The Sun.
London, England, 1835-10-09 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

It is amusing enough that the Tory writers have not
yet agreed among themselves whether Mr. O'Connell
is a man of any importance or not. As Grizzle
charges Tom Thumb with having made the giants be
killed, so the John Pull reproaces the Times with
making the importance it assails in the person of Mr.
O'Connell. The Times with its peculiar logic, re-
plies to this, that it shall prove Mr. O'Connell to be a
man of very small consequence, " at the risk of being
again charged by simpletons with giving the man un-
due importance by noticing him.' " The Times, in-
deed, admits that Mr. O'Connell has power in Ire-
land, but adds, that it is " to the disgrace of the law
authorities." Let us ask whether Mr. O'Connell had
less power in Ireland during the Wellington-Peel
Ministry, and whether his power then was " a disgrace
to the law authorities" under the Government so loved and
landed by the Times? As for England, the Times denies
that Mr. O'Connell has any power in it, except over his
Majesty's Ministers, the Ministerial Press, and that
part of the population called Destructives by the Times.
The columns of our virtuous contemporary must there-
fore, by its showing, be daily filled with tirades against
Mr. O'Connell, for the especial enlightenment of the
Ministry, its friends in the Press, and the Destruc-
tives ? To whom else can the railings against Mr.
O'Connell be addressed ? Not, certainly, to the peo-
ple of England, for the people of England, according
to the Times, are already of the right way of thinking
about him. The Times then proceeds to prove by the
map, that Mr. O'Connell is of no importance in Eng-
land. This is demonstrated by the fact that Mr.
O'Connell travelled through Hertfo?dshire, and that no
mention was made of him in that county ; and that in
passing through 180 miles of the fairest and richest
part of England, no more notice was taken of the

missionary' than if he had gone " encased in a beer
barrel." The test of popularity, in the judgment
of the Times, would have been a meeting or a dinner
at every stage. When Sir Robert Peel is enter-
tained at Tamworth, does not an address and an ad-
miring multitude await him wherever he changes
horses ? But Mr. O'Connell, says the Times,
"never even saw the people of England." He has
never been in Printing-house-square ; and what is the
population of Manchester, Newcastle, and such nut-
shells ? The people of England are the folks who
addressed Sir Robert Peel in the Times newspaper last
December, and unfortunately so over-advertised them-
selves, so exhausted themselves in one grand puff,
that they had no resources left for the saving of the
country from all its present unseen horrors. 'We next
come to a piece of exquisite wit, in the true style of the
Times. Mr. O'Connell is said to have passed through
Yorkshire as quietly "as a barrel of red herrings." In
the Midland Counties no more notice was taken
of him than if he had been " encased in a beer
barrel." In the North he travels like " a barrel of
red herrings." What delightful drollery is this—all
upon the barrel. We next come to the history and
mystery of Mr. O'Connell's invitation to Leeds, and
the Times here discovers tilt extent and particularity
of its information. A person calling himself Mr.
Charles Young, arrived in Leeds (states the Times),
called at the shop of Mrs. Mann, a ♦ender of cheap
publications, and then and there, in concert with Mrs.
Mann's son, aged 18, proposed a public reception and
dinner to Mr. O'Connell, and got 1,100 signatures.
The historian of Puddle-dock must now speak for
himself

" The invitation had to be presented. A deputation must
present it. Manchester was forty miles off. Coach-fare was
expensive, and the waggon too slow. At last, however, a
penny subscription was raised to meet the expenses, and Mr.
Charles Young, a person nobody knew, and the youth of 18,
were selected out of the 1,100 as the fittest persons amongst
the lot to represent the affluent town of Leeds on this impor-
tant occasion."

What follows is rAn example of that curious and
valuable information, with which the Times now treats
its readers. The dignity of the daily historian is won-
derfully sustained in these details, which are of the
truth and 'taste for which our contemporary is cele-
brated :—.

" All was not over yet ; another hitch presented itself ; the
iunior delegate had got his shoes cleaned and his coat brushed,
and was quite ready for the start to Manchester ; but alas, Mr.
Charles Young, the clearly political tourist,' found it neces-
sary to have a clean shirt before appearing in the presence of
the great ' Agitator.' What was to be done? No one would
lend the 'political tourist' a shirt ; time pressed : at last, how.
ever, young Mann procured a shirt, and off they set to Man-
chester."

The John Bull will surely go mad with chagrin,
when he sees such a tribute to the consequence of
Mr. O'Connell, as a passage in the leading article of the
once self-dubbed leading journal, narrating the circum-
stances, important as connected with the tail of Mr.
O'Connell, that his Leeds requisitionist had not a clean
shirt till one was procured by young Mr. Mann, aged
18, the son of Mrs. Mann, &c. &c., for further par-
ticulars of whom we must refer to the Times. Mr.
O'Connell's importance certainly loses nothing by this
kind of treatment. When a man's followers are of such
note, merely as his followers, that their linen is
watched by publicists, and its state and the circum-
stances of change recorded in leading articles, what
must be the consequence of the man himself ?--
Morning Chronicle.
• There appears to be some doubt entertained whether
the constitutional suavity of Lord Mulgrave did not
rather blameably permit the blustering mouthpiece of
the Dublin Corporation to disport himself too freely
in the Viceregal presence on the late occasion of pre-
senting the Chief Magistrate of the City for the ap-
probation of Government. We are of opinion that if
Lord Mulgrave erred, his error was on the side of pru-
dence. It is worth while, however to consider what is
the meaning of this same ceremony of presenting
the Lord Mayor elect to the Lord Lieutenant.
It 'is "an immemorial custom," said the vulgar
Recorder of Dublin. "Itis an immemorial custom,"
replied the accomplished Viceroy, in administering a
mild rebuke to the obtrusive functionary, " for a pre-
cise object." This is the fact. The ceremony is one
that does not properly admit of the impertinent dis-
play that was made upon this occasion, and which, in
the opinion of many persons, should have been more
pointedly reprehended. Let our readers conceive what
a spectacle this ceremony must have been to those who
understood it. On a given day the Dublin Corpora-
tion, a body consisting of the lowest and most despica-
ble class of the citizens, huddle themselves into hackney
coaches (that is to say, such of them as having the
handling of the public funds, are by accident in the
enjoyment of a spare shilling), or in a pedestrian pro-
cession worthy of the mock military pageant in Bom
bastes Furioso, betake themselves to the footpaths
leading to the Castle of Dublin. The cavalcade, rein-
forced by auxiliary driblets from the various lanes and
alleys adjoining, tramp to the Castle-yard, and rush
into the Presence-Chamber. The Recorder, who never
would have been heard of but for the Corporation, after
a few knowing wipks and hems to his associates, toin-
timate that he is about to demonstrate how great a man
he is, and how boldly he will speak to a Lord Lieute-
nant, then proceeds. This Recorder's mind is like the
legs of a laborious tailor—it has been so long con-
tracted in the one position of thinking ill of the Ca-
tholics and reform, that it cannot accommodate itself
to the a plomb of right thinking, or thinking at all, on
more than his one stock-in-trade , subject. Accord-
ingly this product of a Corporation, as in duty bound
to the manufacturers of his fortunes, beslabbers then
all with praise. This operation might be forgiven, al-
though it is irrelevant ; but not contented with this
liberty, he next presumes to give a lecture having no
more connection with the matter in hand than it had
with the wanderings of the comet, intimating his notions
of loyalty and municipal reform, and holding out to the
Government an awful warning how far they might go
n the work of improvement. It is here that some
doubt has been expressed whether Lord Mulgrave
should not have at once intimated to the presumptuous
gentleman who ventured, without authority, to force
his opinions upon the King's representative, that his
demeanour was offensive, and that his absence
would be agreeable until he should have learned
manners. We are free to admit that much might be
said in recommendation of such a course ; but, on the
other hand, considering the material of which this
Dublin Corporation is composed—remembering that
this body is low, prejudiced, uneducated,_ and ignorant
—we think, under all the circumstances, Lord Mut,
grave adopted the more judicious course, and that lie
octed a wiser part in holding the conference which ttlok

. .