The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-02 00:00:00

TU tiN,_

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YIiSTERDAY.
GLOBE.—lreland still continues the difficulty and
the disgrace of Sir Robert Peel's administration. The
former it might have been without reproach. The
letter is not merely its misfortune, but its fault.
It is with Ministers, as with ordinary men—
they cannot " command success ;" but, by a strict
adherence to principle, and an uncompromising
course of impartial administration of sound po-
licy, they may "deserve" to succeed; and will even-
tually, if not at once, succeed in silencing com-
plaints and establishing confidence in their rule.
From the day that Sir Robert Peel obtained the ob-
ject of his aim, and, as head of the Administration,
selected his instruments of government in Ireland,
down to the last appointment made by those who
govern in that country, one " untoward event" has
followed another in quick succession—all tending to
exhibit the unfitness of the Administration to restore
tranquillity, or to confer prosperity on that part of
the empire. Ignorance of the most essential and easily-
ascertained facts and circumstances, of which a Go-
vernment should be well informed to be safely guided
in its policy, have caused blunders as palpable as they
have been mischievous. Infatuation seems to have
rendered the executive blind to consequences.
Hence, the Ministry has been damaged in charac-
ter ; the country disturbed by agitation—vibrat-
ing between alternate fears for the preservation of
social order and hopes of restored peace. The
prosecution of O'Connell and his co-agitators was
to vindicate the majesty and assert the supremacy
of the laws ; yet that very prosecution was marked,
from its commencement to its close, by violations of
the Constitution, and by open disregard to that im-
partiality of administration which gives to the laws
their efficiency, and preserves justice from de-
generating into tyranny. By this perversion of the
forms of law to the purposes of oppression—this
securing a pre-determined conviction by pre-
arranged violations of constitutional right, the Go-
vernment has rendered itself the criminal. Public
opinion directs its severest censures against the ad-
ministrators of the law; while those who were con-
victed, by stretchin, the law that it might reach those
who had rendered themselves obnoxious to the party
in office, are regarded as heroes. If punished in
virtue of the conviction thus obtained, they will be
elevated into martyrs. The moral influence—from
which the administration of justice derives its real
power—has been thus neutralised, if not absolutely
enlisted with the convicted parties. No sa!atary
results could follow the infliction upon them of
any sentence. A nominal punishment would be at-
tributed to fear—a severe one to vindictiveness. In
either case, the Government would be the sufferer. A
virtual triumph will be conferred on O'Connell.
Whether he escape, or be incarcerated, is, com-
paratively, of no moment. At liberty, he would
be hailed as the victor in the conflict. In Kilmain-
ham or Carrickfergus, his prison would be the
centre of attraction, within which the sympathies
of his countrymen would be concentrated. From
his cell the Liberator " would issue his periodical
behests. These would inspire more reverence,
and- be invested, in popular estimation, with
more solemn sanctions, than the proclamations of
Councils, or the enactments of Senates. At the ex-
piration of the sentence which removed him, for a
time, from the presence of his adherents, he would
come forth, wieldingan immensely increas°d influence ;
exercising a power over the credulous and easily ex-
cited population, more dangerous than ever to the tran-
quillity of the country and the integrity of the em-
pire. Yet in this dangerous predicament—the result
of that want of foresight which seems to have actuated
the Government in its mode of dealing with O'Connell
and the repeal agitation—another instance is afforded
of the folly which actuates the Irish executive. The
appointment of a stipendiary magistrate is to be made.
The Government is about to give an instance of its
desire to conciliate the popular feeling, by selecting for
the important post a gentleman whose superior fitness
for the office shall be manifest to all. And when the
Government does endeavour to do the conciliatory, its
success is wonderful. They look round them—weigh
the qualifications, mental, moral, and professional, of
the numerous aspirants to the honour and emoluments
of the office—and they select Mr. O'Brien ! This
gentleman's claims to the patronage of the Govern-
ment and to the confidence of the people were set
forth by the Marquis of Normanhy on Friday evening,
in the speech by which he called the attention of the
House of Lords to the appointment in question. Not
only did Mr. O'Brien refuse to give the health of
Lord Ebrington, then Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, be-
.cause of his avowed determination to withhold the Go-
vernment patronage from members of the Repeal As-
sociation; but he wrote a letter on the subject to R.
Dillon Browne, Esq., the Member for the town in
which the dinner took place. In this epistle, which
was published at the time, the most fulsome panegy-
rics were pronounced on O'Connell, and the most
inflated protestations of his own devotion to Repeal,
were expressed.
STANDARD.—Our attention has been called to
a passage, in the seventh edition of the " Encyclo-
paedia Britannica," recently completed. It is a rich
storehouse of knowledge, reflecting honour upon the
age and country that have produced it. We know
of nothing in any language approaching to it in fulness
and accuracy of matter, orin excellency of arrangement.
This great work, however, is not faultless, but its
error certainly does not lie on the side of hostility to
the " new philosophy" in commerce and social eco-
nomy. On the other hand; we should say, that the
new science is a great deal too much in favour with
the writers of the" Encyclopmdia." From this charac-
teristic, which nobody who knows the magnificent
repertory in question will dispute, the passage
above quoted [relative to " Government inter-
ference with the regulation of factories] derives
additional authority, and this passage, it will
be seen, directly impugns the proposition urged
in the late debate, that the principle of in-
terference between employer and employed is
"an unsound principle." No objection, says the
encyclopaedist, can be. made to the principle
of interference between employer and employed,
where the latter are children and young persons. It
was in this exact case, however, that the prin-
ciple was condemned, as introduced forty years
ago; it was said " the Legislature committed itself
to an unsound principle in limiting the labour of
children in factories, and it is proposei to increase
the lithitation, and to include women in it"—women
surely as helpless and as well entitled to the protec-
tion of the State upon principle as even infant children.
If it was our purpose, and if we could command time
and room to discuss the subject in this particular
light, we might show, by reference to returns,
that in the proportion in which the hours of
children's labour in factories have been limited
have the manufactures of the country improved
in quality and increased in amount ; certain and
obvious must it be to all men, that within precisely
the forty years that have elapsed since the adop-
tion of the principle said to be unsound, Great
Britain has made a progress not only in manu-
factures and arts, wealth and commerce, but
in moral and intellectual improvement, greater than
was ever made by any nation in the same period,
or even in three times the same period. And
if we are asked how to connect this vast and
rapid advance with a cause so seemingly slight as a
restraint upon the labour of children, we point to the
orderly and peaceful character of the people, which
has left enterprise and industry to do their work.
'• If you would be prosperous, make a hedge for the law,"
is, if we remember rightly, the first precept of the " Pirke
Abboth ;" and every farmer will tell, that generally
fencing is worth more than ploughing or manuring;
at all events, that without fencing, ploughing and
manuring, and all the other efforts of the husbandman,
are thrown away. There is, then, something more
than the mere consideration of humanity to combat
the proposition that the principle of interference for
the protection of children, and we will add of women
also, is unsound. Such protection fences the opera-
tions of enterprise and industry; and these operations
must thrive in a country thus fenced from internal
danger, and otherwise sufficiently protected from ex-
ternal violence. sln the case of Lord Ashley's pro-
position, little stress is laid upon the unsoundness of
the principle that protection is due to infancy, though
that hypothesis cannot be dispensed with by his
Lordship's opponents ; the main objection to tke pro-
position is, that the effect of limiting the labour of
women and children 'to ten hours, would, according
to the existing arrangements in factories, limit the
labour of men also. This we submit is not a fair
treatment of the question. If women and children
are not entitled to protection, refuse protection upon
that ground ; recur to the unsoundness of the prin-
ciple which forbids to employ infants of six and seven
protection,formerly
yßenatrsifolwdolmfeonr
nein'gdheteneinldhreonurnsrleleinntiatlemdiltloas
then do not withhold the right, because, according to
the present arrangement of the mills, men may avail
themselves of the same protection.

Loss OF LIVES AT HULL.-7A serious accident
ton oc-
curred Company
on Thursday last at Hull. The Hull Flax and Cot.
book-keepers. The offices are built over a reservoir or drain.
are building some new offices for clerks and
The accident occurred in striking some wedges from an arch
over the reservoir, when the arch fell with a great crash ;
osyus
and at the time of the accident four men were at work un-
derneath the arch, two of whom were killed; the other two
fortunately escaping with nl a
sustained
fewi
ed
dozen men were at work on a scaffolding over the reservoir;
but providentially they also
contusions.
u serious A
in
jbuor;._a
n
He Packet. .

YANKEE RATIOCINATION.--A distinguished clergy_
elan of the Universalist denomination was accused, while in
Lowell, of " violently dragging his wife from a revival meet-
ing, and compelling her to go home with him." He replied
—" Firstly, I have never attempted to influence my wife in
her views, nor her choice of a meeting. Secondly, my wife
has not attended any of the revival meetings in Lowell.
Thirdly, I have not attended even one of those meetings for
any purpose whatever. Fourthly, neither my wife nor my-
self has any inclination to attend those meetings. And
fifthly, I never bad a wife !"—New Orleans Paper.