The Sun.
London, England, 1852-08-02 00:00:00

• THE IRISH ELECTIONS.
The sysern bitituidatiois put in practiee by the
Irish Roieen Cethelc priesthood during the teceot elec.
tiees work! eppear to have reached its cliinsx el tin ad-
dress which was delivered a eve, k ago by Dr. ?Allele to
the Flouters of the couuty of Galway. It is not that the
various blaspeernies or Da Mill ile are inure disgusting
than others which hive been uttered by other Roman
4t e tenfolditra
Catholic priests throughout the election, hu, his station
gives
point acid meaning to them all. &tore
p%re Galway address it was still open to the more tern-
seet, to speak of the profanity and
acts
of an isolate d priest here and there as of the
ii*enrda of individuals which were viewed with horror
disgust
by
the
general body of the Roman Ca-
tholic iesthoo.l in Ireland. The speech, however,
fo Dcuts away this ground of defence
t beneath their feet. The various orators
eeeniloo whose election addresses we culled some
justifie fry
gmtnts the other day find, if not their
who a'tiens at least their excuse in the conduct of him
withal they c their Archbishop. We see this result
eacaPPrt'bension and regret, not certainly on account
crrise Persons who have so entirely lost sight of their
by te„-,, fec' ev to degrade themselves and their vocation
t 14effilage and pr,tctice.s of electioneering agents
of the wore: class, but for the sake of the general trans
'2 he stone which has been set rolling in Ire-
not be left quiet at the point to which
,' certainly
Lehas been urged by Dr. itl'Hale and his fellows.
There
are Plenty of zealots on this side of
the St. George's
"kennel who will be ready to take up challenge
whi the have eh Ley flung down, and, whea the contest
there can be no doubt into which scale the in-
telligence and property of the British empire will be
for"wo. We are able to foresee, but we are powerless
aakte
alert, the consequences of a contest between the ultra
nay—'3 of either creed. There are thousands,
millions, of men in Great Britain who
asked no better than to leave their Roman Ca-
thee
fellow-subjects in full possession of civil
and religious liberty, but when they are com-
Pell,ed.to fall in under one banner or the other, there can
be
„ollttle hesitation as to the choice. The leaders of the
Ulan Catholic party in Ireland, by their conduct
throughout the recent elections, have thrown from them
the tacit support of this party—powerful as it was for
defence, if not for attack. We remember well when the
late Sir Robert Peel said, in his place in the House of
Commons, "If the choice is forced upon me—if lam
"repelled to determine whether I shall give in my alle-
giance to Queen Victoria or to Mr. Smith O'Brien, the
mockery King of .Munster, I ask no time for reflection;
IDs4. determination its made." The analogy is perfect in
I°,e present instance. The great bulls of the English un-
tton asked no better than to leave their Roman Catholic
fellow-subjects in full possession of all their rights and
liberties; but if we are driven—however much against
oar Will—to elect whether we will step down into the
field as champions of the English Church or quietly put
our heads under Dr. M'lL.le's belt and dance as he may
pipe to us, our choice is quickly made. We will have
oothing whatsoever to do with the doctrines and disci-
P, ,
Itinb of Rome as they may be delivered to us by
lLeciah priest. We detest these doctrines in themselves,
e waer barbarism, s m
the, more averse to them when we witness
the b
the blasphemy, and the bloodshed which
they produce in practice.
The other day we had to speak of Roman Catholic
priests who in broad daylight stood up before assem-
blies of the ignorant peasantry and authoritatively de-
clared to them that to vote for any candidate but the
one on whom the choice of the priests had fallen was to
incur eternal damnation. Tee same wretched blas-
phemers announced that they would re'lusa to perform
any of the rites of their Church in favour of those
i,s()Lers, or
anytheir families, who should give their suffi
any but the ptieste' nominees. Their children should
-°,t baptized—the ritss marriage should not be
B,oleranizA for them—when they were lying on their
onath•beds they should be denied the last consolations of
teleigion—they should be cast out from the sanctury
a
stand accursed among their fellow-countryaier,
ea'n'ey refused to follow implicitly the orders issued to
"'ln from the head-quarters of the Rumen Catholic
fn- This is no question of Derby v. Lie Hale, or
`Hale v. Derby, when us. It is an expression of hos
Clt indignation at one of the foulest scenes which has
"en been known in the constitutional annals of this
countrylt would be the same thing to us whether the
candidates echo have in6urred the hatred of the Roman
Ir;sh priesthood had been men whose policy was in all
keBPeCtBs most averse to our own. We can see nothing
ll
-t asystem of intimidation which has rendered the
theory of an elective Parliament a mere delusion
throughout Ireland. It is out of no affection for Lord
I:l°rbY that we call attention to the language and de-
nunciations of his unscrupulous opponents. Dr. M'Hale
told the electors of Galway the other day that only
Wader the following conditions could they make up their
minds to vote for any candidate who might support Lord
Derby's Administration
"Do support him, if You wish that 51r. Lacy should
%end some fashionable official of an Adonis to invade the
!leered precincts of the convent, and at any unseasonable
thiour to examine into the morality of its consecrated in-
Ceatec —(Cries of Never.') If you wish that your
it:lapels should be wrecked—that your priests should he
fornit g into prison—that the God of Heaven, under the
Lord'
tabread and wine, should be exposed to blasphemous
Lord e! lie was on a late occasion, you will support
•Ueri)y,
1 Noolop.,:rso s Goveroment.—(Enthusiastic shouts of
every Gentlemen, if you wish that in this empire
Heaven, rine should enjoy freedom but the God cf
that every procession should be lawful but
fie.ifrpus Christi, in which the God of
you wish that He should hide His
tceeeaet/
ael'nooc_ iss sal 1 on roe df
!receive d not be permitted to come out in open day to
the
homage of Catholic millions, you will
setihPatP°trhtost he Darby Government; and if you wish
art suffocation houses
of worship which were thronged
n before the famine—if you wish,
when those
pee , those houses are again filled up by the
tr`'n'ing population, for the growth of the potato is an
emblem of the growth of the people of Ireland, to have
them preserved—if you wish to have the foundation-
atone of those chapels, which your piety may build up,
according to the ritual of the Catholic Church—if you
their
to have your bishops and priests wear the robes or
weir profession—if you wish that those priests and
bishops should not undergo a penalty for violating an
Unrighteous law, then you will not support Lord Derby;'
It was but a few days since there appeared in the co-
lumns of the Times a letter from Mr. Lacy himself,
Charging Dr. let'llate with deliberate falsehood for so
much of the above tissue of blasphemy as had reference
to his own name. Dr. Millale knew tight well that the
Proposition of which he spoke was simply one of pre-
caution with reference to a tingle paint—namely, that
Young women and girls should not be trepanned into a
Roman Catholic convent sad detained there by force and
fraud. Can he suppose that the cases of the Black Rock
Nunnery and of Miss Talbot hive left so little trace
Upon the recollection of us all that we con forget what
the conduct of the Roman priesthood in Eegland has
been vtith regard to these helpless persons.?
• We confess that, unless means be discovered to stay
this monstrous evil, the attempt to obtain a representa-
tion of Ireland through theelective machinery yet known
to US is a perfect farce. Priest-ridden and ignorant as
the electors are in too many districts of the country,
theyt, would not. have given their suffrages in favour of
use candidates of the priest had they been permitted to
uslereise anything like free choice. The proof of this
assertion is to be gathered from the very blasphemies
Which we have very reluctantly brought under public
notice. The nicasuie of the violence employed by the
Priests is the measure of the voter's reluctance. You
don't bind a willing voter down in a cart—you don't
Shut him up under safe watch in a dark room—you don't
threaten to refuse him the rights of the Church—you
don't invoke eternal damnation on his head. Wherever
scenes such as these have occurred there is no true elec-
tion. The conscience of the voter hes been coerced, and
by agencies from which any but the most wicked and
Unprincipled men would recoil with horror. It is no
light matter to mix up the Almighty in the proceedings
of an Irish election.—Times.