The Sun.
London, England, 1845-02-04 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
num TSB DAILY PAPERS Or YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.—.As the Parliamentary session ap-
rosn*n, rumours of a more liberal policy in the
s:en', ss: Ireland become rife. This and other
trr*cehr I,ss important matters of national interest
•
ve_blio curiosity—to ascertain the reality
0i a( only on surmise—to a pitch higher
4?-ns.-.i.eneently manifested. The Royal Speech,
at . of Parliament to-morrow, is therefore
the, 4-.)lni:t.'N,,fsrd which the public anxiety is directed.
Thal oScial programme of the Government policy
will indicate, if it do not explain, the course which
lilinistecs mean to pursue with reference to some
of the great questions concerning which men have
been speculating and disputing in the dark during
the last six months. The few short sentences
comprised in the Speech from the Throne will
shed light upon the darkness. In proportion as
that revelation of the future tends to raise
or depress the classes who have endeavoured to
force an illiberal and restrictive policy on the Go-
vernment, will be the predominance of satisfaction
or of discor.ten in the public mind. The Irish Tories
have recently exhibited increased anxiety and Cerm.
The Anti-National Education party, which comprises
the liigh-Churchmen, both clerical and laical, have
deemed it necessary to assume a bold front, and
to protest in a decisive tbne, and in most exulicst
language, against the system of education which the
state sanctions and supports—because the only
one of which the Roman Catholic popeletion can
avail itself. We alluded lately to the marifesto of the
nine Bishops of the Irish Church, in which they
record their decided hostility to the Government
plan of education, and appeal to the clergy and laity
for their support and aid in counteracting the
Anti-Protestant effects of that system. Such
an appeal could not be made in vain. The
Irish clergy in several districts have responded
to the call. Addresses have been drawn up and
signed by a considerable number of the Irish
clergy, and presented to the Archbishop of Armagh.
In these addresses the clergy deplore the necessity
which is laid upon them thus publicly to condemn
the conduct of the Government. But, seeing no
ether alternative, they determine to make com-
mon cause with the Heads of their Church; and
promise to employ their influence to counteract
the dangers with which the policy of the State
threatens' the Protestant Church of Ireland. The
Church has induced the influential members of its
communion to unite with it in this movement against
the Government. The leaders of the Orange and
Tory party met on Thursday lest ie Dublin, and
agreed upon an address to the Archbishop of A ^magh.
In this document they pledge themselves to em-
ploy every means to induce her Majesty's Mi-
nisters to abandon the National System of Educa-
tion ; and to adopt, in its stead, one in consonance
with the views of the Clergy of the Pro-
testant Established Church. This address is signed
by seventeen Peers of Parlia nent, and by twenty-
eight of the Irish Tory Members of the House of
Commons. The Archbishop has replied in grateful
terms to the address ; from which he predicates suc-
cess in his efforts to attain the object so dear to his
heart, and to that of every true Protestant. What-
ever may be thought of the sentiments embodied
in these documents, there can be no question that
the combined movement whence they einanatemust
Freatly embarrass Ministers in preparing and bring-
sng before Parliament any measures of liberal edu-
cational policy for the Roman Catholic population
of Ireland. If an assault so formidable is threa-
tened upon the existing National System of Educa-
tion in that coantry, the same hostile influences
will be brought to bear against any plans for pro-
pitiating the Roman Catholic ppulation. If the
Irish Tories thus object to things that are, they will
et- more strongly oppose further proofs of liberality
. I
If the Government contemplate an increase of the
means now possessed for educating the Catholic
clergy, or in any other way endeavour to raise their
personal character, and thus extend their social in-
fluence, they must prepare themselves for a deter-
mined and cc.nbined opposition from their own
friends. The present High-Church demonstration
against the Government system of education is evi•
dently prompted by apprehensions—whether with or
without cause we have yet no means of knowing—that
Sir R. Peel has become impressed with the necessity
of conciliating the Irish people ; and that he can only
do this by concessions on a comprehensive scale. The
tactics of the Tories are therefore distinguished
by boldness. They have determined on a decla-
ration of war. Instead of waiting for fur slier
provocations, they have chosen the Govern-
ment system of education as a cams Lehi; and
demand its unconditional surrender as the terms of
yeace. It is obvious that if the Government yield to
this demand, it cannot propose any new scheme of Irish
?Tilley, conceived in the same spirit, or having the same
tendency ; for it would be abandoned by those on whose
votes official existence is dependent. Even if the Go-
vernment determine to take its stand on the National
System of Education, and to defend it against those who
have banded for its destruction, there will be en in-
disposition to provoke the Irish Protestant party by
further concessions to the Roman Catholics in that
country. Thus, the real purpose of the confederation
will be answered. It may fail of getting the education
of the Catholic people into the hands of the Church ;
but they will succeed in preventing further incursions
of a liberal policy into what they manifestly regard as
their established, rightful possessions.
STANDARD.—The Morning Herald gives an
account of the Ministerial arrangements—and we
have reason to believe that the account is not only
correct in its details, but complete, as regards the
arrangements at present determined on. The
appointmeata speak for themselves—as meny
of them as have been guessed at, have met
with universal approba on, and the others are
certainly as free from all objection. In this, as
in most other respects, the Government appears
to satisfy the wishes of the reasonable men of all
parties. We do not indeed remember the eve of a
Parliamentary session so promising of a calm and
useful Parliamentary year as the present. The
Whig party has absolutely disappeared from the
scene, and even the Radicals have contracted their
force within a very minute circle, and seem
to be improving in good sense, as their numbers di-
minish. It is symptomatic of the public confidence
in the Government and the Parliament, that men
scarcely speak, or think, or write of anything con-
nected with the progress of legislation. On this day,
the last day of the recess, the Morning Chronicle, the
great Whig organ, entertains its readers with dis-
sertations on the state of the Conservative party in
France, and upon the proper boundaries to be:ma.intained
between the two great branches of the profession of
the law--eonnsel and attorneys. The pendulous
Times discusses harbours of refuge in an article
nearly all borrowed, not to say pirated, from a
morning Contemporary. The Herald exposes misre-
presentations of the neve official arrangements, and
the Post engages in a controversy with Lord John
Russell upon the taxation of machinery and the
Malthusian theory. These matters are all very
well, but we believe that never before on the eve of
a session were the public journals occupied by sub-
jects so miscellaneous and so little connected with
the conflict of Parliamentary parties. These in-
dications of a quiet and useful session may be,
however, fallacious ; there is no knowing what may
tarn up ; another " Who is the traitor ?" case—
or another " Mr. Stockdale's case" may turn up to
consume the public time—and experience shows
that the House of Commons always engages with
such cases the more earnestly, the more trum-
pery. they are. Meanwhile, the enemies of the
Administration affect much apprehension of Sir
Robert Peel's unsupported position, as they affect
to consider the situation of the Premier since Lord
Stanley's removal to the House of Lords and
Mr. (xladstone's retirement. This tenderness to-
wards a political adversary is no doubt amiable
—but is it not a little too sensitive ? No one will
underrate the value of such allies in debate as Lord
Stanley and Ms. Gladstone, but is the session of 1835
forgotten—that session when, altogether unaided
y Lord Stanley, and deriving little help from Mr.
Gladstone—then a very young man—Sir Robert
Peel was able to fight his battle single-handed
against a majority, and not only to fight the battle,
but confessedly to gain the victory, as far as the
17 debate was concerned ? 'Will he be less able
maintain his ground with a majority of more than
one hundred at his back, with thehelp and
seconds as Sir W Follett, Sir J. Graham, and many,
others who could not render him, in 1833, the assist-
ance which they
is, that all tis cannow afford. The truth, how-
ever,debaters to support asupposed necessity for a corps of
Ministry
is absurd, except in
What has
extreme cases. Sir Robert Peel to defend
that he cannot defends
i•what proposition has the
ie cannot Premier to make • that himself make
with full force and effect ?loet, however, the
mere exertion of staneing and speaking should
'
be thought too much for
single Minister, let
us in the name of common See
be answered
remember who
ord Pal-
N
are the persons to
inerston, Lord J. Russell, Mr. Macaulay.
there is not a Conservative Club or a Conservative
why,
Operative Society in the United kingdom,that
would not produce half-a-dozen better speakers
than any of the three, whatever these Whigs may
be as writers, and even in that their pre-
tensions are not very high; and how can
it be doubted that of the more than
font hundred gentlemen by whom Sir Robert
Peel Is supported, forty, at the very lowest estimate,
era qualified to make better debaters than Lord Pal-
merston, Lord John Russell, and Mr. Macaulay ? It
ha been we knew the practice (mare particularly of
Conservative Administrations) to get through the
public business in the House of Commons as much as
possible in a business-like way, and that
that House has in consequence lost much
PA told character of a theatre of oratorical dip