The Sun.
London, England, 1838-10-06 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Alluding yesterday to the state of Ireland when the pre-
sent Government acceded to office, we said that there was
one thing which that country required even more than re-
formed institutions —" an upright and steady Government,
and a just and fearless enforcement of the laws." We then
went on to say, "Such a Government was established,"
and we said, moreover, that " peace and order had re-
sulted from it, and that the nature of the ends attained had
been a practical vindication of the means that produced, and
of the rulers who employed them." The Standard of last
night quotes these statements, and has the incomparable
assurance to dispute their veracity. Now, if these state-
ments are untrue, the untruth is not ours : we have done
no more than reiterate, perhaps in somewhat different lan-
guage, what has been frankly and explicitly acknowledged
by some of the most rampant enemies of the Marquis
of Normanby's Administration. We are content
with the evidence of the Earls of Glengall and
Donoughmore. We suppose no Tory, or even
a Christian Conservative Democrat, will have the
hardihood to reject such high testimonies. Let us see,
then, what these Noble Lords have stated. We begin
with Lord Glengall : will the Standard have the candour
to reprint the following short extracts from that nobleman's
late harangue at Cashel? Ist. Lord Glengall said, " that
the Government have afforded aid for the suppression of
crime, when applied to, I freely admit." 2d. " When on
two former occasions we made statements of the necessity
for assistance, I am bound to say that in every instance was
assistance readily granted." 3d. " With respect to fac-
tion fights, I have only to say that I believe they have in a
great measure been suppressed." These are the statements
of a Tory Lord, or, if the Standard pleases, a Christian
Conservative Democratic Lord, made not a week since at a
public meeting in Tipperary. The admissions of my Lord
Donoughmore, in the course of the debate upon Irish af-
fairs at the commencement of the last Session, have
been quoted by us frequently ; but we cannot refrain
from quoting them once more, to show that we have used.
no expressions descriptive of the vigour of the pree:.-ent Go-
vernment which do not yield in force to 'lose employed
by one of its stoutest opponents. I.ord Doneugholore
used the following expressiors::—~rl make no charge
against the Noble Earl (marl of Mulgrave) of neglecting
to carry the law most vigorously and most strenuously into
effect." And The Noble Earl has pushed the
law as far as i t would go." And again—" I willingly ad-
mit thatduring , no man the last twenty years has more
vigo.rously enforced the law in Ireland than the Noble
Earl." All this may be gross misrepresentation ; all this
way be arrant fasehood ; but if it be, it is the misrepresen-
tion and the falsehood of two Tory Lords, who, we should
have thought, were quite incapable of taking " such
stoxvJus pains to pervert the truth," as the Standard
imputes to us, for me7ely copying and re-
lying on their statements, Of our own personal
knowledge we pan know no more of Irish affairs
than the Standard himself ; we must rely upon the
testimony 0.. f; others, :::.d we think it wisest and safest to
rest u-pon the admissions of the adversary. Upon the mo-
rientous fact of the suspension of faction fights, Lord Glen-
gall i snot the sole Tory witness we have to produce. Some
time since, it will be recollected, we quoted the charge of
34r. Justice Torrens to the Grand Jury of the county of
Louth. Tr.t Learned Judge, brought up in the strictest
sect of Ctr: tian Conservative Democracy, a Tory to the
backhrile, after complimenting the Government upon the
actisity of the police and the readiness evinced to offer re-
wards for the detect;on of offenders, expressly stated, as one
of the happy Pfiects which this vigour and alacrity had pro•
(laced, the almost total cessation of faction tights and
riots at fairs and markets, particularly in the south of Ire-
where these disorders most prevailed and seemed
most incurable. If, then, it he a misrepresentation and a
falsehood to state that " the machinery" of the
Irish Government has " worked for good ;" that its
'energy has been attended with success ; that " peace and
order" have been promoted by its measures ; and that " the
ends attained have practically vindicated the means taken
i
to attain them ;" the misrepresentation s that of
a Tory Lord—the falsehood is that of a Tory
Judge ! We are humbly content to echo the responses of
these grave oracles. If they have deceived us, it is only
one more sad demonstration of the utter and hopeless an-
tipathy to truth which distinguishes the Tory party. " I
have an honest lad," says Montaigne, " for a tailor, whom
I never detected in a single truth, even when it would have
been for his advantage." The Standard virtually declares
that the Tory Lords are circulating false statements of the
improvements of Ireland under a Liberal Administration.
A Tory Lord, it would seem, cannot tell truth, " even
when it would be for his advantage."—Morning Chronicle.

The state of Canada becomes more critical every day.
The Ministerial Journals have been compelled to announce
the melancholy fact, that the number of deserters from the
ranks of the British army exceeds all precedent. Prepara-
tions for another, and much more formidable rebellion in
Lower Canada have been discovered ;—whilst along the
whole of the United States frontier, democratic agents
have been openly employed for some time past, in distri-
buting fire-arms, and all the appliances of war! These are
melancholy intimations ;—yet they can surprise no one, we
think, who has marked the spirit which pervades Lord
Durham's administrative system. The Canadian policy of
the Whigs is akin to their Irish policy. In Ireland, Lord
Normanby systematically truckles to the anti-English party.
In Canada, Lord Durham truckles with equal assiduity to
Mr. Van Buren, and his supporters in the United States
—to that formidable section, in short, of the citizens of
the Federal Union, which deems the possession of the
Canadas by England, an encroachment on that supre-
macy which every United States democrat claims for
his countrymen, over the whole American continent. In
Ireland, Lord Normanby periodically vindicates the law,
by releasing from the gaols all the felons who have been en-
gaged in carrying on the wide-spread conspiracy against the
ascendancy of Protestant England. In Canada, Lord
Durham quietly supersedes the law, in the most unconsti-
tutional way, for the sake of " conciliating" Papineau, and
the other Canadian enemies of the English connection.
Lord Durham was entitled, undoubtedly, after the law had
taken its course, up to a certain point, to commute the
sentence of the judicial administrators of the law !—but
Lord Durham has, undoubtedly, had no constitutional
right to usurp judicial functions, and to pronounce sentence
without trial, upon the traitors. The character of the
sentence, so pronounced, might, of course, have been anti-
cipated. In its nature, it was a bounty offered to treason
—just as Lord Normanby's acts of leniency are, inva-
riably, well adapted to foster the spirit of resistance to
the Established Church in Ireland, as well as the spirit of
aggression upon all the Protestant institutions of the em-
pire. No truth can be less disputable, than that England
owes the retention of her Canadian dominions to the
loyalty, and courage of the volunteers of those noble pro-
vinces—not less than to the merits of Sir John Colborne,
and the brave men under his command. Yet to the Ca-
nadian volunteers, to the military settlers, or to any other
section of the loyal population of Canada, Lord Durham
has never tendered the slightest acknowledgment of their
services. He has not thanked them in the name of his
Sovereign mistress. He has not distinguished any of the
leading men amongst them by any public civilities. No,
Lord Durham reserves his courtesies, his dress balls, and
public dinners, for shopkeepers from the United States,
travelling under military titles—one half of these
respectable personages being, doubtless, emissaries of
Mr. Van Buren emissaries whose business it is
to cause the desertions which the Ministerial Jour-
nals are compelled to record. We may rest assured
that the same irresistible desire to possess the Canadas,
which leads to the distribution of arms along the frontier
lines, will not be sparing in the distribution of gold amongst
the ranks of our brave soldiers. If Lord Duram were in
any way fitted to fill the critical position into which his fel-
low W higs have thrust him, he would not, in the present
state of public opinion in the United States, permit a single
countryman of Mr. Van Buren to cross the Canadian fron-
tier without a passport. There is no obstacle to the occu-
pancy of the Canadas by the armies of the United States,
excepting the loyalty of the British settlers—whom Lord
Durham is sedulously engaged in disgusting with the Bri-
tish connection—and the small body of highly-disciplined
English troops, whom the emissaries of Mr. Van Buren
are, with success unprecedented, tempting to desertion.
Morning Herald.