The Statesman.
London, England, 1823-06-26 00:00:00

THE STATESMAN

the present, we shall not have any withthe Ring. Report I
also states, that the ensuing Budget will announce that
Austria is going to compromise for the 17 millions which
she owes this country, by a liquidation of 3 millions to
be raised in this country. Five millions, it is said, are
to be raised for the West Indies on Exchequer Bills.
The Packet, just arrived from Lisbon, bas brought over
several members of the Portuguese Cortes, some of whom
are the richest persons in Portugal.
• FORZIGN FUNDS.—Spanish Bonds opened at 32, got
up to ii, with little doing.—qolombian opened at 47,
and went op to 501, as it is generally imagined that the
late news will prove to be a forgery.
• New Spanish, 32LI—New Prussia, 8-1 ;—Russia, 804—
Danish, 89I—Colombia, NI.

SPAIN.
Ring Ferdinand has'reached Cadiz in safety, though not
without en opposition that might have been fatal to the li-
berty of Spain, if the people had not been devoted to the
common cause. Ferdinand refused to leave Seville, except
by force. Those who have borne with him so long have
acquired a knowledge of the best means of treating him;
and, voting him to be in a state of mental insanity, they
prepared for his removal without further reference to his
inclinations. Sir W. A'Court, it is said, refused to follow
the Cortes to Cadiz, as he was accredited to the King, and
not to the Regency, which during the Royal insanity, un-
dertook to conduct the Government. lie was, however, not
accredited to the King, but to the Court. We never heard
of an Ambassador leaving England, when his late Majesty
was incompetent to manage affairs himself. But we are
glad Sir William does not go to Cadiz. We wish he had
not gone to Seville. Indeed we know not where we should
like to bear of,him, except at Naples, perhaps, where he has
done all be 0,40. He had, on the Bth instant, officiously
offered to gob Madrid, to get the best conditions he could
for the Cortes, but they declined to owe any obligation to
him. We are not without some apprehension that a deep
[stripe is carried on against the Cortes ; and we fear that
the Holy Alliance has friends to its views who are working
in secret,* means of some other influence, and perhaps
some other money, to complete the subjugation of Spain.
Nor is it without great indignation that we perceive an
attempt making in some quarters to persuade the people of
this country, that the destruction of the Spanish Consti-
tution, and the establishment of French authority over
Spain would be a matter of indifference to England'.
We might as well be told, that to cut off an arm was to
increase the strength of an individual's body. The cause
of both countries is the same. The very same declara-
tions issued against Spain, would apply in the same justi-
fication of au invasion of England :—and if the Despots
of Europe are ever in a condition to tell us we should have
only such institutions as our King should think proper
to give us, they will nut hesitate to thunder it in our
ears also.

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PARLIAMENTARY COMMENTARY.
That endless source of political conversation, the state
of Ireland, occupied the House of Commons nearly the
whole of last night; and to as little purpose as it had
ever done before. Mr. Hume proposed to abolish the
♦ice-regal goverennent altogether, and to manage Ire
land, in future, by an additional Secretary of State. The
professed object was to save expence ; but we have great
doubt whether any saving would he, in reality, effected
by any such alteration. The practice of all Ministries
is to get all they think it prudent to take ; and to spend
all that they can get:—and, if there were no Lord
Lieutenant to pay, there might be a hundred individuals
to put in a claim for a division of his salary amongst
them. The chief argument, however, of Mr. Hume,
against the maintenance of a Viceroy in Ireland, was.
that be possessed no power. This be attempted to show,
by a contrast between the number of Catholics admitted
to fill situations to which they were eligible by law,
with the number of Protestants in the same situations.
The result certainly chews, that while patronage rests in
Protestants,bands, it is almost a farce to grant eligibility
to the Catholics; for those who have to nominate will
necessarily tfollow their own inclinations where they
have the power to do so. lint this statement does not
absolutely prove that the Lord Lieutenant cannot appoint
Catholics. He may be averse to their appointment, as
most Lord Lieutenants have been. Lord Talbot, who
ventured to throw down the glove to the King, in
defence of the Orange•Factiun, was not likely to give the
Catholics any benefit of a legal eligibility. Lord Weller
ley has but little time to do any thing; and with the
Orange whip over his head, he is not likely to be able to
effect much. And a fourth Secretary of State might find
Abraham Bradley King, and his " merry men all," as
potent as the House of Commons found them on a late
occasion. It may sound well, to talk of putting down
the Orange•faction, but the parties themselves know that
nothing bat a political earthquake can move them ; and
that their enemies, for the most part, have as much to
dread from such an event as themselves. The Ministerial
reasons for refusing a Commission to enquire whether
the Viceroy and his Court might not be safely and pro-
perly shipped off from Dublin, are curious enough. Mr.
Goulbourn admitted that some thousands might ue saved;
but added he, " is it an argument to be listened to, that be-
" cause Ireland costs England four millions a-year, that
" she should therefore be left to have a King of her 1
" own, and to manage her affairs herself?" We beg
to ask, why not? if Ireland cost as four millions anus•
ally to make it the most unhappy, and the most wretched
portion of the Globe, it is high time to throw off such a
burthen, and make Ireland defray the expeaces of her own
Government. We should have one consolatioo, that she I
could not govern herself worse than we have governed
her ; and if we could save four millions simply, by teas_
log to injure her, we should make an honest gain, and a
good bargain at the same time. Mr. Goulbourn modest-
ly asked the House, to " concur with him, and other
"great tnen, in thinking that the question was not what
0 could be saved by the abolition of a particular office,
" but what was the mode in which Ireland could be go-
" verned most efficiently, and with the most regard and
"conciliations to the feeliqs of the people '•" Mr. Goal-
bourn says this, with his lips yet parched from his defence
of his desperate Insurrection Act.—Mr. Goulbourn says
this in defence of a Government, of which, in the same
breath, be tells as, its " almost daily intervention is re-
n quieed, eithei to repress tumults, or to better the con
"di dos of the people!" How glibly the tongue runs,
when it is privileged to contemn common sense.—

. • • .•
••• • _

. —
-But Mr. Goa-Ileum has not yet spun his thread
Lof mockery out. He says of the people of Ire-
land, who have seen their independence annihilated by
Act of Parliament—their Senate disappear at the touch
of the English treasury magicians, and the fraudful pre-
tence of a union tear their country into a thousand fac-
tions—that " they are pleased, their feelings are grati-
" fied, by the residence of an emblem of authority among
" them I" This is insulting the people of Ireland, and
making a jest of the Vice-regal authority, at the same
time, and does Mr. Goulbourn great credit as a wit
The people of Ireland he thinks so besotted, as to have
parted cheerfully with the reality, and to be pleased
with the emblems of authority ; while be makes a mere
statue of the Lord Lieutenant, and puts him upon the
pedestal of insignificance. This, by the way, is a good
hint to Mr. Hume. If an "emblem" will do, why not
have a marble or a wooden Viceroy'? The Orange men
may then indulge their spleen without doing any mis-
chief—and the Viceroy will not have his feelings tor-
mented by Catholic grievances, for he will never hear
them! The thing may be carried further. The Irish
Might be equally pleased, with an " emblem" of the Pro-
testant establishment, in all the departments of Church
and State; and if "emblems" were found to answer in
that country, they might be tried in many other places,
where the realities do not make themselves so agreeable
as they might. These " emblems" should not be lost
sight of. Mr. Goulboarn, who must have barn in a
" right merry mood," said " the disproportion of Catbo-
" tics to Protestants was no evidence of the partiality of
" the Irish Government ;" which only enquired as to the
fitness of the parties. "Now this is not even the
" emblem" of an argument. Where there are ten Ca-
tholics to one Protestant in population, and five
Catholics to a hundred Protestants in a random
selection of the official situations, which they are equally
eligible to fill, there must be partiality and strong par-
tiality ton, without any regard to fitness, unless it be
contended that the -Catholics are monkeys and
not .men, nor endowed with the ordinary faculties,
out of which fitness for business arises. It is, how-
ever, one thing, to show the partiality, and another
to get rid of it. The first we are prepared to establish
by. the strongest evidence. For the latter we are but
" indifferently provided with good workmen." The re•
solutions of Mr. Hume wets withdrawn ; and the sys-
tem remains as it is—an " emblem" of how much mis-
chief may be committed in the name of Government, and
perpetuated under the mask of religion. Let it not, how-
ever, be forgotten, that it costs us four millions a-year to
make Ireland wretched, and to keep her so ; awl that it
costs Ireland, besides, at least twice as much, as her
share of the purchase money of her wretchedness. Itis a
'lnd round sum, to spend for such a purpose.