POLITICAL TREACHERY OF SIR GEORGE MURRAY.
IT was a 'avourite maxim among the profligate politicians of an- cient Rome, that "men were to be cheated with oaths." Sir GEORGE MURRAY appears to have adopted this rule, with the slight var'.ation of pledges for oaths. He distinctly promised to vote for the admission of Dissenters into the Universities; and yet voted agairst the second reading of Mr. WOOD'S bill to effect that purpose: in other words, he directly violated a solemn promise to the Per constituency, made, it now appears, for the base purpose of entrapping their support. Lax and accomm( dating as the conduct of public men too often is, it would be difficult to point out another instance of such a barefaced dereliction of principle. Immediate resignation of his seat, and retirement into private life, is the old% course left open to Sir GEORGE MURRAY. He never can f rget the bitter ironical cheers with which he was greeted when returning from the Lobby with the Minority, on the night of Friday week. He can never recover from the deep damnation of that hour. His connexion with any party must hereafter be felt Us a stigma ; his emplo) meet under any Ministry would blast its character at once ; and now that Don MIGUEL's struggle is over, we cannot think of any military service which he would not disgrace.
The readers of the Spectator will remember that, aside from his Tory politics, we thought and spoke well of Sir GEORGE MURRAY during and after his election for Perthshire. We gave him credit for high honour; and never had the least suspicion that any thing under heaven would have induced him to break his solemnly-recorded word to his constituents. It is with feelings of regret, not of tri- umph, that we see him fallen so low. Who could have believed that his address to his constituents on the nomination-day at Perth, on the 29th of April, was a piece of me; e hypocrisy ? For it should be remembered, that it was not on a drunken canvass, in the heat of solicitation for votes, or in equivocal language, that Sir GEORGE MURRAY delivered the following sentiments- " lie claimed for every sect and persuasion, the full enjoyment of those opinions they might prefer in regard to religion, and of those forms of wor- ship which might appear to them best fitted for carrying on their devotional exercises. He claimed also that there should be no exclusion whatever from official situations on account of religious opinions. With reference to the ques- tion at present under discussion in Parliament—the admission of Dissenters into the .English Universities—he held that free admission (mold to be given to all sects, as well as the members of the Established Church."
These words formed part of' his set speech on the day of' nomina- tion: the promise was volunteered, not extorted. Within less than two months it was deliberately broken.
The course which his constituents ought to take is plain. They should at once demand his resignation. All the Perthshire Tories even, unless they choose to be considered as sharers in the cheat, should join in the requisition ; for it is impossible that they can place confidence in him, any more than the Liberals. It is to be expected that, when it suits his purposes, Sir GEORGE MURRAY will betray them in turn. It cannot be an excuse, except to the base and unprincipled, that Sir GEORGE fully expected at the time of' his vote to step immediately into oflice with Sir ROBERT PEEL and his old associates, and thereby to acquire the means of plastering over his iniquity. But supposing his party do recover office for a time, no man of character can in future sit with him in the same Cabinet. He has become useless to the place-hunting portion of his constituents; and even they, if they are wise in their generation, should seek to get rid of him.
• See Spectator, No 306, p. 336.
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