The Irish debates, which are usually an encumbrance on the
busi- ness of Parliament, are not profitless this week, because it is a de- cided political benefit to refresh the public memory on some of the principal Irish questions. Lord Winchilsea's renewal of the at- tacks on Maynooth, for example, under the form of inquiry, re- minds us how inveterate is the religious animosity which firm and moderate Governments have alone been able to keep in order. The inquiry to which Lord Aberdeen has consented may perhaps silence the Winchilsea party, without opening the door for the wrangle which the original motion would have licensed. A Committee of Peers, with Lord Winchilsea instigating it to rake up Bellarmine and Dens, is as different a thing from a Royal Commission to in- quire into the management and discipline and the effect of the in- creased grants conferred by Parliament in 1845, as an inquiry into a matter of fact differs from an Irish row between Orangemen and Ribandmen.
The debate on Mr. Kirwan, whose reinstatement in the Magistracy by Lord St. Germans was regarded by Lord Eglinton as an implied censure on his own suspension of that gentleman, has served the pur- pose for which the discussion was raised. Lord Eglinton proved that Mr. Kirwan was an unfit person to be responsible for the mainte- nance of peace at a difficult time; and if Lord St. Germans c.an read the moral, Mr. Kirwan himself is an example of the mischief and discredit which may arise from attempting to rule the Irish public by embarrassing alliances with the priesthood: The arraignment of Mr. Augustus Stafford for his conduct as Secretary to the Admiralty establishes the prima facie case against the late Government. It cannot be concealed by any kind of pre- varication or evasion, that the patronage of the late Government was abused for political purposes ; that the greatest freedom was taken with the forms of departments, and that the public business was sacrificed to the political advantages of the party in place.
At a time when Mr. Stafford's party is using strenuous efforts, how- ever vain, to recover office, this exposition is peculiarly opportune. The new regulations of the Customs, explained by Mr. Wilson, constitute a measure which must have been adopted sooner or later, and which could not have been very long delayed, whatever Ministry might happen to be in power. The new regulations would be regarded as incomplete, if only because a cardinal point, the reconstruction of the Board, is postponed ; but also because im- perfections are still left. Nevertheless, the improvement is in the main searching and businesslike, and it is more creditable to the official persons who have been responsible for it than any party triumph in either House of Parliament.
