The Sun.
London, England, 1819-10-26 00:00:00

FOR 'll-1E hUN.

JoH.v BULL, E3Q.

ER IX.

lioNrsT Jail N-11 rrit!VrS me to find that some
.of your old As.ociates, fel!ows whom I hoped you
bmil sent to 'the right shout, or r4ther to the

urong about, bong since, again requecting the
honour of your -company nn an approaching St.

Monday.

It may, in►ieecd, perhaps be as -well for your
Stealth and pocket, f.: at you slioii!.l spend best
p:►rt of :bat day in tla 7.uen air, instead of slain;
iu the ale-house; hence ►valk to Frinvose.hili,
or to Peckham, would tit>: refused to yoto by
your best friends, cspeci.iLy it you take Mrs.
BULL and the little ones along with you ; but to
Soak hall the morning in Coni:littee rottros oses
Vapid porter, or soul and body ;:estroying
esod thence to proceed to an open hti:tirs;:s where
even more pernicions trash is pumped off by ig-
norance, vanity, and pseudo-patriotism, is to brine
On a consumption of soul, body, and pocket, endan-
gering both the natural and political cons:i!ution,
and rendering it probable that your family will
he presented with an midertaker's bill long be.
tore you and your advisers will he alAe to pr,i-
du,•e a new Bill of Rights better titan what we
now possess.

I grant you, JOHNNY, tb it your principle of
standing up for' your rights, is both honourable
nod useful to you and to the country at large ;
but surely it is first proper to ascertain what these
tights'are, and to guard against being led astray
by those who flitter yon with imaginary ones, in
older to deprive you of those you already enjoy:
uay, if we attempt to enforce rights, or claims
to which we have no right, we shall most !rim
bably be led to the commission of actual wrong !
For wii;it mutt bec•ii,tie of your t-g':ts, if. the
Tights of otht.rs are not respected ? You expect
that the Law which can no longer protect the
rich inan's palace, may yet be preserved in full
force for the protection of the poor ?
But let us reflect, for one moment, upon the
claim of Annual Parliaments and Univeisal Suf-
frage. Annual Parliaments, that is, Parliaments
which transact political business dining the great-
est part of each succeeding year, you already pos..
; kW it yet remains to be proved that these
would be amended by Annual Eiection, instead
of Annual-Septennial Summons. As for Univer-
sal Suffrage, the ihing, even if it were a right,
would heroine useless the moment it might he
grun:ect. IVliet all possess no longer possesses a
specific value. IVlrat is the experienced value of
water or sir, which all may possess without ex-
pence ? Yet both become invaluable, when re-
stricted in quantity. What, in fact, world be-
come of the British Constitution, if, instead of
being placed under the specific guardianship of
certain number of voters, who always contrive
throw a sufficient quantity of Opposition spirit
into a House, actuated by pi ide, prejudice, party,
and patriotism to do so, it were to be given up to
the guardianship of all—of an ALL who, in the
universality Of the trust, should lose all stimulus
•to action from their private feelings, and conse-
quently become prepared to act as the tools of the
political villain, or so benumbed in public spirit
as to sit with their hands in their otherwise empty
pockets, and sink inactive under the ruins of a

mighty empire ?
But tvhat right have you, JonNNY, to Universal
Suffrage and Annual Padiaments ? It is possible,
and no more than possible, that you might obtain
atid maintain them for a short time, by the appli-
cation of " physical force "—but where is the right
vhich you claim ?
There can be but two sorts of rights—those of
nature, and in sncicty. Now what have Parliaments
or votes to .do with the first ? In fact, JOHNNY,
you might- weir talk of a natural right to a well-
done beefsteak To the steak itself you might
have a natural right in a mere state of nature, if
there were cattle and you could catch them ; but
as to the cookery, that is an artificial arrangement,
which you must exercise yourself, or go with-
out ; for the moment you persuade, or force any
other individual to cook it for you, the state of

nature ceases, and you are in society.
But then, in society, rights can only exist as
Eloptt d by circumstance, and sanctioned by cus-
tom, or settled by agreement, and maintained by
effective power. To all these things, whethe •
preexistent to, or cu-existent with, your entrance
into, and passage through, life, you become a tacit
sii!)scriber, whilst you avail yourself of the advati-
:4::::s of that society or share its protection. But
thlt does not give you a right to overturn what-
ever• suits not your fancy, no more than you have a
ri,r,ht to conspire against the laws of a country in-
to which yon enter• voluntarily.
In short, JoiINNY, generation' are interlocked;
Mod therefore ail things arc so itrterknit together,