The Sun.
London, England, 1842-06-20 00:00:00

Zilttob Ibttu

SL7C-OFFICE, Seem o'Cloch.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
GLOBE.—The debate and division on the Ballot,
which is to be brought before the House of Commons
to-morrow by Mr. Ward, will, under existing cir-
cumstances, excite more than ordinary attention. If
the sukeet, from the frequency with which it has
been debated, preclude the possibility of novelty in
argument, the arguments which its advocates will
again employ for the purpose of urging its adoption
on the Legislature, will be clenched by the more
powerful energy of facts. The mode by which a
large proportion of the, Members of the House of
Commons obtained their seats at the last election
is now so notorious—the evidence which has estab-
lished bribery and other corupt practices, in
nxiny cases, and the generally-admitted em-
Til;•yment of similar influences in more, have established
conviction in the great bulk of the community,
that a pure constituent body cannot exist with
open voting. The desire for the former, which
:all profess to feel, naturally implies an applica-
tion of the means best calculated to secure the latter.
The former opponents of the Ballot, if they persist
in their opposition, are now emphatically called upon
to propose a better protection to the franchise than
that which the ballot-box would supply. The old
.pretence, that to look for perfection in any system
.33 futile, and that the present mode of voting " works
well," cannot longer prevail. The present system,
it is now admitted on all hands, works ill. The
appalling scenes which have recently, in numbers
unprecedented, been brought to the view of Parlia-
mehst, and have been exhibited to the public eye in
ih•e reports of its proceedings and those of its. Election
o. -,,mittees, must render it impossible for this cuckoo-
note of the Tories on former occasions to be revived in
the Wining debate. Ridiculous as it was aforetime
in the ,estimation of the country, it would be still
more so .st the present time. A protest would be
found against its use in the numerous reports of the
Election Committees, and in the numerous cases
of alleged corrupt compromise referred to Select Com-
mittees, condemning, with the stern dignity of outraged
truth, the monstrous assumption. The House -of
Comlnons cannot, with its present damaged reputa-
tion, afford to treat the remedy for bribery and cor-
ruption in the election of its Members with the same
indifference approaching to contempt as when the
Ballot was before it in former Parliaments. Every
Member who now opposes the proposed remedy
without introducing a distinct substitute, does all in
his povaer to perpetuate the disease ; and raises a
shrewd suspicion that he is personally interested in
preventing a cure.
STANDARD.—That the seemingly divided con-
dition of the Conservative party in Parliament affords
a ground of triumph to its adversaries cannot be con-
cealed ; and the attempt to conceal the truth, at the
cost of suppressing a fair estimate of the causes of
division, and the proof that these causes are either
contemptible or easily removable, would be the grossest
folly. There is one class of malcontents, calling
themselves Conservatives, whom we anxiously dis-
miss at once—they are the earliest, most active,
and most persevering of all. Sir Robert Peel was
scarcely a day in office before they commenced the
war against him. These are the disappointed expect-
ants of office. For the honour of Great Britain let it
be remembered that this knot of intriguers are
almost exclusively Irish; not, however, the repre-
.sentatives of the strength and intelligence and loyalty
of Ireland—the Protestant, or, if the name is pre-
ferred, the Orange party in Ireland. No, the names
of the Lortons, Farnhams, Verners, Conollys, will not
be found among them, but the lingering remnant of the
old "undertakers "—the faction of no principle, who
have as often betrayed the Protestants of the sister
island as they have made use of them. These dis-
nppointed place-hunters are not formidable in num-
bers, but they are active, and unscrupulous, and
malignant ; they understand perfectly well the policy
of an ill-timed motion, and do not find it difficult to
snake use of a part of the press for their occasions; but
.the whisper of the clubs is their grand resource. We
dismiss these, in the first place, as men whose motives
are deserving of all contempt, as men who have no-
thiag in common with the other dissatisfied Conserva-
tives, and whom it would be an injustice of the worst
ftind to associate with honest and honourable men.
In the next place we may refer to those who are
displeased with the concessions made to Mr. Roebuck
in the matter of election compromises. These are
-.men entitled to respect, first, from the character of
-the greater number of them, above all from the
character of their leader—if Sir Robert Inglis will
allow us to call him so—a character second to none
,in the House. of Commons for ability, integrity, and
stile purest patriotism ; secondly, from their manifest
votive, the love of justice, as they regard justice.
Teese gentlemen are, we think, mistaken ;
the very proofs that are advanced to justify
their discontent satisfies us that they are.
The third class of the discontented has been created
;by the financial measures of the Government. To
this class we willingly concede all that can be claimed
disinterestedness, honour, and patriotism ; but we
omust stil persist in protesting against their anger as
uYrj ust. 'What could the Minister do ? He had a great
a'nd' growing deficit to supply. He had proof that this
could not be supplied by retrenchment or by indi-
rect taxation. The wealth of the country had not
been diminished ; on the other hand, it had enor-
mously, increased, but it had passed into compara-
tively few hands, and they could be reached only
3y a property and income-tax. But to obtain a pro-
porty and Income-tax without a bonus of some kind
wt's hopeless, as the experience of 1816 had shown,
arml the tariff was the only bonus that could be
offes'ed ; but the tariff had the necessary effect of
arraying against the Ministerial scheme the best
feelings of the best men in the country. We
must now come abruptly to that which the Con -
servatives have before them—that on which they may
unite, and force the Minister to what we are sure
must be his own inclination—a great amelioration of
the New Poor-law. If they do not act together upon
this question there will he an end to all pretext for
complaint that the Minister does not consult the
principles of his party ; for surely it is necessary,
to the justice of such a complaint that the party
prove itself to have some principles in common. Never-
theless, here we have Conservatives—men, we doubt
not, of conscience and honour so wedded to the system
of discipline and centralisation, as even to condemn
'before hand the slight amelioration promised by
.the Home Secretary; for it is to condemn even
these slight ameliorations to eulogise the present
law as the Member for Droitwich has eulogised it.