The Sun.
London, England, 1841-10-18 00:00:00

FR.031 THE DAILY PAPERS OF SATURDAY.

GLOBE.—The Vetere are out ; and the question is
are our now rulers engineers enough to let them off
,csafely, etta they force a ruinous channel for themselves ?
The watere are out, physically as well as politically ; and
the great statesmen, who, in default of corn may ask us
why don't we eat potatoes, will be well answered by the
counter-question—will they guarantee us potatoes to eat?
We tell the party who now stand at the helm of
power, that they are responsible for whatever may ensue
from their long-protracted policy. They have deterred
for years the enemies of the existing restrictions on food
from making a Government measure Of the necessary
Commercial Reform. They have turned them out the
moment they did make it a Government measure ;
and they here coldly refused all immediate discussion
of any substitute. They stand accountable for
all the mischief which may follow, from this main-
tenance of monopoly. The postponement of change
for reeky years past has been due to them indi-
rectly ; a change for which Lord Althorp was as ready
as Lord John Russell is now—but the proposal of
which, it was known, would enable the Tory Opposition,
to upset the Government. The direct obstruction and
frustration of this essential reform now lies at their door:
it now lies with them to meet consequences which they
stubbornly shut their oyes to ; and which we be-
lieve, in our hearts, most formidable, and most urgent for
vigorous measures. Is the new Government capable of
taking suith measures ? Robert Peel says he is as
free as the wind. What will he do with his freedom ?
At present he sits boasting among his closed wind-bags—
another /Eolue. Whical of them will he untie ? From
which quarter will he visit his weathercocks ? Will
he give us a trade-wind or a land-wind? Will he send
Sir Edward Knatchhull or Sir George Murray
tse• the opposite point of the compass from that they
hate hitherto indicated ? .2Eolies boasts ; but will he
blow away his dukes from their acred anchorage ?
We say nothing of his consistency ; but what will he
make of those who call themselves his constituents ?
Were Canning or Iluskisson at the helm, we should
know hew to answer these questions. We should know
with certainty that such men would not allow their
names to go down to posterity as the mere instru-
ments of sordid oligarchy—that, at the critical point of
tined for their own fame, and the fortunes of their coun-
try, they would look forward—and neither around to
stdherents, nor backward to Hansard. These were not
men " content to dwell in decencies for ever." They
could think about other things than momentary advan-
tages over opponents in debate. They could act for
other purposes than " building up a great party" as
their pedestal !
COURIER.—The Herald, which has throughout
treated the question of M'Leed with a powerful pen, re-
turns to it opportunely this morning in an article pos-
sessing strong claims to attention at the present moment,
and which as such we reproduce elsewhere. The subject
was doubtless recalled to the recollection of the eloquent
writer by the tetibnr of certain later advices of an alarm-
ing character from the United States; received via
Basra yesterday, and published in a second edition of
the Post, from whence transferred to our columns.
" We write," says the Herald, " at this moment, under
a vivid impression of the enormous magnitude of the
results involved in the fate of M'Leod. This impression
is based on the conviction, that between tile restoration
of that individual, in salkity, to the authorities of Eng-
land—and war between England and the United States
in the event of his destruction—there is no cterna-
tire. There is no middle term between these two ex-
treme conditions." There is, indeed, and there can be,
no "middle term." We may submit, as we have sub-
mitted, to violations of neutrality the most outrageous
and unprovoked, to usurpations of territory the most
flagrant, to the patient mid:trance of pretensions the most
arrogant and unfounded, with the quiesceilt conscious-
-1::!3S of might as well as right on our side, although
not without eo much derogation to national honour and
relxtrstion in a pereeyering resolve for the preservation
of peace at almost any price as has evidently tended,
not to conciliate forbearance or command respect, but to
in stnouldoring fire into fiercest flame among the reek-
leee !reshot' re swarming on the Canadian frontier, who
iristake the repose of strength and protracted ncquies-
ceaec in insult for the signs of weakness and the
proof of pusillanimity. Bat submissive though we have
been, and abjeet us we have seemed, we are not yet so
prostrate in every sentiment becoming the dignity of a
great nation as for one moment to tolerate the final con-
summation of iniquity and atrocity in the conviction and
emecutioa of the so long tortured Al'Leod. Blood must
have blood, and if but one hair of his head he sacrificed
to the frenzied cravings of a lawless populace, the whole
Uilion will i:•ear of it in retributive thunder along the
whole line of its coasts and at the gates of its most popu-
Lets cities.

STA \ Willa-- I I Sir Robert Peel dws not find Ireland
" his chief iliffi.mity"—and we rejoice to say that to all ap-
TeNtrance he finis Ireland no difficulty whatever—there
mother person to minim the FeAmt condition of
iskahl.
di ..4! question pretents a difficulty of no small
sun:mit —teat person is Mr. Daniel O'Connell. W
hare copnal from the Nt..cry Tr/ vrapit —on 2 of the best
o:c.qtr !witty excellent provincial journals—a proof of the
itioter failure of the :cpe3l cry in the North of Ireland,
*You ia the kiost Ilmnan Catholic districts of Ulster,
rani front the south, the west, and the east of Ireland,
ve have precisely similar accounts. Were it not for
shs unhappy Municipal Bill, the very purpose
of which seems to be to revive annually an otherwise ex-
piring agitation, political dissension would seem to be at
reist in Ireland. Bnt what is to become of Mr. O'Con-
nell, if peace, a guest, so long a stranger, should be
restored to his native laud ? lie is now too old
t) dig, and though certainly not ashamed to beg,
his mendicancy will be little profitable when he shall
cease to be bully as well as beg r. Tho rent will fail ex-
actly in proportion to the restoration of tranquillity.
The wretched off! man appears indeed to be nearly
at the end of his game ; but this he ought,,to have
fQrescen. " The state bordering upon civil war,"
though embarrassing to a Government and afflicting to
society, recoils with most force upon the party that fool-
ishly supports it. The members of that party squander
their time and their energies—upon what ? The attain-
ment of some ultimate advantage ? No ; they are
aware that they can expect none, and that all
their sacrifices and labowis are wasted upon mak-
ing themselves wretched and hateful, and their
ascighbours uncomfortable. Men will in the end
tire of this. As, ono after another, they see
their more prudent and peacefully disposed country-
men pass them by in the road to competency of wealth
And the public respect, they will naturally reflect upon
the folly of misomploying their own time and talents,
and th• massof the seditious will rapidly diminish.