The Sun.
London, England, 1844-11-19 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 19, 1844.

light do they compel us to regard the Premier's pro-
fessions of respect for the principles of free trade ?
What are we to consider of his halting, vacillating
vindication of its principles ; of his repeal—here—
of one or two minor offences against political economy
and statesmanship ; and of his keeping up—there—
twice as many and as mischievous barbarisms, in the
shape of fiscal legislation, that outrage the good sense
of the nation, and are a century behind the enlighten-
ment of the public mind ? It seems to us a miserable
species of financial economy, which, for the sake
of retaining an inconsiderable element of the general
public revenue, persists in jeopardising the prosperity
of a manufacture which subsists so vast an amoun
of that industrial community who actually pay
three-fourths of the whole indirect taxation of the
empire ! Until we read the " Memorial of the
Manchester Chamber of Manufactures and Com-
merce," which we gave on Saturday, we were
not aware in how cruel a degree the tax on cotton
wool has a tendency to aggravate their privations
who have already been so cruelly sacrificed to the
destructive operation of the Premier's ill-concocted
currency machinery. But Sir ROBERT was bound,
by the ties of a sort of family relation, to inform him-
self upon all matters bearing on the revenue con-
tributed by cotton ; and if he has been informed of
the fatal mischief this duty, in particular, is effecting
for one all-important branch of our manufacturing
trade, and has knowingly continued it :in his scheme
of revenue, we must say that he has shown as
little feeling for the sufferers from high-priced raw
cotton as he has manifested for the victims of low-
priced gold.

We have accounts from Madrid, of the 9th inst.
The Tiempo states that the Government were to
bring forward immediately a Bill for the payment of
the Clergy and the settlement of Church property.
It was feared that their intention was to supend the
sale and restore the property to the Church. No-
thing is more likely, and now is the time to do it,
when the Cortes are so obsequious.
On the 9th, the Three per Cents. closed at 274
cash, and 274 at 60 days. There was a good deal
done in the Five per Cents., which improved closing
at '2oi at 60 days.

The Irish repeal question forms a topic for discus-
sion in many of the Paris papers of Saturday. Several
causes have contributed to this, among others, a letter
on the subject in the Constitutionnel, written by M.
DUVERGIER DE HAURANNE, and the publication of
a sixth edition of M. GUSTAVE DE BEAUMONT'S
work on Ireland, with a preface on the state of Ire-
land in 1844. Both these gentlemen are Mem-
bers of the French Chamber of Deputies, and
have paid much attention to the question. The
last letter of Mr. O'CONNELL, renewing the cry
for repeal, forms also another peg whereon to
hang a disquisition on Ireland. The follow-
ing extract from the introduction by M. DE
BEAUMONT to this new edition, contains facts
which will not bear denial, and coming from
an impartial foreigner merit the serious at-
tention of all repealers :—" It is a grand question,"
says the writer, " to ascertain if Ireland, placed as
she has been for seven centures under a foreign
government, deprived of an upper order of society
favourably inclined towards her, and wanting almost
altogether the middle classes, is now in a position to
govern herself. She might do so during the lifetime
of O'CoNriELL, whose moral power, recognised by
all, creates a dictatorship in the very bosom of liberty.
But after him what would be the fate of the country ?
Bear in mind that the kind of independence which
she claims at present is of all others the most difficult
to put in practice ; it is that which gives a country
the right of making its own laws, at the same time
that it is left in subjection to another empire. It is
far more difficult for a people to govern themselves
altogether, when absolute masters of their own
actions, than to remain in a mixed state of semi-
sovereignty, at the same time independent and
subject, having need, in exercising their powers,
to watch unceasingly not to go beyond the
bounds assigned them, because close to their
right there always rests another right. These
d;fficulties are nowhere more apparent than
in the system of a federal union, against
which besides the same objections arise as to
repeal. The more the affairs of Ireland are divided
between the local Parliament and the federal one, the
more frequent will be the occasions of difference;
and how, in addition, is this division of attributions
to be effected ? It is easy to see that all that relates
to foreign policy, war, and the navy, will remain in
the attributions of the Imperial Parliament ; but, if
Ireland resumes the government of her internal
affairs, it is-her local parliament which will regulate
all that appertains to justice, public worship, educa-
tion, agriculture, and trade. Which of these sub-
jects is there that does not interest England at the
same time as Ireland ? The Irish Parliament will be
one of Catholics. What will it do with the Protes-
tant worship ? what with the Catholic one, and the
schools of the two communions ? The Irish Parlia-
ment will be a national one. Will it, in order to
encourage agriculture, proclaim fixity of tenure,
and overturn the law which regulates the present
relations between landlord and tenant ? Will it, in
order to aid the manufactures of Ireland, lay a
duty on English produce ? Should it desire all these
things, it can enact them, unless it be not a free Par-
ment ; and England, on her side, may retaliate by lay-
ing a duty on Irish corn. And, if Ireland obtains
a local legislature, why should not Scotland also wish
for one too ? Without doubt, the inhabitants of the
three kingdoms so governed, would still form labo-
rious, rich, and prosperous populations. But would
they form a great people and a great empire ? Eng-
land may one day undergo such a dismemberment,
but it may be affirmed that she will not accept it
willingly. If, then, repeal is impossible, how is it
that O'CONNELL wishes for it? O'CONNELL iS, with-
out contradiction, of all the men who in our time
have played a great part on the world's stage, the
most matter-of-fact, or, to employ the received ex-
pression, the most practical, Everything in him is
prudence, calculation, reflection. The poetical ex-
pressions with which his speeches abound certainly
prove the richness of his imagination and the work-
ings of his heart, but nothing which passes his lips
is uncontrolled by his reason ; and what, in the
midst of all those grand faculties, has always ren-
dered him superior in the management of events is,
neither his fervid eloquence, nor his indefatigable
activity, nor admirable perseverance; it is the ex-
cellence and constancy of his common sense. How
then can O'CONNELL, who is so much opposed to
what his judgment does not approve of, pursue re-
peal, when. its success appears a chimera ? How
can this enigma be explained of a man very evi-
dently carrying on an enterprise, the success of which
his reason most clearly forbids his expecting ?"

The Journal des Debars makes the following com-
ment's oh Mr. O'CONNELL'S letter, from which it will
be seen that the writer, like M. DE BEAUMONT,
treats repeal as a chimera

" What is meant by repeal 1 It is called for in Eng.
land, it is called for in Ireland, it is called for in France,
It is called for everywhere. Curiosity is natural, and
ng
nMots.y°s;tCe4mclseibliormildil
econthdely; re-
establishment forward to explain what
tl
oa leaf ivto iiio oteli the
himself.
bf eede federalists fir
efbotyrti
ehrreaepvfeei
al.
First, it is the maintenance of the connexion between
Great Britain and Ireland by means of one executive
is
aw er,
repeala nd
othe goldenthe A e
tb aoifi dt
hoof
Union.t ero .
Thirdly,S
es atbhlei srhenznt ta
re-establishment
athhme
elni
to House of
hoof Lordsuoose ino Ireland.fc om 0
Commons,
eFourth-
ly,om
posed of 300 members. Fifthly, the complete legislative
and judicial authority of one Irish Parliament in Ireland.
These are his five points of repeal. Now, let us declare
in all sincerity that the greatest enemy of Ireland could
not wish her a severer scourge than such a constitution.
To restore Ireland to herself, to her own free arbitre-
ment, to her national independence, would be to restore
to her intestine discord, religious dissensions, and all the
horrors of civil war, which were never at rest within her
until she was incorporated in the great whole, which
au'nhaatinncrdydh
at the present day, forms Great Britainn.We have
repeatedly said that some people in Ireland argue as if
all its inhabitants were all one race, as if it were a single
nation. This is a radical error. Let Ireland be separated
essentiallycf from England,
in
to,divided
hostilea n dtowebianac
ttho
other,willtw
osdh
distinct
enemiest
ibneectom e
i. A
populations,blood
religion. It has been remarked that in all the wars
which have in former times desolated this unhappy
country, it was-not between the English and the Irish,
but between the natives of distinct origin that the most
inveterate animosity prevailed. It is still the same ;
there are still in Ireland two populations, each suffi-
ciently strong to contend to eternity without being
absorbed in the other, and which are only kept in check
by the counterpoise of England. Thus the repeal party
demands an Irish House of Lords. This Upper House
must necessaril,y be almost entirely composed of Pro-
testants and Orangemen. The House of Commons, as
representatives of the democracy, must, on its side, be