The Sun.
London, England, 1842-11-10 00:00:00

.§IIIT4

LONDON :
THURSDAY MORNING. NOVEMBER 10, 1842,

Our Contemporary, the Chronicle, yesterday
reminded the public of some resemblances be-
tween the condition of the country at present
and under the Tory Government on the oth of
November, 1830. If physically the condition of
the people now is as bad as in 1830, and we are
afraid it is 'much ,worse, it is morally, in one
respect, amazingly deteriorated. Then there was
nothing like despair amongst them. Then they
had a great party, abounding in popular leaders,
to fall back upon, in soma of whom they placed
the greatest confidence. Then the Whigs had
not been in office for many years, and then the
favourite panacea for every political disease had
not been tried. The Parliament had not been
reformed. The old boroughmongering Assembly
existed with all its anomalies and absurdities,
and then the public had great expectations from
substituting the representation of masses of ,
population for the representation of Gatten and 1
Old Sarum. Then the community had robust
hopes ; now the Whigs have been eleven years
in office, the Parliament has been reformed for
ten years, popular Ministers and popular mea-
sures have been tried, and the nation, without
being relieved from physical sufferings, has had
all its hopes cruelly blighted, till it borders on
despair. It. has no longer any leaders whom
it trusts, and themare no measures which it be-
lieves will bring healing on their wings. So far
as politics are concerned, it is without a head,
and without faith.
The twelve years, however, have not passed
without teaching impresssive lessons to both
rulers and people. That the former have pro-
fited much by them we do not believe, for they
still pursue, their old course. They still try to
govern by deceit, and, that failing, they rely on
force. They cling to old theories, and will not
open their eyes to the facts which daily disprove
them. flight or wrong they are determined to
govern, as they suppose their predecessors did,
in spite of the people (though that seems a
mistake), and the last thing they consult is the
opinion of the multitude. The people have at
least learnt to mistrust them. We believe, too,
that they have learnt that patience is a surer
means of success than violence ; mobbing and
outrages, from political causes, have become
rare in the land. Self-education haik diffused
many of its blessings over the masses, and their
great distrust, for which we have mainly to thank,
first the failure of the -Whigs, and now the failure
of the Tories, is a symptom that the reign of po-
litical delusion draws to a close.
It was for us a remarkable illustration of the
progress of political knowledge to find the Chro-
nicle and the Post yesterday agreeing on a most
important point. By its complaints of the present
misrule of the Tories, and the present condition
of the country, the Chronicle implies that the great
measures of the Whigs have not answered the
intention of their framers. The Post proved at
considerable length that the principal of those
measures, the Reform Act, had by no means rea-
lised the expectations of the people. Our Con-
temporary proved that it is amazingly easy to
detect errors and, faults in institutions, but ex-
cessively difficult to ascertain the consequences
of any great change in them. Thus we have it