The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-03 00:00:00

easily governed. History confirms the fact. Under
two administrations, short unfortunately they were,
the whole of Ireland, even including the wilds of Tip-
perary, was more peaceable than any part of Great
Britain ; one-half of the usual number of troops was
withdrawn, and the remainder were as little wanted
as the few scattered depots in Scotland o preserve
order. This might partly be produced by hope, and by a
conviction that the existing Government was willing and
anxious to redress their grievances, and, with the
usual generosity of the people, they waited the result
—they waited to see the Church reduced to its
proper limits-.--to see Catholics promoted to offices of
trust as well as Protestants, and to see magistrates
appointed in whom they could place confidence. But
when all these bright pictures were swept from the
view, and the Home Minister, in one of his many
unguarded speeches, declared that concession had
reached its utmost limit, can any man be surprised
that the disappointed hopes of the people broke
through all bounds, and that, like madmen, they re-
solved to carry a measure which would destroy
them and their oppressors ? This is the whole secret
of the present agitation, and we trust Sir ROBERT
PEEL will be wise in time. England cannot part
,with Ireland. She must be attached to this country,
by fair or other means ; and what Christian can hesitate
for one moment about the alternative ? Place her
Church, her laws, her magistrates, and her govern-
ment, on the same footing with those of England, and
Scotland ; and Ireland, in place of being a constant
source of anxiety and alarm, would become the
strongest bulwark of the United Kingdom. She is
not to be put down by dismissing magistrates, by
Arms Bills, or even by fifty thousand troops•
but she is to be put down by justice, and woe to the
Minister who rebels against it. All the other dif-
ficulties of Sir ROBERT PEEL are nothing as com-
pared with Ireland ; and he will find that unless he
put down his bigoted colleagues, and bring forward
a great, a generous, and comprehensive scheme for
the regeneration of that country, he and his Con-
servative Cabinet must give way to other men. On
this subject, as well as others adverted to, we quote
the following from an able pamphlet by a Whig
writer, just published by RIDG WAY, entitled
" What is to be Done ? or, Past, Present, and
Future There must be no longer delay or
double dealing. The way of free trade is
open before the Government—so is the way of ge-
neral education—so is the way of frank and friendly
recognition of Ireland's rights and Ireland's religion.
The Government has not, as a Government, abso-
lutely compromised itself against any of these active
principles—it has stood between them and their op-
ponents, leaning perhaps a little too much the wrong
way ; but this was natural—was the effect of old
habits, and may be retrieved. Let it lean now
a little in the other way, and gradually
move on in the direction to which it points, and it
may find, if all its paths be not pleasantness, that at
least its ways are peace. It is morally impossible
to go back to old Toryism—it is not practicable to
stand still. The ground will slide, is sliding, away
from those who fancy they are reposing firmly on
it. No men, nor party of men, can stand still in the

times and circumstances in which we are living.
Let the Government, then, go on—go forward gently,
firmly, charitably, justly. And in that case good
luck go with it ; for in that case we, for our part,
wil not then disturb it." With regard to
England, he adds, "we have less fears. It is clear
enough what must and what will be done. The great
Free-trade League is confessedly increasing yearly in
numbers, funds, discretion, ability, and *success. It
has all the characteristics of a winner,—of what we
are accustomed to call the persevering, straight-for-
ward, business-like, resolute, but not violent, Anglo-
Saxon blood. And we firmly and conscientiornly
believe that it has justice and good intentions
on its side. If this be so, and it is difficult
to deny it, where will Sir ROBERT PEEL find either
the ability or the means for permanent resistance.
Finally, then, and summarily, it appears that a
Government of repression and exclusion is ill fitted
for times of progression and expansion ; and that these
now require for the peace and well-being of the coun-
try—For Ireland, the support of her tenantry, and
the endowment and recognition of her Roman Catholic
Church ; for England, national education ; and for
the empire at large, free trade, which includes the
relief of her pauperism, by finding increased employ-
ment for her increasing hands. Let who will do
these, but done they must be—sooner or later ; and
the sooner the better, and the safer."

We have great pleasure in directing public atten-
tion to an article headed " CURRENCY," with the sig -
nature of " BEIRNIARD." The reasoning is at once co-
gent and philosophical. One pound of practical com-
mon-sense is worth a million of illusive theories, which
only dazzle to bewilder and confound. Sir ROBERT
PEEL, and the Directors of the Bank of England would
do- well to read and duly consider thin matter before
they strike a bargain in the dark respecting the re-
newal of that precious monopoly—the Bank Charter.

The explanations which have been received from
Canada touching the causes that had led to the recent
resignation of the Members of the Executive Coun-
cil, consist of a letter addressed by Mr. LAFONTAINE
to his Excellency Sir CHARLES METCALFE, under
(late of the 27th November, 1843, and the answer of
his Excellency thereto, dated on the following day.
We were certainly astonished at the news of the
Council's resignation. But astonishment is an emo-
tion of varying intensity, and we are much more asto-
nished at the statements and pretensions comprised in
this letter of M. LAFONTAINE. The whole of its ex-
planatory recital and plea proceed upon a one-sided
exposition of the views with which the Council had
taken office, and of their " responsibility to the
representatives of the people in Parliament." They
completely throw overboard the question of any
other obligations of their office, whether to
the Colonial Government or to the Crown, in their
capacity of Councillors. The letter itself is a
laboured attempt to compile a manifesto of griev-
ances, which break down under the attempt to enun-
ciate and specify them. Nor is this result to be
wondered at; seeing that Sir CHARLES METCALFE'S
administration of the Government of Canada has been
Conducted, from the moment of his assumption of
office to the period of our last advices from the colony,
in a spirit of fairness, with a degree of political libe-
rality and civil justice, which have reflected upon his
Excellency the highest honour, and have amply justi-
fied his selection by her MAJESTY'S Ministers for the
discharge of one of the highest—one of the most re-
sponsible—and perhaps the most difficult appoint-
ments, in the service of her MAJESTY'S Crown.
M. LAFONTAINE, in stating for his Excellency's
information the grounds of the explanations which it
was proposed by himself and his colleagues to offer in
their places in Parliament, refers to certain resolu-
tions introduced into the Legislative Assembly, with
the knowledge and sanction of her MAJESTY'S Repre-
sentative ; the gist of which appears to have been, that
in order to preserve between the different branches of
the Parliament that harmony which is essential to the
peace, welfare, and good government of the province,
the chief advisers of the representative of the SOVE-
REIGN, constituting a provincial administration under
him, ought to be men possessed of the confidence of
the representatives of the people, thus affording a
guarantee that the well-understood wishes and interests
of the people, which our gracious SOVEREIGN has de-
clared shall be the rule of the Provincial Government
will, on all occasions, be faithfully represented and
advocated.

It will be seen by Sir CHARLES METCALFE'S
reply, that this pledge, so far as it respected the
course of his own Government, it is his Excellency's
boast—and a well-founded one—to have carefully
retrieved, and studiously maintained. It might be
thought that Mr. LAFONTAINE and his colleagues—
knowing that if they could not pin his Excellency to
some distinct infraction of this large and liberal
policy, they must themselves be those necis artifices
whose faie it is, on the highest authority, arte perire
suii—would hardly have augmented the jeopardy of
their case by the ill-advised statement with which
they followed up this effort. This state-
ment his Excellency demolishes in his reply, we
are bound to declare—indeed, there can be no doubt
of the fact on the mind of any candid reader after
perusing the tw•o documents—entirely by reason of
its pervading vice. There was throughout it that
suppressio veri which moralists, as well as jurists,
sternly denounce as equivalent to the suggestio falsi.
What is omitted, being of the very pith and marrow