The Sun.
London, England, 1846-07-30 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY. JULY 30, 1846.

Taking advantage of the absence of Mr. O'CONNELL,
the hot-brained advocates of the physical force move-
ment have been blowing their penny trumpets in
Conciliation-hall most lustily. These precocious
young gentlemen, not satisfied with bearding that
venerable patriot to his face, have ever since his
departure scoffed his recommendations—derided
his policy—reviled his recent proceedings—and
virtually spat upon his authority. And—alas !
for the influence of friendship and the bonds of
gratitude—foremost amongst this tumultuary band of
upstarts appears that very eccentric personage, Mr.
SmrTu O'BRIEN. On Monday, after a most indecent
display of violence and a most fractious evidence of
hostility, these avowed champions of pikes, brick-
bats, and les lotternes, deliberately withdrew from the
Repeal Association, and bade farewell to the precincts
of the Corn Exchange. Heartily do we congratulate
the Irish people upon this catastrophe, and sincerely
do we trust that the partizans of the Liberator are
never again to be harassed by the impertinence of
these political firebrands. Separated from that sin-
gular association and from its illustrious leader, the
martyr of the coal-celler will incontinently find his
level again, and may possibly pine for the days when he
was puffed up to a very disproportionate elevation by
the undeserved eulogiums of O'CONNELL. Ile may
pine for the days when under the prestige of that
extraordinary man, he, Mr. WILLIAM SMITH
O'BRIEN, was deluded into the belief of his import-
ance. It is but natural that the individual who could
, sulk in a dirty little room adjoining the Parliament
House, because his attendance had been required upon
certain railway committees, and who imagined
thereby that he had acquired immortality as a martyr
of Irish liberty—it is but natural, we say, that such
an individual should mistake the language of BOIIADIL
for eloquence, and the tactics of BOBADIL for wisdom.
But we are amazed that one who evinces the
possession of such a lively imagination should
be so entirely divested of common sense as to believe
himself capable of superseding the Liberator. Does
Mr. Satrru O'BRIEN forget that it is solely through
the complacency of Mr. O'CONNELL that he has been
enabled to emerge from obscurity; that his present
prominent position as a representative of Irish
opinion is attributable. solely to Mr. O'CoNNELL's
patronage ? That if he, Mr. SMITH O'BRIEN, has been
a chieftain among his fellow-countrymen, he has only
attained that elevation, like the Grecian monarchs
of old, by being raised upon the shield of O'CONNELL?
Does not Mr. SMITH O'BRIEN remember that, unless
the Liberator had proclaimed to the multitude
that an oracle was about to address them,
they would have beheld in him, Mr. SMITH
O'BRIEN merely a middle-aged gentleman of very
ordinary capacities ? Does he not feel that it has
been through the instrumentality of O'CoNNELL, and
through the instrumentality of O'CONNELL alone—
not,
ttN fromiE any inherent genius— that
he,
Mr. SMITH
o B
has occupied any particular share of public
attention? Knowing and feeling all this, where is
his frietiship, where is his gratitude for such ge-
nerous and magnanimous condescension ? As to the
moral possibility of his superseding the Liberator as
the leader of the Irish population, the notion is alto-
gether dispelled by a comparison of the two men.
Surely the homeliest intellect would recog-
nise the disparity between them. A sensible Irish.
man need scarcely be asked his opinion as to the
fitness of O'CONNELL or O'BRIEN for so reponsible
and distinguished au office. O'CONNELL, the tried, con-
sistent, resolute, enthusiastic patriot; who has pleaded
during so many years, and with such a touching and
beautiful eloquence, for the extinction of the
woes of his afflicted race ; whose indomitable
zeal obtained a voice in the national Legislature
for the members of that Church in whose pale seven-
eighths of his fellow-countrymen were numbered ;
whose ardour is not the animation of a momentary
caprice, but the predominating influence of a long
life; whose oratory has not merely elicited the
acclamations of the people, but has acquired boons

fur his native land ; who has rejected honour
and emolument, when both might have been pur-
chased by his silence ; who has fought the good fight
of patriotism through evil report and good report,
through panegyric and vituperation, manfully to the
last devoting to the cause of his country the bloom of
his youth and the prime of his manhood! And for the
desertion of this man the Irish are to be
lured by that very excellent person, Mr. WrLmAnt
SMITH O'BRIEN! We are the more indignant at the
impudence of such a movement as this, first, from
our unaffected respect for the character of that re-
nowned and venerable patriot, DANIEL O'CONNELL;
and secondly, because in that movement is involved
one of the most pernicious doctrines of political
domination; we mean the doctrine of physical force.
In all ages and in all countries that terrible doctrine
has, whenever it has been adopted, brought with it
countless curses and infinite wretchedness. Its
acceptance is, in short, nothing less than the legalisa-
tion of civil war. It is substituting the divine
right of monarchy to the divine right of
murder. Where was this truth more lamentably
evinced than in the first glorious revolution of France,
beginning so nobly with the mental struggles of the
Tiers Etats for liberty, and merging into the riots
of living creatures, with the forms of men and the
hearts of demons ? Was the object of that gigantic re-
volution attained, the more s9curely or speedily by
the resort of the Parisians to physical force ? Was
it not, in fact, retarded ? Did it not arouse through-
out the monarchies of Europe that great spirit of op-
position which twice conducted the allied armies to
the walls of Paris, and forced upon the French people
the representative of that Bourbon dynasty which they
hoped to have annihilated by the execution of
Louts XVI. ? Then, again, as an instance of the
beniticence and potency of moral force as a wea-
pon for political reformation, what could be more
triumphant or less pernicious than that gigantic
force—the League—the principal motor of which
was COBDEN ? We regret this recent division in
the Irish party, because of the possibility of its
proving detrimental to the interests of that luckless
island. But we are heartily rejoiced at the decisive
nature of this 'division, because it will relieve Mr.
O'CoNNELL from a grievous and intolerable incum-
brance. Let Mr. WILLIAM Shunt O'BRIEN take
our word for it, he is not in the smallest
particular suited for a WASHINGTON : he would
appear to better advantage, devouring tea and dry
toast in a coal-cellar, than directing the forces at
some Irish Thermopylw. Mr. O'CONNELL is now
prepared to await the decision of the new Govern-
ment with reference to his country. Let us hope
that the policy to be pursued by the RUSSELL Admi-
nistration will satisfy the more moderate hopes of the
Liberator, and for ever dispel the chimera of Repeal.

A very interesting discussion took place last night,
in the House of Commons, on the question of the re-
committal of the Art-Unions Bill. We regret ex-
ceedingly that Sir R. PEEL, who has so highly dis-
tinguished himself by the judicious patronage which
he has afforded to art, and the liberal assistance which
he has ever been so ready to extend to artists labour-
ing under a temporary embarrassment; who, in the
moment of his own trial, when preparing an answer
to the wicked and unfounded personal attacks so
plausibly put forward, could yet find time to respond
so promptly to the appeal of the unfortunate HAYDOIV,
should be found in the ranks of the opponents of the
measure. The late Premier rested his opposition
principally on. the ground that the step
about to be taken was an exception to
right principle, and that, like all such
exceptions, they would reap much practical inconve-
nience from it; in fact, it was in principle a lottery,
and open to all the objections that existed against
such a system. Now, with all respect for the Right
Hon. Baronet, we cannot at all agree with the opinion
he has formed. Lotteries unquestionably excited a
spirit of gambling amongst the people; the large
prizes that were offered held out inducements to the
middle classes, who, seeing a prospect, however
remote it might be, of at once being raised
from poverty to •comparative affluence, "were too
frequently allured into speculatin 2.: far be-
yond their means, and drawn from their
legitimate avocations by the pleasing, but dangerous
excitement. Thi3 danger, would however, be avoided
in a great degree, if the amount risked by each was li-
mited to a single guinea, and if the prize, when gained,
was not a pecuniary one, by the acquisition of which
the ordinary labours of the individual might be dis-
pensed with. In the art-unions a number of
persons unite together, and each subscribes a certain
sum, generally one guinea. From the fund so
created a certain sum is set apart in the first instance
for the promotion of art, by giving premiums
in certain branches, the cultivation and attain-
ment of perfection in which has not been

hitherto sufficiently attended to ; for example, see the
list of prizes offered by the London Art-Union, Irish
Art-Union, and others, for various specimens of art,
of different kinds, in those departments which the
committees considered to require fostering and en-
couragement; then an engraving, in a high style of
art, was given to each individual subscriber, which
alone exceeded in value the amount of his subscription.
The committee were enabled to give one so valuable
from the fact of the large number of copies that were
required and the great facilities afforded to them for
obtaining the best subjects. So far we meet with
nothing in the least resembling a lottery, or which can
be said to savour of gambling in the remotest degree.
But then it will be said, there is the drawing of the
prizes. True, there is the drawing of the prizes, but
the possessor of the fortunate ticket does not make_
any pecuniary profit of his prize. The money
never comes into his hands. He chooses a
picture, or pictures, for which the treasurer pays the
artist. But it may be said he may sell his picture.
He may ; but if the picture was a 300 guinea one,
for instance, it would at once become known, and
he would be expelled the society, unless he could give
some good reason for so immediately disposing of it ;
and if it were a prize of small value the amount to be
realised would be so little that no sane person would
think it worth his while to run the risk of discovery.
We must confess, certainly, that we do not
see any violation of principle in the sup.
port given to the Art-Unions Bill. The
law at present permits persons to play at a game
of chance, provided each does not lose more than
101. at one sitting, and admitting, for the sake
of argument, that the drawing of the Art-
Union is a game of chance (an admission, how-
ever, that we by no means make), still,
as each person can only lose a fractional part of a
guinea, for the value of the engraving must be de-
ducted from the supposed loss, it is not more illegal
than any other game ,of chance; and, to be con-
sistent, those who would declare art-unions ille-
gal must be prepared to go much further,
and to denounce and punish as crimes all games of
chance, however low may be the stake, and all bets
of every sort and description. But we need not have
recourse to this argument ; we deny altogether
that the drawing of the Art-Unioa is in the
same category as the drawing of the State
Lottery, and it is for those who assert that it is so to
prove their position.

Of all subjects entitled to the unremitting attention
of the statesman, security for the public health is
second to none. A hardy and numerous race of
people is of the first consequence to a nation. It is
the chief element of its power, the broad foundation,
upon which, if ever, the superstructure of its great-
ness must be raised. Secure, as far as human means
can extend, the enjoyment of health to the public at
large, and, under the blessing of PROVIDENCE, the
concomitant advantages to the State become inappre-
ciable. The hardier you render its inhabitants, the
greater the natural; power at command for any
purpose required. Not only in the case of national
defence is this advantage felt among the rudest
people, but also among the most civilised. The be-
nefit, however, is of greatest account in periods of
peace, when each man is, or ought to be, striving to
add to the store of national wealth, in order to ag-
grandize the means for increasing the welfare and
happiness of his country. Give the citizen
every security for the preservation of his
health, and, by the rapid development of
his physical, mental, and moral energies,
the greatness of the reward exceeds all esti-.
mate. On the other hand, neglect the precautions
which the fruits of experience and the improvements
in medical science dictate, and the loss to the nation