The Sun.
London, England, 1845-04-17 00:00:00

114` ttenin c Tut

LONDON, THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 1845.

The House of Lords did not sit last night.
In the House of Commons the SPEAKER took the
chair at Four o'clock.
An immense number of petitions were presented on
the subject of the grant to Maynooth.
Sir J. likristiza gave notice that, on going into Com-
mittee on the Bill, he should move the omission of the
second clause, giving power to the authorities of the
College to receive bequests.
The Calico Print Works Bill was committed pro forma.
The adjourned debate on the Maynooth Bill was then
resumed by Mr. G. A. HAMILTON, who opposed the
Bill as contrary to the Constitution of the British empire
which was essentially Protestant.
Mr. ELLICE would vote for the second reading of the
Bill.. He should vote for Mr. WAan's motion with re-
gard to the source from whence the funds for carrying
this measure into effect should be derived, but in the
event of that motion being negatived, he would support
the present measure as an act of tardy justice, and partial
restitution to the Irish people.

Mr. GORING opposed the measure as one which would
be regarded with alarm by the agricultural interest
(which declaration was received by the House with shouts
of laughter), and as an insult to the Protestants of
Ireland.

Lord ASHLEY opposed the measure, as one full o
peril to the Established Church in Ireland.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, in a lengthened
speech, explained and defended the conduct of the
Government.

Sir W. CLAY supported tha grant.
Sir J. EASTHOPE supported the measure, which was
opposed by Lord BERNARD.
Lord JOCELYN thought it necessary that the Catholic
priests should receive a proper education. It was a
measure calculated to conciliate the people of Ireland,
and to draw closer the sympathies between Protestants
and Roman Catholics, who had been too long divided,
and, therefore, it should have his support.
Mr. BAIGET was 1111 advocate of the voluntary grin•

ciple, and therefore he opposed the measure. It was
said that it would soothe the priesthood ; now he consi-
dered that it was the duty of the priesthood to proclaim
the wrongs of Ireland, and he should be sorry to have
them bribed into silence.

Lord JOHN MANNERS supported the measure, and was
glad to see that the Government now entertained dif-
ferent opinions to those which they promulgated in
1843. In that year they had been told by a Member of
the Government that conciliation had reached its limits.

Mr. RUTHERFORD considered the measure imperatively
called for. It was the first benefit which Ireland had
derived from the Legislative Union, and he hoped it
would only be an earnest of future benefits.

Mr. SMYTHE trusted that the effect of this measure
would not be, as some of its promoters hoped, to raise
the priests above the people. The priests were the
natural leaders of the people, and should be of the
people. He supported the measure, and considered that
the conduct of Sir ROEEKT PEEL, as Prime Minister,
contrasted most favourably with that of Mr. Secretary
PEEL.

Mr. REDINGTON, as an Irishman and a Roman Ca-
tholic, felt bound to vote in favour of the measure.
On the motion of Mr. GUMMING BRUCE the debate
was adjourned.
The other orders of the day were then disposed of,
anal the House adjourned at Half-past Twelve.

The debate on the Maynooth question presents some
peculiar features, which probably could be found in no
other country but England. We find Sir R. H. Iszems,
the representative of Oxford University, leading the
assault on the grant ; and Mr. GOULBURN, the repre-
sentative of Cambridge, and the most staunch supporter
of Protestantism, directly opposed to him, and
also to his own colleague, Mr. LAW. The Duke of
NEWCASTLE, the last of the true Eldon school, the un-
flinching advocate of Church and State united, and the
bitter enemy of Catholicism, has published his opinions
to the world, and forebodes nothing but ruin by an addi-
tional grant of 16,0001. to Maynooth. This was the
last feather laid on the camel's: back, and the
very prospect of the fatal measure has
almost ',broken the veteran's heart. His son,
who no doubt has been educated with an unusual care,
and instructed in the path wherein he should go, has
disowned the paternal example, turned a traitor to the
principles of the house of Newcastle, and joined with the
base and destructive Whigs in supporting a grant to the
Catholics. But even that defection is nothing
when we look to the paragon of Orangeism,
the leader of the High Church Irish party, the
Earl of RODEN, and the speech made by bis heir
apparent last night, Lord JOCELYN, who rejoices that
the wall of separation between the inhabitants of the
north and the south is to be removed, and that a measure
is in progress which will create a stronger feeling of
kindness and sympathy than had hitherto prevailed
between the Protestants and Roman Catholics of Ire-
land. The most remarkable speech of all, however,
was that delivered by Mr. BRIGHT. He belongs to a
highly respectable class, who prefer peace to all other
considerations ; who have set their face against soldiers
and sailors, and guns and bayonets, and war in every
shape ; who, in fact, would not enlist into the army, or
fire a shot at the most blood-thirsty Frenchman, if it
were to save the whole island from destruction ; yet Mr.
BRIGHT, last night, opposed the measure on the ground,
among other reasons, that it would tend to put down agi-
tation, and pacify Ireland. "He could not see how the
grant of an additional sum to Maynooth was likely to give
employment to the people, or to feed or clothe them, or
make them more satisfied with their condition ; but he could
easily see how, by the granting of this sum, the people
of England and the Legislature of this empire might
hear in after times far less of the sufferings, and sorrows,
and wrongs of the people of Ireland than they did at the
present moment. One great source of the agitation
which has taken place for the redress of Irish wrongs
was the support which the Irish priests had gi►en to the
various associations throughout the country. The ob-
ject of this Bill was to tame down these agitators."
Now Mr. BRIGHT must know that the main object of
these agitators is the separation of the two countries, and
he must also know that such a calamity could not be
inflicted on the United Kingdom but at the ex-
pense of oceans of blood, and the murderous
death of thousands of human beings as anxious to live
at peace, too, as any member of the Society of Friends.
To put down the Irish Protestant Church at present is
the most hopeless of all remedies. Were it swept from
the country root and branch, we believe peace would
soon be restored, and all the jealousy, the heart-burnings,
and the persecutions that prevail` would soon cease ; but
man is not omnipotent. He cannot say "Do this, and
it is done ;" he must act according to circumstances, and
to act otherwise would only add to the evil. In the
mean time, the Government must keep up a large army
in Ireland, 30,000 rank and file, at least, at an expense
of more than a million sterling a year, thereby
showing our weakness to foreigners, and encou-
raging them to bring all the horrors of war
on the civilised world. Is it not better
then to calm down the hostility of the Irish, and bring
their minds to such a state of composure as may enable
them' to judge calmly of what is best for their in-
terests ? A vast proportion of the people of England
and Scotland take a deep interest in the suffer-
ings of the Irish nation ; many of them are
ready to sacrifice their ease, their comfort, and
the brightest political prospects for the sake of justice
and mercy ; and we may, therefore, presume, that even
in England the Irish will not want friends, though the
repeal agitation were set at rest to-morrow. The
Whigs, to their eternal honour, sacrificed more than once
place and all its allurements for justice to the Roman Ca-
tholics. For many long years they remained in opposition
on that ground alone, and it is gratifying to find, among
so many political changes and so many backslidings, that
this party still nobly maintains its character, and risks
even the opposition and the enmity of friends to carry
out a great principle. Not one of the leaders
has flinched from his post, though by opposing
the motion of Sir ROBERT PEEL they could have
driven him from office. Last evening not fewer
than four Whig Members—all representing large
constituencies too—spoke in favour of the measure, and
preferred what they believed to be their duty to all pos-
sible consequences. Their names deserve to be recorded,
and are as follows :—Mr. ELLICE, Member for Coventry;
Sir W. CLAY, Tower Hamlets ; Sir JOHN EASTHOPE
Leicester ; and Mr. RUTHERFORD, the late Lord Advo-
cate, Member for Leith.

In The Sun of Tuesday we noticed the arrival of the
ship St. George on Monday last, off Dover, from Syd-
ney, with letters, &c., down to the sth of January. The
speech of the Governor of that colony, Sir G. GIPPS, on
closing the first session of the Legislative Assembly, in
common with the general tenour of the advices received,
permits us to hope that New South Wales is making
a certain, though it be a slow, progress towards the re-
establishment of her financial and commercial prospe-
rity. Among the most pleasing indications of this fact,
is the recovery of the colony from its monetary de-
' pression. The shipping trade was extremely active ; a
great number of craft were loading at their berths at
Sydney ; wool was coming in abundantly from
the farmers in the interior, and these auspicious
symptoms are strengthened by the interesting
fact that the St. George brings home some con-
signments of lead and copper ore, the product
of New Holland mines. In all this there is much en-
couragement to those who look to our colonial posses-
sions as capable, under able and intelligent administra-
tion, not only of reimbursing the mother country for the
expenses of their maintenance, protection, civil and mili-
tary staff, &c., but of one day contributing largely to
her revenues and making ample and permanent provi-
sion for their own defence and services.
At another time we might feel strongly disposed to
dwell on this intelligence, in consideration not only of
its intrinsic and present interest, but in relation to its
bearings on the future career of New South Wales.
There is not one of those sources of material wealth,
which, in the above notice we have briefly touched upon,
that may not be made, in our judgment, to yield results
far beyond any which have yet been developed in the
colony. Its mineral riches, we feel satisfied from the
report of several individuals whose means of information
and diligence of research are of a superior order,
will prove much more varied and extensive than the
English public are generally aware of. The colossal
strides which have been made in its great staple trade
of wool under all the disadvantages of. past mismanage-
ment,.f
and the competition of the like. commodity o
which will carry,
Europe and of Africa, se
it eemrsvet:loint7inceenaormv elas-
ticityigoouusrabaunnddancewe look at its fortunate position And,
again,
into every market of the
coursewoster
ow
coastsithall
ofth
eSomuethritAimmeerei
America,
or
of Asia and the
whether
for. commercial inter.
countries
of its natural harbours, the extent orftc.' the magnificence
the productiveness of its fisheries, it is 1"
boat,. and
anticipate that at no distant day it will possible not to
of the most important resorts of shipping in the become
one
thern hemisphere. But it is not our present
t BM-
t P
to enter into any historical view of the progress which
e
this colony has made since the period of its organiza-
tion some half century ago ; nor to consider to what ex-
tent its present condition is less advanced than might
have been expected from a country so favoured by
nature and the concurrence of events. It is enough to
know that, despite its own resources and the facilities