The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-06-27 00:00:00

TUESDAY MORNING, JUNE 27, 1843

If the public interests have stlietained no advantage
from the "obstructive" debate upon the Irish Arms
Bill, which took place in the House, of Commons on
Friday night, we have at least .had Some light thrown
upon the causes of the agitation at present existing in
that country. Simple-minded people have always
imagined that, amongst the most prominent of Irish
grievances, were the existence of a national Protestant

church,. and the agrarian question sought to be settled
by the "fixity of tenure" scheme. They are mist; ken;
and we proceed to enlighten them upon their error, in
the words of the extraordinary sage, and most con-
sistent politician, Lord Palmerston, by whom the error
has just been discovered :

" Theg is another grievance, and I believe it is that which
most forcibly excites the minds of the Irish people, but to
which, apparently, it is less in the power of the present Gov-
ernment to apply an effectual remedy. I believe that which
most excites the people of Ireland is the existence of hon.
gentlemen opposite as a Government in this country. (Cheers
from the Opposition, mingled with much laughter from the
Treasury benches.) I believe, Sir, that the union of senti-
ment between England and Ireland has been dissolved,
although I trust the legislative union never will; for the peo-
ple of England are determined to have a Tory Administra-
tion, and the people of Ireland are dissatisfied so long as a
Tory Administration exists. (` Hear' and a laugh.)"
So, then, the people of Ireland are languishing for
the return to power of "the base, bloody, and brutal
Whigs The agitation which is distracting that un-
happy country is not so much an agitation for the
repeal of the union as it is a Whig fever, It is not so
much a longing for the destruction of the Protestant
church, or for the alienation of the property of " the
hated Saxon," as it is a longing for the return of some
Normanby or Fortescue to the Castle of Dublin, to-
gether with a plentiful scattering of pickings and power
amongst. the place-hunters of the provinces, and "the
briefless" of the four courts! When the reader has
got over this we shall proceed.

How simple, you will say—or some silly Radical will
say—is the remedy for Irish discontent I It is only to
send Lord Palmerston to his protocols, Lord John
Russell to the Home or the Colonial Office, Lord
Melbourne to the Treasury, and some tool of Daniel
O'Connell to Dublin Castle ; and
.Ireland becomes
once more the most peaceably-unquiet country in the
universe—

" First flower of the earth, and first gem of the sea!"
But, alas ! there is, by the admission of Lord Palmer-
ston himself, a fatal obstacle to the success of such a
scheme of pacification. 'There is a country, unfortu-
nately, called Great Britain, which claims to have some
voice in the arrangement of these little affairs ; and
Great Britain is just as resolved not to submit herself
to Whig domination as Ireland appears to be enamoured
of Whig laxity of rule.

'• I do honestly believe" continues Lord Palmerston " from
what we have seen passing before our eyes in this country,
that if they were to yield to the appeal when made by us,
they would have another appeal made by the people of En-
gland requesting then. to return to their places. (Cheers,
and a laugh.) The time is not come when any party but
that which sirs opposite can advantageously to the public,
and with the general concurrence of the people, administer
the affairs of this country. ! ! "

Need we say that we are perfectly and decidedly of his

opinion ?

There is a hope, however, it would appear, according
to the testimony of the same noble lord, that at some
distant day the Whig longings of the people of Ireland
may be safely gratified. ".There is something," we
are told, " in what is passing around us, which indi-
cates that we might hold out to the people of Ireland
a distant HOPE (!) that their wishes in this matter may,
some day or other, in the lifetime of existing men, be
fulfilled ; certainly not this year !" His lordship is
quite correct in the latter portion of the paragraph
quoted. It is certainly not this year in which his an-
ticipations of office are likely to be fulfilled; and if the
Lord Palmerston of the present day is the same
" Hon: Wm. Temple" who was born some sixty and
odd years ago, we fear there is little chance of such an
event during his lifetime, whatever May be the good
fortune in this respect of younger men.
His lordship has, however, other remedies to be
applied to Ireland, pending the arrival of the Whig
millenium which he prophesies. The Romish priest
hood of Ireland are to be provided with glebes and
glebe•houses, and to be rendered more independent,
and more respectable; and, though Conservatives may
govern, they are to administer the affairs of Ireland
only through Radical and popish instruments—or, in
other words, Protestantism and loyalty to the throne,
in any Irishman, whatever his talent and deserving in
other respects, are to be made insuperable objections to
his political advancement. The favours of government
are, in no case, to be dealt out to men who possess
sufficient independence and amor patrice to have an
opinion of their own upon any public question; whilst
mean sycophantic "waiters upon providence'
who have neither politics nor patriotism—are to pos-
sess exclusively the rewards which their country has
to bestow! With respect to the proposition to permit
' the endowment of the Roman Catholic prieSthood,
from private sources, for that we understand to be Lord
Palmerston's proposition, we are not called upon just
now to give even an opinion. But this we must de-
clare—we would not concede one step to men with arms
in their hands! We would not thus teach popery the
path to future triumphs! Let Ireland lay aside her
arms. Let her retreat from her rebellious attitude and
position; and then we may consider the reasonableness
of her complaints. But until that course is submitted
to; until Ireland is tranquil and submissive, we can-
not, with the result of the concession of 1829 before
us, give up that to dictation which we have not as yet
been convinced is due to justice!
With respect to the Policy which we are asked to
pursue in the bestowal of the patronage of government,
we have only this to say, that under the present cir-
cumstances of the country such a policy would be both
suicidal and cowardly. 'We may, by such a course,
conciliate traitors; we may prolong a treacherous truce;
but we can never thus secure the real and permanent
security of the empire, which is only to be found in the
love and the faithfulness of loyal and patriotic subjects!

"—men

It might have been thought that, into a subject so
repeatedly discussed, as the question involved in the
annual vote of the sugar duties, it was next to impos-
sible to infuse anything approaching to novelty. It
will be seen, however, by a reference to the parliamen-
tary proceedings of Thursday night, that the very ori-
ginal mind u! the arch-apostle of the League—Mr.
Richard Cobden—has discovered a fact, connected
with the subject of colonial policy in general, which
has escaped the discernment of all the great statesmen