The Sun.
London, England, 1834-04-30 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Repeal question has since the first three nights
of the discussion been treated like a bale of damaged
goods—nobody would look at or attend to it. Thank
heaven, the thing is now at an end—we mean as a
parliamentary question. The overwhelming majority
has expressed, in a mode not to be misunderstood, the
opinion of the House of Commons. We have never
seen a question brought into Parliament where the
reasoning and the common sense were so unequally
divided. On the part of the Repealers, from Mr.
O'Connell's first speech to his reply (both inclusive),
there was not to be found the shadow of an argu-
ment—no, not one--by which the judgment of any
impartial being could have been determined to
vote in the affirmative. To do justice, however,
to some of Mr. O'Connell's supporters, we must
acknowledge that the incomplete form in which
the bill of emancipation received the Royal as-
sent in 1829, left afloat so many unsettled inte-
rests, and threw into a state of uneasiness and
irritability so many selfish passions, as to make it
impossible that agitators on the look out for mischief
should not have used both for purposes of national dis-
turbance. Not undervaluing the difficulties which
surrounded the Duke' of Wellington on the occasion
alluded to, nor those by which preceding Ministers had
been beset with regard to Catholic emancipation, we
must deplore, first, that the measure was long enough
delayed to admit of the growth and accumulation of a
large share of bad feeling towards the Government
amongst the people of Ireland ; secondly, that in pre-
paring his measure the Duke of Wellington threw
overboard the ecclesiastical part of the question, left
the Catholic priesthood precisely where it had stood for
two previous centuries, and therefore the minds of that
clergy, already discontented with their existing lot, no
less distrustful of the future. Had the Duke of Wel-
lington been inclined, and enabled to settle the affairs
of the Catholic church, and attached that body to the
state, as he did effectually the great bulk of laymen of
property among the Catholics, Mr. O'Connell andother
schemers would have wanted tools to act with. The
Catholic church, in all its degrees and branches, would
have been against him, and agitation, at least for chi-
merical or iniquitous objects, might have wasted its
malignity on the air. However, it is sufficiently ob-
vious that through whatever causes popular dissatisfac-
tion in Ireland might, within the last few years, have
been aggravated, none of those evils which alone could
have justified it were to be cured by a repeal of the
union. A repeal of the union would have produced of
necessity-1. the dictatorship of Mr. O'Connell over
Ireland ; 2. through the inevitable disappointment of
a savage people, gaping for good things, which neither
union nor the repeal of it, nor wholesale confiscations,
could obtain for them,—a violent and general convul-
sion—the general prevalence of fierce and vindictive
barbarity—persecution of property and protestantism
—civil war—the necessary intervention of the mighty
power of Great Britain—the devastation and certain
re-conquest of Ireland, until, the mournful cycle should
be completed by establishing the government of that ill-
starred Irish province upon the same principles of Pro-
testant supremacy and Popish subjugation which it has
been the boast of England, beginning with the last
half century, to disavott and gradually to abandon.
That category of tremendous ills has been for the
present eluded by the issue of last night's closing de-
bate on the agitator's motion ; and all similar attempts
at mischief from the same quarter, may, we hope, be
frustrated by an earnest attention to well-founded com-
plaint, and by a prompt and rigorous punishment of
all crimes connected with sedition. The church ques-
tion must be forthwith adjusted, the Irish poor law
question must be diligently and honestly considered ;
as in close affinity with both of them, we must conti-
nue to press upon the languid spirit of the government
an immediate provision for the Catholic clergy, and
a decided overthrow of the present corn-law system,
the curse and bane of the whole United Kingdom, Ire-
land herself included. It will be seen by the report of
the House of Lords, that ministers are taking mea-
sures for an immediate concurrence of the Upper House
in the address of the Commons, to which joint pro-
ceeding there is no doubt that the Sovereign will affix
his early and not reluctant fiat. If any ulterior mea-
sure be contemplated, it must speedily be made known.
—Times.

The Repeal Question has terminated as every one
supposed that it would terminate. The majority was
523 to 38, or 485. This is about 14 to 1. We do
not believe that an English or Scotch member will be
found in the minority. The Repealers are a minority
even of the Irish members. The discussion will do
much more good in Ireland than in this country ; for
here people deem the Union one of those matters
which it would be useless to discuss, as the Union
never can be dissolved. The English are a practical
people, and, therefore, not much enamoured of idle
talk, in which light they viewed speeches for a repeal
of the Union. If the Irish Repealers ever flattered
themselves that their arguments would produce the
least impression on John Bull, and that agitation might
be as successful in obtaining repeal as it was in ob-
taining advocates for emancipation, they must now be
undeceived. The alternative of setting England at
defiance, and repeating the drama of Belgium, has
been hinted at, but the most extravagant Repealers
must be sensible that the very idea is ridiculous.
Morning Chronicle.
We have only room to congratulate the country on
the triumphant division which last night decided the
fate of Mr. O'Connell's motion. Thirty-eight to 523
was a poor stand for the repealers to have made after
all their pledges and exertions. It was less, if we
have been rightly informed, than they anticipated
themselves. Sixty was the number on which they are
said to have calculated, but even 60 would have been
a small muster in such a house. Those must be san-
guine friends of separation who think that even in
Ireland such a majority would produce no effect. But
it is not a mere majority on which we have to calcu-
late. There is a victory of argument as well as of
timbers to be taken into account, and on the com-
bined influence of both we may undertake to say that
the question of repeal, or separation, or dismember-
ment, or whatever else it may be called, is set at rest,
tint only for the present Session, but, to all practical
purposes, for ever.—Morning Herald.
Thank God, the question of the repeal was last night
fin,Ally settled in the House of Commons, by one of the
most triumphant majorities which we have ever known
to occur ; the total number being—
For Repeal 381
Against it 523 I
Majority —485!
Adding the Speaker, and four tellers, the House
consisted of 566 members.—Morning Advertiser.
In the House of Commons last night the discussion
of the repeal question was. resumed, and concluded
without giving rise to anything requiring particular
remark. The division was a triumphant one for the
supporters of the union, the number of members who
voted for Mr, O'Connell's motion being only 38,
while in favour of the amendment there were 523,
thus presenting, in a house of 561 members, a ma-
jerity of 485 against the dismemberment of the em-
pire. Mr. Hume made an attempt to modify the
proposed address, but failed to obtain support or even
attention to his proposal. We rejoice at this signal
defeat of the agitator, but should have preferred the
simple rejection of his motion, as a course better cal-
culated to humble him in his own estimation, and that
of his deluded adherents, to the ministerial device of
An address to the Throne from both houses of the le-
4Tislature upon such an occasion. We shall be sur-
prised if ...ministers do not ere long discover that they
have spoiled the business by overdoing it. —Morn. Post.
The maste'•r tailors have determined to resist the
tyrannical and absurd pretensions of the associated
journeymen. We give them great credit for their
firmness of their conduct, and earnestly exhort them
to persevere in it, assuring them that it will not re-
sinire a very protracted struggle to insure to them, or
rattler to their customers, who are the parties really
interested, a final and complete victory over the inso-
lent and domineering clubbists. It is, however, of the
utmost importance that the public at large sho-uld lend
all the encouragement and assistance in their power to
these and to every other class of master tradesmen
who may be involved in a similar contest with the con-
federated workmen in consequence of the unwarrant-
able demands of the latter. A tradesman may, it is
pbvious, be placed in a very difficult position if, in
circumstances like the present, any portion of those
customers upon whom his future prospects in business
depend should be urgent for the execution of their or-
ders. A certain degree of patient forbearance is a
duty incumbent, therefore, upon every individual who
does not wish that these unconscionable journeymen
tailors may achieve a triumph, which would not only
be pernicious in its effect, so far as their own calling
is concerned, but would certainly extend and strengthen
that general infatuation which has seized the working
classes in almost every department of industry, and
which threatens, if it be not speedily checked, the
most disastrous consequences to the peace and welfare
of society. Neither' lino 1 iwr Wrial 94.14 to be re-