The Sun.
London, England, 1847-05-14 00:00:00

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A.ONDON. FRIDAY, MAY 14, 1847.

While Lord JOHN RUSSELL is maligned in
contumelious language by a few Irish firebrands, he
is immeasurably more than compensated by the dis-
tinguished approval of all right-thinking men in the
kingdom, and especially of his own eminent consti-
tuency. This has been conspicuously shown in the
grand civic entertainment given to the members of
the Administration by the Right Hon. the LORD
MAYOR. It is befitting the generous character which
has latterly characterised the Legislature, that the
exertions of the Ministry, and especially the courage
they have evinced during an unparalleled accumula-
tion of difficulties, should periodically receive some
such public acknowledgment. It is appropriate,
moreover, that these expressions of confidence and
approbation should immediately precede the vaca-
tions of Parliament, so that the members of her
MAJESTY'S Councils may be cheered on in their
arduous and extraordinary toils.
On the retirement of Sir ROBERT PEEL, it
was conceived by the unreflective that the new
Administration would find the general Exe-
cutive a eomparative sinecure. The giant ob-
stacle of the laws prohibitirig the importation
of corn had been removed, and the erroneous sup-
position followed thereupon that the path of govern-
ment was thereby singularly smoothed and widened.
Undoubtedly the Government was relieved from a
tremendous incubus by the repeal of those enact-
ments, but there remained many another incubus
besides. There was the incubus of national ignorance,
there was the incubus of an erroneous criminal code,
there was the incubus of a demoralizing and dege-
nerating social condition, and a long vista of similar
woes and curses. All these had to be removed before
the country could hope to arise in its full strength,
to put forth its full powers, to vindicate its true
character. Knowledge had to be rendered accessible
to those whose poverty debarred them from the
blessings of instruction. Sanatory regulations had
to be compiled for the preservation of public life,
of public health, and of public morality. Criminals had
to be regarded rather as reclamable to the paths of
virtue than as obdurately bound to the perpetration
of iniquity. The whole foundations of the social
system had to be removed, to be deepened, to be
strengthened, and, if possible, rendered sufficiently
wide and absolutely immutable. Those were among
the gigantic labours which the newly inaugurated
Government were expected to accomplish, and the ex-
pectations of the community were confirmed by the
solemn assurances and voluntary engagements of the
Cabinet.

The miseries which have descended upon Ireland
and upon a considerable portion of Scotland have
hitherto, however, retarded or interrupted the mea-
sures of reform promised by Lord JOUN RUSSELL
and his colleagues. Intermittently, it is true, the
educational and sanatory schemes of the Administra-
tion have been introduced to the notice of the repre-
sentative and hereditary Houses of Legislation ; but
the main energies of the Ministry, the main re-
sources of the Treasury, the chief amount of
the industry, and eloquence, and sagacity,
and forethought of the Government, have
been devoted to the alleviation of the distresses and
the amelioration of the condition of the suffering
millions of our fellow-countrymen. Can any one,
therefore, conceive for a single instant that the nation is
in any manner aggrieved by the postponement of the
peculiar benefits anticipated from the present Cabinet
on its first formation ? Not, most assuredly, when
all the labours and anxieties of the Government in
connexion with Ireland are taken into consideration.
Had her MAJESTY'S advisers done nothing more
during the course of this onerous and eventful
session than they have actually accomplished for the
' population of the sister island, they would have
entitled themselves to the lasting gratitude and re-
membrance of the people. Nor has the assiduity of
the Administration, in striving to diminish the
dreadful effects of the late dispensations of DIVINE
PROVIDENCE, been without its beneficial consequences
in the way of example and incitement. The
benevolence of the Cabinet has influenced the
benevolence of private individuals and public asso-
ciations, it has even operated in eliciting the cordial
assistance of our brethren on the banks of the Ganges,
and of our brethren also by blood on the northern
continent of America. Upon these exhibitions of a
true cosmopolitan charity the Prime Minister of
England very beautifully observed in the banquet-
chamber of the Mansion House, " I rejoice in this
manifestation of sympathy and liberality; it shows
that no remoteness of distance—that no diversity of
institutions—that no records of separation, even
though written in bloody characters—have obliterated
that sympathy which springs from the same origin.
Remembering that they speak the same language as
ourselves—that they read the same authors—
that they have the same precepts of divine truth
by the banks of the Hudson and the Mississippi that
we read from the same sacred volume on the banks
of the Thames and the Shannon—l rejoice that they
have shown the same enlarged spirit of charity and
liberality; and I am sure, whatever may be the mis-
fortune of the present time, there is this consoling
circumstance—a circumstance tending to unite the
two nations in the bonds of brotherhood, kindness,
and affection." Actuated by these high and enno-
bling principles, the Ministers cannot fail to ensure
to themselves, not merely the sympathies of the po-
pulation of these realms, but of the most distant ter-
ritories. Lord JOHN RUSSELL can afford to con-

temn the opprobrious epithets by which he himself
and his Ministerial associates are mentioned by Dr.
:11‘rIALE and other malcontents. The Government

has acquired for itself the confidence of the empire
by its determined, temperate, and generous policy.

The present session of Parhament had scarcely
opened before Lord BROUGHAM, multa revolvens,
pointedly recommended that the heads of families
throughout the Empire should rigidly enforce the
utmost providence in their domestic establishments
with regard to the consumption of bread. The ad-
• vice was given upon the sound policy of taking time
by the forelock. It was at once judicious and bene-
volent. The idea was not an original one; but the
• circumstances under which his Lordship revived it
and the value which he properly imparted to it, by ;
reference to the humane resolutions adopted, within
his Lordship's memory, by a large number of Peers,
when the country was threatened with an alarming
scarcity of food, entitled the recommendation to a
cordial approval. Mankind at large are averse to
test by due reflection the preroyance of the monitor,
where acquiescence in his views is likely to entail
upon them the prudent necessity of undergoing
any temporary privations. They like to put
off the evil day, and are willing to believe
upon the slenderest data, however specious, that
results will falsify the gloomiest prognostications.
This temperament is peculiar to JOHN BULL. He is
always grumbling, but at bottom he is ever sanguine.
Ele retains his confidence to the last, but it is his
humour to conceal the existence of this feeling from
everybody else. The consequence is, that it is fre-
quently
impossible to kindle his energies till he finds
himself menaced by some
prominent
moment, however, that affairs,
individual cr
isiors.colTlehc-e
tive, have attained to a critical height, JOHN BULL
rushes in medial re
relies upon his indOrniwta.hthle as remarkable zest. He
enjoys his triumphs all the mopre irit fhoer
should, in the
first instance, have complicated matters
perti-
nacious adherence to his otiose propensities.
yua
troubled him little, at the beginning of the session,es It,
t)
warn him that extraordinary supplies of foreign corn I
must be imported to meet the demand at home,
ccasi .ned by the extensive failure in the potato crepe
and the wants of a population increasing at the rate
of 1,000 a day; that a vast amount of bullion would