The Sun.
London, England, 1837-09-06 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1837.

sent Ministers regained possession of the Govern-
ment. No one who recollects the history of the pe-
riod--we mean the period from the first assembling of

the Parliament in 1835 to the Easter recess—no one
who will look back upon the proceedings of the House
of Commons during that time can possibly doubt that
the present Government came into office upon the
ground of satisfying the Irish by a Tithe Act con-
taining the appropriation clause, and upon no other
around whatever. As oppositionists, they said a
great deal of what it was necessary to do for English
Dissenters as well as Irish ; but the specific ground of
their re-attainment of office was the settlement of the
Irish Tithe question, with the appropriation clause.
As a Government they totally failed to accomplish
that which they were made a Government in order to
accomplish. Still, however, they had this excuse,
that they had done all they could to accomplish
it. They bad, indeed, failed, but they had made the
effort. It was not their fault that the property of the
Irish church was not confiscated by Act of Parliament
to the managers of Popish education, but their mis-
fortune in not possessing the Parliamentary support
necessary to do this. In our opinion such an excuse
was but little creditable to the dignity of a British Ad-
ministration, which avowed its determination to retain
office, while it -confessed its inability to carry the
measure for the sake of which it had obtained office.
Still, however, it was an excuse, with which many
persons very liberal, and very lenient, and very fond of
having their friends in a patronage-dispensing posi-
tion at Downing-street, professed themselves satisfied.
But now even this excuse has been abandoned.
Even the sfArt to carry through Parliament the mea-
sures to which Government stands pledged are to be
abandoned. Not only are Ministers unable to carry
those measures, but they are afraid even to bring them
forward. Instead, therefore, of saying, as they did in
1835, that no Ministry should be allowed to stay in
office which would not make the " appropriation"
principle a leading point in its legislative projects, it is
now, in 1837, alleged that events had better be left to
work out the appropriation principle of themselves. It
is better for the Government not to bring it forward in
Parliament I A Alinisterial print thought it needful
the other day to inform the public that " men in this
country have been accustomed to a certain extent to
be treated as rational beings." It would appear, how-
ever, that Ministers, in their rage for novelty, have de-
termined to endeavour to accustom men in this country
to something else. Can it be said that they are
treated as rational beings, to whom it is told in 1835
that a Government must be appointed to carry a par-
ticular principle, and to whom it is told by the same
parties, in 1837, that, though that principle has not
been carried, it is better for Government to give it the
"go by," and let the thing accomplish itsef ? Can
any rational being bear to be insulted by nonsense
such as this? No, the Government which acts thus
must depend upcn other than rational beings ; it must
depend, and it does depend, upon a benighted Irish
rabble, which does the bidding of a political priest-
hood.—Morning Herald.
There is, we believe, for we do not profess to he au
fait at the technicalities of " the mill," but we arc told
that there is a sniff called fustian. It is said to be
coarse and ugly ; and, from the coarseness and ugli-
ness of the thing, some figurative people have occa-
sionally applied the name to a style of writing possess-
ing both these qualities. Without meaning any disre-
spect we will venture to say that, since such an
application was first made, a more notable piece of
fustian has seldom been seen than the sample exhi-
bited in the Ministerial manufactory of yesterday
morning. But this is merely par parenthese. Trashy
as is this outside covering of fustian there is something
still more trashy underneath it. Not that one can
help laughing, however ; and, as the malignity is con-
siderably neutralized by the absurdity, perhaps there
is no great harm in being merry. The scribe of the
Morning Chronicle professes to treat of Ireland ; and
it is fair to presume that he has one qualification for
doing so, for the affair is exceedingly Irish from begin-
ning to end. It sets out with declaring Ireland to be
the " theatre of war, the field of a great
Battle for the freedom of the world ;"
and then proceeds to say, with amusing naivete,
" Peace has its victories as well as war ;' nor amongst
the bloodless trophies which have been, or are yet to
be, raised by rrein upon the Mount of Olives can
there be one more glorious or more fraught with bless-
ings to the human race than thin." Now for Irishism
number two. The Chronicle opines that " since
the era of the Irish Vo:unteers the cause of that peo-
ple" (query, the Irish or the Volunteers ?) " has
never been espoused by so numerous and respectable a
body of the gentry and land proprietors as came for-
ward to give their determined and united support, at
the late elections, to the principles of the Queen's
Government." Why, none hut att Irishman would
have thought of using the words " present Govern-
ment" and '' principle" as things that had any connec-
tion with each other. It was reserved for the Morning
Chronicle to discover the " principle" displayed in
retaining office at the expense of measures that Lord
John Russell declared vital—which meant, being
translated, that, if persevered in, they would he the
death of the Ministry of which he forms a friction.
Then, as a commentary on the oft-repeated assertion,
that the Government has had secured to it by the late
elections a good and safe majorky, we find our Irish
friend hinting a fear that '' the packing of Election
Committees with unscrupulous Tories," may promote
the success of the petitions against returns obtained by
intimidation and violence. But the perfection of West-
Britainism—to use a compound that Sping Rice and
Jeremy Bentham might have concocted between them
—is yet to come. Under the Sub-Viceroyalty of
my Lord Mulgrave, we are told Ireland has made
considerable progress " towards a perfect state of
order and civilization." And again—" The spirit
of popular political agitation has been mitigated. It
is unaccotnpanied by those extravagant ebullitions
of passion," of which the former existence seems
thus to be admitted. Now, if we could for a mo-
ment put broken heads, burnt houses, and murdered
Protestants out of the question, there is matter here at
which a grave man might laugh through a long sum-
mer's day. " Perfect order and civilisation, unaccom-
panied by extravagant ebullitions of passion," and all
this during the late elections in Ireland. The Irish-
man who
" Meets his friend, and for love knocks him down,"
is a mere innocent compared with what the Chronicle
calls " the generous and tractable people" who have
burned, killed, and destroyed, at the instigation or
command of their priests, since the writs were issued
for the return of fit and proper persons to represent
them in Parliament. We might easily find hundreds
of instances of these " wild sports of the west," if we
had not an invincible aversion from the Newgate
Calendar style of reading. But, after all, there is no
great need for such researches ; for a very good proof
of Irish civilization is to be found in the fact, that an
Irishman—lrishman he must be--can look at the
atrocities of the last few weeks, and discover in them
an occasion for boasting of the progress of his coun-
trymen " towards perfect order."—Morning Post.

A quantity of old coins has been found in a cave
lately discovered about two miles east of Settle. One of
them bears the inscription of Theodosius Camar, being the
only one legible. The cave is about 18 or 20 yards by 10
or 12. There are a vast quantity of stalactites, lately de-
pending from the roof, but now, alas ! no more, having
been abstracted by the curious. Quantities of human bones
were strewed on the ground intermixed with what appeared
broken urns.—Kendal Mercury.

WANT OP EVIDENCE.-There is a pleasant anec-
dote told of the late Rev. Judge Peters, who was no less
known for the integrity of his legal decisions than for his
witticisms. The crew of a vessel brought into his Court a
complaint, alleging the unwholesomeness of the provisions
laid in for the voyage, and claimed damages for this mis-
usage. One of the evidences in support of the charge was
an apparently mouldy sea-biscuit. The "opening" Counsel
produced this during his exordium, and it was handed inci-
dentally to the Judge. The cause proceeded in due form,
and when the defendant's Counsel was proceeding with the
citation of proofs to sustain his client's cause, the .mouldy
biscuit was not to be found ; great reliance was placed on
this ; it had, however, unaccountably disappeared. At
length one of the Jurymen reminded the Counsel he had
handed it to the Judge, who, it appears, little by little, as the
cause proceeded, had inadvertently eaten it up ; the hearty
laugh was irrepressible, and it were needless perhaps to add,
the complainants were foiled in the prosecution ; evidently a
spite action against their captain and owners.—Poulson.