The Sun.
London, England, 1835-10-21 00:00:00

IRELAND-DUBLIN-(MONDAY.)

" The parties aro the gamesters, but Government keeps the
:able, and is sure to be the winners in the end."—BunicE.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Though some time may elapse, before all parties
shall have unanimously agreed as to the greater
claims of Whig or Tory to the lasting gratitude
of their country, one thing is at this moment pretty
obvious—that the public service has derived some
immediate benefit from the triumph of the former
in the late Parliamentary struggle. The present tone
of public opinion (in this country at least) shews, that
a greater share of the dispensations of an honest Go-
vernment, is to be expected from the Melbourne Admi-
nistration, than from any of its predecessors. How far
we are justified in cherishing these fond hopes, time
only can determine. But while waiting his award, we
may be permitted to state some of the grounds of our
agreeable anticipations, as well as a few of the mani-
festations of present advantage.
In the first place, then, .we find that the removal
of that great grievance—the, Irish Church anomaly,
crying most loudly for reform—was the basis of poli-
tical concert and action adopted by those men who
form and sustain the present Ministry. The reforma-
tion of this incubus—disrespect is- meant only to its
excessive oppression—had been called for by persons
of every party, capable of forming a due estimate of
the exigencieS of the times. The leading Whigs,
and other liberal Members of the House of Coin
mons, conceived such reformation inoperative,
unless some principle were laid down respect-
ing the surplus revenue of the Church, when put
into a reformed state. More than one circum-
stance contributed to this notion. The great disparity
of numbers between Protestants and Catholics held
forth the certainty of a surplus—and it is unquestion-
able—as soon as the establishment shall be placed in
a decent state of unincumbered efficiency, by a limita-
tion of its income proportionate to actual dimensions
and utility ; while on the other hand the poverty of
the people, and their want of education, pointed out a
proper mode of expending that surplus, as soon as it.
becathe available. Hence a laudable desire to provide
for two pressing urgencies suggested the idea of the
" appropriation " clause so much canvassed. And the
more it is discussed, the more statesmanlike will be

found Lord Morpeth's plan of ecclesiastical adjustui:,„t
in the present posture of affairs. In truth,Onh expe.
rience of the last few years, and the re Tuft of Lord
Stanley's efforts to settle the tithe question, having
shown the absolute necessity fir legislative
interposi-
tion on a more extended P-Aid liberal scale than had been
_ _

hitherto attempte(l, the -they Liberal •party
very wisely concluded, that no tithe measure would
satisfy the country which did not, while protecting and
enforcing legal and just claims, hold forth the prospect
of seine such arrangement as would be ultimately bene-
ficial to the entire community. And having come to
this conclusion themselves, they feel it their duty as
legislators to assent to no proposition less comprehen-
sive, without at least ascertaining, by the most legitimate
means, what the representatives of the people thought
on the subject. The latter deCided, that no relief
ought to be tendered to Ireland on this point, short
.of
•
that which was reasonably calculated to confer for
the future permanent peace. and benefit on the
country. This decision brought conviction to the
mind of Sir Robert Peel and his intellectual asso-
ciates. They felt themselves inadequate to the dis-
charge of the duties imposed on them by his Majesty
for the welfare of his people in an age of Reform,•and
they magnanimously surrendered a trust, which they
could no longer hold. The consequence was, the re-
call to office of those men who had demonstrated the
incapability of their opponents to satisfy the wishes of
the nation. This resumption of the reins of Go-
vernment by the Whigs, a few months only after their
abrupt dismissal, was in itself a proof of their superior
fitness to conduct the vessel of the State in times of

peril and difficulties. And they might, under the in-
creased confidence reposed in them, by reason of that
very'act, have secured their continuance in office for a
considerable time, in despite of all opposition, if the
enjoyment of office were the•only object of their ambi-
tion. They might have carried through both Houses
of Parliament several good measures with great eclat ;
however short those measures would be of the expec-
tations of the people. But what was their conduct ?
what the line of duty which they presented to them•
selves ?—a compromise of the postponement of prin-
ciple by which they were restored to power, for 'which
there are numerous precedents in the history of British
Cabinets ?—No such thing. Instead of devising
means of securing their power, by such pretences,
shifts, devices, and delays, as a Michiavelian policy
might suggest, they resolved at once to give full de-
velopment • to those elements of national reform,
to the primary and most important of which, they
owed their restoration. And knowing that Ire-
land had been for ages that portion of the empire
most in need of reform, and most requiring the
attention of a paternal government, they agreed upon
the immediate adoption of measures for its melioration.
The history of the late Se!sion of Parliament shows
what those measures were. My purpose is not to exa-
mine their intrinsic merit, or inquire whether they were
the very best that could be projected. I shall only
observe, that the majority of Irishme❑ believe them
calculated to promote the welfare of the country; and
they are more than grateful—they are determined to
support those men who 'would carry them into effect.
This is an opinion that gains strength every day—no
matter what the Conservatives—erroneously so called
—and their organs, may urge to the contrary. O'Con-
nell's adhesion to Govermirent, his dissolution of
Trades Unions, his increased popularity for doing so,
as testified by the character of those men who are pre-
paring to entertain him by public dinners, and hiis
rgconcil►ation with Lord Cloncurry, prove the fact
incontrovertibly. Here, then, we have the basis of
that expectation universally entertained, that a new
era•has commenced in Ireland—that her sorrows are
to be converted into rejoicings ; and that henceforward
she shall participate in all the happiness and glory of
the British empire.
There are other gromds, too, equally influential on
the mind 4 J a grataul, and in many respects, a pedigree-
loving people. The personal and family characters of
our present Viceroy and Chief Secretary have conci-
liated towards them the hearts of Irishmen, who ex-
pect all the prepossessions of hereditary sympathy,
,encrousness, and intelligence, from the descendants
of statesmen who were friends to Ireland in the most
eventful periods of her history. Sir Constantine