The Sun.
London, England, 1829-03-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE LONDON JOURNALS.

The Duke -of Newcastle- gave rotice last night,
that "he should move for a call of the House when-
ever the Bill for the Relief of the Catholics Was
brought up to the Lords. Our description of the
Bill is short enougli.but that of Ms Grace was much
less simple. He described It as a Bill for oppressing
and injuring the King; and, as if this were not
wrong enough for the King to suffer, his Grace called
ii-pnq his INLjesty, on his own responcibikte, to judge
whe' her it wise or fitting, &e. This introduction
of the King's responsibility, who is an irresponsible
person by the Constitution, is singular enough.
However, we must leave this matter, from its ek-
treme peculiarity. The Duke of Sussex replied to
the Duke 31 Newcastle with just and proper spirit.

Sir Robert Harry Inglis has addre.setd a letter
to the chairman of his two cemmittees at Oxford
and in London, which letter, we will presume to
say, is worthy alike of the representative and of the
majority by which the Hon. Baronet has been an=
tabled to sit in Parliament for Oxford. " I vnitle)"
says the Baronet, " the result of the elettion) IA re-
cording the high-minded consisteney with which the
great majority of the first University in the world
has refused to listen to every ordinary and sordid
motive of personal interest." .Alack-a-day I the
" high-e:inded consistency" of the " passive obe-
dience" Doctors ! And so they have " refused to
listen to every sordid motive of personal interest,"
—they have listened to .some only, we suppose.
In that case, the " sordid motives" which have
been so unfairly rejected, ought to feel them,.
selves very ill-used, anti indeed have a right of
challenge avainst that more favoured class of
meanness, by which the Hon. Baronet would infer
that the " great majority" of his friends have
been actuated. Again, writes the new member of
the " most intellectual body in England," his elec-
tion records it as their opinion, that the Constitution
of England " ought to he preterved fundamentally
and exclusively Protestant !" Why, when Pros
festa.:tism came first into vogue, the same most ins
tellectual body were quite as willing to put it on
" record," that the Constitution of England ought to
be preserved " fundamentally and exclusively Po-
pish." But, wishing the representative and fhe
electors whom he describes as on), half-governed by
sordid motives a happy honey-moon,--for on a
much longer duration of domestic harmony between
them, he would be rash who reckoned,—we turn to
a topic of infinitely higher import than the Oxford
election, or the Honourable Baronet, though not
quite foreiga to either of them. We conceive
it, then, a dety to crush at once all pretence
for those alleged hopes which some of the more
foolish among the Brunswickers' my
Shave im-
bibed within these two or three days from the
.
rogues who feiglied them, by declaring our posi-
tive conviction that all the arts and all the base-
ness of facion have turned to the signal morti-
fication and discomfiture of their authors. The
King's Ministers are to. a man unshaken; the pro-
mises held out in the King's speech will be-accom-
plished without failur e er delay; the King's sub-
jects, who cry for justice, will be relieved; the
measure of Catholic adjustment—of civil and-rdi-
gious liberty—of British wisdom and of Irish peace
—will be introduced into the House of Commons
next Thursday. That measure will be carried •by
ample majorities in both Houses. That measure
will satisfy all reasonable and upright minds. It
will give largely and secure permanently, and leave
incendiaries on both Bides to burn amidst their own
faggots. We repeat, the Government is resolved,
anti the Parliament and the whole enlightened
portion of the people of England are with it. There
is nothing to fear—all alarms are childish—all panics
despicable. The leaders and dupes of a mischievous
and frantic faction have no resource but idle invec-
tive—no refuge but absolute despair.—lbid.
In the House of Lords, last night, the Duke of
Wellington exposed very happily the inconsistencies
and the affectation of several spiritual and temporal
Lords. The Duke of Newcastle, on giving notice
that he would move a Call of the House on the night
fixed for the introduction of t he measure now in agi-
tation, observed, in his usual extravagance, that he
" should consider the measure as a proposition for
oppressing and injuring the King, and subverting
the Constitution of the country," and that, " if car-
ried, it would be a degradation to themselves, and
an introduction of Popery and arbitrary power into
this country." The Bishop of Bath and Wells, in
a speech that bore not a few traces of an imagination
heated to an extraordinary high temperature, in
which he- would have persuaded his hearers that he
had a strong disposition to martyrdom, improved, if
that is possible, on the Duke cf Newcastle. The
Right Rcv. Prelate, rather unfortunately for him-
self, descended for a moment from his pathetics to
an attempt -at reasoning. " If," said his Lordship,
" instead of deliberating upon the terms of Catholic
Emancipation, the Government would apply its
attention to the improvement of the condi-
tic') of the people of Ireland, by extending the
blessings of education, and placing them higher
in the scale of intellectual being—if they did this,
and produced such an alteration in their political
and social condition as would render it a matter of
wisdom and safety to admit the Catholics to political
power, then he would gladly give his consent to Eman-
cipation ; but until that change was produced, he, in
common with the people of England, was unwilling
to put arms into the hands of those who would pros
bably direct them against the Protestants the first
moment they had an opportunity " A little before
the Right Rev. Prelate had said, " that as the Ca-
tholic religion presented it as a duty, so it must be
' the design of those who professed it to subvert our
admirable Constitution in Church and State." The
Duke of Wellington proved himself, as a logician,
rather heavy metal for the poor Bishop. " The
Right Rev. Prelate (he remarked) in the course of
the observations he addressed to their Lordships,
seemed to be willing to grant Catholic Emancipa-
tion at some future period, when the people of Ire-
land became more enlightened, and more worthy of
political freedom. Now if, according to the creed
of the Right Reverend Prelate, Catholic Eman-
cipation must tend to establish the errors
of Popery over the truths of Protestantism,
he (the Duke of Wellington) wished to know
under what eircemstances of knowledge or of edu-
cation the Right Reverend Prelate was willing to
make the concession—(Hear, hear.) ?—He wished
the Right Reverend Prelate to tell him how the en-
lightening of the minds of the people of Ireland,
and the diffusion of wealth and education, could be
rendered an excuse for Emancipation, if the inevi-
table consequences of that Ernancieation must be
the propagation of the errors of Popery ?" (Hear.)
The poor Bishop was here caught on the horns of a
dilemmn,.and his example ought to be a warning to
Right Reverend Fathers in God not to meddle with
reasoning in those sublime effusions in which they
approach the heights of prophecy, and dwell in
imagination of the glories of martyrdom. We have
heard a sort of .Jesuitical subterfuge from the Me-
thodists, which the poor Bishop might, if he had
been more cunning, have resorted to. They, too,
will grant EmancipatiOn to.the Catholics when they
are enlightened ; but then they, say under the rose,
if ever they are enlightened they will cease to be
Catholics--so that there can be no danger in grant-
ing Catholic Emancipation wheat the Catholics will
all have become Protestants. But the Duke, not
satisfied with this knock-down blow, told the Bi-
shop and the Duke of Newcastle, without any ce-
remony or circumlocution, that " they pretended
to entertain fears of the conseqUences of Eman-
cipation, which every sensible man in the coun-
try ought to know, and did know, were wholly 1
unfounded." Pretended to entertain ! But, then, '
if they skould not be men of sense, which some
people suspect, his Grace Will then admit their im-
becility, and withdraw the charge of insincerity.
His Grace added, . that "he rejoiced most cor-
dially With the Baverend Prelate in the number of
petitions they hatipresented, while they (the people)
are ander the apprehensions—apprehensions which,

he was sorry to say, had been suggested to them.;--
(Hear, hear)—with regard to the intentions of Lois
Majesty's Ministers on this subject," &c. This
wits i'..arrying the matter a little too far. It is, at all
events, a mortifying spectacle to witness so great a
multitude of people in such a deplorable state of
prostration of the understanding,as to be carried away
by the suggestions alluded to. His Grace thinks
too lightly of this, or affects to think too lightly Of
it, In his arguments of the benefit which justice
to the Catholics would produce to the Protestants,
he showed hinsself, hoWeVer, to have a better idea
of Protestantism, than those who lay claim to so
Much sanctity.--11/orsting C'hroniele.
We question if one tithe of the dirty and dis-
gusting frauds proved tt3 be'Se been practised in
getting tip the petitions against further concession
to the Catholics, presented this Session, ever took
place in all the petitions presented to Parliament,
from the beginning of the long Parliament to the
present period. The charge of employing disre-
putable means is fully bottle Wit by the admission
of the Mlstsibefa or both Houses, by whom the peti-
tiohi are presented. Thus, for instance, Mr. Dna-
combe presented last night a petition from Sheffield,
said to be signed by thirty thousand persons. Now
Sheffield, as was observed by Mr. Marshall, at the
last census, contained a population of fifty thou-
sand, and yet the petition bore to be signed by
thirty thousand admit males. Again, it was stated
by Lord Milton, who presented a petition the other
night, agreed to at a public meeting, that of 8,000
persons present at the meeting, there were only
about forty against the prayer of the petition, which
Was signed by upwards of 7,000 persons. The op-
ponents of concession, conscious of their weakness,
thirst not have a public meeting, and their petition
originated in a meeting from which all who were
unfriendly to the object of it were excluded. And
yet those who have had the management of this last
petition would wish to persuade Parliament that there
are 30,000 signatures to it ! But •mark the subter-
fuge. Mr. Duncombe, who assured the House
that nobody had signed the petition who was under
twenty-one years of, age, knew that his thirty
thousand adults, in a population of fifty thousand,
proved rather too much, and admitted that the pe-
tition included the environs of Sheffield, to the ex-
tant of four or five miles. Pet haps Mr. Duncombe
might have extended the range to a dozen miles
with a safe conscience. However, the object was,
no doubt, to create a false impression with respect
to the state of feeling in Sheffield. Burke, in his
Speech on Economical Reform, gives a ludicrous
account of the various characters in which- the King
of England meets you throughout the country—
" Cross a brook, and you lose the King of England;
but you have some comfort in coming again under
his Majesty, though shorn of his beams,' and no
more than Prince of Wales. Go to the North, and
you find him dwindled to a Duke of Lancaster,"
&c. The people of the towns and villages, who
swell the thirty thousand names in Sheffield, will
in good time appear as petitioners from their own
respective places, and probably the pious rsonages
of Sheffield will return the favour by subscribing
again in the country. The end justifies the means.
" It (the petition) had been got up," said ' Mr.
Marshall, " by the Methodist Preachers and the
Clergy, whilst the opposite petition had been
brought forward in an open Meeting, and hall been
signed by seven thousand people. The petition,
now presented had been signed by children, the pri-
soners of gaols, and by vagrant mendicants." What
says Mr.- Duncombe to this ? " The petition cer-
tainly had been sent to the gaol to be signed, but
the signatures obtained there had been afterwards
struck out." Their conscience, we suppose, was a

little enlightened by the animadverainniOn the pm
rice of canvassing felons, which have been made
in Parliament. It was prudent, no doubt, to strike
out the names of the felon-saints ; but what are we
to think of the principles of those who send the
petition to the gaol ? What would men who could
resort to such tricks to deceive Parliament and the
country stick at in the way of dishonesty ? A
petition from Manchester and Salford, to which,
according to General Gascoyne, 22,000 signatures
were attached, drew forth some satisfactory expla-
nations from Sir George Phillips. The township
of Manchester contains a population of 250,000,
and the petition was the elaborate production of a
quarter of a year. " The declaration was got up in
November, and signed by 506 Laymen, and 44 of
the Clergy, calling upon the opponents of Catholic
Emancipation to meet on a certain day. That re-
quisition was met by a counter-declaration, signed by
431 of the first inhabitants of Manchester for pro-
perty, education, and independence. It was true
there were many respectable names attached to the
first declaration ; but in that respect it bore no
comparison with the other persons signing, which
represented four millions of property. Those
who signed the counter decimation, however,
took no further steps, but confided in the wisdom
of Ministers." "As a proof," he added, " that
the petition did not express the sense of the people
of Manchester, he miklit mention, that of the two
subscription rooms—the Portico and the Exchange—
to the former of which were 4,000 subscribers, and
to the latter of which all the respectable people in
the town resorted, only two persons had subscribed
from the first, and only 17 from the last." But if
the pious agents of the petition had no success at
the Portico and the Exchange, they were not dis-
heartened on that account. "It hail been hawked,"
said Sir George, " round the streets by the Church-
wardens and Vestries, and every effort was made to
obtain signatures. On one occasion the Vestry
were requested to take the petition to a school
where there were upwards of 100 children, but the
persons applied to had the good sense to resist that
application. On another occasion it was proposed to
take the petition to the work-house, for the purpose
of obtaining the signatures of the paupers, but this
proposal was also very properly resisted. He men-
tioned these matters, in order to show the kind of
agency resorted to, in order to get up such peti-
tions; and it was not too much to suppose, that in
several cases where a proper resistance was not
made, such efforts were successful. The petitions
had been placed at the doors of Methodist Chapels,
and at Turnpike-gates, and boys and miters were
asked to sign their names; and in cases• where the
parties could not write, other persons signed for
them.—(Rear, bear.) And these petitions are to
influence the Legislature in a question involving the
safety of the empire !—lbid.
It has been truly enough observed, that " an in-
judicious friend is a man's worst enemy." Of these
we suspect that Mr. Peel must have had a good
many ; and that to them he owes the mortification
of defeat under which he is now suffering. There
are those who think that his resignation was
ill-
timed—others that it was altogether unnecessary.
We are, however, among those who think it was a
wise, a just, and heroic act ; such as an honourable
mind would dictate, and a .sound judgment act
upon. But of the Right Honourable Gentleman's
attempt to be immediately re-elected for the same
place we do not entertain the same opinion; but
look upon it as an act of manifest indiscretion, in
which he must have suffered his own better judg-
ment to have been swayed by the toad-eaters whom
men in office have always about them; and whose
constant business it is to flatter, and often to mislead,
Every man posse/sal of aught to give.
That a man of Mr. Peel's understanding should
have allowed himself to be the victim of such
people's deception,and of his own vanity, is rather ex-
traordinary. When the Convocation in the proportion
of five to one, voted their late petition against the
measure which Mr. Peel is about to sanction, what
chance could there be that they would, within a few.
short weeks, recant an opinion so expressed—or
what discretion was there in forcing to so early a
test the consistency of those whom Mr. Peel, above
all men, should not have exposed to such a dilem-
ma? There were hundreds of those, we will ven-
ture to say, that voted against Mr. Peel, who had
no wish to do so; and who regretted, as much as
he now does, that they were compelled to do so.—
But the more painful the task which has been im-