The Sun.
London, England, 1828-10-02 00:00:00

DUKE OF YORK'S STEAM-VESSEL.

The shove vessel, owing to the system adopted by the
existing Government of Portugal, is prevented from touch-
ing at Lisbon, and in consequence discontinues her trade to
that port. She left Portsmouth the Ist October, at 5
p.m. fin. Cadiz and Malaga, and may be expected to return
from thence, about the 10th of November.
Signed, JOHN NORMAN, Agent.
I , Water-lane, Oct. 2, 1828.

Blackwood's Magazine is ROW devoting its
chief attention to politics ; and it begins to want
all that used to give it buoyancy and lightness.
The writers have never been much distinguished
for elucidating any public question by force of
argument. Their style is dogmatic, arrogant,
and abusive ; and certainly not calculated to con-
vince those who differ. The present number is
overloaded with political disquisitions. They
actually devote thirty pages to the discussion of
the Catholic Question, in which they pour forth
all their old abuse against the Catholics,—and
run on in their usual intemperate .strain, assum-
ing all that they ought to prove. They set out
with an axiom that no one will deny, namely,
that " a people to be properly and beneficially
governed, must be governed by the principles of
strict right and impartial justice; they must not
only possess wise and righteous laws, hut they
must be compelled to obey them." But does
the writer suppose that where wise and righteous
laws are established, it will be necessary to compel
obedience ? Is there in the whole history of
human affairs one single example of any people
that were disaffected to wise and righteous laws ?
And is it not a notorious fact, and, indeed, a
fundamental axiom in government, that when
disaffection spreads widely, or settles perma-
nently in any country, it must have its origin in
oppression—in laws that are unwise and un-
righteous ? Obedience to the laws is as much
the interest of the people as of the government.
Who, in this country, for example, would think
of disobeying the laws ? We give a willing
obedience to them. They are just and righteous,
—and, therefore, no compulsion is necessary,
nor ever will be necessary, to enforce obedience.
It is only where the laws are not of this character
that the people must be compelled to submit to
them—and this is the case with Ireland. The
laws are neither ise nor righteous ; and hence
the disturbance and disorders which reign in that
unhappy country ; and the gradual and visible
progress of discontent and disaffection. When
the submission of the people to the laws must
be compelled, we hold this to be clear evidence
of misgovernment ; that the laws can neither be
wise nor righteous; and that it is because they
are the reverse, namely, cruel and impolitic, that
force must be used to procure obedience. Can
it be either wise or righteous for a small number
of Protestants to exclude the great body of the
Irish people from the higher offices of the state ?
Is it either wise or righteous for the smaller
nmnber to say to the larger, " You are a malig-
nant race, unfit to be trusted with power ; if you
had power, you would use it as an engine of
mischief and anarchy ; and, therefore, we subject
you to a peremptory and sweeping disqualifica-
tion. We proscribe you in the lump ; we take
your religion as the stamp of your incapacity ;
and we will govern and rule you as persons in-
capable to rule and govern yourselves ?" Is this
wise, or is it right ? Can we expect a willing
submission to such laws ? Can we expect that
a numerous, wealthy, enlightened people, grow-
ing every day more powerful, will submit tamely
to this degrading edict of a few ; stamping upon
them, for their own private ends, a character of
malignity, which they reject as a calumny, the
fruit of embittered passions and religious animo-
sity ? To such laws, we make no doubt that
obedience must be compelled ; and as to their
righteousness and wisdom, we shall quote the
words of a great statesman, and an eloquent
writer. " This way (says Mr. BURKE) of pro-
scribing citizens by denominations and general
descriptions, dignified by the name of reasons of
state, and security for constitutions and common-
wealths, is nothing better at bottom than the
miserable invention of an ungenerous ambition,
which would fain hold the sacred trust of power,
without any of the virtues, or any of the ener-
gies, that give a title to it,—a receipt of policy,
made up of a detestable compound of malice,
cowardice, and sloth." So much for the wise
and righteous laws which the Irish are compelled
to obey. The same writer continues : " Let
government discover by its sagacity, and punish
by its firmness, all delinquency against its power,
wherever delinquency exists in overt acts, and
then it will he as safe as ever GOD and nature
intended it should be ; but crbitratily to class
men under general descriptions, in order to
punish and proscribe them in the lump for a
presumed delinquency, of which perhaps but a
part, perhaps none at all, are guilty, is, indeed,
a compendious method, and saves a world of

trouble about proof ; but such a method, instead
of being law, is an act of unnatural rebellion
against the legal dominion of reason and justice."
Need we be at any loss then, when such laws
are established, to trace the disorders of Ireland
to their true sources, namely, to unjust and un-
equal laws, to which the Irish will never submit
unless they are compelled ?

LAW INTELLIGENCE.-(THIS DAY.)

ADMIRALTY COURT.

This being default day in the Admiralty Court,
the Judge (Sir CIIRISTOPHER ROBINSON) sat for a
short time, and disposed of some formal business.
The Court was then adjourned to the first day of
term in the Maritime Courts.