The Express.
London, England, 1848-05-01 00:00:00

MEETING OF MAGISTRATES OF TUE COUNTY
AND CITY OF DUBLIN.
_

Yesterday a meeting of the magistrates and deputy lieu-
tenants of the county and city of Dublin was held at the
Court-house, Kilmainham. There was a very numerous at-
tendance, and at the opening of the pruceediogs it was
stated from the bench that those present mustered to the
significant number of eighty-two. At one period it was un-
derstood there were ninety-five present.
The chair was taken by Lord liamieton, who mid he
had asked them to come there in constqueace of two requi-
shious forwarded to him from the magistrates and deputy
lieutenants of the county and of the city of Dublin, to
consider what steps it would be nem/sere to take in ,
the present excited state of the country. It would
require bot very few words from him to impress
on their minds the extent of sedition that was
abroad, and the traitorous and treasonable speeches
that were made at meetings in Dublin, which had caused
great alarm among all well-disposed persons is the commu-
nity, though, he was happy to reflect, that these feelings
prevailed but among a small and iosignificant party—(hear
hear)—and had met no acceptance whatever among the
upper and middling classes, and were denounced by the
clergy of all denominations. (Hear.) It was pleasant for
them to reflect that the mind of the country in general was
sound—(hear, bear)—st the same time, the bad effect of
these seditious speeches was promulgating through the
country, and therefore he thought all well-disposed persons
should come forward and express their loyalty and their de-
termination to stand by the throne and the constitution.
(Cheers.) Without any communication from the govern-
ment, he was lure those whom he addressed were anxious,
by a declaration of loyalty, to express their desire to put
down disaffection without having recourse to farm.
The Hon. Mr. PIMISTON then came forward, and said that
as one of the requisitionists he would say he had no commu-
nication with the government, nor did he desire it, for be
thought much that was censurable in their proceedings
hitherto was the pretties of always running to the Castle for
advice. (Hear, hear.) The cause of his signing that requi-
sition was the anxiety he felt at the present state of the
country, for he would never join in any unnecessary cry
of alarm—(hear, hear) ;—but he did course, that when he
saw what he saw, when he heard what he heard, and when
he read what he read, it did occur to him, that as magistrates
they were bound to take the earliest opportunity that pre-'
sented itself to come together and see what was best to be
done in the present emergency of the country, and not
for that, but with regard to the future. (Hear, hear.
Who was to speak if not the magistrates of the county
That there was sufficient abroad to sec runt for the anxiety,
if not alarm, that prevailed, no one there would deny. Pm
his part, he should deeply deplore the shedding of human
blood—(hear)—for he saw as plainly as the son at noonday
what any attempt of such a nature would lead to. He would
not merely deplore the dead, or the wounded, or the ruined
mansions of gentlemen, or the burned hargards of farmers, '
half as much as one thing, and that was, that any such attempt
would throw the country back fifty years in the march of
improvement. (Hear.) It would give a shock to the social
condition of this country, and would prevent the mostardent
hopes of its best friends from being realised. As to the
question of the repeal of the union, or the setting up of a
republic, which seemed to him synonymous—(. No, no,"
and expressions of marked dissent from the liberal
magistrates)—he should net discuss that question there;
but if any man could show him that they would be as happy
as • petty republic—for that he was sure the repeal of the
union would lead to—(" No, no," and " Hear, hear) ' —as
they woukt be forming a part of one of the greatest empires
that ever existed—(cheers), then he would consent to enter-
, tain and discus.s the question. In the suggestions they might
offer to the government, he could say for himself that they
had good and honest intentions, and he would beg leave to
read the address, which he should propose for the adoption
of the meeting. It was as follows :
We the undersigned magistrates and deputy-lieuterianta of the
county and city of Dublin, having witnessed with horror and disgust
the traitorous advice lately given at certain public meetings by evil
designing men, with the intent to excite the ignorant and more mem.
sinus of the pourer classes to acts of inaubord matron and rebenon. are
anxious to approach your excellency with the strongest expression
ef our detestation of such proceeding% and of oar determine-
nee, under the blessing of God, to use every exertion within
our power to assist your excellency in the maintenance of order.
We deeply deplore that en Insignificant and turbulent party should
have been able, by their 'cline,ue exhortations and the sanguinary
violence that has characterised their harangues, to create an much
alarm arnongat the great body of the community, as materially to
panty., the operations of trade and commerce, and consequently to
entail such calarnitow rosette on the industrious claim, and thoueh
we are aware that your excellency has succeeded by the judieioue
and vigorous exercise of the powers entrusted to you to suppress
all icomtie attempts at outbreak, we conceive it to be of the almost
importance that the loyal and well-disposed portion of the people
Mould stand forward to Insist your excellency in maintaining peaces
and rodering confidence. We therefore kvi it incumbent,
under the circurnatances, to give assurance to your excellency of our
affection and loyalty to the crown, sad of our firm determination
to exert our influence, and If amatory, to place our personal amino
at your diaper! for the procreation of peace, the support of the
throne, anti the maintenance in its integrity of the conetitution of the
Unite: Kingdom. We would respectfully but earnestly snbniit to her
Majesty's government the abealute necessity of taking the most
prompt and rigorous MOIAIiZeS to prohibit the organisation of clubs,
and put down all seditious moo-Wings, whether by meeting%
speeches, or publications, and to restore confidence to the well-die.
pined by enforcing obedience to the laws, by preventing the manu-
facture, sale, and indiscriminate pommies of sons, and by repressing
with • strong hand those traitor.. end seditious of beta which are
now being openly made to excite a people suffering under severe psi.
rations to sanguinary rebellion, and to subvert all law, order, and
gevenim• et in thus portion of the United Kingdom.
Colonel efiNCELLT, D.L. seconded the motion, and said :
Looking at the present proceedings, increasing in their viru-
lence, and alarming the public mind by their continuance,
he thought his lordship was imperiously called upon to as-
semble the magistracy of Dublin, and though there could
be no question of their loyalty or love of order, it did become
them as a body to stand up and strengthen the government
in these perilous times. (Hear.) If they took the initiative
they would be supported by all cla•ses in the country whose
opinions were worth listening to. (Hear, hear.) The
urgency of the case was terrific. The business of the
magistrates was to preserve the peace ; and it was their
imperative duty to address the reprorentative of the Queen
for the purpose of expressing their abhorrence of the yin-
lent doctrines which were being preached to an excitable
people, and which, if acted upon, would entail the most
enormous evils on this unfortunate country. (Hear.) In
consequence of the alarm and apprehension that now
existed in the country every species of enterprise was para-
tried ; and in particular the great railway undertakings, of
which Ireland stood in such great need, had been impeded,
and in sonic instances abandoned, because of this turbulent
language, and those menaces of bloodshed and revolutior..
He trusted they would he fortunate enough to secure unsui-
mity on the present occasion, and he was convinced, it such
were the case, that their meeting would he productive of
much good to the country. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. C. Ferzainos said it must be the object of every gen-
tleman, not only in the county and city of Dublin, boo
throughout the entire of Ireland, to preserve and promote
peace and tranquillity. He fully agreed with the opinion
advanced by the mover of the address—that if by any fa-
tality • sanguinary civil war arose in this country, their
children and their children's children could not see the end
of the evils that would ensue, for it would throw Ireland
back a century and a half, at least, in the march of civilisa-
tion. At the present moment we were suffering under the
eras resulting from the sanguinary attempt made half • cen-
tury ago to subvert the government, and therefore he de-
precated all efforts to effect a change in the constitution of the
country by violent means,or any act that would lead to violence
and bloodshed. But, on the other hand,could be declare that
as the country was at present situated, the people were
happy and contented ? (Hear, hear.) He would go to the
utmost in aiding his brother magistrates to suppress may
attempt at outbreak or violence—he would go to any con-
stitutional length in strengthening the hands of the execu-
tive ; but he thought they wire also hound to c ill the atten-
tion of the government to the condition of the country—
to the discontent existing amongst the people, and to pray
them to introduce bold and comprehensive measures of
relief. (Loud cries of " Hear, hear.") He thought
hie brother magistrates should throw aside all political
differences of opinion and come forward as one man in
calling on the government to take tho condition of Ire-
land into their immediate vinsideration. lie would implore
of them to be just and fear not. (fleer, hear.) There
was one portion of the address read by the 'lmmutable Mr.
Preston to which he objected namely, the suggestion
that the city and county of Dublin should lee proclaimed.
(Cries of " No, no.") lie thought such a proceeding wholly
unnecessary, lie would go the length of preventing an
indiscriminate manufacture and sale of arms, but he could
not go the length of asking the government to come forward
and prevent the possession of arms. He thought it would
he impossible to carry it out. The hon, gentleman then
moved, as an amendment, in lieu of the last paragraph of the
address : . . .

That while we arc prepared to mist her Majesty's executive in
maintaining peace and order, we feel we snould be wanting in our
duty to the crown if we did not Infirm government of our conviction
that distress and dinoment pervade society in Ireland—that large
and generous measures are necessary to restore this country to per-
manent tranquillity,
Mr. REYNOLDS, M.P., said that in rising to second the
amendment be should, in the first place, protest against the
constitution of that meeting. His lordship had a distinct
right to call a meeting of the magistrates of the county of
Dub:in ; hut recollecting that the city wan totally uncon-
nected with the county he conceived that this meeting
ought to be totally distinct from its affairs also, and when he
found that the proposed address called upon the Lord Liee.-
tenaat to adopt very stringent measures ho could not but
feel considerable alarm in reflecting that these stringent
measures might, in plain language, be translated to mean
a disarming of the people. (No, no.) If he was wrong in
that belief no man would be more happy than he to be
corrected; but if that was the object, he emphatically
I protested against the magistrates of the county of
Dublin assembling for t' e purpose of disarming the
people of the city. He need not say inch a course was
totally without precedent. In none of the thirty-two counties
of the province did the magistrates of one county presume to
ins. rfe, e with the internal arrangements of another county;
and be wanted to !snow would they be a party to so unpreee-
' denteil, so ills gal, and, in his joilmeat, sa uneonditutional
a proceeding ? city of Dublin was the metropolis of Ire-
land, the seat of g..vernin. at, and a distinct county in itself. It
had no official connexion with the county; and td refore, if
the state of public feeling was so dangerous as the h ma. mem-
ber had described, but which he (Mr. Reynolds) respectfully

dialed, he thought his lordship should all a distinct
meeting, and Gall the 44 registrar out of the borough
together, and take their opinion r to what should be
done. He understood the number of magistrates for
the borough of Dublin was 44, and for the county
120; and was be to be told that because probably
no more than 16 city magistrates were there present, their
voices were to be swamped by those of county magistrates,
who were, perhaps, more alarmed at the state of the city
than those who resided in it ? He thought it a most unjust
proceeding that their Internal affairs—the very lives of their
people—the reputation of their city should be damaged or
interfered with by the declaration of runty magistratr—
(hear, hear); and he trusted, therefore, that those gentle-
men would see the propriety of abstaining in their address
from any reference to the city of Dublin. Now he wished
to know what act had the people of Dublin been guilty of
that they should be deprived of this natural right. No
man's life bad been sacrificed or even threatened; no breach
of the peace had been committed ; and life and property were
perfectly secure, not only in the metropolis of Ireland, but
in the metropolitan county also. He would, therefore, call
upon them to erase from the address all allusion to the
city of Dublin—to omit the concluding paragraph calling on
the government to bring forward strong measures, and
adopt, instead, the humane amendment proposed by Mr.
Fiissimon. By so doing they would secure perfect unani-
mity, whereas, if they adopted the address as it stood at pre-
sent, 99 out of every 100 of the people would be against
them. (Hear, hear.)
Sir E. Borough, Mr. D. Latouche, Lord Cloncurry,
Idessrs. Dixon, Roe, Hans Hamilton, and several other
speakers followed, some in favour and others adverse to the
amendment of Mr. Fitssimon. The chairman, after a long
and sultory discussion, having put the question whether
the amendment should stand in lieu of the last paragraph of
the address, it was negatived by a majority of 47 to 19. The
question was then put on the original motion, when there
were for the address 48, against it 22. Sir John Power, Mr.
Reynolds, and Alderman Keshan, protested warmly
against the whole proceedings. In the minority for the
amendment were Lords Cloncurry and Branson, Colonels
Southwell and Hall, the Lord Mayor, George Roe, George
Pion, Sir J. Power, and others.

THE PROTESTANT REPEAL ASSOMATION.—The com-
mittee of this body have addressed a circular to the pro-
testant" of Ireland, in which they invite their brethren to
demand repeal with "a firm and decisive voice." After
expounding the principles of the body they set forth the
objections urged by protestant" to the severance of the
union, and answer them in their own fashion. The follow-
ing are the chief paragraphs of the solicitation :
The first objection likely to arise in your minds will probably be In
relation to the church eetabliahment You well know that that esta-
blishment in now only tolerated by the English government heeaute
it le a continual subject of heartburnings, dimensions, and ill-feeling
=onset the trial people; because it ie the fruitful source of those
bitter division, which have been the ruin of our country; and because
they Imagine that while it keeps us divided and dibjected, It maintains
fur them here a paid garrison, bound to defend their smentlancy
often as discontent reaches Its periodical crisis or redstance. We need
not attempt to convince you that they are not innuenoed by principle
in this matter; we need not demonstrate that upon the Bret favourable
opportunity England will merifice us again, as she has done already,
to gain any temporary advantage; but what we put to your common
sense is this—a hether for the sake of a precarious ascendance, whkh
le kept up temporerily for the benefit of °there, you are satisfied to
forego the certainty of an adequate and permanent proviskin for all
your spiritual want., the advantages of peace, and the privilege:* of
self-government, and to continue to exhibit youreelves to the rest of
the world to the odious eb•iracter of granger. and mercenaries in
your native land! The moat ardent advocate of pontentant ascendancy
cannot now avoid seeing that every movement during the last twenty
year, has been In the opposite direction ; that a revival of such ascen-
dancy, even supposing It de..irablo, it now absolutely iinposeible; and
that the very irks of it ix only not denounced by the government, he-
calve they dare not trust to the support of disintereded public
opinion. The nest objection that presents itself is, that
the protestauts of Ireland will not be accorded toleration
by any Irish parliament. Putting ankle foe a moment the
fact, that a catholic, liberal, and conciliatory spirit is evidently pro.
greasing amongst all dithoodnationa of Christians in Ireland (notwith-
standing the efforts of some fanatical pemons on the one aide as welt
on the other to create ill feellogband that any attempt to pro eoute on
account of religious opinionsesould now be met by the Christian world
with universal execration—we ask you are two millions of protestant":
in Ireland few able to defend themselves than a much smaller nume-
rical proportion in Prance, or Belgium, or AuttrLa I or are they com-
posed for the most part of the educated and propertied glades, afraid
to trust the defence of their religious liberty to their own activity.
energy, and perseverance! The probability of any such contests to
moreover diminished by the knowledge on the par: of the Boman
esthetics, that the English government would be but too
welling again to interpose M our internal affairs, and to reconquer
the country when 'inking under the exhaustion of a religious mfr.
We anticipate one more objeetioes—oantely, that In the event of a re-
peal of the union colliximes between the Male and English parlia-
ments on matters of foreign policy would be unavoidable. To this It
' may be "Olden( to reply that In oar restored legislature we neither
demand nor desire to interfere with the colonies ordepeadenciee of
• Great Britain. We claim the right of applotting„ and con-
trolling our own revenues, of regulating our own Internal affair.; In
a word, of minding our own business in our own country. This we
• mall continue to demand, and thP we are onovineed we shall obtain

We take Me occasion agile to dlecistin any intention of interfering
with the prerogatives of our sovereign, the rights of the public cre-
ditor, of disturbing the pretent settlement of private property, or in
any other manner whatever promoting confusion or revolution. We
feel it L• sufficient to allude thus briefly to that point for anionlivi
the numberless accusations preferred stigma Irlah protestant., the
desire of anarchy ha. never yet been laid to their charge.