The Sun.
London, England, 1831-01-19 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

The Berkshire County Meeting on the subject of
Reform is an important feature, at this time of tur-
bulence, in the legitimate and constitutional policy
of the country. In free discussion theories will be
advanced, and speculative opinions hazarded; and
from the debates springing up out of the promul-
gation of these, intelligence and knowledge arepro-
moted, and the sense of the country ascertained.
The proposition), therefore, of even that which is
rejected or laid aside is not always useless. But
the Berkshire petition rests upon the ancient bul-
warks of the Constitution. It calls only for Re-
m; and for that it calls with so temperate bur
firm a voice, that it must bring proselytes, if
all honourable and disinterested persons were
not already embarked in the same cause;—
and it must strengthen Ministers, in their ap-
proaching combat with the corrupt and profligate.
The time is at hand when we must look with
confidence to a sincere attempt to prune abuses in
our representative system whether any new theories
will be proposed for adoption, we doubt ; but, ob-
vious and grinding grievances being first removed,
the Constitution will then wok freely with what-
ever may be its natural powers. We shall see what
it can do, and what it can not do; and if it he
found weak (which we confess we apprehend will
not be the case), then helps, derived from modern
discoveries or inventions, and suited to the spirit of
the times, may be supplied. But let us not lose
the substance in pursuing the shadow. The enemies,
the incorrigible enemies of Reform, the borough-
mongers, with their adherents, are not inactive,
though silent. Sarum, and St. Mawes, and St. Ives,
and Gatton, and a long train of the same description.
though nor heard by their representatives on the day
of the discussion of Parliamentary Reform, will be
felt in their votes : the nominees of Peers, the
delegates of the boroughmongering knaves will
muster on the division. We therefore conjure all
the advocates for Reform, of every shade and de-
scription, and indeed all the good friends of peace
and tranquillity, and enemies of revolution, to unite
their strength, in order to overpower calmly and
tranquilly the frantic efforts of these who would
burst the bonds of civil society, and throw the na-
tion into an uproar, rather than part with the cor-
ruption on wh:ch they feed; and in wild uproar we
undoubtedly shall be, if the first grand right of
Englishmen—the right to choose their own refine-
sentatives—bc lost in either House of Parliament.
The proceedings in Berkshire may serve as an
example and a stimulus to the other counties which
have not yet come forward. It is not that Alin:-
eters need support ; but the cause of Reform needs
support. It is now first fairly in the field : shame
betide its friends, if its banners be not triumphal)
—Times.

'The most recent device of the Dublin incendiaries
appears. to be an intended run upon the banks for
gold. This is in character for a party who repre-
sent the disappearance of capital from Ireland, and
the decay of consumption arising from the number
of absentees, to be the grand cause of pauperism
and wretchedness---an evil to be cured only by the
repeal of the Union—that is, by a sanguinary war
with England in the first place, and afterwards by
an overthrow of the entire fabric of Protestant pro-
perty, ecclesiastical and civil. Does not the Agitaror
know full well that a political run upon the Bark of
Ireland would so cramp and paralyze the whole
frame of commercial c-edit as to stop, within four-
and-twenty-hours, two-thirds of the labour now go-
ing on in Ireland ? Is Mr. O'Connell not satisfied

with the amount of human suffering of nocessity
attendant on the famine of 1831, which he pre-
dicts with so much confidence, that he thus kills
the moving power of human industry, while Provi-
dence blights that of vegetable nature ? But there
is another beneficent project on foot, the Irish Pa-
pers tell us, namely, a non-consumption of ex-
ciseabie articles," the motive of which is avowed to
be the ruin of the revenue and the consequent dis-
tress of the Government. Good! And is there
no revenue but that of the State to be depressed,
and nobody but the British Minister to be embar-

rassed ? We suppose that commodities subject to
excise must be purchased before they are consumed,
and who are the sellers? Why, the merchants and
tradesmen, great and small, throughout Ireland.—
The retail price of these articles does not consist

only of the tax upon them, there is to be added
the prime cost, and the vender's profit; then, out
of spite and hatred to the Government, every
dealer in the kingdom, who has bought the mer-
chandise, that he and his family may live by
the sale of it, is at once to be reduced to bank-

ruptcy, and deprived of bread, ai one of those
" efficacious remedies" which the anti-Union State,-

men boast that they alone are capable of admi•
nistering to the national diseases. We have ex-
claimed in many preceding articles against the
fraud as well as ferocity of these men's conduct;
that art i 3 mingled with the most audacious vio-
lence, to crush the expression of any sentiments but
those which the disaffected feel an interest in

spreading among the people. The policy is that of
Robespierre—it is tenor. The Dublin Evening
Post, in announcing that commercial men of pro-
perty are at length, by the imminence of the public
danger, roused to act, aad to follow up by honest

and patriotic resolutionF, the example which was
set them by the Duke of Leinster and the aristo-
cracy, presents us with the following passages from
an insurgent newspaper, as illustrating pretty fairly
the sort of freedom which would be suffered to

exist in Ireland, by those into whose hands the
Government must fall, in case the Union were to

be repealed :
" Some wretches, whose trade is adulation—whose
creed, subserviency—whose god, their money—whose
altar, the desk—whose temple, the counting-house—and
whose country, self—have been going about fir some days,
kidnapping the unwary into a requisition for a meeting of
the Chamber of Commerce, to adapt a congratulatory
address to she Marquis of Anglesea. Slaves, base, de-
graded slaves, beware of what you do! We know your

narnts—we will keep close watch upon you—and now we
forewarn you, Protestant bankers, you recreant Catholic

barristers (not lawyers), and cotton-spinners, and pauper
dealers, that if you persevere in this course, we shall put
a brand upon you, that when you walk along the streets,
despised, abkorred, and shunned, the very dogs themselves
shag hark and flee your contact."

We have elsewhere prefixed to the paragraph a'-
luded to, another from the Evening Past itself,
descriptive of the present temper of the con,pira-
tors, and quote, likewise, a few lines which follow
it. The whole extract will edify our readers, and
prove to English and to Irish Protestants what an
iron rule they should make up their minds to accept
from the founder of the O'Connell dynasty, arid the
high-reaching Mentors of Meynooth. The Arorning
Regiater, in commenting on the articles of this jour-

nal, ought to act more conscientiously than on
Friday last. After quoting a pa-sage, wherein we
had enumerated the grievances which ought to be
redressed for Ireland, and noticing our statement
thiAt the vestry act was a "tremendous evil," (words
which we abide by), the editor exclaims, " Can
The Times be serious in admitting this to be a tre-
mendous evil ?" and asserting at the same moment
that none but " professional agitators are parties to
the present discontents." We never used the term
present discontents, because we were ourselves dis-
contented with the evils we had been describing.
What we affirmed was, that none but trading agita-
to.s were parties to the plot for " repealing the
Union." The difference is plain enough to a man
of the slightest candour : our " discontent," if we
were Irishmen, would be provoked by the non-re-
dress
of our national grievances, and we would in
c ,nsequence cry out for a "fulfillment of the
Union,"—such was our language,—instead of aggra-
vating all our miseries, and multiplying them an
hundredfold, by its repeal. There are other topics
suggested by these Irish papers, but we must defer
to notice them.—Times.

We wish we could see our way as dearly in the
affairs of Ireland as some of our contemporaries
think they see theirs. The agitation will either con-
tine., or forcible measures will be resorted to. We

will suppose coercion attempted. We will suppose
further, that the Irish are beaten. What then ?
Are we to keep and treat Ireland as a conquered
c uuntry ? Where will all this end ? We hear
every day exclamations of " we must have a fight
for it, and the sooner the better !" But have those
who thus exclaim calculated all the consequences of
the shock which thus would occasion in England ?
The people of England do not, certainly, wish the
repeal of the Union ; but what would be the effect of
hostilities in Ireland or England, with the'pre•ent way
of thinking of a very great part of the population ? We
have governed Ireland by force and corruption since
the Revolution of 1688 ; and what is the result ? We
have a population without any common bond of syrn,
pathy with England—a numerous,a brave population,
who may be coerced, but who may also succeed in
a contest between the two nations. All the means
resorted to by England for the creation of an Eng-
lish interest in Ireland have signally failed. The
Penal Laws were repealed because they failed in
their object. The Protestants were not strengthened
but weakened by the ascendancy of their church and
the monopoly which the laws gave them. The
people in these provinces are chiefly Catholics. In
one province alone, the Protestants and Presbyte-
rians form a considerable part of the population.
The population of Ireland being chiefly Catholic, it
has always appeared to us questionable policy to
continue to a sinecure Protestant Church immense
revenues, to which all sects must COllll i but e. The
only plausible ground for an Established Church is,
that the church so established is that of the popula-
tion. Butt, if a church be established, which is not
that of the population, then the Government can
derive no benefit from it, while the priesthood of
the rejig on of the population are placed by the un-
reasonable partiality in a state of opposition to the
Government. The priests have with them the
strength of the country ; and it seems obvious that
it must always be much easier to govern in accor-
dance with the wishes of the natural leaders of the
population than by placing their leaders in a state
of opposition. The great body of the people of a
country, and their natural leaders, can never be
safely neglected. Hence one measure, on which we
would mainly rely, is the placing the Catholics on
an equality in all respects with Protestants. On this
our contemporary of the Slandard remarks—
" The Morning Chronicle tells us that we must try to
conciliate the Priests—on the other hand we say—conci-
liate the Protestants; conciliation of the Priests has been
surely tried long enough; everything that they have hi-
therto asked has been conceded to them, and every con-
cession has laid laid the foundation of a new demand;
they will never rest (says the Morning Chronicle) until
the Protestant Established Church is overthrown. True;
what ground dues their past conduct afford for the infe-
rence that they will rest then? Did the Act of 1793 set
them at rest, as promised in their behalf? Did the Act
of 1817 satisfy them ? How are we now occupied—
within twenty months after that great and glorious work
of pacification!'—' The healing measure' of 18,29? If
we turn from the experience of the Homish priesthood's
conduct in Ireland to the case of the Netherlands, we shall
find that there is a something beyond the subversion of
all rival ecclesiastical establishments, which in our day
that priesthood will have before it rests. The purpose of
the Belgian rebellion was notoriously to ged rid of a Pro-
testant King and to sever Belgium from its connexion
with a Protestant nation. These are objects which the
Popish Priests of Ireland will still have in full view, after
they shall have succeeded in forcing, by intimidation, a sa-
crifice of the Protestant church.
" What security can be found in their past conduct—
what in the general conduct of the Church of Rome—
what in the universal effect of victory upon all men, that
the Popish priests of Ireland will sit down contented with
the destruction of the Established Church ?

" Leaving to our contemporary the task of finding out
this security, and assuming that the search will be a vain
one, as we may prove hereafter, let us proceed with a
Lemma.

" The Popish priests are not contented with the destruc

. _
tion of the Church, though the Church bas been destroyed.
What security will England have got now for the pos-
session of Ireland ?

" The Protestants, who are confessed by the arguments
of the Morning (hronicle, to be the only loyal portion
of the Irish people, will they be still loyal, after such an
insult to themselves and their religion ; for though a mi-
racle should preserve their loyalty after it had been so con-
temptuously tried, xvould they he still as powerful to main•
tarn the connexion of which they are the only Irish
friends at this tune, after they were placed on the footing
of a dissenting sect, subject to an overwhelming Popish
ascendancy ?"

The Catholics have not rested hitherto, because
men do. not willingly rest under what they deem
laws not founded in justice. But it is asked, what
security have we that the Priests wouhl be satisfied
after all sects had been put on an equal footing ? We
are not particularly partial to Priests, and would
much rather that they possessed less influence in
Ireland ; but we think much of their influence de-
pends on the injustice of the laws against the Ca-
►_holics, and the indifference of Parliament to the pro-
tection of the body of the people. Were the tithe
laws to be abolished, poor laws to be established,
and other means taken to connect the body of the
people with the country, which they cultivate for
others (for every thing which is raised goes
to the landholders and titheholders), the Priests,
if they entertained ulterior views, would not
find themselves so cordially seconded as at pre-
sent. Their power would, in fact, be less
in-
stead of greater than at present, when they are
of necessity the leaders of the people. With
the progress of industry and instruction, we
everywhere see the influence of Priests dimi-
nished rather than increased. On the Conti-
nent, even in Belgium to which our contempo-
rary alludes, the influence of the Priesrhood is
by no means on the increase. Throughout the
Continent, the feeling seems to be, that priests have
have had their day. They at present possess ten •
times more influence in Ireland than in any other
country, and they owe not a little of that influence
to the means taken to diminish it. But the Pro-
testants will be disloyal, if they are not bribed to
be loyal, by allowing them an Established Church.
If the Protestants are afraid of the intolerance of the
Catholics, should the latter effect a separation of the
two kingdoms, they have every motive for wishing
to continue the connexion. To suppose them likely
to be disloyal without an Established Church, is
irreconcileable with their apprehensions from Ca-
tholic intolerance. They would not, surely, aid the
intolerance from which they were under apprehen-
sions. Either the Protestants are under no appre-
hension from Catholic intolerance, or they will he
as strenuous for the English connexion, when placed
on a footing of equality with the Catholics, as they
are now. They would not, in such a case, be Dis-
senters, any more than Presbyterians are Dissenters
in America. Catholics and Protestants would be
towards each other what they are in Germany.
The tithes do not make the Protestants more pow-
erful, but they throw many Protestants into the
Catholic ranks. In the north of Ireland the Pro-
testants, in many places, have lately been in a state
of insurrection on account of tithes. The Catholics
have been growing constantly on the Protestants in
spite of tithes and fat livings. In short, are we in a
situation to dare venture with safety on the con-
quest of Ireland and penal laws as a consequence ?
Is it desirable that we should be constantly towards
the people of Ireland in the situation of a man who
has thrown down another, and is afraid to quit
pressing him to the earth ?—ilforning Chronicle.

The office of City Chamberlain is one of great
trust and importance, and ought never to be con-
ferred upon any person who has not, by long and
faithful public service:, entitled himself to the
esteem and confidence of his fellow-citizens. We
believe we may fairly say, without disparagement to
any other candidate, that such a person is Mr. Al-
derman Waithman. He has been long and honour-
ably known to the Corporation and the public for
his close and persevering attention to the interests
of the city and of his constituents, as a Magistrate
of London, and as a Member of Parliament. He
has also been distinguished for a firm and consistent
adherence to his political opinions, in an age re-
markable for vacillation of conduct and laxity of
principle among public men. But the opinions of
public men, however sound and valuable, are not so