The Sun.
London, England, 1844-06-21 00:00:00

meeting, under circumstances which—had it not be

for the exertions of O'CoNNELL and his indefatigable
colleague Tom STEELE—might have caused the. blood

of the people to flow in torrents, and made quite an
.Aceldama of the field of Clontarf;—think, we say, of
tLese things, and then, reader, whether ycu be Whig,
Tory, or Radical, you will scarcely fail to agree with
us in opinion, that Earl DE GREY'S Administration
was throughout one long blunder, and that a more in-

competent Viceroy could scarcely have been selected
for Ireland at such a feverish crisis. When his Lord
ship first entered on his high post, he found—thanks
to the enlightened sway of the Marquis of NORMASBY
and Earl FORTESCUE—the country in a comparatively
tranquil state ; but, before he had been six months in
office, it was in a state of agitation from one end to
the other; and when he leaves it, he will leave It.
overrun with troops, horse, foot, and artillery; vii-
lantly watched by steam war-ships; and treated with
little less ceremony than if it were a conquered pro-
vince, instead of an integral part of the British
Empire! Such is the legacy which a Tory Lord-
Lieutenant will leave, on his resignation, to insulted
and oppressed Ireland! We shall be exceedingly
curious to know whom Sir ROBERT PEEL will appoint
as the successor of Earl DE GREY.

Lord MONTEAGLE, on Thursday se'nnight, moved,
n the House of Lords, far the appointment of a
"Select Committee on the Import Duties, with the
view of considering the effect produced by protecting
duties on the foreign commerce, the home industry,
the revenue, and the general prosperity of the British
Empire." The speech of the Noble Lord, which
occupied more than three hours in its delivery, had
obviously been prepared with extraordinary care and
reflection. It is long since we have perused any
effort of this kind, which was more remarkable for its
indication of these qualities—so essential to the impres-
sive effect of an address to the House of Peers,
replete with fiscal and commercial statistics, and
devoted, in the main, to the distasteful object of
establishing, against the legislation of the present and
of former Governments, a case of signal misconcep-
tion as'to the true interests of trade, and of deplor-
able failure in the policy adopted in dealing with them
by British Administrations. The speech was not less
truly than emphatically characterised by the Earl of
DALIIOUSIE, on whom devolved the task of replying
to it, as "a very able and admirable" one.
Those of our readers who would desire to avail
themselves of the rapid, but well-arranged and com-
prehensive summary of the follies involved in our
long fostered policy of protecting duties—their effects
upon foreign commerce and their reaction upon our-
selves—we earnestly refer to the report of Lord
AIONTEAGLE'S speech. If we were to attempt any-
thing like an abstract of its various and important
details, we should only do great injustice to a state-
ment which had been already carefully considered by
its noble author. We should be most sorry to dete-
riorate the value and effect of so well digested, so
perspicuous, and so excellently reasoned an exposi-
tion of the grounds on which his Lordship called for
the Committee in question. That in a House of 259
Peers (of whom 128 were present and 131 proxies)
there should have been declared a majority of 109
against the motion, will surprise no one who knows
how " they manage these things" in that branch of
the Legislature. It is instructive to note, however,
that of the 184 Peers whose votes rejected the propo-
sition, 94 were proxies, i. e., not present at the de-
bate,

Lord MONTEAGLE, after adducing precedents for
similar and more extensive returns from the year
1820 downwards, impressed upon their Lordships the
fact that this was "neither a political nor a party,.
not even a political question." But it is one at
all times of paramount and urgent importance ; and

from particular circumstances connected with the

results of the large financial measures wherewith the
present Government had commenced their adminis-
tration, at no period could it have been more conve-
niently entertained or with less danger of maiming

battle, had recourse to mere shuffling—to the logic
practice. :d in debating clubs, arid Sir ROBERT PEET
now am d then came to his relief, but, unfortunately,
he lent him no aid. Taking it altogether, this Sugar
Bill is , the most bungling measure ever introduced
in to f 'arliament. Government pretend a horror of
su, 3ar raised by slaves; they insult the Brazilians,
atr toAg the best of our customers ; and they give a
pr ..ference to some miserable islands in the East,
wl erc, according to all accounts, slavery is more ram-
pal it, than in South America.

( )n the fourth clause being read, which referred to
cer, ificates respecting the countries from which sugar
was to be imported, a division took place, on the
moti lot). of Lord PALMEaSTON, when there were, for
the el: use, 114; and against it, 60.
Seen oral other clauses were agreed to, and the
Tious( , resumed. The report was ordered to be re-
ceivei t this day.
e Parishes (Scotland) Bill was read a third time
an d -passed.

The other orders of the day were then disposed
of,, :and the House adjourned at Half-past One.

In reply to a question put by Captain LATARD last
n 1 fight in the House of Commons, with regard to the
ri Innoured resignation of Earl DE GREY, the present
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, Sir ROBERT PEEL said,
tha t there was no truth whatever in the report, but
idiled that at the same time he did not mean to say
thtlt his Lordship's state of health had not for some
tenths past made him anxious to be relieved from his
present office. "At a later period of the evening,"
diaserves a morning Contemporary, " the Premier
(further qualified his first unqualified statement by an-
mouncing that an immediate change in the Irish Go-
wernment was in contemplation, but that it was solely
in consequence of Earl DB GREY'S health." His
Lordship's indisposition has occurred at amost fortunate
season just in time, in fact, to save his political cha-
racter, and rescue him from the annoyance and humi-
liation of an abrupt recal. He will now, we presume,
be speedily disembarassed of the toils and resposibi-
lities attending his Viceroyalty—far luckier in this
respect than Lord ELLENBOROUGH, who has no con-
venient illness to plead in explanation of his hasty
recal from India. Ministers seem to be peculiarly
unfortunate in some of their most important appoint-
ments, for their Viceroy in the West appears to have
given them as much trouble as their Governor-
General in the East ; and as the former has added
to the weight and multitude of their perplexities in
Ireland, so the latter has very nearly got them into
a squabble with the East India Company. As re-
gards the particular case of Earl DE GREY, we look
-upon his resignation as a matter imperatively called for
under the existing circumstances of the sister country,
and we are only surprised that it has been so long
delayed. Had his Lordship retired some months
earlier, he would have better consulted his ow'n
dignity; for, from the first moment of his entering
upon the Viceroyalty, his administration has been one
long blunder—or rather a series of petty, provoking
blunders, which have occasioned quite as much
ridicule as indignation. Professing the strictest im-
partiality in his conduct, his legal and other appoint-
ments were all, with but one or two unimportant ex-
ceptions, of a one-sided character. Then, the mode
in which lie arrayed himself in hostility to the Re-
pealers, and the nature of the military precautions
he adopted against their apprehended insurrection—
could anything be more absurd—more calculated to
increase the general discontent of all parties, Orange-
men as well as Catholics ? We say nothing of his
fortification of the Dublin Pigeon-house —of his
placing a couple of extra sentinels at the gates of
the Castle, in order to drive away the invading army
of the Corn Exchange—of the hurried voyage of
troops, per steam-boat, without their dinners, to
Waterford, and of their still snore hurried voyage
back again, after finding, to their infinite disappoint-
ment, not a single insurgent in the city, but only a
deaf old woman selling matches on the quay—
of the rebuilding of the crazy old forts on
the Shannon, and the late miserable and
truly dignified crusade against the Repeal
buttons ;—we say nothing of all these multiplied fool-
cries ; but think of the summary dismissal of many
of -the most respectable and efficient Magistrates in
Ireland, a proceeding whose only effect, as might
have been anticipated, was to increase the Repeal
ferment ; think of the forbearance shown for months,
during the hottest periods of the agitation, towards
Mr. O'CoNsiEtr, and the monster-meetings ; and then,
when these meetings were just about to terminate for
the season, and the Liberator had announced his in-
tention of retiring for a time into tee privacy
of Derrinane— of the sudden exhibition made of
official vigour in the putting down of the Clontarf