The Sun.
London, England, 1845-02-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
PROM TUB DAILY PIPERS OF SATURDAY.
GLOBE.—If there be a question connected with
the present condition of Ireland upon which the friends
of that country may expect to find themselves, in the
coming session of Parliament, stronger than on any
other, it is that which involves the position of the
Irish State Church in reference to the education
of the people. The grand error in the govern-
ment of Ireland has been the division of the
people, by English influence, into two distinct
factions, and the employment of that influence to
support the one and oppress the other. The dividing
line was one of religion. It is, as yet, but half
effaced ; and more than half its evil consequences
still remain. Much may be done to ameliorate the
various collateral evils which centuries of blind and
obstinate perseverance have produced from this divi-
sion, but their source can be affected only by revert-
ing to the first great error, and abolishing, as far as
may be, every trace of the original division. In
doing this, it is possible that it may be necessary to
go somewhat further in concession to that portion of
the population, from which equal rights have been
hitherto withheld, than might be altogether requisite
or expedient had no previous injustice been done. It
is not our present intention to impugn the State
policy which upholds a particular form of religion
in preference to all others. That policy may be a
wise one when accompanied by as strict a regard
to justice as will consist with it. But it ill be-
comes those who, confessing the commission of a
grievous wrong, and long perseverance in it, at
length tartly approach the task of reparation, to be
over-nice in the measure of what they yield. It may
be expected, too, that where the population of a
country have long had the just regard of Government
dealt out to them with an uneven hand, confessedly
on no better ground than that the religion of the
majority was not the religion of the ruling few, there
may be something not altogether reasonable in the
tone or the demands of the oppressed party. It is not
to be wondered at, that those who feel the wrong are
not those who most clearly see the remedy. But let
a spirit of fairness—en open and candid purpose to
do whatever shall be found just and practicable—be
clearly displayed by those who may have to apply
the remedy, and much will be done and wisely
done towards making it acceptable. It may
be difficult to know how best to deal with the
relation of landlord and tenant, or with the electoral
franchise in Ireland. Both are in a bad state, and
plainly susceptible of great improvement ; but there
may still be much difference of opinion both as to
what should be done, and as to the best mode of doing
it. The position of the Irish State Church, its
undue ascendancy, and its influence in preventing
the establishment of a more just and extensive
system of education for the Catholic population of
the country, is, however, unincumbered by any similar
doubts. It is now quite time, in the estimation of
every liberal-minded Englishman, that we ceased to
visit dissent, in any form, with civil disabilities. It is
bad enough in England, but in Ireland, where it has
been productive of evils so enormous as to keep the
whole country in a constant state of agitation, almost
entirely precluding the social or political ad-
vancement of the people, it has become
the merest madness to persevere in what is
so palpably iniquitous and mischievous. We are
glad to see that the pressure of more imme-
diate topics of complaint does not prevent this one
from engrossing the serious attention of a most re-
spectable portion of those to whose well-directed and
disinterested exertions Ireland must, after all, chiefly
look for that elevation of her condition which she so
ardently desires. The present system cannot, it is
clear, be permitted to continue ; and its overthrow,
and the substitution of something better suited both
to the necessities of the sister kingdom and the spirit
of the age, will be matter for congratulation to the
friends of civil and religious liberty throughout the
kingdom.
STANDARD.—It is not for us to disparage our
calling, but we must, in the way of caution, remind
the public of the proofs they have lately had, that
if newspapers are sometimes useful they can be some-
times eminently mischievous. The absurd Otaheite
affair, which really never had any political cha-
racter, was nevertheless very nearly causing an
European war, and though that calamity has been
avoided by the wisdom of the British and French
Governments, the price paid for peace has been
the serious agitation of the French people. Now,
supposing this matter had been fairly reported in the
first instance, is there the slightest reason to be-
lieve that a knowledge of it would have extended
beyond a few hundred people outside the Go-
vernment offices, or that the memory of it would
• have lasted beyond a week. Let us suppose it
fairly stated, that Mr. Pritchard, a highly re-
spectable gentleman, who had filled the office
of British Consul at the Court of Queen
Pomare, upon the 'forcible oonquest of that
island by a French squadron, resigned his consul-
ship ; and at the end of a few months from the
French conquest had become, justly or unjustly,
an object of suspicion with the French rulers
of the place, who, in the exercise of an undoubted
right of sovereignty, had removed him from
the island. So far, whatever opinion we might
have of the conduct of those who had seized
upon the dominions of a defencelesss female,
we should have no• right to interfere in any
manner. The French authorities had as much
right to remove a suspected Englishman from Ota-
heite as the British authorities would have to re-
move a suspected Frenchman from liong-Kong.
But it is added, that Mr. Pritchard was re-
moved with circumstances of unnecessary hard- I
ship, and that he sustained a pecuniary loss
by his removal, and then came the ordinary,
the almost every day case, of one Government
claiming a pecuniary compensation for losses
suffered by one of its subjects from the acts of an-
other Government. The compensation was granted
and allowed ; and within these narrow limits the
matter ought to have lain from the first, and within
these limits it arrived at last, after kindling a flame
that nearly spread over Europe—a conflagration to
cost millions of lives, hundreds of millions of money,
and to throw back the civilisation of mankind
for a century. " Behold how great a matter a
little fire kindleth." Well might the Apostle, speak-
ing of every organ of falsehood, say, that it is a
" world of iniquity," " setting on fire the course of
nature, and itself set on fire of hell"—" an unruly evil,
full of deadly poison." These are harsh expressions,
but they are not more harsh than just, and they
are not ours ; and what St. James says of the
tongue may be said, even with greater correctness, of
a greedy, mercenary, lying, and incendiary press.
The proof is before us. What magnified the
simple affair of Mr. Pritchard, such as we have
described it, into an occasion of danger to the
peace of the whole world 2 The greediness of
one notorious journal, always eager to get hold of
an exciting subject, or to garnish an indifferent
subject with excitement, because, as the profit and
popularity of gin-palaces prove, nothing pays so
well as excitement. By the false representatiot.
of Mr. Pritchard, as British Consul, at the time of
his removal—a statement the falsehood of which
must have been known to the narrator of the event
—an ordinary case of individual injury, which might
be compensated without involving any political consi-
derations, as, in fact it has been, was magnified into a
national outrage, to be atoned for only by a national
submission. in this sense the event was, in consequence
of the first lying report, received by the people of this
country, and all resolved, at whatever risk, to vindi-
cate the honour of the British flag ; while our neigh-
bours, fully as high-spirited and, at least, as excite-
able as ourselves, answered defiance with defiance.
But when the truth came to be known, the reflect-
ing men in both countries became heartily ashamed
of the intemperance into which they had
been betrayed by a stupid falsehood, and the
thinn► sank in their estimation to an affair of pounds,
shillings, and pence, due to a British gentleman, be-
cause of some losses and injuries sustained by him
through the, perhaps, necessary arrangements of a
French colonial government. The ill-feeling, however,
we see, still rankles in the breasts of many Frenchmen,
and not altogether without some excuse, for the
French authorities were the parties, the gross misre-
presentation of whose conduct bred the original quar-
rel. And yet France is the only party that, under
the circumstances, can make any reparation.
True, as we have some ten times said, all this
is purely accidental ; true, Mr. Pritchards
claim •
Is personal, and not in any respect national.
After having ourselves, upon 3,
misinformation, con-
founded the
twocannot
considerationstht of national and
Iper-
sonal, wel
speedily distingelS:lt them anda all
all thisisthe Frenchmenwork of
one greedy and unscrupulous journal, the share of
which in producing so much danger is already for-
gotten—of one greedy and unscrupulous journal that,
with a like hope of pin
end of prompt oblivion and
pardon of its misconduct, would fling another fire-
brand of the same kind to-morrow.

BRISTOL .SUGAIL-MARHET, JAN. 31.—We have no
which still
improvement to notice in our sugar
our last,
continues dull. The sales in West Indira,
amount to about 250 hhds., and which are sfOtrctmenedia
use ; grocery descriptions are rather more in request,; butt 3
the supply is indifferent. In Bengals and
there is nothing doing, but this chiefly arises fromurititule
want of a proper assortment.—Bristol Mercury. th
EFFECTS OF TIGHT-LACING.—At the fancy dress
ball, on Monday evening, a gentleman bearing her Ma-
jesty's commission was suddenly seized with faintness,
and was borne from the field in the arms of his brother
officers. On examining into the *ease of the attack, it
was found to originate in the over-pressure of the gallant
soldiers's uniform, which, it seems, in these "piping
times of peace," he had not worn for some little time.
The narrow escape of the valiant son of Mars from so
inglorious a fate as would have befallen him in a coro-
ner's verdict " Died from tight-lacing," is a warning to
his brethren how they sacrifice too much to the Graces,
of to the &mot of the Pablo Z.Brigliton licald,