The Sun.
London, England, 1837-06-12 00:00:00

of his way the other evening to say that which might
just as well have been left unsaid.— Morn. Chro:iicie.
The couwry will have seen with sa kn tiefetei; and
with increased confidence in the tutelary wiedom of the
House of Lards, the steady, consistent, and sagacious
vote of that statesmanlike assembly on Friday everng,
when Lord Melbourne, ie obedience to the commands
of his taskmaster, moved the committal of the Bill for
vesting the government of all Irish Corporations in
those sworn conspirators against Church and State,
the Popish hierarchy and the vassal priesthood. The
House of Lords, on the last occasion when the Bill
abovementioned- was before them, having decided
against the inexpediency of a hasty decision, and on
tic necessity of waiting until they should see with what
other schemes of Irish Radical policy it had been as-
sociated by the O'Connell Ministers, were prepared to
consider the fitness of a project of municipal govern-
ment for Ireland, in conjunction with one fur the set-
tlement of the Church question, and for the establish-
ment of such a system ofexating„ under an expected
Bill of relief to the poor, as might equally serve for a
scale of qualification with a view to the, municipal fran-
chise. Long since we felt it our duty to impress upon
the public the good sense and integrity of those precau-
tions which had been adopted by the House of Lords.
Nothing surely could have been more precipitate, or
inure perilous, than an irrevokable shaping and finish-
ing of one which it was announced by those who had
introduced it, was to constitute part merely of a whole,
and to be placed from the onset in a state of reciprocal
action and reaction with other laws, before any certain
index had been afforded of the nature and operation of
thosT others. The Whig O'Connell Ministers, and
their daily organs, however, became sulky upon this,
and treated as something heinous the simple proposi-
tion, that no workman can safely turn out of hand any
one portion of a complex instrument without possessing
a complete knowledge, arising out of a simultaneous
inspection, of those correlative members of the entire
machine, to which each single one must be adapted.
It was impossible for the House of Lords to judge how
any Municipal Bill for Ireland would work, and con-
sequently how it ought to be constructed, without a
pre-knowledge of the materials upon which it must
operate—viz., the Church of Ireland, as modified and
determined by the provisions of the Tithe Bill, and
the description of municipal franchise to be created by
those of the Bill for " Corporate Reform." Having
once, on grounds of unquestionable policy, so chosen
their course of proceeding with regard to the above
Bill, and postponed the consideration of it until they
should be able to examine it in context with its sister
measures, the House of Lords, when the 9th of June
arrived, had as a preliminary point for their decision
to ascertain whether the requisites called for by their
previous vote at the end of February or the beginning
of March had since been furnished by the other House
of Parliament, and to resolve whether, in pursuance
of that former vote, they were yet at liberty to canvass,
or compelled for some time longer to lay aside, the de-
tails of the Popish Corporation project. The case,
unfortunately, admitted of no shadow of doubt. No
progress, of which their Lordships could take cogni-
zance, had been made by the King's Ministers in
bringing forward the promised- Bills, or submitting
them to their Lordships' notice. The means of col-
lective legislation for Ireland were, on Friday last,
no more abundant than between three and four months
ago, and nothing, therefore, was left for the Peers—
having respect to their own honour and consistency,
or the essential interests of the nation—but a second
postponement of the Committee on the Bill, with
the same object and on the same condition as had
dictated their original adjournment of it. The speech
of Lord Lyndhurst in support of an amendment to
the above effect was characterized by all that ability
and energy which distinguish the address of the
Learned Lord beyond those of most contemporary
statesmen. A system of Conservative policy, being
in its nature one purely defensive of the Constitutional
monarchy against wanton and daring aggression,
might, in common keeping, partake of the languid
colour of most defensive operations, and thus commu-
nicate to its supporters a taint of feebleness and dis-
couragement. But there is no mischief of that kind
to fear when the protection of a State devolves on such
champions as Lord Lyndhurst. If assailants at his
hands have little hope of success, they have as little of
impunity. They are not defeated only, but thoroughly
chastised. The scourge employed by the Learned
Lord on Friday swept round the ill-fated Lord Mel-
bourne and his colleagues, and did not leave an inch
of the official carcass free from the most pitiable ex-
coriation. The helplessness of the Prime Minister,
and the straits to which he was driven, were shown by
the awkward and mortifying line of deprecation (for of
argument there was none) to which the unhappy
Viscount resorted, when he whom an inexperienced
foreigner might imagine, from the position which he
holds, to be especially charged with the guardianship
of our monarchical institutions, had no better means
of meeting-Lord Lyndhurst's attack upon his prin-
ciples than, by taking up the cause of a rebel society,
endeavouring to palliate the vicious character of its
composition, and to apologize for having lavished the
patronage of the King's Government on its members,
by avowing that he disapproved what, nevertheless, he
permuted his Irish subalterns invariably to practise--
the exclusion of all Irishmen of a true loyal stamp
.and breed—namely, all who were or had been Orange-
men—from the most insignificant share of office or
emolument under that Crown of which they are the
best, if not the only, devoted protectors now in Ire-
land. Save his allusion to O'Connell's rebel asso-
ciates, and his shameful sneer at the recent interrup-
tion of Lord Lyndhurst's attendance in Parliament,
the speech of Lord Viscount Melbourne was " nil."
It was alike devoid of fact and reasoning, and resembled
the whole history of the Ministeaial course, or rather
anchorage (for he has never yet got fairly under sail),
of the noble speaker, in being a perfect copra mor-
Mum. The majority of the British Peerage against
Ministers has increased since the preceding division to
63—a nuMber greater by 12 than the whole aggre-
gate of Ministerial Peers who could he scraped toge-
ther for a contest so important.—Times.
One of the accusations urged by Lord Lyndhurtt
against the Ministry, in moving the postponement of
the Irish Municipal Reform Bill on Friday night, was,
that the Government evinced a dispoSition to concede
to and conciliate the Roman Catholics of Ireland, and
also the Dissenters of England, both of whom the
Noble Baron—seeking to justify persecution by unjust
accusations—most gratuitously was 'leased to desig-
nate as " the declared enemies of the Establish-ed
Church." Now, as this disposition to concession and
conciliation is made the subject of accusation by the
Tories, tl
le
Tories, we might reasonably suppose, if not already
convinced of the fact, that, should they by any chance
succeed to °lice, they would immediately attempt to
close the doors against all further concessions titj
parties whom they thus endeavour to.
ging the
deed, the honest—we beg inate ; in-
on, the candid—por-
tion of the .I —we
ee
such- to be their intention ; so
Itt. th.e (j."..lst.ion between a Tory and Liberal Admi-
eaatton is thus reduced to the simple query—are
we to have laws extending equal privileges of citizen-
ship to every class of subjects, whatever their reli-
gious creed, or are we to have the great bulk
of the community ',hindered and oppressed, in order
that a sect may maintain an iniquitous and tyran-
nical ascendancy ? On what grounds, save to screen
the wicked by assuming the language ,of a party
aggrieved, dare the " Alien" Baron stigmatise the Ca-
tholics and Dissenters " as enemies of the established
religion ?" Wherein have they shown hostility ? Have
they attempted to levy contributions on the orthodox
sect for the support of their own Churches, Chapels,
or Ministry ? No ! Have they attempted to exclude
the orthodox sect from a full and fair participation in
all the rights of citizenship ? No ! Have they incarce-
' rated, shot, and murdered members of the orthodox
sect for refusing to pay an impost against which their
conscience revolted ? No ! Have they, even when vi-
lified and assailed, retorted the acrimonious language
used against them ? Have they called members of the
ascendant Church hypocrites, atheists, infidels ? No !
Wherein then have they shown hostility ? Simply in
this—all these atrocities and abominations have been
practised against them—they have been robbed for the
support of a religion which they repudiate—they have
been excluded From political enfranchisement—they
have been incarcerated, shot, and butchered, for refu,-,
sing to pay an odious impost—they have beetk