The Sun.
London, England, 1849-06-07 00:00:00

stow►►ig Members oil Birmingham and on Manchester?
The absurdity is almost as striking as any that could
have been adduced in the olden time, "when GEORGe
the THIRD was King," and when the mere mention
of reform was regarded as but little better than a
species of treason, that should be repudiated with
indignation by overwhelming majorities in both
Howes of Parliament, if any rash wight should have
the hardihood to mention a subject " so distasteful to

ears polite.",
In consequence, too, of the limited number of elec-
tors in the smaller boroughs, local influences still
prevail in no less than 42 of the number sending no
less than 69 Members to Parliament. It is true that
the representation may not be openly sold in the
market without shame or disguise, that there must be
at least some appearance of consulting the wishes
of the nominal electors, but still there are
boroughmongers who can bring into the Le-
gislature partizans bound to act in obedience
to their wishes, to vote in accordance with the
instructions they may from time to time receive, and
who must resign their seats if they waver for a
moment, or exhibit symptoms of insubordination, or
even hesitate to carry out the directions of their
" Patron." If large additions were made to these
still " rotten boroughs" from the surrounding dis-
tricts, this unconstitutional influence would be neu-
tralised and deprived of its worst features. We
should not hear of Noble Lords " doing
what they will with their own," or superciliously re-
jecting all appeals to their reason and justice. _ _

Although we must still deplore the largeness of the
majority by which the just and reasonable demands
of the people were rejected on the present occasion,
there are still some encouraging circumstances
perceptible that afford reasonable grounds for
hope as to its future progress. Last year,
when Mr. HUME brought forward , the
_sub-
ject for the first time, no less -thin 351
recorded their votes against the motion. On
Tuesday no less than 83 of these Honourable Gen-
tlemen were absent from the division. If they bad
not sufficiently made up their minds to join the
popular ranks, or to vote with the staunch and
thoroughgoing reformers of Parliamentary abuses,
they at least deemed it prudent to stay away, alai to
remain neutral on the subject. This may eventually
prove a discreet and judicious course for these parties,
by which they may be enabled to appear with better
grace on the hustings. The nation will, however,
recollect the names of those who were faithful from
the beginning, who supported the popular side ere yet
it was taken up by the aspirants for office of any
party. Their names will be chronicled in the hearts
and enshrined in the memories of their countrymen,
and we shall find various constituencies con-
tending for the honour of being represented
by men who were among the earliest and most
energetic supporters of the four great points of
legislative reform. The large and overwhelming
majorities that at first were recorded against the
annual motion of the Hon.-CmaaLes PELHAM VIL-
LIERS, the honest and enthusiastic advocate of free
and unrestricted trade, must not be forgotten.
At first that distinguished patriot could scarcely
obtain a patient and attentive audience, but
gradually be enforced his views on the Government.
Where underlings were in the former instance per-
mitted to take the burden of the debate on them-
selves, .the leaders of the Ministry were at length
compelled to come forward, and to exhibit all their
skill in answer to the simple truths which he enun-
ciated with such force and power. In the present
instance we find the Premier and the Home Secre-
tary coming forward, and treating the subject
as one worthy of their most strenuous
exertions. This again affords good grounds of en-
couragement, and evinces a reasonable hope, that we
shall within a few years find the cause of Parliamen-
tary Reform attaining a triumph as complete and
unequivocal, as that whiCh, in 1846, attended the
free• trade agitation -for the repeal of--the obnoxious
taxes on a nation's food.

The recently published pamphlet by Mr. HUNTER
GORDON, of Lincoln's Inn,* on the subject of the Irish
Colleges, furnishes an ample justification, if any
such were needed, of the all but unanimous determi-
nation of the citizens of the Roman Republic never
again to submit to that sacerdotal domination from
which they have emancipated themselves. It is im-
possible to read this narrative of the proceedings of
the spiritual governors of the Roman Catholic Church,
who were, until the recent revolution, also temporal
goverours of the Roman people, without being con-
vinced that an assemblage of men more unfitted to be
entrusted with the administration of affairs the inge-
nuity of man could not devise than this same College
of Cardinals, to whom it has pleased successive Pope)
to confide for some ages past the exercise of the
pontifizal power, spiritual and temporal.
Our readers, no doubt, recollect the outcry witb
which Sir ROBERT PEEL'S well considered proposal
for establishing colleges for the benefit of seven mil-
lions or our Roman Catholic fellow-subjectS in Ire
land, who had up tii-Thirptstitid—Ven destitute of
academic educatiori, was received by the higcts of all
parties. That Sir ROBERT. INGLIS should .denounne.
it 'is a gigantic system of Godless education,
,could
have be•en a matter of surprise to no one who was
acquainted with the tactics which • Sig ROBERT IN-
GLIS h'as, adOpted since the day when he became the
chose repreientative of the rampant bigotry of Ox-
ford. He; as the representative of 'that anciel.t
University, considered every proposition. for found-
ing any other academic establishment as an
encroachment upon her. , monopoly = an attempt
to set up an opposition shop, which would
force her to reform her whole system, or
deprive her of her students, and as to this term " God-
leis," that in the vocabUlary of Sir ROBEkT Irsolas is
merely synonimous with Church of England-less, the
Right Hon. Baronet, believing that none who do not
subscribe to the Thirty-nine Articles can be other than
Godless. At the opposition of Sir R. INGLIs no one
therefore was surprised, but every right-thinking
person of every sect was not only surprised, but dis-
gusted, at the unseemly and indecent opposition with
which the proposal was met by certain firebrand pre-
lates of the Irish Roman Catholic Church. For some
time the public was at a loss to account for this force
opposition to a scheme, the principle of which had
been admitted by those very Prelates in the
case of the national schools for the poor.
Mr. HUNTER GORDON, however, has enabled us by the
well-timed publication of his pamphlet, to ascertain
the fans et origo mall. These prelates are them-
selves interested in seminaries, from whichthe proposed
new colleges would drain off the lay, and conse-
quently paying students. "It cannot be doubted,"
says Mr. HUNTER GORDON, "that the Anti-College
warfare, now raging in Ireland, is mainly prompted
by the apprehension of the Bishops, lest the new
colleges drain their seminaries. The Prelates are
frightenedistitu7ions Hence the
rotsipw hvs
ecto.(iicio-intypof the
etitionmwcitHhA superiorLtsa d
u
akyetueririni.a.ti.:nt,t)otheussee atchaedtehmut idenrsstiotuf t iothzei s, ati
Vatic Itihneir
in
order to scare the superstitious from giving support to
the Government academies. Mr.
CORDON thus describes
the motives which induced Dr. McIIALE and his sup-
porters to evoke the question to Rome, and the man-
ner in which it was dealt with by those persons to
whom the:Porz has confided the administration of his

affairs :
" The motives which determined. the malcentent pru-
e-
lates to this course was V. ry powerful, and to unscrup
lous minds, probably irresistible. The College ot Par
pagenda is the d..partment to which the spiritual affairs
ot Ireland belong in the Pontifical Administration
There is a considerable body of Irish priests at Wale',
hrldireg and other influential situations, both in
Propaganda and in other colleges : and of these, all,
with hardly an exception, have long hes n, and still are,
either openly and notoriously of the faction of Dr.
Mc Hale, or so passively submissive to hi, sway, as to be
• quail), subservient to his purposes. Now, it was from
this b. dy of i.riests tha. the Roman authorities, who art
in daily contact with them, derive whatever knowledge
they p-,SSPB4 of the social and political condition of Ire-
land; the Irish priests stand ue'oie the cardinals as the
representatives of the Irish hierarchy ; the only authen-
tic and intaitible expositor, of the internal concerns of
Ireland. Dr. Mc El ale was wel: aware, that by tlitse means
he had an unbounded sway over the Council of Propa-
ganda, and coil* as it were, with his own hand, work that
forcible engine against the English Government. On
the other hand, from their being no English mtnistr r at
the court of Rome (a chasm in our diplomacy which
has been r. greeted by some of the most eminent English
statesine n, b,rai by Mr. Canting a,:d L rd Brougham),