The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-12 00:00:00

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EVENING EDITION'.

REPRESENTATIVE GO VERN-
MENT.
SIR VALENTINE BLAKE'S SIXTH LETTER.

TO TILE EDITOR OF TEE SUN.

am firmly, but respectfully, of opinion, that
it would not be illegal or unconstitutional (although
it would be an unpopular attempt), to agitate for the
purpose of petitioning Parliament to subvert the Mo-
narchy ; and I am satisfied that every Constitutional
lawyer will admit that it is perfectly legal to agitate the
propriety of the repeal of the 2d Article of the Union,
by which the Stuart Family are for ever excluded, and
the present Royal Family appointed to the hereditary
possession of the Imperial Crown of Great Britain one
Ireland ; and in illustration of my impression, I beg
leave to remind you of the Act of the Scottish Parlia-
ment to vest the power of nominating a successor to the
Crown of Scotland, after the death of Clocen Anne, in
the Lords and Commons of Scotland ; to which Act
her Majesty gave the Royal Assent in 1703, and you
will recollect that it was this Act that produced the .
overwhelming necessity for the Union which followed
in two years after, as the only available mode of pre-
venting the otherwise inevitable and Con litulicnal se-
paration of the two Crowns.
Yet notwithstanding the inevitable dismemberment of
the empire, which nothing but the Union could have
averted, a motion was made by the Earl of Findlator, in
1714, in the House of Lords of Great Britain, for leave
to introduce a Bill to repeal the Act of Uhion, winch
motion was negatived in a very full House, by a majo,
rity of four only—all the rank Tories having voted for
the repeal.
Will the Hon. Baronet who displaced Sir Robert

Peel in the representation of the University of Oxford,
as a reward for his tested religious bigotry, allege or
assert in his place, that the predecessors of the Tory
Lords of the present day were all traitors and agitators
for the purposes of anarchy and confusion, for having
strenuously and constitutionally opposed the enact-
ment, and next for having as strenuously supported the
repeal of the Scotch Union ; and yet, if he will deny
the constitutional right of any portion of the people to
agitate for the repeal of the Act of Union betwent
Great Britain and Ireland, or for any other repetal or
reform, he, in effect, by the same allegation, affixes the
stain of disloyalty, and a desire to produce by illegal
means a dismemberment of the empire, upon the lordly
predecessors of his present aristocratic supporters.
My object in alluding to those historical facts, is first
to vindicate the Government in which her Mljesix
places her confidence, from the absurd eliarge et nog
having denounced the Repeal agitators in Ireland, in
the recent Speech from the Throne, which, if they had
done, they would have exposed themselves to the last
degree of mental and constitutional incapacity and
ignorance,

I will do Mr. O'Connell the justice to say, that I
think big motives upright, and his conduct legal and
constitutional. But I differ entirely with him in the
policy lie has adopted, of ostensibly appearing with a
divided force, to agitate for and to prefer a specific
form of separate legislature in Ireland, which in prac-
tice (since the repeal of Poynirig's law) would be inde-
pendent of the Crown, although nominally connected
with it ; when he might, by holding up his finger, create
n —al combination, net alone of the Reformers of
OCIOI
Ireland, but of the whole united Empire, in favour of
an object which would place Ireland in a far more dig-
nified, influential, and commanding position than she
enjoys at present, or than the simple restoration of the
Constitution of 1782 would confer upon her.
I rather think that Mr. O'Connell would be
happy to see realised even a subordinate Parlia-
ment, offered, and that he supposes that he ought
to canvass publicly for nothing save an independent
Parliament. His experience (of Tory Government), no
doubt, tells him that all political ameliorations are com-
promises ; and, in this course, that he would have
something to relinquish, or give up in the way of bar-
gain or contract ; and he may be also impressed with an
idea, that more should bo asked for than would satisfy,
because such was the usage during the prolonged and
dismal existence of an unreformed Parliament and a
Tory Administration.

But, in my humble judgment, it may now bet' er ac-
cord with the altered position of public men, and popu-
lar feeling and influence, to ask that which would amply
sati,g)j, and to ask no more.

I confess that, actuated by those feelings, I warmly
advocated the acceptance by Mr. O'Connell of Mr.
Sharman Crawford's offered co-operation ; but, on more
mature deliberation, I now abjure the principle of a
subordinate Parliament, unless as the next best alterna-
tive, in the event of intended scheme being rejected, for
the sole end and purpose of its nominating delegates to
the Imperial Parliament, in analogy to the elective
portion of the peerage ; but as for any other purpose, a
subordinate Parliament would be a body without power,
and by reasons of its locality more liable to be thwarted
than a Canadian Parliament,—in fact, a subordinate
Parliament would be an endless source of future discon-
tent—a mere mockery—and an empty name.
It is quite manifest to all experienced Reformers,
that any legislative mitigation of Tory manufactured or
contemplated restraints upon the liberties of the people,
must, of necessity, emanate from the loud, uniform,
energetic, and repeated expression of public opinion.
It was ever the invariable practice of the Tories to
dictate to the Parliament such measures only as origi-
nate with themselves. It is not, however, for a popu-
lar Government to adopt " this inverted order of
things ;" it cannot presume to lead, or to' offiT ; its state
of procedure must be to follow in accordance with the
expressed voice of the people, but this voice, to be effec-
tual, as in a musical exhibition by many performers,
must accord in time and tone in order to produce har-
mony.

Just so, when the shades of difference whit
are now thickly folded, so as to intercept t
genial influence of the SUN of Reform, art
dissipated. When the rays of that celestial orb
are wholly condensed and concentrated on one object,
from whence the temple of the Constitution may be re-
novated, and restored in all its proportions, no thiuli-
Mg man can for a moment doubt the glorious result.
What that one achievement is that will produce una-
nimi.ly and concert, and, if adopted, give ample security
for a further and more effectual instalment of justice,

not on►y to Ireland, but to each division of the'ltefor:

niers of the misrepresented population of the United Em-
pire, is the vc;y important question which, with great
respect, 1 am now about to aliuds to, and which will be
best explained by the production of a voluminous cor•

respondence which I had the honcur to hold with her

AL;jesty's Government, chiefly through the extremely
courteous medium of the Noble Lord who is Secretary
of State for Ireland

lictv far I may act discreetly, by at once publishing
this important correspondence, I am somewhat doubtful,
but I may be perrniqcd to say, that the result of my
feeble effort is creditable and honourable to the Go-

vernment in the highest degree ; and I would be glAd
if some Hon. Member would more for its production.
I have the honour to he, Sir,
Your obliged and most obedient servant,
VALENTINE BLAKE.

THE FINSBURY OPERATIVE
PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SlR—lslington is well known as a very quiet an-I
respectable portion of the suburbs of London, and it
was doubtless on this necou.nb.tretthien
n(ooximlonlelittee of the
Finsbury Operative Protestant Association fixed upon
the School. Rooms in Church-street to hold their annual
a meeting
thweritinag you is
irant'l(e)ttiii'gat;oubtu.tot7tlhiact.ewvacyr
pwlearcee,t.hair motives inhervectoled,
there this evening, and my
and comer
to know' your opinion respecting their
proceedings:
which were to be hal
placard,i,i
u, p t
t e, andEs
qthe
M.P.illa,r
Admission was granted
)3' cacti ticket there ;vas a sort.
taken lh The
tmeeigeltlit"o'c"lo'acske''bilyi
at various places, and
that the‘ holder pledged himself to
the Chairman. At the rip.
71tiekbcytg,
hold some two or
pointed hour the, o
to
fill,
and by and by the speakers
abidet.: rle
bt to thetbe effectdeo lsi.roono m
(which
may
three hundred) bet,a
ce , ,
~
n on the platform. After a very
asPoPretrfaintroduction from the Chairman, tit::
adopted, and second c)—
patienh was shown
during nearly the whole
(arca, impatience
time by a majority of the persons present), when a very
Report was read, moved to be
respectablyrin'l''l'dre'thdrowsyir dres s e d person rose, and in the roost respect..
ful and gentlemanly manner rcquested permiss.inn of the
Chairman to move an amendment, to which the Chair..
man replied, that however painful it might be to him.
110 should feel it his duty to act upon the regulation no-
tilled on the cards of admission, and he could not, there•
fore, permit the proceedings to be in►terrupted, and
should any individuals continue to do so, he must',-
quest the policemen (there were several in the room)
to take them out !

ralti'iolii,ssanver was met as it deserved, with loud exc.-
the
room, continued hissing liitisislian(gi an►l uproar in alt parts
already mentioned, • when it
of tsi'llobsiCdelitaliritilLen'isintili)vriefautagt.
moved an atnendutetaltilltdthat ".the meeting ecnsidercli
the report illiberal
unchristian," wihercupon two
policemen advanced, collaredn I,eaaunsceddragged hid%
out. This unchristian )roceedin, aiendoui,
excitement and uproar, andl it soon became tevidentch that
a good many Chartists were present, for a
proposed for the Charter, which was loudly
leraelsipitienaoorgtnerwo(loler;
to, and they afterwards gave nine cheers for the same
and not another speaker was heard (luring
the evening,
The Chairman and other gentlemen on
soon disappeared amid yells and confusionn,tie
or two, however, who gave orders to the polieeP

the room.
The individual that moved the amendment was
neither, I believe, a Roman Catholic nor a Chartist,
but the unjustifiable conduct displayed towards him
snon made the Chartists and all of a Liberal mind slime
themselves. But what 13 your opinion Mr. Editor ?
I am, Sir, your's respectfully,
Jun, 15, 1840.

2~tt
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