The Press.
London, England, 1854-09-30 00:00:00

THE PRESS. •

aspired. We recollect nearly all his public
exereitations, and we observe that our con-
temporaries have overlooked the bestir-his
nope displays. Th e undoubtedly during
the debates oe o . ..o Bill in '3l and '32,
whan le i ci -
.. of Lord ALTHORP 14
a ape% er tiwor ;T 4l,torney-General lu ta
adilitkiiiiil p 'way. His replies to
,fil
attack* of fjp4l6l.Eil WETHERELL were
gracefill and 0 egpilis and he showed mor
readipssa. than hill rriefeds had antieipate4 ;
but he wanted the piuscularity of intellect
required for grappliog Nyith Mr. CHOICER, in
the athletic style displayed by Mr. STANLEY.
That Sir THoIIAS DENU4N, however, then con-
siderably rose in reputation as a speaker is
indisputable.
But his moral qualities, by their superior
lustre, cast his mental faculties into shade.
He was a fine specimen of the English cha-
racter, tinctured not ungracefully with the
peculiar formalism of the gownsmen of West-
minster-hall. He was not mawkishly suave,
nor was he an empty mannerist, wreathing his
face into smiles, like a conventional caterer
for personal popularity. He was too proud to
stoop, and too dignified to offend. Though he
could smart under a critical taunt (and he was
more than once so exposed), his nature was
placable with that manly kindness and
generous forgetfulness of transient hostility
that is one of the instincts of a gentleman.
As occasions warranted he could be both per-
sonal and severe, but he never could be sour
or pitifully splenetic. The man predominated
in his acts and words. Such qualities bound
to him through life a host of friends, and left
him without a personal enemy at the last hour.
As a politician he passed through Parliament
with untainted honour, and his personal pro-
vocations were numerous, and his temptations
not a few. As a barrister he fought for his
client with a zeal that redeemed his errors,
even when he was indiscreet. A s a great
magistrate of the law he was insensible to
menace, and would have spurned Golconda if
offered as a lure. And (rarer virtue !) he
would have scorned a guiltily-earned popu-
larity, though a House of Commons had
sought to cow him. In the display of these
high qualities there was nothing of histrionic
artifice or forensic simulation. _ . .

Over the grave of such a noble spirit we are
in no mood for criticising the bounds of his
intellect, or fathoming the depth of his law.
If not dazzling, he was truly dignified ; if not
to be reverenced as a sage, he was to be re-
spected as an estimable being; if in his Intel
lect there was no genius, neither was there
any guile ; and he carried his good qualities
without the pride of a Pharisee, for his cour-
teous virtue had none of that unamiable surli-
ness which in some men gives a repulsive tone
to their integrity. He was a true gentleman
in all things, and was universally looked up to
for the moral dignity of his character, which
clothed him during life with a great public
regard denied to men who have excelled him
as a legislator and a judge. The respect
paid to his memory teaches a deep lesson for
us all.

THE LATE OUTRAGE IN ULSTER.
As might have been anticipated, the railway
outrage in Ulster, in exciting horror, has di-
rected the public mind to the consideration of
society in the north of Ireland. What must
be the state of that country, where a body of
citizens, without any political object in view,
cannot be allowed to pass unharmed from one
county into another? But, even if there had
been any political or party reason for the En-
niskillen excursionists going to Derry, were
they not entitled to the liberties of the Queen's
subjects? We never heard of the Protestants
of Ireland entering into cowardly plots to as-
sassinate the leaders of " Young Ireland," or
to contrive the barbarous mutilation of Mr.
O'CONNELL when he was crowned King of
Tara. In a free country it is the right of
citizens to assemble for the purposes of poli-
tical sympathy : if their objects be treasonable,
or their proceedings illegal, there exist means
of legally and even vigorously opposing them.

SATURDAY,
-• . _

But in the case of the Enniskilleners IL) party
object was uiwied at, and no language uttered
or proceedings contemplated of a kind calcu-
lated to offwnd.
While #II partisa join in expressing abhor-
rence ikt, tko crime, irip re vet to observe that
i the p n4illen people luty* been scolded as if
they td ictually pevokik4 the crime. Now,
if dip nniakillenerfaiad lapen all Roman Catho-
-4 lies, we vfon.ld kniki 04r tliat they had a per-
fect ng4 to vimal* friends in Derry or
elsewiwgre ; and we c aim for all her Majesty's
subjects in Ireland the right to travel unmo-
lested, while they are not doing aught that is
illegal. The exorbitant claims of the. Roman
Catholics, it'd' their excessive susceptibility,
have of late displayed themselves to such an
extent that we should not be surprised if
going to a Protestant place of worship
were held to be offensive to their irritable
nerves.

Nor, indeed, in this latter point is there
much room for doubt. During this week, at
Liverpool, the Archbishop of DUBLIN gave
indisputable testimony to the fact that con-
verts to the Protestant faith in Ireland suf%r
grievous persecution from the Roman Catho-
lics. To such an extent has it gone, that a
" Society for the Rights of Conscience" has
been established, in order to protect the
recently-enrolled members of the Protestant
Church from the consequences of their con-
version. It seems that intimidation has been
carried so far, that Protestant landlords have
been actually afraid to employ, as labourers,
the seceders from the Church of Rome ! And
yet there are to be found censors in the pre-
sence of such facts who chide the excursion-
ists to Derry as if they had been persecuting
their fellow-subjects in the Romanist fashion.
We cannot forget the facts brought across
the Atlantic by the American press. In all
the religious feuds in Canada and the States,
the Irish Romanists have been invariably the
aggressors. Even this week we read of their
outrages at New Orleans, reminding us of
their anti-Gavazzi riots at Quebec. Their
pugnacious temperament, and minds intoxi-
cated with the "Jesuit's elixir " of propagandism,
make them matchless proficients in the great
Irish science of getting up rows. Taken in
connection with the statements of the Arch-
bishop of Duarmr, and the recent outrage
near Enniskillen, the intolerant spirit of
Romanism is becoming a subject which cannot
possibly longer be overlooked by the friends
of civil and religious liberty.

MR. GLADSTONE.
Mn. GLADSTONE became Chancellor of the
Exchequer on the 27th of December, 1852.
He had earned this distinction by the ener-
getic part he had taken in defeating Mr.
DISRAELI'S budget, and by the sacrifices of
private feeling, of principle, and of public con-
sistency which ho made in associating himself
for that purpose with the Whigs, Radicals,
and Revolutionist:, in the House of Commons.
Having regard to his antecedents, to his
professions, to his general character, to the
feelings and opinions of his constituents, Mr.
GLADSTONE, of all men living, was the person
who ought to have stood by the Conservative
interest when endangered by the probable
failure of Lord DERBY'S Government. Even
admitting that the budget proposed by Mr.
DISRAELI was in some respects objectionable
to Mr. GLADSTONE'S section, the time had
come when the differences in the great
Conservative party, occasioned by the mea-
sures of 1848, might have been healed, and
when honest and patriotic men would have
endeavoured to heal them. The cause of
those differences existed no longer. Lord
DERBY had bowed to the decision of the
country as regarded our commercial policy
The section of Peelites, too, had to some extent
purified themselves—a slough had taken
place. Sir JAMES GRAHAM, dissociating himself
personally, as well as politically, from Mr.
GLADSTONE, had become the disciple of pro.
gress ; while Mr. GOULBURN, and, if we nos'
take not, Mr. GLADSTONE himself, had Po'
raised to some of their constituents a
qualified suppoll, or, at least, a Illy trutl, to

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