The Sun.
London, England, 1830-10-28 00:00:00

cAI force of the mob, and their destitution and
despair of relief, his warlike resources are little
worth ; but possessing them, in Ireland, in times
like these, the power that he wields is frightful.—
Times.

The great safeguard of order in a country is the
diffusion of property, and this should be always keFt
in mind, and strenuously inculcated. In the Ap-
pendix to Pinkerton's " History of Scotland," under
the Stuarts, there is a Report of an Englishman on
the condition of Scotland:—

" The defect of the commonalty (he says) is, that there
are so few of the middle rank of subjects among them that
are able to live competently and honestly of their own,
and by that means are a band to tie t ►gether the two ex-
tremes, viz. the higher sort and the rascality, and so sway
with the better and more peaceable part as having► some-
thing to lose, is another cause of the distemper anti dis-
quietness of the realm. For by that means 'the whole
conm►onalty, iu u manner, a few excepted, which are of
no reckoning in comparison of the whole, being beggarly
and rascal, are ever apt for faction and tumult, when oc-
casion serveth."

This may allow US topless the future with regard
to Ireland. On Saturday last Mr. O'Connell, at a
meeting of Volunteers for the Repeal of the Union,
declared—

" I have been talked to of Poor Laws in Ireland
(Hear)--1 have thought of it long anti deeply ; they
would be but as it were one meal for the country ; they
wetdd destroy the value of property in one year. It is
this' conviction that makes me consider they would do
injury to Ireland, rapid and decisive.--(hear, bear.) But
something must be done t the people will not lie down in
a ditch and die, as they have frequently done in years of
fanine,._orar.) They did so before it was proved to them
that military power cannot crush the blight of the people,—
(Clieers)—and they will never again do so. They will not
be down in hopeless mistry to expire, and it is to prevent
their excesses that men who now stand aloof should
join us.--(Bear, hear.) If redress be not granted, and
the people are not restrained by the influence of the good
and wise 'when famine occurs, I'll tell you what they'll do
—ll:.ey'll adopt tire system lately acted on at Kegs, and
take possession at once of the best lands in defiance of
force, for the people cannot starve, and will not submit.
--(Cheers.) Suppose, for instance, that Lord Fitzwilliam
perseveres in his intentions towards his tenantry in the
county Wicklow, as was done by Mr. Trench, the Arch-
bishop of Tuam's brother, on General Monek's property,
I would not feel astonished on the let of next May, to see
the Wicklow hills in as great a blaze as ever they were.—
(Hear, hear.) I call on those gentlemen who apprehend
convulsion to come forward at once and prevent it—
( Hear)—to manage the interests of the people, and protect
their own. The repeal of the Union is now inevitable."
—(Cheers.)"
We foresee that in Ireland the English Aristo-
cracy are destined to experience ere long a sad hu-
miliation. The Irish are brave—they have nothing
to lose; we leave the conclusion to be drawn by
others. The Captain is a bold man; but the
wrongs of centuries will prove too much even for
him. But let there be no mistake. A people never
have recourse to these extreme means without a ne-
cessity. The necessity in the case of the Irish is,
that they have nothing,—and that a proud and un-
feeling Aristocracy will not allow them to have any-
thing. They cannot be worse, whatever may turn
up, and this consideration is not calculated to allay
apprehension. Mr. O'Connell advises peace and
order; but he points to Belgium.—/Ihrn. Chronicle.
When men who hold high office in the Govern- I
ment set examples of gross violation of the laws of
their country, we cannot be surprised that those
laws should be held in little reverence by society in
I general. When men who constitute what is called
the Executive Authority of the State—that is, the
authority to which the execution of the acts qf the
Legislature is intrusted—are the first to set those
legislative enactments at defiance, and to prefer the
gratification of their own petty passions to the
obe-
dience due to moral and legal restraints, we cannot
wonder that their conduct becomes contagious, and
makes others ambitious of sharing in such criminal
distinction. The laws against duelling in this country
are exceedingly severe, inasmuch as they declare
that offence, when attended with fatal consequences, I
to be murder, and attach to the act of the surviving
duellist the guilt and the penalties of a felon, as well
as to all who were present aiding turd abetting the
perpetration of the crime. These laws, or any other
enacted against the deliberate shedding of human
blood in what are called "affairs of honour," will
• always be disregarded as long as our Legislators and
Statesmen are accustomed to seek this mode of
settling personal or political disputes, and go forth
to the field of combat, armed with mortal weapons,
to seek each other's blood ! The most recent in-
stance of this "statesmanlike" appeal to the " or-
deal of battle," by the way of refuting the charges
or calming the temper of a political antagonist, is,
if the Dublin Journals are correct, that of Sir
Henry Hardinge, the Chief Secretary to the Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland, and, as such, the principal
functionary next to the Viceroy in the Executive
of that part of the United Kingdom. It is true
the appeal which this " Statesman" showed him-
self prepared to make to other laws than those
of the land came to nothing; but had Mr.
O'Connell been what is called a "fighting man,"
it might have been otherwise, and one, or per.
haps two families, might now have to de-
plore the most cruel of till deprivation. Our au-
thority for stating that Sir Henry Hardinge con-
templated a duel, when he sent Colonel D'Aguiler
to demand an explanation from Mr. O'Connell, is
the copy of what purports to be his own letter to
that officer, published in the Dublin Evening Post,
and which contains the following passage :—" 1
enclose you the Freeman's Journal, in which you
will perceive that Mr. O'Connell has used expres-
sions towards me, which, proceeding from a person
who may be supposed to have the claims of a gentle-
man if I were to insult him, entitles me, therefore,
to call upon him, first, to ascertain whether he avows
those expressions ; and, next, whether he is disposed
to maintein them, affording me, in such case, the
remedy which one gentleman: has a right to expect
from another." This language cannot be mistaken ;
—it is an offer of the alternative of retraction or
fighting, and, if the letter be not a forgery, impli-
cates its writer in the guilt of the intention of going
out with mortal weapons to violate the laws—and
this, too, in a country where the public peace is pe-
culiarly liable to be disturbed by acts of lawless vio-
lence, and where the highest and most sacred of his
duties is to preserve tranquillity, and cause the
sanctity of the laws to be respected. He had, how-
ever, before his eyes the example of the Duke of
Wellington. We presume the 'coded improvement
of Ireland will proceed with rapid strides under such
a process of civilization l It is curious that Sir
Robert Peel, though not a military man, had, when
holding the same office as Sir Henry Hardinge, his
" affair of honour" also with Mr. O'Connell. At
that time Mr. O'Connell bred not made the vow
against lighting which has been since " registered in
Heaven," and both parties, being interrupted by the
police in Ireland, were proceeding to Preece to termi-
nate their quarrel, when, by some means or other, it
became known to the preservers of the pence in
London, that Mr. O'Connell was in this metropolis,
with the apparent intention of proceeding to Calais,
whither the Right Hon, Secretary had led the way,
and he was taken into custody turd brought before
Lord Ellenborough, then Chief Justice of the
King's Bench, who bound him in heavy recOgni-
zances to:keep the peace to all his Majesty% subjects,
wherever they were to be found. There was no I
necessity for taking any such step in the present in- I
stance, because Mr. O'Connell had repeatedly and
openly declared that be would not, under any cir-
curnstances, fight a duel ; and Sir Henry Harding°
knew that he had made this declaration so lately us
the last session, in the rave of the assembled Par- •
!lament, when some personally offensive language
plowed between him and the Solicitor-General for
Ireland. We quite agree with those who think that
such an avowal ought to make the Learned Agitator
scrupulously cautious of saying any thing to insult
turd provoke the feelings of others ; at the same
thou it is quite obvious that to call up him to "give
the satisfaction which one gentleman is expected to
give to another" is ridiculous, and cannot obtain for
any man the credit of possessing the vulgar attri-