The Sun.
London, England, 1845-05-26 00:00:00

THE MAYNOOTH BILL.

The Maynooth Bill has passed the House of Com-
mons, and goes up to the House of Lords recommendod
by as great a weight of argument and authority as can
ever be expected in favour of a legislative measure in-
volving disputed principles of policy. No opposition
that we can remember has made so poor a figure in Par-
liamentary debate as that by which the Bill has been
resisted. Not one has been so conspicuously wanting in
the power of viewing the subject comprehensively, and
with reference to the actual circumstances of the
empire. Upon one topic, indeed, the anti-Maynooth
orators are pointed enough. The attacks upon the
Prime Minister for inconsistency, tergiversation, and
betrayal of his party, are as pungent as the attempts to
reply to his argument are feeble and contemptible. But
what, after all, is the fact Nvhich forms the basis of these
accusations? Simply that Sir Robert Peel has abandoned,
as impracticable and mischievous, principles which,
though they might be acted upon for a time by an irre-
sponsible and reckless Opposition, could not be applied
by any Minister to the government of the country. The
Opposition which overthrew the Whig Cabinet was an
aggregation of jarring elements which could not hold
together after that work of destruction was accomplished,
and the principles which it put most prominently for-
ward would have led us to social convulsion and the dis-
mi.mberment of the empire. Every one can remember
how Anti-Poor-law demagoguism, the most vulgar and
unscrupulous, then added to the popular strength of the
Tory party. Every one eau remember how all the cor-
rupt monopoly interests in the country were banded
together, to fight the battles of that party, in the belief
that its triumph would prevent all change, and secure
them against the most just demands of the public. Above
all, no one can forget how the Conservative Opposition
was nourished, and invigorated, and extended by the ex-
citement of that No-Popery feeling which, whether
latent or active, has been for ages one of the strongest
sentiments in the popular mind of England. This feel-
ing constituted the strength of the Opposition and the
weakness of the Whig Government during the five years
that preceded 1841. Alleged alliance with the Roman
Catholic party in Ireland was the head and front of
Lord Melbourne's offending, and all the machinery of
popular influence was put in play to stir up the pride of
England against that " semi-Popish domination." The
extension of corporate reform to Ireland was resisted, ,
year after year, as a new Roman Catholic concession I
which would be fatal to the Protestant Church. Divi-
sion
lists were analysed, in order to mark and parade the
names of Roman Catholic and Irish supporters of the
Government, as persons upon whose votes it was dis-
graceful to a Cabinet to be dependent. The promotion
of Roman Catholics by the Irish Government was de-
nounced as truckling to Popish agitation. The Roman
Catholic priests were branded by influential journals
with infamous appellations, and accused of conniving at,
if not encouraging, the most atrocious crimes. In short,
every conceivable device was employed, from factious
motions in the House of Lords down to forgery at
Exeter Ball, to inflame the prejudices of the English
people against their Roman Catholic countrymen, and
to overwhelm with odium a Government desirous of
conciliating the Roman Catholic millions of Ireland. A
course like this, in which various agents might work in
various ways for- a common purpose, without
being formally connected, might serve the pur-
p•
• e of an Opposition, but no Government could
court tenance the promotion of religious dissensions
between different parts of the empire. Sir Robert
Peel, indeed, might have been expected to see, on
his accession to office, that no Government could go
on without active.. efforts to allay the, religious
dissensions which had been so unhappily, ex 7
itedo and to. diminish,
,the prejudices„ by, which
lie found England and Ireland. ;divided.. For, a
time, however, he did not make those efforts.
What was the consequence ? At the end of two
years Ireland had become unmanageable. According to
the statement of the Prime Minister himself—a state-
ment most truly described by Lord J. Russell as a sad and
humiliating confession for any Government to be obliged
to make—the condition of Ireland, towards the close of
1843, was such as to render the enforcement of the law
absolutely impracticable. The only instrument for en-
forcing the law, says Sir R. Peel, is an appeal to trial
by jury; but trial by jury is not available where the
great mass of the people is hostile to the Government.
A most momentous acknowledgment ! Such was the
practical result of overthrowing Lord Melbourne's
Government by incessant and unscrupulous attacks
on his Irish policy. The mass of the people hostile
to the Government, and trial by jury not available for
the enforcement of the law 1 Language cannot convey
a stronger expression of the utter failure of the Go-
vernment to accomplish the main purpose of its exist-
ence. It was high time to make a change. A Go-
vernment to which the mass of the people is hostile
is a tyranny, let its name and forms be what they
may ; and if it be not only detested, but so weak that it
cannot enforce the law, it is one of the worst evils under
which a country can suffer. Such a Government was the
natural offspring of the late Tory Opposition. It is not
surprising that those who were guilty of producing such
a monster should now be repentant. Sir R. Peel has
abandoned former principles, but not before they brought
him to the verge of anarchy. Government, law, pro-
perty, public order, are all the creatures of opinion.
They have no deeper foundation than the habits and
feelings of the community. Disturb these customary
feelings, shake by any means that habitual respect
and obedience to the laws which surround life and
property as with walls of brass, and the vast struc-
ture of society totters to irretrievable ruin. The
mass of a people hostile to the Government is
one of the most awful facts in social exist-
ence. It points to convulsion, revolution, intermin-
able disorders. how is such an evil to be cured ?
Evidently not by force in a country having
free institutions. There is nothing for it but to remove
the popular distrust by removing its causes, and the
remedy must be potent in proportion to the inveteracy
of the disease. Above all things, Government has to
consider what was enforced by Lord John Russell, in
that most noble and masterly speech with which he
closed the Maynooth debate, that there is much to be
done before Ireland can be expected to show gratitude.
"I hope, the Right Hon. Gentleman hopes, that the disease
may be cured, that we may now be on our way to
better times ; but there must ba other measures---( Cheers)
—recourse must be had to a further policy—l don't know that
I should say of conciliation—l don't want to use the word—
but of justice towards Ireland. Nor must we any more hear
that old cry of Oh, how ungrateful the Irish are?
—( Cheers.) We give this grant to May- nooth, and yet
they are not thankful.' This has been the continual parrot
cry ever since you first relinquished the atrocious penal laws.
You said, Only think of these Catholics—we have allowed
them to educate their own children, and yet they are net grate-
ful. We have allowede
of
fetmhe tvoalhoaeveofpr3ioesf.ts, oafndtheyiert otwhneyare
not chil-
dren, without fining, transporting, or imprisoning them, and
yet they are riot grateful. We hare permitted them to ride
horses, which
themay b
indulgence. We have allowed them to go
o gratefules,
to mass, and yet they are not grateful. Wo have allowed them
even to inherit landed property, and yet this barbarous and
savage nation will not be grateful they still ask for other
things.' To be sure, Sir, they ask for other things, and
hear,' from Mr.
ud cheers.) An
tehionfgirefiraonmd
atthitsheepryresefnort
ht
itsshheeyai leel
perfect
etaicsl
tk
withf
ao nrd otherrieussptetehtienqgt: uaTi
England
and Ireland there
then when you can say that there is perfect and
and powerful as it is,
jaustrepequalitythe I
un shalljeofn
Ihffeeoarrmpeio,nipaolb
mameomiegg,r,eat masses
_

Let Sir Robert Peel, in attempting to carry out a
Whig policy, observe the advice of the Whig leader,
and he too will bo able to say, what he cannot now,
that he "fears nothing from this cry for a repeal of the
anion."—Chronicle.