New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-05-10

| who reports an OAioru tisuiViVnf oHN' =" '
neyed passage from Lucretius, "Suave mar
| magno," etc, Peel construed suaNe' "
source Of qualification"
| That is not style which one would selecI
as likely to produce good private letters, nor
is II precisely the style which pervades these
pages Peel's letters are in their way good leu
tiers and easily readable by the student in pursuit
| of truth. They would not probably be read Tor
their own sake independently Of the writer ana OIL
the subject; or not many OF them would. iheS
have nothing of the fascination which belongs 10
Howell, or of the glitter which is Walpoie's, or
of the charm that makes every line OF Madame de
Seviene immortal. They have qualities Of their
| own: the qualities which were Peels; masculine
rood-sense, manliness, franknesss, an entire ac-
ouaintance with affairs You feel you go through
them that here is man who has his hand on
the centre of things whose knowledge reaches down
to the foundation. The writer is. above ALL alive
the blood is coursing through his veins he has
hold on life he has what we call, with our mod
ern freedom of speech, an inside view. or. to go
IN the lowest depths Of slang the true inwardness
Fortunately or unfortunately, six years OF Peers
life were given 10 Ireland as CHIEF Senetary and
here ale some TWO tur,lyc'! pages of letters by
and TO Peel in which Ireland is the overmasterine
and predominant topic. Well, / suppose. we
are doomed to learn all about Irish affairs,
and there is much to be learned here.
That Ireland was governed in part by corruption
is no new proposition. That men and ooroughs
were bought and sold we have heard before now
and the books about Ireland are fun Of such trans
actions. Yet they seem to acquire o new mayor
when the virtnous Peel becomes an agent in TINS
traffic II was Ireland, and it was twenty years ne
fore the Reform Bill with its sudden extingushment
of sixty rotten boroughs Those are facts when
need TO he kept in mind when you read such leu
tiers as those which passed between Peel ana DIS
friend Croker. The future Prime Minister went
| to Dublin with resolutions of virtue IN bis hear@
| He had entered Parliament three years before ~
member for the ancient city of Cashel in Tipperary
His father had bought the seat for him. lie had
never visited his constituents or held any COM
,nunication with them Ireland was to him an
unknown country when he set out to rule over
| IT, II entire ignorance of the Irish people
and institutions be qualification for governing
| that mart of the world, it is one which many
subsequent Secretaries and Viceroys have shared
with Peel. But he studied the people and the
country from the English point of view and six
teen manuscript volumes of Private and Confiden-
tis letters during the six years Of his reign are
the result One Of Lord Liverpoors first letters
to Peel tells him that in consequence of Cur
VEINS Bll-an act TO check the sale OF seats-the
Ministry are under considerable difficulties, and
it will be absolutely necessary that we should so
conduct ourselves, both in Great Britain and Ire
land as TO be able distinctly to state that we have
been no parties TO any money TRANSACTIONS "haV-
ever between those who may have influence IN
borourhs and the persons who may be elected to
represent them"
It was not then twelve years since Pitt had
carried the Act of Union between England and
Ireland by means to which Mr. Gladstone has
Thought fit to apply such terms as blackguardisnl,
foulness, baseness.-no terms, he says, can DC 100
strong. A cooler mind than his Mr.. Leckys,
has been strongly impressed by the evidence he mas
| rome through Plunket speaking in 1893 against
the first Union Bill, which failed declared that
within these last six weeks a system of black
| corruption has been carried on within the walls
of the Castle which would disgrace the annals
Of the worst period of the history of either coun-
try" Mr. Lecky's comment is " 1t is dihicult TO
gay how far these last words are exaggerated,
but there is no doubt that they had large foun-
dation of truth" Lord CORVALLIS was Lord
Lieutenant, and he writes:
aThe political iobbing of this country gets the
| hotter of me- II has ever been the wish Of my
life 70 avoid this dirty business, and ] am now
involved in it beyond all bearing. How long
to kick those whom my public duty obliSes me TO
| COURT"
And again
"My occupation is now Of the most unpleasant ma
ture negotiating and iobbing with the most corrupt
neople under heaven. / despise and hate myself
every hour for engaging in such dirty work and
ON supported only by the reflection that without
o. Union the British Empire must be dissolved
And he expressed the remarkable opinion that
half of our majority would be at least as much
delighted as any Of our opponents if the measure
could be defeated.
"In the face of such declarations. observes Mr.
Leclxy. 1T appears to me idle to dispute the
essentially corrupt character of the means by which
the Union was carried. though it may be truly
said that selfish motives and even positive cor
ruption were by no means monopoly of II:
ennnorterS He omts 10 add that corruption
was then. both In England and Ireland, recog
pized method Of securing majority If the Ac
of Union is TO be denounced on that ground, muci
else must be denounced Curwcns Bill applied 4
ENGLAND as well as Ireland. But | apprehend i
has ALWAYS been true that iobbins was the rule
and that strong as is Lord Cornwallis's Language
about the prevalence of political corruption II
Ireland. the facts support it.
The atmosphere, at any rate. which Peel begal
to breathe when he entered upon his duties il
Dublin was foul one, and he was in posltloi
: where he must know all that was going on Ill
first duty, Lord Liverpool tolu hlm' WIS W hetl
ub appearances. II was all very well that IN
father should buy the ancient city of Cashel 10
him when he was a private member. AS Ome
, Secretary he had TO look elsewhere for seat
With respect to all official persons, writes Lor
, Liverpool. ait has been thought necessary tina
they should be elected for places to which n
mputation can attach under Curwens Act" >
t Peel became Member for Chippenham for whicl
his father completed the arrangements in otEe
S words. purchased Maitlands entire interest il
t the borough Yet among Peeps first letters t
0 Liverpool is one about an English peerage for a.
I Irish nobleman in exchange for an Irish borough
i Liverpoops answer is that the offer Is not goo
; enough; that he could buy three seats from 81
d A. B. and four from Sir G. d. for peerage I
, each.