The Sun.
London, England, 1832-07-28 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

Some doubt was last night thrown upon the
accuracy of our report of the speech of the Lord
Chancellor on Thursday night. We are not
surprised that those who felt the searching power
of that speech should wish to believe that it was
never uttered; we are not angry even, that they
should inveigh against those who have been the
mere instruments of conveying_ that speech to the
world ; but if it be intended to state seriously
that we have published a false report, we put
ourselves directly at issue with our opponents,
and avow simply, broadly, unequivocally, that we
abide by that report. We challenge any person,
be he who he may, to deny it. Our reporter is
ready to support his account on oath, and at any
risk or pei-il. We are sure that neither
the noble and learned lord who delivered
that speech, nor any person who heard it, will
say that it is not essentially and substan-
tially, correct in all its parts. At all events
we abide by our report. As to the general
tenour of the debate on this subject, we
really think it unworthy of notice. One thing
is certain :—whatever the House of Commons
may think of the Lord Chancellor's speech, the
country, we are sure, will not find anythieg in
it which was not completely warranted by the
extraordinary provocation. As to Sir E. Sug
den's declaration that " he has lost all respect for
the Chancellor," can any one read it without
pity? Has he no friend to tell him that he can
never be considered a fit antagonist for the Lord
Chancellor ? We mean not to depreciate his
professional merits, hut when the cock-sparrow
can contend with the eagle, then may the lively
dextetity and technical skill of a mere lawyer,
hope to fight a successful battle with a compre-
hensive intellect, whose resources are as abun-
dant as the power of using them is unequalled
and prodigious.— Times.
It might amuse a person less conversant than
we unfortunately have been with Irish politics,
to hear some Lords and gentlemen of that
country deliver themselves respecting the Reform
Bill for Ireland. Lord Roden, with Messrs.
Lefroy, Gordon, &c., appear to have their or-
gans so constituted, that they can look at the
sister island in only a single point of view. Re-
form for them has-no political shape nor charac-
ter about it. The representative system has in
their eyes no meaning, but as a contrivance for
certain (falsely called) religious objects. Cor-
porations are of no value to them but as instru-
ments for jobbing the constituency. The con-
stituency, even when so jobbed, is worth no-
thing, but as a fulcrum to " Protestant ascen-
dancy." No rights under the Bill, no disquali-
fications, no exceptions, reservations, provisions,
or enactments of any sort, are felt by the above-
mentioned class of sages to be better than unin-
telligible jargon, but only as there may he wrung
from them some possible text for a preachment
upon the necessity of setting up the Protestant
anti keeping down the Catholic, and inflaming
those hateful and ruinous discords which it
must be the dearest purpose of every humane
and enlightened lagislator to extinguish. The
" Protestant interest," be it remembered, has,
in the dialect of the party we speak of, not the
most remote relation to the interests of the Pro-
testant religion. The phrase has no reference
to the 39 Articles, to the difference between two
sacraments and seven, to absolution, auricular
confession, the worship of saints, or any other
the alleged abominations of Popery, or to the
excellence of that mode of faith by which such
mountebankery has been for two centuries pro-
scribed. No. The " Protestant interest"
means nothing else than that monopoly of all
the good things of this world—namely, places,
pensions, patronage, power, bishoprics, arch-
bishoprics, pluralities, tithes of every thing—for
doing nothing—which have been enjoyed in
Ireland by righteous Protestants since the end
of the 17th century, and which monopoly of
things temporal is regarded by the faithful as
but a modest and self-denying indemnification
for the monopoly of things eternal claimed by
righteous Catholics as their own peculiar free-
hold. Religion ! Every disinterested being
well knows that the religion of your ascendancy
men contemplates nought in reality save
loaves and fishes. Unconsciously to them-
selves it must be, else how could any faction, ever
so audacious, pretend that rotten boroughs were
a salutary help to " religion ?" or that an esta-
blishment of Archbishops, Bishops, Deans, Chap-
ters, Rectors, Vicars, &c., ought to be endowed
with revenues, extorted principally from a Ca-
tholic population of 6,500,000, and for the as•
sumed service of a Protestant congregation of
1,000,000, very little short of those which are
levied from 14,000,000 of Englishmen and
\Velchmen, amongst whom there are not more
Catholics than there are Protestants in Ireland ?
Why this is monstrous : it assumes that Ireland
was raised out of the ocean for no use but to
bear the yoke of Protestant Ascendancy, even as
the exclusive end of Providence in giving men
noses, was (according to Voltaire) that they
might carry spectacles. Yet, is it not frightful
to witness the degree in which Ministers, in so
many other respects observant of the progress of
human affairs and of national opinion—is it not
most alarming to see how deeply they are tinged
with this infatuation in lavour of the Irish Church
Establishment ? What can they mean by this
futile Bill for enforcing and perpetuating tithe
composition in Ireland ? To make a law which
an entire people repudiates, is at once to make
war upon that people. To enjoin an obedience
which you know will not be yielded but to force,
is to say you will govern Ireland by no other
means than force. Are Ministers prepared
for such a system ?—for such folly P—for such
wickedness ? To be sure, they might succeed
in a war against the Catholics of Ireland, but
then they must have the Protestants of Ireland
with them, and the English Protestants with
them ; and do they mean to say that the Pro-
testants of either country are so enamoured of
the tithe system, as to cut the throats of their
Catholic fellow-subjects and endanger their own,
and expose the whole land to fire, sword, and
desolation, for the sake of enabling a priesthood,
in great part sinecure, to wring an harassing and
odius tax from those to whom they make no
shadow of return ? In a just cause we have no
doubt that the Protestants of both islands, and a
vast proportion of the Irish Catholics to boot,
would support the British Government with life
and fortune. But liavea care that the cause be just.
Beware, lest you attempt to establish robbery by
Act of Parliament,—to make Acts of Parlia-
ment which would induce and justify rebellion.
The religious feelings of the Irish people are
not represented by the doctrines of the Esta-
blished Church. 'Alust the people at this time
of day be taxed by a church, any more than by
a Parliament, which does not represent them ?
And why is this ? Where is the necessity for
such disgusting measures, even according to the
ascertained sentiments of most cf the Ministers
themselves? And why should a risk of fatal