The Sun.
London, England, 1849-11-22 00:00:00

TBE SUN,

with his fitness to be a magistrate, a legislator, or a •
minister of finance, than with his fitness to be a cobbler.
Nobody has ever thought of compelling cobblers to
make any declaration on the true faith of a Christian.
Any man would rather have his shoes mended by a
heretical cobbler than by a person who subscribed all
the Thirty-nine Articles, but had never handled an
awl. Men act thus, not because they are indifferent to
religion, but because they do not see what religion has
to do with the mending of their shoes." Now the ap-
plication of this mode of reasoning in the present instance
must be sufficiently obvious without any very elabo-
rate explanation. The knowledge of how to manage
a vessel at sea, or of how to keep its crew in proper
subordination, has surely no more to do with the
science of ship-building than the belief in Judaism or
in Christianity has to do with the skill or activity of
a cobbler. And yet, perceptible, ridiculously
perceptible as the truth of that assertion is, the
authorities of the Admiralty now for some years past
have appeared to consider otherwise. At any rate,
whether they consider so or riot, they have unques-
tionably acted as if they considered otherwise. Of this
the enormous disbursements required for the experi-
ments of SlMMorus and others in the cultivation of the
science of naval architecture afford ample and most
melancholy testimony. We would see this eccentric
predilection for amateur performances in the way of
shipbuilding replaced by a reasonable preference for
the aptitude of men who have adopted that description
of labour systematically from the outset as their pro-
fession. IVe would see the capabilities of the science
developed by a wholesome and not merely
an idle and speculative scheme of competi-
tion. 'We would see the risk and the respon-
sibility of expenditure, in the way of mere experi-
ments, transrerred at least now and then to the
voluntary efforts of men capable of entering upon an
honourable rivalry—a rivalry which would not only
redound to their own credit, but would materially
forward the interests of the naval service, while it
would prevent any repetition of useless and unfortu-
nate extravagance on the part of the Government.

Buth in the want of some proper arrange-
ment for the better manning of the British
navy, and in the necessity for some less
expensive and more effectual plan for the
construction of its vessels, there is visible a great
and importunate necessity. Let the authorities at the
Admiralty recognise the existence of this necessity
before the opportunity of rectifying matters them-
selves has passed altogether beyond the reach of their
influence, devolving upon the energetic and practical
civism of some non-professional Member of the Com-
mons House of Parliament. Promptitude is incumbent
upon them if they are solicitous to retain within their
own hands the privilege of naval jurisdiction.

The Ulster Orangemen and their sympathisers
continue with unabated malignity to grumble forth
their slanders against Lord CLARENDON. Old and
refuted lies are repeated with a circumstantiality of
time and place which does infinite credit to their in-
genuity. A mere dull, common-place falsehood ex-
pressed in vulgar generalities was not found sufficient
to stamp a clear-headed statesman with the gross
folly and inconsistency of secretly arming the Irish
Orangemen, and they have been compelled to " come
it a little stronger." They have been obliged to re-
sort to the usual trick of adepts in misrepresentation
to give the air of probability to their inventicns by a
detail of minute particulars.
It is now openly put forward by some of the
Orange organs in Dublin, that the Orangemen were
regularly drilled by some of her MAJESTY'S troops in
a house in William street and in Whitefriars' Hall;
an I it was arranged that they should receive a pass-
word to insure their recognition by the military on
duty—
" And that the signal for turning out' was to be com-
municated by the bell of St. Anne's Church tolling three
distinct strokes, which signal was to be repeated there-
upon from the other parish steeples throughout the city.
A Look was regularly kept, containing the names and
addresses of the Oraugemen so organized, and an oath
as administered to each on ri ceiving his arms and ec-
contrements. But this book has been, as Colonel l'hayre
in his circular declares, abstracted, and is now nowhere to
:)e found."
And Lord CLARENDON, they aver, did all this in the
teeth of his express directions to every functionary in
Ireland to whom was intrusted the distribution of
arms. We are called upon to believe that one of the
ablest men that ever represented the QUEEN in Ire-
land entered into a secret combination with the low
Orangemen of Dublin, and for what end ? Why should
:to deal in any secret mystery with TRESHAM GREGG,
and the silly brawlers of Whitefriara' hall ? If be
could rely upon the loyalty of any of the Dublin
Orangemen, surely he would be perfectly justified
in supplying them, in common with every other loyal
subjf ct in Ireland, with arms to be used in defence
if the QUEEN and the laws. Their being Orange-
men would not at that time have justified the Lord-
Lieutenant in excluding them as a body from the
'est of allegiance and loyalty, to which he had invited
the well affected of all classes and creeds in Ireland.
He would have been no more justified in refusing
arms to the Orangeman who was vouched to him as
a loyal subject than he would have been i❑ refusing
them to the liberal Protestant, or the well disposed
Catholic. Yet, in the teeth of this plain fact, the
absurd tale is reiterated that the Viceroy secretly
countenanced the mysterious drilling and organiza-
tion of the Dublin Orangemen, but, alas! the book
that could have proved all this is nowhere to be found ;
indeed we believe not, for in truth this
black book had never " a local habitation" beyond the
fertile brain of the reckless inventor of this egregious
sbsurdity. But nobody beyond the murky precincts
of an Orange lodge could give it the smallest
credence. " The three strokes of St. Anne's bell' will
appeal in vain to the senses of even the most credu-
lous beyond the dark porch of some Orange conclave.
Now let us for a moment suppose that the Irish
Government on an occasion when the country was
threatened with rebellion did place confidence in the
Orangemen eni their leaders, let us for the sake of
argument suppose that the Government supplied them
with arms to aid the authorities in maintaining
order and crushing insurrection and disloyalty, let us
suppose that they were sworn to use those arms in sup-
port of the military against the QUEEN'S enemies, would
this justify them in turning these weapons againsttheir
unoffending fellow-subjects? Would this justify
them in using these arms to she-I innocent blood ?
Are they to turn the arms with which they were
entrusted to use against the rebellious and disaffected,
against the peaceful subjects of the QUEEN ? Surely
the old woman of seventy was no rebel, the playful
child was no rebel, the pour demented being whose
ikull was shattered was no rebel. If they obtained
the QUEEN'S arms—as their organs assert they did—
and used them for this unholy purpose, what does it
prove but that they deceived the Government, be•
trayed the trust reposed in them, and added duplicity
to murder ?

The argument of the Orangemen and their organs,
if it mean anything, amounts to this, that Lord
CLARENDON is answerable for the innocent blood shed
on the 12th of July, because he supplied them with
arms from the QUEEN'S armoury. If the Lord-Lieu-
tenant did this it would, no doubt, be a grave
error. If he supplied these miscreants with arms
and accoutrements, in order to indulge in insulting
processions, and to parade, like a gang of ruthless
bandits, through the country, spreading terror and
devastation around, he would not only prove himself
unfit for the high place, the arduous duties of which he
has on all occasions so ably discharged, but he ought
to be at once impeached for treason against the Con-
stitution and the laws. We entertain, however, little
fear that he gave the smallest countenance to such
atrocities ; and we believe that he will be able fully
to crush these foul slanders on a fitting occasion, and
before a proper tribunal.
But the public have a deeper interest in this sub-
ject than the mere question between Lord CLARENDON
and the Orangemen. It is now of minor importance
whether the arms were supplied by Lord ItopEs
or Lord CLARENDON. The purity of the administra-
tion of justice is at stake. The great and
itnportant question, whether Ireland is still to be
governed by and through a faction, or not, is involved.
These are questions which affect the interests of the
cshomedm. unlitty-,
bthloeopl ofublic
concernsThetthoe
kinnocent
whetherhas beenmen
can countenance scenes of massacre,and
their high office to shield rnurdercrs from the ven-
geance of outraged law. These are the serious ques-
tions with which the public have to deal—these are
the principles which that public requires Lord