The Sun.
London, England, 1831-06-06 00:00:00

distinctions," " wretched hankeringa after exploded
monopolies," "vile attempts to create anew servitude."
This is all exceedingly good as proceeding fom
Mr. O'Connell; but what is mote to the purpose,
a great deal of it is undeniably true. In supposing
that the Irish 8.11 may be altered to the extent he
wishes, without destroying the whole intended mea-
sure of Ministers, this gentleman evidently assumes
that a system of Reform has never been in exist-
ence, since in any system the various parts must bear
some definite relation to the whole and to each
other. He appreciates here accurately enough the
fitness of his Majesty's Ministers for the task they
have undertaken. Mr. O'Connell has directed his
peculiar or rather his exclusive attention to the Irish
Bill, or he would not have faded to parceive that
many of the same iniquities and absurdities of which
he complains, are also to be found in the Reform
Bills for England and Scotland. If, for instance
a ten-pound rent in Ireland and a ten-pound rent in
England are two very different things, are they,
not also very different things in Devonshire and
in Middlesex ? If Waterford, and Limerick, and
Galway are to have an additional Member each
from regard to the influence of Sir John New-
port, Mr. Spring Rice, and " the Remembrancer,"
is it forgetter that similar things are to be
done in England ? Are the President of the
Council and his Grace of Bedford to be blotted
from our country ? Will not the Hon. and Learned
Member for Kerry be consoled when he recollects
that disfranchisement is to be effected in England to
the extent of 168 Members of the House of Com-
mons, the places selected for disfranchisement hay-
ing heretofore returned 34 Whigs and 34, also,
but with the addition of an even hundred, of Tory
Members ? The demands of Mr. O'Connell on
behalf of Ireland—demands which it is easy to fore-
see will prove exceedingly troublesome, may serve
as a lesson to his Majesty's Ministers, of the dan-
ger of laying down principles which it is either
unfit or disagreeable, or impracticable to pursue to
their legitimate results. The claim preferred by
this gentleman of 250 Members for Ireland in the
reformed House of Commons, may be viewed
in reference to the whole Reform measure of
Government as a reductio ad absurdunz. If the
principle of that measure be just and wise, it follows
of strict necessity that the claim of 250 Members for
Ireland is perfectly consistent with justice and wis-
dom. In England and Scotland the scale of popu-
lation is every thing. It determines the boroughs
from which the right of sending Members to Par-
liament shall be taken away—it determines the
towns to which the right of sending Members to
Parliament shall he given—it determines the counties
that are to have additional representatives—it gives
si.teen Members to London, and three to Edin-
bu-gh. Why, in the name of common justice and
conunon sense, is this principle of population, which
if it be good for any thing must be of universal
application, abandoned by our consistent Reformers
the moment they cross St. George's Channel ?
Morning Post.

We present, in another column, an address to
Lord Palmerston, by the British residents at Oporto,
expressive of their gratitude for the prompt and
energetic measures pursued by his Majesty's Go-
vernment to curb the injustice of the petty tyrant
of Portugal, and to punish his violation of their
rights. Nothing can be more gratifying to a Go-
vernment than such a testimony of approbation from
par ties who fee! the benefit of its interference in their
behalf, and who, in the heart of a foreign country,
are made to bless the protecting arm of their own.
It is well known that under a barbarous despotism
like that of Portugal, nothing but the apprehension
of a speedy vengeance following proved insult or op-
pression, and the constant vigilance of our authori-
ties over the interests of their countrymen, could
give them any security as foreigners, either for their
persons or property. Before the Portuguese tri-
bunals they could expect neither law nor justice.
Hence, since the time of Cromwell, we have always
had a Judge Conservator for deciding in suits be-
tween Englishmen and the Government. But this
Judge could do little, and would soon himself be-
come corrupt, unless his zeal was quickened or his
injustice punished by means like those lately re,orted
to by our Foreign Minister. A few British ships of
war are Foas et imes as necessary to command respect
and to secure justice in the Tagus, as on the coast
of Barbary.—Times.

The Brussels Papers of Saturday, which arrived
yesterday (being ante-dated), do not contain the
proceedings of the Be!gic Congress on Friday or Sa-
Maley, which were expected to terminate in the
choice of Prince Leopold to the Belgic throne.
The fact of his election by a great majority, and of
• his being at this nwaleut King elect of the Catho-
lic Netherlands, does not, however, admit of a
doubt. Out of 160 Members who attended the
discussion on Friday, when our letters were de-
spatched, die friends of his Royal Highness calcu-
lated on the majority of 160; and if the question of
the limits were settied, the zealous adhesion of the
remaining thirty. We may therefore confidently ex-
pect in London, in the course of the week, the De-
putation of the Congress, with the offer of the
crown. This deputation is to consist of M. Ger-
lacf e, President of the Assembly (who will be
at its head, and act as its organ, in the interesting
business which it will have to perform), of Count
F. de Merode, who has already been in London to
consult the views and wishes of his future Sovereign,
the Count Vilsin XIV., of M. Van de Weyer, who'
was the Belgic Envoy to London in November last,
and of a deputy from each of the provinces. The
much-contested province of Luxemburg, arecng the
rest, will send its deputy to London, as it has
already done to the Congress, and Irobably M.
Nothomb, who made the proposition for de-
manding such a prompt answer from the Prince,
will be the person selected for that mission. M.
Gerlache is a man of talent, an excellent speaker,
and probably altogether the most respectable mem-
ber of the Congress. He seems deeply impressed
with the necessity of terminating the present anar-
chical state of things in his country by a speedy deli
nitive arrangement, and will therefore exert all his
influence to remove the obstacles which may lie in
the way of Prince Leopold's accepietice of the
Crown. In this endeavour he will be warmly i.e.
cunded by at least three or four members of the de-
putation. In the speech which he delivered in his
elevation to the Presidency of the Congress; he made
seine severe strictures on the conduct of the French
elpvernment, to which we now allude—not with any
praise (for probably it would have been more becom-
ing in the head of a Legislative Assembly to have
avoided all irritating expressions towards a foreign
friendly Government), but to show that, strongly dise
liking a French connexion and republican politics,
kie will be proportionally zealous to promote an ar-
rangement with Prince Leopold, and a friendly in-
tercourse with England. For the present the war
party or the faction of republican agitators seems to
nave met with a signal defeat. All their motions
and amendments; have been rejected by a great ma-
jority, notwithstanding the vehemence of their
speeches, and the applause of their friends in the gal-
leries.. One of them, M. Forgeur, felt obliged to com-
plain that the " patriotism of' the assembly
bw.ahs
dying, if not already dead,"—an.. exp'creo'snsioins‘:
highly offended the membrs of the and
called fcrth the applause of " the stranggeres.', In
spite of these arts, the Congress decided' that
they would proceed to the immediate election
of King by a majority of 158 to 31. Another
attempt, which excited even a greater tumult than
that created by the imprudent expressions of M.
Forgeur, was made by M. Robaulx to throw ob-
stacles in the way of election. This Deputy left
the assembly at the call of ,some granger, and soon
returned with two new protocols of the London
conferences in his pocket,—protocols which had not
been communicated to the Belgic Government, cc
which the Government had withheld from the Con-
gress. We are not informed who communicated
these documents to this busy agitator, but the mis-
chievous intention of produeieg them at that parti-
cular stage oPthe discussion was manifest: . The
proposition which he grounded upon them, of