The Sun.
London, England, 1839-04-09 00:00:00

House of Commons will cordially confirm the prin-
ciples on which Lord NORMANEY acted.
No intimation was given by Sir ROBERT PEEL,
who was prespt, of the course the Tories mean to
pursue, and, as it will be known in a day or two,
conjecture on our part would be worthless. We
know from their several organs that they mean to
make a great fight on the 15th ; they have sum-
moned all their forces to the field, and any defec-
tion in the ranks of the Ministers will give them
the victory.
After the vote in the Lords, the present, or
some similar course, was forced on the Ministers.
Are those who forced it on them worthy of praise ?
It the Legislature be the temple of faction, yes—
not otherwise. Into the grievances of the manu-
facturers the Parliment could not inquire, but it
has unlimited time to waste on the merest trash of
party disputes. Our country is groaning under a
vast mass of crude and mischievous legislation ; its
population are discontented to the very core, the
remedies of grievances are much in arrear ; and un-
der such circumstances all public business is post-
poned or slurred over, because Lord RODEN has
a quarrel with Lord NortmANBY. To overturn the
present Administration is the single object of the
Tories, and to that they sacrifice the public interests.
The great complaint of Lord RoDEN was, that
Protestant life and Protestant property are not safe
in Ireland. How should they be ? Who can ra-
tionally expect them to be safe ? For two hundred
years have the Protestant owners of the soil vexed,
harrassed, and oppressed the Catholics. Even yet
they do not cease from their oppression, as the
Church of Ireland, and the continued complaints we
hear of clearing the people off the land, testify.
Can they expect that the laws of human na-
ture should be suspended for their behoof ?
Do they so firmly believe themselves to be the
chosen children of GOD, that they count
on a succession of miracles to save them:from the
effects of their own misconduct ? They ought to
have exterminated the Catholics ; to insult and op-
press them, and allow them to increase in numbers,
was equally unjust and contemptible policy. F©r
ages have Lord RODEN and his party injured the
Irish Catholics, and do they expect that ven-
geance will never overtake them ? The true secret
of all his complaints, and of all the complaints of
the stupid, unjust bigotry of the Orange party, is to
be found in the one fact, that the Catholics, by the
very force of their numbers, are getting the upper
hand ; and Lord RODEN and his friends, con-
science-struck, dread the vengeance of those per-
sons they have injured. As yet the Catholics
have behaved, consider:ng their present power
and their past grievances, remarkably well ;
but what they may be driven to if the exter-
minating Protestant Lords should be armed with
the power of Government, we shudder to think of.
We know, however, in the present temper of the
working population of England—the kernel of the
ariny---that it will not be safe for England to act on
the principles of Lord RODEN.
In Ireland there is a small band of Protestant
oppressors scattered amongst ten times the number
of Catholics. The Protestants complain of the
Government because they are not as safe as the gen-
tlemen of England, who live amongst their friends
and men of their own faith. They condemn the Go-
vernment because it cannot protect, as Lord It ()-
DEN says, a Lord NORBURY, and a score or two of
other gentlemen, from the Ribbonmen's bullets. But
is not this asking and expecting too much from
any Government? Is it not a mere idle fancy of
the Noble Lord to suppose that any Government,
however vigilant, however stern, however unsparing,
can protect life and property in such a situation?
How can it make the people, all of whom are com-
bined by a common and well-grounded sentiment of
hatred against their Protestant oppressors, which is
carefully nourished by the priests of both Churches,
give evidence against one another ? The thing is
impossible—the attempt is hopeless, and the Lords
t sae%c,x.
aspne
ocdft
human ito
m ap,
iuyr s
nt
gau
sr
bu
u‘r,te h t ciiclhhe i
ymh ecaravane.
omtGardoe Fehrr nas
the
eno
e
tred and a desire of vengeance tliitjeuints:ceeparabllfe
companions and correctors-
as Lord RODEN fancies and says,lthse' G.overn-
ment could give more protection in former times,
which is, however, very doubtful, let it be remem-
bered that the Catholics were then fewer, and
weaker than they are now, and the Government
was stronger and its authority unquestioned. When
the Duke of WELLINGTON consented to emanci-
pation, he overthrew its power. Now the number
of the Catholics, and their moral force, make it
impossible to govern Ireland in opposition to them,
and they can no longer be oppressed. If Lord
RODEN were to change the Ministry he could not
change the condition of Ireland ; but he would
exasperate all its difficulties, and, restoring a
t3:ralny, lie would probably compel the Irish to
revolt.i

The Number of the " London and Westminster
Review" just published, contains a long dissertation
on the reorganization of the Reform party. The
object is very desirable, the means of accomplishing
it by no means easy. The party, if there be such a
one, which we beg leave to doubt—which holds fast
to institutions--have in them a material rallying
point, which their opponents want. It is the ne-
cessary consequence of proposing reforms ur altera-
tions, that every man has his own peculiar views. The
moment you give up the Constitution, like giving
up the infallability of the Pope, you open as
wide a door to dissent in politics as in religion.
What is there, or what can there be, in the schemes
of any Reformer to command the respect or obe-
dience of other men ? They have no authority
They may be wise, skilfully combined, easy of exe-
cution ; still there is no means of gaining power
for them over the ignorant, the self-willed, the pre-
sumptuous. Hence there seems to us to be almost
an inherent impossibility of combining all Re-
formers to seek the same end. Circumstances may,
however, effect that, though reason cannot. ' If we
had a Government which alarmed our fears, or was
guilty of some great oppression, a general enthu-
siasm might arise ; but all attempts to write Re-
formers into union are, we are afraid, quite hopeless.
Since the period, too, when the Reform party
was united, there has been no inconsiderable expe-
rience of the inefficiency of Reform. Its promises
t.o the people were great, its performances very
That gives no countenance to renewed
exertions. " The effective political strength of the
lweoaopsrkteing.classes is," the Reviewer admits, " not the
pvi.hrtatoe
fvetrhe.fßabdelena,,l body." Now we see no
able
ntso
_uni.te that body
which the middle classesny are°
in the pursuit of at'
litkietuivtiotnoalathr,oecroartme
They look on themselves as cruelly deceived.
They think the middle classes sacrificed them ; they
are now in opposition to the middle classes, who
appear as enemies to them, as they are generally
the media by which, through the price of com-
modities, the Government taxes are levied and
they are embittered beyond the hope of any recon-
ciliation, unless some great and pressing danger
should cement them together Thus, what with
conflicting interest amongst the classes whom the
Reviewer speaks of as the Radical Reformers, and
what with each Reformer following his own
crotchets, which is common to Journalists as well
as other persons, we see no hope, we confess, that
the object of the Reviewer can be
accomplished.
.
But we have said that we do not think there is
any great party attached to our institutions, pre-
cisely as they exist ; and herein consists our hopes
A few Peers, a few of the upper Clergy wish, we
believe, for no changes, and dread the fanatics of their
own party quite as much as they dread the Radicals. It
is clear that all the Orangemen, all the ultra-Church-
men, all the O'SULLIVANs and the NPGHEEs,
all the PUSEYs, and the PIIILPOTTs, all the
GEADSTONEs, and the JACKsONs, in Parliament
and out of Parliament, are not content with things
as they
want
They want to carry back the laws,—
r
they wte. to Evangelize or Catholicise the Church
t
—they want more Scripture education for the
people, more churches, more pa sons, or a more
efficient police, and are as desirous of change as
the Radicals, though in a different direction. If
we had really no persons to combat but those " who
are contented with their position," few would be our
opponents, and easily would they be discomfited.
There is not one of the Conservatives who dares
affirm that nothing in the State requires
alteration. The Clergy want to revive the Con-
vocation ; the ultra-Tortes to re-enact the penal
laws. Now these divisions amongst the Conser-
vatives—the real bond of union between them is

small.

merely the expectation of place and profit—being,
we apprehend, as ,-,-reat nearly as the division
amongsa Reformers, are the sources of our hopcs-
At least it is a consolation to us, if we