
withdrawn from the Whigs, merely because the Whigs
have not admitted them into a share of office. This
conduct, we arc informed, arises from purely disin-
terested and patriotic motives, wholly unconnected
with any wish or desire for place," the only source and
ruling motive (it is said) of Tory conduct." We must
confess, that we see no reason for agreeing in this opi
nion, for may not the conduct of the Radical party thus
eulogized be more fairly attributed to their being
sufficiently well acquainted with their strength to
knew that it is the only course by which they
can expect to do anything ? Is it to be supposed that
the Radical Members of the House of Commons have
not discovered that—as a party—they have no power
nor consistency We may safely say, whatever may
be our opinion of their wisdom and discretion upon
other points, that so insane an idea as ever succeeding
to place has never yet flitted across the minds of even
the most hairbrained of the body. With King, Lords,
and Commons—and under this last term we include
nine-tenths of the intelligence of the country—opposed
to them, place cannot have been contemplated by them,
not even as " potentia remotissima." Without,
therefore, being very uncharitable, may we not with
much greater show of reason trace their present con-
duct to a conviction on their part that, with a Whig
Ministry, they can exercise some control over the des-
tinies of the country, while over Sir Robert Peel they
know full well they have no influence ; while, in addi-
tion, the unprincipled agitator of Ireland, with whom
the Right Hon. Baronet, in accordance with the deter-
mination of Lord Grey, would not condescend to com-
municate, sees now every hope of carrying his measures
without even the responsibility of a Minister attaching,
to him ; for, notwithstanding the unqualified dis-
claimer by Lord Melbourne of all connection, whether
dire'ct or indirect, with that individual, it becomes too
clear, on an examination of the Whig strength in the
House, that they must rely for support on Radical
assistance, or trust to the forbearance of Sir Robert
Peel. That this is a state of things much to be la-
mented all must admit—unfortunately it is only too
true. The difficulties of Lord Melbourne's situation
we are full 3 prepared to admit ; but we must observe
that unless he has some better grounds for hoping to
be able to carry on the Government than we, after exa-
mining the state of parties with the most unprejudiced
view, have been able to discover, nothing can justify
his again giving consistency to the dispersed and broken
fragments of the Whig party. That the country is in
the mean time suffering great inconvenience, if not
irretrievable injury, from the stagnation of all public
business, and from the uncertainty which prevails both
with respect to the stability and intentions of the Go-
vernment is, we regret to say, too
,clear to admit of a
doubt. As we observed the other day, " the country
is being crucified between the two parties."--Morning
Herald.

The accounts-from Devonshire continue to present
the most gratifying prospects for the Conservative cause.
It will be seen from the letter of our correspondent that
the principal persons in the neighbourhood of Tavi-
stock have been strenuously exerting themselves in
favour of Mr. Parker. Tavistock, as our readers
know, is the family borough, to which Lord John
Russell and his friends looked with the utmost con-
fidence, as a snug and secure retreat for his Lord-.
thip in the event of his ejection from the county. It
now seems probable that even Tavistock, notwith-
standing the disinterested skill with which his own im-
maculate Reform Bill was manufactured, to perpetuate in
the family the power of absolute nomination in this bo-
rough, will have nothing to do with the Noble Lord.
There is a contest now in progress in the neigh-
bourhood of Devonshire, which may be taken as an
indication of the state of the public mind in that part
of the kingdom. We allude to the election for the
un'ted boroughs of Penryn and Falmouth, in which,
at the close of the first day's poll, the Whig-Radical
Solicitor-General was in the rear of his Conservative
opponent, although the latter had been put in nomi-
nation, and his interests supported during the elec-
tion, without any interference whatever on his own
part,' his presence at the scene even having been with-
held. Should the Penryn and Falmouth election ter-
minate, as seems very probable, in favour of Lord Tul-
lamore, it will,be a decided and unequivocal triumph,
not to be explained as some of our liberal contempo-
raries are. preparing to explain it, by any characteristic
difference between the electors of Penryn and those
of Falmouth, but by the common feelings of both,
in which it may fairly be presumed that their neigh-
bours generally participate. The sneer of our contem-
poraries against the humble potwallopers of Penryn
is a curious example of the shifts to which they can
resort, in order to cover the disgrace of a defeat. In
Essex, as might have been expected, the triumph of
the Conservative party is complete and decisive. At
the conclusion of the first day's (yesterday's) poll, it
will be seen from the statement of our correspondent,
that Mr. Elves had outstripped his competitor at the
rate of two to one. Mr. Poulett Thomson is in for
Manchester, and Mr. Labouchere for Taunton. The
electors of Canterbury have, it appears, foiled one ap-
pointment in the new Ministry, by signifying to Lord
Albert Conytigham, in a manner which he could not
misunderstand, that there would be little chance of his
re-election for that cite.—Monzing Post.
Public attention being at this moment turned with
so much earnestness to the subject of the oath taken
by Roman Catholics under the Bill of 1829, on their
admission to sit in Pt,:liii:ll;t7, We have looked over
some discussions relating to that oath, which arose out
of a motion of Mr. O'Connell, on the 11th of March,
1834, of which the aim was to bring about, through
the appointment and report of a Select Committee, an
abolition of the aforesaid oath. Now, that oath, which
pledges Roman Catholics against attempting anything
to the injury of the rights, privileges, or property of
the Church Establishment in either island, was framed
expressly, and universally understood to be intended by
the Legislature, as a security for the Church of Eng-
land and Ireland against an abuse of the powers con-
ferred upon Roman Catholics by the Act of Catholic
emancipation. As the oath was to be taken by Roman
Catholics exclusively, so must it have been designed to
restrain the Catholics exclusively, and not Protestants, in
th:! exercise of the new functions wherewith they were
iovested by the Bill. It could not have been intended,
because it was wholly unnecessary to get up the appa-
ret as of a solemn oath, as an instrument for deterring
Roman Catholics from meddling by violent or unlawful
means with the rights and property of the Church Es-
tablishment. The law was already strong enough to
punish any such illegal—that is, criminal—attacks
upon the Protestant Church. An oath, by which a
man engaged himself not to violate the law which up-
held Church property, would.be as absurd as an oath
against the perpetration of highway-robbery. The
penal sanctions already existing are sufficient for the
general prevention of such misdeeds. The oath, there-
fore, if to be regarded as a security, must contemplate
a restraint upon Roman Catholics in the exercise of
the legal powers conveyed to them by the Emancipa-
tion Bill, so as to guard against a perversion of
those powers to the overthrow or injury of the Church
Establishment. The object of the Legislature mani-
festly was not to prevent a usurpation of authority,
which from the nature of things it would be impossi-
ble for Roman Catholics to accomplish, but the abuse
of a political trust, to which the spirit of their Church
and their sectarian jealousy or hatred of Protestantism
might naturally tempt them. It was on this view and
under this persuasion, that Mr. O'Connell, on the day
of the last session alluded to, gave way to his
~
impa-
tience at the yoke which he secretly felt to be thus im-
posed upon his machinations against the Protestant
Church of Ireland, by moving for a committee to get
-ad of it. The learned malcontent went, as usual,
somewhat cunningly to work. He asserted, that "the

Catholics in the House of Commons ought not to be
placed in an invidious light I" No, to be sure,—hey
ought to have full liberty to stab our Protestant consti-
tution with the weapons which it confides to them.
But the learned person further said,—and repeated
through half a dozen sentences—that he, as an
individual taking that oath, ought to be bound
by its plain meaning, and not by any arbitrary
construction which he or others might affix to it. Yet
all this show of candour will not go for much, when it
appears in a subsequent passage that the learned Jesuit
has ready cut and dry a construction of the oath, dexte-
rously accommodated to his particular projects, and, as
we Protestants may be disposed to think, sufficiently
arbitrary likewise. Mr. O'Connell, being a stickler
for " liberty" of conscience, allows his own no niggard
measure. He assures the House that "he could take
the oath with a safe conscience, and with the most
perfect regard to the religion he professed." And well
indeed he might, and with extraordinary satisfaction
moreover. Why ?—" Because there was nothing in
the oath to prevent a Catholic from acting as lie pleased
with respect to the temporalities of the Established
Church, either as regards the power, authority,
or emoluments of that Church I' This may be
highly satisfactory to the learned Repealer. He may
have flattered himself that he could hoax the House
of Commons by such a mystification of the plain
terms of an oath binding Catholics not to do anything
which might weaken or injure Church property or pri-
vileges, as would still admit of their acting how they
pleased with her temporalities, by robbing her, for in-
stance, of every sixpence of revenue that had ever be-
longed to her. Very convenient this, no doubt, and
prodigiously gratifying to those of the learned casuist's
hearers who had flattered themselves with the notion
that any oaths, or any bonds, however strictly and per-
spicuously worded could be available securities against
Punic or Popish faith. Sir Robert Peel treated this
morality with a gentleness and delicacy somewhat sur-
prising, as lie evidently detected the lurking mischief.
He however reminded the learned anti-Saxon, that it
was no more than five years since the Act of emanci-
pation had passed, that the oath in question was embo-
died with that Act as a security—the only one demanded
by a Protestant nation, which had at the time the power
in her hands to impose what conditions she might have
deemed most necessary—and hinted that it was neither
the most modest, nor the most grateful, nor most
prudent thing in the world to importune Parliament
at so early a period, after so vast a favour had been
bestowed upon the Catholics, for the removal of the
single guarantee against the abuse of it which Protes-
tant liberality had required. Sir Robert Peel added
his own apprehension that Parliament might be in-
duced, by such conduct, to withhold all liberal con-
cession from those who asked it. But, for our parts,
if the securities be swept away, we shall wonder if
the Protestants do not require that the danger too—
meaning the privilege against the abuse of which
those securities were framed—shall also be removed by
Act of Parliament. The Union with Ireland is not
the only great political settlement of which revolu-
tionary exigencies may bring about the repeal. The
" settlement" of 1829 is not one whit more sacred.—
Times.

Blow follows blow, and victory, victory, in the cause
of Reform, even as the hammer of the smith strikes
the anvil, and the anvil responds to the hammer. We
had yesterday to record more than one triumph—to-
day we have to announce another, and one too of the
highest magnitude and importance. We allude, of
course, to the return of another of his Majesty's Mi-
nisters, the Right Honourable Poulett Thomson, for
Manchester, by a majority which, sanguine as we were,
exceeds even our calculations. The majority was no
less than 1,366, the Tory candidate having polled
only 1,839, and the Reform candidate 3,205. We need
not state that, in common with all Reformers, we rejoice
most sincerely at this result. It is not only a high com-
pliment to the Right Hon. Gentleman who has
been returned : but it is a proof that the principles
which he has always professed, and on which he has
always acted, are sanctioned by a wealthy and influ-
ential, as well as by a highly numerous and re-
spectable body of his Majesty's subjects, and that the
cause of Reform, instead of having lost in numbers by
the late Tory usurpation, has actually gained strength.
In some quarters there will lar, a severe struggle, but
the Reformers, we believe, will make up in energy and
activity for what they may lack in any other respect,
and give, as in Manchester, such a lesson to their
opponents as they will not very readily forget. The
places to which we refer are Penryn, Devonshire, and
the West Riding of Yorkshire. In the first the result
is dubious, for the reasons assigned in our report—in
the second, there is, we have every reason to believe, a
certain majority—and with regard to the third and
last, Lord Morpeth has good reason to laugh at his
opponents. His election is certain. And, now, what
have the Tories to say for themselves? When Sir R. Peel
came into office, they called for a fair trial, and sounded
it through every part of the Kingdom to which
they had access, that it would be most unjust to turn
them out, without giving them an opportunity of
stating their measures, and declaring their principles.
When this cry was raised by their organs, we thought
that they had had trial enough, and that their past
conduct furnished a guarantee for their subsequent
practice ; but what did they do ? Why those who had
oppoSed the Reform Bill in al! its stages, and who had
declared that they would not be answerable for its
results, came forward with declarations breathing the
spirit of Reform, but lacking its essence upon the
most material points f The public was disgusted—
truly and properly disgusted—but how much must
that disgust be increased when it is. known that
they now complain of not having had a fair trial ?
What ! not a fair trial ?" Were they not tried upon
the Speakership ? Were they not tried upon the Ad-
dress ? Were they not tried upon the London Uni-
versity charter ? And last of all, were they not tried
upon the question of the Irish Church—a question
which Sir R. Peel allowed to be one of confidence or
no confidence—and found wanting ? They desired a
long tenure of office—and they have not had it ; and
because they have not had it, they say that they have
not had a fair trial. But we have rea.,on to sympathise
with them. All the elections are against them ; and
in the language of the Roman poet, as well as of the
boy to whom Queen Bess put a somewhat disagreeable
question, they may say, in reply to their grand pa-
troness—ll/hut/um, Regina, jubes renovare dolorem.
—Morning Advertiser.

Hitherto the 'Tories have been beaten in all direc-
tions. In Manchester, the great manufacturing capi-
tal of the empire, second only to London in wealth
and importance, Mr. Poulett Thomson has defeated
his Tory opponent by a majority of nearly two to one.
This is the genuine expression of public opinion. Mr.
Labcuchere has carried the day at Taunton over his
amphibious opponent. Mr. Rolfe, we regret to say, is
one below the Tory candidate on the first day's poll ;
if Lord Tullamore should ultimately carry the day,
the Tories will, no doubt, make the most of the
circumstance ; and the pockets of the Penryn elec-
tors will afford a proof of re-action more unques-
tionable than the majorities of all the popular con-
stituencies in favour of the Reform candidates. We
have very cheering accounts from our Devonshire cor-
respondent. The Tories are no doubt making very
great exertions to return Mr. Parker; and a shrewd
guess may be formed as to the object of Lord Rolle in
subscribing 1,0001. from a letter addressed to us by the
Editor of the Greenwich Gazette, in which he states
that a compositor in his office, who has a vote for
Devon, has been canvassed by Mr. Parker's agents,
who promised to post him to and from Exeter, and to
allow him 31., 51., or 101. a day during his absence.
.The compositor has had the virtue to reject this
proposal, and will obtain for his vote for Lord
John Russell the approbation of his own conscience.
Lord John Russell made an excellent speech
at Teignmouth, at which place an address from Liver-
pool, with 10,546 signatures was presented to his
Lordship by Mr. Evart, who stated that he had been
instructed to follow him, in order to communicate to
bun that testimony of the admiration entertained by his
constituents of the talents which had characterised his
Lordship through his public life, and more particularly
for the zeal and ability he had displayed on the ques-
tion of the appropriation of the surplus property of the
Irish Church. Lord John's observations with respect
to the imputations cast on the Whigs, for receiving the