The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-23 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.—Our readers are aware that we are not
friendly on principle to indefinite propositions for the
Extension of Suffrage, and for the framing of what is
sometimes called a second Reform Act, though we are
not blind to the imperfections and abuses of the present
elective franchise. In reviewing last night's discussion
on the motion of Mr. Sharman Crawford, we cannot but
feet that there is some degree of falseness in the por-
tion of both parties. We do not say this to escape
from the explicit statement of our own views, which
we will never disguise from our readers on any
question of national interest. But it does ap-
pear to us that there is some degree of vice in
the arguments, or, at least, of imbecility in the
positions, which are practically occupied by each
party—the advocates and the opponents of mea-
sures of organic change. There are no two of the
former who seem agreed what change they should
advocate. There are no two of the latter who are
quite alike satisfied with the system they defend.
1V hile Mr. Roebuck and Dr. Bowring have no notion
of any but numerical franchises, Mr. Ward is not pre-
pared to abandon all property qualifications. While
Sir Robert Peel defends the Reform Act as something
he was nowise responsible for, except to embrace
the less of two evils in order to stave off the greater,
Lord Stanley and Sir James Graham have their
quantm pars magna to proclaim, and put themselves
forward in the front of the battle, as champions of
the Grey Reform of Parliament. All these variations,
which hardly amount to serious discord within the
walls of Parliament (excepting a note or two from
the Members for Bath and Stockport in a somewhat
sharper key), indicate that this question is not likely
to present itself in a practical shape. It is, however,
before such questions become urgent, that it will
be well for those who assume to take any part in
public instruction to discuss them impartially. For
our own part, in our opposition, on principle, to Uni-
versal Suffrage, and—in general—to all Reform of
Reform which assumes numbers as its guiding rule,
we do not solely rely on an opinion of popular igno-
rance. It is invidious to ascribe ignorance to any one
class in particular ; and it is difficult to prove in what
degree ignorance or instruction characterise one class
or other. 'The utmost extent to which the argument
derived from assumed ignorance can go is, that—when
numbers alone are made the basis of political repre-
sentation, whatever ignorance exists in the community
is sure of being represented.
STANDARD.—Very nearly half the community,
that.is, the minority at the election of representatives,
are bound by laws made by men whom they positively
distrust and dislike ; and in no sense can they be con-
sidered as consenting to such laws, except as they con-
sent at all to live under a representative constitution ;
and this consent is the same whatever form that repre-
sentative constitution may take. How unjustly, then,
was Sir Robert Peel blamed for not gravely answer-
ing the solemn trifling of the revived Cartwright, and for
amusing himself and his hearers with the ludicrous
reasoning of the triflers—Dr. Bowring's planetary and
book-keeping arguments among the rest. By the way,
we would remind Dr. Bowring that there are planets
whose periods greatly exceed twelve months, and
others the periods of which fall short of that term ;
and there are merchants who post their books
quarterly ; so that his argument is false in its
premises, besides belonging to our chapter of false
analogies. But how are arguments like this to be
answered except by a smile ? Sir Robert Peel did,
however, gravely and decisively meet the propo-
sition of Mr. Crawford, by pointing to the impos-
sibility of the country going in a current of revolu-
tions ; and by showing, from the variety of the propo-
sitions propounded by the different speakers, that to a
current of revolutions, without end or respite, the
country would be committed, by once more break-
ing up the Parliamentary constitution. Sir Robert
Peel might have added, that the current would not
stop with political alterations, but having done its work
with them, must, in the end, overwhelm property.
For our own part, we can see one hundredfold more
and stronger arguments for an agrarian distribution
of property than for any political reform ; and if the
people are to be all charged with the office of legisla-
tion, and have nothing else to think of, they will not
be slow to discover arguments so seemingly profit-
able to the vast majority. This hint ought not to be
lost on Mr. Cobden, and his worthy partners, in the
more than worth of the land of the United Kingdom,
which the millowners boast to have acquired in 25
years ; nor ought it to be lost upon the aristocracy.
COURIER.—There is, in fact, no election law
in Ireland except what Committees of the House of
Commons enact, and that which is strict law with
one Committee, another, sitting in the next room,
and at the same time, pronounces to be a grievous
wrong. It is not now for the first time that a know-
ledge of this unsatisfactory and disgraceful state
of the law reached the Legislature. Immediately
after the general elections of 1835 and 1837, the
glaring evils of the system became perfectly appa-
rent, and the then Government affected to deplore
and promised to remedy them. Session after session
the Irish law officers of the Crown introduced,
what they termed declaratory acts, but, :session after
session, these were allowed quietly to drop off to-
wards the close. Early in 1840 Lord Stanley, aided
by Mr. Emerson Tennent, took the subject in hand ;
but, at that period, parties were too equally balanced
in the House of Commons to admit of the success of
Lord Stanley's admirable measure. What, we should
like to know, has become of that Bill ? It possessed
all the materials of a searching and effectual remedy,
and, if tempered a little, and purged of any thing
that could be construed into harshness, it would, we
have no doubt, receive the support of a very large
majority in the present House of Commons. We
have heard, it is true, that an attempt will be made
to assimilate the laws that regulate the franchise
in Ireland to those which obtain in this .coun-
try, and that, for the purpose, one comprehen-
sive measure of election reform will be in-
troduced. We are not disposed to under-rate the
value of uniformity, but to such a course of proceed-
ing we discern many grave objections. The qua-
lifications and descriptions of electors, in both coun-
tries, do not correspond, arid therefore we consider
any attempt to introduce uniformity in matters es-
sentially different will signally fail. It were far better
to confine the remedy to the specific evils complained
of, than to endeavour to apply one grand panacea.
We have but little confidence in that system of char-
latanism which aims at the cure of various distempers
by the same means, whether in a medical or political
point of view.

MORTALITY in the METROPOLIS.
The following are the results of " A Table of Mortality in
the Metropolis, shoeing the Number of Deaths from all Causes
Registered, in the week ending April 16, 1842." The Table is
issued from the Office of the Registrar-General:—

Four I Four
Springs. Yeari
Epidemic, Endemic, & Contagious Diseases 121 183 190
Diseases of the Brain, Nerves, and Senses 150 147 149
Diseases of the Lungs, and other Organs of

CAUSKS OF DEATH.

Weekly
Average
838-940- I

Total.

Respiration
A.:seases of the Heart and Blood-vessels
Diseases of the Stomach, Liver, and other

. .
Organs of Digestion ...
Diseases of the Kidnoys, &e
Cbildbed, Diseases of the Uterbis, &c lO 9 10
Diseases of the Joints, Bones, and Muscles 7 6 6
Diseases of the Skin, &c
Diseases of Uncertain Seat lOO 99 104
o'.d Age, or Natural Decay 6l 63 69
Deaths by Violence, Privation, or Intern-

' 9 25 25
fiance
'
Causes not specified 9 6 7
Deaths from all causes - -
'", . Average Weekly Deaths
... 871 912

Average Deaths
DISTRICTS. Weekly inDeaths the
183;?-9-40-1. Week.
West—Kensington St. George
r
( Hanover-square), Westmin- Four I Four
ster, St. Martin in the Fields, Ye rs.l Springs.
St. James
North—St. Diary-le-bone, St
Pancras, Islington, Hackney 365,660 162 156 165
Central—Saint Giles and Saint
George, Strand, Clerkenwell,
Holborn, St. Luke, East Lon-
don, West London, City of •
London ... ........ ...373,806 188 179 169
East—Shoreditch,Whitechapel,
Eethnal Green, St. George
in the East, Stepney, Poplar 392,494 206 190 179
South—St Savimr, St. Olave,
St. George( Southwark ), Ber-
mondsey, Newington, Lam-
beth, Camberwell, Bother-
. Greenwich .... ...438,060 221 210 207

Population
merated
Ib4l.

Total ........ 1,870,727 912 871 822
It is stated that under the term Metropolis are comprised the
32 districts herein mentioned, which include the City of Lon-
don with and without the walls, the City and Liberties 01
Westminster, the out-parishes within the Bills of Mortality—
and the parishes of St. Marylebone, St. Pancras. Kensington,
Fulham, HamrnersmitL Chapeliy), St. Luke (Chelsea), Pad-
dington,
St. Mary (Stoke Newington), St. Leonard ( Brom-
Icy), St. Mary-le-bow, Camberwoll, Greenwich, St. Nicholas
and St. Paul (Deptford), and Woolwich. The population, a,
enumerated in 1831, was 1,594,890, and in June 1841, was
1,870,727. The weekly average for 1838, 1839, 1840. and
1841, was obtained by dividing the deaths in the four years by
208, and the deaths in the four winters by 52,
TEMPERATUKE IN THE WEEKS ENDING
April 9. April 16.
57' 49'
34 37
43 42
21, 1642.

Highest
Lowest ...
Daily Mean .... ...
General Register Office, April

The Union Ciitholique relates that the Commission
of Antiquaries having obtained permission to take a cast of the
statue of th,,, Virgin, which adorns the porch of the church of
the Marthuret at Riom, in the Puy-de-Dome, and the iron
grating which protected it being, a few days ago, removed fur
the purpose, the inhabitants, who had formed a false notion that
the statue had been sold for 10,000 f. assembled in great num-
bers, armed with rude weapons of all kinds, and with great
violence declared their determination to prevent its removal,
and defend, at all risks, what they had preserved throughout the
Revolution. Numbers remained on guard throughout the
night, but, in the morning, listened to the assurances made
them that there was no intention to deprive them of their Pal-
ladium, and order was restored.