The Sun.
London, England, 1827-05-14 00:00:00

IRIT .OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Sir Thomas Lethbridge, as declared leader of
the Tories in the House of Commons, came for-
ward, on Friday evening, boldly and broad
enough, with a fresh ragout of interrogatories
to the 11/Mister—a mode of disputation in which
philosophers have from Socrates down
to his illustrious pupil and lawful representative
Sir Thomas. Mr. Peel and other subalterns of
the party followed obliquely and less resolutely
the hostile footsteps of their chief. Upon the
topic of a " provisional Government," which
is now first assumed as a fact, though put in the
form of a question by the Tories, and then im-
proved into a matter of crimination, we may ob-
serve, that any Government, whin even for a
month should stand betwen the people and the
reinstatement of their old oppressors in office,
would for that akme demand the zealous assist-
ance of ever), honest and well-judging English-
man. Let but the old place-hunters be kept'
long enough without the means of feeding at
our expence, to be fairly starved out and out ;
let us only be sure that the breath is once out
of
..s.:ue monster's body—that it can no more coil
itself up to spring upon and devour us—that not
merely is the action of the muscles suspended,
but that the seeds of life have perished ; we may
then call Mr. Canning and his present colleagues'
to account, on the question of Governments fixed
or provisional—of common or opposing prin-
ciples—of collective or discordant measures; but
in the name of all that is most precious and im-
portant to a nation, led no aid or encouragement
be given to the effoits of the Ex-Ministers and
their partisans, who are looking l''3.lth the eyes of
disappointed vultures to tine prey from which
they have been so uneixpectedly scared, and be-
tween whom and 'lsfr. Canning—that is to say,
between the "immortality of public abuse and the
infancy 01; practical and extensive amelioration—
there
can be nothing intermediate. We under- I
stand little of Mr. Canning's position, if he be
not henceforth, by infallible necessity (his
feelings put wholly out of the question),
an undertaker of useful .reforms. But let-
iss suppose that some eminent situations in
the Cabinet are held no longer than until they
can conveniently be transferred. -What does this
imply, in the nature of blame, to Mr. Canning?
Why did the former tenants of these offices leave
the King and the Minister without an alterna-
tive but that of throwing up the game at once,
and surrendering the Government and country
to hands from which both had already sustained
such irreparable evil ; or of filling the vacant
seats either pro .ternpore or definitively, with
men whose political sentiments might ensure an
undisturbed advance in that line of policy which
Mr. Canning had, pledged himself before King
and people to pursue ? •It is unnecessary to re-
peat here our concern that Lord Lansdown and
his immediate friends do not set the question at
repose, by coming frankly forward and putting
an end to this clamour about provisional Go-
vernment ; nor have we yet been informed what
advantage is contemplated from the delay of an
act, the parties to which have no difference (it
is understood) between them respecting the ex-
pediency of its accomplishment at no distant pe-
riod. The bond
,fide entrance of the Noble
Marquis into the Cabinet would satisfy, the most
timorous and fastidious here, as would the in-
stalment of Lord Plunkett in the office of Chan-
cellor of Ireland, subdue the distrusts of those
who are most prone to entertain them in that
country, respecting the principles by which this
Government is about to be held together. An-
other subject of personal reproach has been got
up against Mr. Canning, and the public may
assume its prima facie value from the depth and
purity of the fountains whence it sprung. Lord
Londonderry and Sir Thomas Lethbridge con-
cur in stigmatising the Right Hon. Gentleman
for having carried on a negociation with the
Whigs, while he formed a part of the last Ca-
billet, since the illness of Lord Liverpool, and
of having concealed from his Tory colleagues
the existence of such a negociation.—
From beginning to end of this mighty his-
tory, we consider it to be perfect fudge. It
is not true that Mr: Canning treated with the
Whigs, collectively or individually, for office. A
declaration of sentiments favourable to him per-
sonally, and of an intention to support him un-
conditionally, was, it seems, conveyed to Mr,
Canning by one Whig member ; but it consti-
tutes no part of the charge, and we are therefore
justified in refusing to admit that the Right
Hon. Gentleman either gave any pledge, or
adopted any measure in return, before his late
colleagues abandoned him. What, then, ought
to have been Mr. Canning's conduct, on re-
ceiving such a gratuitous and unsolicited com-
munication ? In the first place he was bound by
the intentions of the writer or spokesman for
the Whigs, and unless it was the declared pur-
pose of that gentleman that the offer should be
made known to the Tories of, the Cabinet, Mr.
Canning was not a free agent, and would have
broken a confidence, had. he suffered the over-
ture to reach those for whom it could not, in
the nature of things, be intended. In the next
place, let us assume that Mr. Canning was not
so tied up. What obligation rested upon him
to make known such intelligence to the Tories ?
Did he consider them as his friends, and therefore
did he feel the contingency of his recurrence to the
support of the Whigs to be one which was not
likely to arise from his existing prospects ? In that
case, what imaginable necessity could he perceive
for telling any man a fact, which amounted to no
more than a voluntary expression of good-will to
himself from a party with whom he had no wish nor
chance of being politically connected. What was
such a promise but a piece of episodical complais-
ance, without effect and without importance ? For
if the Tories were inclined to act with Mr. Canning,
and, as he first contemplated, on the principles of
the Liverpool Cabinet, this Whig intelligence was
simply a dead letter. Bet if Mr. Canning, with this
letter in his pocket, or these words upon his tongue,
had unfortunately apprized his colleagues of a promise
ofsup port to himself (excluding those colleagues) from
the. Whigs, would not every club and drawing-room
in London have rung with abuse of the Right lion.
Gentleman, " who had gone like a, swaggerer to
bully the other Ministers, by boasting of his own
independent influence,"and of his ability to do with-
out them, if they dared to' resist his inclinations?"
So difficult is it to escape the ingenuity of censure,
from those whose business it has been for months
to find or make the occasion of it. If, on the other
hand, Mr. Canning was convinced that they who
had not long before advised, and secretly advised,
the Sovereign, to _form an anti;-Catholic Cabinet to
his exclusion—if he knew, as he must have known,
such men to be his active enemies, what but mad-
ness could induce him to make them the confidants
of whatever assurances he received from those who
were his friends ? This charge, therefore, like most
others which mortified malice has recently engen-
dered, we think we may hold to be fairly laid at
rest. -With respect to that of a " culpable" mall_
Lion between men whose views of the public into.
rest entirely correspond on most serious questions,
the answer is, that the separation of such mere 1913
the fault—that their failing to unite was the real
inconsistency, and their incorporation a measure con-
ducive, if not indispensable, to the public welfare.