The Sun.
London, England, 1832-08-06 00:00:00

Germany are guaranteed. To that guarantee '
the English Government, by the signature
yf its Plenipotentiaries, and the ratifica-
fon of its Sovereign, is a party ; and
we can scarcely see how we could, con-
sistently with good faith, have resisted a demand
from any of the 38 States of Germany to compel
the execution of the 13th article, had such a
demand been made. But though we may hi-
therto have acted upon a discretionary view of
our political duties, when a new right was to be
conferred, or a neglected claim to be established,
‘Ne have. surrendered none of our power to re-
dress an acknowledged wrong, nor relieved our-
selves from the obligation of preventing a mani-
fest oppression which we are bound by treaty
not to permit. Let any one read the Frankfort
protocol of the 28th of June, and the other vio-
lent outrages on a free people perpetrated in the
acts of the Diet on the sth and 19th ult., and
sty whether they are consistent with the rights
which, by the treaty of Vienna, were guaranteed
by us and by France to the German States. If
he has any doubt upon the subject, let him pe-
ruse the protest, and the remonstrances from the
honest people of Wurtemburg, inserted in an-
other part of our paper, and consider whether
the Germans can themselves reconcile the acts
of their Diet to the obligations of their rulers,
or the duties of their allies. We are no advo-
cates for a warlike policy in our Governtnent ;
but if the free-born Germans should show that
spirit in resisting the tyrannical mandates of their
coterie of Princes which we expect from them,
and if they should display against their domestic
despots the - banner which they raised against
Napoleon, their foreign invader, we need not say
on what side our duty, our interest, and our in-
clination, would now lead us to range our-
selves.— Times.

The Edinburgh papers give an account of a
most interesting Reform Dinner at Leith on
Tuesday last, at which about 500 gentlemen
were present. The speeches of Mr. Murray,
Advocate, the liberal candidate for Leith ; Mr.
Abercromby, late Lord Chief Baron, ; and Mr.
Maclaren, Editor of the Scotsman, were excel-
lent. Mr. Murray alluded with much spirit to
the attempt of the Conservatives to overawe
voters—au attempt which must be met by a
corrective. Mr. Murray said—

"If these Conservatives do everything they can to inti-
midate and corrupt, and deprive men of the exercise of
their judgment, I put it to any man if this is fair and ho-
nourable. Take it that they succeed. In what way ? It
is by degrAling and corrupting the minds of those to whom
they apply intimidation, and thus !ewe a rankling sore in
their hearts against their base ar.d infamous corruptors.—
(Immense cheering.) Take it, on the other hand, that
they fail—they fail with contempt and abhorrence—with
the detestation of the man at the dastardly acts by which
an attempt was made to prevent him from performing
his duty—the duty which he was entrusted to perform
to the best of his judgment. If there is a danger of re-
volution—if there is a danger of anything being displaced
—if an attempt against persons possessing station
and property is made, it can only arise from the gross and
infamous abuses of that station and property being used as
a means of depriving honourable and fair individuals of the
free exercise of their reason and their rights.—(lmmense
cheerin.) If there is a revolution, it must arise from
these Conservatives alone.—(Continued cheering.) If there
are rankling feelings prevailing, it must be from themselves
overawing the weak individuals, who will all of them
maintain a lasting grudge against their oppressors—against
the foot that has trampled upon them.—(Great cheering.)
I say, therefore, that there is no danger, but from those weak,
silly arts, by which persons who wish to obtain power with-
out a franchise now wish to force the power they exercise
upon it, and to call upon those who have a franchise to
exercise it dishonestly. From that apprehension we are
here relieved ; in this district there is no danger of any
person daring or venturing to intimidate honest men from
d:lebargint, their duty. I have reason to know that there
have been painful struggles with individuals, between what
was their interest and whit was their duty ; but in all
instances which -have come to my knowledge, I am glad
to find that a sense of duty prevailed ; and I am satisfied,
if such persons ever were proved to be sufferers, their
eatnes would only require to be known to entitle them to
support."—(Cheers.) Mr. Murray added, ,4 If the at-
tempts alluded to should be made, he should feel it his duty
to bring them under public notice, and he would not fail
to do it and bring the offenders to punishment."

We are almost certain that the shopkeepers
and farmers, and the middle class in geneial,
have become so sensible of the necessity of pro-
tection in the exercise of their vote, that they
will not be satisFed without the ballot. Mr.
Abercromby observed—

" I hare passed nearly a quarter of a century in the
Howe of Commons, and there imbibed two opinions :
The first was a strengthened and confirmed opinion of the
Absolute necessity of Parliamentary Reform, for the salva-
tion of the country; the other, that however deeply I
Ini:4l-it be imbued with the truth of that opinion, the diffi-
culties in achieving that measure were all but insur-
mountable. In saying so, 1 confess I committed an error,
because in .so calculating I undervalued the formidable
N wer of the people. I did not anticipate the moment was
ao near when that glorious spectacle should be exhibited, of
a w! o!e country in favour of one measure of Reform, from
which they never deviated until the noble work was thus
triumphantly achieved. —( Great cheering.)
_ _

. .
The speech of Mr. Maclaren, the able and
elequent Editor of the Scotsman, on the change
which has taken place in the state of the Press
in Scotland, is calculated to excite a hope in
men placed in the most unpropitious circum-
stances, (for assuredly no country can well be
more unfavourably circumstanced, with regard to
the freedom of the Press, than Scotland was
thirty-five years ago) :

" he could (he said) recollect the state of the Press in
this country so far back as thirty-five years ago, and it
certainly was deplorable. The Press ought to respond to
the voice of the people, and be the organ of their opinions ;
but at the time be alluded to the people were certainly as ill
were worae represented in the Press than in Par-
lianacut.--(Cheers. ) The Scots Chronicle, which was
die first attempt to estabish an independent Newspver in
this quarter, lived only for a few years, and after that
there was no periodical publication in Scotland that ven-
tured to breathe a liberal sentiment till the Edinburgh
Review was started about ISO], and it was many
years later before an independent Newspaper could be per-
manently established. He had always held that Parliament
in its old corrupt state was not the representative of the
people, but the organ of a privileged class distinct from
the people, and having opposite interests, and that the true
democracy, in what was eallsd our mixed Constitution,
lay in the press and public meetings. Now, at that time,
public meetings were never held here, and our press, which
was without independence, had no existence as an element
of political power. In such circumstances he maintained
real popular freedom was necessarily unknown in the
country.—(Cheers.) Look even at the state of the press
considered as an organ of public feeing, when the great
meaqure of Reform was introduced by Earl GREY. It
was instantly made obvious by petitions and public meet-
ings, that nine-tenths of the people were in its favour ; hut
was the Bill supported.. by nine-tenths of the newspapers?
He would ask, did even one-half of them advocate a mea-
sure which was hailed with delight by almost the whole
people ?" (Cheers.)
By means of the Press and a Reformed
i Par-
liament, a rapid progress must be made n the
career of improvement. All the attempts of
conservators "and corruptionists to retain the
abuses which the nation holds in abomination,
will signally fail.—Morning Chronicle.
If, as has been said, it be a great and
glorious sight to witness a poor man struggling
honestly and fearlessly with adversity, it is also,
we are of opinion, no less exhilarating and de-
lightful to sec those who are invested with
power exerting all their faculties to redeem the
promises which they had held forth before they
became possessed of it, and instead of using it
for their own advantage and emolument, cor-
verting it into an instrument of great and lasting
good to the community. Such sights are to be