The Sun.
London, England, 1839-04-02 00:00:00

a bloated monopolist, battening on the labours of
the people.
As the character of Ministers is public property,
so is the character of Journalists. But if the un-
redeemed pledges and dsceits of the former have
put an end almost to confidence in statesmen, the
still more astonishing pirouettes of the latter
have made men doubt whether anything stable
and honest can exist in politics. Journalists
sometimes complain of the indifference or apathy
of the public, but rational men cannot descend to
be puppets, and dance Jim CrGtv at the piping of
a Journalist, or the whistle of a Minister. The
reason why there is little or no honest enthusiasm
in the masses is, that there is none in their leaders.
The indifference, the apathy, the want of fixed at-
tachments in the people to things old, or to new in-
ventions of promise and of hope, is to be traced to
the revolutions continually performed by Statesmen
and Journalists. They know not what to love
or what to hate in politics, because they con-
tinually witness the professions and ardent pro-
testations of one day denied or laughed at the
next. In this there is something of infinite more
importance to the public than the mere character of
a Journalist. If that alone were at issue we should
never think it worth so much as a paragraph ; but
when examples of unprinciplcdness are common
amongst those on whom all eyes are continually
directed, like the fugleman of a regiment, who
are the turning points of society, the whole com-
munity becomes unprincipled too, and there is no
longer anything sure in politics for either Prince
or people to rest on. " Everything is said to be
cast loose, and nothing is fastened ;" and if this
be indicative of great coming disorders—if loose-
ness of action be sure to follow anarchy of thought
—if society be threatened by considerable danger,
from the uncertainty in which all political matters
arc involved, much of that is due to the tergiversa-
• tion of Statesmen, but still more to the impudent
apostacy of Journalists.

The success of Lord RODEN'S motion seems to
have already kindled a flame in Ireland. What it
will become when the Orangemen shall seize the
Government may be known by th&language already
used and the mectinss already announced Are
the English—are the Dissenters—arc the Scotch
Presbyterians—ready and willing to re-inflict by
force of arms the Orange tyranny on Ireland ?
Then let them petition for the Toriescordially
supi.u:t the Tories, tell their representatives to vote •
against the Ministers, and consecrate the principles
of coercion' and bigotry, by giving a triumph to
RODEN and PEEL. SiX months—six short months,
we believe, would suffice to see civil war blazing in
the land, were the House of Commons by its vote ti)
declare that lenity, and mercy, and kindliness, are
unsuitable to Ireland, and that it must .be replaced
under the faction of the triangle. Do our industri-
ous manufacturers, our skilful but ill-fed workmen,
wish to ensure a long life to the Corn-laws, let them
hasten to toss up their caps and huzza for the
Irish Orange landlords and the Tory faction, who
are to a man the firm friends of the Corn-laws. If
there be any man who thinks that the whole of this
goodly earth was crea.ed for the mere purpose of
enabling a few owners of rent to live in ease, and
lord it over their fellow-men, encouraging them to
multiply, or destroying their dwellings, banishing or
exterminating them, as may be most productive of
luxuries to the owner of rent, he can forward his
own views no better than by petitioning the Parlia-
ment to restore to their unchecked power, theLOR-
TONS, the WESTMEATIIS, the BANDONS of
Ireland. It is in evidence, that Ireland is in a
rapid state of improvement, that property is increas-
ing in value, that manufactures are springing up,
that more bread is eaten ; and if any man wants to
stop this benevolent progress, which promises to
make Ireland, at no distant day, nearly as valuable
a portion of our empire as England itself, let. him
hasten to implore the Almighty to restore to
power the bigoted crew, of which Lord RODEN
is the organ. We understand a war for the
possession of territory waged by those who, like our
ancestors, when they emigrated from Germany, had
not land enough to feed them; but to revive a war
togive a prevalence to one set of religious opinions—
a war to make Protestantism predominant, after it has
been carried on most unsuccessfully for two centu-
ries, and has only ceased, if it have yet entirely ceased,
within these few years, is what we cannot un-
derstand, and is about the maddest crusade that ever
was undertaken ; but such a crusade in favour of
the Protestant clearing landlords of Ireland, is what
the Earl of RODEN, the Duke of WELLINGTON,
and the Tory Journals ask the people to begin, for
it must inevitably be the consequence of restoring
them to power, because Ireland has been less op-
pressed than under their rule. The Catholics, how-
ever, have calculated their numbers ; thanks
to the Commissioners of Public Instruction,
they know their strength, an they will be ready to
resist the attempt, should it be made, to consign
them unprotected once more to the mercy of the
most selfish, unfeeling, griping aristocracy that ever
disgraced a Christian country. The Committee
obtained by Lord RODEN is intended to prove that
mercy is a crime, and that nothing but cruelty, prac-
tised in the name of religion, and tyranny, esta-
blished in the name of the public welfare, can be
useful in Ireland.

If England were perfectly at peace within her-
self ; if there were no Chartists and no Anti-Corn-
law League in existence, we should hold a return
to the old policy as to governing Ireland to be
equally impolitic and inhuman. If England were
perfectly safe from foreign attack—if her fleet were
crowded with willing sailors eager to brave death in
her defence—if France were distracted by internal
dissensions, and had not a cock-boat on the ocean—
if Russia were embarrassed by an independent
kingdom of Poland, and by a general rising of all
the semi-savage tribes that skirt her extensive fron-
tiers, and if she had not a disciplined man-of-war
in the Baltic—if there were no quarrel impending
between us and the United States, which success-
fully bribes all our seamen to take service in its
men-of-war, we should regard it as little less than
madness to revive a system of government, of which
the principle is to tread down the seven millions of
Catholics in Ireland. But when England herself
is far from being confident in the continuance of
tranquillity at home—when she cannot get a few
hundred seamen for a line-of-battle ship, commanded
by a popular and successful Captain—when the dis-
ciplined fleets of France and Russia are more nu-
merous than our own, to begin a crusade against
the Catholic Irish, in order to restore the supre-
macy of the Protestant Churciai, and preserve the
power of the landlords, while they are exone-
rated from all duties, seems to us the mad-
eat ,of all the mad schemes that ever entered
the heads of a beetle-blind race of bigots. Such,
however, is what the Tories, under the guidance of
Lord RODEN, now propose to begin, and if they
succeed, adieu for ages to the peace, and for ever to
the supremacy and glory, of England.
We are, as is well known, no advocates for many
parts of the policy of Ministers. We think they have
done the Liberal cause—the cause of humanity and
justice—inconceivable harm, by checking and stifling
all popular and political enthusiasm ; but their sys-
tem of rule for Ireland is so merciful, so wise, so
benevolent compared to that propounded by their
opponents; that if the contest between them and the
Tories be limited to that question, it would be
an eternal disgrace to the Liberal party were they
defeated. We are no advocates for the Radicals
voting black is white ; we would have them tell the ,
Ministers the truth ; but on the question of the
government of Ireland there cannot be one Liberal

The French Ministerial Journals must at last
admit that King Louis PHILIPPE both " reigns
and governs," without appearing to feel any great
inconvenience from the want of a responsible
Ministry. His Majesty is the only man in France
able by a word to put an. end to the " Crise Minis-
terielle," but as by so doing he must assert the
triume of Liberal principles in the Cham-