The Sun.
London, England, 1850-10-08 00:00:00

o,l`-bonlina )Itit

LONDON, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1850.

Experience had so fully demonstrated the certainty
of even the most humane schemes of the philanthropist
meeting with opposition, that we felt assured from the
first that all kinds of objections would inevitably be
raised against next year's Industrial Exhibition.
Nevertheless, we must acknowledge that we did not
for a moment anticipate anything' at all comparable
to the fierce and unremitting attacks which have now
for a considerable time been directed against the pro-
ject itself and its illustrious originator. We had
foolishly enough conceived that " the force
of folly" would fail in an attempt so
egregious and malevolent, and that, in ad-
dition to this, some sentiments of common de-
cency would have restrained even the most rash from
maligning the intentions of his Royal Highness the
Prince Consort. In so imagining we have been
grievously mistaken. It has, perhaps never fallen to
the lot of any proposition to encounter such a
very numerous and virulent body of assailants. Had
the Prince, instead of following the dictates of his
elevated judgment, yielded to the Boggestion of some

dangerous speculator, had he called upon the people II
of these islands to celebrate a festival in homage of
every degrading and pernicious principle, it i
would scarcely have been possible to excite a more I
violent storm of depreciations . The whole proposal
has been treated as the target of sarcasms, of ear-
castfis pointed by ignorance and poisoned by malig-
nity. It has been ridiculed not only in the aggre-
gate, but even to the minutest particulars. Instead
of being grateful for an opportunity so advantageous
for the advancement of commerce, for the incite-
ment of industry, and for the improvement of ma-
nufactures, a large part of the community has been
grumbling at its approach as at a prospect prophetic
only of evil and discomfiture. Miserable predic-
tions of all kinds have been disseminated. Now it
has been maintained that the Exhibition must prove
a failure from the indifference of foreign nations, from
the circumstance of no one, or scarcely any one,
coming to London in 1851 from the continent.
Then it has been whispered by others that the Exhi-
bition must turn out a failure from an exactly con-
trary reason, namely, from the circumstance that so
many will flock to the metropolis that the con-
course will be regarded as a perpetual an-
noyance, and every individual derive from it
only a sense of dissatisfaction. Again it
has been pretended by one class of curmudgeons that
ill effects must inevitably result from the disclosure
of our modes and processes of manufacture while
another class has maintained that must
necessarily be engendered between ourselves and the
foreigners, in consequence of a competition which
will end in becoming a rancorous rivalry instead of a
generous emulation. All the changes of complaint,
in fact, have been rung upon the subject, almost
from the first period of its suggestion, cer-
tainly from the moment when the Com-
mission for its development was established.
Recognising from the energy and industry
of the Commissioners the fact that the scheme
of his Royal Highness would, in spite of all obstacles,
actually be carried into operation, these wretched fore-
boders of evil evinced only an increased pertinacity of
opposition. Failing somewhat in their endeavour to
influence the public mind prejudicially in its estimate
of the Exhibition in its entirety, or even in its details,
their attention was next directed to the spot selected to
become the arena of international competition, and upon
the choice of that locality they forthwith grew more
than ever censorious. The bare idea of Hyde-park
being the site of the proposed building seemed to strike
them as altogether preposterous. They scouted the
notion as one so supremely ludicrous as to be scarcely
credible. They could scarcely have derided more
loudly a proposition for erecting the Hall of the Ex-
hibition upon the apex of the lightning conductor at
the Duke of York's Column, or upon the point of
that unsightly bunch of gilding which adorns the
summit of the Monument. Without of course pre-
tending that the exact spot chosen for the construc-
tion of the glass and iron palace of the Exhibition of
Industry is the most appropriate that could have been
decided upon in the length and breadth of the
capital, we may very safely assert that no matter
what the place selected for that structure, it would in-
fallibly have been declared by these grumbling depre-
ciatory to.be about the last spot that should have been
dreamt of as suited to the occasion or the enterprise.
Happily the personages entrusted with the carrying
out of the undertaking have turned a deaf
ear to all the objections raised against them
by the more captious of the population, advancing
resolutely in their labour of preparation undeterred
by sneers or calumnies, by the noisiest complaints
and the darkest forebodings. Had not this been the
character of their proceeding matters would have re-
mained in state quo so long as to have precluded the
Government from the chance of carrying into effect the
beneficent notion propounded by his Royal Highness
the Prince Consort. Had the Commissioners hearkened
in any one instance to the insidious advice of
their critics they must inevitably have fallen into a
dilemma not unlike that of the old man and his ass
in the narrative of the classic fabulist. Fortunately
for the well-wishers of the Exhibition, for those in
r any way interested in its conduct, the original plan
has been followed from the commencement without
any appreciable modification. By the time the sti-
pulated month in' 1851 has arrived everything will
have been completed. Already most of the space com-
prised in the projected building has been allotted, and,
in all probability, the last portion of it will have been
distributed before the close of the present October.
From this it may be perceived that, while there is
no lack of activity on the part of those entrusted
with the direction of the enterprise, there is also, at
the same time, no deficiency of confidence among
those who are disposed to participate in its advan-
tages. So conspicuously are these two facts already
developed, that we are sanguine that all sounds of op-
position and evil augury will have died away before
the last rivet has been driven and the last fragment
of scaffolding has been removed.

Another, letter has been received from Mr. SMITH
O'Bunnv, dated the iieth of February last, in which,
like those to which the attention of Parliament and
of the public generally has already been directed, the
unfortunate gentleman complains bitterly of the treat-
ment he has received at the hands of the colonial au-
thorities, and which he ascribes to the orders of the
Governor, Sir WILLIAM DENISON, and the Comp-
troller-General, Dr. HestrDEN. It is, however, but
a repetition of the former charge, which has been
fully canvassed ; for he distinctly admits that in
consequence of the state of his health there had
been " a relaxation of the restrictions under which he
was placed, which had the effect of restoring his
health," and he says nothing of having been again
subjected to the vexatious regulations which he ap-
peared to feel so deeply. It is therefore to be hoped
that the new instructions sent out from the Colonial-
office may have the effect of rendering his situation
as comfortable as may be consistent with his safe
custody, and as he himself will permit it to be.
It is indeed deeply to be lamented that a gentleman
of family and education, who had ever maintained the
highest character for honour and integrity, should be
an exile from his native land, deprived of the society
of his wife and children, and of all that could render
life desirable ; but Mr. O'Berux has only himself
to blame. In every stage of the proceedings—in
every matter in which he has been brought into col-
lision with the law of the land, he has been treated
with great and almost singular lenity. On the first
occasion, when the misguided gentleman set the
entire House of Commons at defiance, and refused to
obey the established regulations, without which
the business of the country could not possibly be
carried on, he was discharged from confinement at
the earliest moment consistent with the dignity of the
august assembly, of which he was himself a member.
So soon as the Committee on which he was appointed
to serve had concluded its labours he was released
by an unanimous vote of the House. Indeed, he
would never have been consigned to the " cellar" bad
he left any loophole by which the Committee of
Selection could have escaped reporting his
conduct to the House, or the House itself
from punishing his contumacy. Had he made
any excuse, however trivial, or expressed a desire to
be relieved from his attendance on that occasion, his
request would have been readily acceded to; but,
unfortunately, he would do nothing but give a direct
and positive refusal to serve, on the untenable
ground that, as an Irish Member, he would not in-
terfere in any matter in which the affairs of Ireland
were not concerned. He was, in fact, determined to
be a martyr, and nothing could induce him to swerve
from that insane resolution.

His subsequent conduct was of a similar character.
On his return to Ireland he bearded the Irish
Government, and let slip no opportunity of exciting
the people to resistance. He was indicted for sedi-
tion, and happy would it have been for himself had he
not escaped the consequences of the minor offence
through the zeal and ability of the accomplished ad-
vocate who conducted his defence, and the doubts of a
juror, who dissented from his eleven brethren. The
disagreement of the jury on that occasion afforded
him the opportunity of subjecting himself to graver
penalties, by committing the highest crime of
which a British subject could be guilty—appearing
in armed rebellion against the SOVEREIGN to whom he
had repeatedly, as a magistrate and a Member of the
Imperial Parliament, solemnly sworn to bear true
allegiance.
After the abortive attempt at Ballingarry, his cap-
ture, by what was tantamount to an act of self-

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