The Sun.
London, England, 1828-06-25 00:00:00

SPIRIT Or TUE isUBLIC JOURNALS:

Notwithstanding the attempt of Mr. Herries to
varnish over the ugly transfer of 250,000/. of public
money to the gaping pockets of palace-builders, the
countV, we F uspec t, from one'end to the other, AO
".1.7,..-ce with Mr. Stanley in describing both the trans-
action and defence of it as " mean, shuffling, aid
underhand." lt is more than all these things, for
they only excite contempt : but, politically speakirig,
the above clandestine diversion of so large a sum,t,is
odious from its unconstitutional spirit, and fearful
fur its necessary consequences. We are told that
the Act of Parliament, any surplus which might, IT-
mai.: with the Commissioners, after satisfying tide
claims of British subjects on France, was to remain
disposable by the Treasury for " the general pur-
poses" of the service. Very well but how ale
" all national purposes" proVidtel for according to
the unvarying practice of the State ? Why, by ail-

propriationsupon some previous estimate, or apprp-
priation upon some necessity already incurred. In
both cases Parliament is the recognised authority 4-
der which the required service must be provided for;
and if not sitting at the moment when the exigently
presses, the very first moment of its assemblins
that at which a full and formal disclosure ought
to be made by Ministers of ereey application of
money to a public object, which had taken Oahe
since the last prorogation of that body; or had not
been previously communicated. When a continget
surplus, therefore, of a specific fund is left for "ge-
neral purposes" to the' sii4O'satof the Treasury, It
does not mean that the money should be so applied
in ditect violation of general principles, at the ar-
bitrary will of the Court, and in defiance of that
responsibility under the safeguard of .which every
official act of the Finance Minister of Great Britain,
without exception, is supposed by the Constitutidn
to be committed. Now, in the present instance, it
is most clear that the object of the Minister who
established this bad precedent was to evade the -14-
sponsilidity affixed to his offitse, by keeping Par -
ment—the only power to which ho could be respon-
sible—in the (lark as to the whole proceedines-L
If unconscious of any offence in the eye
the nation, why this concealment of the
for three following Sessions after it had been per-
petrated? Why was the Board of Woods arid
Forests permittial, or more correctly speakings.e4-
joined, to withhold this enormous addition to its
outlay wad permanent burden on its resources, fr4o
the Isnowledg,e of the Legislature, until it was 16-
Icr.milelled by the troublesome searches of the Finance
Committee? The struggle against publicity is the
surest evidence of conscious guilt in the parties tr
this malversation, and the practical and immediate
mischief has been an increase of extravagance
the purveyors to irresponsible caprice, which thefr
would never have dared to indulge, had Parliament
been made acquainted at an earlier day with the an
ture and enormity of the meditated projects. F
the division on the question of. Monday night, there
is to us a ground of satisfaction in the amount of
Ole minority, resisted as it was by the friends of
Lord Liverpool, of Mr. Canning, and of the exist-
ing Government.-In -a
House by no means full,
!1,12 Wai a creditable opposition, consisting prin-
cipally, if not altogether, of those who may be &-
nominated the old Consitutional party.—Tinics.
There is, we sincerely believe, but one feeling 4
to the clandessine application(or loan, as it has peen
called) of a quarter of a million to the Woods and
Forests. It is quite clear, that if Ministers had
come to Parliament for a sum of this magnitude, ins
qutry Nvould instantly have been made into the apt
plication of the Revenue of the 'Woods and Forests',
of which YO,OOOl. were assigned to the works at
Buckingham House. This inquiry would have
shown, that the reason why no money was obtained
for the Paltiee from the Woods and Forests wan'
hat this branch of revenue was squandered in a
profuse and extravagant manner on ether objects:
We do not, certainly, claim for Parliament the poss
bCSSIOII of any great stock of virtue, when we assume
that it would hardly have allowed the extravagant
outlay on the Palace, and the expenditure of the
Woods and Forests' Revenue on other wasteful
projects at the same time. Even allowing, there'r
fore, for the sake of argument, that it was not int-
tended to conceal for ever the God-send, as it ht 4
been called, from the funds for the discharge of
French claims (though the universal belief is diffe-
rent), there can be no question that this conceal'-
ment led to the expenditure of much larger sums
than would have been sanctioned by Parliament iii
the circumstances of the country. But if Parliament
be vested with a coutroul over the expenditure of
the country, and if, by concealing the outlay of a guar=
ter of a million, a much larger sum was expended,
tlsin Parliament would have granted, what is this
hut a fraud of the very worst descriptiOn ? What is
it but deceiving Parliament as to the real amount
of the expenditure of the year? What should we
think of the steward, who, after representing told:4
master that he had five thousand pounds in his
hands, and receiving orders to expend that sum on a
new.mansion, expended it on other improvements;
and borrowed money for the mansion, thereby rule.
ning his master into a debt on which he did not cal,
ettlate ? The country might have consented to the
outlay on Buckingham Palace, without consenting
at the same time to the waste on other objects of
the Woods and Forests' revenue; or might have
consented to the expenditure on such objects of the
\Voods and Forests' revenue, without consenting to
the outlay on the Palace at the same time ; but by
this piece of fraud Ministers tricked the country
•-iissio the waste of the Woods and Forests' revenue
and the outlay on Buckingham Palace at once, and
thus left Parliament no discretion as to the limit
which it might wish to impose on extravagance in
a given year. All the special pleading in the
world will fail to Make any thing of the loan
to the Woods and Forests, but a scheme to
cheat the public into a greater expenditure than
would have been - allowed. The manner in
which Mr. Peel attempted to deter the House
from inquiry was singular enough—" If blame
attached any where, he said it was to the House of
Commons, which, of all parties, ought to be most
reluctant in arriving at a condemnation of others."—
Anal how did he show this? When out of the Sum
01-itained as an indemnity one million was appropr:a-
tssil by the Crown without the interference of 'Par-
liament, as a reward to the British Army, this sub-
ject " was brought under the consideration of.the
House by the eminent Member for Knaresborough
(Sir J. Mackintosh), who moved several Resolu-
tions, distinctly referring to the power of the Crown
to appropriate money without the consent of Par-
liament, as having a tendency to impair the value
of the exclusive privilege of the Commons' House
of Parliament to grant supplies to the Crown,' Mr.
Ginning. arid Lord Liverpool well knew that these
I,olutions had been rejected by the carrying of the
previous question ; and yet the House of Commons,
after coming to such a decision, would turn round
at Mr. Canning and Lord Liverpool, and would in-
tl a public censure upon them for doing that which
1:: was voted they had a perfect right to do." This
7.4 a counterpart to the story of the Devil in the
• Legend, tempting a man to sin, and then upbraiding
bins for having thereby cut himself off from all hope
of salvation. Ministers having succeeding in (bag-
ging, the House of COmmons through the dirt in one
Case, is a sufficient reason for the House never re-
turning to a better course ! In like manner, we sup-
pose, the majority of Monday night will be deemed
a justification of ft:fresh piece of fraud, and may be
pled in bar of the House of Cenitnens ever return-
ing to a proper sense of duty. This objurgation of
the House is exceedingly amesing. How could Mr.
Peel, after gettieg the better of the virtue of the
Honourable House, reproach it with its frailty in
this cruel manner ?—Morning Chronicle.
The Emigration Question—par excellence IM.
Wilmot Horton's question—was agitated in
House of Commons last night. The Right hien.
Goldman lots been strangled in verse, cut to pierr. •
in prose, now tickled, now pounded to
fmen t
vet he is still as lively as ever, and goes round the
lag
ring of laughers, whipping and spurring his hobby 1.,

fiercely and as magnanimously as if he had never
encountered a blow. Were it fitting to treattthat
seriously which no one will seriously listen-:01;
might point out the;, absi.trditypf paying RAI;e7.IV-•
hundred-pounds to to^tibt•pad,-IWrilur tbC:bW-9-Or
it they might be settled
.teeimfottabli* Ooluef
might ask oß)v.hat.i)firicilij of s64(ll4ense',WidecrY
the attempt 'to for'ee'tjhe'ipoSt`'iiidinkri, traffic,; an in
the nature of things supererogatory or mischievous,
and yet would drain the resources of the country in
an-attempt -to force colonization. We might put
twenty tnoro questions equally decisive of the case,
•hut there is no need of slaughtering the dead.
There was one arg-ument only used last night, which
has often.bee aL used before, to'which we feel called
on to reply. It was said that we ought to send the
Irish at least to Canada, to keep them from coming
to England, and the gentleman who Said this,
ob-
served that at one tlnic the people of Wales were
used as casual labourers in the' neighbouring counties.
Wh6n-they were driven thence by the 'lrish they
advanced to London instead of lingering round the
confines of Monmouthshire, but now, he added, the
Irish had followed them even to London, and there
Wits not a basket of strawberries borne by one whose
tongue did not lisp the dear Doric of Tipperary.
Now, if the Honourable Member had been at the
trouble of thinking on the subject, instead of accu-
mulating facts like Mr. Horton, he would have pro-
bably found that the Welsk had ceased to perform
those laborious offices now performed by the
Irish only, because they had labour of a higher
and more respectable kind at home, that it was
not England that grew worse, but Wales that
grew better. Thirty or forty years ago, the whole of
the crops of the Southern parts of Scotland were
cut down by Highlanders. Now the greater part,
at least on the western side of the island, is cur
down by Irishmen. Stich all arguer as Mr. Slaney
would say that the latter had driven the former out
of the market; but the truth of the matter is, that
from the improvements in the Highlands, the inha-
bitants have no longer anv necessity to quit their
homes in search of work. In England we draw
on the Irish population from a similar reason,—
namely, because our own has a supply of work of a
better character, and therefore leaves the inferior
labour to be performed by those whose notions of
enjoyment and remuneration are not so elevatd.—
New. Times.

FROM LAST NIGHT'S GAZETTE.

Whitehall, June 21, 1828.

The Kin,g has been pleased to direct letters patent to be
pas,ed under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, constituting and appointing
Robert Viscount Melville, K.T. ; the Right Honourable
Robert Peel, George Earl of Aberdeen. K.T. the Right
Honourable Sir George Murray, .G.C.8., his Majesty's
three Principal Secretaries of State (or his Majesty's three
Principal Secretaries of State for the time being) ; Arthur
Duke of Wellington, K.G., First Commissioner of his
Majesty's Treasury (or the First Commissioner of his Ma-
jesty's Treasury forsthe time being) ; the Right Honour-
able henry Goulburn, Chancellor of his Majesty's Exche-
quer (or the Chancellor of his Majesty's Exchequer fot the
time being) ;, Thomas Lord Wallace; the Right Honour-
able John Sullivan ; Anthony Ashley Cooper, Esq. (com-
monly called Lord Ashley) ; the Right Honourable James
Graham (commonly called Marquess 'of Graham) ; Law-
rence Peel. Esq. and the Right Honouriiirle Thomas Pere-
grine Conrtenay, his Majesty's Commissioners for the Af-
fairs of India..