The Sun.
London, England, 1827-03-09 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The tone of Mr. Canning's late speech on the Catholic Question,
and the manner in which he treated the Master of the Rolls, who
yet professed that he was not one of his Majesty's Ministers, has
somewhat inflamed or inflated the rumours about the changes in
Administration, and the claims of personal precedency in the ap-
proaching arrangements. If a colleague of Mr. Canning should
take Lord Liverpool's place, both at the Treasury and in the House
of Peers, then is Mr. Canning lowered inasmuch as the other is
raised. Though stationary, his relative position is changed ; and
if an enemy of emancipation (such as Lord Colchester, for example)
he admitted into the Cabinet, then is Mr. Canning's power
abridged, as much as his dignity is obscured. These observations,
springing out of the reports in circulation, will indicate what
the reports are : they are probably unfounded; but when it
is known that changes must take place, and vacancies be
supplied, conjecture will take upon it to prescribe the ap-
pointments. For our own parts, we know not who is capable
of taking up the various threads of negotiation which are in the
hands of the present Foreign Secretary, were he removed,—
among which threads that of America is not the least
knotted and entangled : and if he remains, how painful to
resign the post of honour to a younger and a feebler man !
Mr. Huskisson's illness is worse than injurious at this moment ;
it is ominous. The partial favour of Lord Liverpool could
hardly protect its object during his Lordship's health and
vigour ; it will be but little thought of now in his ill-
ness and necessary retirement. If other men's examples could
but teach humility to those who are given to be proud of talents—
who would wanton without restraint in the insolence of wit—the
present situation of the Secretary for Foreign Affairs Might instil
that lesson. If he were contending with the great, if lie were
trafficking with his equals in genius and spirit, his contest would
be honourable, and there might be no shame in a defeat ; but to
sink under the vulgar hate of those who dare not show themselves,
and, undermined by their mean arts, to be obliged to leave the
path open to rivals of respectable name but humbler powers,
must inflict wounds that will be felt, but cannot he described,
Times.

A very beautiful specimen of the importance of a class of men
to themselves, was afforded in the House of Lords last night.
Lord Lorton, alluding to some attack which had been made on
him by Mr. O'Connell, in the Catholic Association, said, "he
would merely remark, that the Dublin Convention was the great
source of all the disturbances which existed in Ireland, and they
caused all the miseries of that unfortunate country." The history
of Ireland has been, with such few exceptions, a history of dis-
turbance and bloodshed, that the exceptions naturally make an
impression even on the most thoughtless, and are easily remem-
bered. Now it so happens, that one of these rare exceptions,—one
of the few periods of complete tranquillity in Ireland, commenced
with the commencement of the Catholic Association, and has con-
tinued during its whole existence. So well is this understood, that,
during the discussions in Parliament, which preceded the Act against
the Association in its first shape, the peace of the country vas
actually made a ground of accusation against that body. The able
writer of an article on the Catholic Association in The Parlia-
mentary History and Review for 1825, happily observes on this
point, "If the Association had not pacified the Irish, that would
have been a reason for putting it down ; but it did pacify the
Irish, and this also was a reason for putting it down. It was
discovered, that as it had power to quell disturbances, it pro-
bably had power to raise them ; and as it was probable that
it had the power, it could not but appear certain that it had
the will. Upon this principle, we should be justified in throw-
ing a man into prison for helping a drowning person out of a
river. If he had power to drag him out, he has power to
push him in ; so dangerous a man must not be suffered to go at
large ; no time must be lost in depriving him of the means of
doing mischief." But Lord Lorton's position is, for all that,
not without a meaning—." The Dublin Convention was the great
source of all the disturbances which existed in Ireland !" Only
put Lord Lorton and a few of his caste for Ireland, and then we
shall be able to understand his Lordship The Catholic
Association. We have no doubt that the Association causes no
small degree of disturbance to all the great and little oppressors
of the country. The dread of exposure through the Association
must operate as a very unpleasant restraint on gentlemen. The
handwriting must be frequently seen on the wall. Now so long
as disturbances in Ireland were confined to the peasantry—so long
as they amounted merely to the burning by Rockite or Whiteboy
peasants, the haugards of other peasants, the evil was to be borne.
But when gentlemen are interfered with in the exercise of their
supremacy over those who ought to vote as trustees for them,
but who, at the instigation of the Association and their priests,
presume to have a conscience, and hesitate to perjure them-
selves, that is quite another affair. That is being " the
authors of all the miseries of that unfortunate country." One of
the Members of the Association had even had the insolence, in
speaking of his Lordship, to use a very expressive, but very
odious monosyllable; and of course that was more than a sufficient
reason for putting down the association; and his Lordship con-
cluded with observing, that it was indeed "an indelible disgrace
to the Government of Ireland, that the Association was not put
down." The Lord Chancellor availed himself of the opportunity
to give Sir W. Plunkett what may be called a rap over the
knuckles for his leniency to the Popish Convention. "He
would say, that he would not believe, on the authority of news-
papers, that those things had passed in the convention which the
Newspapers described, because it was impossible, if such things
had passed, and evidence could be given of them before a jury,
that the parties should not be apprehended who had behaved as
described in the newspapers. It was impossible to believe that
such things had occurred as had been represented." So much
for the lesson read to the Irish Attorney-General. Lord Clan-
carty improved upon the Noble and Learned Lord, for he said,
"he should be sorry to be connected with those who stood in the
situation of the Law Officers of the Crown.—Morning Chronicle.
No men in the world were ever more justly entitled to have re..
course to the well-known exclamation of " save us from our
friends" than the Catholics of Ireland. We allude, of course, to
the steps taken and the language used by their friends out of Par-
liament—for in Parliament no cause was ever served with more
zeal, fidelity, and talent. But in Ireland itself, not only are the
imaginary and alleged wants and wrongs of the many made the
stalking-horse of the personal ambition and aggrandizement of the
few, but these latter—either, as may be charitably hoped, mistaking
their course, or else finding that to say one thing and mean another
answers best their own purposes—have done more to defeat the
object they profess to have in view, than has been accomplished by
all the opponents of the measure, great and acknowledged as the
zeal, talents, and exertions of many of them have from first to
last been. No one who has attended to the conduct and lan-
guage of thosewhliamocahnot, butoset mocuoant be satisfied,sider
themselvesthat
far
the
more
eththolainc
leaders out of Parliament,
the small majority by which the question has recently been lost,
have been alienated from ,the cause of the Catholics, by the intem-
perance and folly of these the most bitter enemies of the cause
which they profess to espouse. Had the persons to whom we al-
lude, instead of wantonly and madly scattering firebrands among their
followers, given their minds to the same calm and temperate view
of the subject which distinguishes that talent by which their cause
is supported in Parliament—had they, instead of inflamma-
tory menaces, used their influence to assuage, and, if possible,
remove the well-grounded prejudices of Englishmen upon the
subject—had they, instead of insisting upon unqualified de-
mands, set their minds to devise such qualifications,and securities
as would have quieted the apprehensions of the timid, and
silenced the fears of prejudice and of bigotry, an opening might
have been made, and a first step, at least gained in the New Par-
liament, instead of that which has been lost. That it has been'
lost, we think can astonish no one who has contemplated the
efforts of the persons to whom we allude. On the contrary, it is
only to be wondered that, under such circumstances, the majority
against the Catholics has been so small. We are told a great deal
of the discontent, the irritation, and still more serious consequences
which are likely to ensue in Ireland from the disappointment which
the issue of the question is likely to produce. We do not believe
any such thing. The enlightenment which is taking place
throughout Ireland by means of the press of this country, will
we are convinced, induce the bulk of the people of that country
to appreciate the services which have been rendered to them by
their friends in Parliament, and convince them, that it is only by
a calm and patient obedience to the laws, and an entire abandon-
ment of all injudicious and unnecessary excitement, that they
can ever hope to obtain the objecfs they have in view. it is im-
possible for the well-informed part of the Catholics to read with
attention the ,debates upon this occasion, and not to perceive where
their error (or rather that of their self-constituted organs) lies; and
that ever to obtain their object, the first step should be to retrace
the many false steps those organs or leaders have taken. The
lower class of Catholics, too, cannot forget that it was but the
other day that those very persons who now profess so much zeal in
their cause, were the authors of those very "wings," by one of
which the political rights of the whole mass of forty shilling free-
holders were to be sacrificed and done away with, and that under
the ridiculous pretence of obtaining for them civil rights and pri-
vileges, of, to them at least, infinitely less value. For these, and
many other reasons, which will naturally present themselves, we
hope and believe that the rejection of the Catholic Claims, upon
this occasion, will have no other effect upon the sensible part of
the population of Ireland, than to induce them to reform and to
disclaim the errors by which, for the present, their object has been
105t,..-/forning Herald: