The Sun.
London, England, 1831-08-27 00:00:00

zonal.), alluded to by the Hon. Member for Dundalk, who
said that he (Mr, O'Connell) had never expressed his com-
misseration of the victims of atrocities that were perpetrated
in the South of Ireland. There could be no assertion more
nnfounded.—(Hear.) The Hon. Member had never heard
him mention those atrocities without expressing the utmost
grief and abhorrence.—(Hear, hear.) As to what had
been said by a Noble Lord, with respect to the body of
gentlemen who waited on the Prime Minister, and of
whom he (Mr. O'Connell) ha I the honour to be one, lie
attached but little importance to it. Indeed, there could
not be found anywhere a more ignorant body than the
Irish aristocracy; but, above all things, they were espe-
cially ignorant of all that concerned Ireland. Even when
they resided there, they saw nothing of the people, and
learned nothing of their want or interests ; deriving all
their information from parasites and flatterers. Looking
to the constitution of an hereditary Legislature, it was not
wonderful that half-maniacs should be found in it. The
lion. Member fur Dundalk would not admit that any of the
Orangemen were exotics in Ireland. But he would ask the
Hon. Gentleman himself, was he not one? and how did
be contrive to win the sweet voices of the Orangemen of
Dundalk, when he wooed them in a dialect which they
could scarcely understand.—(Laughter.) How did it
happen that from being nothing in Scotland, he became
a Legislator for Ireland.—(Laughter.) Huge and sweeping
assertions had been made by the Hon. Member for Dun-
dalk, and the House would judge how far assertions coining
from such a quarter were entitled to credit, when he re-
minded them of what took place between him and that
lion. Member respecting a letter of the Rev. Mr. Murphy,
of the county of Clare. The Hon. Member for Dundalk,
on the occasion to which he alluded, produced what pur-
ported to be a letter from that Rev. Gentleman. He (Mr.
O'Connell) detected in it a Scoticism, and also perceived
that it was not in the hand-writing of Mr. Murphy. The
Hon. Member for Dundalk, however, read it as the letter
of Mr. Murphy, but when more particularly questioned on
the point, said that it was only a copy, but that he would
produce the original, and undertook to do so, it being in
his possession. An Hon. Friend of his (Mr. O'Connell),
now on the other side of the House, asked for permission
to inspect the original, and then received for answer, that
he (the Member for Dundalk) had not the letter in his pos-
session, but that a friend of his then bad it, and that it
should be produced on an early day. Months had passed
away since then, and no letter was forthcoming. Was he
not justified then in saying that no such letter was in ex-
isteece, and that the document read to them was only a
fabrication ? He believed that the Hon. Member for Dun-
dalk could cot produce the supposed letter. He defied him
to do so. The Hon. and Learned Gentleman then went
on to notice what had fallen from the Right Hon. Member
fur Warwick, describing part of it as a threat held out to
deter his Majesty's Government from disbanding the yeo-
manry, seeming to tell them that they dared not do so, and
suggesting that the Orangemen of the North might arm
themselves at an expence of twenty-five shillings each, and
thus, in effect, advising them to do so, affirming that the
O: angemen could arid would arm themselves. It fortu-
nately happened, that there never was a Government in
this country better able than o as the present to treat such
a threat with utter contempt, and entire defiance. Let
thesis only disarm the yeomanry, and he would undertake
to say that the unarmed peasantry would support the Go-
nerntrent, and preserve the peace of the country. He
thought that the present circumstances of Ireland justified
his calling upon the Government to disarm the yeomanry.
He thought that the blood which bad been shed at New-
tnwnbarry, at Monaghan, and at Castle-pollard, entitled
him to mske that demand. Why not send over English
Militia ? He was sure the expence would gladly be borne
by Irelaud alone ; they had no desire to shake off good
order, but they would nut endure the continued existence
of a partisan force. What sort of force must that be, which,
with arms in its hands, entered into village squabbles,
every family dispute, and, worst of all, every modification
of religious animosity? He did not call for any open cen-
sure to be pronounced upon the hotly, neither did he de-
mand that it should be immediately altered, but that by de-
grees an end should be put to the force which had for so long
a period been disturbing, deranging, affrighting—he would
not say murdering', but at least bloodletting—lreland.
Captain GORDON said, that he pledged himself to the
authenticity of the letter, on the authority of the individual
who communicated to him the copy of the letter. He had
since written to that individual, but he had recently come
to England, and so soon as the letter could reach him here
through Ireland, no doubt the original would be forwarded
to London. There could be no doubt of its existence ;
it had beets in the hands of several Members of the last
Parliament. It had been published in the Ennis Paper, a
.lotrmal published in the very county where Jr.l Murphy
resided, and its authenticity never once questioned.
Mr. WYSE, in reply to what had fallen from the Right
Hon. Member for Harwich respecting the meeting of
hlembers of that House, which lately bad a conference
with one of his Majesty's Ministers, observed, that that
Right Hon. Gentleman was himself a member of a similar
body which waited upon Lord Liverpool, and it therefore
ill became him to designate the late assemblage as a cabal.
As to the threats of the Right Hon. Gentleman, he hoped
that no Government would be so pusillanimous as to sub-
mit to the dictation of Prw'orian guards.
Mr. PETRE wished that the authenticity of the letter
were settled one way or the other. Though himself a
conscientious Catholic, lie should deprecate such lan-
guage as that letter contained, come whence it might.
Mr. M. O'CONNELL said the letter bore date at a
time when Mr. Murphy was confined to bed by illness.
The petition was then brought up and laid on the table.
On the question that the orth r of the day be then read
fur the House resolving itself into a Committee on the
Reform in Parliament (England) Bill,
Mr. SIBTHORPE rose to put a question to the Hon.
Gentleman opposite, the Under Secretary for the Home
Department. He wished to know whether it was true
that the owners of the J?othsay Castle had the sanction
of the Crown for calling that vessel a Government packet,
and b 0 leading the public astray as to the character and
safety of the vessel ?
Mr. GEORGE LAMB said, that the matter should
undergo the fullest investigation. It was a common prac-
tice for vessels to be called Government packets, without
any other claim to that title than what might arise from
being occasionally contracted with for the removal of
troops. Mast of the people about the sea ports knew how
those things stood, but it was to be regretted that persons
not conversant with affairs of that nature might sometimes
be misled. It was a subject that ought and would be at-
tended to.