The Sun.
London, England, 1837-12-08 00:00:00

etent of religioue persecutioe to the injustice thus signifier!,
,and tell the people of ireland that it is your determination, in
tat/Piil a
tie of the nhe feelings of the great ajority of them, to resin-
v ..otestant domination in that country, and then your
Work
be co eplete."—( Cheers from the Ministerial
r, es. responded to by loud expressions of disse:it from the
issition. ) The words of the resolution were, " That
of the returns lately made to the Imperial Parliament
,;_sin u Ireland have been obtained by intimidation—( cheers
lrin the Opposition)—personation, and polling the votes of
s bad and unentided persons." One accusation they
IT left out—the accusation of bribery.—( Cheers.) The
'gnity even of the framers of that famous petition could
rva.l
throw into their accusationthe charge of bribery.—( Loud
i continued cheering.) What was the next allegation put
I
offorward in the resolutions ? He would net read the whole
,e,'.,lTm—he would confine himself only to those parts of them
supported his view.—( Laughter and cheers from the
ea rested
The latter part of the second resolution was
„s :—" Arad thus it becomes prebeble
tub tres:ed in these ter
the feelings and wi-hes of the Protestant elsctor of Great
Brit iin—( Loud cheers from the Ministerial benclics)—may
e oaerrub•d and set aside by the votes of tea or twelve Irish
:CP,esentativesi whose very title to, the seats they occupy is
more than questionable." This was the foundation of the sub-
s'ri~ lion ; this was thee origin from which it flowed ; this was
the basil upon which it stool.—(Cheers.) The sole ground
.
the subscription was that " the feelings and wishes of the
-,otestant electors of Great Britain might be overruled and
set aside by the votes of ten or twelve Iri,h representatives."
f`e,(Cheers. ) The Hon. and Learned Member for Exeter
r W. Folleq) told them that this wns not a question he-
w( en the Protestants of England and the Roman Catholics
°r Ireland. Was that the fact?—(Cheers.) Wss it any-
thing more than a shrinkieg I ern the fact, when the Hon.
and Learned Member for Exeter came forward and said that
'_e, forsooth, would oppose the conspiracy if he thought it
involved any question between the one' religion and the
other..-.-( Hear, hear.) But the resolutions did not end
!.,t the point at which he last ceased to read from them ;
iuley proceeded ia these te.ms :—" That the vast expendi-
i:we incurred by the Protestant candidates for the city of
Mablin, in the Election Petition of 1335-1836, renders it un-
reasonable to expect of them a similar sacrifice in the public
Cause on the present occasion."--( Hear, hear.) Why I
should be mocking the House if I were to read farther evi-
Cence..._( Cheers ) The Editor of the Standard..is one of
the censpirators.—(Cheeis ) The Editor of the Standard is
?lie of that body which the Hon. Baronet ( Sir F. Burdett)
has this evening so very properly called " the gang."._
(Cheers.) The Editor of. the Standard boasts of the time
which he had devoted to arouse the spirit that give rise to the
subscription. The Editor of the Standard closes a very
earnest recommendation in favour of the subscription in these
Words —" We would say much more in favour of the system
of which we are advocates, but in the statement we have made
we feel we have said enough to British Protestants."—(Cheers
from the Ministerial benches.) An instance—a single in-
stance bad been given by the Hon. and Leaned Member for
Exeter of a general subscription of this kind. But the sub-
scription in that instance was of a very different descrip-
teieon. It was stated right well by the Noble Lord the
Member for Doraester ( Lord Ashley) that the present strug-
gle was a struggle between one class and another. It was
Indeed a struggle of that kind—a struggle in which the
English Protestant nation was called upon to put out the
representatives of the Irish Roman Catholics.—( Cheers. )
That we.; the plain fact ; and he could conceive nothing more
unworthy than the shrinking from the avowal of it.—(Minis-
terial cheers.) He was ashamed of the Hon. Members who
shrunk from it. Was it not distinctly stated in every one of
the newspapers which were the advocates of the Protestant
Party, and in every one of the subscription advertisements,
that the object of those who subscribed was to defend the
Protestant interest in Ireland against that of the Roman Ca-
tholics ?—(Cheers.) The Hon. and Learned Member for
Exeter was in correspondence with the Committee ; had they
instructed him to deny that fact ?—(Cheers.) The Corn-
tnitee put forward an address, in which, after wuch talk about
the claims of Protestant candidates and Protestant consti-
tuencies, they said, " Without an appeal to Parliament, they
(the Protestants) are reinediless."--(Cheers from the Op-
Position.) Oh then they had their remedy by appealing to
Pailiament.—( Renewed cheers from the Opposition) What
Was he (Mr. O'Connell) endeavouring to show ? He was
endeavouring to repudiate with all the contempt that the
thing itself merited—he used these expressions entirely sepa-
rate from any personal disrespect to the -Honourable and
',earned Member for Exeter, which he was utterly in-
capable of entertaining—but he was endeavouring to
show with all the abhorrence which the thing merited, that
this was an English Protestant conspiracy, put forward against
The Catholic constituencies which had 70 Members for Ireland.
--(Cheers from the Ministerial benches.) There was not a
linen in the streets who would not laugh at them to-morrow,
if they were to pretend to tell him that that was not the ob-
ject of the subscription in aid of Irish election petitions."—
(Cheers from the Ministerial benches.) He had no great
respect, therefore, for the manliness which shrunk from the
avowal.—(Cheers.) It' the object of the subscription were
fl good one, let it be avowed ; if it were not goad, let it not
150 prosecuted.—(Cheers.) The Irish were too shrewd to be
deluded by it. They well understood the real object of the
subscription. The iron of former wrongs had entered deep
into their souls, but this additional crime would live in
their vivid memories.-L(Cheers.) He had heard from the
Honourable Baronet (Sir F. Burdett), in the strange ram-
bling speech which he had made that evening—( Loud cheers
trblin the Ministerial benches)—and which contained some-
he hadf every thing and a great deal of nothing—(Cheers)—
thi heard from the Honourable Baronet, to be sure, that
was not a Protestant subscription, and that he had a
great
respect and friendship for the Roman Catholics of
reiand—(Cheers)—and then, in two minutes afterwards, he
began to talk of Popish Priests.—(Cheers from the Ministe-
rial benches.) When the Hon. Baronet talked of Popish
Priests, did he forget that upwards of 1,100 Protestant
Priests had put their names to this subscription ?—(Loud
cheers from the Ministerial benches.) What he (Mr. O'Con-
nell) wanted to enforce upon the House was this—that tl e
People of Ireland had a right to consider this subscription as
a Protestant conspiracy to deprive them of their rights.—
( Cheers from the Ministerial benches.) When he said that,
did he mean to tarnish all the Protestants of England as con-
cerned in the conspiracy ? Oh I Heaven forbid l—( Laughter
from the Opposition.) He knew how to make the distinction
between those who had subscribed and those who had not.
"le knew the honour and integrity of the one class—he knew
Otat amongst the other there were many who were ready to
try. any disputed question, not by its merits, tut by the length
and • strength of their purses.—(Loud cheers.) " For my
„c'swro part," continued the Honourable and Learned Gentle-
" I have resources—(Cheers from the Opposition)—
` "ow it, and lam proud of it. If the Hon. Baronet ( Sir
E• '• Burdett) pleases, I am the patriot of Ireland.—(Great
Cheering from the Opposition ) I stand in this unexam-
Pled position-1 have sacrificed the largest professional
emoluments that ever man made-at the bar in Ireland. I
sacrificed it when at the period that Roman Catholic emanci-
pation was carried, I bad as fair a prospect as any other of
the ermine and dignity of the Bench, provided I abandoned
Politics for ever.-(Cheers.) Because I forgot my ease and
pave up my prospect of the dignity of the Bench, am I there-
tore to be vilified and abused by every old renegade ?"—( Loud
and long continued cheering.) A single offence—nobody
knew it better than the lion. and Learned Member for Exeter
sa single offence—a single act might not perhaps be regarded
18 illegal; but when that act was extended over a greater sur-
face, and made to assume the shape of a combination to per-
petratea, a serious injury against any man or any body of men,
`lse parties so combining were guilty of a crime; and he
pitied the man oho in the Court of Queen's Bench would at-
stopt to say that there was not sufficient evidence of mainte-
blll"
ee and conspiracy to go to a jury upon this subject,—
e ) The Hon. Baronet ( Sir F. Burdett) had referred
' Lthe history of his younger days; but alluding to the glory
his youth,he seemed now to address them in the spirit if
°°t in the words of the ballad—
" Pay the sorrows of a poor old man."
---(Great laughter and cheering.) The Hon. Baronet said,
t 1 see nothing at all inconsistent or improper in contributing
a the expense of a prosecution, and afterwards being one of
j tlages in the case—(Cheers from the Ministerial Benches)—
,e.°thing unconstitutional in a man's becoming both prosecutor
gin the same cause.—( Renewed chcerine.) There
Wee; phases in human life which showed man in so'lamentable
condition as to render the sight pitiable—almost disgusting.
(Cheers from the Ministerial benches. Loud cries of
th°l I.e from the Opposition. ) He should not have alluded to
lion. Baronet's early life if he haul not introduced the
l'ject himself. What was the case to which the Hon. Ba-
:net had referred ? It was a case in which he ( Sir F. Bur-
eatt) had been returned by four hundred fictitiousivotcs-
-heers)—a case in which the Sheriffs who polled these votes
there sent to Newgate.—( Renewed cheers.) And what was
50 subscription in that case ? A subscription only of the
lectors—of men directly interested in the election; and the
defence
was that they were electors, persons directly interested
eitryeloping the Hon. Baronet's Friends. That was the
eeie.an which the Hon. Baronet said there could not be two
bprntons upon the subject as to whether it were a breach of
Li,tilege or not. That there should not be two opinions
Liit`ween any two men upon the subject was not improbable ;
eho,.t,lae astonishing part of the affair was that the two opinions
Thmd exist in one and the same person.—(Great cheering.)
Itst, "on. Baronet had talked much of Roman Catholic priests
43:Ing taken a prominent part in the Irish elections. He (Mr.
dot ecinuell) wanted to know whether the Protestant clergy had
-taken a prominent part in the elections in England.—
cers, ), ) Then the Hon. Baronet spoke of religious assern-
-14: in Ireland ; but had he never beard of a wooden bible
it4a gilt crown upon it being exhibited in the dickey of
ge coach ?—( Great cheering.) Did not the Hon. Baronet
1.1();, that that was net a real Bible, but the imitation of a
teiotc, composed of the cheapest timber, of nothing more
elm Ile than a piece of Canada timber ?—(Great laughter
1161 c leering.) Here the Hon. Baronet took great credit to
Rat self for his high-mindedness. " Yesterday," said he, " I
sell. '4
out of the House, I felt too much delicacy upon the
satje.e,t---.1 would not vote." The [lon. Baronet when he
tlenat, thought, no doubt, to obtain great credit for his nice
Is''ey and infinite prudence ; but he ought to recollect that
if bound by " a pair" not to vote at all. —(Cheers.) The
tub'Baronet had given a sad description of Ireland—he
said
No ;43thing in the world resembled what occurred in Ii eland.
Sa‘Quoulat strange things had happened there. He (Mr.
leeennell) remembered once reading the report of a speech
tby somebody about the year 1802. In that repert it
" The Honourable Baronet took a hasty view
e!ne. Conduct of the Administration with respect to e-
‘itißd enormities and cruelties committed in tie sister
kiat• (he said) exceeded anything done by Nero or
BNng
• —( Continued cheering from the Ministerial
es. ) Who was it that said this ? A Baronet of the
e ef.
- "nes, but whose Christian name was Francis Bur-