The Sun.
London, England, 1837-10-06 00:00:00

PIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We have the satisfaction of stating that the late
symptoms of disturbance in the county of Sligo have
yielded to the prompt measures of the Government,
and that in a few days the tranquillity of that district
will be completely restored. Those " exemplary"
Protestants and Orangemen, to whose nocturnal exer-
tions the disorders that prevailed were principally
owing, have been committed to gaol by a full Bench
of Magistrates (the majority of whom were Protes-
tants), to take their trial as Whiteboys. We state
this striking fact with anything but a feeling of
triumph ; on the contrary, we deeply deplore that
members of the Protestant persuasion—men who boast
a superior education and a purer religion than their
Catholic countrymen—should have been so misguided
as to involve themselves in crimes so heinous in their
nature, and so pernicious to society. There is not one
point of view, however, in which we cannot avoid re-
tarding the committal of these unfortunate men
with more than the ordinary satisfaction with which
we must always contemplate the asserted majesty
of the law. The peculiar features of this transaction
will demonstrate the spirit of the faction which is
struggling to regain the political ascendant, and ex-
hibit in the strongest light the magnitude of the diffi-
culties which the present Government has to contend
with in Ireland. The resistance which the Irish Ad-
ministration has to encounter in all its efforts to main-
tain order and promote improvement may be judged
of by the revolting facts that have now been elicited
as to the machinations of the Orangemen of Sligo.
We have now evidence before us of the systematic en-
deavours of this desperate party to disturb the tran-
quillity of the country ; we have seen within the space
of a few days proceedings the most atrocious by mem-
bers of this party-moving in the highest and lowest
grades of society ; we have seen Orange gentlemen in
Armagh and Tralee drinking seditious toasts, comme-
morative of pillage, massacre, and persecution ; and we
have seen the lower class of Orangemen in Sligo, in-
stigated by the same spirit, engaged in a career of
crime which has brought their necks within the gripe
of the executioner. The offences for which the Blacks
and their associates have been committed for trial are
three—burglary, appearing in arms by night, and ad-
ministering unlawful oaths. It appeared upon the in-
quiry that they burglariouslv entered three several
hour;es upon their lawless expedition. An attempt
was made to make out a case of alibi, but it appears
from the report in the Sligo Champion that the alibi
was proved " jar the wrong night." Notwithstand-
ing the assertion of that reputable and distinguished
journal, the Dublin Record, there does not seem to
have been the slightest impeachment of the characters
of the witnesses; and as to " the exemplary cha-
rscrer" of the prisoners, present appearances by no
means support so charitable an opinion. Mr. Little,
the stipendiary Magistrate who attended the inquiry,
addressed the prisoners at its close in the following
impressive manner. He said--
't You are charged with having been guilty of commit-
ting a very weighty offence, an offence rendered the more
heinous because your object in perpetrating it was to throw
blame upon the innocent, to bring the guiltless into trouble,
and to cast a slur upon the character of an entire county.
From the evidence which has been brought before us we
vonceive the charges have been substantiated, and it is our
duty, therefore, to commit you all for trial at the next. As-
sizes. The Magistrates will consult together whether they
can rake bail or not ; for my part, I think we cannot do
so--for, from what I have heard, it appears to me that the
offence of which you stand charged was one of the 112031 dis-
graceful outrages ever committed. In conclusion, I must
say that, as an individual Magistrate, my conviction on
this occasion of your guilt has been considerably strength-
ened by creditable witnesses deposing to the fact of one of
you having made use of the very suspicious expression that
he did not think the witness Scully would have turned
traitor."
. Nothing can be more idle than to ask, as the Stan-
dard asked last night, " Is this a probable story ?
Can any one bring himself to believe that Protestants,
&r. &c. ?" There never was a clearer case made out
before a bench of magistrates for the committal of pri-
ellers. There was nothing to impair the credit of the
witnesses ; the efforts on the part of the accused to re-
pel the charges against them completely failed ; the
bench, upon consultation,' found it impossible to admit
to hail ; and what ought to weigh something with the
Standard, the majority of the magistrates engaged in
the investigation were of the right sort. Mr. Little,
the stipendiary magistrate, a Protestant, declared the
offence committed " one of the most disgraceful out-
rages ever committed." The scepticism of the Stan-
dard is extremely amusing. He swallows the camel
of the Ribbon conspiracy, and he strains at the gnat
of a few low Orangemen involved in a disturbance of
the public peace.--Morning Chronicle.
The revolutionary press is pretty plainly at its wit's
end. Between the two stools of falsehood and folly, it
drops to the ground whenever it attempts to move.
The Times has recently asserted two things regarding
the police of Ireland-Ist, that the aim and tendency
of the new Police Bill was to place the patronage of
the police force in the hands of those who would of ne-
cessity dispense that patronage under the direction of
O'Connell and his gang of priests. Now, we appeal
from the Papist partisans, interested parties as they
are, and absolved by their Maynooth morality from
speaking a word of truth, even on oath, when " their
. superiors forbid them"—we appeal from them to the
whole body of respectable gentlemen and honest ob•
servers of passing events throughout Ireland, whether
the scope and objects of the Police Bill were not
justly characterized by us when we stated them, as
above, to be factious, fraudulent, and eventually
hostile to the public peace and welfare : we appeal
to every man who knows the state of Ireland, and
knowing, is bold enough and upright enough to speak
according to his knowledge, whether there has not
been gradually sliding into all ranks of the consta-
bulary service, since the enactment of the above-
mentioned Bill into a law, a description of men
decidedly favourable to the politics of the insurgent
faction, and, so far as any reasonable judgment can
be formed of them, convertible to whatever purposes
that faction. may meditate, or to whatever course of
proceeding may be adopted by it, when the fit oppor-
tunity shall arrive. We adhere in its fullest force and
amplitude to all that we have ever affirmed as our opi-
nion upon that alarming subject, nor has any creature
of the Mulgrave Government yet ventured to allege
that the character of the police force had not been
very considerably changed since its remodelling under
the authority of the new enactment. 2. Our second
charge against Lord Mulgrave, within the last few
days, was founded upon that monstrous order, dictated
by his Excellency to Colonel S. Kennedy, and very
carefully and repeatedly as well as justly designated by
Colonel Kennedy as the Lord-Lieutenant's own espe-
cial order, for prohibiting any assistance by the police
to those of the Queen's subjects whose houses may be
invaded, or their lives and families threatened with
destruction—no, not in cases of the most imminent
and frightful emergency, but on condition of the
parties so involved in danger being able to pay
down a sum of money for the subsistence of the
police while engaged .in that service, which by any
State functionary but Lord Mulgrave must be held, of
all others, the most essential to the public safety, and to
the maintenance and enforcement of the laws. For
these distinct and separate accusations against the
Whig Rump Government of Ireland we have been
assailed by an idiot clamour, as if we had fallen into
some gross " inconsistency." The Ministerial jour-
moths have neither attempted to deny that the patronage
of the police was meant by the provisions of the Con-
stabulary Bill to be in the leaders of the rebel rent asso-
ciation; nor do they, nor can they, disavow the mer-
ciless order of non-protection to Protestants. Both
facts are given up. There is no defence to them.
What then remains for the rebel partisans ? Nothing
but brazen the whole case out by this ingenious piece
of impudence—viz., that "if the police be a body of
men so impregnated with O'Connell sympathies,
and so subservient to O'Connell schemes, as we
have represented them—why, then, and in that
case, it must be allowed that loyal subjects are no
wlyt.oo-arieved or injured, and no losers at all, but
ttfeAlktre by being deprived of such clan-
• 4, PliikOVFYO ugh under the denomination of
~Argitilsarii4:yookir dwellings r Yes, reader, such
ti;i-'ohlcigic_of 'lll:4oters and their partisans in answer
sesTo the chareress'iviiieli,.7e have brought against them.
',, V.-4'ore is in it a power of effrontery which rises almost
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