The Sun.
London, England, 1829-11-14 00:00:00

ence, and serve for the aliment by which alone
they can sustain their factious existence and their
party pride. But our sense of duty equally
prevents us from aiding the daily attempts of
our former opponents to deceive the British
public, and forbids us, either in honour of the
Act of last Session, or from any other motive,
to lend our sanction to so monstrous a delusion
as that which represents Ireland to have already
made any sensible advance towards concord and
' tranquillity. We cannot cry peace when there is
no peace. We cannot so prostitute language as
to apply terms adequate only to the description
of local feuds or disorders, to a state and temper
of society, in which the great bulk of the lower
orders of the people sympathise with murder and
protect the assassins—in which criminals stained
with blood, and known to be so by their whole
neighbourhood, can securely deride the power of
Government and the authority of the Law—in
which the assembled Magistrates of counties
deem it necessary to apply to the supreme au-
thority of the State for extraordinary and uncon-
stitutional means of protection—in which the
highest Officers of the Crown, and religious in-
structors wholly unconnected with any established
institution, bear joint and equal testimony to the
existence of extensive combinations of the
lower classes against the social rights and the
personal safety of their superiors—and in which
the man popular and skilful in the arts of popu-
larity above every other, knows no better way to
secure the continued attention and favour of the
people than by agitating the country in favour of
a measure, which every body perceives (and
none more clearly than those who are expected
to promote it), would dissever Ireland from
Great Britain, and lead to the utter extirpation
of Protestantism in the former country. These
symptoms of the condition of Ireland are indeed
not new, and cannot therefore be fairly charged
to the account of any recent enactment : but
neither can a measure which was expected to allay
agitation and extinguish strife, be said to have
succeeded, since these evils are still seen to exist
in unabated virulence.—Morning Post.

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, Nov. 9.—ln whatever light the pro-
ceedings of the Special Commission at Cork may
be regarded in England, they have had the effect of
exciting here an universal sentiment of dissatisfac-
tion agai▪
nst the Government. One party appre-
hend the worst consequences from the failure of the
prosecuti▪
ons, and the impunity of the parties impli-
cated in the transactions out of which they sprung;
while all men, whose sympathies are engaged on the
side of the peasantry, inveigh against the conduct of
Government in seeking to take the lives of so nu-
merous a body of prisoners as those arraigned at
Cork, upon no better evidence than that of three
informers of the most scandalous character. The
difficulty of procuring testimony in general may be
acknowledged ; but in the case of a conspiracy so
en o-, ), bold, and extensive, as that which the Soli-
citor-General described this conspiracy at Doneraile
to be, it is not possible to suppose proofs of a less
exceptionable nature would have been wanting. The
principal circumstance of corroboration on which
that Law Officer relied, in itself of the most trivial
description, was that the prisoners had been seen by
another person to subscribe a paper in the manner
described by the chief witness for the prosecution—
such paper being represented to he an engagement
to perpetrate the murder in question—but the per-
son called to substantiate this fact turned out to be
the first cousin, of the informer, to be himself a man
of infamous character, and, above all, no such fact
was mentioned in the original depositions. It ap-
peared also that the several informers had ample
' opportunity for making up their tale in concert. In
a speech made by Mr. O'Connell, at Youghal, he
imputes to the Solicitor-General a knowledge of
this material discrepancy between the depositions and
1 subsequent evidence. Without pronouncing an opi-
nion for myself, I must say that a strong impression
against the candour of the Solicitor-General in the
conduct of these prosecutions, extensively prevails.
He did not, perhaps, act in a manner very different
from whatrnaogre their protestations—most Crown
prosecutors pursue; but his conduct at Cork ap,
pears in very disadvantageous contrast with the
liberality whiCh he professed at Clonmel. On pe-
rusing tire evidence, it is difficult to imagine how
any acute and intelligent man could ask a Jury for
a verdict on the strength of it; and we must sup-
pose the whole of the facts to have been within the
knowledge of the Solicitor-General from the first,
although it was not until the fourth day that Mr.
O'Connell arrived, and that through his ingenuity
the truth was publicly elicited. The unanimous
and instantaneous acquittal of the prisoners on the
last trial, by a Jury exclusively Protestant, may be
regarded as decisive of the character of the evidence
seen in its full extent; and, accordingly you may
observe, that although the Journals here which ad-
vocate harsh measures were pretty free in their
strictures on the dissent'ent Juror on the second
trial, they do not now attempt to sustain the case
against the prisoners. The fact, no doubt, is, that
the Irish Government suffered itself to be persuaded
by the local Magistrates to institute these proceed-
ings, which have had so abortive an issue. It can.
not be that Mr. Joy and Mr. Doherty would have
advised the Special Commission, if left free to the
exercise of their own discretion; and it is very pro-
hiMe that the Solicitor-General, whose reputation
the event will affect very injuriously, was a reluc-
tant instrument, The conduct of Judge Torrens
has given great dissatisfaction, while that of his co.
adjutor, Baron Pennefather, meets with ail applause.
Very contrary reports are in circulation with re-
r.pept to the character of Mr. Going, the unfortunate
dergyrr;c4; who lately fell a victim to resentment,
excited i)y his eiiiarts to set his tithes. His idi-
vidual merits, however, are, ip politieal point of
view, of little importance, while the 1..00 he hap
met furnishes fresh proof of the inconvenience of
the preaetip mode of supporting the Church Esta-
blishment. I thip'k: lit the disposition to resist
the payment of tithes ts stFongpr than ever; and
now that the great subject of atKe-7thp Catholic
Question—is no more, you may prepare to seg4
union of Catholics and Brunswickers against this
me;,t: pbnoxious impost. The Church is by no
means so strreF,; here as it was, nor as it is sup-
prised ,to he. -Tkie Irish gentry are little inclined
to the ferVoors of religicips dev?tii?ii; they have
lresppet for the Varsoit's ministry,y, arid lovt
upon him in no at ight chip ,an incumbrancer o.n,
their estates. It is true, tl4 giep,f krPillea are pot
without regard for an establishment which agoras
so comfortable a provision for their offspring ; but
ioaspleell as an elder brother often pays in his cha•
I'racier suf tia,n,dkord what the cadet receives in his
character of rei.tob tie case is not so clear as might
be imagined. There are &WA ot;;;Frrinortant con-
siderations to be included in COMpitang ti.s p.r,..;;'
gable strength of resistance to a modification irtrthe
t'eliiireir ;s,tablisliment. The first is, that the
Bishops in Iretaiii eirloy a much larger share of
the'patronage of livings than 6127 do in England.
The second is the'vagt-disproportion Between tit; it):.
Co,r,rqa :cf the superior dignitaries and the operative
clergy.. Vii4esi;,4. s
1cr51:::9,7, an Irifili 'Protestant holds
afford him a reasonable cba4e-g' 9E a 14iih,,kr,10c
that rang, and PnrYs ,tlch a family
Deanery, or unless he be somehow ennitegted with
inftlence.asmay
Erie of the greatest prelatic dispensers of all good
gifts, the Irish Church really holds out small pros-
peet :)(calvaittep tg) him. The emoluments of the
Irish Cilui CII art'l.kE.t.fei
,atp,spgst a comparatively
small number of fam,illies, ,No loan enteric,.; t.,, Dio-
cese can calculate on being preferred; ..tlycnigh ,12. T
merits, to any of its benefices. It is liae, that a
fortunate Plebeian, like the Archbishop of Dublin,
is now and the/di elevated to the Bench. He draws