The Sun.
London, England, 1846-10-23 00:00:00

Malan 2int

LONDON, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1846.

The inviolability of the decrees of the Imperial Par-
liament is unquestionably a part of the political creed
of Englishmen. But, like all other arbitrary doc-
trines, that inviolability refers only to an ordinary
condition of society. To say that, simply in homage
to the authority of the two august Houses of Legis-
lation at Westminster, an Administration must behold
the population of these islands drooping and abso-
lutely dying from the effects of starvation, without
making a vigorous effort to supply the deficiencies
of provisions and without exercising the prerogatives
of office in every conceivable manner for the salvation
of the populace, would be to speak from the dictates
of an extravagant insanity or of a despicable idiotcy. It
would transform the benignant institutions of our
country into a political MoLocn—a demon for whose
glorification we should be immolating ourselves as
victims, and offering up our children as holocausts.
It would be the voluntary degeneration of patriotic
obedience into the very fanaticism of slavery. Mon-
strous, however, as such a notion may appear, there
are individuals who would absolutely carry it into
operation. There are men so ignorant, so degraded,
or so perverse, that they would insist upon the en-
forcement of this principle even while humanity
might be shrieking to them to desist. They would
see the country decimated by famine rather than the
edicts of the last Parliamentary session should be
-violated by an extraordinary decree of the Cabinet
Council! They would behold the Irish peasantry
rovin4 with haggard eyes and despairing looks among
Their desolate streets and barren potato-grounds ;
they would see our English artizans pinched by in-
tolerable privations, and the lives of the community
at large placed in the most imminent jeopardy,
nether than the duties recently imposed upon foreign
grain should be altered in one particular, rather than
the resolutions passed by the majority of our legis-
lators should be disregarded, rather than the ports
of Great Britain should be opened for the free im-
partation of Prussian or American provision. And
why, in Heaven's name, would the impulses of
eummon sense be thus monstrously thwarted ? Simply
because of a reverence for the majesty of the law !
Why, Sir ROBERT PEEL violated the law, so to speak,
last winter; and were not the hearts of his fellow-
countrymen grateful to him for so doing ? Was he
not regarded throughout Ireland as a public benefac
.tor? Was he net beloved by the starving multi-
tude as he had never been beloved during any an-
terior portion of his political career? The majesty
of the law, forsooth ! When a terrible visitation
turns a wholesome and autritims article of food into
a species of vegetable poison, and threatens an entire
country with famine, the supreme governors of that.
state
are invested by Nature with an autho-
rity immeasurably above the law. You mi
215 reasonably allow acity to he c.-on-
prised by fire without attempting to extinguish
the flames by tearing open the water pipes, on the
plea that no plugs hal been supplied by the commis-
sioners. Blue hooks will not fill empty larders with
joints and cabbages ; political aphorisms and moral
saws are but sorry substitutes for dinners and suppers;
famine is to be prevented not by precepts inculcating
tthe blessings of subordination, but by "bread and

meat in the morning and bread and meat in the

evening."
What we have already insisted upon as absolutely
necessary at this period, when the peasantry are
perishing in Ireland from want and scarcity,
and when scarcity is beginning to evidence
itself in England, is being acquiesced in
in all directions. We are rejoiced at this,
because, in the prevalence and continuity of the sup-
plication, we recognise its ultimate concession by
the Government. Let the Ministry but once
perceive that the country is throughout soli-
citous for the opening. of the ports, and the ports
will be immediately opened. And when they are
open the shutting of them again will be a problem
rather difficult of solution. The dilatoriness of the
concession will then be compensated by the vastness
of the boon, though the unfortunate creatures who
have already perished in the sister country, through
the scarcity inflicted upon the population by existing
restrictions, cannot be thereby summoned from their
miserable coffins for the re-enjoyment of existence.
At a meeting of the Town-council of Manchester,
presided over yesterday by the Mayor, we are grati-
fied to observe that the necessities of the people were
estimated at their true importance. So impressed
were the members of that municipal council with the
exigency of the time, that they resolved, by a large
majority, upon petitioning the Right Hon. the First
Lord of the Treasury " to call the immediate atten-
tion of her MAJESTY'S Government to the present and
prospective condition of this country, in consequence
of the high and rapidly advancing price of corn, and
all other kinds of the people's food, in order to induce
them forthwith to open the ports of the United King-
dom to the unrestricted admission of every kind of
provision, from whatever part of the world it may
come ; or to call Parliament together, with the view
of immediately abolishing all duties on the importa-
tion of food."

That most important entreaty, coming from so im-
portant a body, and enforced by so many and such
striking circumstances, will, we are assured, com-
mand the most serious consideration of Lord JOHN
RUSSELL. As Prime Minister of this great country,
and therefore as the chief guardian of the lives of its
inhabitants, the Noble Lord cannot but entertain an
almost painful sense of the heavy responsibilities con-
nected with his elevated and illustrious office. Nor
can the Noble Lord but acknowledge that the pre-
sent extraordinary calamities demand most impera.
tively remedies equally extraordinary. When
men are dying literally from starvation in Skib-
bereen and other places ; when waggons, convey-
ing corn and meal, require the protection of the
soldiery, and when, notwithstanding those precautions,
the sacks are ripped open and their contents ex •
tracted ; when, even in this country, bread is rising,
meat is rising, butter is rising, almost every individual
article of sustenance is rising, and that almost daily, so
as to render famine prices inevitable—unless some re-
markable remedy be speedily applied, it would be blind-
ness, or hypocrisy, or actual inhumanity to deny the
want experienced by the community for some prompt
and val.,rous effort on the part of the Legislature.
The annihilation of monopoly appears to be precipi-
tated by the decrees of Nature. Happiness, content-
ment, and prosperity appear to shun these islands
until that cheering announcement shall be heard--
" The Ports are Opened 1"

Anything coming from Mr. O'CONNELL must be
perused with peculiar interest at the present crisis.
The deliberate opinions of any man possessing such
extraordinary influence with the great majority of
tis countrymen, who has during so long a period been
the leader of the people, and exercised a power greater
perhaps than that ever enjoyed by a public man,
unconnected with Government, and holding no facial
situation, for an equal length of tune, must command
the greatest respect; but, when we consider the great
sagacity, the political wisdom, lie has displayed, and
the perfect knowledge he possesses both of the
characters of the people and their exigencies and
wants, that respect and authority is immeasurably
increased, more especially when the subject is uncon-
nected with any of the political questions on which
he hail formally declared himself before the distress
had attained to such a fearful extremity as unhappily
is the case at present, and when none of his darlincg*
projects, particularly that which he declares to be
the great end and object of his exiatence—the repeal
of the legislative union between Great Britain and
Ireland—can in any manner be influemed thereby:
If Mr. O'CONNELL was an unprincipled or un•
conscientious person, if he was disposed to make use
of every means, unscrupulonsly, to promote that en.l,
could he have reconciled it to himself to turn the
sufferings of the people into a weapon against the
continuance of the union, to inflame their passions,
and to excite their minds to the utmost pitch, it is
impossible not to perceive what an instrument has
been and is now within his power, and how formidably
it might be directed against the continuance of the
connexion between the countries ; but he has already
afforded the strongest evidence of the sincerity and
the purity of his motives; he has incontestably
established the truth of his former statements, that he
will act by peaceful and constitutional means only,
that he will trust solely to argument, and that he
would consider the restoration of the Irish Parliament
too dearly purchased if one drop of human blood were
shed, one single life lost, in its attainment. To moral
force, and moral force only, would he lend himself,
and promptly and vigorously has he opposed and un-
hesitatingly put down every attempt, however in-
sidiously it might have been put forward, to justify a
recourse being had to physical force under any cir-
cumstances, or to speculate upon a contingency or a

time when such an appeal might become not merely
expedient, but necessary. His intelligent mind saw
the pernicious tendency of such doctrines, the fearful
effect they might have upon the popular mind if
debated in the assembly he had himself called into
existence; and he risked to a certain extent his well-
earned popularity, and severed the political ties by
which many of his followers were bound to him, by
his conscientious opposition to their favourite doc-_
trine and his rigid adherence to the fundamental rule
of the Association.

Influenced by these considerations, we gave cred

to Mr. O'CONNELL for the perfect good faith in

1 which he put forward his proposition for the as-
sembling of a National Committee of Landed Pro-
prietors in Dublin ; we felt and expressed our full
conviction, that if the project was carried into
execution, no attempt would be made at the intro-
duction of any question of an irritating nature likely
to produce party dissensions or religious differences;
indeed any effort of the kind would most assuredly
take away from the efficiency of the committee, and
destroy its value. We examined the proposal with
unprejudiced minds, and we satisfied ourselves of the
vast benefit that would be conferred upon the nation
at large by the formation of such a body. It would
act as a central committee, to receive and maturely
consider the suggestions offered by individuals or
smaller bodies, and if their suggestions should be
thought worthy of adoption, the sanction of such an
assembly would give them great additional weight ;
they would co-operate with the several relief com-
mittees and procure immediate attention to their re-
presentations. Everything relating to the procuring
an adequate supply of food for the people, and that in
the cheapest and most beneficial manner for the
owners of the soil, would come within the sphere of
their duties, and a more cordial and kindly feeling
would be produced between persons of all classes,
creeds, and parties, who would assemble together on
a neutral ground for the benefit of their common
country; prejudices would be softened down, and in
a short time every one would think better of his
brother Irishman, ani regard his opinions and actions
with a less jaundiced eye.

In the usual weekly letter which Mr. O'CONNELL
has put forward, he gives additional evidence of his
good faith. He expresses his opinion that the wise
and bold determination of the Lord-Lieutenant, the
vigorous decision at w bleb he has arrived, has com-
pletely done away with the necessity for xn immediate
meeting of Parliament; indeed it would no lonver
be expedient or desirable, as it might tend to em-
barrass and retard the carrying out of the plans of
his Excellency, and that at a time when immediate ;

action is of the utmost importance. Mr. O'Ci)NNEr.r.
mentions an additional calamity that has recently
been occasioned by the terrific storms that
have prevailed fur the last fortnight or three
wet-ks, and which have prevented the arrival
of vessels laden with food for the people, and it is

feared in too many instances have caused their total
loss. Tbis has added to the difficulties of the Go-
vernment and the nation, and of course extraordinary
and increased exertions will be thereby rendered
necessary, in which the National Committee might
aid with the most beneficial results. He has also
suggested the formation of sub-committees for each
of the provinces, who should report from time to
time to the parent body in the Irish metropolis, and
thus measures for the relief of every locality in each
province would be going on simultaneously and
without interruption. The proposition appears to be
an admirable one; and the sub-committees of which
he speaks would naturally grow out of the general
committee ; indeed, if formed in the first instance, they
would furnish the materials for the central commit-
tee, which might be composed of representatives
from each of the provincial committees. The most
valuable part, however, of his letter is that in which
he expresses his decided opinion that the Repeal As-
sociation should hare nothing to do with its forma-
tion. The National Committee should have no poli-
tical or sectarian character ; their entire exertions
should be directed to the alleviation of present cala-
mities, and the prevention, if possible, of their recur-
rence in future years.
The following extract from his letter expresses
clearly the nature of the proposed committee and the
manner of its formation, and cannot, we think, be
thrown away upon the Irish landlords. He says—
" For the present I dismiss any further consideration
of the National Committee. If it take place, it must
originate, and be modelled in its constitution, by
other hands than mine—in short, it must emanate
from the sense of imminent danger, and anxiety for
preventing the fatal consequences arising in the minds
of great leading proprietors of land in Ireland. If
they do not feel the necessity for such a committee
my voice ought to be heard in vain. To effectuate
any good, the body should have, from the nature and
number of its members, powerful influence in Eng-
land as well as in Ireland. In short, it should em-
brace within its members the leading nobility and
gentry of all parties ; and unless a very influential
number of men of all parties concur in forming such
a body, it ought not to exist."
Comment is quite unnecessary on this paragraph.
We sincerely hope it may be maturely considered, as
it deserves to be, and that it will remove the doubt
and suspicion that hitherto has alone prevented the
formation of such a committee.

A letter from Athens, of 4th, states that it was
rumoured in that city that the Pacha of CANDIA had,
in accordance with the expressed wishes of the Greek
and Turkish inhabitants, declared that island inde-
pendent. The Archipelago is still infested by pirates.
It was rumoured that the Duke of DEVONSHIRE etas
expected at Athens on a special diplomatic mission,
the object of which is to negotiate for the cession of
the island of Egina to Great Britain, as a compensa-
tion for the English guarantee of the Greek loan
The rumour however, did not obtain much credit.

The Univers6l Germ .n Gazette of the IGth says
that there is reason to believe that Austria and
Prussia will protest against the possible consequences
of the marriage of the Duc n MONTPENSIER with
the Infanta Luisl. On this subject the Allgemeine
Preussiche Zeitung (the official organ of the Prussian
Government) contains the following co:nmunica-