The Sun.
London, England, 1839-03-22 00:00:00

METROPOLITAN POLITICAL
SUMMARY.

The Times, in reference to the Queen's reply to the
City address, says:—" The import is insulting enough.
Ministers do not mean to recede from their projected
measure. Now, Citizens, what will you do ? We do
hope you will bestir yourselves. We hear you are indig-
nant. Another address to her Majesty may, perhaps,

follow."
The Morning Herald of this day, in the course of a
leading article, the text of which is furnished by the de-
bate on the state of Ireland, which took place in the Lords
last night, observes:—" In reference to the Whig plea
that Ireland, under Whig rule, is not more disgraced than
formerly, by the prevalence of crime and outrage of the
most shocking character;—in reference to this plea, we
would observe that it involves the bitterest possible con-
demnation of Whig policy." When the distracted condi.
tion in which Ireland was left by the Tories is borne in
mind, and more especially the strenuous opposition to all
practical measures for her relief, which Ministers
have constantly experienced from English and Irish
Tories, the wonder will be, not that they have
done so little, but that they have done so much, to ameli-
orate the condition of the sister-country. The evils en-
gendered by centuries of misgovernment are not to be
remedied in five or six years. In another article on the
subject of her Majesty's answer yesterday to the City of
London's Address, the Herald say s :—" the reply which
Lord Melbourne has presumed to put into her Majesty's
mouth, partakes, we regret to say, of positive incivility
His Lordship has studiously excluded from the reply to
the City Address, all those courtesies of expression that
are usual on such occasions. Her Majesty is not permitted
to acknowledge the long-tried loyalty of the citizens, nor
to advert to their honourable attachment to old civic in-

stitutions."
The Morning Cdronicle, alluding to the system of policy
that the Tories have invariably pursued towards Ireland,
remarks as follows :—" Toryism never departs from the
ancient ways, when they lead to crime and misery. The
Irish peasantry are used to be famished and hanged, and
the old usages of a people are not to be rashly meddled
with. If the custom of England, as Sir Edward Coke
says, is the law of the land, the maxim, we suppose, ex-
tends to Ireland ; and hence it follows that the law of Ire-
land expressly prohibits eating, nothing being so contrary
to the custom of that part of the United Kingdom 1 In
this view of the matter, a dinner in Ireland is clearly a
lawless proceeding, and an Irishman might be indicted for
having had a substantial meal. Eating is almost the only
lawless practice to which the Tories have not driven and
enured the Irish peasantry. Let well al( ne,' is their cry
in England. Let ill alone,' is their maxim beyond the
Channel."
The Morning Post contains a brief leading article sug-
gested by a measure which Mr. Labouchere has announced
his intention of bringing forward in a few days in the
Commons. In this article our Contemporary sa;s—" The
Bill of which Mr. Labouchere has given notice for Tuesday
next, is a Bill to suspend the Constitution of Jamaica, and
to invest the Government with despotic powers. Ministers
are now ambitious of producing striking contrasts and the-
atrical results ; and, therefore, having made the blacks in
Jamaica free, they desire to increase the splendor, and en-
hance the value of the gift, by making slaves of the whites."
The Morning Advertiser comments as follows on her
Majesty's answer to the City Address :--" In this reply
we reco;nise with pain not only an indifference towards
the wishes and opinions of the authorities and inhabitants
of the metropolis of the British Empire, but an almost
contemptuous disregard for public opinion generally. Well
might her Majesty falter, as she did, in delivering such a
reply to the respectful remonstrance of the citizens of Lon-
don I We say it with reluctance, but we say it broadly, the
Queen is ill-advised on this subject.
The Globe speaking of the Bishop of London's inter-
view with Lord Melbourne on Wednesday on the subject
of a Sunday transmission of letters from the Post-office,
says :—" No one will question that supreme regard for
'the interests of religion actuated the 'Bishop in the pro-
minent put he has taken in Parliament and elsewhere
against the apprehended change. With him the trans-
mission qf a letter is an overt act of impiety which nothing
can justify, and the most extreme necessity can only
palliate. So says the Prelate in his place in Parlia-
ment, and as the head of the deputation to the Premier.
But what says the Right Rev. Prelate by his conduct
in his Palace—to his family and servants there—to the
Post-office 6er/tints—in his own vicinity, and to the
frank inspectors at the Post-office in London ? The
Bishop to each and to all these saith thus My hor-
ror of Sabbath desecration is reserved for public exhibi-
tion ; but cools down to zero when I get within my pa-
lace gates. Although lam aghast at the bare notion of
a tradesmen, whose credit may be ruined if a remittance
arrive not on a given day, and which calamity will
ensue by the detention of his letter containing it—al-
though I would prevent a letter on life or death from
being sent out of Laudon on Sunday, I will allow myself
to write, frank, and post letters on the Sunday, as if
there were no law of God or man to forbid it.' Let
not our readers start at our temerity. We write not
these things without the means of proof, if called upon
to adduce it. Such proof has been placed in our pos-
session, in a letter recently written and franked by the
Bishop's own hand, and posted on a Sunday—a letter
not containing a remittance to some poor child of suf-
fering, nor to pour consolation into the ear of a dying
soul whom his Lordship's other engagements precluded'
him from visiting in person—no claims of charity or of
mercy urged and obtained a breach of the law—it is a
letter on ordinary business, appointing an interview on
c following Friday !"