The Sun.
London, England, 1837-09-27 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1837.

tomb he this for rinon:
people of Ireland did everytl,:;;g, and who in return
did nothing for the people—a man who could have
done more for his country than any other man, but
chose rather to do everything for himself—a man who,
with the words of patriotism ever in his mouth,
found his countrymen barbarous and wretched, and at
the end of a long and (to himself) successful career
left them as he found them." We have no hesitation
in saying that to the honest and benevolent politician,
who would fairly estimate Mr. O'Connell's character,
nothing more is necessary than a knowledge of the
state of the Romish people of Ireland thirty years
ago—a knowledge of the power which Mr. O'Connell
has possessed since that time—and a knowledge of the
state of the Romish people of Ireland now. ;These
facts carry with them the condemnation of Mr.
O'Connell. He has thrown away the most glo-
rious opportunities of real practical patriotism that
ever were possessed by any man in modern times.
He might have greatly added to the happiness of
millions—he has preferred to add to the political
power of his party, and to advance his own interests.
We know it will be said of him by political parti-
zans, who hope to share in certain advantages with
which the bulk of the people can have nothing to
do, that he found his countrymen slaves and left
them free. This may be a fine sentence for the
rostrum, but it is worth nothing beyond the temporary
tickling of the ears. The truth is that when Mr.
O'Connell began his career the mass of the Romish
people in Ireland were slaves, and they are so still.
Their slavery was not, and is not, a slavery to British
dominion, though hitherto they have been taught to
think so. The Romish Priesthood are their masters,
and most cruel and despotic masters they are. True,
they act the part of friends of the people ; they are
with them in their hours of anguish as well as of fes-
tivity, and their hearts, doubtless, participate in the
joys and the sorrows of those among whom they are
placed. But they are, nevertheless, the agents in a
system of the most relentless despotism, and they
know it. They devote themselves to the people, but
they exact in return absolute obedience. They win
the people to look upon them as friends, but they
force them also to acknowledge them as masters.
We showed yesterday how fruitless were the efforts
of Government to better the condition of the people
by wholesome laws while this continually present and
continually active power of the priesthood interfered
between those laws and the people on whom they were
intended to operate. But what in this respect the
British Government could not do, such a man as Mr.
O'Connell might have done, had he been so minded.
He might have pierced through the dark fence of this
domestic Government, or he might have reformed it.
He might have taught the people to respect them-
selves, and to be ashamed of living in barbarism and
squalid wretchedness. He might have directed the
ambition of his sensitive countrymen to real substan-
tial improvement—to the elevation of decency, and the
comforts of cleanliness ; but, notwithstanding the fer-
vour of his patriotism, he had something else to look
after more important in his eyes. He desired to become
a great man in political affairs, and to that were all his
energies directed, while his countrymen continued
to be the most barbarous peasantry of all Europe,
and were kept so, in defiance of a Government
which wanted to make them a civilized and respect-
Ethic people. It has been recently stated by a writer
in the Dublin University Magazine, evidently as much
above ordinary men in his historical information as in
his power of conveying it to others, that '6 Romanism
in Ireland is not a religion but a policy, and is no
more entitled to the respect and forbearance which a
purely spiritual system, however erroneous, might rea-
sonably claim than the ruin once consecrated by holy
worship, and which has become a receptacle for rob-
hers, is entitled to the reverence with which, when first
dedicated to the service of God, it may have been
not unfittingly honoured." This Romanism it is,
which alone—besides his own personal advancement—
Mr. O'Connell has considered. This policy he has
alone pursued, abandoning the people, as wholly un-
worthy of notice, except as they may be made the vic-
tims of " tribute" or the voters for his party. This
every true friend of Ireland knows, and therefore looks
with alarm and disgust upon the ascendancy of Mr.
O'Connell in the Irish Government.—Morning Post.

We are happy to announce that Dr. Andrew Smith
has just obtained from the Government a grant of the
money to enable him to publish the whole of the zoological
drawings made during the late expedition into Africa. A
grant for a similar purpose has also been made to Charles
Darwin, Esq., who brought to this country, after the voy-
age in the surveying ship Beagle, such an immense addi-
tion of species in differed branches of zoology.
A melancholy accident occurred on Thursday night,
during the disembarkation of the 81st depot, under the
command of Major Willcocks, K.H., on the beach at Skin-
burness, being on their passage from Dublin to Carlisle, by
the Messenger, Government steamer. A boat, containing
three officers and fifteen soldiers, returning from fatigue
duty in landing the baggage, was carried by the strength
of the current under one of the paddle-wheels, and almost
instantly upset, the paddles being then in motion from the
violence of the stream. One officer and several of the sol-
diers, with part of the boat's crew, clung to the wheel, and
after some delay the people on board succeeded in stopping
the wheel by handspikes, and rescuing them. Another
officer was picked up in passing the side of the vessel by a
brother officer on board. But we regret to state that the
third (Captain John Gilby) sank almost immediately after
having passed the stern of the vessel, being unable to swim,
and encumbered at the time with a cloak and sword. His
body has not yet been found. The rest of the men and one
of the boat's crew were picked up nearly a mile astern, by
means of one of the boats sent from the vessel.—Carlisle
Journal.
The Eglantine,New York paper, has the following:
—The ostrich uses both legs and wings when the Arabian
courser presses on its rear ; as the winged lightnings leap
from the heavens when the Eternal has unbound their
bolts—so does a little nigger run like the devil when a big
dog is after him.