The Sun.
London, England, 1829-08-04 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The incessant repetition of the note, that the
Duke of Wellington must call in support to his
Administration, induces us to enter a little upon
the rationale of the subject, as we have before
decided on the fact. There is no question but
that the Duke may invite a good and fitting
man to stop a gap, if such should occur in his
Ministry ; but as to uniting himself, to a party—
of what persons is that party to consist? VVould
he take the Ultra Tories ? It is from them that
the rumours of a change in the principles or
members of Administration chiefly emanate.
Even the Duke of Wellington, with an Ultra
Tory Administration, (the Duke of Cumber-
land, for example, as Cominander-in-Chief!)
could not stand a day. As little or less, •sup-
posing the King would suffer it, could he do
with a batch of the low Whigs for associates ;
and his Grace has, and has had, the moderate
people of both parties with him. Neither is
there any question but that in the general admi-
nistration of the country, as politics are now
conducted, he may recommend a series of mea-
sures, of such a Character that no reasonable man
could oppose them, either in the gross or in the
detail. And what more is wanting ? If he
err, let his enemies make their attack upon the
error, and he is probably not in a situation to
enforce his will per fas et nffas, as was the case
with Mr. Pitt during the greater part of his ad-
ministration. But it can never be made a seri-
ous charge against him in either House of Par-
liament, that he does not take the Duke of
Newcastle for an associate, from the extreme
end of one class of politicians, or Mr. Hume
from the extreme end of the other. Let him
rule well, and show a cool determination and
hardy bearing, and he will not be without suffi-
cient support, both in and out of Parliament.—
The Duchess of Cumberland is said to be
coming to England on the call of the Duke.
Surely the ghost of the Royal Charlotte will
meet her on her entrance into the kingdom, and
warn her off.—Times.

It is but the other day that we had to remark
on the conduct of a mob of brutes at Devizes,
who fell foul of an unfortunate, merely because
he failed in inflating his balloon. The town of
Melksham, which is only a few miles from the
former place, determined not to be out-done by
its enlightened neighbour, has furnished a fresh
specimen of the march of intellect in the game-
preserving county of Wilts. Through Melk-
sham one of the Bath roads passes, and that
road Mr. Gurney's steam-carriage passed on its
way to Bristol. The Melkshamites seem to
have looked upon Mr. Gurney and his steam-
carriage as the natives of Owyhee did upon Cap-
tain Cook and his vessel. They first admire it,
and then set upon it with a savage yell, endea-
vouring to destroy both it and its owner. When
we name the, places at which these occurrences
took place, it is fair that we should acquit the
inhabitants of the towns themselves of bearing
the whole odium. In both cases the main actors
were probably the natives of the neighbouring
villages, who at Devizes were drawn together to
witness a sight which they were disappointed in
seeing, and at Melksham happened to be assem-
bled at a fair. In the latter ease, too, it is said
that many of them had been sufferers by the in-
troduction of machinery, and were, therefore,
not without some excuse for their attack upon
this novel attempt to do away with horses as well
as men. But holding both the transactions as
brutal and disgraceful, we are not sure that a
better apology can be found than this. They
are natives of a county where the brutalizing
system of the Game Laws is carried to the
highest pitch, and where they learn, therefore,
nothing fiom their betters, but to consider them-
selves a race born to oppression, to gratify a sel-
fish indulgence in the passions of mere savage
life. Under the Forest Laws the peasantry
were the serfs of the great landowner ; and how
much better can they consider themselves, when
they learn to perceive themselves unemancipated
from what was the stigma of an age of barba-
rism ? When, therefore, the Nobility and Gentry
of this country see the common people indulg-
ing in brutal propensities, such as those which
we allude to, is it not worth their while to inquire
who it is that has made them, and keeps them
what they are ? They may flatter themselves that
by establishing schools, by circulating the Scrip
tures, and making occasional speeches at then.
county towns, relative to those and similar ob-
jects, they are bettering the condition, of the
lower classes ; but while an interminable bar
exists against all friendly intercourse, and the
gaols are daily and hourly vomiting forth into an
already-corrupted community the victims of a
vicious system, they must not be surprised that
all their other labours are in vain, and that -we
witness, when opportunities offer, scenes -which
are a stain upon the national character.--morn-
ing Herald.

We yesterday said that Ml\ O'Connell had
been re-elected for Clare ;wO give to-day the parti-
culars. Our readers Ail see that Mr. O'Con-
nell made a long speech. There is nothing in
it but what he had said before : when he gets
into Parliament, we shall see whether he will
accomplish any thing ; whether he will bring
about any good; whether he will be able to di-
minish the debt—the great evil ; or whether be
will not be like the greater part of those who
get into Parliament, after making long promise
mg speeches —forget what they have promed,
?,Ild endeavour to poke themselves, na their
children, and their relations, and, friends and
intr., the good things
partizans,in
Church
h professes
ti andand hangers-on, inter,,
O'Connell
much. We hope he will,
propose and perform
something, not
;or Ireland only, but for the
State generally, and that he will endeavour to
ProlvZne the good of the United Kingdom, and,
not in particular the good of the creeping, crawl-
ing caterpillars that so much abound in Ireland.
We much fear, however, that in the Catholic
Parliamentarr•Membership train, John Bull will
hays O'Connell and others
needy
atemen, both Cath6ics and
foistedailddeusipmetri him by
Protestants. Ireland abounds with needy crea-
tures—what wo in England call schemers—fel-
lows out, at the elbows.—lbid,

Wc trust it is not true, as we see it surmised
in some of the papots, that the embarrassments,
;n which the property of Covent-garden Theatre
is involved are such as will prevent its opening
foA`tkie ensuing season. To say nothing of the
loss and injury which tradesmen, artists, mecha-
nics, and labz,surers of various descriptions, would
sustain iiy such a circumstance, we should look
',;pon it, as it really would be, a national depri-
vation, and one which the whole public are inte-
rested in deploring, and, if possible, preventing.
We do not presume to impute blame to any
body ; perhaps, indeed,, there may be none im-
putable. But, though the mischief arising to
the theatre from the present state of things may
have been unavoidable, yet there can be no doubt
but that there are those who can avert, and that

,sere are ways and means..by which so complete
A catastrophe as shutting up the house may be
avoided. We would put it to the good sense
and right feelings of one of the parties, with
what satisfaction he is likely to witness the ruin
of the property which the hand of his own
father may be said to have, in a great manner,
created ; and to the other, whose good-nature
is as proverbial among his friends as his pro-
fessional reputation—how the close of a long
life is likely to be benefited by suffering even.
the imputation, whether just or unjust, of
being in any way the occasion of a national
loss, such as that we are unwillingly contem-
plating. It is said jocularly of one profession,
that they are too wise to take the medicine
which they prescribe to others. It may, with-
out ai.:y disguise, be said of another, that its
members ought to know well how little palate-
able their remedies are to their clients, to render
the law that which its professors can prudently
apply to their own concerns. Without knowing
more than the world at large knows of the mat-
ter in question, we are quite sure that there is
nothing about it which might not have been
settled ten times easier withow: law suits than
with them. If the litigation, then, in which
the theatre is involved, has been, as we assume it
'to be, the real source of the mischief, it follows,
by a very simple process of plain reasoning, that,
to remove the evil, the first step is to get rid of
the cause :

" Sublata calm, tollitur effectus."

But, says one party, " am I to lose my appeal
to the House of Lords ?" And, " Am I," says
the other, " to abandon my account before the
Master?" To both we answer " Yes," and for
this plain reason, " because you will get nothil)g
by persisting in them." And for this still
stronger reason, that there was nothing in the
first instance in which a fair arbitration would
not have given you a better remedy, both then
and now, than all the Courts in the kingdom
can ever assign you.—lbid.

It is asserted that Lte advices from the seat of
War have given occasion to the Cabinet Council
which sat on Sunday, and continued its delibe-
rations for an unusual length of time. It has
been long more than suspected that the profes-
sions of moderation put forth a little ostenta-
tiously by Russia, do not command implicit
credit with the Cabinet of St. James's ; and that
in this natural, and perhaps salutary diffidence,
the Members of the French Administration fully
participate. The result of the deliberations of
Sunday cannot of course be more than the sub-
ject of conjecture ; but be they what they may,
we are pretty certain that they formed the subject
of an immediate communication to Paris. The
course of military operations affords at best but
uncertain data tbr political speculations ; and
the accounts from the banks of the Danube are
so deficient in circumstantial details, and in some
points so obviously inaccurate (we might say
irreconcilably so), that any inferences from them
must be taken with extreme caution ; at the
same time there is no question but that the sys-
tematic aggressions of Russia, and her skilful
and extensive combination of military and politi-
cal manceuvres, naturally lead to the conclusion
that her object is something more than a tempo-
rary occupation of frontier territories or captured
fortresses. Whatever mistrust the power, am-
bition, and territorial and commercial cupidity of
Russia are calculated to inspire, it is at least
satisfactory to be able to give an assurance
almost amounting to certainty (and this, in the
present instance, we are empowered to do from
an authority entitled to all deference), that the
most entire harmony of views and unity of ob-
jects continue to characterise the diplomatic re-
lations of Great Britain and France. There are
rumours in circulation of certain discoveries
which have brought to light a secret treaty calcu-
lated to excite considerable alarm ; but as these
rumours do not appear to rest upon sufficient
• authority, we have not thought it necessary to do
more than allude to them.—Morning Chronicle.

Mr. O'Connell has been returned for Clare
without opposition. In his speech he has indi-
cated the nature of the labours to which he in-
tends to devote himself in Parliament ; and we
have no doubt he will keep his word. The be-
setting sin of Parliament is the want of energy.
It has been objected to the Americans by a re-
cent exquisite traveller, that they are in want of
a class who know how to spend. We are in no
want of any such class. We have a class pecu-
liarly gifted in the art of spending. Unfortu-
nately the spenders are, from the nature of
things, averse to labour; and hence the British
Legislature is' a great collection of faineans,
into which two or three laborious men find ad-
mission at a time of life when they are incapa-
citated from exertion ; and with the tribe of
lawyers, who enter Parliament as they enter a
Court of Law, to speak for those who send
them thither, and who seldom utter a word
which has not reference to their own profit or
advancement. Mr. O'Connell intends to de-
rote himself exclusively to his Parliamentary
duties. He brings with him that indefatigable
love of labour which is the result of long
and which is so rare among men born rich as to
be cried up as a miracle when noticed.—lbid.
The Belfast Northern Whig- observes, with
reference to some observations in the Chronicle,
and in the Dublin Evening Post, on the sub-
ject
of Martial Law :
" We repeat what we have already asserted, that
had the Proclamation lately issued by the Privy •
Council been promulgated ten days sooner, the
greater part of the unfortunate events which took
place on the 13th of this, month would have been
prevented. We repeat, that, if the Irish Govern-
ment, even now, are determined to do their duty,
and to insist that the Magistracy shall do theirs, the
tranquillity of the country can be restored and main-'
tained without having recourse to martial law. Pa-
radoxical as it may appear, we assert that the Irish
people have a peculiar respect for the law ; and that
when justice is done them, it requires nothing but •
firmness and decision on the part of the Executive
t) make the power of the law absolute and supreme.
My Lord (said a Colonel of Militia, with whom,
perhaps, the Evening Post is acquainted), if your
Lordship insists that this man shall be hanged at the
time and place you have appointed, I tremble for
the consequences; the yeomanry corps of which he
was a member, are loyal, hut I cannot answer for
their conduct;- and the excitement of the people of
that neighbourhood is so great, that I fear an at-
tempt will be made at a rescue,' These words, or
words to that effect, were addressed to a Judge of
the land, when every attempt had proved fruitless to
save the life of o:ie of the gallant Colonel's yeomanry
corps, who had been convicted of the murder of a
poor Roman Catholic boy, perpetrated under cir-
cumstances of the most atrocious and revolting
nature. ' Call over the Grand Jury,' said the
Judge, rising from his scat. The list was called
over, and some of the members did nut answer to
their names. Call them under the penalty,' re-
peated the Judge; and the list was called over again
and again, under a regularly increasing fine, till all
the members were present. ' Gentlemen,' said
the judge, ' one of your members has dared to tell
me that in the province of Ulster, in the county
Afmtigh, the laws cannot be administered, and that

a murderer cannot be brought to justice. I have given
orders that the person convicted of this bar-
barous murder shall be executed on Portadown bridge,
within a short distance of the spot where the deed
was perpetrated ; and I shall take care that he shall
be guarded to the place of execution by the yeo-
manry, under the command of the gentleman who
has presumed to address such language to me.'
These were the words, the memorable words of a
man, whose conduct as a Judge we have met with
no great temptation to praise ; and they were not
rashly spoken : they were fulfilled to the very letter.
Let the Irish Government act with similar decision
—let those who have the administration of the
common law be told that it must be enforced; and
again we reiterate, we want no martial law—no In-
surrection Acts—no curfew bells to be tolled in the
province of Ulstler. That the Yeomanry should
be disarmed we admit to be necessary; and yet we
are as much opposed to the disarming of Protestants
ss the Standard pretends to be. That the Magis-
tracy should be looked to, and the mode of select-
ing and impanelling Juries revised, we readily grant;
and we think, too, that the Police, since the country
must support this unconstitutional force, ought to be
rendered more efficient ; and that in the present state
of Ireland, it might even be made useful. We
would not gosdge that a part of the heavy taxation
to which the country is subjected, should be appro-
priated to the payment of Stipendiary Magistrates;
but they should be—and there is something humi-
liating in the admission—they should be strangers in
Ireland . These changes, however, can be brought
about by regular legislative enactments. In the
mean time, the North of Ireland is returning to a
state of tranquillity. Firmness and decision on the
part of the Government will prevent any further
overt acts, which would lead to a breach of the
public peace. The Orangemen—even the dregs of
them—are not the bloodhounds' and blood-thirsty
miscreants that some would represent them. They
would not be half so bad as they are, were they taken
out of the hands of these Orange Magistrates, who
first incite them to mischief, and then issue warning
denunciations against them, when they proceed a
step too far."
We copy from the same Paper the account of
the state of the county of Tyrone, to which we
alluded on Saturday ; and we must own, that in
the heavy accusations against the Presbyterians,
and the particular exemplification in the case of
the Rev. Mr. Bridge, we see enough to make
us somewhat distrustful of the validity of the
grounds on which our cotemporary founds his
hopes of returning tranquillity. The Irish
people, we are told, have a peculiar respect for
the law, and " when justice is done them, it re-
quires nothing but firmness and decision on the
part of the Executive to make the power of the
law absolute and supreme." We believe this.
The disputes of the rich man have seldom refer-.
ence to matters with which his happiness is es-
sentially bound up. But the trifle for which a
poor man enters a Court of Law is often to him
the cause of welfare or ruin. Hence the eager-
ness with which a poor man carries on his suit.
When justice is fairly administered, the poor
man naturally respects the law more than the
rich man does; for he feels that the law is pecu-
liarly tire protection of the weak. But, then, in
proportion to his respect for the law, when the
law is administered fairly, must be his angry
feelings when the law is converted into an engine
of oppression. Now, in the North :of Ireland
the Magistrates are Orangemen, those who chose
Jurors are Orangemen ; and we observe that the
Juries will neither convict Protestants nor acquit
Catholics. The Catholics must be strangely con-
stituted if they do not find in such Magistrates and
Jurors an additional reason for taking justice into
their own hands; and thus that which ought to
promote tranquillity becomes a means ofextending
Buds and violence. The cause of the feuds in
the North of Ireland lies much deeper than re-
ligion. The speech of the Rev. Mr. Seymour,
to which we have often alluded, shows that the
constitution of society in that part of the country
is radically vicious. According to him, 25,000
Protestants were in one year forced to emigrate
from his neighbourhood. The Catholics have
lower ideas of comfort, and are, consequently,
willing to cultivate the land for a smaller reserva-
tion of produce to themselves than the Protest-
ants will consent to live on. Hence tire land-
lord, while in his capacity of Orange Magistrate,
he is stimulating the Protestant yeomen to the
indulgence of malignant feelings against the
Catholics, in his capacity of landlord prefers
30s. from a Catholic, to 15s. from a Protestant.
The Protestants are exasperated, because they
see themselves driven out by the Catholics. Re-
ligion would be less than nothing, were it not
that it serves to mark the two races of native
Irish, and the descendants of British settlers.—
The Protestants and Catholics are, therefore, like
rats on a well-known piece of mechanism, in-
vented for the destruction of these animals,
struggling for a footing on a plank, precipitation
from which is a watery death. The introduction
of Poor Laws into Ireland would serve as a
check against the excessive competition for
land, which is productive of such dreadffil ex-
cesses. Till the landlord finds himself restrained
is his desire to profit by competition for land,
by the dread of the burdens entailed by a super-
abundant population, there can be no real peace
in the country. The quarrels between the
Orangemen and Ribbonmen are but symptoms
of the internal disease. In the last number of
the Quarterly Review, a John Denson, of
' Waterbeach, is introduced in an article on the
condition of the English peasantry, who says of
Ithe English labourers, that " their groans if not
loud are deep ; and but small as their incomes,
when necessitated to apply, the parish funds have
prevented them from proceeding to acts of open
' violence. Think you, ff they had no Poor
Laws to protect them when out of employ, that
they would—that they could stiffer their wives
and little ones to perish wills hunger ?" The
tranquillization of Ireland is by no means an af-
fair of such easy execution as some people may
imagine. We ought, however, to prescribe prin-
cipally for the disease itself; and not the symp-
' toms. However, it is clear, that partial Magis-
trates, and partial Sheriffs and Jurors must
greatly aggravate the evil. We would prescribe
a severe impartiality towards all parties ; and as,
according to the Northern Whig, justice is not,
at present at least, to be expected from natives
of Ireland, we would, as much as possible, ex-
clude them .from all places which enable them to
injure each other.-H/bid.
Captain Basil Hall found the people of North
America exceedingly litigious, end therefore,
with his usual sagacity, concluded that cheap
law was a great evil, The Captain is one of
that class of philosophers who content them-
selves with the surface of things. Captain Hall,
no doubt, imagines that if you shut the doors ef
the Courts on litigants, you extinguish the pas-
sions that lead to litigation. In the evidence,
taken by the Parliamentary Commissioners on
the Scotch Courts, there are some very happy
observations by Mr. Robert Forsyth, Advocate,
on the subject of litigation ;
" Observe (he says) that I account it the duty
and the interest of Government to grant great indul-
gence to the public in relation to the administration
of justice ; or to act by art andor notof m iriin
by power. t
Dott
not fall into the dangerous error

Alien men are put to silence, and withdraw their
disputes . from aversion to the Tribunal, whether
well or ill founded, the Judges are at liberty to con-
gratulate themselves on getting quit of trouble.—
Litigation, like every thing human, has inconve-
nience and evil incident to it. But it is the best
remedy hitherto discovered for worse evils. It is
the physic that prevents the fever. If men do not
get their complaints listened to, and justice done in
a way that seems to themselves, or their neighbours
satisfactory, the peace of the community is under-
mined, and angry passions are fostered
Look to Ireland. Look to our own country, before
the improvement of our institutions, and a fair admi-
nistration of justice had succeeded in quieting the
pe2ferviduo2 ingenium Scotorum, when feuds and
private war filled every corner of the country. The
same passions exist in every age. No barrier is
adequate permanently to confine them ; but they may
be gradually evacuated by the cooling phlebotomy of
litigation in an acceptable form ; deliberate fair, not
too expensive to deter litigants."
In an able pamphlet, published some months
ago, by Mr. Glassford, one of the Parliamentary
Commissioners for Irish Education, it was re-
marked that the Irish, through want of employ-
ment, suffered greatly from ennui, and that to
that cause we must attribute the avidity with
which they grasped at whatever furnished matter
of excitement. This is the secret of the factions
of the Hens and the Magpies, and the hundred
other factions by which all parts of Ireland are
disturbed. There is a proverb that the head of
an idle man is the Devil's garret. Hence the
luxury to an Irishman of a row. In all countries
where time hangs on men's hands there is a
strong disposition to quarrel, and as Mr. For-
syth observes, litigation is the least mischievous
way in which such a disposition can display
itself. In this way the Civil Bill Court in Ire-
land has been found productive• of the greatest
benefit, by enticing the people from that species
of wild justice to which we give the names of
revenge and retaliation. Now, if Captain Hall
had possessed the least sagacity, he must have
discovered that the Americans are litigious,
for the same reason that they are troublesomely
inquisitive, because they have abundance of
leisure. The Courts do not make them
litigi-
otrs, but the disposition to litigiousness finds
the Courts an excellent safety valve. In a
densely peopled country, where time is of great
value, from the multiplicity of demands on it,
men have an aversion to litigation. If you make
justice ever so cheap, it will be dear to them, in
so far as they cannot afford time for it. To any
man engaged in business in this metropolis, a
law-suit is one of the greatest curses imaginable.
He shuns it at the expense of great sacrifices.
But if litigation were made more expensive here,
the effect would be, to impose, in addition to
the loss of time, a great sacrifice already, another
great sacrifice in money. An evil disposed man
wishing to annoy another, would count on this
additional expellee as a means. The love of li-
tigation diminishes regularly with civilization.
The people in the country are much more liti-
gious than the people in towns. All this is
easily accounted for. It was observed by Mr.
Cobbett in one of his Rural Rides, that he did
not know how people in the country could pass
their time were it not for the Game Laws and
the numberless quarrels and dissensions to which
they give rise, and which furnish a constant sub-
ject for discussion. But a Sciolist like Captain
Hall, takes no account of the differences in the
nature of things. He laments the absence of
Aristocracy in the woods of America, and thinks,
because justice is cheaper in America than in
England, and the people of the former country
arc at the same time more litigious than the
people of the latter, that the litigiousness is the
result of the cheap justice, and that a denial of
justice is all that is necessary to make men
peaceable as angels. We have had too many
philosophers already of his stamp in England,
and unfortunately with more power to do mis-
chief than he possesses.—lbid.