The Sun.
London, England, 1836-03-14 00:00:00

SPIP.I.T OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The prospect ri of the No-Popery coalition are cer-
tainly not very flattering. The progressive character
of the majeirities against them is by no means calcu-.
lated tri soothe the disappointed ambition of the high
contracting parties to this new holy alliance : 10 votes
Jost them the. Speakership ; 33 removed them from
power ; a majority of 41 carried against them the ad-
41ress declaratory of the principle on which Irish All -
-nicipal Reform should be founded ; and a ittqjority of
64 confirmed the previous decision of the Representa-
tive Chamber, and put an end for ever to those plea-
sant illusions which haft, oten conjured up by their ima-
ginative partisans; to conceal the real causes of their la-
mentable corKlition. Fortunately for the cause of real
reform and good government, there were unpleasant
remiti.:.scences connected with all the members and al-

lies of the Peel Administration, which were so pro-

foundly engraved upon the understanding of the public,
that neither the professions of the conforming Mi-
nisters, nor the unremitting efforts of the rene-
gade scribes of the Press could succeed in erasing
that Ethiopian tint which their arduous exertions ap-
peared, indeed, only to render more frightfully conspi-
cuous, and expunging those distinctive marks of Anti-
Reform which are stamped on the brows of the present
generation of Tories like the ineffaceable characters of
Cain. In vain did these men, with one voice, proclaim

theinsAves opposed to the venerable abuses which they
so long cherished : in vain did they commence a new
career of outbidding their liberal opponents in the march
of Reform ; in vain did they proceed, step by step, in
their eagerness for place, till at last the boasted Con-
servative party is become a rank revolutionary one—
annihilating vested rights, destroying charters, sweep-
ing away immunities and privileges that have existed
for ages among the most sacred institutions of the
country. All would not do—the mark was too plain,
the motive shone forth conspicuous in all their conduct :
the people and the people's representatives preferred a
more moderate course of constitutional reform, carried
out by more consistent statesmen ; and the con-
sequence is, that not only place but power—real
political power—ay, and they know it—is now
vested in the hands of his Majesty's Government.
That power is based upon political consistency ; it is
based upon political character; it is based upon poli-
tical union ; it is based upon the affections and respect
of a people who can appreciate the acts and the mo-
tives of their rulers. The stratagems of the defeated
party, one after another, have miserably failed. The
old war cry of " No Popery !" fell dead upon the ear
of an enlightened people ; the squadrons of the
M'Ghee and O'Sullivan bomb-vessels successively ex-
ploded with most impotent effect ; the attack upon
13rookes.'s was certainly an heroic undertaking, and
Burdett for a moment stood forth the forlorn hope of
his new associates ; but it would seem as if the Club
was impregnable, and the invading army somehow
annihilated, for of its movements we have now neither
bulletin nor register. But the grand effort was the
Fieschi-Raphael plot, which was to demolish O'Connell,
and to be the signal for a general movement. This in-
fernal machine has exploded also in their own camp.
Whether it was intended for our English Fieschi to
destroy himself at the same time with his enemy, we
know not. But the poor gentleman is certainly con-
siderably damaged, and his upper works were not cal-
culated to bear the same battering as those of his
Gallic predecessor. But the Morey and the Pepin, and
the Boireau, where are they ? can there be a Nina in
the plot, too ? We shall see. In the meantime we congra-
tulate the country that this last puny effort of the
reckless tools of the No-Popery coalition has so sig-
alltand utterly failed. Long may the congenial spi-
rits of the new alliance retain their present position,
and whilst they alternate between anti-reform and
wholesale destruction, may their efforts be as ineffec-
tive as they are at present in embarrassing a liberal
Government, and impeding the course of sound and
constitutional reform !-11/crning Chronicle.
The Report of the Committee on the O'Connell arid
Raphael " traffic and agreement," for a seat for Car-
low runs, we are told, in the following words.—(Here
our Contemporary quotes a portion of the Report, the
whole of which we have already given.)—We speak
most unaffectedly when we say that we never read a
public document with so much surprise as we have
'perused this. Let us not be mistaken. We are not
about to imitate the disgraceful example which is set
by the whole-hoggish scribblers of the Ministerial
sties, who, as often as a Committee makes a Report
against their views, or unfavourable to the most worth-
less of their party, invariably impute unfairness and
bad motives to such Committee. Neither did we de-
sire to be told by Mr. R. Colborne that it is. possible
for eleven members of the House of Commons, not
agreed upon politics, to lay aside all party feeling, and
concur upon a judicial question. We should be sorry,
however, to find it true that the proof of that fact had
not been furnished to the country until Friday last, and
still mere afflicted should we be if we could bring our-
selves to believe that the proof of the fact depended solely
upon this Report ; for it is only reasonable to suppose
that among the tens of thousands who will coincide in
our opinion, that a more unsatisfactory, incomplete, and
even unjust Report, was never made, there will be very
many who will refuse to join us in the expression of
the belief we sincerely entertain, that the miscarriage
of the Committee is attributable alone to error in
judgment. For our own parts, we do not think so ill
of the moral character of the Members of the House
of Commons as Mr. R. Colborne is of opinion the
country thinks ; nor have we any more hesitation in
giving to the members who composed the Carlow
Committee the fullest credit for fairness, than we have
in declaring our conviction that their report exhibits a
most lamentable failure in the performance of a very
important, but not a very difficult, public duty. Let
us, then, be clearly understood as not meaning to re-
flect in the slightest degree upon the motives of this
Committee ; but, at the same time, as feeling it ut-
terly impossible to speak with any respect of their judg-
ment, except at the expense of copipromising our own.
It is obviously impossible to review, in the limits of a
single newspaper article, all the points of a case which
has-been so unmercifully overlaid, almost to smothering,
by irrelevant evidence. To the leading features of it,
however, we must beg to call the attention of the
reader without delay, reserving to ourselves, of course,
the right of reverting to them as well as -of dwelling
upon others, whenever opportunity may serve. The
Committee say, that the whole tone and tenour of
Mr. O'Connell's letter of the Ist of June was calcu-
lated to excite " much suspicion and grave animad-
version." Observing, by way of parenthesis, that this
is the fullest and most complete acquittal of those who
attacked that epistle and called for inquiry, we have to
ask whether it is a fit description of the letter, coming,
as this description does come, from eleven gentlemen
who were charged by the House of Commons to in-
quire into the circumstances of the traffic and agree-
ment alleged to have taken place between Mr. O'Con-
nell and Mr. Raphael ? Mr. O'Connell's letter con-
tains this startling passage :—(Here follows Mr.
O'Connell's letter about the two thousand pounds.)
Naas, we contend still, as we urged originally, that
this -oargain is an affair for a Court of Law to deal with
whatever measures the House of Commons may, in
addition, think proper to adopt with reference to it,
in conformity with their own most solemnly paraded
resolutions as to bribery and corruption. We say that
the Statute 49 George 111., c. 118, has been violated
by this " traffic and agreement," even as it stands in
Mr. O'Connell's letter, and before it was aggravated
by the proofs that portions of the sum of two thousand
pounds were to go to Mr. Vigors in part payment of
his expenses in unseating Messrs. Bruen and Ka-
vanagh, and in paying the rent of as many electors as
would vote for Raphael and Vigors, and were in such
a condition as to be tempted to accept, or of such a
character as to seek, the wages of corruption thus pro-
vided for them. The Statute 49 George 111., c. 118,
declares—
" That it is expedient to make further provision for
preventing CORRUPT practices in the PROCURING OF elec-
tions and returns of Members to sit in the House of Com-
mons; recites that the giving, or procuring to be given, or
promising to give, or to procure to be given, any sum of
money, gift, or reward, or any office, place, employment, or
gratuity, in order to procure the return of any Member to
serve in Parliament—if not given to or fur the use of some
person having a right, or claiming to have a right, to act
as returning officer, or to vote at such election, is not bri-
an Act passed in the second
fiery within the weaning of