The Sun.
London, England, 1837-04-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF TIIE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

One of the oldest stratagems of the Orange faction
in Ireland has been to concoct illegal confederacies and
secret societies, under the pretence of redressing wrongs,
and regulating rent and the price of wages. The plan
has been invariably to commission some miscreant to
go through the country in order to entrap the unwary
peasantry ; and then, when the victims have been
clutched, to deliver them up to the Government. This
perfidious functionary of the Orange Lodges is uni-
versally styled " a Paddy M'Kew, '7 a villa in of that
name having been detected some years ago in his prac-
tices, and, we believe, transported, to the great a:nnoy-
ance, it has been believed, of the Castle folks in that
day. Since Mr. O'Connell became a public character
the denunciations of these "Paddy M'Kews." has been
a perpetual topic in his speeches. He hardly ever spoke
in the Catholic Association without admonishing the
peasantry against falling into the traps of these Orange
emissaries. Formerly it was une of the prominent duties
of the " Catholic churchwardens" to look after these
flagitious missionaries of sedition : now that duty de-
volves upon the " pacificators." And that these do
not neglect their orders from the General Association
has been established by the prosecution and convic-
tion of an Orange " Paddy M'Kew" at the late as-
:sizes of Kilkenny, the particulars of whose case have
already been stated in this journal. But it appears,
from a speech delivered by Mr. O'Connell at a late
meeting of the Trades' Union in Dublin, that in the
very capital—under the very walls of the Castle—the
nefarious system of corrupting the artisans has been
carried to an alarming extent. Mr. O'Connell says
the plot has been hatched in Manchester—a very
probable statement. Manchester being full of Irish
la),ourers, and, apparently, free from Orangism, there
could not be selected a spot better suited to the purposes
of the Orange party. If the conspiracy originated in
Dublin, or Belfast, or Cork, the Irish peasantry might
suspect a plot; but its English aspect was admirably cal-
culated to throw them off their guard, and lure them into
the toils of their inveterate foes. The exposure of the arti-
fice by Mr. O'Connell will, however, defeat its contrivers.
Is it for this that the Standard storms so furiously
against the Hon. and Learned Gentleman ? Our Con-
temporary calls lustily, we perceive, for a committee of
inquiry on the subject. This call sounds very simple,
but it may be very dexterous for all that. The anec-
dote of the burglar is familiar to the public. It is not
• the innocent alone that always shout " Stop thief."
The guilty oftentimes deem it a choice mode of
cushioning investigation to cry aloud for inquiry. But
this, though an " ingenious device" (the Standard's
pet, the Rev. Robert M'Ghee, will explain this
phrase), is grown rather old for the present generation.
There have been too many instances of Orange Paddy
IVl'Kewisin in Ireland within the last twenty years to
leave a doubt upon the British mind that Mr. O'Con-
nell's denunciation of that faction is unmerited. We
hope the Hon. and Learned Member for Kilkenny will
exert his great influence with his country men in track-
ing the perjured conspirators to their den. The detec-
tion of their suborners would confer much benefit upon
the country.—Morning Chronicle.
On Friday we laid before our readers an interesting
account of the proceedings of the General Association
of Ireland. On Saturday we had the pleasure of
publishing a report of a meeting of the Dublin Trades'
Political Union, whereat subjects of still more ex-
citing interest and importance were brought under
consideration. As the topics discussed at the first
meeting were for the most part included, and more
fully debated, in the discussion which subsequently
took place at the Trades' Union, we shall proceed to
the consideration of the proceedings reported in cur
paper of Saturday, merely observing that the promi-
nent position given to Dr. Wade by Mr. O'Connell
in the deliberations of the General Association is not,
at least in this country, much calculated to enhance
• their attraction, as the English public expect some-
, thing more important from a body presiding, as it
were, over the destinies of the Irish people, than un-
neceszary explanations of opinions to which no in-
terest attaches. Mr. O'Connell brought three sub-
jects—each of the. highest interest—under the con-
sideration of the Union ; first, the propriety of
presenting an Address to the Princess Victoria
on attaining her majority ; secondly, the neces-
sity of suppressing the Secret Societies into which the
;tired emissaries of Tory Orangemen, are endea-

souring to betray the people ; and, thirdly, the .in-
applicability of the proposed measure of Poor Laws
for Ireland. With retard to the Address to the
heiress presumptive, no proceeding could be better de-
vised to refute the calumny which the Tories delinlit
to reiterate against the affection and loyalty of the
Irish people to the Sovereign of these realms. We
confidently expect that the number and respectability
of the si,liatures attached to this Address, will exceed
those which have ever been attached to any address,
on any occasion, presented from that country. The
object of the Address is one in which, with the excep-
tion of those rancorous and rebellious Orangemen who
conspired to break the line of succession, in favour
of one whose name is seldom tittered but with disgust
and horror, there is not an individual in Ireland who
will not exult to record his approbation. It is truly
gratifying to perceive Ireland thus daily putting her
enemies more and more in the wrong. To a wise
Sovereign, their struggles for the recovery of their
rights, should be a soureu of pleasure and not of un-
easiness, for—
l• The tribute most dear to the head that is royal
Must be paid by the heart that loves liberty too."
The atrocious attempt to inveigle the Irish people
into secret societies, in order to deliver them to legal
or military execution, has been so often repeated and
exposed, that we are surprised it should he. persevered
in, or that any persons should be found in the country
so unsuspicious of Orange villainy as to become the
dupes of such diabolical designs. As will be seen in
the speech of Mr. O'Connell, amongst other instances
wherein the origin of these secret associations have
been traced to Orange agency, during the existence
of the Catholic Association, when its power was at-
taining its meridian—a meridian which experienced no
doclinc but by an act of self-devotion sunk when its
rurpose was accomplished—when its light had indi-
cated to the Irish people the pathway to freedom—an
incendiary was sent by the Orange Society into Ar-
magh, where he succeeded in enrolling twelve persons
into a secret society in the morning, and had them
all, for the very act to which he trepanned them,
lodged in the county gaol before night. To the ob-
servations of Mr. O'Connell on the question of poor
laws for Ireland, we earnestly direct attention.
They are in every respect confirmatory of the opi-
nions unflinchingly maintained by the Morning Ad-
vertiser. A more effective speech—one more con-
vincing—one more directly going to the root of the
whole matter—we never perused. It is a syllabus of
everything that can be said upon the subject. Poor-
laws for Ireland ! Poor-laws for poor people ! In
Heaven's name, arc there not sufficient waste lands to
occupy the labouring and productive portion of the
Irish population without building them up in Poor-
houses ? Would not the construction of railroads be
a better under undertaking than the construction of
workhouses ? We hate Poor-laws in every shape ;
but along with Mr. O'Connell we hate their introduc-
tion into a country in which they have never existed, in
which the social affections prevail, and are maintained
to an extent utterly unknown in any country in which
Poor-laws exist, and where it is a matter of certainty
that they must be productive of evil instead of good.
Mr. O'Connell has had a hard task to execute in this
matter, but he has-done it nobly ; he has stood nobly
forward and single-handed against a popular mania ;
and if he ever deserved greater credit upon one occa-
sion than another, it is that of endeavouring to put
down the public clamour in favour of one of the most
absurd measures that ever was presented for the consi-
deration of the Legislature.—Morning Advertiser.
Lord Palmerston's maid-qf-all-tvork has sallied forth
in her best bib and tucker to scratch us for demolish-
ing the " imaginary surplus" calculation of the incom-
parable financial conjuror of the Melbourne Ministry,
who has discovered the truly Hibernian mode of com-
pensating the lessees of house property held under the
Church, for the loss of their tenant-right of renewal,
by allowing them to purchase the fee-simple of the
property at 25 years' purchase, which, if they sold it
the next day, would produce no more than 15 or 16
years' purchase. Of all the blunders that the inventor

~1,

.
of the " superficial-inch-of-k tiooAedge " plan ever i
made, this is the most ridiculot rs. The Globe puts to :
us this question :---" Does ou r toontemporary imagine
that the 16 years' purchase, wh jell is the present value
of the intferest of a lessee, woulc l represent that interest
when it was, made certain, inste ad of being, as at pre-
sent, derrendent upon the r aprice of the body
under which he holds ?" 1 Vhere a Government
silo*" itself ignorant of the most elemental know-
ledge, as the present Govern merit in almost every
one of its measures shows i .tself to be, we can-
', not be surprised at the deploi mble ignorance of any
its underlings. Yet we could hardly have supposed
that Palmerston's maid of all -work was ignorant of
what is meant by the fee-sinus k of property, had she
not herself ostentatiously pro( laimed it. We have
said, and since we first said st 1, our opinion has been
confirmed by that of Mr. Morgan, the actuary,
quoted by Sir Robert Peel, th it while the fee-simple
of landed property is worth thirty years' purchase,
that of house property, because its perishable nature,
is not worth more than sixte en. Mr. Spring Rice
proposes that all lessees of Church property, both
land and houses, shall be allc 'wed as a compensation
for the loss of the tenant-right • . of renewal to purchase
the fee-simple of the propert y which they now have
on lease—in other words, to . purchase the perpetual
ownership of what they now , h
would, indeed, allow a
1 cold on renewable leases,
at '25 years' purchase, svh,ic
compensation of five yea.s purchase to the lessees of
the us
e a loss of at least nine
landed property, but ca
years' purchase to lessees of house property.
-
A, or it can have no meaning
in
nhteh
eGglioi
question
i es seems mwhich
tihit e
puts, that that the fee-simple
..under the Church can be pur-
chasedot the
eh ous
price house t
presentisnow
property
'sixteen years' purchase, but that
ress then -it would be, because of
:fee being dependent upon the ca-
the purchaser-in
price of the 'tpody under whom he holds ! 0
rare public i'xitructress ; who does not know that he
who has tls,e fee-simple of property, does not hold at
anybody' s caprice, having the highest estate that the
law ea-or give ? We must also inform the Globe that
the fee-simple_of house property held under the Church
de,es not at present fetch sixteen years' purchase, be-
-cause the law does not allow the fee-simple of such
property to be sold. We can ascertain what price the
fee of that property would bring, supposing the Le-
gislature allowed it to be alienated from the Church,
by knowing the value of other house property not held
under the Church, and of whieh the fee may be pur-
chased. We repeat that Mr. Spring Rice has made
one of the grossest blunders that any man, pretending
to be qualified for a financial station, ever committed,
by confounding real property with house property, in
the case of Church lessees, and supposing that he
gave a boon to the latter as well as to the former, by
allowing them to purchase the fee-simple at 25 years'
purchase. We defy all the financial conjurers that the
Government can set in array against us to show that the
compensation offered by the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer to the lessees of house property, held under the
Church, would not be equivalent to the loss of nine, or
perhaps ten years' purchase. If this be not a proof
of the profound ignorance of the Chancellor of
the Exchequer it is a specimen of the most audacious
attempt at thimble-rig deception in financial arithmetic
that was ever yet practised. The 170 house-lessees
of the diocese of Winchester, who have petitioned
Parliament against the Church-robbery scheme, have
not only borne out our statement, but repeated in other
language the very arguments which we had used to
prove the absurdity and injustice of the measure. In
regard to capitular property, we have stated the fact of
the excellent charity of the Grey Coat School, which
holds land under the Dean and Chapter of West-
minster, having petitioned against the Church spolia-
tion scheme, setting forth in their petition that the
Dean and Chapter return fines payable by the charity
on renewal, averaging between 400/. and 500/. a-year,
only requiring as an equivalent to have the right of
presenting 10 poor children on the foundation. We
have referred to another petition from St. Margaret's
hospital, stating that the Dean and Chapter of West-
minster return as a charitable contribution the moiety
of the fines. We gave those facts as proofs of the li-
berality and indulgence of the Church to its tenants.
They are but a few out of many.—Morning Herald.
The House of Commons re-assemble this evening,
and the masquerade of public business will re-com-
mence. For all practical purposes the House of
Commons has become a mere Court, where some
routine business connected with the affairs of the pub-
lic offices is occasionally despatched, and where a vast
quantity of local matters, such as railroads, canals, en-
closures, provisions for the poor, and so on, are
arranged. In short, a superior sort of parish business
I is that on which the Representatives of the people of
Great Britain and Ireland are engaged when they arc
doing any thing which has a result. As to great
public questions, they are indeed debated now and
then, and divisions take place ; but there the matter
ends. As respects those questions ushered in with
pomp by the Ministers, and advocated in orations of
I elaborate littleness, the House is no more than a de-
bating club. Measures are brought forward riot because
1 the circumstances of the State require their adjustment,
but because the party on which the Ministers depend
1 requires their discussion. The Ministers seem to think
I they have done their part when, in obedience to the
democratic part of the House, they have made their
I speeches and given their votes against the established
i,
1 institutions of the country They are very well satis-
-1 fied that the affair should go no further, and having
I made up their minds that, while they concede to a
majority of the House of Commons, it is extremely
proper for them to retain their places, and their con-
venient emoluments as King's Ministers, they do not
trouble themselves with any old fashioned anxiety about
effecting that which they have declared to be neces-
sary. They have a ready answer for those who hint
that their majorities in the Commons lead to nothing.
Their reply is ultra-oratorical, for it consists' altogether
in action. They have but to point to their breeches
pockets, and with a mute eloquence they convince all
gainsayers that their majorities in the House of Com-
mons does lead to something. But let us do Minis-
ters justice. They are not at all times so completely
forgetful of that which used to be considered
honourable in public servants, and necessary to the
dignity and usefulness of Government. Some-
times, when the event is still at a distance, they
do venture to say that a mere majority in the
House of Commons will not be enough. They
admit that the defeat of themselves, and the
loss of their measures, year after year, is not exactly
the thing which ought to happen to Ministers, and
they give out that they will cease to be Ministers if
such untoward events should continue to befal. But
this magnanimity is unfortunately like a certain sort of
courage, which, however abundant and lively at a dis-
tance from danger, is provokingly apt to ooze away
when about to be brought to the proof. Ministers be-
gan the present Session with a very lofty and valorous
declaration, which seemed to signify that their pride
would certainly be hurt if they should succeed no better
than usual, and they would not go on losing every-
thing but the emoluments of office. As the Session
proceeded, however, and the hope of any change for
the better faded away, the magnanimous resolution
faded also, and they have already retracted, bi throu a 1
their newspapers, all the proper pride which two
months ago they said they would be actuated by.
What then is to happen? Why this—that, disso-
lution, or no dissolution, the Ministers will hold their
Places, and receive their convenient emoluments until
the beginning of next Session of Parliament, and
that they will have accomplished absolutely nothing,
with respect to the public measures which_ they have
been holding up to the country as " vital measures"
for the last two years. If the Ministers had really
believed that these measures were of vital import-
ance to the country we are quite satisfied they would
not have taken their defeats so quietly. Their con-
victions would have given some force and animation
to their conduct. They would have exhibited some
degree of spirit in pressing for the accomplishment
of their designs, and, however unfit they might have
shown themselves on political principle for the offices
of British Government, they would not have made
the administration of that Government so utterly con-
temptible. But it is plain that they have had no
such convictions. The measures which they propose,
and call vital inemnres, are, as they well know, vital in