The Sun.
London, England, 1857-05-25 00:00:00

THE IRISH SECRETARYSHIP.

The appointment of Secretary of State for Ire-
land does not appear to be much in request among
aspirants after office. Before a candidate was found
to accept it, in the person of Mr. H. Herbert, it
had been succnsively offered to, and declined by,
Mr. C. Villiers, Sir B. Hall, and Mr. Fitzroy. True
it is that two modern Curtii, devoted to the service
of their country, offered to throw themselves head-
long into this gulf. Lord .Palmersti in, however,
though almost despairing of the possibility of filling
the appointment in any feasible way, humanely
saved, both from such self-immolation. Sir R. Peel
he dissauded from the rash enterprise as having
too :much of the Donnybrook-fair champion about
hini; Mr. Monckton Manes, as being too thoroughly
steeped in the milk of human kindness.
Under any circumstances the acting Minister for
the Irish Home D partinent must, for many years
to come, lay his account with being kept perma-
nently in hot water. That might be endured by a
strong minded and thick-skinned man, provided
there were any reasonable prospect of being able to
do any good in the office. Butsimated as the Irish
Secretary is, under existing arrangements, this is
entirely out of the question. The Irish Secretary
is simply and solely a buffer betwean the English
Home-office and the Castle in Dubl:n. He is placed
where he is to be squeezed and mutilated, in order
to avert dangerous collisions between these pon-
derous bodies. The authorities of the Home-office
in Downing-street and the authorities in the Castle
at Dublin never can, by any, chance agree on any
scheme of policy. When the one wishes to move on,
the other is sure to insist on standing still or turn-
ing back. Now the function of the Irish Secretary
is to serve both, as one clerk sometimes serves two
economical and briefless barristers who occupythe
same set of chambers. If the Irish Secretary is dis-
posed to do the work of the Castle, he is snubbed
and ordered to keep quiet by the tome-office ; if
he iseager to carry out some plan of the Home-
office, he is rapped over the knuckles by the Castle.
He is kept in perpetual inaction, and then scowled
upon and scolded for doing nothing. Meanwhile
the public out of doors imputes to him all the Irish
establishment's multifarious sins of omission. Ora-
tors denounce him, newspapers write him down ;
Tenant-right-leaguers, Repealers, Young Ire-
landers, the Parti-Pretre, and the Spoonerites, all
bellow against him with a forty-faction power of
lungs. Poor Mr. Henry Herbert ! We beg to
tender. him our sincere condolence on the martyr-
dom which awaits him. -
How the matter is io be amended it is not so
easy to say. One thing, however, is certain—that
the evil will continue to exist unabated so long as
the farce of a Vice-regal Court in the Castle at Dub-
lin continues to be enacted. One Irish Executive in
Dublin and another in Downing-street are incompa-
tible. The one mustkeep thwarting the other; orthe
one must, by consenting merely to register the edicts
of the other, write itself down a sham. There can be
only one administrative Government in any State.
The existence of an Irish Viceroy is a perma-
nent protest that the Union is still incomplete.
Ireland varies so much in its social and civil condi-
tion from the sister'island, that a separate Depart-
ment in the Home-office for the transaction of Irish
business will long continue to be necessary ; and
at the head of this department there must be a Se-
cretary of State for Ireland, subordinated to the
principal Home Secretary of State for the whole
Empire. But the Irish Viceroy, with his mock
Court, is a mere hindrance of business and source
of corruption. This is now pretty generally ac-
knowledged throughout Ireland—except in Dublin ;
and there, as was felicitously rematked ihe other
day by a weekly contemporary, the Lord Lieu-
tenant question is not a Cabinet, but a Tabinet
question. Some of the Dublin shopkeepers may
gain by the perpetuation of the Vice-regal office,
but all the rest of Ireland loses. In these days of
Administrative Reform Lord Palmerston might
have done good service by availing himself of the
vacancy in. the Irish Secretaryship to inaugurate
the abolition of that solemn, costly, and corrupting
sham, the Irish Viceroyalty. —Daily' .N CIPS.

MR. JOHN BRIGHT AND PARLIAMEN-
TARY REFORM.

The following letter lias been received by Mr.
Alexander Laing, Hawick, in acknowledgment of
certain resolutions of sympathy with Messrs.
Cobden, Bright, and Gibsan, on the result of the
Huddersfield and Manchester elections, passed at a
meeting held in that town some weeks ago. A
letter ou the subject from Mr. Cobden has already
been published :

" Geneva, May 17, 1857.

"Dear Sir,—Your kind note, enclosing a copy of
the resolution passed at a public meeting of the
'inhabitants of Hawick, reached me only last even-
ing. I lose no time in writing to say that lam
very glad to find that in your town the cause of re-
form, free trade and retrenchment has so many warm
friends, and that you have understood and ap-
proved the policy which Mr. Cobden, Mr. Gibson,
and myself have supported in the House of Com-
mons. In the question of free trade little progress
has been made for some years past ; as to retrench-
ment, the word has become almost obsolete, and
the military expenditure of .the country is now
nearly double the amount which the Duke of Wel-
lington and Sir R. Peel thought necessary in 18.35,
al, hough we have no more territory to defend, and
although a large army is no longer necessary to
maintain tranquillity in Ireland. As to reform,
while almost everybody professes to be in favour of
it in some shape, the preparation of the particular
bill to be brought forward next year is left in the
hands of a Minister whose hostility to every pro-
position for reform since the year 1832 is notorious
and undeniable. Whether on these three points to
which your resolution refers the country is in a
satisfactory position I must leave the friends of free
trade, reform, and retrenchment to decide.

With regard to the promised reform let me •
warn you to look not more to the question of fran-
chise than to the other arrangements of the mea-
sure. It would be easy to double the number of
electors and at the same time to increase the aris-
tocratic influence in Parliament. To give votes
without giving representatives in some fair degree
in proportion to the votes is but to cheat the people;
and to give a large increase of votes without the
security of the ballot will subject increased num-
bers of our countrymen to the degrading influences
which wealth and power now exercise so unscrupu-
lously upon the existing electoral body. A mode-
rate measure, and an honest one so far as it goes,
is far more to be desired than one of great preten-
sions with some fraudulent scheme for defeating
the wishes of the nation. A dishonest apportion-
ment of members may effectually destroy a reps e-
sentation ; and any trick to obstruct the free action
of majorities, such as that proposed in Lord J.
Russell's last bill, should be strenuously resisted,
as calculated to undermine the very basis of repre-
sentative institutions, and designed only to cheat
the people of that increased power which the bill
would pi ofess to confer upon them.
Whether I shall ever again in Parliament sup-
port the policy you approve is extremely uncertain,
but I shall always retain a grateful sense of the
kindness which 1 have received in past times, and
at the present time, from the intelligent community
ou whose behalf you have written to me.—Believe
me to be very sincerely yours, _

" JOHN BRIGHT.
" To Alex. Laing, Esq., Hawick."

111 R. G. T. F. SMITH'S WEATHER PRE-
DICTIONS FUR JUNE. 1857.

To the 3d or sth of June, temperature cool for
the season. From the 6th to the 15th will be the
highest temperature attained during the month,
hot weather generating electric action, and, as a
consequence, partial storms in several localities ;
the testimonies for rain are but few ; the humidity
of June will chiefly occur in the interim of the Ist
to the 14th, From 15th to 18th, if not hot, a
genial temperature. Fine weather prevails from the
22d to the 39th. From the 19th to the 30th the
sun's rays are refulg,nt, but a visible difference in
the temperature to that noted film the 6th to the
15th.

The assurances I receive of the accuracy of the
May predictions—in addition to the preceding
months—are conducive to their utility ; but, as
before observed, electricity and locality will ever
militate against;perfect success ; if an endeavour to
approximate correctness be appreciable with that
view they are submitted to the test of public
opinion.
Cheltenham, May 20th.