The Sun.
London, England, 1827-06-06 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Whitsuntide recess having lasted but two
days, both Houses of Parliament will meet again
this evening. Ministers, anxious, no doubt, for
an opportunity of applying their undisturbed at-
tention to those great interests, foreign and do-
mestic, which still remain but imperfectly pro-
vided for, will push forward the residue of the
public business as expeditiously as may be found
compatible with the manoeuvres of the Opposi-.
tion to retard it. That the whole policy of the
Tory Opposition consists of a series of low and
spiteful juggles, is evident to men of all parties
in the nation, thits'particular faction excepted,
whose position, as much as the character of some
of its members, has plunged them into the
wretched system of chicanery of which we com-
plain. On no one occasion have„ the self-con-
demned Court sycophants,, who resigned because
they looked for a monopoly of power by the em-
barrassment and defeat of Mr. Canning—never,
we say, have these men, or any of them, dared
to come forward on public grounds, and object
to Mr. Canning for any one political principle
which he professes, or for any one measure which
he has, at any time, as a Cabinet Minister, intro-
duced, adopted, or promoted. They take no
stand on principles—they sink from such a fruit-
less attempt, because there is no great national
principle of a nature to determine the merits of
an English statesman, on which the views of
Mr. Canning, as yet understood, do not concur
with those of the people of England ; and on
which, where the Tories differ from Mr. Can-
ning, every liberal and enlightened member of
the community is not at hand to support the
Right Hon. Gentleman against them. On pub-
lic grounds, therefore, they cannot rest ; and the
factious, or, to speak with more correctness, the
personal animadversions with which they have
assailed their late colleague, are proofs that they
.can lay nothing to his charge which ought
to obtain for Mr. Canning's enemies the
sympathy of the English nation. The sum
of the abuse of which the new Minister is still
the. object, amounts to this,—that his defensive
tactics have succeeded, while the aggression
which was meant to ruin him has totally and ri-
diculously failed. In the fencing match to which
the right Hon. Gentleman was challenged, it
seems to have been the wish of his antagonists
that he should have parry only—not ripost; in
Mich case lie must have been hit at last, while
they would have run no risk of accident. Rut
Mr. Canning was not simple enough for this.—
He parried the thrust, and returned it instanter.
The adversaries have themselves to blame. Next,
after the defeat of these personal attacks on Mr.
Canning, came two in succession, but of a poli-
tical nature, against his Whig allies ; with what
better fortune let us very shortly inquire. The
4, Whigs are unworthy public confidence," it ap-
pears, because they have sacrificed their two
grand measures of constitutional policy—Catholic
Emancipation, and a Reform of Parliament. But
the Whigs deny both charges in the broadest
terms. The Opposition reply—" Then prove
your consistency, by bringing on the Catholic
question at once." Now this is mere folly.—
Such a proof of consistency would be bought too
dear—by, Ist, the certain loss of the measure at
the present moment ; 2dly, the consequent dis-
solution of the only Ministry under which it can
(according to all human prospects) be carried
during the present generation. Is it not a piece
of more than ordinary impudence, for the ac-
knowledged enemy of an important measure to
ground a charge of isluplicity against its declared
advocates and supporters,on their refusal to. take
his advice as to the time and .ode of submit-
ting that meagure to Parliament ? Is it for the
sake of carrying the question, that the old anti-
Catholic Ministers, through such channels as
Messrs. Lethbridge anti Dawson, insist upon its
speedy revival in the House of Commons where it
has been so recently rejected? And if the recom-
mendation of these men be, as is manifest, for pur-
poses hostile both to the Catholic body And to
the Ministry, ought the latter to be blamed or
applauded for treating that recommendation with
contempt ? Respecting the question of reform,
it is sufficient to state, that the Whigs, as a
party, have never professed to entertain it. Lord
John Russell, and those who agree with him,
reserve to themselves the power of at all times
bringing forward ti it own opinions on that
muchdisputed subject, although, indeed, the
Noble Lord himself declared unequivocally when
he was last defeated, that he had no intention
waterer of moving the discussion of At again.
Be. we have, undoubtedly, never heard that
Lord Lansdown was a reformer, (as Mr. Pitt
was, an was not), or Lord Carlisle, or the
Duke of Devonshire. These distinguished per-
sons constitute the Whig portion of the Govern-
ment : then what is the value of such a topic of
abuse, but to make manifest, if they were doubt-
ful, the immeasurable soreness and mortification
of the ex-placemen who employ it ? The folly
that marks another class of the tricks and moun-
tebankeries in which this faction now finds its
onss resource, may be worth alluding to, though
briefi.7. Attempting to cry down the Whigs
and ML. Canning, their grarid attempt on all
occasions As to cry up Mr. Pest Mr. Peel
being the oniy' individual on the right side of
mediocrity among their entire gang, this effort
may be forgiven ; but it must not be passed
without exposure. Mr. Peel, in a secondary
department of the late Cutntict, was, so far
as concerned the domestic state of England,
useful exectifive. officer: In his ofika of
Home Secretary for England, he slid not spare
his own activity. He availed himself of the
skill And talents of professional men who un-
derstood the law of England and its abuse.s,
to introduce amendments into some impor-
tant branches of our jurisprudence. He
lived in quiet times, Avd had no provocation to vio-
lence. He enjoyed all the goods that fortune,could
afford him, and bad no temptation to be corrupt.
This is the sum total of Mrs.Peells great merits as a
Minister. In Parliament he was a speaker of that
tribe which fluctuates between the third rate and
the second. He never produced one burst of elo-
quence since he was born. We never heard a sen-
tence or expression from Mr. Peel which found a
place in the memory after the debate was over. His
mind is of thin staple, carefully, yet not finely culti-
vated; the soil is light and dry,—not rich nor deep;
no brilliant bowers,—no costly fruits of delicious
flavour,—no exuberant vintage,—nothing beautiful
by which society is adorned—nothing generous or
noble by which true greatness is commemorated—
has ever sprung from, or ever been connected with
this specimen of common-place nature. An ad-
mission, which escaped the characteristic prudence
of 11r. Peel, has let the world into one secret of
some importance towards exactly estimating the
principles and character of the Irish Government.
it is now confessed by Mr. Peel, that the political
pleasures affecting Ireland during the last five years
kvire not been those of the Lord Lieutenant of that
country; that the judicial and legal measures, state
prosecuPons,
patronage, &c., have not been those
of the law.s-Acers of the Crown in Ireland ; that
all was mr. and his clerk Mr. Goulburn.
What a cheat, then,' upontbe nation is this

gilded pageant of an Irish Viceroy, with his
30,0001. per annum. If not to gdvern Ireland,
what use is there or can there be for a Lord-
Lieutenant ? Is he merely to sit there as a mark
for obloquy to light upon, and for sedition to rail
at ? We now know from Mr. Peel's own lips, that
he it is who has been so long tormenting Ireland
and disgracing England, by the mixed impolicy of
a partisan and a bigot. To get rid of such a ped-
dling interloper between true statesmanlike prin-
ciples of action, and the nation for whose benefit
they will henceforth, we trust, he left free to act
without such illegitimate obstructions, is a real ad-
vance towards public hapisiness, and a subject of
honest rejoicing for the empire. Let, then, the lam-
pooners of Mr. Pitt's memory make a pretext of his
once respected name, for the purpose—at once fac-
tious and foolish—of exaggerating the dimensions of
this dwarfish idol, when they toast the health of Mr.
Robert Peel, in connexion with sentiments which
Mr. Pitt abjured—in an association which that proud
man would have spurned—and to the intentional,
but futile disparagement of those who did, unques-
tionably, share to the last Mr. Pitt's opinions, his
policy, and affections. Mr. Peel, the Tory Cham-
pion of the day, may execute accurately what more
comprehensive minds prescribe to him. He may
have been, and has been—but spoilt by flattery, he
will not be again—a temperate and useful subaltern
officer. To talk of such a person as a statesman !
or a chief ! is merely an idle abuse of words; for no
man whom it would be worth while to deceive could
listen to such misrepresentations.--Times.

We are unwilling to persuade ourselves that
many of the Peers, who figure in the Duke of
Wellington's majority, were at all aware of the
effect which their vote would have on the fate of
the new Corn Bill, or that they will not endea-
vour to undo the effect of their vote in the next
stage of the Bill. The new Corn Bill, though
the effects it will produce have been greatly ex-
aggerated, is still an approach towards a better
system. Something is done when men acknow-
ledge their sins, though small progress should be
made in the way of amendment. The language
held by a number of Members of a certain As-
sembly, displays such an insolent contempt for
the understandings of the people of England,
that we should be sorry to see the impression
produced by it strengthened by the loss of the
Bill. It is dangerous to be both Judges and
and party ;
.for, as a great poet observed, " when
self the wavering balance holds, it is rarely right
adjusted." The people see this self display it-
self where a party thinks he has had address
enough to conceal it. It has been again and
again said, during the discussions on this Bill,
that our Constitution is founded on land; but
though this may endear the Constitution to Land-
holders, we question whether the showing the
people in so unequivocal a manner that the interests
of the nation are as nothing compared with the sup-
posed personal interests of the Landholders, be cal-
culated to increase the love of the people for these
props of the Constitution. It is not, we should
think, the interest of the great Landholders that the
feeling of estrangement between them and the
people should become rooted. We arc not lovers of
anarchy or violence and would prefer, indeed, al-
most any state of things to them. But it is because
we are lovers of peace that we hate measures which
produce a bitter feeling of hostility in the body of
the people towards the higher orders. It is always
dangerous to presume too much on our strength,
and on the weakness of others. We therefore think
that the triumph obtained through the giving effect
to the Duke of Wellington's Amendment, would be
purchased at too high a price, if it roots in the minds
of the people the ideas to which we have alluded.—
Morning Chronicle.
We are afraid it will be necessary for us to
adopt the unceremonious practice of the .toile,
and have our " Lies of the Day," for the sake
of annihilating, with as little trouble as possible,
the impudent fabrications of a click of writers
who appear to have devoted themselves to the
exclusive task of finding mares' nests. Their
inventions, indeed, multiply so fast, that it will
soon be impossible, with a due regard to matters
of more importance, to give more than a line or
two in refutation of each. However, for the
present, we shall content ourselves with our
usual practice, and proceed, as briefly as pos-
sible, to despatch a brace of discoveries. In
the first place, we are told that a mon-
strous project is on foot, by that arch-conspira-
tor, Mr. Canning, " to pack the House of
Lords," in the manner following, to wit, "giving a
double voice to those Peers who support Mr. Can-
ning, by making Peers of their eldest sons." While
the new Premier was about it, we think he might as
well have shewn his science in political melody, by
arranging his concerted piece for three voices, in-
stead of two, and so make Peers of the second sons.
A Peer with a double voice would be very good ;
but a Peer with three voices would be much better.
Irony apart, however, the whole statement may be
answered by one word, borrowed from " The Vicar
of Wakefield"—Fudge ; The same emphatic mo-
nosyllabie will suffice for another article of extraor-
dinary intelligence, that "the whole of the Grenville
party, with the exception of Mr. C. Wynn and his
brother, have declared against the New Ministry."
These are desperate shifts, and must not be too often
repeated.—New Times.
The recent invitation from a High Personage
to the Duke of Wellington to resume the com-
mand of the Army—the long-continued vacancy
in the Bishoprick of Rochester, and other Church
preferment—the excuse for not receiving the
Address of the City of London—as well as se-
veral other similar traits, are all striking indica-
tions of the unsettled state of the new Ministry,
and especially of the uncertain tenure on which
Mr. Canning holds his office. Hitherto he
has, perhaps, owed more in point of Parliamen-
tary support to the indiscretion of some of his
opponents than to himself ; but in his financial
expose he has given the coup de grace, we should
imagine, to his performances in that way ; and
considering the kind -of theatrical effect the Pre-
mier is so fond of indulging in, the occasion we
allude to might. with great propriety and appa-
rent truth, hare been announced as " his first
and only appearance in that character." Nothing
so crude, so jejune, so unsatisfactory, or so
unstatesmanlike, ever fell from the lips of any
man holding the high office of Chancellor of
the Exchequer in this country. Even Mr. Van-
sittart, in his worst moments (and his Ministe-
rial life in that capacity is a memorable period of
failure), never fell so short, both in the useful and
,the ornamental) as Mr. Canning did in this misera-
ble display of financial imbecility. Why a man who
was standing well with the country and Nytth Europe,
as the Foreign Minister, should venture on a change
for which he owns himself disqualified—or why
Mr. Robinson, who filled the office of Finance
Minister so well, should be compelled to resign
it into new and evidently incompetent hands,
are proofs of bad generalship and wilful indis-
cretion, which it is hardly possible too strongly
to condemn. But next year, forsooth, we are
to have a Finance Committee, and a thousand
other panaceas. Mr. Canning, surely, has not
to learn from one poet, that
_ .

Procastinationis the thief of thus ;
—or from another, that

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps hi this petty pace, from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time ;
and that to postpone any remedy for our financial
difficulties which is within his reach, is to in.