SYSTEMATIC DECEPHON ON "THE IRISH POLICY."
We selich a favour : and as we always act by our readers sin- cerely, with whatever errors of information or judgment, we hope to be indulged on this occasion, thought we ask them to,undergo the considerable task. first, of perusing the leading article copied from the Mrning Chronicle of Monday last,* which we venture to call " Myetitications by the Miaisteriah Press ;" and next of re- collecting, or, if possible, reperusing, the topic entitled "Irish Policy," in our paper of last week.' li The vindication of this journal is one, but the least anxieus of our aims in recommending the comparison : what we desire most, is to fix attention on the arts by which, in the pretended discussion of some of the great political questions by a leading Government print, the largest and most important features of those questions are systematically excluded floin tie iew ; thus is passing history falsified, and credulous persons, not otherwise instructed, are misled.
• At page 965 of this Number. .1 Spectator, 6th October, pp. 943, 94. Supposing the reader to have now qualified himself to pro. flounce judgment, we confidently appeal to him, whether there is any sort of resemblance between our paper of last week—in its aim, in its tone, in its whole scope—and the Morning Chronicle's account of it ?
In the first place,Oer real object is suppressed, anil a false object imputed. Not a word of the failure of' " the Irish questions,"— Tithes,gaporations, O'CONNELL'S new Precursory demands, and Repeal itself,—as rallying-cries of partv. Not a word of our pro- posal to replace these worn-out and effete delusions of a sectional and practically inoperative policy, by an imperial combination for the attainable interests of all, In which thee of Ireland shoal-a necessarily be included.
Secondly, the question of "giving the foe an opportunity to tevive" the old Orange system, or, as it is also expressed in other words, " opening the- doors of office to the Tories," was never mooted by us. What the Chronicle carefully conceals, is the fact, which formed the basis of our whole speculation—that the dis- tance between the Tories and office has not been widened, but diminished, and is constantly growing smaller. Who can hinder their coming in ? We cannot prevent them, any more than the Chronicle, or its friends the Ministers—nay, not so much ; for theirs has been the policy which has been followed, and it rests with them, not with us, to change it. We have no choice, any more than we can, by choosing, stay the hour of fate which must come to ourselves as to all mortals. The causes that have brought the Tories so near to office still operate ; and, these continuing, that the result will be Tory restoration, after a brief space, is not less certain than that a rapid consumption in the human body will produce early death. Thirdly, though the Tories are "coming in," we have no idea that all is lost; and instead of wringing our hands in despair, and crying " Misericordia!" we turn to such consolations as the case admits of. Some consolation we find in the doctrine which the Chronicle frequently preaches when it serves a purpose of the moment, that a government of Orangeism or pure Toryism will never exist again ; more, in our own observation of the necessary tendencies to improvement in all things, administrative govern- ment included, and in the reflection that even the strong will of the Duke of WELLINGTON was fain to bow to the stronger power of public opinion. The Chronicle misreads the moral of the Eman- cipation Dora, as well as our allusion to it. But we need not stop to expose his perversions on a point so obvious. In fine, we have little apprehension of a government of force, or a " revival of slavery," or a renewal of the scenes of 1798,—which Mr. ASHTON YATES talks of; but we have considerable fears of an influence which Irish Whig-Liberals rather chuckle at than fear,—the corrupt influence formerly alluded to, of multifarious bribes : " and, certes, (we repeat the close of a passage which the Chronicle, professing to copy, curtailed,) there is a luxuriant field for corrup- tion, in a country where the actual applicants for Government favours are reckoned by thousands ! " Let us have no slang. about "Tory-Radicalizing the Irish people." We wish time Irish people nothing but good, and mean to pay them no bad compliment, when we invite them to act like Englishmen and like Seotchmen. It did not suit the Chronicle to understand, and one-eyed Irish alarmists are apt to overlook, the doctrine which the following paragraph embodied- " Manifestly it is the interest of the Tories not to irritate and oppress, but
to conciliate and coax the Irish population, even were England and Scotland indifferent spectators of their proceedings in that country. But it is not true that the English and Scotch care little what becomes of the Irish. The power of public opinion in Great Britain, far more than the accident of any
set of party politicians being in office, is Ireland's safeguard against the ' re- vival of slavery.' We told Mr. Yates last week, that the Scotch would laugh to scorn the notion of being rough-ridden by Tories or Whigs. The fact is, that, though Mr. O'Connell talks about their ' claymores,' our canny brethren in the North have their eyes open, observe the progress of events, calculate the force of moral resistance to the oppressor, and never dream of blustering about claymores and millions, any more than they would go whimpering to bed be- cause Lord John Russell had declared for the Oligarchy against the People. We wish there were more of this rational self-reliance and moral confidence among the Irish, and less talk of ' slavery ' and the valour of Erin's sous.' As it is, we look to public opinion in England and Scotland as an effective barrier against any insane attempt of the Tories to restore the Orange system of government in Ireland. When Sir Robert Peel proposed to emancipate the Catholics, he referred to the representation of the large counties and towns in England as evidence of the national opinion, to which he felt it necessary to bow. Surely the force of this opinion may do as much as before the Reform Bill was passed to strengthen popular securities, or Lord Normanby gave to Ireland the model of what a Viceroy ought to be. It is one thing out to grant the demands of the Irish, and another to ' let loose the dogs of war' upon them. Justice' for Ireland, or England either, is hot to be expected as the free-will offering of a Ministry either of Tories or 'Whigs. Both countries, in that re- spect, are my much on a par."
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