The Sun.
London, England, 1844-09-04 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1844

The questions referred tothe House of Lords on
the Irish State Trials may now be regarded as settled.
The Judges have given their opinions ; they are unani-
mous, with the exception of two; but we fear their
decisions will have little influence with the House
of Peers. Baron PARKE is an excellent Judge, though
it.is singular that, in two important questions, he has
chosen to differ from his colleagues—men of the first
eminence in the law, and the majority of them never
suspected either of partiality or defect of legal know-
ledge. It is, however, a good set-off. The Tories are
trying to make themselves popular in Ireland, and these
Judges may possibly imagine that this opposition to
the verdict of their colleagues may have a good effect.
They are miserably mistaken. Two out of nine or
ten are nothing. They know well that the House of
Lords will pay every attention to their opinion, but
at the same time say, " We must be guided by the
general decision, and the Writ of Error must be nega-
tived." It has altogether been a most bungling busi-
ness. The Judges, according to the Writ of Error,
had no means of judging the most important points.
They had only some extraneous matters of law to de-
cide, and with the usual technicality of the profession
they confined themselves to mere dry details, without
entering upon the question of justice or injustice. Mr.
O'CONNELL'S fate, however, is now sealed. The House
of Lords, which meets this day, will discuss the subject.
We shall hear speeches from Lord BROUGHAM, Lord
DENMAN, Lord LYNDHURST, and Lord CAMPBELL;
possibly some of them of great and unnecessary
length ; but, whatever they say, the result will be
this—the Writ of Error is negatived, so that after a
great display of justice, and an appeal against a sen-
tence in full operation, Mr. O'CONNELL and his
friends will find themselves in the position in which
they were left by the fighting Irish Attorney-
General and the bigoted Irish Bench. What Sir
ROBERT PEEL may do is a question of futurity, and
of little importance. He may advise her MAJESTY to
remit the remainder of the sentences, to which her
MAJESTY was from the beginning opposed ; but will
that conciliate the Irish, or compensate for any one of
the grievances of which they justly complain ? Mr.
O'CoNNALL will issue from his prison only to be more
worshipped.

On a dispassionate review of all the circumstances
connected with the so-called adjustment of the mis-
understanding between France and England on the
Otaheite question, we are compelled to admit that
we are by no means satisfied with the nature or the
amount of the concessions by the French Govern-
ment, to the demand we have made of satisfaction
for " a gross outrage," committed by its servants,
on the personal rights, and the public authority of a
British Consul. There is nothing in all the special
pleading of the French journals—nothing in the
laboured explanations contributed by some of our own
daily Contemporaries—that has yet explained away
either the brutality and insolence of the French
officers, or vindicated, from the impudent slight
which they have put upon it, the honour of our flag,
and the dignity of our SOVEREIGN, disparaged in
the imprisonment of her Consular Representative.
With all our ardent love of peace, we consider that
its blessings may be purchased on too exorbitant
terms ; and the worthlessness of the cause of quar-
rel—the remoteness of the scene of action—the
semi-barbarism of the party whom we had inter-
fered to rescue from an *unmanly and disgraceful
aggression—these are elements that do not at all ne-
cessarily extend into the consideration of a subsequent
affront to our national honour. The Morning Herald
finds no more striking anology to illustrate
its notion of the absurdity of England and France
being betrayed into a rupture about so worthless a
matter, than "two Patagonians, fighting for a sea-calf.
claiming each of them the belligerent support of
either power." Whether, in this lively figure, Queen
POMARE or Mr. Consul PRITCHARD is to be taken for
the type of a sea-calf, as many a profound writer is
every day for that of a land-calf, we do not under-
stand ; but it is a figure quite inapplicable, unless it
could be shown that the misunderstanding between
England and France are about the property or possess-
sion of Otaheite itself. Diplomatic functions and
relations might have been equally violated on the high
seas—in the Consular-office—at a public festival—
even in a public theatre. Is the Herald prepared tc
say there has been no violation of them in Mr
PRITCHARD'S case ? Sir ROBERT PEEL has:declare(
the conduct of the French authorities to have
amounted to a " gross outrage." Is the simple cen
sure or suspension of D'AUBIGNT or BRUAT to
br
taken as an acquittance in full for, first, the irArprisou.
meat, and secondly, the expulsion of Mr. 11ITCHARD?
This facility on our part will vasf2ty enhance the im-
portance and influence of our
consular agents in times
to come !
But, perhaps -Prance is disposed to make us amends
by signalizl„g her forbearance and respect in other
quartP:rs. We have old-standing relations of amity
and good-will with the Emperor of MOROCCO. ShE
invades his territories from her Algerine frontier.
under the pretext of their having afforded an asylun.
to a very gallant native chieftain, who had long suc-
cessfully resisted her occupation of Algeria, and se-
verely chastised the French forces which had pushed
far and wide their campaign of wanton desolation and
extirpation, by fire and sword, over an independent
country of Africa. That country France had so-
lemnly pledged herself, in the face of all Europe, not
to occupy. That pledge she subsequently falsified,
with a degree of political effrontery almost un-
matched in the history of her monarchy. Was th.
Emperor of MOROCCO—still an independent SOVE-
REIGN—tO refuse the asylum of his dominions to the
valiant ABD-EL-KADER ? The French insist or
satisfaction for his harbouring that chieftain, com-
plain that he is in communication with him, and de-
mand his expulsion from the empire. In the course
of the events which rapidly ensue on the occupation
of Ouchda, they bombard Tangiers, and inflict the
same-punishment on Mogadore. With both Tangiers
and Mogadore we had commercial relations ; exten-
sive ones with the latter. The bombardment is
inflicted in the presence of a fractional representatior.
of the British navy, with circumstances of very sig.
nificant application ; and our fractional force, acting
under orders, looks idly on at these vain but destruc-
tive demonstrations of European artillery, on the
towns and fortresses of our African ally. Instantly
the press ofFrance—Monarchical, Republican, Move-
ment party, one and all—teems with insulting sarcasms
at our patient passiveness ; with fierce gasconader

about the coming hour of French naval su-
pre'naacy, and undisguised clamours for
e
war with England, on the avowed grouLd of
our weakness and deficiency in that naval arm which
was once the terror of the world. :be National, it
its overboiling zeal, commits,
'co be sure, the ludi•
crous error of treating f
.. -°;r. -of our newest and mast
formidable line-of-b::,fle ships, whigh have not yet
been out of b
ready foK sea)
;4rbour,i but ttlt " advance ships and
in
ts i`old hulks,' formidable ofil3 the, names of Trafalgar, Waterloo, Le Foudroy-
azi4w Vengeance." But the animus of all this is plain
1 enough. Our neighbours draw their own moral from
I Mediterranean unity
Let U 3 not imitate them by seeking consolati in vain words. Ridiculous as
their vaunting mayon be.
there is too much of truth in their depreciating esti-
mate of our naval force. Not the Mediterranean or
Levant squadron alone, whether cruising in that sea,
or running down the western or Atlantic coast of
Africa, but the whole of our efficient force of ships of
the line, in commission, are scandalously, dangerously,
inexcusably reduced, and utterly disproportionate to