The Sun.
London, England, 1828-10-28 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE LONDON JOURNALS

The Kent Meeting was but an incident, though
one fruitful of calamity, in the rapid progress of fac-
tion here and throughout Ireland, towards a dissolu-
tion of whatever can be said to constitute a state.—
A state is governed by the laws; a government by
factions is a dissolution of the state and to the
brink of that gulf we are at this moment driven by
men, the avosved.object of whose combination is to
supersede at once the executive power and the legis-
lative power, and, under the pretence of upholdingl
" the Constitution," to chain down the exercise of
all those authorities through which only a Constitti-
. tion can act or can exist. Among the extracts
which we publish on the state of Ireland, will be
found the record of some ferocious parodies on the
worst extravagances of our English Brunswickers.
NOr is it very surprising, when we find that Bailin-
asloe was the scene of the meeting where the effu.-
sions were uttered,—and that Lord Clancarty, elder
brother to Archbishop Trench, was its chairman.—
Men still harp upon the intolerant and persecuting
spirit of the Catholics in the 15th, 16th, and 17th
centuries, when Protestantism itself had more of the
serpent and the tiger than of the dove. It Po-
pery was then barbarous, it was because society was
then barbarous—because wars, originating in com-
plex causes, were carried on iu a spirit of exaspera-
tion, aggravated by the intermixture of religion with
politics. But to those who dread a recurrence of
the power which enabled the Popery of former ages
to persecute the sects opposed to it, we would sug-
gest that although Popery did possess that power,
she was stripped of it in spite of all her endeavours
to retain it. English Protestantism has been for the
two last centuries and an half a giant too strong for
the Catholic minority of the British Empire to con-
tend with. Was it the penal laws which gave that
giant birth ? or were they not his harsh-featured
offspring ? Undoubtedly it was sot the penal laws
which created the strength of the Protestant reli-
gion : we were strong before, or we could not have
enacted such a code. We had power to enact it
while the Brunswickers were:young upon the throne
—while the Stuarts were still favoured by an im-
mense weight of fidelity at home, and of protecticn
from our foreign enemies. Before Catholicism had
become impotent in France, or Spain had sunk into
an impotent ally of Catholicism, with all these do-
mestic and outward appliances to the religion which
is now represented as so formidable, the Catholics
were not able to prevent the Protestants
from depriving them of every shadow of pri-
vilege or power in England, of even the last
spiritual comfort to man, the toleration of his reli-
gious rites ; in Ireland, of every temporal advantage,
--the right to acquire property, or to enjoy, or to
preserve it. What we once did, therefore, with
every obstacle against us, could we not do hereafter,
for the suppression of the Catholics, were we so dis-
posed, and were a presumed emergency to call for
it ? But the question has been argued :too often and
too copiously to admit of one new reason. It is not
with calmness or sagacity that we have to contend,
it is with ignorance and blindness, and the spirit of
selfish tyranny, with dogged prejudice and reckless
arrogance,—with heads of clay and breasts of
marble. Nothing, we much fear, will enable the
minds of enlightened men to direct the national
councils on this great subject, but some imminent
and overwhelming peril which shall strike the senses
of the meanest and most stupid in the land. As we
have already hinted, that stimulus to self-preserva-
tion seems now to be quickly approaching us. The
Catholics, who calculate rightly that their interest is
peace, bid fair to be outraged beyond endurance by
the Orangemen, of whom war is the deliberatepoticy.
Therefore is it that we fear a disaitrons as well as
an expeditious result. And what will be the trst
consequence of that dreadful war ? We speak now
to the most vulgar and most sordid feelings. Why,
as Ireland now produces about 5,000,0001. sterling
towards the expences of the State, during a civil
war she will yield nothing P Whereas England now
pays an Irish garrison of 30,000 men, with the help
of an Irish revenue, she will, for the support of a
civil war, be forced to maintain 70,000 or 80,000
men in Ireland, on funds extracted from English
pockets only. Bat England cannot raise a larger
amount of taxes than she now contributes. It is
confessed on all sides that taxation has reached its
boundary. What then happens ? England must
nearly double her army estimates, while she loses
she whole amount of Irish taxes, both which effects
of the war taken together, must add to her burdens
about 8,000,000/. sterling a year. Take the reverse
and look at Ireland pacified, prosperous, and im-
proved. Is it too much to say, that her revenues
would be 8,000,000/. instead of 5,000,000/. ? Thus
does there hang upon the decision of this political
question, an imperial revenue of 16,000,000/. ster-
ling. We sink the contrast between a desolate and
a delighted people.—Times.
Mr. Cobbett has returned quite in raptures with
the Meeting on Penenden Heath. He has ad-
dressed a long letter to a Morning Contemporary,
describing the proceedings ; and, according to his
account, Lord Winchelsea owed his victory to the
Radicals, who thought they were holding up their
hands for his (Mr. Cobhett's) petition, when, from
the blundering manner in which the business was
conducted by the High Sheriff; they were holding
up their hands for the petition of Mr. Gipps.
" The Brunswickers (he says), with their great Cap-
tain, Lord Winehelsea, were arranged on the side of the
hill to the left band of the Sheriff, who was stationed at
the point of the horse-shoe. The horsemen that occupied
the space at the opening of the shoe, were also generally of
the Brunswieker party. Of the persons on foot, there was
a narrow list standing within the ropes, but always keep-
ing very compactly together, and acting in most enviable
concert. On the right hand of the Sheriff, in the first
waggon, was Lord Radnor, Mr. Calcraft (Paymaster of
the Forces), Mr. Hodges, and some others. Lord Darnley
was in the second waggon ; Mr. Shiel and Dr. Doyle
weft with Mr. Larkia in the third ; Mr. Hunt and I
were in the fourth, and beyond
the
there were four other
waggons, which were filled with per*,as who, with very
law exceptions, were ready to support nay propositions.
The people in the area, with the exception of the little
list of Brunswickers, were very nearly
.all Radical.,
and
they consisted of very little short of 13,000 men.
44

'‘ It bad been my wish to get into a waggon near the
Sheriff, in order that I might hear what he was saying,
and know what he was doing. This I was unable to do.
The Liberals,' who have taken that name, the name of
Whig having become so hateful, preferred the company
of Mr. Shea in the first place, and then Mr. Shied; and,
in short, of any body else. Now happened that which
I did not at so late an hour expect,—that is, Mr.
Hodges rose to move an Amendment upon my Peti-
tion ; which Amendment was, that the matter should
be left to his Majesty's Ministers, and that The meet-
isig should now adjourn. This motion was seconded
by Lord Radnor, on the ground that there was not
time for the meeting to deliberate upon the important
matters contained in my Petition. Now the regular
mode of proceeding was, first to put the Amendment of
Mr. Hodges; if that was rejected, to put the Petition on
which that Amendment was made; and then, if that Pe-
tition were rejected, Mr. Gippe's Petition stood without any
more voting. Therefore, I prepared the imniesse body of
Radicals by whom I was surrounded to keep their hats
down when the first question was put, and to hold them
op when the second moth)* was put. This instruction was
neceseary, because nobody could hear the mumblings of either
of the Sheriffs any more than theycould hear the clock strike
at York. Accordingly, when Sir. Hodges's motion was put,
almost the whole of the pit, as we may aptly call it, kept
down their hats ; and, when the second question was put,
standing upon the raves of a waggon, taller than almost
any body else, and distinguished from almost all others by a
very light-coloured coat, a very red-coloured fase
and a
very white-coloured bead, lifting up my hand as high as I
could etre& it, cried out, in a voice as loud as I bad at
my command, Now, my boys !' and all the-whole Meet..
ing, Brunswiekers and all, with a small exception in the
three waggons of the Liberals that were nearest to the
Sheriff, and a small platoon ef those standing in front of
him, held up their hats. The Radicals, and I myself, were
astonished to perceive that the Brunswichers vuted with
v.s. The Radicals were running about and asking one an-
other, and some crowding to ask me whether we had nut
carried it; whether we had not got the day 9 The
Brnnswickers now gave three cheers ; the Sheriffs were in
their carriage iu moment; the whole meeting was dis- j

This account of the fairness of Lord Winchelsea's
triumph is not altogether irreconcilable with the ac-
count given by Mr. Hunt at the dinner at Maidstone,
the same evening, as reported in the Chronicle of
yesterday. Mr. Hunt said," He had attended many
public meetings, but never had he seen so large a
meeting so snugly packed, or so well drilled, as the
phalanx stationed to the left of the High Sheriff
(Lord Winchelsea's party.) They-were so arranged
that, although forming not quite one-third of the i
whole meeting, they appeared to be by far the ma-
jority; and, at a certain signal, they waved their
hats, and clapped their hands, and shouted
with marvellous precision.—(Loud applause.)---
But, notwithstanding all this, they had not
the majority.---(Cries of No, no! we were three
to one against them.)--The Brunswickers, how-
ever, claimed the victory, and so doubtless it would
go forth ; well, let them claim it; and if it was a vic-
tory, he could only say with his friend Mr. Cobbett,
that one or two more victories of the kind would an-
nihilate them. . . . Now he would ask those around
him whether these Brunswickers had not received as
! signal a defeat as it was, under the circumstances,
possible they could sustain ?" We refer our readers
to a letter on the subject of the Meeting, from a
most respectable Correspondent, in another column,
for a further explanation of the means by which
Lord Winchelsea and his people obtained so fair
a triumph. The organization was much more com-
a
piete than Mr. Hunt was aware of; for the people
of Lord Winchelsea had been trained to shout approba-
tion, to yell and clamour down their opponents, and
to hold up their hands according to the signals that
should be made to them. Our correspondent is k
much better acquainted with Kent than Mr. Cob-
bett can be, an: we should be incliaed to place more
confidence in his account of the character of the pro-
ceedings. He allows the Brunswickers to have had
a majority, though he thinks we have overrated it at
five-eighths. We have received an anoilmons let-
ter from Rochester, giving also an account of the
manner in which the triumph was obtained. " The
Bruswickers," says the writer, " were active in
mustering their tenantry and workmen; and amongst
their partisans were a considerable number of the
lowest servants in husbandry in their waggoners'
frocks. The Marquis of Camden, who was opposed
to them, declared that he had not solicited the
attendance of any of his adherents ; and Lord
Darnley, I believe, was the only person who ex-
pressed a desire for the support of his tenantry ; but
his Lordship's application was accompanied with
a declaration, that, notwithstanding his solici-
tation, he wished them to act according to the
dictates of their own feelings. Had it been
known to the friends of civil and religi-
ous liberty that the Brunswickers would have
adopted the measures to which they had recourse
for the purpose of obtaining a majority, a similar
conduct would have been resorted to by them; in
that case, the amendment would have been carried
by a triuwhant majority. But, even as it was,
had the same well-organized system been adopted
by the liberal party us was observed by the Bruns-
wickets, in marshalling their forces and arranging
their Plan--for the Cliibbists had arranged a signal
by the hoisting of a white handkerchief ' on a stick,
when their adherents were to hold up their hands
(for it was impossible for any hearing to be obtained
from the noise and clamour of, the Brunswickers
but by those in the immediate vicinity of the Court:
house), the consequence was, that when the
amendment was put by the Sheriff, no signal
having been concerted by the liberal party,- a
great many on their side did not hold up their hands,
under an impression that, he was putting the
question on Mr. Cobbett s resolution." The cir-
.which the Bruns-
.l that h
cumatances above detailed place the triumph in a
NVV.eircykedrsiff‘evrish different
tit light fron
to be viewed; but they do not di-
minish the blame of misconduct Imputable to the
Liberals, who had due warning of the exertions
.
whirls
knownwer were making t
a
it by their opponents, who ought
an improper advantage would
to have
be taken of any apparent majority atthemeeting,
influence,
and ought to have exerted a countervailing
and directed it efficiently, in order to avert the mis-
chief which they themselves believed would flow
from the general establishment of Brunswick Clubs.
Lord Camden is, no doubt, a very upright andt
sin-
gularly disinterested man, but his conduct in
so-
liciting those who were under his influence is not
certainly to be approved.of. If he believed the esta-
blishment of Brunswick Clubs an evil, and that the
countenance given them by the decision of a County
Meeting would be extremely mischievous, it was his
duty to exert himself as a public man to counter-
act the evil. Rich men possess their property not
for themselves alone; they are accountable for what
they do, or neglect to do. We do not say that a