The Sun.
London, England, 1835-12-26 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOITRNALS.

May not a man do what he will with his own ? At
this season, when the hearts of all men believing• in
the doctrines of Christ—who, while on earth, con-
stantly inculcated brotherly love, and gave as the sum
of the moral law that we should do to others as Nve
svould that they should do unto us—ought to be open
to all the kind influences of humanity, it may seem
singular that we should repeat the words of a man who
is evidently as much a stranger to Christianity as the
savage of New Zealand, who expresses wonder that
hs should, not be allowed to devour his fellow-creature.
But it is not without reason that we ask this question.
We Copy from the Freeman's Journal, a paragraph
ceataining the resolutions agreed to at the Meeting of
Clonegath, on the subject of the victims of the perse-
cution of Lord Beresford, Colonel Bruen, and Mr. La-
touche. It appears fioin these resolutions that 175
families, amounting to 992 individuals, and 410:oiling
316 widows and orphans, have been. ejected from that
part of the properties of the above individuals which is
situated in the parish of riunieekney ; and that 71 addi-
tional families, amounting to 391 individuals, inclu-
ding 92 widows and orphans, have been served with
notices to quit next March, by the same Viscount
13eresfosd, Colonel Bruen, and Mr. Newton, in the
same parish ; and the resolution adds, " It is with
pain we are obliged to admit that this system of exter-
mination has been carried into effect against these in-
dustrious and afflicted families, solely (with three or
four exceptions) on account of their conscientious ad-
herence to the faith of their forefathers." If Lord
Beresford and his allies were to raise a pile, of such
magnitude that all these victims could be at once
placed on it, and were to set fire to the pile, they
would, in truth, be acting with humanity, compared to
the course they are pursuing. The poor wretches
would be at once removed from their sufferings. The
destruction of nearly all of them is, indeed, not less
certain than if they were brought to the stake. The
difference is, that, before death overtakes them, they
will suffer from cold and famine. No doubt it is
wisely ordered that intense suffering cannot be long
protracted, for insensibility comes at length to the relief
of the victim. This, be it remembered, is what has
taken place in one only of the many parishes of Ireland
in which the soil is owned by hard, unfeeling men, to
whose tender mercies the law has handed over millions
of our fellow-creatures. The majesty of the law must
be vindicated I The law holds society together, and
the law dooms in one parish nearly 2,000 individuals
to death by starvation. An honest Highlander, whose
notions of law had been derived from such teachers as
Lord Beresford and Colonel Bruen, thought it his
duty to warn a distant friend of its approach—" The
Law (he said) has reached Tain--take care of your-
selves at Dornoch." It will not be supposed that we
have any wish to extenuate the horrors of the Spanish
Inquisition, but we must observe that Llorente, who
having been Secretary of the Inquisition had access to
all its retards, sums up the number of its victims down
to the period of its abolition ; and we have no hesita-
tion in stating that more human beings have fallen
victims to religious persecution in Ireland in one year
than to the Inquisition in 200 years. We will not
suffer the bloody Papists to remain among us "
was a sentiment worthy of a Beresford. We
would fain believe that the people of England
will not coldly look on while these wholesale
butcheries are going on in Ireland, The Irish
Protestant Clergy are no doubt deserving of compas-
sion ; but what are all the sufferings of the Clergy
compared to the sufferings of the victims of persecu-
tion in one parish alone ? The people of England are
not surely such slaves of faction, that they can only
feel when incited by an Archbishop of Canterbury and
Bishop of London. These wholesale exterminations
are really a disgrace to our national character. Let it
be borne in mind, that it is to the aid which the Irish
landlords derive from the taxes paid by the people -of
England that they are indebted for the ability to play
such pranks in the face of high Heaven. Let public
opinion express itself in this country in such a manner
that
.a whole people may not thus be left without pro-
vision. In this country the turning out of fifty fami-
lies at once, to die in a ditch, would fill the people,
from one extremity of the kingdom to the other, with
indescribable horror. And shall we forget that the
Irish also can suffer ?—that they are our fellow-citi-
sens, though hitherto their lot has been very differently
cast from ours. Hitherto they have only known the
law as a means of oppression. But they must now
experience the protection of law, and the voice of the
people of England must ring in the cars of their cold-
hearted oppressors.—Morning Chronicle.
We abstained yesterday from any further reference
to toe diplomacy now at work on behalf of the Mel-
bourne Ministers for want of additional facts. With
those Ministers persisting in their schemes of revolution
in Church and State, it is palpably impossible for Lord
Stanley ever to connect himself. His Lordship feels
as acutely as anybody, that after a sacrifice of recorded
principles so glaring, his former reputation would be
no protection to them, but would be only an incum-
hrance to himself. Lord Stanley would in that case
be enough to sink any buoyant Ministry, instead of
sustaining one that was already about to founder.
We apprehend indeed, that if Lord Stanley were con-
sulted, and called upon to determine between the two
lines of policy—viz., those of Sir Robert Peel, and of
the Whig Radicals respectively—he would not hesi-
tate for which to make himself responsible, but that
his preference would certainly not be given to the
Whigs. His Lordship, if he was sincere in his
language last Session, cannot look upon the present
Administration as anything short of revolutionists. Sir
James Graham, we have reason to believe, is ready
to form a close junction with that party which, on
Conservative priessiples, has taken the Constitution
for its guide. If the Duke of Richmond has not the
gift of seeisig clearly his own position relatively to that
great issinciple of state policy on which his Grace
seceded from the Grey Administration, we may as well
pssint out to him that the pressure of public honour
bears exactly with the same force upon himself as upon
This fellow non-conformist Lord Stanley. If his Grace
should now fall back to the Whig Radicals, we doubt
whether a light would not break in upon him before
the expiration of
.24 hours, which would reflect but a
rueful and silly countenance from the first mirror into
which he chanced to look. His Grace may have per-
sonal dislikes among the Conservatives, and may,
perhaps, mistake such, for objections to Conservative
principles, which objections assuredly he does not en-
tertain ; inasmuch as his Grace, whether conscious of
it or not, is one of the most thorough-going Conser-
vatives in the empire, if not quite the most enlightened.
However, the Noble Duke will not produce an extra-
ordinary convulsion in the political world, let him
separate from, or combine with, whom he pleases.
The main peint is, that the Whig-Radicals find them-
selves in a confounded hobbles If Lord Stanley
and the above-mentioned Duke were to join them, as
they now stand, the two latter Noblemen would be in
a still more inextricable " hobble." There has, how-
ever, an expedient been hit upon, which will marvel-
lously help the lame dogs over the stile ; and what is
it ? Why, to drop at once the whole scheme of spo-
liation upon the clergy, and to leave the Church ques-
tion open like Catholic Emancipation ! What think
ye of that, ye gentlemen Radicals ? You at least
must have been prepared for every turn of sharp prac-
tice from the Whigs, because by this time you know
them ; but between man arid inan, what do you say
to a project which breaks up bodily and in a single
minute the entire system of party policy, on which the
Parliasnentary proceedings of the two last sessions
hinged, which rudely unhorses the prancing beggar-
man, belies every one of the pretences and professions
by virtue of which the Whigs and Radicals joined in
a vote for the overthrow of Sir Robert Peel's Govern-
ment, brands " base faction and hypocrisy" on the
forehead of every member of the Cabinet, and gives
to Sir Robert Peel and the Conservatives the most
brilliant and magnificent triumph that ever was
achieved by mortal men ? It is not now the Whigs,
but the ultra-Radicals, who are disgraced by this un-
natural alliance.— Times.

When Municipal Reform reaches, as it must soon
do, the most corrupt and faulty of all Corporations—
that of the capital of the empire, one striking ano-
maly, we trust, will be swept away—viz., that of its
members appointing some three or four of the King's
Judges, We are far from wishing to see the Influ-