The Sun.
London, England, 1846-05-28 00:00:00

Otritnins Vitit

LONDON, THURSDAY, MAY 28, 1846,

Nothing whatever can now prevent the triumphant
settlement of the Bill. Not all the oratory of STANLEY,
the wit of DISRAELI, the assiduity Of BENTINCK, the ac-
clamations at Willis's Rooms, or the official edicts from
Bond-street, have been successful in damping the ardour
of one single Free-trader ;—the Protectionists are de-
fenceless, their Damascus blade has shivered off at the
hilt. Whatever bile may have been excited amongst
individuals by bitterness of recrimination or acrimony
of censure, must be allayed, so far at least we are fain
to anticipate, immediately upon the close of the discus-
sion. When the excitement consequent upon discom-
fiture has become somewhat abated, and when the subse-
quent calm affords them an opportunity for reflection,
we are prepared to witness a sequel of change
in the sentiments of those who have most violently
opposed the measure—a sequel almost as gratifying,
though scarcely of such national importance, as the con-
versions antecedent to the Ministerial proposition.
Much as certain among the agricultural landlords have
inveighed against the abolition policy, incessantly as
they have stigmatised and traduced its advocates, we
are more than sanguine of their ulterior adhesion
to its cause, and of their permanent satisfaction
at its working. We are convinced that the
charges of unconstitutional intimidation against the
League, of inconsistency against the Premier, of revolu-
tionary recklessness against the representatives of the
people, and of subserviency against the present Govern-
ment, will all become dissipated before the sun-burst of
emancipated commerce. Those who have hitherto been
foremost amongst the antagonists of the innovation will
merge into the most enthusiastic of its admirers, because
we entertain a solemn conviction that the landowners
will prove the chief recipients of benefit from its opera-
tion. Such are our anticipations, and those anticipa-
tions are based upon experience ; they are inspired by
a remembrance of the Ed.nburgh manifesto from Lord
JOHN RUSSELL ; of the candid avowals made by Sir
ROBERT PEEL ; by the more recent acknowledgments
of the Earl of ESSEX, as well as of other Legislators,
but above all by the memorable majority of ninety-eight,
by which the Lower House of Parliament approved of
that measure which, year after year, within those very
walls, had met only with derisive opponents and a con-
tumelious rejection. Nor do those anticipations
resolve themselves into a specious hypothesis ;
they are deduced not merely from, modern
reminiscenses, they are accordant with the les-
sons inculcated by history and antiquity. Whenever
any Great Truth has been propounded seriously, and for
the first time, among mankind, whether it be a truth
in science, in natural philosophy, in legislation, in mili-
tary tactics, or even in more heaven-born themes of con-
templation, their reception has always been accompanied
with similar vicissitudes, similar causes of tardiness,similar
incredulity, and similar bitterness of antagonism. It is
first broached by one man, or by a scanty few; those
few are treated either with indifference or with obloquy;
they persist, however, in the utterance of the truth,
and it gradually spreads and spreads among the popula-
tion with a steady and indomitable progression, until its
old enemy, Ignorance, dwindles down from power to
insignificance, from insignificance to nothingness—until
Prejudice is conquered by Fact. When Coixsinus first
advanced the feasibility of circumnavigating the globe,
and the likelihood of encountering new regions in that
circumnavigation, the monarchs of Christendom sue•
cessively treated him as a visionary, and the
children used to mock at the old man in the streets of
Spain as the " mad sailor." WATT, in like manner,
when endeavouring to perfect the steam-engine, was de-
rided as a (limner. The originator of those wonderful
specimens of mechanical ingenuity by which the labour
of our factories is so marvellously simplified, was, upon
their introduction, scouted by the artisans as Benefactor
was never scouted before. Yet, in spite of this uncouth
opposition on the part of Ignorance and Prejudice,
America has been discovered, has become the seat of new
empires, has imparted a fresh stimulus to the intellec
and trade of the old world, and has proved a mine of in

exhaustible wealth to the nations of Europe.
The steam-engine has been brought to a point
almost beyond the reach of improvement, it has
become the administrator of comfort and luxury to mil-
lions, performing the utmost diversity of labour, and
promises at length to draw the most remote places into
familiar intercourse, The spinning machines have su-
perseded hand labour almost entirely, and yet offer
greater facilities for employment. Such invariably and
inevitably is the fate of every great innovation when that

innovation is based on truth ; spite of rancour, or abuse,
or misrepresentation, it ever ultimately triumphs : it is
not to be retarded by misapprehension or chicanery— it
is germinated in the human intellect, and consequently
has a sympathetic chord for its appreciation in the po.

pular mind—it is evoked for victory.
Everything tends to demonstrate the speedy advent of
that victory to the Great Truth of Free Trade. Let the
Lords expedite the triumph which the measure is des-
tined, sooner or later, to achieve, and let them facilitate,

as far as Parliamentary decorum will permit, the dis.
comfiture of Ignorance and Prejudice.

Mr. O'CONNELL, on Monday evening, paid a well-
merited compliment to the just and upright intentions
of the Government with regard to Ireland. He stated
that since the administration of food to the starving popu-
lation there had been a vast reduction in the amount of
crime in that country, which he ascribed in a great de-
gree to the beneficial exertions of the Premier. Sir R.
PEEL questioned whether this reduction was not in e.
great degree owing to the steps which had been taken
with respect to the Coercion Bill. Whatever may be
the cause to which it is ascribable, we have now the ad-
mission, on the highest authority, that this happy result
has been attained, and that peace and tranquillity are

_
again restored to our sister island.
So long as outrages and disturbances were rife in that
country, and the ordinary powers of the law were
found to be insufficient for their suppression, we hesi-
tated not to yield our humble support to the Govern-
ment, and to call upon the Legislature to arm the Exe-
cutive with means adequate for-the purpose, and not to
wewithholdal any of the necessary appliances. But
so
moat
kindness and
uregoed
ntilitahteionnecbeessiintgy
at
measures of
the same time adopted, that all a well-grounded
causes
ptarticularl)
discord
causes of complaint should be removed, n
that the relationship between landlord and
ttterrima cauaa belli, the fertile source of diseat, the
disaffection, should be ameliorated and improved, andby
which means Ireland would be rendered a prosperous
and happy country. Already much has been effected.
The glorious principle of free trade, by which the many
will be so greatly benefited, has passed the representa-
tives of the people by a large and increasing
majority, and there is no longer doubt or danger as
to its ultimate and entire success. Three measures
of the greatest consequence have been announced by the
Government as having been already prepared, by which
some
an of thland aremostlikelycrying
grievances relating to the occu-
ti
to be taken away, and which,
e
poo f
as indicating the favourable intentions of the Ministry,
and the sincerity of their determination to grapple with
the difficulties with which the case is environed, will be
gratefully received by the people as a large instalment
of justice, as a most acceptable and valuable boon. In
other matters, too, the members of the Government have
evinced their anxiety to deal liberally and fairly with
the people of that country.
Measures have been introduced into both Houses of
Parliament, and received with all but unanimous appro-
bation, having for their object the purifying of our
statute-book from the last remnants of bigotry and in-
tolerance—the sweeping away all traces of the abomi-
nable and vexatious penal code.

The religion of the vast majority of the Irish people
is no longer to be insulted by the existence of obsolete
and universally condemned enactments; they are in
every respect to be treated and recognised as our equals.
The old, and happily abandoned, watch-word of Pro-
testant ascendancy has no longer an existence in the nation,
and the most perfect freedom of opinion is accorded
to every man. Can we then wonder that this improved
spirit 911 the Put of the Ministry, anclof the Legisla-