The Sun.
London, England, 1835-04-15 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Whig-Radical papers of yesterday boas ted,-41...
instead of O'Connell making such terms with the
Whig Ministers as would place substantial, if not
official, power in his hands, that personage had de-
clared his determination to support " any Government
animated by a sincere intention of doing justice to Ire-
land." Then we say that such a Government cannot
be composed of last year's Whigs, inasmuch as if they
be not the most fickle of the human race, and the most
prone to an abandonment of all their own measures
and opinions, they will act on the same public principles
as those which they professed last summer ; and there-
fore, so far from doing " justice to Ireland," they must_
entail upon themselves fresh vollies of execrations from
the armoury of Derrynane-abbey. A prodigious fuss
is made by the new Cabinet-manufacturers about the
difference between a man's taking office under a Go-
vernment, and his secretly directing the measures of
that Government for the furtherance of his own
interested views, as if his acquiescing in the
latter course were a proof of the most chivalrous gene-
rosity. Why, who is there that in O'Connell's case
can be bitten by so palpable a humbug ? We are
told, that because O'Connell is " powerful," he ought
to be " conciliated," and that the British Government
ought to adopt a policy which would be sure of his
support. But these dealers in plausible abstractions
ought first to tell us what is to be the price of this
man's conciliation, and what is the policy which is to
secure his support. An enemy who seeks to despoil
Great Britain of ten millions of money, or of one or
more of her most valuable colonies, or of 100 sail of
the line, may, no doubt, be (for the moment) con-
ciliated by the surrender of her fleet, her colonies, or
her money, though only for the moment. Any
aggressor who proposes to inflict on his neighbour
some grievous wrong, and threatens to quarrel with
him if he resists the injustice, may unquestion-
ably, quoad hoc, be pacified by the cowardice of
the injured party in submitting quietly to be bullied.
The matter stands thus :—The Papist party, with
O'Connell for its chief, has long placarded through
speech and writing a thirst for the overthrow of the
Protestant church, and a confiscation of its property,
as well as that of the whole of the Protestant com-
munity, to other (that is, to Popish) uses, which ends
it is obvious, can never be so easily achieved as through
a repeal of the Union. The repeal of the Union
is, therefore, the avowed and distinctive policy of
Mr. Daniel O'Connell ; so that there is nothing more
intelligible than the advice of the Whig-Radicals
to the new Cabinet—we will add nothing of more
ominous importance to the English nation, if the
counsel should be given with a previous understanding
that it will be acted on, for it amounts to this—that
the policy of the Melbourne Administration is to be
that which will most effectually conciliate O'Connell
and his clique, by favouring the subversion of the
Protestant Church, and the separation of Ireland
from Great Britain ! It is little wonder, therefore,
that the Agitator has given his eager assistance to
the defeat of the Conservative Government, or that
the infancy at least of the Whig-Radical power will
have his strenuous support. He likes, of course, the
men who have hitherto baffled him, somewhat less
than those whom he flatters himself that he can make
the blind instruments of his most daring projects ; and
this is the " pure "—the " liberal "—the " disinte-
rested" gentleman, who makes " no tenns"—not he—
for himseY7—but only that Protestant Ireland shall
be flung at his feet, to be spurned at his pleasure.
Let nobody bring the dishonest charge against us,
that in struggling for the existence of the Protestant
establishment, and for the protection of our brethren of
the same faith, we mean to say a single word in defence
of ecclesiastical abuses, or of oppressions, civil or eccle-
siastical, from which those not Protestants may have
suffered. We have over and over pledged ouselves to
the obligation of turning to more useful objects, any
income which may on full inquiry be found unneces-
sary to the Church. If there be not Protestants to de-
mand spiritual help from a pastor, it becomes self-evi-
dent that subsistence for such a pastor is not needed.
But it is not to Mr. Daniel O'Connell or Dr. M'Hale
-that we should trust the investigation of so nice a sub-
ject, nor would we refuse with Lord John Russell to
help out the scanty income of an ill-paid clergy man
from the abundance of another who had little or no pa-
rochial duty--a principle which, with all deference to
his Lordship, has neither equity to recommend it, nor
common sense. At the same time we are as anxious
as any honest Irishman can be,—a great deal more so,
assuredly, than Mr.O'Connell, or any one else interested
in disturbing the peace of Ireland,—to see tithes prac-
tically, fairly, and finally commuted ; the parochial in-
comes better distributed; the patronage of Irish Bishops
under some moral, if not legal, control ; the episcopal
revenues brought down to a reasonable level ; and the
prebends and other sinecure funds of cathedrals ap-
propriated to purposes of real utility to the Church,
such as those to which, since Sir R. Peel's accession
to the Government, they have in many instances been
diverted, although not in a single instance, during the
whole reign of the Whig Administration, from 1830
to November, 1834. Let this among other contrasts
between sayers and doers, between words and works,
be remembered by the people of England. So with
regard to Corporation Reform, Sir Robert Peel said
not one syllable against acting in the fullest manner
upon the report of the Commission, whenever it should
be laid before Parliament, declaring that so far as con-
cerned the corporation with which he was himself con-
nected, he had not the shadow of interest in the main-
tenance of any of its abuses. However, as we are
convinced that such salutary reforms would have met
no foul treatment from Sir Robert Peel, so are we now
desirous of ascertaining that they will be fairly dealt
with by those who are about to succeed him. Even
where the disposition was not wanting, under the two
or three Cabinets which within the last four years
bore the name of "Whig, the public had sufficient
proof that capacity to execute their own declared in-
tentions was too often undiscoverable. What the
Whig Cabinet-makers are now busied with we are
content to wait until it suits their convenience to
inform us. They can hardly be so silly as to be dupes
of the artificial calm in Mr. O'Connell's system of po-
litical machination. His pretended complaisance, and
even deferenee towards the conscious Whig leaders,
they know as well as he, is destined to a speedy end,
unless they so govern Ireland as to throw her into im-
mediate confusion ; and if they mean to carry through
the only conditions on which it is possible for him to
support them, they must be prepared for all extremi-
ties against the union of the two islands, and the
rights of the British Crown. This, it must be con-
fessed, is a cheerful prospect for a statesman who has
just received from his Sovereign the proof of confidence
which has been reposed in Lord Melbourne's patrio-
tism and honour. But we have heard what seems at the
first blush incredible, viz., that after all—yes, after all
—oh, it is incredible—Lord Brougham has been actu-
ally resorted to by Lord Melbourne and Co. for advice
under their unspeakable difficulties. Under difficulties,
and ask advice from Lord Brougham I ! We are cu-
rious to know whether, if in this strange world such
a thing should, for lack of other oddities, turn out to
be not a ludicrous falsehood, but a ten times droller
fact—whether, we say, it be in honour of " Mr.
Isaac Tomkins" Brougham, who vilipens the social
character of the English aristocracy as altogether in-
significant and despicable—or of " Mr. Peter Jen-
kins" Brougham, who holds up their political character
to no less abhorrence—that the appeal we speak of
has now been made to this learned and Whig-dreaded
person. They have sworn at Lord Brougham—they
have abjured him—they have heaped the opprobrium
of all their manifold miscarriages on his head—they
have scouted in all companies the mere notion of ever
again co-operating with, much less employing, him ;
and, 10, here they are at it again ! If Brougham were
what he once was—but no matter, see how it will
work. At all events he is their superior ; and when
it comes to the point, our conviction is that they will
not dare to repudiate him. They pretend to denounce
him as a moral coward ; but what are they, who, after
whole months of bluster, acknowledge ',les coward to
be their master !—Times.

The yet unsettled state of the Ministerial arrrange-
ments affords ample scope for speculation. The dearth
of actual news, however, upon this important subject
is abundantly compensated for by fertility of invention.

We confess shat we are fonder of fiction when we meet
'4th it in ,try than in polities, and as we have no
:desire.to-cteaqve others, and take no pleasure in being
ourselypeiclecel-,ed, we must rather warn our readers
against placing iwnlicit confidence in any list of Mi-
nisterial appointments which, in the existing state of
affairs, may be presented to them, than impose upon
their credulity by furnishing them with any list of our
own. The difficulties which lie in the way of the con-
struction of a Whig Cabinet have been created by the
Whigs themselves. In their eagerness to drive sir
Robert Peel's Administration from office before its
measures of safe and constitutional reform could be
submitted to the sober reason of the country, they were
under the necessity of having recourse to auxiliaries,
whose claims to a share of the ill-gotten power they feel
it unsafe to admit and dangerous to decline. Even if
some of them have resolved to get rid of principle and
the sense of shame together, and to " go the whole
hog" with the Irish Agitator, the King is not so be-
reft of understanding, or the support of the country,
as to suppose he has no other alternative than to se-
cure what remains of regal power, by a surrender of
the virtual sovereignty of Ireland to the representative
of the Papal democracy of that part of the United
Kingdom, but soon, in that event, to be broken up
and dismembered. Advocating, as we do, and as we
have done for years, a full and efficient reform of the
Irish as well as the English branch of the Church
Establishment, we can have no wish either to conceal
or to spare the abuses which deform its beauty and
impair its usefulness. But it is one thing to sweep
the temple clean with the besom of reform, and ano-
ther to lay to its foundations the pickaxe of the
levellers. The Ron atholic Legislators are sworn
not to do any thing that would tend to weaken or sub-
vert the Church. How they have observed that oath
their recent votes have shown. Still we trust they
will not be able to subvert it ; but should they be, it
does not require extraordinary sagacity to foresee
that the fall of the -1:,;:ol:e.reliv will not be far off.
The abuse lavished by the Roman Catllolic Press
on Lord Grey at this moment proves, if any thl:l,'
were wanting to prove it, that Papal gratitude
for benefits received from heretic hands exists
no longer than it is found convenient to ap-
pear to be grateful. Liberal as our sentiments are
with regard to religious creeds, of which we wish a full
toleration to all, yet history and experience constrain
us to believe that the Protestant who politically serves
the Roman Catholic party, and refuses to go all
lengths—who dares to preserve some independence of
mind, and declines to become their slave—is always
treated worse in the end than their consistent and un-
flinching enemy. Great as is the ingratitude which
Lord Grey now experiences because he will not sacri-
fice all English and Protestant feeling, to promote the
ambitious views of the Papal Agitator, it is not greater
than was experienced by their indefatigable advocate
Grattan, when he dared to have an opinion of his own,
and to refuse to submit to the most degrading dicta-
tion. If we can believe the Whig-Radical papers, al-
though O'Connell is not yet announced as having a
seat in the Cabinet, his nominees, Messrs. Perrin and
O'Loughlen, are to be the Attorney and Solicitor-
General of Ireland. We know that both those gen-
tlemen are lawyers of talent and respectability—in
every way descrying of those preferments, except as far
as regards their known and habitual subserviency to
the political controul of the Repeal Agitator. It
is true Sergeant O'Loughlen has previously filled
the office of Solicitor, but his political tenden-
cies were checked by Mr. Blackurne, being At-
torney-General. With Mr. Perrin, in the latter ca-
pacity, we must consider the Crown Law Officers, as
created, if not governed, by Roman Catholic influ-
ence; and if this be " doing justice to Ireland," it
is not that sort of justice which is likely to afford the
Protestant portion of the people cause of satisfaction.
We wish to see the laws so administered in Ireland as
to inspire confidence to all classes of the people, what-
ever their religious opinions may be ; but it is not by
selecting for promotion the vehement or servile parti-
sans of either side that the confidence which impartial
justice inspires will be diffused throughout that dis-
tracted country. That Mr. O'Connell should nomi-
nate the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland is of less conse-
quence than he should nominate the Attorney and So-
licitor-General. Having a Whig Cabinet, we have
no objection to see Lord Mulgrave Lord-Lieutenant,
or Lord Morpeth Chief Secretary. They are both
as respectable appointments as the Whig camp can,
perhaps, supply ; but should they not justify Mr.
O'Connell's calculation upon their pliancy and sub-
missiveness to his will, we expect to hear of their
being as bitterly lampooned in l)errynane epistles as
Lords Anglesea and Wellesley were, and more spee-
dily cashiered.—Morning Herald.

The " thing" which, for want of some better and
more appropriate name, we must style the Melbourne-
O'Connell Ministry, has not yet reached its unhealthy
and ricketty development. Sundry fragments are from
time to time imparted to an admiring and expectant
world ; but the magnificent whole, whose compactness
and completeness are at once to astonish and delight
the Protestant people of England, still lies in the
womb of time, to be ushered into light with a flourish
of penny trumpets, blown by the sagacious lips of a
Russell, a Palmerston, and a Spring Rice. It is
stated, indeed, that Lord John is to occupy the situa-
tion of Foreign Secretary. Is it possible ? The mas-
ter-mind of a Wellington, incomparably the greatest
man who ever held the foreign seals, to be replaced by
the self-complacent pertness of the Member for South
Devon ! 'We promise the Noble Lord such a re-
ception from the yeomen of that county as will
convince him that the religious feelings of Britons
are not to be insulted with impunity, nor their
dearest and best rights and privileges to be invaded
and insulted to gratify personal pique or worthless
ambition. Foreign Secretary Lord John Russell may
be—but leader of the House of Commons ? Oh no,
unless Calne, Tavistock, or Mahon, should open their
wide arms to receive the honest disfranchiser of every
close borough in the United Kingdom. And my Lord
Palmerston is, it is said, to govern the colonies. Happy
Jamaica I Fortunate Corfu I that own a Cupid as
their presiding deity. Which branch of the Legisla-
ture is the middle-aged Adonis to adorn with his pre-
sence ? Alas, no choice is left, and side by side with
a Duncannon and a Brougham must the ex-Member
for Cambridge and Hampshire detail his enlightened
plans for driving our colonial dependencies into despair
or rebellion. But it is said, moreover, that Mr. Spring
Rice is to be the new Chancellor of the Exchequer I
Indeed ! We are sorry for the Right. Hon. Gentle-
man. We have not forgotten his vote on the occasion
of the persecution of Baron Smith ; and we do not
wish to see him in the ridiculous light of successor to Sir
Robert Peel, for assuredly pitiable will he the plight of
the individual who may attempt to fill the office occupied
by the most distinguished of living senators and States-
men. But Ireland, unhappy Ireland, given over to
O'Connell with a Mulgrave and a Morpeth as his
official puppets I We understand the youthful scion
of the house of Howard has undertaken, in considera-
tion of his nomination, to address a congratulatory ode
to the mighty Agitator on each successive anniversary
of his birth, and that part of the " justice to be done
to Ireland" is the appointment of a laureate to cele-
brate the doughty deeds of the magnanimous Daniel.
But we would be serious. Can these things be ? Are
the welfare, the honour, the happiness of our father-
land, the dignity of our Sovereign, and, dearer than
all, the integrity of our religion to be surrendered with-
out a struggle ? Is Popery, allied with infidelity, to
stalk through the land, our land-marks to be removed,
our very existence endangered by wicked and foolish
men ? et a little while and our exertions may be
fruitless. Let, then, the slumberer awake, the care-
less arouse himself, and the thoughtless meditate ;
and, even at the eleventh hour, the dangers which im-
pend over us may be averted, the overhanging sword
taken away, and England be saved in her utmost hour
of need by that Providence whose altars are threatened
with desecration by men unprincipled and reckless on
the one hand, or stupid and ignorant on the other.—
Morning Post.
In an article in the forthcoming number of the
Edinburgh Review, the prerogative of the King to
dismiss his Mini:;tcr-3 is very ably discussed. The ex-
traordinary proceedings in Decei-nber last have opened
men's eyes to dangers from which they had imagined
themselves secured by the Revolution of 1688. During