The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-01 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE DAILY PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
CHRONICLE.—Lord Stanley and Sir Robert Peel may
rest assured that the people of Ireland feel their power, and
will not suffer themselves to be delivered over unconditionally
to those who have already so amply proved how little they de-
served to be entrusted with such a power. We trust the feel-
ing manner in which Lord John Russell dwelt on the anxiety
of a party in this country to atone for the former injustice of
the Governments of England to the natives of Ireland, will not
be thrown away on them. Every statesman of sound and ho-
nest principles, every man who has at heart the character of
the nation, the welfare of the people, and the power and sta-
bility of this great empire, must, above all things wish to put
an end to the irritation which now prevails in the sister island.
Wretched is the policy which, for the sake of a momen-
tary tenure of power, would hazard the peace of the em-
pire. An overgrown schoolboy, like Lord Stanley, who,
with little or no wisdom, possesses cleverness in debate and a
command of animated expression, is a dangerous guide in
times like the present. 'f he Irish have been treated with great
injustice , they are quick enough, too, to see that it is intended
by a great party in this country to treat them unfairly; and
we all know that when once the passions are kindled, judgment
is apt to be clouded. We intreat Sir Robert Peel, and those
of the Tories who cannot approve of the recklessness of Lord
Stanley, to beware how they suffer themselves to be drawn
into an approval of his counsels. There is yet time for the olive
branch. 'Air. O'Connell bore testimony last night that " the ad-
ministrative impartiality of the Government of Ireland is doing all
that it can for the people of Ireland, keeping the partisan out of
Dower,
and endeavouring to prevent partial bigots from wreak-
mg their vengeance under the form of law—doing all that it
can to protect the people from that fell spirit which has been
the ruin, the misery, and the oppression of that country, show-
ing to the people a disposition to do them good, contrasting so
powerfully with the party that so long abused authority there."
This told en the House, because it was true to the letter. The
Tories may drive the people to despair ; but the issue, whatever
it may be, will be a fearful one to both countries. We shudder
to think of the consequences, even assuming them the most
favourable which can be conceived for Britain. May we then
hope, that after this display of rashness, the Tories will cool
down into something like moderation, and allow a measure to
be carried by which the people of Ireland shall be suffered to
obtain that influence in the Legislature to which they are en.
titled.
HERALD.—The last act of that tragi-comic farce, the
Government plan for the registration of voters in Ireland,
has closed. he curtain dropped last night on a new defeat
of her Majesty's " adhesives, and at the conclusion of the
farce, which was unequivocally damned, the stage manager,
Lord John Russell, addressed his audience, and informed
them that her Majesty's servants were as little as ever desirous
of closing their performances—that they had so little inclina-
tion to be rubbed off, they meant, on the contrary, still to rub
on. His lordship talked of all the great and good things he
had always meant to achieve on behalf of Ireland, and which
Ireland had a right to expect as consequent on the Roman Ca-
tholic Emancipation Bill. But this was all in vain. In a
House of 589 Members a majority of eleven enforced the de-
mand against him and his colleagues for the withdrawal of
the piece, end the "adhesives " accordingly were compelled
to throw it up. In one night the Whig-Radical-Poor-law
Government have had the humiliating penalty to endure of
seeing Mr. Walter returned for Nottingham, and taking his
scat on the opposite benches ; and of being soundly beaten
out of their uncompromising franchise clause, and into the
most absurd and hopeless of false positions to which a Govern-
merit can be forced that have staked the reputation of their
political sagacity and the strength of their party on a single
cast. They have stood the " hazard of the die," and they have
lost. Will they pay the stake they played for ? No ! they have
identified themselves with the theory and practical working of the
new Poor-law ;—have promoted its administrators—have dis-
couraged its opponents—have proclaimed themselves bound to
and by even the harshest of its enactments. They have now
the felicity of seeing the people return into the ranks of their
legislative opponents that very individuai who has been more
than any other of their own antagonists, most instrumental
perhaps in arraying against their favourite scheme of pauper
coercion the most practised talent and energy that could be en-
listed in various parts of the kingdom, and among various or-
ders of the people, in hostility to that measure. In favour of
it they have heretofore boldly appealed to the ratepayers—to
the people themselves. What do the Nottingham men—the
rate-payers of a town em nently Whiggish—who return at this
moment the Right Honourable Pre-ident of the Board of Con-
trol ? What do they reply ? They reply, " We return a
champion, pledged to the teeth against your new Poor-law,
and on the single ground that he is so pledged."
POST.—A BANDON:VENT OF LORD MORPETH'S BILL.—
The division took place last night in Committee on the second
clause of this dishonest and unlucky measure—its vital clause,
which would have created a Parliamentary franchise for the
counties of Ireland, founded on a leasehold occupation rated at
84 per annum, without beneficial interest. Immediately after
this signal and disgraceful defeat Lord John Russell made a
long, querulous and fretful speech, which he concluded, not by
announcing the intention of Ministers to tender their resigna-
tion to her Majesty, in consequence of the House of Commons
having withdrawn from them its confidence, but by moving that
the Chairman do leave the chair, thus consigning to a disho-
nourable tomb a Bill which merited its fate, not more on ac-
count of its inherent vices, than of the vile and de'picable mo-
tive which had originally called it into existence, the desire to
obstruct and defeat a really beneficial and statesmanlike effort
of legislation. Notwithstanding this ignominious overthrow,
and the position of abject weakness in which it necessarily
leaves the Ministers who have sustained it, the general opinion
last night was that these Ministers will still cleave to place, an
opinion for which we cannot conjecture any other foundation
than their well-known regard to the advantages of office, un-
less it be that, in the course of the discussion which preceded
the division, Mr. Hume told them it would be nonsense to re-
sign, and Mr. O'Connell gave them the consoling assurance
that " the rejection of the measure would do the Ministers
good in Ireland !"
AD VERTISCR.—Lord Morpeth's Bill is defeated and
withdrawn, and with great regret do we announce the fact.
Ministers do not, and will not, if we are rightly informed, re-
sign or dissolve Parliament ; because if they did, hundreds of
thousands would be lost by parties interested in private
Bills, and who, in another Session, or in a new Parliament,
would have to undergo a similar expense. The political
Session is therefore, at an end—the practical, we hope, about to
commence.
TIMES.—WeII. There could be no mistake last night.
If Monday's division was not conclusive against the principle
of Lord Morpeth's bill, Thursday's, we think, must satisfy
even the most obtuse understanding. It is, in fact, admitted
to be fatal ; and the flagitious imposture, by which Ministers
have attempted
.to save the perjuries and personations of the
Irish register from the inroads of Conservative reform, is now
finally and for ever abandoned. Again the question forces it-
self upon us, will a Government, defeated upon the most criti-
cal questions, and in crowded houses, by majorities of 11 and 21,
still attempt to retain office ? Again we answer that if their past
history can furnish any clue totheir future conduct, nothing but
a direct address to the Crown for their removal will ever effect a
divorce between them and their salaries. Ever since they took
their stand upon Court favour in 1839, and determined that the
confidence of the Ladies of the Bedchamber was an adequate sub-
stitute fora commanding influence in the ry.egislature, they have
been prosecuting a " great political experiment," in which they
have met with considerable success. Their example has esta-
blished the possibility of a Ministry continuing in office, with-
out character, without a majority in either House of Parlia-
ment, without the sympathy or support of any considerable
party in the country. A Ministry too much despised by all,
to be cordially hated by their adversaries, or respected
by their friends. A Ministry without power to carry
their own measures, or resist those of their opponents—
men of straw, pelted and buffetted from every quarter, and
taking their buffets with as much patience and resignation as
the Venetian Jew discovered under the salivary compliments
of his Christian customers. Such has been the character of
Lord Melbourne's Government, and such it will remain to the
end. For a Government which has never possessed the con-
fidence of the House of Commons to resign, because it is in a
minority now, would be truly ridiculous—a real bona fide re-
signation, under any circumstances, would be the grossest in-
consistency which the present. Ministers could commit. To aban-
don principles upon the maintenance of which they have
staked their honour, to dispense with measures which they
have vaunted as absolutely indispensable, is with them a fami-
liar thing; but to relinquish office, or dispense with salary, is
a course of which the idea has never crossed their minds. It
would be idle to expect that such an every-day trifle as
a defeat by a majority of eleven, in a House of 589, upon a
mere point of principle, can dislodge what has been justly
and emphatically called the " shuttlecock Administration."
This i 3 now the posture of the Conservative Opposition :
Supported by an overwhelming majority in the House of Lords,
and by a varying yet sufficient majority in the House of
Commons, they cannot decline the duties inseparably an-
nexed to their position. Whether they assume the seals of
office or not, it has become theyr duty at all events to take the
lead in legislation. It will not he sufficient to have defeated
Lord Morpeth's Irish Registration Bill ; they must vigorously
press forward, and carry their own. And upon the Poor-law
Continuance Bill, as we hinted on Wednesday, they must be
prepared, if they would give any satisfaction to the country, to
take a far bolder and more decided course than might have
been required of them under different circumstances. With-
out their fiat it is impossible for that measure ever to become
law ;—will they date to pronounce that fiat now, after what has
taken place at Nottingham ?
GLOBE _Lori Howick has intervened in somey;hat
the manner of the Beefeater in the Critic in the dyenoue.
ment of an intricate situation of parties. The IklA:e Lord
presented himself betwixt them with an admonition to each
on the propriety of composing their differences as regards
Ireland.

In the Queen's name I charge you all to drop
Your swords and daggers !
The swords and daggers may be considered as dropped
for the present. There CAR neither be Stanley nor
Morpeth legislation neither thrusting nor parrying.
If Mini tees,son the one hand, have abandoned their
position
of cefence, so have Opposition tacitly and vir-
tually that of attack. It is as good as acknowledged by
and even by Lord Stanley, that it may
Sir Robert Peel'
be necessary to consider the franchise, in reforming the
registration. They
are, in effect, constrained to the
quasi-recogn:t:an 0f that principle, though they will not
,i
consent to the Ministerial mode of carrying it into execu-
tion ; and in
this dissent are joined byh a small number of
Liberals, and aided by the apat y and absence of
t of Government to that
others. The eon/re-pro/6-
therefore, been fruit-
of Lord Stanley has
been thrown away,
The nor has the discussionnot
The principlethe frany_.
t its exer-
that a new constitutionitiu oof,
chise must accompany a new
cise we regard as having been established in the de_
the
bates on the rival rn, The views of
.. two
measures.
- des of opinion
pasties which divide Parliament and the shades
which form minor divisiona in parties, have been
pre',ty strongly. illustra.ted in t,e course of the same,
di;cussions. The Tory leader
professes to find
igrcurids for congratulation in the ciintrast between
Liberal divisi.ns and Tory : !
rei
unan,ty Theic grounds ant more specious than solid. Apparent divisions, and the i
absence of apt:went divisions in parties, afford no conlu-
sive evidence of their sound or unsound internal condition.
Divisions may result from vigorous thought and sincere feel-
ing ; unanimity may indicate the sappresion cr ausence of
both. It is evident at once theta matter so problernatiel, pr -
vious to experiment, as a measure for the reconstructimof.
national franchise, must g,ve rise to divisi,ins of 0p,,,, ,
a'id such divisions show themselves without restraint,
where no overpowering general feeling imp, is action.
That there are no such divisions on the Tory side —it it
is true, which we don't believe, although Sir Robert Peel
says it—proves nothing to the credit of the Tory party,
It may only prove that those of them who have rational
views on the subject do not care to distinguish themselves
from those who have none, or none reasonable.
STANDARD.—Lord Mer;:eth's Irish Voters Bill
was last night defeated in committee by a majm ity of 300
to 289—a majority of eleven in a House (including
tellers, Chairman and Speaker) of 595 Members; leaving
of the whole number but 63 absentees, paired or other-
wise absent: This is a clearly fin( quivocal declaration of
the sense of the House of Commons -Upon the great minis-
terial measure of the session. It ii, we beiitve, this day six
years, to the day, SiaCe Sir R, Peel reai;,-utd g9fiGe.io con-