The Sun.
London, England, 1844-09-23 00:00:00

BY AUTHORITY OW PARLIAMENT,

THE HEPTAPIiZi\froY-kiE ART
DRAWING.
The SALE of TICKETS for MRS. PARKES'S GREAT DRAW-
ING for WORKS of ART will close on the 2Sth Inst., as the Distri-
bution must take place on the 30th of SEPTEMBER, that being the
latest day the Act allows.
Parliament and the Sovereign having given special permission for
the completion of this, the last Fine Art Drawing, the Patrons of
Art, and the Public who may wish to subscribe, arc requested to
apply immediately for Shares, as the number is limited to 14,000, and
*ill not, under any circumstances, be enlarged.
ONLY A SMALL PORTION OF THE TICKETS REMAIN
UNSOLD.
In order to accommodate her large number of Subscribers, MRS.
PARKES has engaged the THEATRE ROYAL, COVENT-GARDEN,
.42,000/.
for the DRAWING,I,AL uonEtlotev3OTtihminsptitEs,

TICKETS, ONE GUINEA EXCl,entiiling the Subscriber to an
Engraving of the value.
Apply for TICKETS at the BOWYER GALLERY, 22, Golden-
square, where the Prizes are exhibited free; or at Mrs. Parkes's,
City Depot, 104, Leadenhall-street.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROX THE EVENING PAPERS OF SATURDAY.
GLOBE.—The Repeal Banquet, given to O'Con-
nell and the other Government-convicted, but legally-
liberated State prisoners, came off on Thursday
evening. It was an entertainment on a monster
scale. Though the speeches of O'Connell, and the
rest of the orators of the day, were destitute of
novelty—the topics being necessarily a repetition of
the hundred-times-rehearsed grievance of the Irish
people, which constitute the warp-and-woof of Irish
agitation, they were heard with approbation, and
responded to with enthusiasm by the assembled mul-
titude, as though the voice of the speakers were
then heard for the first time, and the subjects
of their harangues were never_ before embodied in
language. For the details of the meeting we refer to
the report in another column. This additional de-
monstration of the imposing position which the repeal
confederation now assumes, is pregnant with matter
for serious reflection. We cannot but contrast the
present rampant spirit of repeal with its prostrate
condition under the administration of the Whigs. It
has spread its ramifications throughout the entire
kingdom, with a rapidity which sets conjecture at de-
fiance as to the numbers who have enrolled their
names as members of the confederacy. It has
drawn to itself a large portion of the middle
classes ; it even beasts of numbers of the higher
orders who have recently avowed themselves
converts to its cause, and who consent to be placed
in the forefront of the movement. Add to these
the not less formidable fact, that its constitution
is distinguished by the arrangements of its systematic
plans ; the skilful adaptation of its machinery for col-
lecting its revenues. These
supply the means of en-
countering the Government in the most protracted and
expensive prosecutions of its leaders ; and of defray-
ing the other constantly-recurring charges pertaining
to the agitation. The confidence with which the multi-
tudes have been inspired as to the infallibility or in-
rulnerability of their principal leader, is also another
source of its strength. This unbounded and unwaver-
ing confidence—whether it be the result of accident, or
of superior tact -or talent—as much as anything else in
the history of this extraordinary movement, has con-
tributed to swell the influence Mr. O'Connell wields
over the masses of his countrymen. It enables him
to control and move them at his will. For this
commanding influence, and for the greatly accele-
rated impulse which it has given to the project to
which he applies it, the Government has to re-
proach itself. Its own ill-advised proceedings, de-
signed to suppress the confederacy, before the her-
culean powers of which it now totters to
its fall, has rendered repeal an object of apprehension
to many, and of annoyance to all—save those who
have committed themselves to its fortunes, and have
determined to stand, or fall, by its results. Had
Ministers guided their proceedings with the pru-
dence which marked the poacy of their predecessors
—had they combined justice and equity in the admi-
nistration of the government, with a calm but firm
resolve to discountenance the repeal scheme, and all
who enrolled their names as members of the Associa-
tion, or subscribed to the funds for the furtherance of
its objects, repeal would be now lingering outan
existence without energy, incapable of inspiring
its projectors with hope, or its opponents with
fear. Lord Fortescue prostrated it by a word.
It was then few in numbers, and feeble in
resources. Had the Whigs remained in power,
it would have been vox et prcetera aiihil—a mere
sound, which would have amused by its folly, instead
of its scaring, as it now does, the timid by the
boldness of its claims, and confounding the counsels
of the Government by the skilfulness of its strata-
gies. The prominent fault of the Government
policy, in its governmcnt of Ireland, was pointed
out to us from the commencement. It made

O'Connell the principal object against which its
powers were directed. It treated him as every-
thing, and the grievances of the people—
which constituted him what he is, the leader
and commander of the Irish nation—as nothing.
This was the grand mistake; and those which fol-
lowed—the prosecution, with its blunderings, its ob-
vious denial of justice ky means of perverting the
forms of 4Sw to thet purposes of bipression—the de-
feat of the prosecution by the reversal of the judg-
ment, founded partly on the very perversions which
disgraced the proceedings, and exposed the adminis-
tration of justice to contempt—these were but the
polluted streams which naturally flowed from the
polluted source. The dignity of an Executive
is
engaging in a contest with a
private
individual. It invests that person with the
lowered by
interesting attributes of martyrdom, if the proceed-
ings which are set on foot for his extinction are
crowned with success. If, on the contrary, those
proceedings are abortive—if they fail to effect the
Ipurposes for which they are institutpd,
,the triumph
f the hadividuid over the Execaitivo and
complete ; and he becoines a hero--a conqueror—a
the ,multitude. By the
ed me
presentmp li 0-,g, omcd
e,
Government
enronft
ml he
nectr :yes ;of
measures—and the
hasYerei
sas tried no others with the
Irish people—the Executive is necessarily presented
to the nation in a hateful point of view : and that
insubordination to the law, which seems so unhap-
pily to form absolutely a part of the nature of the
less-informed portion of the Irish people, is fos-
tered into deadly enmity—ready, at a moment's en-
couragement, to break forth into furious excitement.
From this consideration we derive apprehensions for
the preservation of the publiC peace in Ireland, in the
perilous circumstances with which the false palicy of
the Government has surrounded it. It is obvious
that a change from coercion to conciliation cannot be
made by the present Ministers. It would be an ad-
mission of previous wrong, which would be the death-
note of their administration. The party which
urged them to employ force is now exhorting some
more decisive step than any they have yet taken ;
and will not be satisfied unless a vigour beyond the
law be exercised against the Repeal Association and
its leaders. What, if the Government again commit
itself to such evil counsels? Even if proclamations
be issued, and obedience to their commands be
obeyed ; or, if disobeyed, the military are called out
against the people, and enforce obedience at the
bayonet's point ; and thus the strong arm of authority
succeeds in suppressing the agitation for the moment—
what then ? IVho can tell how soon, or howlearfully,
the smothered flame may break out again from the
deceitful ashes? The lately-defeated prosecution has
shown with what instinctive dislike the people of this
ensg of penal statues so as to
. A renewal of the attempt
offensive—because still more
iinn countryundoeth
cevorin,e vtarntudl et
imsv teor
recetrci stretching
anti-constitutional—form, would provoke a demon-
stration in this country as decisive to, ;as it would be
destructive of, the Government: The course which
alone promises tranquillity to Ireland involves the
abandonment of office by the present Ministry.
They would not adopt the only policy which can
arrest the progress of repeal, if they could; and
could not, if they would. The former would be an ad-
mission of essential error in their previous proceedings
too humiliating and dangerous to be made ; while
even, if Ministers were prepared to make the experi-
ment, the party on whose support in Parliament their
retention of office necessarily depends, would refuse
support to a conciliatory policy, and thus drive them
from their seats. If Sir Robert Peel be possessed of
patriotism, he will not expose the nation to the con-
sequences of persisting to contend with the increased
" difficulties" which beset his government in Ireland.
He has done enough to show the danger of attempt-
ing to do more. Let him retire with dignity, instead
of waiting until the, gathering elements, indicative of
an impending storm, drive him from the helm.
STANDARD.—On Thursday a. party, variously
estimated as in number 700 and 900, assembled in the
Music Hall, in Dublin, to celebrate by a dinner the
late "gaol delivery " by.the Whig law Lords. The
dinner is described by the Freeman s Journal, with a
manifest relish, as a "substantial banquet, in which
taste was happily blended with abundance."
Whether we get credit for the wish or not, we
must parenthetically avow our earnest desire that
every poor contributor to the repeal rent had par-
taken of such a dinner upon the same occasion, then
one good at least would have resulted from the
gmon-
strous proceediea of the Lords Cottenhatn, Campbell,