The Sun.
London, England, 1832-03-05 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Lord Harrowby declines our challenge. Then the
accusation stands, if that deserve the name of accu-
sation which charges the Noble Earl, and those who
act upon his counsels, with a manceuvring, shuffling,
and tricky policy, upon a measure involving the
highest principles of the Constitution and the most
momentous interests of the State. That neither th e
Noble Loid's proposals nor his opinions are held in
much respect by some of those to whom they have
been submitted, and whose sentiments they were
chiefly designed to influence, we have strong
ground for believing. It was hardly to be assumed
that the Duke of Wellington, pledged as he has
been, formally, and in the face of the whole coun-
try, against any change in the representation, could
coale-ce with a trimming coterie, who by their votes
for the second reading have declared themselves ready
to admit the whole principle of the Reform Bill, mo-
dified only by such nippings and parings as they
might be able to filch from it by a system of petty
larceny depredation, carried on from day to day,
arid with minute adroitness, through all the succeed•
ing stages of its course. No. Once admit the principle
of the Bill, and sure we are that the Duke of Wel-
lisigron would be too manly and consistent a legis-
lator to attack serialinz those clauses in which the
principle has been embodied, for the mean purpose
of embarrassing a Government which he may not
altogether approve of. This has always been our
view of the Duke of Wellington's Parliamentary
character, and of what was likely to be his policy
with regard to the Reform Bill in the House of
Peers. Our judgment on this point has of late re-
ceived powerful confirmation from the abstract of
a correspondence between his Grace and Lord
Wharncliffe, which we see no reason for suspecting
to be inaccurate, and the sum of which is, that

rather than make any compromise upon Reform, or
he a party to any qualification or patching of the
8,11, such as has been the project of Lords Harrowby
• and Wharncliffe, the Duke would "not dirty his
fingers with it at all," but let the responsibility of the
measure as a whole, and of its consequences, fall—

where of course it ought—upon the Government which
framed, the Parliament which passed, and the people
who have eagerly called for it. This is quite
straight-forward and direct. It acquits the Duke
of Wellington of the heavy blame which might be
visited on him for having lent so much as the

shadow of his courwance to a measure revolutionary
and destructive; for so he considers it in all its
parts. And what if it should leave the Noble Duke
" alone in his glory." Still, when he shall here-
after meditate the new condition into which Eng-
land will no doubt have degenerated, because of the
extinction of the old borough supremacy and the
growth upon its ruins of that much-dreaded power
the nation, his Grace may thank Heaven that "he
had nothing to do with it." So deeply are we
struck by the steadiness and propriety of this mode
of action in a thorough Anti• Reformer, that it is to
us inconceivable how Lords Wharncliffe and
Harrowby, of whose real hatred of Reform there
can be no more doubt than of the Duke of Wel-
lington's, have not seen how imperiously their
honour, as well as his, demands from them a similarly
pointed opposition. When it is clear from Lord liar-
rowhy's own statements, that his determination to
vote for the second reading has no other motive
than the effectual strangling and death of the Bill,
iu spite of such a formal acquiescence in its princi-
ple, must not all the friends of those Noble Lords be
anxious to see them revise their plan of operation,
and come openly forward with an agreement to sup-
port the Duke of Wellington in his sincere and in-
veterate resistance ? Lord Harrowby will Hever
ladeem himself with the country, unless he shows
pluck enough to divide against the second reading;
nor Lord Wharncliffe, still more certainly, who was
the individual Peer that moved to throw out the Bill.
Be honest enemies, my Lords, since all the world
detests and disdains your hollow friendship. The
Duke of Wellington, in the subjoined abstract of
the controversy with Lord Wharncliffe, who repeated
to his Grace almost verbatim Lord Harrowby's
arguments,—the Duke,we ,ay, threatens that twenty
Peers (himself, of course,amongst the number)" will
take their leave of the House altogether" in case of
a new creation. If this does not prevail upon Lord
Grey to stir himself, we cannot guess what will. The
Duke's part, we hear, in the correspondence alluded
to, displays no small acrimony of spirit. The follow-
ing is the abstract to which we have alluded :
" There is no real reaction in the country."—Lord
Harroteby's Letter.
" The Bill is already out of ' fashion.'"—Duke of

Wellington.
" He believes Lord Grey has a carte blanche to create
as many Peers as may be n, c.essary."—Lord Harrowby.
" Let them ere ate, and be knows already 20 Peers who
will take their leave of the House altogether. The House
of Lords will be swamped for ever, and the Ministers will
responsible"—Duke of Wellington. -
" Neither the Duke of Wellington nor Sir R. Peel will
undertake the responsibilily of Government formed on the
condition of bringing in a Reform Bill, without which no
Government can now exist."—Lord Harrowby.
" There is nothing in the state of the country now, or
which is at all likely to arise, that this Government or
any other Government could not put down with ease, if it
had sincerely a mind to do it. Treats all apprehensions
on this score with the utmost contempt."—Doke of Wel-
lington.
" After the division on the second reading, he may
safely rejoin the 199, and with them enforce such various
modifications, which, though they may not take the venom
out of t' e will render some of its provisions less
noxi,;us."—Lord Harroxby.
" Disputes reasoning, does not anticipate such results.
If there is revolution in Ireland, and if the Church of
England is overthrown, the King's Government will be
responsible."— Duke of Wellington.— Times.

The people of England may suppose, from the
universality of the resistance to tithes in Ireland,
that tithes are levied in that country with a severity
unknown in England. So far, however, from this
being the case, it appears, from the evidence already
printed, that in England the rate is out of all pro-
portion higher than in Ireland. The Rev. Hans
• Hamilton, D.D., Rector of Knocktopher, comprising
the parishes of Knocktopher,Aghavider, Kilmagarry,
Donemagger, and Derrynahiuch (in which Union
and the parish of Graigue the resistance to tithes
began), states that the " acreable applotment of the
tithe composition is front 6d. to 2s. or 2s. 6d. and
may be as high as 30.; that the average value of
land to the landlord is from 50s, to 31. an acre."
Gerald Fitzgerald, Esq., the resident Magistrate
at Cashel, gives the following evidence on the
subject :

You were understood to say, that though the renta
are high in the county of Tipperary, the tithes are not
proportionably high ?—I think the tithes are by no means
a tenth of the rent ; generally speaking, the landlord tries
to get as much as he can. There is a competition for
land ; and, in point of fact, the land is too frequently put
:ip to the highest bidder.
" Can you tell how much per acre is paid under the
composition ?—lt varies according to the description of
land; and each parish varies in itself according to the
quality of the land. Some land pays six shillings ; some
two shillings and sixpence.
" What amount of rent would those lands pay ?.—I
should think the average rent of land in the county of
Tipperary would be ranging from thirty-five shillings to
two guineas."
William Palmer, Esq. an agent who has been
employed in carrying the Tithe Composition Act
into effect in a good many parishes., from the corn-
wencement of the system, principally in the Arch-
dioceses of Dublin and Cashel, gives a general
statement of seventeen parishes in the county of
Tipperaiy, and diocese of Cislie!, which have com-
pounded, and of twelve parishes in the county and
diocese of Dublin which have compounded. The
following observations, which he made at the time,
will astonish the English reader :
" I have with me (he says) a list of seventeen pa-
rishes in the county of Tipperary, and diocese of Cashel,
and I will take the liberty of reading an observation
which I made upon them at the time of the valuation
The total composition of these seventeen parishes, is
nearly a twelfth part of the valuation or rental as made
by me. If the value of the crop was only double this
rental, then the clergymen were receiving about the
iw,nty-fsuith part of the value, instead of the tenth ; if
tiehle, then a 3tith only. hi tin..ter, an acre of pota-

toes, growing only forty barrels of twenty stone each,
the least produce, at 2d. per stone, which is below the
medium price, is worth Si. 6s. Bd. the tithe, of course,
is 16s. Bd. ; if sixty barrels, the usual produce, the tithe
255. ; and if eighty, very common, the tithe 11. 13s. 4d. ;
yet I have never known the tithe in any case to exceed
125., and Bs. is about the medium price. Again, an acre
of wheat, seven barrels of twenty stone, the medium
produce at 255., a low price, the value 81. 15s. the tithe
17s. 6d.. yet Ss. and 10s. is usual, and 12s. the highest
tithe demanded, at least that I have known.'
"Is that the annual produce, or is it the produce in a
given number of years ?—I speak upon an average ; I say
that seven barrels is the medium quantity grown in those
17 parishes."
The twelve parishes of the county of Dublin pay a still
lower tithe. The number of acres is 8,961, the rental
37,7831. 19s. Id., and the proportion of composition to
the rental averages one twenty-fourth.
In the north of Ireland the tithe is still lower.
John Caillard Erck, Secretary to his Majesty's
Commissioners of Ecclesiastical Inquiry, gives the
following evidence :

" Will you state what is the average rate of composi-
tion per acre in the north of Ireland ?—The average rate
of compreit:on in the north of Ireland, upon the nine
counties in Ulster, is 111 d. per acre.
" Upon what principle do you assume that ?—I took
nine parishes in each of the nine northern counties ; I set
down the names of the parishes, the numher of acres in
each parish applotted under the Tithe Act to the payment
of the composition, the gross amount of tithe composition
per acre in each parish : say, for example, if there are
15,312 acres which gives a gross amount of composition
to the sum of 1,0151. 7s. Sd , what would one acre give—
and I find, proceediag upon that principle, that the average
rate of composition in the county of Antrim was about
9id. per acre upon nine parishes, the gross amount of ap-
plotted acres being 93,423, and the gross amount of corn-
positica upon the nine parishes 3,9101. 3s. Oi.
...... "I have prepared another table,
which is to show what proportion the average acre-
able rate of composition bears to the average value of the
land. I made it upon two calculations, reducing it one-
fourth according to the fall in the prices of wheat, and
one-fifth according to the fall in the prices of oats; and
in the case of wheat it was in the ratio of one to twenty
for good land—that is, that the composition is a twentieth
part of the rent on the value of the land; for medium
land it is a twenty-fourth part of the rent; and for infe-
rior land it is as one to nineteen, or a nineteenth part of
the rent ; then, if you make a reduction according to the
fall in the prices of oats, which is the grain more gene-
rally grown in the north of Ireland, it is in the ratio of
one to twenty-two for good land, so that the composition
is a two-and-twentieth part of the rent, and for medium
land the rate of composition is a six-and-twentieth part of
the rent ; and for inferior land it is a twentieth part of the
rent, or value of the land."

Mr. Eick supposes the rent in Ulster may be
one-third of the produce, so that the tithe in Ulster
is for good land one sixty-sixth, for medium land
one seventy-eighth, and for inferior land one-sixtieth
part of the produce. In England the tithe is a very
different share of the gross produce. There is a
work, which may be said to be classical with the
divines, we mean the Reverend Dr. Bearblock's
treatise, which has run through several editions.
Dr. Bearbleck says, that " any sum not exceed-
ing one-third of the rent may be considered a
reasonable payment, in lieu of all tithes arising
on a farm ; for this plain reason, viz. that unless
the occupier can make the produce of his farm re-
turn nearer four rents than three, such farm cannot
be worth his holding. Whenever farms are noto-
riously under-rented or under-rated, through con-
cealment of the rent, then the tithe-holder's
as in case of occupiers of their own land, must be
regulated not by what is, but by what ought to be,
the rent proportionally with the neighbourhood."
That in many cases the clergy do not receive one-
third of the rent, we know ; but in many cases they
do. In Kent, the payments for tithes generally
average this proportion. We know, for instance,
that a gentleman who farms his own lands, between
300 and 400 acres, worth, if let, about thirty shillings
an acre, pays by composition eleven shillings per
acre for the great tithes, and 4s. 6d. for the small
tithes. One-filth of the rent is considered a very
low rate of tithes, and that would be one-fifteenth of
the produce, if taken at three rents, and one-twentieth,
if tatter' at four rents- The amount of tithes, then,
being in Ireland a mere trifle compared with what
it is in England, the determination to resist it
has evidently another cause than the mere burden.
According to the Rev. Dr. Hincks, Rector of Killy-
leagh, whose pamphlet we have already alluded
to, things went on well enough so long as the Pro-
testant clergy contented themselves with merely
playing at religion. " Unless the reader (he says)
be acquainted with the fearful power which the
Romish priests in Ireland passeas over their flocks,
he cannot enter into the writer's argument. - . .
Of late, these most influential personages have
arrayed themselves in declared hostility to the
Protestant clergy of Ireland ; they have employed
every means in their power to render them odious
in the eyes of their parishioners; and the means
which experience has shown them to be the most
successful is to appeal to the passions of the latter
on the subject of tithes. here it may be as well
to state (for some would, probably, deem it uncandid
if it were not stated) that this enmity has not
been unprovoked by the Protestant clergy. Time
was, in the days of our grandfathers, and even of
our fathers, when no such feeling existed ; when
the rector and the parish priest (there were no
Catholic rectors' in those days) were on the most
friendly footing towards each other ; when the
priest would not scruple to command his people
from the altar to pay their tithes, cheerfully and
honestly, to hir friend the rector ; while the rec-
tor was always a liberal contributor to the col-
lections made for his friend the priest at marriages
and on other occasions; and when many of the
nominal Protestants of the parish, being wholly un-
instructed in the principles of Protestantism, not
only contributed on these occasions along with their
rector, but did so with the settled intention of at
some future period claiming value for what they
gave; of sending for the priest at their last hour;
and after living in heresy,for the sake of the good things
which in those days heretics alone could enjoy, of
dying in the bosom of the Catholic Church.
In an evil hour, the Protestant clergy, not con-
tent with enjoying their incomes on these easy
terms, arrayed themselves against the Catholics and
Catholic clergy. Forgetting that a Church and
State religion may bold the rich, but never can
make conversions of the poor, and that every asso-
ciation of the Catholic Irish must lead him to detest
the Protestant Establishment, they thought they
had only to join in a crusade at the twelfth hour
with a few raving fanatics against the priests,
in order to stave off emancipation. The conse-
quence might have been foreseen. " Whether it be
(says Dr. Hincks) from the overflowings of their
own hatred, or from a conviction that the best
means of preserving their flocks from being tampered
with by the Protestant clergyman, is to cut off all
friendly intercourse between him and them; certain
it is that the priests throughout Ireland have done,
and are doing, their utmost to excite against the
Protestant incumbents the hatred of their parish-
ioners. With the fearful influence they possess over
their minds, it would be strange, indeed, if they
were not in general successful." We are far from
saying that the Protestant clergyaien are now as in-
different as they used to be about religion; but it
is too late—say what they will, their zeal will now
be placed to the account of their fear for their
temporalities. They have allowed the favourable
moment to pass by. The only chance for a Pro-
testant clergy in Ireland would be to allow them to
start with nothing, so that in the race of compe-
tition with the Catholics their motives might not
be suspected.—Morning Chronicle.

Messrs. Johnston, the respectable news-agents of
Dublin, are entitled to much praise for their talent
and perseverance in the exposure of a system by
which the Clerks of the Roads have contrived to
carry on a trade in newspapers to the prejudice of
the ordinary dealers in that city, and the great in-
convenience of the public at large. The Clerks of
the Roads are officers connected with the Post-office
in Dublin. They had privileges until lately, in con-
sequence of the connection, by which they were
enabled to forward newspapers to their WA n ens-

comers upon cheaper terms than their competitors in
the trade. Of those privileges they have been re-
cently deprived ; but it seems they still possess op-
portunities, of which they avail themselves, to anti-
cipate upon certain occasions, the other agents in
the delivery of papers sent by the post. We have
not room for the long correspondence of Messrs.
Johnston with the Post-office department on this
subject, published by order of the House of Com-
mins ; nor can we give the petition, in which the
particulars are well stated and strongly argued by
the complainants; but it must strike any one at a
single glance that the practice is an application of
official powers to purposes for which they could not
have keen designed, and that the general tendency
of it is, as stated by the Parliamentary Commission-
ers, " To give the officer a private interest in direct
opposition with his public duty." It is not likely
that such a practice can continue long under the ac-
tive superintendence of the Duke of Richmond,
especially after the strong opinion pronounced upon
it by the Parliamentary Commission. If, however,
the subject be brought before Parliament, we have
no doubt that an immediate arrangement will be the
consequence. The affairs of the Irish Post-office
have already cut such an extraordinary figure in the
history of jobs, that we cannot be surprised to find
some little remnants of abuse still adhering to the
system ; but the sooner such remnants are disposed
of the better. We hope, not only for the sake of fair
play, but of official regularity, that Mr. Johnston's
perseverance will be crowned with success.—elforn-
ing Herald.
We are well aware that when irritable feelings
upon any subject exist, even the honestest attempt
to allay them are rarely, if ever, rightly appreciated;
while that which is intended to cool, only increases
the heat; the angry man exclaiming, with something
like the Frenchman's bad English in the farce, " I
will be drowned, nobody shall save me !" We live,
it is to be feared, in an age of more than ordinary
selfishness—especially as regards public men, the
most exemplary of whom, while advocating economy
as an abstract principle, deem it no inconsistency to
possess in their own persons, and those of their
immediate connections, all that they can heap to-
gether in the way of patronage or place. Now,
whether Lord Plunkett be in any respect an instance
of this, is asserted on the one side and denied on
the other—and that, in both cases, with more
warmth than ought to accompany the elucidation of
the truth. If the assertions which have been made
with regard to Lord Plunkett are untrue or exagge-
rated, they would be best met by a statement
of what the real facts are—not, as Lord London-
derry suggests, by prosecuting the newspapers
for stating that which it is to be presumed they have
received upon an authority on which they think
they can rely. Besides, a mere mistake or exagge-
ration is not a libel. To call a man richer than he
is, or to state the profits of an office to be higher
than they really are, though a blamable error if wil-
ful, is neither libellous nor actionable in any way.
And even if it were, are damages or convictions the
best medicament for such a wound? No—no more
than anger and recrimination. Falsehood is best
met by truth. If it is beneath Lord Plunkett him-
self to controvert the statements which have been
made relative to the places and emoluments in
Church and State held by himself and his family, he
surely has friends enough who could, if they were
so inclined, give the world the real facts of the case.
The error, if there be any, in the statements which
have gone forth can only be refuted in this man-
ner. Any thing like anger and resentment, or a
general avowal of disinterestedness, goes for little
in the eyes of the dispassiooate and well judging.
part of mankind.—:horning Herald.
A Contemporary, fond of the marvellous and the
awful, when discussing Portuguese topics, on Satur-
day evening indulges his readers with a paragraph
couched in these words :—" Accounts from Ma-
deira, of the 10th ult., state that the late attempt to
depose the Miguelite authorities had failed entirely,
and that the mo-t horrible atrocities had been
perpetrated against those who had taken part in the
insurrection. Several of the constitutionalists
were murdered by mobs headed by priests, and
their bodies were left lying in the streets. About
twenty of the insurgents had been sent to Lisbon
to take their trial in that capital." So far our
Contemporary ; but, as it happens, this is an old
story with a new face. Mention is pompously
made of accounts from Madeira of the 10th ult.,
and we made the most diligent inquiries to
ascertain whether any such are in town, but have
been answered in the negative, the latest being of
the 4th. The contents of the above paragraph are
indeed too meagre for it to be otherwise, and in
order to chew the real state of affairs in the island at
that date, we publish in another part of our columns
an English letter which does not even mention the
" attempt to depose the Afiguelite authorities,"
which in London has had so many versions, for the
very best reasons in the world—firstly, because it
was a most ridiculous and insignificant scheme ;
and secondly, because it was an old story. An attempt
certainly was made a little time ago to excite a
mutiny among the soldiers, on the Lisbon plans,
and with this view some secret agents, well
provided with money, were introduced into the
'eland, who, by bribes and copious libations of
rum, supported by a pretty good quantum of
idle stories, succeeded in seducing a few dozen sol-
diers, of whose designs no notice was taken till they
were ready to act; that is, till they were about to
try their luck by firing on the inhabitants, in order
to ascertain whether they had any partisans ; but
they were soon overpowered by a common guard,
arid very possibly sonic lives were lost in the affray.
Thus ended this senseless project, like so many
similar ones in Lisbon ; and it would be difficult to
say whose situation is the least enviable, that of the
employers of these deluded men, or the Pedrite
agents in this country, who have endeavoured to
give to this drunken frolic an air of importance.
The twenty prisoners mentioned, we were told two
packets ago, had arrived at Lisbon. As the most
erroneous ideas prevail respecting the state of the
Azores Islands, and half of the horrors committed
upon the poor inhabitants are unknown in England,
we also insert in another part of our columns the
statement of an eye witness, which will be found
deserving of at tention.—elforning Post.
Whether it has or has not been determined by his
Majesty's Ministers, that the creation of Peers
which may be necessary to ensure the successful
passage of the Reform Bill through the House of
Peers, shall take place previous to, or after, the
second reading of the Bill, we think there is no un-
prejudiced mind, which has carefully attended to the
experience of the past or to the evidence of the pre-
sent time, which can possibly come to any other
conclusion than that that creation will take place as
soon as circumstances may render it necessary, and
that on no account will a rejection of the Reform
Bill be permitted a second time by their Lordships,
What are the circumstances of the case ? Lord
Grey and his colleagues came into office, or rather
were carried into office on the shoulders of the peo-
ple—with a Reform Bill in their hands—a gracious
reception from their Sovereign—and the most
ample pledges, on the part of the people, that
they would strain every nerve to support them
in office. ; and to enable them to carry the Bill
in spite of interested avarice, Tory spite, and
factious opposition. The Bill passed through the
Commons with an overwhelming majority—it was
thrust out of the House of Peers by one as pitiful
as could possibly be mentioned ; but, even then,
Lord Grey told the people not to be disheartened—
consoled the Peers by informing them that they
could expect no measure of Reform from him less
efficient than that which they had rejected—and in
wdo ?ld, and must pass."
u
two days afterwards Lord Brougham confirmed these
pledges, by declaring, on the presentation of a peti-
tion,Have thatthe s "thee pledges
be
Bill
nshould,belied
ie
Have any of these
promises been unfulfilled ? Has not the Parliament
re-assembled, and has not a Reform Bill, identical in
principle, and almost identical in its details, with that
which was rejected, been proposed to and hitherto
successfully carried forward, in the Commons_

and what reason is there, therefore, to suppose that
with the continued approbation of the King•to en-
courage them—and the continued cry of the people
for the speedy and safe passage of the Bill to its
last stage, his Majesty's Ministers should decline
to adopt the only step which is now necessary to
to bring their long and anxious labours to a satis-
factory conclusion, and to restore to the country
that quiet and tranquillity of which it stands so
much in need ? Were Lord Grey to hesitate
for a moment to adopt such a step, or to allow the
Reform Bill •to be rejected a second time in the
Peers, from a mistaken notion of the importance of
his order, or from any other motive, it would not
only be a deep blot upon his administration, which
the country could not forgive, but a stain upon his
hitherto unblemished character, and well-known
consistency, which no future conduct could retrieve;
and were his colleagues, though, with the exception
of Lord Brougham, not so deeply pledged as him-
self, to give into such conduct, we know of no trans-
action in the annals of history which would be pro-
nounced more infamous by the voice of a whole
people, or which would so completely, and for ever,
seal the fate of the Whigs as a political party, and
give stability and importance to another which has
been lately acquiring stability and consistency, and
which, in the event to which we refer, would an-
nihilate both Whigs and Tories. But Lord Grey
is incapable of such weak and vaciliating policy ;
and were he not incapable of it, from a desire
not to sully a well-earned reputat;on for politi-
cal consistency, and from an earnest desire to im-
plement the solemn pledges by which he is bound
to carry the Reform Bill to its last stage,—the daily
and hourly attempts which are made to thwart his
measures—to defeat the ends of hie policy, and to
prevent him from crowning a long life of political
virtue by the completion of a measure which must
hand down his name to posterity as its brightest be.
nefactor—we say, that were he even inclined to
hesitate for a moment—such condnct from political
adversaries could not fail to urge even a less high
temper than his to take a noble revenge, by crush-
ing their conspiracies, defeating their plots, and by
means of a j ud;cious addition of Peers, restoring to
the people their long-lost rights. It is our firm con•
viction, therefore, that the full permission given by
the King to Lord Grey, to create as many new
Peers as he may deem to be necessary, will be
made use of as soon as the necessity exists ; and
that though it may be well for the friends of Reform
to act as if there existed a doubt upon the subject,
no one need render himself uneasy respecting it.—
Mornieg Advertiser.

PALACE COURT, MARCH 3.