The Sun.
London, England, 1828-10-21 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE LONDON JOURNALS.

Lord Nugent has published a letter to his consti.
thetas of Aylesbury, on the formation of Brunswick
Clubs, which is, in our mind, calculated to excite a
strong interest, and to produce at this moment much .
benefit to the cause of liberty, peace, and political
justice: lino arguments can be found in defence of
an injured people but such as have already been urged
upon the attention of ignorant or ungenerous men,
without that effect which has invariably flowed from
them-when addressed to the understandings of the in-
telligent and upright, the reproach does not rest with
the subject itself, or with those who reiterate their
appeals upon it to the community, but ought to fall
upon the ears which hear not, and the eves which
will not see. At a time when the legislatiVe and
executive powers of the country require to be strength-
ened at home, that they may not wither beneath the
diversified assaults of foreigners, the Cumberland
Clubs meditate,' and almost profess, no object but
that of fettering the hands of Government, and depri-
ving it of all free action upon one great measure of
fundamental and enduring policy ; and that the very
measure upon which hangs the question of national
tranquillity, or of civil war. At a time, also, when
contemporary States—those States with which the
British emrffre is brought by local or moral causes
into more immediate and more anxious contact, - than
with arty others on earth,—when the new world from
north to south is alive with liberty, and when our
assest neighbours—namely, France and Holland--
have illustrated the most sacred principles of good
government by institutions the most protective of
the rights of conscience, and the most subservient to
those great ends in which all subjects of one Sove-
reign have a common and indefeasible interest—this
accursed spirit of grasping monopoly, under the
guise of bigotry, redoubles its foul exertions, to de-
grade Old England front her glorious eminence
above even the noblest of enlightened and still.im-
proving nations, into a sympathy with the meanest,
and an equality with the most barbarous and rude.
If such persons as the Duke of Newcastle and Lerd
Winchelsea believe their own noisy asseverations—
that the Constitution in its . present state is
" perfect"—that the - Parliament is "perfect," as
a Representativeof the people--which term, with
the owner of half a dozen boroughs, invariably means
the " Aristocracy," if, we say, these Tory Nobles
men tell truth,—if they are not hypocritical and de-
ceitful knaves, when they assure us that we have a
Constitution which cannot be amended, and a Par-
liament which needs no reform, why can they not
leave that admirable Constitution to take care of it-
self, and that unmendable Parliament to enact or re-
peal whatever laws may seem best to its consummate
purity and wisdom ? Why give the .broad lie to
their beautiful panegyrics, by calling for this
new Club-law as a rider upon the Constitution,
and bridling their own Parliament by a Cumberland
police ? We trust and pray that the monstrous
violence projected against the sound arid venerable
Constitution of England by aset of madmen, as little
conversant with its solid principles as- with its prac-
tical defer ts, may on Friday next receive from the
men of Kent a rebuke so absolute and signal, as to
discourage all future efforts to 'imitate the wild -ex-
ample. We do earnestly adjure, in the precious
name of patriotism, every enlightened and honest
inhabitant of that fine county, the classic ground of
England, to canvass, and persuade, and accompany,
as many of his friends as he can draw together on
the appointed day. One of the most illustrious of
the Peerage, Lord Camden, the generous and noble-
minded Lord who first gave up an enormous income
and next a long-cherished prejudice for conscience
sake—Lord Camden, we rejoice to hear, will en-
courage the friends of civil liberty by his presence
on Penenden-heath next Friday ; and as we know
him for more than thirty years to have aananly heart
within him; we can answer for it that Lord Camden •
will not flinch from any duty which even the outrage
of others, if outrage be intended, may impose upon
him. There arc several noblemen besides Lord
Camden, and innumerable gentlemen, with property
ni Kent, Lord Darnley in the foremost rank of
them, whore attendance will be demanded on that
trying occasion by their country. No decision can be too
early, no determination too resolute, no resistance too
uncompromising whereby to mark the utter abhorrence
of all thinking Englishmen for the plot against re-
ligious liberty, which its authors have threatened to
execute on Friday the 24th of October. The Dis-
senters are appealed to by some of our cotemporm les,
as having a peculiar obligation to fulfil by their as-
sembly on ,Penenden-heath. Of course, if the
sewers exhibit a lukewartuness to the interests of
that cause, on behalf of which they clamoured so
loudly when it was their personal concern, they will
show themselves equally an ungrateful and ignomini-
eussrace. But our call is made upon the members qf
ie aural of England and her advocates. It is as
eager-children of that revered and admirable parent,
that we beseech our own brethren to move forward
one and all for her security. It is -indeed, as devoted
members of the Established-Church, that we have
chiefly—we had almost said exclusively—advocated
and pressed the necessity of Catholic emancipation.
The Church of England never can be safe, while she
is regarded by seven millions of the King's subjects
as their selfish and only persecutor. The Church
cannot hope for that peace, without which she can
never flourish, while the whole empire is disturbed
by the cries of one-third of its subjects for a redress
of grievances alleged to originate with her. The
Church of England established in the sister island is
there endangered by the unnatural league of Catho-
licZtulii o
laymen with the Catholiepriesthood,—a league of
which the implied condition,if it-endure much longer,
th
breake A s sdoot
will be unquestionably this-" 1391 Y-
tor will say to the hierarchy," 613
the monopoly of civil power, and we will attack, for
your sakes, the monopoly of the established
church." Hasten, then,—we conclude with -
ploring the Protestants of England—hasten, by
Lie
talisman of emancipation, to dissolve this terrible
alliance. Invite the Catholic gentleman to his share
of the constitution, and the priest will soon be sent
about his business. Thus, while emancipation is
withheld from Ireland, there exists a power whiCh
threatens to assault the established church, and the
moment .of granting that great boon will be the
commencement of an union between .all classes of
laymen to undermine the Romatt Catholic hierarchy.
It is, it, the mean time, curious and satisfactory
to
observe the gradual weaning of the very fiercest
Orange leaders in Ireland from- the bad cause which
they have hitherto _lived only to promote. Lord
Gort has half read his recantation at Limerick, an-
"(mincing, in language not equivocal, that he ap-
proves of a bill of emancipation, which be under-
stands the King's Ministers to have actually pre-
pared,
as one which will be likely to satisfy both Pro-
testant and Catholic. We might, perhaps, look
with some suspicion . at any measure of relief to
Catholics which 'an old Orangeman like Lord Gort
would applaud. But be that as it may, the Cum-
berland-Kent-me" must now perceive that.their new
Club-scheme is nothing better than to devour the
stale garbage which the more decent of even their
Irish colleagues arc rejecting,---Times.
We have already alluded to the extraordinary ex-
ertions of the Brunswickers in Kent to obtain a ma-
jority at the meeting at Maidstone, on Piiday text.
It is understood that a rumber of Peers and distin-
guished Commoners, opposed to the object of the
meeting, will attend ; and that an Amendment to
the Resolutions will he moved by the Marquess of
Camden, and seconded by Earl Darnley. Among
those who intend to be present at the meeting and
to oppose the Resolutions, besides the above Noble=
men, are Lords Holland, 'natter, Jersey, Cowper,
Sondes, Radnor (late Lord Folkstone), Ashburn-
ham, Teynhavo ; and Messrs. Bating, Calcraft, and
A. Smith. It is natural_ to infer, when the
Brunswickers had their choice of all England
for a commencement, they had their particular rea-
sons for beginning with Kent. In planning an
invasion, the points most favourable for attack
will nsturally be selected ; and 'where a ;General
has the choice of his field of battle, he will naturally
occupy the ground most favourable for himself, and

' least favourable forhiS. opponent. We may presume,
therefore, that the Cumberland Council saw advan.
tages in opening their campaign ie Kent which they
did nut perceive elsewhere. This is allowing them
only to possess the most ordinary foresight. Whether
this anticipation of success is flattering to the County
of Kent, is a problem not very difficult of solution.
The circumstances which determined the Bruns-
wickers to begin with Kent, were probably the po-
sition of its towns, which are mostly situated. at its
extremities, along the river and coast. It contains,
too, a large proportion of the Church Militant in
Canterbury and Rochester, and the two Chapters:
of these cities must possess considerable influence.
A very great proportion of the county is without
great towns, and has little communication with the
busy world. These, probably, have been the cir-
cumstances which determined the bigots to select
Kent .0 their first attempt. Their zeal has, ac-
cording to all accounts, been very great ; while we
are sorry. to say that of the Liberals haS been less
marked, and we need not remtuk that mere speeches
will not serve to counterbalance numerical force.
We trust the liberal men of Kent, of whom there
must be numbers, will see the necessity of making
a sacrifice to rescue the county from the compliment
intended for it by the selection of the Brunswickers.
It is well known tha the great towns (and in every
country intelligence and independence are chiefly to
be fennd in the great towns) are hostile to the Bruns•
wickers,. in the proportion of 6 to I. We may,
therefore, say that the Brunswickers can only hope
to succeed in agricultural districts, where the aristo-
cracy and clergy bestride an ignorant and prejudiced
peasantry , When,an appeal is made to
ignorance and prejudices, remote and inaccessible
places are usually selected. Thus, during the Re-
volution, La Vendee and Briton), were selected for
insurrection, as being the provinces most distin-
guished for stupidity and ignorance. Thus, in the
Rebellions of 1715 and 1745, the Highlands of Scot-
land were selected for a similar cause. No doubt the
BrUnswickers•hope that the Wealds of Kent, having
little intercourse with the rest of the country, will
be to them, on this occasion, another Vendee, and
enable greedy and persecuting High Churchmen and
mercenary Tories, availing themselves of the slavish
dependants and ignorant louts, abounding in that
" prostration of the will and understanding" which
his Grace of Canterbury so much extols, to trample
on the rights of their unfortunate fellow-countrymen,
and continue a system of persecution disgraceful to
the age aud the British name. Surely the liberal in •
habitants of Kent, notwithstanding their distance from
the place of meeting, will not hesitate to make the
sacrifice now demanded of them, but flock to the
scene of action, to baffle bigotry counting on their in-
action. Do not let- it be hereafter said, that Kent
is the most bigotted, prejudiced, and priest-ridden
county of all England. Those men who have con-
stantly Reformation and Protestant principles in their
mouths are strangers to the spirit of the Reforma-
tion, they are Catholics in their heart. They seek
to wound Protestantism by representing it as unable
to protect itself without the aid of penal laws. Their
Protestantism is tithes—their Reformation principles
are fat livings. It is a base and selfish juggle. They
regard not at what expence of national honour and
national prosperity they carry:their object.—Morn-
ing Chronicle. -

Some of our contemporaries are expressing un-.
bounded joy at the sudden fall in the price of corn.
The Courier is in raptures—,even our sensible
friend, the Standard, is overjoyed—the Globe is
quite inebriated with delight--and all the small fry
of London politicians are (lancing attitudes to the
tune of declining prices. This, in our opinion, is
Most melancholy mirth, not that cheap corn is an
evil verse, but that the cause of its apparent cheap-
ness is produced by• nay thing but gratifying cir-
cumstances. For the last few seasons the farmers
have been repaid for their toil by little else than the
curse of Adam—the sweat of their own brows.
This season they have had a deficient crop, and they
' were entitled to a rise in price corresponding with
this deficiency. This, however, it is now plain,
they 1011 not enjoy. And for what reason? - Gold
is going out of the country—Mr. Peel's Bill is
coming into operation—they are poor, and cannot
hold their stocks—the bankers are circumspect, and
cannot favour them ‘vith advances--consequently;
the price of corn must fall, and a panic ensue.--
-Within the last few days the following quantitieS of
coin and bullion have been shipped for the Conti-

' of Magisttates, interested in all probability in the
subject before them, shall shut out the -Very peti-
tioners themselves from hearing the discussion and
decision oh their own complaint ? Even the Middle-
sex Justices, those proverbial models of polity,-have
;abolished the practice of discussing the public con-
cerns of the county with dosed doors ; tui• example
which we regret to see the Magistrates of a neigh-
bouring county so slow to follow. How often must
we impress upon all whom it may concern that public
affairs are piddle property ; and that truth, honour,
and honesty, have nothing to conceal ?—/bid,
A few days ago we gave some extracts from a fur-
ther Report of the Commissioners appointed to in-
quire into the state of the law in Demerara, Berbice,
and our South American Colonies; and there were
three or four points in them- which may be usefully
brought - back to the recollection of our readers,
without any very particular remarks to accompany
them. First, it appears, that where the crime of
for goy has been proved, it is " discretionary ?' in
the Court whether or not such offence shall be pu-
nished " capitally ;" -and the Commissioners, with
much unsophisticated simplicity, add, that the offence
appears to be there punishable with "much less"
Severity than in England. ; Secondly, the laws of
those Colonies make a married woman responsible
for the crimes she may commit, though committed
in the presence and under the influence of her hus-
band. Thirdly, in Demerara and Berhice there are
regulations respecting imprisoned debtors that might
be usefully adopted nearer home. At Demerara the
imprisoned debtor must be supplied with one guilder
per diem fiw his maintenance, to be paid by the cre-
ditor at whose suit the party is imprisoned--and at
Berbice the imprisoning creditor must pay. the ex-
pease of supplying in the prison a separate apart-
' went for the debtor. Without pretending to say
that our Slave Colonies have arrived at a higher de-
gree of moral excellence than the mother country,
there may be those who think that- such regulations
are somewhat salutary checks on the occasionally
vindictive feelings of disappointed creditors, who, let
it always be borne in mind, have had the option to
give credit or not to give credit. Comment on the
difference between the laws of two parts of the same
kingdom, on- the same important question, may be
unnecessary ; only the calamitous reflection is, that the
balance of opinion in all Christian, and consequently
humane and just minds, is not unlikely to be rather
against the parent . country. And, fourthly, as if
the humiliation resulting from the contrast between
the two countries, obeying the same Sovereign,
were not sufficievaly striking, then comes a little
. commentary for the benefit of those sensitive per-
sons who are so alive to the sufferings of The
blacks, but who breathe 110 censure regarding even
the imaginary wrongs of the whites nearer home.—
The same report tells us that -even in the slave
workhouses the healthy parties are only required to
work from six to nine, then to have one hour for
breakfast ; then to work till one, when there is cote
hour for dinner; and, having worked from two till
five o'clock, he day's work is finished. Let these
four points be fairly considered, and if they be duly
investigated, and if the condition of our own la-
bourers and peasantry—saying nothing of the Cre-
ditor and Debtor Laws—he duly remembered, can
it be said that we have not much to do at home ?
Ibid.