The Sun.
London, England, 1830-07-15 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

4~

When Lord Killeen demanded of the King's
Ministers, in the House of Commons, whether they
would not send over relief to the destitute poor of
~ Ireland, Sir :Robert Peel answered distinctly that
1 " they would not." Considering the recurrence
A and the progress of famine among the Irish pea-
-1 sentry, we are now convinced that his Majesty's
Government has formed in this respect a wise de-
termination. For England to take the care of the
'i:4 whole mass of Irish paupers upon herself, would be,
:q to authorise and encourage the continuance of those
,1 practices in the landlords from which paupers have
,` been so deplorably multiplied, end the degree et.
~A
~;, wretchedness within our own remembrance, st-.,
k frightfully enhanced. The Press of England, ant
V. i 1 the better part of English society, have preached
o. too long, and vainly preached, to the reason, the
Es,
•.) compassion, the well-understood self-interest of the
Irish gentry. We must henceforth try another''
~.;,1 course, and preach directly to their pockets, which
,Tire not slow of hearing. The poor of Ire-
land have hitherto been kept from starving
"those who have not starved) by wages paid
for their work in England, or by an inconceivably
small portion of charity from the upper classes and
unbounded humanity and generosity amongst each
bt
..;,4 other at home. If the gentlemen of Ireland aresuf-
.! fered to persuade themselves that such a state of
.4.-; things can go on for ever,--that they may appro-
ii priate to themselves so much of the fruits of the
it,l poor man's labour, as to leave him but the minimum
~,L,•: by which human life can be sustained, and that pre-
'*! cariously, for himself and children,—if they, the
;se aristoceacy, are permitted to hope that when there
is a suspension of pauperism, they are to have all'
the benefit, and when an excess of it England must,
iel supply the 1055,..5--it is plainly and broadly saying,
that the Irish aristocrats shall have a vested inte-.
I
~,., rest in the rack and degradation of their country,l
:;-4,1 I hat the Legislature shall not dare to touch their
.:•is'" freehold," and that any improvement in the re.
lotions of landlord and tenant throughout Ireland is
.!. forbidden by the articles of Union. That the Irish
landlords at present have an immediate interest in
the spoliation of their tenantry, is beyond all dis-
pute: for the obvious reason, that when oppression
breaks a poor man down, he has no legal claim—not
' to a pennyworth—ofrestitution from the spoils which
have been wrung from . and have ruined him, if,
t hen, the Government and Legislature would advance
'' one step towards the reform of this dreadful
evil, it must be by throwing back the paupers of
Ireland upon those who have made them paupers.
The Irish gentlemen must be told, " Make poor at
c., your peril; for the poor you make you shall be ut
~ the
tchoest
mofismulitniat:yei maintaining."
OM. nenhg ass
_wepo hearot and know
the
t. • fli lib • lulus,
1,
c; superiority of poor laws, even ill-administered, over
I
no laws prescribing a provision for poverty, is :mini-
:.A feat enough from the undisputed fact that there exist
ii mere frequent returns of absolute want among the
0 poor of Ireland, and a fur greater extent of it when
it does come, than in nightie! at the worst crisis of
;•Il her history. We are aware that Ministers have now
before them one or more plans for relieving Irish
ss wretchedness or averting it.: one is, by following
°,,,... the English precedent, and feeding and clothing the
1
destitute, though idle poor; the other, for relieving
them in the form of wages for labour,—employing
..,: them in useful' and necessary public works, and thus
'1
• • promoting at once the meting of coMmunication, and
• the growth of production throughout the country.
, We know not which bids fairest for approval by the
; King's Government, but to us it seems that paying
, for labour (that is, making the Irish landlord pay
i for the labour) might be the best thing to begin
with, since the elternative would be only to support
: involuntary idleness : but either is preferable to
L' letting our fellow-subjects perish.—Times.
We do not exactly comprehend the abject at
64. which die newspapers of Ireland are aiming at the
r..:4: present moment. The Dublin Morning Register
il of Monday last, for instance, has the following ex-
hortation :--
"To VIE PREEIFOLDERS Oto IRELAND.

" The flagitious Disfranchisement Bill has done that to
the constituency which the Union did to the Representa-
tives of the people : it has swept them off to less than a '
fifth I This is the time to show public virtue, if it exist
in the hearts of the people. All arts and every species of
open injustice have been used to destroy their power, but
it may still he made the means of avenging the wrongs of,
the country, if corruption and cowardice do not do more ..
to render it nugatory than all the Ants of wicked and
apoliating legislation, The fewer the votes, the more pre-
cious, like the Sibylline verses, those that remain behind,
and the more imperative it is on the possessors to bestow
them for the benefit of the country, and the benefit of the
country alone. There are no double duties now to'dis-
tract men's minds; candidates can claim the popular auf-
frages on one ground alone, and that is the maintenance
of Irish right against the aggreision of Englishmen States.
men. Plundered and impoverished as we have been, '
drsined as we were in time of war, and neglected as ue,
were in time of peace, we have only escaped by accident
from the infliction of new and intolerable privations, and
it depends upon ourselves whether the attempt to wholly
sacrifice us to the comfort and convenience of English•
men—to revive the policy which Pitt described forty.five
years ago, when he said that its object had been to de-
prive Ireland of the use of her own resources and render
her subservient to the opulence of England—it depends,
we say, upon ourselves, whether this base. and audacious
. attempt be not repeated and be successful."
We have no disposition to justify the former can.
duet of England towards Ireland; but us there is:;
certainly no disposition in the present day to repeat
that conduct, which indeed is utterly foreign to the
spirit of the age, the sooner all parties bury the past
in oblivion the 'better. What is it that the Irish
now.want ? Do they want a separate Legislature ?
Perhaps it would be better fur both England nod .
Ireland that the details) of Ireland were discussed in •
'an Irish Legislature. But we do not perceive that.
they wish to dissolve the Union. If, than, the iti.
eorporated Union is to be preserved, why is Ireland
to be opposed to 'England ? Why speak of sacri-
fieime Ireland wholly to the comfort and convenience
of Englishmen ? As well say that Middlesex i,,
sacrificed to the comfort and convenience of EsseN.l:
or Surrey. It can never conduce to the comfort
and convenience of Englishmen that the prosperity
of Ireland should be retarded. In truth, English- ;
men feel but too sensibly the troubles of Ireland,
for they told to ber,burdettri not a little. It is the
interest of, Englishinen that Ireland should bA,
wealthy and prosperous, because every increase ofl
the wealth and prosperity of Ireland would di-
minish the pressure of the common burdens, flu'
why should Ireland, instead of considering the United
Kingdom as one whole,,equal in advantages and dia.
allvantages, seek to add to the burdens of England'
by an exemption from any part of her fair share ?
.The poduce of the industry of England and Ireland
haves common market, and ought to be subject to the
same burdens. To depart from the principle of
equal taxation would render necessary the renewal
of restrictions on the trade between rho two court=
tries and all the machinery of countervailing duties,
and would consequently open a wide door to
!smuggling, Sze, If the Irish are to remain with Ils
it 6 an incorporating Union, and to be entitled to the
same advantages as the rest of the empire, then we
any they have no chain: to shake themselves freifrom
the common burdens. To admit any other prins
eiplei would be taxing the people of England and
Scotland, for the sake of additel to the wealth of
l'itlttn'i• The Ministry deserve the thanks of the
erry in their endeavoitr to free the interztal trade
the empire front , efiaeldes and to equalize the
taxes. To pleve,a, 0 ' f
le outcry 0 the Irish News.
- : papers, it would have been as well if they had
lowered the duties in Enedend to the Irishl ' l
rather than attempt to raise the Lid dn k toe:te ''
English level. Any attempt on Owl to; I '' —l;6'
t Members to separate themsl fretsPutt' I I° hi"
i, , s, yes i - the rest of
Idle Members, would only procineler t.lto :Ministry
! the undivided support of the Erigiieh and 8,146
i Members. Any Irish Member 'ho pledges hitri.
eel( to his constituents to vote in ftivoar of unequal
taxation, pledges himself to that of which in Ilk
~,,,,eseierwe }w nitt4 disapprove, and which weal
have nn influence on Ministers, Ministers would
L wish nothing better4than an attempt of this kind by

the Irish Members, because it would give thein thel
cordial support of the English and Scotch Members;
!of all parties.—Morning Chronicle.
The apparent lukewarmness of the electors
tthrotighout the kingdom as to the result of the sp-
, preaching general election augurs ill for the present
state of patriotism and public spirit throughout the
kingdom. It may be that, in some places, at least,
I they are reserving their strength till the day of trial
arrives, and that in others they are quiescent for
want of candidates; but, in the main, we fear the
indifference we allude to is but too certain, and
arises from past experience of the little reliance
which is to be placed on the zeal and promises of
those who on former similar occasions professed so
!much and have performed so little. We are not de •
sirous (God forbid we should be!) of seeing the
nation thrown into the heats and contests, in which
passion takes the piece of reason ; hut we do
wish to see the people, when called upon to exercise
the highest privilege of freemen—that of nominating
those who are to represent them in the Government
—rationally and actively engaged in inquiring
how their interests have been guarded in the ex-
piring, Parliament, and how best to supply any
deficiency in the new.. This, as yet, we do not see;
on, nor any tendency towards it. For the most
parr, the same bees seem likely to be returned to
the hive, accompanied, too, by not a few of the.
drones; and where that is not the case, and any
new zeal is likely to be enlisted in the service,
seems as if it would arise from accidental eircums
stance rather than from any expression of popular.
or public feeling. This sullen indifference augurs.,
ill, we repeat, both to the country and its prospects,
Were it the result of prosperity and contentment
ice shoidd hail it with as unmixed satisfaction in,
under contrary circumstances, we deplore it. Every
one who has not his own fingers in the public honey-
pot knows and feels that the mass of the people are
.tny thing but contented and happy, and that gaunt
distress has found its way not only to the door of
the poor man, but has passed, in numberless in-
stances, the thresholds of those who were hitherto
,exempt from its approaches. In former times, hart
'such a state of things presented itself, the people
would have anxiously looked to Parliament,' espe-
cially to a new Parliament, for relief. They would
have felt that there was no wrong without n remedy;
no error but which, by timely discovery and interfe-
rence, might be retraced and remedied. Unhappily
chat does not seem now to be the feeling. Hopeless
despair seems to take the place of constitutional
remonstrance and inquiry ; and, as if dragooned
into their fate, they look with coldness to the very
crisis which, in former times, would have presented
the obvious period of redress. And what will be
said by-and-bye, should the new Parliament persist
in the errors of the past ? Will not the very silence
.pf the people be construed into an acquiescence in
them ; and will they not be told that it will be of
no use to complain then, after the constitutional pe-
riod for making their sentiments known has passed
by unheeded by themselves ? We deplore then this
apathy as ominous of a feeling which, above all, we
are anxious should not spread and gain ground in the
t•ountry—viz., an indifference to, and want of cut-
Adence in, the popular branch of the Constitution.
(Than this nothing is to be more deplored. Much
is past Parliaments may have disappointed the just
expectations of the people—much as the tergiversa-
tion and unprincipled conduct of professing patriots
nay have tended to shake the general confidence of
the people in public men—general opinion, rationally
formed and firmly expressed, can never fail, however
for a time disregarded, to have that influence on
public affairs which must ultimately set things right,
in spite of the ignorance, the obstinacy, or something
worse, of those from whose situation better things
might have been expected.—Morning Herald.