The Press.
London, England, 1856-03-22 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

Just so. The " Right Honourable " Gentle-
man has never really been tried. Here is the
charge plainly stated. When SADLEIR and
Mr. KEOGH organised the Brass Band, their
antecedents and prersions were called in
question by the Catbo to Agitators ; and even
their political integrity, " ind something moi4,"
was disputed. Mt% Kll4ou perpetually alluded
to his "balumnAtors" during his Brass Band
oration*, and litt Itierd JOHN SADLEIR, alb%
had a prodigious Artpp these " calumnift-
tions." Au " Indepidtdcid Irish Party" was
formed. The Bishtkig; the Brass Band, the
Tribunes, and the newspapers formed it. A
great festival was held at Athlone, on the
28th October, 1851, and Mr. WILLIAM KEOGH
spoke as follows :
As long as I have the confidence of the people, I declare,
in the most solemn manner, before this august assembly,
I shall not regard any party. I know that the road I take
does not lead to preferment. Ido not belong to the Whigs.
I NEVER WILL BELONG TO TILE WHIGS. Idu not belong to
the Tories : I never will belong to them. I have read in
the newspapers this morning that Mr. Frederick Peel has
joined the Whig Government, and that it is likely men of
whose acquaintance I ass proud (Duke of Newcastle, Sir
James Graham, &c.,) will become component parts of the
Administration. Here, in the presence of my consti-
tuents and my country, I solemnly declare that if there
was a Peelite Administration in power to-morrow, it would
be nothing to me.

But he went still much farther, and said, as
if contemplating a Coalition, "If all the
" Peelites in the House joined the Whig
" Administration, I would be their unmitigated,
" their untiring, their indefatigable opponent,
" until we obtained full justice." Ay! and let
us see how this " Right Honourable " Gentle
man defined justice. He said :

I can state the terms of it well. I will not support any
party which does not make it the first ingredient of their
political existence to repeal the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill. Do
not imagine I am the man who, for the sake of exciting a
momentary cheer, or gaining a temporary triumph, would
say the thing to be done is easy. Jt is not an easy work.
Years may roll by before it is accomplished. But 1 believe
it will be finally accomplished. I will not join any party
which does not go much farther than that. 1 will have no•
thing to do with any party which will not consent to
remove from off the Catholics of this country the intoler-
able burden of sustaining a Church Establishment.
These declarations were contained in a
printed report of Mr. KEOGH'S speech, and
circulated in a pamphlet form, which he took
out of his pocket at some meetings, and re-
ferred to afterwards. Now, with reference to
his anterior and subsequent conduct, those
declarations are most extraordinary. Such
were strange opinions fur a " Conservative
Catholic " to have uttered—one who had en-

tered Parliament under the auspices of a Tory
capitalist. But he even confirmed that speech
by his address at Cork, when he distinctly re-
ferred to it. On the Bth of March, 1852, ‘‘ hen
in company with JOHN SADLEIR, the " Right
Honourable " Gentleman canvassed fur Mr.
SCULLY, and said :
I declared, in the presence of the bishops of Ireland,
and of my colleagues in Parliament, that, let the Minister
of the day be who he may—let him be the Earl of Derby,
let him be Sir James Graham, or Lord John Russell—il was
all the same to us; and, so HELP ME GOD, no matter who
the Minister may be, no matter who the party in power may
be; I never will support that Minister, or that party,
unless he comes into power prepared to carry the measures
which universal popular Ireland demands. I have seconded
the proposition of Mr. Sharman Crawford in the House of
Commons, so HELP ME GOD, upon that and every other
question to which I have given my adherence. I shall be,
and I know every one of my friends is as determined as
myself, an unflinching, an undeviating, unalterable sup-
porter of it.
All must see that these speeches, and Mr.
KEOGH'S subsequent acts, do substantiate a
most grave charge of political Sad leirism against
him. Was it not strange that Mr. SIDNEY
HERBERT, in 1852, gave a candidate like that
the su►n of 1001.? Is Mr. HERBERT in the
habit of giving subscriptions to candidates
who have "no party " claims on hint? But
was it not still stranger that a candidate for a
high Crown office in Ireland should have re-
quired a subscription from several English
gentlemen? Why could he not have applied
publicly for it amongst the Catholics of Ireland,
as several popular Irish M.I s. have done Why
all that secrecy? Why was EDMUND O'FLA-
HERTY selected to ask for funds in England for
the return of an Irish Catholic barrister?
Then, when he vaulted into power as Solici-
tor-General, charges came against him from
various quarters. We confirmed some of them
last week. The Whigs, to their shame,

SATURDAY,

dropped Mr. HATCHELL and Mr. HUGHES, who
had been Irish Crown officers in the Russell
Ministry, and they took utit—s-WILLIAM KEOGH!
When that did aid a rush made by
Irish Parfititers tnt conitituencies, and
there isA whole t hg Irish " Liberal"
la %vet" noW in Pa ineft and absent from
their irofliiiiional p ice it Dublin.
I
Th sitf tlit,t iei*al guards had been
it
lavish ' diii. a paltilc 11iventurer, when the
declai4ier b the p A PAH4I had been unjustly
promotd4 over the learning and purely
forensic talent of their Bar. They knew how
limited was the status of Mr. KEOGH, but his
want of legitimate pretensions for such
elevated posts as he audaciously attained
shall be amply proved by us as we proceed.
Such is the man that the Sadleirite
organs would like to see a judge. For our
parts we do not like even to see the " Right
Honourable " Gentleman acting as Attorney-
General. A committee of the House of
Commons declined to try him on a charge of
political and Parliamentary Sadleirism. We
think him obnoxious to such an indictment;
and as other Crown officers have been passed
by, the same thing might possibly occur again.
Trying Mr. KEOGH'S conduct, even by the low
standard of political morality in our time, we
think it flagrant ; and we think, like " all
" abnormal careers, it tends to its own ruin and
" exhaustion." We shall illustrate in more
detail that career at a future time ; hut in the
mean while we must press upon the attention
of our readers how serious has been the respor.•
sibility of those high political parties in Eng-
land who gave the lustre of great official posi-
tion to such persons as JOHN SADLELR, EDMUND
O'FLAHERTY, and Mr. WILLIAM KEOGH.