The Sun.
London, England, 1836-10-06 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

It is generally believed by those who have devoted
their attention to the subject that the institution in
Ireland of a legal permanent system by, which the poor
would be protected from extreme destitution, and the
owners of property be made directly responsible that
gaunt famine be no longer permitted to stalk abroad in
the midst of affluence and plenty, would produce a
great and immediate improvement in the social condi-
tion of that country, impart hope and energy to that
most numerous class of society which the constant lia-
bility to starvation has hitherto rendered idle, improvi-
dent, and reckless, and at once soften and exalt the
character of their superiors—that it would, in fine,
secure the speedy restoration of that harmony and cor-
diality between the different classes of society,the absence
of which contributes more than any other cause to the
success of political agitators and demagogues, to the in-
fluence of a domineering and ambitious Priesthood, and
to the turbulence and crimes, by the prevalence of which
the Irish people have long been distinguished from
most other communities pretending to civilization.
This opinion has rapidly gained ground, and is
now, we believe, so well established in the public
mind, that scarcely an individual of any sect or party
can be found to dissent from it, whose mind is not
visibly warped by some selfish and sordid interest of
his own, irreconcileably at war with the general wel-
fare of society. It can excite little surprise that,
among the miserable loiterers behind the onward pro-
gress of intelligence and conviction upon this subject,
Mr. O'Connell should be the most tardy, sluggish,
and stubborn. He manifestly dreads the effect of a
poor law in Ireland. If the great mass of the popu-
lation should be rescued from their present state of de-
gradation and misery—if the landed proprietors should
be stimulated to take a deep and constant interest in
the well-being of the labouring classes, to provide
for them the opportunity and the incentives of regu-
lar industry, to implant the desire and supply the
means of comfortable subsistence—there is much
reason to believe that the trade of the political dema-
gogue would be much less prosperous than it is at
present, that the beggar's-box of a mercenary agita-
tor would be neither so well nor so often filled, that
those who live by disturbing the peace of society
would speedily find their labour more difficult,
and their recompence more scanty and precarious.
It would excite surprise if, in such a prospect,
Mr. O'Connell could see anything in which to re-
joice. It is plainly not to his advantage that any-
thing should be done having the remotest tendency to
assimilate the state of society in Ireland to that which
happily prevails in this country. Mr. O'Connell has
acted, therefore, just as he, or any other selfish and
unprincipled man in his position, might naturally have
been expected to act, in opposing-, with all his power,
and by every artifice that he could devise, the con-
sideration of the question of poor laws for Ireland.
That he no longer dares to oppose it directly is the
most gratifying proof of the progress which tile ques-
tion has already made. But if he finds it no longer
prudent to offer direct opposition to a measure upon
which the people of Great Britain ancl Ireland are all
but unanimous, it is evidently his intention to retard,
at least, if he cannot defeat the effect of a decree
which the wisdom and humanity of one nation and
the urgent distress of another have irrevocably pro-
nounced. In this work of mercy and benevolence
to the starving, people of Ireland—to that destitute
and wretched people upon whose extorted alms he
and his beggar's brood do not disdain to live—Mr.

O'Connell is an obdurate and determined Obstruc-
tive. In affecting to accede to the measure he labours
discredit and impede it, labours with so intense an
earnestness, withu sehn z a agony of eal, as to become
utterly insensible or regardless of the almrdities and
Bf:if-contradictions in which he is perpetually involved.
In a recent address to his constituents this pensioner of
the starving poor of Ireland insults them by saying
that he will support the principle of a Government
measure for a national system of relief, Ist, because it
is part of the great trial whether they can avoid re-
curring again to the Repeal, " for," says Mr. O'Con-
nell, " without the Repeal you must have a poor law:"
in other words, Mr. O'Connell will support in the
Imperial Parliament a measure of domestic economy
for Ireland which he believes an independent Irish
legislature would not enact ; 2dly, this honourable and
consistent gentleman will support a poor law Bill, be-
cause he is not at all sanguine as to any beneficial re-
sults ; 3dly, he will support it, because "a poor law
Bill takes ,a
great deal from the pauper and seldom
gives him any adequate compensation ;" 4thly, he
will support this measure, because few of our
Irish declaimers on poor laws are aware of its fatal
effects upon wages ;" sthly, he will give it his
support, because it will probably fail, and then
those who have so long clamoured for a poor law will
find that they have got a fish instead of a serpent, bet-
ter suited to bite than to fatten or feed others : 6thly,
he will support it, because " Lord Morpeth is pledged
upon this subject, and we must have a poor law."
These are Mr. O'Connell's six exquisite reasons for
giving his support to the Government upon the general
principles of their intended Poor Law Bill. Reasons
with him are " as plenty as blackberries;" but it must,
we think, be admitted, considering the 18,000/. a year
which the pauper Irish 'contribute to the support of
their mendicant advocate, for taking care of their inte-
rests, that they pay the full value at least of what they
receive. It has seldom been our lot to witness a more
revolting exhibition of insolence and brutality than the
address of Mr. O'Connell to his starvin,c, countrymen
upon the subject of poor laws. It breathes con-
tempt and insult in every line. What, for ex-
ample, can be meant, if it be not an inhuman
sneer, by the remark that a poor law produces
atal effects upon wages ? How are the peasant
population of many parts of Ireland to understand what
is meant by fatal effects upon wages ? What are wages
to them who subsist year after year upon the potatoes
which they gather from their small plot of ground,
and are barely able by the sale of the pig, the sharer
of their daily meal, and by all the wages they can
scrape together, to pay the exorbitant rent with which,
in too many instances, they are charged for its occu-
pation ? A poor law would cause nine out of ten,
or rather we might say ninety-nine out of every hun-
dred, of them to relinquish their wretched tenancy.
Then the owners of the soil would be compelled
to content themselves with such moderate rents as
substantial farmers, cultivating the earth, and draw-
ing forth its resources by the application of capital
and labour, and with a view to a fair and reason-
able profit, might consent to pay. Then there would
be regular employment for industry. Then the
term " wages" would acquire an intelligible mean-
ing. Then the ordinary subsistence of the labouring
poor would be improved in quality, and increased in
abundance to a point at least one degree above that of
the workhouse allowance ; or, in othr words, a thou-
sand degrees above that at which it is now in many
parts of Ireland stationary and universal. But then,
also—and this is the special object of Mr. O'Connell's
dread and aversion
__a new and more kindly tie of mu-
tual dependence and reciprocal influence and regard
-would speedily be formed between the upper classes
and the lower. Then the spirit of industry and enter-
prise, of peace and order, would be diffused on every
hand. Then, as a natural consequence, the authority
of domineering priests, and the dominion of incendiary
demagogues, would be abated. Then the O'Connell
sent would dwindle to nothing, and the O'Connell tail
be shortened by many a vigorous joint. Rather than
these things should be, what curse would not Mr.
O'Connell imprecate upon his country—what blessing
would he not labour to avert ?--Morning Post.
In the Morning Chronicle of yesterday we briefly
adverted to a diplomatic note presented by the French
Ambassador to the Directory of Switzerland. That
document reached us as our paper was going to press,
but it will be found at length in our columns to-day.
47rpon a more deliberate consideration of this nefarious
oduction, we reiterate the opinion we have already
expressed, that diplomacy has never been disgraced
by an official document more replete with false asser-
tion, with petty susceptibilities, with open bullying of
the weak by the strong. What, we may ask, is the
authority of
the French Government for the charges
brought against the refugees of conspiring against the
peace of other countries ? Would any honest or re-
spectable
Government deem itself justified in adopting
a harsh and perilous proceeding upon this unsupported