The Sun.
London, England, 1836-01-19 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Members of the House of Commons, honestly
attached to the cause of the People, and desirous of
maintaining in power a Liberal Administration, will
not fail, at any personal sacrifice, to be present in Par-
liament on the first day of the Session, the 4th of
February. The Tory faction, now at their last gasp,
and with hardly a hope of a return to power, will ne-
vertheless make desperate efforts to embarrass Minis-
ters. The " Conservatives" are already actively
caballing and plotting to take the Reformers by sur-
prise when Parliament meets. Every Liberal Repre-
sentative of the People ought, therefore, to be at his
post, in order to defeat these machinations. Already
the note of preparation and muster has been sounded
by the Tory Press, on the false pretence, some weeks
since, that Ministers had used extraordinary means to
ensure the attendance of members interested in their sup-
port, and that the Government was tottering to its fall.
Now, indeed, their calculation of Ministerial lon-
gevity is different, although despair often impels men
to attempt strange things. It is understood that
some agitators of the " Opposition"—.-second-rate
men, who would wish to be thought leaders—in-
tend to display their whole strength on an amendment
to the Address, and that many factious stratagems are
to be practised in the course of the first week. From
the state of parties with respect to numbers in the
" Peel-chosen Parliament," it becomes essential that
the Liberals should rally in the House of Commons
on the first day. If Ministers should not receive such
support, a new Parliament must be the immediate
consequence. It is now notorious that many consti-
tuencies throughout the kingdom are anxious to rid
themselves of some of the pretenders who, at the
last hustings, imposed upon their credulity by as-
suming Liberal professions, and that a very consider-
able change in many of the emancipated cities and
boroughs in favour of Reform, must occur on the first
opportunity. If, therefore, Members - are desirous
of avoiding the necessity of a dissolution, or if they
are anxious to stand well with their constituents,
they must be early and unremitting in their attend-
ance. We are on the eve of a most eventful ses-
sion. This year will probably decide the question,
whether the Lords are to exercise a complete dominaL
tion over the Commons—whether they are to render
the reform of the representation a dead letter, and
to plunge Ireland in anarchy and civil war. Other
questions of paramount importance will come early
under discussion in the House of Commons. The
Ministerial changes unavoidably prolonged last session,
but it is now vitally important that several subjects of
pressing importance should be early„ lecided and for-
warded to the Peers. We, therefore, again urge all
real Reformers, members of the Lower House, to
attend in their places, ready for the conflict, on the
first day of the session. The times are of no common
character. Although reform has been constantly
gaining, and notwithstanding all the changes in par-
ties, yet Toryism still assumes a bold front, and re-
quires to be constantly watched. Sir Robert Peel, we
know, is much mistrusted by the " Conservatives,"
and they openly proclaim their suspicion of his pre-
sent views ; but past experience teaches us that the
Right Honourable Baronet is cunning in his " turns ;"
and his turn-coat Journal, the Times, boldly announces
that wherever Sir Robert turns, his subservient party
must accompany him. The Reformers, therefore,
must be on their guard, and look well to their Repre-
sentatives.—Morning Chronicle.
We copy from the AugsburgGaztqte an article upon
the subject of Russia and Europe, which, whilst it af-
fects to deprecate the idea of Russian conquest in the
East, admits, in unequivocal terms, the new policy of
that empire with reference to Poland. The great ob-
ject which the Autocrat is confessed to have in con-
templation at present confines itself to the advancement
-of his territory to those landmarks in the West of
Europe which will enable him to maintain there the
position he deems himself entitled to by his rank in the
scale of nations. The plain translation of this disclo-
sure is, that Poland is to be so completely incorporated
with the empire as not to be distinguishable from it
by any boundary or by any national peculiarity what-
ever. It is to have the same religion, the same laws,
the same language, the same civil and military and scho-
lastic institutions, the same Treasury, the same species
of public force, and the same slavery as the province
of Smolensk or Moscow. To this consummation all
the recent acts of the Imperial Government converge
with a steadiness of aim, a recklessness of rights, a
defiance of public opinion, and a fearlessness of resist-
ance, that betray at every step the resolution of a bar-
barian conqueror. Onward he goes with a passionate
impetuosity, which pushes aside all diplomatic reserve,
determined to achieve his purpose or to lose his crown
and his life, and to destroy even his dynasty in the
attempt. By the organic statute Poland has been
already nominally incorporated with the empire—a
flagrant violation of the Treaty of Vienna, and of the
Constitution granted to that kingdom by Alexander.
In order to render this formal union one of complete
identification in substance and in every relation of so-
ciety, the establishments for a distinct Polish Admi-
nistration have been abolished. No such persons as
Polish functionaries are now recognized—those who
serve in Poland, either in the army, or the public
offices are " Russian.," The Russian language has
been substituted for the Polish in all the transac-
tions of Government in the latter country, contrary
to the rights and long established customs of Po-
land. The two most celebrated Polish Universities
have been shut up. In the secondary and inferior
schools, where the Polish language was uniformly em-
ployed as the medium for conducting every department of
education, the Russian tongue is now exclusively used,
and that tongue is insisted upon as the first object of
every pupil's instruction. Those Polish functionaries
who do not speak Russian, are superseded by
Russians, who are rapidly obtaining possession of ail
the branches of the imperial service. Religion is
considered by Nicholas simply as a political instrument.
He has so used it in Greece, in Turkey, in Wal-
lachia and Moldavia, and he is now applying it by
every practicable device in Poland. Several convents
and churches belonging to the Latin Catholics he has,
by acts of usurpation and violence, paralleled only in
Ireland, bestowed upon the Greek clergy. He has
ordained by ukase that in every family in which either
parent is of the Greek worship, the children must
be brought up to that profession of faith. All
the recruits added from Poland to the army
must adopt the same faith, according to the ex-
press declaration of Nicholas, who has said
that " slavei have no religion but that of their
masters." Our Correspondent in Constantinople,
a few days ago, stated that the new Greek Patriarch
in that capital, who was elected through Russian in-
fluence, has evinced his gratitude to his Imperial
Patron by issuing a prohibition against females of the
Greek Church intermarrying with men of a different
faith—a prohibition also borrowed from the infamous
code that once existed in Ireland. We have still to
mention another fact, stated to us upon authority
in which we have every reason to rely. It appears
that six thousand unmarried individuals, from the inte-
rior of Russia, were sent to Poland, to assist in the
construction of the citadel of Warsaw, and the fort of
Modlin, at the distance of about twenty-five miles
from the capital. As soon as the fortifications were
completed, a sum of one hundred roubles was given to
each of these persons ; and they were distributed
through the Polish villages, with the double purpose of
having a Russian spy. in each village, and of forming a
nucleus, through the intermarriage of these settlers, for
the Greek Church. Under one pretext or another their
numbers are to be increased from time to time. On the
other hand, the Poles who are transplanted to Siberia, and
to the military colonies, are married to Russian women,
ana tnusl ose not only their country but their religion.
We had occasion lately to mention a ukase, by which
confiscated estates of Polish exiles were given to six-
teen Russian officers, upon whose families they were
entailed. A plan is understood to be in contempla-
tion, by which one hundred new entails are to be
created in Poland in favour of other Russian func-
tionaries. Thus every measure of a higher or lower
grade, from the premeditated invective of an infuriated
despot, down to the appointment of the lowest agent
of police, is studiously contrived to forward one and
the same purpose—the prostration of the nationality
of Poland—because that, even as it yet exists in mere
abadow, is the only barrier which intercepts the con-

nection between Russia and Western Europe—the '
only obstacle which prevents the Northern Empire
from enjoying a European position. Poland is to be
sacrificed to the Autocrat's ambition, which points to
ascendency in the councils of the Continent—an as-
cendency which he never can acquire, if the Govern-
ments of France and England be faithful to the wishes
of the two nations. The Chamber of Deputies is
bound by its solemn vote to the restoration of the
Polish kingdom to the full possession of its rights.
It is not improbable that a similar pledge will be given
by the House of Commons. With these two votes,
and the sympathies of Hungary and Germany in their
favour, the Poles can hardly fail to find the means,
sooner or later, of frustrating the iniquitous designs of
their oppressor.—Morning Chronicle.

We all recollect the history of the Session 1835,
and the pertinacity with which the O'Connell Minis-
ters clung to that very particular and perverse
crotchet, whereby they contrived, first, to force Sir
Robert Peel out of office in their own behalf ; and,
secondly, to defeat the Irish Tithe Bill, introduced by
themselves into Parliament, and which, but for that
beautiful device of faction, a clause which had no con-
cern with the principle of the Bill, both Lords and
Commons would, without difficulty, have enacted.
The O'Connell Whigs made it a sine qua non of
their system of legislation respecting the Irish Church,
that the principle of diverting the funds of the Church
to other than Protestant purposes must be recognized
in the body of whatever Bill should be brought in
for adjusting the revenues of that establishment.
When a Bill for that important end was introduced
by Sir Henry Hardinge, embodying whatever were
best among the provisions of the measure which had
been framed by the Whigs in the year preceding, but
greatly improving upon them all, and rendering the
Bill as a financial measure more advantageous both for
the public and for the clergy, the O'Connell Whigs
insisted on saddling the practical clauses of the Bill
with a resolution, not merely in its nature speculative,
but such as all men who had looked into the subject of
church revenues were conscious could never be en-
forced in practice, and thereby secured the real object
of their manoeuvre, namely, the resignation of Sir
Robert Peel, who disdained to sacrifice a fundamental
principle of State policy for the sake of retaining
office. The Whigs then came in upon, and for, the
the assertion of the opposite principle. When, next,
they brought forward their own tithe measure, and
strapped up the heterogenous appropriation clause upon
the back of it, the House of Lords separated those
parts of the measure which bore no natural relation to
each other, and had the O'Connell Whigs chosen to
accept the bill as the majority of the Lords approved
it, the tithes of Ireland would have been at this mo-
ment commuted, and many human lives since sacrificed
to the spirit of insurrection would have been spared.
The appropriation clause, therefore, was the hinge on
which turned the existence of the O'Connell Whig
Administration. It was made, by themselves, the test
of their policy, and the key to their sense of public
duty. They pledged themselves to stand or fall by it ;
they pronounced Sir Robert Peel and the Conservatives
unfit to hold office, and undeserving public confi-
dence, because the Right Hon. Baronet and his friends
would not admit in theory an abstract principle, which,
in 1834, the same Melbourne Whigs rejected, be-
cause it was an abstract principle. All this amounted
to a solemn proclamation before the country, that no
Ministers ought to be endured as such, who would
refrain from making an assertion of the disputed prin-
ciple an integral portion of any measure for regulating
the property of the Irish church. Of course, his Ma-
jesty s O'Connell Ministers were sincere in such ap-
peals to the country. Of course, there was no faction
in such their proceedings, no mean desire to turn Con-
servatives out of office, no sordid appetite to fill their
places and to appropriate their salaries. Of course, tl:c
spoliation doctrine was not meant for a mere trick to
serve a turn—a mere ladder whereon the Irish
fiend and his familiars might mount into the Go-
vernment, and then kick it from behind them.
These are all things beyond dispute. Then it fol-
lows that we must cast aside as utterly incredible
—as monstrous and hateful slanders upon the Mi-
nisters—for even Whigs may be calumniated—we
must, we say, repudiate as horrible slanders the re-
ports, however laboriously circulated, that an Irish
Church Bill is to be brought in by the O'Connell
Cabinet, with the appropriation clause left out ! We
declare once more, it cannot be,—the annals of iniquity,
the archives of hypocrisy, the memorabilia of human
turpitude, have signalized no baseness equal or com-
parable to this. If the appropriation clause be not es-
sential, in the judgment of Whigs, to a satisfactory
and definitive settlement of the tithe question, why did
they twice affirm that it was so in the course of the last
ten months ? Why did they turn out the Conserva-
tives upon it ? Why, upon the strength of it, did they
resume the Government ? Why, in affected deference
to it, did Lord Melbouene toss up his nose at the bill
brought in by his own Cabinet, which, minus the single
appropriation clause, the House of Lords were ready,
nay most desirous, to pass ? Are the O'Connell-Mel-
bournes not yet satisfied that all the better portion of the
people of England have agreed as to their political attri-
butes and virtues ? Do they apprehend that any shadow
of doubt yet hangs upon the country with regard to the
true motives which impel and rule such a body as the
rump of the Whigs? O'Connell's countenance is not suf-
ficient to accredit them ; they must give bail themselves,
as well as by their sureties. They must prove, on their own
behalf, that they are not unworthy of his patronage.
But will Mr. Daniel O'Connell rejoice in this especial
evidence to the honour and consistency of his allies ?
However flattering to his choice of political agents
any proof that they are men whom no one else can
trust, will Daniel, we repeat, be quite prepared to
find himself the victim of their treachery ? The un-
derstood conditions of the bargain were, that the
Whigs should be tenants-at-will of Downing-street,
but that he should have the fee-simple of the Irish
Church. Now, if it be fact that Archbishop Whate-
ley is busied in concocting a Bill without that clause
which is equivalent to a recognition of O'Connell's
title to all Church property, why the Agitator is pal-
pably choused. A Bill so mutilated is one, indeed,
for prolonging the Whig tenure of Downing-street,
and for postponing, sine die, the entrance of Daniel
into possession of his new purchase. Will, again,
so keen a hand as he has shown himself in the affair
of Raphael, be fobbed off in this free and easy
fashion ? We guess not : either an appropriation clause,
or a split with the Popish power—that's flat. Well,
but the English Radicals, what will they say to the
shuffle-major of the Melbournes ? The English
Radicals, entertaining views in relation to Church and
State which we unfeignedly believe to be not merely
inconsistent with Constitutional monarchy, but with all
good and steadygovernment under any imaginable form,
have nevertheless more honesty in their little fingers,
than is to be found throughout the whole array of
Irish Intriguers and of Downing-street Whigs. The
English Radicals may be wrong-headed, and we think
they are so ; they may be fanatical, short-sighted, vi-
sionary—many of them fierce, turbulent, and aspiring
—we believe they are so : but there is about them
some openness of character, some directness of pur-
pose—some zeal for the public welfare, according to
their (in our minds, perverse) views of it. We re-
peat, that there is a smack of honesty about them,
which belongs in no degree to either the O'Connell in-
cendiaries or the rump-Melbourne Whigs. How,
then, will the body of English Radicals, who acted
bona fide in their attacks upon the Irish Church—
how will they relish the abandonment by Ministers of
that one principle which formed the first great bond
and cement of the league--the clause for
common league h
aliehating the revenues of the Irish clergy ? Why,
they will indignantly desert and denounce the recreant
rump. They will shake the dust from off their feet,
and quit the House of Commons, and in doing so they
will act like honest men. They will leave Lord J.
Russell in the beautiful predicament of having none on
the Church question to
u
Sir 11: Peel and his 320 Csolplspeorryt hativisesll4_o fimhieass. but
Most cordially do we congratulate the friends of Re-
form and of Ireland on the prospect which is now
being opened through the medium of the Irish Re-
form Association. The assembly at the Royal Ex-
change, Dublin, on the first meeting of that body, of
which we give an account elsewhere, combined more
of the intelligence, property, and rank of the country

than was perhaps ever before brought together for a po-
litical purpose in that metropolis. We rejoice—most
heartily do we rejoice in this powerful organization of
the Reformers of Ireland. It will secure an unanimity
of purpose and of action amongst the Liberals which
must prove irresistible, and will not only rescue Ire-
land from the fangs of an oppressive and intolerant
faction, but also from the greedy gripe of her over-
paid advocate. The utmost concert and enthusiasm
prevailed at the meeting ; Mr. O'Connell was not
there ; and all appeared actuated by feelings of ge-
nuine patriotism, and a firm determination to seek re-
dress of grievances, by -promoting and protecting the
legitimate exercise of the elective franchise. A month
has not elapsed since this Association was originated,
and it already numbers nearly two thousand names of
the first property and influence I It is only. surprising
that such a Society did not spring sooner into exist-
ence ; but the disgust generally felt at the duplicity
and knavery of one individual, prevented many of the
honest and independent Reformers from taking that
part which they would otherwise have done in Irish
politics. The partisans of Mr. O'Connell endeavoured
to have it believed that the Society was formed at
that gentleman's suggestion ; but that on account of
the odium which he knew to exist against him, he
did not wish to take an active part in its proceed-
ings until its organization became perfected. The
report has not the slightest foundation in truth ;
but the attempt to give it currency shows that
O'Connell's name is no recommendation to the in-
telligent portion of the Irish community, and that our
recent comments were at least justified by the opinions
of those to whom he is best known. His influence
may now be considered at an end. The patriots of
Ireland are combining—there is no place for Mr.
O'Connell amongst them—and he may now bid a long
adieu to all his greatness—his unjust, his unholy
greatness. The speech of Mr. Sergeant Woulfe con-
tains a most luminous analysis of the present state of
the Irish representation in regard to the relative pro-
perty and numbers of different parties, and the effect
to be produced by the action of the Registration So-
ciety. The following extract will be read with in-
terest :

" The wrong, my Lord, which I complain of is, that out
of the 105 Members who represent Ireland we have only
about 70, and that the Conservatives have 35. The pro-
per and just proportion ought to be, and I trust will be-
-90 to us, and 15 to them.—(Hear.) My Lord, it is not
only that we ought to have 90, but I trust that the result
of the next general election will leave us that number of
liberal representatives. Indeed, upon this point I scarcely
entertain a doubt.—(Cheers.) Why. do I say, my Lord
Clements, that the proper proportion would be 90 to
15 ? Because, if you go through an examination in -de-
tail of each of the liberal constituencies in Ireland, you
will find it quite palpable that out of the 105 Members
we ought to possess 90 at least. But this, Gentlemen,
would be a detail occupying more time than it would be
suitable to occupy in a meeting like this. A very accurate
calculation of the relative strength of the parties can be
made from statistical returns which are before the public.
These are my data. I am sure I do not exaggerate when I
say that the Liberal party in Ireland comprises, at,this mo-
ment, a majority of the intellect, rank, and wealth of the
country : that it comprises a large proportion of the landed
aristocracy of the country, including members of the first
families in the kingdom ; that it comprises a vast number
of the landed proprietary of Ireland, the extensive capital-
ists, and a great portion of the commercial wealth of the
country, the entire, I may say, of the derivative interest
in lands ; and the entire of the small traders, among whom
there is so much capital divided in the south and in a great
part of Ireland. Ido not exaggerate, when I say that at
least one-half of the property of the country is in the hands
of the Liberal party. The Conservatives claim to them-
selves a superiority of wealth over the Members of the Li-
beral party ; but taking together all the Liberal members
of the Church of England, Dissenters, and others, who act
with the Roman Catholics, we have at least an equality of
wealth with them. But if, in point of wealth, we are not
their superiors, in point of numbers how do we not surpass
them ? The Liberal party comprises at least 7,000,000,
while they, at the very most, have but 1,000,000.

True it is—as Mr. Woulfe observed—if the Re-
formers of Ireland exerted themselves, and we will add,
if their efforts had not been misdirected or marred by
paltry personal ambition, the measures so supremely
essential to the political welfare of Ireland would not
now be in contemplation, but in actual enjoyment.
However, it is needless to repine over the past, unless
with a view of profiting by its experience. The Irish
Reformers have-now flung off the yoke of the Dictator,
and Mr. O'Connell, left alone in his glory, now has
an opportunity of forming, unencumbered and un-
shackled, that alliance which, he says, was for five
years his most ardent desire—an alliance with the
" bloody-minded Orangemen." It would certainly be
an appropriate union—each has wrought many evils
for Ireland ; and the consummation of a union before
their political death would be a legitimate termination
of their iniquities.—Morning Advertiser.

As considerable curiosity and anxiety have been
expressed relative to the commercial treaty with Por-
tugal, which it has been said by the Ministerial jour-
nals would prove, when concluded, the triumphant re-
sults of Lord Palmerston's intervention in favour of
Donna Maria, we beg leave to call the attention of
ous readers to the latest correspondence on the subject
which has been received.from the Portuguese capital:—
" LISBON, JAN. 9.—At length one step has been taken
towards the arrangement of our commercial relations with
this country. The basis of the treaty has been submitted
by Lord Howard de Walden to the Government here, and
his Lordship has been in oommunication with the Marquis
of Loule on the subject. Frorn the dilatory habits of offi-
cial people here, some time will probably elapse before any
answer is returned ; and until then it will be quite impos-
sible to say what shall be the terms of the treaty, if
(which is extremely doubtful) any be concluded. The
terms proposed by the British Government will certainly
not be agreed to by the Portuguese, while those
which will be offered can never, I am persuaded, be-
come the basis of a treaty between Great Britain and
Portugal. If the arrangement is left in the hands of the
present Government we shall have a long and fruitless ne-
gociatiou, terminating in the establishment of an almost
prohibitory tariff. Indeed, they made a very characteristic
beginning by claiming the right to put in force any tariff
or Custom-house regulation they might please from the Ist
of February next, the period at which our treaty expires,
and without giving our merchants any previous intimation
of the nature of the regulations to which their commerce
was to be subject. We owe it, however, to the vigilance
and firmness of the Minister who watches over British in-
terests in this part of the world that such a claim has been
hopelessly abandoned. The present regulations will con-
tinue in force until new commercial regulations shall have
been formed, of the nature of which sufficient notice will,
of course, be given."

It will, perhaps, be imagined by some Whig-
Radicals that the foregoing picture of our mercantile
relations with the LuSitaman nation is the emanation
of some violent partisan of Don Miguel. We must
undeceive these gentry. We have borrowed the letter
from the columns of the Chronicle, the organ of the
Melbourne Cabinet. We have not a word to add in
the way of comment ; we leave the whole statement to
the judgment of the great manufacturing houses in
Great Britain, and we ask what will be their gain
from the changes of dynasty effected by the never-to-
be-forgotten intervention of the present Whig-Radical
Foreign Secretary ?—MorningPost.

KING'S BENCH.-MONDAY.

THE NEW CORPORATION ACT.-THE KING V. ARNOLD.

The ATTORNEY-GENERAL applied that a mandamus
should issue to the defendant, the town-clerk of the borough
of Poole, commanding him to allow two persons, of the
names of Scott and Lancaster, upon the payment of the
fee of l s., directed by the new Municipal Corporation Act,
to inspect the voting papers for the election of town coun-
cillors, and to make copies thereof at their own expense.
The application was made in consequence of an attempt to
defeat a most useful provision of the Corporation Act.—
Rule to show cause granted.