The Sun.
London, England, 1831-08-23 00:00:00

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LONDON,
TUESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 23, 1831.

An interesting discussion took place last night
.n the House of Lords on the subject of the

Irish yeomanry. The Earl of WicxLow in-
quired whether there was any truth in the re-
port that Government were about to disband
or disarm that force, on which Earl GREY ob-
served, that regulations respecting it were now
under the consideration of Ministers, but that it
was not intended to disband it. His Lordship
added that that species of force was not one which
was attended on the whole with benefit to Ire-

land. Why, then, does he not disband it ? It
is a most unconstitutional body, and, as expe-
rience has of late but too fatally and signally
shown, detrimental to the interests of Ireland.
So long as it is kept up on the present system,
and made a mere tool in the hands of the Pro-
testant Church and the Protestant Magistracy,
there can be no hope of peace for the sister
country. The majority of the inhabitants view it
with increasing alarm, jealousy, and sorrow ;
they see in it the active engine of discord ;
the officious fosterer of religious and civil ani-

mosity ; and will spare no pains to rid them.
selves of it. Why should the Catholic be per
petually taught to look on the Protestant as his
enemy ? Why should the links that should
bind the two together, be rudely snapped asunder
by the continuance of an amphibious species of
force established for the sole purpose of over-
awing the Catholic, and impressing on him the
unwelcome truth, that he is an alien in his
owls land ? We hope that Ministers, if
they do not altogether disband the yeomanry,
will at least adopt some regulations respecting
them, which may render them less obnoxious to
the country. As at present constituted, they
are associated in the minds of the Catholics with
recollections of blood and massacre, with ideas
of jobbing, persecution, and tithe exactions.
The Irish Protestant yeomanry is the right arm
of the Irish Protestant church ; one nuisance
supports the other, as Peachem supports Lockit
in the play. Surely it is high time that
both were re-modelled. As for Mr. STANLEY'S
plan of constructing roads, canals, &c. for the
benefit of Ireland, the plan is no doubt excel-
lent, not a shadow of an objection can be raised
against it : but the Right Hon. Gentleman
should bear in mind that, laudable as it is, it is
only a secondary sort of experiment, to be at-
tempted when the great disease that now preys
on the vitals of Ireland, her bloated hierarchy,
is removed. In the course of conversation it
was announced by Earl GREY, that Ministers
do not mean to persevere in the measure for
forming the Irish yeomanry force into battalions,
and compelling them to deposit their arms, as
alluded to by the Right Hon. Secretary for Ire-
land a few days since.
[t.

In the House of Commons last night, Colo-
nel EVANS presented a petition from Mr. and
Mrs. DEA CL E—WllO, it may be remembered,
brought an action against Mr. BINGHAM BAR..
I NC—pray ing that, as they had been much
maligned by speeches delivered in the House,
they might be permitted to bring forward evi-
dence at the bar to contradict all such ca-