The Sun.
London, England, 1846-10-19 00:00:00

4 AteTtill

LONDON, MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1846.

Unless some gigantic, systematic, and immediate
exertion be made for the physical and social salvation
of Ireland, the peasantry will not merely die away
from sheer famine, they will not merely assemble in
lawless and tumultuous armies, to the destruction of
public tranquillity and the subversion of the benig-
nant influences of civilisation, but in all human like-
lihood our sister island will be again desolated by
those most ruthless and bloody deeds of assassination
for the prevention of which the so-called Coercion
Bill was introduced last session into the Houses of
Parliament. We are not evoking any hypothetical
terror for the purpose of expediting the movements
of those delegated officials to whom the destitute
Irish are now looking for relief and employ-
ment. The dread of the revival of these heinous and
detestable crimes does not originate in the despond-
ency of a diseased imagination. We would to Gon
that such were literally the case! We would to GOD
that those indications of national despair existed only
in perishable dreams, and were not already written
upon that doomed land in characters of blood ! We
are speaking, alas ! from the evidence of many
damning facts ; we are filled with these trepidations
for the futurity of Ireland, because of a man shot
dead in the evening, at Ardcrony, while sitting upon
his own hearth, opposite his venerable parent
...—because of another man beaten over the head at
mid-day, with the butt end of a blunderbuss—because
again of a third, at Castletown Geoghegan, being
dragged out of his dwelling-house, and treated with
ruffianly violence, while his unfortunate wife, " but
lust recovered from her confinement," is subjected to
similar diabolical treatment: When it is known that

these things: have been perpetrated in a portion of the
United Kingdom, and remembered that many thou-
sands of our fellow-countrymen are writhing with the
torments of starvation, and abandoning themselves to
the dictates of despair, we cannot assuredly be ac-
cused of any exaggeration. Exaggeration, forsooth
Such a charge can only arise fro•n impolitic
squeamishness or an execrable disregard of circum-
stances. There is a dread of the renewal of the
Rockite villanies, and of those resulting from Molly
Maguireism, Ribbonisa, and the other pernicious
factions which infest the island; and that dread is based
upon calamities which have already transpired.

While the embarrassments of Ireland are increas-
ing momentarily from dearth of provisions, from
lack of employment, from the diseases consequent
upon inanition, and from the insubordination and
bloodshed excited by the ill-disposed during the con-
tinuance of these miseries, the embarrassments of the
Government are gradually increasing in a propor-
tionate ratio. This therefore is not the period most
suitable for the indulgence of any rancorous recri-
minations against the Ministry. Personalities, and
taunts, and invidious comparisons would at this in-
stant be most injudicious, most uncourteous, and most
ungenerous incitements to the Ministry. We deeply
regret to observe that this remonstrance is indulged
in just now by many of our Irish and a few amongst
our English Contemporaries. The movements of
Government are carped at whenever a movement is
made ; the silence of Government is misrepresented
whenever a temporary silence is observed, and no at-
tention whatever is paid to the awful responsibilities
associated with the possession of office. Let these
overweening malcontents reflect for a moment upon
the position of duties and expectations as connected
with the administration of affairs in the United
Kingdom, and they will inevitably perceive that the
existence of those responsibilities as intimate charac-
teristics of political power is more likely to incite a
Cabinet to exertion than all the rancorous diatribes
and malignant aspersions ever germinated by a ped-
dling philanthrophy and a fanatical patriotism.
Although, however, we would exercise all possible
leniency in criticising the policy of an Administration
in periods of such exorbitant difficulty—a policy, be
it remembered, which from its very importance is
necessarily shrouded in such impenetrable mystery—
we would, nevertheless, be the more inclined to insist
upon the necessity of some strenuous steps being
taken in behalf of the sufferers. We have, indeed,
a right to expect these wishes to be fulfilled by the
Executive. The present is not a matter of mere ad-
missibility—it is a matter of the most imminent neces-
sity. Is this doubted? Here is an awful and pathetic
testimony,—it is the verdict of a coroner's jury upon
the emaciated corpse of a friendless labourer at Skib-
bereen :—" We find," say the jurors, " that the de-
ceased,JEßEMlAll FIEGAILTY, has met his death in con-
sequence of a want of sufficient sustenance for many
days previous to his decease, and that this want of
sustenance was occasioned by his not having been
paid his wages on the public work where he was em-
ployed fur eight days previous to the time of his
death."

It is the consideration of these mournful and heart-
breaking occurrences that induces us to say, and to
say emphatically, that the people have a right to ex-
pect some gigantic and glorious effort for their bodily
salvation from the Government. The starving
peasantry require no orator to advocate their claims
upon the benignity of the Legislature—a thousand
voices more eloquent than TuLLy's, more passionate
than DEMOSTHENES', more agonized and beautiful
in supplication than the voluble pathos of BOSSUET,
cry out from the desolate hovels of Ireland. It is
impossible that our present rulers can remain deaf
to theis piercing adjurations; it is impossible that
men who battled so nobly for the death of the detest-
able corn-laws, who co-operated so bravely last winter
for the relief of Ireland, who opposed the Coercion
Bill, and threw out the Arms' Bill, with such admi-
rable determination, can remain unmoved amidst en-
treaties so impassioned, and spectacles of such intoler-
able woe. Patience but a little while longer, and the
constancy of Ireland to a paternal Government
must obtain its recompense !

We all remember how much we were indebted for
the celebrated Reform Bill to the arrogant cupidity
and blind folly of the Peers in hugging to the last
the wretched system of pocket boroughs ; how the
country wt length shook off its lethargy, and how,
under the auspices of Earl GREY, it triumphantly
carried out its determination to efface the degrading
stain which the flagrant boroughmongering mania
had imposed on its vaunted constitutional freedom
and national dignity. Never, from the earliest
periods of our history, did the Lords sustain such a
shock from the merited loss of public confidence, as
they entailed upon their order by their shameful
tenacity to the corrupt system of representation
that prevailed previous to the passing of the Magna
Charta of the nineteenth century. Theirs was
the just reproach that, for the maintenance
of individual and sordid interests, they risked the hor-
rors of civil revolution, to the extreme verge of which
they certainly brought us. The rage of disappoint-
ment and foul ambition was vented by them up to the
latest moment. Sir RICHARD VYVYA N screamed out
wild prophecies in the House of Commons, whilst the
House of Lords, at the same time, ha I degenerated
itself into a mere Bedlam, when suddenly the cannons
sounded the approach of a liberal Monarch, who
quickly closed the disgraceful scene—Parliament
was dissolved, and oligarchy was prostrated. Can it
be possible, is it to be believed, that a liberal Peer
who vigorously helped to clean out the Augean stable:
and who has since warmly co-operated with the cham-
pions of Reform, has turned his back upon the primary
principle upon which it was based? We would fain
believe not. It has not surprised us to witness
the occasional fanaticism of the Duke of
NEWCASTLE. His Grace belongs to the incurables ;
and we know that this worshipper of exploded feu-
dalism has not, and will not, let slip any opportunity
for exercising unconstitutional dictatorship over the
electoral privileges of his independent tenantry. But
we never expected that any similar feats of political
pantomime would be suffered within the walls of
Berkeley Castle. We await the denouement with
apprehension. Grave suspicion, however, attaches
itself to what is already passing under the public eye.
The first announcement was that Earl FITZHA.RDING E
had made known to the electors of West Gloucester-
shire that his interest would be in future withdrawn
from his brother, Mr. GRANTLEY F. BERKELEY, in
consequence of his having, as alleged, abused the
Government patronage. Mr. BERKELEY answered
this charge in a long letter, and intimated, in
mysterious language, that there were other reasons,
besides the ostensible one put forward, for the Earl's
having decided to deprive him of his political support.
The chief supporters of the Liberal interest subse-
quently held meetings, apparently convened by a
mandate from the castle, and the following is an ex-
tract from a letter which they ushered into print—

" We feel bound to state, that the resolution come to
by the meeting was principally caused by the knowledge
of Mr. Grantley Berkeley having, in the year 1845,
in the strongest language, announced his determination
immediately to resign his seat in Parliament, unless some pri-
vate arrangement between himself and Earl Fitzhardinge
were effected.

" A natural fear arose, that upon a revival of a discus-
sion upon this private matter the Liberal interest of this
division might be placed in extreme jeopardy, by the
sudden retirement of the Honourable Gentleman at any
moment he might think fit, and when it might be inconve-
nient, if not impossible, to bring forward a candidate to
supply his place"
This would have been all very well, as far as it
goes; but this statement comes a day after the fair.
Why was it not put forward in the first instance ?
Why was a weaker and untenable ground originally
taken up, and the stronger and better plea kept

concealed, till after public attention had been markedly
drawn to the extraordinary circumstances ? It
is clear the true cause of the quarrel, as far as the
county is concerned, has not yet been stated. It is
clear also that the pyre electors, or rather the
Berkeley hounds, are quailing under the lash and

cry of their self-willed huntsman. The fraternal
differences rest either upon public or private grounds.

If, upon the latter, they ought not to be regarded
by the constituency ; if upon the former, they ought
to be honestly promulgated. But be it one way or
the other, the interference of a Peer in such matters,
direct or indirect, is a gross violation Gf the prin-
ciples of the constitution. The objectionable features

. _
of this business are considerably enhanced by the ap-
pearance of another letter from Mr. GRANTLEI