The Sun.
London, England, 1845-04-17 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.—Sir Robert Peel is the male Catherine de
Medicis of modern Conservatism. There is a real duplicity, as
Ratike has said of his female prototype, not in his words, or
in his actions only, but in his mind. He has two strings to
his bow ; he is always for sitting on two stools. This dupli-
city of view and ofconduct, as in the lady above-mentioned,so
in the present gentleman, after attempting to play one party
against the other, ends at last in a violent crisis. Catherine
first leaned towards the Protestants--and ended by enacting
the Saint Bartholomew. Peers P:otestantisin seems
drawing to its catastrophe in a similarly violent situation.
He has driven his own original parts- to bay—and it
stands at bay. He has thrown himself on Whig sup-
port ; and he will have to take it, we surmise, on Whig
terms. Consistency of principle demands that the party
in Opposition should speak their whole mind on the
whole extent of the Irish Church question. It is forced
upon them ; they have not factiously forced it upon the
Government. On the contrary, they have, thus far, given
the Government the most unreserved support. The public,
however, has spoken out, and shown itself strongly per-
suaded that (as we stated) what is proposed is one thing—
what is argued for is another. The Minister's act indi-
cates intentions which are universally received with im-
mense distrust. And his argumentative supporters make
the matter worse. They demonstrate that much more
remains behind. Mr. Gladstone on Friday, Mr. Milnes
yesterday, let the cat terribly out of the bag. The country
sees clearly enough that this is only a beginning of new
church policy. And they will have Sir Robert Peel begin
nothing of which they don't see the end. As an Irish dealer,
they will buy no pig in the poke from him. Now, in this
matter, the Opposition leaders have embarked in e same
boat with Sir R. Peel. Unless, however, they mean to commit
party suicide for the sake of his beaux yeux (to say nothing of
the sartorial " sacrifices to the graces" which Mr. Grant has
attributed to him)—they must declare all they would do with
the Irish Churches, and how they would do it. The widest
possible unpopularity has been already incurred by both '
parties. The patty in power may get out of it how they can
—that is no concern of the party in Opposition. What
they have to think of is simply to connect their present
conduct with their past professions; and set forth, in their
full extent, the principles on which they have followed the
Ministerial move. Those principles may not be less un-
popular than that move is—but, if true, they must make
way. The unpopularity is incurred—tout est perdu fors 1 'hon-
new•—it is for Opposition to take good care that honour, at
least, shall be safe, and that the country shall know where to
look for men—not to consult its momentary pleasure—bat to
chalk out a clear future course. Sir R. Peel sits like Joe Miller's
Jew at dinner, aghast at the sudden thunder-storm—" Here
is a piece of work about one little bit of bacon I" But
the little bit of bacon leads the public to infer the whole hog.
Even that little bit is more than the public will tolerate,
without knowing what is to follow. Sir R. Peel has made
the great mistake that he could keep Protestant zeal quiet
by treating the thing as nothing new, while the Irish
majority are to take it as something new. This is adding
distrust and suspense to inevitable Protestant unpopu-
larity. The duplicity is perceived ; and if it had
not, his supporters have taken good care to disclose
it. Two such speeches as Mr. Gladstone's and Mr.
Milnes' involve all that Mr. Ward's motion menaced, and
something more. They involve the positive patronage of
the Romish priesthood, as teachers of the people, while
Mr. Ward's motion only went to deal with surplus eccle-
siastical funds (such as those Mr. Hume last night men-
tioned) for general educational purposes. Mr. Glad-
stone, therefore, and Mr. Milnes, go farther than
Mr. Ward went towards directly superseding Protestant
ministry as regards Roman Catholic masses. They
would directly patronise another ministry, as effec-
tual, where the former is ineffectual—and unless they up-
hold the preposterous absurdity, that where that acknow-
ledged inefficacy exists, and where, on that very ground,
they' would erect State machinery to supply other agencies
—the non-working wheels are to go on being oiled " for
the look of the thing." and the public to be taxed for
more oil for the working ones, as well as for putting them
"in gear " at first starting—unless this preposterous
absurdity is asserted, Sir Robert Peel's argumentative
adherents espouse the appropriation clause, and something
more. Is it for the Whigs to dissemble that a new principle
is involved here • and to shrink from declaring that prin-
ciple, in the whole extent to which they would act upon
it? This appears simply due to themselves on the
part of the Opposition. Mr. Milnes stated it to be " his
apinion that the country was not at the present time
susceptible of the arguments which had been adduced
in favour of the Bill." But he was just as great a sinner
himself in the way as Mr. Gladstone. The country is sus-
ceptible of alarm, at all events; and such speeches have
done all that could be done to alarm it. Nothing more will
be lost by explicitness ; there is nothing now to be saved by
silence. We once hazarded a fabled illustration of the ostrich
gait of Sir Robert Peel's policy. But now the ostrich would
screen itself by sticking its head in the sand, and, because it
will not see its way, thinks that nobody else sees its where-
abouts.
STANDARD.—The Times this morning has a warm
panegyric upon Mr. Macaulay's speech. At this we cannot
wonder ; the speech was characterised by duplicity and
rancour, self-seeking and spite, clothed in coarse and offen-
sive language, the very qualities by which the Times itself is
so disgracefully distinguished. Mr. Macaulay's position is
no doubt a puzzling one ; he and his party think that by
voting against the Bill before the House they would
ruin the Ministry (we trust that they are mis-
taken), but they know that they would at the same time
utterly destroy themselves. What, then, was Mr. Macaulay
to do ? To vote for the Bill, and even to speak for it, but
at the same time to damage the measure in the eyes of all
good men, by fallacious and un-Christian arguments in its
support, and to throw upon its authors all the dirt that even
his practised industry could collect. An article which we
have copied from this day's Morning herald, fairly
we think (by a reference to facts and dates) demonstrates the
perfect harmony and consistency of Sir Robert Peel's conduct
towards the Church in Ireland, from the day in which he can
be said to have been a political leader, whether as head of a
party in opposition, or as head of a government. For fifteen
years, he has steadily and constantly fought the battles of the
Church against Mr. Macaulay and his faction, and never,
as we firmly believe, did the Right Hon. Baronet propose
any measure better calculated to fortify the temporal esta-
blishment of the Church, or to accelerate the completion of
its sacred purpose, than the measure now before the House
of Commons. What inconsistency is there here? But, says
Mr. Macaulay, Sir Robert Peel has taken his party by
surprise; if, however, there be a surprise, it is a surprise
with twelve months' warning, and a surprise of which Sir
R. Inglis, Mr. Colquhoun, Mr. Plumptre, or Col. Verner,
makes no complaint. But, then asks Mr. Macaulay, with an
air of triumph, where is Lord Stanley's Registration Bill ?
The reproach of not introducing the Bill since 1841 must,
however, be divided with Lord Stanley and Sir Robert
Peel by every one of the Conservative Members who
voted for it five years ago. It was as competent for any
one of the number to revive the measure, as it was
to Lord Stanley, or Sir Robert Peel ; for we may remind Mr.
Macaulay that it was not introduced as a Government
measure, but introduced by a private Member of Parliament.
No reproach is, however, due to any one in the matter. The
Registration Bill was a practical remedy for an existing
practical evil, the fraudulent composition of the Irish
registry five years ago. It was the duty of the Parlia-
ment to prevent future Houses of Commons being elected by
a fraudulently-composed registry, and therefore it was right
and necessary to introduce such a Bill as was introduced by
Lord Stanley in 1840. Time has, however, done the work
of the Bill to some extent—we believe to a sufficient
extent to preclude the necessity of legislation upon
the subject. The attention of the people has been di-
rected to the frauds practised with facility in the
novelty of the new constitution given by the Reform Bill,
and no Registration Bill seems to be now called for. If,
however, Mr. Macaulay thinks one is necessary, it is as com-
petent to him to introduce one now, as it was to Lord Stanley
to introduce one in 1840. Let us take leave of Mr. Macau-
lay's speech with an acknowledgment that it is in every way
worthy the commendation of the Times.

IRELAND.
REPEAL ASSOCIATION.
DurtuN, APRII. 14.—The usual weekly meeting of the As-
sociation took place to-day in the Conciliation Hall, Mr. E.
Clements in the chair.
Mr. O'CONNELL read a letter from Mr. D. Callaghan,
M.P., in which he stated himself to be an unflinching re-
pealer, and promised to join the Association upon his arrival
in Dublin.

Mr. O'CONNELL said, that on a former day he had an-
nounced that the Committee of the Association were consi-
dering the best method of celebrating the 30th of May, the
anniversary of the incarceration of himself and his friends,
and on that occasion he had stated his own opinion to be,
that a renewal of the Clontarf meeting would be the most
satisfactory step that could be taken for that purpose. On
reflection, however, he feared, that at a meeting so near
town as Clontarf would be, they might not have the same
control over a large number of persons as in the country. In
town there were a large number of active persons who differed
so widely from them in political opinion that it was possible
confusion might be created on such an occasion. He, there-
fore, thought that it was best to postpone the meeting at
Clontarf to the 16th of September next, the day of their
discharge from prison.—(Hear, hear.) The Committee in the
mean time would confer together and consider the best way
of celebrating the 30th of May, because they could not allow
that day to pass over without marking it with white.—
(Cheers,) The Hon. Gentleman next brought forward and
read a report on the Bill for the perpetual endowment of May-
nooth. The Committee, after giving an abstract of the Bill,
stated their opinion to be, that it was framed in a just and
conciliatory spirit, and offered no matter of doubt or diffi-
culty to any Roman Catholic, however suspicious he might
have been made by the conduct of the present or any
former Government. .They also expressed their belief
that, circumstanced as the country is with its ecclesiastical
and State revenues, originally granted for Roman Catholic
purposes, it was no infringement of the voluntary principle
to receive by way of restitution the means of educating the
Catholic clergy, especially when tendered in so satisfactory
and conciliatory a manner. Mr. O'Connell said that he was
most anxious to have this Bill universally read and under-
stood, to enable every Irishman to judge whether it was an
enactment which he, as a Catholic, ought to accept, and
also whether it contained anything derogatory to civil or re-
ligious freedom. It appeared to him that it contained no-
thing of the kind. There was to be no interference of
Pro-
testants with education in the College ; and this was exactly-
what he desired. He conceded to Protestants the right of
pursuing their own course of education, and he asked the
same permission for Catholics for their children and clergy.
—Wear, hear.) He had been asked why he did not advise
that petitions in favour of the Bill should be got up, as it
deemed so good a measure. He was ready with his
answer,l% which was this—that they had not asked for the
13111, it was entirely the voluntary act of the Government.—
(Hear, hear.) The Irish people would not stoop to ask for
when millions were owing
such a trifle.---(hear, hear.)
to them, they would not beg for a penny in the pound.
(Hear, hear.) They had not, therefore, asked for this Bill,
but they would cheerfully accept it if it were passed. He
repeated that he was very grateful for the Bill, and he had
no notion of being stingy et' his thanks, as he certainly was
not of vituperation of those who deserved censure, The
Bill had its use too in another respect—namely, the enabling
what the real dispositionof
them to ascertain