The Sun.
London, England, 1835-05-11 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

From our Dublin correspondent's letter, and from
the Irish papers, it appears that Mr. O'Connell has
come—not through any gradual process, nor in conse-
quence, as it would seem, of any elaborate or deliberate
investigation of the subject, serious and thorny though
it be, but per saltum in a manner—to a conclusion di-
rectly opposite to that which he had proclaimed and
acted on for many previous years with regard to Irish
poor laws. To us, who have been long and earnestly
pressing that most important question upon public no-
tice, it gives unfeigned satisfaction to find that the de-
clared enemies of such a relief to the destitute poor of
Ireland, have at length, from whatever motives, be-
come sensible to the enormity of their long-cherished
error, and have avowed themselves converts to the ne-
cessity of preserving, no matter at what price, the un-
fortunate from perishing for want of food.. When
men's minds are deeply engaged in the prosecution of
any one great political object, they usually confine their
attention, as is indeed natural, to the benefits which
they hope to be derivable from its attainment. They
dwell upon what they expect that it will do for them or
for the country ; but when they are reminded of what
it will not do for either, they turn a deaf ear, and bid
you hold your peace. With all anxiety to see Catho-
lic emancipation carried, we tever represented that
noble measure as aught more than a sine qua non to-
wards the accomplishment of whatever else might be
deemed necessary for the redress of Irish grievances.
We knew and felt that the Bill brought in by the
Duke of Wellington would neither place the Popish
priests on that footing which the peace and well-being
of the country required, nor, what was still, if possible,
more urgent, did that Bill go a single inch towards
improving the relation between the property and the
poverty of Ireland—that is, between employers and
labourers, and between the landlords and their smal-
ler tenants. The grand accompaniment of every other
Irish evil is the misery of the labouring poor. It was
plain that Catholic emancipation would do nothing for
that. It would raise the gentry to their just political
privileges, but it would not relieve any man from naked-
ness or hunger. The consequence has been, that poverty
in its strict sense—that is to say, the want of absolute
necessaries, such as food—not merely that of comforts,
as in England—has prevailed among the Irish to a de-
gree unexampled, we verily believe, in any other Eu-
ropean region ; for it is not merely in a direct manner
that the absence of a well-regulated poor law in Ire-
land has operated to the continuance of destitution, it
is not merely that hunger has not been relieved, but
that want in no shape has been prevented. The land-
lords are not only not compelled by law to give one
farthing towards the alleviation of misery where it has
already actually overtaken its victim, but they are not
warned by the fear of any legal compulsion to avert
its occurrence, by the slightest care on their own parts,
exercised with a view to the future advantage of their
humble neighbours. When the poor candidates for
an acre of ground on lease are driven by desperate
competition to offer three times the rent that can ever
be made of it, what would be the influence of a poor
law upon the conduct of the landlord ? He would
calculate the rent which a tenant could afford to
pay, and select for the occupation of his tene
ment the most industrious and reputable hus-
bandman. Such a landlord must know very
well, that the man who promised more than lie could
pay could never pay what he promised, and would
therefore, in his consequent state of pauperism, become
a burden on the parochial poor rates. This would
give the landlord an immediate interest in the comfort
and independence of the poor about him. The poor
man's wages would be raised by it, while his rent would
be lowered, and with a smaller nominal income the pro-
prietor would be in reality a richer man. But at present
the Irish are treated more like beasts of the field than
human creatures. They have been stimulated and encou-
raged by the landlord, while it served his political in-
terests, to settle as freeholders on the estate. They have
multiplied in the midst of privation. At length it was
manifest that the lard was overstocked—and what
then? Had poor laws existed, the land must still have
fed the poor who had been settled on it, after they bad
ceased to be its tenants ; but without poor laws, and for
want of them, the surplus tenants have been unhoused
and banished, without a place to lay their heads in, a
rag to cover them, or a potato to cat. Never was such
wholesale destitution witnessed in this world. The
law gives no redress and no protection. The landlord
has exercised, correctly speaking, no more than the
right of property secured to him by the barbarously
defective condition of the law, and thousands under the
vindication of that right have perished. This state of
things we have often said must be put an end to; and
if Mr. O'Connell follows up the question with a per-
severance equal to the zeal with which he seems to
have opened it, or sees it in the same clear light in
which the late Dr. Doyle presented it, we have no
doubt that the object will be gained. When it is in
contemplation to take a large proportion of its annual
revenue from the Church for the benefit of the land-
lords, it would be too audacious in the latter to reject
the supplications of the poor. But Parliament, we
hope and trust, will soon entertain that feeling upon
the question which humanity and justice inculcate
upon a Christian Legislature ; nor should any com-
plaint be listened to of the sacrifice which such an al-
teration of the law would entail upon the Irish land-
lord ; half the rent of his estate would, even considering
no interests but his own, be a cheap price for the
many direct and collateral blessings thus (morally
ensured to society.---Times.

We have the satisfaction of laying before our
readers a report of the proceedings at a dinner given at
Halifax, on • Saturday, to the Hon. James Stuart
Wortley, Member of Parliament for that borough.
These proceedings, which would have been important
at any time, are invested with additional importance at
the present moment, when the representation of the
populous and wealthy district in which Halifax is
situated is the object of a vigorous contest ; and when
the brother of the sensible and spirited Gentleman in
honour of whom the dinner at Halifax took place is
the candidate for the West Riding of York, who re-
presents the Conservative feeling of the district, and
whe nobly stands forward, in the face of great diffi-
culties and disadvantages, for the support of the
Church and the Monarchy of Great Britain. It is
impossible to read the report of the Halifax
meeting without associating it with the great cause
for the maintenance of which the whole West
Riding of the county of York is at this moment in
active, and we trust effective, motion ; and we refer
our readers to this report, in the conviction that they
cannot fail to gather from it a new and exhilarating
confidence that the good cause in Yorkshire is power-
ful, and promises to be triumphant. The speech of
Mr. James Stuart Wortley is entitled to attention, as
it presents us with a distinct view of the character of
the late Administration and of the present ; and en-
ables us to judge of the probability that the electors of
the West Riding will show by their votes which set of
Ministers are entitled to the preference in the minds of
an enlightened people. The question upon which the
electors of the West Riding of York have now to
make up their minds—the question submitted, not to
them only, but to the whole British people—was
never more ably nor more dispassionately stated than
in the speech of the Honourable Member for Hali-
fax. That question is simply whether the Whigs have
earned a title to the gratitude and confidence of the
nation, by preventing the reforms which Sir Robert
Peel had announced, which he and his colleagues
had well considered, and which, but for the resistance
of the Whig-Radical party, with Lord John Russell at
its head, they would certainly have been able to effect ;
and by substituting for those safe, moderate, and at-
tainable reforms, projects of alarming and undefined
innovation, to be progressively suggested by the wisdom
and enforced by the power of Mr. O'CONNELL—pro-
jects of which the whole practical result must of ne-
cessity be limited to the pernicious ferment of the public
mind which they may be calculated to produce—pro-
jects which, from their character, their motives, and
their source, are already doomed to utter and hopeless
failure. We are persuaded that we do not overrate the
good sense of the people of Great Britain, when we
affirm that upon this question there is very little
difference of opinion among them. A conscien-
tious and patriotic Opposition, sincerely desirous
of improvements in the institutions of a coun-

try, will not attempt to displace an existing,
Ministry, unless they have attained to a full con-
viction either that the Ministry wants the will or the
power to effect any substantial amelioration of those
institutions, or that the reforms which the Adminis-
tration actually in existence has the will and the power
to effect, are of inferior value to those which the Op-
position meditate, and rationally believe they can ac-
complish, when they shall have succeeded in forcing
their rivals out, and themselves into power. 'The
Parliamentary opposition which compels the retirement
of an Administration in any other circumstances, may
be actuated by ambition, by cupidity, by jealousy, by
resentment, but it cannot obtain or expect credit for
any regard to the welfare of the country, or any sin-
cere anxiety for the improvement of its institutions.
When tried by this unerring test, there never, per-
haps, existed in any country a body of Statesmen so
little entitled to its gratitude—confidence—or favour
—as the present Ministers of the Crown, and the he-
terogeneous factions which assisted them to eject
their predecessors. They must have known, that
Sir Robert Peel and his colleagues were at-
tempting much, and had the power to effect much,
of real, substantial, and practical Reform. They must
have known also that they and their confederates, of
all grades and characters, whatever might be their dis-
position, could comparatively effect little or nothing.
To this disadvantage of their own position, as com-
pared with that of their political rivals, it is morally
impossible that the late Opposition in the House of
Commons could have been insensible. What, then, is
the unavoidable inference from their conduct ? Is it
not that, regarding Reform as a good thing, they re-
garded the possession of place and power as a much
better ? Is it not that they were ready to sacrifice the
cause of Reform, which they pretended to prize so
highly, upon the altar of their own selfish ambition ?
Is it not that all their professions of regard to the
interests of the nation were delusive and hypocritical,
and that they had chiefly in view the promotion of
their own ? " The late Administration," as Mr.
"Wortley well and truly observed, " had, in Sir
Robert Peel, a man of high resolve and of exem-
plary conduct ; and the opposition by which he was
met in the House of Commons had in it more of
artifice and intrigue—more of faction and less of prin-
ciple—in the proceedings which led to the late melan-
choly result, than any other upon record. The resist-
ance to overthrow that Government, arrested the cur-
rent of regular but effectual improvement, dammed up
the reservoir of all useful Reform, and checked the
progress of those practical efforts attempted to be car-
ried into effect by a Minister whose experience was
admitted on all hands, and which would have been
effective in its operations through all branches of
the Legislature. That factious proceeding had pre-
vented the progress of reforms which would have
met the wishes of all classes ; and placed in power
men who, in no degree, either for skill or ability, pos-
sessed the confidence of the people. When I say
this, I feel satisfied that you will fully concur with me
in the opinion that those now in power do not pos-
sess the confidence of all the branches of the Legisla-
ture. The present Government must not, may not,
cannot carry the measures which they propose. They
shall not, in their own way, do that which the Govern-
ment that they dissolved would have done less hastily,
less violently, but with more safety." This is the plain
language of common sense and integrity. It expresses
a sentiment universally entertained by all the Reformers
of Great Britain, and operating at this moment upon
the minds of all, in exact proportion to the warmth
and sincerity of their attachment to the cause of real,
practical improvement in the laws and institutions of
the country. There is one class of Reformers, indeed,
and only one, which can fail to sympathise in the
feelings so powerfully expressed by Mr. Wortley. And
this is the class of self-styled Reformers, who see no
value in any Reform that is not pursued by revolution-
ary means, and calculated to promote revolutionary
purposes. To these alone could the success of the
Russell and O'Connell confederacy against Sir Robert
Peel have afforded a triumph, but it is a triumph in
which the electors of Great Britain will not and cannot
participate.—Morning Post.
It is abundantly clear from the narrative which we
have already given .of the murderous transactions at
Keady, that the law for the security of personal liberty
in Ireland is a dead letter. The police force, orga-
nized and paid expressly for the pArpose of protecting
that liberty and enforcing the laws, are the first to vio-
late them. Although a magistrate was upon the
ground—an interested one to be sure, whose authority
therefore was dempised—nevertheless Thornhill, who
led the attack upon the people, never thought of de-
manding permission from Mr. Blacker before he pro.-
yoked a general engagement. Such an idea never
entered his head. He went out with a deliberate in-
tention to assail the Catholics, whether right or wrong ;
he was seconded in his thirst for blood by his companions ;
and when they found that to their utter disappointment
the day was passing off quietly, without any infraction
of the peace on the part of the poor peasantry, they
originated the conflict themselves rather than that

heir prey should escape. Can we who read of these

transactions, and reflect upon them for a moment, be
astonished, therefore, that the people of Ireland have
no respect for the laws ? What is done in that country
in tile name of the law, and by the officers appointed
to carry it into execution, is not law, but the reverse of
it—despotism wholly uncontrolled—the private will of
magistrates and constables—the caprice of men with
arms ill their hands, invested with official authority,
who, if they know anything whatever of the law, or of
the general spirit of the British Constitution, take
good care to place the Irish people beyond the pale
of both. He who talks, therefore, of the " barbarous"
multitudes of the neighbouring island, should recol-
lect that it is the magistrates and the police who have
made them so, and who will continue to intercept
and turn back from the people the blessings of the
Constitution, until the entire system of Govern-
ment in that part of the empire be thoroughly re-
formed. Mr. Greene states that the Rev. Magistrate
Blacker " was not at the scene of action at the com-
mencement of the affray ; but upon seeing it, rode up
quickly, and called out to the police to cease firing."
If this be true, it proves that the Magistrate who so
improperly took upon himself the responsibility of
directing the police, grossly violated his duty by not
having been present at the " scene" before the " action"
commenced. Wherever the police were, he should
have been. If personal cowardice induced him to hide
himself behind a rock until the people began to fly
before the fire of the police, he assuredly is a most unfit
person to hold the King's commission. Indeed the
whole of this transaction shows that a degree of
courage is required in Irish Magistrates which we
cannot always expect to find in a Clergyman, and
consequently that it is an unpardonable exertion
of power in any Irish Lord Chancellor, to insert
in any such commission the name of a Minister of
the Gospel. But what are we to think of a police
force who, when " not ordered" to fire, nevertheless
fire upon their own savage impulse; and then, when
commanded to desist, still continue in the illegal and
murderous discharge of their arms ? We should like
to ask an Englishman what protection the people of
Ireland derive from the law, after this ? For, let it be

told to Englishmen, and to men of every nation, that
the police of Armagh, employed by a priest of the
Established Church to collect one pound nineteen
shillings of arrear of tithe, which he had never before
demanded, not only fired upon the people without the
slightest provocation—not only fired without orders.
not only fired in violation of orders, after those orders
were given—but absolutely discharged musketry
upon the people after they began to retreat /
Our own inference from the evidence is, that
Blacker was present at the " scene" before the
" action commenced ;" and that he encouraged the at.
tack on the people in the first instance. But in what-
ever light we view the conduct of this man, whether as
a minister of the Church, or a magistrate holding the
King's commission—whether skulking behind a rock,
or giving his despised mandates to the banditti whom
he had brought together to collect his tithe, we should
have presumed at all events that when the investiga-
tion into these transactions took place, he would have
been stationed at the bar as one of the parties legally
presumed to be implicated in the murder of the man
Hughes. But, on the contrary, the name of the Re-
verend James Steuart Blacker, the clergyman inter-