The Sun.
London, England, 1827-02-13 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS•

We are sorry to find from yesterday's proceedings it
the House, of Commons, that Mr. Car!ning's progress to•
wards recovery is so slow, as to have induced Sir Francis
Burdett to postpone his motion on the Catholic question,
from the 22d inst. to the. Ist of March, with a view tc
ensure, if possible, the advantage of the Right Hon. Gen-
tleman's presence and co-operation in that most important
debate. It is understood that the motion intended by the
Hon. Baronet will be in the shape of a resolution, expres-
sing the urgency cf the concessions to the Catholics, on
the grounds of justice and expediency. If passed, this
resolution will next be communicated formally to the House
of Lords for their concurrence. The same course was

pursued with regard to the great question of the slave trade,
in 1806—a question. which, so long as he remained in
office, was blinked by Mr. Pitt, just as the Catholic ques-
tion was always blinked by that Right lion. Gentleman,
and has ever since been evaded by his humble servants,
who are still in office, but who, like him, talk largely
about Catholic emancipation. Indeed, when we see men
whose apititiOn is personal, not moral, placed between two
that of losing a measure essential only to the i»-
tzests of 21,000,000 -of their fellow-subjects, and that of
shortening the tenure by -which they (the Ministers) hold
some half dozen offices in their own persons, we do not

wonder at the choice they make, no at the consequent
succession of defeats which has befallen the hopes of all
friends to equal liberty. The Whigs, to their credit, car-
ried at once, and without difficulty, the abolition of the
slave trade, which Mr. Pitt pretended that he wished, but
was unable, to carry ; and it would seem that our Pitt-
prinaple men of 1827, who studied liberality awl sincerity
in die school of Oft much-talked-of and once admired
Master, Meditate the bequest of a similar honour to whom-
soever may Che day succeed them in the Administration,
.whether those successors be Radicals or Whigs, by class-
ing the measure of Catholic emancipation among things
eossible to a Tory Cabinet, and leaving it, like Mr.
rites abolition of the slave trade, to adorn the accession
of s rival Ministry to power. What ('Sect may be pro-
duced upon the fate of the Catholic q'testion by this paltry
p roggcution of one of the demagogues, for words uttered
oy him to a Catholic audience, all smarting under the sense
of political oppression—tantalized by the frequent excite-
ment of their hopes, and stung by their repeated and mor-
tifying overthrows—it is difficult now to determine. The
generous feelings of Parliament will of course enlist them-
selves on the side of the weak and injured, forgetting, what
it would be unworthy of a legislative body to contemplate,
the rashness and acrimony of those individuals who chance
to occupy, for one fleeting moment, the front of the Irish
scene.--Times.

We yesterday observed that we were much mistaken if
the tricks to which Mr. Plunkett has had recourse, in
'ircler to entrap Mr. Sheil, would be found to answer his
purpose ; and that not merely men of good feeling of all
Mrlet in the House of Commons must scout such unfair
proceedings, but even the Orangemen themselves would
look on them with contempt. Our anticipations with re-
spect to the Orangemen have already been proved to be
correct. The Dublin-Mail, the organ and especial fa-
vourite of that faction, has declared, in no very unequivo-
cal terms, its disapprobation of the unfair conduct of Mr.
Plunkett. That gentleman has under-estimated, as usual,
the portion of good in the dispositions of his fellow-citi-
zens, who, though .divided. into parties, bearing towards
each other the most bitter animosity, have yet a dislike of
foul play. -Mr. Plunkett may not be able to conceive why
a man should renounce any advantage he has once gained
over adversaries ;- and yet he has had some severe lessons
in his time, and among others the feeling expressed at the
manner in which he discharged his duty towards Emmet,
at whose father's table he had so often been hospitably
received. The Mail thus expresses itself on the subject
of the tricks in question :
" Independently of the proceedings instituted against Mr. Shiel,
the Morning Register has been entrapped into something, out of
which it is said a prosecution is to grow. We have no language
sufficiently strong to express the political hate and detestation in
which we hold the Register, and the principles it advocates : but
even to an enemy we would show fair play—and constituted a'
the la4tr of libel at present is, Heaven knows the unfortunate Pro-
prictors of Newspapers have enough to contend against without
having additional arid extraneous auxiliaries brought into array
against them. The speech, upon which it is said the Attorney-
General means to proceed" was not inserted originally in the
Registes;;- brie appeared 'in Lord Wellegley's own paper, before
it wareapiiict into that against which the prosecution is insti-
tuted. We know not what the public will, say to,this. _There
are those we know, who will call it the 'even-handed' admini-
stration of justice:"
Whenever -an enemy is thus roused by foul play into
sympathy, it cannot he a matter of surprise if the impartial
should feel deeply indignant at it. Our leanings, as may
easily be supposed, would have been in favour of Mr.
Sheil, independently of this unfair endeavour to run him
down, because we conceive much allowance ought to be
made for the Irish, and for those who, as their advocates,
proclaim their wrongs to the people of England. Even,
therefore, if Mr. Shell had, in the heat of the moment,
given utterance to sentiments not strictly justifiable, to
have been a little unmeasured in his expressions, we
should have deemed it cruel to place him at the bar of
the country on that account. The system, according to
which Ireland. is, and always has been governed, necessarily
produces exasperation and bitter animosity on the part of
the oppressed, and while we continue the cause we must
prepare ourselves for the effect. The same appeals to
feeling would be received with indifference in this coun=
try, because the feeling to which the orators of the Asso-
ciation' address themselves does not exist in this country.
It is the feeling then which is the evil, and not the fervid
harasiguas in the Association, which are merely the symp-
tonwof-thediseeie. We should then have been disposed
to pardearinuch in.the case of Mr. Sheil. But really, on
lookitigintildse ineeeh Which has so much kindled the ire
of Air: Plunkett; we see no reason for the display of any
particuldr" ftirbe.. The tendency of the speech
seems to us . decidedly commendable. Mr. Plunkett
and Dr. Magee might dislike to be reminded of their
old intimacy with not merely an United Irishman and a
Rebel, but a Rebel of the first magnitude; but we are at
a loss to see how a speech, tending obviously to promote
the object Mr. Plunkett himself professes to have in
view, namely, the pacification of Ireland, should be
deemed a fit subject for prosecution, because it may sug-
gest unpleasant recollections to the Irish Attorney-
General. Mr. Shell, in his speech in question, has only
said what was said in both Houses of Parliament this very
Session, When the Message respecting Portugal was dis-
cussed. He said that, were we at war with a great
Power,: and Ireland to be continued in her present state,
she consequences might be serious. He called attention
le the circumstances disclosed in the Journal, left behind
him by.-_the celebrated Wolfe Tone, which had recently
arrived-frain America, which proved the imminent danger
in which Ireland.was when the number of Catholics was
not oneshalfet what it now is—when the French were
i nIP erfectlyacqUAinted with the country, and when the
invention-6rsttiam-yessels, which would give a new cha-
racter to an iniasiou
'was unknown. It is the duty of a
good citizen to awaken his
countrymen to a due sense of
the danger Which await* them, iri order that a remedy may
he provided while it is time. yet ti e are utterly at a
loss on what ,principle- such au endeavouras-
can be deemed
fit matter for a stale prosecution.
If Mr. Shell had, been
endeavouring to incite the Catholics disobeyto
tbe laws,
and breakout into rebellion, there might have been some
ground for the prosecution ; but his object is not to in-
flame the Catholics, btjt to warn his countrymen in gene-
ral of the advantage which,, under certain circumstances,
might be taken by enemies of their discontent. Had the
winds been favourable, Wolfe Tone would have succeeded '
in his object; but a subsequent invention, it is said,
would now enable an enemy to disregard the winds. "It
would be wise on the part of Government," said Ms.
Shell, "to snatch.the dice from the bands of such men,
and, if I'may so say, to leave them no. table for their despe-
rate gaine..lhave not introduced the name of Wolfe Tone
I will go farther, and
for the purpose of peuegyric—nay,