The Sun.
London, England, 1836-10-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Mr. O'Connell has addressed a letter to his con-
stituents, giving an account of his Parliamentary con-
duct during the last session, and alluding to some of
the measures relating to Ireland which may be ex-
pected in the next. The present Administration, he
says, are pledged to bring forward three measures of
the most vital importance to the Irish people :-
1. The Tithe Bill ; 2. The Corporate Reform ; and
3. A Poor Law. We confess we do not exactly un-
derstand what Mr. O'Connell would be at with regard
to a Poor-law:— . . _

.‘ Let me not (he says) be misunderstood as being at all
sanguine as to any beneficial results. It is in the first •
place quite clear that no Poor-law Bill will pass the House I
of Lords unless the management of the relief is placed in the
bands of the great landlords. The present House of Lords
will certainly not give us a better Poor-law Bill in this
respect than the English law, and the aristocratic tendency
of that Bill is manifest. There has been a cry raised on
this subject in Ireland which renders it still more necessary
that a Poor-law Bill should pass. But I very much doubt
of any practical relief from such Bill. A Poor-law takes
away a great deal from the pauper, and seldom gives him
any adequate compensation. How few of our Irish de-
claimers on Poor-laws are aware of what such a law
deprives the pauper, or of its fatal ejects on wages."
We really are astonished how it could possibly enter
Mr. 0 Connell s head that it would not be a desirable
thing for the Irish poor to he placed on the footing of
the poor of England. All our fear is that the Irish
will not obtain so good a Bill as the law now in force
in England. And as to Irish declaimers holding forth
to Irish paupers on the fatal effects on wages of the
English Poor-law, only think of the chance they
would have of being listened to by men who, when em-
ployed, seldom receive more than sixpence a day, and
often less. Every labourer in Ireland knows that
wages in England are three times higher than in his
Tom country. We see great difficulties in the way of
establishing Poor-laws in Ireland, but we confess we
never expected to be met with the argument drat
they had a tendency to lower wages. They will
lower rents, no doubt, but that we should suppose
would be viewed by very few in the light of an in-
jury. Mr. O'Connell still maintains " that the great
majority of the people of England are either
hostile or indifferent to the just rights of the
people of Ireland—that is, that they either side with
our oppressors, or are totally careless whether we
be oppressed or not." He adds, " There are, I know
anti admit, a large, and influential, and talented mino-
rity of the people of England inclined to do justice to
the Irish nation. But amongst even these there is
some insincerity, and much want of warmth and cor-
diality." He refers to the admission of certain Eng-
lish writers, that there is "an English dislike to the
Irish people, and a frenzied hatred of our (the Catho-
lic) religion ;" and he warns his countrymen not to
delude themselves with the hope that the other por-
tions of the empire will work out their liberties for
them. "No (he exclaims), we must do it for our-
selves. Let us, then, be up and stirring." Certainly
the more the Irish do for theimelves, the more friends
tiles; will have in this country. The maxim, Aide-toi
et le ciel (lidera, is of universal application. The
Irish found the benefit of it in the struggle which
ended with emancipation. Without subscribing
to Mr. O'Connell's opinion regarding the senti-
mcnts of the people of England, we have no
hesitation in saying that the lesson he reads to his
own countrymen cannot be too much taken to heart.
re
.we to admit that the people of ErTland
do not yet take a sufficient interest in the affairs of
Ireland, much might he said in their defence. Till
within these few years the Government was oligarchical,
and the English knew Ireland only through the repre-
sentations of the oligarchy and their dependents. Some
measure was kept with the people of this island, but
Lone was kept with the Irish, who were treated as
hewers of wood and drawers of water, as if to show
how far misgovernment could be carried. The British
branch of the oligarchy would allow of no interference
.with the Iri.sh branch, and the oppression of the peo-
ple of Ireland seemed so much a matter of course, that
the only question discussed in Parliament was, whe-
ther the heavy expense entailed on us by the mis-
government might not be diminished ? The aristocracy
of both countries would have made common cause

against any attempt to redress any of the grievances of
the Irish, and the English people, having no power to in••
terfere with effect in their behalr, came in some measure
to look on their condition as hopeless. But now that
the Reform Bill has struck a blow at the power of
the oligatchy, and allowed effect to be given to the
opinions of the people, the English must see how
deeply they arc interested in the welfare of their Irish
brethren, and become every day more and more im-
pressed with the necessity of the two nations making
common cause with each other. The Tories and the

Parsons throughout the country endeavour to prevent
this good understanding, and to cherish old prejudices
and revive old animosities. But Liberal Reformers
are sufficiently aware of the paramount importance of
drawing closer and closer the ties between the people
of the two islands. We wish, therefore, that Mr.
O'Connell could have contrived to stimulate the Irish
to exertions in their own behalf, without being unjust
to the English Reformers. He ought to have made
more allowance for the circumstances in which the
people of England have been placed with respect to
Ireland, and made more allowance for the difficulties
with which the Reformers have to contend.—?horning
Chronicle.
The address of Lord Eliot to the constituency of
East Cornwall is worthy of every man's attention. Sir
W. Molesworth, having stated his political sentiments,
and acknowledged them to be such as had lost him the
confidence of the county, very frankly declared that he
would act on such persuasion of the difference existing
between them, and would retire from Parliament as a
Member for East Cornwall. To us it appeared, and
still appears, that the reasons assigned by the Hon.
Baronet for his retirement at a future day ought to
make that retreat immediate, and the only objection
brought against us on that point is a cry for the
demoralizing and degrading humbug of the ballot.
However, the office thus to be surrendered by Sir
W. Molesworth is now aspired to by Lord Eliot, and
his Lordship's claim to the honour is vindicated by a
declaration of his political principles, which, without
shuffling or circumlocution, he avows to be in mapy
important points the reverse of those entertained by
the present Member, and thus gives no man a pretext
for complaining that the Noble Candidate takes
the field under doubtful or dissimulating colours. Lord
Eliot has indeed been sneered at by a frightened jour-
nal of the Ministry, because his address seems to in-
dicate rather what he will not do, than what he will.
The journalist who hazards such a comment on the
Noble Lord must be one of your " foolish fellows"
familiar with the purlieus of Downing-street, and
Storey's-gate. A set of dabblers in political crudity,
empincs, and chimera-mongers, are for ever threatening
to uproot the most essential institutions of this ancient
and illustrious monarchy.
They tell us that th:Lt:llleayt
want to metamorphose and remodel everythin
it is their fixed purpose to overturn the established
church ; to let loose, by a still more enlarged elective
franchise, all the ignorance and desperation of society
upon our electoral system, with a view to submerge
the entire state, by the mere pressure of barbarous
numbers, and blind misdirected force ; that the aristo-
cratic branch of our Constitution, wherein are chiefly
comprehended its invaluable characteristics of stability
and self-control, must be altogether absorbed by a de-
mocracy prone to everlasting movement ; and that to
accomplish with more fatal effect this scheme for an-
nihilatinc, the House of Lords as an hereditary assembly,
nominated by the Crown, but, save only in respect of the
junior Bishops, completely independent of the Crown
and its Ministers, and for setting up in its place ano-
ther body, to be elected by the same democratic and
multitudinous power from which the House of Com-
mons itself shall emanate--that for such worthy ends
as these, the old manly practice of open voting must
and a system of duplicity,
be abolished, concealment,
and cowardice, be established
hypocrisy, fraud, lying,
in the place of it. We ask of our countrymen when
such abominations as these are avowed and boasted of,
and a numerous and unwearying faction in the kingdom
mre moving earth and hell for their attainment, what is
the language that ought to be held by a man who medi-
tates such projects with terror and disgust ? In what
words is it natural, nay possible, for an English gentle-
man to make known the feelings of conservatism and