The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-10 00:00:00

was wisdom at the bottom of it. Troublesome as he
has proved at times in regard to the stinting of the I
national expenditure, there has been, nevertheless, a
homely and practiez.l patriotism in the manner in
which Mr. HumE has for years endeavoured to pre-
vent the possibility of lavish disbursements from the
Treasury.
Against the broad front of the Honourable Member
for Montrose the bullets of abuse are harmless, the
javelins of invective are innocuous—the bullets are
flattened, the javelins blunted. Mr. SPOONER had as
lief sally out to hunt the rhinoceros with a
toasting fork as attempt to crush the re-
putation of Mr. HuME with such flimsy pro-
jectiles as a remembered fragment of small talk,
and a blue book tarnished with the cobwebs of
twenty-four months. The sympathies of the House
have very seldom gone with the Hon. Gentleman the
Member for Montrose, for seeing that his themes have
generally been based upon COCKER, and considering
that his most appropriate crest would certainly he a
save-all, Mr. HUME scarcely strikes one on the long
run as being the sort of man to sympathise with.
Often as the House of Commons has had occasion to
coincide with him, the Members of that Honourable
House have scarcely ever had occasion to be moved
in sentiment or emotion with him. Last evening,
however, the sympathies of the large majority of the
House of Commons were with Mr. HuNIE. The ridicule
with which that old servant of the people was treated
was felt to be unmerited and ungraceful. Indeed the
pain with which Mr. HUME must have listened to the
attacks directed against himself personally must
have been immeasurably more than compensated
by the hearty cheers with which his vindication by
Mr. AGLIONBY was received. Upon those sponta-
neous acclamations the Hon. Member for Montrose
deserves congratulation. Threatened with branding,
as it were, they virtually crowned him with laurel.
So much for the idle personalities which are
beginning to indicate the proximate dissolution of
Parliament. The actual business of the session has
been either terminated or put aside for " a better
opportunity ;" a little pleasantry and practical joking
is, therefore, considered allowable, even though it
merge into a sort of moral Donnybrook, where the
bludgeons of ridicule are " laid about " somewhat
indiscriminately, and characters, instead of skulls,
are threatened with destruction.

The Third Report of the Irish Relief Commis-
sioners last night again occupied the attention of both
Houses of Parliament. In the Lords the Earl of
RODEN moved " That copies of all informations con-
nected with these transactions which have been made
to the Commissioners, together with the names of the

chairmen of committees and justices of the peace re-
ferred to in the report, should be laid on the table,"
while in the Commons the Honourable Member for

Mallow returned to the charge with a vigour and
perseverance deserving of a more successful result, and
demanded " That so much of the correspondence, with
the names, rank, and residence of the parties referred
to, as sustains the statement condemnatory of the

conduct of committees or of individuals in carrying

out the provisions of the Act," should be produced.
We have already expressed our desire that those who
have been guilty of the foul conduct imputed by that
report should be held up to public odium and well
merited disgrace. The parties who could wilfully
sanction or participate in a wholesale fraud upon
the country, by procuring, or " endeavouring to
procure rations for a greater number of desti-
tute persons than there are individuals in the
entire population of the district," which it is positively
asserted by the Commissioners " has been attempted
in several cases, and for several thousands in excess,"
are deserving neither of mercy nor exemption from
every punishment recognised by the law for their
almost unparalleled peculation. If they do not come
within the operations of the law, if an adequate
punishment cannot be pronounced on the offenders,
the criminal code must be wholly defective, and in-

sufficient to meet the wants of the country. Under
any circumstances they should no longer be permitted
to retain any power of again interfering in the ma-
nagement of the public money, of again perpetrating
similar iniquities. It is due to the British people to
preserve the funds for which they had toiled and la-
boured with such indefatigable industry, and which
they readily tendered for the relief of their
suffering brethren in Ireland, and not to
place them at the disposal of those who have
deservedly forfeited their characters for uprightness
and integrity. For these reasons we should gladly
have seen the guilty parties exposed and punished.
We do not, however, think it by any means neces-
sary for the vindication of the high-minded men who
have acted, and are acting, with credit to themselves
and benefit to the country, on the several relief
committees. The inculpated parties are the excep-
tion and not the rule. Many districts were freed
from every imputation, and it would be, indeed, a vile
prejudice—a most unjustifiable calumny—on the part
of any person who should dare to charge an Irish
gentleman with a participation in the sordid crimes
of the offenders, on no better foundation or stronger
evidence than that some of his countryman had disgraced
themselves by their infamous conduct. An honourable
man will not deign to notice general charges. He
will not suppose that they can be levelled against
himself, and he will disregard them in the
pride of conscious innocence. We do not mean to
insinuate that the Noble and Honourable Members of
either House who have called for, or supported, the
inquiry were in any manner included in the charge,
but we think that they have manifested, perhaps, too
acute a sensibility with reference thereto, and have
mistaken the true ground on which they should have
insisted upon the investigation.
Although we desire the publication of the names
of the guilty parties, the Government have, perhaps,
for the present (although we trust the time may
arrive when concealment will no longer be expedient)
acted judiciously in withholding the required infor-
mation. It is perfectly manifest that every person
whose name was published, as being implicated in
these transactions, would have a right to demand the
fullest investigation into every part of his conduct.
It would be the grossest injustice to refuse such an
inquiry, which, at this period of the session, it would
be wholly impossible to bring to a conclusion before
the dissolution. The publication also might, in
some respects, act oppressively, if made before an
opportunity of explanation was afforded. The course
decided on by the Government with respect to the
accused magistrates appears deserving of approba-
tion. They have forwarded to all these magistrates
copies of the allegations, and demanded their answer
thereto, on receipt of which the Executive will be pre-
pared to take such steps as circumstances may render
desirable or necessary. If this course should be far-
ther extended to all against whom charges of direct
guilt had been preferred—if these persons also, what-
ever might be their rank or, position in society, were
called upon to furnish similar explanations, every-
thing that could be desired would be attained. The
dishonest plunderers would be punished as they de-
served, the merely careless or negligent would receive
an impressive admonition as to the necessity for
greater care and diligence on future occasions ; while
the British public would henceforward be assured of
a fathful administration of the national resources,
and the due application of their bounty to the objects
contemplated, and for whose relief and benefit it was
originally granted.

The Swiss Federal Diet was opened at Berne on
the sth inst. by Colonel ULBICH OCIISENBEIN, the
President of that Assembly, who commenced his
speech by
congratulating the members of the Diet on
their fraternal meeting, and told them that never was
a meeting held which commanded such general
attention.

" Confederates," added thef President, " we wish to
regard the present situation
without alarm. The questionsrights
e
vie have to consider
of humanity and
it ndi ims affairs with firmness and
trbegeanrdendthitefenmsos
intellectual existence—a choice between free, moral, and
the status quo—and, consequently, the issue of a
progress and
contest which is as ancient as the history
which has sometimes appeared under of
man—
one form and
sometimes under another, but has never shaken
the foundation of intellectual Europe so much as a
sent. It is true that the momentary results antdpr.
the
e
course of that painful contest are most various. Never-
theless, we cannot doubt that the tendency to progress
is general. Whilst Poland still bleeds, whilst recently
the significant destruction of the independence of a sister
of Helvetia—of the republic of Cracow—has taken place,
against the law of nations and in contempt of the civilised
world, and whilst on the banks of the Tagus the inde
pendence of a nation has been trampled under foot, we
10@ 91A the Scheldt and ell the 141 r 11Ct5 which hitherto