The Sun.
London, England, 1845-02-05 00:00:00

THE QUEEN'S SPEECH.

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAT.
TIMES.—We will confine ourselves to specific and practical pro-
positions. Parliament is to be called on for the means of fresh pro-
tection to our commerce. Its immense increase, and the new and
formidable methods of attack to which it is liable, leave no alterna-
tive. It is a necessary item in the charges of that great speculation
to which our welfare is committed. To fortify a capital is the caprice
or the boast of a soldier ; to fortify our harbours, the wisdom of a
merchant. Of all our natural advantages, it is our harbours, per-
haps, that most make England. Ireland is again the Ministerial
difficulty, and again do her religious and political animosities pene-
trate to the very heart and core of the State, and distract its most
secret counsels. The Charitable Bequests Act has so far succeeded
as to divide faction and conciliate opponents, transferring to
the adverse ranks the angry feud they had previously waged
with the State. This fair show of success has encouraged the
Minister to go on as he has begun, and propose without more
delay what probably was only waiting for time and occasion. So
not a few days of the session will be spent iu considering " the
policy of improving and extending the opportunities for academical
education in Ireland." Under this very guarded announcement, we
are to understand two colleges at Cork and Belfast, as a substitute
for opening Trinity College to the more popular creed of Ireland.
Whether these schools are designed to be open to all or not, the re-
sults of the national plan of education leave it probable that Roman
Catholic admission will be tantamount to Protestant exclusion.
But the Premier has unquestionable axioms of government on his
side. Ignorance must bo taught ; rudeness must be refined ;
a paternal State must supply these necessities ; yet it can-
not enforce conscience, or nuke a State creed the con-
dition of those kindly offices which it has undertaken to
render unto all. The report of the Irish Landlord and Tenant Com-
mission is nearly ready. Nothing more than the report, and that not
yet I The remission of the income and property tax is to be weighed
in the Legislative balance against the various boons which the con-
tinuance of that tax might purchase for us. It is clear that the
Minister will not easily resign five millions a year, laid with unjust
equality on the property of the wealthy and the income of the in-
dustrious. The present tax has been levied with a dexterity which
exempts it from some of the ill qualities of its predecessor ; but
neither length of time nor prosperity of circumstances will ever re-
concile Englishmen to a tax which is still in its nature inquisitorial,
and still lies with unequal force on industry and every other tempo-
rary form of wealth. Discriminate between the two principles of the
tax confessed in its title, though strangely coufounded in its enact-
ments, and it may be made not less just titan bearable.
CIIRONICLE.—IIad we the power or the wish to dictate to our po-
litical opponents a royal speech, that would be the most complete ex-
posure at once of their pretensions and their feebleness, we should cer-
tainly select no other paragraphs or phrases than those spoken yester-
day. The only liberty we should take would be to collocate them
somewhat differently. To the paragraph congratulating Parliament
upon the " increased activity of every branch of manufacture, with
trade and commerce extended, and the general state of domestic
prosperity," we should tack the conclusion of the " continuance of
the income-tax ;" and as a sequitur to " the prospects of continued
peace," we should place " the necessity of augmenting the naval esti-
mates." -Two paragraphs in the Speech are jubilations on the
fact of visits paid to our Sovereign by the heads of two of the greatest
States in Europe, of those States on whose policy and tone of feeling
the peace of Europe certainly depends. Yet ere these words of glad-
neSs, and these assurances of peace have died away, we are saluted
With the necessities of continuing a war-tax, and of opening a new
source of war expenditure I We are not prepared to say that the
latter is needless, or that a Government which will not open or widen
the sources of-indirect taxation, must not have recourse to the more
onerous system of direct levies. We are not inclined to censure the
suaviter in modo et !orbiter in re of accepting and returning the Court
compliments of foreign potentates, whilst we arm in mistrust of them ;
but we do say, that this is in flagrant contradiction of the vaunts and
pretences of the Tories. Make light of it, or veil it, as we will, it is
impossible to deny that we now look to the struggle of parties and the
debates of the French Chamber with an interest irreconcileable
with the supposition that peace has been firmly secured. Four year s
of Lord Aberdeen's anodynes have not lulled the restless spirit of our
neighbours. And we know not, under the present system, what hope
to conceive or cling to of the rancour against us being dieted. The
references to domestic politics in the Speech are few, and not less un-
satisfactory. Of a dozen paragraphs six are occupied with Ireland,
and those six say but little. The intimation that Sir Robert Peel is
about to lay his hands on the banks of Scotland and Ireland will create
more alarm titan surprise. That he would do or attempt something
was to be expected, after what passed last year. The vague para-
graph in the Speech only converts this expectation into assurance.
We shall make no remark upon the subject at present, further than
this, that the announcement just made will create very considerable
excitement amongst the commercial classes, both in Scotland and
Ireland, by suggesting the possible abolition of one-pound notes. In
justice to those classes, Sir Robert Peel ought not to let a single day
pass unnecessarily before giving a full explanation of his intentions.
lIERALD.—The character of vagueness and inanity, the common
reproach of royal addresses, certainly cannot be applied to the
Speech delivered yesterday by her Majesty. A document more clear
and precise, or more full of matter, has rarely appeared. The diffi-
culty in remarking upon it is not the usual one—the inability to
catch a definite topic ; the task is to choose from an abundance of
subjects, all laid down with equal distinctness, and all of nearly equal
importance. There is no question that has lately excited a public
interest which is not noticed, and noticed in a way to give universal
satisfaction.
ADVERTISER.—Our anticipations respecting the character of the
Queen's Speech have proved, in the main, correct. On the great ques-
tion of the day, the question of free trade, it maintains an unbrola n
silence. There is not a sentence in the royal address which can cause
one qualm of alarm in the breasts of the landed oligarchy, or which
can inspire the most slender hope in the minds of the free-traders.
But let no one conclude, because her Majesty's Speech does not,
directly or by implication, give the slightest countenance to anti-
monopoly principles, that tthe free-traders are without hope.
There could be no greater or more grievous mistake.
The free-traders are full of hope. Theirs is a confi-
dence, amounting to a moral certainty, that ere long they
will triumph over the combined hosts of monopoly. So, it seems,
after all, that the Minister has determined on extending his currency
crotchets to Ireland and Scotland. The announcement will create
astonislunent in Ireland. In that country any remodelling of their
currency must have been unexpected. Scotland will not be equally
taken by surprise, having been menaced last session with the assimi-
lation of its currency to that of England. But though, in this
sense, the announcement of the Ministerial determination to anni-
hilate the small notes, in Scotland, will not excite so much surprise
In that country as the announcement regarding Ireland will
do in it, there is a sense in which both the amazement
and the indignation will be of a far deeper kind in
Scotland than in Ireland. And we predict that before Scotland is
done with Sir Robert, she will make him hear, as the homely phrase
says, on both sides of the head. There is no part of the Queen's
Speech which gives us so much pleasure as that which refers to the
intended adoption of measures for improving the sanitary condition
of large towns. This is a subject on which we have written much
at various times; and it was but the other day that we earnestly
pressed it on the attention of the session of Parliament now com-
menced. We hope the contemplated measures will be sUfliciently
comprehensive to meet the exigencies of the case.