The Sun.
London, England, 1842-07-20 00:00:00

they are too vast; they have burst out from under
the covering the Premier threw over them, and Mem-
bers, who would otherwise have been powerless,
backed by the public distress, have been able to
stop the business of the all-powerful Govern-
ment. Mr. VILLIERS, Mr. WALLACE, Mr. BAN-
NERMAN, and others, but for the great distress,
would not have dared to interrupt that busi-
ness ; and if they had they would not have been
listened to. It is the distress, therefore, which is ac-
tually stopping the progress of the strong Govern-
ment, though Sir ROBERT PEEL and his friends
pretend to deny its extent.
If Ministers are yet to learn, this ought to teach
them that there is something walking the earth,
living in every hamlet, parading the streets, smoulder-
ing in alleys, crowded in workshops, and dispersed
over fields, which is greater than they are, and the
laws of which they must study instead of their
own silly conceits or headstrong will, if they mean to
remain at the head of society. As to guiding it to
prosperity, that is as contrary to their will as it is
beyond their power. They have even given up the
task ; they say they can do nothing to relieve our
distress ; and while the world brands them as the
authors of the mischief which is now bowing our in-
dustrious classes to the earth, they have branded
themselves with the stigma of utter impotency to
effect any good. By the failure of this all-powerful
Government, other politicians will learn, as well as
Sir ROBERT PEEL, to look elsewhere than in the votes
of Parliament, and in the perplexed statute-book, for
the rules of their conduct.

Although the middle classes are slow to learn the
vast injury which they inflict on themselves and on
the humbler classes by the respect and honour they
bestow on the plunder-laws of the aristocracy, yet
they are opening their eyes to the important truth,
and rousing themselves to make it a living rule
of conduct. At Manchester, in two days, no less
than 63,935 persons signed the memorial to Mr. M.
PHILIPS and Mr. M. GIBSON, calling on them to
use all their exertions to stop the " taxation of the
prostrate people for the purposes of the bread-taxing
aristocracy." A few more similar memorials, backed
by numerous signatures, from the towns, will go far
to convince the aristocracy that they have trusted too
much to the exhausted patience of the people, and
have trampled too rudely and too cruelly on their
votaries.

At Liverpool, on Monday, there was a meeting,
which the Liverpool Times describes as one of the
most respectable open air meetings ever held in that
town. " The friends of free trade in Liverpool," it adds,
"have done their duty, and have freed themselves from
all share of responsibility, by pointing out the causes of
the present distress, and by calling for the adoption of
the only measures which can remove it." It gives the
names of a great many respectable gentlemen who
were present, such as HUGH HORNBY, Esq., who was
in the Chair; J. C. EWART, Esq. ; JAMES MULLE-
NEUX, Esq. ; W. RATIIIIONE, Esq. ; RICHARD RATII-
BONE, Esq. ; Ittcualto V. YATES, ESC'. ; ROBERT EL-
LISON HARVEY, Esq. ; Mr. Ald. EARLE, and others.
These gentlemen, and all the persons present, unani-
mously concurred in resolutions, declaring that the
present distress is unparalleled ; that all the measures
of the Government are inadequate to relieve it, and
they adopted a memorial to the QUEEN, setting forth
the condition of the people, and praying for redress.
The language used at this meeting was of the
strongest and most peaceful character ; the people
both "know their rights," and "dare maintain them."
E DWARD BRODERIBB, Esq., to quote one example, said,
The people wanted food, but they did not want it as
beggars.—(Loud applause.) England was not reduced
to such a state that she must beg her food, or that the
sanctuaries and decencies of religion must be desecrated
by the introduction of charity sermons for the support of
the poor.—(Cheers.) All that was necessary to be done
was to unfetter commerce, and let her arise in her giant
might, and then there would be a sufficiency of employ-
ment and of food in the land. If the people spoke out
determinedly and unitedly, they might depend upon it
that they would succeed ; and he therefore called upon
them, if they thought that trade ought to be free, to
will it, and it would be free.—(Much cheering.)

That is quite true ; it only requires the people to
be united in willing free trade, and trade must be
free. The knowledge necessary to form such a
united will is fast growing on the people. Not a clay
now passes which does not impress on them its own
lesson ; and whenever the knowledge is ripe, which
the aristocracy can no more prevent than they can
prevent the tide rising and falling, they will have no
more power to retain fetters on commerce than on the
ocean itself. Trade, like its own great highway, must
and will be free. The chains which the small ambition
of small men now impose on it, will be broken whenever
the middle classes shall lose their reverence for the

lle men of pleasure, who constitute the bulk of the

aristocracy, and refuse to submit to their control the
occupations which feed, enrich, and civilise mankind.

On the motion for going into a Committee of Supply
in the House of Commons on Monday, Mr. SHIEL brought
forward his amendment for the production of the cor-
respondence relative to the re-appointment of Mr. ST.
GEORGE to the Magistracy in Ireland, which of course
opened up the entire question of the policy pursued by
the present Tory Government in that country. The
speech of Mr. SIIIEL was able, straightforward, and
judiciously temperate. He passed in review the Tory
pledges of governing Ireland with strict impartiality, and
he instanced the gross and glaring violations of them in
making Dr. LEFKOY, a violent Orange partisan. an
Irish Judge ; in the selection of the Irish Law Officers of
the Crown from among the most anti-Catholic mem-
bers of the bar ; in the memorable trials of WARDLE
and HUGHES, when a Protestant Jury was packed to
acquit a Protestant murderer, and a similar Jcry packed
to find a Catholic guilty of murder ; and in the
conduct of the Law Officers of the Crown in
the prosecution of the Belfast Vindicator. Lord ELIOT
made a poor defence of the conduct of the Government.
He contended that though a partisan in Parliament, Dr.
LEPROY made a very upright and impartial Judge ; that
the Law Officers of the Crown were selected fur their
extensive knowledge of the law ; and that if Protestants
formed the majority of jurors it was unintentional on
the part of the Government. We sincerely pity Lord
ELIOT. He is evidently himself a humane and impartial
man. We have not the least doubt that, if left to himself,
he would govern Ireland impartially, and do all in his
power to conciliate her people. There is nothing of the
.bigot about him, and he is as honest in the discharge of
his duties as the unprincipled men by whom he is sur-
rounded will permit him to be. But he is hampered and
cramped at every turn by the old Orange faction, and is
made responsible for a thousand acts of mal-administra-
Lion which his position will not allow him to deny,
and which he is too honest so to defend as to
satisfy any party. Were it our province to tender advice
to his Lordship, we would recommend him to cut the
PEEL and GRAHAM connexion forthwith. They are
dragging him through mire, from the stains of which a
whole life will hardly cleanse him. Were he only to
bethink himself of the place which the future historian
of Ireland must assign him, in connexion with these
disgraceful trials, we are mistaken if the prospect
would not startle and alarm a Nobleman
who, at heart, yearns for the admiration of
the most grateful people in Europe. Sir WIL-
LIAM SOMERVILLE told the House that however
honest might have been the intentions of the Govern-
ment they did not possess the confidence of a single
individual of seven millions of Irish Catholics. Now
this in itself is a very deplorable fact. No Government
can be efficient which ;has not the confidence of the go-
verned. It may be well-intentioned, it may be vigorous,
it may adopt a series of wise measures, but if it possess
not the confidence of the people it is a bad and inefficient
Government, inasmuch as it wants the first element of
true strength, greatness, and stability. The Solicitor-
General for Ireland defended the conduct of the Govern-
ment on the grounds of mere partisanship. What he
and his colleagues had done Irish barristers did before
them, therefore they were no worse than their neigh-
bours. Mr. OrCoNNEt.t. had challenged jurors, and Mr.
SHIEL had challenged jurors, bemuse they were
Protestants ; wily then should not he and Mr.
13REWSTER chalbmge jurors because they were Roman
Catholics? Mr. ;iICKSON chose to overlook, as did the
House, the difference between the duties of a simple ad-
vocate at the kir and a law officer of the Crown, re-
presenting thn Government of the country in his own
person. Whagt Mr. O'CONNF.LL or Mr. SHIEL might do
to save the life of a client, or to bring a public offender
to condign put islunent, could establish no precedent for
a Solicitor or Attorney-General appearing on the part
of the Crown to secure for the accused a fair trial, and
to see that the) ends of strict, impartial justice were
satisfied. Sir _NA DIES GRAHAM'S defence of the conduct
of the Government was not a whit more satisfactory
than that of Mr—Sergeant JACKSON. He contended
that the Tory Ministers only followed the example of
their Whig predecessors, by doing for the Protestant
thousands what tiae Whigs had done for the Catholic
millions. This is likely ;enough
Thtreue,
Catholics
but it
will do in Ireland no longer.
of Ireland are rich, numerous, and powerful ; they com-