The Sun.
London, England, 1849-05-19 00:00:00

Ttlit

LbNDON, SATURDAY, MAY 19, 1849.

During three hours last evening the House of I
Commons discussed the Parliamentary Oaths Bill
with closed doors ! At ten minutes past five o'clock
the reporters were compelled to retire from their
gallery, and, being only re-admitted at ten minutes
past eight, the country must remain in ignorance of
the intermediate proceedings. It is scarcely neces-
sary to observe that this system of "secret legisla-
" is beyond the remembrance even of " the
" oldest inhabitant." But that we are assured by
the historian of a bygone and benighted generation
that this plan of deliberation on the laws of the em-
pire sub rose was, a long while ago, in vogue among
the popular repress n'athe s, we should have protested
in sheer disgust that the incident was without prece-
dent—for certainly, to employ the quaint
old phrase of the jurisconsult, " the memory of no
man living runneth to the contrary." Whether or
not the custom of excluding the public from the
debates of Lords and Commons were permitted by
our ancestors, it is pretty certain from the views en-
tertained by the community now-a-days that no such
underhand mode of dealing with questions of a con-
stitutional importance will, in the middle of the
nineteenth century, be tolerated. One man thinks
otherwise—that man an Irish Member—that
Irish Member Mr. JOEN O'CONNELL. It 18
to that Honourable Gentleman that the
people are indebted for the absurd and
preposterous incident of last evening. To gratify a
petty grudge against the London journals, the repre-
sentative of Limerick had the effrontery to require
the galleries to be cleared, thereby excluding from
the House of Commons, for no less than three hours,
the gentlemen who report the proceedings of that
Honourable House for our own columns and for
those of our morning contemporaries. We say the
effrontery, because the conduct of Mr. JOHN O'CON-
NELL was in dir€ct opposition to the wishes of the
Lower House of Parliament, besides being the source
of an irksome and embarrassing deprivation to the com-
munity. That the proceeding of the Hon. Member was
distasteful to the representatives was sufficiently
demonstrated by the storm of hiss ..s and the con-
temptuous exclamations which were audible even
through the walls of the House after the exclusion of
the reporters. As Mr. JOHN O'CONNELL leaves us
only to conjecture in such moments of emergency,
we are reduced to the necessity of supposing that
those derisive " bahs and indignant " hisses! "
were directed especially to the Honourable Gentleman
himself, in consideration of his having formally
repulsed the remonstrances of the more rational
Members assembled in Committee.

The plea raised by the Honourable Gentleman
himself as an excuse for his proceeding only betrays

very conspicuously that his conduct was partially the
result of a lackarlaislcal ientiment lity end partially of
a very 'illy and preposterous spitefulness. His
vanity was wounded by the abbreviation of his own
diluted platitudes, and he endeavoured to diminish the
cravings of his egotism by that smallest possible de-
scription of vengeance still unfortunately within the
reach of any political lunatic who may happen to
find his way into Parliament.
Although the whole occurrence has about it much of
the frivolity of a burlesque, insomuch that it is scarcely
possible to think without laughing of the ridiculous
figure cut by the Hon. Member for Limerick, we
cannot but feel satisfied that the feelings excited by it
throughout the population will be those of sup-
pressed, but serious, indignation. For ourselves
the matter assumes altogether a decidedly comic
Oasis. To our view Mr. JOHN O'CONNELL could
not have presented himself before the public on the
stage of Parliament under a more ludicrous aspect—
had he undertaken to grin through a horse, collar, or
to talk the brogue through the bubbles of a pan of
treacle, or to dance the College hornpipe like the
gentleman's gentleman in " Pickwick," who went
through the same hilarious movement among the
oyster• shells on the table, while AIL Seel UEL WELLER,
surveyed the entertainment with unmeasured admi-
. ration, and Mr. JOHN SMOLKER played-a melodious
accompaniment on a hair-comb and a curl-paper !
Such at least is the absence of anything at all like
importance in the proceedings of the Hon. Member
for Limerick, that we can afford to observe his vaga•
' ries with a good-natured indifference, an indifference
that only betrays its existence now and then in casual
explosions of laughter.
A moment's reflection, however, is sufficient to
assure us that what may be all very amusing once in
a way, is liable to be a source of very serious annoy-
ance, so long as the Press, the People, and the Par-
liament are at the mercy of any spiteful egotist.
According to the standing'order of the House of
Commons any Member may, as Mr. JOHN O'CON-
NELL did last evening, exclaim in obedience to a
momentary freak, or in consequence of a tem-
porary hallucination—" Sir, I see strangers in the
gallery !" And, thereupon, in compliance with the
regulations of that standing order, the reporters to
the public journals are excluded from the precincts of
Parliament, the discussions are continued in secresy,
the multitude is left to guess at the nature of the
arguments and the results of the divisions—and all
the while this may be, as it was last night, in direct
opposition to the wishes of the rest of the Represen-
tatives ! The galleries, in short, as the rules of Par-
liament are at present, may be cleared, not by a
majority of votes, but by the whim of a single
Member ! No matter if that Member be
mad, eccentric, or splenetic, so soon as
he chooses to exclaim—" Sir, I see strangers in the
gallery !" so soon must those strangers, and with
them the reporters, walk out of the House and into
the streets of Westminster. The absurdity of this
is plainer than a pikestaff. Some safeguard is required
iin its regard•—and that not only for the advantage of
the public, but for the dignity of Parliament. Al-
ready we are rejoiced to see the c•pportunity
of that safeguard being secured through the
instrumentality of the Hon. and Gallant Member for
the borough of Bradford. Thanks to Colonel PE Y-
HORNET THOMPSON, we shall by a speedy modifica-
tion of the standing order of the Commons be saved
from the chance of any more such eccentric interrup •
tions—arising from the total aberration of that little
modicum of intellect which it has pleased PROVI-
DENCE to bestow upon Mr. JOHN O'CONNELL.

The re-imposition of the bread tax, as a means to
establish high rents, is the real question at issue in
the opposition to the repeal of the Navigation Laws by
certain prominent Members of the House of Lords,
and their dependents and adherents out of doors ;
writhing under the mortification of the majority in
favour of the Government on the second reading of
the Bill, are ready to go any lengths to nullify the
proceedings. The evolutions of the Duke of RICH-
MOND and the Earl of WINCHILSEL in the House on
Tuesday night are not without deep meaning, as is
evident by three separate leading articles all on the
reactionary movement, and extending to the length of
three columns, appearing in the Carlton Club organ
of yesterday morning. _

It would appear that there are no lengths to which
a few frantic Absolutists would not go to establish
absolutism, and if the speech of the Noble Duke and
Earl on Tuesday night, and the scribes in the official
organs of the party do not point to Conspiracy, Re-
bellion, and Revolution as means to attain their end,
if all others fail, they certainly indicate something
very closely allied to it.
The combination to accomplish the desired object
was avowed, and the intention to seize upon the pos-
sessions of the Church as one mode of action. The
Carlton Club organ reproduces the threatening lan-
guage of the Duke of Rion/to:an, quoting him as the
authority :-
1 6, The condition of the agricultural mind upon com-
mercial matters generally was fairly enough put by the
Duke of Richmond, when his Grace, in his own blunt
way, stated that 'farmers would not stand it much
longer.' "
What course they are to adopt when the time comes
that they won't stand it any longer, was not definitely
declared by the noble Duke beyond the intention of
seizing upon the tithes ; but to upset the Government
of the country is more definitely pointed to by their
organ of the press :
"Among 400 Peers there must always be a few ner-
vous and easily frightened old gentlemen. These, even
in quiet times, would dread the thought of overturning a
Government." _ _

But these bold Richmonds have no apprehension
whatever as to the consequences of "overturning a
Government !" " There be six Richmonds in the
field," and what care they for the decision of the na-
tion solemnly expressed by three readings carried by
large majorities in one legislative assembly, and con-
firmed by the deliberate decision of another legislative
assembly, having the sanction of a clear majority of
the Peers Spiritual and Temporal, and which there
can be no question that the SOVEREIGN is prepared to
sanction by her Royal prerogative. What care these
intemperate politicians for the dynasty or the Church,
when these stand in the way of privileges?

What though the majority on the second reading
was composed of proxies. If the the Duke of Rica-
MOND or Lord STANLEY disapprove of voting by
proxy, let them move for the abolition of this ancient
custom, let the Peers be placed on the same footing
as the Lower House, where the right of voting is
restricted to those who are present on the divi*ion.
It is quite probable that this would be agreeable to
the nation; but let not Noble Dukes or Lords ima-
gine that they are to be permitted to avail themselves
of proxies to carry their own measures and reject the
votes of proxies when opposed to their wishes. Yet
this is the idea which appears to be promulgated.
It is known that proxies cannot vote in Committee,
consequently one of the tactics of the faction is
to mutilate the Bill in that stage of its progress
by rejecting or qualifying the more objectionable
sections ; but then her MAJESTY'S Ministers, who
have the conduct of the Bill have only to exercise
common firmness, call forth the proxies on the third
reading, and re-introduce the rejected clauses. Noble
Lords are fond of precedent. This course is known
to have its precedent. Such an occurrence took place
on the third reading of the Regency Bill in 1811.
But desperate men resort to desperate measures, and
the plot seems to be thickening as to what is to be
the course of the Absolutists when the Bill has passed
the third reading. "For" says their organ—
" If they mean to treat the Committee of the House
of Lords with contempt;—saying, you may alter what
you please, but we have got sixty-eight proxies in our
pockets, and when we proceed to the third reading, we
shall undo all you have done,'—if, we say, the Govern-
ment mean to deal with the question in this spirit, it will
remain with their Lordships, when assembled in Com-
mittee, to discover whether some means do not exist,
whereby the House may effectually assert its legislative
character."

"Effectually assert its legislative character" is some-
thing very vague, and we are not told in distinct lan-
guage what this means, but we are left to draw
conclusions from the connecting circumstances.
Overturning the Government has been shown by
these bold spirits to be something only to be viewed
with alarm by " a few nervous and easily frightened
old gentlemen." APOLLO might be rather sensitive at
the idea of upsetting the chariot, but PHAETON views
it with no such apprehension. Hence immediately
after the hypothesis of the measure being constitu-
tionally carried through the third reading of the

Upper House, the 'subject is again reverted to of
" overturning t},u Gnverntrent"—

" As to the vxintcnee of the Government, that is a
matter past eating for."
It may be all very well to endeavour to soften it
down by intimating that by " overturning the Go-
vernment" they merely mean a change of Adminis-
tration. The words have evidently a far deeper
meaning, coming, as they do, from a party who have
already pointed totthe combination for seizing upon
the tithes if they cannot obtain a corn-law.
Would those who have no scruples as to robbing

the Church permit the Dynasty to stand in the way
of accomplishing their tyrannical projects ? That
they would not permit it to interfere between them-
selves and their darling object, is intimated in the
very newspaper from which we have been quoting,
which says :
" We all know that there are limits to forbearance—
that there is a term to patience the most exemplary,
and to submission the most perfect—that men in the
colonies are not very ditlerent from men at home—that
however attached to the mother country, to its institu-
tions' to its laws, to its people—that however proud
of their connexion with the fortunes of the British em-
pire—however loyal, however reluctant to swerve from
their allegiance to a revered and beloved Sovereign—
there are considerations of person, family, property,
and honour, which override even all these generous sen-
timents."

True, the primary application of this was made to
Canada, but the parallel case is shown to be "at
home." A deep-thinking and sagacious observer and
writer on public events—one who looks with no
friendly eye on this revolutionary movement, has
pointed out the close connexions between affairs it
Canada and those which are passing in this country;
but here we have the analogy traced by the chief
actors themselves. The same writer who first
pointed to the connexion between Absolutism in the
colonies and in the mother country has directed
public attention to the remarkable fact of the arrival
of a bird of ill-omen on our shores, an elder and malign
branch of the reigning family ERNEST, of Hanover, at
this critical juncture. When the decision of a majority
of both Houses of Parliament is referred to as some-
thing beyond which there is to be an appeal; when
we are told, in however blunt a way, that there are
parties who " would not stand it much longer ;" when
manifestoes are issued in the provinces, under the
walls of the baronial mansions of Noble Lords, who
are giving themselves out as leaders, calling upon
their tenantry and dependents to prepare for joining a
combination now forming in London; when the de•
struction of the Church, or the seizure of the tithes
as one object of the combination, is declared with
cheers in the House of Lords, when " overturning the
Government," is set forth in their press as another
object, and when certain of her MAJESTY'S subjects
in the colonies having risen in rebellion, sympathy
with the rebels is expressed by the mal contents here,
and their course vindicated by showing that " there
are considerations" which supersede allegiance to
the Monarchy ! when simultaneously with this, a
suspicious looking character is introduced in the per-
son of a foreign Prince, pensioned by this country,
and claiming to exercise direct legislative powers in
one branch of the Legislature with a contingent re-
versionary claim to the throne, not withstanding that
a constitutional oath declares "That no foreign
prince or patentate,hath or ought to have any jurisdic-
awl in these realms"—whm all these scenes and acts in
the great drama are passing, it will behove the Go-
vernment to manifest their firmness and decision in
the only course which can secure the confidence of
the nation, and thus preserve all that is worthy of
preservation in our institutions. The substitution of
ERNEST and Bread Tax for VICTORIA and Free Trade
is what all good men and true will earnestly contend
against.

The: whole of the correspondence relating to the
Anglo-French mediation in the affairs of Sicily has at
length been presented to Parliament. It forms a folio
blue-book of nearly a thousand pages. We have hitherto
abstained from alluding to it, because it is our custom
to make ourselves acquainted with the contents of a
book before venturing to offer an opinion on it. Our
reactionary contemporaries, however, manage matters
in a much_more compendious manner, and one of them,
adopting the usual reactionary tactics, of drawing
upon his imagination for his facts, fired off an article
on the subject, at a time that it was impossible
ct
At ermi, ts ed,
thraolul
ghthoeut
tandevoccoantet
he could have read the' correspondence, and
a
srovoefrsy
theat
Kteminpgtedo,f
have
as
to draw a comparison between the union of Sicily
with Naples, and the union of Ireland with England.
The cases are about as like as the cases of Mon-
mouth and Macedon. " There is a river in Macedon,
and there is a river in Monmouth," quoth the
sapient and choleric FLUELLIN. " Sicily is an island
and Ireland is an island," say the_equally sapient
and equally choleric Feuenntas of Politics, and
there in each case the resemblance ends. Ireland
was united to England by an Act of Parliament,
solemnly discussed in the Irish Legislature, and
adopted by a large majority in both Houses of
the Irish Parliament. Sicily, on the con-
trary, was united to Naples by a decree
of the KING, promulgated without the con-
sent of the Sicilian Parliament. Ireland
was
united to England according
to law; Sicily was
united to Naples contrary to law. The independence
of Ireland has never been guaranteed to her by any
other Power, consequently no foreign nation has any
right to interfere in her internal affairs. The inde-
pendence of Sicily and her constitution were solemnly
guaranteed to her by Great Britain, in return for per-
mission granted to her to hold military occupation of
Sicily during the war and in consequence of that
occupation Great Britain was enabled to take and to
hold Malta, to expel the enemy from Egypt, and to
render assistance to the Duke of WELLINGTON in
Spain ; and even as late as 1816 the right of inter-
ference in the affairs of Sicily was claimed by Great
Britain, and admitted by the King of NAPLES. Lord
CasTnerieenu, in his note of 6th September, 1816,
addressed to Mr. A'Cotair, the British Minister
at Naples says—" His Royal Highness (the PRINCE
REGENT of England) would feel himself equally com-
pelled, however reluctantly, to interfere, he had the
mortification to observe any attempt made to reduce
the privileges of the Sicilian nation in such a degree
as might expose the British Government to the re-
proach of having contributed to a change of system in
Sicily, which had in the end impaired the freedom
and happiness of its inhabitants, as compared with
what they formerly enjoyed and that the changes
introduced into Sicily by the Neapolitan Government
have impaired the freedom and happiness:of its inhabi-
tants is abundantly, proved by the testimony of one
who was resident in Sicily from 1810 to 1814, who,
as son-in-law of the KING, topic part in all the
transactions of that period, whose authority no
member of " the great Conservative party" will dare
gainsay; who is the " wise Monarch" of the Earl
of ABERDEEN, and the "illustrious friend" of Lord
BROUGHAM ; by the testimony of no less a personage
than Louis PHILIPPE himself. In the Parliamentary
Blue Book, page 16, No. 20, we find a dispatch from
the Marquis of NORMANDY, dated Paris, Jan. 27,
1848, in which the Noble Marquis reports a conver-
sation which he had with the KING of the FRENCH,
at his Majesty's own desire, on the affairs of Sicily.
" His language upon this subject," says the Marquis
of NORMANDY, "was most strong against the con.
duct of the Neapolitan Government. lie said that
all the successive Sovereigns of Naples had committed
a series of wrongs upon the Sicilian people ever
since the island had been restored to them in
conjunction with the kingdom of Naples; they had
violated the Constitution which they had promised
to uphold by destroying the nationality which they
had engaged to maintain. The edict by which they
had suppressed the name of Sicily was most arbitrary.
His MAJESTY considered the title of King of the
United Kingdom of the Two Sicilies as nonsense, but
as having been devised for the insidious purpose of
getting rid of the Sicilian obligations by a side wind.
He stated also that there had been a systematic viola-
tion of an original engagement entered into by the
predecessors
of the present SOVEREIGN at the time of
the criginal transfer of the island when they had pro-
mised that there should be only few employments held
by Neapolitans or Spaniards."
So much for the conduct of the Neapolitan Govern-
ment ; now as to the duty of Great Britain:; and here
again we will quote, nut a Democrat, not a Repu b-

• Page 5 of Corrospondence relating to Sicilian Af-
fairs, 1814-1816, presented to the House of Lords, in
pursuance to the Address to her Majesty Of April
1849,