The Sun.
London, England, 1833-01-26 00:00:00

their former confederates are coerced or chas-
tised, the common cause is to be advanced ; the
Convention and the Volunteers are to be put
down, but, in compensation, the Protestant
Church is to he put down along with
them ; Mr. O'Connell is to be prohibited
from assuming the functions of Sovereign,
but in revenge Bishop Doyle is to be ad-
vanced many steps nearer to the dignity of
Pontiff. The old policy, in short, is to be
pursued of giving a triumph to neither party.
We speak in all sincerity when we say that
rather than this we could have wished that
Nit.. O'Connell and his fellow-agitators, the
former allies of the Administration, were per-
mitted to pursue their schemes of agitation
without interruption or impediment. A
triumph to neither party' A nice adjust-
ment of coercion and surrender ! A balance
between restraints to be imposed upon the
enemies of British connection in one scale,
and mortification and weakness to be inflicted
upon the friends of British connection in the
other ! If this is to be the policy of Go-
vernment—if these are to be the means by
which Ministers, heretofore the authors and
abettors of agitation, are to maintain their per-
sonal consistency, while they adopt the strong
measures which are required for its suppression,
we say at once and unequivocally that agitation
is by far the less alarming evil of the two, and
that the silence of the brawlers who disturb Ire-
land will he purchased at a price immeasurably
too dear, if the measures to enforce it are to be
accompanied by other measures calculated to en-
feeble the Protestant party, without whose stre-
nuous and unabated exertions Ireland, as a com-
ponent part of the British empire, never could
have been, and can now less than ever be,
preserved. The system of conciliation, the im-
becile system of giving a triumph to neither
party, has brought I eland to the miserable and
dangerous situation in which we now behold her.
It is obvious that nothing but perseverance in
that mean and cowardly system is required to
make Ireland not worth preserving to the ern-
pire, and to render it impossible that it should
be preserved. What does Mr. O'Connell and
his party care for any blow which the Legis-
lature can level against them, provided an
equal blow be levelled at the same time
against the Protestant party and the Protestant
Church in Ireland? The latter blow must tell.
It will be aimed at institutions which cannot,
like O'Connell and his party, elude its shock or
recover from its effects. The wound inflicted
by such a blow is certain and permanent, while
that which is directed against noisy individuals
or factious clubs obtains its utmost triumph
when they condescend for a moment to bend to
the authority of the new law, or change merely
the language of agitation by vehement demands
for its repeal, or insolent vaunts that they can
drive through it with a coach and six. What is
it that forms the only connecting link of the
slightest peamanent force between Great Bri-
tain and Ireland ? The Protestant population
of the latter country, and the Protestant Church
which is there established. And against these,
therefore, the enemies of British connection direct
their unwearied efforts. There is no inroad, let
it be ever so slight, upon the dignity or influence
of that Church, or upon the security of that popu-
lation, which would not snore than reward the
Papist faction for all their labours in the cause of
agitation, and more than atone to them for the
utmost degree of temporary restraint which the
Legislature may impose upon their immediate
exertions. To put an end to their present cam-
paign against Protestantism and Protestant in-
stitutions, is the utmost that all the power of the
Legislature can effect against them ; but if the
measures for this purpose are accompanied by
any legislative aggression against the Protestant
Church, who does not perceive that by this very
act they obtain for their next and not distant
campaign an advanced position and invigorated
powers ? It is alarming to hear the advocates and
organs of the present Administration assert, as
they do, the probability that Ministers will resort
to strong measures in order to put clown the exist-
ing political agitation in Ireland, and to restrain
the irregular and dangerous proceedings of the
Popish demagogues who are its immediate
authors ; when they assert, at the same time,
that Ministers will maintain their reputation for
liberality, by accompanying their measures of
coercion with measures to secure the permanent
tranquillity of that country by removing the
grounds of popular discontent. These expres-
sions, coming from such a quarter, are of omi-
nous import. They intimate that Government
will only restrain the unofficial Destructives, in
order that they may, by their own acts, more cer-
tainly and effectually destroy. They imply that
once more, under the silly and hypocritical pre-
tence of giving a triumph to neither party, a real
and substantial triumph is to be afforded to
Popery over Protestantism—to the inveterate
enemies of British connection over its steadfast
and ill-requited friends.—Morning Post.