The Sun.
London, England, 1848-07-22 00:00:00

Invng
LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY 22, 1848.

The Government have at length resolved on grap-
pling with the monster grievance of Ireland. The
threatening aspect of affairs in that country may be
estimated from the character of the remedy it has
been found necessary to apply. The disease has
now reached to such a pitch, that it must be eradi-
cated, or no hope can remain for the recovery of the
patient. War has virtually been proclaimed, and it
must be carried on with vigour and efficiency by those
to whose care the national honour, and the national
safety is entrusted. Never, at any former period,
have the conspirators against the peace of the empire
proceeded with such unblushing effrontery, such cool
audacity, in the preparations for their enter-
prise. On other occasions their operations
were concealed from the public view, and enveloped
in mystdry. The organization was effected in se.
cresy. The hour of the intended outbreak and every
circumstance connected therewith was kept strictly
private, and the Government could only obtain in-
formation from spies, who crept into the councils of
the. conspirators for the sole purpose of betraying
them. But there is no occasion for such infarnous
Apedienta on the present occasion. The most
open and unreserved communications have been
made by the very yleaders of the movement.
The means at their disposal—the numbers en-
listed in their several clubs or regiments—
the state -of their armament, and the very period
when active operations may be commenced, are freely
announced. Reviews publicly take place, at which
the police are invited to attend, and the general pays
'the highest compliments to those who exhibit the
greatest knowledge of military discipline, and prove
themselves best skilled in the use of arms. Uniforms
are exhibited by parties just released from custody
an bail, and the most solemn pledges are extorted
from the people, either to free their country within
the present year, or to let it go from them for ever.
The 'beneficial results of the arrests that have
taken place, and the prosecutions that have
been instituted, are more than neutralised from
the apparent impunity with which defiance may be
hurled at the Government, and the inflammatory
harangues of those awaiting their trials occasion far
greater excitement, and are productive of snore in-
jurious results, than if no steps whatever had been
taken.

Under these circumstances it is an act of mercy
to the misguided peasantry to save them from the
he
consequences of their own folly, to protect them from
the temptations to which they are exposed. Nothing
effectual caw be done so long as the emissaries of
rebellion are suffered to go at large, and to instil
their pernicious doctrines into the minds of the
over-credulous multitude. The summary arrest of a
few of the leading agitators may preserve
the country from all the horrors of civil war. Their
temporary seclusion may avert the loss of many valu-
able lives. However objectionable any interference
with the Habeas Corpus Act, the great palladium of
the national liberties, might prove on ordinary occa-
sions, it must be admitted that the time has arrived
when its temporary suspension is essential to the
safety of the kingdom in general, and that it is due to

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