The Sun.
London, England, 1837-11-02 00:00:00

TILE SUN, LONDON, TB URSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1837

NORTHAIIIPTON MUNICIPAL
ELECTION.

Alas! for the hopes of the Tories in this borough—
they have again had the temerity to tempt public opinion,
and have again suffered defeat. The election for six
Councillors has taken place to-day, and each of the three
wards has returned Reformers.- The east and west wards
were carried triumphantly, the lowest Liberal candidate
being greatly a-head of the Tories ; whilst in the south
ward, in which the Tories fondly imagined lay their strength,
they were beaten by a majority of seven.
The following is the close of the poll :

DISSOLUTION OF THE GENERAL

ASSOCIATION.

• (From the Morning Advertiser and Morning Herald Express.)
Dublin, October 31.
The approaching dissolution of the General Association
occupies the attention of the public mind to the exclusion
of every other topic. Many people entertain opinions on
this subject in perfect unison with those expressed in the
Advertiser of Saturday last.' As I have stated before, such
is the implicit confidence reposed in the wisdom of O'Con-
nell, that even those well qualified to judge for themselves
hesitate to place their own opinions or sentiments in oppo-
sition to his. Experience has shown that O'Connell is
almost invariably right. Even his mistakes have tended in
the end to gdod and useful purposes. He is known to be
an accurate calculator of probabilities—his motives are
above suspicion—the whole aim and object of his life has
been to advance the interests his country, and few people,
at least in Ireland, feel inclined to question the means he
uses to obtain so desirable an end.
Mr. O'Connell arrived in town last night at twelve
o'clock. The Hon. Gentleman was waited on this morn-
ing by large numbers of his personal friends, and I un-
derstand from a gentleman who bad a long interview with
him, that he is full of hope for his country, and confidently
anticipates the attainment of justice from the combined in-
fluence of the Queen and her Ministers.
GENERAL ASSOCIATION.
This day the General Association met, pursuant to ad-
journment, at the Great Rooms, Corn Exchange. The
meeting waV densely crowded—the gallery was thronged
with ladies. The Countess and Countess Dowager of
Clanricarde were present, and sat in the body of the house.
At twenty-five minutes past three o'clock; Mr. O'Connell
(who had arrived in town at twelve o'clock the preceding
night) entered the room and was received with immense
cheering. We never saw the Hon. and Learned Gentle-
man appear in better health or spirits.
LELAND CROSTUSVAITE, Esq., was called to the Chair.
The SECRETARY (Mr. French) read the minutes of the
last day's proceedings, and the several notices entered in
Mr. O'Connell's name, which stood for discussion this day,
all with a view to the 'dissolution of the Association.
Mr. O'CONNELL rose amidst the most deafening cheer-
ing. He handed in the subscription of Mr. Wm. Cudden,
and proposed him a member of the Association. The gen-
tleman was an Englishman, an inhabitant of Bungay, Suf-
folk—a townsman of that enlightened and consistent friend
of liberty, Mr. Childs, who had suffered imprisonment
rather than sanction a tax which was opposed to his con-
science and all rational liberty. It was his (Mr. O'Con-
nell's) boast to possess the personal friendship of such a
man. He begged to move the admission of Mr. Cudden.
The motion was seconded and unanimously passed.
Mr. O'Coarareee again rose, and spoke nearly as follows :
Mr. Chairman—l rise, in pursuance of the notice which
stands in my name for the dissolution of this body, to ad-
dress you, and I confess I do so with much embarrassment.
My mind is filled with hesitation and affliction at the step
which I have thought it my duty to take, believing, as I
firmly do, that Ireland can alone depend on her own
energies and inate resources. Notwithstanding the kind
friends and influential supporters she at present possesses,
it may be said that a measure, such as I now bring under
the consideration of this Meeting—a measure for the an-
nihilation and dissolution of the Association, is one of im-
portance, and so it is. My motto is—
" Hereditary bondsmen, know ye not,
Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow !"
From the moment I read these lines from Lord Byron,
I adopted them as my motto, as the means by which
I should endeavour to procure the liberation of my
country. By working with our own resources, with those
lines ever in my mind, Irishmen first obtained freedom
for the Protestant Dissenters before they themselves
procured Catholic Emancipation ; and they procured it,
not because the enlightenment of the times required
it—not because it was a question of justice and right
—not because Irish Catholics were entitled to it by
every law, human and divine. No ; the Duke of Wel-
lington and Sir Robert Peel did not put it on any such
public grounds as these—no, they admitted the claims of the
Roman Catholics because they were —. Shall I say
afraid ? They granted the measure, at all events, because
they anticipated serious consequences ; and by our union,
our energy, and our determination, we forced the brave
Duke of Wellington, and the cunningest statesman that
ever presided at the councils of a Sovereign, Sir Robert
Peel, to pass a measure of long withheld justice.—(Cheers.)
Men may speculate on achieving a particular object on what
may be done, but we may relay on again doing that which
we have done once before : we beat them before we ob-
tained what we fought for, what was justly owing to us,
and we will do so again, by peaceable, unanimous, and consti-
tutional means. I rely altogether on what we are.to ac-
complish by our own means ; on a legal combination and
organization, to obtain legal purposes, I place my depen-
dence ; and avowing these principles I may be asked how
I am to obtain the confidence of the people and the con-
currence of the meeting, in a measure having for its ob.
ject the dissolution and disorganization of this body ?
(Cheering.) It is a contradiction I admit, advocating
on the one hand organization and dissolution, and pro-
posing on the other dissolution and disorganization. I
found my claim to the confidence, to the unlimited
confidence of this meeting and of the people, because
of the abuse I am receiving. I am the most abused
man in the world. I always felt within myself that
when this torrent of continued abuse slackened, that my
exertions for the welfare of my country must also have
slackened, for the one is the inevitable consequence of the
other. They rail at and calumniate me—from John
O'Groat's House in the northern extremity, and from Cape
Clear to the Hill of Howth. nen the people of Ireland,
did I not deserve this treatment from her enemies, I would
not be deserving of this correspondence. Sergeant Jack-
son, who is getting up his budget for the next Session—
(Laughter)—has assailed me from Bandon, about the
speech which I am alleged to have delivered in Carlow.
This man, who used to go to the Circuit with me, should
have known that on the appearance of that allegation, I
contradicted it. I was sustained by the High Sheriff of
the county, who wrote to that effect by Mr. Haughton, a
Protestant Magistrate ; and by the estimable and pious
Roman Catholic Bishop, who sat at my right at that din-
ner, and who now sits in a more transcendent place. Oh,
by how far ! the reward of his unostentatious sanctity, his ex-
emplary and benevolent life—an honour to his station, and
an ornament to his Church. On the factory question, I am
calumniated too ; and I wish once for ever to set that busi-
ness at rest. It was called a venal vote—yes, Professor
Wilson, to whose praises I see no end in the English papers,
was the originator of that slander—at least it was in his
paper it first appeared. He was editor of Blackwood's
Magazine. I will now again contradict the base unfounded
story, and state the case as it happened.—( Hear, hear.)
It was stated that I got a 1,0001. for proposing that the
Bill should be discussed by a Committee. The circum-
stances attending that Bill were these :—lt was brought
in by Mr. Poulett Thomson merely to suspend the falling
in of children, under the age of thirteen years, within the
eight year Bill. I went down to vote against the Bill. I
heard it stated—and it was admitted that it was stated—
that 25,000 children would be put out of employment if
the Bill passed, and this was confirmed by subsequent evi-
dence, that at that age, so far from factory work being in-
jurious to children, the number of deaths in the cotton
factories of children in this employment is only one out of
five to other trades in England, proving its salubrity.—
(Cheers.) And, again, Sir Robert Peel carried my vote
that night, for he pressed upon the Ministers the appoint-
ment of inspectors for the protection of the factory children,
Mr. Poulett Thomson admitting four men were too few for
that purpose, and promising, if the Bill went into Com-
mittee upon that account, to have the facts discussed.—
( Hear, hear.) I acted upon that occasion merely for the
advantage of the children themselves, and would to God
children of thirteen years' old in Ireland could earn the
money which the English factory children might have
earned.—( Hear, hear, hear.) The matter never went
further. I beg pardon for trespassing upon you by an
allusion to Sergeant Jackson's calumnies. I now come
back to the topic with which I commenced—l ask for
your confidence. I admit the eminent utility of the Asso-
ciation—l am sure it was the means of liberating Car-
low—of saving Longford from Tory tyranny. ( Hear,
hear.) I know its influence in driving out a Tory from
Athlone ; and I do not believe there was a single Tory
displaced in Ireland that the organization sif the popular
force cbuld not he traced to the exertions of the Associa-
tion.—(Hear, hear.) We have done eminent service—we
have been eminently useful ; and if ever there was a coun-
try that required the assistance of such an Association, it
manifestly is Ireland.—(Hear, hear.) Why ? Because
the disorganized state of public opinion, with so much of
the magistracy opposed to the country, with so much of
the squirearchy, the enemies of the people, by whom they
are surrounded, with so many of the wealthy clergy 'de-
cidedly opposed to everything that could increase the li-
berty and prosperity of the Irish people—(hear, hear)—
and in this state of society there is nothing so necessary
as open, avowed, public, and constitutional combination.
_(Hear.) In alluding to this topic, I cannot avoid men-
tioning another species of combination, that is as much to
be condemned as the other is to be praised. I mean
the secret associations, the associations hound by- oaths
that once existed in many parts of Ireland, and which
I continued to put down in any place that it at any
time showed its head—l mean the Ribbon Society.—
(Hear, hear.) That Society was instituted by our enemies.
I It was commenced by the Orange party, and its progress
was even stopped by our pacificators, who convicted the
, spy who went down to Kilkenny to spread the spirit of
- combination throughout the country.—( Hear.) I am the
t more anxious to speak upon this subject now because com-
bination prowls to a great extent amongst the workmen in

Dublin.--(Hear.) Two or three times it has produced
murder in our streets. Dublin stands particularly polluted
by that species of combination.—( Hear, and cheers.) Why,
it is a senseless combination. If they force the mercantile
,men from employing persons at the rate of wages which
they can give them with profit, they will drive them out
of the city of Dublin, and destroy their own trade.—(llear,
hear.) Why, what has happened in ship-building ? Mer-
cantile men arc obliged to send to Liverpool to repair their
ships, which might, under different circumstances, be re-
paired in Dublin.—(Hear.) Men who, giving a fair rate of
wages, would be, at a saving to themselves, able to repair
vessels in Dublin, are compelled to send to the English ports
inconsequence of the combination amongst the ship-build-
ers.—( Hear, hear.) This combination has been stained with
blood, for one 9f the men was murdered in the canal below
some years ago. The fellows have escaped the punishment
of man, but the vengeance of the Almighty is yet unappeased.
—(Hear.) I will take an opportunity, and I pledge myself
to do so, to address the Trades' Political Union upon the
subject, none of whom are concerned in this combination,
for all their leaders strenuously condemn this atrocious
system. I will take a particular opportunity of addressing
the Trades Union, and going into details, for I have them
by me to show how much the business and trade of Dub-
lin has been destroyed by the foolish and absurd attempt
to work up wages beyond their natural standard.—(Hear,
hear.) The truth is, the wages would have raised in them-
selves healthfully and profitably if the combination did not
exist.—( Hear, hear, hear.) I will not apologize to the
meeting for introducing the topic of illegal combination,
while speaking in reference to public and legal combination
—that combination which abhors the system that fain would
enforce the poor man to leave his employer, and permit his
family to starve, because he worked at a rate of wages
which the combinators considered was only fit to be be-
stowed upon idlers, for even to that extent has combination
gone—(Hear)—and above all, that secret combination which
existed, avowedly opposed to our interest, though secret iti
its machinations, but which fell before the powerful hand
of my respected relative, Mr. Finn—l mean the Orange
Association—an Association, however, that died only to re-
vive again. Col. Perceval, in the House of Commons,
said that Orange Association Lodges were given up. He
was mistaken. I suppose he did not know to the contrary,
but we ail know it.—(Loud cries of " Hear, hear.") We
have a number of summonses, and they will be displayed
in the House of Commons, summonses which were privately
issued, but not the less malevolent in their effects and de-
sign on different parts of the country.—(Hear, hear.) A
public association being useful, I should give reasons why
this public association ought to be dissolved—( Hear, hear)
—and in doing so, it is the duty of the people of Ireland
to understand distinctly their present condition, what
friends they have, and who their enemies area
hear.) Take Scotland. We have many friends in Scot-
land—there is a spirit of liberty there. The maiority of
the Scotch Members are in favour of Ireland ; but even
there there is a formidable party against us, actuated by the
worst of passions and the foulest of bigotry.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. O'Connell then alluded to the mal:gnant bigotry enter-
tained by the Scotch in former years against prelates of the
Established Church, the cry against whom had been changed
to the "No Popery cry" now. In England the cause was
much worse. The Tory Secretary of Ireland having so long
engaged monopoly, that power having been so extensive and
advantageous to them, they are unwilling to surrender it ;
and some of the greedy Aristocracy who have been kept
fasting so long from the enjoyment of this monopoly are
becoming violent in their desires to satisfy the cravings of
their appetite.--(Hear, and loud cheers.) It is to these
men we owe the national antipathy which exists towards
Ireland. What has Ireland been for centuries ? Was
she not in a state of proscription, and continued so even
down to our days ? Who is it that read the state trials that
is not aware of those facts ? I, myself, read a case which
occurred in the reign of George 11., and the Judge, in
reading the indictment, exclaimed to the Jury, " Oh, the
prisoner at the bar is an Irishman, and a Popish priest, and
he is, therefore, ready for any treasonable practices. lie
is a traitor by country and religion, and you must deal with
him accordingly." What, Sir, must we think of the state
of feeling which existed in England then, when such lan-
gusge was used in a court of justice, and that by a Judge
of the land ? Do they not show the malevolence—the
bigotry—the vile religious hate which existed when those
whose sphere it was to soften down asperities and heal
public feeling were themselves foremost in setting the ex-
ample? Seven hundred years of the most cruel and unre
lenting persecution have passed away, and it has been part ,
of my duty for some time past to lift the hideous veil '
from the black catalogue of enormities, which, before the I
year is over, I will present as an olio for the hands of
English readers.—(Loud cheers.) Oh, Sir, in col-
lecting extracts of those scenes which were enacted during
that period, I have alighted upon scenes of more cruelty,
of more barbarity—more acts have been performed of the
most fearful, sanguinary, and demoniacal cruelty than ever
sullied the pages of any other history.—(Loud cheers.) I
have not quoted a Catholic historian, nor an Irish historian
save a few Irish Protestant historians, who were far from
being friends of Ireland. No, Sir, my quotations are
chiefly from English Protestant historians, who have writ-
ten our history in letters of blood ; but, thank God, they
will be read in letters of infamy. The feeling against us is
strong in England. The parsons have turned against us.
They have subscribed liberally to rob me and my worthy
colleague of our scats—a subscription which has now be-
come very general in England, and of the number who have '
so subscribed, five out of every nine of them are parsons.
—(Cheers.) They are spending money to rob your Re-
presentatives of their seats. Arc they advocates of reli-
gion ? Will such conduct as that convert a single man to
Protestantism ? You, Sir (turning to the Chairman), if
you had not been already a Protestant, feel the force of
such arguments as the English parsons are using, and be
induced to embrace the doctrines of the Established
Church ? •

The CHAIRMAN—I would not, Mr. O'Connell.
Mr. O'CONNELL—I am sure you would not ; and if I, a
Rotr6n Catholic, wanted to use an argument against being
a Protestant, the conduct of the parsons is the very first
thing I would grapple with..—( Hear.) Religion ! no, Sir;
their religion is the tithes—it is founded on money and
aristocratic domineering power.—(Loud cheers.) It is for
the insolence displayed by 7,000,000 of human beings in
differing with them. ,There's one Parson Newcombe, who
declared the other day he would sell his garment and buy a
sword in order to come and conquer Ireland. I would send
those two young gentlemen here against him (pointing to
two sons of Mr. Carew O'Dwyer who sat next him). The
blood of the 0' Dwycrs would do much for them. Sir, this
feeling generally prevails throughout England. There is a
ruffianism of phraseology used, and I am not going too far
in using that word, which is unjustifiable—and if any one
among those who hears me think otherwise, and that I
have used strong language, let him look at the Times and
Standard, which were the organs of the faction. Day
after day, and week after week, do not the conductors
of those Journals use the most inflammatory and abomi-
nable language when speaking of the Irish people ? Do
they not day after day speills of the Irish Roman Clergy—
the beloved of the people—(Cheers)—in the foulest and
most atrocious manner? Is not the diabolical phr .se,
'" surpliced ruffians," ringing still in our ours ? And, Sir,
let me ask you, is this idle cant ?.—is this mere decla-
mation ? No ; the miscreant Barnes, who writes for the
Times, with his worthy associate Bacon—is it religion, I
ask, which makes them write and act as they do ? Is it
religion which makes Gifford of the Standard follow in
the infamous train of the Times ? On, no, it is the pros-
pect of peculation and plunder—the prospect of a return
to power which makes the bigots of England hire those foul
and infamous traducers.—(Loud cheers.) Would they
be combined for an hour if the Aristocracy in England had
not an object in view ? The)'il tell you that the Aristo-
cracy would degrade themselves by a connexion with such
characters, if they did not expect to bc enabled to grasp the
helm of the State by the prejudices which they disseminate
throughout the land.—(Loud cheers.) There is no mis.
taking it—they have involved themselves in a desperate
game, and they will see it out. Let it not for a moment be
thought that I complain of the many ferocious attacks made.
upon myself, or the expense and trouble which I'll be put to
in defending my seat. I do not condescend to complain, but
merely state the facts—for, oh, should the period arrive, we
will stand by Old Ireland.—(Loud cheers.) The Hon. and
Learned gentleman then went on to say that he would cease
agitating for the present, but that when the time should arrive,
if it were ever found necessary, he would again be at his post.
The Hon. and Learned gentleman continued to say, that now
things were changed—the Court was for Ireland, and the
Queen was favourable towards her interest.—(Cheers.)
Was there ever greater folly than to keep one-third of the
empire in a state of' disaffection and disorganization,
which was all but revolt ? Suppose Ireland had never been
oppressed, and that a Sovereign had come on the throne,
to whom his Ministers would say--England is loyal and at-
tached to the Throne and to the Constitution ; Scotland is in
a similar peaceful and thriving condition ; and Ireland, too,
deserves the same character. But yet, Sire, you work out
your salvation better by making Ireland disaffected and
disunited ; by putting such men as magistrates as might de-
serve to be put fitter in the dock. Your Majesty must tell
them, that though they may be as good, as intelligent, and
as deserving of civil liberty as Englishmen or Scotchaten,
they must not enjoy it, or any of the other pri%ileges which
English or Scotch enjoy. They say, " a straw thrown up
' will tell what way the wind blows ;" and the temper of the
times, too, may be often intimated in things generally al-
most as worthless. For instance, there was a resolution
lately passed by the Corporation of Limerick, which I
must read to you. It is to this effect—" Resolved, That
as the Rom an Catholics of this city have, for some years
past, been increasing in numbers and in health"—here's a
discovery for you—(Laughter)—these are crimes, certainly;

that they must plead guilty to—(Hear, hear, and laughter
—" and are no longer actuated by any rebellious trn
dency." What a compliment we have here for the r.ch
Catholics of Limerick!—(Great laughter.) Now, really, is
it. not also a compliment to the Queen's Government
Hear, hear.) " A few members of that persuasion are
hereby admissible to the rank of Common Councilmen of
this City, and to other Corporate offices." 'Now, they were
declared eligible to be Common Councilmen, although the
law of the land gave them the privilege nine years ago.
But it is now that the Corporation of Limerick thinks fit
to say so. These Corporations, however, are rather extra-
ordinary things. I remember reading of a time when, in
our own Corporation of Dublin, Jack Gifford, the father
of the Siandard man, was proposing some furious resolution
against the Catholics, and after lie bad concluded them was
a great silence. " What," said he, in a fit of noble indignation,
" is there no honest man to second my proposition r
(Hear, and laughter.) There was one• Mr. Wm. Smith,
however (I don't know whether he is any relation of Re-
bellion Smith), who said he would, as an honest man, se-
cond Jack Glford's motion. Yet this only other honest
man in the Corporation was afterwards caught with 1.51. of
the .collection made at a charity sermon in his pocket. He
was liberal enough to go to collect even in Catholic Cha-
pels, but though detected also in one of them,-they did not
prosecute. him. He was convicted, lam told, for a similar
affair in Mcchun's Church. But no matter now about
Corporations. Let any man look throughout Ireland
now, and was there ever a period in which there was
more tranquillity and submission to the laws ?—(Hear,
hear, hear.) In counties' where faction fights and, broils
were a disgrace to the fairs and markets hitherto,
the utmost peace and tranquillity now exists.—(Hear.)
Mr. O'Connell then referred to a letter from Brabazon,
Secretary for Ireland to Cromwell, Secretary to Henry
VIII., and dated Dublin, July, 1536, and published in 13
volumes of State papers, recently issued from the press. It
spoke about this country, and the means to be then adopted
for the tranquillization of the land. The Hon. and Learned
Gentleman contended that the writer's views were just as
applicable to the present state of affairs, and displayed a
great and statesman-like knowledge of the treatment neces-
sary for the country. The extract was as follows :—" A
good deputie that is cute and not covetous, who will see
justice done to all his Majesty's subjects, soon shall order
Ireland, so_ that it shall be as tranquil
.as any part of Eng-
land." * * * It then went on to describe the character of
the people as follows :—" The poor commonalitie here be a
very true people, and conformable to all good order, and
the destruction of this land is wholly _chargeable upon
the base extortions of the Lords and Gentry of the country."
That was the cause of all Ireland's grievances still. The
Hon. and Learned Gentleman then alluded to the wretched
condition of Ireland for centuries, that a different line of
policy had been practised towards her ; and then drew
a contrast between that condition and her present, when
the bem facial results of the present Government are
beginning to be felt everywhere. Ireland is a great
and powerful nation, and there is great confidence placed
in her people by the present Ministry. Lord Melbourne
has not, it is true, been vet able to adjust the Tithe ques-
tion—he has not been able to pass a measure of Corporate
Reform for Ireland ; and, as long as the system by which
those measures are withheld shall continue, Ireland must be
prepa'red to show the firmness of her determination. But
as soon as that system shall have ceased—as'soon as those
measures of justice -shall have been obtained, that instant
Ireland is tranquillised, and her people become the most
tranquil portion of the British subjects. The people of
Ireland have set us a glorious example—l mean the com-
monalty of Ireland—and shall we not imitate them ? Shall
the educated and enlightened portion of the population
be too scrupulous and too diffident, when the people have
set the example of patience and forbearance which we
should be proud to imitate?—(Loud cheers.) Let us
have confidence in the Queen and her Ministers. We have
found peaceable and legal combination necessary. Let us
now give up that combination. Shall Ibe told that Irish-
men never gave up combination but they were betrayed ?
Yes ; I am aware of that, but let us still make another ex-
periment. Where is the man that would tell us that the
measures which we seek will be ultimately denied us?—but
our prospect of obtaining them will be better by this gene-
rous confidence. Give me the man that acts right from the
heart, as well os from the head ; it is a feature of the na-
tional character of Irishmen to act so. But am I aban-
doning the "cause of I: eland by the step which I propose
to take ?