The Sun.
London, England, 1836-01-22 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Sir Francis Burdett, having nothing better to do,
as a frost having interrupted the sports of the field,"
has addressed a letter (It will be found in another co- '
lumn) to the independent Electors of Westminster, in
answer to the last epistle of Mr. O'Connell from
Derrynane. We really do not think that either the Elec-
tors of Westminster or the people of Ireland (for part
of the letter is addressed to them) will be much bene-
Etted by this nerveless production. Does Sir Francis
really believe that the people of Ireland have not en-
graven on their hearts the services done to them by
.Mr. O'Connell? We are far from thinking the Ho-
nourable and Learnd Member for Dublin a perfect
character ; we have more than once differed in opi-
nion with him ; and with respect to the Repeal ques-
tion in particular, he was triumphantly driven from
every position he took up by Mr. Spring Rice. But
because Mr. O'Connell is not infallible, are we to deny
that it was chiefly to his great ability, talents
for business, and extraordinary energy, thai the Irish
are indebted for that altitude which enabled them to
strike terror into the hearts of the proud Oligarchy of
England, and compel the Duke of Wellington to de-
clare that he was forced against his wish to break the
fetters of the Catholics ? It is paltry special pleading
in Sir Francis to torture a sentence of Mr. O'Connell
into an admission that the Catholic Relief Bill was
only beneficial to a few Noblemen and Gentlemen.
Mr. O'Connell's meaning was that the Relief Bill
alone, without following it out into its consequences,
was only beneficial to a few Noblemen and Gentlemen,
But the exclusion of the Catholics from civil rights stood
in the way of all improvement : and having obt3ined
Emancipation, every other improvement became pos-
sible. There is this difference between Mr. O'Con-
nell and Sir Francis Burdett—that Mr. O'Connell
not merely wrote and spoke incessantly in favour
of Emancipation, but formed the combinations by
which it was ultimately carried : while Sir Francis
Burdett seemed to have no other object in view than
to make a .speech on Parliamentary Reform once a
year in Parliament, and occasionally at the Crown and
Anchor and Palace-yard ; and really seemed to be
sorry when Reform was carried, as he was thereby de-
prived of the theme on which he had been accustomed
to speak, and his constitutional indolence would not
allow him to study the merits of any other question.
But, in truth, the two men are as opposite as fire
and water. Mr. O'Connell is active and energetic, and
though possessed of quick discernment, and shrewd,
like most men of sanguine temperament, is too much
under the dominion of impulse. Sir Francis, on the
other hand, is cold and inactive, living, like an Au-
tocrat, merely to the day, having no generous aspira-
tions, and caring little for the welfare of any other
portion of the human species than himself. He is
more a passive than an active character. To escape
importunity, or impelled by superior energy, he may
be driven to do a generous action ; but of his own
accord, he would not readily think of doing good. If
he is without the faults of Mr. O'Connell, he is also
without the redeeming q.ualities which atone for those
faults. Sir Francis shows how completely he is clay
in the hands of the potter, by the impression which
the 77»zes has evidently made on him. In fact, his
letter is a mere echo of the lucuhrations of that journal
for tile last twelve months, which he has received
without examination. 112 is indebted for every one
of his topics to the Times, even the distinction between
the purity of the ancient faith of Ireland and the
Popery introduced from England. Fla has allowed
himself to be persuaded, also, that Ireland is rapidly
sinking into barbarism and poverty under the influence
of Mr. O'Connell :
In fact (he says) Ireland seems to be relapsing into a
state of barbarism under his influence, and whatever may be
the march of mind in other countries, there it appears to be
retrograde ; the whole state of society is unhinged by it ; it
depresses all industry, drives fiom the country that which it
most stands in need of—capital ; dries up the sources of
employment ; plu6l:s the heart out of all enterprise, and
leaves a miserable superabundant population without re-
source, and almost without hope of relief."
We are far from saying that the condition of Ireland
is what it ought to be. The eels of ages of misgo-
vernment are not to be cured in aday. But Sir Francis,
following his blind guide, does not know that Ireland
is more prosperous at this moment than it ever was
since its first connection with England ; that, notwith-
standing the devastating system pursued bY several
unfeeling landlords, who wish to show their attach-
ment to Sir Francis's pure Christianity, by depriving
Catholics of the means of existence-notwithstand-
ing the Protestant Clergy have been more anxious
to distribute swan-shot among their parishioners
than the truths of the Gospel--still the people ale
rapidly improving in industry under the upright and
impartial Government of Lord IVlulgrave, and the pro-
fits of industry are fast attracting capital to the country.
The Scotsman of Saturday last, in an able article,
shows from Parliamentary Papers the wonderful in-
crease which has taken place in the Customs of Ire-
land. The following account of the gross receipts of
Customs at the principal ports of Ireland in 1833 and
1834, places the rapidity of the increase beyond a
doubt: -- _ _ _ .

--- .
1833. 1834.
Baltimore
Belfast
Coleraine
Cork
Drogheda
Dublin 654,765 768,632
Dundalk 4,515 4,497
Galway
Limerick 117,798 136,910
Londonderry
Newry ... .. . 43,426. 51,083
Sligo
Waterford
Westport 437 597
Wexford
The following are the sensible inferences which
the Scotsman draws from the comparison :
" The trade of Ireland is rapidly extending. The in-
crease in 1834, compared with 1833, is fully one-seventh,
and if it continues at this rate, it will be doubled in less
than seven years. In all the ports except Coleraine,
Dundalk, and Wexford, which are small, there is an in-
crease, and in most of them it is important. This is one
symptom among many which show that the seeds of im-
provement have taken root in the country, and that it would
advance rapidly, if the political questions which disturb
society and shake mercantile confidence were settled in a
satisfactory manner."
So much for Sir Francis's knowledge of Ireland.
The time is fast approaching when agitation will
cease, by the removal of the causes. ' Equal justice
—the abolition of all distinctions founded on creeds
will allow the people to concentrate their energies on
objects beneficial to their country. Ireland is not re-
trograding, and will not retrograde. In a few years it
will be one of the most flourishing divisions of the
empire.—Morning Chronicle.

Another letter from Sir Francis Burdett to the
electors of Westminster will be found in this day's
Times. Our own sentiments upon the case, and the
questions which have arisen out of the Hon. Baronet's
first Address to Brookes's Club, have been already
stated, and so much in detail, that our readers will be
not ill-pleased at our sparing them the trouble of a re-
petition. It gives us, however, no small satisfaction
to find in this new record of the feelings of Sir Francis,
a corroboration so clear and strong of the first impres-
sion made upon ourselves by the proceedings of the
Whig O'Connells as they first came out before the
world. Nothing, as it appeared to us, could be
meaner or more base than for O'Connell's adherents to
transform a question which in itself was purely social
and personal, into one of a political and party nature
—toput a
gag in the mouth of every man, and strike
p
him dumb as to all the offences against civilized so-
ciety perpetrated by one who usurps the name of
gentleman, lest a certain party in the State should he
exposed to the political vengeance of the individual
thus offending. The imputation affixed to O'Connell
himself by sueh a treatment of the proposal made by
Sir Francis is described with great force in the letter
of the Hon. Baronet. If Ole says in substance)
O'Connell can be provoked to change his course of
politics on account of any measure adopted towards
him by a private club, of what value are his political
vrinciples P There is no answer to such an observa-
tion as this. If O'Connell be, what he calls li:mself,
a patriot—if he be an honest Irishman, strug-
gl;ng to obtain great benefits for his country,
anti earning the enormous contributions he levies
on her by a " disinterested" devotion to her ser-

•
vice, does any one imagine that such a " patriot"
would be diverted from that freely chosen, vir-
tuous course which he had adopted, professedly, for the
good of Ireland, out of mere resentment at any con-
temptuous usage experienced by himself, not from Ire-
land, or even from Irishmen, but from a private circle of •
gentlemen in another country, altogether independent of
Irish interests and motives ? What a pitiful huckster
does this make of Mr. Daniel O'Connell ! To what a
sordid and filthy source does it assign all his boasted
exertions "on behalf of the people of Ireland !" Into
what despicable elements does it resolve his most arro-
gant boastings of the vast advantages which he has
achieved, and of those which he puts on the semblance
of still demanding I If his support of Ministers
be worth a straw, it must be by reason of the
conscientious integrity and public principle on
which that support was founded. It must be be-
cause through good report and evil—under generous
or ungrateful usage—under blandishment or scorn—
, unmoved by discouraging circumstances— unprovoked
by harsh or injurious conduct from others, he pursues
for its own sake what he believes to be right. But
how opposite to this is the understanding on which
the Ministers and their Radical organs proceed in cal-
culating the results of Sir Francis Burdett's proposi-
tion, and the motives by which the lofty Daniel is
actuated I How shocking, they exclaim, in the Hon.
Baronet to move the expulsion of O'Connell from
Brookes's, thus sowing dissensions among the Liberal
party, attempting to deprive the Whig Ministers of
the political support of so powerful an ally as O'Con-
nell, and doing that by which the Conservatives only
can gain ! We ask, therefore, why should, or how could,
the political conduct of any honest man in the House of
Commons be dependent on his relation to Brookes's
Club ? If an honour so strictly personal were to ope-
rate as a bribe, which is taken for granted by the
declaimers against Sir Francis Burdett, who abuse him
for risking the alienation of O'Connell by expelling
him, and who submit to the indignity of retaining that
noxious personage in the club, for no earthly
reason hut the fear of his revolting from their po-
litical alliance, with what face can he or they dare again
to brag about public principle, or to exclude the most
frivolous and grovelling selfishness from among their
grounds of action ? We had like to have forgotten
one point in the letter of the Hon. Baronet, which re-
lates to an accusation brought against him by O'Con-
nell, implying the grossest ignorance ; or, what is more
certain, the most foul suppression of what that ca-
lumniator must have been aware of. He charged
Sir Francis with " odious blasphemy," for having
talked of the " Constitution being crucified between
two thieves," as if that had been a phrase originating
with the Member for Westminster, whereas every-
body knows, and O'Connell, if he had ever taken up
any literary memoir of the last century, could not fail
to have read that it was an expression of Ralph, the'
old Radical historian, who applied it specifically in the
exact sense in which it was quoted by Sir Francis,
comparing the Whigs and Tories of those days to the
thieves of the sacred volume. The letter of the Hon.
Baronet will not be read with much pleasure, we sur-
mise, by the Ministerial worshippers of O'Connell,
though for the insolence of affected ribaldry we are
well prepared.-7'imes.

As the day of Parliamentary conflict approaches,
the misgivings of the Whig-Radical press with regard
to the stability of the 0' ;onnell-Melbourne Adminis-
tration, are evinced by an odd sort of mixed vapouring
and despondency, which is perfectly ludicrous. Ela-
borate boastings about the strength of the Govern-
ment, in which the plainest indications of conscious
feebleness are intermingled, with threats of the pains
and penalties of a dissolution of Parliament to the
Whig-Radical :Members, if they should fail to give
their leader, little John, and his master, the Robin
Hood of Ireland, their full allegiance and submissive
support ! The House of Lords were threatened last
Session, ,Find after it, for daring to exercise their
Constitutional power in resisting the demands of the
bold free-booter of Ireland for the plunder of the
Protestant Church. The House of Commons are
now threatened with extinction if they do not
rally with all the servile alacrity of O'Connell':;
" tail," to support O'Connell's Ministry I These
look like the last desperate struggles of faction,
the more violent, as the whole system is pervaded
by the agonies of approaching death. But such Whig-
Radical Members as have hitherto given a support, not
very cordial or sincere, to the O'Connellised Ministry,
and now with the pi udent sagacity of animals instinc-
tively wise in their generation, would get clear in time
of the rubbish of a falling house, need not be alarmed at
the threat of a dissolution of Parliament. The King
will have a word to say upon that subject, when the
crisis arrives, as well as his Ministers ;and no reasonable
man can believe so absurd a thing of his Majesty as
that, in the event of the O'Connell Ministry being
beaten, he will consent to dissolve Parliament, and put
the whole empire in a state of agitation, to give the
routed incapables another trial. No ; such consum-
mate weakness is not to be predicted of William IV.;
therefore, let not those Whig-Radical Members who
are anxious to get out of their present company, and to
wash their hands of the purifying process which Mi-
nisters intend for the Raphael and O'Connell job—
let not those Members, we say, be alarmed. The
defeat of the present Ministry, instead of accelerating
a dissolution of Parliament, will be the means of pro-
longing the existence of the present House of Com-
mons. If it be demonstrated that the Incapables can-
not go on with the Government by the assistance of
the present House of Commons, the King knows
that there are Statesmen who can—Statesmen who
will not allow all the great interests of the country to
fall to pieces while they are engaged in low cabals and
dirty intrigues, to keep their places under the protec-
tion of the Irish Agitator and his priests. The ambi-
tious incapacity of Lord Melbourne must yield to the
commanding abilities of Sir Robert Peel, and Lord
Palmerston resign from his feeble hands the reins of
our foreign policy, despised as he has made it in the
eyes of the world, to the masculine grasp and veteran
energy of the illustrious 'Wellington. Nor will
the cause of reform be impeded—on the contrary,
it will be advanced. It must be obvious to every
man who is not a blind and. obdurate partisan of the
faction now in power, that the return of that faction to
power last year stopped the progress of comprehen-
sive and efficient, but safe and salutary reform in
Church and State, of which Sir Robert Peel had given
the luminous programme to the nation. The moment
the Melbourne Ministry regained office, the dangerous
and degrading influence by which they regained it,
and which still governs them, was seen in all their
measures. The great object of their Irish ally and
patron being not the reform, but the destruction of
our institutions—of course, the cause of Constitu-
tional Reform was made to give way to the cause of
Papal and democratic destruction. The only question
beside the destruction of the Irish Church, upon which
Ministers exhibited very extraordinary zeal, was the
Municipal Reform Bill, which their journalists now ac-
knowledge, with unblushing effrontery, was not so much
for the purpose of procuring good local government for
the people, as to strengthen the hands of the Whig-Ra-
dical Government, by exercising such an undue and
corrupt influence over the election of Members of Par-
liament, as was charged as a crime of the first magni-
tude against the old Corporations. Even that Bill
Ministers would have made a Bill of penalties and
confiscation against the " freemen" of the boroughs
whose rights had been solemnly guaranteed by the
Reform Act, if it had not been for the saving interpo-
sition of the House of Lords. England is heartily
sick of the agitating and destructive policy of the de-
generate Whigs. She wants Statesmen who can im-
prove, not destroy her institutions—who can consoli-
date her energies for great national purposes—who are
disposed to bring her peace at home and make her re-
spected abroad.—Morning Herald.
The Melbourne Government are evidently in terror
of losing the darling places for sake of which they
have not scrupled to sacrifice whatever reputation for
public spirit and integrity they once enjoyed, by be-
coming the mere drudges and slaves of an Irish
agi-
tator, whom, so long as they could do without him,
they justly deemed one of the most dangerous public
enemies that ever existed in any state.. After all the
boasting we have heard of the junction of the Liberal
Protestant gentry of Ireland with the Popish dema-
gogues of ti at country, for the purpose of keeping Lord

Melbourne and his colleagues in place ; after all the
vaunted addresses—got up by the jobbers of the newcor-
porations, who are looking out for little births in the Cus-
toms and Excise for their sons, brothers, or cousins—
in support of the present Ministry ; after every effort
to create an impression that the A dministration
of the O'Connell-Whigs might meet Parliament with
a confident reliance upon their own strength and popu-
larity, to what do we now find these foolish and empty
braggarts reduced, as the last desperate expedient by
which they vainly hope to secure a majority in the
Legislature ? To the threat of a dissolution ? Yes,
it is even so. The Whig-Radical Administrati▪
on, in
the consciousness that they do not deserve, and would
not obtain, the free and willing support of Parli▪
ament
in the approaching Session, already begin to mutter
the menace, the silly, ineffectual, and insulting menace,
that in case they should be in a minority in the House
of Commons (as they will be, we suspect, before the
Session is a fortnight old), they will punish the Mem-
bers by putting them to the trouble and expense of a
new election. This is no gratuitous assumption of
ours, as we are about to show by the production of
good Ministerial authority. The Globe put forth last
night, after half a column or so of that kind of brag
which is the habitual resource of discomfited and
dejected imposture, the following official announce-
ment :
" But, overlooking the facts fora moment, and supposing
that the Tories should succeed in coaxing to their party the
existing Liberal majority, the assumption that Ministers
would resign in such an event, if altogether gratuitous. If
this improbable case were to occur it does by no means fol-
low—will not follow—(the italics are in the original)—
that the present Cabinet resigns."
There can be no mistake as to the meaning of this.
Ministers feel that they are in the unfortunate condi-
tion in which they cannot make themselves worse by
shaking the rod of dissolution over the House of Com-
mons. This is satisfactory. As to the threat, it will
of course be as futile as it is insolent. What should a
" Liberal majority" of the House of Commons do but
follow the sense of the country ? And as the
" Tories" have succeeded in " coaxing" the country
to their party, what have the Liberal majority, who
adjust their conduct to the predominant opinion of the
nation, to apprehend from a dissolution.—Morn. Post.
The attention of all parties is now fixed on the 4th
of February—the commencement of the Session, and
of a struggle which must decide the question at issue
between the principles of elective and hereditary legis-
lation—between the representatives of the people's will
and the enemies of the people's rights—to decide, in
fact, whether the laws and government of the country
are to be instituted for the general good of the nation,
or for the aggrandisement of faction, for the protection
or for the plunder of the community. From the array
presented on the opening of the ,list, will be augured,
not the result of the contest, for the triumph of jus-
tice and the people is certain, but the amount of in-
jury which the common enemy may be able to inflict.
The Tories are mustering all their forces for the on-
slaught. The effort will be desperate, because they
feel it to be a dying one. To the Liberal Members
of the House—those who really represent public opi-
nion—we shall merely say, " the eyes of yoeurpeecoitis-
stituencies are upon you, and England x
every man to do his duty." The Tories, know-
ing that a successful cause, whether right or
wrong, will secure partisans, with the shrewd-
ness of fools intent on evil, affect to believe their
victory certain, and with must ludicrous absurdity
dispose of the Ministry and the people of England
with a facility that would put a Bobadil to the blush.
Here is the order of bat& ; " the House of Com-
mons," from what cause does not appear, " is to fail
in its support of the Ministry—the King is to refuse
his consent to a dissolUtion of Parliament—resignation
or dismissal of Ministers follows, as a matter of course ;
and then hurra for I3rime Minister Peel I" The silly
schemer who draws up his programme—so simple on
paper but impracticable in fact—does not condescend
to say what share the people are to take in the combat.
But the Tories never take the people into account.
Some, however, are so besotted as to confide in the
success of the arrangement ; and even the Standard,
from whom we expected more astuteness, already argues,
or rather raves,• as if Sir Robert Peel was the actual
Premier of England. In regard to the probability of
a dissolution, the Standard observes, " It cannot be
forgotten, that Sir R. Peel declined to dissolve the House
of Commons, even when it outvoted him ; and when his
Majesty would have been placed in no awkward or incon-
sistent position by such an exercise of the prerogative.

We, therefore, do not scruple to assume that Sir
R. Peel will go on with the present House of Com-
mons." How gratifying and consolatory this assump-
tion must be to all those Members who have before
their eyes the dread and fear of meeting their consti-
tuents at a general election ! This is a sop to catch
the waverers. It cannot be forgotten that the present
Parliament was called together under the auspices of
Sir Robert. Peel, and that all the powers of Heaven,
Earth, and, though last not least efficient in Tory
tactics, Hell itself, were invoked to influence the re-
turn of Tory Members to the House of Commons.
Faction gained a considerable accession, but the spirit
of good prevailed, and• the sorcerer summoned his
agents of evil to be merely the witnesses of his fall.
Never again will the Tories number so many sup-
porters as they do now in the Commons' House of
Parliament ; but even now they cannot maintain an
efficient opposition in that assembly. Reform will
ever have a majority in the House of Commons, and
if a dissolution of Parliament should become neces-
sary, it will not be for the purpose of carrying salutary
measures through that branch of the Legislature, but
of carrying them with such a majority as will scare
the Lords from opposition, by showing them that if
they should force the people to the last appeal, their
utter extinction must be the inevitable consequence.—
Morning Advertiser.