The Sun.
London, England, 1840-09-05 00:00:00

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LONDON:
SATURDAY. SEPTEMBER 5, 1840.

The Repeal of the Union which Mr. O'CoNr-
NELL is promoting, is not an Irish, it is a grand
imperial, constitutional question. The Union itself
is not a grievance, it is only a possible cause of
grievances. Like our boroughmongeiing Parlia-
ment, it may be essentially bad in principle, and
yet work for many years to the satisfaction of the
people. If it were itself a grievance, good might
arise from the repeat ; but what Mr. O'CONNELL
proposes is not the redress of any single grievance,
it is a great constitutional change, of which the
advantages ought to be manifest and certain. It
does not concern Ireland only—it concerns the
whole empire, and its consequences on every part
—on every interest—ought to be duly appreciated
and discussed by the politician who promotes it.
It will make a great alteration in the British
Legislature. The whole body of Irish Peers would
quit our House of Peers, and such of them as ate
Peers in both parts of the empire would have to
make a selection as to which House, the Irish or
the British, they would belong. Our Reform Act
was in part framed with a view to the Members of
the House of Commons who sit for Ireland ; and
the House of Commons, like the House of Peers,
would require to be remodelled. Has Mr. O'Cori-
NELL considered this ?

Church questions, as was lately admitted by the
Tories, are the key-stones of our internal policy
on all such questions, and on all matters connected
with them, the bulk of the Irish representatives
have uniformly taken the Liberal side ; to remove
them would weaken the Liberal party, and give as
great a predominance nearly to the Church faction
in the House of Commons as it has in the House
of Lords. The Dissenters and all the Liberals
must look out for some other organization to de-
fend themselves, and prevent all those good laws
being subverted, which they have by great struggles
obtained. The secession of the Irish Members
would give a triumph to the Church and Tory
party in England, which might become, from
weakening the Liberal party in the manner pro-
posed by Mr. O'CoNNELL, the surest way to re-
conquer all which it has lately lost in Ireland. His
plan would divide the Liberal interest, and so give

a triumph to its opponents.
But he may say—selfishly for the rest of the
empire, patriotically for Ireland—that he cares
nothit.g for England, Scotland, and the Colo-
nies, he is bound only to study the interest
of Ireland. We hare so poor an opinion of
the faculties of men for imperial rule, that on
principle we must approve of them limiting their
policy and their measures exclusively to the locali-
ties in which they live ; and on principle, therefore,
we approve of Mr. ()TON N EL L narrowing his cares
to Ireland alone. Such a plan is, indeed, little
suitable to that enlarged philanthropy which makes
him in other cases extend his care to the Slaves
and the Poles, and to the French Canadians, and to
men oppressed all over the world ; but letting that
pass, on the narrow principle of confining Irish
legislation to Ireland, and British to Britain, and
giving up the idea of imperial legislation—or one
rule for all—though the tendency of nations is to
the law ts hich is good at York
amalgamation, and
can scarcely be bad at Limerick,;—Mr. VCO24-