The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-30 00:00:00

PUBLIC OPINION.

The Times still continues to harp on its favourite
theme, Mr. O'Connell's political delinquencies, ob-
serving :—" One word upon O'Connell's conduct towards
Lord De Grey's Governmknt, and we are done. The
Right lion. firebrand has, by his announced motion for
the dismissal of that nobleman, brought himself into
serious difficulties. Had the maker of the motion been
merely a private person, such as the Member for Kerry,
the projected movement would necessarily have deserved
immediate inquiry. But Mr. O'Connell, who gravely
and deliberately makes this motion, is the Lord Mayor
of the Irish metropolis. Substantially it amounts to
an impeachment of Earl De Grey's Administration.
Let him be compelled then either to follow up his
villanous motion in the usual formal way, or to skulk
back from it as a malignant and unsupported slan-
derer. Let us have his articles of indictment so-
lemnly set forth, sworn to, and established. His
municipal Lordship is, by office, a highly influential
. .

. _
personage. His declared opinion of Ea—rl be Grey, as
far as it carries any weight, is virtually an incitement,
er cathedra, to every sort of insubordination, as long as
the present Viceroy is unsuperseded. O'Connell, there-
fore, ought to be compelled to make good his case."—
It by no means follows—as the Times would
imply—that Mr. O'Connell's opposition to the Irish
Government is an incitement to every species of
insubordination. He has as much right, on every
principle of justice, to express his opinion toldly
and unreservedly on Earl De Grey's policy, now that
he is Lord Mayor of Dublin, as he had when he was
simply Mr. Daniel O'Connell, M.P. His acceptance of
the civic chair, which he owes to no Government pa-
tronage, does not necessarily compel him to hold his
tongue on political matters. He is as unshackled a man
as ever he was, and we respect him for stating boldly
what he feels warmly.
The Post says—" Among the hasty crowd who vehe-
mently oppose the law which guards British agriculture
from foreign competition, it is a common thing to assert
that this is a law to make one class pay more than they
need pay in order to enrich another class. If it were
possible to induce the persons who make this assertion
to lay aside inveterate prejudice, there would not be much
difficulty in showine, them with what little reason this
assertion is made. In the first place such an assertion
is unfair as a matter of argument, because it begs the
whole question in dispute btween the friends and the
enemies of the Corn-law. It assumes that the enemies
;he law are right, and they who uphold the law
wrong, :for, undoubtedly, if the effect of the Corn-law
be merely to make one class pay with no other or better
reason than to g: .e an advantage to another class, then
the Corn-law would lie'without a just coundation."--The
Post has here•bit the on the head. The Corn
law does make one class pay in rdt,r to give an advan-
tage to another class, and this is to:!41ost among the
reasons why the country at large is so fulfixious for
its repeal. _ _ .

We quote the following from the Herald :—" It is nat.
necessary to notice the cutting reflections of the Glasgow
Saturday Post on the economy' of the Duke of Wel-
lington in refusing to subscribe to the fund solicited by
the Paisley Deputation. If the subject were one of less
grave and mournful interest, or if the opinions of the
Journal in question could be identifiedgwith that of the
city in which it is published, we would suggest a reason-
able test of the practical equity and efficiency of the ex-
periment which the Paisley deputation has come upwards
of 400 miles south to try—by recommending the Spital-
fields' weavers to launch a deputation to go in quest of
funds for the alleviation of their distress 400 miles north.
To make the analogy of the one deputation to the
other complete, it should especially address itself to the
Duke of Hamilton, for example. But if his triple Grace
of Hamilton, Brandon, and Chatel-Herault should
choose, in such a case, to relieve himself from appli-
cations which were not welcome to him,' (we use the
words of the Globe), we protest that we should not feel
ourselves warranted, for a single moment, in complain-
ing of any brusquerie in such an answer from that Noble-
man as the Duke of Wellington gave to this Deputation."
—Considering' the immense annual revenue that the
Duke draws, and has drawn for years, from the country,
we think it might reasonably have been expected of his
Grace, that he would have contributed to relieve the
sufferings of his distressed fellow-countrymen. The
question is not one of principle, but of charity.
On the subject 9f Sunday railway travelling, the
Chronicle makes the following remarks We have
copied from the Glasgow Argus a spirited article on the
tyrannical attempt of the General Assembly of the
Church of Scotland to prevent all railway travelling on
Sunday. In the case of Edinburgh and Glasgow, the
prohibiting railway trains from running on a Sunday
would really be passing a non-intercourse act between
these cities for twenty-four hours ; for the railway will
necessarily put down all other means of communication.
We confess, however, we have a reluctance to interfere
with the Scotch in' their ecclesiastical matters, for if the
people require prompting from this side of the Tweed to
resist an ecclesiastical usurpation which would not be
submitted to in the most priest-ridden countries of
Europe, they are indeed in a hopeless condition. It
affords us much gratification to observe, that some of the
highest names in the Church of England adopt a very
different course from that of the Kirk."—We had hoped
that this intolerant spirit of Andrew Agnewism n as sub-
siding in Scotland as elsewhere ; but bigotry—clerical
bigotry especially—has, it seems, stronger powers of
vitality than we gave it credit for. If railway trains are
to be prevented running on the Sundays, let Lords' and
Bishops' cooks and coachmen be prevented working on
the Sunday, and then there will be something like fair
play in the matter.