The Sun.
London, England, 1837-09-04 00:00:00

as it does now, the last five .and-thirty men, the
O'Connell band, " the exclusively Irish majority," as
one of their own vaunting journals has described
them, are the masters of the House of Commons, and
but for the Pters, would be the masters of the country
and of the Church. just as practically and ( frectually
as the last five-and-thirty men at the borough election
are the masters of the return for the tos%n. With no-
table sophistry it is answered, " that the whole power
of the assembly " might equally well be said to be en-
grossed by the Speaker, because on him devolves to
tzive a casting vote." Most truly, if the House were
so exactly bal:inced that on almost cvery important
di.6ision it devolved on the Speaker to give a casting
vote, he might, without impropriety, be described as
the person -in whose hands the whole power of the
assembly reposed ; and this is precisely the state
-of things with respect to the O'Connell party. There
arc so many important questions on which the House.
is almost equally divided, that the occasions for their
casting votes are perpetual. We arc charged with
having " forgotten tlsvt Mr. O'Connell's power de-
pends entirely •on the state of parties ;'' but so far from
having forgotten this, we make it the very groundwork
of our argument. If parties were not in their present
state of near equilibrium, Mr. O'Connell's nomina-
tion of :35 neembers, though equally unconstitutional
in principle, would be of comparatively little danger
in practice. It is precisely the present state of parties
which creates the danger. But this state of parties,
especially upon the greatest questions, those of the
Church, has itself been mainly caused by the exis-
tence of these numerous nominees. The Whigs, pio-
perly so called, had no natural enmity to the Pro-
estant establishment ; they even professed some

attachment to it : and there is no reason to sup
pose that they would have violated those pro
fessions, unless for their interest. But from a
powerful majority in the Parliament of Lord Grey,
they had become in the Parliament of Sir Robert
Peel a minority numbering only about 200. Even
the aid of the English Radicals, who mustered about
100 more, was insufficient to make them quite a
match for the Conservatives ; and the corps of
about 40 under the command of Mr. O'Connell
was indispensable to their recovery of office. The con-
dition on which alone that corps could be secured was
the overthrow of the Established Church. The English
and Scotch Radicals were eager for the object :
the Whigs, if they would but commit this trifling
act of apostasy, would possess, with the English and"
Scotch Radicals, a force of at least three hundred
members ; and Mr. O'Connell's forty, at last ac-
ceding, would enable them effectually to outnum-
ber the Conservatives. This was the principle of
the famous treaty or compact alliance concluded
at Lichfield-house. The Whigs, to secure Air.
O'Connell's forty, declared with the Radicals against
the establishment, thus at once making up the anti-
church party to a nearly equal .balance against the
Conservatives ; and then the forty O'Connellites,
performing their part of the stipulation, joined
the Whig-Radical forces and turned the scale in
their favour. We say, therefore, not only that
Mr. O'Connell's nomination corps have .by their
casting votes decided between the two almost equi-
pondious parties, who are for, and against the
Church, but that the expectation of obtaining the
aid of that nomination corps having been the motive
which carried the Whigs into the anti-church party,
the band of nominees has wrought a double evil—first,
in constituting the inducement which brought the num-
bers to a balance, and, secondly, in turning that ba-
lance by their casting votes. Under the old Constitu-
tion the nomination boroughs were very much divided.
If the Tory aristocracy possessed part of them, the
other part belonged to the aristocracy of the Whigs,
so that the whole force of nomination, instead of being
-brought to bear against one point, was distributed in
a manner which pretty nearly neutralised its ill effects;
besides which, no one man possessed the power of no-
minating to 40, or even a quarter of 40, seats in the
of Commons. But now we have a nomination
power of almost 40 seats, all wielded by one man—
all brought to bear against one point—and .that
one point the Protestant Church of the United King-
dom. The evils of nomination presented them-
selves, in very strong colours, to the view of the
public in 1832—but we are quite sure they never
received such an illustration under the old system,
as Mr. O'Connell has thrown upon them, in the
reformed Parliament. The Conservatives are charged
with no little incongruity in the different views which
they take of the O'Connell party at different times. If
this Irish cohort is described one day as riding the
Government, and another day as overcomplacent to
the Ministers, both accusations, it is argued, cannot
be true. Why not ? There is no inconsistency in
them. The Irish cobort, for the purposes of their own
confederacy—for the real monopoly of patronage, and
the ostensible advancement of the objects by which
Irish excitement is kept alive—do notoriously ride the
Government, and ride them hard. But when the
Government is pressed from any other quarter, whether
by Conservatives or Radicals—when circumstances
arise that threaten to curtail the career of their pro-
viders—then, like a witch's familiars, they lend them-
selves for any service of the moment, and act as
menials where in truth they are masters. Both impu-
tations, therefore, are true ; and their truth is the
Nation's mischief and the Government's dishonour.—
circu- Times.

It is supposed by that august authority the Times,
that the visit of his Majesty of Belgium has no refe-
rence to any proposals nor negotiations affecting the
personal happiness of our young and interesting
Queen, and that his Majesty will see the propriety of
withholding his interference, as well in regard to spe-
cific questions of policy as in reference to the persons
who ought or ought not to he entrusted with the go-
vernment of the country. Admitting these supposi-
tions to be correct, and also, as is stated by the same
veracious oracle, that the presence of King Leopold is
likely to prove of essential service both to the Queen
and the country, and that he will direct her Majesty's
attention to the state of public feeling throughout her
dominions, and suggest important lessons for her quid
mice, we should be disposed to augur favourably
of the visit, notwithstanding the experience which
teaches us to apprehend evil whenever and wherever
the Tories express satisfaction or apply approbation.
It is rather singular that the Tories should evince so
much gratification at the Queen of England receiving
counsel from one who is King by the grace of a revo-
lution, and on whose mind the circumstances of his
own elevation must have indelibly impressed the im-
portant fact, that the will of an enlightened people
must ever prove paramount to all other authority. Why
the Tories, - who are madly contending against this
authority, should recommend the Monarch of its
creation as the adviser of her Majesty, we are at a loss
to conjecture. They cannot surely be so insensate as
to suppose that because Leopold is the son-in-law of
Louis Philippe, he must necessarily have adopted the
anti-popular principles of this ingrate parricide, the
assassin of the Liberty which adopted him as his fos-
ter-child. Or if so, can they imagine that a man
with the cool discernment and calculating judgment of
the King of Belgium would recommend in Great Bri-
tain and Ireland tire adoption of a policy similar to
that which dismembered the empire of his predecessor,
whom an oppressed and insulted people banished from
the throne which he now occupies, or that ha would
sugegest such an invasion of popular rights, and be-
trayal- of public confidence as made France doubt
whether the assassination of her King were a crime or
the contrary is That the Tories are perfectly ready to
hazard stu:lt dangerous experiments as these rather
than acquiesce in the just claims of the people, the
tyrannical and truculent tenour of their ianguage in
Parliament, in the press, and at their publiemeetings,
can leave no doubt : but we are much deceived if the
advice which her Majesty rnay reeaive from her Royal
relative will not be oft far different character, and such as
will furnish the Tories but a meagre subject for congra-
tulation. Had the King of Belgium even less shrewdness
and judgment than the Time; gives him credit fur, he
could not fail to peer-sive that the present is not a time
to trifle with the feelings of &b 13ritish people. He
must see, and seeing will scarcely fail to urge most ear-
newly Gcl her Majesty's consideration, thitt Ireiande-,
seve.in its presa,a popular Administration—presents a
strilang parallel to fieighiuies eviou
4 sly to its separa-
tion from Holland ; and that seven millions a people,
having in their favour the sympathies of all that is