The Sun. — 1840-09-29 (London, England)

HARMER. So many persons in the City of London, then, have lent themselves to be the instruments of persecution. Most of them, we are afraid, will be found to belong to the sensitive would-be great men of the middle classes, who are just now alarmed at the revolution which is going forward in the mind of the nation, and willing to embrace almost any means to keep the Church and Aristocracy in their exalted station. We had been inclined to hope that in other places such a persecuting spirit would not be found. Sir JAMES FoRREST, the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, has undeceived us. Of course, he does not act singlehanded. He has sounded the minds of the Bailies and Councillors, and knows which way the current ,is running. Like not a few persons in every part of the island, he is now striving to kick down the ladder of Liberal principles, by which he ascended to office, and, under the pretext of caring for the Church, he is struggling to exclude a Dissenter from the honour he seems unwilling to resign. In this project of excluding a gentleman on account of his religion, he is aided by many of the inhabitants of Edinburgh ; and thus we have persecution revived in both ends of the island. The Times and its 1,100 Liverymen, as well as Sir JAMES FORREST and his assisting Bailies and Councillors, only want opportunity and power to revive the murderous persecutions of the 16th  century. We beseech the Livery of London and the Burgesses of Edinburgh, if it be not yet too late, to pause in their career, and reflect on the consequences. There are now two large classes in the empire bent on effecting great alterations, because they cannot obtain justice from the British Parliament. Mr. O'CONNELL and the Irish demand the. Repeal of the Union—the Chartists demand a complete change in the Constitution ;and both ground their demands less on the character of the Parliament than on the character of the constituencies. The " Ten-pounders" and the" Shopocracy"are the terms of reproach used by the Chartists. On every occasion Mr. O'CONNELL holds up the virulent language of the Methodists and the High Churchmen at the meetings against the Catholics, as a decisive proof that his countrymen have nothing to hope from an English Parliament, however constituted, because the electors are rabidly persecuting. To those complaints, and those reproaches, the persecution of Mr. HARMER and Mr. BLACK will give ten-fold force. "If they exclude a Protestant Dissenter," Mr, O'CONNELL will say, " what bore can a Catholic have ?" His countrymen will respond, " no hope," and the cry of Repeal will be strengthened and justified. " If the middle classes," the Chartists will exclaim, " persecute Mr. HARMER because the editor of his paper has written against the Monarchy and the Church, what can we expect from tiem who seek thoroughly to refortn, if not to overturn both ? We can expect nothing but stripes, dungeons, and the gallows, to which we have, at their instigation, already been exposed, and we must vigorously resolve to crush them. or submit to be crushed." If the. Livery wish, therefore, to strengthen Chartism—if the citizens of Edinburgh wish to foment Repeal—if both desire to promote riot, bloodshed, and res olution, let them go on persecuting men on account of their religious and political opinions, and let them re-establish the Test Act. Strife will be encouraged by their example, and will rapidly spread, and repeal in one island avid revolution in the other will, ere long, be the order of the day. A Sunday Contemporary wa3 speculating as to the cause of the failure of the Reform Bill ; but the a'mve examples explain it in one word. Many of the nliddle classes are Tories in their hearts, idolators of rank, idolators of wealth, and idolators of the priesthood. They struggled for power, not for freedom, and now that they have power they use it not for good ends. They are afraid of those below them, they crouch to those above them, and they are willing to make themselves subservient ito We designs of the aristocracy and thepriestboou. vve have already had occasion to remark, that if they had been in earnest, they coul.d have carried the repeal of the Corn-laws. But they were not in earnest they were afraid of the lower classes, and they courted the landowners. A very few of them, i„ the case of the New Zealand Company, could over