The Sun.
London, England, 1837-12-12 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

It is pleasant to hear the Tories taunt the Liberals
with the divisions in their ranks. We are not all, it is
true, of the same mind upon all points ; but still we
have no discords among us that are not heavenly har-
mony compared with the dissensions that prevail
among Sir Robert Peel's troops. In the Tory camp
all is heresy and schism. In fact, the Tories can
scarcely, with propriety, be called a party at all ; they
are merely a cluster of factions, with as many colours
as in Joseph's coat, or tints en the back of the

chamelion—
" Like youthful steers unyoked, they take their courses,
East, west, north, south ; or, like a school broke up,
Each hurries to his game and sporting-place."
The Tories united ! In what, will somebody in-
form us? Is it in their English politics? Is it in
their Irish politics ? Is it in their votes on the Pen-
sion List ? Is it in their proceedings on the Poor-law
Amendment Act? Is it in their views of Lord Mul-
grave's Government ? Why, there was never half so
much confusion in the tower of Babel. They are agreed
upon no single principle—in no single opinion—as to
no single fact—as to the propriety of no single line of
operations. Their writers are at war with their
speakers, and both their speakers and their writers
areat feud amongst themselves—orator against orator
—newspaper against newspaper. All are, no doubt,
agreed to pursue the old game of harassing and tor-
menting Ireland ; but they have got so many conflict-
ing modes of carrying their amiable designs into exe-
cution, that one cannot help thinking of Curran's ac-
count of the fleas, who were so brisk and bold that had
they only been unanimous they would have pulled him
out of bed. The Tories labour under precisely the
same obstacle to success. They are just as bold and
just as mendacious; but they fortunately lack unani-
mity—a quality that seems to be just as necessary to
Tory men as to Tory insects, if they would perform
any great feat—drag a nation to ruin, or pull a tra-
veller out of bed. We could fill our paper with the
discords, that prevail in the ranks of Toryism. We
have the Wellington Tories, the Lyndhurst Tories,
and the Newcastle Tories. There are Tories who
are for moving backwards, Tories who are for
standing still, Tories who are for moving for-
wards at tortoise-speed, and Tories who are for moving,
in any direction, or at any pace, as their interests dic-
tate, always with a decided preference for the tardy,
retrograde, and crooked modes of proceeding. There
is one class of Tories. for repealing the Emancipation
Act ; and another for simply rendering it a dead letter.
There is one class of Tories for openly abrogating the
Reform Bill, and another for clandestinely undermin-
ing it. There are Tories for Irish education, and
Tories for Irish ignorance ; Tories for the mutilation
of the Bible, and Tories for preserving the Bible
whole, and reserving (after old precedent) the process
of mutilation for the Popish priests. Then there are
the new Poor-law Tories, and the Anti-new Poor-
law Tor:es ; the Tories who on the Pcns'on Limit fol-
low Sir Robert Peel, and the Tories who sit
at the feet of Mr. Daniel Whittle narvey. Upon
the Trish Corporation question, as we showed yester-
day, the varieties of opinion arc as much beyond
arithmetic as the peals of laughter that hailed the
debut of Mr. Benjamin Disraeli. Truly "it is a
goodly thing for brethren to dwell together in unity."
Talk of differences between Whigs and Radi-
cals ! It is pretty well known that Sir Robert Peel
and his Irish supporters make no secret of their mu-
tual feelings of scorn and The leader is
ashamed of his troops, and the troops are discontented
with their leader. Sir Robert has too much discre-
tion to countenance men like Colonel Verner, while,
on the other hand, men like Colonel Verner have
every reason to expect succour in their distress from
their Parliamentary chief, and complain with great
justice that they have been exposed for several suc-
cessive nights to Lord Morpeth's powerful speeches,
and the general hooting of the House, without so
much as one cheering look from the captain of the
party. "No protection, no allegiance," is the na-
tural language of these much injured men, who, it
must be confessed, have now established a tolerably '
fair title to be enrolled in " the noble army of mar-
tyrs." At least, we shall answer for ourselves, that
we should almost as soon be broiled, like St. Law-
rence, on a gridiron, as encounter the remorse-
less roasting than the Gallant Colonels Verner, Per-
ceval, and Conolly uniformly meet with from the Mi-
nisterial Benches every time their holy zeal urges them
to address the House. To return, however, to Sir R.
Peel—while we admit the prudence of his non-interfe-
rence in the desperate cases to which we allude, we
must still hold him responsible, as a leader of the Op-
position, for the character and behaviour of his men.
He may decline, if he likes, " to march through Co-
ventry" with his Orange Colonels ; but he is still their
general, and it is his own fault that he cannot muster
a more "reputable staff. Why has he not the manli-
ness openly to declare his opinion of them, like the fat
knight ? We can easily, however, imagine Sir Ro-
bert's soliloquy : it differs extremely little from that of
Sir John. "If I am not ashamed of my Irish regi-
ment, lam a soused gurnet. My Irish tail consists
of militia colonels, Dublin corporators, and ex-
sergeants ; such as, indeed, were never decent
fellows, but discarded magistrates, itinerant ora-
tors,' and tipsy toast-masters, the cankers of a
quiet country and a calm peace. A mad fellow
met use on the way, and told me I had emptied
all the lodges, and pressed the grand masters.
No ear hath heard such dinner-bells. I'll not
march through Westminster with them—that's flat."
Miserable it is to lead such a battalion ; still
more miserable to lead and to desert them I We
venture to assert that no parliamentary leader
ever made so sorry a figure in the House of
Commons as Sir Robert Peel has done this ses-
sion, Ashamed of his press, blushing for his fol-
lowers, unable to justify a single step of their
proceedings, compelled by the dread of their open
mutiny to remain rooted in his place during their
disgraceful escapades, yet prevented by every
feeling of self-regard from affording them a word
of encouragement, or even a glance of sympathy.
Pope describes the wretched situation of the Right
Honourable Baronet to the life :
" What drop, or nostrum, can this plague remove?
Or which_must end me, a fool's wrath or love ?
A dire dilemma! either way I'm sped;
If foes, they vote ; if friends, they speak me dead.
Seised and tied down to hear, how wretched I I
Who should defend them, yet who dare not lie.
To laugh were want of goodness and of grace;
And to be grave exceeds all powers of face.
I sit with sad civility ; I hear
With deep-felt anguish and an aching ear."
A word now—one word to the persecuted Protestants
of Ireland. Most sincerely do we condole with them
upon the scandalous want of zeal in their cause which
their great champion has displayed so conspicuously
on the first occasions that demanded his ser-
vices. Europe rings with the unutterable barbarities
of which these unhappy men, whose religion is their
only crime, are daily and hourly the helpless and too
patient victims. The Times has detailed their sor-
rows ; the Standard has recorded their groans ; the
fire-touched tongue of Burdett has chronicled their
tribulations. Their trust was ~in Parliament and in
Peel. Peel was to avenge their wrongs, and " deliver
his darling from the lions." Parliament assembles !
Doubtless the first care of the great leader will be to
cast his ample shield before the persecuted Protestants
of Ireland I doubtless the first voice to echo their ago-
nising shrieks will be his ; doubtless he will second
with his ablest efforts every movement in their behalf ;
he will take their cause upon himself ; he will not leave
their sacred interests to the blundering advocacy of
their " itinerant orators," and colonels of militia ;
with his own tongue he will fight the battle of
the faith ; with his own hand carry terror and
destruction into the ranks of the Papists and the
Ribbonmen. Who could have conjectured that
so, wide a gulf separated Toryism in Parliament from
Toryism in print ? Who could have anticipated that
when the case of persecuted Protestantism came on for
trial, the leading counsel would so abruptly throw up
,his brief, and leave his afflicted clients to curse the hour
when they placed their affiance in a leader of whose
perfidy they had old experience ? Colonel Perceval,
Colonel Verner, and Colonel Conony are a deeply in-
jured three, end the representatives of a deeply Injured
party. They see now, however (since there is nothing
like adversity to open the eyes of men), that Lord
Mulgralve'S ear is not the only ear deaf to their an-