The Sun.
London, England, 1836-07-05 00:00:00

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LONDON,
TUESDAY EVENING, JULY 5, 1836

It will be seen hv a report of what took place in
the House of Lords last night, that to the temporary
illness of the Duke of WELLINGTON the countryis
indebted for the non-infliction of a long speech on
the affairs of Spain, from that most temperate of men,
sapient of legislators, and erudite of Spanish •histo-
rians, Lord LONDONDERRY. Widely as we differ
in politics from the illustrious Duke—deeply as we
deplore the steps he has taken to cancel the debt of gra-
titude which his country rejoicingly acknowledged to be
due to him—we yield to none in regret that illness
should confine him to Apsley House. At the same
time we must state that if anv thing could console us
for the absence of WELLINGTON, it would be the
silence of LONDONDERRY. We question if even
their Lordships would not bear the illness of the
illustrious Duke with becoming Christian fortitude,
had they an assurance that the Noble historian of
the war in Spain would-henceforth close his mouth
within sight of the Mace, and within hearing of the
LORD CHANCELLOR. But as We already observed,
we are as willing to fling up our bonnet and cry
" Long live the Duke I" as any individual of any rank
or station whatever within the dominions of WILLIAM
IV. ; and therefore we trust his Grace will caution
his hot-headed 'noble friend against intimating in
future that his Grace's illness, or even death, would so
much as curtail his Lordship's oratory. We give
the Noble Marquis ample credit for the best intentions
in the world; but really such a declaration as he made
last night is equivalent to offering a reward to the
Parliamentary time-economists to inflict some in-
jury upon the person of the illustrious Duke.
Even LNYDHURST was observed to look aghast
in an agony of terror at such an announcement, and-
immediately left the House—for the purpose, no
doubt, of intimating to the Duke that his life had just
been placed in jeopardy. Thank Heaven the Noble
Marquis was not tempted to cite as the cause of his
Lordship's silence some more obscure Peer than the
Duke of WELLINGTON. Had he named a WIN-
CHIL SEA, a RODEN, or a WICKLOW, we would have
counselled them in all earnestness to avail themselves
of the spiritual assistance of, Dr. PHILLPOTTS, and
prepared themselves for an appearance in the world of
shadows.

From a brief conversation that took place last night,
in the House of Lords,
_we perceive that the second
reading of the Imprisonment for Debt Bill is postponed
to next Friday. On the same night, too, the question
of the Stamp Duties comes again under the consi-
deration of the House of Commons. We cannot help
thinking that great indifference has been shown to both
these measures—and more particularly to the latter,
which, from Mr. SPRING RicE's•ovvn assurances last
year, we had reason to believe would have been carried
early in the Session. To-day is the sth of July—the
very ;lay on which the New Newspaper Stamp Act
was to have come into operation ; yet here it is,
" dragging its slow length" through the Commons,
with but faint prospect of being brought to any imme-
diate satisfactory settlement It is not our wont to
complain ; but, really, this is a grievance that might
justify the adoption of very severe language. Had
_Ministers acted as they ought to have done—and as
they could have done, had they been so inclined—the
131,11 might have been passed weeks and weeks ago. They
might easily have detached it from the other parts of
the complicated Stamp machinery, and made it a se-
parate measure, which, of course, would have sim-
plified its details, and facilitated its progress through
the House. Justice to the Stamped Press re-
quired that Ministers should show zeal and
promptitude on the subject ; but unfortu-
vately they have chosen to be tardy and almost
apathetic, to the great inconvenience of the Trade,
whose expectations would appear only to have been
raised, in order that they might be proportionably
da raped_ We have heard many complaints, and re-
ceived many letters on this subject, which last breathe
unifpinly a spirit of bitter disappointment. Have not

the recent proofs they have seen of its danger, cured
the Whigs of the folly of procrastination ? What
broke up the GREY Administration, but its innate
propensity to toddle on like a sickly child in a go-cart,
when it should have boldly stepped out like a man ?
Something of the same propensity—we say it more in
sorrow than in anger—is still visible even in the
present Government. It conceives boldly, but it exe-
cutes feebly. It means well, but there it is too apt to
stop, not knowing apparently, that faith without
works is but as " sounding brass or a tinkling
cymbal." If individuals were as slow to derive
wisdom from experience as Governments, GOD
help poor human nature I For their own sakes,
even more than for our own, we would strongly exhort
Ministers henceforth to do what they have to do,
promptly and intrepidly ; to fling procrastination to
the winds, and take energy and self-confidence as
their guides of action. Indolence and timidity never
yet benefited a Government, though they have ruined
dozens. Mr. SPRING RICE is paying but a
sorry compliment to the people—on whose orderly
disposition he professes to place such implicit reliance
—by his delay in reducing the Stamp Duties. His
practice here appears diametrically- opposed to his
professions, else wherefore such procrastination ? We
now quit the subject, which we have entered upon
most reluctantly, and to which we hope we shall not
have again to return=at least in the spirit of dissa-
tisfaction.

An Evening Contemporary of yesterday observes—
"We have been informed that the CHANCELLOR of
the EXCHEQUER, on being asked by several Members
of the Commons, whether it was intended by Minis-
ters to propose an adjournment of the Session till Oc-
tober, 'replied that no such intention existed ; but from
present arrangements, he calculated that Parliament
would be prorogued about the 10th or 12th of August."
We believe that just now Ministers are undecided how
they shall act in this matter, for they are completely at
the mercy of circumstances. A week or ten days hence,
however, they may perhaps be able to come to 'some
decision.

It will be seen by our Parliamentary report that the
Tories contrived to get up a debate last night on the old
story, the appropriation clause of the Irish Tithe Bill.
They did this not from any hope of altering the deci-
sion of the House of Commons—that, they knew,
was past praying for—but they were aware'that some
of the Members who support Ministers on that ques-
tion were out of town, having leave of absence, and
they thought that if there should be a smaller majority
in favour of the appropriation principle than on the
last division, it would afford them and their hire-
lings of the' Press an opportunity of . crowing
and clapping their wings in testimony of victory. This
was their plan of tactics, and accordingly as the
majority turned out to be as every one knew it would
a few less (13) than it was on the 3d of June, they
pretend to be in extacies that a decided change of
opinion has taken place in the House of Commons
since that period ! To what straits must. men be
driven, who can have recourse to such shallow su7)ter-
fuges, to keep up a delusion among their dupes in which
they themselves do not partake ? Every body knows
that the- that of strength took place at the last discus-
sion. It was understood that the " principle "OCth e
Bill, that is, the great principle of appropriation, was
to stand or fall by the issue of that debate which con •
tinned for three days, and terminated, as we the:
stated, in a decision in favour of that principle, by :
greater majority than had ever before sanctioned i.
The affair of last night cannot, therefore, affect tli
state of the question in the mind of any one who allow
himself, or is allowed by his masters, the privilege o'
thinking. So very unimportant did it appear to Sir

- -
ROBERT PEEL, that he did not think it worth his
while to attend the House, and the leadership pro
hac vice descended upon the shoulders of Lord MAHON,
a person who, we have been told, held some subordi-
nate office under Government during the ephemerdl exist-
ence of the clap-trap Administration, and who, no doubt,
thinks that a sufficient reason for dubbing himself a
statesman. The mantle of the leader, however, did
not descend with the office. Sir ROBERT PEEL, to
do him justice, seldom talks nonsense ; and though we
cannot laugh as often as he tries his hand at a joke,
yet he is not a tiresome speaker. If he is not a first-
rate orator, or a profound statesman, he takes a busi-
ness-like view of a subject, and makes the most of the
modicum of intellect which nature has assigned him.
But Lord MAHON ! Lord deliver us from Lord
MAHON ! If ever it should be our fate (which
Heaven forefend 0 to be brought to the bar of the

House of Commtms, we should of all things most de-

precate being defended by Lord MAHON. The
strongest argument that the Noble Lord could find for

the maintenance of the present monstrous state of eccle-
siastical 'natters in Ireland was this :—" Suppose,"
says he, in some parish in England in which
the great majority of its inhabitants were Dis-
senters, that they should call for a diversion,
of Church property, what would the authors
of those complaints say to their own principle of legis-
lating for this country and Ireland on precisely the
same terms." Now, with all submission, we would
beg to remark that the cases are a little out of parallel.
We in our turn would ask the Noble Lord what would
be the fate of the Church of England at this Moment,
were her members limited to a twelfth of the po-
pulation ? Would there be any debating about
what should be (lone with such an establishment ?
The principle of -an establishment, as explained
by its ablest defenders, rests on this, that the religion,
established is that of the majority, and according to
this essential rule the established religion in Ireland
ought to be the Roman Catholic. As to the assertion-
that the small success' of Protestantism in Ireland

has been owing to the penal laws against Catholics,
it is true enough ; but why have the penal laws
so operated, but because they made Protestan-

tism hateful to the Irish ? On the Noble Lord's
own principle, then, let him remove from Irish Pro-
testantism that which must ever render it de-
testable in their sight—the gross injustice and op-
pression of making the mass of the community sup-
port a Church whose doctrines they conscientiously
abhor, and whose ministers squander in idleness and
luxury the money wrung from a starving people.
_ _

Mr. SHELL'S speech was out of all measure the
best delivered on this occasion. Though evidently ut-
tered on the spur of the moment, it is full of passages
of superior eloquence:

Lord STANLEY was as usual smart and pert withal.
The Noble Lora took occasion to speak disrespect-
fully of Mr. O'CONNELL, who, we are bound to say,
far exceeded the bounds of propriety in his reply. For
the particulars of the extraordinary scene, which inter-
rupted the debate, we must refer to our report.

A curious correspondence, in its way, has taken
place between Commodore HENRY, an English
post-captain, now Commander of the steam-boat,
Donna Isabella IL off St. Sebastian, and the Secre-
tary of the Spanish Minister of Marine. The whole
of the officers and seamen of the steam-boats, Isabella
11., and the Reyna Gobernadora, being on the 19th
of April last, without pay for six months, the Com-
modore addressed the Government, requesting that
money should be remitted to pay the men. To this
request no answer was returned ; and on the 4th inst.
—the men becoming impatient, and being in