The Sun.
London, England, 1836-05-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

In the discussion which preceded the commitment
of the Irish Constabulary Bill, the minds of their
Lordships seemed filed with Mr. O'Connell to the
exclusion of every other idea. That monomania should
in so many individuals take the same direction is cer-
tainly singular enough. Poor Lord Londonderry
dreaded lest Mr. Maurice O'Connell should receive
an appointment in the police. But the public are suf-
ficiently acquainted with the R odens, the Winchilseas,
the Londonderrys, to be surprised at nothing which
escapes them. The most whimsical feature in the dis-
cussion was an attempt of Narcissus Wicklow to be fa-
cetious. His Lordship affected to be surprised that
such a measure should have been brought forward, when
he cast his eye upon the evidence given before the other
House of Parliament a few years since, by one whose
authority he did not respect, but which was of great
weight with others. When asked by Lord Melbourne
whose evidence was referred to, Lord Wicklow said—
" The Noble Viscount asked him whose evidence he re-
ferred to ; he replied it was that of the Master of the
Noble Viscount's Government. It was extraordinary that
the Government which was decidedly under the influence of
that individual should have brought forward such a measure
as this. It was, too, so decidedly in opposition to the opi-
ni9n of that individual."
This clumsy attempt reminds one of the German
Baron, who having been discovered leaping over the
chairs in his room, by which he made a terrible fracas,
observed to the astonished intruders on his operations,
"Je ore fais vif:" As their Lordships last year as-
signed as their reason for rejecting the Constabulary
Bill, that it was sanctioned by Mr. O'Connell, Nar-
cissus, no doubt, thought that his surprise at Ministers
proposing a Bill of which Mr. O'Connell must disap-
prove would be deemed a happy sally.' It was so clever,
too, to have hit on the idea of calling Mr. O'Connell
Lord Melbourne's master 1 In all this there is a mi-
serable poverty of intellect. Whose fault is it that
Mr. O'Connell possesses the power which makes his
support or opposition of so much consequence to any
party ? The Tories have contrived to make them-
selves the objects of the hatred of the Irish people, and
the abuse of Mr. O'Connell by that party only adds
to his popularity. It was observed with much justice
by Lord Melbourne—
" If you mean to lay down the rule that no Government
can obtain your confidence—that no Government can re-
ceive or calculate upon your support—that no Government
can reckon upon your favour unless it prove itself to be de-
termined upon a bitter and inveterate opposition to the ma-
jority of the representatives of the Irish people—if a Govern-
ment being so is to be the mere condition—the condition
precedent in order to obtain your support—then I say, that
if so, you are not acting wisely, you are not acting pru-
dently, and you are not acting consistently with those who
are continually holding forth language to the effect that
they wish to cement the union between the two parts of the
empire."
So long as Lord Melbourne conducts the Govern-
ment on principles of equal justice to all classes in
Ireland without reference to creed, he must command
the support of Mr. O'Connell and the majority of the
Irish representatives—in that. case they dare not aban-
don him ; and were he to conduct the Government on
other principles, lie would neither deserve nor obtain
their support. To charge Ministers with Mr. O'Con-
nell's support as a substantive crime is merely saying
that it is a crime to intend well to Ireland, and that
the only true principle of Government is that which
aims at exciting disaffection in the governed. In the
Committee the Bill experienced several alterations ;
but we trust its efficiency has not been materially im-
paired.—Morning Chronicle.
The Irish Municipal (falsely styled) Reform Bill
is postponed for one day, but will certainly come on to-
morrow in the House of Lords' committee. There, we
run no great risk in conjecturing, that the " instruc-
tion" which was moved by Lord Fitzgerald, and
adopted by a large majority of their Lordships, will be
enforced in practice, and the Bill made conformable to
it. We rejoice at this. We glory in the frustration of
hypocrisy and humbug. It delights us to see the noisy
jackdaw stripped of his borrowed plumes—the would-
be representatives of a whole nation reduced to their
proper size and shape—those who impudently claim
to be " the people. of Ireland" withered by the breath
of Parliament into an upstart, arrogant, and per-
secuting priesthood, haters of' all liberty of thought
and action, envious of the rich, oppressors of the
poor, conspirators against the State, and violators
of the peace of society. The pretence of giving
power to the " people of Ireland" by saddling an ass
in every village, under the name of a " corporation,"
to be bestridden by the priest, is a more ludicrous pa-
radox than ever was imagined by Cervantes ; and this,
too, in the face of what is notorious to the whole
world—viz., that the people (meaning the Popish
multitude) enjoy no freedom of will or conscience—
that they dare not exercise any power which the law
vests in them, but under the whip of those whose pur-
pose is to subvert the law, and that he who holds the
keys of purgatory commands the " vote and interest" of
the faithful. Nor is it on the strength of our own know-
ledge and reasoning only, that we have proceeded in our
reprobation of this destructive measure for grinding
down the Irish portion of the monarchy into so many
hundred thousands of 5/. shares. We have the " peo-
ple" of Ireland"—those who deserve the title—with
us. It is not above a fortnight since we stated, on good
authority, that not merely the independent and loyal
Protestants, but the middle class of Roman Catholics,
of respectable character, were heartily sick of agita-
tion—were terrified at the fresh facilities which would
be provided for it by this Bill, and were most anxious
that Lord F. Egerton's, now Lord Fitzgerald's pro-
posal, should be substituted for that of Mr. Attorney-
General O'Loghlen, and Ireland relieved from the
disturbing force of an institution which has been al-
ready curtailed of all those of its attributes which im-
plied any power of legitimate action, and could in its
meditated form exist for no uses but those of perennial
insurrection. It has been said, indeed, that when so
little is left in the nature of privilege or " function" to
be exercised by the new Corporations, there is a sort of
absurdity in the argument that what remains would be
worth withholding. The absurdity is on the other side.
They would be powerless for good, but strenuous for
evil ; they could do nothing, but they couldclamour for
everything, and keep the country in a perpetual fever.
At the same time we refer to our Irish correspondence

for testimony not offered on light grounds, that there
exists at this moment no shadow of public feeling
throughout Ireland in favour of the municipal nostrum
of O'Connell. There is no outcry against Lord F.
Egerton or the House of Peers ; there are no meet-
ings ; there are few, we believe no, petitions in its
favour—no demonstration, not so much as a colourable
suspicion, that any thing like a popular sentiment pre-
vails any where in support of a Bill described as of
such infinite importance. That, if it should pass, it
would become an immediate engine for the erection of
a hundred foci of priestly intrigue and of rabble tur-
bulence at the selfish instigation of the priests, is tole-
rably manifest from the eagerness with which these
pious men grasp at and pervert to their own objects the
political privileges already enjoyed by the Roman Ca-
tholic electors.—Times.
Even before the season has commenced, during which
we have year after year been accustomed to hear of
numerous and fatal accidents on the river, we already
hear of its.crowded state between London-bridge and
Deptford being such that boats are every day swamped
and free passage unattainable for any kind of craft.
If such be the case in the beginning of May, when,
comparatively speaking, but few steamers have com-
menced their voyages, what may we not expect to hear
of when these vessels are hourly forcing their way
through the narrow channel, which already defies a
common wherry to pass in safety. ? And yet, forsooth,
there is what is called" a Navigation Committee ;" so
named, as has been represented, from its innocence of
all knowledge of the serious duties it takes in hand—a
sort of limas a non lucendo, which delights in the
tavern• far more than in the stream. If any one
overwhelming proof were wanting of necessity of the
reform in the Corporation of London, it would be
found in the gross neglect, amounting to an indifference
to human life, with which its powers and duties of con-
servancy over the river Thames have been executed.
The very fact that a railroad should have been constructed
to run by the side of the river, which ought to present the
most safe and rapid conveyance from and to places on its
banks, is a severe satire upon the sleepy gastronomics
whose duty it is to have made and preserved it what it

ought to be. But be this as it may, can Parliamen
be justified in, year after year, themselves assembled
on the banks of this very stream—can they be jus-
tified in witnessing such a state of dangerous obstruc-
tion as it has now so long exhibited, without so much
as moving a tongue or a finger either to remely the
evil themselves, or to infuse a little energy into the
persons to whom we have already alluded ? Or are
the public doomed again, in the course of a few month ;,
to hear of swan-hopping and Courts of Conservancy,
all ending in festive revels, while human life perhaps
is sacrificed under the very tavern windows which wit-
ness these ill-timed and inappropriate festivities. 11:e
two obvious evils are the crowded state of the Colliers'

Pool, and the dangerous velocity 'of steamers. Of
course the increased demand for coals in the port of
London of late years must have greatly increased the
number of coal-vessels arriving there ; but still, with a
little management in those having authority, the deli-
very of those cargoes might, we apprehend, be so regu-
lated as not to amount, as it now does, to a complete
blocking up of this public highway. Why should not
the number of vessels admitted to lie in the Pool at

one and the same time be regulated and defined ?
Might not some of the overpius beyond this regulated
number be admitted into one or more of the three

Large docks ? Or, if this be impracticably, might it
not be made imperative that none beyond a certain
lumber be permitted to pass Black,,vall or Greenwich
Reach till others had returned? In short, where
;here was a will there would be found a way, and that

not a very difficult one. With regard to steam-vessels,
we have always felt convinced that the remedy for the
mischief they produce can only be found in preventing,
those at least of a certain size, from coming higher up
the river than Blackwall. There may, and doubtless
would, be a certain degree of inconvenience in this ;
but not at the most to such an extent as to be for a
moment put in comparison with the much worse than
inconvenience which has now so long been permitted.
—Morning Herald.

The Irish Constabulary Force Bill, as it was sent by
his Majesty's Ministers from the House of Commons
to the House of Lords, was perhaps one of the most
unconstitutional and tyrannical measures ever attempted
by any Government in England. One night's discus-
sion, however, in the latter noble assembly of steady

patriots, and of reflecting and enlightened statesmen,
has sufficed to impart a new character to the Bill, and
to transmute its oppressive, arbitrary, and insulting

provisions into safe, wholesome, and unobjectionable
enactments for the due maintenance of authority, the
adequate enforcement of the law, and the general pre-
servation of the public peace in Ireland. A tolerably
accurate notion of the nature of the measure as it was

concocted by Ministers, and passed by the House of
Commons, will be conveyed by a brief reference to the
most important amendments which the House of
Lords, in its deep anxiety for the public welfare, and
its determination to defend the principles of the British
Constitution from absurd, gratuitous, and reckless vio-
lation, has deemed it necessary to introduce into a
Bill which must evidently have been framed in
utter neglect and contempt of all such obsolete
considerations. The clause to which the correcting
powers of the House of-Lords were first applied would
seem, from its very extravagance and absurdit7, to
have been an oversight on the part of the fra:mers of
the Bill. Yet is it by no means certain that the enact-
ment, which their Lordships thought it necessary to
reform was not intentional and deliberate. It may
fairly be called a sweeping clause, for, at one stroke of
the Ministerial or O'Connell broom, it sweeps out of
office all chief and other constables, officers, and other
persons heretofore appointed in the Irish police force,
without a single exception, and iiidependently of any
direct interference of the executivelGovernment. This

would have afforded a convenient opportunity, free
from all impediment or obstruction, of remodelling the
police force of Ireland, and giving it a character
more consonant than it now enjoys to the wishes
and objects of the Melbourne-O'Connell faction.
The step too by which this advantage would have
been obtained is too bold and rapid to have been
ventured upon by the Noble Lords who constitute
the visible Government of . Ireland. The temptation
to smuggle such an enactment was therefore not incon-
siderable, and there is the stronger reason to suspect
that smuggling was really intended, inasmuch as this
is not, as we shall presently see, the only nor the most
precious of the contraband wares contained in the ori-
ginal measure. The scheme, if scheme there were,
proved, however, entirely abortive. The House
adopted an amendment proposed by Lord Ellenbo-
rough, retaining all the officers and constables of the
police in their present situations, unless individually
ejected by the authority of the Lord Lieutenant. The
next amendment of importance manifests, in a remark-
able manner, the disposition of Ministers to obtain un-
constitutional powers surreptitiously, as wall as the vi-
gilance of the House of Lords to detect, and its -firm-
ness to resist, all such unworthy enterprises. It
will be recollected that the Court of Exche-
quer in Ireland has recently, in repeated instances,
had eccasion to exercise the powers vested by the
l'aw and Constitution in that Court, in common with
the other superior Courts of law, to compel certain
officers of police to lend their aid in executing process
issued by the Court, and that by this display of legal
power, previous and opposite instructions, publicly
promulgated by order of the Lord Lieutenant and
Chief Secretary, were counteracted and discredited.
Now, in this Constabulary Bill, Government, it seems,
contrived to introduce words which would have had
the effect of divesting the Courts of Justice of the

power of compelling the public force to assist in the
execution of their writs and decrees, and would thus
have surrendered the whole administration of the law
to the uncontrouled will of Lord Mulgrave and Lord
Morpeth, or, to speak, we fear, more correctly, of
their task-master, Mr. O'Connell. The device was

a cunning one, and was cunningly pursued ; but it
was detected, and defeated, nevertheless. The words
which would have left every Irishman's property-
and rights at the mercy of the conjoint authori-
ties of Dublin Castle and Derrivane Abbey, were ex-
punged. A more discreditable proceeding than that we
have just mentioned was, we do not hesitate to say,
never adopted by any Government. All that Minis-
ters, or their partisans could say in their defence was,
that they did not mean to annul the powers of the
King's Courts to enforce the execution of the law_
But it is plain and incontrovertible, that the words
they introduced into the Bill would have had this
effect ; and it is not very safe for the community that
Ministers of State should be listened to, when they in
substance confess that words which they have intro-
duced into a Bill laid before Parliament are words
of which they did not know the legal import, and
be permitted to vindicate their integrity at the ex-
pense of their understanding. Another feature
of the measure as arbitrary, as unconstitutional,
and as dangerous as any of the foregoing, was
the unlimited power which it placed in the hands
of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, of augment-
ing the number of officers and constables of the po-
lice force, at hi:, mere discretion, thus super-
seding the constitutional privilege and function of the
House of Commons to determine the amount of expen-
diture in the several departments of the public service.
The House of Lords has interposed its wisdom and au-
thority to protect the Lower House of Parliament from
the meditated invasion of its rights and duties. Their
Lirdslxips have introduced amendments into the Bill
which restrict and qualify the boundless scope of au-
thority so prodigally and unconstitutionally granted to
the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland by the measure as it
was sent up from the Lower House of Parliament, andi
have thus proved themselves to be more faithful guar-
dians of the public purse, and more vigilant protestors
of the right of the Commons of England, than even
the assembly to which these important offices are more
especially supposed to belong. We need not further
expose the miserable and ignorant, the cunning and
fraudulent, attempt at legislation, out of which the
House of Lords are proceeding to extract a good, ho-
nest, and useful measure. Our readers will recollect
time period, and it is not a remote one, when such an
daysit,
a,e essay,ye as seaeNLiberalism
:Mini
fsuffered,
tsatlerts have
ulvoyel
ts so sli►l the
ght
presentsuch
sott
o• Post. present
be overlooked or forgiven.—Morninnna occasion, exposure
theon s ,upprep wouldas
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