The Sun.
London, England, 1842-11-21 00:00:00

LONDON :
MOND kY MORNING. NOVEMBER 21,;1842.

We rejoice to see the merely Whig Journals
heartily abusing Lord LYNDHURT for his ap-
pointments in Bankruptcy and Lunacy. They
are erecting a standard by which to test the con-
duct of the Whigs should they ever be restored
to power. That they will follow in office, how-
ever, the rules they lay down when in opposition,
no man can be baby enough to believe.
The Government of this country, depending on
the representation which is mainly purchased by
money, and founded on bribery, is, and must be,
essentially corrupt. It can only exist by paying
for the representative power that is bought. We
no more expect, therethre, that the Whigs, when
in office, will avoid corrupt jobbing, than we
mean to say that the accusations against Lord
LYNDHURST are entirely without foundation. To
look for high-minded patriotism, fine moral feel-
ing, and pure integrity, in the Ministers of a
radically corrupt system, is to betray a more
charming simplicity of character, and a more
complete ignorance of human nature, than we
generally meet with in the most ignorant re-
cluse. It would surprise us amazingly in Me-
tropolitan Journalists, were it not probably as-
sumed for the occasion.

We have no doubt that Lord LYNDHURST has
provided, as far as he could., for his friends, de-
pendents, and assistants ; - have not the least
doubt that, in making tho;;e' .appointments, he
has thought much more of the individuals than
of the public service ; but so all Ministers ever
have done, and we blatne him much less than the
system. At the saute time, we are nut sorry
that the disappointment of a great number of ex-
pectants has, by their reproaches, provided us
with a standard of excellence to which, in every
change, the Government must be made to ap-
proach.
Without presuming to defend Lord LYND-
HURST for the appointments he has made, and
having no acquaintance whatever with any one
of the gentlemen he has appointed, we must
guard our readers against the complaints of a
numerous and hungry profession. Barristers
are at all times much more abundant than
causes ;'scores of them are always on the look-out
fnr any scraps of appointments they can lay
hands on, and those who do not catch them are
very likely to make as loud and teasing com-
plaints as an Irish beggar to whom alms is
refused.

We have not heard that any of Lord LYNn-
RVRST'S men are unsuitable on account of cha-
racter. .They are not branded as immoral ; they
are said to be incompetent. This is a foolish
accusation on the face of it. All of them are
gentlemen connected with the profession, and
most of them have enjoyed some practice, while
the duties they will have to perform may be
learned by any man of ordinary and average
capacity ia a month. There is less difficulty
than the profession would have the public be-
lieve in mastering its jargon ; and to decide justly
needs little help from law.

The appointments are all new; that they are
all necessary, that fewer places and lower salaries
would not have secured an effectual performance
of the public business, we will not assert; but for
the regulations the Legislature, not Lord LYND-
UtJRST, is responsible, and he only filled up
the offices which it created. That he has
made the most judicious of all possible appoint-
ments, selected the very best, most fitting, and
most deservin men, is not our opinion; but he
has done quite as well as can generally be ex-
pected of Lord Chancellors. We caution the
public, therefore, not to suppose the appoint-
ments to be anything more than a common act
of the abuse of official patronage, because a score
of disappointed expectants fill the newspaper
world with their complaints.

Ott Wednesday week we called attention to
the complaints of the shipping interest, and
pointed out, as one cause of its distress, the oppo-
sition between the conduct of productive la-
bourers, minding the shipping interest, and the
coirluut of Government, The former strive to