The Sun.
London, England, 1835-09-10 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JCiriRNA! S.

The Tory papers are obviously in great alarm about
the antic:pated Reform of ti-e Fieuse of Lo:11.,. The
Standard challenges us to submit some plan for effect-
hie- this great national object ; our reply to that is, thati
we are only humble advocates of the popular cause, and
not the Executive Government or the country, and that
although there would be no impropriety in our submit-
ting any plan which might appear calculated for that
purpose, it is by no means imperative upon us to do so; -
it is sufficient for Us to aid in communicating the gene.:
rally prevailing feeling, that some change in the Upper
Branch of the Legislature is now absolutely necessary.:
Another organ of the same party, the Morning Post;
deprecates the agitation of the question at ail, and very
modestly urges the abandonment of the subject :
" We sincerely hope (says this Tory organ) that the 're-
tainers of Ministers will, ere long, be instructed, if it be °illy
for the sake of decency, to refrain from their present morning
and evening song about a Reform in the House of Lords.
Have not the Whigs already given us a Reform of the House
of Commons, whica, aceoTding to them, was to correct every
abuse—to remove every anomaly—to silence every complaint
in relation to the practice and operation of the British Consti-
tution ? And arc they to be trusted with the execution of fur-
ther Reforms, who, by the very fact of seeking such a powor,
confess that the changes they have hitherto accomplished have
not attained the purposes which they professed to have in view ?
Why should the House of Lords be reformed, if the Reform of
the House of Commons be not a failure ? Why, if the latter
be a failure, should its authors be any longer trusted by the
people ?"

sow, with all submission to onr Tory contempe7
rary, we beg to suggest that it is precisely becauSe
Reform of the Commons' House of Parliament has
proved not to be a failure, that a Reform of the House
of Lords has become imperatively necessary. The
country has become convinced that its business cannot
be carried on, if an irresponsible and Tory House of
Lords is allowed to postpone, mutilate, and reject
every popular measure sent up to thcm by a Re-
formed. House of Commons. The Post talks of the
harmony that subsisted prior to Reform in the
Commons' House. True, a harmony did exist, and
why ? BeCause the Tory Peers and the Tory Go-
vernment influenced the return of a positive majority
of Members of the " Lower House." This was cer-

tainly an efficient way of securing a harmony be-
tween both branches of the Legislature ; but people
were rather inclined to think that the Legisla-
ture, so constituted, acted more for the beneilt of an
exclusive and paramount Aristocracy, than for purposes
of general and national good ; and whatever prosperity,
whatever advantages, the country might possess, were
looked upon as things existing in defiance and in spite
of a vicious system of legislation, and not as the con-
sequence of any wise and equitable policy. The Lords,
by their constant opposition to reforming measures,
have confirmed the opinion of the public respecting
them ; and it has become clear that nothing useful can
be achieved for the people till that House is placed in
better conformity with the sentiments. of - the prudent
and reflecting part of the: community. The col-
lision has taken place. The collision that Lord

Grey endeavoured fruitlessly to postpone—that col-
lision has now occurred; the people
,see impor-
tant measures rejected—public business suspended—
tranquillity endangered—and for • what ?—that a
couple of hundred Tory Lords and Bishops may
still, notwithstanding a Reform in the House ofCom-

mons, possess the real power and legislative influence
which they exercised when the Tory Aristocracy no-
minated the majority of the Members of the House of
Commons. The voice of the country declares that the
present state of things cannot continue, and that the so
much deprecated Reform in the Upper House must
sooner or later inevitably take place, and doubtless
proper plans to effect that object will in due time be
matured and agreed upon. When people are una-
nimous a 3 to the existence of the evil, there can be
no fear but that an appi opriate remedy will ulti-
mately be found for it. And here we may take an op •
portunity of noticing a: stupid charge which has, in
quarters peculiarly appropriate, been brought against
us. We arc taunted with " inconsistency," because
we have advocated the propriety of accepting a
more imperfect measure of Corporate Reform than
we formerly expected and desired. The renegades
who would, fain involve us in the same odious category
as themselves, know full well that there has been no•
thirat in our conduct that merits the offensive stigma ;
they know full well that...the degree or quantity of Re-
form which it may be advisable to accept at a given time,
is'a mere matter of policy and of tactics. But having
themselves treacherously passed over to the enemy.s
camp, and being now daily engaged in prostitu:ing their
talents ha the advocacy of a policy inconsistent in every
way with their former professions, they would fain try
to palliate their, guilt by charging a ,similar crime
upon those 'whose imperative, though disagreeable
duty it has been to expose and chastise it. However
the Times may rave on in its own way, its voice finds
correspondingno echo in public sentiment, and its
clamour is expended in vain upon a people awake to
its thorough treachery, and convinced of its base and
reckless intestacy. We have deemed it advisable to
accept an instalment, and to put up for the present
with. a part where we could not ohtain the whole. If
this be inconsistency, it is, at all events, not quite so
culpable as turning from " a Whig, and something
more," to a virulent and red-hot Tory ; and when such
a change comes over the fortunes of the Chronicle,
then, indeed, we shall
.deserve to be charged ,with trea-
cherous " inconsistency," and odious desertion of right
and principle.—Morilmg Chronicle.
The gratitude of Mr. O'Connell towards the illus-
trious emancipator of the Roman Catholics is evinced
by making him the especial object of his unceasing
and bitter vituperation. The Irish Agitator never will
forgive the benefactor who raised him front the condi-
tion of a, " hereditary bondsman," to political power
and legislative importance. His " Irish heart," to
use a favourite expression of his own, was profuse of
its grateful feelings while the Duke of Wellington, as-
sisted by Sir Robert Peel, was struggling to overcome
what were called the prejudices of the English people,
and to smooth down that Protestant jealousy which
foresaw danger to Clmrch and State from opening
the doors of Parliament to men trained under an in-
fluence decidedly hostile to the principles of a Pro-
testant Constitution ; but no sooner was the work of
" emancipation " accomplished than Mr. O'Connell
commenced the work of defaming his deliverer.
In this pursuit he has not been more malicious
than indefatigable, and if the laurels of the con-
queror of Napoleon could be torn from the brows of
the man who broke the political chains, of the
Roman Catholica, every leaf of that wreath of glory
would Mr. O'Connell have long since trampled in the
dust Such is the gratitude of his " Irish heart I"
No man with a reputation less snlendid and a name
less potent than that of Weiiington could have
achieved, in opposition to the feelings of the people of
England, that most difficult task, the success of which
had the effect of transferring Mr. O'Connell and his
party from the lowly arena of the Corn Exchange club
to the floor of the Imperial Parliament. The Agitator
now says that his political benefector is " the only man
who has attained greatness without having once used
a generous or ennobling sentiment." In conferring
unqualified emancipation upon the party whom Mr.
O'Connell leads, many thought the Duke's genero-
sity of sentiment was more remarkable than his wis-
dom. Mr. O'Connell does all he can 'to make it
appear that those who thought the Duke wrong in
calculating upon the gratitude of the " hereditary
bondsmen" were right. Certainly the galley-slaves,
whom the Knight of La Mancha, in the excess of his
mistaken liberality, rescued - from the coercive power of
the law, did not signalise the recovery of their free-
dom by more unmercifully pelting with all sorts of
offensive, missiles their astonished deliverer. The latest
of those offensive missiles is Mt. O'Connell's long and
laboured letter, which we have inserted in another part
of our paper, and which, if it does not politically anni-
hilate the Duke, and along with him the majority of
the House of Lords, it is not the fault of the writer.
Of course, personal abuse of the coarsest and most
vulgar quality, constitutes, as in Mr. O'Conneirs
epistles in general, its chief claim to public attention ;.
but in that respect it is little else than a repetition of
the close of scurrility which he administered to his:
Whig friends last year. Let us compare a sample or
two says, for instance, " what a party :s it
which you do manage ! How should I like ta.sem a
catalo,ne raisonnee of the whole ; . Winchilsea im-
maraca jn fanaticism and fatuity (he loves ailituratiota)