The Sun.
London, England, 1828-01-25 00:00:00

prove " the fruitful parent of a hundred mote." We
think the premises sound, but we demur to :the con •
elusion. It is competent, unquestionably, to any
Member to speak tt. .a Speech, or from the Speech,
or at the Speech ; and when its merits come to be
discussed, we have no doubt that we shall have ex-
hibitions of oratory in abundance, in all these three
legitimate forms ; but, in looking to practice, we are
not called on to decide the possible, but the pro-
bable. The plan which Ministers, in compliance
with established usage, will adopt, will be to have
the Speech read, and, instead of proceeding to the
' consideration of it immediately, to name a day for
that purpose. The necessary writs will then be
moved for, and the House will adjourn to the day
agreed on. Why should it be supposed that the
Opposition will object to this mode of pro-
ceeding ? If they are strong, such captious con-
duct would be as undignified as it is unprece-
dented. If they are weak, it would be useless.
On one Occasion it will be recollected that Sir F.
Burdett moved the Address, and the real Address
was, in consequence, moved in the shape of an
amendment. The Hon. Baronet may pursue the
same course now, but the Ministers will not. They
will move the previous question. If that should be
lost, there is but one alternative—the Parliament
will be dissolved, or the Cabinet must. Setting
aside, however, the unfairness of such a mode of
defeating a Ministry, were it practicable, which we
possess at present no means of judging, we should
question its expediency. If cue side steal a march
in that way, so may another. The House of Com-
mons would, under such a system, present not an
assemblage of Representatives, endeavouring by dif-
ferent ways to accomplish the good of their consti-
tuents, but a couple of perverse factions, seeking by
tricks and subterfuges to out-wit each other. The
Times admits that the mode, which we have chalked
out is the natural way—the rational way it unques-
tionably is—and yet it is most wcftilly afraid that it
will not be followed. Why is it so ? Since no
purpose under Heaven can be accomplished or aimed
at by departing from precedent, why is it imagined
that precedent will be departed from ? If Ministers
should do so, the Opposition may think them-
selves dispensed from that courtesy which they
would otherwise, it they regarded their character,
be compelled to observe. A debate can be raised on
a motion for a new writ as easily, and maintained as
long and as vigorously, as upon an Address. Mo-
tions have been raised ere now on the lighting of
the candles. If, therefore, the object of Ministers
be to have no tails—disco,sh-,,n there cannot be—
Mr. Peel, Mr. Huskisson, and the rest of the
Members who have accepted office, be re-elected,

they will succeed much better by the ordinary plan
than by departing from it. The Times is fond of
setting up men of straw, in order to show its skill
in bringing them down again. We can conceive
no reason else for its laboured rtttempt to combat an
arrangement which, in all probability, was never
contemplated. Another contemporary, the Chro-
nicle, looking to the numerous Ministerial changes
tkat have occurred during the year, seems inclined
to doubt whether the country might not go on very
comfortably without any Ministry at ail. Our con-
temporary is very facetious on this hint. He says
that the revenue does not suffer by the interruptions
of the Cabinet, and that the expenditure does not
diminish ; and as the only use of a Government is
to raise money and spend it, there is no use for
any new Cabinet at all. We rather think, how-
ever, we most have -Ministers, we have been so long
accustomed to them, were there no better reason.—
Besides, if the expenditure be the same without as
with them, we should by all means vote for their
continuance—if we must pip© we have a right to in-
sist OA a dance. Another contemporary attacks the
Cabinet, in a graver strain, It informs us that cer- ,
tain Noblemen have sent a protpt to his Majesty,
against the Duke of Wellington's remaining at the
head of the Army while he manages the highest
Civil Office in the State. It is not that we contem-
plate even the remotest attempt, on the part of the
Noble Duke, to infringe the liberties of the coun-
try, whose brightest page of glory is summed with
his name, that we joill with tli4t contemporary in
deprecating the continued nnionz in onepefson, of
offices, which we consider to be incompatible, and
for the union of which we are not aware of any pre-
. cedent in our constitutional history. We believe that
each and all of our contemporaries, if they would ho-
nestly spy all their sentiments, are as little suspicious
of the honour and patriuti.n f th ‘.Toble Puke as
we are ; and were we at all dubious of either, we
knew that we have, in the intelligence and temper of
the people of Great Britain, a force which would
meet and resist any efforts which even he, mighty
as at 11;is name and authority, could' make to de-
press or crush ou- ire;; iMOtntions: All fear, there-
fore, is most idle and most ridiculous ; bib: we must
not forget the adage—mania mola et, bonis oriuntur
e.remplis. We may be perfectly content to trust the
Duke of Wellington with the highest civil and the
light military offices in the realm ; but circum-
stances may elvgi.iige, .pd with the change men may
be found, who, if they cannot employ powers
to the destruction, may yet use them to the injury,
of the country. It seems, therefore, both for the
security of the people and for the honour of the
Dul:e, whose pure fame the holding of them cannot
fail eventually to shade, that a separation should
take place as soon as the state or the I;,iinisteri;i'l ar-
rangements will admit. These the meeting of Par-
liament has necessarily hastened to their completion
sooner than would otherwise have been necessary ;
and to iii;p forced acceleration may be fairly attri-
buted any anomalies 464 :Treplarities which they
exhibit.—i\ eic Times.

The Meetings of the British Catholic Association
have hitherto failed to attract any considerable at-
7._':.‘ey have generally been very dull affairs
indeed. This. duilne4p we„s however in some degree
relieved upon the occasion of the last Gi these Meet-
ings, which took place a few days ago, by the pre-
sence and Speech of a Protestant Irish peer—Lord
Rcompre—who according to his own confession,
greatly at a hfry to make a sensation in the
world befitting his high rank, resArted to the whim-
sical expedient of deliVering a long harangue in tlie
narrow Board-room of this obscure Club. Having;
qentioned the debut of this Noble Lord, there re-
remair.3 it; t;:tth no other novelty for us to notice,
The arguments and aeelamations in favour of the
claims of the Catholics were precise;y the same as
those with which our readers have been long fami-
liar, and which they also know to have been a thou-
sand ti; .es refuted. We cannot refrain, however,
from noticing tit; topics upon which the Noble Lord
thought proper to insist; and the public will judge
whether the Protestant Patrician acted wisefr in
derogating from his rank and his religion, for the
purpose merely of attempting to enforce them. The
Nio and as his audience was
io
l‘aNi'Tltef-L
willing one, probably not without
bdleou Lbtord a
success, to convince them that there was a secret
article of the Union with Ireland, by which the
English Government promised to concede the claims
of the Catholics, upon the condition that they
should support that measure, He insisted that the
Union was carried by Catholic efforts and Catholic
influence, under the stimulus of this compact, and
these circumstances he pronounced to be the corner,'
stone of the Catholic Claims. Now it appears to us
if the corner-stone of the Catholic Claims be such
as it is here described, that the edifice rests opol, a
support. Whatever hopes may have
been
fragile)
n held out, or whatever promises made by indi-
viduals to individuals, it is abundantly clear that no
individual or set of individuals could have a right to
make secret conditions, or to give a clandestine
pledge on behalf of ale British
.empire. Nobody,
we are well assured, was at any time e so insane as to
.
assume such a right. Neither it a fact, that the
Union was carried by Catholic influence. How, in-
deed, could it be so ? The Union was determined
on by the concurrent decision of the Legislatures of
both countries, and in neither of these Legislatures
had any Catholic a vote. But we will even go
so far as to say that such a compact, had -there
been any parties competent to enter into it,
on the part of the British Government, would