The Sun.
London, England, 1827-12-10 00:00:00

have been from the first any other than a watching
opposition, or bow could they gradually sink into an
opposition of this description, against a Ministry
which, from the first moment of its creation, pro-
claimed its intention to be utterly torpid and in-
active; against a Ministry so constituted as to
baffle every attempt to conjecture upon what
principles it would be most likely to govern;
against a Ministry which enveloped itself in mys-
terious negations, which had no measures to
propose, no principles to divulge—which trembled
at nothing so much as at the voice of its own cham-
pions, and which, before the face of the Legisla-
ture, had just the degree of energy and courage to
enable it to implore that Legislation for a time
might cease. Men of honour and spirit cannot
strike, they can only watch an adversary who re-
fuses to sta►►d up; and the Coalition Ministry
wisely chose to remain prostrate. The Reviewer,
after Itriefly reverting to the Whig coalition with
Lord North, and the more recent coalition of the
Fox and Grenville parties, notwithstanding the ex-
istence of many important difficrences of opinion,
proceeds to say, " It would be very difficult, how-
ever, in the present case, to find a subject upon
which the new Allies did not agree. Catholic
Question, Currency, Free Trade, Judicial Re-
form, Foreign Policy, South American Inde-
pendence, ►n all these they had for years
fought side by side." Here is a rare cluster of as-
sertions, every one of which is false. The Whigs
had fought side by side with their Tory colleagues
upon the questions of Currency and Free Trade, just
as much as with Lords Liverpool, Bathurst, and
Melville. They had fought side by side with them
on the subject of Judicial Reform scarcely so much
as with Lord Eldon and with Mr. Peel. They had
fought side by side with them upon certain ques-
tions of foreign policy, that of South American In-
dependence, being one, just as much and in the same
way as they had fought side by side with the
Marquis of Londonderry. Their fighting side by
side, in all these instances consisted in urging
the premature adoption of measures, and in arro-
gating to themselves the whole .merit of them,
when the proper season to adopt them arrived.
With respect to the Catholic Question, the case is
somewhat different. The: new. allies had many of
them fallen into one sommon error upon this sub-
ject. It might have been thought an honest error;
and from the great importance of the subject, it
might have been deemed capable even of serving as
the bond of an honest union among the men who
bad adopted it; but to this charitable construction
of their union it was above all things requisite, that
its purpose and tendency should appear clearly fa-
vourable to the Catholic ClaiMs.
,Does the Coali-
tion then, in any respect, fulfil this indispensable
condition ? It is manifest that it does not. The
Ministry is bound, by the very terms of its
existence as a Ministry, to abandon and, betray the
Catholic Cause, and in - doing so to degrade the
character of public men generally in the estima-
tion of the public, and to subvert the principle,
and attach everlasting ridicule to the idea of
Ministerial responsibility. Neither is it so diffi-
cult, as the Reviewer has thought proper to as-
sert, to find a subject upon which the " New
Allies" expressly differ ; and one not only
of the greatest importance in itself, but .of
such a nature that the opinion entertained by any
man upon it can scarcely fail to influence very ma-
terially his opinions upon all subjects of practical
policy. We do not here allude to any of the thop-
sand and one schemes of Parliamentary Reform, but
to the more general question out of which the whole
of them have sprung, whether the influence of the
Crown in the House of Commons is or is not at the
present moment too great. Upon this question we
may surely venture to assert, that all the Whigs in
Administration hold one opinion, while the opposite
opinion is held as strongly by all the Tories—that
is, of course, upon the supposition that the indivi-
duals,
of whom we are speaking, ever had an opi-
nion which they now think worth holding.—Morn-
ing Post.