The Sun.
London, England, 1837-03-02 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.
We hear that the Tortes are to have a grand meet-
ing at the Duke of Wellington's. The Conservative
Peers are to consult how they may best destroy all
seeds of local government in Ireland. No Commoner,
we believe, except Sir R. Peel, is to be admitted.
Lord Stanley and Sir James Graham may kick their
heels in Piccadilly, and ask the Duke's porter or Sir
R. Peel's coachman what is going on. But they will
hear nothing ; they are excluded ; they are as yet
only proselytes of the gate. This, with a cold north-
easter blowing in their teeth, may be unpleasant
enough ; but there is no disputing about tastes, so we
will leave them to the cutting wind, and enter our-
selves. There, within the holy precincts of Apsley
House, we shall find Lord Roden and Lord Alvanley,
Lord Lorton and Lord Hertford, Lord de Roos and
Lord Winchilsea, the Duke of Newcastle, the Bishop
of Exeter and Simon of Gloucester, Lord Lyndhurst
and Lord Wynford—all surrounding the Duke of
Wellington. "So should desert in arms be crowned."
There are the sage, the noble, and the virtuous pil-
lars of our Church and State upon whom the fate of
Ireland is to repose, and before whom the inde-
peed, nee of the House of Commons, is to bow down.
With cap in hand, and bended knee, Sir R. Peel will
appear before this august assembly, full of apologies
for th.: sturdy perseverance of the plebeian assembly to
arb'ch be belongs, and for the incurable plague of its
increasing majorities. " What is to be done with it,
my Loids ?" the obsequious Baronet will say. " And
what is your Lordships' good will and pleasure with
regard to Ireland ?" " Reconquer it," will exclaim
the mighty Lord Orford. " Put down the Commons
who support these Irish, and who fancy themselves
the true representatives of the people, which in fact we
are, and not they," will advise the sagacious Lord
NA- harncliffe. " Call them aliens, and transport them"
wilt be the law of the two ex-Judges. " Callthem
perjured traitors, and burn them," will be the charity
of two reigning Bishops. "Leave thefi Inds of their
Coiporations to our joint management," will suggest
Lad Alvanley and iLord de Roos. " Make-- me
their Lord-Lieutenant, and I will let them know, and
,feel too, that I can and will do what I like with my
oTii," will endeavour to say the Duke of Newcastle ;
but the torrent of his Grace's ideas will probably
drown the flood of his eloquence. These are the
councillors and this the spirit which are to overthrow
the Commons, and rule the country I Are they ? Are
they so indeed ? What said Lord Stanley in May,
1532, when the Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert
Peel, and the above aulic council of Noble Lords ran
their heads against the Reform Bill, and when they
thought the mere fiat of their high and mighty and ir-
responsible wills could kick out reform, and make Cabinet
24 in isters of them? He jumried on the table at Brookes's,
and, with clenched fist and livid eye and ribald tongue,
calital the Duke of Wellington, not, indeed, " a stunted
corporal," but—" a
.fool ;" ay a fool! There was
inurmur of disapprobation ; but he .not the less pur-
sued his high argument. " Fool No, he is. not a
fool. Yes, he is a fool, if he thinks to govern this
country in spite of the Commons I" These were his
words ; he may recite them in front of Apsley-house,
or if his patron Sir Robert let him in at a side door,
trod tell him that it is decided they are to take office at
ati risks, he may recal the closing words of that stormy
oration at Brookes's, when, denouncing the Tory grasp
at office, he exclaimed to the friends of his youth, of
s house, of his party, and of ids principles, " Yes,
g'ntlemen, we will retire without a spot, and without
reroach,awl leave, fur gem (his now friends) infamy
place." He may remember these words, and go
and weep bitterly. Passion, arrogance, and dis-
aa..ointed ambition are as sore tempters as gold.—
Joionzing Chronicle.

The education of the poor of Ireland needed not to
11,,ve been, and therefore ought .not to have been, at
:my time, made a topic for the indul.f_;enee of faCtious
biiterness, and we have never been disposed to eon-
:iider that subject as properly furnishing occasion for
Ihe display of such a spirit. But unfortuoately, . how
jt.st and benevolent so ever may have been the views
eluertained by the framers of the system which was
sibstituted for that of the Kildare-street schools, a
vary strong and extensive impression has circulated
throughout the Protestant world, that although the
funds whereby the proceedings of the Board of National
Education and the schools under its guidmce are sup
ported, have been granted ostensibly for purposes of use-
ful education, the fruits derived from them have not by
any means corresponded with the intentions of Parlia-
Ment. It has been more than suspected that the public
Money and the public authority vested in the Board of
Education have been in practice diverted to political
rather than to moral uses; that the superintendence of
the schools has in fact devolved, with few exceptions,
-upon one class of ecclesiastical functionaries—viz., the
Roman Catholic priesthood ; that the teachers have
been selected with an undue regard to the wishes and
preferences of the Romish priests ; that they have
been in many cases persons who had made themselves
conspicuous for the most indecent party violence, and
whose efforts had been in furtherance of those schemes
whic!, had notoriously for their object the overthrow of

the Protestant Church ; that Protestants, deterred by
the teeatment to which pupils of their creed were ex-
posed, either in the form of corruption to their prin-
ciples-, or of tyranny and persecution inflicted on their
persons, had declined to take advantage in any con-
siderable numbers of the opportunities professed to
be held out to the people generally by the esta-
blish' Gent of the Education Board, and that the
latter had become in consequence a source of be-
nefit to the Roman Catholics exclusively, although
instituted by the Legislature for the purpose of
administering conjoint instruction to Irish child-
ren of all sects and denominations. It has indeed
been a general complaint among Protestants, the truth
of which it would be presumptuous in us to pronounce
upon, that in this new projeet for educating the Irish
po r the Priests have worked themselves into a com-
plete ilorninion over, and direction of, the whole sys-
tem, and have perverted its machinery into a formid-
able imstrument for the spread of agitation and sedi-
tion throughout the land, and for training up the Ro-
mln Catholic youth of the lower orders in a fixed
sentiment of hatred against all Protestants, of dis-
affection to the State, and hostility towards Great
Britain. We do not aver that the allegations above
referred to are, without exception, true. It is pos-
sible that some of them may have been exaggerated,
and that others are capable •of being answered in a
way consistent with the just, or at least the inevitable,
administration of its powers by the Board, with the
integrity of the priesthood, and with the public in-
terest. But we do submit, that the very exist-
ence, much more the prevalence, of such state-
ments, proves that there is a spirit abroad incom-
patible with the success of the Government scheme,
regarded as one of combined education for the
children of Protestant and Catholic. We are not
among the monopolizing bigots alluded to by the
Archbishop of Dublin in his uncouth and ram-
blit2g, speech on Tuesday evening, who would appro-
pr:ate the whole of the annual grant from Parliament
to Protestant children only. Even in proportion to
their numbers, the Protestants of Ireland are less de-
pendent on public money for the education of their
offspring than the Papists, being for the most part
further removed from want. But, without offering a

positive opinion, now that a Committee of Inquiry has
been appointed by the House of Lords, we do not
scruple to declare our fear, that the plan which leaves
to Protestant parents no option but that of sending
their children to the care of schoolmasters approved of
by the Roinish priests, is a plan for excluding Pro-
.' testants altogether from any share of the fund applied
nominally to " national" education. Upon such points,
.however, we once more repeat, that the public ought
tv reserve its decision for the result of that inquiry
:rich, on every account, we rejoice to see authorised
b‘ the Upper House of Parliament. In the debate
of Tuesday it will be observed that the able speech of
the -Bishop of Exeter was throughout a vindica-
tion of the Right Reverend Lord's own credit for
troths-w.l accuracy, wrung from him by an official
116 p oft bf the Commissioners of Education, who took
that extraordinary and not quite decent method of
inventgning the authenticity of his Lordship's state-
&limed from his place in Parliament. The
laintruent of the Committee prevents us from
oint, ring :a... more direct judgment upon the specific
facts • roitglit forward by the Right Rev. Bishop than