The Sun.
London, England, 1839-04-17 00:00:00

N irrrl srli Nr
4- - •

,;" 'P '' e,,r)y ;ha toe sure t . si .i. li. bj. ~s .icvri (1, -I.la
i
1") iii? stands pledged bi polity, 1,), km,,ur, and all that
ts! bindi'r: Upon rpm. 1.3 iii; manner, lanner, he has seen
hise IrPjurity of his Cabinet, and eery member of
Government in this House give their exulting
support to that which lie ha; pronounced to be " he
tare God the wildest and the maddest project ;hat
i.fver entered into the cone piou
of man." But, un-
like
41 Grey, Lord Melbourne is . still first Mi-
nister of the Crown. But, Sir, when thus challenged to
a. Mnparison let it not be one of details but of results.
Let us contrast the position of this country, after four years
Administration of the preent Government, and its posi-
tion as it stood on the termination of the four years' Ad-
miniztration of Earl Grey. On the 24th of July, 1834,
on retiring from office, Lord Grey thus summed up the
proceedings of his Government :
thatOn the first night I appeared here as Minister, I declared
the three great and leadincr objects of my Administration
should be a Reform in Parliament,j eace, and economical Re-
f°l.m. No one in this House, or elsewhere,p will say that Re-
Pin Parliament is a pledge which I have not redeemed.
os was the next principle of my Government—and how
'4 it Maintained? IVe have not only maintained tranquillity,
bat we now leave the Government, having secured a greater
Pr
bability of the With
of Europe being continued than when
" tclak office. With respect to economical Reform, we
!Ye taken off four million five hundred thousand pounds
',i to
Places have been abolished, and the patronage of
the Crown diminished to a degree, with regard to which 1 feel
yTind, in honesty and justice, to admit that my only doubt is,
ne.ther we have riot done rather too much. With respect to
theh internal state of the country we leave trade in a soand and
ealthY condition—manufacturers generally employed—public
credit improved—the revenue greatly increasing, and all inte-
• prrests in a better condition, with one single exception—the de-
ession of agriculture,
less affecting the tenantry than the
;rlandlord, through aeduction of rents. The political and
ules' unions have disappeared, we asserted the powers of the
;rules'
as it stood for their suppression, and by administerin it
Wsith,a fi
rm hand the result has been complete success." g
183kw' Sir, was the condition of this vast empire when, in
4, Earl Grey handed over its interests to the guardian-
Sip of Lard Melbourne, and I ask any gentleman oppo-
tte
wile had been a colleague or supporter of that Noble
ord....any Hon. Member who will justify the policy of the
present Admieistrrtion by an appeal to the example of their
Predecessor., whether he thinks the prospect of peace is as
bright and unclouded at the present moment as it was four
years ago? Whether the patronage of the Crown has
been increased or diminished by the multitudes of tempo-
rary Places, the recent creation of which has, at
Last Made compensation for the more permanent offices
with abolition Earl G. ey was disposed to regard
~"'t° apprehension ? I would ask here whether the
revenue bears the same gratifying aspect as compared Ivith the expenditure and whether public credit is equal'y
airial and respected now as it was four years ago ? Abase
,spublie
all, I Would direct him to the comparative repose of the
mind, the subsidence of agitation, and the disap-
rearas e of
' 0 Political conventions at the present moment,
as coutrasted with the spring of 1834, and if, en all these
Points, his convictions are satisfactory, then, indeed, I
Vote See
no possible obstacle to his uniting this night in a
Mere,
o• f Confidence in her Majesty's Ministers. But looking
. To
e the broad principles which, in the words of the
Noble Lord's i:esolution, have guided the Executive Go-
iv.erument of Ireland, and formed the basis of their pa-
eloeYt.--l°°lting to these alone, disincumbered of all mi.
- details, it is impossible for me to bear my testi-
111°TV either to their wisdom or their efficiency ; because I
ei" Only regard that policy as presenting in all its rami.
bred tions the consistent and unvarying evidence of being
on
been one fatal and fundamental error. As it has
n the act and the aim of Irish agitation to represent
every social evil as a political grievance, so has it been
the guiding principle of the Irish Government to apply a
Political remedy to those maladies of the social system
warewhich po!itical abuses have nescr caused and political nos-
!nistan never cure. Her Majesty's Ministers have been
aken alike in the disorder and the remedy, and they
have aggravated rather than relieved that which is a disease
of the internal structure of society by their fruitless ap-
Plieations of counter-irritation to the surface. Ir land hes
her domestic wants—wants of which in her benighted mi-
sery (Wee she herself can form but a confused idea, either
of the nature or the extent—she wants piece, she wants
food, she wants education, and she wants employment ; and
When she comes to you to complain of her destitution, you
give her theories of ecclesiastical foundations, and doc-
trines of popular representation, and schemes of municipal
government, and essays on the duties of property as contra_
distinguished from its rights. She prays for bread and
You give her a stone—she asks for a fish and you offer her
a serpent. The first and the most formidable disorder of
Ireland is religious animosity and sectarian aversions_and
hoer do you proceed to remedy this? Is it by creating any
new and national object in which hostility might be forgot-
ten._an important and general interest, in which animosity
tnight be absorbed. No, but by espousing with a vigour
Only equal to their own ail the envenomed prejudices el the
one party, by distorting their grievances and aggravat-
ing their complaints-_and then, by declaring " war
against the Church," and the institutions of the other.
Ireland wants education, and how do you proceed to sup-
Ply it? By an establishment whose regulation renders it
unacceptable to one class of the population, whilst they in-
culcate and confirm the exclusive prejudices of the other
e-an establishment which, whatever it may have been ori-
ginally, does not, I venture to say, contain at this moment,
one single functionary, commissioner, or officer, teacher or
ocaatee, who is not either a member. of the favoured religion
, a follower of the dominant faction. Ireland wants food
'or her destitute inhabitants. But already the popular
13,4gions which your policy has created and encouraged.
'.'ave perverted the remedy which Parliament has applied,
lat° a fresh engine of political mischief and domestic
trife. Again, Sir, Ireland wants internal quiet, and the
strife. Again,
of the law—Olear, hear)—for the protection
of
araPerty and life. Three-fourths of that country pre-
asp,c,t This moment, but in an aggravated intensity, the same
thihabdts. of turbulent audacity which characterised the High-
that a century ago. When Dr. Johnston was told
taip with all these wants and disadvantages the moun-
, eer °f
all
rebellion of 1745, his only reply was,
Scotland had made rapid advances subsequent
their a.,"that of all
want
-ants, the greatest and the most pressing still was th
of law," and the same; Sir, may we say of Ireland—
mid . ``That purple land where law secures not life,"
brtla Which the Noble Lord who has just left its Govern-
has earned far himself an unenviable and imperish-
ezheihni,(4°vietY by reversing the attributes of authority, and
Ilut- :fig Mercy blind instead of Justice.—( Cheers.)
wantab"e all, Sir, and as the foundation of all—lreland
pe c.4lPloyment for her portionless and overwhelming .Pu aeonlcer, hear.) It was well said by a dis-
l'onguisbed Irish Representative in this House, who is now
irnore, Mr. North, that „there is no State policy, no
secretidleness e
o' Government by which it is possible to reconcile
eivi, with tranquillity—and that all the arts of
,:galaeation were nothing more than so many expe-
..I,4.thethoimsteakrye peace and industry productive of each other."
of mankind there never was a more forcible
ill_ustration of the imperishable truth of that axiom
of governrnent, than the relative position of the two por-
setions, north and south, of the country we speak of. The
uth, with every
advantage of nature unavailing, and with
every resource unexplored, overrun with idleness and
energies e and poverty and crime—the north, with all its
in full vigour, its agriculture productive and its
pretssans.employed, enjoying all the blessings of security,
this Perity, and peace. Sir, I have been denounced in
Ws
~ House by the Hon. and Learned Member for Dublin,
1:41 "1 traducer and calumniator of my country, because,
former occasions, I have dared to speak the truth as
t"1"Iso.. , it
„,
.government. Sir, I deny the imputation. I regard
affection, and 1 speak with pride, because I can
3,l?eak with truth, of that portion of Ireland which
gve me
Dinh, and with which all who are near and dear to meani that
country are connected. So far from being the vilifier of my
Country, I point with honest triumph to such testimonies
as that which I hold in my hand, and which borne out as it is
by the highest functionaries of the land, affords undisput-
4ble evidence of the blessings that have flowed from indus-
try, morality, and peace throughout the north of Ireland ;
whilst it presents a melancholy contrast to the misery, the
"lee, and the anarchy, which have been the never-failing
results of idleness and agitation in the south. The document
from which I beg to offer to the House a single extract, is the
Charge of Baron Pelinefather to the grand jury of the county
of Londonderry at the assizes which have just terminated :
"Qentlemen," says his Lordship, " I assure you it affords me
muchL satisfaction to be enabled to congratulate you on the
raw.]
state of your county, not only as exhibited in the cal-
-4,"„NYIi, but from imoirics that I have made on the subject.
fjaprds a picture of tranquility and social order that must be
' gratifying to you, and redounds to the credit of the po_Pnlation at large gentlemen, I feel pleasure in being able to
ti,d, that in the. northern counties of this province through
Zniell we have passed, there has not only been no trial for homi-
i',(ll, but not even a charge of the crime has appeared in the cal-
-2,-"4„ v,e• This is a picture on which Im,ybe pc rmitted to con-
indications of a re-
:ttilate you,
1 71:,'.1t0 the laws will long continue to distinguish these counties."
and I trust that such pleasing
niu's description is, I will grant it, applied to a coffin-m.-
I,Y whom political Polmeies may have fewer
arras than for the more enlightened, but not more hap-
ii),"Y situated, philosophers and statesman of Munster and
"fe west of Ireland. It is possible that amongst thef people
(114 Whom Barer, Pennefather speaks, the science of govern_
ent. and theprinciplesof civil liberty may be less. clearly
Corn-exchange, and
itlhaaderstood, as they are certainly less frequently discussed,
the ,amongst amongst the Precursors of the Corn-exßc
But, notwith-
,ii Patriots of Tipperary.—( Hear, hear.)
Citcling this, his Lordship's testimony does affudo; das
domesticat i s -
1,, rf, ar Y evidence that the social happiness andwithout
poi.a!leerrient of a community may be promo
no
,x•Itloal excitement, and that there is
5 tislisenee or connexion between public prosperity and pw._.
been
brisk specifics theiragitation. Whilst her Majesty's Government,
ainin,
necessary
oClOi :
th • anodyne recipes of ecclesiastical appropriation,have 'a their
Reform,
of Corporation
outrages
itlieritie vainly essaying to apply a remeddy to the
ey ,sa and poverty, the turbulence an int tne South. lil ler, by her industry and
.her.
Cal elligeace, by good sense' and her abstinence from politi;
npiritirrirnoil
'.has been quietly but successfully achievinguhane.
swe2,!vation to prosperity and wealth, affording an u
oecalla:ble rebuke to the empyricism of those who, on everyde.
ran n, fly to political prescriptions for every. social
t. the
teal 41ent, and exhibiting an abundant illustration o
of the aphorism of Goldsmith—
" illow small, of all that human hearts endure,
Sir iT. die Past, which kings or laws can cause or cure 1"
House --tnl3l:ase trespassed further on the indulgmee of the
de, i'o"--( Hear, hear)—than in moderation I was entitled to
my deep personal concern in the question itself
041_1 de sad my best, as it is my only apology. I can see no
th: partment of the policy of the Irish Government on
te t!ratinda of which I can tender my confidence in answer
all Te Call of her Majesty's Ministers; but in each and in
de ' can trace the never failing effects of mistaken theo-
hi 19 Of delusive views, and of false and dangerous princi-
e ea of goverment.—(Nluch cheering.)
mMr. SMITH O'BRIEN complained that the Hon.
Nnetmber fur Belfast inculpated the Government of Lord
leo lisaabY, and accused his Administration as being a
is tek'ore of justice, so far a- regarded the trial of offenders
h4,7° face of the official *returns granted only the night
had "Ye in that House. But the Honourable Member also
I ,11( the inisfortut;e tOdiffer from the Right Hun. Baronet,
ttafrs_e amendment he would support.. The Right Hun.d.
claimed both in his speeqLand in his amendment, is-
'lle(' any censure, wh7eas tne whole tone of the
1 IPeeeia they had just heard went directly to cast a
—see-,