The Press.
London, England, 1857-08-01 00:00:00

ENGLISH WHIGS AND IRISH

PRIESTS.

Asotrr the time of the late Dissolution some
extraordinary rumours were circulated amongst
a portion of the Conservative body. It was
said that if Lord PALMERSTON obtained an
English majority, the Ministry would seek out
for some means of cutting the intimate con-
nection which has for many years subsisted
between the English Liberals and the Irish
Roman Catholics. Various statements, of a
novel c:iaraeter, were made on this subject;
and it cannot be denied that they produced
electioneering effect. At Dublin, for example,
the Conservative majority would have been
large but for some sections of the Conser-
vatives being influenced by the belief that
" PALM ERSTON was a thorough Protestant
" statesman ;" and
acted upon many
influence.

Into the question
testanism, or the ut'
Premier, we shall •

to fix attention on

in England 9. similar belief
Conservative gentl of
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utter indiffilie
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738

Ministerial quarters there is an apparent
desire to sever the alliance between the
English Liberals and the Irish Priests. The
subject is of great importance in every point
of view. At a general election, on an average,
the Conservative party has lost several seats
in consequence of the interference of the
priests on the hustings. The real gentry of
Ireland, even of the Liberal or Old Whig con-
nection, have been ousted from seats given
to termagant declaimers or untrustworthy
persons ; the patronage of the Crown has been
diverted into improper channels; and the
dignity of Parliament itself has been lowered
by the class of representatives returned
from the sister country.
And now, when the mischief has been done,
after a powerful sacerdotal party has been fos-
tered in Ireland by the connivance and patro-
nage of the Whigs—after the priests have been
systematically used as allies in " keeping out
the Tories"—after Brookes's has thoroughly
squeezed out all that it could get from the
Irish priests, the English Whigs, with a coarse
callousness to all reproaches, and with a chuck-
ling enjoyment of "sharp" practice, wheel about
and march towards Exeter-hall, and have
the effrontery to raise a simulated terror about
" spiritual intimidation." In the annals of
political tergiversation there never was any-
thing so indecent. They take up Colonel
HIGGINS as a hero: they praise him as if he
were entitled to be canonised with the Sidneys,
the Russells, and the Vanes of early Whig
times ; they espouse his cause with marvellous
enthusiasm ! Now, when the Protestant senti-
ment of England has been aroused, the Whigs
desert their priestly coadjutors—noir, when
the Protestant seems a more winning card than
the Roman Catholic one, the Whigs take to vili-
fying Mr. MOORE as safely as their dread of that
hard-hitting gentleman will permit; and they
panegyrists the heroic HIGGINS, who braved
" spiritual intimidation," as a man deserving to
receive present patronage, and future immor-
tality ! If there was sincerity or manly courage
at the bottom of this new Whig movement we
would honour it, and as Protestants and Con-
servatives we should rejoice at it. But the
disgraceful history of the Whigs, in connection
with their hypocrisy towards both the Protes-
tants and Roman Catholics of Ireland, for the
last twenty years, leaves not a doubt upon our
minds that this affected cry about "spiritual
intimidation" is an artful attempt to cajole the
Protestant opinion of England; and we now
call upon the Protestants of England, and we
trust that our words will not be heard in vain,
to ask these recent terrorists about " spiritual
intimidation," how long is it since they have
conceived such a horror of seeing sacerdotal
canvassers at the polling-booth, and clerical
counsellors in the Whig committee-rooms ?

How comes it that no attempt was ever
made by the ruling powers of the Whig party
to preserve for themselves, or their allies in
the Irish Protestant Nobility and Gentry, a
fair share of the representation of the country ?
Many years have not elapsed since Lord JOHN
RUSSELL branded the Protestants of Ireland
as " a miserable monopolising minority," sand
at that identical time the ennobled Whig
families of Ireland (with two exceptions) were
excluded from the popular representation, and
their seats (riven to the class who caricatured
by their conduct the people who once sent a
Burke, a Sheridan, a Grattan, a Plunket, a
Canning, and many more, to the British Senate.
We should much like to be informed why the
Whigs never made a manly stand against " spi-
ritual intimidation," in the days when a King of
England had removed from Windsor Castle a
bust of a certain Whig Duke for his having
aided Mr. O'CONNELL. Vast good might have
accrued to the empire if the Whigs had been
more timely, more brave, more truthful in
their opposition to " spiritual intimidation."
For many and eventful years the English
Whigs zealously served the cause of the Pope
and his priesthood, and they were deaf to all
remonstrances on the subject, whether coming
from Conservatives or Irish Protestant Whigs.
• They made no remonstrance when " spiritual
• intimidation " drove the son of GRATTAN from
Meath, or banished Butlers, Boyles, and Pon-
. aonbys from the representation of Ireland.
The English Whigs calmly acquiesced, and

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