The Sun. — 1837-05-03 (London, England)

FRANCIS BURDETT. It would be only a vviitaNing ef positions. The Tory would occupy that certain the other had abandoned, and would amuse a 4tri:in, Class of the people as Sir FRANCIS long lase be --' them, well knowing that his plan could never hulul. The Tories are evidently inclined to thtiPr° uecessf best support in the selfish views of the aristoktiovvY! and in the ignorance of the populace ; and the Reform that the power given to their opponents by th„ v'eforin Bill has sadly weakened the influence of - iorole the 11. r, they have no resource left but to appeal to too, +ll,Bloided passions of the latter. Such a course, safett:"eY are aware can be pursued with perfect di place'' If thirty or forty Tory:•Radicals were to S°f en a° equal number of Reformers in the House °vert liam°lls, the present Government would be ful tur•ned en, the first great division. These faith'l` • ribunes of the people would vote with the orie, Party .°l. ,all questions of vital importance to the toui ' -1.4 Keep up the appearance of advocating the rit4exof the non-electors by bringing forward, like Sir trava cis BURDETT every year, some motion so exIf eent that neither Whig nor Tory could support it. It4di_etiors tinder the 101. franchise, and inclined to the c,a doctrines, can be deceived by these pretences, ,ii y ueserve onl • such 11°Y not the y contemptuous treatment. Have Torie sense to see that the great object of the taliee!, has been to keep them in the grossest ignots , Have %Iles ~, they not learned by experience that the "°0(1 out for the freemen.in the discussion on  the Reform Bill, not on the ground of iiittice, but be. cause the greeter portion of tiia,t 'class were the mos ignorant, and rhtA most easily bribed ; and that their iLlOSii)ity to the appropriation clause and th( Irish system of education arises from their apprehen' sion of the diffusion of knowledge in a part of the country which is now rising every day into greater importance ? For the same reason they encourag( the outcry against the new Poorlaw, because it is calculated to destroy servility, and raise a portion of the lower and middle classes to something like a state of independence. WELLINGTON and PEEL, of course, disown any such intentions; but let not the people deceive themselves— let them judge of their leaders by the acts of the adherents, and 'not trust to professions which these men have not the slightest intention of fulfilling. We have too much confidence, however, in the good sense and discernment of the great body of that class to whom the Reform Bill extended the franchise, to suppose them capable of committing an act of political suicide, by playing into the hands of men who made such a determined and hostile resistance to the rights and privileges which they now enjoy.  In another part of The Sun will be found a highly interesting Report of the proceedings which took place at a meeting of the Westminster electors held  last night. We said on Saturday that the letter of Sir FRANCIS BURDETT to the electors of Westminster was an appeal to the Tories for support against the Liberal part of the constituency, by whom alone it has hitherto been his pretended boast that he has been supported. It is above all things important that the electors should have a clear and perfect understanding of this fact, and that they should -not be led away by the delusion that Sir FRANCIS is still the advocate of the the popular cause. No imposition could be more unfounded, no mistake more fatal. He is in heart and soul a Tory ; and those of the electors who do not so regard him—who do not look upon him as. the most dangerous enemy to their liberties, and oppose him with as much zeal and energy as they formerly exerted in.his behalf—will be guilty of a dereliction of principle as glaring as his own. If there be any persons in Westminster, or anywhere else, who entertain a particle of doubt as to Sir FRANCIS BURDETT'S apostacy, let them look at his late conduct, and then at the proceedings of his new allies and friends, which are the best exponents of it, and they will be convinced that to indulge any hankering after him would be to play the game of the Tories in the most effectual manner. Sir FRANCIS, in the very letter in which he intimates his intention of appealing to the electors, declares `.hat he will do so, not as 'the Champion of Reform,  of as the advocate of those ameliorations in our ins  tutions which every rational man considers to be the sole end and aim of Parliamentary Reform, but as the determined foe to all such improvements, which he contemptuously designates " new-fangled doctrines and crude projects "I ! ! There's a wipe for you, free and independent electors of Westminster—there's a nice little cud for you to chew at your leisure. I You have been flattering yourselves that the reform of abuses in Church and State was all along an integral portion of your political creed—the very thing which, above all other things, gave you a paramount claim to "freedom " and "independence." You have been fancying that this freedom and independence would be best secured by shortening the duration of Parliaments—by an extension of the suffrage—by a system of voting which should enable the voter to follow the dictates of his conscience and free will—by municipal institutions, which should give the inhabitants of towns in England, Ireland, and Scotland the management of their own affairs—by placing men of all persuasions in religion upon an equal footing in the state, and suffering no religionist to pick the pocket of another. All these things, and many more of the same kind, you are now told by Sir F. BURDETT are the wildest hallucinations that ever shot across the chambers of the human brain. The former advocate of Universal Suffrage, Annual Parliaments, and Vote by Ballot, now gravely pronounces any approximation to such opinions " new fangled doctrines and crude projects ;" and as if that were not enough, he tells you in the same breath that he has not changed his opinions, but that you have deserted yours ! Mark, too, how the Tories are chuckling at the -accession of the turn-coat Baronet to their ranks ! They are preparing to make their convert the instrument for inflicting a deep wound on the cause of Reform. Every man and mother's son of them in Westminster will support him at the ensuing election, and if they succeed—which they can do only by the assistance of the Liberals—they will immediately trumpet forth their success as a proof of " re-action" not to be gainsaid. Sir GEORGE MURRAY, who came forward the other day, as the candidate in the Tory interest, has already withdrawn his pretensions. And why ? " Because," says the Tory candidate, " if I were to place myself in competition with Sir