The Sun.
London, England, 1838-03-01 00:00:00

tiand consequently of a breach of privilege. Is that enough
No," say these Tory patterns of purity and impartiality,r that will not satisfy us; we must have, him reerimanded."
Wothing can convince them of the folly and absurdity of their
ourse ; warning and argument are thrown away upon, them,
nd a vote is carried that Mr. O'Connell he reprimanded. The
aril Learned Member is required to attend in his Idle,
o receive the reprimand ; he does nttend, and he is repri-
ended for having asserted at the Crown and Anchor, and
citerated in this House of Commons, that member of Elec.
'en Committees are guilty of perjury. Did the reader sup-
ise that the matter was to end there ? Oh, not Mr.
'Connell at once saw the advantage be had gained, and de-
.ermined to turn the blunder of his opponents to ac-
ount. The Tories have strangely mistaken their man,
they thought that he would be for an instant con-
ounded by the situation in which they had- placed him.
he House had declared him guilty of a libel, and what
'purse did he take the very instant the reprimand was con-
luded? Did he ex! rest cantjilon for what he had said, and
eeire submissively a reprimand which he knew cad Only
ye effect by its being deserved ? Did lie admit that the
barge was untrue, that he was a -eisuideter, and they the
ost immaculate of mortals INO: the last words nttelved
le Speaker had scarcely time to reach his ears, when Mr.
O'Connell replied—" I express no retp'es I retract nothing; •
:repent •nothing. Ido not desire unnecessarily to use harsh
offiusive language. I wish 1 could find terms less objec-
ionable end equally significant but 1 cannot—l ant bound to
4-assert what I asserted." The Tories, who had crowded to
-es-loose to enjoy their triumph, wese confounded. The
"force of truth overpowered them. They wonld have started
from their seats with indignation had they felt that the accu.
•ation was false ; but they were paralysed by the consciousness
-1 its truth, The scene was a noble illustration of the innate
•e of truth in man. These Tories, who hate Mr. O'Connell
" man perhaps never was hated, who came expressly to
*itness what they deemed ilia humiliation, and who, had time
en given them, might have contrived some mode of assailing
n, were yrt unable at the morecat to Tcsist the sudden flash
ross their minds that be spoke only the truth, and they re,
:•aired much a's if spell-bound. The whole party ranged on
"sii opposite lienehes, from Sir Robert Peel down to Mr.
ter Ilerthwiche could only stare with a feelisli face of won-
The man whom they declared to have been guilty of a`
false and scandalous libel," arid who was therefore to be
primanded, avouebcd it to their heads," reiterated every
s liable of it, and they dared not to open their lips to call the
• tention of the Chair to this fresh indignity, this accumulated
ult. Lord Maidstone told the House on Monday that if
t• had tamely put up with the affront offered in Mr. O'Connell's
-etch at the Crown and Anchor he should have expected.his
ns.ituents, when he next met them, " one and all eonsecu-
'. ively to spit in his face." After what passed last night; and
the unchecked re-assertion of the charge by the original
author of it ,in his presence, does his Lordship consider
himself quite free from the danger of the anticipated inflic-
tion? What ! could not one
.of all the high-blooded and high-
minded Tories rise to move that the Honourable and Learned
Member's words be taken down, preparatory to the severest
visitation of the Ilouse for the " false and scandalous libel" in
the first , instance, and its daring and unqualified reiteration
afterwards? No : all were mute—all craven ! Well might
Lord John Russell taunt them on Monday with their " pitiful
pusillanimity, which could send a poor printer to Newgato for
abusing the House of Commons, but which dared not to touch
a hair of the head of a man like Mr. OCOnnell." .Had the
Honourable and Learned Mender for Dublin required a new
triumph still more tet.sendear him to his countrymen,
and to add to his mighty power arid influence among
them, he would have been indebted for it to the
Tories. The Speaker discharged his painful duty with
the calm dignity becoming his station. In his ad-
dress ho preserved the tone of reproof which he no doubt
deemed necessary to support the moral influence of the great
assembly over which he was appointed to preside ; and had
the circumstances justified the reproof, it would from its style,
have been most effective. While Mr. O'Connell declared
his entire adherence to the expressions delivered by him at the
Crown and Anchor, he judiciously refrained from the uselessly
offensive repetition of therm.and it was obvious to those who
heard him that he would willingly have withdrawn the objec-
tionable words, could lie have done so without sacrificing the
force of their import. la his speech which followed, and
which terminated by a motion fur a Committee to be named by
the Speaker, to investigate the truth of the charge lie
had brought forward, he was studious to avoid the cm-
Ployment of any terms stronger than such as were alma
Autely necessary to illustrate his meaning His• great
ye-sisal:new:ls that, at all events, if' tsh'et. la • had of'
Election .Committees were libellOus, it was not era/se, and be
j dared the Tories to give him the opportunity of proving by
Members who had sat upon. such, tribunals, 'and by Counsel
employed before then; that their decisions were not only
guided but governed by political _interests. Ile adverted
Mr. Buller's measure on this subject, now standing for the
second reading, and complained that it would preserve many
of the vices of the old system. Mr. O'Connell was for a
species of nisi Sirius trial Mere one of the Judges of the land
and a Jury ; tied in order that the Jury might not be biassed
by party feeling, he suggested that the venue should be changed,
and the inquiry never take place in the county in which the elec-
tion occurred. We cannot think that even this plan would
obviate the objection, inasmuch as paity feeling is of no par- •
ticular district, but in times like the present pervades the
whole empire. When the Hon. and Learned Member con-
cluded with his motion, it was suggested that the better course
would be for Mr. O'Connell to give notice as usual, and he
instantly complied and fixed it for to-morrow (this day.) No
Member will thus have it in his power to say that he as taken
by surprise. We shall soon see the object of Mr. O'Connell
completely answered. The Tories, in their soreness at an '
imputation which " touched them so near," have played
his game. He wished the question to attain publicity,
that the defects and abuses of the present law being
known they might be remedied. Not only Mr. O'Con-
nell, but the whole country, may thank the Opposi-
tion side of the House for attracting to the subject the
attention of every man in the three kingdoms. As
we said yesterday, the Ilonourable and Learned Member
for Dublin will laugh to scorn the reprimand of the House of
Commons ; and he has the more reason for rejoicing in any
little temporary annoyance or inconvenience, when he reflects
on the great permanent good it is certain to accomplish in the
speedy abolition of a mode of trying contested returns which
offers no advantage to compensate fur the grievous injustice
which in nearly every case it works. We concur in Mr.
O'Connell's opinion that Mr. Buller's Bill is not the remedy
to which the country has a right to look ; and for ourselves,
as we stated yesterday, we shall never be satisfied until a tri-
bunal is established alike independent of the Crown and the
influence of party. —Morning Chronicle.
The O'Connell portion of the House of Commons business
yesterday may be brought within a narrow compass. The
learned culprit swaggered into the House with the air of an
old practitioner; but in the impression made upon him by the
Speaker's reprimand, it was manifest that a feeling of deep
mortification struggled vainly to hide itself under that coat of
familiar effrontery, which is characteristic of, or at least inci-
dental to, certain habits of life. As for the reprimand itself,
the general judgment formed of it seems to have been, that
the Speaker was not deficient in dignity of demeanour. The
Right Hon. G,ntleman might easily, indeed, have used
terms more effective had he been so inclined; he might
have spoken more decidedly respecting the grossness of
the offence which Mr. O'Connell had committed, than
by telling the Learned calumniator that he had " un-
fortunately been betrayed into language against many
Members of the llouse, which the House had declared to be
false and scandalous ;" whereas the fact is acknowledged by
Mr. Daniel O'Connell that there was no betrayal in the case
at all. There was no surprise, nor inadvertency, nor preci-
pitancy—all was cool, calculating, deliberate assertion, ut-
tered boastfully—uttered avowedly to be eulsoed by 'the press
_repeated, after some days given film for consideration, in
the House of Commons itself, after full warning of the conse-
quences, and in the face of that large
,body of gentlemen
whom he had reviled in a manner so shameless. We therefore
take the liberty of suggesting, that Mr. Speaker was too le-
nient to Mr. O'Connell when he made the indirect apology
for him, that he had been " betrayed" into the offence which
112 had committed, and in which he contumaciously as well as
obstinately persevered. Why, w hat was the conduct of this art-
less innocent within five milutes after the Speaker of the House
of Commons had thus benevolently whitewashed him out of
the imputation of malice aforethought ? He would not give
the last word even to his too gentle corrector. Ile made a
speech—a reply to the Speaker—wherein lie said what he had
said before, and for saying which he was declared guilty of a
gross breach of privilege—,, I retract nothing__l repeat every
thing—l readopt every word I originally delivered." He
bullied just enough to prove himself hardened in wrong, though
impotent to injure, and ungrateful enough to fling back
scornfully at the Speaker the well-inteutioned but most un-
fortunate excuse which the Right Hon. Gentleman had hit
upon fur blunting the edge of his own disregarded reprimand.
So much respecting the taste and moral feeling of this " false
and scandalous" libeller of the British gentry, Now for the
question, whether the proposition wherewith Mr. Daniel
O'Connell concluded his most offensive said braggart speech is
to be referred to genuine want of sense, or to a mixture of
impudence and hypocrisy. What was that proposition ? It
was, that a Committee of twenty-one ehould be selected by the
Speaker, to do what ? To toquire into the truth of Mr.
Daniel O'Connell's libel upon the gentlemen of Great Bri-
tain 1 Will you let me prove "my case ?" quash Daniel
ask nothing but to prove my ease,' " Ana what let us
,
again examine, is that " ease ?" The fact which this slanderer
has put in issue is tale fetal perjury" committed by the whole
Conservative mistocrecy of 0-176 t hi so far as they are
Mendsers the iionse. of Commons, and have sat, or arc to
sit, upon election petitions in that House. Such is the " ease"
which this much-vaunted lawyer is to subruis, te twenty-one
Members of the very assembly of which he declares more
than one-half amen these who are representatives for
England and fieotland to be men in the habitual paactice of
the ‘ foulest perjury ;" for it is acknowledged That much more
than half the British Members aee anserva tires, and that all
the British Conservatives are " perjured." Well, was there
ever heard of such au " issue" as this ? Did the wildest brain