The Sun.
London, England, 1838-10-08 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The article in the Spectator of yesterday, entitled
" The Irith Policy," is curious, and the object of the writer
is a bold one. He undertakes to show that Ireland labours
under a great mistake in looking upon a Tory restoration
with alarm, and in support of this position he endeavours
to prove that the Tories could not, it' they would, pursue a
high Orange policy in that country. In brief. the Specta-
tor's project is to Tory-Radicalise the Irish people. The
only similar attempt that has hitherto been made was, if
our memory is correct, in an address of Sir William
Molesworth to the Reformers of Leeds, last November.
Our Contemporary goes to work cautiously. He tells us
at thy outset of hie argument that he is " assuredly not
disposed to anticipate benefit to Ireland from the re-esta-
blished dominion of the Tories over it !" The candour of
this admission does the Spectator immense credit. The
same caution pervades the whole article. A little further
on we are gravely told that, in case the Tories should re-
sume the Government, "it is probable that the soothing
system would be adopted, and that there would he no
• fuslilades' of the peasanty." Probably there would be no
" fusillades" of the peasantry ! Excessively inviting I We
proceed to give the substance of the Spectator's reasonings
in his own words :
" It becomes a consideration of importance what mischiefs
the Tories are likely to perpetrate in Ireland ; for we are as-
suredly not disposed to anticipate benefit to that country from
their re-established dominion over it. Oh,' say the -Whigs
and 01Coanallites, ' the Tories will attempt to revive slaver) ;
we shall have the infernal Orange system again forced upon
us.' Let it be granted that the Tories have the inclination
imputed to them—have they the means of indulgence? Are
they so much more powerful now than in 1829, or the Irish
means of resistance so much impaired, that the Tories would
venture to set a whole people at defiance ? His Wellington
grown a furious bigot and dotard, or Peel gained rashness with
years, that either or both would in 1838 provoke a contest
which they shrunk from, when their opponents were less nu-
merous, in 1829? That the Tory leaders have no such insane
schemes may be concluded from the whole tenour of their
recent policy."
The argument here, as we apprehend it, is briefly this :
the inclination of the Tories to resist the popular demands
would be as strong as ever, but they would nevertheless
act again ss they did in 1829, and yield to agitation whet
they had denied to the voice of reason and justice.
In the words of a reverend orator at the late anti-Catholic
meeting at Manchester, the Conservative leaders would
again " betray" their party ; " the pilot who weathered
the storm," meaning Sir Robert Peel, " would once more
"treacherously open the floodgates," and let in some fur-
ther ruin upon the Church and the Consti,ution. Mo,t
firmly do we believe that this would be the event, and diet
belief is the ground of one of the most insurmountable
objections we see to the return of Tory Statesmen to office.
It is not because we think a Tory Minister would "set the
people of Ireland at defiance" upon the Municipal Reform
question, for example, that we regard such a Ministry with
apprehension, but precisely for the opposite reason. We
know that such a Ministry would concede that measure in
the very broadest form in which the roar of Irish agi-
tation could demand it, and we know all the vast
and cureless et' leellef occasioned by the concessions of even
the best measures, by a Government opposed to them in
spirit and in principle, and sullenly surrendering only be-
cause resistance is beyond its power. We do not desire !o
see the moat unconstitutional, the most unprincipled, tl.e
most dangerous game of 1829 played a second time. That
game is not to be played twice, with safety to the kingdom
—with safety to public character—with safety to the foun-
dations of civil government. For the sake of Ireland her-
self, we should most strongly deprecate the amplest redress
of her grievances by men who never di 1, and never can,
redress a public wrong, without exalting the demagogue,
and degrading both the Parliament and the Crown. A
heavier disaster could scarcely befal the Irish people than a
second victory, like Emancipation, over a malignant but
infirm Ministry. " The concessions," says Mr. Burke,
with the soundest wisdom, "in which the governing
power of our country loses its dignity, are dearly
bought even by those who obtain their object." The public
will please to recollect that no later than last winter the
Times distinctly admitted that its new friends, the Tories,
are a party "without any principle of action but obsti-
nacy when strong, and flight when feeble." The mea-
sure of Municipal Reform is, probably, the very poorest
concession which the united outcry of a population of eight
millions, so well accustomed to agitate as the Irish, would
be certain to extort from a party of such a character. The
Tories might perhaps make a stand against a repeal asso-
ciation; but we firmly believe that repeal is the only ques-
tion upon which anything like a stand would be made by
them. We trust, however, we shall never again see the
rights of Irishmen established by the reluctant hands of
their bitter and prescriptive enemies. The party now in
power is the only one which can concede just demands with
honour, and resist unjust ones with effect. The Spectator
goes on to say—
" It is sufficient to refer to the conduct of Sir Robert Peel
and his confidential supporters, on and since the dismissal of
the first Melbourne Ministry, to understand that the coercion
and irritation of Ireland enter not into their plans. It is true
that some Orangemen were put into subordinate offices by Sr
Robert Peel, but not with the good-will and entire approbation
of the Tory Premier. His inclination was manifested by his
first act towards forming an Administration—the application
to Lord c anley (between whom and the Whigs, now that the
former has carried his point on the Church question, there is
no dcacernible difference in principle) to join him in a mixed
Cabinet. He sent Lord Haddington, certainly not a Noble:
man of the Roden school, to Dublin; fiery Mr. Shaw became
meek and courteous; and the Ministry patronised the new
plan of education for Ireland."
The Irish readers of the Spectator will have cracked
their sides with laughter before they reach the end of this
passage. It is not to guard Irishmen against delusion that
we notice the article before us. Upon them it will produce
about as much effect as the arguments of the Genius of
Suicide do upon Baron Grog-wig, in Nicholas Nickleby.
If Sir Robert Peel must govern in Ireland with Orange in-
struments, it matters not a straw what his private wishes
may be upon the subject. It may be very true that it was
not with " the good-will and approbation" of so prudent a
man as Sir Robert that men like Colonel Perceval, with
Orange ribbons in their hats and purple sashes round their
waists, were taken into the Administration of 1834, but
the fact that they were so taken into office is quite enough
for the public ; and unless the Spectator can show that the
same thing would not be done again, were a Tory Ministry
to be formed, it is utterly idle to talk of Sir Robert Peel's
inclinations. Indeed the circumstance, that, with all Sir
Robert's influence with his party, and notwithstanding
his being, as is alleged, personally opposed to the ap-
pointment of men of extreme Tory politics, he was
nevertheless compelled to take into office a man like Colo-
nel Perceval, a Grand Master of an Orange Lodge, proves
in the strongest and clearest manner the weight of the
Orange section of the Tory party, and the impossibility of
establishing a mitigated system of Toryism in Ireland. The
Spectator produces the strangest proofs of the good dispo-
sitions towards Ireland, for which he wishes to obtain
credit for the Tory leader. The first act of his Adminis-
tration in 1834 was to apply to Lord Stanley to join him !
Can the Spectator be ignorant that there does not
exist a Tory upon the Opposition benches so thoroughly
detested in Ireland as Lord Stanley ? Can the
Spectator be ignorant that Sir Robert Peel him-
self is popular in Ireland compared with Lord Stanley, to
seek a parallel for whose character and estimation in that
country we must go back to the days of Strafford, whom
his Lordship resembled as closely in insolent assumption
and despotic principles and measures, as he fell im-
measurably beneath him in intellectual grasp and
stature I Yet the Spectator boasts that Sir Robert
Peel, in 1834, solicited Lord Stanley to join
him ; and this is the way he baits the hook
with which he expects to catch the Irish! But our Tory-
Radical angler has another fly upon his line. "He sent
Lord Haddington' certainly not a nobleman of the Roden
school, to Dublin!" Kind Sir Robert Peel ! Good Sir
Robert Peel! If Sir Robert would only promise to
send Lord Haddington back to Dublin, who knows but the
Irish would cry—" Hurrah for a Tory Ministry !" We
know not what the Spectator means by the Roden school,
but we believe Lord Haddington is as staunch a Tory as
Lord Roden, and we have not forgotten (although the ,
Tories and Tory-Radicals may) that on the first night of
Lord Haddington's arrival in Ireland the oriflamme of
Orangeism and standard of civil discord waved over his
vice-regal head in the royal box of the Dublin theatre. It
may be very true that " the maintenance of the old Orange
system is impossible ;" but is this a reason why we should
give the foe an opportunity to endeavour to revive it?
We cannot see the force of the Spectator's reasoning.
Are We not to guard against the attempt to re t -
blish Orangeism,
because it is unlikely that such an
attempt would be successful ? Would the Spectator say
that we should open our doors to a gang of robbers, upon
we may possibly, or even probably,
the calculation that
overpower them after their admission ? 'The Spectator
does not pretend that the Orange section of the Tory
party has been in the least reformed orlema,iiteirgsatdeids.likeAltlhhaet
asks us to believe is, that the y
section, and would keep it in
Ifi
contsro4ul:Mr.
enNisVethkenoswp,echtao
two;
ever, that they did not do so in 8
hawhabtecr,mfleinrgy
himself seemowledges. As to
meek and courteous," it is very little ery
matter.S
w fi
Mr. Shea" becomes, or what becomes ffpa;onerisyedl‘tihre.
Shaw." But C.Z7 Robert Peel's Ministry
new plan of education for Ireland." They did so most
truly, end would patronise it, we very well know, again to-
morrow, were tl restored to office, notwithstanding that
the Biiele has mutilated so atrociously, and notwitb-
stando that one of the Commissioners is a Popish Arch-
bishop, and thatthe rest of the Board have been charged one
thousand times by Tory orators, divines, and Journalists,