The Sun.
London, England, 1839-04-11 00:00:00

THE APPROACHING CRISIS

_.....,...____
TO TIIE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
' Sra,—Approving and admiring, as I often do, the
liberal and impartial tone cf politics you adopt, allow
me, in furtherance of such a purpose, to make a few
iobservations on the approaching crisis, which must ne-
cessarily arise from the fate of Lord John Russell's mo-
tion in the House of Commons on the ITAI instant.
The issue of that motion will decide whether the people
of this empire are to-bow at, the flat of a factious oligar-
chy, or to sustain those principles of gradual and ra-
tional reform, which can alone impart vigor and stabi-
lity
to our institutions. Under ordinary circumstances,
or in times of less portentous aspect, a change of Minis-
ters might be regarded as a common-place ' occurrence,
leading to no important results—such as the casual
vicissitudes of sunshine or rainy weatlier ;--but now
questions of the highest importance are involved—ques-
tions which affect not only the well-being of the people
of this empire, but the general rights of humanity and
the principles of universal justice, and must lead either
to wholesome and salutary repose, or to storms, pesti-
lence, and death.
Let ns only remember the career of the Tories, now
assuming the name of Conservatives, when- in power.
Did they not treble the debt of the nation, and thereby
mortgage the labour and industry of its inhabitants for
an indefinite period to come ? Did they not squander
millions upon millions to rahe up Napoleon, and as
many more to put him down ? Did they not resort to
Coercion and Gagging Acts to stifle public opinion ?
Did they not wage a war, at home and abroad, against
every measure bearing the slightest reference to the pro
motion of popular rights, or the progress of advitocing
political intelligence. And was not, in fact, their whole
course of policy one universal system of profligacy and
corruption, promoting the interest of the few at the ex-
pease of the many, and conveying such abandoned poll-
tical immorality into all orders and classes of the coin- 1
munitv, that we are not recovered from the taint, even 1
at this moment.

Are these the men and measures which the represen-
tatives of the steady and acute people of England will
sanction, by a vote that may lea(l,.even remotely, to
power of such a ravening crew ? Will they pronounce
that the coarse of rational Reform shall be stopped, and
that the Empire shall again be made the victim of a
faction, who make salf•interest the motive and rule of
their policy P_ _

In answer to such interrogatories, let us only refer to
the question which is to be decided by the House of
Commons on the 15th inst., and it amounts to this--
Whether Ireland is again to be given:up to the domi-
nation of an Orange faction, or whether the arections
of the people of that country are to be identified with
the weal and woe of England ? Can any rational or
patriotic mind have any doubt as to its decision on these
altcrnatiVes? With the Canadas presenting more than
a doubtful allegiance, with war in the East Indies, and
with the couching and hostile attitude of every despot in
Europe,are we rudely,and rashly, and, I w;11 say,dishonest ly
and unjustly, to fling away the atochment of the Irish
people, and to erect again the misgovernment of centu-
ries over them, in order to gratify the malignity or im-
becility of a majority of the House of Lords, whose in-
capacity to estimate the true interest of the people of
England, as on the Corn question, is as apparent as-what
they have manifested with respect to Ireland. " Uni-
formly," said Junius, nearly three quarters of a century
since, " has Ireland been plundered and oppressed ;"
and in addition to all this, would the Conservatives, so
called, now wish to infuse the bitterness of religious
animosity.

But I cannot yet bring myself to believo that the
people of England, or their representatives in the House
of Commons, will countenance any measure which is likely
to have such a tendency. They will not retrograde
in the march of Reform, much less will they revive an
exploded policy, founded on exclusion and injustice,
conveying bitterness, division, and weakness, by making
the smaller section of the people of Ireland tyrants,
gaolers, and guards upon the rest, and exposing the
empire, in the event of war, to a separation, from the
first rude shock which may assail it. If the Tories
have discovered any new mode of policy on which to
found the stability and security of the empire, than
that of the affections and attachment of its varied po-
pulation, why, let them proclaim it. Let Sir Robert
Peel for once be candid—fling away his tortuous can-
ning—and directly declaim, at which he is so great an
adept,—" Yes, our object is to disregard the scants and
wishes of the great mass of the population in Ireland, and
to foster the galling prejudices and perverse hostility of
a faction in that country, whose loyalty is only to be
measured by their power to injure the rest of their
countrymen, and by exclusively surrendering up to
them, as in all preceding tittles, every situation of
profit and influence." Such language 'would be honest
and manly ; but would the course recommended be
wise, or j ust, or loyal ? Would our young and truly
gracious Queen be satisfied with the allegiance of a
section of her people in Ireland, when she has a right
to claim from her Minister the adopEon of those measures
which are alone. calculated to win the affections of the
whole ?

No, her benignant Majesty will not bestow her con-
fidence on any class of Statesmen who
Irely on their
tenure for office by alienating the feelings of so great a
portion of her subjects ; and she will not fail to call to
her remembrance those days of her uncle and grand-
:father, when the same party whieh possessed power so long,
sowed the seeds of our present distractions, by their
Inveterate ' hostility to timely Deform, and presented
for her sovereignty on ascending the Throne, an over-
burdened and overtaxed people. She will eschew
such councillors, and all those disposed to intercept
the rays of mercy, benignity, and justice, issuing from
the Throne. The true Statesman, her benevolent Ma-
jesty will consider, ought to be enabled to distinguish
between the growl of the over-fed parson, and the cry of
wretchedness and despair.
The preSent circumstances of the British Empire
exhibit a 'curious anomaly, not often to be found in
the history. Of nations. We find, on ,the one hand, the
Government and the people anxious :o promote those
gradual and salutary reforms, so essential to its security
and stability ; and we discover on the other hand a
factious oligarchy impeding and thwarting those ame-
liorations. Certainly, a few solitary instances are to be
discerned, where exclusive and privileged bodies ob-
struct the progress of improvement, and set up their
will io apposition to the wishes and feelings of the ma-. 1
jority—such, for example ,as the Pretorian Guards at
Rome under the Emperors, and the Janissaries
at Constantinople. But in the one case it wes attended
by their own downfal, together with that of the Empire,
and in the other, reform, as it advanced, swept the op-
posing body into extinction. Whether the Janissaries
of our House of Lords are prepared for this alternative,
is a question for their consideration. Ttscy affect to be
mighty pious, yet they act the unchristian part of deny-
ing the people cheap bread. They prc tend to consider
the people of Ireland unfit, to he entrusted with the ma-
nagement of their own municipal concerns ; yet they
violently oppose one of the best measures for qualifying
theta for that duty, and for healing their distractions and
divisions. They consider they arc upholding the
Church, when they are only supporting its abuses ; and 1
they place it in the lamentable position of being a bar
to the education of the rising generation. The supreme
law, in their estimation, is no longar salus populi, but
amoi• /mew, . ice In this course, indeed, the baser part
of their feudal origin is adopted. We cannot now dis-
cover any of that high chivalrous spirit which at onetime
prompted their presumed ancestors to succour the dis-
tressed and oppressed ; but we observe a ravening thirst
for power and pelf, regardless of the means so the object
be accomplished. Let them no longer emblazon their
shields or boast of heraldic honours, for their most
appropriate supporters would now be the deceived and
suffering agriculturist and the famishing artizan.
PUBLIUS.

At the Dover Sessions on Friday, John Ed-
ward Lane, a boy aged 13, pleaded Guilty of stealing
at St. James's, Dover, four quartern loaves of bread, the
property of George Thomas Croft ; and in consideration
of his being a confirmed thief, he was sentenced to seven
years transportation to a penal colony, set apart for juvenile
offenders.

IMPORTANT CHEMICAL DISCOVERY.—One
of the most valuable improvements in modern times has
lately bee'n achieved'in the manufacture of soda from com-
mon salt, by the' use of carbonate of ammonia instead of
the pestiferous method hitherto employed in the production
of that alkali. The inhabitants residing in the vicinity of
the soda manufactories at Birmingham, Liverpool, New-
castle, &c., owe the inventors of this valuable improvement
a heavy debt of gratitude, as by this discovery they have
put an end to the dreadful nuisance which the public have li
so long endured. The necessity of decomposing the chlo-
ride of sodium by sulphur no longer exists, the newly-dis-
covered process being perfectly free from all noxious va-
pour. Another important advantage is also secured,
namely, that the improved method can, with little addi-
tional outlay, be adapted to the manufactories at present in
operation, and the workmen who have hitherto been fre-
quently thrown out of employment, and subject to the loss
of their wages, in consequence of the numerous indictments
that have been laid against their masters for nuisances, will
no longer be subjected to this evil. This process, when
submitted to an eminent chemical lawyer for his opinion,
uas pronounced by him to be one of the most brilliant and
ingenious discoveries in modern chemistry.
RAILWAY TRAVELLING.—The Cockneys
will be happy to hear that in the ensuing summer season
they will, on many of the lines of railroad, derive great ac-
commodation in consequence of the facilities which will
be afforded them in making long journeys in a considerable
short space of time. Already the lovers of a trip to
Hampton Court have teen informed that largo vehicles
for the conveyance of parties, of from *4 to 40 persons
eoch, by which they will be taken by the Southampton
Railway, from and to town, for the trifling expense of 40s
each carriage. It is said that other Companies intend to
adopt the same speculation.
ExPEDITioN.----T. and W. Marsden's fly-
boat, Captain John Ashton, soled from Hull on Monday
morning, April Ist, at seven o'clock, and arrived at Hud-
dersfield on Tuesday morning, April 2d, at nine o'clock,
performing the passage in 26 hours, with a cargo cf foreign
wool. She was tugged up to Goole by a powerful steam-
tug, the Amason, engaged by the proprietors of the fly-
boats to ply between Goole and Hull purposely to give
dispatch to their own boats.—Hull Observer.