The Sun.
London, England, 1846-11-05 00:00:00

rnth 01 )Itlt

LONDON, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1846.

Lord BESBOROUGII'S stoppage of the public works
in the barony of Upper Tulla, county Clare, does
not cause us the slightest astonishment. The deter-
mination of his Excellency is in accordance with the
strictest principles of morality and with the most

generous recommendations of humanity. It must be
immediately manifest that the consequences of such
a procrastination of Government relief to the destitute
in those extensive districts will be of the most dis-
astrous character. In the notification of the Under-
Secretary it is expressly mentioned that upwards of
20,0001. in public presentments, for that barony
alone, had already received the approbation of the
constituted authorities. If we bear in recollection
the extremity of destitution which must have
elicited so munificent a provision from the
Executive, and if we remember, moreover, the cer-
tainty with which the impoverished peasantry must
have b2en latterly calculating upon that assistance,
we shall be enab!ed to form some adequate concep-
tion of the miseries which will enevitably accrue to them
from the postponement of that beneficent interference.
So calamitous, indeed, must this delay be, that, supposing
it has any particular duration, deaths by famine will
unquestionably swell the local bills of mortality.
Hundreds have been pining with the direst
penury in that neighbourhood ; they have been
emaciated with continuous privations ; they
have regarded the future with a stern and
desolate despair. At the moment when absolute
starvation appeared to threaten the community, the
Government most opportunely advanced for the bodily
salvation of those to whom a little while before that
salvation had seemed an impossibility. There was

immediately a prospective happiness for those who
had hitherto only beheld an interminable vista of
wretchedness; there was active and certain employ-
ment for those who were unable previously to earn
the most beggarly wages. Money was not to be
doled out in miserable driblets. Labourers were to be
recompensed honestly, in proportion to their exertions
As we have already intimated, no less than twenty thou-
sand pounds had been already approved by those who
had the direction and distribution of the present-
ments. Just as this had been accomplished, just as
the redemption of the Irish peasantry from starvation
was on the verge of realisation, the saving hand has
been withdrawn, the plank which providentially
spanned the abyss has been broken in twain—not a
single straw is left fur the sinking multitude to
clutch at.

What has caused this terrible reaction ? Ruffian-
ism, lawlessness, and cruelty. The Irish themselves
are effectuating their own destruction. The Irish
themselves will ultimately be alone answer-
able for the lives sacrificed in these days
of their national tribulation. By contemning
the laws, by despising the recommendations of their
more patriotic countrymen, by abusing all the sacred
rights of property, and endangering the existence of
peaceful and unoffending citizeus, these ruthless and
misguided insurgents are drawing upon themselves a
gigantic and overwhelming responsibility. They
are rendering the position of the obedient and gentle
civilian equally precarious with that of the most
infamous marauder. They not only render a with-
drawal of pecuniary aid incumbent upon the Legis-
lature, but they invoke upon their unfortunate
neighbours the rigours of an extraordinary sur-
veillance. From the obstruction of the appointed
officers in the discharge. of their stipulated duties the
suspension of those duties is inevitable ; and from the
atrocities perpetrated upon private individuals the
endeavour to ameliorate the condition of the destitute
is altogether prevented. Instead, therefore, of re-
ceiving assistance from the Executive in their present
privations, the peasantry are subjected to others still
greater, and they owe this exclusively and solely to
themselves.

We cannot speak in language sufficiently
powerful for the reprobation of these great crimes. We
cannot express with adequate force the intensity
of our detestation of these public malefactors. We
call upon the better-disposed among the Irish
peasantry to deliver their evil-doers up to justice,
and to bring down upon them that condign punish-
ment which men never merited more entirely. We
adjure Mr. O'CoNNr.r, to exert the great influence
which he has acquired by many years of mental and
bodily toil for the advantage of Ireland, we adjure him
to exert that influence in repressing the evil pas-
sions of an excited population. He never had
such an opportunity of proving himself the
Liberator of Ireland. Let him seize that oppor-
tunity, let him hurl his reprobation upon the guilty
insurgents, upon those banded ruffians who shoot men
in the twilight, who stab men in the dark, who
pillage wantonly on the highway, who intercept and
molest the agents of legislative benevolence, who
prevent the penniless from gaining employment, the
starving from obtaining food, and those who despair
from acquiring hope. No terms of execration can
define the heinous criminality of those enemies of the
suffering people ; and feeling this, we implore all the
right-thinking men in the island to co-operate with
the Government in ridding the country of such pests,
and of restoring matters to their propitious position. It
is to be hoped that these things may be accomplished,
and that the aspirations of the Lord-Lieutenant will be
realised. Those aspirations are thus expressed by
Mr. REDINGTON

"His Excellency would hope that the good sense of
the people will resume its influence; that they will see
the folly and the crime they are guilty of, in thus wan-
tonly interfering with the means provided for the sup-
port of the destitute in this time of distress; and that he
will have the satisfaction of receiving full assurance of
their return to a better course of conduct, of their cordial
acquiescence in the arrangements made for their em-
ployment, and of their determination to refrain from' fur-
ther obstruction or injury to persons engaged in laying
out or superintending the public works."
Do not these occurrences sufficiently demonstrate
the relative advantages of the moral and the physical
force movement? Do they not betoken the brutal
agency of the one, anti the elevated influences of the
other ? Again we adjure O'CONNELL to crush these
brawlers and marauders once for all, and, by moral
means, to cause the physical liberation of Ireland.

The observations which Mr. O'CoNNELL, according
to his invariable custom, offers every week to the
Repeal Association on the passing events of the day,
either viva mice, or by letter, were on Monday deli-
vered by him in person. We have so often expatiated
on the vast importance of anything falling from Mr,
O'CONNELL on any topic connected with Ireland, that
it is quite unnecessary to preface in any manner the
comments we may think it necessary to offer on the
subject-matter of his communication. It is, if pos-
sible, of deeper interest, and affords grounds for still
more gloomy reflections, than any he has lately put
forward. The picture he has painted is, indeed, a
sombre one ; but, happily, all is not dark ; there are a
few bright spots, on which we can repose with some•
thing of hope for the future. It has been said that—
" It is always the darkest the hour before day ;"
and we sincerely trust that when that hour of dark-
ness has passed away, and sunshine is again restored,
all classes of society in that unhappy land may be
improved by the ordeal of affliction through
which they will have passed, and that they may prove

themselves for the future to be wiser and better men

The veteran patriot is manifestly deeply touched
with the unhappy condition of his father-land ; he
states " that he had intended to address the Associa-
tion at great length with reference to the Cork reso-
lution, and to discuss, in many words, the position
of all parties, but that he was unable to do so,
for his heart was too full, and his mind too
much engaged with the misery of the Irish people,
who wanted food and employment." Alas ! the:e is
now no longer a doubt as to the extent of their suf-
ferings, of the depth of misery and destitution in
which they are plunged. The most incredulous
politician, the most thorough-going monopolist, the
most reckless perverter of the facts, could not now
venture gravely to assert that the cry of distress has
been got. up for party purposes, or with the view of

deceiving the Legislature or the public, and obtaining
their sanction and approbation to the great doctrines
of free trade. The stern reality is now fully ad-
mitted—there is no longer dispute or controversy on
that point—and, whatever may be the differences as to
the means by which the difficulties may be encountered,
there can be no question as to their existence and

formidable character. Mr. O'CONNELL adds the
weight of his authority to the dark vaticinations that
have recently been put forward. He fears that we
are but at the commencement of horrors, and that the
next harvest will not have the effect so ardently de-
sired, of terminating the period of scarcity. He says,
"Ile lmew the real position of the country well, he

knew her dangers, and could tell the gentry, and the
Government, that it was absurd to suppose that six or
eight months would see them over their difficulties.
That if a beneficent PROVIDENCE did not guide the
Government, it was impossible to say what the position
of the country might be in twelve months. Famine was
almost universal." This fearful announcement must
surely awaken all the sympathies, and bespeak the
most zealous exertions not only of every Irishman,
but of every British subject—of every man possessed
of the commonest feelings of philanthropy. The
sublimest precept of our religion—a precept acknow-
ledged by every Christian, of whatever sect or deno-
minationliintgoothe f
rhunnggrlisyhmaned. cifl oatnhyi gp
etrhs eu a
sn
okne di
s.
he may be—inculcates the duty of " feed-
lrtynotwo
"necleVsesa
induce them to cooperate in the work of chan •
ky
and beneficence. The simp!e tale of misery
speaks with greater eloquence than the
most accomplished orator could give expres-
sion to ; and, on the part of our country, we can
give the assurance that any step which may appear
advisable to the Executive will be sanctioned. No
matter how serious the expense, or how heavy the
burdens in which we may thereby be required to
participate—Englishmen, who gave twenty millions
sterling to strike the shackles from the slave, to re-
move the stain from the fair fame of their country, the
blot from their statute-book, will, if necessary, divide

their last crust with their Irish brother before a
single one shall perish for want of food in a Christian
land.

The gentry of Ireland, however, must be up and