The Sun.
London, England, 1835-03-17 00:00:00

DUBLIN.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
The approach of the national festival, St. Patrick's Day,
has thrown the Irish Court into a state of cruel embarrass-
ment. Is the Lord Lieutenant to sport a Shamrock in his
hat? Will he appear at the window to the mob? Will he
permit the military band, which accompanies the Guard from
Barrack-street to the Castle, to play Patrick's Day and Gar-
ryowen alternately all the way ? These are questions which
perplex and distress the Privy Council, notwithstanding the
vast accession of sagacity and address which Mr. Gregory
and Mr. Shaw have brought to its deliberations. Should his
Excellency decline those compliances, all his professions of
Irishism make themselves wind, before which they vanish.
If he adopt them, the people will not think a whit the better
of him for doing so. They will laugh at the hypocrisy of the
thing, recellecting the Orange flags at the Theatre ; while the
boys, those No-Surrenderers, with the Rev. John M'Crea at
their back, will go stark mad. It is a piteous dilemma for a
Chief Governor, who wishes to throw dust in the people's
eyes, to be reduced to. He should have taken a hint from
the adverse winds, and remained on the other side of the
Channel till the 18th.

A great sensation has been excited by the animated debate
on Mr. Shed's motion for the production of Mr. Goulburn's
most gracious correspondence with the Orange Lodges ;
to the indecorum of which, by the way, the public atten-
tion wart first directed by The Sun. It is plain that Peel
has abandoned the Orangemen to their own merits, and
the defences of the Colonels Perceval and Conolly.
This is rather a hard return for their blood-to-the-eyes
fidelity ; but how could help himself ? Doubtless his
heart is with them as warm as ever, if the res dura et regni
novitas would suffer him to show it. It is better, however, to
part with a set of unruly adherents than to declare war against
common sense and common law ; and, therefore, every body
foresees that O'Connell's proposal for illegitimatising, the
Orange Lodges will succeed. The Tory gentlemen and
clergy all acknowledge this to be inevitable, and few of the
Southerns, to do them justice, much deplore it. But the
Northerns are absolutely outrageous. Any attempt to wet
their powder will be opposed fiercely, and by open three. A
more inexorable or determined race does not exist ; they are as
scornful of reason and policy, even of Tory policy, when either
militates against their truculent practices, as ever they have
shown themselves heedless of the appeals of religion and hu-
manity. Arms arc their sole arguments. These they have,
and in prime condition, too ; nor will part with them unless to
a superior physical force. It is, in short, the conviction of all
who know the stuff of which the Orangemen of the North of
Ireland are composed, that they will not submit without compul-
sion to the will of the Legislature, should that will decree their
suppression. They are loyal to their King as long as he fos-
ters them. They love the Aristocracy while it protects
them, and tolerate the Commons while the Commons wink
at their excesses. But King, Lords, and Commons, they are
ready to fling to the winds before they will abate a jot of their ha-
tred of Papists, or of their power to make that hatred felt. Verily
they are mauvais sujets ; and the Minister who hopes to rule
by their assistance will find them most troublesome auxiliaries.
If the truth were known, Sir Robert Peel has already expe-
rienced enough of their temper to inspire him with a wish to
be delivered from his friends. Yet, unfortunately for him,
they are his " right, arm," and should he cut them off, how
can his Government go on ? In Ireland he has no other
party of any strength to fall back upon.
The unenviable notoriety which Mr. M'Crea has obtained
renders any thing which relates to him a public concern.
Gentlemen to whom it might be inconvenient to defend his
methodised madness by sober argument, may laugh (it is the
easiest shift) at his rhapsodies, and wonder how any one could
" swear to the truth of a song." But see how the Rev.
Gentleman's canticles are regarded in Ireland. His songs
create as strong a sympathy as his sermons. It may be
in the reader's recollection, that a part of the Ode alluded to
by Mr. O'Loghlen, and afterwards recited at full length by
Mr. Sheil, referred to the New Board of Education, in these
words :

.c For happy homes, for altars free, we grasp the ready sword,
For freedom, truth, and God's unmutilated word.
These, these the war-cry of our march ; our hope the Lord on
high !
Then put your trust in God, my boys, and keep your powder
dry.

This is the text; and now, pray, attend to the comment,
The following advertisement appears in tho Orange papers o
Dublin :

" NO SURRENDER.
PROTESTANT TESTIMONIAL TO THE REVEREND

" MR. M'CREA.

" The untiring and successful labours of the Rev. Mr. M'Crea,
on behalf of Scriptural Religion, and rational liberty, and his
magnanimous assertion of constitutional principles at the Royal Ex-
change, on the 18th of December, which defeated O'Connell and
his confederates, in their design to embarrass the King and his
Ministers, have led the following persons to subscribe towards pre-
senting the Rev. Gentleman with a service of plate, as a testimony
of' Protestant approbation and gratitude."
This document, wliich is subscribed by Sir Harcourt Lees,
Colonel Verner, M. P., Mr. Cooper, M.P. (Colonel Perceval's