The Sun.
London, England, 1840-09-17 00:00:00

.1113 c.

LONDON:
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1840.

The wild cry of Repeal in Ireland naturally at-
tracts the attention of foreign politicians. The
Journal des Debats of Monday has a long article
on the subject, of which the following is an extract :
Lord Stanley's Bill was withdrawn, but the agitation
remains. All the old wounds are opened, all the old preju-
dices revived. Conquered Ireland stands arrayed against
the conquering Normans and Saxons ; the oppressed
Catholics bristle up against the oppressing Protestants.
They have been outraged in everything which they re-
gard as the most sacred and most dear. They have
been told that the religion handed down to them through
many ages of persecution, and adorned in their eyes
with all the poetry of mr.rtyrdom, is only a religion of
executioners. Their priests have been described as
brigands in cassocks and surpliced ruffians. Every
time, it is said, that they administer the Sacranicnt, it
is as if they were to slay a young child. The Irish are
spoken of as an inferior race, and as outcasts, aliens in
in blood, language, and manners."

After giving this, and a much larger specimen of
the manner in which the Irish are treated and
spoken of, the Debats give a correct pic.ure of our
WINCHILSEAS, STOWELLS, and M'NEILES,
and of the insults and outrages they have poured
out on their Catholic countrymen. It traces to
these injuries and insults the power which Mr.
O'CsatarrEer, possesses in rousing the passions of his
countrymen in favour of repeal. Another proof of
the same fact appears in an article which we abridge
frem the Dublin Pilot. Pouncing on a virulent
article -wllch recently appeared in the Standard,
the Pilot declares, and apparently with good rea-
son, that it will make that article a text to excite
the Irish in favour of repeal. When a nation has
been so deeply injured as the Irish, has become
sensible of the wrong done it, and strong enough
to command redress, to provoke them by taunts
and insults is nothing better than gratuitous wicked-
ness. Such, however, has been the policy of the
most pure and most pious Protestants, who claim
for themselves a character of great holiness, but
whose conduct, if the actions of men are to be
judged of by their effects, is far more criminal, than
that of vulgar pickpockets and housebreakers.
We must say (lest we should be misunderstood)
that, in admitting the grievances and wrongs of
Ireland, and in condemning the insults which are
now heaped on her by foolish and arrogant men, we
do not advocate the repeal of the Union. We
formerly defended Mr. O'CONNELL against the
charge of rebellion in agitating the question, and
claimed for him the right to discuss the Union, as
he has the right to discuss any other act of the
Legislature ; but we condemned his mode of dis-
cussing it, and charged him with not reflecting on
the consequences of his own proposals. For that
we were accused of inconsistency ; and, to guard
against a similar charge now, we repeat
that we do not advocate the repeal.
We think that the lower classes of England have
been most partially, most unjustly, nay, most bar-
barously treated by cur Legislature ; but we have
never, therefore, advocated the Charter as a means
of remedying their wrongs. We refer, at the same
time, to the treatment they have received at the
hands of their domestic Legislature as the best an-
swer which can be found to Mr. O'CoNNELL's de-
mand for repeal. If the British Parliament have
been such a step-mother to the working classes of
Britain, what reason has Mr. O'CONNELL to sup-
pose that a domestic Legislature in Ireland would
secure the rights of Irishmen ? As long as the
people are ignorant, poor, disunited, and supersti-
tious, the Legislature, whether it meet in London
•r Dublin, will trample on them ; and when they I
are intelligent, provident, united, and free
their own minds, the Legislature will '
ect their rights, whereverit
may meet, and I

however it may be composed. A Lmestic 1
Legislature for Ireland would no more do justice to
the Irish than our Legislature, sitting in London,
has done justice to the bulk of the English. To
curb the power of the lawmaker, to hem him round
with restrictions, to prevent him meddling with
every relation of life, is the only way to keep him
from doing injustice. Should Mr. O'CoNtizr.r.
wish the world to believe that an Irish House of
Commons, organized by him, would be incapable of
perpetrating any enormity, we beg leave to hint
that we have seen too much of his conduct in Par-
liament for one moment to trust him.

It is plain, no less from the political demands
made by great bodies of the people, than from the
reforms in institutions which have been effected,
that the " old principles of government" will no
longer serve for the guidance of statesmen. The
same truth is made abundantly evident by the con-
tradictory principles which are espoused by different
Journalists. One regards those in authority as in-
fallible, and will not admit of their decision being
questioned. Another holds up some forced or fancied
rule, to be detected by observing the course of na-
ture as superior to positive law, and demands that
the infallible lawgiver shall fashion his laws by a
law under which man already lives and from which
he cannot escape. A third balances between the
two, insists on the authority of the lawgiver being
obeyed, but is himself ever discovering something
which the lawgiver has done wrong, and loudly and
incessantly demands that it be amended. A fourth as-
sumes that the Protestant Episcopal Church of Eng-
land is the immediate and direct offspring of Divine
wisdom, the incarnation of the will of GOD, and
he requires that every part of society shall be
governed in subserviency to the laws which were
made under the influence of that Church, or in its
name, a century or more ago. We may find these
diversities, and more than these, in the daily press ;
and, in the absence of any higher authority (for on
such points men will not be ruled by the Bible,
and there is as much diversity amongst standard au-
thors as amongst other Journalists), we must admit
that such a want of agreement is a proof that, long
as the art of governing has been practised, the
principles of government are yet to be discovered.
Nor is he the nearest to the desired object
who fancies that he grasps it, and blunders forward
in darkness, believing that his little lamp is the
light of the world.

One thing is quite clear, namely, that the
maxims of government must be drawn from the
present circumstances of society, and cannot be
adopted from men who, whatever might have been
their wisdom in their own time, had the disadvan-
tage of living some centuries ago. If there be no
occasion, as the Standard says, " to burn our old
books, particularly BACON, LOCKE, BLACK-
STONE, FORTESCUE, and COKE, the records and
statutes of Parliament, particularly the Bill of
Rights and the Act of Settlement," it will be be-
cause all those writers and Acts of Parliament, by
their words or by their example, recognize in us the
power which our ancestors at all times claimed of
acting for themselves according to circumstances,
not disregarding or forgetting what their ancestors
had done, but holding themselves perfectly unbound
and unfettered by their decision.
" Truth, said Locke, in his Essay on Study in Lord
King's Life of Locke, " needs no recommendation, and
error is not mended by it ; and in our inquiry after
knowledge, it as little concerns us what other men have
thought as it does one who is to go from Oxford to
London to know what scholars walk quietly on foot in-
quiring the way, and surveying the country as they
went, who rode post after their guide, without minding
the way he went, who were carried along, muffled up
in a coach with their company, or where one doctor
lost or went out of his way, or where another stuck in
the mire." "I do net say this," be adds," to undervalue
the light we receive from others, or to think there are
not those who assist us mightily in our endeavours after
knowledge ; perhaps, without books, we should be as
ignorant as the Indians, whose minds are as ill clad as
their bodies ; but I think it is an idle and useless thing
to make it our business to study what have been other
men's sentiments in things where reason is only to be
judge, on purpose to be furnished with them, and to be
able to cite them on all occasions."

LOCKE, therefore, is the last man who can be
quoted to enforce on us an implicit obedience to
his own authority, the authority of any other phi-
losopher, or the authority of those statesmen who,
by his advice, or under the influence of his princi-
ples, drew up the Bill of Rights and the Act of
Settlement.

But it must be noted that LoCKE professed and
advised this disobedience to what other men have
thought, when their thoughts or observations re-
lated to the material things of creation, and which,
whether correctly or not, are supposed to undergo
no change, and be regulated by laws that are eternal
and the same. It may be said of society, perhaps,
that it is regulated by similar laws, but its pheno-
mena arc not periodical, they are progressive ; and
while all that we know of planetary motion might by
possibility have been known in the time of
LOCKE, it was utterly impossible that he or his
predecessors should have possessed our knowledge
of society and the laws which regulate it. Since
his time much truth has been learnt concerning it,
and much more has yet to be learnt. If, therefore,
it be unadvisable, in our inquiry after knowledge,
to concern ourselves about what other men have
thought concerning material objects, how much less
advisable must it be to pin our faith on LOCKE, or
BACON, Or FORTESCUE, Or COKE, or Lord
SONIERS, when the question relates to social objects
or principles of government ?
These observations will suffice, we think, to show
that there is no authority by which we can be guided
in matters of government hut the circumstances of
the crisis and the principles of justice. The diverging
Journalists can be tried by no test but the conflict
of the opinions of living men. They have all the
attributes for deciding which belonged to LocKE
or BACON, saving the individual sagacity which
distinguished those illustrious men, and there is no
authority above them to say that either he is right
Who claims infallibility for the lawgiver and impli-
cit obLdience from the subject, or he who claims
for the subject the right of examining and proving
every law, and of refusing obedience to that which is
not just. In other words, the principles of govern-
ment have yet to be discovered ; it is a part of
knowledge which demands a diligent inquiry, with-
out much regard to what other men have thought.

We see from a statement in our City Article that
the Count LARA had another interviewndholdeyres. diesterday
with the plundered Spanish Bo
came over, according to the accounts put forth at
1 the time, merely as a private gentleman, anxious
for the credit of his country, without any authority
whatever from his Government. It would appear,
however, that after having felt his way, he now puts
himself forward as an agent, and yesterday pro-
duced his credentials from the Spanish Go-
vernment, authorizing him to make an arrangement
with the unfortunate creditors. The terms he pro-
poses are not at all singular, considering the
quarter whence they corne. They are full of pro- I
mises and good intentions. He earnestly assured
the meeting of the sincerity of his Government to-
I wards the Bondholders, proposed to capitalise all
ithe long arrears of interest, to pay two•and-a-half
per cent. on this funded debt, and to act every way
in short for the benefit of those who have
been robbed by his Government, on the
of course, that he had
condition,a new
loan to enable him to carry his project into
effect. It is said that Messrs. THouxToN, ,

WYLL lE, and others, who have so boldly exposed
the fraudulent conduct of the Peninsular and South
American Governments in their financial transac-

tions with money lenders in this country, are dis-
posed to recommend this plan to the creditors.
They are not such dupes,—they know from sad
experience that they can place no confidence
in the most solemn engagements made
with these needy and unprincipled debtors ;
that Spain and Portugal, and their offspring across
. _

the Atlantic (with one honourable exception), have
never shown any wish, even when they had the
means, to act honestly towards their creditors ; and
that, if a loan were obtained, the new bondholders

would, in less than twelve months, be placed on a
footing with those who have been looking in vain,
for eighteen years, for either principal or interest.
The scheme altogether is so pfbposterous and de-
ceptive, that we are sure no man of common sense,
or common honesty, will be a party to it.

The Morning Chronicle of to-day, contains a
recommendation to the Directors and Shareholders
of the different railways which will make such a
Counteracting Society as we ventured to suggest yes-
terday, additionally necessary. Our Contemporary

says—
Again, would we suggest the formation, by delega-
tions from those Boards, of a General Comizzittee. It
might combine men of business with men of practical
science ; and such legal aid as in the present state of
legislation on the subject is peculiarly desirable. As a
preparative for matured and wholesome legislation in
future, as a means of adding to this great invention all
the improvements of which it is susceptible, as
a supply for the detects of existing law or prac-
tice, as a safeguard for common and extensive
interests liable to be endangered either by panic
or by sinister influence, its speedy appointment
is not only desirable, but necessary. Its utility
must depend on the spirit in which the several Di-
rections are disposed to enter into the arrangement. It
must be free from the taint of competitive antagonism,
jealousy, jobbing, or assumption. And, selected as they
have been by the Companies they represent, we cannot
but believe the several Boards are rich in the materials
of intelligence and character for its formation. At any
rate, the experiment ought to be tried, and the sooner
the better. For us to suggest the details of the construc-
tion of such a Committee would be premature. We
earnestly hope, however, that it will be promptly brought
under the consideration or the different Boards of Ma-
nagement, and carried forward on a principle of fairness,
impartiality, and mutual confidence and co-operation,
for a great common good and public benefit.
The Railway Companies are opulent and power-
ful bodies, and if they combine on the plan here
sketched out to mature legislation for railways, we
may be morally certain that they will, in the first
instance, take care of their own interest. So far
as that coincides with the interest of the public all
will be well, but whenever the two clash, the latter
will be sacrificed. Such a suggestion, if acted
on, will concentrate enormous power in the hands
of the railway capitalists, and render them as for-
midable to the State as ever was the combination
of the monied classes to the Government of the
United States.
This should be particularly guarded against by the
public, because there is very little chance of com-
peting lines of railways being established, so that
the public might look for security in their rivalry.
Nor will the scheme in our judgment tend to the
improvement of railways. Such a board of delegates
would prevent' any very beneficial changes being in-
troduced in the management on one railway till it
could be adopted on all, and so would delay the
adoption of improvements. Moreover, Directors,
Proprietors, and Engineers being subjected to the
control of the Board, would have their zeal lessened,
and the progress of improvement would be checked.
On these grounds we should doubt the utility of such
a Board to the Railway Proprietors, while the pub-
lic ought to regard it with much jealousy. If it be
formed, there must be a corresponding association
of Non-Railway Proprietors to protect their inte-
rests against such a powerful combination.

The Herald, in reply to our observations, says
it " did not denominate the Corn-law a tax on
food." The words of our Contemporary were
" taxing foreign corn ;" but surely corn is food, or
used to prepare food, and a tax on foreign corn is a
tax on food. Our Contemporary must not escape
by adhering to the " letter which killeth," from the
plain consequence of his own words.
The Herald admits that the poor, " in propor-
tion to their means, eat a great deal more bread than
the rich ;" " but the poor," he adds, " are per-
mitted to eat bread only after they have earned
t—and the greater or lesser power of earning bread
is the circumstance which, above all others, regu-
lates the greater or the lesser quantity of bread
which the labourer is permitted to consume."
Our Contemporary then goes on to assert that
the Corn-law secured a wide market for English
labour. But that is the main point to be proved.
How a law which forbids the labourers in Man-
chester, Lei ester, Nottingham, Wolverhampton,
Birmingham, &c., from exchanging their products
for the food of Poland, Germany, and the United
States, except by paying the heavy tax the Corn-
laws levy on foreign corn—and which forbids our
ships from carrying abroad our cottons, and
bringing home food, can augment the.market for
labour, is one of those far-fetched assertions which
common sense requires to have clearly established
before it can vouchsafe to credit it, even on the
high authority of the Herald. The home market
for labour will not be diminished by abolishing
the Corn-laws ; and how adding the foreign mar-
ket to that', can make it less is an arithmetical
problem which our teacher never taught us to solve.

But our Contemporary has some peculiar notions
about a high price for labour, which he insists
is seemed, though the quantity of corn given
for it is lessened, by the Corn-laws, and though our
peasantry, and almost every other class of labourers,
are in great poverty and distress. Our Contempo-
rary, at the same time, has this admission :

" Labour," urges our Contemporary, " is chiefly ex-
changed for corn ;" and " to speak in one breath of
both the thing purchased, and the thing purchasing,
being dear, is sheer nonsense., This criticism of our
Contemporary would be just, providing there were no
tertiunt quid—no third equivalent, for which both
corn and labour are commonly exchangeable. But
there does happen to be such an equivalent—money ;
and both corn and labour may, undoubtedly, be, at the
same time, dear, in reference to their money-value.

But does the Herald require to be informed,
whEn nine-tenths of the transactions of this country
are carried on without money, that it is no real
tertium quid, but only a sign of what the labourer
is to receive ? Is a bit of paper, with which the la-
bourer may be paid, his real reward ? No. He
is truly paid by that which he necessarily consumes,
and which he employs money to buy, namely,
food and clothing, and these are dear to him when
he can get only a small portion of food and cloth-
ing in return for his labour, which the
Herald asserts, with us, is now the con-
dition of our labourers. Our Contemporary
therefoie, is on this point wholly mistaken.
There is no effective tertium quid. The exchange
is food for labour ; and it is as we said before sheer
nonsense to say in one breath, that both can be
dear. '[he plan, therefore, of securing a high
price for labour by raising the price of food, and
issauetr d‘wvi
cchh ihsa
given
by diminishinfgoorytehlare-broequfiurna,enditsitnyaononfsaetbnl
equallysleads
our Contemporary astray.
ginroesxschaasngtlelc

The Hon. Fox Maule arrived in town on Tues-
day to resume the discharge of his duties at the Horne-office•
It is understood that the Stockton and Hartle-
poolßailwßaiay Times.lwaywillbe ready for opening early is October.