The Sun.
London, England, 1835-05-04 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

When the language of those among his Majesty's
Ministers who have recently had occasion to address
their constituents on being re-elected is put side by
side with that of some of the persons who are pledged
to their support, and whose steady support they, the
Ministers must receive, or be compelled to throw up
the Government, it is very clear that Lord Melbourne
and his colleagues have before them but a precarious
and anxious tenure of official power. In Lord John
Russell's speech from the hustings of South Devon
there is more of reasoning upon those questions which
formed the topics of difference (and that difference
having far less relation to principles than to parties)
between his Lordship's colleagues and the Cabinet
of Sir R. Peel, than we have lately had the good
fortune to discover in the productions, whether oral or
written, of the Noble Candidate for Devonshire. There
is likewise much more of a sobered and practical view
of politics than might have been looked for from the
context of his Lordship's course throughout the Ses-
sion. Then if we advert to the speeches delivered
by Mr. Spring Rice at Cambridge, reported in last
Tuesday's Times, and to that of Mr. Poulett Thom-
son at Manchester, although spoken after dinner, there
breathes throughout them both a spirit of moderation
and caution, which is not the less satisfactory for the
decided contrast it exhibits with the spirit of that reck-
less and ruthless party, by which, if not upheld both in
England and Ireland, the Administration must fall to
the ground. The Radical papers pant for the hour of
unchaining the movement, and of sweeping away those
impediments in the path of pure democracy which form
the sole remaining bulwarks of the British constitution.
Mr. O'Connell, who comprehends within himself the
wholepower andessence of the Irish (otherwise Popish)
movement, has just yelled out his war cry against every
principle of policy with regard to Ireland which does not
tend directly to promote the advancement of Roman Ca-
tholic despotism. This learned libeller of all who differ
from him, and of all whom he cannot make the instruments
of his selfish projects, has already written to the " people
of Ireland," and followed up the mission by a speech to
them. The letter is of little moment, being no more
than a tirade of abuse against all that has ever been
done in Ireland, and a boast of what shall be done in
future ; but the speech is of sterner
.stuff. After
charging the fornier Whig Government with " all the
features of fraud and intimidation" towards the Catho-
lics, the political mountebank a few sentences after-
wards felicitates himself and his hearers on their return
to office ! He exults in the preponderance of tail
members over the sound and indcpenu:::n:. portion of the
representatives of Ireland, and with cool effrontery de-
clares it was indispensable, because the majority of
English members were Tories. A pleasant admission
this to the people of England, who, let them elect
their own Representatives with ever so much pa-
triotism, loyalty, or judgment, are thus to be overridden
by Mr. Daniel O'Connell, and afterwards insulted
by his assurance that a majority of his dictation was
necessary to amend their faulty and defective choice.
" There is not a single Tory in office," he cries ;
and by the blessing of God, there will not be a single
Tory in place either," This being uttered ex cathe-
dra, we may look upon it as a far more authoritative
and infallible clue to the real intentions of the Govern-
ment, coming as it does from the Autocrat himself,
than if any of O'Connell's slaves, the persons in
whom the nominal power resides, the pageants of
State, from Lord Melbourne downwards, had risked
so broad a denunciation. We all know whom the
Agitator describes as Tories. We all recollect the
language of his last year's letters to Lord Duncannon,
when he reprobated the whole community of Whigs,
as a thousand times more ;odious and execrable
than Tories, for no reason but that the individuals
whom they appointed to office, were not drawn
from the rank and file of his own Repeal raga-
muffins. And it will be so now. The instant
the Melbourne Ministers stop short on the rail-road
of revolution—the instant they open their eyes to
the gulf towards which O'Connell drags them, that
moment sounds the death-warrant of the Whig-repeal
alliance. The tail is out of joint-50 most sweet
voices " are hushed by the frown of the master—the
Minister is in a minority, and all the rest speedily
follows. There is but scanty accordance here be-
tween the temperate tone of Mr. Spring Rice and
the Agitator's imperious denunciations. To repeal
he is constant, if to nothing else. Turn out all
_the Tories (where are they ?) from office, or have
at you
,with the "repeal of the union." Work
the elective franchise at my will and pleasure, giving
votes to all my Popish beggar myrmidons, or bang
goes the " repeal of the union." There shall be
vested rights for clergymen, whose individual votes
can neither be reduced nor multiplied by any ima-
ginable change in the terms of the Tithe Bill. But
for the legal possessors of corporation privilege there
shall be no such thing as vested right, let Are exer-
isting race,of freemen and their ancestors have exer-
cised it for centuries uninterrupted. I will therefore
disfranchise them, without remorse, and so re-construct
the Corporation system, hitherto calculated to maintain
a living Protestant and British interest in Ireland, that
the whole power shall henceforth be lodged in the hands
of Papists, and Protestant, and Englishman, with their
adjunct and dependency,—the Union between Ireland
and Great Britain will henceforth be so many names,
recorded indeed on the page of history, but obliterated
from the book of life. We have not time nor space to
go through this characteristic production. O'Connell
has, at last, declared himself a convert to that which
we have always recommended for Ireland, but which
he has invariably and obstinately condemned, viz.--.a
system of well-regulated Poor Laws. The difference
is that we, and it is to be hoped most other English-
men, would have made them an engine of charity and
justice, while O'Connell's manifest object is, that they
should be subservient to electioneering ends, and to the
extension of his own ill-gotten power. Upon the whole,
this man's support of Lord Melbourne will be like
that of a barbed javelin broken in the side of the noble
Viscount. Their confederacy, for it is one by what-
ever name or under whatever metaphor the noble Lord
may think proper to disguise it, cannot outlive the wear
and tear of even half a twelvemonth's action. We
should scorn, instead of personally esteeming, Lord
Melbourne, did we suppose it possible that he could
long endure a 4f-devotion" like that with which O'Con-
nell has threatened to besmear him. There is a better
support within Lord Melbourne's reach—one which is
not dangerous nor hollow—one which would have a
real harmony of views and principles for its foundation,
and which would enable his Lordship to preserve the
Monarchy instead of driving him to its ruin. We are
sure, at least, that let Lord Melbourne act in any man-
ner in which he is capable of acting, however erroneous
as to policy that may be, he will not have to encounter
from Sir Robert Peel or the Duke of Wellington a fac-
tious or perverse opposition. As it was not through
their intrigues that he was dismissed from office, so
will he not be embarrassed in his resumption of it by
any venomous or revengeful animosity of theirs ; and
when he appeals to them for help in his extremity, as
ere long he must, they will remember only that com-
mon interest and duty which bind all upright and
loyal gentlemen to stand by the Monarchy and each
other.--Times.

We have elsewhere inserted, at the request of Lord
Alvanley, a letter addressed by his Lordship to the
Members of Brookes's, and a requisition- to the Com-
mittee of Managers to call a general meeting on the
subject of Mr. O'Connell's conduct. Lord Alvanley
complains of the coarse and insulting expressions made
use of by Mr. O'Connell with regard to him. Mr.
O'Connell did certainly make use of strong expres-
sions ; but Lord Alvanley's language with regard to
Mr. O'Connell was extremely offensive, and his Lord-
ship might have remembered the adage, that men who
play at bowls must expect rubbers. The first thing
to be remarked in this affair is the adroitness with
which Lord Alvanley, in hii letter to Mr. O'Con-
nell of the 22d of April, contrived to preclude
all possibility of obtaining an answer. He does
not call on Mr. O'Connell for any explanation
with regard to the language he was reported to have
used, but at once tells him that he is aware he
assumes a right of insulting with impunity, and
that he can hardly hope he will make an exception
in his Lordship's favour, by doing that which every
other gentleman would do. The plain inference is

that he wished no answer. Colonel Darner writes, to
Mr. O'Connell iriDublin on the 28th of April, and
on the 2d of May'we find Lord Alvanley complaining
to the Members of Brookes's. Between the 28th of
April and the Ist of May, there was hardly time for
a return from Dublin. This is sharp practice, to say
the least of it, and affords strong presumption that the
correspondence with Mr. O'Connell and the complaint
to Brookes's were part of the system of tactics which
dictated Lord Alvanley's question to Lord Melbourne.
If we had any doubts on this subject, they would have
been removed by the manner in which it was taken up
by the Morning Post of Saturday. " There have
been six Cabinet Councils, we believe (says the Post)
' since the formation of the new Ministry—three on the
Devonshire election ; and the following quandary'
has supplied the subject of consideration for the re-
maining three: —Mr. O'Connell is about to be expelled
from Brookes's Club; several of the leading members
have signed a requisition, calling for this measure,
or else requiring an ample apology from the Hon.
Gentleman for the language lately applied by him to
Lord Alvanley." The Post having mentioned some
of the names to the requisition, naturally enough
chuckles at the consequences it anticipates. "If Mr.
O'Connell is expelled from Brookes's, Lord Melbourne
will be expelled from office." _ The fact is, that the
whole scheme was one of the Tories and Dilleys,
headed by Lord Alvanley, to get up a difference and
dispute between Mr. O'Connell and the other Re-
formers. The people at Brookes's never heard of the
requisition till the account of it appeared in the Post
-7-a pretty plain proof of the object of some of the
parties, whatever Lord Alvanley's intention may have
been. The requisition was yesterday sent to Brookes's.
Lord Stanley, Sir James Graham, Mr. Gaily Knight,
and about half a dozen Dilleys, are the largest party.
Lord Jersey, Lord Villiers, Lord de Ros, Major Fan-
court, and other bitter Tories are the next. There are,
it is true, some Whigs, amongst the others, the Duke of
Norfolk, who have since expressed their regret at having
signed the paper. The Duke of Norfolk, we know, with-
drew his name, which he signed incautiously, because he
believed that an apology would be rendered more difficult
by the interference of the Club, and that the matter had
artfully been made to assume a political character, which
did not belong to it. We have not a doubt
,as to the
course the managers will pursue. They will say they
have nothing to do with private disputes of the mem-
bers of the Club, and refuse to call a general meeting to
discuss the matter referred to in the requisition. It
is, indeed, impossible that they should come to
any other determination. What, we ask, would
be the consequences, were they to come to an
opposite decision ? Is the Club to become a
Court of inqui.;ition to pry into the affairs of indivi-
duals? We would appeal to Lord A:-;Lnicy himself,
whether he would like to have all the private transac-
tions of his life canvassed by a public meeting of the
gentlemen of any club. But, at all events, if Lord
Alvanley's life have been of that unexceptionable com-
plexion that he would lay himself open to the minutest
inspection without hesitation, there are few men simi-
larly circumstanced ; and it would be dangerous
to allow his case to form a precedent for a course
of proceeding from which most other men would
shrink. The Tories already exult at the success of their
contrivance for annoying the Government, and sowing
dissensions among the Reformers, by converting a per-
sonal difference between Lord Alvanley and Mr. O'Con-
nell into a great political engine. They view in this
notable scheme a certain means of destroying the una-
nimity which to their utter dismay now exists among
all the Liberals throughout the country. That the
whole is a Tory scheme to set the Reformers by the
ears, may be inferred with tolerable certainty from this
quarrel transpiring throng-1i the pages of the Post two
days before even the requisition was sent to the ma-
nagers at Brookes's. The whole plan was evidently
got up for party and Tory purposes. But the Club
at once scouted the idea of lending itself to such a
barefaced design, and the attempt has therefore sig-
nally failed. The members had too much good sense
to allow themselves to become the dupes of the cunning
originators of the scheme, who laughed in their sleeires
at the success which they had in the first instance with
two or three of the bosom companions of the Noble
Peer, who hastily and without consideration yielded to
their personal feelings in favour of the witty and agree-
able associate of their table, and signed the requi-
sition without closely examiningits contents, or reflect-
ing on its object and the effect it would have. We
think it far from improbable that the members of the
Dilley, wishing some excuse for cutting their old
friends at Brookes's, and finally separating from the
Liberal party, have taken this means of effecting
_their object, as, if the Committee refuse to interfere,
they will make that a pretence to justify their with-
drawing from the Club. Mr. O'Connell has just
published an excellent address to the people of Ireland.
It is impossible to speak too highly of the tendency
of this paper, which cannot fail to be productive of the
best effects. To be called on to defend himself with
his own party on the accusation of a Toryacting in
furtherance of Tory views, would be but a poor re-
quital to the Hon. and Learned Gentleman for the
zeal and industry which he is now displaying in se-
conding the views of Government in Ireland. The
Tories would, indeed, have cause of triumph, had
they, through their allies, the " half-breeds," and two
or three Whigs who fell into their snares, succeeded in
producing a breach between Mr. O'Connell and the
other Reformers, at a time of all others when he is
strenuously exerting the influence he is well known to
possess with his countrymen, in disposing them to rely
with confidence on the present Government.—Morn-
ing Chronicle,
It cannot be with any truth asserted, that the battle
about to be fought in South Devon is one between
Whig and Tory principles ;—if it were, we should
confine ourselves to merely relating the particulars,
without taking any part in the conflict. Lord John
Russell does not come forward, on the present occa-
sion; as the trepresentative of Whig principles ;—he
has abandoned- them, as the condition of obtaining
the support of Mr. O'Connell and the Irish " tail_
Need we say more to prove this, than to state that the
proposition relative to the Irish Church, which Lord
John carried by the assistance of the Popish Mem-
bers, is the one that he opposed last year, when
brought forward by Mr. Ward, the Radical Member
for St. Alban's ? If there was any difference between
the two propositions, it was that Mr. Ward's was less
' strong as against the Irish Church, than that of Lord
John Russell. But it was not an abandonment of
principle alone, which the Whigs exhibited upon this
occasion. They did it with an open and flagrant con-
tempt for consistency, which showed that, with the
dereliction of principle, they had lost the sense of
shame. Last year they declared their incompetency to
legislate at all, with regard to the Irish Church, without
first obtaining the necessary and authentic information
by means of a Commission delegated by the Crown,
whose report was to form the basis of whatever legis-
lative proceeding it might be thought proper to adopt.
The Commission was accordingly issued—the termi-
nation of its labours was drawing near ; but before
that report was presented, the Whig Statesmen, with
Lord John Russell at their head, at whose instance
that Commission was issued—.who had declared its re-
port to be indispensable as the ground-work of any le-
gislative measure—those very Whig Statesmen them-
selves bring forward the rejected proposition of Mr.
Ward, or one rather more strongly worded respecting
the Irish Church, and by the assistance of the Popish
party in Parliament, carry it, and force Sir Robert
Peel to resign, who, by preferring the sacrifice of power
to that of principle, has greatly raised himself in public
estimation. Lord John Russell and his colleagues
having thus regained power by advocating the princi-
ples of the Popish party, which they had formerly, in
the most emphatic manner, repudiated, can no longer be ,
considered as the representatives of Whig principles.
They have sold themselves for place to the enemies of
our Protestant Church and Protestant Constitution, and
they must now carry their principles into practice, or
their Popish allies will turn upon them,'and extinguish
the power which, through their instrumentality, they
have obtained. To oppose Lord John Russell;there-
sf:rnet,atiinonhiosfaDtteemvopntsthoirree,gias not
nt
to possessionsetup To
ofr m—but
to defend frOm its papal and destructive enemies the j
British Constitution. As to the assertion made by
Lord John's supporters, that the confiscation of the

property of the Irish Church, and its transfer to Papal
among other purposes, will be a panacea for the evils
of Ireland, and restore its tranquility, is only a repe-
tition of the gross fallacy which was urged in support
of the admission of Rpman Catholics to seats in Par-
liament, which, notwithstanding a solemn oath, they
now make instrumental to the subversion of the Pro-
testant establishment. Restore the tranquillity of Ire-
land indeed 1 while O'Connell and the Whigs refuse
any system of poor laws to his famishing, and conse-
quently, desperate population I Has not the Repeal
Agitator, the ally of Lord John Russell, repeatedly
declared that nothing short of the repeal of the
Union will satisfy him ? Lord John then is the
champion, not of Whig principles, but of Popery and
Repeal !—Morning Herald.
On Saturdey we were enabled, from our peculiar
and exclusive sources of information, to bring under
the notice of the public the proceedings now in pro-
gress,
with a view to try whether it be possible to
render Mr. O'Connell amenable to the laws which
govern the intercourse of the gentlemen of Great
Britain. In stating the facts connected with this
affair, it was our good fortune to anticipate the whole
of our contemporaries ; and we have now little to add
to what we said on Saturday in the way of comment ,
upon this extraordinary transaction. The case is, in-
deed, of such a nature as to set all commentary at
defiance. Active efforts have been employed, we un-
derstand, by his Majesty's Ministers and their imme-
diate friends to hush the matter up, as if it were a
matter that could be hushed up. Surely the pre-
sent Ministers of the Crown, as men of the
world, must know that an affair of this descrip-
tion, when society has once taken cognizance of it,
must be settled, in some way or other, that is satisfac-
tory to the feelings, and in unison with the habits of
society. To settle it, however, is certainly no part of
their ministerial duty ; and, fully occupied as they are,
or ought to be, with the business of the country, the
anxiety they have shewn, and the pains they have taken
to bring Mr. O'Connell off with the least possible dis-
grace, prove, more strongly, perhaps, than any other
circumstance of recent occurrence, how intimately con-
nected they are with that Gentleman. The character of
Brookes's Club, and that of the great body of its mem-
bers, are now fairly placed in issue before the tribunal
of the world. If this society of Whigs think that per-
sons who employ such language as is most familiar to
Mr. O'Connell, and afterwards refuse all reparation or
satisfaction to the parties whom they have insulted or
injured should not be tolerated, they will now have the
opportunity of declaring that opinion. If, on the other
hand, they are of opinion that no conduct, however de-
grading in the estimation of society, at large, amounts
to a disqualification for Brookes's Club—this opinion,
also, they will have an opportunity to express. We
.!•._e. on one side of the dispute the character of Mr.
O'Connell, and tie 7.-l1ol.s? influence of his Majesty's
Ministers ; and on the other, Liie ref ufation of the
Club at Brookes's, and that of every gentleman
a member of it. Which is the more likely to obtain
the final predominance we do not pretend to know ;
although we incline to suspect that the influence of
Lord Melbourne and the loaves and fishes, will prevail
over the feelings which ought to characterize gentle-
men, and which form the only cement by which socie-
ties of gentlemen can be held. together. It is evident
to us that if Mr. O'Connell be not expelled from
Brookes's, Brookes's will speedily cease to exist.—
Morning Post.
The speech of Lord John Russell, 6n his nomina-
tion as a Member for Devonshire, at Exeter on Friday,
does honour to him as a British statesman. It is ener-
getic, searching, and argumentative, and may be pro-
nounced as effective a specimen of electioneering elo-
quence as has been exhibited since the times of the
ultimi Romanoruni, the Burkes, the Foxes, and the
Sheridans. To employ an every-day phrase, it dis-
played a mind " up to the mark" in the promptitude
and intensity with which it grappled with and pros-
tiated the hack and stock arguments of the Conserva
tives. The ground which Lord John Russell assigned
for the glorious resolution which brought the agony of
the late Ministry to a close was most triumphint.
The question between the Tories and the present
Ministers was one of principle, not of party strength.
It concerned the application, or non-application, of
the surplus revenues of the Church of Ireland to the
education of the people. But there is no surplus,
proved, say the Orange and Conservative prints. Lord
John Russell replies in the following irresistible and
caustic manner to this allegation :
" Let me describe what is the present state of the Church
and tithes' in Ireland, and what is the system which I propose
to substitute in its place. Under the present system there are
in many parishes large owners paid for tithes amounting to
8001., 1,0001., and 1,500/. a year, out of which a very small
sum is paid to the curate, the Rector being altogether absent,
sometimes there being no Cnurch, and oftentimes no congre-
gation. Gentlemen, repeated instances of the working of this
system have been brought under my notice. One—l may say
five—Mr. Sergeant Perrin quoted in his place in the House
of Commons. Another was stated to me by one of the
Commissioners ; another was stated in a letter which was sent
to me, signed by a Protestant curate, who gives his name and
place of abode ; another instance has been stated to
me to
this effect :—That in a parish in Mayo there is a large sum,
say 1,0•0/. a year, paid to the Rector in tithe—that the.,
Rector himself is never seen—that the curate is paid only 75/.
a year, and sometimes less, and that, consequently, a very
large sum is raised from the population, in return for which no
religious education whatever is given. Now, gentlemen, my
argument is, that the purpose—the main and sole purpose—of
this Church Estalalishment is to provide religious instructioa
for the people. When I see a Rector with a large sum de-
voted to his support, which ought to be applied to religious
instruction, I point to that Rector, and I say, that he is himself
the surplus, which- some gentlemen complain they cannot dis-
cover the existence of."

Yes, the fat, and ruhicond, and idle clerical sinecu-
rist constitutes the surplus ; and must such a surplus
be employed as at present ? Will any friend to the
real principles of Christianity, or of the Protestant
Church, gainsay the advantage of the mode proposed
by Lord John Russell for employing the surplus ? The
Protestant who insinuates or argues that the diffusion
of religious instruction in Ireland will tend to the pro-
gress of Popery, is in fact arguing against himself,
and is ignorant of the ABC of his own creed. The
essence of Protestantism may be truly said to be the
progress of information ; it was while the light of know-
ledge was struggling with error that its birth occurred. It
will be a work of supererogation to analyze in detail Lord
John Russell's masterly exposition of the Irish Church
question, and of the policy by which Ministers will be
guided on the subject. That speech must, ere this,
have been perused and digested by every individual
who feels an interest in the honourable consistency of
public men, and in the public confidence which that
consistency creates. We shall not hear much more,
we suspect, of the alarm cry sounded on the subject of
subserviency to Mr. O'Connell. Yielding to justice
and to the claims of good policy and national tranquil-
lity, was a different concession from yielding to fear and
agitation. There were certain Statesmen who yielded
to fear of O'Connell, as Lord John Russell urged,
and we leave to them and to their dependents to di-
gest the reminiscences he sets before them. Let them
con them over, and " then to breakfast with what ap-
petite they may."---Morning Advertiser.

CAPTAIN BOTELER'S " NARRATIVE OF HIS
VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY TO AFRICA AND ARABIA."—" This ex-
pedition," observes the Naval and Military Gazette, "was one
of the most eventful ever undertaken by command of the Bri-
tish Government. Captain Boteler ascended the unknown
rivers, traced the forests and wildernesses of the savage coun-
tries surveyed, held interviews with the native Kings and other
barbarous chiefs, and underwent great perils. He gives us not
only a vivid picture of many hitherto untraversed regions of
South Africa, but statements relative to their capabilities for
commerce with Europeans, and particulars curious in the high-
est degree, of the native tribes, their forms of government, &c.
Captain oteler's book, indeed, is one of which the nation
may be proud. There is not a single page in this important
work which does not stimulate the curiosity and enlarge the
knowledge of the reader."
EFFECT OP PLURALITIES.--A curious scene was
witnessed at our parish church (Broadwater) on Sunday last.
A numerous congregation having assembled, waited nearly
half an hour expecting the clergyman. They were at last
informed by the clerk that his Reverence was not at home,
that there would be no service, and therefore that it was use-
less for them to wait. It appears that our Rector was several
miles away at another living which he also holds; the Curate
was occupied at his living- at Tarring; consequently the in-
habitants of the parish of Broadwater were left to take their
chance, and to get to heaven how best they could. This, by
the bye, is no joke ; and the affair assumes altogether a very
serious aspect, when we reflect that the emoluments of the
clergyman are not less than 1,000/. per annum I I It was very
naturally asked—But wiftre is the Rector's Chaplain ? Surely
he might have been doing duty at home?" Where he was, we
cannot say ; but sure we are, that amongst the party the pa-
rishioners were, most shamefully neglected.

COURT OF KING'S BENCH.