The Sun.
London, England, 1848-01-24 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON,

is to every Englishman, especially when the belli-
gerents evince more than ordinary " pluck," and an
almost unpreceieetted amount of smartness, we are
perfectly satisfied that fiery generous heart in the
United Kingdom will lament that such hostilities have
arisen at this most inopportune moment between men
like Archbishop MTALE and the Earl of SnitEwsnuny.
On every account their quarrel, their retorts, and their
common acerbity have to be deplored. They have to i
be deplored, because the munificent owner of Alton
Towers is about tha very last person whom any
Roman Catholic, whether layman or ecclesiastic, can
assail with decency. His devotion to the Church
which he believes in his heart to be the true one, his
signal generosity to its ministers, and his readiness to
co-operate in all those benevolentextionsforwhtihech
have recently been made in England
purpose of ameliorating the condition of his
wretched co-religionists in Ireland, should have
protected him under all circumstances from the inso-
lence of a Roman Catholic, no matter if the shoulders
of that Roman Catholic were covered with the rags of
a mendicant or with the emblazoned cope of an arch-
bishop. Beyond this, the present misunderstanding
should fill every bosom with peculiar emotions of
grief, because it cannot but tend to confirm those
prejudices against the English Government and the
English people which have been so long promulgated
and so sedulously engendered in the sister island
by the lips of fanatical demagogues and the
ravings of political incendiaries. To the Irish
peasantry the epistolary war between St. Jarlath's
and Alton Towers will appear as the representation
of the sentiments, the jealousies, and the antipathies
rife in the islands separated by the waters of St.
George's Channel. The ignorant will see in the
missive of the Earl a symbol of that rancorous
loathing, and of that intolerable exercise of authority,
which they have been taught to regard as the animus
and the practice of the British Legislature. They
will recognise, on the other hand, in the response
of the Archbishop that patriotic zeal, that
indignant civism, and that unyielding pugnacity of
opposition which they are told to regard as the only
line of conduct worthy of them as the descendants of
many Celtic generations. On every account, we
repeat it, these recriminations between Dr. MEALE
and the Earl of SHREWSBURY are perused by our-
selves with profound sorrow.

Errors—as in most quarrels—there are unquestion-
ably
on both sides. The Noble Earl was manifestly
to blame in writing with such emphasis against Fa-
ther INIDEstssoTT, and others of the Irish priesthood,
for making denunciations from the altar steps, and
against Dr. ;MILLE himself, and the other mNnbers
of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Ireland, for not
visiting those subordinate ministers with severe chas-
tisements of an ecclesiastical character—when the
guilt of the priests was unproven and the culpability
of the bishops, of course on that account, indisputably
dubious. Lord SHREWSBURY was precipitate in writing
so churlishly upon the strength of a rumour. If, how-
ever,Lord SEIREWSBURY is reprehensible for the rashness
and austerity of his accusations, Archbishoplll`llaui
is singularly and enormously reprehensible for the
deliberate scornfulness of his manner and the very
dubitable bearing of his statements. Instead of
thoroughly explaining the erroneous nature of the
charges made against himself, his suffragans, and the
missionary priesthood, the Archbishop of TUAM in-
dulges in one of those philippics against Saxon legis-
lation, landlord despotism, and individual inter-
ference of laymen in religious matters, which he
is almost miraculously qualified to deliver in
language of the most acrid and vehement eloquence.
The letter which has just appeared is anything but
special pleading ; there is nothing specious about it;
it is not distorted with sophism. It is only too plain.
Personal pique, wilful satire, and hideous misrepre-
sentation, are as visible upon it as the macula upon
the disc of the solar globe. Speaking as a Prince of
the Roman Catholic Church, the Archbishop re-
proaches his noble correspondent with all the energy
of a DROST and all the grandeur of an ATHANASIIIS.
"Go, then, my Lord of SHREWSBURY ! " he
exclaims, " Go, and, for this grievous scandal
against the Church, do penance, and weep between
the porch and the altar." Speaking again as one
who is blinded by his preposterous hostility to Eng-
land, he accuses the present Cabinet of tainting itself
with the guilt of homicide, and of aiding famine by
its economy, when its charity has induced it to
saddle us with a serious increase of the National Debt,
has engrossed a vast proportion of its energies, has
drawn from it the beneficial advantages of a poor-
law, and the salutary assistance of an extraordinary
commissariat ! It were well if JOHN, Earl of
SHREWSBURY, had held his peace, and still better if
Jour'', Archbishop of Timm, had maintained si-
lence.

" Thirty Years of Liberal Legislation." Such if",
the title of the first article of Blackwood for the pre-
sent month, which contains much in which we cor-
dially concur, and much to which we are as con-
scientiously opposed. Differing in many respects
from the political views of our contemporary, we
have ever acknowledged the great ability with which
it has maintained the opinions advocated in its pages.
We have respected it as a worthy opponent, and we
have hailed it as a powerful and welcome auxiliary
when arrayed in the same ranks.
The writer of the article now under notice starts
with the assumption that "for the last thirty years
the Liberal party have had the almost uncontrolled
direction of the affairs of the nation ;" " that without
one single exception all their doctrines have been
carried into practice," and " that the year 1847 ex-
hibits a fair, and, it may be presumed, average result
of the Liberal system when reduced into execution."
He then sets down the various changes which have
taken place within that period, and to the operation
of which he ascribes the fearful disasters of the past
year. These are,—

Ist. The Act of 1812 for the resumption of cash
payments, by which the obligation was imposed on
the Bank of paying its notes, and consequently of dis-
charging all its liabilities, in gold.
2dly. The reciprocity system introduced by Hus-
kisson in 1821.

3dly. The changes made in the government of Ire-
land by the concession of Catholic Emancipation, of
Parliamentary and corporate reform, remodelling of
the county magistracy by liberal Lord Chancellors,
the settlement of the tithe question, grants to May-
nooth, national education, &c., &c.
4th]y. The carrying of the Reform Bill, and
settling the constitution on a new basis, in 1832.
6thly. The changes in our West Indian colonies
consequent upon the total abolition of slavery, and
the recent reduction of the differential duties
in favour of our colonial sugars, and the admission of
slave-grown produce, to compete with it, without any
protective impost being retained ; and 6thly, and
lastly, " Free trade and a fettered currency."
We shall, for the present, content ourselves with re-
ferring to the first, second, and last of the measures above
enumerated, inasmuch as they alone can have any
bearing upon the causes of the commercial distress
and embarrassment that has unhappily prevailed in
this country. Whatever might have been the result
of the Irish measures on the peace and tranquillity of
that couutry, they can hare had no part in creating
the embarrassments under which the kingdom in
mee
and the
tn the
general has laboured. Even had they been instru-
mental in producing or increasing the distress occa-
sionednt byalmost
ofos total destruction of the potato
crop, hde t
consequentten millions necessity
sterlin,
tfeorrl
ntgh
aGovernnd h e-
increase of eight millions sterling to our national
debt, the writer himself has proved that such an
outlay and increase could have had but a very trifling
effect upon the British resources. The West India
question, too, is one that should be discussed by itself,
and which it is at present unnecessary more parti-
culnrly to allude to.

Can the Act of 1619, the great cause of all the
evil, however, be regarded as a liberal measure ?

think not. It was passed during the reign of the
ultra-Tories. It was brought forward by on of the
most rising members of the Ministry, from whom it
took its name. Unfortunately, the Liberal party did
not resist as they ought to have done the introduction
and progress of the fatal enactment. The only person
owfh to hexpressed his dissent therefrom in either branch
e LeegismltreinwflausenEtaiarll Gmae:irb,ewrshoofwathse certainly
one of th
Liberal
party,
and who, on their
subsequent accession to power,
meat. The fault of the N
was appointed to thehighest post in the Govern-
Vhigs was that of omission ;

for that negligence in suffering a measure of such
importance to pass almost sub silentio, and without
any strenuous or decided opposition, they were most
decidedly in fault, and we do not desire to shelter
them from the censure they merit therefor ; but it
is unjust to cast it altogether upon their shoulders,
when it was the act of the Tory Administration, they
being the occupants of the Opposition benches. In
fact, a general hallucination on the subject prevailed
in the Legislature, and the remonstrances of practical
men, of the merchants and bankers, who so strenuously
protested against the measure, and so clearly
pointed out its probable, we might almost
say inevitable consequences, were alike disregarded
by all parties in Parliament.

The operation of that law, and of the subsetuent
Act of 1844, its complement and corollary, which in-
troduced stringent regulations, for the purpose of
more stringently carrying out its provisions, is amply
sufficient to account for the calamities we have en-
dured—the extraordinary phenomena we have wit-
nessed. The bullionists may endeavour to turn our
attention from the real origin of our sufferings, to
ascribe those sufferings to the Irish famine—railway
expenditure—overtrading—or, in fact, to anything
that would not involve the condemnation of their
favourite system, but the people cannot now be hood-
winked, and the currency doctors will not any longer
be suffered to fritter away the prosperity
of the nation with their theories. Let us look to
some of these results, as recapitulated by our Con-
temporary. We find that the minimum interest of
money at the Bank of England had been raised to
eight per cent., a rate higher than any that had been
known in England for a century and a quarter pre-
viously. We have seen the income of the country
insufficient to meet its expenditure, and a rapidly
decreasing revenue at the end of thirty-two years of
peace. There has also been a general stoppage of the
works on the railways in progress of construction
throughout the kingdom, and three hundred
thousand navigators suddenly thrown out of
employment, and, with their families, consisting
probably of at least a million of human beings,
deprived of food and reduced to a state of destitution ;
and not only the navigators, but also the individuals
employed in the various other branches of industry that
are connected with railways ; the stoppage of the one
description of work necessarily involves that of the
others.

The great marts of manufacturing industry are
also in nearly as deplorable a condition, and the mul-
titudes that will be driven out of bread in them will
not be less appalling than in the railway departments.
Our exports are reduced, because we are unable, from
the deficiency of our circulation, and the undue value
of money, to execute the foreign orders we have re-
ceived. And we also have the general depreciation
of every description of property and individual ruin.
Such are some of the deplorable consequences of our
monetary laws. We shall take an early opportunity
of returning to the consideration of the views of our
tAlented Contemporary on this all-important topic.
Ase.
A letter from Berne of the 18th says :

" You know that M. Bois le Comte has been at
Neufchatel some days, and the new note of which he
is said to be the bearer has not yet made its appear-
ance. I am enabled to give you the following
authentic information relative to that additional proof
of M. Guizot's friendship towards Switzerland :
About the 15th of December last M. Guizot sent to
Vienna the draught of a collective reply to the note
of the Diet of the 7th of that month, which M. Met-
ternich found by far too mild. The Nestor of diplo-
macy then drew up another, and sent it to Paris and
Berlin, where it was slightly modified, and ultimately
approved by the French and Prussian Governments.
This reply was forwarded some days ago to M. Bois
le Comte, but with orders not to present it until the
termination of the debates on the Address in both
Chambers, lest the text of that new manifesto should
become known before the close of the Parliamentary
struggle, and impart too irritating a character to the
debates."

The Gazette de Bale, of the lllth instant, mentions
that Sir STRATFORD CANNIND had presented a me-
morandum to the President of the Diet, recommend-
ing the Swiss Government, in the most friendly
terms, to publish a general amnesty, and to observe
the greatest caution in dealing with the revision of the
Federal Compact. According to the Ami de la Con-
stitution of the 18th, M. Bois LE COMTE intended
shortly to return to Berne.

M. BOIS LE COMTE has transmitted to the President
of the Swiss Diet a note, dated the 18th of January,
in which he states that the French Government,
acting in concert with Austria, Prussia, and Russia,
declares--1. That the cantonal sovereignty, which is
the basis of the Confederation, cannot.be considered
to be really subsisting in those cantons which are
,militarily occupied by other cantons. 2. That it is
only when those cantons restored to complete in-
dependence, shall freely have constituted their re-
spective Governments, that the Confederation can be
considered as being in a regular state and in con-
formity with existing treaties. 3. That the re-
establishme.nt on a peace footing of the military forces
in all the cantons is the necessary guarantee of the
mutual and general liberty ; and 4. That no change
can lawfully be made in the Federal pact, save by
the unanimous voice of all the cantons composing the
Confederation.

A letter from Civita Vecchia, of the 12th, states
that—

"The Neapolitan war-steamer Charles 111. had
left Naples for Syracuse, where it was supposed that
an insurrection had taken place. On the 6th the
people of Messina made a manifestation in favour of
the F.ing's attorney, M. Vignale, who had been re-
rnovt!d to an inferior station because he had refused to
exec ute the rigorous measures enacted by General
Lantli against the population of Messina with all the
ardour that officer desired. In the morning of that
day a gigantic allegorical figure, representing the
city of Messina in tears, was exposed on the public
squf cre. A crowd of inhabitants collected in silence
roue id the figure, when the police brutally interfered,
and :a partial collision ensued, in which three soldiers
were either wounded or killed. This affray oc-
currE dat three o'clock in the afternoon. A few hours
after wards the entire population filled the streets,
carry ing tai-coloured flags and various other patrio-
tic en iblems, and shouting vivas ' for Italian inde-
pendence, the, Pope, the Constitution, &c. This
demon stration, during which the troops remained
consigved to their barracks, lasted until ten o'clock
at night, and was repeated at the theatre, with-
out order being in the least disturbed. In the even-
ing, when the people were retiring to their homes,
two sentinels, alarmed no doubt by that extraor-
dinary movement, fired upon a group, and wounded
two persons. On the following day the city resumed
its usual calmness." " The Government, however,"
observes; the correspondent of the Constitutionnel,
" should not trust to that apparent serenity, for the
irritation ► of the Sicilians is at its height, and the least
spark nil aght produce a conflagration.'

The a tali of the 15th inst. announces that the stu-
dents of the University of Pisa bad voted by accla-
mation a in address to the Civic Guard of Leghorn,
to cong,r atulate them on their conduct during the
recent ( Listurbances in that city. The Marquis RP
Domn, ? Enlister of the Interior, returned to Florence
on the 14 ith, Leghorn was then perfectly tranquil.
A funeral ueremony had been celebrated in the church
of the Li mbards, at Rome, for the Milanese killed by
the Austa ians on the 3d. The POPE had permitted
that demo nstration, which the Austrian Ambassador
had vainl, y endeavoured to prevent.
Accoue is from Naples state that Palermo was in
full instil rection ; the streets were barricaded, and
the people had killed sixty of the troops. An attempt
had been ' made by the authorities to arrest a Sicilian
noblemai i in the British consulate, and in the scuffle
the arms ,of England had been torn down by the Si-
cilian ai aih orities. On the receipt of the news at
Naples, t,500 troops were dispatched to Palermo in
nine ate R mers.

The . r ournal des Dibais announces that letters
from Tt rin of the 18th say that a number of the
persons compromised in the recent disturbances at
Leghorn have been arrested, and that important
papers az d considerable sums of money were found in
their pos .ession. The papers are :aid to prove that
a foreign Government excited the rioters in favour of
the last branch of a dethroned dynasty.
The il,fta/ia of Pisa publishes a letter from Rome, of
the 13 hof January, which states that the Cardinal
MAssIT .the Minister of Public Works, died of
apople: 5- on the 11th, after an interview with the
Pori, irt which MAssimo, as the organ of the College
of Card it als, had expressed his disapprobation of the
motu )rio of the POPE of the 30th December.

Ahdrid papers of the 16th have been received.
The I3IJ. 1 fur collecting the taxes, which NALIIVAEZ