The Sun.
London, England, 1844-07-10 00:00:00

?A.iNtton

SUN OFFICE, Seven o'clock.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROT2 THE EVENING PAPERS OF THIS DAT.

GLOJ:JR,lnstinctively shrinking from the dkeufsion
of Mr., Ross's motion on Mr. O'llriscull's Fe-appoint-
ment, to the Irish magtstracy, the favourable moment
for shirking the question was seized while Mr. Hume
rims speaking. A number of the Opposition Members
had left the Howe.. The well-known signal was given.
The well-trained hacks of Government, who walk
in and walk out of the House as they receive
the cue from their trainers, bolted out. The
Speaker's attention was directed to the fact that there
were not forty Members present. The mace was taken
from the table ; the Speaker left the chair ; and the
Rouse adjourned ,at. a quarter before eight. The
ruse will not, however, effect its object. The sub-
ject of Mr. O'Driscoll's restoration .to the commission
'of the peace in Ireland, involves considerations too
:important, in the present excited state of public
feeling in that country,. to be allowed to pass away
without a _searching inquiry into the facts of the
case. It must be seen whether even the disposition
which the House of Commons has shown to treat with
indifference the high-handed policy of Ministers, in
everything which pertains 'to Ireland, will induce it to
=sustain them in the monstrous perversion of the
prerogative in favour of a political partisan. The cir-
cumstance of a single re-appointment to the magistracy,
.in the person of Mr. O'Driscoll, whose delinquencies
had induced the Lord Chancellor to remove Into from
the commission, may not be, in itself, a matter of mo-
ment.; but it becomes of importance when regarded
as an indication of the spirit in which the Government
deals with the magistracy ; the character of which, in the
sister country, requires to be raised, and not lowered, to
render it respectable and efficient. The improved social
stateof Ireland under the Whigs was, in a great degree, at-
tributable to the care with which the executive in that
country preserved the commission from the introduction
of unworthy individuals. The present Ministers seem dis-
posed to undo all that their predecessors did to conciliate
the people, and preserve the peace in that country. If
'they be not stopped in their career, the results may in-
duce unavailing regrets that they acre allowed to pro-
voke a nation whom sound policy would have taught
them to propitiate. The first supply night will give
Mr. Ross an opportunity of compelling the attention of
Ministers and the House to his motion for the corre-
spondence in this shameful case, of which we trust ho
will avail himself.

STANDARD.—The claim of Sir Augustus D'Este to
the dukedom of Sussex has been rejected by the House
of Lords. This result was, we believe, very generally
:anticipated from the first. The only question that could
be raised in the case was this, has the Legislature the
power of imposing a personal disqualification upon any
«,f' the subjects of the Steve ? The analogy of all
laws of all countries determines this question in
the affirmative. No subject can, by change of place,
divest himself of his title to the protection of the
Oevernment of his native country ; or, on the other
hand, relieve himself from his corresponding obligation
to submit himself to the authority of its lawse—laws are
therefore of personal as well as of local obligation ; and
iris only by overlooking this truth, that any doubt could
bare been admitted as to the invalidity of the marriage of
the late Duke of Sussex with Lady Augusta Murray.
A momentary error upon the point was not,: how-
cver, unnatural, for the general marriage law of this
country having but a local sphere, it might be easily
:at first inferred that every marriage law must be merely
local. The policy of such aas the Royal Marriage
.Act, is a different question from the rower of the Legis-
lature to enact it, and it is a question upon which, we
freely con'ess it, our opinions are much less decided than
they Ince were. The example of the numerous family
of George the Third—Solll3 of them most unhappily
married; settee never married, and the whole thirteen re-
presented at this day by filar of their children—this
example was calculated to create a very strung impres-
sion against the law whi, h imposed such heavy
ire;iniuti upon the mar.iages of the Royal Family.
It was impossible not to reflect how different would have
been the position of Georg! the Third. in his lat. years,
if his numerous and flourishing offspring had been
free to form unions with the nobility of Englund ;
-and we still think that the interests of the Monarchy
are .no consulted by the barrier raised between the
]loyal Family and an aristocracy, in antiquity of descent
areldustre of birth certainly not inferior to the proudest
:among the sovereign houses of Europe. On the other
band, perhaps, the country gains something by the re-
gimes' of a temptation of no small amount of cabal,
:which would be offered by the. possibility of a royal
:alliance, while it is certain that an influence which might
:make the monarch occasionally even too powerful, is
obviated by the isolation ef. the Royal Family. Let
ats take for example the ease of George the Third.
.flat.} his numerous family intermarried with the
most powerful families of the aristocracy, as doubt'ess it
would have dune but for the law of which we are sp. ek-
ing; would he have been compelled, as often as he was
s mpelled, to accept Ministers whom he disliked, and in
whom he had not confidence ? We see the evil here,
however, because George the Third was a good and
:a wise man ; hut he tnight have been the reverse
of both —he might have been such a man as his
son and immediate successor, Who was neither good nor
-wise ; and we vat hardly regret a deficiency of power in
Georee the Third, which also operated as a restraint
upon'George.the Fourth. There is another considera-
tion, of less weight, indeed, but still deserving of
avention. The family that has so happily filled the
throne of this empire for 130 years—never more
happily than in its present beloved representative—
this family must be expected naturally to cherish a pre-
ferlice for sovereign alliances. The prejudice, if it m mit
b so called, of the reigning monarch, would always Si._
cline to unite the members of the Royal Family with
equals in rank rather than with subjects ' • but the ind
Bence of this prejudice would sometimes be encountered
by the private inclinations of the prince or princess
chiefly concerned, and thus would arise differences
which must extend to jealousy between the monarch
and the people, always ready to favour an honourable
passion, certainly not less inclined to favour such a
passion when a native of our own country is preferred
by it to a stranger. This would bring the monarch into
an attitude towards the people from which certainly good
cenld not arise. Oa the whole, then, it must be plain
that if the Marriage Act is an evil it is not an unmixed
evil. At present we surely have no reason to complain
of it; for, under no concurrence of circumstances could
England have hoped for the blessing of a better Sove-
reign, or a Commit more worthy of that Sovereign.