The Sun.
London, England, 1827-04-06 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The affair of the Premiership, if we may use ,
the word, rests still as uncertain as ever. Some
of Mr. Canning's friends are confident ; himself,
we believe, less so. Perhaps, indignation at
the treatment he has received, may deprive his
countenance of that hilarity which the belief in
his approaching elevation would otherwise im-
part to it,—that is, provided he does believe
that his elevation is approaching. The Duke of
Rutland, at the visit of which we gave an account,
not only spoke of his own opposition to Mr.
Canning as Premier, and of the course which he
meant to adopt with respect to the representa-
tives of his dependent boroughs, but was the
bearer of an intimation to the same effect from
the Dukes of Beaufort and Newcastle and from
Lord Lonsdale. What would the men have ?
Whom have they got of talent enough to direct
the councils of the nation as chief? However,
all these circumstances inform us very fully, that
if Mr. Canning be Prime Minister, he will be
betrayed and thwarted by those to whom, in that
character, he,would have a right to look for sup-
port ; and the affairs of the nation are no sine-
cure, even if all who have the direction of them
were sincerely co-operative. The Duke of
Wellington and Mr. Peel have acted, we believe
with openness of manner and integrity of heart
throughout the whole affair ; and their since-
rity in promoting the objects of a joint Admi-
nistration of which Mr. Canning should be
chief, may therefore be relied on, if the present and
even dangerous state of things should terminate in
such an arrangement. The object of Sir Thomas
Lethbridge's motion, which stands for to-night, in
the mind of the mover is obvious : still we think it
fair to call for an united Administration upon great
State"questions, though the person so calling would
have the unanimity in a different sense from our-
selves. He is said to have received his hint from a
quondam high officer of the House of Commons,
whom ambition spurs on to seize the first place in
the Ministry also. There is no class of men who
have so much disappointed public expectation as the
Speakers of the House of Commons, whenever
they have come to contend with others upon equal
terms in the common arena of debate. There was
once an idea that Mr. speaker must be a profoundly
erudite anti ready man—of vast capacity of mind—
eau his mind 'cored to its utmost capacity with
every kind of useful knowledge—with an eloquence
to give that knowledge utterance. Mr. Addington
cured that prejudice : he broke the charm which no
subsequent Speaker had ever had power to recom-
pose. Very ordinary and flimsy talents have been
found to suffice for a Speaker. The sitting part of
him is more in request than the thinking part. It
may not be recollected that there was the same di-
latoriuess, perplexity, and irresolution in forming a
Ministry on the death of Mr. Perceval, as has now oc-
curred. It was after weeks and weeks of delay that Mr.
Stuart Wortley wished to call upon the Crown, in a mo-
tion made on the 11th of June, 1812, to form " an Ad-
ministration that might be entitled to the support of Par-
liament and the confidence of the nation ;" it being held
on all hands that Lord Liverpool was not a person capable
of presiding over an Administration fit to govern the coun-
try. Lord Castlereagh owned that such an Administra-
tion ivpuld be but a dull one, yet that, " at least, it had
one recommendation to public confidence, and that not a
small one---trey had no disunion among themselves."—
(" Hansard's Parliamentary Debates," vol. xxiii.)—Yet
Lord Liverpool has managed to go on taliter qualiter, and
it was not till many years after that Lord Castlereagh was
exchanged for Mr. Canning. Who would not allow with
the Swedish Chancellor Oxenstiern, that but little sense is
necessary to govern the world ? Tunes.

Our city article presents some subject for re-
flection. Of the Bank Directors who go out by
rotation and are subject to a re-election, two
will not pi.esent themselves anew. Mr. Jere-
miah Harman resigns by choice. This gentle-
man is not only one of the oldest Directors, but
is, we believe, also a specimen of that ancient
and respectable character—a British merchant—
which is, we fear, now becoming extinct:
direction would suffer in its dignity and conse-
quence by the retirement of such a man as Mr.
Harman, even if the substitutions for him and
others were happy ones. The old British mer-
citant and the new are as different from each
other as Hamlet's two pictures of the last King
of Denmark and his successor ; and we might
Say, with little variation—
" Look here upon 'this picture, and on this,
" The counterfeit presentment of two merchants," &c.
One was the merchant, the other is the mer-
chant! Mr. Harman hed nothing4o do withithe
late infamous joint-stock compaiiiesAwhichahave
inflicted so much mischief on the nation, and On
individuals and families. Now, the case with
,respect to some of those who are to succeed to
the direction is so different, that we should merely
wish to know, as a matter of calculation, in how
many of these once things Mr. Alderman Thomp-
son has been rned as a Director we believe
he will hardly be exceeded by Mr. Matthias Attwood.
Perhaps Mr. Thompson will favour us with the list
himself, or some of our correspondents will do it for
him. And is this a man to make a Director of the
Bank of England in the 19th century. Why, then,
may not Messrs. Bent and Brogden aspire to the
same situation ? In the barbarous States of Africa,
it is a rule that whoever aspires to the situation of a
chieftain should bring the skulls or jaw-bones of the
enemies with who:A he has been engaged, as a test
.of his merit and competence to Ell the situation to
w.ttich he aspires. Let Mr. Thompson do the same;
let prove his competence to the office of Bank
Director, by producing the skulls and jaw-bones
(the greater part of the bodies being defunct) of all
the bubble-comeanies with which he has been.en-
gaged, during, the late season of jobbing. We say these
things with as much pain as we inflict : but we would wish
to ievive, if possible, the anent character of the British
merchant ; and we know that t!'sre are still respectable
men in the city, who have conducted their own concerns
with quietness and prudence, and have no Connexion with
the late wild and desperate speculations : among these the
Bank might select its Directors. Mr, Campbell, who, with
Sir John Lubbock, is addressed in a letter, signed by . a
Spanish bondholder, is also a Bank Director. We would
direct the attention of both the persons thus addressed, Mr.
Campbell and Sir John, to the letter ; and shall have gregt
pleasure in inserting their answer.—lbid.
The statement of Lord Suffield last night, in
the Committee on the Spring Guns Bill, gives
a strange idea of the pleasures of a country life.
The Country Gentlemen seem really to have at-
tained to a very tolerable proficiency in the noble
art of killing and maiming their fellow-creatures.
It is a pity that the name of the ingenious Gen-
tleman, the friend of his Lordship, who con-
trived to attach a shell to a spring-gun, so that
those who took tip the gun after it had been dise
charged. without iceNving the nature of the con-
trivne.e, were b:own to atoms—should be lost
t.) ate w 0.14. The attaching shells, too, to
boughs of trees, is another noble invention. One
is almost tempted to exclaim, after Swift, on
hearing of these amusements of the class who
are the peculiar glory of this country—" By
what I have gathered from your own relation, I
cannot but conclude the bulk of you to be the
most pernicious race of odious vermin that Na-
tere,ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of
the earth." Thomson might exclaim, in his en-
thusiasm for rural life—
" You cannot rob me of free Nature's grace;
You cannot bar my constant feet to trace
The woods and lawns, by living stream at eve."
Yes,,; woodi with shells, to blow men to
pietei, suspended front boughs ; and lawns,
with
.epf; cp.-guns and man-traps! We can
read of those
conceive, feznzz what we have