The Sun.
London, England, 1842-07-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLICJOURNALS

nom THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.—Were. we to transfer to our columns the
tirades of abuse which the Tories, by their press,
metropolitan and provincial, direct against Sir
Robert reel ana the principal Members and measures
of his Government, but little space would be left us
for matters of fact, or opinions upon other subjects.
Still, it is not unimportant, in a public point of view,
to place on record the estimation in which the Go-
vernment is held by its own party. Opinions of de-
clared opponents may be suspected of prejudice. It
may be objected to the journals of Opposition, that
their endeavours to damage the Government by de-
preciating its Chief and denouncinF his policy, are all
in the regular course of party warfare—the repetition
of what is invariably urged against every Government
by its opponents. But no such objections can be urged
against the organs of the party with which the Go-
vernment is Identified---by which it was raised to
power, for the purpose of carrying out certain prin-
ciples to which it was considered pledged to the
country ; and on the, faith o which pledg,te it was
enabled to supplant its predecessors. Nor will it
serve the purpose of the very few thick-and-thin sup-
porters of the GoiTrnment to allege that the number
of the Tory journals which assail Sir Robert
Peel and arraign his policy, are few. 'The contrary
is the fact. The greater portion of the Metropo-
litan Conservative Press has Inveighed with bitter-

ness against the measures of the Government, as at
variance no less with public opinion and the public
weal, than they are with the implied, or expressed
terms on which it was raised to power. Nor can it
he pretended that the public Press does not express
the opinions and feelings of the public. The charac-
ter, and consequently the success, of every public
journal necessarily rests on public confidence, Those
who read it confide in it, either as faithfully reflect-
ing the opinions they have already formed, or as the
faithful record of facts and the fair and candid expo-
nent of principles, by which they may form a judg-
ment of the policy of the Government to which has
been confided the affairs of the country. If, then,
the Conservative Press is found almost universally
denouncing a Government professedly Conservative—
if its measures be therein repudiated, as founded alike

in mistaken notions of what is.requireel for the public
weal, and in a' policy opposite to that which those
very statesmen advocated when candidates for office,
this disruption of the ties which are essential to union
between the Ministry and that party in the nation
which constituted it a Government cannot fail to be
a source of weakness, and finally of ruin. Whether
the Government be pursuing a wise or unwise course
of policy, is not now the question in issue. The opi-
nion formed of its measures by the great body of the
community may be right or wrong ; but as every
Government in this country must depend on public
opinion for support, if that support be withdrawn, it
falls, in obedience to the laws of the system of which
it is a party and to which it must be obedient.
STANDAnD.—in the House of Lords, Lord
Ashley's Bill was read a second time, after a long
debate, in which the various modifications of the mea-
sure were canvassed, but its principle resisted by
none except Lord Radnor and the Marquis of
Londonderry. Lord Radnor, wisely assuming
that children of the most tender age are free
agents, objected to interfere with an unbounded
liberty on their part. Lord Londonderry scarcely
offered any reasons for his opposition. Lord
Wharncliffe, while voting for the. Bill as altered,
'complained that the House of Commons had
carried the measure through from an im-
pulse of humanity It would be waste of time
to reply to Lord Radnor's idle babble about
the free agency of infants apprenticed to the mine at
the age of five, six, seven, and eight years • but we
would ask his Lordship where, among the labouring
classes, has there existed any free agency since thepass-
ing of his loved New Poor-law? What labourer is there
that can choose his work or his employer, or make
terms with those for whom he works ? The work-
house-test puts an €nd to all free agency. Lord
Wharncliffe 's complaint of too ready a submis-
sion to humanity on the part of the House of Com.
mons, is a complaint to which that House has not
often, laid itself open, and therefore it may be the
more easily submitted to. We think, however, that
Lord Wharncliffe has certainly some reason to corns!
plain ; he is an extensive coal-owner, and it is no
doubt an annoyance to him to see the mill-owners
of the House of Commons indulging in humanity at
his expense. The mill-owners are in the House of
Commons, the coal-owners in the House of Lords—
facts which may account for the oscillations of hu-
manity between the two assemblies, as factories or
mines may happen to be the subject of consideration.
It is a humiliating exhibition ; but humanity will
be the gainer in the end by the alternations in its
favour.

•
FORTUNATE ESCAPE.—On the afternoon of Tues-
day last, as Captain Ogilvie and Lieutenant de Winton, of
the 2d Regiment of Life Guards, stationed at Windsor, were
proceeding in a single horse chaise from the Cavalry Barracks
to the Slough station, the horse, which was an exceedingly
high-spirited and valuable animal, took fright, just after pass-
ing through the turnpike-gate between Eton and Slough, and
set off at a tremendous pace. Lieutenant de Winton, who was
driving. was thrown out, and Captain Ogilvie being thus left
in the chaise alone, jumped into the road, neither of
them, fortunately, sustaining the least injury. The horse,
finding himself under no control, turned rour.ci just at the foot
of Arbour-hill, and galloped back at the rate of twenty miles
an hour towards Windsor. Two men, who were stand-
ing at the turnpike, seeing the horse returning at full speed
with an empty gig, immediately closed the gate just before the
horn' came up, with the intention of preventing further mis-
chief. The horse, however, perceiving this " move," then
swerved a little to the right, and leaped over the fence, five feet
in between the toll-house and the gate-post. Such was
the height the horse leaped that the end of the shaft struck the
arge lamp, shivering it to atoms, which was fixed against the
house at least twelve feet above the road. The horse got coin-
p'etely through the erection, composed of strong timbers and
crow-bars, at the side of the gate, clearing himself, from the
force with which he was proceeding, completely from, the
chaise, which was It ft on the other side broken, as may be sup.
cet4r:t,tety into vic eei. aticl a I.,ericrs.: wrecl;. The here,
c.hicti: fell the mowent. Le had cleared the gate, is roach injered
rowt t:eri,,zov i,rnipr 5 o;,,,tit the legs avid atal
it' was with great difficulty it could proceed to its stables at
Windsor the same afternoon.