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

Vfiirb Witition

SUN-OFFICE, Seven o' Clock.

-
SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE EVENING PArlaS OF THIS DAY.
GLOBE.—There were two dangers in passing
such a measure as the Reform in Parliament ; one of
which may be deemed to have been surmounted, but
the other still threatens us. The danger which then
appeared most imminent to the opponents, or timid
friends, of the measure, was that its passing would
open the floodgates of unlimited and irresistible
change. That the Reform would not be a " final
measure"—understanding finality in the sense in
which alone honest interpreters ever construed
the expression—i.e. that its principles, and leading
provisions, would not continue to be regarded,
for the ordinary term of things human, as a
settlement of the question professed and intended to
be settled by its passing—and, for the sake of settling
which with some permanence, a large measure was
proposed for adoption. if the statesmen who passed
the Reform had proved unable to resist the urgency of
the movement party for a second Reform Bill, and if
it had proved possible to push through a " Reform of
the Reform Act," by aid of the pressure from without,
we have no hesitation in saying that the greatest dan-
ger would have fallen on the country which alarmists
could anticipate, or revolutionists could desire. We
have been saved from that danger at some expense of
popularity to the statesmen who resisted it, amongst
that class who claimed an exclusive right to the title of
Reformers, because they set no limit to change in the
form of our institutions. But there was another
danger, besides that of reforming too much in one
direction. That, indeed, we believe was the greatest
danger which then threatened us. The " balance
of power" has been treated as a chimera by some
politicians, with whom the fact that any doctrine in
politics, as in morals, was held before Bentham, is
quite sufficient reason for disbelieving it. We conceive
that doctrine expresses an important political truth, and
that it is precisely the destruction of the balance of
powers, and the creation of an absolute power in one
order of the State, which is the danger to be guarded
against most carefully in all organic changes.
Whether the order, to which all power is practically
transferred by such change is'aristocratic or demo-
cratic, we conceive that mischief is only done by the
very fact that an absolute power is created in any
quarter. The question then is, whether giving
up the Reform Bill as no final measure of
organic change—and surrendering the amended Par-
liamentary system to a new Radical remodelling,
would have been, or would not have been, a virtual
avowal that one order was to be absolute in the State,
and that its dictates were to be irresistible by the most
solemn decisions of the whole Legislature. We are
not in the habit of dissembling our views on these
questions, and we say plainly that such an admission
of a second change, on pure democratical principles,
would have been—would be—in our view equivalent
to the most violent revolution which could possibly
take place in any old and established empire.
STANDARD.—Fastidious critics may quarrel
with the style of the Kidderminster operatives ad-
dress, though, as it is much easier to discover faults
than to amend them, such critics might be at a loss
to write better ; and, at all events, the evidence of
strong sense, calm thought, earnestness, and sin-
cerity, the best qualities of any composition, is too
plain in the address to leave any excuse for cavilling
at style. Such an address, proceeding from a
body of 1,367 men, in no very high rank, earning
their daily bread by daily labour, is a gratifying tes-
testimony to the truth of the proposition which we
are proud to have always maintained, whether against
Whig-Radicals, who looked with hope of evil to the
education of the people, or against Conservatives, who
looked with apprehension ; our proposition is, that
all Englishmen, at all times, and in every rank, are
essentially the same—alike benevolent, reasonable,
and just— and that consequently the more they are
instructed, the more strikingly will these noble cha-
racteristics be manifested. The excesses of popular
violence in other countries, and of the very ignorant
in our own, instead of proving that it is dangerous
to educate the labouring classes, really prove the very
reverse. Education is power; and power acquired
by men will be exercised according to their nature.
The very moment you educate an Englishman up
to the point that gives fair play to the understand-
ing, you attach him to the institutions of his country,
because you show him that these institutions are the
best calculated that circumstances will permit for the
moral as well as physical well-being of the whole.
llonce the phenomenon that, with as much party spirit
as exists in any nation, or probably more, England
never gives a deep root for faction. The people love their
country and its institutions, because they love what is
good and just and wise. They may, as all men may,
be perplexed by conflicting theories, as to the best
means of promoting the common prosperity ; and they
may, as well as all men may, be deceived in the cha-
racter and designs of those who claim their confidence ;
hence party spirit, sometimes wrong, often violent.
The intuitive good sense of the nation is, however,
always a sufficient guard against the spirit of faction
to any considerable extent ; and, as in the case of the
Chartist petition, the grossest frauds must be first
committed to entrap the more ignorant into the ap-
pearance of a factious spirit, and equally gross frauds
t) magnify the appearance, when obtained, into any-
thing like a formidable character.

ELECTION COMMITTEES.
(Continued from our Afternoon Edition.)
SOUTHAMPTON.
Mr. Austin having concluded his reply shortly after Three
'Clock, the room was cleared. In three quarters of an hour
strangers were re-admitted, when
The CHAIRMAN. said the Committee had come to the fol-
lowing resolution:—That Lord Bruce and Mr. C. C. Martyn
had, by their agents, been guilty of bribery and treating at
the last election for the borough of Southampton ; that it was
not proved that either Lord Bruce or Mr. Martyn had been
guilty of personal bribery at the said election.
Mr. COCKBURN then called on the Committee to declare the
late election for Southampton null and void.
The CHAIRMAN asked if Mr. Cockburn abandoned the claim
set forth in the petition, that Messrs. Mangles and Hutchins
should be declared elected?
Mr. CocicoußN replied that he thought he could not press
for that point.
The CHAIRMAN then said it would be necessary for the
Committee to frame a resolution, to the effect that those Gen-
tlemen were not elected.
It was then announced that the Speaker was at prayers, and
the Committee adjourned till to-morrow.