The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-06 00:00:00

tice, and a sense of duty, as to the extent of their communications
to Parliament in her Majesty's recent speech, has been already ac.
knowledged. But we deem it not unfair to state that so far as
could be judged by persons out of doors, there appeared no neces.
city for carrying such reserve beyond that point at which the
want of it might have risked a possible interference with the pro..
ceedings carried on in a court of justice. And had the forms of
language employed in framing the statements of the Queen's inten.
tion towards Ireland upon questions not prohibited,been somewhat
more explanatory, albeit even less comprehensive than we find
them, the country might have had less to complain of than many
sober.minded persons think there is at present room for. But,
besides the unsatisfactory omission which we yesterday noticed,
of any reference to the vital question of the Roman Catholic
Church and its ministers—one, of which the nation-
ality will by and be sure to force itself, in contempt
of all party feeling, upon the public mind—we ♦enture
to observe, that in respect to those topics which have
been pointed out by her Majesty as worthy of prompt
consideration from Parliament, there seems to be, even for a speech
from the Throne, a superfluous bias towards the use of generalities,
and disregard of the tangible and precise. The consequence of
such breadth of expression is, that nobody, not gifted with the
power of divination, can pronounce upon what may or may not be
really intended. For instance, now, her Majesty says that her
" attention has been directed to the state of the law and practice
with regard to the occupation of land in Ireland." We do not,
indeed, wonder that the gracious care of the Sovereign has been so
directed, inasmuch as otherwise the Queen would have been the sole
individual amongst the population of these ostensibly united realms
who could have withdrawn her anxious attention, and her most pain.
fill interest, from a matter overwrought with perplexity and migiving
—overcharged with social confintion and destruction—wherein the
respective dangers, threatening on one side human life, and verted
property on the other, seem to call aloud for remedies, not only
a imultaneous, but opposite and conflicting—terrible it may be to
the boldest hearts, if not impenetrable to the most consummate
sagacity. Under the Anse head with this reference to the occupa.
tion of land comes the mention by her Majesty, that she has in-
stituted extensive " local inquiries" into a question of so much
importance, and appointed " a Commission " to conduct them.
Now, we profess to be amongst the number of those who do not
always hope for much from " inquiries " into subjects with which
the minds of half the world have long already been fami.
liar. We give at the same time all credit to the esti-
mate declared to be formed by Ministers of the im-
portance of this great land question in Ireland. It ap.
pears to us that the Queen's Government not merely ought
to be alive to the fact that this is an " important" subject, but
that the solution of it is a most—the most portentous question with
regard to Ireland to be found within the vast scope of material
economy, on which depends in a manner the continuance of the
Irish as a nation, existing to the degree to which it does exist,
under the sway of civil government. Why, what is this grand
question of the " occupation" of land in Ireland I. The " occupa-
tion of land" is a simple sounding phrase. But what if we say,
instead of it, a " war for land,"—lantl against life—and both
against law I—for so, if .we call things by their proper names—so
so it stands—a bloody war, which rages against rich and poor,
and against the laws that are insufficient for the defence of either
—a mutual war of the stomach against the purse, and vice
versa, of desperate passion on behalf, and for the relief of in.
evitable hunger—of the right to live, original and inalienable,
against the right to possess, the creation of conventional society.