The Sun.
London, England, 1827-04-05 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

Sir T. Lethliridgeifi motion fOi to-morrow
must, if persevered in, or not got rid of by a
side-wind, create singular perplexity. The ob-
ject of that motion is to produce an united Ad-
ministration,—who can prefer a divided one?
Those who can do so may state their opinion,
but they will not make many converts. The
question will then resolve itself into one of ex-
pediency and practicability ; as thus ; if you
cannot have an unanimous Administration,would
it not be better to combine certain men of ta-
lents of various opinions, than to take all your
fowls out of one hatch, the unfledged, half-
addled, and wringlings included ? We answer,
undoubtedly, if the variety of opinion be only
shades of difference. But if the diversity be
upon essential points, then it would be, and has
been, as absurd to compose a Ministry out of
such discordant materials, as to unite mules and
dromedaries in drawing the same carriage. The
King forms his Ministry about the time that Sir
Thomas makes his motion, so that his Ma-
jesty cannot derive much advantage from the dis-
cussion in the Commons. It may be thought,
and that not without reason, that the effect of
asking of the King an unanimous Administra-
tion upon essential points, would be (regard
being had to the quarter from whence the great-
est portion of unconstitutional influence flows)
simply to exclude the men of greatest talents
from the present Administration. Then let
such men swell the ranks of Opposition ; in
that situation they would either controul the
Ministers, and, press them, as it were, by
external force, to act rightly, or turn them
out. And if Mr. Canning and Mr. Huskisson
were to retire upon principle, or be rejected
from insubserviency, Mr. Robinson, at least, in the
lower House, and Lord Harrowby in the upper, are
of the same opinion with them upon the chief ques
tion of national interest, and must retire with them
and what then would the Ministry be ? (we beg
pardon if we overlook any great genius in our pur-
view, though the unintentionol omission itself would.
not speak highly for the person passed over); but.
we should say, with the exception of Mr. Peel, (all
name never to be mentioned without respect,) a
mere collection of shreds and patches, the very sweep:
ings of office. It must not be forgotten, that
Lord Liverpool possessed in a manner that may be'
called p,.irsonal, the whole representation of the Tory,
or ultra-Protestant and Ultra-Royalist interest ; and at his
fall, it is difficnit to say to whom that representation is to'
descend. Mr. Canning cannot reap the succession, from
the liberality of his principles and the expansion of his'
mind ; and should he attempt to compromise his dignity,
by an obsequious union with the remains of the party, hav-
ing lost the command which he possessed over them through
his influence with their late Chief, he would only expose
himself for awhile to the contumely of base natures, inflated
by the pride of undeserved elevation : he could not retain
his situation for three months : there is no humiliation
which they would not make him suffer. We may be mis-
taken, therefore ; but we seem to have arrived at this con-
clusion—that Mr. Canning, if not chief, would do wall not
to bee subaltern in theA dministratioa now forming.-- Times.
The autobiography of the celebrated Theo-
bald Wolfe Tone, for commenting on the manu-
script of which, on its late importatiOn from
America, -Mr. Sheil has been subjected to pro-
secution, is at length about to appear in this
metropolis. Judging from the hasty perusal we
have been able to bestow on it, we should pro-
nounce it a valuable addition to the materials for
the history of a most interesting period. Of the
clear and manly manner in which Tone reasons
on the affairs of his native country, we cannot
afford a better specimen than his account of the
Bill for the Relief of the Catholics. We wish
those who now oppose further concessions to ,
them would only peruse attentive) his unan-
swersble argersreessiest--
most important privileges were now secured to
the Catholics, it will appear that much was with-
held, and withheld in the manner most offensive
to their feelings, because the Bill, admitting the
lower order of the Catholic people to all the ad-
vantages of the Constitution which they are com-
petent to enjoy, excludes the whole body of their
gentry from those functions which they are na-
turally entitled to fill. A strange inconsistency !
During the whole progress of the Catholic
Question, a favourite and plausible topic with
their enemies, was the ignorance and bigotry of
the multitude, which rendered them incompetent
to exercise the functions of freemen. That ig-
norance and bigotry are now admitted into the
bosom of the Constitution, whilst all the learning
and liberality, the rank and fortune, the pride
and pre-eminence of the Catholics, are de-
graded
from their station, and stigmatized by
Act of Parliament. Of the head-roll of
disqualifications, many indeed are unnecessary,
doing that by Act of Parliament which his Ma-
jesty is already competent to do by his
Royal:discretion. The exclusion is the more in-
vidious, from the utter improbability of any Irish
Catholic being called to fill the stations of Lord
Lieutenant, Lord Deputy, or Lord High Chancellor,
which are formally excepted in the Bill, merely, as
it should seem, to affix on the Body a mark of dis-
trust and inferiority. But these are exceptions of-
fensive only to their pride; there are others directly
trenching on their interests. By their exclusion
from the two Houses of Parliament, the whole body
of the Catholic Gentry of Ireland, a high-spirited
race of men, are insulted and disgraced; thrown down
from the level of their fortune and talents; and brand-
ed with a mark of subjugation, the last relic of inter-
ested bigotry. This is the radical defect of the Bill.
If the Catholics deserved what has been granted, they
deserved what has been withheld ; if they did not de-
serve what has been withheld, what has been granted
should have been refused. There is an inconsistency
not to be explained on any principle of reason or
justice, in admitting the alleged ignorance, bigotry,
and numbers of the Catholics into the pale of the
Constitution, and excluding all the birth, rank, pro-
perty, and talents. By granting the franchise and
withholding seats in Parliament, the Catholic gentry
are at once compelled and enabled to act with effect
as a distinct body, and a separate interest. They
receive a benefit with one hand, and a blow with
the other, and their rising gratitude is checked by
their just resentment; a resentment which, in the
same moment, they obtain the means and the pro-
vocation to justify. If it was not intended to eman-
cipate them also, they should have been debarred of
all share of political power." The above brief ex-
tract may be said to comprehend all the points of
the Catholic Question. It is, as he says, utterly
impossible to find arguments for going so far
as the Bill alluded to went, which do not im-
periously prescribe the going farther. There is
but one way of solving the difficulty, and that is
to suppose that the opponents of the Catholics as-
sumed that the higher ranks of both Protestants and
Catholics are indifferent to religion, and that they cal-
eulated on the gradual defection of the Catholic gentry to
the Established Church, as is usual with the Dissenters,
after the Relief Bill, by removing the grievances of the
lower orders had softened down animosities. But the
boundary which separates the different descriptions of Pro-
testants from each other is very different from the deep
gulph Which separates the Catholics from the whole of
them. A Dissenter is easily transmuted into a Church-
man, and a Churchman into a Dissenter ; but a Catholic
quits his faith with much more difficulty. There is another
n'abetial difference, too, between the Catholic, and the Dis-
senter, The higher ranks hold nothing so much in abhor-
rence as 'what is vulgar. One great raison' for the rich
Dissenters ttirig over to the Church is their fondness, in
common 11/i. ether rich men, of splendour and ahoy/ ; and,
consequently, .11sir 'dislike of the plainness of the Prestiy-
teriaa and PeCtati,iorthip. But *a Catholic worship