The Sun. — 1841-04-22 (London, England)

TIME S.—We doubt the wisdom of the " hushing•up " pt in. We believe that those who, through fear of discouraging, friends and encouraging foes—of " revealing the nakedness of the land "—and on like pleas suppress the voice of genuine and honest dissatisfaction, are the worst hinderers of the cause they wish to promote. In narrating the following anecdote we shall distinctly separate ourselves from this class. A few days since, a gentleman of notorious and uncompromising principle, resident in one of the great metropolitan districts, was applied to, in due course, for his subscription to the Conservative Association of which he was a member. His answer was a firm and prompt denial—" I shall subscribe no long-r," The agent of the Association respectfully requAted to be permit ed to report his reasons for withdrawal. " My reasons are, that you have done, and are doing, no good." An explanation was offered. The clearest proofs were tendered of the efficiency of the Association. A eontinual progress had been made in diminishing the Radical strength, and in augmenting the Conservative forces ; and it was clear, to all human modes of calculation, that the very next election must entirely establish the Conservative ascendancy in that locality. " I grant all this," was the reply. " I admit that you have worked perseveringly and well ; and that you have purged the register ; and that it is-very probable that the next opportunity will entirely change the representation of this district. But, when all this is done, I still ask what good you will have done? You gain a Conservative majority in Parliament—you turn out the Ministry. That is, you net rid of one set of scoundrels, and have another set in their room ?" We aver, that this corn ersation took place very recently; and that the malcontent was a highly respectable, wortby, and well-principled man, resident in this metropolis. Now, we are not going to defend his mode of reason. ing. To him, personalty, and to the very many persons who may feel half-dispose] to agree with him, we should say—" Do not disfranchise yourselves, do not commit political suicide, merely because you do not approve the course taken by certain political leaders at a given moment of time. You have clear and strong opinions of your own, Stand prepared to assert them. Claim and maintain your own franchise. Who knows how soon the opportunity may arrive, which may call forth all your allyour nts, what but ruin can at ise from a wilful and deliberate cession of all political power ;to those the into whose bands Government itself must fall, should your example be generally followed ? " But, while we thus entirely admit the irrational character of this sort of despairs band, whether the Conservawtoievte m seriously ask, on the other band, ought not to he made aware of, and ought n y to lay to heart, the appearance and growth of this sort.i feeling. The persons among whom it is spreading are firm aner te CYO 11_, Conservatives; they have been warm and zealous Conservatives also; but disgust and despair are taking c pl of ardent expectation. Is it not desirable to unrielisteand thoroughly to what this serious charge is owing? The causes are not at all inscrutable. Part of it, the ground work of the whole, may be traced to hope long deferred.. More, much more, to the numberless reprieves, quite unintelligible to folks " out of doors," which the Conservative leaders in Parliament have given, within the last two or three years, to the mi;ersbles on the Treasury benches. But the crowning fault, that which turns wonder into wrath and dissatiefaction into disgust--is. unquestionably, the tolerance, and more than tolerance, shown by the Conservatives in Parliament to the new Poor-law. We are well aware that this frank revelation of that state of things which mere party politicians would counsel us to keep out of sight, will be eagerly snatched at by the Downing-street journalists, who well kn ow that their masters have lived for these three veers past, and are now living, not upon their own strength, upon their own merits, but upon the weaknesses, the "liberal concessions," and the want of merits on the part of their opponents. Let them pounce upon the admission, as they doubtless will; and let them take With it the declaration ' which they' cannot gainsay, that the moment a Conservative party in Parliament, whether consisting of the present or any other, shall heartily and sincerel?,,esPi"t throw. itself upon the people, making the faith and its rule, that instant the swarm of of Christianity urchan things which now professes to call itself a Government vanishes bats and birds cf night before the away, like 3inguThe fact, however. with w tee began this asiNlsn. is a see sr itoa ut one, and rill rin grave corisideratior. What must o of things be, when the Conservative; turn in disgust from' their own leaders in one place, and whoa Conservatives and Chartists rre found in amicalle ceineact in another? Let no man be so foolish as to call this '•a desertion rf principle." It is the contrary—it is the highest tribute to principle. The man who breaks up all party time like the individual we have just deecrih,d, in the metrepelis, or the Chartists who support Mr. Welter in Nettinglinno does so in the fervency of a zeal far precple., compared with which such trill -s as Whiggism and Toryism arc mere childish dreams. The tie which binA man to his brother man, is older tban the annals of Eegland can reach, and will endure when the names of Peel and Russell sha'l be alike forgotten.