The Sun.
London, England, 1832-06-04 00:00:00

ROBERT PEEL.

(From the Morning Chronicle of Friday and Saturday.)
The " Pitt Club Triennial Meeting," t 1
last dying speech and confession of the Tories
Oligarchists, and Corruptionists, was held or
Tuesday last ; and the funeral obsequie.,
celebrated of " the Pilot who weathered tin
storm." If, as the Duke of Wellington and
the Conservatives assert, the Reform Bill
will work a Revolution and rout 'out the princi-
ples of' Toryism, this disgusting exhibition of
burnt-out prejudice and extinct party-feeling will
be the last scene in the farce of Toryism. In a
few months we predict that the Pitt Clubs will
die a natural death. The report of this Beelze-
bub Dinner, ?dramatically dressed up by the
Anti--Reform Journals, is pompously put for-
ward as a grand expiring effort of the Ultra-
Tories. An analysis of the persons present
will sufficiently expose the ludicrous imposture,
and we recommend the Anti-Reformers, on
another occasion, to suppress names. The din-
ner was attended by JO:1r Dukes—Wellington,
Buccleuch, Beaufort, Rutland ; by /bur Mar-
quesses—Salisbury, Abercorn, Londonderry, and
Camden ; by eleven Earls ; Lord Eldon, the
only notorious nobleman ; by eight Barons, Vis-
counts, and courtesy Lords ; by Colonel Sib-
thorpe, and twenty-one Members of Parliament
only ; and by about two dozen of London mer-
chants, enriched by Pitt Jobs and the " Sys-
tem !" Particulars always expose the Tories ;
hence their partiality fir " hole and corner
meetings." They are creatures that cannot bear
the light ; the intellect and public spirit of their
countrymen they sedulously and shrewdly avoid.
We assert, without risk of contradiction, that no
public man was present possessing any political
or personal influence in the country, the Duke of
Wellington excepted ! And these are the Or-
gies—" the frantic revels of Bacchus"— which
the Conservatives delude themselves will uphold
their sinking cause, and impose on the enlight-
ened and liberalized people of Great Britain and
Ireland ! Sir Robert Peel and all the " half-
and-half" friends of "the illustrious Chairman."
very discreetly absented themselves. Even Lord
Lyndhurst and Lord Ellenborough were missing.
Thus, while seven Tory Peers only were attend-
ing the remains of Schedule A and B to the
tomb of the Capulets, a frenzied few were
paying their last sad tribute and superstitious
devotions at the shrine of William Pitt. To criti-
cise the proceedings of the dinner in the speeches
or toasts would be absurd. The Duke of Welling-
ton, the " illustrious Chairman" of the Orgies,
found it convenient to avoid all reference to the
present questions ; and the utter contempt of
public principle, so recently exhibited by his
Grace, fully accounts for the absence of all the
honest Ultra-Tories (a singular fact), and for
shrewd silence on all the topics of public policy
and opinion which distinguished the former
meetings of the blind buzzards. The ,Standard
report states, that " Lord Eldon made a few re-
marks ; but from the low tone in which the
Noble and Venerable Earl spoke, we were un-
able to catch their purport." Mayhap, that
ancient Nobleman gave vent :to some sentiments
of commentary on the utter lack of political
honesty which had branded the characters of
public men of his own party in the month of
May, not very palatable, and inconvenient to
report. The whole ends and intent of this
abortive Meeting were probably to raise another
idol—" the illustrious Chairman"--on the Pan-
theon pedestal of " Pitt." It behoves us, there-
fore, to examine the pretensions of the Duke of
Wellington to this pagan elevation. The
Tories have always sought to mislead the people
in the worship of " golden images ;" but the
days ofpolitical idolatryare departed never toreturn.
The schoolmaster is abroad, and the scales have
fallen from the eyes of the people. Robert Peel
was put forward as a " second Pitt ;" the Duke
of Wellington was next produced—both pieces
have been damned. The times and circum-
stances for the successful repetition of these po-
litical dramas are changed. Party nicknames
and bladder-blown repute have no credit or
power. " Measures, not men," are the test of
Cabinets. The old jugglers are exposed ; the
Automaton Chess-players cannot attract or de-
ceceive the country. The quarry of corruption
is worked out. The " management of the
House of Commons" expired with the paralysis
of Lord Liverpool. The Clare election was a sig-
nal and pregnant occurrence. The Catholic Ques-
tion did, as predicted, macadamize faction. The
Administration of Mr. Canning was the thaw of
parties. When the ice-flood once sets in, rapid and
overwhelming is the current of-the fluid. The
" illustrious Chairman" and his man Friday,
Sir R. Peel, could not stay the torrent of events.
On the 22d ult. we sketched the character of
Sir R. Pecl—a man who had outlived his times
—a politician of very ordinary powers ; of no
political sagacity—of no moral courage ; with
no capability of resisting what he could not
oppose ; ever the last to be convinced of a po•
litical necessity ; always the mean truckler to
measures which if able he would fain avert—a
crafty politician, recently willing to await the
benefits of political apostasy without the cou-
rage to run the risk of those to whom he was
the " putter up." We painted him as the
shuttlecock of a Reformed House of Commons;
as the " last man" of an unreformed Parliament,
who would assuredly find a low level in a real
Legislative Assembly of this great nation.
Behind the scenes, during the recent po-
litical monologue of the Duke of Wel-
lington, Peel was
id prompterwro wrote
the
to the
piecewhich
ich
"Actor
of all Work," a
the other attempted to perform. But we
will pass on, as we then promised, " to trace the
outlines of his Grace's character." We pro-
nounce the Duke of Wellington, " the illustri-
ous Chairman" of the Pitt Club Triennial
Meeting, a political impostor. We will not do
wilful injustice to the private or political cha-
racter of any public man. With the private
reputation and conduct of the Duke of Welling-
ton, as public Journalists, we have nothing to
do ; but these are times when the mask must be
torn off front the face of every political actor.
What are his Grace's pretensions to administer
the affairs of the people of Great Britain and
Ireland ? The profession and foreign life of
the Duke of Wellington render him utterly unfit
for the duties of a British Statesman, in perilous
times, requiring a master-mind and extraordinary
sagacity, foresight, and judgment. First, the
calibre of his mind is notoriously that of medio-