The Sun.
London, England, 1842-08-04 00:00:00

ili Jtz _Sun,

LONDON :
TRURSDAY MORNING, AUGUST 4, 1842.

It was properly observed last night by Mr. V.
SMITH, that " Lord STANLEY had placed the House
of :Commons in considerable embarrassment." At
the end'of the session the Noble Lord brings for-
ward a Bill to annihilate the constitution of New-
foUndland, and he ushers; it into notice by flaming
accounts. of atrocities perpetrated in the colony, all
of which he wishes the House to believe are the con-
sequences of that freedom and independence he
is anxious to destroy. He appeals to the prejudices
and influences the passions of Members, and leaves them
apparently no alternative but to crush the constitu-
tion at once, or allow the colony to remain a prey to
all kinds of mischief. He carries the House with
him; because the Members have no time for reflec-
tion. SUch a mode of getting a law enacted inflicts
disgrace on the House of Commons, and is unjust to
the colony.
The. Parliament of England first bestows a Legis-
lature on the colony, which implies a grant to
the colony of supreme power, and then, at the instiga-
tion of Lord STANLEY, it plays the tyrant over its
creature, and insists on resuming the power of which
it had, .as was supposed, for ever denuded itself. The
very attempt to put an end to the constitution of
Newfoundland, implies in the House of Commons a
disregard of the rights it has rather guaranteed
than created. .. And why • does it take so vio-
lent and revolutionary a. course ? Some charges
which • have haver been deliberately inquired'
into are Made against the Legislature ; at once it is
convicted by Lord STANLEY of inefficiency; and at
once it is . proposed to annihilate it. Let the reader
conceive for a moment a superior power sitting in
judgment on our Parliament, conceive it accused and
tried unheard, as the Parliament of England is accus-
ing and trying 'that of Newfoundland, and how
speedily
.could it be ,convicted? It would
only be necessary to point out the purpose
for which• 'the -Parliament is entrusted with power,
and the present condition of the people, to
ensure its instant condemnation. Mr. PAKING-
TON, indeed, said " that the Legislature ..f New-
foundland had been charged with three of the greatest
crimes of which a Legislature could be guilty—
tyranny, mismanagement of the public finances, and
tampering with the administration of justice."
These offences, perhaps, the reader will sup-
pose, when he remembers the customary exer-
Case of the privileges of the House of Commons,
the delapidation of the public revenue in conjunc-
tion with our enormous taxation, and its present in-
tention of taking away the constitution from New-
foundland, can easily be matched at home. Mr:
PAKINGTON does not accuse the Legislature of
Newfoundland of impoverishing and starving the
people: - That is a. crime which is committed
onlf.'by the Legislature of which Mr. PAKING-
ton is a member ; and were its acts to be
judged in its absence as severely as the House of Com -
coons judges the acts of the Newfoundland Legisla-
ture, by a superior power, we doubt whether its exist-
ence would be assured a single day. All that can be
alleged against the Newfoundland Legislature is that
it favours one party, and that party not being equally
predominEnt in our House of Commons, power is to
be taken from it andfgiven to another party.
, ~ •lii these proceedings we 'see 'something like the
wantonness of tyranny in the House of Commons.
It resumes a power (Wei.' a legislature .it has pres.
tended to make inde.pendent. Without waiting to
hear, the: parties .on whom it sits both as accuser and
judge, it passes sentence. It acts on the most narrow.
and partial views.—.the views taken by one party
in the colony, and perhaps :. even by one
person, who: may .be a . military martinet,
anxious to substitute military discipline for civil free- •
dotm . Our House of Commons, too, is an assembly
composed almost eXClusively of Protestants, and the
„ strongest • arguments against . the constitution are
founded on its objection. to the Roman Catholic reli-
s
::gion. It will, hoWdver,Ucceed in doing wrong. The
to
llouse dedicled, lasi night, by 68 13, that it would
.go into Committee on the. Bill. The Bill was -after-
,
;_:,(wards: fought through Cominittee clause by clause, •
Mr. O'CONNELL resisting. on every question. Lord
:c.',',. , Sre:istalr was enabled by a majority to attain his ob-
'-.' + jeFt. has, .., He by his exaggerated,. (and, we think,
,
c- . ,
,)
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IV" .:,1 ' • 's;