The Sun.
London, England, 1837-01-05 00:00:00

PPRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Mr. O'Connell has addressed a letter to Mr. Beau-
mont, in answer to that from the Hon. Member for
Northumberland to him, on the influence of religious
divisions on the condition of Ireland. Mr. O'Con-
nell declares without hesitation, that " while he lives
Ireland certainly shall not be free from salutary but
peaceful and energetic agitation—that is, until perfect
religious equality, without one particle of political,
civil, or temporal ascendancy at either or any side, is
firmly established." He next examines the various
modes of establishing that equality, and expresses his
conviction that " the peace, tranquillity, and pros-
perity of Ireland require the establishment of the vo-
luntary principle of religion." The answer wl:ich
Mr. O'Connell gives to another question put by the
Hon. Member for Northumberland, namely, " whe-
ther the sole cause of the unnatural state of Ireland
lies in this—that religion is made a point of
honour between the Protestants and the Ca-
tholics?" is not, we apprehend, strictly in ac-
cordance with the fact. He says to Mr. Beau-
mont, " You have discovered the true, the great, the

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gigantic, the all-pervading cause of the unnatural state
of Ireland. It is indeed the sole cause—for it so ex-

asperates and envenoms every other portion of misgo
vernment, that although without it our evils would be
considerable, they are rendered deadly only by the ad-
mixture of this fatal ingredient of ever-recurring reli-
gious rancour." We allow with the Hon. and
Learned Gentleman, " that the English would deserve
to be despised if they submitted to maintain in
England a gorgeous Establishment for the English
Catholics, who bear at present about the same propor-
tion to the Protestants of the Establishment in Eng-
land as the Protestants of that creed bear in Ireland to
the Catholics." We allow that this badge of inferiority
must be a constant source of exasperation to every Ca-
tholic who, believing conscientiously his religion to be
the true one, cannot conceive why the profession of
it should subject him to ignominious distinctions.
But with all the explanations given by Mr. O'Con-
nell we demur to his affirmative answer. Reli-
gion is not the sole cause of the unnatural state
of Ireland. Ireland was in a diseased state be-
fore religious diversity existed in it ; and were the
voluntary principle to be established to-morrow, Ire-
land would continue in an unnatural state for perhaps
a generation to come. One great cause of the unna-
tural state of Ireland is that the Irish were never tho-
roughly reduced to subjection to the Government of
the King of England, and consequently could not
receive the benefit of English laws. This is
well shown by Sir John Davies, whose ad-
mirable volume is almost as applicable to Ire-
land now as when it was written in the time of
King James the First. The original constitution
of society in Ireland was vicious, and the people
were in a most barbarous state when the English
obtained possession of the country. From the
imperfect nature of the conquest the English had
sufficient power to agitate and harass the coun-
try, but not sufficient to ensure legal obedience,
and the two races never amalgamated. Ages of
injustice and confiscation laid the foundation of
rooted hatred between the two races long before reli-
gion was brought into play ; but religious ascendancy
no doubt aggravated all the pre-existing evils. We
make these observations, not to impeach the conclu-
sion that Ireland never will be tranquil so long as the
Catholics see themselves branded on account of their
religion, but to prevent the disappointment which must
be experienced were it found that the voluntary princi-
ple did not put an end to the unnatural state of that
country. A number of causes concur to keep Ireland
wretched. Were there not a Protestant in the island
it would be wretched ; and were every Catholic to dis-
appear from it, it would be equally wretched. The re-
lations between landlord and tenant, arising out of the
impoverished state of the inhabitants, and their exclu-
sive dependence for subsistence on the occupation of a
piece of land, must be destroyed before an end can be
put to predial disturbances. In fact, Ireland is dis-
eased in every part of her system, and she must be
put under a course of violent medicines before she can
become convalescent. The analogy with Scotland
does not hold, because religion was the only cause of
agitation in that country, while in Ireland it is only
one cause.—Morning Chronicle.
A meeting is to be held within these few days of
the Conservative yeomen of West Kent, which we
trust will be effectually organized and numerously at-
tended. The object, of course, is to ascertain and sti-
mulate the strength of the Conservative cause in that
very interesting and important district before the meet-
ing, and with reference to what may be the consequence
of that meeting viz., the probable dissolution of
Parliament. The constituency of West Kent are far
from satisfied with Mr. Hodges, one of their Members,
Vk ho does not represent their political feelings, nor sup-
': ort those great principles which they have never lost
sight of—namely, the maintenance of the Constitu-
tion of England in Church and State—the mainte-
nance of those tried safeguards of the national free-
dom and prosperity—the immemorial institutions of
King, Lords, and Commons—and the maintenance
of the British empire in its unimpaired integrity by
the uncompromising protection of that which con-
stitutes the British stake in Ireland, including
therein Protestant liberty, Protestant property, and
the Protestant reformed religion. All the vast inte-
rests which we have here enumerated, the Kentish
yeomen are well aware, have been, and continue to be,
brought into imminent danger by those men who call
themselves Ministers of the British monarchy, but who,
in fact, are mere tenants at will to a faction of des-
perate revolutionists and republicans, without whose
condescending patronage the mock Ministry would, in
one half hour, disappear from the face of the earth.
The Kentish yeomen are too shrewd and sagacious not
to see that the Whig rump Cabinet, which commands
on all occasions the vote of Mr. Hodges, is itself com-
manded by Mr. Daniel O'Connell, whose whole life
is spent in vilifying, threatening, disturbing, and in-
juring the entire British nation. The constituency of
West Kent plainly perceive that the alliance of the
Irish Papist and English democrat revolutionists has
for its bond and principle this twofold project:-Ist. To
destroy the Protestant Church, the settlement of landed
property, and the operation of all lawful authority in
Ireland, as an essential and infallible step towards the
overthrow of Church and Monarchy within Great
Britain. 2d. Should the actual powers and recog-
nized functions of the British Constitution here contain
obstacles that cannot otherwise be surmounted, to the
scheme of placing Protestantism at the feet of Popery
in Ireland, the second part of the scheme is to begin
with this country, to raze to the ground whatever im-
pediments may exist in the present nature or form of
our political system, to the full execution of the Irish
part of the plot, to let loose the democratic and senseless
rabble by substituting a secret, and therefore irrespon-
sible, suffrage, for the fair, open, and manly method of
declaring a man's choice of his representative viva voce,
and to break down the hereditary branch of the Par-
liament, the sole guarantee we now possess for deli-
berate and long-sighted legislation, by making it the
humble creature of an undiscerning multitude. This
sacrifice of all that is best in Great Britain to what-
ever is worst in Ireland forms a grand contingent fea-
ture in the machinations of the revolutionary allies,
and it must have deeply offended the loyal constituents
of the realm, amongst whom none hold a higher or
more honourable rank than the Kentish agricultural
electors, when they found that the vote of one of
their representatives was invariably recorded in fa-
vour of a Government which held office by no
more respectable tenure than the indulgence vouch-
safed to it by such an unprincipled league. There
is now before us a recent manifesto of the scheme
of " good government" to be upheld by Mr. Da-
niel O'Connell, so far as the Church question is
concerned. It comes in the shape of a reply from the
Derrynane conspirator to the letter of Mr. Wiseacre
Beaumont, published a few days back. The Agitator
herein gives a gracious assent to the absurdities of the
obsequious north of England charlatan, touching a
certain Protestant and Popish " point of honour."
As to what is to " tranquillize Ireland," Daniel evinces
no small degree of merciless malice towards Lord John
Russell and Co., not deigning even to glance with an
eye of pity on their much-vaunted nostrum of the
" appropriation clause," but declaring roundly that
nothing will satisfy him and his accomplices in revolu-