The Sun.
London, England, 1836-05-19 00:00:00

moderation and justice, exercise influence-in such elec
tions. It cannot be otherwise in a wholes'ome state of
things. But the Roman Catholic priests of Ireland.
who have no property, come forward to grasp by open
violence the influence which naturally and lawfully is
the landlords. They prevent the tenants from paying
rent, and apply whet would have paid the landlord to
the expense of political opposition to him. Then,
when be takes his legal-remedy against those •;:lmo use
his land without peeing him for it, the priests get up
a public outcry, anti a Pirliameutary war against him
as a political oppressor. Thee it is that they seek at
ince to drain the private purses, and to sap the public
nfluence of the Protestant landlords ; and some Eng-
ish gentlemen ate still blind enough to support them
n their machinations. It is only necessary to add
:hat, though the motion of Mr— Wallace for inquiry,
vas seconded and supported by those who are accused,
:he Government opposed the motion, and it was lost,
—Morning Herald.
We do not recollect to have beard or read of an;
Minister of the Brit.isi Crown placing himself, am
the Government of which he formed an important part
in a position so repugnant to the principles of the Bri
tish Constitution, to the duty of a loyal subject, or to
the dictates even of common sense, as that which the
Marquis of Lansdowne assumed last night in moving
in the House of Lords the third reading of the
amended Irish Corporations Bill. We arc not on the
present occasion about to discuss the merits of the
measure, either in its original, or its amended form.
It was at first a good measure for those who think that
too much power cannot be given to the Popish Priests
and theirlay officer, Mr. O'Connell. It is now a tolerable
Bill in the estimation of those who think that the Popish
Priesthood of Ireland and their lay officer, Mr. O'Connell,
have already power enough. This is a brief, but a
sufficiently accurate and complete epitome of the mea-
sure of Irish Corporation Reform as it was passed by
the Commons, and- as it has been altered by the
Lords, in the exercise of those equal powers, and in
the discharge of those equal duties, which appertain
respectively to the two branches of the Constitutional
Legislature. But the view which the Noble Presi-
dent of the COuncii—acting, in the absence of
the Prime Minister, as the representative of
the whole Administration--takes of the measure, is
not that of the House of Lords, nor is it that of time
House of Commons. It is a view quite new and pe-
culiar. It is a view which, we venture to say, could
not by possibility have been taken of such a measure
by any other Administration than the present ; or by
any ,Adtninistration, if we may vary our phrase with-
out ehat;zing our meaning, which understood or appre-
ciated the British Constitution as a political system,
constructed for any higher purpose than that of keep-
ing in place men destitute of principle, and of cement-
ing a political alliance between confederates destitute of
mutual confidence, affection, or respect. The Pre-
sident of the King's Council and the Cabinet of which
he was in this instance the organ shall be judge d, not
by the representations of their political opponents, but
by the words of the Noble Marquis himself. This
Minister, in moving the third reading of the Irish
Corporation Bill, a measure admitted on all hands
to be of extreme importance, gave an explanation
of his own motives and feelings which, if it have
no other merit, has that at least of unquestionable
originality. The Noble Marquis, according to his
Own statement, moved the House of Lords to read for
the third time, and to pass, this Bill, not because he
thought it a good Bill, but because be thought it a
bad one. He made these motions, by his own confes-
sion, not for the purpose of legislation, but of strife.
He made them, not to promote the King's service or to
forward the business of Parliament, but to obstruct and
embarrass both. He made them, if he is himself to
be believed, not. to produce an harmonious action of
the two branches of the Legislature for the advantage
of the community, but to give to the House of Com-
mons a good opportunity, in point of form, of stig-
matizing and traducing the House of Lords. He made
them, in a word, not in the spirit of a Legislator or a
Statesman, but of an agitator and a demagogue ; not
as a President of the Council or as a Peer of the
realm, but as a mean, abject, slavish, and worthless
-minion of O'Connell. The propoSitions we have now
stated are among the express declarations contained in
the speech of the Marquis of Lansdowne, or among
the unavoidable inferences which it supplies. But
we cannot bring ourselves to take the Noble Mar-
quis at his word. We must suspect that he has mis-
represented his own character and objects, and those
of the Administration of which he is a Member.
The idea is inconceivable that a Minister of the
Crown, and a Member of the House of Lords, should
have made a motion merely with the intention, however
explicitly announced, of affording to time other House
of Parliament an opportunity of reproaching and an-
nulling what, in consequence of this motion, the House
of Lords had done. To do justice to the Marquis of Lans-
downe, we must seek the objects of his motion, with-
out considering the speech by which he introduced it.
We said from the first, that the Lords' amendments
of the Irish Corporation Bill were not unacceptable to
Ministers, and that the latter would adopt them, if
they dared. And all that we now think it safe to con-
clude from the strange conduct of the NOble President
of the Council is, that Ministers have not yet quite
determined whether they dare adopt them or not. The
Bill is kept in existence, however it may have been
abused, by the Government which might have permit-
ted it to expire on the table of the House of Lords.
It is still the Government Bill. It has passed the
House of Lords on the motion of an important Mem-
ber of the Government. It will have been sent back
to the House of Commons by the Government. And,
when there, its fate will entirely depend on the
course which the members of Government in that
House may be instructed to pursue towards it. But,
the speech of the Marquis of Lansdowne, in opposi-
tion to his own motion, may be thought to leave the
Government and its partisans at liberty to deter-
mine what course they snail pursue with respect to
the measure in the House of Commons. They ace
quire by means of this speech the time to endeavour, if
possible, to agree among themselves as to what is best
to be done. They obtain the opportunity of putting
out their feelers, to ascertain how far they dare venture
to go in pursuance of the determinations of the House
of Lords. They gain the chance, the invaluable
chance, of lirinaire: round Mr. O'Connell. And if,
in the end, it should be found expedient to act in the
spirit of the Noble Marquis's speech and in -opposi-
tion to his motion—if in the end it should he resolved
to renounce and repudiate the measure as amended—a
Minister of the Crown will have earned die., praise of
having suggested to the demagogues of Ireland and of
the House of Commons the most promising topics of
factious agitation tipen the subject. The maticeuvre
is, itenust be allowed, a good one. It is all that Mr.
O'Connell ,could wish. It leaves in his hands time ab-
solute power of deciding how Ministers may deal with
the measure in its future stages, and contributes, so
far as the present Administration can contribute to
anything, to his resources of vituperation and invective
against the House of Lords, in time event of the mea-
sure they have amended being finally pronounced un-
acceptable.—Morning Post.
We need scarcely point the attention of ,our readers
to the proceedings of the House of Lords last night,
upon the Irish Municipal Bill. Their result, is in
perfect keeping with their conduct in every instance
since time passing of the Reform Bill, where a liberal
measure was concerned ; and our readers in conse-
quence will not he surprised when we inform them that
the Municipal Bill introduced by his Majesty's Mi-
nisters has found a grave in their Lordships' House,
and that the Lyndhurst—in other words the destruc-
tive—Bill has been read a third time, and been passed
to the House of Commons for its adoption: Quern dots
vat perdere, prints dementat, was never more applica-
ble to any individual, or any body of men than the
Ho-use of Lords. They have been warned again and
aeain of the results which must necessarily spring from
their anti-national policy—but the more they have been
warned, the more intent have they been upon their
own destruction. They have now put the 'seal to their
anti-national character—they have now all.. but leaped
into the aulph which has been long yawning to receive
,
them—and tile Commons of England cannot,. if -they
would, save them from a well-merited fate !' • In the
Commons the only remarkable occurrence was the
throwing out, by a majority of 75 to 43, of the incom-
prehensible Bill of Sir Andrew Agnew for the better