The Sun.
London, England, 1846-02-14 00:00:00

TUE SUN, LONDON, SATUR DAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 14 1846.

tistied that it cannot last, we will calmly watch the entree of
new Members taking their seats amid "Conservative cheers ;"
we will witness the petitions presented to the Lords, and not
even exclaim, " So much for BUCKINGHAM !"

Sir ROBERT PEEr, during his brief Ministry, in 1835, said
Ireland was his great difficulty; but he was not the only
Minister who had reason to make the same remark. Ireland,
for ages,.has been a constar.t anxiety and expense to this
Country, and though comparatively quiet during the wi e
and humane Administration of Lord NORMANBY, the cessa-
tion from outrage and hostility to the English Government
was only temporary, and rather induced by future prospects
than any material change in the system. That system had
taken too deep root to be eradicated by the best possible
Ministry; it was founded originally on the principle of
keeping one portion of the community, and that the
larger portion, subject to another; one was rega, ded
as masters, and the other •as slaves ; one professed
the Catholic religion, and to a man were prepared
to die for it—the other rejoiced in Protestantism ; or speak-
ing more correctly, in a political creed, and in the great
victory obtained ever their opponents at the battle of the
Boyne. The antipathies, and jealousies, and hostility excited
by that victory, but still more by the cruel and illegal man-
ner in which the victors used their advantages, have con-
tinued ever since, and seem to have paralyzed the moral
energies of the people, and sunk them into a hopeless state
of destitution and misery. Though every other part of the
United Kingdom, at the preser.t moment, is in a most pros
perous state, and wealth, acquired by lawful industry, and
the most gigantic undertakings, is furnishing additional
employment for the labouring population, whether English,
Scotch, or Irish, the sister island exhibits a picture
of a very opposite character, and displays not the smallest
symptom of that vast progress in improvements, and discove-
ries, and useful exertion, which distinguishes the present ege
above all others. With a fine soil—with a hardy
active, and enduring peasantry, and with every ad-
vantage from ready markets for the sale of its
productions, Ireland remains the most wretched coun-
try in Europe. While the land is not half cultivated, and
there is abundant scope for the construction of railways, the
great mass of the working population is unemployed, and
some four millions of human beings out of only eight are
threatened with absolute starvation, and great numbers are
periahing daily from fever or other pestilential diseases, brought
on by want. In such a deplorable and hopeless state of society,
another curse naturally follows, and the unhappy people
are impelled to crimes, at which, under other circumstances,
they would revolt. These painful subjects are annually
brought under the notice of Parliament, but no remedy is
found, things go on in their usual way, and the chief re-
commendation from our senators is to coerce the people and
restrain crime by the strong arm of the law. But the " strong
arm of the law" is a mere phrase without meaning; in
many districts there is no law whatever, and even in the
very courts of justice and at special commissions it is laughed
to scorn, by the absence of witnesses, or by downright per-
jury. The Marquis of CLANRICARDE, last night, made one of
the customary speeches on this melancholy topic, and urged
that something ought to be done in the shape of an effi-
cient administration of the criminal law. The reasons he
gave certainly were sufficiently strong. " There were several
associations," he said, "and combinations existing which
had engaged the attention of the Repeal Association as well
89 that of the Government, and it could not be denied that
a great part of the country was in a state of insurrection.
Immense masses of people had met in different places, and in
the county of Limerick a meeting had lately assembled in
open revolt in mid-day. During the spring, summer, and
winter of the past year these outrages had increased
to an almost unparalleled extent." His Lordship
therefore recommended some immediate steps to secure pro-
perty and life. Of course crime must he put down, if guns
and bayonets and gibbets can de it, but something else is re-
quired for Ireland. Any new coercive law, as we have
repeatedly contended, ought to be accompanied by other
measures calculated to civilise the people, and render
the Government of England an object of hope
and esteem, rather than a terror. In Earl GREY'S
judicious remarks, therefore, we cordially concur.
After adverting to the sew Coercion Bill, which is in
the hands of the Government, he thus concluded :—" The
question had long been under the consideration of both
Houses of Parliament, but unfortunately party views had
interfered with its dispassionate consideration, but be hoped
the time had come when they could without reference to
party feelings, all agree in the propriety of investi-
gating into the real causes of this unhappy state of
things and in devising a remedy. He thought it right to
state his opinions, as from what fell from the Noble Lord
the Bill to be introduced by the Government was to be con-
fined to the single object of establishing security and repress-
ing outrage. He considered that the Government would fail
in its duty to the House and the country, if, while it pro-
posed rigorous measures, it did not give a statement of the
general policy and the measures it intended fur the perma-
nent improvement of the condition of Ireland."

When once a feeling of obstinacy has taken possession of a
protectionist nobleman, that obstinacy'is the most blunt-
headed, leaden-eyed, dogged and incorrigible that the imagi-
nation well could conceive. These conclusions are not what
are commonly designated "foregone," they are discoverable
from the instances of unflinching determination which
several of these right honourable personages had given the
public within the last few months. They behold the ground
crumbling away beneath them, they perceive the precipice
which yawns before them, they hear the uproar -of the mul-
titude imploring them to desist, they see the insurmount-
able obstacles which must speedily and inevitably prevent
them from proceeding further upon their original pathway,
yet they still endeavour to push forward upon their old worn-
out coarse, with a persistence so blundering and dull that
their very antagonists are filled with sentiments of
commiseration. His Grace the Duke of NEWCASTLE
has just given this opinion one more additional corroboration.
We yesterday commented upon the unconstitutional manner
in which certain members of the oligarchy took occasion to
meddle with the freedom of elections—we even particularised
his Grace the Duke of NEWCASTLE as an instance of this in-
tolerable and un-English proceeding, identifying his inter-
ference with the electors of Newark ; and, as if to enforce the
correctness of our observations, and at the same moment to
demonstrate the veracity of their application, we learn by
the latest intelligence from South Nottingham that his
Grace has confirmed all the previous rumours of his intention
by authorising his agent, Mr. IN INTER, to use every exer-
tion in his power to ensure, or -at least to facilitate, the
triumphal return of Mr. HILDYARD. That such behaviour
is opposed to the spirit, if not to the very letter, of the
British Constitution, we have already protested ; and
consequently it would be superfluous to tarry longer upon
the consideration of its malific influence. Turn we,
therefore, to the explanatory address delivered yesterday to
the electors who were assembled in the Town-hall f
Newark by their late representative, Lord Luce•LN. We
regard that speech as satisfactory as far as his Lordship, and
his Lordship's recent conduct, are concerned. We look upon
it as another of those numerous legislative confessions, or
political unburdenings of conscience, which have latterly
streamed with such satisfactory abundance into the pub:
lie ear. Altogether, it is but a repetition of what has been
uttered again and again, both upon the hustings and from
the Parliamentary benches, yet precisely as such a repeti-
tion it rings pleasantly upon the moral tympanum of the
mass. It, moreover, affords us another version of the Irish
echo ; the Premier exclaiming, " Abolish exclusive prote^-
tion !" the LINCOLN echo being tantamount to the ordirary
" Hear, hear." One declaration made by the Noble Lord re-
quires our especial notice—we mean where he most emphati-
Cally repudiates the supposition that he has swerved
from his original tenets upon commercial policy, merely with
the intention of modulating his voice to the particular key
which Sir R. PEEL has recently adopted. Lord LINCOLN
gives his solemn negative to this insinuation, and avows that
his opinions upon the great question now in agitation
have been changed solely and entirely from his
own personal reflections upon the matter. If, in-
deed, we are still to accuse his Lordship of a very
facile judgment, and one that will readily accommodate
itself at an emergency to whatever views are professed by its
party, a similar remark becomes applicable to each of his col-
leagues. If a person cannot alter his political opinions after
a similar alteration in another, without being accused of
servility to the policy of predecessors, the list of sycophants
at the present moment is interminable. Lord
JOHN RUSSELL, according to this definition of things,
is subservient to the policy adopted by COBDEN ; Sir ROBERT
is subservient to both ; Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT to all three,
and so on through the catalogue. Surely the coincidence of
simultaneous and conscientious conversions like these is more
credible than such an improbable unanimity in paltry, and
personal, and party concessions ! Surely the deduction that
recent occurrences, like the potato disease, and the admirable
results of the tariff reductions, should have impressed the ne-
cessity ofsome alteration in the existing restrictions or: trade
upon many enlightened minds somewhere about the same time
is more worthy of belief than that any meaner or less honour-
able causes should have operated so powerfully upon such
dissimilar elements. As a new disciple, therefore, of these
doctrines of regeneration, we hail Lord LINCOLN with cor-
diality. The principal portion of his address yester-
day was restricted to exposures of divers un••
fair and shameful proceedings on the part of his
opponents—proceedings which, according to his Lordship,
bad been adopted for the purpose of retarding the diffusion of
his interests among the neighbouring constituency. For the
purpose possibly of testifying that the Protection Association
never slumbered, a delegate from that determined body
squeezed himself into the assembly, for the purpose of
examining Lord LINCOLN in some unheard-of chapter in some
unknown catechism. His Lordship most considerately
humoured the poor man's eccentricity, answering his in-
quiries with resolute good humour. The concluding sen-
tence of the Noble Lord's address was in accordance
with the pervading character of his previous re-
marks, entreating the electors to withhold any de-
finite settlement of their views until each candi-
date had fully divulged his sentiments upon the hustings.
If indeed Lord LutcoLN cannot be considered as the ori-
ginator of a grand political scheme, he must undoubtedly be
regarded as a straightforward and thoroughly honest con-
vert. His expressions, also, are accordant to this conversion
—they are bold, plain, and without the shadow of a com-
promise.

Madrid journals of the sth have been received. The dis-
cussion on the electoral law was still going on in the Cham-
ber of Deputies, and several amendments had been moved,