The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-21 00:00:00

et trti Nbition

SUN 'OFFICE, Seven o'

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM TRE EVEN/NC PAPERS OF THIS DAT.
GLOBE.—If parties were to be judged of only
by their outward acts, there might perhaps be some
ground for surprise, and in some quarters even for dis-
appointment, at there being no more difference than is
shown in debate, bet Ween the measures suggested by
Lord John Russell and those which the present Mi-
nistry seem willing to adopt. But the same measure
may have a different meaning and a very different effi-
cacy in different hands ; and this is specially the case
in our dealing with a people alienated from us as the
Irish are by a long course of ill-usage, and who, in
looking at any measure of redress falling short—as all
measures now to be proposed by any party must fall
short—of their present demands, will view it in a very
different light, accordingly as it comes from those who
have ever been more ready to repress than to relieve,
or from those who have always done for them as much
as they were allowed to do—little, perhaps, as the Irish
may think that to be. It is undoubtedly through
the hands of the Tories that the injustice of this
country towards Ireland, to use the eloquent expression
of Mr. Sydney Smith, has hitherto passed, with very
little show of reluctance or regret, to mitigate the tenor
of its severity; and though we may give to the Tories
of the present day, or at any rate to the better
part of them, full credit for a wish to repair the wrongs
done by their predecessors, yet to employ them in the
work of reconciliation of Ireland, which is at present
the great business and the first duty of England, is very
much as if, in attempting to make up an old quarrel
with a neighbour, we sent to him, as a mediator, one
between whose family and his there had been, from
tither to son, a feud for many generations. But
the Tories of the present generation ave, as regards
Ireland, something more than the sins of their fathers
to answer for. Disclaim and disguise it as they
will, it is not the less true, that whatever there is in
England—and there is much of anti-Catholic and anti-
Irish feeling—we might almost say, whatever there is
in this country of disaffection towards Ireland, is to be
found in their rank a chief element, at the same time,
of their strength as a party,' of their weakness and in-
capacity as R. Government. The better and wiser
portion among them may regret the existence of
with a spirit, may even lament most bitterly the
violence and indiscretion of its occasional outbreaks ;
but there it is in the midst of them, thwarting
their good intentions and tainting all their coun-
sels ; and where it cannot mar their purposes in the
conception, raising up between their fulfilment and the
Irish people, he still cherished the remembrance of past
oppression. This it is that in so great a degree unfits
the whole party for the task of mediation ; and in this
sense it was both fair and pertinent, in Lord J. Russsll,
to remind the House, as he did in this debate, of the
very " untoward" speech of the present Lord Chan-
cellor. It is all very well to say that the words have
been explained, and that the explanation or apology,
such as it was, has been deemed sufficient, and accepted,
we suppose, on behalf of the Irish people, by both Houses
of Parliament. All this may be true enough, and, as re-
gards Lord Lyndhurst himself, it might be unfair, after
this, to charge him with any peculiar bitterness against
any- who may differ from him in religion or in race.
But the question still remains, what is the impres-
sion which the words made, and still make, upon the
Irish people? The insulted nation, for it was an in-
salt, is perhaps entitled to require some better atonement
than that sort of apology which passes current in Parlia-
ment ; and the Irish people, in particular, may be ex-
tamed for its reluctance to place either its honour or its
interest in the hands, at any rate, of the present House
of Commons. On the same grounds, even the various
sallies of Mr. Bradshaw, uttered as they were to the
ears of an applauding constituentcy, were not altogether
unworthy of notice; for to the Irish such things appear
'but as a specimen of the manner in which the suffrages
of Englishmen may be won, and such things, in truth,
blotches as they are upon the otherwise fair and smooth
face of Toryism, betray but too surely the existence of
the bad humours within. For all this, it is the present
pleasure of Englishmen that the Irish as well as them-
selves should be governed by Tories, and it remains only
for us to consider in what way they have dealt, and are
likely to deal, with this great difficulty. The present
debate contains their defence up to the present time, and
a snore suicidal defence than that put forth by their
great advocate. Sir J. Graham, we think we never saw.
STANDARD.—The trial of the Irish prosecutions
in. the House of Commons bids fair to rival in tedious-
ness the process which is the subject of scrutiny. Al-
ready six nights have been consumed without, appa-
rently, the slightest progress towards an end ;
but with this consolation, that the Whig
speeches become steadily snore shallow and
more' stupid, and therefore less mischievous as
they proceed. We doubt whether (to borrow the
Greek phrase) even " the brazen bowels" of a Tipperary
fanatic could secrete all the poison diffused through
the capita mortua of Mr. Benjamin Hawes and Sir
Thomas Wilde's drowsy labours of last night. Mr.
Ilawea is very angry with her Majesty's Ministers
for having done nothing for Ireland, in two years
and a half that they have been in office ; but men
with more knowledge and better memories than Mr.
Hawes, will be of opinion that her Majesty's Ministers
have done a great deal for Ireland within their
period of office, short as it has been. First, they
have obviated the rebellion threatened by Mr. Hawes
and his friends, as the inevevitable consequence of
the dismissal of the late Government, and which,
to say truth, the late Government had done its
best to prepare for whatever Administration should
follow it. Now this is surely doing something for
Ireland ; a rebellion is no jesting matter, and therefore,
as far Ireland is conce ned, Ministers have done much.
But in this affair they have done a good deal for Eng-
land and Scotland, as well as Ireland, for they have
shown that the fear of an Irish rebellion, by which it
was attempted to rivet a mischievous and odious Ad-
ministration upon the empire, is a vain bugbear.
But, cry the philosophers of the Hawes school, some-
thing ought to have been done for Ireland. Now, the
answer to this trash is that—besides, that the state
in which the late Government left Ireland, by their
own confession, ripe for rebellion, is not that in which
measures of any kind can be tried with the best
prospect of success—lreland, like England and Scot-
land, has been doing something for herself,
and doing it very effectually, for the social condition of
the country is improving with a rapidity perfectly as-
tonishing. The fewer somethings from without by
which that process of improvement shall be inter-
rupted, the better for the country. The political
tinkers, who always make two holes while they badly
stop one, have been hitherto the curse of the
country, and the highest praise to any Irish
government will be, that it abstains from tinkering.
Nobody has for centuries said that something must be
done for England or for Scotland ; or, if any one has
said so, he has been laughed at, and therefore England
and Scotland have done very well for themselves ; com-
pelled to submit to the law, when disposed to be restiff,
and therefore in the end reconciled to it, and even fond of
it.. So it will be with Ireland, if only the something-
mongers be put to silence or disregarded, as there is
good hope they soon may be. The Irish Government
has, however, done something more than obviate the
present rebellion threatened—it has extinguished the
seeds of future agitation and of ultimate rebellion, by
extirpating the Repeal Association, for extirpated it is
though the name survives.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT
(THIS EVENING.)

HOUSE OF COMMONS.
The SFEAKER took the Chair at the usual hour.
Mr. LOWTHER brought in the Leeds and
Selby Railway Bill, which was read a first time.
Sir J. EASTIIOPE brought up the Epsom and
South Western Branch Railway Bill, which was read
a first time.
The Hartlepool Dock and Harbour Bill was read
a second time.
Mr. DUNCOMBE presented several petitions from
Yorkshire and Durham in favour of agricultural pro-
tection.
Mr. ORD presented a petition from the Free
School Society of Newcastle-on-Tyne, against any
increase in the military establishments of the country.
NORWICH RAILWAY.
Mr.WODEHOUSE brought up the Report of the
Committee on the NOrwieh and London Railway.
BIRKENHEAD IMPROVEMENT BILL.
The Report on the Birkenhead Improvement Bill
was brought up.
NOTICES OF MOTION.—COUNTY CORO-
NERS' BILL.
Mr.. C. BERKELEY gave notice that, in .Cem-
rnittee on the County Coroners' Bill, he should move
to omit clause 20, granting to county coroners one
shilling per mile as travelling expenses.
SEPARATION OF MOTHER AND CHIL-

DREN.
Mr. FERRAND gave notice that in Committee
on the Poor-law Bill he should move the insertion of
a clause, enacting that it should not be lawful to
separate children under seven years of age from their
mothers, provided the mothers resided 'in the same
workhouse with the children; and that mothers
should at all times have free access to their children
in workhouses.
CASE OF MR. POWELL.
Mr. CALEB POWELL moved for the production
of the correspondence and all documents issued by
the Lord Chancellor of lrelrnd, in which the Lord
Chancellor stated his reasons for the removal of Mr.
Powell from the commission of the peace for the
county of Limerick.—Agreed to.

TURNPIKE TRUSTS.
Lord EBRINGTON gave notice that, on the in-
troduction of the Turnpike Trusts Bill, he should
call the attention of the House to the hardships in-
flicted upon the holders of poll deeds, by the exemption
from toll of carriages purporting to carry letters,
and that he should introduce a clause for the purpose
of remedying that grievance.
PENSIONS.
Mr. WILLIAMS moved an address to her Ma-
jesty, that she will be graciously pleased to give di -
I' SPAVittitps that an account be laid before this House of

ries,pensi
all peons, profits,. pay, fees, emoluments,
or allowance
of public money, held and en-
\ ruins between the sth day of January,
,)41
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