The Express.
London, England, 1848-07-04 00:00:00

NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS.

The number of STAMPS tutted by the authorities of the
Stamp-ott:ce, during 1847, to the
DAILY NEWS was 3.447.009

This, we believe, in within eight per cent of the number
issued to the Morning Hernia, Morning Chronicle, and
Atoning PO( , ALL, PUT TOCIETHRt%
In addition to the above, issued to the DAILY NEWS,
Morning Paper, there were issued for the hueneti7 Edition,
THE EXPRESS 778.714
Which was more, we believe, than woe issued either to
•he Globe or Standard, Evreing Papers•

IMOD "FATED AT LONDOP 14111110 E.
Tata Day— . :crams, 14 ma. past 4: 34 ND, paat
—Daymaa.S4 aus.paat 4. ADAY,... 16 ma... pau S.

LONDON, TUESDAY, JULY 4.

TILE wisdom of O'Coslistdd. and the folly of those
who; opposed his policy in Ireland arc daily and
hourly becoming inure ap,varent. " I am for cortsti-
tutioual agitation," he was wont to say, " because
when it's in the right, good will be done by it, and
when it's in the wrong, there is no easier way of let-
ting the popular passion expend itself—right or wrong
I'm fur it; there can be no safety in an oppressed
and impoverished country without it."
And for many a year there was safety from con-
spiracy and anarchy in Ireland. O'Cossett. knew
his country to the core. He knew the swelling sense
of injury and neglect that was in its bosom. He
knew that every strong emotion of an excitable mul-
titude throbbed in unison—the generous for a day of
rescue, the selfish for a night of terrible revenge. Left
to themselves, or to reckless and unprincipled plot-
ters, he knew that their bitter thoughts would drive
them blindly into secret cguncile and sanguinary deeds,
wherein hisforesight showed him but one dim anddreary
future of individual misery and national defeat and
humiliation. Returning when a young man from
St. Omer, where he had been sent for study, he met
by accident JOAN SIIEAKES, afterwards a leader and
a victim of the insurrection of 'N. The ill-fated en-
thusiast had been in Paris enjoying the triumph of
Jacobiniam, and in the course of conversation he pro-
duced a handkerchief which had been dipped in the
blood of Louts XVI. O'CONNELL shuddered, and re-
solved to take arms against the " physical force" men
in his own land, which he lost no time in actually doing,
when the militia of his native county were enrolled.
But the impulse of disgust and horror did not ex-
haust itself there. Throughout all his varied life his
aversion to bloodshed, and fear lest his fellow-
countrymen should by any possibility be drawn
into a physical struggle with their mis-rulers,
never ceased to guide and govern him. It was
in this spirit he founded and directed the Catholic
Association ; and it was in the same spirit that he
called into peaceful though dangerous being the
monster array for Repeal. His strong sense of the
manifold evils under which his country laboured led
him to desire such a gigantic exhibition of popular
might as at his bidding was displayed
at Tara and Mullaghmast. lie believed that
such spectacles have their moral effect, both
on those who share in them and on those who hear
their voice, as of many waters, from afar. And un- '
doubtedly he reckoned truly. But O'CONNELL had
sworn that never, while ho lived and swayed the
mind of his country, should scoundrelism or violence
have a chance of even momentary triumph. Ile ,
honoured the bravery of his people too highly to see '
it led out to unavailing slaughter. He looked
forward to their eventual redemption from politi-
cal disability and social bondage with too clear
and steadfast an eye of faith, to be dazzled or be-
wildered by the trumpery parade of harebrained zeal,
or the treacherous false lights of the fomenters o
confusion.
O'CONNELL is gone, and his wisdom would seem
to have perished with him. The organisation of
secret clubs—that old trap of crime and sedition-mon-
gers, to which he never couldbebeguiled into lending
the least toleration—is now actively set for its prey.
Open and advised speaking is no longer relied upon
exclusively. The far more mischievous and insidious
mode of spreading schemes of anarchy and plunder,
through the instrumentality of secret societies, has
begun in many parts of Ireland; and to stimulate the
formation of these clandestine associations emissaries
from the confederation, or, as it is now called, "the
League," are publicly sent through the provinces.
Enrolments everywhere are thus going on.
Twenty men in a locality constitute a club.
It elects a commander or president, and every
member undertakes to contribute to its funds, and to
obey its orders. In due time the process of affiliation
will come. Some secret and irresponsible knot of
desperadoes in Dublin or elsewhere will hold the
strings of mischief in their hands, and should they
hold long enough together they may one day plunge
thousands of their hapless dupes into frantic acts of
guilt and ruin. Meantime there is all the glory and
bad importance of mischief-making on a large scale, to
say nothing of the meaner perquisites of lawless
power.
After vainly endeavouring to dissuade his asso-
ciates from entering upon this infatuated course Mr.
Jowl O'CONNELL has retired from the scene alto-
gether. With those who were bent upon such
expedients and devices, he had of late, to his
credit be it spoken, grown exceedingly unpopu-
lar. He refused to bid with them or against
them for contraband influence. The maxims of
his father were still sacred in hie eyes, and his
conscience would not permit him to depart from them.
For the moment he has seemed to stand alone ; but
the returning judgment of the people will, we are
convinced, one day vindicate that true courage which
has impelled him to lay down within a year from hie
father's death that post of leadership to which
he had been raised. His opinions on repeal
and other important questions he of course
retains. But he protests against sacrificing the lives
of the people, or hazarding that sacrifice. He knows
the impossibility of successful revolt, or armed
menace, and he has acted the part of an honest and a
brave man, in boldly telling the credulous multitude
a truth which it behoves them to know, just in propor-
tion as they are unwilling to hear it.
But what shall be said of those who, taking the
opposite course, are dallying with massacre and tam-
pering with projects of spoil? To appeal to their
generosity or honesty
.of purpose would be idle—to
appeal to the loquacious quality they try to palm
upon•the world for political courage would be equally
vain. We believe the ritriol throwers to be destitute
of such feelings. But we give them credit for certain
other sentiments which may serve them yet materi-
ally. We allude to their sense of danger, and the
train of uneasy sensation therewith connected. If
they are reckless of the lives of others, let
them take some pity on their own. We don't
by any means intend to convey that we suppose the
heads of all the MITCH ELITES put together are worth
much to anybody except their owners; but we
have a notion that these individuals have a more
than ordinary esteem for them, and would go far in
a pardonable endeavour to preserve them. On this
ground solely do we venture on a word of warning.
Let these lovers of physical force look at
the result of their favourite doctrines, as car-
ried into full practical operation in Paris.
When the news of the revolution of February
reached Ireland, they were crazed with joy. Moral
force was stunned and paralysed ; physical force grew
rampant with exaltation. Barricades and street-
fighting were the point of every article and the text
of every harangue. A new era had dawned. The
end of the old system of things drew nigh. The
swaggering grew turbulent, the threats fero-
cious, and the sedition ripened rapidly into
stark treason. " Let government touch one of them
if it dared!" After long forbearance it did dare, and
then the cry was, "let it attempt to punish or ex-
patriate the guilty if it dare;" but this it dared too,