The Sun.
London, England, 1836-08-13 00:00:00

IRELAIsTD.

DUBLIN, AUG. 10.—At the General Association yester-
day, Mr. O'Connell, in a long and eloquent speech,
brought forward his ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF IRE-
LAND, of which he had given notice at the last meeting.
The Hon. and Learned Gentleman took occasion to deny
Mr. Sharman Crawford's assertion relative to the Munici-
pal Reform Bill. Mr. O'Connell declared that there had
been no compromise in the House on that subject. With
respect to the Government appointments in Ireland, Mr.
O'Connell said " Lord Mulgrave is at present placed in a
peculiar position—he may be considered as in a singular
trial. I saw in the ilicraing Chronicle of to-day, and I
saw it with feelings of horror stated, that now Lord Mul-
grave may deal with Orangemen as he likes, the system of
Orangeism having been done away with. I differ from this
altogether. The men who have always possessed the con-
fidence of the people—the men who have worked an ex-
erted themselves honestly in the cause of tile country—
should be the objects of preferment. Never was anything
more fallacious than that which was thrown out in the
Chronicle. But Lord Mulgrave had too much good sense
—too much knowledge of mankind—ever to attempt con-
ciliating a party—a faction, who, it was plain, would not be
conciliated." He then drew attention to the notice on the
placards—" England has a measure of corporate reform—
Scotland has corporate reform—lreland has been deemed
unworthy of corporate reform. Irishmen ! attend !"
(Cheers.) After the Hon. and Learned Gentleman had
spoken at great length on the question of corporate reform,
and justly ascribed to Lord Mulgrave the merit of seeing
the real character of the faction fights, and of ascertaining
the condition of the country, Mr. O'Connell said—
" I intend moving that this address which I hold in my
hand, and which I shall presently read to the meeting,
should be printed, and circulated widely through all parts
of the country. I intend to send copies of it to tile Ca-
tholic prelates, and to such clergymen of every denomina-
tion as will receive it, in order that it may be distributed
throughout their respective parishes and districts.—(Hear.)
Perhaps the former might deem it advisable to have it read
from the altars of their country chapels. I would wish to
have it obtain as wide and extensive circulation, if possible,
as an address I formerly wrote got in the south of Ireland,
and (of which General Lambert got 30,000 copies struck
off at the expense of the Government." He then read the
following address :

TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND.

Your friends, your zealous and faithful friends, address
you. The General Association of Ireland, formed to pro-
cure an effectual extinction of tithes, and a thorough re-
form of corporate abuses, now, for the first time, calls for
your attention.

It is for your own sake that we ask that attention. Our
object and design are wise, and just, and useful. We
desire to elevate te social and moral character of Ireland ; we
wish to procure wages for the labourers, comfort for the far-
mer, activity and emolument for the manufacturer, prosperity
and extension for commerce, liberty and happiness for the uni-
versal people of Ireland.
These are the purposes for which we have associated—these
are the patriotic and Christian designs with which we are ani-
mated. We recognise amongst ourselves no distinction of
sect or persuasion, of cast or station; our common fervour
in the cause of our common country is the bond of our asso-
ciation—the divine charity of our common Christianity if, the
sacred seal of our union.

Deserving your confidence, and determined daily to increase
our title to that confidence, we address you`with a firm reli-
ance on your own good sense and shrewd understanding.
We are.as unwilling as we should be unable to delude you.
Listen to our advice, and then consider whether any of you
can be the worse for following that advice.
We assert positively and distinctly that every man will be
the better, that his family will be the more comfortable fur
his following the advice we now offer.
The advice we offer—would to Heaven that you would obey
it as if it were a command—is :To abstain altogether, and for
ever, from riots at fairs or other meetings, from waylaying or
beating one another.

Any man who, afer this solemn warning, engages in any riot
or fight at a fair or meeting, or who waylays or beats any other
person, must be considered as an enemy to Ireland, and as a
contemptible and despicable creature, totally unfit to be the
associate or companion of the honest men who are desirous to
make Ireland what she ought to be—

" Great, glorious, and free,
First flower of the earth, and first gem of the sea."
The reascns why you should totally refrain from rioting
with, or beating each other, are these—consider these reasons
well, and let every man judge for himself whether they are
persuasive or not—

First—lt is a foolish—an absurd practice to fight with one
another, from which no kind of good does or can arise—no
man is one shilling the better for this practice—no man gains
any property by it : it gives him neither house or land, cattle
or provisions. In short, it is no advantage whatsoever to any
man or to his family ; neither his father or his mother, his wife
or his children, are one bit the better for all this fighting.
No ; but they are all much the worse. It is, indeed, very,
very foolish.

Second—The Irish are the only people in the world who
continue this foolish practice of beating one another. They
are therefore laughed at and scorned by every body who hears
of this habit. Is it not shameful to do that which makes our
country scorned and ridiculed?
Third—This custom of fighting one another is exceedingly
brutal. It is a propensity unbecoming men, and fit only for
ferocious beasts. Its folly makes us laughed at—its brutality
makes us despised.
Fourth—This fighting with and beating one another, which
does no good ; you all know that it does a great deal of mis-
chief to everybody; it interrupts fairs and markets; prevents
honest and quiet people from buying and selling, occasions
consequently great loss and damage to persons not engaged
in the fight, and much destruction of property. The persons
who are engaged suffer still more ; some are cruelly beaten
and hurt; others are killed; almost all have to undergo the
loss of time, vexation, and expense of summons before Magis-
trates—of flying flout or being dragged about handcuffed like
felons, by the police—of lying in gaol, and being tried and
punished. All these vexations and miseries are frequently
the consequences of these fights.
Fifth—The Government are resolved, and wisely and justly
resolved, to put down by the strong arm of the law and of
the military force these riots and fights. This 'is the first
Government in Ireland for six hundred years that gives the
people the protection, as far as it can, of law and justice. It
will protect the people against themselves ; and if they do
not obey our advice, and abandon the custom of rioting and
fighting, this wise Government will compel them to do so, and
make the people, to their shame and sorrow, desist.
Sixth—The Government has very properly appointed an
attorney in every county to prosecute rioters. No compro-
mise or " making up" will be allowed between the parties.
They will be compelled to prosecute each other. The most
severe punishment the law allows will be inflicted. There
will be heavy fines, long imprisonment, hard labour, and
transportation. Recollect, the present Attorney-General, who
js a Catholic, is determined to put an end to riots and fights.
We, your friends, warn you of the evil consequences to your-
selves unless you refrain now and for ever. From all this
misery the obeying our advice will save you.
We show you—what every one of you must admit to be
true—that these riots and fights arc foolish, absurd, brutal,
mischievous, ruinous; certain to be punished. and liable to
the most severe and cruel punishments. We proceed to
reasons of still more cogent and awful importance.
Seventh—These riots and fights are criminal not only by
the human law, but still more so by the laws of morality and
sacred religion. The law of God commands you to love one
another; but you hate one another. God—blessed be his

holy name—commands you to be charitable and kind to every-
body; you fly in the face of his commands, and beat, injure,
outrage, and kill those you arc directed to love and to serve.
God commands peace, and good will, and benevolence, and
charity; you exercise rancour, and hatred, and malice, and
brutal violence towards each other. The red arm of God's
vengeance is bare for the punishment of those who shed the
blood of their fellow-creatures; yet you not only fight, but on
many occasions MURDER one another. Every good man hates
and detests your crimes. Take care lest you be not the means
of stirring up the wrath of God against yourselves and your
long-oppressed country.
Such, brother Irishmen, are some of the powerful reasons
why these foolish and abominably wicked fights should be
abandoned for ever.

Let good and honest men associate together to put a final
stop to these silly but horrid crimes. We call upon every
parish in which this practice prevails, or is likely to exist, to
form immediately an association for the purpose of suppressing
riots and fights. Let us hear in what and in how many pa-
rishes such associations are 'formed. Let every worthy and
estimable young man enrol himself in such an association. Let
all the wise and considerate old men join in such an associa-
tion. Let their only purpose be the suppression of all riotous
or turbulent crimes by day or by night. We will send down
a deputation to any parish where we have reason to know a
riotous disposition exists, in order to meet it by organizing a
local association.

People of Ireland, you have enough, and more than enough
of enemies to combat with, without fighting amongst your-
selves. We intend to organise your mighty strength peace-
ably, legally, constitutionally, to assist in the channels known
to the law and recognised by the Constitution, in order to ele-
vate your country in the scale of nations, and to give her a
political existence, as well as the full participation in all that
is valuable in British institutions.

Assist us—you can assist us. Join us—you may join us
effectually. But it must be by your abandoning, in the name
of your country, and in the presence of your God, those faction
fights—those party dots—that brutal violence towards ea:11
other which have hitherto degraded you, weakened your
friends, and given tenfold strength to your bitter and unre-
lenting enemies.
Recollect that the present government has dissolved the
Orange confederacy—a confederacy dangerous to your lives,
liberties, and religion—it is gone—it has dissolved as if into
thin air—complicated and powerful in its machinery as it was
it has disappeared for ever, and scarcely loft a " wreck be-
hind." Well, believe us that the government which dissolved
the Orange lodges has the wisdom and the energy to suppress
every other secret society, and all the brutal organization of
factions and party combinations. Depend upon it, that the
beastly practice of beating each other must and will terminate
without delay.
Do not wait then to be put down by force—laughed to
scorn—and severely punished—take our sincere, our cordial,
our affectionate advice—we are your friends--your brothers—

We are anxiously labouring for the liberty and prosperity of
old Ireland—give up the follies and crimes we denounce.
Let peace amongst ourselves be the basis of that combination
and strength, which, regulated by the law, and sanctioned by
the constitution, must make us irrNistibb towards our and
your enemies. _
__• _ _

DANIEL O'CONNELL,
Chairman of the Committee.
Among the numerous new members admitted was Mr. S.
Robinson, a member of the Society of Friends.
Mr. O'Connell then rose again and said, that be felt it his
duty to press for the aduption of an address to the people of
Great Britain, and than on Thursday he should submit a mo-
tion with this object :—" I expect," continued Mr. O'Connell,
" such support from Scotland and England in obtaining jus-
tice for this country as will, I trust, make the repeal of the
Union totally unnecessary:—( Hear.) We have worked so
much now upon this principle, that I have brought myself to
wish we may succeed without having recourse to that expe-
dient; and I defy any man to say, since I pledged myself to
that trial, that I have not given the experiment I am making
every fair, impartial, just, and uninfluenced opportunity of
working it fully out." The Hon. and Learned Gentleman then
proceeded to make some remarks regarding the course pur-'
sued by Ministers regarding the English Church Temporalities
Bill, which he said had disgusted the Dissenters, and was also
one cause why the Newcastle election was lost by the
Liberals. With respect to church-rates he promised his
assistance to the Dissenters in order to get rid of them,
pledging himself to bring the question to a division next
session.
Speaking of the spirit of Toryism, he said that its essence
was Plunder, and that the Tories were " regular Irish rob-
bers, and their very name is a corruption of the Hibernian
thurich,' or ' stand and deliver,' which the footpads address
to those they meet."
Mr. O'Connell then contrasted the amount of the National
Debt at the time of the Union, which burdened England and
Ireland respectively, and inferred from the disproportion, that
Ireland was in fairness entitled to an equal participation in all
the advantages England enjoys.
With respect to the Address, he said that he relied a great
deal on its efficacy, but added that he would not abandon his
suit ; if he should fail through that to get the popular voice
of England, he would press again and again the question of
his country's rights; and if, said Mr. O'Connell, " I do not
get for her—if Ido not obtain for her—full and complete redress,
then will I come back to my native mountains and say—
' Ireland, you are too mighty a people to be kept in slavery.'--
(Loud and continued cheering.) Yes, eight millions of
people were too many to be made the slaves of a few."
After some further remarks on this subject, the Hon. and
Learned Gentleman sat down amidst immense cheering.
The Justice Rent for the past week was announced to be
152/. Bs.
Mr. Galloway addressed the Meeting, counselling them to
follow their great leader's advice--and the Meeting then ad-
journed.