The Sun.
London, England, 1838-09-24 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Another letter from Derrynane, addressed to the people
of Ireland ! Not a word, this time, about the " convulsive
movement :" the stream of Mr. O'Connell's ink meanders
thron,gh the margin of his paper with a smooth soft current
*s.:,l it loses itself insensibly in a bog of blarney. Its drift,
however, is intelligible enough. It is a pleading for time.
it asks,,,that before the alternative of repeal shall be pe-
remptorily insisted on by the six millions, a little further
interval be allowed for the purpose of trying what justice
the United Parliament will give to Ireland : that is, it
asks another twelvemonth, during which the author shall
be permitted to enjoy the patronage of the Irish Govern-
ment. If that year shall leave Ireland still unredressed,
then the repeal agitation is to be renewed. But meanwhile
and at once, another agitation, of a petitionary character, is
to be commenced. The Queen and the Parliament are to be
petitioned ; deputations are to wait on each Minister ; de-
putations are to wait on each Member of Parliament ;
and Committees of deputations are to make speeches
in each great commercial and manufacturing town.
Every private gentleman, and every man in business
throughout England, in his parlour or his counting-
house, is to be beset with beggars, or bores, or both. The
plague of the locusts was but a type of this frightful visi-
tation. For the purpose of preparing and enforcing the
cloud of petitions which is thus to darken England, a new
General Association is to be formed under the remarkably
simple and intelligible title of " The Precursor Society ;"
and into this patriotic band Mr. O'Connell invites not
only all the hereditary bondsmen themselves, but all their
ladies, and all their little ones—everybody, in short, by
whom or for wham the sum of a shilling can be raised.
At that small charge each individual is permitted to pur-
chase an immortal record on the enrollment list ; and " the
moment it exceeds two millions the moral effect of such a
demonstration will be irresistible." Who would grudge to
lay out a shilling in twelve pennyworth of " moral effect ?"
There is also another effect somewhat less moral to be ma-
naged, by the way, which is provided for with much address.
Mr. O'Connell, our readers are aware, is at the head of a
Joint Stock Bank, called, if we mistake not, the Na-
tional Provincial Bank of Ireland. Observe how care-
fully the crafty Director keeps his eye on the local circula-
tion—how naturally be contrives to make room for a little
paper issue in preference to the hard coin of the realm.
" The better mode," says be, " of conducting the enrol-
ment has been found to be for one person to undertake to
collect the names and shillings of 19 other persons, and, by
adding his own, then to transmit the 20 names, with a
pound note." All the money is to be accounted for " ac-
curately and publicly." May we take the liberty of sug-
gesting it to some of the Precursors, who may possibly
think the fee of a shillir's per head rather more than can
be quite necessary to pay for the writing of two millions of
names on a list, to ask what is intended to be done with
the two millions of shillings, or rather the hundred thou-
sand one pound notes, which the enrolment is thus to
bring in ! It does really seem a great deal of
money to spend in mere press-work and paper for pe-
titions, even on the large scale projected by the Pre-
cursors. Mr. O'Connell avails himself of this occasion to
explain his grounds for declining to make common cause
with the English Radicals. One of his most prominent
reasons is, that though he agrees with them in wishing
Universal Suffrage, he dissents from them in their deside-
ration of Annual Parliaments. Of course he does. He
is the very largest boroughmonger ever known to the
British Constitution, and to any jobber of that sort an-
nual elections, in these times, would he marvellously
troublesome and expensive. Moreover, he expresses him-
self generally dissatisfied with the temper of the English
Radicals and their bad management, " injuring instead of
serving the cause of peaceable reform, disgusting their
friends, and increasing and strengthening their enemies."
Can the Honourable and sensitive Member for Kilkenny
condescend to retain his seat under a patron who speaks
thus unkindly of him and his? We see here how Mr.
O'Connell treats the Radicals : in his former letter he gave
his opinion of Lord John Russell ; now let us have his
judgment upon his own policy, and that of the Government
of Ireland. He relates the history of' his affectionate
connexion with the Whig. Ministry, and of the results
p7oduccd by it, and he sums thus :—" No permanent ad-
vantage has been derived from all this. It is clear that so
far from insuring us permanent advantage, the fact is, that
if the Tories were to come into power to-morrow, we should
lose at once all we have gainei, and be placed in a worse
situation than we were before !" Such is the benefit con-
ferred upon Ireland by her great demagogue ; such is the
success which is to induce the Irish people to come for-
ward by millions and trust hi n again ; such is the result of
the policy for which the Whigs claim the thanks of their
country, and Lord Mulgrave a step in the Peerage ; such is
the testimonial to the ability of Ministers from the man who
placed, and guided, and maintained them, wbohas made and
who has marred them ; who has used them For his passing pur-
rse, end is now preparing, after one year more of squeez-
in r, to cast them off. They must quake, we think, at the
ominous sentence alas which he disposes of them. " The
Ministry, instead of increasing in power to serve us, h:lve
actually become less able to carry one measure useful to
Ireland." That is quiet, but conclusive. They have full
warning to flit.—Tones.
The .extremitiessto which a factious spirit hurries un-
principled politicians were never so remarkable as in the
renconr with which a certain pack of Newspaper writers
I-.ave opened us on the report of the Irish Railway Com-
missioners. We had hoped that the nature of the subj, et
was one which would have silenced the noisiest curs in the
Tery kennel, and that at last a ground had been disco-
vered upon which even Orangeism itself might be expected
to lay aside its virulence, and co-operate with enlightened
and honest men for the relief end improvement of a most
important and hitherto most neglected portion of the em-
pire. In this hope we have certainly been disappointed ;
and we have only obtained another proof that there is no
sounding the depths of the genuine Tory animosity
to the public good, whether it be the extension of the
franchise, or the construction of a railway. At the
same time we cannot observe, without satisfaction,
that the scandalous attempts that have been ma le
to lower the charac'er of the document in question,
and frustrate the beneficent plans unfolded by its able and
enlightended authors, are confined to a few of the pal-
triest Orange Newspapers in Inland, and to one or two
Journals here, little more exalted in reputation, and we
believe possessed of very little more influence with the
British public. Against such an opposition we are not
afraid to trust a case so strong, so just, so clear, so deeply
founded in the maturest views of the interests of Ireland,
and, indeed, of the whole United Kingdom, as the Railway
Commissioners have laid before the country. We are told
by a weekly snarler at a project which excites his hostility,
for the twofold reason that it is truly liberal and truly phi-
lanthropic, " that whenever a large expenditure of the
people's money is in question there is a strong party ready
to 'aud the advantage and proclaim the neces,ity of the
disbursement." Perhaps so ; but let us tell this writer
that there is another party (although fortunately not a
strong one), which, if but a shilling of the public money
is proposed to he expended upon an object uniling
all the recommendations of being judicious, liberal, and hu-
mane, is equally ready to decry its utility and proclaim its
extravagance, particularly when that object has obtained
the sanction of a commission issued by a Government like
the present. The same writer proceeds to exclaim
—" Only think of the magnificent jobs in prospect !" This
is said of a proposal which if it has one characteristic more
strongly marked than another is its inevitable tendency
to crush the jobs at present in the shell, and render it im-
possible for interested projectors to hatch in future any
more schemes of the same feather. This is said of a re-
commendation which is opposed by jobbers and their organs
only. Perhaps it is our Contemporary's dread of jobbing
which makes him so nervously anxious to see a Tory Ad-
ministration again in office ; be can perceive no other aim
in the plan of the Railway Commissioners but " to pro-
vide fnr needy patriots as contractors, surveyors, and
clerks !" We shall not libel the Commissioners so foully
as to defend them from imputations to which their names
and stations are a sufficient answer. But the writer conti-
nues—" On the lines which the Commissioners found
already prepared for execution, all, or nearly all, of this
patronage was engrossed. To have simply reported on the
feasibility of this or that scheme, and laid down general
rules and principles, would have been a barren employment
unworthy of the genius of Irish jobbing : so the Commis-
missioners resolved to quash all the nascent undertakings
in favour of a gigantic plan that would bring employment,
pay, and patronage to the
mselves." To decide whether the
stupidity or malice of this passage is-the more remarkable,
would be a problem of some difficulty. Does the writer really
suppose that the Railway Commissioners were appointed
merely to report in favour of the enterprises that
had had already been set on foot ? A Commission for
such a purpose would have been a job indeed ; and
we know of no support it would
issued
hwaidthbautftahratdiffofertelniet
parties by whom a Commission
object has been so corruptly
latnydofsealfioshsolyehasesraiimleed:ur,Twhee
Government, however, was guilty
should rather say, of no such flagrant folly, aasptporoavpepoainndt
Railway Commissioners with instructions .
sanction certain lines already in contemp a..tio.n,
?and,,noonuer
other. What were the terms of the Commission
will and pleasure is that you should consier,first, as to a
general system of railways for Ireland, in such. ma.n.ner,
either by causing surveys to be made of the leading lines ,
or otherwise, as may best tend to guide the Legislature in
the consideration of the projects that may be brought before
it ; and secondly, as to the best mode of directing the
development of said new and important means of in-
tercourse to the channels whereby th;siratest advan-
tages may be obtained by the isizs outlay, &o.
&c." Yet, with these plain terms of the Commis-

adopted ; let them prove that the lines recommended
in the report are not the best for the country, and

show forth the merits and beauties of their own

darling projects which they are so furious with the Corn
missioners for presuming to discountenance. Let them do
this, and they will for once, in a life of faction and mis-
chief, do the public interests a service ; but if this is out
of their power, in the name of common sense let them find
some other charge against the objects ef their rancour than
that they have, to the best of their information and ability,
fulfilled the duty peremptorily imposed upon them by the
Commission under which they acted. We cannot refrain
from presenting our readers with the following charming
specimens of the style and spirit of the warfare waged
against these Commissioners and their invaluable labours.
One writer calls upon the public to wake with all its
eyes to the perils and dangers impending upon the coun-
try ; for he is credibly informed that Mr. Mahony has
been on a visit to the Chancellor of the Exchequer at
Mount Trenchard! But this is nothing to the acute-
ness and vigilance of a luminary who enriches the Lime-
rick Chronicle with the results of his observations in Lon-
don. This Argus-eyed guardian of his country writes as
follows :—" So close a crony is the celebrated omnibus
(an elegant figure for Mr. Mahony) with the Commission-
ers, that one of them, with his wife, are now living in the at-
torney's chambers, 4, Trafalgar-square." But there is
worse still. " The Government engineeer, Vignoles, is
billeted in the same quarters." Truly horrible ; and yet
nothing at all, gentle reader, to what is yet in store for
you, for the same authority proceeds to state that Mr.
Drummond, the Under Secretary for Ireland, is lodged at
Morley's Hotel, next door. "Perhaps this may be all
accident," adds the writer cautiously. Accident, indeed !
Not a bit of it. A plot, the public may be well assured,
and one that would furnish the finest exercise for the pecu-
liar talents of our friend, the Standard.—Morning Chron.
The Government papers are playing a very dishonest
game with reference to the Corn-laws. They say these
laws are in the highest degree pernicious, and that the peo-
ple ought to postpone everything else to the important end
of causing them to be abolished. But if this be true, how
happens it that the Government which they constantly
praise as the best of all possible Governments should do
nothing towards this abolition ? With what degree of ho-
nesty, candour, or credibility is it that a set of Journals at-
tack the Corn-laws, and hold them up to public hatred as
the bane of the country, while they fulsomely eulogize a
Government which puts itself in a decidedly adverse
position to a repeal or to any important alteration of
those laws ? In this matter, as in every other which
arises out of Whig management, we find the taint of
trickery and delusion. If Journalists really believe the
Corn-laws to be inimical to the prosperity of the coun-
try, and if they think that popular meetings would be
better employed in affording demonstrations against
those laws than in demanding further alterations of
the representative system, why is the Government
left unremindcd and unblamed upon the subject? Why
are these popular meetings so violently censured for censur-
ing the Government, when (if it be true that the abolition
of the Corn-laws is the greatest and best thing that can
be done for the country) the Government deserves the
severest blame for not having made even the slightest offi-
cial move towards that abolition ? The truth seems to be,
that the Whigs, having been unable to collect even the
smallest scrap of popularity by what they have done, are
tra ing the Corn-law repeal trick through their Journals in
order to get a little popularity for what they have not &no
nor mean to do. It is known thet the popular mind is a
very foolish mind and very inattentive, and that its conclu-
sions concerning the views of Government arc chiefly drawn
from the tone of the Government Journals. The impression,
therefore, of the unthinking crowd, who are so mighti:y
taken with the notion of "cheap bread," will be that the
Government is not unfavourable to the repeal of the
import duties ; and though this will be found out by
and by to be all a mistake, yet by that time some
other trick will probably have been thought of, and in the
triumph of a fresh delusion the detection of the old one
will be passed over with the habitual shamelessness of
Whigs. The Whigs know that the Tories have too much
regard for character to play any such game upon the Corn-
law question as the Government Journals are now playing.
We might, without taking any decisive part upon the
question, call upon the people to " agitate" against a
Government which, while it professes peculiar respect
for popular opinion, will not take any step in Parlia-
ment towards bringing about that reduction in the money
price of bread which is popularly retarded as the
greatest desideratum for the country. But we scorn
tricky policy, even against the tricky. It is an ac-
knowledged principle of Tory policy that to keep
things steady in the country, and to do justice to all
parties under existing circumstances, the price of corn
must be kept considerably above the continental ave-
rage. A less price than from fifty to sixty shillings for
the quarter of wheat must necessarily create a confu-
sion, embarrassment, and distress in the affairs of the coun-
try, which, if continued, would bring about some fearful
convulsion. It matters nothing then to the Tories—beyond
being to them the cause of deep regret—that the popular ig-
norance and impatience should demand a repeal of the Corn-
laws—it matters nothing to them that popularity is to be
obtained by adiocsting the vulgar and plausible side of the
question—it matters nothing that what is with impertinent
vanity described as " the determination of the popular
mind," or the " spirit of the age," should be all in favour
of free trade in foreign corn—the Tories know that this
country is in no condition to bear money cheapness, with-
out a revolution which would entail much misery upon all
classes of the people, high and low, rich and poor. The
Tories will, therefore, under whatever circumstances of
disadvantage they may fight the battle, continue to fight it
steadily against the clamour for free trade in corn,
whether that clamour be raised insidiously by a dishonest
Government, or openly and sincerely by a mistaken
populace. We have already shown, upon various occasions,
the practical danger, and misery, and degradation which
would arise from taking our supplies of food from foreign
countries, and thus abandoning, to a considerable extent at
all events, our own cultivation. Such a policy would place
our country at the mercy of national enemies abroad, and
put our working people under the yoke of manufacturing
is rants at home. But there is yet a more general objec-
tion to be urged against the cheap-corn advocates, of which
they who love justice, and a steady undisturbed progress of
our national affairs, should never lose sight. This country
is bound to pay twenty-eight millions of pounds sterling
per annum for interest on its National Debt. The current
expenses of the country may be lessened in their money
amount by the cheapness of that which the Govern-
ment has to preside for—namely, the maintenance of
sailors and soldiers, the building of ships, the manufac-
ture of arms, and so forth. But the twenty-eight millions,
or, in other words, two-thirds of the whole taxation
of the country, cannot be lessened in its money amount with-
out disgrace and dishonour falling upon the nation, besides
the infinite practical harm which flows from want of com-
plete confidence in the national good faith. Now, under
this state of our national circumstances, it is mere madness
to labour for the establishment Of money-cheapness. The
cheaper that we make corn and other things in proportion,
the dearer we make money, and, consequently, the greater
do we make the burthen of the annual twenty-eight mil-
lionst which we must pay. If we were bound to pay six-
eenmillioninsstoefadqourarttweresntyo.ef
twenty-eight
tn
millions
sllyof tpoouthnedspustbelric.
creditors,
ster-
ling,
corns
en g,
possible.
hthenea p, every
tWhat
a t
our e
we w o
burthenul
contend
see
otheffor
t aisa
x ,t advantageitothat
namight
ihavingg
m
oft be a o having
s
n e y
tlighttheto
pay, and not corn, our policy ought to be to make money
'oaf ivithicehcrea.mneuthnt
cheap ; and as the owners of property buy money with that
property, just as the owners of money buy property with that
money, it is the interest of all tax-arheers, whose possessions
w:erautrs?mtlgha labour, ur ,x
fixed
consist of corn or other goods, or ofP
oi
interest,
t earneys
tt h, itnog
haveels e
moneyexcept
cheap,mo ne y ,
No r 0
w
stocksoilon
ness or dearness of commodities is measuredgby amountthee cheap
make
of money they will exchange for, it is clear that to
money cheap commodities must be dear, and vice versa.
Every labourer who buys tea, and sugar, and gin, and soap,
and beer, and tobacco, must pay a considerable proportion
hol earningsafehhwuiusarntuss tch hee ac poin
ur tax.
Corn-laws
ilta
wi s' s
wrNhe
eporewea,tehdo theh
cemoe
ratuuhn
because
ahcetuwrei
cheap,srh esusauty
and
havett
thus
ua ts
btuerethr.e bewtteelrhatbhlee
mtoerecormedpueetetiownitihn e
do that ;he must reduce the labourer's foreign
themanufac-
whpriecse. ofßcuotrnwiwllotnh'et
labourerpurehase
purchases
find
witha similar
his
w a reductionges?
It i
si in
impossible,the
gsnwhicforan
d tahtxeh
in oconsider-
ablew part of the price of these things is ta
can-
not be reduced, except as to one-third partx
re-
maining two-thirds are pledged to the national creditor 'tor in a
fixed amount of pounds, shillings, and pence,
must be paid all the same, whether it will exchange
market for ten millions of quarters of wheat or for twenty
e
millions. It would be well if all the clamourers for cheap
wheat had the fairness of old Cobbett, who admitted that