The Sun.
London, England, 1839-04-17 00:00:00

to fi! I tHse which fail vacant, I would plead, as a set-off
to that demand for confidence, the a
ppointment of Lord
Ebrington to the administration of the erelesiasticalahairs
in Irel md—arriving, as he has in that country, with the
law which he is to enforce in one hand, and his own speech
as a glossa, y u hereby to interpret it in the other. Sir,l
rornemiKT to have heard it stated more than once in this
House, that however eminent might be the personal
qmaidications of a Governor in Ireland, those
qualities were accounted as nothing, if the people of
that
co retry had not per feet confidence in their exercise. I !e'
member myself to have heard the lion. Member for Kil-
kenny in the House declare, with reference to my Noble
Friend the Member for North Lancashire, then Secretary
for Ireland, that, how,ver high his qualifications, he
should be dismissed front that office, becawe the people of
Ireland were dissatisfied with him—" that even if he had
no faults—if there was no doubt of his competency for
office—still, if the people of Ireland thought differently,
it was but right and proper that the Government should
remove him—even if all the prejudices against him were
unfounded, it was the duty of the Cabinet to get rid of
him."—(Cherrs ) Sir, I understand perfectly the cheer of
the El r-r. Member I understand thoroughly whom
he means by 'the people of Ireland"—but, Sir, I ap-
peal from that cheer to her Majesty's Ministers, and'
ask them, is it carrying out their principle of conci-
liation and their professions of impartiality to appoint a
Governor to that country, whose only title to the confidence
of one party, is that he is regarded with alarm and appre-
hension by the other? Oh, Sir, apply the doctrine of the
Hon. Member for Kilkenny to the ease of the Lord Lieu;
tenant of Ireland. We do not dread that Noble Lord
administration upon surmise or upon hearsay, his own voice
is yet ringing in our ears; any incompetency which be may
exhibit for any branch of his government, he is convicted
of on his declamations, and on the showing of his ova
avowed opinions. And yet, Within one fortnight from the
date 'l-^n Lord Ebrington lands in Ireland, with a decla-
ration of " war against the Church" still fresh upon his
l'ps—( Cheers)—her Mai-sty's Ministers, who dispatched
him thither, have the infatuation to call upon the Protestants
of Ireiaed fora vote of confidence in their friendly policy and
pacific intentions towards the Establishment of that countryNo, Sir. Whatever difference of opinion there may exist
as to other departments of Irish policy, howsoever Members
on the opposite side of the House may be disposed to at-
test their confidence in the Irish Administration of her
Mjes'y's Government, it must be with an entire reserve.
tion uf the question of the Irish Church. Upon that
question their feelings and opinions have been disregarded
equally with our own, But besides this, on this point of
the Church, the sincere and earnest opponents, those who
have been up to this moment equally energetic and
consistent in their proposals for what they consider
to be a proper regulation of the Irish Establish-
ment (the supporters of her Majesty's Minister*
upon every other occasion), have already recorded their
deliberate opinions. Are they prepared to falsify that
record now ? Are the two-and-thirty Hon. Members, wb°-
on the third reading of the Irish Tithe Bill, last yea!,
denounced that measure as a delusion, pregnant with evil,
and calculated to deprive the Ministry of the confidence of
the people of Ireland, who voted with the Hon. Members
for Mayo and Kilkenny, against its being permitted to
pass this House—are they prepared to retract that deli
-
berate censure, and to declare their ur.qualified confidence
in the wise and consistent policy of the Ministry toward*:
the Irish Church ?—( Cheers.) I regret to see so few,
present on the opposite benches ; but is the Hon. Member
for Sheffield, who voted in that division, prepared to take
that course ? Are the Members for London, Lambeth,
Southwark and Westminster, and the Tower Hamlets and:
Marylebone, who were all in the same division, prepared
to follow his example? Will the Members for Cocker-
mouth and Wolverhampton do the same ? Unless they do
so,—unless they reserve and protest against the policy of
the Irish Church measures, then will their vote to-night be
a direct contradiction of their recorded opinions in July last?
Looking then, Sir, to the entire course of Irish policy,
legislative as well as executive, to the selection of Go-
vernment functionaries ; to the patronage of the bar, the
bench, and the civil offices of State ; looking to the go
vernment of the Church, and the administration of the
law, I can see no one department on the grounds of which
the Conservative Members of this House can tender their
confidence to her Majesty's Ministers ; and I can see but
few in which, whilst they can claim the votes of their R3'..
dical allies, they would not be at issue with the more cau-
tious and moderate Whigs upon the other—those Whigs '
mean who, before the accession of Lord Melbourne and the
compact of Lichfield House ,formed the party which sup-
ported the Government of Earl Grey. Now, Sir, in alluding
to Errl Grey's Administration, allow me to make one obser-
vation, there is no expedient which, on every emergency
has been more triumphantly resorted to by her Majesty •
Ministers, both in the House and elsewhere during the
last four years than an appeal to the precedent and ex-
ample of Lord Grey's Government. The policy and prao•
tice of his Cabinet are appealed to in every instance, whe•
ther to justify an attack or to furnish a defence. It seems
as if

" This weapon of their weakness they can wield
To wound, defend, at once their spear and shield."
But I think this is an unwise and a hazardous comparison
for them to institute ; in Liberal professions the two
Governments are indeed alike, but in Liberal per-
formance it is impossible to avoid confessing 1:41
how difT.Tent." Their administration scarcely affords' one
solitary point of genuine similarity. Patronage, which
Lord Althorp disclaimed as an exploded expedient for t
meictenance of government, has been the alimente thisBnd
n
the essence of the influence of Lord Melbourne. In
p irticular, too, so faithfully did Lord Grey's
Government
observe that pledge, that even the Hon. Member for
Dub-
lin was compelled in this House time after time to taunt
the Irish Government of Earl Grey with their indiscri-.
urinate and impartial bestowal of places of honour and
emolument. Their nomination of Tory not less than of
nt
Noblemen as Lords Lieutenant of counties—their
commissioning of Conserv.:tive as well as Of Liberal
Menistrates—their appointment of Sheriffs from men of
all parties, and their elevation to the bench of Judges
of polit;es different from their own, but of attainments
to entitle them to the honour—and, in short, that
in every department of the State they had promoted men
who were their own, political opponents—certainly in this
particular the Government of Lord Melbourne has
steered cautiously clear of liability to any such imputation.,
In fact no better proof can be adduced of the sincerity or
Lord Grey, than that he conferred a silk gown on O.
Hon. and Learned Gentleman the Member for Dublin
himself, avowedly on the score of his professional ran'
and irrespective of his political position ; but I defy her Ala"
je,ty's Ministers to produce one solitary instance—to Poi°
to one single gentlemen of eminence at the Irish bar--;
one Barrister, whether Protestant or Roman Catholic (sr
Roman Catholic Conservatives are to be found even at the
Bar in Ireland) of distinguished attainments and emine°,
esteem, but of Conservative politics, upon whom, in a
whole course of their Administration, they have confer
similarly well-earned and honourable distinction ?—(11",1%)
No—but whilst these had been studiously secluded. "e,
fi
Majesty's Ministers have pressed the honours of the Bene
upon the Hon. and Learned. Member for Dublin himself'
notwithstanding his own numerous declarations in this
House, that from his political partizanship the people °,
Ireland should not tolerate such an appointment._( Hear.)
It has ever been regarded as one of the noblest cones;"
sions of the Crown to the liberty of the people, that thls
Judges of the land should be independent even of the in-
fluence which creates them, and of the Monarchs whom
they represent. It was one of the hobbies of William lII'
that he was the first to introduce that glorious princlet
into the Constitution of England ; and it was the firs
act of George 111., as a King, to extend and to confiral
it. The whole course of the legal patronage of Lord Nor:
manby has been one persevering effort to undermine that
independence, and to render a seat upon the Bench'
whether in the higher or the minor tribunals of the law'
l
dependent upon the amount of political exertion by. which
it could be purchased.—( Much cheering.) Through°°e
the entire framework and structure of society, the sari;
spirit and principle have been all pervading and universait
and every door to promotion, whether honorary or Pro.
fessional, over which Gov( rament have had the controtuf
has been readily closed against every aspirant, however
distinguished, who could not pronounce the Shibboleth °f
faction, or who would not join the worship of the Daa
of agitation--( Hear, hear.) Is it possible, Sir, for the
Protestants of Ireland, with a fidelity to the Crown whl%
has never been impeached—with no stigma inherent 10
their caste—no imputation on their honour to deprive the
of the countenance and encouragement of the State--is.th
in human nature to believe that they should regard at
of
and bow with calm endurance to the edict °r
a party which repulses them from every office of 'honour fa
emolument in their own country, to which their talents 117.:
acquirements might entitle them legitimately to aspire' d
( Hear, hear.) It is but a few months since all Irelll,lo
resounded with a murmur of indignation, because a 14,1
° as
0
Lord had designated one class of the population as al:
from the feelings and the habits of the other. What, the
must be the indignant emotions, not the less intense
.°e
30,
cause less clamorously evinced, of those who are Illa
from day to day, to feel and to experience that not in ni asl ro
only, but in substance and in reality, they are treated-
aliens and as foreigners in the land of their birthirr,
( Hear. ) Sir, I have the authority of an Hon. Mer°_iede
whose opinions are of much weight upon the opposite ° be
of the House, for saying that such a system would a t.ot,
tolerated by the Protestants of England, and should
for one moment be endured by the people of Ireland'ed
( Hear, hear.) And when Hon. Members are dispose
to comment upon the expressions of Lord Lyndhursi,
would beg their attention to the following energetic °P
Hume)
who, nions of the Hon. Member for Kilkenny (Mr. fluriniro,
who, in denouncing the appointment of twenty-sis Lord
testant gentlemen as stipendiary magistrates by Lord
Anglesea, in 1833, thus delivered his sentiments on
mat ter of aliens nd par tiz pp
an aointments:—
Why is it," saaid the Hon. Gentleman, "that Catholics
t
are carefully excluded from the list of twenty-six stifiela°l7a'e
magistrates, who have been recently appointed in Ire' „„a
Why are they carefully excluded from such situativs,„4o,-
twenty-six foreigners appointed to them ?" Several,,icno„
ourable Members here cried " Hear, hear." 11 Y,es' ;„,,ser,
tinned Mr. Hume, " I contend that they are orei7ion
—they are persons foreign in their habits and re 'that
to the bulk of the people—and I say then
foreigners have been appointed to these offices. • - • in' tea
Suppose that there were twenty-six magistrates to be aPP°floo•
in England, wat would t people of England saY
but Catholics where selected th o fill these offices. But Ichs't «mould
writ-
he said if none but Catholics were nominated to every
,_ na?
tiva office in the country? Would this be borne in E!Ig1: ata
Then why should the system be endured in Ireland:
only astonished that the people of this country have borne ''
it so long."
which, in Ireland, he (Mr. E. Tennent) madeco, his
And yet this is the very system for the continuancoo°o
doubt the Hon. Member would this night re/uout,
vote along with her Majesty's Ministers.—(Cheers I__d re-
again, the tenure of office which was recognized, a"
power of his
the Vrc_ which
speeted by Earl Grey, was regulated by
united Cabinet to carry through those measuw. !ch they
they deemed essential, and to resist others. hi /0'
vision of the Coercion Bill, which were in
' NO 10110
condemned. When no longer able to maincrin,etnbsoasbein for
the suppression of agitation in Ireland, and whenucs__
of the
supported by his own Cabinet upon the q_r'°"/ri like
Irish Church, Lord Grey retired from office.
his at-
manner the present Premier has been thwarted in