The Sun.
London, England, 1838-08-28 00:00:00

IRELAND.-AGITATION

Mr. Steele has entered the field to promote the views of
Mr. O'Connell, and has published an energetic appeal to his
countrymen in the Pilot. The pressure of other matter to--
bids us to insert entire the eloquent Foduction, but the fol-
lowing extracts may he taken as specimens :
O'CONNELL AND IRELAND.
Yet, freedom yet, thy banner torn but tlyitig,
Strearni like the thunder-storm AGAINST the winds
Thy trumpet voice, though broken now *.
Lord Byron—Childe Harold.
LONDON, Ave. 14, 1838.
lam a Protestant—my church is of heaven—but with re-
gard to my church establishment—l told the glorious men of
Birmingham at the late great meeting, that if I wanted to in-
stitute a religion of the devil, the scene of bloody Rathcormac
would he an appropriate sacrament of the worship of the fiend,
the enemy of God and of roan.
The representative of the capital of Ireland has been lately
reprimanded by the Speaker of the Hcuse of Commons, and
what was the consequence ? The moral regenerator, by a re-
petition of his former words, gave the House a stronger repri-
mand, and, after doing so, he regularly went through the work
of the evening !
The man who was, some years ago, the state prisoner of An-
glesey was lately invited by the truly royal Duke of Sussex
"to meet the Queen" in the festal halls of Kensington
Palace ; and more recently the same state prisoner of An-
glesey has had the offer of the ermine of the Chief Baron of
the Exchequer.
Men of Ireland, I do not offer you political counsel; I just
state a few facts. The father of our country is among you ; he
will teach his children how they are to cease to be bondsmen.
With what fiery indignation will you listen to his recital of
the conduct of the House of Lords and the rest of the Tory
enemy during the present Session of Parliament.
The Ultra-Radicals of England and Scotland take but a
contracted view of the subject ; they do not sufficiently ad-
vert to what the awful consequences might be in Ireland with
her eight millions and a half of population, if the Whigs
were to retire, and the Tory enemy dominate over the Irish

" aliens" for a single fortnight."
Although O'Connell was pre-eminently the " man of peace"
of the political world, as was proved by the mode in which he
achieved his political triumphs, and that he was determined to
try the experiment of justice to the last extremity ; that in
one of his public addresses he had declared that " unless he
should be able to obtain justice for his country from the Impe-
rial Parliament, nothing would remain for him but to return
to his native mountains, and from their height to proclaim to
the world that eight millions of men must not be slaves !"
Men of' Ireland, ye trampled " aliens" in blood, and lan-
guage, and religion ! I tell you that the glorious men of Bir
mingham, and the delegates from the west and north of Eng-
land and Scotland, loudly cheered me in this vindication of the
faller of his country. _ . .

Men of Ireland, what were you when Daniel O'Connell
commenced his political career'? You were trampled—aye,
and shuddering slaves. The effort for freedom of 1793 was
abortive in consequence of the delay of the French armament.
John Claudius and the other Beresfords were the autocrats
of your country.
What, my countrymen, are you now ? You are millions—
intelligent, united into utter consolidation, and moving, al.
though millions, as if inspired by a single soul, with aspira-
tions to be perfect freemen, indomitable, irrepressible—to use
the words of the old historian, " with the ancient swelling
after liberty," of Green Erin, of your country, of " Green
Erin of the streams."
Glory eternal be to the dauntless men of Birmingham and
the surrounding district, and their leader, Thomas Attwood I
They rushed to arms for a specific purpose, to enforce the ac-
ceptance of the Bill passed by their representatives ; and
although they had as good a right then, as now, to universal
suffrage, and its panoply, vote by ballot. and the shortening of
the duration of Parliaments, they, like humane and wiser
men, " took the instalment," an I laid down their arms in their
hour of triumph.