The Sun.
London, England, 1829-12-15 00:00:00

sion between the opposite attractions of pa-
triotism and pounds sterling. Mr. Shell hav-
ing accepted the terms offered by the Beresfords,
thinks himself bound to vindicate the part which
he has taken. As a lawyer his conduct requires
no vindication—as a patriot it can receive none.
It is in vain to write long letters upon the sub-
ject : the question resolves itself into a very nar-
row compass. It comes simply to this point, whe-
ther a champion of popular rights is to accept a fee
against the people whenever he pleases to merge
the character of the patriot in that of the lawyer?
The of the hater is virtus post nummos,
,bpr the former professes to be governed by a
nobler principle of action. Now there can be
no doubt that Mr. Shell had a perfect right as a
lawyer to act as he did. In such capacity it was
_ _ _

nut only his inclination but his duty to sell Ilk
services for the best price they could bring ; but,
as a leader of the people, he had a prouder in-
clination to consult, and a nobler duty to fulfil.

He had repeatedly pledged himself, in facie po-
puli, to sacrifice his private interests to the altar
of his country. He had repeatedly described the
Beresfords as not only the opponents of reli-
gious freedom, but of every plan of public re-
form which he had undertaken to support. He
had joined Mr. O'Connell in the outcry against
that family as the domineering rulers of the
county of Waterford. He had been, we believe,
a soldier of the crusade which the excited Priest-
hood raised against them among the forty-shilling
freeholders. The Beresfords were beaten—their
political power sickened, but it did not expire.
An opportunity has occurred for reviving their
family ascendancy in the county. They wished
to make that opportunity secure. With more
policy than pride they made pacific overtures to
those " champions of liberty" who had on
a former occasion sounded against them the
tocsin of political battle—cedant arena fogey.
The professional fee disarms the champion.
Over the white robe of his " Roman virtue"
Mr. Sheil throws his lawyer's gown—he hides
his patriotic laurels beneath the curls of his wig,
and thus equipped he prepares to re-seat the
Beresfords once more in the chair of their
Parliamentary influence, and to put his shoulder
to the wheel of their power, regardless how it
may crush in its motion the " rights of his
countrymen." We take the description of the
public character of the Beresfords from the
speeches of Mr. O'Connell and Mr. Sheil. For
ourselves, we believe they possess as many public
and private virtues as those who have been most
noisy and violent for some years back in holding
them up to the hatred of the Irish people. We
ask what the country obtained by the enormous
agitation which transferred their Parliamentary
honours to Mr. Villiers Stuart ? Has nobody
but a Beresford made a property of the votes of
Waterford electors ? We think the Beresfords
were guilty of an act of political weakness in
soliciting the services of men who for years had
exhausted upon them all the vocabulary of their
invective. acted with that cunning which
is not wisdom ; they have humbled themselves to
the " great Agitator" only to experience a larger
measure of his exasperated denunciation. We
give to-day a letter of Mr. Lawless upon the sub-
ject, and have now, for our own part, done with a
transaction, which, viewed in whatever light it
may be, is not a pleasant subject of moral or
political contemplation.—Morning Herald.
It is painful to us, as we know it cannot be
very entertaining to our readers, to be calling
their attention day after day to numerous acts of
oppression which are heaped upon the Licensed
Victuallers of the metropolis, through the medium
of an oppressive law, and by the instrumentality
of a band of miscreants, who live by plundering
them. In the account under the head Hatton-
garden it will be seen, that no sooner are these
wretches hooted out of one office than they en-
deavour to find shelter elsewhere, and thus that
a Licensed Victualler, however unjustly accused,
may be r.ummoned to attend at two different
police-offices to answer at the same hour and
moment for the self-same offence—nay, be con-
victed at the one, although he may be acquitted
at the other, on the production of competent
witnesses, who, however, cannot be in two places
at the same time. It appears now also that
Formations for offences may be so loosely

worded—naming neither day nor hour—that
a consientious man cannot take upon himself
safely to plead not guilty to the charge which may
be brought against him, however unfounded it
may be. Such are only a few of the hardships
of which we -complain, and against which we'
would fain hope that-the Licensed Victuallers
of the metropolis would take note, in order to
procure their redress. A representation to Mr.
Peel, we are confident, would do much good ;
but, failing that, to the Legislature itself, which,
however erroneously it may have legislated, as-
suredly never meant to place an industrious body
of men at the mercy of wholesale informers and
their supporters, and which, we need not ob-
serve, only requires to have their condition repre-
sented in order to do them justice.—Morning
Advertiser.

Some of our Contemporaries are tormented
themselves, and strive to torment others, by the
apprehension that the country is hastening to-
wards ruin ; that all its interests are in a state of
hopeless suffering and rapid decay ; and that
nothing but a total change in the established sys-
tem of commerce and. currency can arrest the
overwhelming torrent of national calamity, of
which their distempered imaginations picture to
them the daily and unceasing inroad. These
reasonings are a little perplexed by the present
state of the National Securities, which indicate
that the majority of mankind take a less gloomy
view than that which they have so often and so
earnestly endeavoured to present of public affairs,
and much mortified to discover that unabated
' confidence in the resources of the country is
manifested, notwithstanding all their ingenious
speculations, and bold assertions, and confident
predictions, by a class of persons whose interest
ought to render them peculiarly sensitive to the
I first end slightest symptoms of real danger. It
is true rip dpubt, as our gloomy contemporaries
inform us, that the pipe of the Funds from time
to time is not a very accurate standard by which
to judge of the immediate prosperity of the
country. The low rate to which the profits of
capital; and consequently the interest of money,
are reduced during 4 period of commercial stag-
nation—the large amounts of floating capital
waiting for employment during such a state of
things—the hesitation and timidity which damp
the ardour and limit the operations of individual
enterprise, are, as they truly say, so many induce-
ments to the capitalist to resort to the National,
Securities, and content himself with such a rate
of interest as he can obtain by this secure species
of investment. Hence a high price of the
Funds is not an unnatural coneomitant of a very
general stagnation of commerce and manufag.
tures, and of a very severe depression of
the active and industrious classes of the commu-
-1 pity. What we contend, therefor., is merely