The Sun.
London, England, 1836-05-28 00:00:00

kers. These enterprises have one and all failed, to whatcould
Mr. Edward Ellice betake himself? Why, to a fit of the
sulks, which he varnished over with the name of " indigna-
tion." " Very well, gentlemen—very well, gantlemen—
since you will neither have Durham for Prime, with --
foreign, nor Johnny Prime, with Durham foreign ; and,
above all, since you won't give me the Colonies, I wash my
hands of you"—" I turn my back upon you" (aside—" my
best friends have no objection to that")—" I have a colony of
my own, where I can snub poor Gosford with impunity.
So, good by to you, gentlemen." (Aside)—" Was there
ever such a d—d pack of asses as these Whigs ?" Then,
joy be with you, Mr. Edward Ellice. There may be more
straightforward fighting between parties while you are away
from us, but the game of manoeuvre will have lost the
keenest, thou ;h not the most successful, devotee now living
—one, indeed, who has seldom outwitted more than a
single dupe—viz. Mr. Edward Ellice. Besides the specu-
lations about the probable motives of Mr. Ellice's emi-
gration, we are pestered with all sorts of rumours about
the Members of the Cabinet. We are not very fond of '
retailing the gossip of clubs or of salons—it is seldom
well-founded or important. We are begged, however, to
notice what, though we have heard of it for the last
fortnight, is asserted to be a profound secret—that Lord
Melbourne is to be immediately succeeded by Lord Lans-
downe, and that the vacancy in the Cabinet is to be
filled up by the Duke of Richmond. This may be true ;
it certainly is not improbable : but qt,' intim* F We
do not say that the substitution of Lord Lansdowne for
Lord Melbourne is a change for the worse ; but where is
the advantage ? The timid indolence and heavy me-
diocrity of the first are as little worth as the lazy indif-
ference and unhallasted talent of the second ; nor is the
chance of mischief less, the difference is only in the mode.
The rash guide thrusts himself into danger—the timid one
suffers others to push him into it against his will. If Mel-
bourne would be the voluntary ally of the O'Connell de-
stroyer, Lansdowne would be afraid to decline the alliance,
even if he loathed it. Then, as to the Duke of Richmond
we believe his Grace to be a man of excellent principle,
and, as a consequence, of honourable intentions ; but we
have yet to learn that either by his talents, his knowledge,
or his personal or political influence, he can add weight to
any party. As the colleague of Lord Stanley and Sir
James Graham, he acquired importance from their support,
and his plain sense and upright character reflected no dis-
credit on his abler friends ; but, separated from them, he
is almost nothing, especially as the separation in this case
would imply a forgetfulness or dereliction of the constitu-
tional principles which bound that party together both when
Ministers and on their censcientious resignation of office.
Tho " splendour" of his new alliance—if such an alliance is
really to take place—will scarcely indemnify him for the
loss of old politicel friendships or for the loss of reputation
consequent upon a not very intelligible change of principles.
Still we do not know that anybody but the Duke himself
is interested in the affair, and we certainly do not think, as
in a celebrated coalition of former days, that " public safety"
requires that we should forbid the bans.—Tintes.

Far more ludicrous than terrible, in the eyes of all
sober and reasoning Englishmen, are the attempts now
making in Ireland, at the command of the chief Agitator,
to intimidate and coerce the House of Lords. The folly of
the enterprise is great, but its folly is surpassed by the ab-
surdity of the means resorted to for the purpose of effecting
it. Miserably, indeed, must the Barons of England have
degenerated from their noble ancestors if they are to be
frightened from their propriety by a Dublin Spa-fields
meeting—though it might consist of some 4,000 or 5,000
of the idlest and certainly not the most respectable
portion of the population of a large city, with a sprink-
ling of "bludgeon-men to " keep the peace ;" and though
enlivened by the efforts of nearly a score of the regular
spouters of the Corn-exchange, assisted by the stale
trickery of theatrical display, and indulging in the eternal
common-places of their tawdry and turgid declamation.
How was it that the " patriots" who assembled on
that occasion to strike the Lords with awe and prostrate
them in humiliation, could not put a better face upon
their meeting than it received from the auspices of a
Chairman whom their Whig patrons in the Cabinet had
discarded from the Commission of the Peace? Of this blot
upon the Chairman's 'scutcheon, or rather upon the embla-
zoned shield of Lord Plunket's patriotism, Mr. Finn, the
brother-in-law of Mr. O'Connell, took care to remind the
meeting. He told them that " Lord Plunket had deprived
his Lordship (Milltown) of the Magistracy, and neglected
to restore him to it." Whereupon the meeting was strongly
stirred up with indignation against the aforesaid Lord
Plunket ; for, although they had all met to pull down the
Lords, they could not bear that the Irish' Chancellor
should pull down a Lord, or, as the Irish rebels used to
say, " should kill a Hessian for himself," without their per-
mission. If Lord Plunket does not take the hint, and re-
store Lord Milltown to the Commission of the Peace, we
do not think his Chancellorship will be worth many months'
purchase. When the brother-in-law of the Dictator of
the Cabinet speaks in this way, it may be considered at
least a demi-official notification of the Dictator's com-
mands to the Irish Lord Chancellor. If he disobeys,
even the shield of Sergeant Woulfe will afford him no
protection. But the dismissal of Lord Milltown from the
Magistracy was not the only charge which Mr. Finn
had against Lord Plunket. Another count in the in-
dictment exhibited against the delinquent Chancellor
in the Court of pie poudre of the Coburg-gardens, was
as follows :—" Colonel Butler, my worthy colleague, was
even more harshly treated—for attending a large though
peaceable meeting in Kilkenny, he was deprived of his
Deputy Lieutenancy and the Commission of the Peace,
and was not yet restored to it, although he had risked his
life by his effoits in the House of Commons to support the
Government that had treated him so ill." As public ac-
cuser, Mr. Finn summed up the whole of the case against
the Irish Lord Chancellor in the emphatic sentence, " I
consider Lord Plunket to be the very Marplot of the Mi-
nistry." Thus is the man treated by the legislators of th•
Coburg-gardens, whose whole public life, up to the year 1829,
had been marked by his zealous and splendid advocacy of
the Catholic claims, and whose powerful eloquence had
made a greater impression in the House of Commons in
favour of those claims than that of any other man that
ever lived. But he accepted office under a Ministry of
which Mr. O'Connell is the irresponsible chief, and he is
treated acecordingly. At this redoubtable meeting, Mr.
Sheil, in a multitude of words and fantastic sentences, mus-
tered one argument, and only one, to prove that the House
of Lords should take their instructions in legislation from
the orators of the Coburg-gardens. If Mr. Shed is not
melodramatic he is nothing, and therefore his one argu-
ment is to be inscribed on banners of green, and paraded
before the astounded eyes of the Lords, with all the pomp
and circumstance of a play-house procession. The ap-
palling inscription is " seven millions." According to Mr.
Shiers census the strength of the agitators musters seven
millions cf men—fighting men of course—plus 20,000, and
thus he makes it out. " There are here 20,000 Irishmen de-
termined on the assertion of the rights of their country.
That spectacle is accompanied by the reflection that there
are seven millions beyond the precincts of this spot who co-
incide with you." Now if you only take the adult fe-
males, married and unmarried, at the same amount, and if
we suppose only fliur millions of the seven millions of
Irishmen married, and that each has on an average but
half a dozen children—a very moderate allowance in Ire-
land—we have a population of nearly forty millions
of souls within the Roman Catholic portion of the Eme-
rald Isle! Were Malthus living such news would kill
him ; more especially as, according to Daniel, three-fourths
of those multitudinous millions are beggars in the last
stage of destitution, to whom the provision of a good
poor law would be a greater benefit than all the flashy elo-
quence, niche-dramatic processions, and banners of green,
that the orators of the Coburg-gardens can display from
this to doomsday upon the stages of mountebank agitation.
Would not Mr. Sheil's " raven" be most usefully employed
in croaking in the ears of Mr. O'Connell and Lord Mor-
peth " a poor law for the starving Irish millions ?" Truly
is it said by that respectable Roman Catholic gentleman,
Mr. Eneas Macdonnell, in reference to the Dublin Spafields
agitation—" this combination of delusive pretences and
professions which has been got up for party purposes in
Ireland, is a cruel mockery of the people, rendered doubly-
so at the prese,et moment by the wretched condition of
large bodies of them, now perishing,together with their cattle
for want of subsistence, while the only relief afforded by their
leaders is an harangue upon the principles of Corporation
reform." The heartless indifference with which the Irish
agitators behold the sufferings of their starving countrymen,
wile they pursue their own course of selfi.h and profli-
gate ambition, is, indeed, disgusting ; but the people
of England know them now, and value their patriotic
demonstrations accordingly. The " raven," borne upon
the banner of the Danish pirates, was once the sign of ter-
ror and devastation in England. The raven of the Irish
agitator, though it croaks " seven millions," only excites
ridicule. If it should ever become else than ridiculous—
if the " green banner" on which it is to be emblazoned
should ever be flung upon the breeze of rebellion, its fate,
like that of its Danish predecessor, will be a salutary one
for the peace and civilisation of a beautiful, but. benighted
and distracted country. A short quotation or two from
Mr. Sheil's speech, as reported in the Ministerial Papers,
will show what grounds he and his party have for renewing
the career of desperate agitation. In a tone of the most
triumphant exultation, he asks—" Do you think it nothing
that the whole force and power of the Crown is on our side,
police revenue, chairmanships of counties, prosecutions on
circuit, Coniniissioncrships and Judgeships? The House
of Lords may throw out the Bill of the Ministers, but they
cannot throw out the Ministers themselves ; and they who
can keep the Government sustained by the people, are sure
in the short run to put down the Lords. We have, My
friends, the ball at our feet (the compact at Lichfield
House, to wit), and Aigh as St, Patrick's steeple, that