The Sun.
London, England, 1839-12-26 00:00:00

to the danger we run of losing that great blessing. Our
confidence is too great ; it is just, indeed, as regards the
Ministry—with regard to their intentions, were their
good intentions backed by commensurate power—
(Cheers)—and if they were certain of remaining in
power. But we know not how long they will continue
to interpose between us and the flaming conflagration of
Orange tyranny.—( Hear.) Consider this, reflect on if
to-morrow, when the excitement and enthusiasm of our
present meeting shall have departed ; and I would ear-
nestly conjure you to act then according to the impulses
which such reflection must produce.—(Loud cheering.)
Did you ever witness such envenomed rascality as
that at present exhibited by the Orange newspaper press
of England ? Were there ever such utterly dis-
graceful instruments resorted to for forcing into
place a truculent and dishonest faction ? But dis-
graceful to England as is the malevolence of her To-
ryism, and the violence of her Chartism, and the ruf-
fianism of her press, there is still a fouler blot upon
her—there is the countenance she gives to the
M'Ghees, the O'Sullivans, and the M'Neiles, those
precious specimens of the Gospel's ministers, who pro-
fane the temples and desecrate the religion of Chris-
tianity by their hideous blasphemies against all its prin-
ciples.—( Hear, hear.) Why, this M'Neile has openly
declared, and called on the Word of God as the sup-
porter of his declaration, that he is not the minister of
peace, but of discord. This is no one-sided statement. I
take it from his own language, as reported in his partisan
papers. He declares war against peace, and tells us that
he is not the preacher of a mild and merciful God, but
of a demon of blood and dissension. Is this exaggera-
tion ? Is it misrepresentation ? Has he not plainly,
openly, and boldly declared that he came " to sow not
peace, but the sword ?"—(Cries of " Hear,hear.") And,
again—" there is no peace whilst that woman Jezebel
liveth !" Has he told you whom he meant ? Need you
to be told it? His hearers wanted no such instruction.

Full well they knew the party he meant was no other than
the Queen.—(" Shame, shame," general expressions of
indignation, and cries of " Hear, hear.") When thinking
of the influence that is possessed by the press, we
should cast our eyes to America. Look to the atro-
cities that have been perpetrated in that country.
And to what source are we to ascribe a great propor-
tion of these outrages ? To a corrupt and licentious
press, which began by assailing private character, and
finally brought about the most frightful evils. But the
English press is far more profligate than that of Ame-
rica. For the American press assaulted not exalted
station, youth and innocence ; clothed, moreover, in
the protecting robe of female purity.—( Hear, hear.)
But the English press and the English parsons have
done this ; for the Queen having declared herself favour-
able to a liberal and impartial system of Government, the
outcry of blood is immediately raised ; the tocsin of ex-
termination is sounded ; " the woman Jezebel" must not
live ! As the licentiousness of the American press
preceded and promoted the hideous atrocities committed
in that country—murder, rapine, even the barbarity of
roasting alive—thus the press of England, which is far
more violent than was ever the American, is now, with
the help of Toryism, doing all in its power to
bring about the re-enactment of such frightful
scenes, and Peel and Wellington are anxiously waiting
to place themselves at the head of the..battalions of in-
famy, and to lead on, or at least to go with the men
whom they would not dare to acknowledge as confede-
rates.—(Tremendous applause.) I have lived longr
and my life has been a varied one. I have witnessed
many of the features of political and other contentions
—but every thing either you or I, or any other person
ever saw, assumes the shape of mitigated, common-
place opposition, compared with the frightful pitch of
ferocity which the Tories have reached. But I defy
their malice ; I defy their ferocity ; I stand fearlessly
upon the right ; aye, gentlemen, and, thank God ! upon
the might of the Irish people ; and I say to them, that
they shall not crush us ; they shall not put us down !
( Loud cheers.) It is said that Nero wished the inha-
bitants of Rome had but one neck, that he might de-
stroy them at a blow. There are too many necks in
Ireland, and too many arms to protect them, too, to be
thus easily disposed of, should we (which heaven for-
fend !) be forced to the struggle.—(Hear, hear, and
cheering.) We must stand then by the Queen and
the Administration ; but while we respect the law and
revere the Constitution, we shall not be the less ready
for every emergency.--(Cheers.) The best way in the
world to avoid a quarrel—to render it a matter of im-
possibility that we should get into one—is, to be always
in a state of readiness to defend ourselves.—(Hear.) If
Ireland neglect to rouse herself—not like England, into
rebellion and violence—but into constitutional organiza-
tion, she will grieve, through long and bitter years of
oppression, over her culpable apathy. But I fear not
for the happiness of Ireland. We are too many and
too enlightened, and our cause is too good, too palpably
just, to leave any chance of our miscarrying. And
there is another great source of unnumbered blessings
to Ireland, which can no longer be gibed or sneered at
—I allude to the glorious temperance revolution.—
( Hear, hear.) I boldly assert that no other country
can present so truly heart-cheering a spectacle.—( Hear,
hear.)—(Here an individual seated in the vicinity of
the vice-chairman, Mr. Newell, an eminent distiller of
the town, humourously exclaimed, " The less you say
about the temperance, Sir, the better you will be liked
at this end of the room !" This exclamation occasioned
some laughter, in which the Hon. and Learned speaker
joined, and then proceeded. Whatever may be the effects
of the temperance reformation, with respect to his private
affairs, I am convinced that our excellent vice-chairman
will sincerely rejoice in anything that conduces to
the welfare of his countrymen, and I doubt not that
he can find numerous methods of employing his
capital and ingenuity, that will amply repay him for any
loss the total abstinence system may occasion to him.
—( Hear). I resume, then, and ask what other part of the
globe witnesses the tens, the twenties, and the thirties c-f
thousands of its people setting out on long and arduous
journeys, to take the pledge of total abstinence from an
Apostle of Temperance ? What has been hitherto our
reproach ? Why, the intoxication of the lower classes.
Those amongst our enemies who acknowledge the wretch-
edness of Ireland ascribe all her misery, all her destitu-
tion and her crime, solely to the habits of intoxication
amongst her inhabitants —(Hear, hear.) In this, to be
sure there was an immense deal of exaggeration ; but
there can be no doubt that great numbers of the popu-
lace were unfortunately slaves to this degrading pro-
pensity. I venture to predict that in a few years the
exhibition of a drunken man will be as rare an occur-
rence as that of a serpent after the mission of St. Patrick.
—(Hear, cheers, and laughter.) Oh, what a glorious
spectacle it is, that multitude of 150,000 human beings,
gathered together to forswear the vice which has been
the cause of so many woes! I rejoice that, in my strug-
gles for freedom, I have been so often and so ener-
getically supported by Protestants, Presbyterians, and
Dissenters of all denominations. In England it is the
Quakers and other Dissenters that steadfastly sup-
port the maxim that in what concerns not this world
no human being has a right to meddle with his bro-
ther, and that religion is a thing that should ever be left
between man and his God ; I rejoice in those instances
of charity, faith, and love of freedom among Protestants ;
but above all I do glory in the unshaken fidelity of Ire-
land—tested by the persecution of 300 years.—(Loud
cheers.) It is a truly noble trait. In the course of
these 300 years, too, Catholicism was tl-see times re-
stored to civil power in this country ; in Queen Mary's
reign ;in 1644 ; and again in 1688. From being the
persecuted the Catholics were placed in a position
whereby they might have become the persecutors. But,
blessed be God ! they turned aside from the evi 'ex-
ample of their opponents, and took as the rule of their
conduct the gospel of meekness, and charity, and for-
giveness of wrong.—( Hear, hear.) In other countries
the government changed their religion, and made
the people change with them. Here, likewise, the
rulers changed their religion, but us they changed not.
Yes, they transferred us to the scaffold, but not to their
Churches.—(Cheers.) And this will serve as a gua-
rantee that as we could adhere to the right in one
instance, so we will firmly stand by it in the other.—
(Hear, hear.) Yes, Gentlemen, as Ireland has been
faithful to her religion, so will she be to this scarcely
less important pledge, which so many of her inha-
bitants are now taking.—(Cheers.) I confidently ex-
pect the blessing of God upon the good work ; that the
suffering so long endured by a virtuous, a faithful
people—beneath the sword, the whip, the axe, and the
scaffold—may at length give place to peace, plenty,
and happiness ; and that Ireland may, ere lona,
be an example of prosperity, as she has ever been
of truth, of honesty, and of charity.—( Loud cheers.)
Let England, then, make much of their Chartists. The
Tories there have furiously assailed us because three
Catholic Privy Councillors have been recently appointed.
Will they send us back the thirty soldiers—all Catholics
as they undoubtedly are—that saved their lives and
property at Newport ? Will they send us back Cap-
tain Stack, or Sergeant Daly, either ? I hope, by the
way, he was a Kerryman.—(Cheers and laughter.)
They raised a terrible outcry because three men—men I
maintain, of the most brilliant and useful talent—were
created Privy Councillors—l mean Messrs. Sheil, Wyse,
and O'Ferrall ; but they speak not of the sons of these
gentleman's tenantry, who are such ready and valiant
agents in the preservation of E egland—( Hear, hear,
and cheers.) The Chartists, would no doubt have
done much better, if we had not sent the 10,000
soldiers out of Ireland for the defence of the empire in
other quarters ; but I can tell the Government, that
should the services of the State require it, we can
send 10,000 more away, until there is not a single one
left among us.--( Cheers.) If ever there was an in-
stance wherein virtue, patience, and fidelity in a nation
deserved the most signal reward, Ireland certainly is
bat country. Truly has it been tried in the hottest
when '3,e
come out purer than burnished gold ; for
wuen ,e Chartists were powerful and united, was not
tiia
Per'" when, if we had been in the least disposed
to violence,tw,vaessness,
had not absolutely-woken or to injustice, we should, if we
'-aoken the law ourselves, have stimu-
lated and eneouragea Chartists to their outrages ?
Do the Tories imagine that ,au,
that I, that we did not
all know that if we had been ill-Lanosed,w needed but
to have promised the Chartists out ,nuntenatico and
co-operation, to have plunged the entire enal.:-ee into one