The Sun.
London, England, 1846-01-29 00:00:00

enormous.

Anxiety upon the abstract question and the practical
developement of an unrestricted purchase of food being
now in a great measure allayed, the attention of both
people and Legislature is directed to the alleviation of
the distresses arising from the dearth of the potato crop
in Ireland. Because the wan and withering evidences of
destitution are not visible in our immediate neighbour-
hood ; because our metropolitan markets are plentifully
supplied with vegetables, and because the cries for help
are comparatively weakened by the distance of the sup-
plicants, we are not to moderate our interference under
an impression that the calamity does not require such
immediate measures of amelioration. No extravagance
has been resorted to in the rumours which have already
enforced the existence of this evil upon the public. It
would be absolutely worse than voluntary obtuseness
t would be cruelty to deny the reality of this ter-
rible ordination of PROVIDENCE and the necessity
there is for some instant interference, whereby its poig-
nancy may be removed. Far from such proceedings
becoming less requisite in proportion as the season ad-
vances, every successive week tends to increase the
scarcity of provisions in districts already subjected to
the privation, and to extend it over the parishes which
have hitherto escaped. Statistics have been offi-
cially collected, and those only render the actuality of the
fact more apparent. Nor is there anything to impede
the assistance of Government : an important surplus in
the revenue has accumulated during the past year—the
application of that surplus, or at least a portion of it, is
ostensible. The actual necessity of some movement
being made has indeed become too self-evident for the
local authorities or for Parliament itself to treat the
matter any longer with indifference—the channels have
already been mapped and dug out, the barren land will
be irrigated. Yesterday, in the course of a somewhat
animated discussion upon the second reading of the
" Public Works (Ireland) Bill," this truth was insisted
upon in a manner both emphatic and unanimous. So
imminent and prevalent did the wants of our fellow-
countrymen, in that naturally fruitful island, appear,
that the Bill in question was stigmatised, nut fur its
unnecessary character, but for its insufficiency. Instead
of expressing gratitude for the sum proffered to their
afflicted constituencies, the representatives of Irish
interest, in the persons of Mr. O'CONNELL and
Sir H. W. BARRON, declared the utter inadequacy of the
loan proposed. That loan, being simply fifty thousand
pounds, and the estimated number of people unem-
ployed somewhere about four millions, it was calcUlated
that the share to each individual would be precisely
THREEPENCE, and this, be it especially remembered, as
a means of obtaining sustenance during three months.
With perfect truthfulness, therefore, did the Hon. Mem
her for Waterford exclaim that this " would be like
drop of water to the sea l" Nevertheless, we regard the
proposition with something like affection, re-
garding it as the skeleton upon which some
more substantial form of relief may be mo-
delled. It is the germ of a more favourable
and equitable generosity; still, to compete at all with the
advancement of famine, its germination must be most
rapid. This is not a moment for the sticklers about eco-
nomy to occupy with their theories or their axioms—
it is the time fur shipping off money or provisions.
It is not a moment for ingenious arguments upon a clause
that may appear slightly questionable—it is the
time for dispatching food to " the needy by the way-
side." It is not a moment fur the cautious adjustment of
some subtle detail—it is the time for assuaging the pangs
of the direst penury. Hence Mr. O'CONNELL acted with
the most discriminating justice towards the inhabitants
of Ireland when he declared that " he would give his
support to the measure under the protest that
the Government was not to consider that
they were doing all that was necessary for the Irish
people in their present melancholy state." Far oths r-
wise ; the present must be regarded as merely an instal-
ment of a much more bountiful amount. Not,
however, that we would imply this appropria-
tion of the public money to be a gratuity or a largesse.
As Ireland shares in the pressure of taxation with
ourselves she is assuredly, in an hour of emergency,
entitled to some pecuniary assistance. The money,
therefore, being disbursed in return for manual labour
at publio works, according to the Act of 1 Vie., chap. 21,
is but a piece of ordinary political distribution. S:ill
it would be fallacious and preposterous to expect that
Government would sustain the whole burden of such a
casualty: such a supposition would be contrary to all
reason. Among the parties adjacent to a scene of des-
titution like those now visible in so many quarters of
our sister island, there are always personages of suffi-
cient wealth to alleviate the sufferings of their poorer
brethren; and such an alleviation is absolutely incum-
bent upon them as true Christians and true
citizens. If the Ministry have been awaiting
some demonstration of this nature to spur them fore and
in their laudable undertaking, they must by this time
be amply satisfied. The Special Sessions Court, con-
vened in Nubber, county Meath, on Monday last, merits
our most decided approval: it was for the purpose
of providing employment for the destitute in Morgalbon
and Lower Slane, in the same county, and was conducted
with laudable earnestness. Let the other districts, which are
suffering in like manner, imitate these philanthropists of
Meath ; let Government vie with them in their exer-
tions of charity, and the malady will be purged away.
Such measures as we have already seen proposed will
indeed bring a gulden harvest: plenty will come of
dearth :

" Nom habet suas voluptates ;"
and a most beneficent freedom of trade will arise from a
murrain among the potatoes.

During the desultory and disjointed conversation
which succeeded the Premier's financial, or rather com-
mercial statement, on Tuesday night, an observation
was uttered by the Bon. Member for Finsbury which
demands the most paramount consideration. An appeal
to the sense of the electoral body was the vaunting as
piration of the Protectionists, and it was in deprecation
of this hazardous and fool-hardy project that Mr.
WAKLEY expressed the opinion to which we refer.
Before these forlorn and misguided men venture upon
the execution of a scheme which must prove not only
detrimental to their own interests, but must absolutely
place the maintenance of tranquillity among the multi-
tude in jeopardy, they should indeed calculate every one
of the contingencies of their position. They should
bear in recollection the vast majority of the mere con-
sumers of food over the cultivators of the same article :
they should remember that an agitation as prodi-
gious as the present one will tend by necessity
to harass the bulk of those consumers with a
recollection of their having no personal influence
in this great contest—of their being actually
voteless, and voiceless, and scarcely better than political
nonentities : they should never lose sight of the cir-
cumstance, that a very powerful feeling upon the subject
already prevails throughout every parish in the country
—a feeling which would be strangely fomented by any
counter-demonstration like the one proposed. And
after having duly pondered over these most important
facts, they should seriously, and soberly, and con-
scientiously ask themselves, whether they are prepared
to encounter the cries for cheap provisions which an
uninfranchised mob will undoubtedly raise around their
hustings ; or, in the language of Mr. WAKLEY, inquire
of their own common sense whether an appeal under all
these considerations " would lead to any other
feeling than that of exasperation, and whether
it must not tend to produce sentiments most dan-
gerous to the peace ?" It is infinitely worse than
frivolous for these agricultural gentlemen to close their
eyes against the extraordinary evidence of the popular
will which has preceded, and doubtless in some measure
has dictated, the novel and generalized policy of Sir R
PEEL : it is worse than useless for them to become
garrulous about the tenant-farmers and the yeomanry,
and at the same moment overlook the legions of
pounds, and votes, and hearts, and tongues raised in
the cause of free trade and the League. They should
never for one single instant forget, that while they
themselves are restricted to the support of a class,
their opponents are of no class, or party, or nation ;
their principles are addressed to man in the abstract,
and are grounded upon the acknowledged basis of
policy and justice. The question is not one of privilege
—it a is question of sheer prudence ; it is not a struggle
for perquisites—it is a struggle for bread. In enter-
taining, then fore, this rash notion of an appeal to the
country, the Prot, ctionists must reflect, that they ma-
terially enhance their present difficulties ; or, according
to the Representative of Finsbury, that, in addition to the
commotion for nen stricted commerce, they render pos-
sible a revival of the disturbance about " class legisla-
tion." They hays but one reasonable alternative,
tamely, to submit with dignity to the ordinations of
time •, to sacrifice individual emolument to the public
prosperity.

Accounts from Madrid of the 21st leave little doubt
that the marriage of the QUEEN with the Count
TRAPANI has at last been sanctioned by the Govern-
ment, and that it will meet with serious opposition from
a variety of quarters. NARVAEZ will, however, in his
usual vigorous way, soon put down all opponents. Fifty
Members met to draw up a remonstrance against the
marriage, with a view to gQt some explanation from 01.4