The Sun.
London, England, 1826-06-20 00:00:00

tached ourselves to the Church, and the true principles of the

Reformation, we have as little leaning towards Popery as its
warmest opponents can desire. But they are not the best friends
of the Church (or, at least, of religion), or the most effectual
enemies of Popery, who endeavour to enlist all the bad passions of
mankind in their cause, by making that a subject of vehement
excitement, which should be, above all others, treated with calm-
ness and sobriety. Least of.all, such proceedings become
those who are, by their profession, ministers of peace. And
when, therefore, we see, as we have done upon this occasion, the
retreats of learning and philosophy converted into the theatre
of unseemly brawls and disgusting violence:, we cannot but
tremble for the youth who are to imbibe, and the congregations
which are to be initiated in, modes of reasoning so little calculated
to arrive at truth, or to farther the pure ends and precepts of the
Gospel. We confess that, after what we have witnessed upon
this occasion, we are inclined to prefer, as more dignified and
becoming, the perpetuity admitted at Oxford, than the recurrence
at the sister University of scenes which appear only to degrade
the actors and the drama. There may be persons, too, induced
to ask themselves how far it is consistent and seemly to witness so
much warmth and activity on minor objects, when the real objects
of Academic Institutions are so little attended to by some of the
very same persons. There may be parents who mey be glad to
see tutors and heads of houses half as zealot sly inclined to correct
extravagance and profligacy in the inexperienced minds committed
to their care, as sonic of them have been about a bribery oath,
and No Popery. We widely deceive ourselves, if they would not
inure effectually defeat Popery by training up the future Minister%
of the Protestant Church in principles of virtue and religion,
than by an indifference to those points in their curly life, and a
widen temporary ebullition of the Church being in danger, when
if in danger at all, it is their supineness as teachers of youth
which ham made it so. We throw out these hints with no un-

friendly feeling towards the Universities ; but as expressing, we
believe, the sentiments of no mull number of their war►nest and
most attached well-wishers.

[THE BRITTAH PRESS.]

We have seldom seen an Election go on so far as
the present has done with so little reference to the question of
Parliamentary Reform. A clearer proof could not be adduced of
the propriety of leaving opinions to themselves, and not irritating
prejudices by opposition. If any opposition had been attempted
in Westminster, this question would have resounded from one end
of the islaod to the other; the usual excitement Of an election
would have assumed a new character, inflamed, as it would then
have been, into that species of enthusiasm which uniformly accents'
panics a conflict of opinions ; the natural hostility of the inferior
ranks of the community would have been excited and let loose by
the continued artifices of demagogues, and the consequences would
have been such as every one must have deplored who wishes for
the welfare of his country, or has any regard for its character
among nations. Those who are so urgent for frequent Elections
forget the evils which inevitably attend such appeals to the people.
They do not recollect that a Representative Government is nothing
but an invention, to prevent the frequency of direct appeals to the
people in matters of goVernment. No principle can he more
certain than this—that all forms of government ought to tend
to the, public good ; and no form of government can secure the
public good so effectually, as that in which the people are
Ilwed to determine what is for their own interests. The people
in some states have actually conducted the business of govern-
ment themselves iu general assemblies of all the citizens ; and
this, it is clear, is the only true and absolute democracy. It is
melees to refer to the republics of antiquity, in which this was
the ease; and it is equally useless to observe that such a system
was, in their case, pregnant with innumerable difficulties, and
would, in an empire such as ours, be the most ridiculous of all
Utopias. Yet the arguments of Radical Reformers, if carried to
their true 'logical consequences, must tend to the establishment
of something of this kind ; for there can be no reason, unless
these gentlemen admit the inconveniences to which we have al-
!toted, which should prevent the elections from being made every
six months, as well as every twelve—there can be no reason, in fact,
why they should not be made every day; in short, if they are attended
with no inconvenience, we see no reason why the people should not
assemble in their counties and burghs, to give their votes on all
public questions—allowing Ministers, as akAthens, to act in cases
of emergency on their own responsibility. But our Radical Re-
formers have decided that one year is the golden mean—that six
weeks of anarchy omit of 52 is not too much--that to have two
months in the twelve without any Parliament whatever is the
only tnethod'of saving the cottotry; The conclusion is rather an
extraordinary one ; but, we shall admit it. No one who ever wit-
neattcri an election .will 'say that it can be conducted without po-
pular dissemions. • To prevent the consequences of these, the mi-
litary must be called in. In the present state of things, an dee-
don occurring so seldom, produces but little mischief ; but, were
it to happen every year, the soldiery and the people would become
Mutually irritated beyond reconciliation, and the question would
lie between popular anarchy and military oppression. We give
this only as one instance in which the foresight of these gentlemen
is a little at fault. We should expect of legislators, who are so
determined in their opinions, that they would look steadily at the
consequences of their measures. We find, however, that they
have looked narrowly enough at one side of the subject, but they
have entirely forgotten the other.- They have devised fames in.
abundance for increasing the -democratic principle in the elections,
but they have forgotten entirely the: methods of preventing its ex-
cesses; and their neglect in providing means to restrain it, would
speedily destroy it altogether. •