The Sun.
London, England, 1832-05-24 00:00:00

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LONDON,
THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 24, 1832.

A meeting of the Independent Members of
the House of Commons has been held this
morning at Lord ALTHORP'S, on the subject
of the Irish Reform Bill, which was nu-
merously attended, and especiallly by the
Irish Members. The question of an ad-
dition to the number of Irish Representa-
tives, which we must admit was an equitable
demand, was, we understand, most hand-
somely waved. Mr. O'CONNELL, and other
leading Irish Representatives, however, stated
that the standard of the franchise was com-
paratively too high for Ireland, and with other
details required alteration. We understand
that a most satisfactory disposition was shown to
conciliate and do justice to that long mis-
governed and oppressed country ; and the
Irish Members will meet the Government
to-morrow. 'We must recall to the recollection
of Ministers, what we are sure they will
not forget—and friends in need are friends
indeed—the disinterested and generous support
unanimously afforded by the Irish Members on
the momentous occasion of Lord EBRINGTON'S
motion. The Irish Members supported Lord
GREY's Government under most critical circum-
stances, and without stipulation or condition.
Their withdrawal at such a moment would have
prevented the recall of Lord GREY, and left the
whole kingdom a prey to a devastating revolution !
We- therefore most ardently and sincerely hope
and believe that Ministers and the KING Will not
lose this golden opportunity of conciliating all
Parties in Ireland, and devising real remedies for

hat unhappy country—a nation that could never
)e otherwise than prosperous or happy but fi r
Boroughtnongering domination and robbery.

There are two documents just now before the
Norld of considerable interest, we may also add,
of importance : we allude to the Duke vi
WELLINGTON'S letter to Sir THOMAS MUNRO,
published a few days since in The Sun ; and
Mr. ATTWOOD'S Address to the Common
Council, which appears in our columns this day.
We subjoin an extract from these two docu-
ments, as they are both full of character, and
stand out in striking contrast to each other. And,
first, in compliment to his rank, let us hear what
the Duke says. Writing to a brother officer
on the subject of one of his Indian compaigns.
the Man of the Sword observes, " I have
taken and destroyed DOONDIAII'S baggage and
six guns, and driven into the Mulpurbu
(where they were drowned) about five thousand
people. DOONDIAH'S followers are quitting
him apace, as they do not think the
amusement very gratifying. My troops are
in high health and spirits and their pockets full
of money, the produce of plunder—Colonel
MONTREsort has been very successful in Bu.
lam ; he has beat, burned, plundered, and
destroyed in all parts of the country." So
much for the Man of the Sword, now for the
Man of the People : "My efforts have been
vigorously directed to inculcate the necessity of
obedience to the laws, and the preservation of
public order, and respect for property. Thanks,
first to GOD, and next to the people, we have
succeeded ; hut while we did this, tee strove to
lift the people to the proper standard of moral
energy. When the news of the rejection of the
Reform Bill reached Birmingham, the people
assembled at a moment's notice in tens of
thousands, despair and sudden rage painted
on their face. I strove to calm them. I
was collected though appalled. Then came
the news that Lord GREY was reinstated,
and I witnessed a scene that I never saw
equalled, and could scarcely think of; reso-
lute and gigantic men shedding tears of joy—
true tears of gladsome emotion. My nerves
never failed me till then. You cannot believe
me until you see the men of Birmingham. I
have read of the tears of valiant men ; I never
saw them until then, and it was a sight enough
to shake a man to the heart."

Reader, " look on this picture and on that !''
Compare the remarks of the Man of the Sword
with those of the Man of the People, and then
ask yourself which of the two is worthiest of
yonr admiration and reverence. The Man of
the Sword exults in the " amuse►nent" of drown-
ing " five thousand" people ; hints that the only
proper standard of a soldier's enjoyment consists
in the amount of misery and murder he can per-
petrate, and actually exults in the idea that a
brother officer has " burnt, plundered, and de-
stroyed in all parts of the country." The Man of
the People deprecates all brute force, all savage
outbreakings ; his heart is full to overflowing of
kindly feeling towards his fellow-creatures ; he
sees them weep, and their tears pierce his very
soul ; he strives to " lift them to the proper
standard of moral energy ;" to influence their
reason, not their passions ; to elevate, not de-
press, them in the scale of humanity. Singularly
enough, the Man of the Sword and the Man of
the People have just been brought into,direct col-
lision with each other. Not ten days since it was a
matter of doubt whether the Duke of WELLING-
TON and the Tories, or Mr. A TTWOOD and the
country should gain the ascendency ; but the
conqueror of Waterloo has succumbed to the citi-
zen of Birmingham, and humanity has gained a
triumph by the result.

We appreciate, as they deserve to be appre-
ciated, the energies of the brave soldier who
fights and dies for his country; still we hope the
day is fast approaching, when the mere Man of
the Sword (who is that and nothing more)
and the Man of the People will each find
his proper level ; when the efforts of the
latter will render those of the former superfluous.
The warrior has had his hour of triumph, the
philanthropist, the philosopher and the legis-
lator, are now to enjoy theirs. The glory ac-
quired by the sword is, in nine cases out of ten,
the vulgarest, the most commonplace of all
glories ; while that of intellect and humanity is
imperishable as truth, firm as the foundation of
the everlasting hills. NAPOLEON was a great
conqueror, but he was a greater statesman, and
his reputation with posterity will depend not
on Marengo, but on the Criminal Code. No
fame is, or can be, lasting that is not
built up on the adamant of intellect and huma-
nity. Even now the triumphs of CA;SAIt, despite
a thousand school-boy recollections, are be-
coming vague and evanescent, while those of
CICERO are as fresh and vivid as ever. Yet a few
years, and the generations that shall succeed the
present, trained up in the arts of peace, of social
intercourse, of humanity, shall pull down the
warrior from his pedestal, and exalt the philoso-
pher in his place.

The LORD MAYOR deserves great praise for
the promptitude with which he has conceded to
tl►e public wish, in paying the compliments they
so well merit, to the patriotic founder and mem-
bers of the Birmingham Political Union. Messrs.
Sc HOLEFIELD, PARKES, and others, have
wrought with as much energy as even Mr. ATT
WOOD himself in the vineyard of Reform, and
should not be forgotten by their countrymen,
when the season of merry-making arrives. Without
efficient labourers Mr. ATTwOOD could scarcely
have moved the mighty lever that he has been
enabled to move. But fortunately for himself.
and for us all, he has had ample assistance, for
the whole country has been his fellow-operative
in the good cause.

The Navy Civil Department Bill was, last
night, read a second time, and will soon be
passed into a law. We were pleased to hear
Lord NAPIER, in a manner highly honour-
able to himself, vindicate the character of
a gallant and very meritorious Officer, Cap-
tain SYMONDS, from charges which had been
unjustly made or insinuated against him in the

House of Commons. It is, unfortunately, or
rather has been, too much the practice in that
House to animadvert on the conduct of indi-
viduals who had not the power of answering for
themselves. We hope that such a practice wilt
he discontinued in a Reformed Parliament, fot
nothing is so dear to a man of honour as his
reputation.

An impartial history of " The Ten Days"
would form one of the most interesting political
works perhaps ever given to the public. The
work would necessarily. require an introduction
or preface, setting forth the various attempts to
oust the Whig Ministry, previous to the 4th of
May ; the division on the timber duties ; the
Budget ; the system of education in Ireland, and,
the greatest of all, the plots formed by Peers,
Spiritual and Temporal, to defeat the second
reading in October last. Then would come the
grand scheme which had been hatching for
months—the scheme which was to annihilate the
Minister and place again in power the conserva-
tives, backed and supported by foreign intriguers,
and certain of our own country—men alike needy
in consistency of principle, property and integrity.
What a contrast would be found between the
real facts and the professions made by some of
the prime movers ! We despair not yet of
seeing such a work, and if we mistake not,
there is an individual, who, from his connexion
with certain parties and the lively interest he
has all along taken in the Reform Bill, would
do it ample justice. These parties declare that
the division on Monday night was totally acci-
dental—that no communication had taken place
between them on the subject, and that the only
object of Lord LYNDHURST was to recom-
mend a course which he thought the best,
but which he did not even know if
any one would support. The true history of
the transaction would probably show that a
deep scheme had been laid to fritter away the
Bill by inches—to take advantage of the good
nature of Earl GREY, and his Iv 11-known re-
luctance to make Peers, and induce him to make
concession after concession till he had lost the
nation's confidence, and they had a fair oppor-
tunity of turning him out of office. It would
also tell what were their terror and dismay
when they found that the resignation which
his MAJESTY was pleased to accept was dis-
approved of at every meeting, that the com-
motion of the country was beyond all bounds
at even the bare prospect of a Wellington
Administration, that the troops themselves, on
which the Conservatives had counted, were join-
ing the Unions, and were ready rather to sup-
port tha❑ attack the people. The embryo Ad-
ministration, too, what a figure it would cut in
the picture—their secret conclaves, their twistings
and turnings on the Bill which they had so madly
denounced, and their vain and desperate attempts
to reconcile speeches and protests with such a
Bill as the KING was determined to have. In
the back ground might be placed the Foreign
Ambassadors, and behind them their Sove-
reigns, anxiously directing their eyes to the
Great Captain, who was to assist them in crush.
ing the rising spirit of liberty, not among the
people of England, but throughout the whole
world. What a figure, too, that people
would present in the picture—rising, like
one man, and dispersing with their breath the
unholy conclave, like chaff before the wind !
Whether such an historical portatt comes soon
or late, come it will, and then the nation will
know what endless calamities they have averted
by their own firm and devoted conduct.

Lisbon and Brussels Papers have been re-
ceived, but they contain no news of interest.

PRIVY COUNCIL-(THIS DAY.)

This forenoon, at Twelve o'Clock, the Lords of his Ma-
jesty's most honourable Privy Council, the Mirquess of
Lansdowne, President ; Viscount Melbourne, Lord Auck-
land, Sir James Graham, and Mr. Michael Angelo Taylor,
sat to hear counsel in support of the appeal of the Jersey
Banking Company, against an order of the States of that
i'land, by which all bankers were compelled to Sod security
for the amount of their issue of paper money. Counsel
were heard in support and against the appeal, and the
business was proceeding when our reporter left.

CHOLERA NIORBUS, OFFICIAL REPORT.