The Sun.
London, England, 1832-12-06 00:00:00

•PIRIT OF Tllt PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Mr. O'Connell boasts that he has brought
about an union among Catholics, Orangemen,
Methodists, and Presbyterians ; and it would be
difficult at this time to say what he cannot do.
At 'the meeting of the National Political Union
ire Dublin on Saturday last lie declared that—
" Mr. Sheil's conviction, as to the necessity of Repeal,
Was produced by the conduct of the British Parliament ;
and the Administration of Lord Anglesea, Stanley, and the
Attorney-General, showed that, without repeal, it was
impossible to do any service to Ireland.--(Hear, and
cheers.) He was proud to think that the enemies of Ire-
land were no longer to be distinguished by their religion,
but by their servility.—(Hear, and cheers.) Orange-
men, Methodists, Presbyterians, can now be ranged
amongst the patriots of Ireland ; and he was most proud
to be able to state this fact, that the first person who ten-
dered a vote to his son in Tralee was the Methodist
preacher of that town,—(Cheers.)--Amongst the Irish
patriots were to be found men of every persuasion, whil,
the vilest and most servile, the veriest 'lickspitel —•(i
was an unpleasant word to use, and which he should not
pronounce in a public assembly, if he could find one equally
expressive of the class he was describing)—but that filthy
word particularly applied to the Catholic portion of the
herd of slaves who were the most bitter and malignant
enernie-s of Ireland.—(Hear, and cheers.)"
Ministers are now reaping the fi uits of the
absurd policy of Mr. Stanley. Their best friends
as we yesterday stated, will suffer, precisely be-
cause they are their friends. Mr. O'Connell
makes no secret of his plan of campaign :
" The principle," he said, "which they had laid down
all along was this—to return Repealers where they could,
and if Repealers were not to be procured, then those who
were the next hest to Repealers.—(Hear, and cheers.)
Why was Mr. Wallace put out of Drogheda? Because
the people in Drogheda were able to return a Repealer.—
(Cheers.) Why was Mr. Wyse put out of Waterford ?
Because the people there were able to return a Repealer,
and Mr. Wyse had most unwisely refused to give such a
p'edge as the peeple tlesired.—(Hear.) Why would Lord
Killeen he put out of Meath ? Because the people to
Meath were able to return two Repealers.—(Hear, and
cheers.) He (Mr. O'Connell) was then asked why Mr.
Evans. upon whom a most undeserved eulogium was pro
nounced, was opposed ? He (Mr. O'Connell) would
wish to remind Mr. Reynolds of this, that Pierce Mahony's
claration was signed by Mr. Evans, and that in doing so.
be endeavoured to suppress discussion.—(Hear.) It
was not their own opinions the Leinster Declarationist•
sonzlat so much to put forward as to suppress the opinions
of others.— (Hear.) He (Mr.O'C.) did not understand why
such men as Mr. Wallace or Mr. Wyse were at all to be
put in the same basket with Mr. Evans. It was at the-
proclamation time too, that Mr. Evans signed the Leinster
declaration ; at the very time when he (Mr. O'Connell)
was under prosecution.—(Hear.) Such a man then, as Mr.
Evans was not to be compared either to Mr. Wallace or
to Mr. Wyse, and he was now opposed in the county
Dublin ; because, if there was unpaid agency in the
county, the people would certainly be able to return two
Repealers.—.(Cheers.) If they could not in Limerick re-
turn Repealers, be would ask, were they to allow Mr.
Pierce Mahony to be returned ?—(Hear.) If two Re-
pealers could be got for Limerick, they would have his
support; and it was only in case that two Rep.-alers
could not be procured, that he then took up the next best
man to a Repealer, Mr. William Roche, who possessed
the public confidence, and prevented the Possibility of the
people being deluded by Mr. Pierce Mahony, who was
worse than a Conservative or an Angleseaite.—(Hear,
and cheers. )" _ _

In fact,-it appears that the principal difficulty is
not to return Repealers, but to obtain them in
sufficient numbers. Among the other Members
denounced is the Hon. Mr. George Lamb. His
vote in the Newtownbarry affair is posted against
him. "He would advise the Hon. Gentleman
not to let the women of Dungarvan see him,
or they might duck him under the bridge.—
(Cheers and laughter.)" The people of Youg-
hal declare they will have none but a Repealer,
according to Mr. O'Connell ; and, after lookinp
about for a competent one, he could not obtain
any. However, the people of Youghal wished
his second son, whom he himself considered too
young ; but he at length consented ; and, says
Mr. Connell—
" Although subject to all the abuse and vituperation of
the Conservative and Castle Press, who accuse me of
turpitude, he will withdraw the moment a Repealer i-
put forward who has any chance of being returned ; but I
will not allow the Duke of Devonshire, or his agent--
more especially a Ponsonby—to control the electors o
Youghal. Mr. O'Connell next referred to the Ponsonby
family, whose only characteristic was a great ap
petite for receiving the public money. I will chal
lenge Mr. George Ponsonby to meet my son before
the electors of Youghal.—(Cheers.) He has, to be sure,
addressed the College as a candidate, and has abandoneo
Youehal. He must have entertained a poor opinion o'
the electors of the University of Dublin ; he must have
thought they had a particular hatred to Ireland, when he
hoped he could secure their support by calling the sup
porters of repeal insane. I wish I had this Mr. George
Ponsonby, who has the absurd folly of designating the
advocates of repeal ' insane'—l wish I had him before and
public meeting, and I would give him a Jury of Englisb
men to decide who was the insane person on this question.
Why, it is revolting to witness a driveller of this kind
presuming to call those who are in favour of repeal in-
sane !' This stupid dolt—this specimen of stupidit)
personified—this very personification of stupidity—this
kind of wig block stuffed, and ready to be wheeler,
to the right about face when the wires are pulled, to
open his mouth and to shut it when he is commanded—
this drivelling dolt has the impudence and folly to call
us insane. Why, we would, indeed, be insane, did w.
submit to such contumely. The brother of this Mr.
George Ponsonby, the Bishop of Derry, has 22,0001. a
year. Can't he eat his pudding, the slave, and hold hi-
tongue ? But this Ponsonby and his friends will all go out.
Boyton has his thousands to make the Conservative elec
tors, and what a chance Ponsonby has when Boyton has
the votes in his pocket. I cautioned the Whigs in the
House that they were cutting their own throats by giving
an additional member to the University; but that amez
inely conning fellow, the Solicitor-General, thought it
was all a rnist.ke. He did not understand what my
friend Boyron could do.—(A laugh.)"
Such is the way in which Mr. O'Connell dis-
poses of Ireland. We are ready to admit the
difficulty of governing a country like Ireland.
But Government have absolutely gone out of
their way to create difficulties. Mr. Stanley, like
a great school-boy, would forsooth enforce a con-
demned law before proposing his remedy, merely
to let it be seen that the law could be enforced.
The state of the country, the feelings of the peo-
ple, the safety of the friends of Ministers at the
approaching elections, were all deemed as no-
thing in comparison with this favourite abstrac-
tion. We know that Ministers were again and
again warned of their danger by some of their
most devoted adherents. But Mr. Stanley
triumphed.—Morning Chronicle.

The summons of Marshal Gerard, which we
formerly published, and the three letters in our
paper of to-day, together with the final answer of
Chasse, which we may expect by our next express,
will probably constitute the whole epistolary preli-
minaries of this great military enterprise. The old
Dutchman has, at present, the worst of the argu
ment in the correspondence, as he will most proba-
bly soon find that he has the worst of the battle in
the more active conflict. He is asked, in the name
of humanity, to save the city,—to consider the space
within its walls as neutral ground,—not to endanger
or lay in ruins one of the finest cathedrals and some
of the most interesting monuments of Europe,—
to respect former precedents on this subject,
when the defenders of a citadel in a state of
siege submitted to those humane conditions, and
not to provoke the indignation of posterity as
well as to prepare, a summary, though a more
disastrous triumph to the besiegers, by a wanton
destruction of the lives and property of peace-
ful, unoffending citizens. The French Gene-
ral engages, if these terms are accepted, not
to fire on the citadel from the fortifications of the
town, and thus to surrender all the advantages
which he might derive both from the use of such a
commanding position and from preparations of at-
tack which have been made by the Belgians for the

last two years : and what does the Dutch com-
mander answer to this merciful and reasonable pro-
pohal ? Why, he has given a virtual refusal; for we
consider an impossible condition as an indirect re-
fusal. He demanded not only that the fortifications
of the city should not be employed against him, but
hat all the detached forts dependent upon it
should remain inactive,—that the Tete de Flandres,
belonging to him, and even his flotilla on the river,
should not be attacked,—and that the navigation of
the Scheldt should continue free, to allow him fa-
cilities for all the supplies and reinforcements of
which he might stand in need. It requires little mi-
'nary knowledge to perceive that on these conditions
the French would have to encounter great losses,
and to consume much time in reducing the citadel.
It would, in fact, as Marshal Gerard states, be
a siege without a blockade." One army and
one pink of artillery after another might, by
the free navigation of the river, be admitted to
defend the citadel against its assailants till Holland
tiould not find another man, or another gun, to de-
-patch on so perilous a service. Such a proposition
must, therefore, be considered as inadmissible. It
made no part of any former agreement for saving
the city from a bombardment. It seems to us nearly
about as unreasonable and irrelevant as if Chasse
should demand the raising of the Dutch embargo
in England, and the return of the French blockading
squadron to Brest, as the condition of saving Ant-
werp from his cannon. As two days had elapsed
without any announcement of an answer from Ge-
neral Chasse, it may be presumed that he has de-
clined the offer of the besiegers. If, unfortunately
for so noble a city, this should be the case, and if
the French commander should in consequence take
possession of the fortifications of the town, already
-upplied with artillery, the operations of the siege
may be expected soon to terminate. It is some
consolation, likewise, to think that a great portion
of the inhabitants have left the town; that the
greatest precautions have been taken to remove or
'o protect property ; and that every provision has
been made to extinguish fires.—Times.
On public grounds we are happy to learn that
the prospect of Sir John Hobhouse's return for
Westminster amounts almost to certainty. There
have been two objections stated by the Ultra-Radi-
cals to the Right Hon. Baronet :—first, that he
would not bolt down the nauseous mess of pledges
to which these revolutionists had invited him;
second, that he held an important office under the
Reform Administration. Upon the subject of
pledges our own opinion has frequently been ex-
pressed, that no independent and upright man would
tie up his own deliberative power by accepting
them. A pledged Parliament is not " a free Par-
liament," and as men, either individually or collec-
ively, are not masters of future events, so can
they not anticipate seven, five, or three years, nay
one year, beforehand, what changes may take place
in the foreign or domestic relations of the country
of a nature to affect considerably the reasoning, as
to time at least, by which many political questions
inight to be decided. A candidate in swallow-
ing a particular pledge, much more a series
of pledges, might easily bind himself to act,
when the day of trial came, in the teeth of com-
mon sense and unanswerable argument. By taking
the mob for his preceptors, the pledgee must be
conscious that he submits his understanding to those
who are profoundly ignorant of all but that which
lies upon the surface of even the least complicated
inquiry, and that in suffering his mind to be made
up for him upon the hustings as to the vote which
ne shall give hereafter in the House of Commons,
with regard to any serious national interest, he sets
;fie law of Parliament at open defiance, and stultifies
• hat ancient, wise, and invaluable arrangement of
the public business, which, through the several
steps and divisions of each Bill, was established for
the security of the state against the effects of head-
long impulse and precipitancy, which provided that
twat Houses of Parliament should not only be al-
lowedj sufficient time for deliberation between the
successive stages of every measure, but should be
incapable of dispensing with it, unless by an outrage
upon the standing rules of their proceedings.
The man who voluntarily puts a gag in his own
mouth and a chain upon his own free agency
must be an improvident blockhead. He who
so manacles himself from eagerness to buy, at any
price, the patronage of a set of arrant or designing
,lemagogues, who care as little about the duties of
representative as they do for the solid interests of
the constituent body,—such a creature is a mean
ind sordid slave. The last being on earth who
.hould have our vote would he a pledge-bolting
candidate ; besides feeling contempt for him, we
could never trust him. The manifest absence of
principle which induced him to subscribe to un-
warrantable obligations would fill us with doubt of
his intention to fulfil them, and we suspect that if
any one would take the trouble to examine the de-
'ails of the several elections throughout the king-
dom, he would find that the amount of pledges de-
voured by the candidate was very nearly in the in-
verse ratio of the public estimation in which he was
held, and of the political reputation which he had
to forfeit by failing to redeem them. We finish
with repeating-1. That the candidate pledged
chin-deep is the man of all others least to be con-
fided in by the people; and, next, that the Mem-
ber of an honest and liberal Government is he who,
ill things else being equal, has the best founded
claim to preference and support from the people.
The " Destructives " may launch their unanimous
execration at such maxims,—it troubles us but
'lightly ; they begin to be seen through by the na-
tion generally, and may howl to the wilderness ere
long.—Times.
The dissolution of Parliament at the present mo-
ment constitutes one of the most critical and im-
portant eras which the history of this country has
ever afforded. Had the present -Ministers know-
ingly and avowedly set their wits to work to preju-
dice themselves and their friends upon the occasion,
they could not have affected that object, either as
to time or circumstances, more ingeniously than
they have done. They belong to a party, it is
true, who have been long famed for the extraor-
dinary faculty of erecting walls to run their own
heads against—a quality in which the Whigs of
Lord Grey's time appear determined not to be out-
done by those of Sheridan and Fox. Still the
people have an object to look to quite inde-
pendent of all personal and party considerations.
It is due to the present Ministers that they should
remember that to them, at least, we owe the
opening of a door %%hich had been locked, barred,
and bolted against admission by all former Admi-
nistrations ; and those who are now about to ho-
nestly exercise the elective franchise, whether old
or acquired, will do well to recollect that those
who have hitherto bolted and barred them out
still look upon them as intruders, and are anxiously
looking about to keep them from stepping one inch
farther beyond the threshold than they can pos-
sibly prevent. As far as what is called the Con-
servative party succeeds in the ensuing elections,
so far there is a danger of that object being at-
tained and the progress of rational Reform impeded.
It is to this one object that they are now directing
all their efforts and all their apparent ani-
mosity ; and it is against these efforts that all
honest Reformers should struggle, in spite of the
difficulties which Ministers have thrown in their
way. Provided we have a Parliament elected upon
Reform principles, it matters very little who the
future Ministers may be ; but should the enemies of
Reform, taking advantage of the unwise and unto-
ward circumstances in which the present i\linisters
have placed themselves on the eve of this election,
succeed in getting a preponderance in Parliament,
the country may readily foresee how very little of
the fruits of Reform they would be likely to gather
in the midst of such a blighting atmosphere. It
behoves,
then, we think, every honest sound Re-
former, in the approaching struggle, to lay out of
the question the conduct of Ministers altogether.
In fact, he is called upon to choose the very tribunal
to which they must render up their account. Look-
ing steadily at one great object of which the foun-

dation has been laid, let all minor points, and espe-
cially all temporary resentments, cease. The very
fact, indeed, that by yielding to them he will be
playing the enemy's game, ought to deter every
/flan of honest intentions from indulging in them for
a moment. The next fortnight will be a most mo-
mentous one for the country. Every effort will be
used by a crafty and disappointed faction to re-
cover, under cover of an ambuscade, the ground
from which they have been so nobly aad heroically
driven. The public have now got the cards in their
own hands. Let them not, we repeat, be prevailed
unon to play the game of their enemies.—Morning
Herald.

It would be idle to speculate to any extent
on the result of the elections which are now on the
eve of conclu-ion as well as of commencement ; but
we cannot refrain from making one or two observa-
tions which we doubt not will be amply verified.
The fact is, that the Tories, or, as they now style
themselves, the Conservative party, are wholly bars
de combat—they have lost—they have not gained
ground. They felt, even at the commencement of
their canvass, that no good result would eusue from
their endeavours, and in consequence they have em-
ployed their best exertions, first, to divide the friends
of the Ministry, and next, to flatter the Radicals
into an opposition to it. They have faded in both.
The friends cf the Administration have stood firm
to their first faith, and the Radicals have proved
themselves too clear-sighted, as well as too honest,
to be either cajoled into or won over to, a derelic-
tion of their principles. The result, we think,
will be, that, considering the previous strength of
the Tories, they will fall to a lower depth at the
termination of the elections than most of their ene-
mies could have supposed. With respect to the
Rtdical party, there is a decided acquisition of
strength. The boroughs and cities will present a
great addition, and from many of the counties there
will be returns of Members whose principles are de-
cidedly in favour of the people—of short Parlia-
ments, and of vote by ballot. Measures of an es-
sentially radical nature will, in consequence, be the
order of the day; and for this reason :—the Tories
will not refrain from opposition to his Majesty's
.Ministers, be the ground of it as frivolous as
it can possibly be supposed ; and, on the
other hand, the honest and stubborn adherence
to principle of the Radicals, will impel them to
vote with them on all questions which may not en-
danger the stability of the present Administration.
With regard to the purely Whig party—the
friends of moderate Reform, and, in consequence, the
friends of the present Administration,—it is a matter
of much doubt how it is situated. It has not, un-
questionably, gained any great accession of strength;
but we see no reason to believe that it will lose
much by the coming election. It is universally be-
lieved, even by its opponents, to be most honest and
well-minded ; and if it only follow out its disposition
by decided acts of ec,inorny, retrenchment, arid re-
form in Church and State—all power is its own—
nay,the country will be ready to worship it. Should
it be found to fail in these matters—should it limp
instead of walking—its doom is sealed, and without
forgiveness. It will unite two parties against it,
which, separately, are not sufficient to make head
against it, but which, wlien combined, would be
more than a match for all its strength. Would not
the result be revolution? —Morning Advertiser.
When we consider how many questions affect-
ing the most vital interests of the country are to
be virtually decided by the results of the elections
which are about immediately to take place, it is
impossible to disguise from ourselves the deep
importance of the crisis. Conscious how much
depends upon their efforts at the present junc-
ture, and that if now defeated they are overthrown
for ever, the innovators and revolutionists ai'e
straining every nerve to turn the scale in their
favour, and, whether numerous or few, are every-
where active and on the alert. We appeal, then,
earnestly to the leaders of the Conservative party
throughout England, and ask them whether
They will suffer the cause of good government
and the . rights of property to be endangered
for want of a little timely exertion ? We ask
them why any constituency in the country should
he left without a Conservative candidate at the im-
pending elections ? Ought not justice to be done
to the Tory spirit that so extensively prevails among
the people ? And will justice be done to those
who are animated with zeal for the Constitution and
the laws if they are anywhere deprived of the op-
portunity of expressing their sentiments and making
their voice heard ? For the most part, we are re-
joiced to know, that opportunity will not be denied
them, but there are up to the present moment many
lamentable examples of a contrary character.
Westminster is an egregious instance; and the in-
activity of the Conservative party in that borough
is deeply to be regretted, not less on account of
the importance of the constituency than because
the division in the revolutionary camp affords
a most favourable opening for a candidate of sound
constitutional principles. It is not yet too late, and
we trust the short time that remains will not be
lost. But not in Westminster alone—in every
county or borough where the field has till now been
left open to the Radicals—the Conservative body
are imperiously and in duty called upon to provide
themselves with the means of making their strength
known. Victory may attend many a contest
which has too hastily been abandoned in despair;
and, though defeat ensue, these spirited demonstra-
tions will add a moral force to the Conservative
party in Parliament which will prove advantageous
to a degree not perhaps at present contemplated.—
Alor fling Post.