The Sun.
London, England, 1846-07-01 00:00:00

eirldia#

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 1846

THE NEW MINISTRY.

Nothing is yet known as to the formation of a new
Government beyond the fact that Lord Joux
RUSSELL is actively engaged in all the preliminary
arrangements.

Lord MINT° did not accompany Lord Joux to
Osborne House.

The QUEEN returns to Buckingham Palace to

morrow.

Parliament will, in all probability, be again ad-
journed from Friday to Monday week following, by
which time all the elections rendered necessary by the
acceptance of office will be completed.

LORD JOHN RUSSELL.—His Lordship returned to
town this afternoon at half-past two o'clock, from a
visit to her Majesty at Osborne House, Isle of Wight.

It is impossible to estimate sufficiently the import-
ance of the views put forward with respect to the
future government of Ireland, by Sir R. PEEL, on
Monday evening, when announcing the resignation of
the Ministry, of which he had been at the head, in
consequence of a defeat sustained by them on an Irish
question. It has ever been admitted and repeated,
usque ad nauseam, that Ireland has been the
great difficult', the fertile source of trouble and
embarrassment to every succeeding Government ;
its state and condition has cast a deep stain on
various Administrations by which it was governed,
and has manifested, beyond the possibility of doubt,
the existence of some radical defect either in the
laws themselves or in the mode of their administra-
tion; the removal of which, and the consequent ad-
vancement of that country in the social
scale, must be most ardently desired by
every philanthropist, by every one anxious
for the continued happiness of Great Britain
and Ireland, the welfare and prosperity of every
portion whereof is more intimately connected with,
and dependent on, that of the residue than is gene-
rally supposed to be the case. Sir R. PEEL appears
to have solved the difficulty in a great degree. If
the bold outline which he has traced should he filled
up in a liberal and enlightened spirit—if there be
established in Ireland a complete equality in
civil, political, and municipal institutions with
her sister kingdoms —if complete religious
equality be attained, the foundation will un-
doubtedly be laid for the amelioration and improve-
ment of all classes of society in that country. We
doubt not the good intentions of the new Ministry
with respect thereto. We are fully convinced that
their greatest anxiety will be to arrive at the happy
end, to attain a consummation so devoutly to be
wished for, and that for. that purpose their
earliest attention will be devoted to the
means by which it may be effected. The
great defect of every attempt hitherto made has been
that it did not go to the root of the evil, that it
merely attempted a patching up, in place of a total
reconstruction and remodelling of the existing laws.
Some slight variations may still be rendered neces-
sary by the differences unhappily existing in the
manners and habits of the people, but, as Sir It.
PEEL remarked, if it be not possible, for the present, to
carry out this complete political and religious equality,
according to the letter of the terms, it can be done
so according to the spirit. Assimilate, then, as far
as possible, the laws relating to both nations as far
as it is practicable, and extend to Ireland all the
rights and privileges possessed by the inhabitants of
this country. Let not the people of Ireland sup-
pose that we regard them with distrust or sus-
picion ; that we consider it unsafe to extend
to them the blessings we ourselves enjoy, or
that a different rule of action should be
applied to their country to that which
is applied to England. Evince to them a perfect
impartiality in the administration of affairs, and in
the distribution of patronage, and let it not be sup-
posed that any man will be considered as disqualified,
or as less likely to be selected for the discharge of
important public duties, on account of the peculiar
religious opinions he may be supposed to entertain.
These will be the first steps, and thereby the confi-
dence of the Irish peasant will be obtained.
Hitherto he has had too many reasons
to suppose that he may look in vain to the law for
the redress of the injuries he may sustain,—that it is
an instrument for his oppression and not for his
security. Remove this feeling, and teach him that it
will be administered with perfect impartiality and
equality to every man within these realms, and he
will soon learn to appeal to it for protection, and no
longer to sympathise with or to shelter
the habitual lawbreaker or the midnight dis-
turber of the peace. Having thus prepared
the minds of the people for the reception, in a proper
spirit, of measures calculated to improve their social
condition, let slip no opportunity of eliciting and
drawing forth their latent energies ;—the relationship
between landlord and tenant must be improved, the
tenure of land must be placed upon a sounder and a
better footing. We do not quite agree with the ex-
Premier in supposing that it may be impossible
to apply an immediate remedy—that the benefit
may only be a remote one. We think that
furattheSthilel
brought in to allow a tenant compensation
improvements on his holding may be easily so ex-
tended as to apply as well to those already effected
as to those hereafter to be carried into execution. The
entire of the recommendations offered by Lord
DEVON'S Commission should be given effect to as
speedily as possible, and no time should be lost in
tatoltilig"a
afford amplet reclaimem the waste lands, and thus
yment to every man able and
willing to work throughout the country, and to create
a prosperous and happy yeomanry,
b
disposed and industrious labourers and y Insmaakiiinfgarwmeelrls-
the proprietors of portions of the lands so reclaimed,
suited in quantity to their respective conditions.
Should these recommendations be carried into execu-
tion, Ireland will no longer be the difficulty, but the
strength and support of the British nation.

Mr. O'CONNELL has just issued, in a letter to the
Reveal Association, a coneise and temperate state-
ment of the policy which he deems necessary, not
merely for the realisation of happiness to Ireland, but
for ensuring
stability to the British Ministry. At any period such an
announcement from such a guar-
ter;would hare been listened to 'with
the present moment, when deference ; but at
a Cab.
met emphatically
:political
styled the strong Government
pieces upon that most difficult of fallen to,
questions, the legislation of Ireland, the voi„
DANIEL O'CONNELL acquires a peculiar erooluof
i.
and an impressive vigour. It is not the factious
clamour of a demagogue, or the insolent demands
of a revolutionary charletan, which are audible in
this remonstrance with English rulers, and
this appeal to English justice, uttered by
the Honourable and Learned Member for
Cork—it is rather the candid and plain-spoken
opinions of a man whose judgment is ripened by
many years of experience, and whose imagination is
now only agitated by the turmoils of his own
patriotism. 'We must declare that Mr. O'CONNELL
assumes to us a nobler and more dignified position
when writing such a document as this, than
when seated on the summit of Tara, or cheered
by the auditors of Conciliation Hall. Never to our
thinking has the " Liberator" appetred to greater
advantage than he does at the pret,ent moment, and
never possibly has his declarations acquired for thf-in-
selves such influence and authority. Forty-six years
have now elapsed since the legislative union
of the two countries, and precisely at this