The Express.
London, England, 1846-11-06 00:00:00

YOUNG IRELAND'S FIRST GREAT MEETING.

At the first meeting of the Young Ireland party, which I
wee held last night in the Rotunda, Dublin, the following
address was agreed to ;
" Address of the Re1:11011g111.11t. Repeaters of Dublin to the Repeaters
of Ireland, especially to those of the Working end Trading Classes
Brethren and Friends: The question of Irish provincialism or nation-
ality is eaentislly your question and oars. By Prividenee destined
to inhabit this island, and in the sweat of our brows to labour in its
streets and fields, It vitally concerns us whether it shall be free and
prosperous, or beggared and enslaved. To so other class do the 1,,r-
-rors of provincialism come so home as to ours. The church reje,coan
its freedom, and the clergy do not complain. The landed pr-Jprietors
fence themselves round with luxuries, or absent themsehes at will.
Disease and Rig ition have not disappeared, neither do lawyer. and phy-
sicians toil in vain for independence ; hilt to our well-;icing the pre-

sense of a protect* hinialature willeindlep.ww•hte lia ' a head ' to the
weifbre ofa family. Y itb:ng deeply this con °legato we lost 'melt wl-
a...A a respectful resoironvnee to the act*. body or the Loyal N 4.
dna: &peal Amodation, Mr...eying_ , as we ono "rely did, that that
town °belong dirties. That refoon4runee, an influent,. il member of the
body, ote,isiting from the pods it had first chi sok .ear °writ:K.l'l'lff the
body (Mr. J. O'Connell) °this own mere mottos witllo.l examitla...thw
or explanation, =tout olCondhation-ball, peremptorily mn oi ,_____l- to
sulomit it either to the ineeling,tb* committee, Or the wax 'uon• To
you.thetefine, as the main support End stay of thriertasociatios, we now
appeal, standing lure lo face, and arming with the toe of any into f-
nroliuni. It is right you *timid know distinctly whit we are sad ,that
we mean. We are traders and workmen of various graded Inhubita.'R
Dublin ; we are the successors ofd population that Rag PR, ',emperors. •
and high.pirited—a population which, is the penal eigloeen• II Orlatief7,
bemire the retuned I rieli nationality. There Molyneux blond it Wombs
defended the woollen trade; thence Swift rescued it to live in hi/Dram's
Letters as long mirror own name. In the midst of a population, Charts
Lucas, an apothecary, grew and agitated, and gave shape and existent*
to the septennial bill and money bilk to the first reforms in our polree
and municipal lass, and our first free urea, the Freetown's Journal.
That imputation offered the firmest resistance to the Union, the most
effective aid to the struggle for emancipation, awl the first earnest im-
pulse to the revived Repeal agitation in 1840, pail, and lOU. Grattan
and O'Connell have contented Ireland's indebtedness to this popula-
tion and also to ourselves, in the meet trying time of Deland
since the period of the unhappy union with England. Our
business with you is briefly this : You have before you
our remonstrance—you know bow it WAS received, 01 rather
rejected, at Conciliation Hall, —we now ask you to pro.
nonce between us and the parties directing the proceed-
inns in that Lill. We submit that we have contributed our
hart-earned pounds and shillings to that body for tears past. We
submit that itof our members have been officers of Ste organ/oaten as
volunteers and wardens. We submit that our remonstrance was net
wanting In respect to the body, or to any member or members of it.
We submit, finally, that we have been deeply wrenged, our services
disregarded, and our feelings outraged. To such of you no consider
youraelves still connected with the aprociation, we look for decision
against this particular act of Mr. John O'Connell—to such
of you as are 'virtually excluded,' or otherwise cut off
from it, we look only for sympathy end agreement We
refer you to the report of our eouimittee, to our rem-
lutions, and the transactions of the meeting, (or further informer_
tines as to our disinterested designs in this affair, our proper
and lawful advancement of it, and the mode of opposition with which
we have been encountered. The gentlemen who have 'acceded' from
the Amociatlon have rightly received public approval —the paws,
attacked in the instance of its foremost lamp and ornament, has been
vindicated and sustained—and although we were not the aristocracy
of the association, we have our feelings, which no man
MU outrage with impunity, and our darn* to consideration,
which we will not have slighted or aoornelL The treat-
ment we have received from the honourable member for
kilkomy and his obettora and agents, is an indignity to the entire
people ; it deeply affects and concerns ourselves, but we pledge ourselves
solemnly to you, brethren and friends, that it shall not drive int horn
the enure of nationality ; whether preached in hall or hustings, we
will abide by it unto death; whoever leads to its issue most honoura-
bly will have us for follower. Between Young and Old Ireland we
countenance no linen of reparation; oo dubious theory shall create
quarrels betwixt us and well-tried friends, or distract our councils;
but, embracing all men as brethren who act by our country us they
ought, and standing star from all place-beggars, intriguing
patriots, and foreign and domestic Whigs, we will continue to dennind
the restoration of our notional constitution, to labour for the attain-
ment and savoring a free, local legislature to represent all Ireland, to
endure for evermore. We have the honour to remain, brethren and
friends, your obedient fellow-counts men,
"Tod Roman Kant Wen:strum no Dentin.
"Signed, P. 3. Bantry, Secretary.
"The New Itcoms, Rotunda, Tuestry, Nov. 31d, 184 i."
IRISH FISHERIES,
The Times of yesterday brings its usual charges against
the Irish for lack of industry in their fisheries, and for let-
ting themselves starve whilst the seas around them abound
in last, demanding but to be caught. It is but fair to allow
the Irish papers to speak fur themselves. The following is
from the Freeman's Journal:

" lu 1819 the Irish Government Fishery Loan Fund was
established under the Fishery Board, which was composed
of Irish noblemen and gentlemen. Toe feed placed at
their disposal was small—about :10,000/.—end was judi-
ciously and economically distributed through those districts
where fishery officers were s:etioned. Limited loans were
made to the fishing population on the security of promissory
notes, to be repaid iu twelve months, at five per cent.
interest. The previous stagnation was soon converted
under this trifling stimulant, into the most extraordinary in-
dustry. Boat-builders were in immense requisition—so were
rope and sail-makers—boys and girls were busy in preparing
fishing-gear—every succeeding season produced a greater
abundance of fish, which in turn increased the amount of
employment and the prosperity of the employed. Nur
were the advantages confined to the fishing class. The
small traders prospered as well as the community at large,
from the moderate price at which fish was obtained in conse-
quence of the plenty of the supply. For ten years the Irish
haherics flourished. They attained a height of prosperity
greater than was ever before known. But the tide soon be-
gan to ebb, and the fortunes of the happy fishermen were at
length stranded. Scotland, which before this sli!,tht enema-
ragemeut, hod the command of our markets, saw her exports
I decline with the advance of our fisheries. She set herself to
work to recover her lost trade. lier economists took the
field with an imposing array of principles fetched from Adam
Smith's storehouse. Bounties and premiums were among
the false doctrines of commerce, which no government
should recognise, and under which no trade could prosper.
An impression was made on the Tory govennuent of the
day—Lord L. Gower was then Chief Secretary ter Ireland,
and he introduced a bill into parliament, professedly abro•
gatieg the privileges of the Scotch and Irieh fisheries, and
placing both on an equal footing. The practice, however,
was very different from the profession. The Scotch Fishery
Board was maintained, and the Irish anuihilated.
The bounty was preserved to Scotland—it was withdrawn
from Ireland. The pretence of a substitute was all we had
for the solid advantages extended to Scotland. To render
the delusion more glaring, the Commissioners of l'ublic
Works were constituted into an Irish fishery department,
and low they imitated the fostering example of the Scotch
board, we shall presently see. The passing of this fatal act
destroyed the fisheries of Ireland. They declined in the'
inverse ratio of their former prosperity. Scarcely had the
commissioners been invested with their new powers
before they put them into pernicious execution. Or-
ders were immediately issued to withdraw the miser-
able fishery loans. lnevad of leaving them as a small
capital to the poor fishermen, to combat with his Scotch
rivals, they were extorted from him with an oppressive
cruelty which accelerated his ruin. One well acquainted
with the circumstances, thus describes the unrelenting pro
cess The officers who served under the late Futhery
Board were the collectors, in connection with the village
attorneys, both receiving, in a!dition to costs, 5 per ccut. on
the sums recovered ; and the name of 11. R. Payne, Secre-
tary to the Beard of Works, became well known in the
assistant-barristers' courts. Decrees were obtained, and the
property, in many cases all the hardly-treated creatures pos-
sealed, was sold, and the hitherto prosperous fisherman
forced to look for that employment in soother country which
he was deprived of in his own, or from deetitution sunk into
an early grave.' The rigorous withdrawal of the little
capital en which they had to depend for subsistence' involved
the coast population in the direst distress. Their boats and
fishing-tackle were sold or pawned, and the • surrounding
sea,' which before was a field of plenty, became for the fish-
erman a waste and a solitude."