the judicial exercise of its powers, than it overthrows the unanimous expression of Parliament, by a knot of lawyers, under strong political influences, subservient to a political party, beaten by a large majority in both Houses, thinking fit to discard the well considered and formally declared opinion of the great luminaries of the law-the bench of judges-who were, in the exercise of their duties, free from political predilections and party ambition. But these judges, taking them individually, were lawyers of eminence, far superior to the knot of legal lords who opposed their unanimous opinion, save and except one judge alone, who accorded with C. J. Tindal. Now then, according to the rules of all law, by the common consent of all jurists, the legal opinion of a majority of the bench is decisive as to law and as to fact. the judges, except the one we have alluded to, emphatically declare, that the errors committed at the trial of Mr. O'Connell were miserable technicalities, which in no way whatever affected the wisdom and justice of the verdict. For all This proceeding then must startle those foreigners who dwell upon the British constitution, and have endeavoured, since the overthrow of Napoleon, to plant the spirit and essence of that constitution (especially as regards legislation) in their own States; and make them sensible of a great and glaring defect in its practical exercise, which, if it occurred in many of the States of Europe, would produce certain revolution. Many even will return to the feeling that existed very strongly, as we perfectly knew, during Lord Melbourne's government, viz. that England's decline and fall had commenced. We have not the slightest doubt, from our knowledge of the Continent, that wise men, in consequence of the recent proceedings, will be inclined to fall back upon the opinion, that our institutions require a radical alteration; or they will believe that the present executive Government had been intimidated by the power of Mr. O'Connell, and the wild principles he advocates, and will fear that these have taken a deeper root than was expected, both in Ireland and in England. From the personal connexion of Mr. O'Connell and of the other Repealers with the disaffected on the Continent, the Repeal question has been viewed as little better than the old Jacobinical cause, which brought so much distress and misery upon Europe. It seems incredible that men of sound understanding can be thus meanly ambitious of a degraded power, when they have been forced to witness the fabric they raised up, not only in its superstructure fallen to pieces, but the very foundation on which it rested torn up, and the dust of its ashes scattered to the winds. How could they ride forth on O'Connell's Tail and on Repeal with any foreign policy, that could be agreeable to the sound public opinion of the Continent, or admissible by the legitimate governments of Europe? Would England submit to a ministry whose policy was to be directed by bargain and sale with O'Connell? and can the Whigs be so silly as to believe that, if they assumed the reigns of power once more, in consesequence of their defeat of the ministry, they could possess themselves of the Treasury Bench in the Lower, or the Woolsack in the Upper House, without, by bargain, selling themselves to Mr. O'Connell? What will necessarily be the language of the priest hood to the deluded Irish who follow the mandates of the great Agitator? The priests, in their chapels, will at first address their flocks in Celtic; they will tell them that what they call the great ability of Mr. O'Connell, but which more enlightened minds would call the mean craft of the Agitator, lawyer, and jesuit, had cajoled the silly Whigs; that they bore them no love--that they were, as ever, bloody and brutal; that the great Dan was the Atlas on whose shoulders they wanted to ride into power; that the Saxon government fell, not by the Whigs, but before the power of O'Connell; that the strength of the Repealers had been now demonstrated to the face of the whole world; and that the time was fast approaching when they would make terms with the future government, which, feeling their power, would concede every thing to the Irish nation, as it had so often done before. For we think we have shewn, in the body of this work, that all and every concession which has been made to the Irish people by the Crown, or its servants, has been always represented by the agitators of Ireland, as having proceeded not from motives of justice, but from fear of physical force doing the work of persuasion. To us, then, it appears, that all the good the lawyers have done in so dealing with the appellant jurisdiction, and in giving their veto on the sound legal opinion of the non-political judges of the land, has been to heap upon the Ministry considerable difficulty as to the wholesome government of Ireland; amongst other reasons, it will cause money to stream into the pockets of the Repealers, and instead of English capital flowing into Ireland, for the benefit of the poor and the distressed, it will be a check upon its introduction for the advantage of that unhappy country; and, if a change in the Queen's Councils should take place, the difficulties of ruling Ireland must be increased, whilst the insane project of the Repeal of the Union cannot be advanced. We trust no alteration will follow in the policy which governs England, or in her Majesty's Councils, for their late tenor we have no doubt was a virtuous desire to allow the law to take its beneficent course, and to adhere to the usual plan of the exercise of that appellant jurisdiction. To our minds, however, it was a grievous error in judgment—a display of weakness, and a want of moral courage, neither individually belonging to the members of that Cabinet, nor, especially, to Lord Wharncliffe. Boulogne-sur-Mer, |