The Sun.
London, England, 1836-09-20 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1536.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

former of the right sort. We only hope his party will
adopt his advice. In that case we shall, ere long, have a
thoroughly sweeping reform—if, indeed, we have not some-
thing worse.-11forni7zg Advertiser.
There is no perfect uniformity under the sun. Great
Homer sometimes nods, and O'Connell, on some occasions,
speaks a little truth. We must, however, do justice to the
consistency of the Irish Agitator---he contrives whenever
he does tell, truth, so to link it with falsehood that, upon
a the whole, false impression is conveyed, and thus the ge-
neral harmony of his composition is preserved, though there
may be a little bit of discordant truth in some of its parts.
An example of this is afforded in the following extract
which we make from a letter of his, addressed to an indivi-
dual bearing the classical name of O'Fogarty. The letter
regarded the merits of Mr. Villiers Stuart, to whom a din-
ner was, or was to have been, given a few days ago at Wa-
terford :

Has the revolution in Spain or in Portugal effected any
' change in our relations with these countries ? So far as
they are concerned does it annul, does it weaken, the ob-
ligations of the Quadruple Treaty? This is a question
which neither abuse, nor ribaldry, nor sophistry can decide.
It is a question of filet, resting upon the first principles of
international law, which to be understood requires but to
be stated. What was the object of the Quadruple Alli-
ance ? Not certainly the establishment of any particular
form of Government at Lisbon or Madrid—not to support
the Estatuto Real, or the Constitution of 1812 ; it was
simply to secure to the people the most perfect freedom in
the settlement of their own internal affairs. Spain has
adopted the Constitution of 1812—Portugal the Constitu-
tion of 1820. What is the inference? The Quadruple
Treaty is scattered to the winds ! Admirable conclusion !
To Spain and to Portugal we have guaranteed security
from foreign interference in the arrangement of their own
form of Government, whether unmixed Monarchy, Con-
stitution, or Republic. This security they have enjoyed,
therefore the guarantee is trampled on ! Admirable
reasoning ! Passing over that mass of treaties of
ancient date by which we are bound in close alliance
to Portugal, putting aside the important fact of
their recognition and renewal in 1815, let us come
to the year 1823. When the Cabinet of Lisbon,
the Ministry, remember, of a democratic Constitution—
the Constitution of 1820—called for the stipulated
aid of Great Britain, what was the unanimous opinion of
our Parliament, our people, and our press? Was it that
our treaties were scattered to the winds—that our "parch-
ment bonds" were torn ? No ; the enlightened Minister,
the spirit of whose policy still reigns over our councils, told
the Parliament and the country that though the Constitu-
tion of Portugal had undergone a material alteration, the
obligations we had contracted with her remained unchanged.
Where, tell us, where is the difference between the two
cases? The treaties which were recognised and renewed
in 1815, were contracted with an Absolute Government—
they were acknowledged—acted upon during the existence of
a Democratic Constitution—the very Constitution that was
proclaimed upon the 10th of the present month. If the
obligations contracted at the Congress of Vienna were not
annulled by the proceeding of 1820, why should the Qua-
druple Treaty be annulled by the proceeding of 1836 ?
What have we to do with the internal Government of Spain
or Portugal? Is this the doctrine upon the profession of
which a Tory Minister wishes to assume the reins of our fo-
reign administration—that he is not pleased, forsooth, with
the form of Government demanded by the people—ac-
ceded to by the sovereign of allied countries, and that,
therefore, our treaties are " trampled on"—" scattered to
the winds ?" If that mixed manifesto of sophistry and
stupid ribaldry that has been put forth have any meaning,
does it not plainly tell us that if the abettors of Absolutism
can succeed in carting the refuse of the Tory party into
power, the faith of the nation, the obligations of treaties,
shall offer no obstacle to the accomplishment of their pur-
poses ? We have been censured for our attacks on the
French Government and the French King. In what
did these attacks consist ? In nothing more than
the plain statements of plain facts and pointing out the
consequence of the policy of the Tuileries. Our object
was not to flatter, to please, or to delude. The results
we at once anticipated and deplored are hastening to their
consummation. Had they been averted—if they can be still
averted—we may rejoice, but our opinion is still unaltered.
In all, however, that we have said of the conduct and the po-
licy of Louis Philippe, we have said nothing so harsh, nothing
so offensive, nothing that, if true, could fix so deep a stain
upon his personal and political character as the scathing
approval his diplomacy has earned from the organs of
the Tory faction in this country. The present policy of
Louis Philippe's Government, we do honestly believe, is
fraught with consequences the most dangerous. This we
have said before ; the events that have since transpired but
strengthen our opinion. Still we have never accused the
King of the French of the deep deceit, of the deliberate
violation-of his most solemn obligations, for which we find
him applauded by certain commentators on his conduct.
We have not accused him of " seizing the first opportunity
presented by circumstances, for which he was manifestly
well prepared" to escape from the obligations be bad con-
tracted ; we have not represented him as playing the nefa-
rious game, the very guilt of which is sure to win the appro-
bation of the Times. Suppose, however, that the charge
conveyed in that degrading praise were true, what is the
inference to which the writer would lead us ? France has
trampled on her treaties, therefore let England do the
same ! The Noble Lord who is at the head of our Foreign
Administration has called down the indignation of this
sagacious scribe, because he has not appreciated the justice
of this reasoning, assuming the truth of the facts upon
which it is based. What means that senseless railing
at what is termed the " position of the foreign policy"
of this country ? The Noble Lord upon whom so
much slander is poured out, may well, as he does, pass
it over with scornful contempt. His reply is one of which
a British statesman in the best days of our history might
well be proud. With the elements of discord let loose
from every quarter of the globe, he has succeeded in pre-
serving the peace of Europe during a period as eventful as
any in our annals. The high character which his admi-
nistration has succeeded in preserving for our country has
elevated England to the proud position of arbiter in the
disputes of two of the most powerful nations in the world.
The full and spontaneous satisfaction rendered for the injury
inflicted upon a British subject, despite of the opposition
of hostile diplomacy, standing alone as it does in the history
of the Ottoman empire, is ample evidence of the respect in
which our Government is held by Foreign Powers. A
still more gratifying proof of the success of the present
most skilful and prudent administration of our foreign af-
fairs is the perfect confidence it inspires through the
country. Were the Parliament assembled to-morrow, and
in the ordinary progress of the public business the foreign
policy of the country brought under the consideration of
the House, we feel assured that any motion by a Tory
Member would be received with the same indifference—the
result of conscious security—as during the past session was
invariably manifested towards all such factious exhibitions.
—Morning Chronicle.
The plot of Conservative dinners continues to thicken.
To eat and drink, especially if it could be done at the
nation's expense, we always knew to be one of the'most
prominent traits of Tory character. Still we were not
prepared for that universal campaign on the larders of
country hotel-keepers which the provincial journals are
just now, one and all, employed in recording. What can
have given the Conservatives, from one extremity of the
land to the other, this sudden and extraordinary appetite,
is one of those things which we must admit to be beyond
the reach of our philosophy. Can it be that, with that
instinct which is peculiar to themselves, they perceive that
this is the last season they shall ever, as Conservatives,
meet around the festive board, and that therefore they
are resolved, in homely phraseology, to have " a parting
glass" before their extinction as a body ? Such we know
is the opinion of some people. Whether correct or not
the event will shew. Another hypothesis is—and it would
not surprise us should it turn out to be the true one—
another hypothesis is, that they are so utterly blind as to
suppose that the game which the Lords played off last
session will not only be repeated next one with impunity,
but that the consequence will be the overthrow of the
Melbourne Ministry, and the substitntion of a Lynd-
hurst Cabinet ; and that therefore the country orators,
who figure at these provincial feeds, are labouring hard to
recommend themselves, by their speeches, to the notice of
the embryo Tory Administration. Well, we live in a
strange world, and daily witness strange things. But if
this be the fact, we can only say as the Irish woman (men-
tioned by Cobbett) did, when she saw the learned pig tell
the hour of the day on a gentleman's watch--" By the
powers but this bates every thing!" The Tories, as we
have said and shown a thousand times over, are rare logi-
cians ; none but themselves can be their parallel : but if
their logic be so much at fault in their cooler and more
sober moments, it would argue a want of logic in us not to
expect there would be a still more plentiful lack of that
commodity in their atter-dinner harangues. We have long
since ceased to feel surprise at any thing, however out-
rageously absurd, which a Conservative can say after a
public dinner. When, therefore, the Rev. Mr. Hillyard
says, at the East Riding Conservative Festival,—" that
had the Tories yielded a little in 1829 to the demand for
Reform, the events of the intervening years might have
been delayed, if not prevented ;" and immediately adds,
—" that they ought consequently to resist all further con-
cessions to the popular voice"—when, we say, we hear
this Rev. Gentleman arguing in this way, we look on
the thing in no other light than as a matter of course.
That such an arrant absurdity should be listened to
for one short moment, that the friends of the Rev. orator
did not forthwith pull him off the table by the skirts of
his coat, or by some means or other—and that his most
sweet voice was not instantaneously drowned by one loud
and universal shout of " Oh, oh ! "only proves that the Rev.
Solon and his audience were worthy of each other. The
worthy divine's argument was a fine specimen of the syllo-
gistic form of reasoning. Had the Conservatives yielded
a little to the Reformers in 1829, subsequent events would
have been delayed, if not prevented. But the Conserva-
tives did not yield a little to the Reformers. Therefore,
those events, namely, the Reform Bill, and all the other
reforms, have happened. So f'ar, all is logical and true.
But mark the second inference, or second " therefore."
Therefore the Conservatives ought to make no further con-
cessions to the popular voice. The plain English of the
matter is this—the Tories half ruined themselves as a
party by refusing trifling concessions in 1829 ; they ought
wholly to ruin themselves in 1836, by refusing to yield the
slightest iota to the demands of the people. The Reverend
Gentleman, without being aware of it ,is a Radical Re-

" The great evil in Ireland is the estrangement between the
people and the class who belong, or claim to belong, to the
aristocratic or landed gentry. The far greater part of that
class entertain an envenomed hatred of the Irish people. They
are ready to act upon Lord Lyndhurst's political doctrine, and
whenever they can treat the Irish people worse than they
would mere aliens. Hence the reaction of popular hatred on"
their oppressors."
In the above, although very ill expressed,
" Some truth there is, but dashed and brewed with lies."
It is true that a great, if not the great, evil of Ireland lies
in the estrangement of the mass of the Roman Catholic po-
pulation from the gentry—from those who own the land
upon which the population subsists. In Ireland we find
nothing like the cordial feeling which happily subsists so
generally between landlord and tenant in England. In
this country there is not only a feeling of common interest
between them, but in many—we believe we may say in
most—cases a sentiment of respect and attachment on the
one side, and of considerable regard on the other, which
greatly contributes to the good and the happiness of
both. In Ireland—at all events in the Roman Catholic
part of it—it is not so. There is no respect on the
one side, nor regard on the other. The occupier is
for the most part taught by those whom he is brought
up to consider as infallible that the landlord is an alien,
an oppressor, and a heretic—he is a Saxon and a Pro-
testant, whose possession of the land is an usurpation,
which one day will have an end, when Ireland has
her rights. On the other hand, the landlord is made
to feel upon every possible occasion that these are the
sentiments of his tenantry towards him ; and it is no won-
der that, whatever his charity may be, his affection towards
them is of the very slightest description. Moreover, it
must be allowed that in too many cases the Irish landlord,
having become from habit less than indifferent to the com-
forts of a tenantry whom he knows to be wholly estranged
from him, thinks only of screwing out of them the utmost
amount of rent he can obtain, and acts upon no principle of
duty, or feeling of regard, with respect to his estate, more
than he would with respect to any other source of revenue.
He cares no more about his tenant than about any other
indifferent person upon whom he may have a pecuniary
claim. So far, then, it is true, though Mr. O'Connell says
it, that the peasantry are estranged from the gentry ;
but how does this happen to be the case ? Mr.
O'Connell's account of the matter is self-evidently
false. It is downright nonsense—more ranting folly—
to tell us that the Gentry have an " envenomed
hatred" of the Irish people. Does Mr. O'Connell
think that anywhere out of Ireland human creatures
will believe that a certain class of the Irish are born with
a natural antipathy to another class ? Such an absurdity
could go down nowhere but in Ireland. There is a cause
—and that cause exists in the detestable system pursued
by the Irish Priests and Mr. O'Connell himself, to gain
their political ends. In this horrible system may we trace
the root of the social misery and degradation which makes
the Irish peasant a bye-word and a reproach among the na-
tions. It is strange that the United Parliament has so long
acted as if it were blind to the fact ; but the fact is, that a
Protestant landlord cannot be upon good terms with his te-
nantry, unless he sacrifices his political independence to the
tyranny of the Popish Priesthood. Let any man go to his
Irish estate with the most earnest desire to promote
improvement, and to be on kindly and cordial terms with
his tenantry : be cannot effect his purpose unless the Priests
be on his side ; and, unless he submits to them in all poli-
tical matters, they will not be with him, but actively against
him. If he be resolved to act upon bis own views of what
is right in politics, and if those views happen to be Con-
servative, nothing he can do will avert the hatred—perhaps
the personal and deadly violence—of those whom he seeks
by acts of kindness to conciliate. With a fiend-like inge-
nuity his political enemies, the Priests, will turn even the
kindest acts into food for hatred, and the blackest calum-
nies will be manufactured out of deeds deserving of all
praise at the hands of honest men. The real " oppres-
sors" in the case are the Roman Catholic Priests, who
will allow no act of justice or mercy to have its natural
effects except upon the condition of submission to them.
Through superstition, their power over the peasantry is
absolute, and they will not be satisfied with less than
the same amount of power in political matters over
the gentry. We may select the case of Colonel Bruen, in
Carlow, as an example of the general fact which we describe,
because his statements and the evidence in support of them
have been a recent and a public matter. There could not
be a stronger instance than his of forbearance and kindness
carried almost to a fault ; and yet, because his political in-
fluence was opposed to that of the Romish Priesthood, the
grossest calumnies were spread abroad against him, and so
perseveringly published that they met with some credence
even in the House of Commons, until, with indignant elo-
quence, the Honourable Member vindicated himself, and
flung back the calumnies which his persecutors had invented
in the face of their Parliamentary agent, Mr. Daniel O'Con-
nell. Here, then, we have the cause of the estrangement
of the peasantry from the gentry in Ireland. The peasantry
are governed by persons who regard the gentry as invaders
and heretics, and who can, by no acts of grace or favour,
save the most unqualified submission to their absolute
will, be induced to regard the gentry differently. The
origin of the estrangement is in the system of the
Priests, and this Mr. O'Connell must very well know ;
while, in conformity with that system of persecution
and falsehood, he attributes it to an unnatural and
causeless—an " envenomed hatred" on the part of the
aristocratic and landed gentry. We wish to call atten-
tion to one more extract from the same good-natured epistle,
upon which we have thought it right to make the preced-
ing remarks. The following is a most engaging specimen
of the O'Connell style, when encountering political oppo-
nents at a safe distance :

" We are now emphatically a degraded because a foully in-
sulted people. The insult of the accursed Lyndhurst is upon
us. Its brand is burned upon our foreheads. We are stig-
matised not by words alone, but practically and by legislative
enactment, as inferior and grovelling beings, unfit for the en-
joyment of constitutional rights and liberties. From my soul
I do despise the Irishman who can contain within bounds his
just indignation at the atrocious Lyndhurst's insult. The
Irishman who submits to that insult deserves it. He ought to
be insulted because he is degraded ; but there is no such re-
creant poltr6on within the precints of this green and lovely
island."

We shall not waste space in criticising the above fero-
cious bombast, a replete with ignorance as it is with inso-
lence. We give it, however, in order that our readers
may, judge• how true are the descriptions afforded by the
Ministerial papers of the delightful spirit of tranquillity and
peace which, under the present happy Government, reigns
throughout Ireland, and how just are the reproaches
levelled by the same prints against Conservatives, for the
unprovoked violence of their language when Mr. O'Con-
nell is the theme of their remarks.—Morning Post.

Bell's Lift in London and Sporting Chronicle
of Sunday next, September 25, will contain an accurate
Portrait of the Winner of the Great St. Leger ; and the
Sunday following, October 2d, an Engravinc, of the Heaton
Park Cup. No expense shall be spared, by extending the
sporting and general intelligence of this Journal, to merit a
continuance of the unexampled popularity which it has here-
tofore attained. Bell's Life is a large 20 folio column Journal,
one-third of which is devoted to sporting matters, with a very
limited number of advertisements. The price only Five-
pence. Can be had on Sundays 200 miles from London.—
i*.* Bell's Life of last Sunday, Sept. 18, containing the En-
graving of the Doncaster Cup, can be had for Five-pence at
the Office, No. 170, Strand.
THE LINSEY WEAVERS' STRIKE.—We regret
that it is not in our power to communicate that the differences
between the Linsey weavers of this town and their employers
have been amicably adjusted. The men still remain out—of
course to the great distress of their families, and the inconve-
nience of the masters.—Kendal Mercury.
SALMON FISIIING.—The fishing for the season
terminated on Wednesday on the Tay, in common with the
other rivers north of the Tweed; and though latterly the fish
were more numerous, the take of the season has been below
an average. —Berwick Advertiser.
The registers of arrivals at Wisbaden, in Germany,
show that, up to August 26, they amounted to 9,554 persons,
of whom 8,486 came to take the waters
Distress, even when positive or superlative, is still
only comparative. " Such is the pressure of the times in our
town," said a Birmingham manufacturer some years back to
his agent in London, " that we have good workmen who will
get up the inside of a watch for eighteen shillings."—" Pooh 1
that is nothing compared to London," replied his friend, " we
have boys here who will get up the inside of a chimney for
sixpence."
Hop-picking is now in full operation throughout
the hop districts of this county. The crop, for the mostt part,
is expected to be about a fourth larger thanyear;
in exposed situations, the winds have tagged or
that ofbruised
a
hop, which will injure many samples, otherwise the
expected to be very excellent. We hear of partial appear-
ancesdens, but
of mould in many of the Herefordshire
hop gar
throughout the entire growth, the plant has been remarkably
clean.—Hereford Times. isam is
the
sample