The Sun.
London, England, 1834-08-13 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We do not recollect any public event—excepting
only the rejection of the English Reform in 1831—
which has created so much sensation as the destructive
majority of the House of Lords against the Irish Tithe
Bill. The decision of the infatuated Tory Peers wilt
penetrate the public mind, from one end of the -king-
dom to the other. Every reflecting person entertained
sanguine hopes that this important measure would have
been the commencement of an era of peace andgoodi
Government in Ireland. But the Lords hay decree..,
otherwise ; and their suicidal vote gives satisfactity
only to those who seek the utter destructiono:
Irish Church Establishment. The Bill had been passe
by large majorities in the House of Commons—the
Irish Landowners had declared their hearty assent tq
its principles and provisions—the Clergy of the Dio.
cese of Dromore, in the letter read by Lord Mel-
bourne, testified the favourable opinion of the Irish
Rectors and Vicars—Mr. O'Connell, and the mass of
the people of Ireland represented by him, had expressed-
their grateful sense of its merits and the relief it would
afford ; but it pleased the fanatics—the rump of the
Orange Faction—and the party opposition- peers, to
destroy the illusive hope of removing one of the
greatest grievances of Ireland. We are still almost
wholly at a loss to discern the motives of this op osi-
tion, when it was so palpably the interest of the Peers
to pass the Bill. But Ireland has been cursed with a
Protestant Church in a Catholic country, and with
the Beresford family. It is scarcely 40 years since the
late excellent Earl Fitzwilliam was driven from his go-
vernment of Ireland—from which such fond hopes
were entertained by the Irish—by the infamous intri-
gues of this family at the Court of George 111., a
member of which clan persuaded his Majesty that his
Lordship was seeking the destruction of the Irish Church.
The same senseless cry has again proceeded from the
same place-hunting family. Lord Duncannon, on Mon-
day night, boldly denounced the Archbishop of Armagh
(John George De La Poer Beresford) as an active
agitator against the Tithe Bill and Irish Church Re-
form. Verily this family has had goodly reasons to
uphold the Irish Hierarchy. As great Borough Pro-
prietors of Londonderry county and town, of Cole-
raine, and the county of 'Waterford, the Beresfords
secured an ample portion of the plunder of the Church
and State. Peerages, Court honours, Archbishoprics,
Bishoprics, Deaneries, sinecure " livings," regiments,
ships, and civil offices, were showered in profusion
on this cormorant family. They once enjoyed three
mitres at the same period, and at this moment we
have before us a curious " Case of Oppression- illus-
trative of the present state of the Internal Government
of Ireland," by an Irish Curate, Mr. Lyons; in the
title-page and contents of which figure " The Right
Hon. and Most Rev. Lord John G. Beresford, Arch-
bishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland ;" the
Right Rev. George De La Poer Beresford, Lord
Bishop of Kilmore ;" and the Rev. Marcus G. Beresford,
Vicar of the parishes of Drong and Lara, and Vicar-
General of the Diocese of Kihnore. We turn to the
Black Book, and we see a page of other Beresfords,
enjoying the Colonelcy of two regiments, the Gover-
norship of Jersey, the Captaincy of a Cadet Company,
and pensions to boot. The " Clerical Guide" intro-
duces us to other industrious members of the same
fortunate tribe. We refer to the voluminous returns of
the " Compensation Pensions," granted on the aboli-
tion of " Sinecure-offices," recently laid before the
House of Commons on the motion of Mr. Ellic;!, and
we there discover in a corner two retired Custom-house
Storekeepers of Ireland, " H. Barre Beresford and L.
Claudius Beresford," in the joint enjoyment of
4,3151. 7s. Bd. per annum of the public money for
" doing nothing." Ample reasons these for supporting
the crying abuses of the Irish Church, and for op-
posing economy and retrenchment I We earnestly
hope that Mr. Hume next Session, and it is not
now too late to give notice, will move for a Com-
mons' Committee specifically to ascertain and re-
port what portion of the public money this jobbing
and lucky family has received in the last fifty
years, and still enjoys. We make some exception
in favour of a military member, who has fought
the battles of his country ; but we think that the See
of Armagh is alone sufficient to compensate the troop
of Beresfords for all the public services they have
rendered the State, and for the utmost extent of their
" cure of souls." Their Temporal enjoyments have
been fully equal to their Spiritual ministrations. The
Archbishop of Armagh, with his train of Bishops,
though in the Protestant part of Ireland, has " bene-
fices" without congregations, and laity without spiritual
pastors. We marvel not that he should oppose Com-
missions of Church Inquiry, nor that he should with
prophetic sagacity predict that Appropriation would
follow the just settlement of Irish Tithes. Ireland,
however, by the vote of the Lords on Monday, will be
soon rid of its spiritual locusts. The Pluralists and
redundant Priesthood of Ireland—the Deans and
Chapters, with nominal functions and sinecure re-
venues—will rue the day when the Tory Peers rejected
the Irish Tithe Bill. We are comforted by the belief
that the sixty pieces of preferment or patronage
enjoyed by " Armagh" will speedily be reduced. If
we have not hereafter Beresfords or Knoxes we shall
have Scholars and Divines. Where Ireland now
has parishes without churches, we shall soon see

the tithes otherwise appropriated than to non-re-
sidents and ecclesiastical drones. By the recent
vote of the Lords the time is not far distant when
the Irish Church will be no longer compared to the
Irish regiment in which there was a whole train of
officers, from the Colonel downwards, but only one
private. We are not dismayed by the suicidal conduct
of the Peers. The Catholic people of Ireland, how-
ever devoured by the Protestant Clergy, will not swal-
low one another. A reformed House of Commons
will never prostitute the public purse to support such
a shameless Church Establishment, thus left defence-
less by the Tory Lords, nor grant additional troops to
suppress agitation originating in the perverse rejection
of the Ministerial measure for terminating the evils of
the Irish Tithe system. We have implicit reliance on
the characteristic firmness and good sense of Lord
Melbourne ; and that without being driven into
colli-
sion with the people of Ireland—the apparent object.
of the Tories—he will, if necessary, call Parliament
together at any period ; and we shall then see whether
the Hereditary Legislators can successfully oppose the
King, the Commons, the Government,
,and the People.
In the meanwhile our anxious hopes arc now fixed on
the public course of Mr. O'Connell and the Irish na-
tion. A fearful responsibility rests on that popular
individual. If judgment and discretion guide his
steps—if he turns this tempting opportunity not to a
bad but a good account, he will, by making the welfare
of his country his care, cause himself to become as
popular here as he is in Ireland.—Morning Chron.
The conseqence of the rejection of the Irish Tithe
Bill we do not presume to anticipate ; but this we, may
venture to say, thatlhe Bill, if carried, would not have
put an end to the ?tithe aaitation in Ireland. The
measure, besides, was. one introduced to the House of
Lords under circumstances any thing but creditable to
the Melbourne Cabinet. It was one of the fruits of
that discreditable itirigue which led to the sudden
ejectment of Earl Grey from office, and made the father
of reform a victim to the ascendancy of Mr. O'Connell
in tile Councils of the nation. The Tithe Bill which
the Cabinet had previously agreed upon was essentially
different from the measure which the House of Lords
has rejected, and which was, in fact, the price at which
Lord Melbourne's Ministry purchased the patronizing
support of the Irish agitator. If the House of Lords
had, under the circumstances, passed this Bill, it
would have proclaimed itself to be nothing more than
a sort of legislative machine to register whatever decree
Mr. O'Connell might choose to dictate to the British
Ministry, and we have seen that no concession extorted
under the influence of the intimidation which the agita-
tor exercises, has ever led to any other result than more
daring demands and fiercer agitation. It is our firm be-
lief than if the most extravagant of all his proposi-
tions—the Repeal of the Union, were conceded
to Mr. O'Connell, it would be
so far from
satisfying him and his party that it would only open
fo
sturbulent
political
andqu e
t loftier
sp iri t
sprospectthe peace and prosperity of their
country ambitionhave
an
vet to
an extinguishing effect. Byron says that quiet to
those
17!0 eurn
quick bosoms is a hell," and certainly from such a hell
Mr. O'Connell and his " tail" do all they can to pro.