The Sun.
London, England, 1844-09-24 00:00:00

IRELAND.
TORY POLICY IN IRELAND.

DUBLIN, SEPT. 22.—The question, "What is to
be done with Ireland and O'Connell ?" bewilders
the Orange and Tory journals, and the very few of
them still adhering to the Ministry are sorely puzzled
in their attempts to reply to the taunts of the majo-
rity which daily denounce Sir Robert Peel and his
Government.

The Dublin Evening Packet is the only thing in
the shape of a Ministerial organ at this side of the
water. It contained last night a long reply to the
Tory Opposition attacks on the Government. As this
article must have been suggested, at least, by the de-
feated and mortified state prosecutors at the Castle,
we extract the principal passages, as an index to the
present state of feeling in that quarter:—
" We seriously ask what would the hearty enemies
of Mr. O'Connell's policy have Ministers to do ? As
for its friends, we shall suffer them to indulge the
tempest of their wrath ad libitum; but it would be
an act of benevolence to bring back to reason those
opponents of the Government who yet linger in the
once unanimous ranks of Conservatism. Can these
unreasonably expect that the Prime Minister should,
at this premature point, publish to the world his
necessarily undefined arrangements for the final
prostration of repeal ? Ought he to convoke the
Commons, supplicate for the aid and condolence of
the SVhig-Radical Members, and lay before the
House at large a humiliating and inutile demonstra-
tion of all the ' ifs' and contingencies that must, in
the nature of things, be embodied in the detail of his
intentions ?

"Have O'Connell and his co-adjutors as yet, since
their liberation, so far committed themselves as to
justify active interference? They have vapoured a
good deal to their rabble auditories, and expressed
great hopes of grand things, in order to sustain the
courage of their faction. They have projected this
assembly and that organisation as things that may be ;
but they are dealing in mere probabilities. All that
seems settled for the future is, that the contributions
are to be kept going, and that Mr. O'Connell is to
make his escape to his native hills, there
Ducere sollicitae jucunda oblivia vitae,'
and luxuriate on the recollection of the nodes ccenaeque
of the martyr's dungeon.
"*The Evening. Mail kindly points out to the Go-
vernment the course they ought to pursue in attempt-
ing the tranquillisation of Ireland. What remains,'
it indignantly asks, but to arrest the progress of se-
dition by all the means, ordinary and extraordinary,
with which the constitution, provident of extremities,
arms the Executive?' The plain English of which
appears to be, that the Conciliation Hall should be
surrounded with military—men's passions inflamed by
sudden and unlooked-for evidence—perhaps the
Habeas Corpus Act suspended, and the country
brought under the sanguinary and irresponsible in-
fluence of martial-law. The days have gone by when
this headstrong, bungling, neck-or-nothing sort of
pacification could be tolerated amongst civilised States.
However violent in their acts, and however unconsti-
tutional in their principles, our opponents may be,
they are still men, and, as such, are not wholly des-
titute of reason. Christianity as well as prudence
suggests that the means resorted to for bringing
them back to a sense of their duty ought to be of the
ordinary' kind. If such should utterly fail, then,
and only then, could a Ministry be justified in pro-
ceeding to extremities by authorising the use of the
extraordinary.
" The same ' ordinary means' which have been so
successfully employed still exist. When the plans of
Mr. O'Connell shall have been more fully defined,
what could be more easy than to include in a second
indictment all the petty tributaries to the great stream
of sedition which were not embodied in the last ?
These would of course all meet the same fate as the
monster meetings and the arbitration courts, without
a drop of blood being shed.
" Because Ministers are silent on this subject, we
are not to conclude that they are either uninterested
or inactive. Although Sir Robert Peel is not explain-
ing on the floor of the House of Commons, or through
the press, his plan of future operations, we must not
suppose that, even amid necessary relaxation and do-
mestic affliction, he has not been anxiously deliberat-
ing on the proper course to pursue in the event of
certain expected movements of the enemy taking
place. Whatever other course may possibly be con-
templated, still the one which has been tried remains
for us an almost certain resource. The occurrences
of the past, and particularly that unfortunate one
which disappointed justice of her rights, will serve to
make every functionary of the Crown, engaged in the
proceedings, ten times more vigilant, more cautious,
and more silent. One escape may have been possible,
but another it would be madness to hope for."
CLONMEL ADDRESS TO MR. O'CONNELL—