The Sun.
London, England, 1836-09-12 00:00:00

tors anticipated the "parson-shooting season" has com-
menced. Already a respectable clergyman has been
singled out and marked for slaughter, as an encourage-
ment to Lord Melbourne and the rest of the 11;iniisters
to persevere in a course that ina-; possibly end in the
butchery of all the P
indeed, t clergy—thus u giving,
indeed, an c erg)— s
" a heavy blow and a great discouragement
to Protestantism." A Limerick paper says—" We
are deeply concerned to announce that another at-
tempt has been made against the life of the Rev.
Charles P. Coote, Rector of Doone, while riding home
from divine service on Sunday last in th Yibon-
dav, by the plantations of Timoline, 011 e of two san-
guinary ruffians who lay in wait ta this highly respec-
table clergyman, presented a gun at him, and fired, but
providentially withr3ut effect ; and the other was pre-
pared for a second shot, when the approach of foot-
steps fortunately disappointed those savage miscreants,
who fled under cover of the plantations. The Rev.
Mr. Coote is thus made an object for the deadly aim
of assassins, because of resorting to legitimate means
for the recovery of his lawful income from those only
who are able but unwilling to pay them." Our Irish
correspondent, who announced on Saturday this at-
tempt to murder Mr. Coote, held this language ;
" The clergyman who thus providentially escaped the
bullet of the assassin is, I have reason to know, one of
the most kind-hearted men in that part of the country,
and until the agitation against tithes arrived at a great
height, he was extremely popular in the district. But
since that period, certainly, the Rev. Mr. Coote has
been remarkable for his exertions to enforce his legal
rights, and hence he has been singled out as the
victim of reckless and cold-blooded assassins. This,
then, may be regarded as the opening of the `tithe
campaign' of the approachibg winter, which, there
is too much reason to apprehend, will be marked
by the most calamitous deeds of blood. The last
winter and Spring passed over in comparative tran-
quillity, 'but the struggle between the clergy and the
tithe recusants is daily becoming closer by the exten-
sive adoption of commissions of rebellion,' and I fear
before three months elapse that you will have to re-
cord many on act of bloodshed in the south and west of
Ireland." Will the rest of the wretched Ministerial
organs tell us (by way of excuse) that these bloody
attempts arise from the " miserable Catholic cultiva-
tors ' being called upon to pay tithe ? If so, let them
settle that matter with their masters. The Lords and
the minority of the House of Commons would have
saved the kingdom from these disgraces had the
Whigs and Whig Radicals permitted them. But the
case is too clear to be mystified ; the Ministers and
their minions must fall back upon the cry of "equality,"
while every honest and humane man will tell them
that between themselves and the " parson-shooters ".
the equality is complete; that there is morally no
more difference between them and the assassins than
there is between the man who commits murder and
the man who suggests or instigates the commission of
the crime; whether under cover of "justice to Ireland,"
or by means of the more atrocious and open confession
that it is necessary to give" a heavy blow and a great
discouragement to Protestantism " in that unhappy
and unenlightened land.—Times.
Judging by the frequency of his visits to Windsor,
as well as from other Circumstances, Lord Palmerston
appears to be the only connecting link between Lord
Melbourne's Cabinet and their Royal Master. At all
events, here can be no doubt of the fact, that the
Premier's visits in the same quarter are " like angels,
few and far between." Lord Palmerston's late inter-
views are conjectured to have had for their object an
endeavour to obtain the King's sanction to a dissolu-
tion of Parliament. If such should have been the
case, Ministers can hardly offer a more convincing
earnest of their sense of their sinking popularity, than
any attempt to appeal to the people now upon
the old registry. Owing to their own preeious blun-
dering, it is true that the new registry cannot be re-
sorted to before the month of December, and that
during the whole of November there will exist no re-
gistry at all, the whole constituency of the kingdom be-
ing disfranchised by Whig Acts of Parliament. Either
then a dissolution must take place at once, or the elec-
tions cannot come on till near Christmas. The general
impression is that Lord Palmerston has failed in his mis-
sion. To retain their places, Ministers have certainly
a desperate card to play, and we may expect to see
them play it desperately. The idea of a dissolution
at the present moment is of that description. What
they could expect to gain by such a step no one upon
earth knows ; what they would lose, judging by every
contest which has for a long time taken place, it is
much more easy to conjecture. The real and only
question for the country to decide is, " Can a Govern-
ment go on which submits to be the mere nominee of
Mr. O'Connell ?" That is the point to which public
affairs were reduced in the late session, and that under
which the next, according to present appearances,
must open. That a dissolution could not help them
is almost past dispute. One end of the kingdom
to the other rings with their unpopularity ; and,
in the words of the old Jacobite song,—" Awa,
Whigs, awa," is the one prevailing senti-
ment of the majority of all classes from John
O'Groat's to Penzance. Still determined, as it
were, "to die game," a desperate effort will, we
have no doubt, be made to sustain them even in
their dying moments. Failing in obtaining the
King's consent to a dissolution of Parliament now,
their course, in all probability, will be (if acting then
under the same influence which now alone sustains
them) again to force some obnoxious measure upon
the House of Lords, and upon the Lords doing their
duty, as they have hitherto done, by rejecting it, to de-
mand from the King a dissolution in the spring. Pro-
vided the Lords do their duty, as they have .hitherto,
firmly, temperately, and advisedly, this, perhaps, will
be the best issue to which the question can be brought,
and we entertain no apprehensions asto the result. The
new registry will be by that time ready, and we have no
doubt that it will greatly strengthen the ranks of e,
Con-
servatism. At the same time, it is and must be a
source of poignant regret, that the real interests and
business of the country must stand still while a contest
is going on, the object of which is solely to sustain in
power the most incapable and inconsistent faction that
ever usurped or held the reins of office.—Morning
Herald.

Peerage Reform is now the test by which the sin-
cerity of all who profess liberal opinions must be
proved, and no man nor body of men need expect to
retain the confidence of the country, who denies the
obvious necessity of abolishing at once, and for ever,
the incongruous and absurd privilege of hereditary
legislation. To effect a desire for general improve-
ment, and yet refuse to remove the obstacle which
stands permanently in the way of every efficient mea-
sure of amelioration, is sheer hypocrisy and deceit. In
Peerage Reform now rests the hope of Great Britain.
A review of the two last Sessions must convince every
impartial mind of the impossibility of improving our
institutions and adapting them to the wants and neces-
sities of the people, while the House of Lords, based
..
on the hereditary principle, holds under irres
" .nsibl
.
tyranny the popular branch of the SP ,-
been said that the Lords reprerj't ....ate. It lim
the people, the
property, and intelligenoe
s
Perfectly as the Cop^ '-:f cn
the nation, as fully and as
..moos. A more daring and false
assertion wa never
Lords • . made. What sympathy have the
with the people of Great Britain ? Do they
r.-,i holattiliienme themselves an exclusive class ? Are not their
habits
consider intercourse ferent from
gradation ? oiusseo.fofthought and feeling essentially dif-
general society ? Do they not
considered sufficient se with mere Commoners to be a de•
the greatness of his
Even in the case of Sir Robert Peel,
exertions in suppott of oligarchic
dominion is not en •
atonement for the
crime of being the son of cotton-spinner, for which
miler admitted on sufferance
reason the Tory Baronet is r
(
than received by his noble
not the aristocracy use all their eft-
effectual barrier against plebeian
political associates. Do
efforts to keep up an
. intrusion which they
?-.._and though for
haelienated
consider as little short of pollution
political purposes, they may endeavour to show an
is it not their
Lords
identity of interests with the people,
greatest pride to hold themselves as a classT
from the great body of the community ?
represent the people ! Out upon the infamous fallacy
Equally false, but more specious, is the assertion,
that they represent the property of the nation.
The wealth of Great Britain does not consist
in the number of her acres, but in her industry-- indus
.ry--