The Sun.
London, England, 1834-10-15 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Irish papers teem with discussions on the po-
licy of the recent legal appointments in that country.
The selection of Mr. O'Loughlin—an eminent bar-
rister, a Liberal, and a Catholic—for the office of So-
licitor-General, appears to be unexceptionable. But
the English public should know that the legal promo-
tions in Ireland are of great political importance. In
England many of the legal offices of official station
confer only honorary rank or emolument. In Ireland,
however, some members of the bar are a constituent
part of the Executive Government. There an Attor-
ney-General (who in England is a simple subaltern),
is personally a Member of the Dublin Cabinet—if
not officially, at least substantially, a Privy Coun-
cillor. The Solicitor-General, also, if not seated at
the Council-board, is not less a part of the Execu-
tive ; and similar power is more or less shared by
the Serjeants and King's Counsel. In fact, the
avenues leading to the Throne, as well as the steps of
the Throne itself, in the second-hand Royalty of Ire-
land, are occupied by the Irish bar. Under these cir-
cumstances, it is not surprising that legal appointments
in that party-stricken country should excite an interest
and discussion commensurate with their public import-
ance. The recent arrangements must be viewed as a
continuance of the office of Attorney-General to Mr.
Blackburne, a gentleman who had been all his life a
Tory, and, what is worse, an Irish Tory, who had
been chosen originally by the Tories to fill that office,
and who had been adopted by the Whigs, notwithstand-
ing his hostility to liberal principles. We are almost at
a loss to account for these occasional infatuations of a
party which has been repeatedly undone by alliances
with their opponents. The Tory Administrations ma-
naged matters much better. It is true that they pur-
chased Mr. Sergeant Copley—Mr. Warren—and
that they got over Sir James Scarlett ; but then
the Tories bargained that the Swiss lawyers, thus
enlisted in foreign service, should change their politics
with their party, and adapt their votes to their new
avocations. The original appointment of Mr. Black-
burne, by the Marquis of Anglesea, was said to be a
" tub to the whale," a compromise with the Orange
faction. We have, however, heard another rumour ;
namely, that the selection of that barrister was to
secure verdicts from the Corporate Juries of Dub-
lin. It was said to be suspected that the party-
coloured Jurymen of Ireland could not be ma-
naged without the seduction of an Orange At-
torney-General. This may be the mere spiteful con-
jecture of an opposite faction ; but, be this as it may,
the fact stares us in the face that Mr. Blackburne,
who used formerly to emerge from the murk and
gloom of his professional habits and figure at public
meetings against Emancipation—who has copiously
signed, we are told, Anti-Catholic Petitions to Par-
liament—who was the recognized leader of his asso-
ciates against popular movement—the chosen of the
Tories for their Attorney-General, was the adopted
Tory Attorney-General of the Whigs. What con-
geniality of disposition led to this unaccountable
connection, we are at a loss to imagine. 'We admit
that political opinions ought not occasionally to
prevent promotion of eminent legal men to judicial
office ; but it is impossible to justify the selection
of opponents or renegades to political office. What,
for instance, would be the indignation of the Liberals
of England, if Sir E. Sugden—an acute and erudite
advocate—were appointed English Solicitor-General in
the present vacancy by the cabinet of Lord Melbourne?
What has given credit and confidence to the present
Ministry, but the consistent nomination of recent Mem-
bers of the Cabinet ? We may well imagine, there-
fore, the real cause of offence in Ireland, without going
the length of sanctioning all the dictations of Mr.
O'Connell ; and we much suspect that the original ap-
pointment of Mr. Blackburne has created subsequent
embarrassments, which have led to further deviations
from a more true and popular policy in Ireland. The
evils of such suicidal measures are not confined to the
immediate consequences of Tory appointments. How
many philippics during the last Session of Parliament
were vented against the Government for its association
with an Attorney-General who had packed the
offices in his gift with Tory partisans—who might
have an interest beyond the mere scrapings of
office in the errors and difficulties of his superiors,
notwithstanding he was a member of their Govern-
ment—who was inconsistently an adviser of their
measures, a director of their prosecutions, a counsellor
of their mischances I An Irish Attorney-General is
not a mere instrument in the hands of the Govern-
ment. Do we wonder, therefore, that a majority of
the Irish nation object to the promotion of Tories by
Whigs, and anxiously sought the translation of Mr.
Blackburne from his office as Attorney-General to the
Bench ? The promotion of a Roman Catholic will
not atone for this gross mistake, nor palliate the con-
tinuance of a Tory in the office of Attorney-General.
We make great allowances for the difficulties of the
Irish Government, and fully admit the superiority of
the administration of Irish affairs by Lord Wellesley
and Mr. Littleton ; but common sense will never jus-
tify the course we have here reprehended, nor can any
casuistry reconcile it to the Irish people.—Morning
Chronicle.
Lord Londonderry, in a letter addressed to the
Editor of an Evening Paper, states that he has " given
directions to his agents in Ireland to take upon them-
selves, under the Composition Act, the discharge of
all tithes due from his tenantry ;" and in a subsequent
part of the letter adds, that " if the landlords of the
sister kingdom would, one and all, agree to adopt what
may appear to be a momentary sacrifice, but which
would, in fact (under well-regulated properties), not
become so, there would at once be an entire end of
the tithe question, and the owners of property in Ire-
land would have the proud satisfaction of seeing
peace, good order, and content, restored to their
.tenantry." In this mode of settling the tithe question
ewe more than agree with Lord Londonderry, who
might have gone on to state that the commuting of
tithes, both in England and Ireland, into a rent-charge
upon estates, would be one of the greatest boons which
the landed interests in both countries could receive ;
and to this consummation, we trust, the matter
will speedily be brought, under the authority of Par-
liament. This commencement of the plan by Lord
Londonderry, and other large non-resident, as well as
westident landed proprietors, reflects much credit upon
them, believing, as we do, that it has originated in a
mod' higher feeling than that of self-interest. But
this, we need scarcely add, can only be brought about
by the Lea:slature ; for as to the Noble Lord's hypo-
thesis, ~ if the landlords of the sister kingdom would
one and all agree, it assumes a concurrence which
the most visionary theorisl` scarcel ever attempted to
,
dream of ; and though it be tru"e that the great bulk of
landed property is still in the hOds of Protestant
owners, the Agitator has in his train qu:.fe a sufficient
number of dissentients of another class, to v;.i'on any
thing which goes to fix the stability of the ProteZtant
Church will never be a matter of voluntary concession
—no, not if personally advantageous to themselves.
At the same time, nothing is more likely to bring about
its permanent and universal adoption, and to justify its
sanction by the Legislature, than that its voluntary
adoption should be as general and extensive as possible.
—Morning Herald.
Some of our contemporaries give a report of pro-
ceedings adopted lately by the Primate of Ireland and
his Clergy, which to us at least, as friends of the Pro-
testant Church, are far from being matter of exultation.
These unfortunate, because wilfully blinded gentle-
men, seem to act upon a knowledge of their own real
situation and prospects, about as correct as a Chictaw
Indian might obtain from the wife of an American
backsettler, touching the state of the Brahmins of
Bengal. In fact, the Irish clergy, as a body judging
them by the sort of weapons they now have recourse to
—betray an absolute and profound forgetfulness of
every thing which has been passing round them for
the last three years. They have " resolved upon
raising a fund for the purpose of enabling the clergy
to recover the income of their parishes ! due in No-
vember, 1834, in case of resistance on the part of
the payers of tithe composition ;" and five per cent.
upon the net income of their respective parishes (that
is to ,---the..liet nominal income, for real income there
is ROA Itatr%On the amount of subscription agreed
wen. 'Thei oth4, resolutions of the rev. body are
40•,, erely au iilip.rilii that above recited, of which the
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