The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-08 00:00:00

cult, and expired, after a Cew days' confinement, yes- ;
terday afternoon. As Mr., and afterwards Sir JAMES
SCARLETT, he was for a long course of years prior to
1835 (when he was created Baron ABINGER), a
distinguished member of the House of Commons. Up
to the period of Mr. CANNING'S Administration,
formed in April 1827, his Lordship had been, avow-
edly, a Whig. He sat with the Whigs, he voted
with them ; he was, for the most part, a warm oppo-
nent of the Government of the Earl of LtvzierooL,
which, established in 1812, endured until February,
1827. In April of the latter year, Sir JAMES SCAR-
LETT succeeded Sir CHARLES WETHERELL, as At-
torney-General to Mr. CANNING'S Government;
and he occupied that office, beyond the Pre-
mier's demise, under the Earl of RIPON'S
Administration, until January, 1828, when he re-
, signed. In May, 1829, however, the Duke of
WELLINGTON being Prime Minister, he was a second
time appointed Attorney-General, in the room of his
former predecessor, Sir C. WETHERELL, who, also,
had been a second time appointed, on the demise of
Mr. CANNING, and had retired on his Grace's taking
office. Sir JAMES, in his turn, once more gave up this
distinguished office on the coming in of his former
political friends, in November, 1830, under Earl
GREY. In December, 1834, when Sir R. PEEL re-
ceived the seals of the First Lord of the Treasury, Sir
JAMES SCARLETT was appointed to the Chief Barony
of the Exchequer, and in the following year he received
his peerage. From this brief review of his official
and public career it may be surmised—and the sur-
mise would be but too well-founded—that the de-
ceased judge was neither a very pure Whig, nor
a very decided Conservative—that he who
was ostensibly the confidential legal adviser of the
generous-principled, the liberal-minded, the English-
spirited CANNING, could not have really filled the same
position, and frankly discharged its relations, to that
Minister—of far inferior capacity and character—who
had trodden, so to speak, over the mighty form of
his deceased, but more illustrious colleague, into the
vacant seat of power. The truth of history requires
us to admit that the Parliamentary career of the late
Lord ABINGER was of a nature fraught with signal
mischief to the influence of great constitutional prin-
ciples. It tampered with some of the dearest rights
of popular freedom. It vacillated between the love of
office and the loyalty of party. For we are not afraid to
avow our deep conviction that no more salutary con-
trol can be devised to insure political morality in
public men, than that profession of political faith
which is vulgarly called the declaration of party. It
is assumed to be founded, and ought to proceed, on
the mature examination of such elementary principles
as are essential to the guarantees of private rights
and public liberty. This is an end, in which all good
and patriotic men must at all times concur. The
true means to that end may be, at any time, a subject
of legitimate and conscientious difference and dis-
pute among them. But they who, upon examination
and conviction, have once determined that the popular
tendencies of Whiggery are the most nearly
identified with the spirit of our Constitution,
and the social and political advancement of the
empire, cannot, without incurring grave suspicions
of their sincerity, turn round upon such principles of
action, and record their adhesion to a Government
founded on high Tory maxims of government. Now,
no man can deny that there was all this amount of
discrepancy between the liberalised—we might call
it the emancipated—policy of MT. CANNING'S Go-
vernment, as contrasted with that of Lord LIVER-
POOL, and between the Government of the Duke of
WELLINGTON and Sir R. PEEL, as collated with that of
Mr. CANNING. We remember, that on the odious
"Six Bills " of Lord CASTLEREAGH'S introduction,
which were insolent, but insidious, invasions of the
rights of free discussion, of public meeting, of
public petitioning, of personal immunity, of the
doctrine of Ministerial responsibility and public
control over official action ; the language and
the votes of Mr. SCARLETT halted between large pro-
fessions of abstract constitutional opinions,—and dan-
gerous concessions to proposals for their practical
discouragement and defeat. Mr. SCARLETT was at all
times too strongly imbued with the impressions and
doctrine of a high prerogative lawyer to be a good
Whig ;—we do not concern ourselves to know how
far his Whig habitudes and associations damaged his
Tory or Conservative utility. We shall always in-
sist upon the fact, that his conduct was to be deplored
for the sanction it afforded to that laxity, or facility, of
political principle, the example of which became a
sort of epidemic in succeeding years. • At the bar, as
a leading counsel, the name of SCARLETT will ever
stand among the highest on the list of accomplished,
astute, and winning advocates. His knowledge of
men, which was extensive and well digested, he
brought to bear on what always
aptly termed his " management " "of jurors ;
and his capacity in this art was pro-
rhund. He wielded it through a long and dis-
tinguished forensic career, with a success absolutely
InarvPllous. It would have conduced much to his
reputation as a judge, could he have forgotten, on the
bench, the habits of thinking and modes of arraying
facts and evidence which had achieved for him so
signal a reputation at the bar. But on the seat of
justice, Lord ABINGER always appeared, to us, haunted
by a sort of involuntary partisanship; and if this was
the error of his judicial conclusions, he was liable to
occasional errors still more grave, both of temper and
discretion. We are loth to exceed, in our notice of
the dead, the limits of a temperate and even a lenient
censure; nevertheless, we cannot abstain from re-
marking, that, were we personally interested in the
posthumous reputation of the deceased nobleman, we
should have been better pleased that his career had
closed upon him as Sir JAMES SCARLETT than as
Lord ABINGER; and better still if on Mr., than on Sir
James, SCARLETT.

The Irish papers give most glowing accounts of the
enthusiasm with which Mr. O'CONNELL has been re-
ceived on his way to Cork, where he is to be enter-
tained at a magnificent public dinner. At every town
and village through which the " convicted conspira-
tor" passed, the people assembled in vast crowds, and
testified their unabated confidence in him by repeated
bursts of acclamation. " I have had many opportu-
nities," says an eye-witness, writing to a Morning
Contemporary on the subject, " of observing the
manner in which the Liberator was received when
journeying through the several districts of Ireland
during the period of the monster-meetings, but
on no one occasion have I ever seen a more
enthusiastic reception given him, than that which
he has this day received as the convicted' for
conspiring' to liberate his native land by re-
storing her legislative independence." This strong
manifestation of national sympathy for Mr. O'CON-
NELL at a ticklish period like the present, is another
of Sir ROBERT PEEL'S Irish " difficulties," greater,
if possible, than any that he has yet encountered. In
what spirit will he meet it—by what means will he
overcome it ? He has already tried his utmost to
cripple the power of the " convicted conspirator,"
and the only result of his strenuous efforts has been,
to arm that " conspirator" with more power than ever.
Influential as Mr. O'CONNELL is, while at liberty to
go where he pleases, and address enormous masses of
his countrymen :whenever he sees fit to do so ; he
will be infinitely more influential when confined
within the four walls of a prison, for to admiration
of his talents and confidence in his sincerity, will then
be added a deep, heartfelt sympathy in his fate. Ireland
will be continually bearing in mind—and the reflec-
t tion will render Sir ROBERT PEEL'S Government still

more odious than ever in her eyes, and reduce it to a
completer state of insignificance than it is in even at
present—lreland, we say, will bear in mind that it is
for her that Mr. O'CosusELL is suffering imprison-
ment—that it is for her he is debarred from the fresh
air of Heaven, and the enjoyment, so dear to him, of
a stroll over his native mountains; and this thought
incessantly fermenting and sinking deeper in the
national mind, will arm the object of it with a moral
influence compared with which that of the Govern-
ment will appear an absolute nullity. The Tories
have always been famous for their dexterity in
building up brick walls against which to run their
own heads, but they have never exhibited
their skill to greater advantage than in the present
instance. Instead of crippling Mr. O'CoissiELL—as
they fondly hoped they would do by their State trial
—they have armed him with fresh means for annoy-
ing them. Already we perceive he has entered his
protest against their Irish Franchise Bill, and his
opinions on this subject will now be regarded with
more implicit deference and respect than ever.
Through the medium of the Committee of the Repeal