The Sun.
London, England, 1839-09-30 00:00:00

REPEAL OF THE UNION.

r... ----

1
The folletwing is Mr. O'Con;ell's Answer to the Addrms
of the Natwrua: Trades' Political Union of IrelanA,
which was read at a Meeting of the Trades in Dublin
on the 24th inst :
Fellow Countrymen—The language of mere
compliment or courtesy is totally inapplicable to the
importance of the subject of your address, and of
this reply—the repeal of the statute of Legislative
Union. I therefore waive all ceremony, and roam
to the matter at once. We are agreed upon three
separate points—
First—That it is absolutely indispensable to the ,
peace, prosperity, and happiness of the Irish people
that a domestic Legislature should be restored to
Ireland.
Secondly—That such restoration must neces-
sarily take place sooner or later in point of time ;
but certainly in point of event. The time alone is
doubtful.
1 Thirdly—That such restoration may be greatly
retarded, or much accelerated, according to the de-
gree of good temper, discretion, prudence, and wis-
dom with which its attainment is sought, and the
struggle to procure it conducted. You have con-
fided to me the task of advising the mode
in which our struggle for repeal shall be con-
ducted. It is a confidence accompanied by the
deepest responsibility, and involving matter of the
most awful importance. In the presence of that
God who shall judge me, I accept your con-
fidence, and shall endeavour to merit it by the most
heartfelt sincerity, and with, I trust, the purest of
human motives—•the good of my country and my
kind. But, in order to judge rightly as to the mode
of conduct best calculated to promote the desirable
result, it is absolutely necessary that we should mis-
calculate as little as possible the difficulties that lie

in our way, as well as the resources that we can
command, in order to oppose and overcome these
difficulties. We therefore must not conceal from
ourselves that all parties in England are hostile to
the repeal. The Whigs are as inimical to it as the
Tories. The Radicals are as little friendly to Ireland
as are the Chartists, although the last, in their
dwindled and diminished state as a party, powerless
for any good, and efficient only for mischief, would,
in their distress and decay, hold out the hollow hope
of assisting in the repeal. But they are, in point
of fact, perhaps more unfriendly to Ireland than
any of the other sections of the English people.
This opposition by the British people to replace
Ireland in the position she occupied fiom 1782
to 1800 is not the less formidable for being based
upon unjust and unfounded reasons. But there is
something more formidable still, and that is the
existence of a party in Ireland comparatively
small, but from union, concentration, and inte-
rested violence of partizanship, replete with a de-
gree of life and power—this party, under the deno-
mination of " the ascendancy," or of " Orangeism,"
is ungenial to Ireland, and almost totally devoid of
all sentiments of nationality, or of any love for
fatherland—the spirit of patriotism and of affec-
tion for country is stifled in their bosoms by
selfish and bigoted pursuits and objects. They have,
in fact, no country, and, in the secret cogitation of
their minds, they look upon Ireland and the Irish
people as materials for peculation and plunder, and
objects of persecution and degradation, not of
affection or sympathy—they traduce, they calum-
niate, they vilify the land of their birth, and the
people by whom they are surrounded. They are of
the land, but they belong not to it in feelings, in
opinions, or affections. This party is not indige-
nous ; it is not of the natural growth of the country
itself. It is an importation—an exotic cherished
into growth and strength in the hot-bed of pecula-
tion and corruption. It has been for centuries em-
ployed by the British Government in the conquest
and subjugation of the Irish people, rewarded by a
share of the spoil, and by the license of insult and
oppression. This ascendancy party would long
since have decayed and faded away, or dis-
solved into the general mass of the Irish nation, but
that its unity has been preserved, and its separate
existence continued, by its being backed by the
power of England. It has commanded the military
and fiscal resources of England, otherwise it could
not have resisted the animosity of the Irish on the
one hand, nor the force of public opinion on the
other. It is quite true that for the last ten years,
and especially during the last three or four years,
the pride and power of this party have been
much diminished by the wiser councils aid the
better disposition of the present Administration ;
and, if such an Administration as the present were to
continue in authority, the party itself would become
either extinct or harmless ; whilst it must be ad-
mitted that its extinction or effectual constraint
would diminish the necessity as well as, the ,desire
for a repeal of the Union. But we must -take the
party as it really exists and presents itself to us, in
the attitude of readiness to court the support of
the British Government, by opposing the agitation
of the repeal, by boasting that, as a party, it is the
link of the connection between the two countries,

whilst it is, in fact, the most dangerous provocative
to actual separation. Yet this party is ready to
join in resisting the repeal, and to traffic again for
its own advantages in the sale of the liberties of
the Irish nation. These are the obstacles, but not
the only obstacles, in the way of repeal ; for
amongst many well-intentioned Irishmen the despair
of success, and the natural indisposition to continued
exertion, will deprive us in the beginning of our
career of much useful strength and valuable assist-
ance. There is another obstacle couiprisrd in a
single word—" separation." Now, w;. epealers
do not desire any separation from the Crown of
Great Britain. We desire the restoration of a do-

'nestle Parliament, which subsisted during a con-
tinuous connection with Great Britain ; but at the
present moment " separation" has more terror in
the sound, because the very notion of it would
appear to be, and would, in fact, lie, matter of
base ingratitude to our present Sovereign—the only
Monarch of the House of Brunswick who has
shown a disposition to act fairly and justly to-
wards the Irish people. How different would the
feeling be if her constitution-destroying uncle were
upon the throne At present the mere sound of
separation has an adverse effect against the agitation
of the repeal, although every rational man knows,
and every honest man will avow, that the only
danger of real separation from England consists in
the present system, especially if that system was
aggravated by taking away all that it derives from
the present Ministry of a ►mitigatory nature, and by
adding to its intensity all the horrors of Orange do-
mination. Having thus, with unaffected candour,
described the obstacles to the repeal, formidable ns
they certainly are, it is my duty to state to you the
reasons of " the faith that is w►thin me," that the

Union must and will be repealed.—(Cheers.)
The first, and I of course acknowledge the least,
of all is this, that to you, my countrymen, I
solemnly pledge myself from this moment
the great business of my life shall be the
pursuit of repeal, that strm,,gfe shall termi-
nate either in my death or in success. I bring
to the contest much experience, the prepossession,
arising from former
prejudice,
success tell you) not a less
or, if you please, the
success in another, and
arduous contest—(llear)—the confidence of the
people, unabated energy, solemn and sacred devotion
to the cause, and such faculties of speaking and of
writing pleased Providence to confer upon
it has
me. Lt me not be misunderstood—l do not mean
of the folly of the blind Chartists, who,
atos
tbieleygultaireynot able to get all, reject the idea of
accepting some. I shall look for, and accept, ) ever- -
thing useful to Ireland that I can procure. I shall
take every instalment of the national debt of justice
to Ireland, but the whole body of the text of my po-
litical life in future shall be directed to and conver-
sant with the repeal of the Union( Cheers.) To
you, fellow-countrvmen and constituents,'— I give this
unalterable pledge, "To make the repeal of the
Union the first and the great impulse and object of
my political life."