The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-09 00:00:00

TO SIR ROBERT PEEL.
(From the Times.)
Srn,—ln August, 1841, the Whiga-reached the climax
of their fate. To narrate to you, Sir, the causes of
fall would be at once superfluous and impertinent. I
pass, too, over the great measures of their early Admi-
nistration. It makes a man's head turn round to think
of the alterations and changes which were crowded
within the narrow limits of a few years. It was an era
of gigantic legislation, whether for good or for evil.
That much of what is truly and permanently beneficial
was then accomplished, I freely admit ; that great poli-
tical faults, I had almost said crimes, were committed,
you, Sir, will be, or would have been, the last to deny.
But a change came at last over the spirit of the public.
In 1840, and before that, the national hot fit was passing
away ; the cold one rapidly approaching. It did not
require a deficient revenue met by temporary expedi-
ents, an Irish alliance injurious because degrading, or
violent attacks upon the Constitution, to effect, at least
for the time, the complete ruin of the Liberal party.
The truth is, that revolutionary reform had lost its
charm, and England became weary of the Whigs. These
politicians, after exhausting to the dregs their former
popularity, and straining or departing from the old prin-
ciples of their party, fell into great disfavour. This was
not sensibly diminished by the adoption of a foreign policy,
brilliant, it is true, but full of peril, or by a most able
administration of the highest branch of equity. The
change of public opinion had been made sufficiently
manifest. The Whigs, however, wore not to be easily
warned out of Downing-street. They struggled vainly
and unworthily. They introduced, under circumstances
of much suspicion, large and radical measures of com-
mercial reform. Finally, they appealed to the country
The success of that appeal is well known. But even
after Parliament had assembled, and the question had
been placed beyond a doubt, men beheld with indigna-
tion, not unmixed with contempt, a great party, pro.
fessing to be guided by constitutional principles, clinging
to the seals of office with a hold only loosened by a direct
vote of want of confidence. During the decline and fall
of the Whigs, no man occupied a larger space in the eyes
of the world than did you, Sir Robert Peel. Even then,
and before you were formally clothed with power, you
had for some time virtually shared with the late Govern-
ment the home adiniaistration of the country. No
man fora moment doubted that you would be our fu-
ture Prime Minister. It was a common observation
at the time, that you could do as well without your
party as they without you. You had revived among
the troops of gentlemen who sat behind you on the
Opposition benches, the spirit of the old Macedonian
phalanx. Like, and yet unlike, the northern clan, their
swords were a thousand, their bosoms not one. Many a
time and oft might you have led them on to the attack
as to an assured victory. Their keen anxiety that you
should have availed yourself of these opportunities it is
needless to enlarge upon ; and their general behaviour
upon such occasions convinces one of the extent of their
confidence, or of the severity of the discipline. If a
high-spirited D'lsraeli tilted at an opponent withtoo ad-
venturous a bravery—if an Inglis, impatient under a
system to him almost unbearable, ran rusty in debate—
the rebuke administered was at least proportionate to
the offence. Such feats of undisciplined valour endan-
gered the order of battle, and disarranged your general
plans. You were biding your time. The pear was not
quite ripe.
The mystery with which, Sir, you 'chose to surround
yourself added terror to your name. Through the mist
you loomed upon your enemies with the dimensions of a
giant. When the. Whigs, in their last struggles, called
upon you, in loud tones, and with all the energy of de-
spair, to explain yourself, to state what you would re-
commend, you answered them in mocking tones. You
could not then say. You were not in possession of all the
circumstances of the case. You would reserve your pre-
scription until the patient was in your hands, and all his
symptoms made known to you. You would then adminis-
ter the medicine, and—receive the fee. This reserve
contributed also to fix the support of your friends. Each
of them interpreted it favourably for the principles
which he secretly cherished. They knew that by fol-
lowing almost the only piece of advice you had conde-
scended to give them, they bad been remarkably suc-
cessful. They had diligently attended to the registries,
where, Sir, according to the principles of your philo-
sophy, the constitutional battle must be fought. They
had confidence, therefore, in their silent oracle, whose
decrees they obeyed with alacrity, if not love.
Sir, your accession to power was marked by circum-
stances of extraordinary good fortune. You had with
you the Church, the aristocracy, including the great
landed interest, the bar; I may add also, the great ma-
jority of manufacturing and commercial men. The
middle classes regarded your Government with some-
thing more than complacency—with positive approba-
tion. The Radical Rump, with a consistency perhaps to
be expected, were your most unscrupulous partisans.
Finally, last and least, if your Administration derived no
credit from the officious aid of Lord Brougham, yielded
not so much from love to you as from hatred to his
former friends, it was at least saved from his chattering
malignity.
Opposed to you, Sir, was a party so wanting in union
and spirit, so weak, so wo-begone, that it could scarcely
form its ranks with sufficient firmness to afford you the
satisfaction of an easy victory.
Such, Sir, in 1841, was the position of your Govern-
ment, emphatically called " the strong." What is that
position now 7 During the last session of Parliament
you at times scarcely commanded a bare majority by the
aid of your enemies ; more than once you were defeated
by the strenuous exertions of your friends. Could these
enemies have gained anything by driving you from
power, had some of these friends acted more consistently
upon the principles which they professed, you had in-
evitably perished. How to :explain this extraordinary
fact ? Have circumstances warred against you since
you became First Minister ? No ; fortune appears to
have waited upon you. The harvests have been abun-
dant. Heaven, in its goodness, has bounteously re-
warded the labours of man. The manufacturing depres-
sion under which the country had so long laboured, has
very much disappeared. Trade has steadily revived.
The foreign policy of your Government, under the
guidance of a discreet and firm hand, has been, consi-
dering the difficulties to be encountered, surprisingly
successful. Two distant and expensive wars have been
brought to a satisfactory conclusion. Our injured honour
has been avenged in the horrible passes of Caubul.
From China redress has been obtained, and her markets
have been opened to the world. At least one saurce of
contention with the ambitious and unprincipled Republi-
cans of North America have been dried up ; while our
later differences with France have been adjusted with
success and with honour.
What fatal influences, then, have been at work, Sir,
to. reduce your,Administratiou to its present deplorable
condition? They are sufficiently obvious.
The Church, after a century of lethargic slumber,
suddenly, and within a recent memory, woke up and
found one-third of England without her fold. Many of
the richer and middle classes, either indifferent or es-
tranged, continued to be Churchmen as much from
policy and interest as from any higher motives ; while
multitudes of the poor were sunk in ignorance so gross
as to be but imperfectly acquainted with the first articles
of belief. In the meantime also our vast and wonderful
manufacturing system had sprung up. Large bodies of
people were massed together at points, particularly in
the north of England. The machinery of the Church
was quite inadequate to the sudden demand, and amongst
these new multitudes Dissent and Infidelity maintained
a doubtful contest.
Fairly roused, however, the Church prepared herself
with energy for the combat. Her clergy, who bad fully
shared in the fatal repose, became animated with a new
spirit—some, indeed, by one of too much activity. No
doubt, Sir Robert Peel, you saw with admiration this
general zeal, by the proper guidance of which so much
real good might be effected. You perceived at a glance
the spiritual condition of the country, the position of the
Church, and her requirements. All these must have
been before you as upon a map. With a statemanship,
therefore, peculiarly your own, yeu pass a few Acts for
the improvement of glebe land, and would, if permitted,
deprive a remote district of its ancient, much-valued,
and much-wanted bishopric.
The only opinion to which you chose to commit your-
self, before you came into power, was one favourable
to the principle of protecting the home grower of corn,
and to the machinery of the sliding-scale as the means
of such protection. You expressed this opinion, Sir,
with a warmth very unusual to you ; so much so, in-
deed, that men believed it to be founded upon sincere
conviction. That you guarded your declaration is only
to say that you made it ; but how much did you not
leave for fair inference ? What must then have been
the feelings of landowners and farmers when they saw
one of your first Ministerial acts not only lower the
duties upon the importation of foreign corn, but so to
alter the sliding scale as nearly to neutralise its prin-
ciple ?
It has been wittily said, that while with one eye you
winked at the landed interest, the manufacturing and
commercial classes thought they perceived a hidden
meaning in the other. Not knowing their man, they
concluded that they understood, and could depend upon,
the sign. Some master-stroke of political policy, thought
they, was at hand. Some great financial or fiscal mea-
sures were forthcoming. Perhaps important mutual
treaties of commerce with foreign States were nego-
tiating secretly. These things were passing throughlthe
minds of simple men, when, with the most pompous
affectation of elaborate cave, you tinkered every joint
of our monstrous and inconsistent tariff. Effecting some
improvements, you left the great features of the system
very much as you found them ; and then—you imposed
the income-tax.
These instances may suffice. They are striking, no
one will, I think, call them unfair, samples of your
mode of government ' • for your warmest admirers are at
a loss, if asked to explain upon what your home admini-
stration is founded. It identifies itself with no great
principles—it enlists in its favour no general or generous
sympathies. It has erected no standard, however hum-
ble, round which your followers may rally. Calling it-
self eminently Conservative, it does not distinctly declare
what are ite objects of oornalvation. Affectiog to roget