The Sun.
London, England, 1829-06-08 00:00:00

SPAR!`!' OF THE LW...1)W%, JOUBSALS

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It has been fairly remarked by an evening eon-
temporary, that the expected contest for the county
of Louth exhibits in a very satisfactory light the
justice of those reasonings which have always re-
commended emancipation as the surest remedy fm
that corporate spirit which seemed to have in-
fluenced the Irish Catholics during the last ten or a
dozen years. A member of the Bellew family stands
on the interest of his ancient' house, and has en-
gaged in its cause a considerable portion of the aris-
tocracy of the county. He is opposed by—whom ?
Another Catholic!—Mr. Sheil, who appeals against
the feuds! or hereditary sympathies which form the
text of Mr. Bellew's addresses, and pleads his own
eminent personal services to the cause of religi-
ous freedom in Ireland as • the grounde—and
there are no grounds more just or honourable—of
his constitutional ambition. Here, then, we can
surely find no evidence of that rancorous, inveterate,
and indissoluble league among Papists of all parties,
for the overthrow of our Protes:ant State. There is.
here no verification of the bigot prophecy, that the
priest would summon and array around the altar the
Catholics of every tree, interest, and profession, for
the attainment of objects exclusively and direcely
Popish. In the very moment of the legislative
authority being granted to them, these. priest-
ridden Catholics fight amongst themselves, like so
many thorough-bred Protestant tigers, for the ho-,
tour of kicking behind them that system of Popish
onfederacy to which it had been anticipated hi the
enemies of emancipation that such a measiil
add irresistible and fatal power. Nothing cail
more satisfactory than this—we do not say to a di:::
putant upon the question of religious liberty, but—
to every honest and generous well-wisher of his
country. It was in the nature of things that a com-
mon grievance should bind together all upon whom
it pressed. Priest and layman, rich and poor, the
man of ancient lineage, and the Man of talent,
whom Providence had fitted to be the founder of a
new name,—it was inevitable that such diversified
victims of single persecution should fed alike under
the brand which seared and stigmatized them.: it
was equally indubitable that when the wooed
should be healed, and the spot skinned over, they
would lose the sole memento for mutual recognition.
The town of Wexford presents the influence of the
same great principle under another form. In Louth
the Catholics are divided in a quarrel between mem-
bers of their own faith. In Wexford they ate
equally divided; but it is between Protestant can-
didates. - The two families Loftus and Neville had
in a former instance kept Wexford a eibt,C acid
eomfortable borough ; they have now set
their respective candidates—Sir R..
and Sir E. Dering. The electors are split,
like the previous patrons of the borough,
not into Protestant and Catholic, but into
Neville and Loftus; no thought or symptom of re-
religious difference having connected itself with a
contest which it is hoped will end in the general
release of the borough. In fact, we are given to
understand from all quarters that there is no longer -
a separate Catholic interest in any part of frelatill,
except perhaps in Clare alone, where a hardship
(for such we are bound to say we consider it) bed
been inflicted on Mr. O'Connell as a Catkolic, and
where the end of his present effort is to restore him
to a station from which he had been, on account of
his religion, Cisplaced. There it seems not at all
unlikely, that if any opposition be offered to Mr.
O'Connell's return, he will be supported in the
same spirit, to the energy and- predominance of
%vh;ch he owed his original election. We therefore
trust that no such unfortunate expedient for resusci-
tating the quelled flame of religious warfare will be
resorted to by any adverse interest in that county.
We have often blamed the extravagance. of (Mon-
hell's measures, and shown up, when they deserved
it, the eccentricities and weaknesses of his public .
character; but we will say that his services entitle
him to a seat in Parliament, and that good policy
would admit him to it, if liberal feeling did not. Since
writing the above, we observe that Sir R. Wigram
has been returned for sVexford.—Timese
The speeches of some individuals in a certain as.;
semblv, last Thursday evening, were in a more thee
common degree characteristic of the several speakers.
Whether it was the approaching prorogation which
led to so large an is.ue of absurdity, or the hot wea-
ther which persuaded limiouratile Gentlemen that .
bottled nonsense would not keep until another ses.
sion, truth it is that few such fielcbdays have occurred ,
in Parliament since the reign of poor Vunsittart and
his arithmetical vagaries. A debate on the cur-
rency would have tormented its a few years ago, but
now it is become simply a farce. Mr. Brougham,
we believe, unwittingly gave rise to one upon the
joint themes of the " currency" and commerce, in
presenting a petition from a body of manufactureits
at Birmingham, the object of which was, in sub-
stance, a return to the good old nostrum of a Bunk
Restriction Act. We beg pardon of the petitioners
if we have mistaken their meaning; but if they
mean not to prescribe an exclusive paper medium,
they meant nothing; \lllicit
.last it might be
thought almost uncivil to impute to them. As there
is much virtue in a courageous preface, the Bir-
mingham gentlemen begin by stating that the re-
storation of the standard has raised the debt of the
kingdom to 1,600,000,0001., and the annual taxes
to above 100,000,000/, This is awful even in
round, and though there be nothing but sound in
it. They call upon Government to establish such a -
standard as " shall raise the price of labour, and at .
the same lime give vigour to the manufacturing in-
terests." We can only say, that if they can pro-
duce both these effects at the same time, and by a
single measure,ltis Majesty's present Cabinet must
contain more conjurors than their best friends, and
ourselves among the number, have ever seriously •
dreamed of. The petitioners will not admit that

there is or has been any over-trading, " ever-pre-
doetion, oz over-population:" all which may probably
be answered by saying, that if there had been no
over-trading through excess of paper, such a multi-
tude of bankers as well as merchants would not have
failed within these three or four years; if there had
not been over-production, the goods fabricated wonki
have been sold, and more would have been ordered,
neither of which is the ease, as the petitioners them-
selves inform us, because the very gist of their com-
plaint is stagnation ; and thirdly, if there were not -
an over-population, compared with the numbers of
hands which can find work, why should silk-dealers,
and cotton-dealers, and dealers in Birmingham wares,
cry out so clamorously about their being unable to
employ the whole of the journeymen who were be.
fore in their service ?—and why are the poor-rates
so heavy? So much for the petitioners. Now for
their supporters. Mr. Benett declared that
the farmer was now obliged " to sell double
the quantity of produce to pay his rent and
taxes, than it was formerly necessary for
him to do in order to meet those current
" demands." The gentleman, therefore, must be
prepared to assert-Ist, that corn fetches only half
the price it used to do, whereas the farmer now re-
ceives for it a sum which, in the depreciated paper
currency of the year 1810, would be about .51. per
quarter: it is also certain that the taxes at this mo-
ment payable are not double what they were during
the ‘var, nor, indeed, at all greater, but, even allow-
ing for the difference between gold and paper, some-
thing less than at the former period. Then if it he
true that the farmer is forced to sell twice what he
used to do of wheat, to pay rent and taxes jointly,
awl since it is true that taxes have somewhat, though
not sufficiently fallen, Mr. Benett must, 2dly, be
prepared to admit that rents are more than double
what they had been : the remedy for which evil,
we beg leave to suggest, is not to be required from
Parliament, but .front the landlords. Next conit
Alderman Waldman, with a huge reinforcement
of sturdy and obsolete errors, one of which we
shall exhibit as a sample of the whole. The worthy
Alderman assures us gravely, that the export of
British manufactures had fallen off, since the year,
1 -i9B and 1799, about 97 per cent.—that is to say,
that if in 1798 they had been 100,000,0001, they