The Sun.
London, England, 1837-07-12 00:00:00

t"4
,

Zhe

LONDON,
WEDNESDAY EVENING, JULY 12, 1837.

In the House or Lords yesterday almost the entire
sit-
ting was occupied (we had nearly said wasted) by a discus-
sion upon matters and points which have already been dis-
posed of, but which were again brought forward last night
under cover of a motion, made by the Marquis of WEST-
MEATH, for certain returns relating to Ireland. The Noble
Marquis's motion had manifestly no other scope than to af-
ford his Tory Compeers an opportunity of discharging all
the offensive inculpatory artillery they could command
against Lord MULGRAVE and his Excellency's government
of the Sister country. It will be seen how sorry a figure
the Tory malignants made, and how signally they failed in
establishing any charge that detracts from the distinguished
merit of the services which the popular Viceroy, under the
MELBOURNE Administration, has not only rendered to Ire-
land, but to the United Kingdom at large.
No opposition was offered to the production of the Re-
turns moved for.

......_ ........._ ..,..
In the House of Commons the business was of a routine
character and almost wholly without political interest.

That distinguished pink of the Tory Peerage, the
Marquis of WESTMEATH, entertained the House of
Lords last night with the exhibition of his puny and
impotent opposition to the policy of the present bene-
volent and popular Chief-Governor of Ireland. The
chivalrous attack of Tom Thumb on the great toe of the
giant displayed not half the heroism—half the reckless
disregard of overwhelming odds in the encounter—ma-
nifested by the Noble Marquis in entering the lists
against the Earl of MuLGRAvE, supported only by
two such politically dwarfish bottle-holders as RODEN
and GLENGALL. The trumpery charges preferred
against the Noble Earl's Government by the represen-
tatives of the Irish Orange faction" are in truth so
many evidences of the liberality, justice, and clemency
of his administration. The Marquis of WESTMEATH
in a long, rambling speech, which Lord BROUGHAM
described as a diatribe, " entering on every topic of

_

,\1774

4-y

give the Noble Marquis's observations in continua
tion. They unmask the man and the faction repre
sented by him :
" The Noble Earl laughed, did he ? Let him recollec
that he had introduced as a guest within the walls of tha
castle a man who had been convicted of a most serious offence
against the laws, although for that offence he had not been
punished. Let him recollect that he had introduced a man
who had calumniated and reviled members of the family of the
Sovereign of these realms. Let him recollect that he had in-
troduced a man who, by his expertness and chicanery, had in-
vented a system to ritter away all the boasted security of the
Reform Bill, and bad appropriated, by shameful practices,
one-third of the representation of Ireland to himself.—( A
laugh from Earl Mulgrave.) Was the Noble Earl still
amused ? Could he deny it? He (the Marquis of West-
meath) defied him to do so; but be would tell that Noble
Earl further, that, in his opinion, so long as that man re-
mained with his head on his shoulders, all those individuals
who perished in 98 were murdered. That was his sincere
opinion, and he was not to be deterred by the amusement which
it afforded to the Noble Earl and those on that side of the
House from stating fearlessly his opinion.",
Contempt for the opinions of the Noble Marquis
alone must have prevented their Lordships from de-
nouncing the gross irregularity of thus incidentally, but
directly, permittting a charge of high treason to lie
made against a Member of the other House of Par-
liament. The Marquis of WESTMEATH has here
dared to place Mr. O'CONNELL on a level with con-
victed traitors—with criminals whose lives have been
forfeited to the offended laws of their country. He
even declares the death of the Hon. and Learned
Gentleman to be necessary to sanctify the previous
operation of the Irish law of high treason. Now it
was disgraceful on the part of their Lordships—if
indeed they were not silent from contempt—to suffer
such language to be addressed to them by any Mem-
ber of their body. But charity and common sense
point to a contempt for the opinions of the Noble
Marquis as the legitimate inference to be drawn from
their Lordships' toleration of such rabid buffoonery.
Earl MULGRAVE found no difficulty in defending
his administration of the Government of Ireland. He
at once referred his calumniators to the tranquil state
of that country ; and rested his defence on the im-
proved condition of the inhabitants, and his uniform
practice of being guided in the exercise of the Royal
prerogative of mercy by the recommendation of the
Judges and other great officers of the Crown. The
action of a galvanic battery would not have operated
more spasmodically on tile nervous system of the Earl
of RODEN than (lid Lord MULGRAVE'S reference to
the tranquil state of Ireland. It was probing the
Orange ulcer to the bottom. Accordingly, the instant
the Noble Earl got on his legs, he thought it incum-
bent on him to account to their Lordships for such an
unparalleled political phenomenon as the tranquillity
of Ireland. His mode of doing so was certainly not
felicitous. " The Noble Earl," said he, " has talked
of the tranquillity of Ireland, but how is that tranquil-
lity preserved ? The law is not put in force ! Tithes
are not paid !" Was there ever such an admission
of the monstrosity of laws—of the accursed operation
of a tithe system ? Never, certainly, within the me-
mory of man. We have heard many reasons in support
of the necessity of enforcing laws, but never before did
we hear it urged as a reason for maintaining their exe-
cution that tranquillity would result from allowing them
to fall into abeyance. And then that " blood-stained
impost" too, has, by its non-collection, tended to the
present unprecedented pacification of Ireland. This is
indeed dreadful ! But thanks to Earl RODEN, we are
now happily possessed of the secret by means of which
we can always fill Ireland with crime, bloodshed, and
violence. We need only insist on the maintenance of
the existing laws—there must be no reforms, remember
—enforce the collection of tithes, and there will be no
falling-off in the annual harvests of sedition, blood and
murder. Sectarian hatreds will flourish, and feuds
multiply in constitutional accordance with the prece-
idents established by our ancestors for the Government
of the Irish Papists.
Perhaps one of the objections most characteristic of
the Tory faction taken to the Government of Lord
MULGRAVE, was that wherein the Earl of RODEN
denounced the specification of the creed and faction of
criminals in the Lord Lieutenant's proclamations for
their apprehension. By proclaiming the faction of
the criminals the Lord Lieutenant had deprived the
Exeter Hall saints of hundreds of opportunities of
traducing the religion of the Catholics, by making
over to them the gross amount of the Irish
gaol returns, and particularly of proving, after the
fashion of Donna INEz, the analogy between fratri-
cide and auricular confession. But as the Lord Lieu-
tenant—very inconsiderately we presume to think—has
promised to depart from his wonted practice in this
particular, we shall soon again hear the Tory calum-
nious and lying association of crime and Catholicism.
Earl MULGRAVE may well continue to laugh at
the virulence of the faction from whose blood-
stained oppression he has happily relieved seven
millions of her MAJESTY'S subjects. Ireland
is truly grateful to him, and her blessings will give
immortality to the memory of his wise, just, and bene-
volent administration. He has served a people who
know how to appreciate his services—who cannot, if
they would, forget them—and he has established for
his SOVEREIGN a Throne in the hearts of her Irish
subjects. In a word, Earl MULGRAVE has realized
the hopes of the friends—the fears of the enemies—of
Ireland.

There is no Statesman of the present day who
ranks higher in the estimation of the intelligent por-
tion of the community, than Lord DURHAM. He is
an intrepid, unflinching Reformer, but within the
limits of the Constitution : ambitious, but with a ge-
nerous purpo3e in his ambition—namely, to be distin-
guished amour, his countrymen as the advocate of their
interests through good report, and through evil report.
Many eventful years have rolled away since his Lord-
ship first entered the political arena ; the hand of grief
has pressed heavily on him, and lie has seen those
go before him to the tomb who—in the ordinary
course of Nature—should have been his sur-
vivors ; but neither age nor affliction have had
power to diminish his ardent zeal for Reform.
Acting always from principle, and not impulse—
guided to his conclusions by sober thought and atten-