The Sun.
London, England, 1849-08-02 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF TIIIS DAY.

TIMES,—Among the shocking and incredible dramas
which appalled and amused the theatrical public of
Athens, there was not a sadder or a stranger than CEdi-
pus at Colonos. A man of noble stature, more vener-
able for grief than for years, and bind by violence, not
decay, appeared on the stage under the guidance of a
child at a rural altar, whither he had come to claim the
protection of the infernal deities. By virtue of curses
uttered before be was born he had become the pollution of
mankind. Most unwittingly he had murdered his father,
and married his mother, and by the wrath of heaven on
these crimes had brought a pestilence on his kingdom.
When he knew what he had done there was no amount
of expiation he was not ready to undergo, and at once he
hid for ever from his sight the earth and the sky he felt
himself no longer worthy to behold. A wanderer once
more he sought from strangers a refuge from
oppression, and an acquittal from slander. The
House of Lords presentedonld b
elike,Tuesday
thatasp monstrouseetae spectacle
n
o t
unlike,
nvenerablecouldconception.still
more from mental affliction, came
before the senate to complain of an untoward fate and a
calumnious age. In the simplicity of his heart he had
deliberately invited and welcomed to his residence thou-
sands of men in military procession, carrying banners,
and a large portion of them arms. He had then and
there refreshed their bodies, and animated their souls.
He had done this on the anniversary of a bloody triumph,
a day loved by one faction and hated by another, and
memorable in consequence for a thousand fatal collisions.
The procession came under a class expressly forbidden
by an Act just allowed to expire, and still contrary to
the common law of the land. It is unnecessary to sa)
that the victorious faction were the objects of his Lord-
ship's well-meant hospitality. The triumphant caval-
cade provoked the same jealousy it had always done,
and as usual there ensued a collision. At a pass
where the factions had braved one another a hundred
times before, they braved one another again. A fight
ensued, as usual at that place and that day. His Lord-
ship's guests were well armed, well horsed, well fed,
well refreshed, well escorted and guarded, and accord
ingly they carried the day with considerable slaughter.
It only remains to be told that his Lordship did his
part of the affair in the utmost simplicity. He is an in
' nocent and calumniated man. It appears that Lord
Roden had no more to do with the tragical result than
Mr. Bright or Mr. Smith O'Brien. Individually he did
all he could to prevent the collision, as everybody with
a spark of generosity in his bosom will confess when he
hears his Lordship's own account of the affair. Listen.
It was only in 1845 or 1846, says his Lordship, that the
Act against these processions was suffered to expire.
The great mass of the humbler classes in Ireland were
so bent upon them that it was difficult to suppress them,
even when they were expressly forbidden by the law.
Last year, such was the excited state of the country,
there was a great rebellion, which the Lord-Lieutenant
put down, if not with difficulty, at least with consider
able exertions. When the 12th of July 1848, "came
round," and when the loyal men of all classes wished
to take that opportunity of expressing their joy
at the result, and the Orangemen of the
north came to meet at that period, "he
honestly confessed that he did not discourage or prevent
their meeting." Last year, then, they met quietly
enough, and passed some resolutions against repeal.
But when the 12th of July was "coming round" this
year, the Orangemen bethought themselves of an im-
provement on last year, and a return, in fact, to the
pious usages of antiquity. They proposed a march across
the country to Lord Roden's, and their leader conferred
with his Lordship on the subject a fortnight before. His
Lordship hesitated; he was old; he could not stand noise;
one of his family was in delicate health; so he would not
promise to take them all in; but at the same time did
not like to say no. The Orange ambassadors were dis-
appointed and unwilling to return with their errand
fruitless, so they suggested an out of doors reception.
His Lordship took two days to consider this, and
at last confessed that he could not close his gates
against loyal men—that if they must come, they must.
So on the 12th of July " several thousand " of them,
as Lord Roden said at the time, came with their wives
and children, and three hundred stand of arms. They
marched in capital order, and in such silence that the
invalid indoors did not hear a word. His Lordship
stood at the door, and they defiled before him. He was
sorry to see so many in arms. " Ile confessed he sin-
cerely regretted to see it; he thought, however, that it
could not be illegal, because on the 12th of July, 1848,
there were many armed in those processions, and on the
17th of March last, when the procession of the Riband-
men took place on their great day, he saw many hun-
dreds who were armed, and, in tact, they fired a volley
over his gate, but he thought little of it." He measured
the act by the standard of his own equanimity, and
thought there could not possibly be danger or offence in
firing a volley over the gate of a political antagonist.
Nay, so struck was he with the harmlessness of the
transaction, that, as he says, he was encouraged by what
he saw to forgive his own friends marching across the
country in arms. With all the innocence of childhood,
Lord Roden said to himself, " Two can play at that
game,"and it Ribandmen may amuse themselves with siege
operations "on their great day, why may not Orange-
men do the same when their great day comes round?
In all this we can only admire the unsuspecting naiveté
of a nobleman who has lived through half a dozen re-
bellions and insurrections great and small, and yet can
think no evil of these rival demonstrations. But to pro
ceed with Lord Roden's own simple relation of the real
facts of the case. The procession passed by, and went
into a field at the end of his park. By the merest luck
they found in the field bread and cheese and beer suffi-
cient for 2,000 men, their wives and their children, and
as they had marched a good distance, they could not re-
sist the opportunity of lunching at his Lordship's ex-
pense. The lunch was there by the merest accident,—
' such things are common in that land of plenty—but
Lord Roden accounts for it thus:—His school children
had had their annual treat in that field two days before,
and so much had been provided that the remains were
sufficient to satisfy the ten thousand men, women, and
children who stumbled inadvertently on the very same
field two days after. By the merest accident,
too, his Lordship was there also. He ex-
plains how this happened. "He felt it was the
duty of the gentry, whatever difficulty or danger
there might be, to go with them to prevent
them from committing any indiscretion. He ac-
cordingly followed them." But marvels increase in this
fabulous region. Besides the stupendous vestiges of the
school feast, the mountain of bread, cheese, and beer,
"he found a platform erected "—dropped from the skies,
doubtless, like the chapel of Loretto. Nothing daunted
by the prodigy, " he and several gentlemen ascended "
the miraculous platform, and made a speech which very
naturally derived a preternatural tone from the wonder-
ful incidents of the day. With " the thousands of loyal
men he saw around him—the waving of banners of 50
lodges—the dense multitude, too great for any voice to
reach," it was impossible he should forget " the occasion
of our glorious anniversary," or the principles for which
Orangemen contend, or " the heavy blows and great dis-
couragements" they had received from the various par-
ties who had ruled this country for the last 20 years.
But he said not a word about Dolly's Bra; or about
keeping their powder dry, or anything of that sort. Such
are the plain facts of the case as far as Lord Roden is
concerned. When the 2,000 men, including 300 under
arms, with an escort of mounted police, left the park,
what with the beauty of the day, the strength of hip
Lordship's " small " beer, the magnificence of the
scenery, " the mountains of biome echoing to their
"shouts," and Slieve Donard, the mistress of them
all, looking down on their proceedings, they took
the turn to Dolly's Brae, and there found a strong
muster of the enemy, whom they " used up "
in no time—to Lord Roden's inexpressible concern.
The difficulty of the case, it is obvious, arises from Lord
Roden's entire innocence of the of sir. Our fear is that
he may be equally innocent of future equally unpleasant
results. His simplicity hae, hitherto, been proof against
circumstances that could not fail to sophisticate ordinary
men. Here is a nobleman near 80 years of age, pos-
sessed of numerous estates, and said to manage his affairs
with discretion, a custos rotulorum, and a large sinecurittt,
who does not know that an armed procession of 2,000
partisans through a country of hostile partisans is illegal
or injudicious, or even offensive to the adverse faction.
He feels no affront, and therefore sees none, in a
volley fired over the gate of a hostile leader. He
thought a twelvemonth atter a rebellion, and a month
after the ignominious banishment of its chiefs, the
most hermit as and appropriate moment for is tri-
umphant demonstration. He conceived that he wits
doing his very utmost to prevent it when he was ar-
ranging with its leaders that it should only enter
his park and march past his hall door. It was only
by accident that it got to a field in his park, and
found provision for ten thousand hungry men, women,
an
his park.
pcahrikl d. r e
In; e
with the 300 muskets when he attended them through
rulers of this empire,
wasHe was unconscious of any connivance
rhe scesenni e
found there erected. All the rest—the allusions to "our
glorious day," the principles it was founded to support,
guiltless of the platform which he
htbeaonrhndaeßrdsowfd;th which his tLhoerdcshheiper'ss
twheerree particularaWllee routemany
harmlessabtytik
taken
and
by customarythe
host
and the discouragements received from the successive
clear. Not a child addressaotnnh
nl leaving
tashv.
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sethe s
onarpgi
hailed,
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ntfheisns!
of its dangerous tenindenthcieesptrhoac perfectly
tliyf
itt:be hHell.sd rLeseprdoilsiibpletbfeonr that, even
forcedis the in arms—of whom we have no doubt
neshsieond—id.coTulhdis,khnoowwevleesrs,
vtoer
nocence is wlhtiehgivesappears
thatu the
th the m uneasinessost perfect w e
trie-
compatible with the most mischievous conduct,
and that a venerable peer and magistrate, in the face of
a thousand warnings, aay continue to sanction illegal
proceedings, almost •
certain to terminate in bloodshed.
Lord Roden, of course, must be acquitted of blame.
He
no more knew what he was about than the Theban
hero did when he slew a contumacious traveller, and
married the Queen of the country he had preserved. It
only just occurs to the mind that there are questions of
decency and of convenience as well as of justice. Lord
Roden is at least a most unlucky man. We are afraid
of his
fortunes, not of his faults. The undiscerning
public, also, will •
infallibly associate his name with
Dolly's Brae. So all things considered, we really think
that Lord Roden would meet the proprieties and the
conveniences of the subject by either resigning his corn
mission or pledging himself never again to give the
least countenance to an Orange procession.
HERALD.—If an abettor of despotism on the Con-
tinent of Europe—or that beau ideal of despotism—the
Emperor of Russia—were desirous of exhibiting to his
people the futility of representative institutions, he would
perhaps exultingly point to the deliberations of the
fifteenth session of the United Parliament, or the session
of the 12th and 13th Viet., which closed its sittings at
three o'clock yesterday afternoon. For a period of full
six months the Houses both of Lords and Commons
have been constantly sitting, and though there has been
an endless amount of speaking—very little good—a very