The Sun.
London, England, 1837-10-24 00:00:00

TM! LONDON, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, ISI7

SrMIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

14 Every wave that break; across the Western Channel
*efts hither the yell of outrage or the moan of suffering
from the Irish shores."-7inies of Monday, Oct. 16.

-The following authentications of this glowing state-
ment will entertain and gratify our readers. They con-
sist of observations addressed within the last ten days
by the assistant-barristers of Kilkenny, Limerick,
Longford, and the King's County to the respective
Quarter Sessions' grand juries. It has been said a
hundred times over by the Tory prints, when pressed
with the lightness of the criminal calendar at the as-
sizes, that these documents afford no test whatsoever
of the true state of the country, as a great variety of
very serious offences, aggravated assaults, riots, faction-
fights, waylayings, &c., are tried at Quarter-Sessions,
and do not, of course, come within the cognizance of
the Judges of Assize. We shall now, therefore, give
a few specimens of the charges of the assistant-barris-
ters, in order that nothing may he wanting on our
parts to elucidate the horrible conspiracy that exists at
this moment in every part of Ireland to obey the laws,
and preserve the Queen's peace. Mr. Nicholas Pur-
cell O'Gorman drew the following picture of the terri-
fic state of the county Kilkenny ;
" Gentlemen of the Grand Jury, it does not occur to me
to address any observations to you except to reiterate my
congratulations on the continued tranquillity of your county.
I repeat, gentlemen, that the marked tranquillity of the
inhabitants of this county has been brought about and pro-
duced by the firm and merciful administration of the law—
by the attention that has been paid by you, gentlemen, and
the authorities, to all matters relating to the peace. We
are now living under the benign sway of our youthful and
gracious Queen, and nothing can be more gratifying to her
Majesty than to find her subjects combined in support of
the laws, rendering her administration one of mildness and
and mercy. If anything were necessary to induce the peo-
ple of Ireland to observe and support the laws, it is the gra-
tification a loyal people must feel in rendering to their
young and beloved Sovereign an affectiopate and dutiful re-
gard to the feelings of her Majesty. The great body of this
district enjoys the most perfect tranquillity."
Let it be borne in mind that this is the same Mr.
O'Gorman, who, on leaving the county of Westmeath
(of which he was formerly Chairman), received the
compliments of the Marquis of Westmeath, and all
the Tory as well as Whig aristocracy bf that county,
for the rigid impartiality with which he had uniformly
discharged hi 3 judicial duties. Mr. O'Gorman (we
may also remark) was not appointed by Lord Mid-
grive ; neither was Mr. Fallon, to whose afflicting ac
count of the condition of the great Catholic county
of Limerick, we beg next to solicit the reader's at-
tention
" If you have tears prepare to shed them now.-
Mr. Fallon observed as follows :
" The calendar for this division of the county does not
contain any charge of a novel character ; and it is matter
of personal gratification to myself, as well as of congratula-
tion to every one interested in the tranquillity of the coun-
try, that you will not be called upon to investigate a single
case of factious riot, similar to those which scarcaly two
years since, when 1 first became officially connected with
this county, constituted (to the enoi mous number of one
hundred and forty) the great portion of the calendar of this
district. Another scarcely less important feature in the
character of the cases that will be submitted to you is, that
the peasantry have almost entirely ceased to employ stones
as weapons of aggression, and the result amply justifies the
severity with which their offences were visited, and my re-
fusal to recommend to the Government any commutation of
punishment wherever it appeared that the prisoners had
assailed their adversaries with stones, or had lain in ambush
for them on their return from a Wr or market."
Shall we be told that here is not evidence of im-
provement the most remarkable ? What have the
Tore prints to say to this ? Here is a case of the
total. disap ,earence of two classes of offences, of a
most ferocious charac.,r, which only two years ago
(about the time that the present Government came
into office) disgracefully distinguished the county of
Limerick. But this is not all. How have these
crimes been put down ? flow have these savage
habits been subdued ? By the administration of the
laws of the land with unflinching severity by a Catholic
- assistant-barrister. This is not cue of the cases where
the turbulent and traitorous Popish priests have
" kept the people quiet," to the utter horror and
consternation of Sir Francis Burdett. This is
a case where tranquillity -has been restored by that ri-
gour which the Tories delight in, hui which thee
never employed, or- can employ, with the least suc-
cess ; for, to make rigour effective, kindness and gen-
. tleness must be the habit. Mr. Tighe, Chairman of
Longford, addressed the Grand Jury in the- following
terms :
" He congratulated them on the lightness of the calen-
dar ; there were only 20 Ills to be sent up to them, none of
which were ewes of aegravated offences."
The Times and Standard will tell you that Long-
ford is in omen iesurreetion ; no safety for life or pro-
perty ; all the fien of bell unleashed upon the hap-
less, persecuted Protestants. Again, mark the total
disorganization of the King's County ; see how com-
pletely in that wretched shire the Government that re-
lies " upon a Ribbonman majority, returned by Rib-
bonmen," has upset law and order, and, in fact, re-
duced society to the brink of dissolution :
" The County Quarter Sessions was opened on,
Wednesday. The assistant-barrister, Mr. Gibson, in char-
ging the grand jury, .‘ congratulated them upon the
peaceable state of this part of the country. The business
on the Crown side-of the Court was confined almost en-
tirely to prosecutions for larceny. There was not a sing!c
offence deserving prosecution by the Crown.' "
The Dublin Evening Post gives us the foliowing in-
formation concerning another highly Popish county—
that of Louth
The county of Louth Quarter Sessions opened onTues-
day before Mr. Richard Moore. A Tory Paper, (the
Drogheda Journal ) in noticing the proceedings, says—
' The criminal cases were few and triflini. The entire bu-
siness terminated about four o'clock."
All this is truly lamentable. We enter fully into
the spirit of the song which Mr. Moore puts into the
mouth of an old chief of the Rock family during a dull
and alarming interval of public tranquillity :
" Where art thou, Genius of Riot !
Where is thy yell of defiance ?
Why are the Rourkes and O'Shaughnessys quiet?
Whither have fled the O'Tooles and O'Rvans?-"
.--Morning Chronicle.
That Lord Durham's admirable speech would ob-
tain for him the most unsparing abuse in that Jouinal
in which he was once extolled to the skies, might have
been safely predicted. Lord Durham is first abused
by- the Times for " attending a shabby dinner of per-
sons who called themselves Reform Associators' at
Durham, but a greater portion of whom consisted, it.,
appears, of his Lordship's own tenants, servants, and
dependants." A correspondent, in another part of
this day's paper, does justice to the respectability of
the meeting, which has been most falsely characterized.
To that letter we refer our readers. Lord Durham
holds on the even tenour of his way, and even the
Times does not presume to say that his opinions differ
now from those to which he gave expression when he
was idolized by that Journal. His Lordship is, how-
ever, now abused for avowing his own desire to super-
sede the present qualification of voters, the present
method of delivering suffrages, and the present tenure
of the trust reposed in representatives by household
suffrage, secret voting, and triennial Parliaments.
This amounts, in fact, to a declaration that the acconi-
plishment of one' new constitution' is good for nothing
but as a step. towards obtaining a fresh set of new
constitutions ; and the Times adds, that these changes
" are definable, or tangible, or susceptible of classifica-
tion ho otherwise than as being each of them an increase
to that mass of democratic power which the Reform Bill
had itself so suddenly and prodigiously augmented, and
which we believe it is the firm conviction of all disinte-
rested and reflecting statesmen throughout the empire
cannot now be further enlarged without at once con-
verting the representative Monarchy of England into
an unmixed and rabble-ridden republic." " The qua-
lification," we are further told, " has gone low enough
in England, and in Ireland some degrees too low." Lord
Durham has never shown any anxiety "to communicate
privileges to the ignorant and non-proprietary classes,"
before having an assurance that they would be properly
exercised, and in delivering his opinions on the changes
he deemed desirable, he qualified them by an express
declaration that he would never force his parti-
cular views on the Government and the country. But
it is one thing to abstain from pressing changes in our
institutions for which the country may not be ready,
and another to declare that no changes shall be made
In our institutions, however much such changes may
be demanded by the country, because such changes

may possibly lead to still further changes. The To- indigoation of the people of England has been excited,
ries, during the discussions on the Reform Bill, were most naturally and reasonably, against the political ac-
all for continuing the suffrage to classes lower than lion of the Popish hierarchy in Ireland, as it bears
those invested with the suffrage by the Reform Bill. upon our wit cavil rights and liberties; not against
Lord Ellenborough, in the House of Lords, took ere-. the belief, 'whether silly or otherwise, in modern saints
dit for the Tories that they were peculiarly the patrons —modem •miracles—the humbug of masses for defunct
of the lower orders, and Sir Robert Peel, on the 30th sinners—the real presence or the efficacy of absolution
August, 1831, observed that "he had said, last ses- or indulgances, bought by money : with such matters
sion, that it would be a great hardship to exclude al- Lord TOurham was bound as an honest man to acquaint
together from the franchise those persons who rented his hearers that the Protestant enemies to Popish ag-
houses under the value of 101., and notwithstanding grandizement in Ireland never troubled their beads. But
the sneers of some Hon. Members, who talked of an vs..tten they see that those who profess a certain creed
endeavour to enlist the discontented in favour of the op- follow up that profession by waging practical war
position to the Bill, he retained the same opinion. ta f upon the Protestants of the kingdom in their in-
was an error to sever altogether the connection whial terests political and social, it is not a petulant la:-
now existed between that House and the humbler buke from Lord Durham that will deter us Protestants
class of voters—unwise to brand all below a particular from repelling blows by blows, or even from designat-
line with disqualification. • • . ing by the sectarian title which they have assumed those
It was the argument of the supporters of tlee Bill that who combine the twofold character of foes to our faith,
this class was advancing in intelligence, and why then and aggressors on our security and our freedom.
exclude them now, when they are capable of under- The Papists not only hate us for our religion, but
standing the injury, from all participation in the Con- avow their abhorrence to be raised against us as " he-
stitution ?" Not a word here of rabble ridden ! No, reties," and proclaim that they will put us down. It
Sir Robert was only afraid that, by the exclusion of the is not as Roman Catholics we make battle against
rabble, the franchise might be more independently ex- them, but as menacing and. turbulent destroyers. Lord
ercised. The " connection between that House and Durham says, that if the charges. we bring against
the humbler class of voters" which he advocated, was the Papists be true, it must operate as an eternal
the connection which is still continued in Norwich and " bar to the assumption of the Government by the
Liverpool, and respecting which, in the former of Conservative party." Why ? If the Conservatives
these places, the Duke of Wellington possesses some be supported, as assuredly they are supported, by the
costly knowledge. Sir Robert did not inquire, like people of England and the Irish Protestants, is there
Lord Durham, whether the best interests of the aught in Popish or in Durham animosity that should
country might be promoted by communicating the deter them from accepting office ? The Noble Lord
suffrage to a lower class of voters ; all his anxiety labours under the same dull or pretended blunder
was to secure a class of needy and venal voters, through that has pervaded all the declamations of his brother
the purchase of whom the Aristocracy might find Radicals upon this question. He talks as if the Pro-
an entrance into Parliament, and be thereby enabled, testants aimed at any encroachment on the Papists,
as hitherto, to advance their own interests at the ex- whereas it is notoriously the latter only who meditate
pence of those of the country. In short, all that the aggressions upon their Protestant fellow-subjects. For
Tories aim at is the subserviency of the constituencies. his denunciation of a Tory Government as a thing
They have no objection to pander to the prejudices of impossible, a few weeks will decide.—Times.
the poor when by means of necessitous voters they The electioneering letter of Lord Durham, written
can swamp the independent electors. It is only when to influence the votes of certain electors of the county
an extension of suffrage would render a constituency at the late election in favour of the Ministerial can-
independent that they object to it. Provided a ma- didates, was much praised by some of our Contempo-
jority of the House of Commons be returned by men raries for its political moderation and Conservative
whom they can bribe or intimidate, all else is a mat- tone. It was even described as a composition that
ter of indifference to them. For the sake of a virtual would have done credit to Sir Robert Peel himself,
representation, which they would again bring about if- and, if our recollection does not greatly mislead us,
they could, they are ready to talk of the vir- the noble writer of the " election squib" was held up
tuts of honest poverty one day, .and the next to the constitutional people of England as' a recent
to term the working classes an uneducated rabble. and proud acquisition to the Conservative cause.
Their principles are wonderfully accommodating. Greatness of mind and elevation of sentiment, such as
Lord Durham is made of sterner stuff. And he constitute the best foundation for the character of pa-
has told the Tories some home truths resriectiug Ire- triot or statesman, were ascribed to the Whig-Radical
land, which they will find it difficult to digest for some aristocrat, who has a most lofty contempt for every
time. There they have outwitted themselves.—Morn- individual of " the masses," whom, in their collective
ing Chronicle. capacity, he obsequiously courts. The " Conserva-
It is a favourite method with the Papists and their tive" letter of the coroneted demagogue, who, after
partisans of vilifying the Protestant Established doing his utmost to stimulate the passions of demo-
Church in Ireland to allege that "it must be sup- cracy at Glasgow, went to fawn upon despotism at St.
ported by the bayonet," and therefore that it ought to Petersburg, never deceived us. We looked upon the
be abandoned. There is the same effrontery in this whole affair in the same light that Mr. Sheil regarded
which characterizes all, or nearly all, the other pro- the Queen's letter to Lord Mulgrave ; but that, like
positions of the Irish rebel faction. If the Church other " election squibs," exploded in vain. It did not
of Ireland - must be sacrificed, because it requires a save Ministers from a disgraceful defeat at the hands
force more vigorous than that of law to support it, of the British constituencies—a defeat becoming the ig-
then we beg leave to say that there is no one institu- nominous career which they have pursued ever since
Lion or attribute, or creation of civilized society, which they put on the livery of the Irish agitator, and bound
must not be surrendered as well as the Church—see- themselves to do him suit and service by the treaty of
ing that in the respect alluded to they are one and Lichfield House. The Conservative " squibs" that
all in. the same predicament—no one of them can were fired off at Mr. Spring Rice, Lord John Russell,
stand in a • country so utterly barbarized, so deeply and others of the Lichfield House carps of Ministerial
demoralized, so lawless and brutalized, as the spirit of serving men to the behemoth borouglunonger of Ireland,
the Popish multitude throughout Ireland has become altogether failed to divert the Proteetantpeople of Eng-
within these few years, without the presence of a land from the performance of the sacred duos of sending
power which shall keep down rabble violence by the into Parliament representatives resolved to guard the
dread of something which mere violence cannot resist. ancient institutions of the Monarchy against their nefa-
Flow is law itself enforced ? flow is property of rious machinations. The Queen's name was grossly
any description, lay or clerical, protected in that un- prostituted by the Queen's Ministers to the purposes of
happy island ? How are peace and order, imperfect as the election, out the majority of the electors of Great
we find them, upheld ? I-low are the persons of ho. Britain proved themselves the Queen's best " friends,"
nest and loyal men defended ? or human life—if it be by opposing the degraded Government that would rob,
not. the life of priests and traitors—preserved ? Why, her crown of its lustre, and break up the Constitution
each and all of these blessings, the temporal bonds piecemeal, if only assured of being still able to plant
of civilization—as a religious establishment is the their chairs of office on its ruins. Thrown now wholly
spiritual bond of it—all these, we say—and we refer upon the support of an audacious and desperate Irish
to the hourly intelligence from Ireland, public and 'action, they work, and Lord Durham along with
private, for the truth of our statement—each and all them, in the harness of their anti-Saxon and anti-
of those things which constitute social comfort Protestant masters. The " Irish Election Fund," to
among men, and render existence tolerable, arc pro- enable the law to vindicate itself against brute force,
teeted, maintained, prolonged, and " supported by the and right to vanquish usurpation, has driven O'Con-
bayonet." Take away from Ireland the armed force. well into the most frantic expression of alarm, coin-
and will the rebel partisans have the audacity to biped with impotent menace, and the Ministerial ora-
affirm that the Church Establishment will be the only tors and their journals rave in unison. It is upon
sufferer from the unrestrained fury of the disaffected this subject of Ireland that Lord Durham more cspe-
and priest-maddened Papists ? Will property or li- cially displays the Whig-Radical animus which causes
betty, or law or peace, or limb or life, of any indi- him deeply to participate in the alarm, and sympathise
vidual, be secure against the rapacity or revenge of with the sorrows of the Melbourne-O'Connell Cabinet,
those whose trade is to excite the multitude r If, He threatens the Protestants of Great Britain with
therefore, nothing worse can be said of the Church Daniel's " seven millions." He might as well threaten
Establishment than that, being a portion of the entire them with the power of his admired patron and poli-
inhei itanee which was entailed upon the Protestant ma- tical idol, the Autocrat of all the Russias. They
jority of the United Kingdom by the Act of Union will, indeed, be on their guard against both ; but they
between Great Britain and Ireland, it demands the will not be frightened by either. Repeated conces-
same protection from the public force, without which sions to Popery and the Autocrat have begotten only
no benefit derived from, or dependent on, a state of po- more insolent demands. The " Repeal of the Union"
litical society, as contrasted with a state of nature, can would never have been agitated if " unqualified email-
be enjoyed or can exist at all in that country, we think ciliation" had not been conceded ; nor would the
it quite enough to push the argument of the Papists to British flag have been again and again insulted in She
its necessary consequence, and to insist that either— waters of the East, if our Whig rulers had not basely
Ist, every armed functionary under the Executive Go- subinitted to the first insult. The time has come when
vernment shall be at once withdrawn from Ireland. im- England can be no longer either cajoled or infirm-
mediately on the extinction of the Church ; or, 2diy, dated by Lord Durham's " friends," whether they
that all the laws by which life, property, and the pub- pursue their course of piratical ambition in the East,
lie peace were to be secured, shall be repealed on the or of Popish agitation in the West. With the
same ground of their unpopularity as the law which motto of "No surrender," borne proudly aloft, the
upholds the Protestant Established Church ; or 3d, union-jack and Conservative " hearts of oak" will
that as the religious establishment, and all the other so- yet triumph over both. Lord Durham, as an
cial and fundamental institutions of the kingdom, stand. avowed admirer of the Radical doctrines of vote by
upon the same footing and minister to the one great end ballot, household suffrage, &c., can afford to adopt a
of maintaining a British and civilised sovereignty against tone of mildness and conciliation, and even to advise
an Irish and ferocious anarcl 7, they shall be all alike de- a temporising line of conduct, but with regard to the
fended, save only in their acknowledged abuses, of which demands of the " seven millions," who claim a right
there are no upright or enlightened advocates. Lord to " tranquillise" Ireland by maiming and murdering
Durham speaks truth when he exclaims that the Irish the " Hanoverian heretics" who dare to exercise elec.
Church question is " the one great question," and that toral rights, his Lordship.assumes almost as significant
it " must be grappled with"— a declaration for which and lofty a tone of " virtuous indignation" as Daniel
we suspect the Queen's Ministers feel much less obliged himself. He says, among much other rant and fus-
to his Lordship than do their Conservative opponents. tiara, "If what they (the Conservatives) say be true,
Nay, we are satisfied that if there be one man through- the same Gazette that announced their accession to
out the whole empire more panic-struck than another office must contain a declaration of war against Ireland,
at the attempt, come whence it may, to settle the and a sentence of outlawry on seven millions of the
Church question, it is the base and greedy hypocrite Irish. If it be not true—if the superseded and cracked
who has fattened on the obstacles thrown in the way tocsin of alarm has been sounded only to enable them
of its adjustment. With the appropriation (i. e. spo- to creep into power, what can you think of the conduct,
liation) principle recognized in any Bill for commuting
„what can you think of the hypocrisy of those who have
tithe, the Bill will never pass, and Mr. Daniel O'Con- excited fears which they know to be groundless, and
nell knows it. Without the appropriation clause, or endeavour to set one part of the empire against another,
an equivalent for it, the Melbourne Ministers cannot for the unhallowed purpose of scrambling into place ?"
dare to bring in any Bill, and Mr. Daniel O'Connell The second-hand thunder, touching the declaration of
is equally well apprised of that inauspicious truth. war and outlawry of the seven millions, is like " Den-
Without doing or attempting either—that is to say, nis's thunder," when heard aright, more ridiculous than
without any adjustment of the question, the said Daniel sublime. Durham's eloquence about time " superseded
draws the double profit of agitating for his rent, with and cracked tocsin of alarm," resembles more the
the non-adjustment of the tithe question for the topic " rumbling of the mustard-bowl" than any other con-
of his daily turbulence, and of distributing the whole trivance for stage effect. It is, to be sure, an awful
.patronage of Ireland, receiving a douceur upon every timing to think of the outlawry of "seven millions" at
appointment in his gift; so long as the Mulgrave Mi- one fell swoop. But Lord Durham may make his
nesters shall remain in office, that is precisely so long mind easy on that subject. The accession of a Con-
as, and no longer than, the floating condition of the servative Government will neither produce a declara-
Tithe measure shall render the Irish multitude sus- tion of war nor an outlawry of " seven millions," unless
ceptible of inflammation or seduction with regard to the O'Connellite faction are resolved to fight for a
it. But if Lord Durham be correct in announcing repeal ("the Union ; in which case even the Liberal
that the Irish Church " question must be grappled" Lord Althorp (now Spencer), and others, his col-
' with, it is the single assertion he has made upon leagues, declared they would encounter all the blood and
the subject that has either justice or common sense on horrors of a civil war rather than concede the demand.
which to rest. Endless are the absurdities, or (what But the O'Connellite faction, having before their eyes
we should be loth to think) the wilful misrepresenta- the example of a leader who has a vow registered in
tions, of the Noble Lord concerning this question— Heaven, are not disposed to run the risk of open re-
which at the same time he cannot excuse himself by bellion even to procure the dismemberment of the em-
affecting to have looked at superficially, inasmuch as pire. If they can get "instalment" after "instalment
he solemnly pronounces, ex cathedra, that it is "the of their whole demand, by the agency of the recreant
great question of the day." Then under what points ministry of Great Britain, they will get all that civil
of view does the Noble Earl examine " this great ques- war could give them, and something more. They
tion of the day ?" Why, under no true, or exact, or have no wish to encounter even the " four gun-brigs,
statesmanlike form does he consider it. He tells which Lord Cloncurry's ancient friend, Lord Angle-
his audience that an outcry has been raised sty, declared would be sufficient for the subjugation
against " Roman Catholicism," and then is buffoon of the rebellious " seven millions." Lord Durham
enough to exclaim---" Who can be afraid of that insinuates that Tory Government excited the cry for
poor old man, the Pope ?" Lord Durham was for dismemberment of the empire. Under whose Go-
pledged in honour to have admitted that there was no vernment, we ask, did O'Connell first shout for re-
outcry, nor pretence of outcry, against Roman Catho- peal ? Under the " Liberal and parental" one of Earl
licism as a religion, nor any at all against time Pope's Grey. Lord Durham's father-in-law, Lord Grey, and
prerogatives, as exercised by the Pope himself. The the Whigs of his Cabinet, answered the unreasonable

demand of the agitators for concession—how? :By
coercion. Was Lord Grey, a Tory, or is the me-
mory of Lord Durham so exceedingly short that he
forgets the history of his father-in-law's Administra-
tion—that Administration, the Members of which
(most of whom are in the present Cabinet), the leader
of the " seven millions" designated as " the base,
bloody, and brutal Whigs ?" Lord Durham, to be
consistent, must either hold up the character of Earl
Grey to public contempt and execration, as O'Connell
and-his faction did, and still do, or he mist be a little
more cautious in emptying at second hand the phials
of Irish indignation on the heads of the Tories. It
was very recently that one of the journals patronised
by the Irish Government spoke of Earl Grey as " a
_venemous old viper," and perhaps it may be thought
that Lord Durham, in making his virulent at-
tacks upon Britgh Conservatism is only a viper biting a •
file. But hear how this eulogist of Popery constitutes
himself a champion of Russian despOtism. He says,
" Aye, even in Russia, which has been much libelled,
and of which Englishmen know too little, do you think
the Emperor of Russia would suffer himself to be de-
prived of the service of a zealous and able Minister
because he was a Protestant or a Catholic ? Private
life and moral character may be inquired into, but re-
ligious opinions, never." So Russia—that is the Rus-
sian Government has been much 'libelled—has it ?
, While Lord Durham, who, as Ambassador to St.
Petersburg, has had.' opportunities of discovering the
" unknown virtues" of the Czar, mourns over the ima-
ginary wrongs of the " seven millions" who enjoy' the
manifold blessings of Lord Mulgrave's beautifully
" impartial" government, lie appears 'to have no tears
to shed for the sufferings and melancholy fate of " four
millions" of brave Poles—no virtuous indignation to
lavish upon the crime-stained head of their merciless
oppressor 1 Such is the stuff of which Whig-Radical
patriotism and philanthropy are made.—Morn. Herald,
The idea that political good depends absolutely
upon the adoption of certain forms of Legislative or
Executive Government is full of error and of mischief.
In our own time this notion is put forward either by
hypocrites, who expect to make profit from revolu-
tionary crimes, or by foolish and shallow men, whose
minds are occupied with presumptuous pedantry,
which their-fantastical vanity mistakes for real know-
ledge. The institutions which produce real political
good are those which in the most natural and easy
manner—that is'to say in the manner most conformaye
with the habits of the people—encourage and protect
sound moral principles, give the best incentives to
virtue and generosity, provide the surest rewards for,
honest industry, and the most effectual punishments for
hardened vice. None but the very ignorant or the very
bigotted will affirm that in all nations, under all circum-
stances, and at all times, these objects are to be obtained
by one specific form of Government, or that one sort of
Government will uniformly tend, more than another,
to the obtainment- of these good results. The truth
is, that in some places we shall find Democracy bear-
ing as good fruits as the political soil is capable of
produeing ;- and in others Absolutism providing a guar-
dianship of good which it would be in vain to expect,
' in an equal degree, from any other form of Govern-
' ment. A people brought up within the influence of
democratic institutions may from them derive hardi-
hood and nobleness of thought, and to them feel those
sentiments of dutifulness and affection which make
submission honourable, and associate .fidelity with.
glory.
Again, there may be, and there are, parental
despotisins, in which the acts of power are felt to be
acts of love, and in which, the implicit obedience of
the subjcct.is as. full of honour, and as free from ab-
jectness, as the obedience of the child. It would be
bigotry or madness to force upon nations thus circum-
stanced other institutions founded upon abstract prin-
ciples of right or of restraint. Human society is not a
raw ,material, to be acted upon uniformly by uniform
means. Political Institutions are not good or evil ab-
stractedly, hut relatively, and in each place that is best
Which most naturally and extensively unites with, and
developes, those virtues which are absolutely, un-
changeably, and eternally good. We do not hesitate,
' therefore, to affirm, that he who insists upon turning
every established Monarchy upside clown, because de-
cause democracy is better, or upon enforcing absolute
authority as the only means ,of rightly governing a
people, habituated to democratic institutions, is either
a blockhead or a knave. There are, however, lights
' to be followed which can lead no man astray. There
are objects of political solicitude which never can be
wrong. There are points. of noble achievement by
Statesmen which no times can alter, and no cir-
cumstances change, which it will be . ever ho-
nourable 'to pursue, and ever, in the estimation
of a good conscience, disgraceful to abandon.
Let it be, then, the business of every man who
would serve his country to consider well what aie
the public institutions and. what the public circum-
stances which do in practice chiefly produce around
them and within them courage and gentleness,
fidelity and honour, prudence and kindness. Away
with the cant of "liberality," which is ever in the
mouths •of babbling fools and self-sufficient tyrants.
If the • word have any definite meaning in practice
that meaning is laxity of principle, and it is, there-
fore, most worthy of the hearty detestation of every
man of honesty and of courage. But let the pro-
fessors of " liberality" be tested by their practice.
Do' they, as public men, encourage fair,* and open,
and honourable courses ? Do they, promote re-
verence for religion, strict fidelity to engagements,
steady contempt for upstart meanness ? Are _they,
in their public capacity, kind to the prior, indepen-
• dent towards the' rich, encouragers of lofty senti-
ment and heroic devotedness ? -Do they teach scorn
of low intrigue, and
,admiration for..-all .Ithat is .gene-
; rous, manly, and sinceße ? If.. they -doAliese things,
we do theme much And,--,thee Oughl.tn:he fol-
-lowed and a#planded4.* SNifiri44,atirflOsiisa! But
we say that they notoriougy in&-nioit:SiketislYely. do
the very opposite of these things—that they are the
champions of all that is at once impudent and servile
—low, crafty, treacherous, and mean. Who ever
heard a great principle or a generous sentiment from
the lips of any of these professors ? Who ever heard
from Joseph Hume, the Coryphreus of leeberaulity,
down to the meanest political thing that crawls, the
Lord John Russell, a single sentiment calCulated to
make the heart of a generous and a brave man kindle,
unless it were with indignation or with scorn ? We
remember nothing of the* kind, and we have not
been inattentive observers even of those public men
who cannot be observed without a perpetual sensation
of-disguat. No ; it is not to the professing " Libe-
rals" we can look for that policy which exhibits its
excellence in the promotion of principles of virtue and
sentiments of generosity. On the contrary, it is from
them that the most virulent opposition to such policy
continually arises. To no quarter, indeed, of the
present political horizon can we look with that glad
confidence which we should wish to, possess ; but least
of any to the mean, equivocating, and unprincipled
Administration. To us it seems, hoWever, that in all
quarters too low a tone of policy is taken, as though it
had come to pass that the encouragement of individual
worth and generosity, and the pursuit of glory in pub-
lic matters, were no longer a part of the business of this
great nation. The soul of Great_Britain, seems to lan-
guish amid the enormous aggregate of petty things which
appear to. overwhelm and suffocate the moral energies
and manly sentiments of the nation.• There are ten
thouiand centres of little paltry fuis, but no one grand
centre of mighty purpose, diffusing its force and its
spirit from the heart to the extremity of the State.
And was there ever more need of this ? We think
not. The suardianship not only of the State, but of
the Established Church, is in unfaithful hands, The
Church, which not only in the high places of land,
but in every remote village and sequestered' hamlet,
breathes forth the spirit of liberty and loyalty, .of stern
principle and gentle charity, even that great institution
is threatened ; and maudlin sentiment prepares the'
way for ruthless enmity. The heart and the mind of
England should awake to this—
" Ungrateful country, if thou e'er forget
• The sons who for thy civil rights have bled I
How, like a Roman, Sydney bowed his head,
And Russell's milder blood the scaffold, wet; •
But these had fallen for profitless regret
Had not thy holy Church her champions bred,
And claims from other worlds, inspirited,
The star of liberty to rise. Nor yet'
(Grave this within thy heart) if spiritual things'
Do lost through apathy, or scorn, or fear,

Shalt thou thy humbler franchises support,
However hardly won or justly dear.
What came from Heaven; to Heaven by Nature clings,
And if dissevered thence-its course is short."

Let riot the exquisite beauty of this 'solemn warn-
ing carry away the hearts of our readers from.the
stern practical, political truth which it asserts. Let
them look to the Church (not, for Heaven's sake, to
the newly-made Bishops), and remember that i❑ pre-
sztving it in its integrity, and in its exclusively national
character, they preserve the best nurse and champion
of British liberty—and, perhaps, the only one upon
which, in these days, dependence can be placed.—
Morning Post.