The Express.
London, England, 1861-06-03 00:00:00

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Trir4 CTlvilin, MUCH AND FICTION. Mr. Y. Matthews
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Ms..re, Herman Yoshi. Ilsolows, smut Tottrr. Elsrrurthy
and Illos Death.

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LONDON, MONDAY, JUNE 3.

THE alienation of the representatives of Ireland
from the Liberal party in Parliament is a subject
on which wo have hitherto refrained from com-
ment ; not becaua it had escaped our observation,
or that we were at any loss to account for the
fact as it stands. It is some time since we
pointed out the reasons why we anticipated the
result which has now occurred, and warned those
in whose power it lay to mitigate in a great degree
the operation of the adverse influences we knew
to be at work, that it behoved them seriously to
consider the isequences of neglect or obstinacy
in the course they lad entered upon. The result
has justified ‘ur warnings. In the late division—
avowedly a party one, and one upon which the
predominance of IVhigs or Tories in the councils
of the Crown confessedly was staked—three-
fourths of the Irish members voted against
Lord PA LIIIZUMN and with the lieutenant of
Lord D►.aav, while of the remainder but eighteen
recorded their votes on the other side. Let us
discard for a moment the petty and distracting
incidents of tha recent struggle, and look at the
fact broadly, and with reference to its more deep-
seated causes.

From the time when Mr. CANNINO succeeded
in forming • Liberal Administration, in 1827, to
the death of Lord lisassomorou, twenty years
subsequently, while occupying the poet of Viceroy
of Inland, • majority of the representatives of
that country, varying from sixty to seventy in
number, were invariably found in the ranks of the
Liberal party in the Hama Commons. Every great
measure of program that obtained the sanction of
the Legislature during that memorable period had ;
their cordial and constant support. Irish Toryism
never faded, indeed, to send its contingent to the ,
reactionary host with which the Reformers had to
contend ; but, taking the whole course of the
great struggle for religious, electoral, municipal,
and commercial freedom, which lasted throughout
the SOOMINWTO adnimistrations of Mr. CAwsrso., the
Duke of W mud • ..roe, Earl (i key, Lord MELeutll,ll,
and Sir Rulliir Past, the annalist cannot
fail to note that upon the cohesion of the English,
Scotch, and Irish Liberals success continually
hung, and that without the important aid contri-
buted by the last-named auxiliary, peaceful and
constitutional triumph would often have been un-
attainable. How, then, comes it to pus that
this goodly array has gradually been dispersed ;
and why is it that at the present moment the
party of reaction boast that at the next general
election the number of Liberal representatives
from Ireland will be still further lessened? How
is it that even of the moiety to which they are
reduced in the present Parliament, not more than
eighteen aro to be found willing to identify them-
selves with a Government which professes to
adhere to the old formula of civil and religious
liberty 1 There are those amongst us who are
ready to answer these questions off-hand,
by telling us that in Lord Metnoraxe'ii time
the Cathohca were kept in good humour by
lYCosemx, and that by his means some fifty or
sixty votes were always secure for the Whigs ;
whereas now that Catholic politic are
changed, most of these aro cast into the
opposite scale. Nothing can be more
fallacious than such a mode of pretending
to account for the fact before us. At no period
of his surprising ascendancy as a popular leader
did O'Commett succeed or, indeed, attempt to ob-
tain the return of a majority of Catholics over Pro-
testants by the Liberal constituencies of Ireland.
Many of those constituencies were wholly beyond
the sphere of his influence, and, as a matter of fact,
it is only necessary to state that throughout the
brilliant epoch of Liberal triumphs to which we have
referred, from thirty to forty Protestant Liberals
were always scut to Parliament from Ireland. Nor
are the proportions materially changed at the pre-
sent day, there being actually but nine and
twenty Irish members now in the House who
profess the creed of Rome. Still more un-
tenable is the assertion we sometimes hear, that
nearly all of them are partisans of Lord DERBY.
But fourteen out of the twenty-nine voted on
Thursday last against the repeal of the Paper
Duty, while nine voted with Ministers, and six
were absent. In the face of these figures it were
mere trifling to discuss the matter further, on ma-
twists grounds. We frankly own, indeed, and we
do so with regret, that relieious exasperation contri-
butes to a certain extent to widen the breach un-
happily existing between those who were once poli-
tical friends. Hut what we wish to point out is
this, that men religious predilections do not and
cannot account for the serious diminution of the
Liberal party in Ireland, or for the unconcealed
indifference felt by many of its members in Parlia-
ment as to the ascendency of this or the other set
of men in the councils of the State. Exactly the
same number of Protestant incuibers as of Catho-
lic members from Ireland voted the other evening
with Lord PALIIERSTIDM ; and the rest were in the
adverse lobby or nowhere. We cannot, therefore,
account by mere reference to creed for what, in
point of fact, is much more due to other COMO&
When the present Government was formed the
expediency and necessity were strongly urged upon
its chiefs of having a distinctive popular policy
for Ireland. No regard, however, was had
to the representations then made. Of legisla-
bon in the preeressive and popular sense no
intelligible promise was given, and during the two
years that have since elapsed not a single Act rela-
tive to Ireland has Leen passed to which any sup-
porter of Ministers ("gild at the hustings venture
to point as a justificatiun of his votes in their