The Sun.
London, England, 1835-09-03 00:00:00

mernberment, was too extraordinary to be passed by, even
at this late hour, unnoticed. Lord Duncannon was the in-
dividual on whom the task devolved of introducing a Bill,
which his Lordship had evidently never read ; and, after
having had recourse to all the tactics of a schoolboy who
has not got his task by rote, the Noble Secretary of State,
i n despair, pinched and nudged his next neighbour, Lord
Plunkett, who at length arose, and completed the official ex-
posure by his ludicrous and desperate recourse to all the
hack artifices of a Barrister who has not read his brief. Be-
tween Lord Duncannon and Lord Plunkett the business of
the House apparently stopped, when Lord Wicklow rose,
and afforded their Lordships some very useful informa-
tion upon the topic under discussion. This exposure called
up Lord Melbourne, who was literally frantic, and, having
nothing to say in defence of himself, attacked the late Go-
vernment in a wild and bitter invective, which made his
friends, not his enemies, grow pale, and which his Lordship
soon repented, for the Duke of Wellington rose to defend
the character of the Administration of his Right Hon.
Friend Sir Robert Peel ; and if we were to say that
his Grace vindicated the lath Ministry triumphantly, we
should give, indeed, a feeble and inadequate idea of one
of the most nervous and effective speeches ever deli-
vered in Parliament. The Duke of Wellington, too
honest and too high-minded as he is to be an habitual
sneerer, did not feel disposed in defending, on this oc-
casion, the Administration of which he had been (save
one) the most distinguished member, to suppress his
scorn of their worthless and reckless successors ; and
the scorn of such a man as the Duke of Wellington
is a withering thing. The words of the Noble Duke
fell Me a burning brand •of ignominy and shame, the
marks of . which are indelible and eternal, upon the
audacious and unprincipled assailant. " The • Noble Vis-
count has been pleased, in plain and unequivocal terms,
to compare the violence of that particular party and indi-
vidual on whose proceedings any Noble Friend thought
proper to animadvert with the violence of another party on
which the Noble Lord, I conclude, means to insinuate that
other Governments have depended for support. All that
I can say en this subject is this—l never depended for
support upon any party but that of his Majesty's loyal
and peaceful subjects. I never depended for support
upon any party or upon any individual who had been con-
victed of misdemeanours. I never depended for support
upon any individual who, after having been convicted of mis-
demeanours, received a high promotion from the Minister of
the Crown." The chastisement was terrible, but its justice is
conspicuous as its severity. Lord Fitzgerald and Vesci
also deemed it his duty to follow the King's unhappy
Minister, and, in a speech distinguished for its vigour and
its spirit, its apt eloquence and apposite delivery, inflicted
upon the writhing Premier a castigation which must have
assisted to disturb his dreams. Lord Fitzgerald had the
cruelty even to suggest a comparison between the conduct
cf Lord Melbourne and those of his distinguished prede-
cessor in office, of all possible modes of attack that which
Lord Melbourne, by the unanimous confession of friends and
foes has the greatest reason to drezel :—" He hoped (alas!)
that the Noble Viscount would leave office with as much
honour and consistency as the Right Honourable Baronet
whose Administration was called a clap-trap ; and it would
be well for the Noble Lord if, in the page of history,
•his character as a statesman and Minister could bear com-
parison with that of the Right Hon. Baronet whose Go-
vernment had that night been arraigned." It seems that
the innocent Bill of Mr. O'Connell, which gave occasion to
these excruciating applications of the lash, was the masked
battery of no less than three Popish plots. It appears that
after the third reading of this Bill, in the Commons, Mr.
O'Connell, unperceived, contrived to foist in no less than
three clauses in favour of Popish supremacy ; by the first
he disfranchised all freemen of Dublin made since March,
1831, and thereby secured his future election for the Irish
capital, which, as the law stands, is now impossible ; by
the second he vitiated the general qualification of
_lreland as settled by the Suffrage Act which ac-
cumpanied the Act of Emancipation, and proposed
establishing a right which only can be characterised as a
labour qualification ; by the third he took the su-
pervision of the registration from the Assistant-Bar-
risters, who, in the execution of their duties, have hitherto
given just and general satisfaction, and placed it in the
:lands of agents to be appointed by the Lord Lieutenant,
c#, the Government, i. c. rimself. Here was a Popish
plot which had passed the House of Commons undetected !
Thank to the Earl of Wicklow, thanks to Lord Fitzge-
rald, and thanks to that noble institution which is now the
only bulvve:rk of Protestantism, the House of Lords, it has
been detected and defeated by an overwhelming majority.
The Ministers only mustered twenty-seven votes. They
were so ignorant of the whole affair, that they were obliged
continually to repair to the bar to consult the Irish Solici-
tor-General, who was posted there surrounded by the tail.
Lord 2,lelliourne, it was universally observed, looked des-
perate,
and was generally supposed to have delivered his
last dying speech.—illernileg Post.
Mr. O'Connell, with that recklessness of assertion in which
he seems to think himself entitled to indulge, describes the
House of Lords as opposed to every measure which has
for its object the benefit of Ireland—assuming to himself,
of course, the sole possession of the disposition and the
ability to serve that unfortunate portion of the empire.
While thus free, and thus unjust, in imputing motives to
others—while thus scattering, as far as his means extend,
mischief at every breath, the Learned Member for Dublin
must not be surprised, and ought not to be offended, if, at
least, an equal liberty is taken with himself; and if, among
other things, the world ask what arc Mr. O'Connell's ob-
jects, and what has he done to benefit Ireland, or to
ameliorate the sufferings of the great mass of his wretched
fellow-countrymen ? We contend that, after more than ten
years of agitation, not a single soul in Ireland but himself
and his family are one iota the better for Mr. O'Connell's
prodigiously vaunted labours. Mr. O'Connell's great objects
evidently are, to overturn the Protestant religion in Ireland,
to bring about the ascendancy of Popery in its stead, and in
the mean time to secure to himself a pecuniary reward for his
pious labours, larger than any office, or even the greatest pro-
fessional success (in Ireland) could produce. To aid him
in the first of these purposes, Mr. O'Connell brings with
him to their accomplishment a hatred of England and
of British connection which no spirit of kindness can
mitigate, no concession extinguish. In the mean time, we
again ask what the mass of the people of Ireland gained by
this ? Are their most prominent evils in any degree reme-
died, or their situation improved ? Agitation answers well
Cie purpose of the Agitator, but are the agitated the bet-
ter for the state of excitement and convulsion in which
they are kept involved ? No ; theirs is indeed the " mad-
ness of many, for the gain of a few." If the welfare of
the people of Ireland were indeed the object of its profess-
ing friends, who is there among the latter who can look at
the state of utter destitution in which such multitudes of
teem are involved, and not perceive that for this wretched-
ness, though there is an obvious remedy, yet that it is
one which has been cautiously left untried ? Need we
say tilat we refer again to a statutable relief for the poor
of Ireland—to a measure which would find employment
for those who are now cast a burden upon England, or upon
casual benevolence at home—a measure, in short, which
would apply part of Ireland's enormous rental for the sup-
port of those who till, and who would till, the soil ? Is
there any one so blind as to have us believe that this is not
a subject of infinitely more real concern to the people of
Ireland than doubtful measures of Church or Corporation
Reform, or than Constabulary Bills and measures of po-
lice ? And if so, is there any reasonable man who can
hesitate to pronounce that show of patriotism a farce and a
delusion (to say nothing of its private ends) which can thus
.pass by the welfare and maintenance of the great bulk of
the helpless peasantry of Ireland, while it mulcts even their
poverty for its own splendid support ? That the present
Seision should expire with nothing done, or attempted to
be done, for the poor of Ireland, is a stain upon the Legis-
lature, and an indelible spot upon the patriotism of its pro-
fessing patriots. But let not the House of Lords bear the
blame. Rather let it alight on the heads of those who have
failed to put their Lordships' views towards Ireland to the
lest.—Morning Herald.

THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE.—On a lovely
everoig, during the last summer, I had occasion to go to
the wiodow, when a new church attracted my notice. I said
to the landlord, " I see you have built a new church here—
where -did you get the money ?" " Why," said he, " Go•
vernment gave half." Now, reader, that is not the voluntary
principle which means " forcing a man to pay." The money
which Government gave to this church was raised by taxing
Quakers, Jews, Methodists, Catholics, and Dissenters, as well
as churchmen. So you see one half of this Church was built
by money forced from the people's pockets. " Well," said I,
"- how did you get the other half of the money ?" He replied,
." We raised that among ourselves by private subscription ; it
cost me a good deal out of my own pocket, hut then I don't
grudge it." Reader, this is the voluntary principle, when a
man willingly gives. I said, " What did you give then, five
pounds?" I shall never forget the honest glow of conscious
independence which beamed on his countenance as he replied,
" Sir, I gave fifty pounds to begin with ; they wanted more,
and I gave them ten poundsin addition ; and when they were
finishing it, they were run short something about the altar-
piece, so I gave them five pounds more." This is the voluntary
principle. I was astonished, " So," said 1, "it cost you sixty-
five pounds." "Yes, and lam glad we have a Church, for
it was very inconvenient for us to go two miles and a half to
." I remarked that it must he a poor
Viving for the clergyman, as the tithes of such a district would
a vmount to very little. His face brightened up again as he
sa ;ar„ " Bless ye, we have no tithes here ; we pay our parson
by stihscriptioni and pow rents. I give two guineas a year
to • This is the voluntary pr:nciple. " Well," said I,
"but you have brought the blessings of the
.Church-rates
upon 3 vurseivos l" " No," said rubbing his hands with
great "no Church-rates neitlier ;we pay all repairs and
exnensps: ourF.plv.7; C,ristlngq. I nml srtven and sixpel-:ce
last' earrOnd they should have bad more if they had wantcd
This is ttt vollmtary priatip4.l.—jersty Paper.