The Sun.
London, England, 1837-01-17 00:00:00

IRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

A.n Evening Contemporary has been misinformed
respecting the Irish Mastership of the Rolls. Sir
Wjliam McMahon was living--though in a hopeless
state—at the hour of post on Saturday ; and Baron
O'Loghlen has not arrived in London to look for his
place. It is not unlikely that the Right Hon. and
Learned Baron will be the new Master of the Rolls ;
but at present even delicacy would forbid a canvass for
the situation. That delicacy has not been—and we
need hardly add it will not be—violated by Baron
O'Loghlen.—Morning Chronicle.
The proceedings of the General Association of
Ireland, at the adjourned meeting on Friday, will
amply repay the trouble of an attentive perusal.
Mr. O'Connell's speech, on proposing a vote of
thanks to Sir William Molesworth, is characterised by
good sense and good feeling. It demonstrates the in-
fatuation of some and the profligacy of others who,
professing a hatred of Toryism and a love for Ireland,
yet endanger the existence of an Administration which
Is prevented from consolidating the liberties of the people
only by the selfish feelings, and the ascendancy in
one branch of the Legislature, of the Tory party. It
is henceforth impossible for any rational Reformer,
any sincere frd to Ireland, to persist in a course
which, as Mr. O'Connell has clearly shown, tends
inevitably to the inundation of the Bench of Jus-
ice in the sister country with the most reckless parti-
sans of bigotry, intolerance, and corruption. Upon
this part of the proceedings of the Association we shall,
however, take a more convenient occasion again to fix
the public attention. Another branch of Friday's pro-
ceedings is also very important ; we allude to the reso-
lutions by way of amendment upon the Rev. Mr.
O'Mallev's motion for the conversion of tithes into a
poor-rate, proposed by Mr. O'Connell and adopted
unanimously by the Association. The zeal of that
admirable body has not hurried them into an indiscre-
tion in which they and their friends might be swamped.
They have resolved to sustain the present Govern-
ment, as well in its views about the poor-law question,
as in its propositions for the adjustment of the tithe
question.—Morning Chronicle.
Sir Robert Peel, by the manly energy and states-
manlike wisdom of the course which he has pursued
at Glasgow, supplies abundant political excitement to
the country, no less than food for Ministerial anxiety
and bustle, from this time to the meeting of Parlia-
ment. If it were nothing more than the raising of a
standard or rallying point round which the sound and
honest portion of the people of England may unite,
what incalculable good has the Conservative leader, by
that means alone, effected I Heretofore, it is true,
there has been a sort of feeling or tacit understanding
throughout the nation, that as the bias of the Whigs,
for the sake of office, would be towards a servile sub-
mission to the Radicals, and an acquiescence in the
worst schemes of that outlawed faction for the total ruin
of the monarchy, so on the other hand, the bias of the
Conservatives would be generally adverse to such at-
tempts, and in favour of the principle of stability. But
such a persuasion, founded on premises rather assumed
than definite or demonstrable, was not sufficient for
sober minds to rest upon in their addresses to the na-
tion. We might be certain of some resistance on the
part of the Conservatives to the plots of the common
enemy, but could not say how much. We might, in full
reliance on the individual character of noblemen and
gentlemen at the head of the Conservative body, assure
ourselves, and state to others, as a probability, that
such and such points would never be surrendered by
the Duke of Wellington, or by Sir Robert Peel. But
still this was no written bond, still it was no formal
security, still we had nothing to show for it, nothing
wherewith to satisfy the loyal and constitutional spirit
of Great Britain, as to what points they were which
would be considered vital—what were the concessions
which never could or would be made—whether the
Church, with the outer walls left standing, might not,
nevertheless, be diligently gutted, and the altar over-
turned and defiled—whether the Peers, while bedecked
with coronets, might not be reduced iu their free
agency to waxwork figures, and voted out of Parlia-
ment as a nuisance, though gazed at by children for a
show ? These were doubts, which, though not for a
moment entertained in the minds of well-informed per-
sons, it was not easy to answer to the public satis-
faction, seeing that we had no authorized versioir of
the forthcoming Peel and Wellington policy to re-
fer to—no ostensible pledge, or official compact, as-
certaining the precise limit beyond which their sense
of what was due to the constitutional monarchy would
not suffer the legislators of that great party to march.
This defect in the archives of Conservatism has been
supplied by the bold announcements of the Right
Hon. Baronet. He has laid down the fundamental
canon of Conservatism, and has, in the same breath,
proclaimed it to twenty-five millions of the King of
England's subjects. Sir Robert Peel has not merely
pronounced iu general terms his attachment to the in-
stitutions of Church and State, but he says, in distinct
and positive language, " I will support the Protestant
establishments of the three countries ;"—I will support
i:. its full integrity the authority of the House of
Lords, as an essential condition of the mixed mo-
narchy under which we live." These are inestimable
words. They cannot be misunderstood by the people
of England. They cannot be receded from by the
Conservative Prime Minister. They cannot be mis-
represented by the public enemy. It is the standard of
the Constitution nailed to the mast, and the Conserva-
tives of Great Britain, one and all, are now sworn to con-
quer or perish with it. This of itself—this decision of
the Right Hon. Baronet—founded partly on a conscious-
ness of his indispensable duty, partly on a confidence
in the irresisti'Jle strength of the myriads who co-operate
with hire--.phis of itself is victory. There is not now
a single man in the kingdom who can plead in excuse
for hiApolitical hesitation or neutrality, a doubt as to
wh.at it is that he undertakes, when he accedes to the
Conservative party. No man can henceforth assert
that he is hoodwinked or deluded by Sir Robert Peel,
Ear that in forming an alliance with him ho is left in
the dark what principles he embraces, or how far he is
to carry the application of them. But there is some-
thing more in the speech of the Right Hon. Baronet.
There is an appeal to those who have not yet called
themselves Conservatives, and a reference to facts
which throw upon them--we mean that portion of the
Liberal party who were the ostensible and prominent
framers of the Reform Bill—an appeal to their con-
stetency and honour, if they abide by their principles,
as explained by their solemn professions only four or
five years ago, invoking their support of Sir Robert
Peel's constitutional policy, if they would not incur
the stain of hypocrisy upon their fOrmer declara-
tions, or of gross apostasy through their present acts.
The Right Hon. Baronet, addressing himself to those
who were Reformers, par excellence, in the years
1830, 1831, 1832, reminds them that they had as-
sented to a Reform, and that the Gley Administration
had invited the people of England to acquiesce in
that reform on the express condition that it; should be
one " according to the acknowledged principles of the
Constitution"—the Constitution in Church and State.
He asks the Reformers of Great Britain "do they ad-
here to" that principle of reform, advocated, as he
proves it was, upon the ground that it should corres-
pond with, and should not transgress, the acknowledged
boundaries of the Constitution ? To satisfy the Re-
formers of the empire that he is not dealing in empty
or untenable generalities, he adduces a state document,
nothing less than a King's Speech, the speech of his
present Majesty, in recommending to both Houses
the measure of Parliamentary Reform. " I have now
to recommend the important question of reform to
your earliest and most attentive consideration, con-
fident that in any measures which you may pre-
pare for its adjustment, you will carefully adhere
to the acknowledged principles of the Constitu-
tion, by which the prerogatives of the Crown, the
authority of both Houses of Parliament, and the
rights and liberties of the people, are equally se-
cured." One prerogative of the Crown is to create
Peers. Is that respected by some of those who assume
to themselves the title of Reformers, and who clamour
for a House of Lords to be elected by ballot ? One
authority of the House of Lords is to deliberate on the

passing of acts of Parliament. Is that respected by
NElysi,, another class of Reformers, who would assign to the
nothing more than a suspensive veto upon the
- omnipotence of the other House of Parliament ? And
are those Conservatives to be refused the name and
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