The Sun.
London, England, 1827-04-19 00:00:00

publican anarchy—his intimate acquaintance
with the character of the British Constitu-
tion—and his knowledge how practical and
gradual have been all its improvements--parti-
cularly shield him from the suspicion of a love
of innovation. But Mr. Canning cannot blind
himself to the necessity for improvement which
is forced upon every Government by the cha-
racter of the age ; and by directing those im-
provements instead of resisting them, he has
done more to put down the wild spirit of reform,
which prevailed a few years since, than any co-
ercion, however powerful, could have accom-
plished. He has thrown the oil upon the tur-
bulent waves, and the country feels that it owes
to him, more, perhaps, than to any other man,
its long exemption from popular violence. Mr.
Canning has, it appears to us, effected all these
great national objects, without the slightest
departure from real principles, which are the
best ornament of a servant of the British Mo-
narchy. On what occasion, we would ask, has
he sacrificed the prerogatives of the Crown, or
the inviolability of the laws, to a desire for po-
pular approbation ? But, then, it is objected
to him, that he has won the praises of those to
whom he is politically opposed, and that he co-
quettes at. once with power, and the applause of
men who are hostile to those in power. This
is, necessarily, an age of conciliation ; and if Mr.
Canning has united in himself the suffrages of
the two great parties in the State, and, at the
same time, secured the applause of his Sovereign,
it proves only that he has the wisdom to
perceive the inevitable advances which a
British Minister must make, to keep pace
with the progress of intellectual cultivation. Mr.
Peel's course has been precisely of the same cha-
racter ; and, in the arduous task which he has
pursued, and which we earnestly hope he will
still pursue, of simplifying the Statute Laws, he
has not thought it right to abstain from the ac-
complishment of a great national good, because
it was begun by a Romilly, and left incomplete
by a Mackintosh. The policy of the Adminis-
tration is before the country. It has been to un-
fetter Great Britain from continental trammels,
without embroiling her with the feelings of the
old Governments of Europe—to lead the way in
political improvements, without encouraging a
spirit of violent and hasty reform. The experi-
ments upon new commercial principles have been
made in a temper which is any thing but rash ;
and if they have provoked much exaggerated
complaint, a general admission has been granted
of the correctness of the theory upon which they
are built. For ourselves, we have no dread that
the Administration of Mr. Canning will be one
of innovation. We are satisfied that he has won
his way to his present high distinction by the
absence of all intrigue ; and that the voice of
the Sovereign, assigning him the most elevated
post in his service, echoes the almost universal
opinion of his country. Mr. Canning has a high re-
putation to maintain, and the eyes of the world are
upon him, as " the foremost man of all this
age." He will fortify himself in his post by a stead-
fast adherence to the school of politics in which he
was bred ; because he must feel that the principles
of that school are not opposed to the loftiest aspira-
tions for the liberties of the human race, and the pe-
culiar welfare of cur favoured country. It is the
character of Mr. Canning's policy that it is British,
and not cosmopolitan—that it is practical, and not
speculative. The cause of intellect with him is
never stationary ; but he advances; not by flights,
but by steps. His' genius is that of a Statesman,
and not of a Metaphysician—his object may be dis-
tant, but his foot is never off the earth in the at-
tempt to reach it.—New Times.
Sir John- COpley has all but Cornifilenced tbe- e'ker-
cise of his functions as Chancellor. Several causes,
which have been heard before him as Master of the
Rolls, now stand for judgment; and he has caused
intimation to be given, that (where the parties do
not object to such a course) he will pronounce judg-
ment, as Lord _Chancellor, in the causes which,
having been heard before him at the Rolls, have not
yet been decided. He has a most difficult career
before him. The free choice of his Sovereign has
placed him in a situation to which even the, most
commanding talents are unequal, sinless aided by
vast professional learning, and accompanied by ex-
traordinary and unremitting diligence. It is a situa-
tion, too, of tremendous responsibility ; 'for the pro-
perty, of which the decrees of a Lord Chancellor
of Great Britain dispose in the course of a year,
is of incredible amount; and if he errs, his errors,
however they may be felt, cannot be set right.—
He has no practical check or controul except
that of his own reason; and the jurisprudence
which he has to administer is infinitely more subtle
and more varied, and less capable of being reduced
into formal rules, than the system with which a com-
mon Law Judge has to deal. And to whom is it
that Sir John Copley comes forward as a successor ?
To the most learned, the most sagacious, the most
laborious, cautious, and upright Judge, that ever
adorned the Bench. It is a noble, but a hazardous
distinction, to be the successor of Lord Eldon, and
to sit in judgment upon the decrees of Sir John Leach.
Sir John Copley cannot take a better mode of dis-
charging the duties of his new office, in a manner
worthy of his past reputation, than by keeping con-
stantly before his eyes the Judge whose superior he
is, and him to whose dignity he succeeds.—lbid.