The Sun.
London, England, 1833-11-19 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The public must have been amused (albeit
somewhat puzzled) by the correspondence be-
tween Colonel Verner and Lord Gosford, and
next between the same Colonel Verner and Mr.
Littleton. A Colonel Blacker) an ascendancy
buck of the first water,—an Irish Prince of
Orange,—was, for reasons which seemed good
to the Government, dismissed from the magis-
tracy and sent about his business, All the
world knows that the appointment of justices of
the peace, and their •continuance in that im-
portant, though oftentimes much abused office,
rest with the discretion of the Crown (in Ireland •
the Lord. Lieutenant) and its legal
" Every fool" we thought knew this ; but there
are, it appears, some exceptions. A Colonel
Verner, an Orange boy also, writes to Lord
Gosford, Lord-Lieutenant of the county for
which Colonel Blacker has ceased to act, and
demands to he made acquainted with the grounds
on which the executive Government was pleased
to exercise, as against Colonel Blacker, its right
of deposition from the magistracy. Lord Gos-
ford, a straightforward, manly sort of nobleman,
with a little more sense that his interrogator,
answers Colonel Verner in substance, though
in phrase more polished, to this effect—
" Sir,—Whatever you may think of yourself,
you are but a private person, and the dismissal
of another magistrate by the Government is no
affair of yours." The gallant cross-examiner,
however, no way daunted, instantly attacks the
Chief Secretary for Ireland, Mr. Littleton, and
repeats the same question he had already put to
Lord Gosford, but, we are happy to say, with
just the same success. Mr. Littleton replies to
him—" Sir,—You are but a private individual,
and have no right to any explanation." Justice
Verner upon this takes sulk, and begs leave to
throw up his commission ;—joy be with him.
However, we in our turn must " take the liberty
of asking," was there ever an instance, since the
days of Shallow or of Dogberry—was there
ever, we repeat, an instance of such preposterous
conceit and folly ? Will the reader but imagine
that such a case had happened in England of a
factious and mischievous local magistrate being
struck off the roll by the Lord Chancellor, and
an adjacent squire belettering first the Lord-
Lieutenant of Northumberland for example,
and, failing satisfaction in that quarter,
aprealing to the Secretary of State himself
to know how and why the Government
had dared to exert its acknowledged preroga-
tive without his (the said squire's) permis-
sion ! In this country the blockhead would
have been hooted at, wherever he showed
himself,—the village dogs would have barked
at his extravagauce,—Justice Midas would
have seemed, to English eyes, King So-
lomon, when compared with such a booby.
But so it is,,,—lreland has ever been ruled
by insolent and drunken faction. Every ab-
surdity that could render government farcical,
and obedience humbling, has reigned there, until
within the last 12 years, unmolested. All law
was framed by a predominant party in the mixed
spirit of arrogance and persecution. A sect
which had been enriched by unnumbered con-
fiscations, was suffered to wield the force of
Britain against its own enemies, which it per-
suaded her were hers, and which its tyranny
made so,—power being confined, as wealth was,
to Protestantism. Fortune and Protestantism
became convertible terms with authority. Every
Protestant felt himself to be "a man in autho-
rity," and, all acting as a body, they compelled
dm Government to have the same feeling. Every
Protestant felt himself to be of the King's
Councils, and any political act which assumed
for its principle and justification equal rights to
all the King's subjects, was deemed an out-
rage upon that class which claimed for itself
the legal as well as prescriptive privilege of
committing wrong with impunity. The Go-
vernment of Ireland was a coterie ; politi-
cal prejudices and habits became stronger
than the progressive amendments of the law,
and the interference of any formal authority with
their settled operation was resented by the whole
of that coterie, for whose exclusive benefit they
had been fostered. The dismissal of Blacker
was a declaration of war against the fundamental
principle of a great party—viz., that of oppressing
Catholics under the name of Protestant ascend-
ancy. The mutiny of Venter was virtually and
almost ostensibly, though he durst not quite
avow it, the act of a delegate of the Orange
body, till then, however crippled, a de facto
power in the state, though not for decency to be
recognized by the Legislature or the Govern-
ment. This blow, nevertheless, is fatal to the
remnant of Protestant ascendancy in Ireland.
It is the ceremonial of her dethronement, and
the " pride, pomp, and circumstance" of that
most offensive imperium in imperio will now be
easily annihilated. We are bound to add, that
the supposed necessity of tolerating injustice and
violence on the opposite side of the question,
because it was unavoidably tolerated on the
Orange side, is henceforth at an end.—Times.
The necessity of' a legal provision for setting
to work, or otherwise maintaining, the destitute
population of Ireland is a proposition from
which, we apprehend, there are now but few
dissentients beyond those who derive enormous
and disproportionate rents from having hitherto
been able to evade this natural claim u; on the
soil, by leaving multitudes to linger out an ex-
istence scarcely worthy of being called such, or
by handing them over to the English landowner,
householder, and even labourer, to maintain.
Yet it is extremely desirable that those who
argue the same proposition should do so upon
the same or similar data, for though men may
come to the same conclusion by different roads,
the result is not in all respects so satisfactory.
Titus part of the press, though it does not deny
the necessity of a poor law for Ireland, has lately
been labouring to convince its readers that such
necessity has been overrated, and that the mi-
sery and destitution of the Irish peasantry exists
by no means in the degree or to the extent
which has been stated and contended for ; in
short, that such is die exception, and not the
rule. We heartily wish that such were in reality
the case. There is no topic upon which we
should be at once more ready and more happy
to acknowledge ourselves to have been deceived.
But unhappily the deception, if' any, is all the
other way. We do not deny that there are dis-
tricts in Ireland where the state of the peasantry
is far different from what it is in others, and
to their honour, many re-
that there are, much
sident landowners, and a few non-resident ones,
whose estates are managed upoi,i, the old English
maxim of " Live and let live. We wish we
could add that the contagion of good were as
catching as that of evil ; but, while avarice and
selfishness hold their dominion over the human
heart, such, we fear, is not very likely to be the
case; and it is least of all likely to be so with
the man who, like the absentee landowner of

Ireland, neither hears nor sees t e misery of
which he is the cause. Like another of the
drains of Ireland; to these persons " the rent"
is everything, regardless, and often wilfully ig-
norant, of the fact that it is wrung from the sweat
and toil of those who, to pay it, are deprived-of
the means of existence, and of the comforts
which men of common humanity do not deny
to the lowest a the brute creation. To such men
the "populus me sibilat" of the Roman poet
strictly applies. Lost in the crowd, the indig-
nation which their conduct excites teld6m reaches
them individually', and mien it does they scorn-
fully hug tireir. 'Money bags, with gloating eyes,
scan the capacious rent-roll, and "laugh at those
who lose." To return to the state of the lower
classes in Ireland, we feel convinced that we do
not at all exaggerate their t ontlition,When we assert
that full three-fourths of them are in a state
which calls for legal amelioration. Of this the
proof readiest at hand is the fact to which we
have already adverted, of the countless crowds
which fly to this country for that protection and
assistance which they cannot obtain at home;
while the precarious existence which by far the
majority of them obtain here is proof sufficient
that nothing but a dire necessity would drive
theta to a remedy but one degree less irk-
some and less fatal than disease. We
arc more anxious, for the sake of all parties,
that this point should not be misrepre-
sented or misunderstood. The opponents
of a system of legal provision for the poor of
Ireland are a powerful body—they have the ear
of persons in power, some of whom have them-
selves an interest in defeating or starving off a
project which may diminish their own rent-roll.
They are alive, therefore, to every plea, to every
objection, to every excuse which can be offered
in opposition to any plan which may have the
effect of lessening their own disproportionate
incomes. The abuses of the poor laws in
England have been hitherto their favourite and
almost sole theme; but only furnish them with
such an argument as that to which we have
adverted—viz., that the evil is exaggerated, and
that, therefore the necessity does not exist, and
you furnish them at once with the means of
securing their own wealth, and postponing the
happiness and regeneration of Ireland, if not for
ever, to a very remote period. Facts, however,
are stubborn things, and that of the misery of
the lower orders in Ireland, and its extent, are
too well known, and may be too readily esta-
blished to be got rid of by mere assertion.—
Morning Herald.

The accounts from the north of Spain, de-
rived through the French Papers, though they
afford us little specific information, state enough
to produce an impression that Saarsfield is
unable to make head against his opponents, and
that Carlism is on the ascendant in the north
of Spain. Still, admitting the superiority of
Carlos in the north of Spain, it would be rash
to infer, if there shall be no foreign intervention,
that he will prevail over the young Queen. We are
too imperfectly acquainted with the state of parties
to speak with confidence on so digficult a question.
There is one point, however, on which there
can be little difficulty in coming to a decision,
and that is, that France ought not to interfere
in the matter. If the liberal Spaniards do not
incline to make common cause with the Queen,
or if her adherents and the Liberals united are
no match for the Carlists, it is quite clear that
no other power ought to take the part of the
former. The intervention of one country in the
affairs of another can only be justified on the
ground of self-preservation. This is a ground
of justification, however, which ought always to
be looked to with great suspicion, because, under
the pretext of extinguishing flames which might
reach the contiguous countries, we may be com-
pelling the majority of a country to yield to
the minority, and thus become the means of
perpetrating great injustice, and lay the founda-
tion for endless disturbances. We, however, in
this case, trust less to the justice of the French
Government than to its prudence, the fruit of
extensive experience. The French are aware
that there is no force which could offer any
effectual opposition to them in the field. They
know that they could march from one end of
the Peninsula to the other ; but they also know,
that with the presence of a French army in the
capital their difficulties would only commence.
The invasion would be attended with an enor-
mous expense, and, after all, it would not
benefit the young Queen. The pride of the
people, which has already been deeply wounded
by the former invasion, would, by a fresh inva-
sion, revenge itself on the Queen ; and we
should perhaps see both Liberals and Carlists
take part against the Queen. Upon the whole,
we think the French will not break bonds. If
the Queen, in possession of the seat of Go-
vernment, and with all the advantages derived
from a succession favoured by the late King,
her father, cannot maintain her ground against
Carlos, this would prove the latter to be the Sove-
reign of the nation. But, as we have said, we
by no means assume any such inferiority on
the part of the Queen. It is probable, how-
ever, that if the Carlists gain on her, it will he
necessary for her to throw herself more decidedly
on the Liberals. Indeed it is generally under-
stood that they would not be sorry to see her
still more embarrassed than she is, as this would
enhance their importance. However this may
be, we trust that the French Government will
not move an army into Spain. Such an inter-
ference with Spain would be equally unjust and
impolitic ; and in the present temper of the
French nation with regard to taxation, the con-
sequences might be serious.—Morn. Chronicle.
It is with great and unfeigned pleasure that
we direct the attention of the public to the
sensible and manly resolutions in which the
Merchant Tailors' Company, in the city of
London, have proclaimed their determina-
tion not to submit to the illegal and arbitrary au-
thority of the Corporation Commissioners. These
resolutions are conceived in the true old Eng-
lish spirit of reverence for the law, and opposi-
tion to all who usurp a power which the law
does not authorize and support. These true
friends of liberty and law are no doubt prepared
for the calumnies by which they will be assailed,
in consequence of their noble determination, by
those who, while they arrogate to themselves the
peculiar and exclusive merit of respect and
attachment to the rights and interests of the
community, are in reality the worst enemies of
law and liberty. The patriotic members of this
Corporation must expect such attacks, but, in
the consciousness of having done their duty,
they may well feel themselves entitled to despise
them. Of the many appalling circumstances of
the present times, which are calculated to suggest
gloomy anticipations as to the future destinies of
this country, that which has produced greater dis-
may than any other in the minds of thinking men
is, perhaps, the general prostration of spirit
evinced by the Corporations of Great Britain,
in submitting themselves without resistance to

the authority of an illegal and tyrannical Com-
mission, and lending their assistance to its law-
less and arbitrary proceedings. This abject
subserviency might well be thought to indicate
decay at the very core bf Our most venerable
anti most national institutions. We witnessed
oppression triumphant and uncontrolled in the
very sanctuaries which our wise and generous
ancestors had established,, .in their dread and
hatred of oppression. We beheld the very
ciadels of every right and franchise invaded,
and saw those to whom their defence had been
intrusted, become at once the active auxiliaries
and the willing victims of the insolent and law-
less invaders. Vortunately for the honour and
the interests of the country, however, this mean
and timid servility Will not be universal. The
Corporation of Merchant Tailors have set a
noble example, which will not fail to be exten-
sively followed ; and; should it be followed only
by a few of the Corporations which yet re-
main to be visited, even these feN instances
of meritorious defiance will consign the wrong-
doers to contempt, and all that they have per-
formed, or may yet perform, to worthless
insignificance. We cannot refrain from tran-
scribing the concluding reason assigned by this
Corporation for their resistance to the power
assumed by the Commissioners. They refuse
to submit to an inquisition which they think
unlawful from " the persuasion that the universal,
though reluctant, submission of all the Corpora-
tions in the kingdom to a Commission so
manifestly unlawful, and, in their judgment, so
inconsistent with the security of the property
and rights of the subject, could not fail to be
treated as a sanction to such an exercise of the
prerogative, and to become a precedent full of
danger to future times. Wherefore they con-
ceive it to be the more especial duty of such
of these bodies as have no favour to expect
and no danger to fear to meet this un-
lawful encroachment of power with unqualified
resistance." Nor is the persuasion by which
these honourable and high spirited citizens pro-
fess
themselves to be actuated upon this im-
portant occasion unsupported by the highest
legal authorities, whether of past times or of the
present day. Let our readers peruse the ad-
mirable
answers of Sir James Scralett, and of
the other Learned Gentlemen who follow him,
to the questions submitted for their considera-
tion, and let them then, as they must, unite with
us in stigmatizing the authors of this Commis-
sion, and all who venture to act under it, as
wrongdoers, as lawless assailants of the rights,
franchises, and property of their fellow-subjects,
whom it is the duty, the legal, political, and moral
duty, of all good citizens and faithful subjects,
by every means in their power, to resist and
obstruct. Earnestly referring once more to the
resolutions and opinions which will be found
elsewhere, and which we need not say
are much more worthy of an attentive pe-
rusal than any thing we can write, we
now dismiss this important subject for the
present. We cannot conclude, however, without
noticing the singular felicity with which Sir J.
Scarlett, in seeking some definite meaning to
affix to the terms " Municipal Corporation,"
discovers at once the means of elucidating what
is obscure in the language of our modern law-
givers, and explaining, by an ancient example,
what is pecuiiar in their political character :
" Municipium' then signified a town or city
enfranchised by a decree of the Senate from the
obligation of receiving the Roman law, or sub•
mitting to a Roman Prefect. Note : These
Municipia were in effect what are now corporate
towns or cities, governed by their own Magis-
trates, and freed, more or less, from the services
to which other towns were liable. They had be-
come very numerous and powerful during the
existence of a free Government in Rome, inso-
much that Sylla the Dictator passed a law,
entitled De Municipiis,' to disfranchise those
who had given support to Marius and Cinna iu
their resistance to him. He considered these
Corporations as the last stronghold of the party
which he made it the object of his policy to
destroy."—Morning Post.

ROLLS' COURT, Nor. 18.