The Sun. — 1844-03-26 (London, England)

PUBLIC JOURNALS,  FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTFRDAY. GLOBE.--As Easter term approaches, the public attention in Ireland is almost wholly engrossed by the discussion of the national question, " What will the Government do with O'Connell ?" Nor is this question, in its absorbing interest, confined to the Irish people. In England the same inquiry is heard on every hand. The interest excited by, this strongly-debated question is second to none of the numerous pending questions involved in the uncertainty of the .future. Speculations as to the most prudent course for Government to adopt, under the peculiar circumstances in which it is placed by the prosecution and conviction of O'Connell and his co-defendants, are rife in all quarters. In Ireland the question is debated by the-party organs with the fervid heat which characterizes party discussions in that country. As a specimen of the tone and manner in which the Irish press treats this question, an extract or two from the journals of the two antagonist parties—the one braving the vengeance of the law, and the. other invoking the severest punishment of the convicted parties—will afford some faint idea of the excitement which prevails. The Freeman's Journal thus raves :—" The . testing time is coming. It will soon be seen whether a British. Governmeut, boasting of its moderation, will, in the nineteenth century,,,yeattsEe on an act of political vengeance which will pfottuße milking but exasperation home , and infamy abroa& They looked anxiously for a compromise—for any pretext of consistency to set up against the vindictive clamours of that Orange rancour which would lead the miserable Irishmen whom it possessed to demand even the life of the great patriot, and to exclaim, like a similar faction of old—' His blood be upon us and upon our children !' But compromise there can be none. The chief traverser has defied their worst. They admit that he has cut off all retreat by destroying the bridge behind him.' There can be no surrender, except on the part of the Government. The men whom they would victimise have no guilt to confess—no apology to make. Were they to bind themselves now to refrain from the deeds for which they are prosecuted, they would be false to their own principles and pledges, traitors to their country, and they would lay suicidal hands on their public character. On such terms, the Pardon of the Government would wither in a moment the laurels of half a century." The Tory prints are not a whit less violent in their appeals to the Government for vindictive punishment on the convicted Repealers. They had the indecency before trial to predict, with unwavering certainty, the verdict which an exclusively Protestant jury would return, and to fix the period and the place of imprisonment which the Court would award as punishment. And now the Packet (the most moderate of the Dublin anti-O'Connell press) boasts that the ".Mendicant tyrant " must certainly "go to gaol ;" the Mad taunts the Ministry with infirmity of purpose, and intimates that the measure of its infidelity to the Protestant in. stitutions of the country will, there is reason to fear, be completed by some mean compromise with the convicted conspirators. That Ministers are placed in a perplexing dilemma, there can be no question. That they would gladly escape from the perils which beset them—the Scylla of compromise on the one hand, and the Charybdis of incarcerating O'Connell on the other— no one can doubt, who has watched the course of events. 'The demonstration.: of public feeling, provoked by the op!nion which pervades the public mind, in both countries, that a conviction, rather than a fair administration of justice, was the determined purpose of the law-officers of the Crown, have been almost unprecedented. The law is supposed to have been stretched, td comprehend those whose proceedings were not fairly within its prohibitions. The punishment which, in the ordinary course, follows conviction has therefore been, by anticipation, rendered powerless. The Government may punish O'Connell ; but they cannot degrade him. The Court may sentence him to confinement in Kilmainham or Carrickfergus ; but as one of the journals, writing in anticipation of such a course, remarks, ‘. Whatever be the prison of the Liberator, it will be the Thermopylae of Ireland ! It will be the holy ground of patriotism to which many a pilgrim will resort in coming ages." The reception which O'Connell has met with in the English metropolis, and also in several of the largest towns of England, has tended to increase the embarrassments of Ministers, when contemplating the course to be pursued in following up his conviction to judgment. The cordial cheers with which his entrance in the House of Commons was hailed on his first. appearance after his trial—the immense multitudes which assembled at Covent-garden Theatre, both at the meeting of the Anti-Corn-law League and at the dinner which was given to him in the same immense building, which WAS crowded in every part ; and especially the enthusiasia with which the announcement of his name was received, and the speeches he delivered on these occasions were applauded—the meetings at Birmingham, at Coc'entry, and other places, where the same demonstrations' of feeling were exhibited—the debates in the House of Commons on the prosecution, and the unequivocal declarations of some of the best constitutional lawyers in that asaembly, that the law had been perverted, and thus justice violated, in the State prosecutions—the complaints of the Catholics that, by expunging the jurymen of their creed from the panel, insult and injury were inflcted on their body—last, not least, the petition, to which Mr. Wyse will call the attention of the House of Commons this evening, signed by nearly one million of persons in Ireland, of all grades, praying for inquiry into the complaints, in connection with these trials, with which it abounds—these are sufficient to induce Ministers to pause in their proceedings, and to desire to prevent consequences which, whatever course they adopt, may involve them in yet greater dangers than any they have yet encountered. We have heard, in generally well-informed circles. that it is by no means improbable that something like the following course will be adopted by the Government, with, possibly, a tacit understanding with the defendants. On calling the convicted parties up for judgment, certain objections will be taken in arrest of judgment. Instead of arguing the objections forthwith, the Court will postpone the case, and allow the defendants to stand out upon their recognisances till the . next term. Thus delay will be obtained, and the evil day postponed ; trusting to the chapter of accidents; or anticipating a more sobered state of public feeling when a 'final and conciliatory termination of the controversy may be effected. Others assert that a writ of error will be consented to by the Irish AttorneyGeneral ; and the judgmant, instead of being passed, ad interim, will be hung up until the House of Lords has pronounced its final decision oh the points raised for argument before it.