The Sun.
London, England, 1844-11-21 00:00:00

\lit birnin c .:77Ant.

LONDON, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1844,

The Irish Orangemen—or rather the more bigoted
section of that once powerful but now fast decaying
fraternity—have at length come to the resolution of
making a desperate stand against the threatened Edu-
cational Reforms of Sir ROBERT PEEL. This is just
what we have been anticipating for some months
past, though we thought that the hurricane
would have been whistling about the Premier's ears
long ere now, for it is full twelve weeks and upwards
since he hinted in Parliament at the probability of
those remedial experiments in the matter of education,
which at the present moment are kindling the wrath
of the Irish Orange faction to a degree bordering on
absolute frenzy. The cry of these ferocious mal-
contents is no longer what it was at the last election—
" PEEL and Protestantism !" it is now "PEEL or Pro-
testantism !" implying thereby that either the Pre-
mier or the Established Church must be put
down. The time for pursuing a mean course is
passed. Moderation has ceased to be a virtue, and
must henceforth rank among the iniquities. He who
is not with us heart and soul ; who will not go the
whole hog with us, and die with us in the last ditch
in defence of that glorious Ascendancy-system which
we have clung to with such pertinacity all our lives—
that man is our decided enemy. Even though he
may entertain a lurking prejudice in our favour, still
he is not to be trusted. Fumum habet in come ! He
is dangerous, and must be avoided as though he car-
ried about with him the seeds of a contagious malady.
Such is the explicit and uncompromising language
now held by the Orangemen, who are busy buckling
on their armour preparatory to a last furious assault
on the Irish policy of the " Socinian " Premier. The
following remarkable passage from the Dubin Warder
will show that we have not in the slightest
degree exaggerated the sentiments of this
meek, tolerant, and unobtrusive faction :—" It is now
plain that the sword is drawn, and the scabbard
thrown away between Sir ROBERT PEEL, and the
Irish Protestant Chnrch and the Protestant people
of Ireland. One or other must be put down! IVe
have no sort of fear which it is to be. The Church
may deserve a whipping for her short-sighted con-
duct in aiding a selfish, hollow-hearted, treacherous,
and weak poltroon into a position where, finding his
genius unequal to his fortune, and his courage un-
equal to the rage of his opponents, he commences
strengthening his hands by betraying his friends to
their enemies, and varnishes oyerl.ers oind.w ant o.f
principle
.by a splendid pretence to superior
nation, liberality, and enlightenment). But though
the Church may be whipped, she shall not beou
de-
stroyed for the gratification of a Socinial. traitor.
The struggle is a struggle for the existence
of Protestantism in Ireland. We must make

our choice—PEEL or Protestantism. Now or
never." These remarks, though professing to be
made in a spirit of calm, invincible confidence and
determination are, in truth, wrung out of the very
intensity of apprehension. The blind fury that per-
vades them is the bluster of the bully, who feels an
ugly consciousness that in the struggle which he him-
self provokes, he cannot fail to come off second best.
As expressing the opinions of the Orange faction, the
passage is well worth notice; and not less so, as giving
utterance to the exquisite terrors with which that
faction is just now beset. It is plain that they foresee
their destiny, and that the prophetic handwriting on
the wall has not made its appearance, unob
served by them. Like MARLOW'S Doctor Faustus,
on his last night, they now begin to count
their political life by minutes, and the agony
of their apprehension increases just as the sand in
the hour-glass diminishes. As a last desperate re-
source, they have taken to bullying; and as drowning
men are said to catch at a straw, so the Irish Orange-
men entertain a sort of faint, sickly hope that by
loud words and threatening gestures they may frighten
Sir ROBERT PEEL into the abandonment of his Edu-
cational Reforms. This is positively their sole remain-
ing chance, and as sure as night succeeds day, so
surely will it give way beneath them. Sir R. PEEL
knows them too well—is too well aware of their weak-
ness—to take fright at their blustering philippics ;
but will pursue his course calm and unmoved,
caring no more for their noise than the fox cares for
the hissing of a flock of geese.

We have more than once had occasion to remark on
the harsh—and we might add, unjust—spirit in which
the Law, as administered by many of our Magistrates,
presses upon the poor and the helpless. Instead of
being their sworn friend and guardian, as by a
pleasant fiction of the Constitution it is presumed to
be, on whose humane and considerate interposition
in their behalf they may confidently calculate, when
assailed by the strong arm of petty local authority, it
is often so strained and interpreted—according to the
letter rather than to the spirit—as to be their
oppressor—their bug-bear, whom they shrink from
with as much instinctive apprehension as the lower
orders in the East shrink from him who is supposed
to be possessed of the Evil Eye. Frequently in this
enlightened country has accommodating Justice been
known to smile on the delinquencies of the rich
and the influential, but seldom, if ever, has it
had other than a frown for the poor and the de•
fenceless. " That in the captain's but a choleric
word, which in the soldier is flat blasphemy," says
SHAKSPEARIS, who knew the workings of the busy,
practical world about him, if ever man did. Respect-
ability may do many things with comparative impu-
nity, which if non-respectability--that is to say, rank,
unadulterated poverty—were to attempt, it would
be forthwith subjected to the severest pains and penal-
ties. The " choleric word" of the rich deepens into
" flat blasphemy" when uttered by the poor ; as was
proved the other day, in a case where a passionate
gentleman, who had held abusive language towards a
poor man, was let off with a bland remonstrance,
while a cabman, who had abused a gentleman in terms
little, if at all, worse, was visited with a fine, accom-
panied—if we remember rightly—by a significant
reference to the tread-mill I Another, and still more
striking instance of this peculiar working of the Law,
occurred on Monday last at one of the Police-courts.

Several poor women were brought before the sitting
Magistrate, charged with the flagrant enormity of
selling fruit in the streets. In justification of this
heinous offence, one of the defendants urged that she
had no other means of support, and that " it was to
keep out of the workhouse that she endeavoured to
sell fruit in the Walworth-road." Another pleaded
that "she had five children dependent on her for
support," and asked " what she was to do, if pre-
vented from selling a little fruit by the road-side ?"
A. third said that " she had a sick husband, and that
she tried to keep him and herself out of the work-
house by selling fruit, but that, if she was deprived of
the means of doing so, that must be their fate." And
a fourth observed, " I have no other means of gaining
a subsistence ; it is a very cold and harassing way of
getting a living for those poor people who, like myself,
are compelled to follow it ; but what are we to do ?"
To these unanswerable pleas the Magistrate coolly
replied, that " he was of opinion it would be a kind-
ness to many of those persons who obstruct the
thoroughfares by selling fruit, to commit them to the
[louse of Correction ; that it was an idle, lazy way of
living, and that those who pursued it ought to be made
to try and earn their bread by different means." It

is very easy to talk in this strain, but how are the
defendants to find other and more respectable means
of earning a livelihood ? Selling fruit in the open
air, in a rainy, foggy, inclement climate like this,
we conceive to be about the last resource of abject
penury, which has not been attempted till every
other expedient has been tried and failed ; and yet
the poor creatures who make this last desperate
shift for existence, are coolly told that they are guilty
~f idleness and laziness, and are fit subjects for the
House of Correction I Yes, because they prefer
attempting to gain an honest maintenance, under cir-
cumstances of the most precarious, humiliating, and
injurious character to their health and comfort, to
subsisting by dishonest means, it is frankly intimated
' to them that they are rogues and vagabonds, and that
if they persevere in such ungenteel courses they
shall be fined twenty shillings each ! And what,
pray, is the cause of this Magisterial anathema against
those who are found guilty of selling fruit in the
streets, exposed for hours together to the fog, the
rain, and the bleak winds of November? They
obstruct the thoroughfares, forsooth ! So the poor,
helpless owners of fruit-stalls--who hare existed as a
class from time immemorial in the metropolis—are to
starve, rot on a dunghill, or walk off contentedly to
the House of Correction or a union workhouse, in
order that genteel and respectable pedestrians may
not be impeded in their movements on the Walworth-
road ! Verily, respectability obtains absolute freedom
of locomotion at a heavy—a cruelly heavy—cost to
poverty and destitution ! But no matter—perish all
the poor vendors of fruit in the streets, rather than
the thoroughfares should be obstructed ! So exclaims
the Law, as interpreted by the wisdom and humanity
of a Metropolitan Police Magistrate!

Accounts from Bayonne of the 16th state that
General ZURBANO had raised the standard of revolt
near Vittoria. According to other accounts, the in-
surrection broke out Logrono on the 12th, and ZUR-
RANO placed himself at the head of the insurgents,
said to amount to 400. The cry was, " The Consti-
tion of 1837—Long live the QUEEN, and death to the
tyrants !" Intelligence from Madrid of the 13th also
announce that several arrests had taken place both in
Castile and.Galicia ; and from other quarters we learn
that a general insurrection was anticipated ; so that
NARVAEZ has quite enough on his hands at pre-
sent. The troops at Madrid might for a time
support him, but those in the country are so ill
paid and fed, that they are ready to join any adven-
turer. The discussion in the Chamber on the Reform
Bill is entirely destitute of interest. Every amend-
ment proposed by the weak Opposition, had been re-
jected by large majorities. A long conference had
taken place between the French Ambrssador and the
Minister of Foreign Affairs, but the result has not
transpired. It was generally believed, however, to
have reference to a communication from the PorE
about the sales of Church property.
The Three per Cents. sold for 27i for cash, and 271
at 60 days; the Five per Cents. at 20 11-16 at 60
days; the Floating Debt at 64i for cash, and 651 at 60
days, and the Debt without interest at 6 3-32 at 60
days.

The Paris Commerce announces that, on Sunday,
the KING signed a royal ordonnance, convoking the
Chambers for Thursday, Dec. 26. The Opposition,
it would appear, are making preparations for the
session, and are about to form schemes for embar-
rassing and finally overthrowing M. Guizor. The
" Left," however, are determined not to join in this
system of tactics, as it could lead to no favourable
result for that party. The schemers are said to be
Count MOLE, M. DE SALVANDY, and some other
members of defunct Cabinets. "We would suffer
these intrigues to pass," says the National, "if we
thought they emanated from those impatient idlers
whose political views are confined to the possession of
office, and who imagine that public opinion ought to
be satisfied when they have gained their object. But
we are convinced that the impulse is given from a
higher
quarter, and it is for that reason that we wish
to say a few words upon it. For some days past,