The Sun.
London, England, 1852-09-11 00:00:00

aas
ee
SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
TIMES.—It is a fearful, but at the same time an en-
couraging reflection, that the destiny of a nation is left
by the order of Providence in a great measure in its own
hands. If it is to fell, its own vices and weaknesses
are selected as the means of punishment; if to rise. its
virtues are the wings to bear it aloft and enable it to
fulfil its glorious destiny. There is but one Power
which is able to conciliate the apparent contradiction of
individual free will and Providential direction, and into
the hand of that Power the destinies of nations are com-
mitted. E Poland be divided and annihilated, her own
divisions gave the signal to the;spoiler and suggested the
partition under which she fell. If Italy groans under a
grievous and degrading yoke, it is because she omitted
to cultivate the manly virtues which make men free and
valiant, and abandoned herself to the miserable discord
and jealousy which have placed 24 millions of Italians
at the feet of 100,000 strangers; and Ireland, whose
pe
orators and writers, whose clergy and laity, rank their
ingenuity in perpetually devising new solutions of the
problem
t I beworldr aand e n c t h r
aeo
of a
ct
u at
pi s
io tra l ofin hert
h i s owcs
on
uanmint
ri
osyng
foi rt tnumant
uieoss
nations
sat hpo e
architect
ex-
pear
smallest
not Ireland more manifestly than any other country
u a strh x
presented by her misery and poverty,.—is
v of her own ruin ? To men familiar with the
almost incredible that so small a portion of our su-
perabundance. finds its way across the Channel. While
uncertain gain
the most doubtful 8 faith and unstable independence are
eagerly sought for by
British capital, it is an undeniable
fact that there are very few countries in the world which
have not received more of
perity than Ireland.
to the faithless While we have lent 150,000,0001.
Government of Spain,
roads and railways the repudiating have covered with
America, are deep in the L States of North
and profound in the secrets-- of Peruvian of Mexican finance,
bonds, we pass by a beautiful and fertile d island close at
our doors, and leave its resources
capital we so lavishly squander
elsewhere.ui eveloped by the
is only too clear;—we have to deal The reason
homicides, a nation whose feet are swift a nation of
innocent blood, but slow and lingeringwhenswiftto shed
on to avenge the crime. Property we may called
else-
where, and lose without much repining, for the lose
gains of
one place compensate for the losses of another
man's life is a venture which cannot be apportioned but
at
divided; he sets it all on one cast when he runsoted or
danger, and nowhere does that danger meet him in so
into
fearful and repulsive a form as in Ireland. Men will for
a very small reward, or even for sport, face the open
dangers of the field; but to see in every wall a fortress
for the lurking assassin, in every coppice an ambuscade,
in every peasant a murderer or an accomplice, and to
know that from these things you are protected by no
innocence of life, by no courtesy of demeanour, by no
liberality, by no justice, by no mercy, by no sacrifice,
by no popularity, and that these endearing qualities often
attract the blow by irendering the vengeance of the
secret tribunal more signal and more inscrutable, is a trial
which shakes the nerves of the boldest, and renders men
ready to brave anything anywhere rather than wither
under the feverish and agonising anxieties of a life in the
disturbed districts of Ireland. The abstinence from
murder is the first condition of the re-organization of
Irish society. It is not much we ask, but little as it is,
it cannot be granted. The priests continue to stir up
the fierce passions of the peasantry, the peasantry unite
in a vast conspiracy against those on whose capital they
depend for bread, and, when they slay those who feed
them, they wonder that they are fed no more. The
prophets prophecy falsely, and the people love to have
it so; and therefore to prophets and to people no other
refuge is left, save to fly from a land which they drag
down with them by their follies and their crimes. The
recent murder of Mr. O'Callaghan Ryan, which has
suggested these remarks, seems to have been an orainary
affair, neither rising much above nor sinking much be-
low the usual level of Irish agrarian atrocity. The un-
fortunate gentleman was, as appears very usual on these
occasions, a person of popular manners, much kindness
of heart, and held in high and well. deserved estima-
tion. Such a victim was peculiarly calculated to strike
terror. The cause also was, as usual, the determination
to retain possession of land. Mr. Ryan had been on a
visit of conciliation to some troublesome tenants, against
whom he was unwilling to proceed to extremities. On
his return he suddenly received a shot in his side, fell
from his horse, was dragged off the road, and had his
skull literally beaten to pieces by the assassins with large
stones and a hatchet. Two men are in custody on sus-
picion. The tragedy is so trite, the details so ordinary
and well understood, that we almost owe our readers an
apology for dwelling on the well-known and universally
recognised features of Irish crime. Whether it be Mr.
Bateson, Mr. Mauleverer, or Mr, Ryan, the details are
almost identical, and no harder task could be devised for
the memory than retaining distinctly for any consider-
able time the details of several Irish murders. It
is exac.ly this which is so awful and so hopeless. In
other lands murder is the result of individual tempera-
ment. A monster arises,—a Rush, or a M anning, an
Elisabide or a Papavoine,—marked out by strong and
sharply defined peculiarities from the rest of the human
race, and dips his hand in innocent blood; but in Ireland
murder is a pursuit, a habit, almost an institution. A
book of practice describing the action of ejectment would
hardly be perfect which did not note the particular
period at which the suit is most frequently abated by the
murder of the lessor of the plaintiff. While the one is
preparing his case the other is loading his blunderbuss,
and the issue is removed from the courts of law to the
lonely coppice, the secluded by-path, or the deserted
stone quarry. So long as these things continue—and
there is no prospect that they will speedily come to an
end—so long as the priests shall testify their sympathy
if not their open approbation of deeds such as these,
philanthropy may preach and Parliament may legis-
late, but Ireland will remain a field of blood,
a land to be avoided by all those whom imperious
necessity has not chained to her blighted soil. The
crimes of the nation most justly become its punishment;
it makes a common cause with the murderer, and ven-
geance does not fall on the murderer alone, but is shared
by the whole land which he contaminates by his crime.
It is a scourge wielded by their own bloody hand, which
is driving this people forth to expiate in eternal exile
the crimes and the sympathy with crime that turn from
their shores all who would aid or relieve them. It is
left to them to execute vengeance on themselves, and
they are doing it completely. Until this curse be rooted
out there is no solid prosperity for Ireland. Gleams of
hope there may occasionally be—for who can help hoping
for the future of a country so richly endowed by nature?
—but solid prosperity there can be none till a man feels
that his life as well as his money will be safe on Irish
ground. All that a man has will he give in exchange
fur his life, and little will broad estates or wemll-paid
rentrolls avail him if his steps are dogged by urder
and his thoughts disturbed by the reasonable apprehen-
sion of sudden and violent death.

understand Directors
THE INDIA CHARTER ACT.
The Select Committee of the House of Lords on the
India Charter Act of 1834 have reported the evidence
which was laid before them. The period allotted to the
sryinstemhoef
inquiry was evidently insufficient to enable the Commit-
tee to master the whole question submitted to them; and,
obser-
vation that the general tendency of the evidence is for the present, “ they confine themselvesress taoptrheeliombisnear
Cmommitmteiessoionnlyertso
Home establishment, and to its relations with
dtheaptshee.
fa-
vourableaffairs of
odf a
India."ttioes t
sh 0
,npresent
conclusion no
escylauls
staieour tint h
poor:
oi
authorities;
probably
bsm;i
yi uf
for
ryt fel::
ogte s
the Board of
vincial Government, rather than to the existing
appearlndia
hasthat
yet either
receivedthe financial
aoirlethe c
consideration.
a istribu-
tnot
opinion that the division of power between
ought to be maintained, in preference e Affairs of India
bringing our Eastern empire
hethCeo
to any scheme for
under
control of the Crown and of Parliament, the more immediate
with great force, the necessity of providing
Mr. Mill urges,
antagonistic discussion in dealing '3providing some ineaud of
country which has no legal with the affairs of
should think," organ of public opinion. '`l
says that
~ that the effect of able and experienced witness.
carrying on the Government of
India like that of the
of State, would . colonies, by means of a
Sr:that
could possibly
existbe the most complete e,lesp!Vil
when
in a country like this. '
with their
we remember the •
history of the colonies, .
he arbitrary
English
or European populations, 50c1 t rned in the
manner in which they have always been g°Te will not be
absence of representative institutions, it
easy to form a different conclusion. ver whose name
One member of the Committee, howe , .
wets to Air. Mill's doe-
it is not difficult to conjecture, o
. Sow could it be a
trine, with singular simp
lictillZuld have the control of
despotism, when Parliaftserny
of State?" How indeed?
the conduct of the Secretary
would be certainly indifferent
—except that both Ron
ignorant of it,
whilst
nd probably
to the subject, gi disputed question would almost
their votes on anialin _
ed by political considerations.
Anal
be deter .. .
and _
_..
rienced politician ex-Munster might
An exP9 that Secretaries of State have, not
have reflected
unfrequently, the control of Parliament. It is true that
of public discussion, and even of possible cen-
the fear
sure and impeachment, might form a check on great
delinquents, and that, in some cases, a Ministerial Act
might be thwarted or reversed by the House of Com-
mons. But these securities, such as they are, already
exist to the fullest extent. The Board of Control '
answerable to the Crown and to Parliament for everyis
measure of Indian administration. The House of Com-
mons had the satisfaction of learning, during the Degross of the Affghan war, that the causes of that 'rinex-
plicable invasion could not safely bepublished; and
the disasters of Cabal had been incurred and after
repaired,
Parliament acquiesced with readiness in the
that it was useless to re-open transactions which
finally concluded. That ill-omened undertakinglo- were
un-
doubtedly showed that the Indian Government
to grievous errors; but the inference to be is liable
forex the Affairs
We
deduced from
it is not that the Cabinet is unduly controlled
Board in Leadenhall-street. The dn. by the
'rectors would
never have originated the war, and, according to their
constitution, they had no power to
prevent it. Being
under a legal obligation to transmit to India all
dispatches forwarded to them by the Board of Control,
the Chairman and his colleagues can only remonstrate
against any unfit exercise of the superior authority.
On one occasion only they resolved to force the Com-
missioners to mote fore
Mandamus to enforce an order