The Sun.
London, England, 1846-07-18 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDA.i",- JULY 18, 1846.

The House of Lords on Thursday came to a resolu-
tion rescinding that adopted by them on the sth of
June last by a majority of twelve on the Hardinge
and Gough Annuity Bills. On the present occasion,
which was the first division taken by the new
Ministry since their accession to power, they suc-
ceeded by no less a majority than twenty-nine in
inducing their Lordships to re-consider their former
decision. The Bills are now therefore restored to the
state in which they were sent up from the Commons,
and there no longer exists the difference of opinion
between the two branches of the Legislature, which
must have proved fatal to the success of the measures,
and which might have totally deprived the Noble
Lords of any compensation whatsoever from the
country, owing to the success of those who wished
that they should receive a higher amount. The Bills,
being money Bills, must be passed by the House of
Lords in the same manner in which they come up
from the other House, and any alteration or amend-
ment would certainly be rejected by the Commons, who
entertain the greatest jealousy of any attempt to interfere
with their constitutional privilege—a privilege, too, on
which a great part of their power is based. We
confeis that we regretted the course pursued by the
late Government in reference to these annuities. We

should greatly have preferred that the pensions,
granted by the nation in return for valuable public
services rendered by the distinguished noblemen in
question, should have been made without reference
to, or being in any manner dependent on, the li-
berality testified by the East India Company, for the
important results secured to them by the exertions and
bravery of those gallant officers, and that both should
have been enjoyed at the same time. We do not
think that there is any very great probability of
similar cases again arising, and rewards being con-
ferred for equally valuable services; but should
it be so, there are few who could regret the
cause of such liberality from a grateful
nation. A distinction was taken in the course of the
present debate between the pecuniary rewards
granted by the East India Company and the nation ;
in the former case they were conferred as a recom-
pense for the valuable services rendered by the indi-
viduals themselves, and would cease with the lives of
the persons by whom they had been earned ; but in the
latter case the reward proceeded from the Crown, the
fountain of honour, by which the individuals were raised
to the peerage, and the pensions were not intended as a
reward, but merely to enable the parties to sustain,
in a proper manner, the dignity of the rank to which
they had been raised by the favour of her MAJESTY.
With this view the latter pensions were continued in
each case to the two immediate successors of the
Noble Lords. It would appear as if the pensions
might as well be made to commence after their
deaths ; but the object of granting it to
them at once, with the contingent provi-•
sion, that so long as they received payment
of the annuities granted at the same time by the East
India Company, the Parliamentary grant should be
withheld, was to afford a precaution against any dis-
advantage which might ensue from having received
those annuities: from a temporary body, the exist-
ence of which could not be guaranteed beyond a certain
time. In this point of view, the contingency which at
first sight may appear to have the character of mean-
ness, and to derogate from the liberalityof the country,
may be justified. It was also stated by Lord RIPON
that the East India Company's pensions would be
payable out of a revenue administered by them under
the provisions of an Act of Parliament, which was, in
fact, the revenue of the State, though managed by
them ; that the Act of Parliament would expire in
nine or ten years ; and that they would then cease to
have any control whatever over that revenue, unless
the Act was renewed. The Noble Lords would then
be receiving both pensions from the nation,
and there would be larger sums thus payable than
had ever been granted to a Governor-General. A
letter was also read from Viscountess HARDINGE,
expressive of the strong anxiety felt by the family
of Lord HABDINGE, that on this subject there should
be no difference of opinion ; and that, above all,
that difference should not arise on a pecuniary
matter; and that, as representing Lord HARDIN GE, they
felt confident that such would be his feelings, and that
on his behalf they were perfectly satisfied with the
amount of the provision, and the manner in which it
had been made, and the Bill introduced. These
considerations, and more especially the letter, so
creditable to the Noble Lady by whom it was writ-
ten, must have had considerable weight with their
Lordships in influencing the course ultimately
adopted. We cannot regret that a collision
should be spared between the Houses
on so very delicate a subject, from the
result of which the Noble Lords must have
been the first sufferers, as it is very doubtful if the
House of Commons would sanction the introduction
of new Bills if their Lordships had adhered to their
amendments. A report was stated by the Earl of
WICKLOW, that since the introduction of the Bills,
Lord GOUGH had succeded to a property of the
annual value of from 4,0001. to 6,000/. a year. We
believe that such a report was not well-
founded : it alluded to property supposed
to have been bequeathed by the late Mr. 13 UNHURT,
M.P. for the county of Carlow, but the amount of
which, we have been informed, did not exceed 3001.
per annum. The Bills may now be said to have
passed with the unanimous approbation of the Crown,
both Houses of Parliament, and of the whole com-
munity, as they last night obtained their third read-
ings, and on receiving the royal assent, will come
into full operation.

Mr. O'CONNELL has at length replied to the letter

of Lord MILLTowm, to which we called public at-
tention last week ; and as might have been expected
from his recent declarations on the subject, he has re-

fused to accede to the reasonable and moderate re-
quest contained therein, or to postpone the repeal
agitation even for an hour. Much as we respect Mr.
O'Cora4ELL, honest and successful as his exertions on
behalf of his native land have, hitherto, undoubtedly
been, and great as the experience and foresight which a
man of his extraordinary sagacity and mental power
must necessarily have obtained during a career of
agitation, as a leader of the people for more than fifty
years, we are reluctantly obliged to question the
wisdom of his decision, and the justice of the grounds
which have led thereto.
In the first instance, he pays a well-deserved com-
pliment to the noble writer, assuring him that he
is one of the very few to whose authority he (Mr.
O'CoNxELL) would feel disposed to surrender his

own opinion. The energy and activity with which
his Lordship has ever laboured on behalf of Ireland,
the liberality of his opinions, and the readiness he
has, on all occasions, exhibited in joining his brethren
for the redress of the grievances under which
Ireland has so long been afflicted, demanded such
a compliment at the hand of Mr. O'CONNELL, which
he was not the less willing to render, as his Lord-
ship's letter contained a pledge that he would join the
repeal ranks in the event of full and perfect justice
not being rendered to Ireland, and the recommenda-
tion of Sir It. PEEL in his speech on his retiring from
office being carried into execution, by her being
placed on a footing of real and substantial equality
with England in her civil, political, and municipal
institutions, within twelve months from the present
time, a pledge of which Mr. O'CoNNELL intimates
his intention firmly, but respectfully, to demand the
fulfilment.
Mr. O'CoNNELL asserts that there are not the
materials for even the nucleus of such an Irish party ;
that, with the exceptions of Lord MILLTOWN himself,
Lord CLONCL'BRY, and his second son, there are no
others in whom the people have confidence. Surely
in this he inflicts a deep injustice on the many
liberal and patriotic noblemen and gentlemen
who have laboured, are labouring, and will
continue to labour on behalf of the green
island and its inhabitants, although conscientiously
opposed to the repeal, which in its results they
believe calculated seriously to injure not only Great
Britain, but Ireland itself, in no less a degree.
They all form an Irish party, anxious to promote
her welfare, her prosperity, and happiness, to raise
her in the scale of nations, and to remove all well-
grounded causes of complaint. Does not the
improved spirit exhibited in the Legislature when any
liberal and beneficial measure is brought forward, or
sentiment uttered favourable to that country, attest
this? Was not the declaration of Sir R. PEEL in favour
of full and perfect equality with this country, if not
to the letter, at least to the spirit, received with most
cordial approbation by the great majority of the
House ? And did not the statesman who proclaimed
so liberal, so just a proposition, entitle himself to a
place amongst the Irish party, embodying, as it does,
all that the most zealous advocate for Ireland could
claim or desire on her behalf, all that Mr. O'CoN-
NELL himself for many years demanded, and in the
hope of procuring which he tried the various ex-
periments he has himself set forth in his letter, and
which led to the formation of the "National Associa-
tion," the " General Registry Association," and the
" Precursor Association," the avowed object of each
and every one of which was " to procure a perfect
equality of all constitutional rights and privileges for the
people of Ireland with those of England and Scotland ?"
Are not the senators by whom the pleasing enuncia-
tion was so loudly cheered, and who thereby evinced
their readiness to carry it into full and perfect execu•
tion, who so readily joined in tite just and proper
measure for sweeping the last remnant of the penal
code from our statute-book, and removing the last
vestige of bigotry and intolerance, who so readily
received the measures for the improvement of the social
relation between landlord and tenant, and protecting
the latter as far as possible in the enjoyment of his
holding, entitled also to admission into such a party.

Have not the Ministry deserved some credit for what
they have already effected, and for what they profess
themselves ready to do ? Mr. O'CONNELL himself
admits that they must make the attempt. Can he
doubt that they will do so honestly and efficiently ?
They will have the energetic support of the Whig
and Liberal party, of which they are at the head ;
they will receive the assistance of Sir ROBERT PEEL,
by whom, as he states, they have been taunted into
active exertions, and his personal friends and fol-
lowers; and, though we confess we do not place much
confidence in the promised assistance of Lord GEORGE
BENTINCK and the protectionists, to which he also
alludes, the unanimous' wishes of all other sections
and parties in the House, and their earnest co-opera-
tion with the Ministry, must render any oppo-
sition from that quarter useless and unavail-
ing. The Ministry are undoubtedly in a
position of great strength on the subject of Ireland.
Do not the re-elections of the new Ministry, without
a single seat being lost in consequence of the accept-
ance of office, afford the strongest evidences that the
feelings of the public at large in Great Britain are
identified with the Liberal party in their wishes and
intentions in respect to Ireland ? True it is that an
occasional exhibition of bigotry, of intolerance,
may have taken place ; but look to the
uncontested return of the Secretary for Ireland,
for Taunton, and the glorious and triumphant ma-
jority for Mr. MACAULAY at Edinburgh, and do they
not testify that those feelings were not participated
in by a large proportion of the constituency in these
towns ? We do hope that Mr. O'CONNELL may him-
self, ere another year has elapsed, acknowledge that
he was in this instance mistaken, and that when sa-
tisfied of his error he will give up the attempt for the
dissolution of the Act of Union, and by his great in-
fluence assist in cementing more firmly the bonds of
friendship that will subsist between the nations, and
in promoting a real union, in which will exist strength
and power.

According to a custom which has become abso-
lutely habitual to the Hon. Member for Dumfries,
he introduced last evening, for the first time during
this session, his educational motion—a motion imply-
ing the expediency of an annual statement as to the
condition and prospects of education previous to going
into Committee on the education estimates. With
this primary other secondary motions were combined
—as to the " formation of additional training schools,
for schoolmasters to be encouraged"-t-as to aiding the
accumulation of public libraries for the perusal of the
inhabitants of the larger towns—and, finally, as to the
expediency of " appointments to the subordinate offices
of Government being made, as fer as possible, on the-prin -
ciple of open examination of the respective qualifications
of the candidates." A cursory survey of the somewhat
desultory discussion which arose out of the scheme
proposed by Mr. EWART for the adoption of Parlia-
ment, will amply attest the enormous discordance of
opinions entertained in regard to this most important
subject. The Hon. Member for Dumfries himself in-
sinuated that the system of education adopted in France
demanded the serious attention of our Legislature,
while Lord JOHN MArisErts, taking the undoubtedly
clever compilation of M. CARMENIN as his text-
book, inveighed upon the Gallic system as one of
the most specious, but reprehensible charlatanerie.
The Hon. Member for Weymouth, on the other hand,
considered that the possession of a degree from the
University of London should be declared a necessary
qualification for any one desirous of being nominated
to certain employments under Government, while Sir
R. IL Nom considered that such an arrangement
would prove in every respect pernicious. The Hon.
Member for Montrose stoutly maintained, from cer-
tain statistical calculations which he had been at the
trouble of making, that these islands retain a
greater amount of ignorance than any other country
in Europe; while Mr. PETER BORTHWICY insisted
no less emphatically that there is a greater pre-
ponderance of crime in France, Spain, or
Portugal than in the British Islands—two
propositions diametrically at variance, one being,
so to speak, a mathematical refutation of
the other. It is not, however, our intention to dilate
upon this divergence of opinion as to the necessity or
the particular mode of encouragement to education ;
we purpose merely at this moment to direct attention
to the abstract merits of the question, and to express
our sympathy with the aspirations which were uttered
by the Hon. Member for Dumfries—aspirations for
the earnest consideration of a subject so intimately
connected with the moral elevation and the social
happiness of the people of this great empire. It cannot
be forgotten that previous to his re-election as
their representative by the citizens of the metro-
polis, Lord JOHN RUSSELL particularly specified the
education of the multitude as one of the principal
matters requiring the attention and the active inter-
ference of Government. In his observations upon
the motion of Mr. EWART, the Prime Minister has,
if possible, enforced that declaration. He acknow-
ledges himself " impressed with the conviction that
the absolute amount of ignorance in this country is
in itself a most lamentable fact ;" and the inference
which can alone be drawn from such a
confession, and especially when uttered by a
statesman so peculiarly associated with the
Reform Bill and with free trade, is, that (a
grievance so intolerable existing) it must be eradi-
cated ! That is the only rational deduction from such
language ; it is the only honest corollary to such a
premise ! We may therefore, without much fear of
meeting with disappointment, anticipate the in-
troduction of some wholesome and comprehensive
reform. Nor are we the less sanguine upon this par-
ticular, when we hear the Premier declaring that the
subject of education "is one in which he feels, a deep
interest, and which he has very much at heart ;" or
again, when he pronounces himself unbiassed in
favour of any antiquated modes of tui-
tion, regarding the writings not only of
CICERO to be useful, but those of JEREMY
TAYLOR to be instructive. Before a very
long period has elapsed we shall hope, with Mr. Jo-
SEPH HUME, to see 800,0001. voted for the education
of the people, and considerably less than 870,0001. for
the prosecution and punishment of crime.

The Duke of SexE Conuao has just presented to
the Assembly of the States two Bills, which have
been received with the greatest enthusiasm. The
first declares that the property of himself and his
family shall no longer be exempt from taxes and dues,
but shall pay the same as other property. The
second orders that three-fifths of the revenue of his
private estate shall be set apart to pay the public
debt ; and that, when the debt shall be liquidated ;
one-fifth shall be for ever employed in relieving his
subjects from taxes and contributions to that amount.
A letter, dated Naples, July 7, says :

" The honours paid here to the memory of the late Pope
were marked by an incident which is much spoken of. The
duty of delivering the funeral oration had
been confided to
Monsignor Luca, Bishop of Ave atima man of great talent.
was to be present, and had recomti
everything that couldbygiveoffence, utebned
ed diplomatich iin
t o
avoid corps
The Nuncio had sent him wordrs
the time to ;his bedbut being confined at
after his exordium, which embraced,
intended to say. The orator,
exposed the plan of his indisposition, the Nuncio had not
ascertained what the Bishop
edmbracect the whole universe,
France, and spoke of the coma dress. He commenced with
octaieounsesdtobywltiihcoh
EshgellsheadFbraeenn_
,s off the
exposed; deplored the scandal.?
the King.t3 elfl
AbbteheLamen
so many trials.,
ellen. pro-
ceeded_ of the Abbe Chatel, and the
nais ; and spoke of the support whirceil
the Pope had found in the religious sentiniteern
coun-
try, and in the virtues and piety of
to speak of Prussia, and alluded to the persecution
the Bishop of Cologne; and, in the presence of the 11tItifiloinstof
of Prussia, he declared that the late King had been punished
r
by God ;_ he concluded, however, by a eulogium on the
present King. Russia came next. Ile commenced by call-
ing the Emperor the modern Tamerlane; stigmatised with
great energy the persecution of the Catholics and the Poles;
and then alluding to the interview between the Northern
despot and the late Pope, called Gregory XVI., another St.
Leo, arresting in his nefarious designs the new Attila; and
all this in presence of the Russian Minister ! Spain, Portugal,
and England were treated with some consideration ; but
what was strange is, that not a word was said relative to
Austria ; Prussia and Russia had all the honours of his attack.
It is said that the Ministers of these two Powers demanded
explanations from the Nuncio, and received an assurance
that he had had no previous knowledge of the address. How-
ever, it is certain that this grave attack, from a man so high
in the Church, has caused a great sensation."

We have received the Paris papers of Thursday.
The Itioniteur Parisien says that the pit at Pam-
poux, into which the carriages fell on the occurrence
of the accident on the Great Northern Railroad on the
Bth, has been carefully explored by fifteen hussars,
who have plunged into every part of it, and that no
bodies were remaining there.
The Patrie of Wednesday evening has the fol-
lowing :

A report was current to-day at the Bourse that a second
very serious 4cemieut had happened on the Northern Rail-