The Sun.
London, England, 1848-01-05 00:00:00

S 17 N, JANUARY 51 1848.

of notices for death, too long to enumerate, not
against exterminating' landlords, but against some of
the best and mast merciful—those who reside con-
stantly amongst them, and employ the people and re-
lieve the indigent. No wonder, then, that we are all
amazed at the silent apathy which seems to reign
within the sanctuary, amidst this terrific storm with-
out. In times of old, when sin and turbulence had
overspread the land, there were not wanting prelates
!ci grasp the staff and sally forth into the region of
contagion, that by prayer and exhortation—by male-
diction and anethema, if prayer and preaching were
unavailing—they might stay the plague. But now,
Alas ! each day is but the harbinger of crimes which
ring through the worli and chill the blood, as one
lends an unwilling—would it might be an unbelieving
ear—to the thrilling story ; but of the strong voice
that should be raised against them, hardly a sound is
heard

"My Lord, I know full well the merits of that
Church of which I am seeking a justification, and
whose best interests I trust I am here defending ; I
know that even now her moral power, her privileges
(or good, have not departed from her. I know that
where peace and order and virtue reign amongst the
Catholic population of Ireland, it is through her that
:hey hold their sway. I know that the exhortations
.)f the pr!est of the Most High have yet the force to
%Hay the passions and maintain the resignation of the
people under their unmitigated and enduring priva-
tions. There are none of any consideration in the
country—be they within or without her pale—be they
English or Irish—in Parliament or out of it (your
Grace's repeated assertion to the contrary is a palpable
mistake) who do not amply and honourably bear testi-
mony to this. Yet, nothwithstanding, to the public eye
of England the guilt of a few individuals taints the
whole body ; and so it will do, and so indeed it ought
to do, till the hand of those who govern her be exerted
to remove the stain. And our lament is, that these
tew exceptions go so far to prevent the great ends
and objects of a church. My Lord, lam fully sen-
sible that since that great and glorious period of her
history when she' assembled within her halls the
youth of Christendom, to teach them both the science
of the saints and the science of the world—when she
covered the land with monastic institutions, the re-
fuge of the poor and the home of the afflicted—the
Catholic Church in Ireland has never yet been set
fairly and properly to work for the accomplishment
of her destiny. Nor can she be so as long as she
remains in her present undue popular subserviency,
any more than if' she were trammelled and enslaved
by the State. It is now her misfortune to contend
against every difficulty—against an antagonistic,
deeply-rooted establishment, cherished by the land-
lord but abhorred by the people—hundreds of thou-
sands of the public money lavished upon churches
closed to the poor, open only to the rich, but not a
shilling expended upon hers—where two priests are
wanted only one, and he, perhaps just turned out of
college without either guidance or experience, an
absolute dependent on the forced or the adventitious
charity of his flock—her children till of late, almost
wholly without instruction, and sometimes even now
without a chapel—ever contending against the wiles
of her adversaries, frowned upon by the world, and
humiliated by calumny and misrepresentation ; is it
surprising that a church so circumstanced does not al-
ways answer its intent and evangelize and civilize the
people ? My Lord, I am willing to remember, tposin
what a deplorable condition are these people (prover-
bially the most desolate and neglected in the world) and
now weighed down to the very depths of destitution and
despair by a succession of the visitations of Providence
—famine and pestilence. No wonder, then, that the
Church fighting against such odds is always hindered,
ellen baffled, and sometimes discomfited. But, set
her properly to work, and she will do again what she
has frequently heretofore achieved—comfort and as-
suage, heal and cure, humanize and correct—turn a
sinner into a saint, reduce confusion into order, and
lawlesness into obedience—convert slavery into
liberty, ignorance into knowledge, oppression into
justice, enmity into friendship, hatred into love—and
thus fulfil to their completion those great and ever-
Listing destinies entrusted to her, and for which glo-
rious mission she is daily gaining new life and energy
from that illustrious patriot and Pontiff who, now
governs her from the chair of Peter.
" But because in her present abject, disadvan-
tageous position in Ireland, she is unable to accom -
plish all that is expected from her, surely, my Lord,
that ialtio ground why she should not do her best.
The public voice in England now pronounces her to
be a conniver at injustice, an accessory to crime, a
pestilent sore in the commonwealth ; and so long
will she be so proclaimed till we are shown seine
bettor reason than has yet been given us why Arch-
. 4 pswon Lair.. chaltlel rpm sin nnrPprPman ded , and
why Father M`Dermott should still be permitted to
exercise his ministry. My Lord, I will trouble you
with but one word more. This is not the occasion
on which to enter upon the relative duties of land-
lord and tenant, farmer and peasant ; to expatiate on
the vices of some, on the virtues of others ; nor yet
to make suggestions for the improvement of
those classes. I will merely express a wish that
means might be devised to establish and protect the
rights of all. An equitable tenant law wou'd
undoubtedly be a boon as far as its influence might
be felt ;'yet how is it to save from eviction, as too many
seem to suppose, the cottier who, far from possessing
the means of improving has not even those necessary
for the cultivation of his. holding ? His protection
must be in the Poor-law ; and I trust to see the day
in which the Irish pauper will have the same right as
the English—either to food or work. I desire now
only to protest against the injustice—aud I deduce
it from the whole tenor of your Grace's writings— of
visiting the sins of a hundred successive Ministers on
the head of one who has now to work against the
accumulated evil of ages. As it is not in the power
of man to flee from the wrath of God in the day of
visitation, so neither is it given to him to transform a
country torn with intestine divisions and sick with
unnumbered ills, into a land of peace and prosperity
in a single season • nor, irides , can it ever be done
at all without the cordial co-operation of clergy,
landlords, and people with the Government that un-
dertakes the task.

" I have the honour to be, my Lord Archbishop,
with all respect, your Grace's most obedient humble

servant.

"SHREWSBURY.

"_To the Most Rev. Dr. Miliale, Archbishop
of Tuam."

Diss PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY. The eleventh
anniversary of the above society was celebrated at the
Crown, commercial inn, Diss, Norfolk, on Tuesday, the.
28th ult., when a party of about fifty, comprising some
of the most influential gentlemen and tradesmen of the
place sat down to a sumptuous dinner, which, like its
predecessors, reflected great credit upon " mine host."
The chair was very ably tilled by Mr. Thomas Farrow,
builder, &c., of Diss. During the evening, which passed
off with great hilarity and eclat; several overtures, glees,
and songs were admirably executed by the gentlemen
constituting the band and other members of the society,
and which elicited shouts of approbation and applause.
The piano-forte was well sustained by Mr. Owen
Whayman, organist of Eye Church, in Suffolk, and
teacher of music and dancing. The performances alto-
gether gave infinite pleasure and satisfaction to all
present, and the delighted party did not separate till a
late hour.—From a Correspondent.
MELANCUOLY OCCURRENCE AT WOOLWICH. A
very lamentable casualty occurred at Woolwich in con-
nexion with the death of the late Colonel Peebles, of
the Royal Marines, who expired on Monday morning,
as noticed in our paper of yesterday. It appears that
at the moment when Colonel Peebles was suddenly
seized with fatal illness, his son, an officer in one of the
regiments of the line (we believe the 59th), who was at
home on a visit to his parents, rushed out of the house
in a state of great excitement to procure immediate
medical assistance for his father; on passing hastily out
of the gate of the Royal Marine barracks he was chal-
lenged by the sentry, and, it his excitement, paid no
hoed to the challenge, but passed on through the gate.
The sentry, imagining it was some soldier who wanted
to get out of barracks, struck at him with his bayonet,
which pierced the back of Mr. Peebles' neck, inflicting a
very serious wound, the consequences of which will be
doubtful for some tirae. It is said the the sentry did not
exceed his duty, but surely some safer mode of arresting
the escape of soldiers from barracks can be found than
that of allowing an ignorant, and, perhaps half idiotic
sentry the indiscriminate use of a bayonet, the use of
which, as in the present case, may be the source of
serious if not fatal errors.
Hie.NEVOLENCE IN WESTMINSTER.—Yesterday morn-
inn tho soup kitchen in Lewisham-street, Westminster,
was opened for the first time thia:season. The object of
this and similar establishments, of which there are
several in Westminster, is to supply the poor with a
quart basin of soup and a penny loaf at the moderate
charge of a penny, from which it will be perceived that
no pecuniary advantage is derived by those who have
instituted and presided over this practical scheme of
philanthropy. The number of applicants, during the
two hours which the kitchen remained open, was between
400 and 500 The establishment is to continue open for
two months, to meet the exigencies of the poor during
the inclement season which may naturally be expected.
FATAL ACCIDENT ON THE RlVER.—Yesterday an
inquest was held before Mr. W. Baker, at the Queen's
Head, High-street, Poplar, on view of the body of
Thomas Smith, aged 25 years, a labourer, who was
drowned in the river by the upsetting of a boat, when
four other men also perished. 'Two of the men, named
Shute and Warner, were found a few days after the un-
fortunate occurrence. The jury returned a verdict of
"Accidental Death," The bodies of the remaining two
Win uot yet boa answered.

:----.--___

[PAIGE SD.

THE EARL OF ELESMERE'S
PANIC LETTER.

Mr. Editor,—Notice was taken last week in your
columns of Mr. Cobden's startling, and, as I believe,
very rash proposal to disarm. Absurdity vibrates
like a pendulum ; swing it as far as you can on one
side, it is sure to go just as far on the other. Mr.
Cobden says, " throw yourselves at the mercy of the
French, depend on their forbearance, dismiss your
fleet, disband your little army, save all the cash they
cost; it is perfectly uselessly, and indeed mischiev-
ously spent, for if you will only trade with all the
world on equal terms, there is not a man in it that
will wish to harm you." This is ridiculous enough,
both as to its fact and to its reasoning, but it is man •
ful too. The manufacturer is not arraid fur his new
possessions in Sussex—Sussex the most exposed of all
the counties threatened with Sussex--Sussex,
inva don. Other
people have disputed whether we should guard our-
selves by land or by sea, whether we could not
make steam as defensively as offensively powerful.
Mr. Cobden would not have us waste our time about
any such little ditlerences : free traie is the "leather"
that will do it all. And still I admire his " pluck,"
and admit that by the 999th chance which might
happen, but to which I should be very sorry to trust,
he might by possibility prove in the right. But the
over-valiant trader finds his antagonist in a terrified
Lord. The Earl of Ellesmere has addressed a letter
to the Times, from which it appears that his Lordship
has long been suffering under a mute terror, but thse:
Mr. Cobden's daring has fairly made him call out.
He can stand it no longer ; " It is as well to be
killed as frightened to death." For years and years
he informs us, he has been living in the fear of in-
vasion, but he did not think it right to mention is
publicly, lest the French should hear of it, and take
him at his word. He told the Ministry ; but they
would not attend to him. At last comes Mr. Cobden,
with his tremendous speech to the South Lancashire
electors, and Lord Ellesmere puts prudence out of
the question, and favours the world at large with his
notion of the situation and prospects of England.
Let me not be understood as imputing any personal
cowardice to our new-made Earl. I will not judge
of his valour by what he chooses to put in print,
though I may hereafter call upon Mr. Cobden to lead
his forlorn hope, if ever, through his advice, the
French should catch us unprovided. The Earl of
Ellesmere may be, as a subsequent and very different
writer tells us he is, as brave a man as any in exist-
ence—a man "to make London a Saragossa, or even
a Moscow." I have only to deal with his letter, and
that being as dastardly an address as ever I had the
misfortune to read, being as likely as any production
can be to excuse and call forth pusillanimity, wher-
ever it may lurk in an English heart, and to excite
French bravado, by a picture of British quailing
drawn by a British nobleman, it should not pass
forth, either to ourselves or our neighbours, without
an indignant protest against its pitiable misrepresen-
tation of the national power, and the national courage
to use it.
Lord Ellesmere sneers at Mr. Cobden as being in-
competent to give any fair opinion on the possibility
of landing 50,000 Frenchmen upon our shores. He
1 takes it for granted that it is no vain fear to expect
this, with our present navy. I shall not go over the
old ground, made familiar to the readers of the
Dispatch. His Lordship lands them. "I do not
believe it would be impossible," says he, " in our pre-
sent state of preparation, for a French Minister of
War to land on British ground a force sufficient in
numbers,ediscipline, and equipment, to march in any
direction along the turnpike roads of England."
Here they are, then ; and what would his Lordship
have us do now they are here ? He goes on—" With
our present means of defence, I believe resistance
would be hopeless, and an attempt at armed opposition
only productive of useless bloodshed." Again, "If the
French were to appear at one end of London, the wisest
movement the Guards could make would be to march
out at the other." The poor Lord Mayor was de-
scribed by some one the other day as making some
hasty effort to scramble together forces for a fight ;
the Earl of Ellesmere would have him do no such
thing. " The Lord Mayor would soon be busy with
the details of billets, and whatever contributions
might be accepted as a commutation for indiscrimi-
nate plunder." But his Lordship not only lands and
brings his Frenchmen to London ; once here, he
thinks they would stop. " Don't let them come, I
say ; but if they do, let them return as soon as they
can be induced to do so. I really do not see why
they should particularly wish it. In the present state
of this country, 50,000 Frenchmen would find Eng-
land as safe and pleasant a domicile as any in which
the soldiers of Napoleon ever luxuriated !" Really,
if his Lordship thought it indiscreet before to men-
tion his. alarm:a It-et the Preach ebould take ad want etr..
of our weakness, the panic has got the better of him
now. 50,000 men have only to land, as he says they
may, walk to London, make the Mayor find them the
most agreeable quarters and the choicest turtle, as long as
they please, with plenty of cash into the bargain, and
then march off, when they are tired of luxury, with
as much as they can carry, and our very hearty
thanks for ridding us of their presence. No alarmist
has yet drawn such a picture as this. No bait has
been held out to foreign brigandage half so irresistibly
tempting. Our fleet is nothing, and the army we
have is to run away ! Did it not occur to his Lord-
ship, when he wrote all this, that he was selling us a
little too cheap? Not one tussle for it in Old Eng-
land ? I have said that I admit his Lordship's per-
sonal bravery ; but he is a dilettante dramatic author ;
I beg, then, to ask him if he were to describe a noble-
man giving this sort of advice and encouragement to
his fellow-countrymen, what sort of character would
he assign to him in his play ? I think it would be a
mistake to make him a hero or a statesman. There
was a dramatic poet who painted an English leader
with a few overworn, sick, and dispirited men hemmed
in by a fresh and well-appointed army of ten times
their number. The description is this :—•
"Upon his royal face there is no note
How dread an army hath enrounded him ;
Nor doth lie dedicate one jot of colour
Unto the weary and all-watched light,
But freshly looks and overbears attaint.
With cheerful semblance and sweet majesty ;
That every wretch, pining and pale before,
Beholding him, plucks comfort from his looks.
A largess universal, like the sun,
his liberal eye doth give to every one,
Thawing cold fear."
The leader was Henry the Fifth, and his few
" pale and pining wretches" won Agincourt. And it
is the business of an English nobleman in these days to
keep up this heart in those over whom his rank makes
him a leader. He is not to publish to the world
that the old indomitable spirit can do nothing. He
is not to tell those who will believe him among his
fellow-subjects, that to shed their blood would be
" useless." He is not to preach panic, and counsel
running away. His Lordship says he is not well
enough to attend in his place in Parliament, and
therefore he writes this precious mischief, this dis-
graceful appeal to poltroonery. In Parliament he
would not have been heard through. Laughter
would have stopped the speech, if not sheer contempt.
I will suppose that his Lordship is in a sort of feverish
dream; but his friends should not have permitted him
to publish the ravings of his weakness. They do
great harm, as everything does that would lower
confidence, in a case where resolution would be our
only safety. There could be no greater treason than
to bid the men of this nation throw away their arms
in the belief that their chance was desperate. Des-
perate it would never be but from pusillanimity.
This letter of Lord Ellesmere's fortunately calls
up another writer, evidently an old soldier, who signs
himself " Philalethes," and who shows in so many
plain and simple words, that we should defend our
land, and that we could do so, even were his Lord-
ship's 50,000 Frenchmen landed in Sussex. We
should do so, because to abandon London to any
enemy, would be to give him not only its treasures,
but whatever terms, even to the dismemberment of
the empire, he might choose to ask ; and we could do
it, by that devotion which the Earl so patriotically
discourages. He sneers at Mr. Cobden's want of
military knowledge. What, then, shall we say to
his own, which he puts forth so pragmatically ? Send
the women and the unarmed away says Philalethes,
by all the conveyances we have, and bring back all
who have arms, and can use them. Cut up the roads
on the enemy's advance, fell trees and encumber their
passage. Send thefew regulars forward to the best points
of defence, and push on the r&nforcements to them as
they come up, yeomanry, gentry, volunteers of all
sorts, mounted and on foot. Line the hedges,
occupy the farms and the country seats, and, if at
last we should be di iven into London, make every
street a battle-field till each enemy is dead or a pri-
soner. And Philalethes justly adds that 50,000 in-
vaders would be no more in the hands of the entire
population than the 1,500 French were in the hands
of the Welsh militia at Fishguard. And what does
this writer propose more than every Englishman
would be anxious to do ? Courage and obedience to
a general plan give a chance for life always ;
cowardice and anarchy never. Our raw recruits
helped to win Waterloo by keeping their ground
when they ought, as Napoleon said, to have consi-
dered themselves beaten. They would not consider
anything of the kind. Many died, but not half that
would have fallen had they run away. What father
or husband, capable of handling a musket, but would
feel that the way to save his wife and children from