The Sun.
London, England, 1837-08-31 00:00:00

IRELAND

The Freeman concurs with his contemporaries in holding
the appointment of Mr. Plunket to the office of a Judge in
Bankruptcy, as highly objectionable and improper. ", -/
the Government,' says this joiurnal, g--
the appoint-
mut Ot the Hon. Patrick p,unket, it will lend itself to a
very disreputable and a very disgraceful job."
BATTLE OF THE DIAMOND.—(From the Dublin Evening
Post.)—The Orange Journals—the E'vening Mail, we
need not say, as the blatant beast of the pack—makes a
furious outcry, because Mr. Drummond wrote to certain
magistrates, who assisted at an Orange celebration of the
return of Colonel Verner for the county of Armagh, and
who drank certain toasts which, as Magistrates„ they should
not drink. Wishing, from the most authentic sources, to
put our readers in possession of the particulars of this
" Battle of the Diamond" which Colonel Verner and
cfraain Armagh Magistrates have seen it good to celebrate,
we cannot this day indulge, as we should be inclined other-
wise to do, in comment. Just as to the facts then :—There
appeared some time since, in the Newry Telegraph, a
report of an election dinner, given by Colonel Verner at
Armagh ; and in that report, among other toasts s sid
to have been given on the occasion in question, was
" The Battle of the Diamond and Lieutenant Sin-
clair." Lieutenant Sinclair is represented as having
sung a song appropriate to the event thus celebrated.
Viewing the Battle of the Diamond as a lawless and
disgraceful conflict, the Lord Lieutenant directs that such
of the persons, being Magistrates, as the said Journal re-
presented to have been present, be called upon to state
whether they were thus parties to the commemoration of
such an event. The individuals on whom this call was
made were—Colonel Verner ; G. S. Molyneux, High She-
riff ; Sir Thomas Molyneux, Bart., J.P., Deputy Lieute-
nant ; William Irwin, J.P. ; Marcus Synnot, .T.P. ; H. W.
Chambre, J.P. ; William Patin, Esq., J.P. ; Maxwell
Cross, Esq., J.P. ; Thomas K. Evans, Esq., J.P.
The following is a copy of Mr. Drummond's letter, and
the saucy reply of one Justice, Synnot by name .
" Dublin Castle, Aug. 22, 1837.
" Sir,—lt appearing, in the Newry Telegraph of the
10th instant, that at an election dinner given by Colonel
Verner, on the 7th, at which you were present, one of the
toasts was—" The Battle of the Diamond," I am directed
by his Excellency, now that the elections are all terminated,
to desire that you will inform him whether it can be pos-
sible that you were thus a party to the commemoration of
a lawless and most disgraceful conflict, in which much of
the blood of your fellow-subjects was spilt ; and the imme-
diate consequence of which was, as testified at the time, by
all the leading men and magistrates of your county, to place
that part of the country at the mercy of an ungovernable
mob.

" I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient
humble servant,

" T. DRUMMOND.
" Marcus Synnot, Esq., J.P., Ballymoyer,
" Newtownhamilton."
REPLY.

Ballymoyer, Aug. 26.
Sir—l have received your letter, stating that my name
appears in a newspaper, as present at a dinner when a toast
was given, which has called forth the disapprobation of the
Lord Lieutenant. Without entering into either the prac-
tice of demanding from a gentleman a disclosure of the pro-
ceedings of a private party, or expressing any opinion as to
the toast mentioned, I hereby beg leave.to say that I was
not present when it was proposed.
I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant,
MARCUS SYNNOT.
Now, as to the privacy of the entertainment :—lt is well
for men to invite the reporters of the.public press to record
and publish their odious and intolerant sentiments, and then
endeavour to escape from the responsibility, on the plea of
the privacy of their meeting. What matters it to us who
paid the bill : Colonel Verner, or Colonel Vernor's credi-
tors, or whether each individual guest paid his quota, or whe-
ther the Carlton Club contributed to their revels ? We care
not where or how they ate or drank—whether in pot-
house or hotel ; if the latter be more becoming their dig-
nity, the former would be more suitable to their sentiments.
But what concerns us deeply is this—Did Magistrates,
Sheriffs, and other public Officers, connected with the ad-
ministration of justice, hold up to the public, through the
agency of the Press, a ferocious outrage, arising out of
our frightful and barbarous civil discords, as stamped with
their approval, and deserving to be commemorated. If this
prove to be the fact, then the letter of Mr. Drummond
gives us ground to hope that such functionaries will not
long disgrace the offices which they now hold. Heartily
do we rejoice that the Lord Lieutenant watches, with un-
ceasing vigilance, the acts of men into whose partizan, as
well as incompetent hands, the Tory faction—backed and
supported by a servile Legislature—contrived to throw
almost the entire administration of justice in this unhappy
country, &c. &c.
THE PETITIONS.-It is admitted on all hands that the
result of the elections has been favourable to Ministers.
They have a majority ! whether as numerous or as dimi-
nutive as is stated matters not just now—a few weeks will
determine the point. That there are more Liberals than
Tories in the new Parliament is indisputable. To increase
the latter and diminish the former is th• sole remaining
hope of the faction ; and in order to effect this they do not
scruple to avow that they will run all hazards. They have
some experience of the extraordinary freaks of election
committees. They have seen them set law and justice,
equity and common sense, at defiance ; and provided only
they can succeed in procuring six members, of their own
way of thinking on each committee, they shrewdly suspect
that law, equity, justice, and common sense, will be set at
defiance once again. In the majority of cases they not
only do snot expect to succeed, but they will not even pro-
ceed to ballot for a Committee. The fact, however, of
presenting a petition incapacitates the Member petitioned
against from serving on any Election Committee, and con-
sequently increases the Tories' chances of a favourable tri-
bunal. Several of the Irish counties were contested with the
Liberals,not because the Conservative candidates had the most
remote chance of being declared duly elected by the Sheriff,
but because they had a hope of being declared duly elected
by the Chairman of an Election Committee. The sup-
porters of Messrs. Hamilton and West, seeing that the
game was up with them on the close of the second day's
poll, confessed that they never anticipated any other re-
sult ; but then, argued the sticklers for the freedom of
election, we are sure to succeed on a petition. The begging
box was accordingly sent round to collect funds, and if the
Evening Mail be not humbugging our gentle friend, the
public, a petition will be presented and prosecuted against
the return of O'Connell and Hutton.

The Conservative gentry of Longford pledged their can-
didates, Messrs. Lefroy and Fox, at a public meeting, long
prior to the election, to prosecute a petition against the re-
turn. This was what Mr. O'Connell would call a foregone
conclusion ; but the fact proves that the Longford Tories
had a pretty accurate idea of the state of public opinion,
and they knew right well that an appeal to the people's
house was not near so desperate an undertaking as an appeal
to the people themselves.
We do trust that the House of Commons will adopt
some means to prevent the Tories from benefiting by this
deep-laid conspiracy against the freedom of election. The
new device of the enemy is a monstrous invasion of the
people's rights—an audacious attempt to transfer the privi-
leges of the electors to an irresponsible body of the elected.
Better to resort at once to the old system of rotten
boroughs, which, with all its abominations, did not, at any
rate, " hold the word of promise to the car, and break it
to the hope."—Freeman's Journal.
THE IRISH IN LOWER CANADA.—The following is
condensed statement of the principal occurrences in the
province :—A. detailed account is given in the papers of a
great meeting which took place in the public square of
Napierville, in Lower Canada, where about 4,000 of
the freeholders of the county of L'Acaidie assembled to
meet Mr. Papineau—the O'Connell of Canada—who ad-
dressed them in the French language for upwards of two
hours, urging the necessity of resisting the resolutions for
the Government of Canada, which Lord John Russell
introduced into the House of Commons during the last
session. The flags and devices exhibited at the meeting,
will show the feeling which prevailed :—" Down with the
Council ;" " No Coercion ;" " Lord John Russell ! he has

disgraced his family's name ;" a death's head and cross-
bones on a black flag with the words " Craie.! Dalhousie !
Aylmer! Gosford !" " Exports ; may Gosford be the
first ;" " Our children, and our other domestic manufac-
tures ;" " Our schools ; shame on the Council which shut them
up ;" " Be sure you're right, then go a-head ;" " Liberty,
the bread of life ;" " Forward ;" " People of Canada—
help yourselves, and God will help you ;" " Papineau, our
country's hope," &c. &e. The Catholic Clergy of Lower
Canada were exerting themselves to repress the revolu-
tionary feelings under which the people appear to labour.
The Catholic Archbishop of Montreal had assembled the
hole of the Clergy at his house, consisting of 140 Priests
and 6 Bishops, and after dinner he proposed the health of
the Queen, which was received with great enthusiasm : he
then proceeded to impress upon hie Clergy the necessity of
making every " effort to establish charity and union among
their flocks ; that they were to represent to their parish-
ioners, that it is never permitted to revolt against lawful
authority, nor to transgress the laws of the land ; that they
are not to absolve in the confessional any indication of the
opinion either that one may revolt against the Government
under which we have the happiness to live, or that it is
permitted to break the laws of the country."
In order the better to understand the latter part of the
above statement, we subjoin an extract of a private letter
from Montreal, dated July 18 :

" The Roman Catholic inhabitants of the province of
Lower Canada have, to a man, declared for the British Go-
vernment, in direct opposition to the French, or rapineau