The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-15 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRID_AY EVENING, JAN-CARY 15, 181.7.

meanest station-house in the kingdom, that earnest
wail far moral and intellectual help is ascending
audibly. It is a supplication now; it may, if con-
temned, merge into a command. Shall it be said that
this want of knowledge has been grievously exagge-
rated ? Shall it be said that there is no such necessity
for a national system of education ? Go with that
chaplain mentioned by Lord LINCOLN to the benighted
culprits in Preston gaol alone ; see fifty- five per cent.
of them unable to read, thirty-five per cent. ignorant cs
to the personality of CURIST, only nine in a hundred
acquainted with the elementary principles of religion,
not one amongst them familiar with "she Book,"
upwards of half of the number not aware of the name of
the reigning Sovereign: let them look into that
abyss of ignorance which the chaplain of
Preston gaol has looked into, and then say that
there is no particular want of a national
system of education ! Is not that sufficient ? Let
them meditate upon the thousands who are living
perpetually in the filth of domestic sin, who are an
actual curse to the land in which their breath is
drawn, who are requiring the incessant and stringent
correction of the law, who perish in hospitals, and pri-
sons, and workhouses, and penal colonies. If any
additional evidence be wanting, let them visit, even in
this vast and flourishing metropolis, those "Ragged
Schools" which philanthropy has erected in its by-
lanes and its rookeries, and which only a sublime
charity could sustain and organize. They must then
acknowledge that there is ample cause to weep over
this awful deficiency of moral and intellectual know-
ledge. GOD be thanked, there is no longer a neces•
sity to impress the reality of this enormous want upon
the perception of the Legislature. The Prime
Minister has pledged himself, in the Guildhall of the
city of London, to introduce some comprehensive
scheme of an educational character : that pledge will
be redeemed.

The cry of Irish agony swells daily louder and
louder, and pierces the most callous heart. At such a
season of sorrow and misery it becomes the duty of
every citizen of the empire to do his diligence gladly
to remove, as far as in him lies, the heavy load of woe
that crushes our Irish fellow-citizens to the earth.
To discover the origin of the miseries of Ireland—
lay bare the sources of those wasting and incessant
torments of agitation that have driven the merchant
and the manufacturer in dismay from Ireland, torn
up by the roots the tree of commerce, and left the
country without a single stay or defence against the
present dreadful invasion of famine, is the first and
mast necessary duty of the legislative physicians, who
must immediately undertake the case of Ireland.
If; in searching for the origin of these agitations,
they adopt the inductive method, and investigate
separately the causes of each successive agitation, they
will find them, without exception, to be efforts to
remove differences existing between the laws of Ire-
land and those of England, or to redress evils arising
from such differences. The conclusion from such an
investigation is unavoidable. A difference in the laws
of the two countries has caused the present difference in
their social condition.
To impose upon a limb of a great empire laws
different and more oppressive than those which govern
the heart of that empire has the same effect in the
national system that the introduction of some foreign
and unwholesome body into a man's limb, has upon
the human system. The human limb, so treated,
loses its healthy action, inflames, suppurates, and
becomes useless ; and, unless the foreign body be
removed, the virus thus engendered is absorbed into
the trunk, and the man dies. To save the man's life
the knife must be used, and the foreign body extracted,
even though the operation should cause the most
acute pain. To save the life of the empire, the ex-
isting difference in laws must be removed, even though
such removal occasion immediate suffering.
To remove such an injurious difference of laws by
the operation of the law alone—to acquire all British
privileges by a regular and temperate appeal to the
ordinary tribunals of justice, is a mode of proceeding
extremely consonant to British sentiment. A strong
feeling of the dignified propriety of such a course has
induced us to bestow already two articles upon the
case of an humble Irish forty-shilling freeholder in
fee, who, at the last quarter-sessions of the county of
Monaghan, endeavoured to establish a right to register
as an elector of that county; because a similar pri-
vilege exists in England, and because by virtue of the
Sixth Article of the union with Ireland, all British
privileges, according to his allegation, were extended
and assured for ever to Ireland.
The following is the section of the sixth article
relied on, together with the construction given to it
by Mr. ELLIS, counsel for the applicant :
"That it be the Sixth Article of Union that his Ma-
jesty's subjects of Great Britain and Ireland, shall, from
and after the first day of January, 1801, be entitled to
the same privileges—and be on the same footing as to
encouragements and bounties, on the like articles being
the growth, produce, or manufacture of either country
respectively—and generally in respect of trade and nevi-
gad= in all ports and places in the United Kingdom and
its dependencies—and that in all treaties made by his
Majesty, his heirs and successors, with any foreign
power, his Majesty's subjects of Ireland shall have the
oa
nd ,0
ff four
Ireland of those ot
Its e
fact,t e
stipulatedr mi so
ufoorrrl condi-
tions, nittdhaini
same privileges and be on the same footing as his Ma-
jesty's subjects of Great Britain." This section recites
tour covenants entered into between the kingdoms of
ytedarPe'arliament, and set out
tGiorneas,t
which
four -matters which the United Parliament shall for ever
limita-
tions voof 'Lott inpodwepeernodfenthcee,uthnei
iictahinthaelldkilnrgedl
be incompetent to enact. The first of these covenants
is, That from and after the first day of January, 1801,
his _Majesty's subjects of Great Britain and Ireland, shall
be entitled to the same privileges,' that is, that from the
day on which the Union shall take effect, and so long as
tha Union shall exist, the inhabitants of each island
shall have an inalienable, incontestable, indestructible
right and title to every privilege enjoyed by the inhabi-
tants of the other. This covenant mutually extended to
each country all the peculiar privileges at that time en.
joyed by the other, and provided that at no future time
should the United Kingdom be competent to grant to the
inhabitants of one island any privilege which it did not
at the same time grant to the other—nor on the other
ban. 3 to take from the inhabitants of one Island any pri-
vilea;e that it did not, at the same time, take from the in;
haf etants of the other. The second covenant is in refer-
erwe to encouragements and bounties to the produce sand
*manufactures of the two islands. This covenant declares
that British and Irish subjects shall, so long as the
union exists, be on the same footing, as to encourage-
mentsand bounties on the like articles, being the growth',
produce, or manufacture of either country respectively.'
By this covenant the United Parliament is limited and
rendered incompetent to grant or take away any bounty
or encouragement to the manufacture or produce of one
island, which it does not, at the same time, grant or take
away from that of the other. The third covenant con-
tained in this section is in reference to trade and naviga-
tion. By this covenant it is stipulated Thatt the inha-
bitants of Great Britain and Ireland shall be on the same
footing in respect of trade and navigation, in all ports
and places in the United Kingdom and its dependencies.'
By this covenant perfect equality in all matters con-
nected with trade, in all ports of the United Kingdom
is for ever established between Great Britain and Ire-
land, and the Parliament of the United Empire is de-
clared incompetent to disturb that equality. The fourth
covenant assures to the inhabitants of both islands, an
equality in all advantages derivable from treaties
made between the United Empire and Foreign
Powers. It declares that in all treaties made by his
Majesty, his heirs and successors, with any foreign power,
his Majesty's subjects of Ireland shall have the same
privileges, and be on the same footing as his Majesty's
subjects of Great Britain. The first three covenants
contained in this section secure to the inhabitants of Ire-
land, perfect equality with the inhabitants of Great Bri-
tain, in all rights, privileges, and advantages, at home
or in the colonies. The fourth covenant which I have
just read, secures to them, a similar equality, in all rights,
privileges, and advantages, acquired by treaties with
foreign countries. The treaty of Union does not eon-
tain any provision authorising the slightest alteration in
any one of these covenants. These covenants, that efore,
form portions of the written constitution of the country,
and are supreme unalterable laws, revoking all opposing
statutes, at home, therefore, -and abroad—in the British
Islands, and in the British colonies—in his native land,
and in foreign countries, perfect equality with English-
men in all civil rights, benefits, privileges, and advan-
tages, is the inalienable, indestructible, birth-right of
every Irishman. This equality was the great political
advaLtage for ages sought by Ireland--the great price
agreed to be paid for her logislatiee iv lependence. This
equality, in the largest andmost; ber,eficial sense, is for
ever secured to Ireland by the. gre_ert international com-
pact and treaty of Union, and, ass -long as that Union ex-
ists, never can that equality be taken from Ireland ex-
cept by arbitrary power, aesa;74,4l less usurpation."
The covenant eel:tele:ed in the first paragraph of
the above section, in our opinion, most certainly gave
Irishmen a to the enjoyment of all British pri-
vileges, 111);', still gives such to them, unless that
oovertav°„ has been since annulled by some competent
autirJrity. It was intended to express the same
rD'Janing as the following words in the fourth section
r)f the Act of Union with Scotland:—" That there
be a communication of all other rights, privileges,
and advantages which do or may belong to the sub-
jects
of either kingdom."
That such was the intention of the Legislature in
using the words "shall eqjoy the same privileges," is

shown, , amongst a hundred other proofs, by the fol-
lowing words of Mr. Secretary DUNDAS, when
moving, as Minister, in the House of Commons, the
union resolutions :—" By the participation of the
freedom of Britons (says that Minister)—by the full
enjoyment of all privileges attached to a member of
such an honourable community, the Government of
this country endeavours to destroy the hopes. of the
enemy and to consolidate the empire. If it be true
that the poor of Ireland experience all the misery
concomitant to a state of want and wretchedness, then
it folows that their participation of the privileges of
Britons will rouse and animate to laudable exertions
that useful description of our fellow-subjects in the
sister kingdom. That liberty which awakened the
commercial enterprise of Scotland—that liberty which
expanded its genius in the mast honourable pursuits
—that liberty which confirmed every sentiment
which can dignify human nature, will, Sir, I am
sure have the same happy influence on the people
of Ireland, connected with us by the dearest reci-
procal obligations."
Notwithstanding, however, the simple significance
of the words themselves, and the analogy of Scotland,
and the expressed intention of the Legislature, Messrs.
HOVENDEN and CHITTY have, in their respective
editions of "Blackstone's Commentaries," represented
the Sixth Article of the Irish Union as referring only
to trade, and establishing an equality of privileges in
that respect alone between the countries, though the
fourth paragraph of that section, which establishes an
equality in all privileges derived from foreign treaties,
does not mention nor allude to trade, and though the
marginal note, collecting the general purport of the
sections, stares them in the face, and declares its
meaning to be, "that the subjects of Great Britain and
Ireland should be on the same footing from the Ist of
January, 1801."
To narrow the privileges extended by this section
to those connected with trade alone, it is necessary, as
a first and indispensable step, to deny a separate and
independent meaning to the sentence, "that his
Majesty's subjects of Great Britain-and _lreland shall
enjoy the same privileges"—a sentence which contains
the great price of Ireland's independence, so strictly
stipulated for by Ireland, and, as we have seen, so
solemnly undertaken to be paid by England. Accord-
ing to such exposition this sentence forms for us
merely one of two antecedents, governing in common
the words "as to bounties on the like articles, &c.,"
the other antecedent being the phrase, "be upon the
same footing-." And the entire passage, so read,
would merely extend to Ireland an equality of rights
as to trade and commerce.
Now, to adopt such a construction would be to
make the important sentence, "shall enjoy the same
privileges," vain and superfluous, and to give no effect
whatever to these words ; for the words, " shall be
upon the same footing as to bounties, &c.," give all
privileges respecting bounties, &c., and something
more. The strong and significant words, " shall
enjoy the same privileges," would therefore be, ac
cording to such reading, empty unmeaning phrases,
and without the least effect. But such an exposition
would be in violation of the clearest rules of law ;
" for the gosal expositor (says Lord
.COKE in
POWLTER'S ca se) makes every sentence have its
operation to suppress all the mischiefs ; he gives effect
to every word in the statute; he does not construe it
so that anything should be vain and superfluous, nor
yet makes e3.position against express words, for
viperina est expositio qua; corrodit viscera textus.'"
It appears clear, therefore, that if , this section
be brought to the strictest tests of law, every rule of
construction„ 'whether derived from the common law
or the law- of nations, will declare that these
sentences s'iand independent of each other, and will
presume that the different words in each were em-
ployed to 'express different ideas, and were used in
the largest sense. But, supposing for a moment that
the meani ag was ambiguous, and that a doubt could be
fairly entertained, whether the word privileges was to
be taken in the larger or the more restricted sense,
then we should be obliged to have recourse to another
kind of test, and to decide whether the covenan

" that her MAJESTY'S subjects of Great Britain and
Ireland shall enjoy the same privileges," be a favour-
able or an odious covenant, Ifor different rules of con-
struction, according to the law of nations, govern
these two cl asses of covenants.

" Everytl ling that tends to a common advantage in
treaties, or -.that has a tendency to place the contract-
ing parties on a footing of equality, is favourable,"
says VATTELL, Book 2, c. 2. This definition of VAT-

TELL'S exact ly describes the nature of the covenan

granting equal privileges to the subjects of both coun-
tries. This covenant :is, therefore, governed by the
rules 'applicable to things favourable, and all writers
on the law of nations agree as to these rules. GRO-.

TIUS, Book 11,:c. 15, thus lays down the rule :—" In
cases not odious, we must understand the words in

their full propriety as they are generally taken, and
if they are ambiguous then they must be taken in the
largest sense."

To dimover an ambiguity respecting these Irish
privileges, is therefore to prove that they must be
granted in their very largest extent. Uncertainty
ranges itself upon the side of justice, and to raise a
doubt u.pon the subject is to establish the claim of
Ireland. for perfect equality with Great Britain in
laws, rights, privileges, and advantages—a claim
which ought never to have been refused, and upon
the speed y and certain admission of which depends
the hone ur and happiness of the United Empire.

" The explosive cotton has been tried at Constan

tinopler" says a letter from that city, " with complete
' success. Several experiments have been made at the
palace in the presence of the SULTAN, and gave full
satisfaction. Other proofs of its power have likewise
been exhibited to several of the Turkish Ministers."
Letters from Constantinople state that the SULTAN
was exceedingly annoyed at the reception given at
Paris to the Bey of TUNIS as an independent sove-
reign. The conferences at Trebisonde for reconciling
the differences between Turkey and Persia have been
broken up without any result.

The to wn of liorat was occupied on the 9th by
the Government troops of Friburg. Many of the
inhabitants fled to Berne and to Vaud on the ap-
proach of fbe troops. Bulle and Gruyere still hold
out. In the former place the insurgents have en-
trenched the =selves in the castle ; in the latter, they
look for support from Vaud. Among the persons
who have b een arrested at Friburg is M. WEIBEL,
an architect„ who is accused of having devised and
organized tl le conspiracy for the insurrection. The
10th is the -day fixed for the meeting of the Grand
Council.

The Imp er ial Commissioner of Cracow, Count DE
DAYM, has. just published an order declaring that the
tribunals c E Gallicia are not to proceed against any
persons cc mixromised in the late insurrection, except
the leaden.: of the rebels, and persons either invested
with political_ -functions or exercising a public profes-
sion (such as advocates, priests, notaries, Government
officers). 2 Lay person not included in these cate-
gories is not Ito be prosecuted.

The Russ ian General RUDIGER occupied on the
sth, with 10'1,000 troops, the frontiers of the old re-
public of Ci 1:c:ow, and those of Gallicia proper. An
Austrian tome was immediately ordered to observe
them.

A Drosaen 'letter, in the Aix-la-Chapelle Gazette,
says that i4T. TYSSOWSKI, who was chosen dictator in
the insurrection at Cracow in 1846, has been set at
lilierty. The Austrian Government gave its assent
to this act of The Saxon Government, but on condi-
tion that M. ' Cyssowsxl should, with his family, be
placed in the hands of the Austrian authorities to be
embarked at' Crieste for America.

The draft .of the new penal code for Prussia is
nnished and. approved of by the KING. It contains
450 paragrt• hphs, and does not in any one case inflict
corporal punishment. It has been printed, but the
copies are rt?served exc!usively for the Members of
the Provir,e,al States about to be convoked.

The Aug sburgh Gazette states, on the authority of
a 'CUE:" fri .m Turin, that Prince FERDINAND VICTOR
of Alv:lefr A is about to marry an Austrian Princess,
e Count DE MAPPANI is to marry a Princess
of the sa:m e family.
The Austrian Government has just established a
line of eilectrie telegraph from Vienna to Brunn, and
intends t .c ,extend it as far as Prague in Bohemia.
There is ate to be a line from Vienna to Pestle in
Hungary. ,

Madrial papers of the 7th have arrived.
The Ohl xalier of Deputies is, still: occupied in the