The Sun.
London, England, 1828-09-25 00:00:00

sor, forced the Preskyterian.s.to lie still.. But man
nmst be differently constituted if severity and
cruelty, though they may force an outward obe-
dience, can produce, any ether inward change
than increased disaffecefon, and a stronger• deter-
initiation to dive effect to it .the first favour-
able Opportunity. When' the Irish Massacre
broke out, it was in Ulster, which had been the
theatre of the greatest injustice arid barbarity
of the English,. that the vengeance takeit was
Most barbarous. In .Scotland, the Revointioff
. under King William led to very different results
from what were experienced in England. The
. Established Clergy,were driven by violence from
their churches,;; and in the west,c*hich had been
the theatre of the greate§tsectielty, the .Episco-
palian Clergy were rdost
_cruelly treated in,,re
turn. We are stating the, question on th‘most
favourable suppc4ition for the Orangerati:— It
is possible that the distress caused bythe inter-
ruption. to internal commerce, the consequence
. of a civil war, might lead to revolutionary move-
ments in England. All revolutions, however
• . deeply
.rooted they may be,• are immediately
produced, by financial embarrassments. England,
possessing as she does a large body of men deeply
interested in the maintenamn of - tranquillity,
might succeed, even under financial embarrass-
ments, in preserving - the rights of Borough-
mongers intact ; :but,, it_ is possible also that
changes seriously affecting the Protestant Con-
stitution might be 'the consequence ; and the
Duke of Newcistle might be left.in the•ruins of
his tLicx-boroughs, to wail like the 'descendants of
0
t!,4e Irish Chiefs, now digging . perhaps on his
domains, the vanished splendour of hi.a house.
A man possessed of boroughs ought to be very
. sure of the,result before he einKrlcgifi the game
of provoking rebellions and. insurrections.. We
have no altertitive,' it is. allowed on air halids,
but to crush the Catholics or to admit them to
an equality with -us._ If we "fleeing° .erusli;;l
them, the sooner, no doubt; .we begin' the
better ; because the longer-wedelay the task, he
more we shall have to do. With their increas-
ing prosperity, _too, the desire of equality must
increase ; because the `consciousness .of, power
does not tend to reconcile men, to oppression.-.--
A system of conciliation is really, .as the
Standarctobserves, advancing the interests of the
Catholics, because it enables them to acquire
additional power. Had the penal laws remained
in: force, and the Catholics been without pro-
perty, the empire would have been, no doubt,
poorer, but the Protestant interest in' Ireland
would have been stronger. The Standard of
last night, bbserves--;." In 1637 (see the Morn-
ing- Chronicle) Ireland was tranquil, in conse-
quence of a conciliatory Government." It should
rather be said, in consequence of an energetic
Government, of which all men, rich and poor,
stood in awe.- • Strafford has been accused of
. tyranny : but allowance ought to *be made for
the age and the country. Still many of his
measures are• not- to be justified; but' upon the
whole the country advanced in prosperity under
his administration. "In 1641," adds our Con-
temporary, " as ,the • Chronicle admits with . a
sigh this morning, and every person, no matter
how indifferent to the Protestant interest of Ire-
land—Hume, for example; who has written the
History of that country—there was a diabolical_
massacre, the horrors of which have never been
equalled." If Strafford-had been a less efficient
guardian of property, and the country had
been in a more backward state; it is possible
that in 1641 the Catholics might have re-
mained passive during the attempts which were
made then to precipitate them into ' rebel-
lion for the sake of farther confiscations:' It is
known that before the Irish rose,' they 'were
threatened during that time of Puritan fumy
with extirpation. It has always been accounted
a -grievous -vrinie in the Irish "to demand equal.
justice. Sir John Temple's 'violent book on the.
• Irish Rebellion furnishes the best vindication of
the Irish ; for, whatever might 'he' thoUght by
zealots, in his own age, as- to the claims of the
Irish, against. which lie inveighs so loudly, our
age has already pronounced in-their favour. The.
Catholics, he says, claimed the abolition of all
marks of national distinction between EngliSh,
and Irish ; that the Parliament of Ireland should
have a supreme jurisdiction in Ireland ; that
Poyning's Act .should be repealed ; that the
Penal Laws against Catholics should be repealed ;
tliat the,transportation ofcommodities befree ; that
. •
.allmonopoliesie taken away; that such new Cor,-,
potations as have not the face of Corporation
Towns, and were erected to give voices in the
Parliament (Rotten Boroughs), may be dis-
solved, and their votes taken away, &c. Szc.—
Sir John observes, " these are the Means pro-
posed by these. Catholic Reinonstrants 'for the
reducing of time . kingdom to peace, these the
great obstructions they would have removed, and
the constant counsel they would have followed,
in settling the tranquillity and present govern.
meet of this land ; so as we need seek no fur-
ther evidence, nor make any more curious in-
quiries into the secret causes of their first rising ;
we have.here enough out of their own mouths
to resolve the nio,t ficiu
pulous unbeliever of their
first motives to rebellion." " Considering (lie
adds) the large indulgence and free liberty they
universally
enjoyed at that time—in the lull ex-
ercise of their religion. throughout'all the parts
of the kingdom--,-.lt may be most justly sus_
ar e outward
sooleav
petted (how zealously ernow ob-
trude )-
trude it) that, this witsy the theyb
coverture made use, of"' • • '• '• - " lf. we shall
consider their main design, and chief ends there-
in, as they aypear in their first principles, or
will give credit to the several speeches and pas-
sages,the rebels, in
, that we
.meet with. among
the very breaking out ; as also
beginning of their
to several other testimonies that have since pri-
vately fallen from. sQine,Onicular person among
them, we must believe -that their design clearly
was to destroy. and root out .all:, the
.British and
Protestants peignty of the.Crownlanted within' this king
of. England;
; to cut
cif tn
,e sovereland •
and so to deliver themselves from their
lorg-
continued subjection to the English nation.
—That is, that tile Irish felt a desire of freeing
theinSelveS from political subsection ; and 1ing-
.•,,110 the present day sing with rap-
ture, Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled," 'of
which their expulsion from a
kingdom
, which
they held with 4.Tueli right as eeland, is time
thew,. are to be indignant that the Irish Catho-
- lies of 1641 should wish to rid their country-of
British and frPtcstants, )vllO ever • since their
invasion of the country had acted as cruel.
task-masters atrel. spoilers. It is now acknow-
ledged that the Irish were driven ',by the
. measures of the Lords- Justices,- h
specula=
ted on "'further confiscations, to avail. them-'
.selves of the conjuncturaiito.secure, their: inde-
pendence. Even Eeland, aPrPteSant Divine,
adinitp
that " it was .well knOptp how, much the
imprisonments and other severities of. Sir Wm,
PcITS'OnB had contributed to hurry numbers into
'tile last rebellion." He -,,i„ihgrves, speaking of
Ormond, in the reigieof:O.Wiles IL, 4, But this
instance of rigour. (theTroclatuatiou ,directing