The Sun.
London, England, 1828-09-24 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE LONDON JOURNALS.

We have always felt in regard to Ireland, the
general and permanent force of an observation
which was applied-in our Dublin.,letter. of yes-
terday to the present crisis of Irish affairs. Our
correspondent took occasion to remark, that not:
withstanding the personal popularity of Lon
Anglesea, there is now " no Government
party". in that kingdom, no middle party to me-
diate between the two fierce extremes of Catholic
and Orangeman, which distract it. This of
course is more obviously the case when political
agitations are most violent, but we have never
seen in Ireland during even the few peaceful in-
tervals of the last half century, any party on
which the - Government could reckon, as an
honest mediatrix in the contingency of political
troubles, or as an unimpassioned supporter of
the chief magistrate, considering him as the re-
presentative of public authority and order. In
Ireland, the principle of the British Govern-
ment for ages has been, to rule Ireland by .afac-
tion, you must rule for that faction ; in other
words, the faction itself must be made the
ruling power. Instead of the ruling caste being
of the •"
.Government party," the nominal Go-
vernment is of the party of the caste. Every
attempt on the part of the Sovereign or his ad-
visers to remodel this monstrous state of things,
by releasing King and people from the ascendant
faction, is by the latter felt and exclaimed against
as a rebellion. The very alarm of such a design
produces at once loud note and preparation for
hostility : the Corporation of Dublin in Ireland
having here tor auxiliaries Lord Kenyon and
the Dukes of Cumberland and Newcastle, con-
sider the Duke of Wellington and Lord Angle-
sea, who represent the Sovereign in both coup.
tries, as on the verge of open rebellion against
the " Church and State"—that is, against the
Orange monopoly of all offices, civil and reli-
gious. In Ireland again, there has not yet been
produced by manufacturing and commercial in-
dustry any accession of affluent and independent
men, (apart from the landed proprietors and
traffickers in votes)---like that class which
pervades every county, almost every parish
in England—men to whom the interests
of peace and property are more valuable than
the success of any political party, and who at-
tach themselves to the existing Government, in
its character of custos regni—the protector and
guardian of society. Political power in Ireland
has been. enjoyed and abused, by the most effec-
tive members of one out of two diVisions of the
community. Political privation has been inflicted
upon all the members indiscriminately, of the
second of these great divisions. The character
of the law has determined that of the conflict.
The object of one party is to break the mono-
poly--,--of the other to maintain it. There are
thousands of moderate men throughout the
island, but there has not yet been time for the
growth of what might be called a third party—
that inestimable party, attached to the standing
interests of the commonwealth, divested of all
political views. There is therefore nothing in
the texture of society to break the shock between
the two rival masses, whenever they shall fall
into collision, and for that collision they are
frightfully prepared on both sides. - Something
may be collected from the speeches of the Asso-
ciation leaders, of use towards an estimate of the
actual condition of the kingdom, It is not many
weeks since we stated in this journal, that although
the mine was carried tinder the surface of the
whole country, the match was most likely to he
applied to it in the North ; that a battle was to be
looked for where the opposite factions-were most
equal, and where one ofthem was notoriously eager
to begin ; that therefore, whatever might be the
anxiety of the Catholic leaders to practice only
that mode of warfare, and to employ exclusively
that description of weapons, in oaf with which
their success must he infallible—viz. the War of'
elections, and the arm of votes—it was altogether
impossible to calculate whether they Would be
able to restrain the peasantry of the south and
western counties, if wrought upon by provoca-
tion from any sanguinary struggles, in the north.
In his last speech Mr. Shiel adopts—indeed the
very nature of things would suggest to him—
the same alarming view of the subject to which
we have just referred. Mr. Shiel asserts, in so
many words, that if Catholic blood be spilled- by
the Orangemen of the north, it will be avenged
by a universal massacre of the Protestants,
where they can make no shadow of resistance, in
the centre, the south, and west of Ireland.—
God grant it may be otherwise, but we concur
with Mr. Shiel. There never was organization
so complete as that of the Irish. Catholics at this
moment : peaceful as we are persuaded is its
primary object, its principles are all of a military
caste. It is an array and discipline of almost
countless numbers, under known officers, with
gradation of ranks; commanded from one centre,
and inspired by one soul. This,_ we say, how-
ever pacific in its immediate purpose, is con-
vertible, on the miscarriage of
that purpose,toiha
any and every t
seevice of actual
the Orangemen, so comparatively weak in force,
should invoke a conflict with ten to one against
them, is less surprising when we know 'that they
count on involving the British nation iii then
'
quarrel, and on renewing, with our help, tae
dreadful scenes of wholesale massacre and
legal torture, by which more than one epoch of
has been distinguished. Irish history Here,
then, is the moment for a wise and upright
English Minister to step in, and intercept the
approaching horrors, There exists no earthly
power but that of Government, by which a civil
war between Protestant and Catholic can be now
averted. For the crazy suggestion of lordly
fa-
natics or jobbers, to " re-enact the penal laws !
—Heaven forgive the crack-brained counsellors,
they know not what they are advising, if the
Government does not hasten to conciliate, the
people will inevitably fight, and then the precious
opportunity will be lost, and with it all hope of
our longer existing as a united empire. When
men like the Duke of Newcastle talk of the Ca-
tholics wishing to overthrow the Constitution of
the realm, does it never strike them as a reason-
able inquiry, whether the Catholics will- not get
preserve the Constitu-
much more by striving to
tion, and to partake of it ? Take this as the
key to their proceedings, and all is clear and
easily accounted firr, f
cusation as a key, and the Catholics are the most
inconsistent maniacs that ever trod the earth.—
As a postscript to these remarks upon the state
of Ireland, we must express our dissent from
an opinion in yesterday's letter of our correspon-
dent, that it is, or has been, Lord' Anglesea's
policy to disarm the yeomanry of the north.—
The Irish Government, we have reason to
believe, entertain no such intention. "Flue dub
system, ingrafted upon that of the yeomanry,
appears to us to fill to the brim the cup of Irish