The Sun.
London, England, 1827-05-07 00:00:00

time it must be admitted, that as a School, it
may be converted to the most useful purposes,
and may be made of the greatest advantage to
the Metropolis ; especially if it have the good
fortune, when erected, to fall into better hands
than some of those engaged in its for-
mation. But be this as it may, surely
those wild belong to, who wish well to,
and who know the glaring defects which at-
tach to ot_q. present Universities, would be
better employed in looking at home, and in
correcting real evils, than in decrying imaginary ones.
—lf they think that, by abuse of the new Institu-
tion, they can conceal or gloss over the corruption
and the errors of the old ones, they arc much mis-
taken. What is it which, among other causes, has
mainly led to the establishment, and above all to
the title which has, we think, absurdly been given
to the former, but the strong conviction that the
enormous expellee, the dissolute habits, and the un-
bending exclusiveness of the latter, shut out the
sons of prudent parents from any participation in
them ? And is it, we would ask, by seeing Heads
of Colleges heading Election Committees—is it by
seeing what should be the peaceful abodes of science
converted into the arena of party politics, and selfish

contests for place—is it by seeing holy men as on
the last of these occasions, first press the 'Word of
God to their lips, and then throw it away in disdain
—is it by witnessing a zeal upon such occasions,
equalled only by their lukewarmness towards their
real duties, that mankind will be taught to respect
and value Institutions which possess within them,
if rightly, honestly, and faithfully directed, the seeds
and the means of accomplishing ten thousand times
more real good, than the present evils, great as
they are, which they unfortunately occasion ? And
is the elective franchise of much use, when its result
is only to eulogise and consecrate errors, which it
ought to be its first object to correct ?-511orning
Herald.

The imputations of inconsistency and tergi,
versation, which, during the last week, have been
thrown out against the London Press, however
well deserved by some of our Contemporaries,
are in no degree applicable to us, or to those
Journals which have participated in our princi-
ples. There are, among us, papers, whose chief
aim seems to be, to invent pretexts for calum-
niating, and vilifying whatever is rendered by
station or merit most worthy of respect.—
Whether an old palace was to be demolished, or
a new one erected, either event was, alike, to be
made the theme fir aiming the coarsest insults
and calumnies at the Throne. For such men to
affect now to rally round their Sovereign, and to
vociferate abuse against the individuals who op-
posed themselves, without any good reason, to
the just exercise of the Royal Prerogative, is,
we admit, ridiculous enough. Their new
horn loyalty savours of the tricks of Punchi-
nello ; and we verily believe, that their praise
is one of the chief causes of the murmurings,
which arc beginning to be heard among some
respectable classes, against the existing state
of Ministerial arrangements. Our case is
totally different. We have always enter-
tained, we still entertain, deserved respect for the
Ex-Ministers. .The Duke of Wellington, Lord
Eldon, and Mr. Peel, are men whom it is im-
possible to replace by persons equally qualified
for their respective offices, or possessing, equally,
the confidence of the country. They arc men
who possess the proud distinction of being so
far above all others, in their respective depart-
ments, that the mere idea of a competitor, who
should affect to rival any of them, is ridiculous.
They had served England long and well ; she
had rewarded theta munificently, by that which
is the best of all rewards—the esteem and confi-
dence of a free people ; her Sovereign had heaped
honours upon them, and made those honours
more valuable, by his personal friendship. Was
it to be expected, that such men should have
deserted their public duties for private pique,
and should have attempted to make their Sove-
reign and his prerogative the tool of their private
cabals ? We condemn such an attempt, as fatal
to the dignity of the Throne, and inconsistent
with the Constitution of England ; and we con-
demn it the more, because it is made by those whom we
should have been the most reluctant to believe capable
of becoming parties to such a proceeding. If, when
his Majesty commanded Mr. Canning to form an
Administration, the seceders had said, " We will
not be your colleagues, unless the majority of the
Cabinet be against the Catholic question ; we will
not be members of a Ministry in which- the prepon-
derance of weight is thrown into the scale that is
adverse to the preponderating sentiment of the
country,"—if they had stated this, or any other
matter of public principle, as a ground of sepa-
ration, they would have pursued a rational course.
We should have weighed the reasons of their con-
duct; and, according as those reasons appeared
to us well or ill founded—(and we scruple not to
admit that we should have had a strong bias in
favour of state reasons, deliberately adopted and
acted upon by men of such sound judgment
and long experience in public life)—we should
have applauded or disapproved. But, no-
thing of this kind happens. Mr. Canning is com-
manded to form a Ministry ; and they, forthwith,
secede. No pretext of public principle is even al-
leged : wilful caprice and childish jealousy are op-
posed to the good of the country, and to the due
exercise of the Royal prerogative. In such a state
of things, the same principles of loyalty to the
Throne and Constitution, and of exclusion of all
petty cabal from the Administration of this great em-
pire,which made us warm friends of Lord Liverpool's
Ministry, and caused us to admire and venerate the
very men who seem to us now to have deviated from
the maxims of their former life, inspired us, neces-
sarily, with the most earnest wishes for Mr. Can-
ning's success. He was the selected organ for the
exercise of the Royal prerogative ; and, in making
such a selection, the King had followed the general
voice of the country. On what pretext, therefore,
can our support be refused to that Minister, whom
both King and people delight to honour ? Thus,
Mr. Canning unites in himself every claim to pub-
lic confidence which a public servant can have : and
if any shall oppose him, merely because some of his
former colleagues have seceded from him, they must
be false to principles, though they may delude them-
selves with the idea of being true to individuals.—
, New Times.
of

FERNANDO PO.-Every officer who has
visited the Coast of Africa, expresses the greatest
surprise at the erroneous opinion that we in
England have formed of the Island of Fernando
Po, situate in the 'Bight of Benin—said to be
chosen as our future principal African Colony.
The favourable opinion imbibed has been prin-
cipally formed upon au article written by a gen-
tleman of great experience in African matters,
and inserted in a late number of the Quarterly
Review. The island is described to us as being'
remarkably unhealthy, profusely covered with ve-
getation, and liable, from the surrounding high
lands, and its own altitude, to be continually
visited with tornadoes, and is enveloped in un-
wholesome miasma. It does not contain a single
harbour, and scarcely even an anchoring ground.
It is inhabited by about 10,000 people, of the
most savage and desperate character, who are
proverbially inimical to any intrusion on their
ground, on the part of Europeans, no one ever
having gone beyond the beach, without having a
spear thrown at him. A fort may be built by
force, but the garrison must never expect to go
beyond the pallisades.—Hants Telegraph.