The Sun.
London, England, 1836-02-24 00:00:00

1-77.rf
-Itll

LONDON,
AESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 24, 1836.

ta}:e:relook on, the discussion that took place last night in
House of Co-Lumens, on the subject of Orange Lodges,
Pregn,Ant with advantage to Ireland than any that
hasaken plr.ice for years. At length we have it formally
coodnuisittittuedti by the Legislature that these Institutions are un-
humb Qu'al, and should be put down. At length cant—
e„-i'lland mock-loyalty have given up their pre-
' tl(-s.".4s, quitted the field, and surrendered at discretion.
Ir, -
flrtl HUME'S exposure of the Orange system was so com-
Ljel.e ; his arguments so unanswerable ; his mode of en-
ng them so unobjectionable, that even the most
tugoted adherents of this system had not a word to say for
themselves. What indeed could be urged in reply to the
tst. onourable Member's statement that *" there were in ex-
ence an large body of Orangemen, amounting, according
looth.oeoiroow calculation, to 200,000 men in Ireland, and
men in England,"' which vast confederacy, by the
Ile, whenever portions of it assembled in the sister-coun-
jtrY, always met armed, and were accompanied generally,
~,only by the , Gentlemen of the neighbourhood, but
x:Phakagistrates, Deputy Lieutenants, Clergymen, and others
. ° ought to have k.nown. better. But this, though injurious
e'lll,,o,ugh to good order, is by no means the worst part of the
di l!. The Orangemen, it seems, yield absolute and uncon-
ditional submisQ: nto their "Imperial Grand Master "
the
wo d ,io
..
for r " Imnerial "is too significant to be easily
t° got.ten___ ~-;
L., the -ki like Of CUMBERLAND ; who is thus enabled
of and t hwe7(l
a 7;e3wer, detrimental in the highest degree
urcerly at variance with, the principles of
been fur Co,o:istitution. In Ireland, the Orange system has
from the Years above all law. Judges have denounced it
tire. je 'Den* but in vain ; it has trampled upon all jus-
op_ There were instances," said Mr. HUME, "of men
,i
._,••Arged with murder, upon oath, being permitted to escape,
about an effort to detain them." It was man enough for a
lo to be an Orangeman q
to place him, in Ireland, above the
r.e4cll of the law. Though the half-starved Catholic might
be transported for stealing even a quartern loaf,. the
Orangeman might commit murder with impunity. He bore
4h-out him a " charmed life" which fine—imprisonment—
traps
v portation—or the Ivater—were alike unable to reach.
‘-'s it not full time th4t such a monstrous system should
°e put down ? Yet Sir IL PEEL, though well he knew
iefthe extent •f its in'suriousness, never ventured to meddle
irtiAtitctit•;.2.nd eveit STANLEY—the would-be Reformer
war, equally unwilling to interfere. . Precious,
pormers these, and worthy of all trust and honour .
it?"'ever, the evil, thank GOD, has at length reached
ilt., height, and the iron heel of Government is
tor" iit• Colonel FAIRMAN may protest—Lord KENYON
(and43' situ Colonel
the " Illustrious" CUMBERLAND himself
blast e e notlllustrious," if h b " who is ?) may still
r and talk loudly of opposition : but there is
ho
hell) for it ; they must ' succumb, one and all,
filletirte,'; again to raise their heads as Orangemen. It is in-
fir "3' to Lord MULGRAYE'S credit, that from the very
1,..:t moment of his accession to the Irish Viceroyalty, he
;4 . done all that lay in his power to crush the Ascendancy
teYsteua• He has given fair play to Catholic and Pro-
stant, He
supremacy to neither. May he long
Vail,°otinue
Mess" his impartial career, and generations yet unborn
the memory of the Ruler,
nd that she was under the protection of the British
who first taught Ire-
iiosttution. We have no desire to indulge in
:"generous exultation over the fallen ; but we
~a_no?t express the pleasure we feel at witnessing the the
dust, humbled condition of the Orangemen. They are in the
.ux_A,ruestc„iiieut-iitlliiket,l,leLfuecoiftero_f
njeusrtice on their necks. They
‘,lll better than them.selves ; ehrentoceritsieleasgoarinry." None know
1.,0e3: made last night. Sir W. MOLESWORTII hinted that it
Parthian fight
2_ ;Ad have been no great matter, if they had all been trans
truly' with the Duke of CUMLERLAND at their head ; and
not Yti
.we ourselves should be of the same opinion, did we
link that the morality of our Australian Colonies
4lilit suffer b • the importation of such desperate offenders.
Lord j 3 P
z:ZPetm our; RUSSELL'S speech was in excellent taste,
.rate, convincing, and not bating a jot of the
hi rights of the Government. The Orangemen besought
elm. almost in tears, not to insert the words "for the dis-
°u,r'lgement of Orange societies" in his motion for an
thisess to the Crown ; but his Lordship was imperative ;
.(I carried his motion without a division. We hope
submission on the part of the Opposition is an earnest
of their intentions to act with equal moderation, on the
9ue?tion of the Irish Church ; and that it will operate as a .
useful warnincr to PEEL and WELLINGTON. They may
rely. en it that they can do no good by thwarting such 4

A debate more curious than important—more pregnant
with the spirit of party than imbued with the principles of
justice--arose in the House of Peers last night, on LORD
WHARNCLIFFE'S motion respecting the appointment of Bo-
rough Magiitrates; undo'. the Municipal Reform Bill. The
noble Baron is blessed with those peculiar powers of ora-
tory, whickhappily enable certain di'§tftiguislied
argue for hours together upon a question, without pro-
nouncing it either better or worse than it was represented
to be at the commencement. LORD WHARNCLIFFE raises
up no nine-pin objections merely to display his skill at
overturning them. His method is to send forth his argu-
ment two-and-two—fit apostles of the opposition—one for
and the other against, and leave to the public the choice'of
deciding upon them. His Lordship reminded the House
that when the Municipal Reform Bill was before Parlia-
ment, the legislature had been told that a great and benefi-
cial change would take place in the organization of the corpo-
rate bodies throughout the kingdom. That change he assured
their Lordships had not taken place—the abuses com-
plained of under the old system had not been removed.
Did his Lordship therefore condemn the Bill, as Ministers
might have been prepared to expect ? Not at all. On the
contrary, he assured their Lordships that the Bill was an
excellent Bill, and in the end would produce the fair re"-
presentation of all parties ! Lest we might be suspected of
mis-stating what fell from the Noble Lord, we will quote
his own expressions as reported in the Times—a journal
with which, (always excepting questions of Foreign policy,)
we have few sympathies- in common. " They had been told
that that Bill would introduce a new era—that corporate
funds would be fairly dealt with—that the administration
of justice would be more pure and perfect—and that party
and political feeling would no longer be the sole passport
to municipal office. They now had popular election ; but
it appeared to him that the evils which had been complain-
ed of under the old system were not removed." Now for
the causes of the disappointment and the future operation
of the Bill :—" The great body of the voters in many bo-
roughs had got rid of the old town-councillors, who were all
of a peculiar class of politics—a result which, from the be-
ginning, he expected. There was no doubt that it was
quite natural for those who had been so long excluded from
power to take this step. He, however, confessed to their
Lordships and he did not doubt but such would be fact, that,
in spite of any improper elections that had been made, he did
hope that in the end the result of this Bill would be a fair
representation of all parties,"
Thus according to the Noble Lord, the failure in the
application of the principle of the Bill was owing to the
excited, state of the country. What then was the ground
of his motion? Why this :—That the Noble Secretary of
State for the Home Department had consulted the Town
Councils in the selection of the new Magistracy. And how
did the Noble Lord prove this ? The process was worthy
of the intellect of a Conservative Peer. " With respect to
GUILDFORD," said the Noble Lord, " What has been the
conduct of the Government ? Why, of the nine Conser-
vatives, whose names had been sent up as Magistrates,
several had been overthrown by the Secretary of State,
and persons were selected who had voted for the Whig
Candidate at the last election." This, of course, was con-
clusive of the fact that Lord JOHN RUSSELL was the there
creature of the Town Councils ! Lord WHARNCLIFFE
complained that when their Lordships had twice altered
the Clause in the Municipal Reform Bill, which left the
nomination of the Magistracy to the Toivn Councils,
Lord JOHN RUSSELL had consoled the House of Commons,
by telling them " that it did not much matter what their
lordships had done in this case ; for, so long as he and his
colleagues remained in office, the opinion of the Town
Councils would have the greatest weight with them." Yet
what is the charge made by Lord WHARNCLIFFE against the
Noble Secretary for the Home Department ? Why, that
in no fewer than eleven Boroughs, Lord JOHN RUSSELL
paid no regard to the prayers of the Conservative ratepay-
ers, but nolens volens forced them to put up with a libera
Magistracy of the Government's nomination ! Thus, accord

...... .
ing to the Noble Peer, if the amendment of their lordships
had been carried out in an extehsive spirit, there would not
have been a conservative magistrate in the kingdom. And
yet, by a process of reasoning which we cannot comprehend,
the fault is owing to the radical composition of the Town
Councils—bodies much more. Conservative than the Secre-
tary of State for the Home Department—and through the
neglect of whose addresses by the Home Office, the coun-
try is inundated by a radical magistracy ! This, of course.
is sound Tory logic. In fact the whole of the arguments
used by LORD WHARNCLIFFE may. be summed up thus :
The right of
,appointing the Municipal Magistracy is the
just prerogative of the Crown.

The Crown has exercised this prerogative in such and
lel) instances, against the Petition of certain municipa-

Therefoie the Crown has lost its just prerogative!
Or :

The Crown must exercise the right of appointing their
Municipal Magistracy to prevent that body from being
composed of radical elements :

But the Crown has exercised the right of appointing
the Municipal Magistracy :
Therefore the Magistracy is composed of radical elements.
• Such in fact is th reasoning of the Noble Lord on the
subject of Municipal Magisterial appointments as exercised
by the Crown.

But LORD WITARNCLI}FE was not wanting in logical
acumen of a rarer stamp than any we have yet referred to.
Pointing triumphantly to the- impartiality of • the Tories in
the nomination of the County Magistracy, his Lordship
observed—" Ile could certainly say, that in his own county
he knew no instance in which a man had been excluded
from the magistracy on account of his politics. He was,
undoubtedly, acquainted with cases in which individuals,
well known as agitators, were refused the commission of
tIW peace, for it was thought that there could be no worse
conservators of the peace than men who were always tempting
the people to break it." What a nice distinction is here
made between the tree and its fruit! " The tree is a good
tree—an excellent tree.—l will plant it anywhere, provided
you can guarantee its putting forth no leaves or blossoms.
Assure me that it.will not grow, and I will place it in any
part of my grounds you may think proper. It is not the
tree but the bark, the leaves, the blossoms, to which I have
an insuperable objection !" This is surely worthy of a
doctor of the Sorbonne ! The second speech of the
the Noble Lord is much richer in absurdity than the first,
but we have not time now to do more than merely allude to it.-
The speech of the Noble Baron met an admirable correc-
tive in the eloquent vindication of the Government by Lord
MELBOURNE and the LORD CHANCELLOR. The latter Noble
Lord assured the House that so far from following implicitly
the advice of the Town Councils, Lord J. RUSSELL has used
his influence in correcting those errors into which they were
led by the heat of party. In fact the Government ob-
tained a signal triumph, which the publication of the re-
turns moved for will render still more complete. The
Tories are in despair. They see that they have no
longer a chance of regaining power. Even hope—
the last • resource of the unfortunate—has forsaken
them. But to break their fall, they set up for
Impartialists. King JAMES, in opening the Parliament of
.1621 admitted that there was in the Kingdom a body of
men called " Undertakers," who had offered to manage both
branches of the Legislature for his MAJESTY on certain
conditions. That body still lives in the Tories of our
day ; but the system of " undertaking" is nearly ex-
tinct. The last job on public record was that
of the PEEL and WELLINGTON, now at liberty to
roam whithersoever suits them, without fear of interruption
on the part or, our Gracious SOVEREIGN. The Tories are
are OUT, and the secret of their fury consists in a conviction
that, they can never again come IN.

The Moniteur of Monday, which we have received
together with the other Paris papers of the same date,