The Sun.
London, England, 1839-04-05 00:00:00

pursuit of come measure to reform the existing state of
Ireland. Hence, Sir, I now postpone for a week my
motion which I have given notice of, as I trust that by
that time all Ireland will be ready to come forward and
join us ; and if that be not threugh the medium
of the Precursor Society, that it shall be by some
other immediate instrumentality ; but I promise that I
will not give up one instrument until I have another :o
work with—(Cheers)—and if they do not come for-
ward, and that my expectations are not fulfilled, I will
be ever ready to fall back upon my two millions of Pre-
cursors.—(Cheers.) But I consider, Sir, that it is my
duty to invite all those who have hitherto kept back
from the struggle, either through a desire to procure
Court favour or other motive, now to come forward, and
unite with us on common ground, where we may all join
heart and hand for the good of Ireland. I wish to
impress on every one that hears me, that, without
giving up one atom of what is necessary to do jus-
tice to Ireland, we now give an opportunity to
every friend of his country to unite with us.—
( Hear, hear.) Let them reflect what the consequences
will be if the Tories come again into power in this
unfortunate and long misgoverned country. Let
them tremble at the idea of the horrible system of
grinding tyranny and oppression which they would then
be subjected to. Woe to the press if it dared to
publish a speech breathing a manly or independent
spirit ! Woe to the press which dares to publish one
bold or manly sentiment of its own !—(Hear, hear.)
For my part I have taken my resolutien on that
subject. I will not send my letters for publication
to any Irish paper. I will have them inserted in
the English papers in the first instance, and they
will then be only copied into the Irish papers. They
dare not prosecute them in England, and they will be
ashamed to prosecute the Irish papers for copying that
for which they dared not prosecute them in England.
(Cheers and laughter.) I say this, not that lam afraid
that the Tories will come into power in this country—
(Hear, hear)—but because I know it is possible that
such may be the case, and I wish to anticipate the evil
even in the distance and in imagination. Let those
who are apathetic, if there be any such, look back to
what has passed, and recollect all the horrors of the
Cromwellian persecution—the cold-blooded massacres
and the frightful atrocities—the horrid code of penal
laws enacted by a barbarous and bigoted soldiery, and
which was so atrocious and horrible that a French
writer said that it was written in letters of blood, and
should be read only by the light of hell fire.—(Hear,
and cheers.) If the Orangemen could point out
a time when we were guilty of such atrocities—if they
could show when we made an international bargain, and
then violated that bargain, in defiance of all laws, human
and divine, and followed up that violation by the other
atrocities which I have mentioned, how they would
triumph over us ; and if, in addition to all that, we give
existence to those laws which turned father against son,
and son against father, and the mother against the
daughter of her bosom, and which rent and burst
asunder every tie, the most sacred and the most tender of
the human breast—if all that horrid and dismal fabric had
been the work of our hands, how would they curse us!
They would never cease to utter execrations against us.
But for our part we have but to look back to the pages of
our eventful history, and we will find abundant instances of
all the treachery, and all the duplicity, and all the bar-
barity which I have mentioned ; and we may be per-
fectly convinced that they would be as ready and as
fresh to-morrow to enact the whole scene of their past
iniquity over again.—(Hear). It is impossible to miti-
gate their hostility, or to conciliate them in any possible
way. After emancipation was carried I spent five years
striving to do so, though I wished for repeal as I do
now. I endeavoured to amalgamate Irishmen together
as the best mode of advancing the general interests
of the country and to heal divisions and party
jealousies. During that period I never said a harsh
word, or one that tended in the slightest degree to
revive the recollection of what they had done be-
fore. I courted them—l addressed them by letters,
and in my speeches at public meetings, at public din-
ners, and elsewhere ; and did I succeed in effectuating
my object ? Yes, I succeeded in showing that it is
impossible to conciliate them.—(Loud cheers.) They
laughed at me, they turned me into ridicule, and actually
in the House of Commons I was also laughed at by
Colonel Verner, for having attempted to conciliate
the Orange party. But does not all this show
what they would do did they once get into power?
Does it not show to demonstration how the people
would be treated the moment that faction would
be enabled to wield that despotism in which they
had so long delighted ? Since the passing of the Reform
Bill have we not continued in the same spirit of
conciliation, and how have we been met? Does not a
system of intimidation, to a most abominable and atro-
cious extent, exist at the present moment—a system of
clearing farms and turning out the mother with her
helpless babe to expire in the ditches, and on the high-
ways'? Is there such a proceeding paralleled in the
world—where fathers, with their children and daughters
perishing in early youth by famine, are made victims of
a cruel and barbarous practice which would hardly be
had recouse to by the most ferocious savages in their
most ferocious /warfare ? Yet the Orange land.
lords inflict all this on their fellow-countrymen, or,
as I would call them, if they would not think it
too great a compliment paid them, their fellow-
creatures. So virulent and malignant is the faction
that they have raised a shout of violent execration
against Mr. Drummond for what they call an offence
which he has been guilty of—namely, by saying that if
property has its rights it has also its duties.—(Cheers.)
They should not be told that, and forsooth, because
they are told so, it is an offence, and why ? Oh, they
knew well they had violated all their duties.—( Hear.)
Just like the pickpocket who is caught in the commis-
sion of that mean offence. He loads his accuser with
abuse, couched in the lowest language of Billings-
gate, and thus it is with these brawlers and abettors
of a malignant faction. No, Sir, there is no
conciliating that faction ; and should they unhappily
come into power, I ask those around me to look
to the country or city to which they may belong, and
see what irritation the people would labour under, and
what oppression they would be subjected to. A. friend
of mine, whom I see present, Mr. Scott, and who was
an agent in Clare in the year 1828—glorious 28 !—I ask
him what would be the state of Clare if the shoneens
and Orange Magistrates were again re-organized, and
the people delivered up to the tender mercies of the
Orange landlords ? Take, again, the county of Tip-
perary. Suppose Lord Glengall or Lord Donough-
more got into power there—suppose, for one moment,
that the people were placed under the dominion of that
faction—what would be the result? Why, Sir, even
now it is difficult for them to put up patiently with what
they endure ; and what, I ask,would be the consequences
then ? Take the Corporation of Dublin, with its Joneses
and Thompsons, both of whom are Englishmen, I be-
lieve—(Several voices, " Oh no, Jones is an English-
man, but Thompson is not.") I don't know who is
worse ; but take them and sanctified Mallet, let them
loose on the town, and is there a single man who would
not owe his safety to his own personal exertions ?
( Hear, hear.) If these creatures arc let loose, with
all the hope of peculation and plunder, it would be im-
possible for any man to answer for the peace of Ireland.
—(Cheers.) If the Orange faction get into power, no
man is loyal who does not assist me to keep away its
fangs from torturing the people.—(Cheers.) Resistance
would be inevitable, and no man is a friend of the Queen
or of his country who does not come forward and asssist
me in proclaiming that tyranny shall not be practised in
Ireland.—(Loud cheering.) Let the House of Com
mons be made to understand the machinations of the
Tory party in this country ; let all Ireland be aroused
against the bigoted faction, for every one understands
the difference between the spirit of Orange domination
and that which administers fair play to all without dis-
tinction. The present Government have performed
their functions in Ireland well, and although I may be
told that the English Radicals in the coming contest
may unite against them, I do hope such will not be
the case, for, whatever may be thought of their ge-
neral policy, of which I am not the advocate, the
single question will be, on this occasion, will Ire-
land be better governed by the present Administration
than by any other which may be likely to succeed
them—(Cheers,) The fact is clearly to be seen. It
is as clear as noon day ; for surely we do not want to call
witnesses, and were that necessary, the Irish people
would willingly come forward. It is, Sir, exceedingly
unfair to deny the goodness of the intentions which ac-
tuated the Irish Government, and the spirit of impartial-
ity and fair play which was evinced on all occasions. I am
not about to lose my temper, for nature made me ex-
ceedingly good humoured, and it is not many things that
will fret me ; but this I will say, that it is enough to
make pleasant and well intentioned men angry to hear
the outcries which are raised as to the state of Ire-
land at this moment—(Hear, hear.) Surely some of
you who hear me must remember the day when
in the north of Ireland, it was no uncommon thing
to have one, two, or three Catholics shot frequently,
and that without any provocation. There was no fair
or celebration of any particular day that the Orange-
men did not quarrel with their Catholic countrymen,
and then fall back on their fire-arms, and shoot two,
three, five, and sometimes more of their unsuspecting
victims.—(Hear, hear.) Was there a period during
that state of things that they did not commit these bar-
barities with the greatest impunity, the Jury who tried
the offences being sworn brothers and fellow-Orange-
men, and often passed the sign from the jury-box into
the dock.—(Loud cries of" Hear, hear.") surely, Sir,
all remember these things, and also the frightful re-ac-
tions which took place—re-actions which made it neces-
sary to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act, to put the In-
surrection Act in force three times, and even at the com-
mencement of Lord Grey's Government, to pass the Co-
ercion Bill, by which so many calamities were inflicted
on Ireland.—(Hear.) Suppose a man now rose in the
House of Commons, and called for a Coercion Bill, for
this country, what case would he make? Lord Stanley
no doubt showed an immense number of murders and
riots, and other disturbance which flowed out of the
system of taking land. He, indeed, showed an immense
number of crimes to have been committed, and no
one had a better right, for it was the ran-