The Sun.
London, England, 1836-12-26 00:00:00

it SUN, LONDON, MONDAY, DECEMbEiI, 26, ISM.

the Irish rebel associat,ioli.
,t
r.ttacked, even
,Fersectit7,4; by tile hig-Radiral Go-
verilrewn't) 'a4t finally abolished, on the ground or
pretext of their forming a society instituted for
party purposes, insulting to that I.4rsiT pnrticii. of
the people of Ireland wh6 17'cie hostile to the esta
Wished 1-OiO,Nl thereby risking the violation of
tkt Filet: by provoking factions ColliSions,
We can speak dispassionately iipon this stibject, from
having at all tinio 'elear of Orange politics and
proceedOn find from having rather approved than
otbctwise the remonstrances for years past Adth:cs',,ed to
the Orangemen of Ireland, nrgilig• tliein to dissolve their
institution. Oni. riding was, that neither badge nor
pletifo `l\'AS Necessary towards binding honest men and
l'OyAl subjects to stand by Church and State, and by

each other against any public enemy ; and that the mere
circumstance of such a confederacy affording topics of
jealousy and boisterous complaint, or plausible excuse:,
for associations among the adverse party, in their
objects more culpable, and far more dangerous in their
nature, was cause sufficient for every considerate sub-
ject of his Majesty to desire its dissolution. But, on
the other hand, it ►s no more than justice to ask, what
was there of an unconstitutional, much more of a cri-

initial, character, in the declared and well-known pur
poses of the Orange Society, that should make its
existence a matter of regret on any other considerations
but those of mere expediency ? So far otherwise, that
there have been dines, distant as well as comparatively
recent, when the preservation of Ireland to the British
Crown was mainly owing to the Orange Protestant
spirit. What was the animus which upheld and di-
rected the Enniakilleners and men of Derry in 1688 ?
Was it very different from that which inspired the
Protestants of the North of Ireland in 1798, down
to the very hour of the institution separating two years
ago, and now while we are writing ? What was that
spirit? A sincere reverence for the policy of the revo-
lution, and for the memory of its enlightened and illus-
trious leader—a manly attachment to the Constitu-
tional doctrines of civil and religious Ilberty----a reso-
lute love of British connexion—a loyal devotion to
the Crown of England, as worn by the Protestant
House of Brunswick—a conscientious dread and
hatred of political Popery, another name for arbitrary
power ; in truth, it was nothing more nor less than an
offshoot of those principles of government and reli-
gious faith, which have for centuries prevailed amongst
ourselves, transplanted to Ireland, and manifesting in
all things a full sympathy with the race whence it ori-
ginated. Is there, frankly speaking, any crime in
this ? Ought brave and loyal Irishmen to be ashamed
of attributes in which upright English Protestants
glory ? We do not deny that the practical fruits of
the Orange institution, or rather of. its peculiar organi-
zation, were attended with inconvenience to the Go-
vernment, and chiefly because it countenanced a spe-
cious argument against the crushing of other leagues, of
which the secret bond was not duty, but crime—not
loyalty, but treason and rebellion. One effectual reason
with the friends of good government for yelding to
the clamour against the Orange body was, that its
dispersion would unfetter the hands both of the
executive power and of Parliament, and enable them,
without the possibility of reproach, the one to legislate,
the other to administer the law, in fearless repression
of all self-constituted and seditious bodies, which might
propagate openly a spirit of disaffection among the
people, and encourage them to acts incompatible with
the public safety. This release from supposed embar-
rassments has been enjoyed by the Whig-Radical Ad-
ministration ever since the dispersion of the Orange-
men. How has the free agency, thus through their
own threats and manceuvres obtained, been exercised
by the justice-loving Whigs ? A society of a far dif-
ferent complexion from anything Orange, Protestant,
English, or Constitutional, has sprung up in Dublin, un-
der the very nose of the Viceroy. It meets daily, by ad-
journments; it addresses itself to the nation which it
assumes in defiance of the law and of the spirit of the
Constitution to represent and govern. It is a House of
Commons passing laws in the shape of resolutions—
levying taxes in the guise of subscriptions—deputing
Commissioners, after the fashion of the Long Parlia-
ment, and of the French Convention, to the several
counties of the kingdom, to inflame the multitude and
impel them into a course of action utterly hostile to
the religion of the State and to the proprietors of the
soil—operating by all the means of coercion, corrup-
tion, and superstitious inflence, upon the possessors of
the elective franchise that they may return to the Im-
perial Parliament creatures and vassals of the rebel con-
federacy. The whole genius of this new power is at
open war with the laws and institutions of the realm.
It is the College-green Parliament in every thing but
name, and prepares with impunity that real alienation
from Great Britain which may be followed by an
ostensible rupture with her whenever the opportu-
nity shall be found. What was there in Orangeism
to compare with this ? And yet it goes unpunished.
Unpunished I—nay, encouraged—cherished—courted
by the Ministers, as being their master's work. Why,
it appears from this day's post that a member• of the
band has just been made a Pi ivy Councillor 1 I and
this is just, and wise, and impartial government !
this is discountenancing faction I—this is supporting
the Constitutional Monarchy, giving stability to Bri-
tish connexion, and security to King William's crown I
Had a tenth-part of the lawless audacity of this rebel
association been exhibited by the loyal aristocracy of
Ireland, in a spirit of resistance to rebellion, and of
attachment to the Church and State, Parliament would
long since have been called together, and a coercion or
insurrection bill, of unprecedented rigour, would have
been proposed against the treasonable usurpers of all
legislative and magisterial authority within the United
Kingdom.—Times.
The requisition for a great meeting on the subject of
Peerage Reform in the Borough of Marylebone is pro-
ceeding with great, but not unexpected success. Signa-
tures are pouring in in all the localities where the re-
quisition is deposited, and, where the vital and pressing
object of the requisition is made known. We were
not deceived in our calculations that the inhabitant
householders of this populous borough—as remarkable
for their industry and wealth as for their intelli-
gence and public spirit—would not be behind other
boroughs, nor behind the pressing demands of the age,
in the great career of Reform. Cheap and good go-
vernment is the just demand of the educated and com-
mercial classes. The independent and intelligent com-
mercial men of Marylchone know perfectly well,
that a Government ?flaw Houses permanently thwart-
ing each other, is not even a barely tolerable state
of things. Certainly, the " wisdom of our an-
cestors" never contemplated or conceived a neutral or
epicene Legislature. This is not a species'of govern-
ment to which Englishmen have been accustomed ;
nor is it a species of government which they can either
respect or tolerate. It is not, we believe, decided
whether the organizing Committee will present the re-
quisition to the vestry immediately, or whether they
will prefer to wait till the signatures—daily increasing—
give practical and irresistible proof of the feelings and
opinions of one of the most popular and populous of
the metropolitan boroughs on the question involved in
the requisition. It is a question which we must em-
phatically designate as " The Question"—Peerage
Reform. That is a question to which all other politi-
cal questions must, in accordance with the plainest
dictates of common sense, the practical habits of men
of business, and, indeed, the very nature of things, be
deemed, for the time, subordinate and secondary.—
Morning Advertiser.
The day has long since gone by when the country
could be frightened from any of the great purposes on
which it had determined, by the outcry of such pur-
pose being unconstitutional. Some time ago that out-
cry would have been effectual in putting an extin-
guisher on any efforts which some bold spirit, in ad-
vance of the age in which he lived, might have made
to accomplish a Reform of the Upper House. The
more timid Reformers would then have been easily
frightened from their object by the getting up of a
clamour that that object was unconstitutional. It is
far otherwise now. The Reformers have learned a
lesson from experience. The charge of acting in oppo-
sition to the principles of the Constitution has been so
often preferred against them of late, that they have
ceased to pay the least attention to it. Hence they no
inure heed the noise which has been recently made by
the Tories, about the alleged unconstitutionality of
proposing Peerage Reform, than they would the
whistling of the idle wind. They know it is the old

story Wheneviq the coirei!tiflri Of, avy abuse has been trary, Sir Robert Peel did not intend that the; el.msb to
contemplated : they know it Will t.; ; P
I have adverted should really admit the Itot;il4 a.;
still, so long as there is a Conservative in eXlSris:liqt , tTertiee4 the' Corporations in proportion to their numb.!rs ,
,aind I.lot that, ,
mid an evil ObP retnedied, We Maintain that no,
tho.so 60(06.,- t:0"13.0 t):, the hands of
1110f0 111 adeCikiv.i4cd with 60 s)lilt1 of
CO eXcinsire party; then that the Emlo,,4ition Act,
the Constitution, than a thorough reform of the tippet es tar as this' clauso %vent, wa4 crittaitent and delusory--
I-Luse: What 18 the great design of the Constitu- a fact ‘which the more lament, becatm I am sin-
lion tilidentbtedly the happiness of the people. cerely anxious that th 4 outinet of Sir Robert Peel, in re-
Does the House of Lords as at present constittited spset to that great work, shoUld 00 down to posterity with-
tend to promote the people's happiness ? It mle- cut s
niably does the very reverse. It frustrates their hap- When fir R. Peel framed the Ematio;pation Act
pincss, by defeating all those great measures which all that he intended wnfl that Roman Catholic:, :11101.11d
the Commons, as their representatives, send up for its be equally admissible with VrOtostants into the ex'-,
concurrence. It is therefore, we hold, in perfect con- fisting Corporations, by the existing cimocls of -
sonance with the spirit of the Constitution, so „eyess. With this the Roman Catholics or Jraland
to modify the Upper house as to secure its cor- professed, both before and for some time after ill'
dial co-operation with the Lower House, in enactment, that they would be entirely satisfied.
those great and important measures which it pro- And now we have this most remarkable example of
poses for the national amelioration. If all the charges the value of their professions and promises, that
which the Tories, have at different times sought they claim. in virtue of that measure that the Cor-
to fasten on the Reformers, of passing unconstitu- porations which existed at that time shall be de-
tional measures, were well founded, there would not stroyed, and other Corporations put in their place, so
now be a particle of the Constitution remaining, constituted as to secure to the Roman Catholics the
Catholic emancipation was unconstitutional—so was absolute monopoly of authority in nearly the whole
the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts. The of them. The effect of the Emancipation Bill
Reform Bill was not only according to the Tories, un- might have been to introduce gradually into the
constitutional, but it was utterly destructive of the Con- Corporations of Ireland Roman Catholic Members
stitution—not a fragment, they seriously assured us for proportioned to the numbers, the wealth, and the
some months afterwards, remained after that measure intelligence of the Roman Catholic body. This
became the law of the land. The last remarkable un- progressive change in the Corporations would have
constitutional act of the Reformers was, the Munici- been consonant, no doubt, to the principle and spirit
pal Corporations Reform Bill. On these three occa- of the Emancipation Act. But we must observe that
sions the poor Constitution was a heavy—on one of Mr. Woulfe exhibits more of the spirit of active en-
them a fatal—sufferer. It always, however, was fortu- croachment and assiduous ambition which have always
nate enough to recover from the terrible blow. We distinguished his sect and party than of the cautious
doubt not it will yet survive another stroke—at all and candid temper which gives weight and accuracy to
events, we know the nation will be fool-hardy enough political reasoning, when he infers from this tendency
to put its powers of endurance to the test, by sub- in the Emancipation Act the justice of an auxiliary
jetting it to the process of an efficient reform.— measure, abolishing the old corporations and creating
Morning Advertiser. new ones, for the exclusive benefit of Roman Ca-
In reverting to the splendid speech of the Irish So-
tholics, and giving authority in these bodies in propor-
licitor-General at Cashel, on Wednesday last, which, lion to numbers merely, without the least regard to
by means of an extraordinary express, appeared ex-
wealth or intelligence. Mr. Woulfe supplies the
clusivel
means, indeed, in another part of his speech, of ex-
y in the columns of the Morning Advertiser,
it to all our Contemporaries of the evenino posing the theoretic fallacy and estimating the prac-
we owe
tical mischief of the inference he has attempted to draw
press, with one contemptible exception, and also to
from the Emancipation Bill. The Hon. and Learned
several of our Sunday fellow-labourers, to record our
Gentleman says :
obligations to them for the handsome mariner in which
" There is not, at the present moment, one of the
they have been pleased to notice our successful es- offices,
franchises, or civil functions
which the Constitution
ertions. Our numerous and daily increasing readers places in the hands of the subject, which is not enjoyed or
cannot but be aware that to furnish them with such possessed—and necessarily enjoyed and possessed—by one
early, abundant, and important intelligence, upon sub- religious denomination to a greater extent than by the
jects affecting, not only the welfare of Ireland, but other.—(Hear.) Take for instance, the office of justice of
the stability and union of the United Kingdom, it the peace ; there is not in the range of our civil policy an
must have cost us no small sacrifices either in person office more important in its nature, more influential, more
or in purse ; but we have accomplished, in capable of being made the instrument of oppression.—
a great degree, the objects which we had in (Hear.) Well, is that office to be abolished because the
proprietorship of the soil places it in the bands of a greater
view ; and we as cheerfully forget the one, as
number of Protestants than of Catholics ?—(Hear.) Are
through the generosity of public support, we are royal commissions to issus into every county upon the Tory
enabled to despise the latter. We have furnished plan for the government of corporate towns to supersede
our readers with the best, as well as the ear- the office of grand juror, because the important powers
Best intelligence upon all subjects connected with vested in that office fall of necessity into the same hands
the welfare of the people of Ireland, upon which the and for the same reason, in a greater proportion than in
Government and the Legislature will have to decide those of Roman Catholics ?—( Hear.) On the other hand
during the ensuing Session of Parliament—we have
is the elective franchise to be abolished, or is it to be at-
proved to the people of Ireland, that a large mass of
tached to an unconstitutionally excessive qualification, be-
cause the majority of electors must, from the circumstances
their brethren in England sympathise deeply with the ocrthe country, be Roman Catholic ?—(Hear, hear.) Sir,
wrongs and contumely which they have sustained, and the principle of the Tories with respect to Irish Corpora-
that they are determined that justice shall supersede tions would inevitably lead to these results, if it be sound.
the one, and atonement be made for the other—we It would call for the simplification of our system into a
have brought the people of both countries to a better despotism, by the assumption of all the powers and privi-
knowledge of each other's mutual situation, feelings, leges of the subjects of the Crown.—(Hear, hear.) That
must be the result if they withdraw from Ireland all cor-
and wishes—and, if we be not greatly mistaken, we
have also kindled in the bosoms of both a feeling of
porate bodies, because of the preponderance of Catholics,
-
for if that reasoning be just then must they withdraw all
union and mutual regard, which no efforts of the institutions from every other class in which they have a pre-
Tories, however malignantly and perseveringly pursued, ponderance equally great."
will be able to extinguish. These are glorious results, Here Mr. Woulfe admits that, in virtue of a neces-
well worthy of all the toil, trouble, anxiety, and ex- sity which the distribution of property in Ireland has
pease to which we have subjected ourselves ; and that created, the offices of justice of the peace and of
we are not greatly exaggerating them, we have the grand juror are held by a greater number of Protes-
most ample and satisfactory proofs before us, in nu- tants than of Roman Catholics. This is enough to
merous letters of testimony, and approbation, and gra- show that the corporation scheme, which would have
titude from the sister country, and in the outpouring given all corporate power and authority to the latter,
of its grateful spirit in almost all its recognized chap- overlooked altogether two out of the three de-
nels of public sentiment.—Morning Advertiser. ments of the social constitution which the Irish
The Solicitor-General of Ireland, Mr. Woulfe, has
Solicitor-General enumerates, viz., wealth and intel-
been delivering a speech at Cashel, with which the ligence. So much for the theoretic view of the ques-
Whig and Radical journals affect to be highly delighted. tion ; and, as to the practical, what good could be ex-
It is a clever and eloquent speech undoubtedly, but it petted from corporations, the officers and authori-
. abounds in evidence that the speaker is under the in- ties of which must, according to their own most
fluence of prejudice, rancour, and bad faith—qualities ingenious advocate, be, ex necessitate ref, of a diffe-
which must be supposed to reign paramount in the rent genus and class from those whom the demands
bosoms of the great mass of the adherents of Mr. of society, exercising on this occasion an irresistible
O'Connell, since we find that one of the most able and sway over the conduct of successive and conflicting
respectable of their number has not been able or has Administration, calls to the offices of justices of the
not oared to exempt himself from their influence— peace and grand jurors ? Mr. Woulfe and his party,
qualities, too, we must be permitted to add, which, so if they entertained a sincere desire to give tranquillity
long as they are habitually exhibited, must militate, happiness, and prosperity to Ireland, would, we be-
and ought to militate, against further grants of political lieve, find some more rational mode of accomplishing
ect than a scheme for establishing perpetual
power to the body in which their dominion is so plainly that obj
shown. The speech of Mr. Woulfe is principally contrariety of character and purpose between the rul-
made up—with the exception, indeed, of some corn- trig powers of corporations on the one hand, and jus.
monplace generalities we might say wholly made tices of peace and grand jurors on the other.—Morn
up—of animadversions upon the celebrated words -`). Post.
of Lord Lyndhurst, and of arguments in support
of the Irish Corporation Bill of last Session. Upon
each of these topics, or rather the Irish Solicitor-Gene-
ral's mode of treating them, we beg permission to
offer one or two observations. However natural and
consistent it may be on the part of Mr. O'Connell to
play the part of a captious word-catcher, and to la-
bour with pertinacious industry to fix upon a political
opponent a meaning which he diavows, this dishonest
rhetorical artifice will never be resorted to, unless by
those who seek to inflame rather than to enlighten
their hearers. We regret, therefore, to find Mr.
Woulfe entering into competition with Mr. O'Connell
in an art at once so mischievous, so easy, and so vul-
gar, as that of misrepresentation. The argument of
Lord Lyndhurst was, that so long as the Roman Ca-
tholics of Ireland, under the influence of such men as
Mr. O'Connell, maintained the character of aliens, so
long it would not be prudent to invest them with greater
political power than they now enjoy. This is an ar-
gument of which it is much easier and more profitable
to Mr. O'Connell arid his confederates to misrepresent
the import, than to elude the force. It is a sound and
statesman-like argument ; and Mr. Woulfe could not
have afforded it a stronger confirmation than by em-
ploying, in the service of anti-British agitation, a mean
and fraudulent misrepresentation of its meaning, ut-
terly unworthy of his reputation, and manifesting even
in him, one of the best specimens of his class, qua-
lities which are entirely alien, and must remain so,
we hope, for ever, to the character of Englishmen and
Protestants 1 With respect to the Irish Corporation
Bill, Mr. Woulfe insists that it is a measure which
must become law, in order to carry into effect tke spirit
of the Act of Union, and the manifest intention of the
Emancipation Act. To the argument drawn from the
Act of Union, we need pay no further attention than
to remark, that the people of Great Britain have not
yet become accustomed to that particular mode of
maintaining the spirit of a compact, public or private,
which consists in the violation of its letter. Did the
British or the Irish Legislature, or any considerable
portion of either nation, contemplate that, in consent-
ing to the Act of Union, they were, in effect, giving
their sanction to the suppression of all the existing
corporations of Ireland, and the erection, in their
place, of Mr. O'Connell's normal schools of peaceful
agitation ? Mr. Woulfe will scarcely venture to
answer this question in the affirmative ; and, un-
less he can do so, his argument founded upon
the Union vanishes into air. It is indeed, an
ingenious translation, and no more, into the argu-
mentative form, of Mr. O'Connell's threat, that
he will agitate for a repeal of the Union, unless
he is allowed to have everything his own way. The
appeal to the Emancipation Act is equally illusory and
abdrtive. The Hon. and Learned Gentleman says—
" There is an express clause in the Emancipation Act
that the Roman Catholics should be admitted to the Cor-
porations, any charter, or bye-law, or former statute to the
contrary notwithstanding.—(Hear, hear.) Now I ask, did
Sir Robert Peel mean, when he framed that great charter,
that the Roman Catholics of Ireland really should partake
of the corporate offices: and the franchise, according to
their number, their wealth, and their intelligence, as they
partake of the elective franchise or any other constitutional
privileges they enjoy ? If he did so mean, then the Corpo-
ration Bill of Ministers did no more than carry that intention
into effect.—( Hear, hear.) It did not upon such a suppo-
sition transfer to the Roman Catholics the powers incident
to Corporations in greater proportion than was intended by
the Act of Emancipation.—( Hear, hear.) If, on the con.

EXTRAORDINARY SUPERSTITION

Some very remarkable facts have just been brought to
light at a trial that took place on the 9th and 10th of this
month at the Court of Assize des Bouches du Rhone, in
France. It must be mentioned, however, that, though the
trial be so • recent, the circumstances that gave rise to it
occurred twelve months ago. They were shortly these :
On the 7th of December in last year, a little after two
o'clock in the morning, the watchman at an abattoir in
Marseilles observed something that looked white on the
pavement close to the door of the charity hospital ; and on
examinig it closely he found it to be a corpse. At the same
moment three persons, who appeared to have been waiting
at the corner of the street, ran away and were not over-
taken. The watchmen called for assistance, and two of
the night patrol having come up the body was ascertained
to be that of a quack, named Antoine Arnaud. The hands
and feet were tied together, but the clothes were not re-
moved ; and the head was covered with several handker-
chiefs that served to conceal a large wound in the throat.
At the Hotel Dieu it was found that the body had been
opened by a longitudinal incision from the breast, which had
been subsequently sewn up. The wound in the throat had
divided several arteries, and must have caused death from
excessive bleeding, though no blood was anywhere visible.
The medical men were astonished to see that the intestines,
the heart, the liver, and the various organs had been apparently
torn from their places, and afterwards crammed into the
pectoral and abdominal cavities, without any care or proper
arrangement. Notwithstanding the rough manner in which
they had been handled, however, all the organs were entire,
except the liver, of which nearly the half had been taken
away. Of course no time was lost by the police in making
such an investigation as might lead to a correct knowledge
of the facts of the case ; and they ascertained that the de-
ceased had been some years resident at Marseilles, where
he carried on the double profession of day labourer and
quack doctor. It seems that he took the greatest and most
disinterested care of his patients, for it could not be disco-
vered that he ever received money, except in a solitary in-
stance, when 1,500 francs had been given to him by a man
in better circumstances than the persons who usually em-
ployed him. After a few inquiries there was good ground
for believing that he had fallen a victim to a system pres-
cribed by himself. His system of medicine was decidedly
the most extraordinary ever heard of. Whenever a patient
applied he gave the following directions :
I am about to take a soporific, and when I am asleep
you will pierce my
neck %with a knife. (Vows vie plongerc,-;
an coutcau dans le col.) The blood issuing from the wound
will entirely cure your disorder." It appeared that this sin.
gular prescription had often been followed, for numerous
scars were observed in his neck. To his liver Arnaud as-
cribed still more wonderful properties than to his blood.
" he repeatedly said, " I should iippear dead, from loss
of blood, give me some of my own liver to eat, and it will at
once restore me."

The police at length, after having arrested and examined
several persons against whom there appeared no proof, traced
the house in which the deceased had last been seen alive. It

belonged to a young woman named Camille Viacca, who
had been for some time under his care. A long series of
circumstantial, but seemingly decisive, evidence, left no
room to doubt that to the too-faithful adherence to his own
presciption by this woman and one of her friends the death
of Arnaud must be attributed ; and the case was brought
before the regular tribunals. But here an unexpected dif-
ficulty arose. Notwithstanding the skill of the public pro-
secutor it was exceedingly puzzling to know how to frame
the indictment. Homicide had clearly been committed, but
evidently without " malice afore-thought." The death of
the practitioner was obviously the result of his own instruc-
tions ; and his liver had evidently been cut out for the pur-
pose of preserving his life. An immense crowd was present
at the trial, when several witnesses proved the directions
given by the deceased. M. Lieutaud, acting for the Pro-
cureur-General, left the case entirely in the bands of the
jury, who discharged the prisoners.