The Sun.
London, England, 1832-04-30 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

We have repeatedly declared that the 10/.
clause-is. one of the vital principles of the Re-
form Bill, and that a higher rate of qualification
would he most unjust to a large and meritorious
class of our countrymen. Lord Grey must make
no concession on this point : let the Lords beat
him, if they are so disposed ; but let him un-
flinchingly express his determination to•carry it,
and the confidence of the King and the nation
will speedily enable him to convert a temporary
defeat into a splendid triumph. The people
every day are becoming so deeply impressed with
this clause being not one atom more extensive in
its application than strict justice requires, that
we are convinced its rejection would instantane-
ously lead to the demand of a much more com-
prehensive qualification. We should not be
surprised if at some of ,the meetings, now and
about to be holden, resolutions should be passed
on this very point. And should strict justice be
denied, the usual consequences will follow—
more than is absolutely fitting will be extorted,
and instead of 10/. voters we shall have some-
thing not very far short of universal suffrage.
We call, therefore, upon Lord Grey not to flinch
one jot. We call upon Lord Harrowhy and his
friends not to refuse a reasonable concession.
rio only can the Ministers stand—so only can the
nation be preserved from a scheme of Reform
more sweeping than any yet imagined in the
brain of the wildest Radical.—Times.
Last week presented us with more than one
example of that spirit of unimpaired energy in
the cause of effectual Reform, and of confidence
in his Majesty's Ministers, as having identified
themselves with it, which the Tory party for
s ime'time past have amused themselves, but not
duped the public, by describing under the name
of "re-action." Edinburgh must have given a
cruel shock to the nerves of the conservative
body. An assembly of 50,000 intelligent and
resolute Scotchmen, no less determined to enjoy
political independence than their ancestors had
been to cast off the yoke of religious bondage,
displayed undoubtedly a fearful spectacle for
those who had hitherto contemplated the capital
of Scotland no otherwise than as a game-preserve
of the Dundas family, and the 33 members of
its self-elected municipality as holding deputa-
tions in the character of Lord Melville's
keepers. To such individuals—such men
of loyalty—such life-and-fortune patriots of
times which are not likely to return,—
the great and powerful expression of na-
tional feeling which took place on Tuesday
last must have spoken scorpions. The same Tiles-
, day, however, was devoted, though in a distant
part of the island, to a political exhibition of a
kind, and for a purpose, not akin to those which
distinguished the proceedings of the Scottish
. metropolis. Gloucester was on that day the scene
. of a meeting—of a conservative meeting. It
was not an assemblage of the people, openly con-
• yoked in the spirit even of that constitution
which its leaders professed it as their principle to
maintain inviolate, and in vindication of that
sublime and astounding " truth," that all the
property, and all the intelligence, and all the re-
spectability of the kingdom, were adverse to
Reform. No, it was the meeting of a club,—
" a conservative club,"—huddled together in the
room of an inn, where the company amounted
to an hundred and five persons,—where the
Duke of Beaufort, Lord Edward (ex-Ordnance)
Somerset, Lord John Somerset, Lord Apsley,
the Beaufort and Bathurst families,—the rankest
anti-reform depredators in Great Britain,—com-
posed the flower of the patrotic band, and where
the renowed Lord Ellenborough took upon
himself the office of chairman ! This, then, is a
• specimen of your anti-reform power—this the
" re-action" whereof we have heard so much.
The shoal of Beaufort placemen—the oyster-
bank of Bathurst placemen—the elephant place-
man, turned wild with disappointment and
rsvenge,—all disinterested, modest conservators
of things as they used to be ! And what were
their proceedings ? The toast of " Church and
King" was received with "enthusiasm." The
name of the " Queen" was "received with great
applause." is that meant for a compliment to her
Majesty, or will it sound as such in the ears of
this unanimous people ? Lord Ellenborough
then made a speech cf the monopoly staple re-
sorted to on such occasions, wherein he predicted
laegely touching our invaluable " Constitution
in Church and State"—about " loyalty, order,
and good government"—about " gross delusions
practised on the people"—meaning thereby, no
doubt, the system of robbing, under the name
Of representing them. He then " persuaded
hfloself that those whom he was addressing were
not tmfavourable to such a moderate, safe, and
temperate amendment of our representative sys-
tem, as the altered circumstances of the times,"
&c. &c., might " render expedient." Why, what
in the name of wonder, what amendment or
what circumstances could the late President of
the Board of Control allude to, when it is r.ot
above a couple of years since the whole clique
with which he was, and is still connected, refused
to give even a single representative to Birmingham
or to show the slightest mark of disapprobation to
the most corrupt andprofligate ofrotten boroughs?
"Happily,"again said the noble conservative, " hap-
pily the days of delusion are rappidly passing away,
And the public are now satisfied that the Reform
Bill will never realize the advantages anticipated
from its passing into a law, but are convinced
that it would be -purchased at far too dear a
price, by the sacrifice of the British Constitution,
under which the wants of the lowest grades of
society were consulted, and which, while it
offered security to rank and wealth, did not dis-
franchise the poorest member of the community,
nor preclude the most indigent from a partici-
pation in the privileges, the property, and the
representation of the country." We have
quoted, as a curiosity, this effusion of the Duke
of Wellington's late colleague and existing par-
tisan and tool. So the public are convinced
that the Bill will be purchased at too high a
price, by the destruction of the old system.
What public ?—the Beaufort, Bathurst, West-
inotland, Dundas, Eldon, Peel, and Ellen-
borough—in short, the hole-and-corner—public.
As for the real public, the British nation, how
has Lord Ellenborough found face to tell his
hearers that it condemns the Bill? On what
spot of the United Kingdom, save in his own
pastry club-room, or some such wretched hiding
place for discomfited faction, can Lord Ellenbo-
rough pretend to say that a sentiment, net-only
of distaste for Reform, but of indifference to-
wards the present Bill, has to this hour been
uttered ? His Lordship, while of the party which
affects to view with horror the revolutionary ten-
dencies of the 101. franchise, pronounces a pane-
gyric on the old system because it admitted the
very poorest, indeed the very paupers, to vote.
'Mlle consistency is there in these Anti-reform-
ing declamations ? Consistency enough there
may be, it is true, in the boast of such men as
Lord Ellenborough, that Lthe o!d Comtitotion