The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-05 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 5, 1844.

who look upon the man, who know what he has
done, who know how eagerly the bloodhounds of Ire-
land thirst for his conviction, the position in which he
this day stands at the bar of his country, is one of the
deepest interest.
May Heaven direct the jury in their verdict—may
they show that an Irish and a Protestant jury, can
yet give justice to a fellow-countryman although a
Catholic—may they show that they can decide upon
the case before them without bias, and in conformity
to their oaths. Whilst with us, they may believe
that a repeal of the Union would not be a good to
Ireland, let them not be led to declare the seeking of
that repeal a crime, when all the evidence laid before
them has proved, that peaceable constitutional, and
legal means alone, have been used, to compass a legal
end, namely—the repeal of an Act of Parliament, at
the hands of the Parliament of Great Britain.

In the debate which arose in the House of Com-
mons, on Friday evening, relative to the State
Trials now pending in Dublin—to the conduct "and
infirmity of temper" recently manifested by the
Irish,Tz otAttorneyGeneral
to the in
his squabble with Mr.
I BB
affairs of Ireland in general—
ani
incidental allusion was made to the Commission
which has been discharging the very important
duties confided to it, of examining thoroughly into
the existing relations between Landlord and Tenant
in that country. We are sorry to be obliged to
confess that the tone and temper in which Mr. FFRENCII
alluded to this body as the " White-washing" Com-
mission were in all respects emulous copies of the good
taste and moderation so conspicuous in the defiance
of Mr.c Attorney-General SMITH. It must have
struck every
tt
body
wehoe rhaeard Mr. FERENC lI'S l
com-
plaint that the " Head of that Commission and its stk
Se-
cretary were Englishman," as a singular oversight in
the Hon. Member, to have incorporated into his cata-
logue of the grievances, (those of English patronage
more especially), under which Ireland really labours,
—the best and most unexceptionable and least inter-
ested intervention which the Government has yet
exercised on behalf of Ireland. Confident as we feel,
under assurances given to that effect by the highest
possible authorities, that the labours of the Commis-
sion must be productive of incalculable benefit to the
agricultural peasantry of Ireland, and by the
developement of all her great native re-
sources, to the market of her native labour ;
we lament to see any Irish Member overlooking the
admitted beneficial tendencies of this wise and salu-
tary appointment, for the sake of venting upon the
Earl of DEVON and his colleagues a little of that
atrabillious humour which may have been most un-
naturally excited by the deportment of other Minis-
terial functionaries in Ireland.

In defending this Commission, Sir ROBERT PEEL
said—" We appointed five Commissioners to inquire
into that most important subject—the relation be-
tween landlord and tenant—the state of the law and
practice respecting the occupancy of land. The whole
of the five gentlemen composing the Commission are
proprietors of land in Ireland. It certainly was desira-
ble that one of the Commissioners should have a know-
ledge ofthe English law as bearing on the subject. There
was a nobleman who was willing to undertake the duties
of Chairman—a nobleman, a large proprietor in the
south 'west of Ireland, and who had been a Master
in Chancery, and had had peculiar opportunities of
ascertaining the law and practice touching the . oc-
cupation of land in England." Now, these facts
would certainly show a strong prima facie case for
the nomination of Lord DEVON to the head
of the Commission, were there no other recom-
mendations to be predicated of that noble in-
dividual, in the high attainments, the practical
talents, the legal experience, and the business-
like habits which have always distinguished him
in private life, throughout his professional career,
and ever since his entrance into the Legislature. Be-
sides, he is a popular and an "improving" Irish landlord,
who is a frequent resident upon his Irish estates,
and at such times a personal superintendent
of their occupation, their farming, and ge-
neral management. Nor must the moral influence
of his exemplary character in all the relations of pri-
vate life, nor the authority of his public reputation
as a nobleman, enjoying the respect and confidence
of all parties in the State, be set aside, as things in-
different to the justification of his selection, in this
case, for the duties that have been delegated to him.
After all, these are really not subjects for party
feeling. They should be sacred from the bitterness
and irritation that surround the purely controversial
questions of contemporary politics. The inquisition
into the vicious principles which—not one man in
either of the two kingdoms attempts to deny—do,
somewhere, exist, in the relation of landlord and
tenant in Ireland, must operate to the application of
a remedy; and the advent of a remedy for all that
ation which their fatal
produced,ganis ought to be hailed
activityw socialith
entire
natural
hithertosatisfaction
r b y
every Irishman who
desires to see the prosperity of hisnative land consoli-
dated on the permanent bases of external or domestic
equity and justice. In this spirit we have perused,
with unmixed satisfaction, the prompt and handsome
testimony which was borne to the value of the Com-
mission; to the public character of the objects they
proposed by their investigations to accomplish ; to
they
-earnestness and impartiality with which they
have conducted the business before them ; and to the
mode in which they have hitherto fulfilled the
pledges recorded by her MAJESTY'S Ministers on
which was borne by
To the patriotic na-
tionality of this gentleman, in
undertaking r taking
SHAMANto appointcßwr 0 tßhDe.m ,
the zealous and de-
voted services which he is at all times prepared to
perform on behalf of the Irish people, we adverted so
recently as Saturday last, in an article on
the impolicy of the amendment upon the
Address', which was moved by him on the first night
of the session. Our pleasure in recurring to the
tribute of respect which we then offered is, surely,
" an Englishman"—and
tnhoat t toE
has confirmed
our judgment of the high character of an Irish gen-
nbgelislhemsseannetdhebepcariurnsee
Minister—
tleman, by declaring, at the close of Friday night's
debate, that " the lion. Member for Rockdale's must
always be the highest and the most disinterested
testimony on any point of this kind." But we can
as little conceive why, because at the head of the
Landlord and ,Tenant (Ireland) Commission, there
happens to be an Englishman, and that English-
man the Earl of DEVON—Mr. M p
FRENCH should
feel himself called upon to designate it by
the contemptuous epithet of " white-washing."
It is certain that the true. welfare and interests of
Ireland have as often been sacrificed to the mere
political antagonism of Irishmen, as to any other
evil influence. Let not the same little objects com-
promise the working of so great an engine of improve-
ment as this Commission will prove, if it be left to
its own unfettered and uninfluenced action. We can
easily conceive why, with such an object of inquiry
before it, the Commission should not be differently
constructed, but the question of its propriety, or its
utility may easily be tested. If these points cannot
be made out in its favour, let its discontinuance be
mooted in Parliament; but if Parliament affirm, as
it has already sanctioned, its continuance to the com-
pletion of its labours, Parliament must be assumed to
have stamped and recognised the national value of its
results, by such affirmation. If the results shall turn
out to be really thus valuable, of what importance is
it to Ireland, whether they be realised to her by Irish,
or by English hands ?

We have perused,—as matter :of routine duty,
rather than from any expectation of enlightening our-
selves or others by such perusal,—the usual " Stand-
ing Orders" of the House of Commons, in their usual
printed form among the " Votes and Proceedings" of
Friday last. There they are, as they have been, year
after year, for the last 60 or 70 years, most sententiously
announced, most technically worded, and with solemn
gravity propounding constitutional axioms which are
violated every week in the year, without even decent
pretences to concealment, and with impunity as cer-
tain as the visits of Sir R. PEEL'S income-tax col-
lectors. Thus the world is seriously apprised that
the House hath " Resolved—That it is a high in-
fringement of the liberties and privileges of the
Commons of the United Kingdom, for any Lord of
Parliament, or other Peer or Prelate, not being a Peer
of Ireland at the time elected, and not having declined
to serve for any county, city. or boron el of Great
Britain, to concern liini3elf in:tla- election of Member;
to serve for the Commons in Parliament." The Tory
journals supply the illustration of the practical work- I

ing of this " order," and the Opposition jour-
nals
confirm that illustration, by the contro-
versy—not yet quite cooled—about the un-
toward return of Mr. BRIGHT for the city of
Durham. "We have beaten you," (cry the Liberals
and the Whigs) "on your own sacred ground. All
the Church and Tory interest that used to be suc-
cessfully enlisted for the return of the thick-and-
thin-going Lord DUNGANNON, have failed against
our Anti-Corn-law League ultra, Mr. BRIGHT:'
" True," respond the discomfited Conservatives—
"but your success is owing only to defection in
our own camp." This defection is an admitted
fact between both parties; and when asked
wherein it consists, the answer common to both is—
that my Lord LONDONDERRY, having taken offence
(as he is very apt to do) at some previous slight, real
or imaginary (which his Lordship is nervously acute
in detecting), in neglecting to consult him about the
choice of a former candidate (an abstinence implying
more wisdom than one would readily ascribe to the
ci-devant constituents of Lord DUNGANNON), "the
Gallant Marquis declined to exert his influence
with his numerous tenantry, tradesmen, &c.,
in the prebendal city." Can any commen-
tary more strongly demonstrate the general rule
of violating the " Standing Order " we are
now adverting to than this admitted exception ?
It is evident that in Durham (and the case is the
same in some hundred' other places) Peers of the
realm do, customarily and notoriously, " concern
themselves in the election of Members to serve for
the Commons." This " Standing Order," then, in
the shape of a "Resolution," has about as much
moral reality or effect, in discountenancing the prac-
tices it is levelled at, as the stone corbels at the doors
of the Treasury in intimidating the " men of silk"
who defraud the public revenue ;—or the sculptured
gothic effigy of the treasure plunderer on the entrance
into the old Exchequer Chamber of Westminster
Hall, in deterring such delinquencies as forgeries of
Exchequer Bills.
Then we find, in virtue of No. 33, that the Ser-
geant-at-Arms is strictly enjoined, " from time to
time," to " take into his custody any stranger or
strangers that he shall see, or be informed of to be,
in the House or gallery, while the House, or any
Committee of the whole House, is sitting. No per-
son so taken to be discharged out of custody without
special order of the House." Again, specially
" Ordered, that no Member of this House do• pre-
sume to bring into it any stranger whilst the House
is sitting." Now, let us see how this " order" is ob-
served in practice every day throughout the session.
In the first place, there are three galleries besides
those for the resort of Members. One, calculated to
contain about 100 persons, is appropriated every even-
ing to parties introduced, each by a written order
—not " special" of " the House," but—of any indi-
vidual Member. A second, of less capacity and more
eligibly placed, is devoted to parties introduced under
order of the Speaker himself, by their names having
been previously entered on the Speaker's list. A third
is the Reporter's Gallery, filled every day of the
session, from the commencement to the end of the
House's proceedings, by the gentlemen who contri-
bute the reports to the London papers. Each and
all of these galleries are occupied entirely by
"strangers." Thus,—first the Members in their indi-
vidual capacity ; secondly, the Speaker in his ; lastly,
the doorkeepers under the sanction of the Speaker,—
are each and all of them daily, notoriously, and openly
violators of this " Standing Order." But the impunity
with which the Sergeant-at-Arms neglects the
injunction of these " orders " is still more
amazing. That he may have no plea of
inadvertency or ignorance, he is not allowed
to acquit his responsibility by one irruption into the
gallery ; he is " from time to time " to take unhappy
strangers into his safe keeping for their intrusion.
Neither shall he plead that he "has not seen" such
parties, for he must perform his duty if he be even
"informed" of their presence. Therefore, unless the
Sergeant habitually turns his back upon—the Order
of the House and the galleries—so as not to see at all;
—he cannot "from time to time" do what he is en-
joined to do. Unless he be as wilfully deaf, as he is
technically blind, he must not hear when information
touching such offenders is given to him. Unless the
public be contented,.and their interests consulted, by
these barefaced infractions and contempt of Parlia-
mentary orders, the orders must be periodically re-
newed, with all the solemnities that can consecrate
dead letters 1 Such things are no better than tom-
fooleries in the year of grace 1844.

The accounts from Madrid are to the 28th ult.
The Gazette contains a decree for organising a Royal
bank at Madrid, under the name of the "Bank of
ISABEL II." In the Eco del Commercio is the fol-
lowing extract of a letter from Alicant The
Government have determined to institute an inquiry
into the cause of the insolvency of the British Mining
Company in that City, which had been directed ex-
clusively by British subjects, having at their head
the British Consul, WARING. In the month of April
last, it was stated that the profits made by the Com-
pany had amounted to an enormous sum, equal to 61
per cent. on the capital subscribed, all of which had
since disappeared."
The Three per Cents. were done on the 27th at
27 cash, and 27 3-16 at 60 days, and the Fives at 20
for the 15th of March.

We have received the Paris papers of the 2d and
3d inst. Both Chambers met on Friday. In the
Chamber of Deputies, in announcing the death of
General BERTRAND, the faithful companion of NA-
POLEON in his adversity, M. DE BRICQUE-
VILLE said, " his loss will be keenly felt
by all well-thinking men. We have now
a duty to fulfil—to unite his ashes to those of the

Emperor. The Chamber, in so doing, will perform
an act for which France will feel grateful. It is
only just to bring together in the tomb two men
whom history will not disunite. I appeal, therefore,
to the Chamber to deliberate on the means of satis-
fying this desire, common, I think, to us all. With
your permission, I shall draw up a proposition on the
subject, and present it regularly." The motion was
adopted by acclamation. In the Chamber of Peers
the Minister of Public Instruction (M. VILLEMAIN)
introduced a bill on secondary instruction. If we
may judge from the papers it will meet with great op-
position on the part of the Church and its supporters.
The Journal des Debuts adverts to it in favourable
terms. " The principal question," it states "is frankly
and literally and liberally solved, agreably to the
promise of the Charter ; but it is solved at the
same time with all the prudence and reserve which
incorrigible passions and turbulent pretension have
rendered necessary. The liberty of instruction is
proclaimed; the right of families recognised ; but
the right of . the State is scrupulously reserved ;
the action and authority of the Government are
guaranteed by the conditions, formalities, and se-
curities required of the directors of private schools.
We remarked that those guarantees were more com•
plete and more rigorous in the new project of law
than in the one submitted three years ago to the
Chamber of Deputies. We shall not undertake to
justify in that respect the present project of law ;
the occurrences of the last three years sufficiently
account for the additional guarantees which the
Government has thought proper to demand of
those who claim, with a view and a tone known
to all, the right of concurring with the Un-
iversity in the education of future generations.
Such is the bearing of the clause, in virtue
of which every candidate pretending to the
direction of a private seminary of education, is
obliged to affirm that he belongs to no congregation
unauthorised by the laws." It is viewed, however,
in a very different light by the High Church party,
as we learn from the following rabid attack made on
it by their organ, the Univers :—" The odious con-
tends for precedence with the absurd. It is a law
against liberty; it is the most completely injurious
and perfidious monopoly of the present times. The
University wishes to supply all the professors, to
nominate all the judges, to burthen all the budgets,
and thus force the dissemination of its doctrines. If
such a law be established, then there will be an end
to religion and to liberty; the Charter will become a
fallacy—the Church a slave. We will not seek to
characterise the consciences of those who can submit
to this debasement. The project comes from M.
VILLEMAIN ; his name is stamped on every line."
Intelligence was received Paris on Satur-
day of .the death of Donna CARLOTTA, wife
of Don FRANCESCO DE PAULA, which took