The Sun.
London, England, 1842-05-25 00:00:00

pieces by its own weight,_apd he,_adds_to _tgli:j
heaviness to make it last the longer. A system k
loudly censured for its oppression, and he makes it
more odious, in order to ensure its continuance. Par-
liamentary error's are provoking a revolution, and he
wilfully multiplies them, adding to the general irritation
which exists, in order to put a stop to change. If
we may take Mr. KNIGHT as a type of his party, we
must conclude that they are already overtaken by that
loss of intellect which is said to be the precursor of
annihilation.

Their leader's language and conduct predicate
like Mr. KNIGHT'S avowals, a thorough demoraliza-
tion. He has lately exerted himself to pass a law to
limit and curtail the supply of bread. His Corn-law
is a totally new law, and its essence is to keep food
away from the people. The night before last, how •
ever, he expatiated on the necessity of looking out
for a wider area for a supply "of food." He had a
deep conviction that population was increasing more
rapidly, he said, than the supply "of cattle." He
told his agricultural friends, that justice to the cone
smilers, required increased facilities for the admission
of food. And having laid down these important
truths, he acts in direct opposition to them. He
prevents corn from coming freely in which we can
get from the wide area" of the world, but he gra-
ciously permits cattle to be imported at a high duty,
which, he consoles his agricultural friends by assuring
them, can only be obtained from very limited spaces,
and at such an expense of importation asto preclude
them from coming in in any great quantities. The
true protection of the horned cattle interest, he as-
serted over and over again, is to be found in the
expense of importing cattle. To meet the exigency
of a deficient supply, which he acknowledges, he
permits the importation of cattle, which he says can-
' not be brought in, and he passes a law to keep out
corn, which can. He strives, therefore, to keep out
the supply of corn, which the course of nature show,
can be obtained, and he mocks us by permitting the
importation of a supply of cattle, which he knows
cannot in the nature of things come in. Justly and
properly did Mr. VILLIERS stigmatise this attempt
to cheat the people by vague words.
It is customary for the Radical or Liberal party to
compliment Sir ROBERT PEEL on his good intentions.
We heard Mr. HUME, the night before last, say he
believed that the Right Hon. Baronet was convinced
in his heart of the necessity of giving the people free
trade, but he could not carry out his views, because
he was obstructed by Hon. Gentlemen behind him.
If Sir ROBERT PEEL, have an honest and sincere con-
viction of the necessity of establishing free trade, he
could give effect to his conviction to-morrow. He
is the master of his party. He has no such conviction.
He is a mere expediency politician, with no honest
convictions whatever, but with a strong determination
to keep in office. If he have such convic-
tions, it is a disgrace to him not to aet
on them ; and of the two characters—the
not having any such convictions, while he uses
certain slang phrases which represent them, and the
having them and not acting on them—the latter is the
more mean, discreditable, and dastardly. By taking,
as we think, a more accurate measure of Sir ROBERT
PEEL, we exonerate him from the charge implied in
the praise of the Liberals, that he knows what is
right, but for the sake of office consents, against his
getter judgment, to injure the country for behoof of
the country gentlemen. .

When we trace such continual contradictions
as we have pointed out, yesterday and to-day,
between the opinions of our statesmen, and be-
tween their language and their acts ; when we
are made sensible, by Mr. KNIGHT'S avowal,
that the whole Conservative party are daily acting,
as it were, a great and living lie, we have traced quite
enough to alarm the country. In all the common
affairs of life, truthfulness, faithfulness, and the
honest use of words in their common and
accepted signification, are essential to success.
Chicanery, delusion, and humbug, are univer-
sally scouted as not only unworthy, but in-
jurious. In common life honesty is not only the
best, it is the only policy. Can public affairs he
carried on successfully on the opposite principle ?
Must a Minister have a double tongue ? May he
use words only to deceive ? he, of all men alive,
exonerated from forming clear and definite convic•
tions, and honestly expressing them ? We answer,
No ; and when we find the affairs of the nation, the
great and solemn business of legislation, conducted as
at present, on principles directly opposed to the prin-
ciples that all men acknowledge in private life, we
may at once conclude that danger and disgrace are
not far off.

Mr. PAKINCTOX, the Member for Droitwich, has given
notice of a motion for extending the provisions of the
London Police Act, as regards the closing of public-
houses, to every other part of the United Kingdom. As
this notice was given before the Public-houses Bill went
through Committee, and that clause to which the Hon.
Member's motion refers had been struck out, we hope he has
given up all idea of forcing such an obnoxious law upon the
rest of the community.. Independent of the great incon-
venience caused to the public by closing up public-
houses at twelve on Saturday night, we have
every reason to believe that the change has in-
creased immorality, and led numbers of worthless people
to establish houses for the illicit sale of spirits, to the
great injury of the fair trader. Over these places the
police have no control ; they can be reached only by
means of informations ; the profits are considerable, and
the keepers of them are thus enabled to bribe persons
who might threaten to bring them before a Magistrate. ,
But the inconvenience caused by such absurd regulations
in London is only trifling compared with that which would
be felt in the country, where licensed victuallers would be
harassed by informations without end. Travellers on Sun-
day would be exposed also to great inconvenience in pro-
curing necessary refreshment during part of the after-
noon, and the whole of the forenoon of that day.
Were any real benefit derived from such a law,
we should be the last to oppose it ; but being
firmly convinced that the evil far overbalances the
good, we call upon the publicans, as well as the people in
general, to get up meetings, and petition the Legisla-
ture against this wanton interference with their business
and mode of living. Tho day fixed for the further con-
sideration of the Report on the Bill is Wednesday, the Ist
of June, when Mr. PAKINGTON, or, failing him, Mr.
PLuateTaß, will probably attempt to attach to it some
such clause as that proposed. The licensed
victuallers have. no small influence at elections;
at the last general election they returned a
great number of Members, and among the rest, the
author of the Bill, Captain lions, and if they fail, there-
fore, to take advantage of their circumstances,
'they hare themselves only to blame. They are
sufficiently restricted already by Police Acts,
and, the licensing system ; their trade, we hear from
many quarters, is worse than it has been for many years;
and were such an infliction as this to be added to their
other burdens, the probability is, that, in a short period,
not a few of them would be bankrupts.

Lord JOHN Russr.u. and Sir R. PEF.r, were exceed-
ingly annoyed on Monday night, because Mr. IlumE told
the House that neither the Tory nor Whig leaders were
sincerely desirous of putting down bribery at elections.
Sir ROBERT PEEL was willing to concur in a measure
for allowing the ATTORNEY-GENERAL to prosecute
electors convicted of the crime of selling their
votes, but with his usual Jesuitical cunning
reserved to himself the right of determining how
far he should go in rendering that measure
effective. Let Lord J. RUSSELL and Sir R. PEEL, say
what they please, the Hon. Member for Montrose is
perfectly right. The wealthy Whig and Tory aristo-
cracy delight in extending bribery, which, by increasing
the expenses of election contests, keep men of limited
means, and nearly all honest men, out of the House of
Commons. No candidate can now presume to stand
for such boroughs as Ipswich, Nottingham, Lewes,
and an hundred more besides. who. is not pre-
pared to spend in bribery, direct and indirect, sums vary-
ing from 2,0001. to 8,000/. This effectually keeps out of
the House of Commons, as the representatives of those
boroughs, such troublesome men as Mr. ROEBUCK, or
such honest men as the Hon. Member for Montrose. It
is, moreover, a sort of guarantee that the Member
„;,,turned is a person more remarkable for his
wealth . than his integrity, and every way quali-
fied for presentation at Court, and a seat at the
dinner-table of the Premier of the day, or the leader of
the Opposition. If the suppression of bribery and cor-
ruption he left to the great Whig and Tory chiefs, they
will flourish while the House of Commons has an
existence. The people must take up the question.
The pure constituencies of the kingdom must no longer
alloW their influence to be swamped by the impure. The
first step to be taken is to pass a Bill for the disfran-
chisement for life of every elector convicted of •:•ecehing
a bribe. No other punishment will carry with it such a
wholesome fear as this. It will be the mark of CAIN by
which his unborn childreni will learn that their father