The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-13 00:00:00

The contest for the representation of the county of Cavan
has terminated in the return of Mr. Burrowes, the Con-
servative candidate, by a considerable majority. This re-
sult is no more than tee anticipated. Cavan is one of the
ancient strongholds of territorial Toryism in the North of
Ireland. It has for generations been held by the heredi-
tary garrison, consisting of the proprietors of the soil and
a sturdy yeomanry whom they have always kept about
them, against the Catholic majority of the population.
These latter have never yet been able to muster sufficient
courage, perhaps we ought rather to say have never been
inspired with sufficient desperation, to overpower the
compact and intrepil phalanx that have now once more
overborne and vanquished the irresolution of superior
numbers. It is the old story. The majority, sanguine of
victory, but unconscious of the moral strength by which
victories are won, have hoped, vowed, promised, threatened.
—lone everything but vote unanimously in favour of the
popular candidate ; and they have been in consequence
beaten in the struggle by the firm and united band who
still treasure in their hearts the traditions of social and
sectarian ascendancy, throughout the greater part of Ire-.
land, but more especially
in the province of Ulster.
Cavan is peculiarly subject to the influences of the state'
of things above noticed. It is one of .those land-locked
districts which in a slowly progressive country is sure to
be among the longest to remain intellectually and morally
torpid. According to the delusive test of statistics, it
would seem to possess political resources as great as many
other counties. By the last return made to Parliament it
apposite to contain 3,850 electors, a number quite as large
in proportion to its entire population as many counties
where representative rights heti long been-successfully, if
not always-very sagaciously, exercised. _But what avail
mere numbers, if the habits of submission engendered in
the times of legal disfranchisement and religious oppression
have never been broken? The disfranchisement no longer
exists by act of Parliament; the statutory oppression of
the followers of one creed by the professors of another has
been swept away but the instinctive fear and faltering of
serfhood still remain. Loitering at the 'door of the forge,
or around the turf fire of the public-house, the political
gossips of every parish have long been accustomed to read
in the columns of some weekly journal what was going on,
or said to be going on, elsewhere; and no doubt the recital
of elections fought and won on popular principles in other
counties stirred within them sincere desires of doing like-
wise, and certain ill-reasoned hopes that similar attempts
in Cavan would not prove vain. But political examples
are merely the seeds that fall by the wayside, or in stony
places, that take no root, or, when they do, wither rapidly
away. Without the elemett amongst them of an inde-
pendent mercantile class—without a single populous town
to serve as the cradle of political organisation—without a
resident gentry professing even Whig opinions, the mass of
the community have practically lived in a state of politi-
cal stagnation as complete as that of any similar number
of the inhabitants of an Austrian province.
Since the fierce struggle waged in 1826 at the instance
ofsthe• Catholic Association, nc real contest between the
vassal Many and the dominant Few has occurred in
Cavan. There have been noisy competitions for the ho-
nour of representing the landbrds of the county in Par-
liatneil between various indlviduals belonging to that
'privileged class. Sometimes a show of what, in that de-
solate region, passed for Libertlistn, was made by a can-
didate who wished to obtain tle support of the Marquis of
Headtort, and sometimes, as it the case of Sir J. Young,
a special dispensation to commit Peelism was granted by
Lord Farnham, the all-powerful head of Orangeism in the
locality, -while Sir John's colleague was required to vote
utira-tawny upon every conceivable question. But in
these squaublea of the squireirchv and nobles the rack-
rented and despised tenant-fanners generally had no in-
terest whatever. Nobody thought of them or their feel-
ings on the occasion. In plain truth it did not matter
sixpence what they thought or felt upon the matter. And
the consequence of this we nov see, in the actual helpless-
ness of the acknowledged majority of the constituency to
assert the right of choosing I man for their representa-
tive, which nominally and according to the lying letter of
the law they undoubtedly possess. Mr. Hughes, the tut-
successful candidate, is a man of recognised talents very
superior to his opponent. He ie a ready and fluent speaker ;
a person of amiable disposition and conciliatory manner;
an excellent landlord ; an advscate of the ballot and of
tenant-right ; and finally a Roman Catholic without
bigotry, or the affectation of adherence to the degrading
dogmas of passive obedience on the part of the laity, re-
cently -imported by Cardinal Wiseman and Arch-
'bishop Cullen from Rome. Mr. Hughes is, more-
over, a man of wealth, and we have heard that
no expense was spared by him in the promotion of
his cause. All these, amen; such a population as
that which he canvassed, forced a rare combination of
advantages. The Roman Catholic voters are stated as
outnumbering the Protestants in Cavan by two to one ;
and although Mr Burrowes professed himself unwilling to
take the pledge against Maynooth, he avowedly stood upop
the Orange interest, and with the support of Lord Farn-
ham. Nvertheless, Mr. Hughes has been beaten by three
hundred votes, on a two days' poll. The silent terror
exercised over the minds of an impoverished and defence-
less tenantry, by the irresponsible powers of landlordism,
preve,tistron,gsr than the combined influences of prejudice,
opinion, feeling, popular excitement, and religious appeals.
From the steps of the altar the Roman Catholic bishop
addressed his flock on the previous Sunday on the merits
of the rival candidates, adjuring them to vote for Mr.
Hughes. Brit it is a curious illustration of the truth of.
the views already stated, that his principal anxiety seems
to have been to persuade his hearers that 'they need not
apprehend distraint or eviction from their little holdings,
provided they succeeded in defeating the candidate of the
landlords. One can readily imasine the paralysing influ-
ence of the doubt herein betrayebd. Resort seems to have
been unsparingly had to open threats, and in some in-
stances to actual violence. A score of Roman Catholic
voters, while proceeding under the escort of a few police-
men to the county town, were beset by an armed mob,
who forcibly carried them off, and detained them in will
ing custody until they were re-captured by the agent of
their landlord, at the head of a ,ietachmeut of cavalry;
after which they were conducted to the hustings, and
polled for the Tary candidate !
And yet -there are sanctified hypocrites amongst us who
continue to say that thete-14-no used of the ballot.

(Prom tZe Morning Chronicle of this day.)
We should be sorry to see the just indignation of the
British people, at the shortcomings of an individual Mini-
ster, dwindle clown to a mere vulgar, outcry
against
" Lords." The English are not a revolutionary to
be represented b 3 some revolutionary journalists. people,
although their feelings are most erroneously. supposed
should overthrow the present Governmen ,
in order to substitute for it' another composed of certain
ttheyne
it will
ambitious and overrated men, who
daring scheme of riding into office upon a reputation made
lord
by their owa self-Cuffing. That "John Bull
_.
_I 4 .
wholly different
was true at one period, but in a sense
from that in whici it is accepted at the present.
time. If
have conceived the
they are yet
fet-
ishism which formerly was their opprobrium,
brought
far from the position which the French were
the English no Luger regard the aristocracy with the
at the close of the last century, when to be an aristocrat
was to merit ostracism or death.
If " lords" are clever men,
there is no reason
whythose they
should not b 3 employed iu the public service. As i
among them who rise to high stations are regularly reu-
cated in all the mechanical part of statesmanship, the
chances are that they will make better ministers than men
who hwe not been bred to the work, however great their
natural capacity or their means of observation. Among
the leading state-men of the present time, if there be a
large proportion of " lords," it must at least be admitted
that those "lords" are not deficient in ability, whether as
speakers or as men of business. Let any man accustomed
to attend the debates of the House of Commons say that
the "lords" do not rather preponderate than otherwise
among the superior men of that assembly.
Lord Palmerston Las laid himself open to these attacks
feoxrcltuhseirvei aims noofrnhiiss"
tuapkoinn theg
their
haeriirs t ooebrjae ecyt
_a sb
ya n
tihnes t
extreme
Ministerial appointments. Never, in our recent history,
have we had a Minister who has so completely mistaken
his mission. The people of England would not have grum-
bled had the lords and lordlings and the plain men been
pretty fairly divided ; but such a shameless
talent,monopoly—
and
makes butt of fe
rumediocritiesprey with
tn titles—
stirs
dema-
gogues.
almerston seems to have had no eye, in
t(iPihas apportioned the offices to the men, not
Ministers, for any person out of a charmed
goEurvenneetnhisinetrvroodrunmedighinttnhathvee
cuniorsete lcom.o;hel nieocaletr:Liodosboftlrhwohdeole. offices,
Administration—had a principle of thorough and unspar-
ing reformation been announced, even although it might
not have been possible to carry it into immediate execu-
tion universally.
been reference
nver too
overlooked
relativeh ai fitness.an any
v i
One might suppose that a sentiment of aristocratic pride
had influenced the Premier throughout. There is nothing
your thorough aristocrat finds so antagonistic to his che-
rished traditions of self importance as the influence of the
Press. Pahnerston, notwithstanding his popularity-hunt-
ing of former days, is a man cf this stamp. Report has
attributed to him many coquettings with the conductors
of newspapers ; but only to " make use of them." It is
doubtful whether the noble lord has any clear idea of the
value of the Press as an institution, or whether he looks
upon it in any other light than am a troublesome and in-
trusive meddler in affairs which are the peculiar province
of aristocrats, born Ministers of State. To such a man
ounr i :hoei
msmeo of jour
ocu: rli :
the dictatorial tone assumed in certain quarters would ap-
pear arrogant and offensive. He would naturally refuse
particularmere merely
hen individualsanse thn y w e
rteh rtuhsat f
auvpo
tglifermom if sufficiently
nalists. He might think them intemperate, conceited,
t leanness have
aapnpdooinytenirreantetcsl, puraeigtehitidehrasv.
eyeat,,iojpetdegd,
well connected ; though if they were forced upon him b
simulated public opinion, ho would reject them with dis-
dain.yrie pretentiousmiauyuib,ley possible
aristocraticoclsesmi
bal geotgoiee sx,fprhlaaiin wouldtehn
eti.
In
Naturally enough, such a man, listening only to the
dictates of his own pride or petulance, would rush into
the opposite extreme. To proclaim his repugnance to
com-
pounditohrinva a
yMinistryoneperhaps,
pmos mere
offen-
sively exclusive character of the present Administration.
rosnoabnems (el ifcrotofamtt chielut:ihouollb)myl i pro_et.il
We will do Lord Palmerston the justice to think that he
would not deliberately defy public opinion. He has defied
it, however, we hope unconsciously, in Lis manlier of
tenderssli oliitsig,
ivltu,lcsottiaohsnse
—ui
isiuefl determined rsetptieilatai
iescscli
oiniftt)ith3eet
servants of the Crown shall be chosen—is one involving
many important considerations which are not usually
offered to the attention of the public. As the national
mind is stirred ou the subject, and as there must, sooner
or later, be an explosion, it is as well to know at wl a
cost we shall effect a change in our system. It will not do
to make a revolution iu order to serve the ambition of a
few individuals. The interests of this great Empire must
not be played with in that way. If we are no longer to
be governed by the aristocracy, we must have something
equally permanent and responsible in their stead. I"'
are those men to be, ai.cl how are they to be paid?
Here we have to encounter the 1 ermai
arising out of our vicious social system. Weeirtt_,:_mgoises,,
social position, the means to give grand ente w'm
: eat obstacles
arising