The Sun.
London, England, 1833-02-11 00:00:00

that there should be an excuse for keeping up a
.large military force in Ireland,since they enjoyed
the patronage—the English army has a General
for every 250 men, and a force of 25,000 men,
kept up in Ireland, would at that average, war-
rant the making of 100 Generals, besides all the
staff and minor appointments, the expense of
which the English people must be taxed to pay.
Of all the Reforms the public have a right
to expect from a Reforming Government and
a Reformed Parliament, is a Reform in the sys-
tem of governing Ireland,—the establishment-of
a Government of and for the IRISH NATION—
not a Government of and for an Irishfaction,—
a Government that will afford protection to
ALL, while it enforces the law against
ALL, without favour or party distinction.
It has long been the practice to confide the office
of Irish Secretary to some embryo Statesman,
as a first step to other offices, who readily re-
ceived impressions from those he found in
power, who were always some of the Orange-
men of Ireland, where it is difficult to find a
Protestant, who, if a Whig by party, is not a
partisan in principle and practice—which, to
carry into effect an honest system of Govern-
ment, would require a Statesman of great ex-
perience, temper, and judgment—of tried firm-
ness and unquestionable integrity, and honesty
of purpose—whose name would inspire the
well intentioned with confidence, and hold the
evil-minded of all parties in check—whose elo-
quence would speak in deeds rather than words,
and who would make the King's Government
beloved and respected, or, if it must be, feared
by all ranks, parties, and factions in the State.

We are fully sensible of the difficulties with
which Lord GREY'S Government has had to
contend—we are equally sensible of the diffi-
culties that surround the affairs of Ireland—that
evils generated by centuries of misrule are not
to be cured in a day, but fervently hope the sera
of a Reforming Government, and a Reformed
Parliament, will prove the dawn of a happier
wra for unhappy and misgoverned Ireland.

There are one or two of our contemporaries
who having been obliged, on the vital question
of Reform, to conform, and pretend to advocate
the cause of the people, are now revenging them-
selves for the restraint under which they have
been to a certain extent placed for the last year
or two, by opposing, with all their power, the de-
tailed amendments of our institutions, which
they think may with safety to themselves be op-
posed. Of all the small reforms, if we may so
call them, which press upon our attention, that
which is most urgent, because it would faci-
litate the progress of all others, is a Re-
form in the mode of conducting the business
of the House of Commons. The plan proposed
by Lord ALTHORP did not go the length we
are willing to go, but, as we before said, it was
worthy of a trial. All those who like things to
remain as they are, merely because they have
been, and all who have some particular fancy of
their own, oppose that plan, and Lord AL-
THORP'S good nature appears ready to yield
the point to their importunities. Now what are
the arguments advanced against him ? The
Morning Herald has condescended to enter
into particulars, and, as usually happens, when
it leaves the shelter of safe generalities, the hol-
lowness of its arguments are sufficiently visible.
We should state before quoting them, that the
Herald's attack is apparently directed against Mr,
O'CONNELL'S plan, but, as Mr. O'CONNELL
proposed that the House should only sit on al-
ternate days, the assertions of our contemporary
are even of less effect against his plan than that
of Lord ALTHORP. The Herald says that
there are three obstacles to performing the
public business of the House by day instead of
by night :

" 1. If Ministers were required to attend in Parliament
during the morning, the business of their respective de-
partments must be wholly neglected.
"2. Commercial and professional men must be either
absent or neglect their other callings altogether.

" 3. Much of the business of Parliament is conducted
by Committees, which necessarily sit during the forenoon;
and the Members of which (amounting sometimes to some
hundreds in a day) must either be absent from the House
or neglect the frequently not less important business of the
Committees."

We will answer these arguments in the order
adopted by the Herald :-1. The proposal
was, that the House should meet for petitions
at twelve o'clock, and for public business at five.
If Ministers were able to leave the House of
Commons at or before eleven or twelve at night,
instead of two, three, and four o'clock in the
morning, they would be able to have the same
time for rest that they have now, if not more,
and yet be attending to their office business by
nine or ten in the morning ; and as they do not all
attend in the House now during the presenta-
tion of petitions, neither would they have been
required to do so under Lord A LTHORP'S
plan ; which only provided that one Cabinet
Minister should be present ; so that the greater
number of them would have had, not till twelve,
but till five o'clock to attend to office business.

2. The same facts and arguments answer the
Herald's second position nearly as well as its
first. We may add that, supposing they do not
answer it at all, it is only of any weight as re-
gards a few Members, whose business lies in
London ; for the mass of the men of business in
the House are bankers, merchants, solicitors,
manufacturers, and a few barristers from the
different great commercial towns and manufac-
turing districts of the kingdom. We may ob-
serve, too, with respect both to the first and
second objection, that there are few men whose
bodily or mental energies will bear being drawn
upon for more, at the outside, than from twelve
to fourteen hours of the twenty-four. Although,
therefore, nominally the present mode of con-
ducting the public business, which the Herald
wishes to perpetuate, may give to all Members
from eight or nine in the morning till three or
four the next morning, for the despatch of their
public and private duties, yet, practically, none
have more time for either one or the other than
would be given by the plan proposed by Lord
ALTHORP.

3. The proposition made to the House left
time for the sitting of Committees from nine to
twelve, and from three till" five, at neither of

which periods would the attendance of Members
have been required in the House.
If it be said that the work, under either plan,
would fall too heavily on a large portion of the
House, we answer, as we have answered before,
that the House must lengthen its period of
sitting from four or five months, to six or
seven in the year. It is not to be expected that
the vast concerns of our extended empire can be
discussed and managed in as short a space of
time as when our colonies and foreign possessions
were not half as extensive, their population half
as numerous, and their interests half as compli-
cated as they are now. We trust that Lord
ALTHORP will yet persevere in urging the fair
trial of his plan. Sure we are that he will find
himself supported by all the moderate and reason-
able men in the House, who feel that the nation's
interest is that which ought first to be consulted.

We are not surprised to hear that the friends
of the LORD CHANCELLOR are industriously
spreading a report that his Lordship is favour-
able to the reduction of the taxes on knowledge,
and that he is disappointed at the delay which has
been thrown in the way of that measure by the
CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER. It is very
creditable to Lord BROUGHAM to be an advo-
cate for the repeal of these taxes, but it would
have been astonishing if he were otherwise. The
inconsistency of opposing the only means by
which the diffusion of knowledge can be made
general, after having accepted the situation of
President of a Society for promoting such diffu-
sion, would be too glaring for any public cha-
racter, however destitute of principle ; and in the
instance of Lord BROUGHAM, whose public
conduct has been marked by a strict regard for
principle, such an act of inconsistency would be
truly astonishing. The LORD CHANCELLOR
having expressed his desire to have these odious
taxes reduced, and other Members of the
Cabinet having made similar declarations one
of their grounds to that public favour which
brought them into office—and the CHANCELLOR
of the EXCHEQUER himself ?laving very recently
stated that he considered the tax on newspapers
a very improper one, the country will necessarily
inquire why it is not repealed immediately.
The only reason that we have heard assigned
for the delay, and that by the way is a reason
which, if well-founded, may justify not merely
delay in the repeal or reduction of the tax, but
its permanent continuance is, that Lord AL-
THORP is not yet aware whether the financial
returns for the year will enable him to make
any alteration—thus placing the question not
upon the broad basis of public improvement,
but on the comparative returns of the different
branches of the revenue. Suppose the law as it
stands awarded death to every individual who
should, in the slightest degree, defraud the
Customs. Would Lord ALTHORP, in reply to
the loud burst of indignation against so san-
guinary a law, declare that its repeal must be
made conditional on the extent to which the
Government might be able to support any
probable defalcation in the revenue from the
abolition of death punishment ? or, shifting
the ground to one of mere economy, what
would Lord ALTIIORP say to one of his te-
nants, who should refuse to pay him the rent
of his farm until he had first ascertained that
he could spare the amount, without being
obliged to lay down a hunter, dismiss his
daughter's singing master, or diminish the usual
allowance of finery for his lady ? Would not
Lord ALTHORP take such a tenant to be one
of the most impudent dogs in existence ? And
yet, when the public call upon him, in the inte-
rest of morals and general improvement, to re-
peal the odious taxes on knowledge, he replies,
" Wait, and see whether I can afford it !"
that is to say, whether there will be a surplus of
revenue to enable him to repeal or reduce this
tax, without touching any source of public
patronage.

With all our respect for Lord ALTItORP, we
must tell him that these are not times for such
an answer to the loud and universal cry for the
repeal of a burden so directly opposed to the
principles of good Government. Let him look
at the profligate expenditure in sinecures and
pensions—at the enormous salaries paid to Com-
missioners of Public Boards, and chief clerks i❑
the different offices ; at the outlay for a standing
army, consisting of 9,000 more troops than even
the Duke of WELLINGTON considered neces-
sary, and then ask himself whether the nation
will be satisfied, when they demand the reduc-
tion of an abominable tax, with the reply of
" Wait till I see whether I can afford it."

The Irish Journals are, as was to be expected,
full of complaints against the spirit and ten-
dency of the KING'S Speech, which they look
on as a disastrous omen for the future welfare
of Ireland. They, however, anticipate great
things from the Irish Members in the House.

It is stated in the diplomatic circles that Prince
TALLEYRAND will leave England sooner than
was expected. It is supposed that he will return
to France in about two months, and, after having
passed a short time at his seat near Blois, pro-
ceed to Nice, where he will remain during
the winter. There is only vague conjecture as
to his successor, but the Duke DE CAZES is
still spoken of.

We have received from Oporto a file of the
Constitucional Chronica to the end of January.
They are chiefly filled with decrees for official
appointments and acts of clemency towards sol-
diers who had been taken in the act of desertion
—a proof that desertion has not been confined
entirely to the Miguelites. Private letters state
that the Minister of Commerce, Don JOSE DA
SILVA CARVALHO had become the director of
the Regency Cabinet, and that he and Marshal
SOLIGNAC were on terms of perfect intimacy.
M. CARVALHO is a gentleman of high political
integrity and first-rate talents. Having been
distinguished for his anti-aristocratic sentiments,
he was for a long time kept out of the counsels of
Don PEDRO ; but the Marquis of PALNIELLA)
although differing from him in political senti-
ments to a considerable extent, appreciated his