The Sun.
London, England, 1840-01-02 00:00:00

A 1,... RUING rE OF (rPl:,f.):i
AMONG 11-1 \VORKIN,. CLASSES

One of the most oir,incus and alariniez symptoms of
the present time we conceive to be the state of ()pillion
a Hong our {abet/ring population. And at no previous
Period, do We the history of our country, has
there existed, biore intense feeling of hostility between
them and t.ne upper classes of society, especially in the
manufael.tv;ng districts. Sentiments are openly pro-
claime(-1, at variance with all the established maxims of
law, "snit order, and property ; arid in crowded meetings
"t. W•irkincr men such sentiments are rapturously ap-
Plew.ded. 'Open attacks upon the goods of others arc
'"commended ; and even armed resistance to the law is
`encouraged and promoted!
The labouring classes virtually proclaim to the up-
per atlases :—" We have created wealth for you, and
made you rich ; give us, in return, as much as will keep
us alive ; if you do not, we will take it !" Such was,
in fact, almost the very words of one of the speakers, at
the Leeds meeting for relicfof the unemployed, onThurs-
day ; uttered, too, in the very face Of the men of pro-
perty there assembled to concert measures to reLeve
titzm

The very existence of such feelings as these, growing
'up inn state where there exists the highest degree of
social civiliSation and refinement, and during a period of
the most unexampled national prosperity, proves, of
itself, that there is something rank and rotten in the base
on which it is all founded. The creators of wealth
starving for want of food! the artificers and artisans,
so mach vaunted as the sources of England's greatness,
red'aced to beggary ! These are the gross anomalies
in 'our present social condition. And the labourers ob-
serve this ; they are not blind ; and in the wildness of
their half-tutored minds, they rise up, and ask " How
should these things be r —Lends Times.

PROTECTION SOCIETY

At an adjourned meeting. O'Connell's consti-
tuents, held last Tuesday in the Corn Exchange, Dub-
lin, for the purpose of receiving the Report of the C,)m-
mitten' who were appointed last Saturday, Mr. O'Con-
nell stated that the report agreed on was the following :
" REPORT.
" The Committee, to whom it was referred to carry into
effect the spirit and meaning of the resolutions passed at a
meeting held in the Corn Exchange, on Saturday, the
28th instant ; and for that purpose to digest and publish a
plan of a general, but a legal and constitutional, organi-
zation of the Irish people; and in particular to take into
consideration the foundation of an association, to be denc-
reinatcd—' Tna FRIENDS OF TDB QUERN •ND IRISH Pao-
TZCTION SOCIETY,' beg leave respectfully to report as fol-
lows

" That at no former period of British history, even
ashen the desolating sword of the sanguinary Cromwell
phased over the land of Ireland, plundering, and destroy-
lug, and slaughtering, without mercy, all ages and sexes..
meter even at that disastrous period was there exhibited in
England, amidst the great mass of its aristocratic and
airicultural proprietors, its clergy, and most active laity,
such a satanic spirit of rancour, animosity, calumny, and
malignity, against the religion and the liberties of the Irish
people as at present.
" That at the present period this diabolical spirit is em-
ployed by an influential multitudinous party of public men
for the advancement of their own sordid and disgusting
ambition. This spirit is fomented, cherished, and aug-
leented by that party as the means of depriving of office
the chosen servants of the Queen, and friends of the Irish
people.
" That this spirit is animated by the unholy zeal which
is infused into it by the machinations of many of the dig-
nitaries and the great majority of the parochial clergy of
the Protestant Church established by law.
" That this spirit exhibits itself in the rancour of the
foulest, though at the same time the falsest, calumnies
against the Catholic people of Ireland, who are constantly
described by the partisans of Toryism, at public meetings,
and'also in their favoured press, as ' dirty, lazy, supersti-
tious beasts,' as brutes—as savages —as worse than the
c annibals of New Zealand—as robbers—as perjurers—as
assassins—as wholesale MURDERERS.' In short—
the English- language contains no terms of malignant re-
proach and vituperation which are net employed by the
agitators and newspapers belonging to the English Tory
faction.
" That the venom of the English Tory party !a princi-
pally directed against the meek, learned, humble, faithful,
and pious clergy of the Irish Catholic people. They are
directly accused of being the instigators and promoters of
all the crimes attributed to the Irish people—as the ac-
eotnplices of every species of guilt--they are denominated
sanguinary scoundrels," surpliced ruffians,' ASSASSINS,
and promoters of assassination, by fire and with the knife
MURDEROUS, brutal, TYRANTS, and, in fine, a DE-'
MON,PRIESTHOOD 1 t; and such is the exaggeration ,
of the lying calumniators, that in one of their most recent
publications they declare all these charges against the
Catholic priesthood to be ' not only true, but WITHIN THE
BOUNDS Of THE REALITY OF CRIME •'
" That your Committee deeply regret that they are
compelled by the force of truth to infer, as an indisputable
matter of fact, that if these calumnies were not gratifying
)to the great mass of the wealthy in England they would
not be•published—it is impossible, therefore, not to be
convinced that the influential and leading Tories in Eng-
land entertain an envenomed hostility, and a blood-thirsty
enmity to the Catholic people of Ireland—that they arc
anxious for a repetition of the wholesale massacres and
detailed executions of the clergy of that people, perpe-
trated by former tyrants of Ireland.
" Such is the awful predicament in which the people of
Ireland arc placed—the Liberal Protestants are insulted
and vilified—and no class of the Irish receive any commen-
dation, save the remnant that still subsists of the old ex-
terminating Orangeists.
" Under these circumstances, your Committee are de-
cidedly of opinion tbat it is absolutely necessary for the
Liberal Protestants and for the Catholics of Ireland to
combine, in their peaceable strength and overwhelming
numbers—to make such combination, in a perfectly peace-
able, legal, and constitutional manner—to take care not
to violate the law, in letter or in spirit—but so to demon-
strate their numbers and their determination that the san-
guiaary monster of British Toryism may deem it impru-
dent to continue its attacks ; and thus will not dare to risk
actual violence and bloodshed.
" The organisation which we should recommend must
be purely protective, and merely defensive : we, therefore,
recommend the immediate adoption of the following mca-
sures:—
" First—To call upon every county, city, town and parish
in Ireland to hold a public meeting, as nearly to Sunday,
the lath January, 1840, as may suit the convenience of
each locality, to prepare at each such meeting an address
to our Most Gracious Sovereign, declaring their readi-
ness to defend, at the full peril of their lives, and, it
necessary, to the shedding of the last drop of their blood,
in defence of the person, prerogatives, and throne of
our Most Gracious Sovereign, and to maintain the civil
and religious rights and liberties of the Irish people ;
and, at the same time, most respectfully and dutifully
submitting to the consideration of her Majesty that the
Tory party, which has, in the manlier above described,
insulted and outraged the character, the religion, and the
best and noblest feelings of the Irish people, must neces-
sarily beßnemies to the strength and security of the Throne,
based, as that strength and security must be, on the affec-
tions and interests of the people, and that, therefore', her
Majesty be most humbly prayed never to admit into her
Councils those, the dire enemies of her person, her power,
and of her people—who seek to make her the first of their
sieves, in order that they may, with impunity, plunder and
oppress her faithful people of Ireland.
" We further recommend that at every such meeting
they should be prepared a petition to the House of Com-
mons, in substance the same as the address to the Queen,
changing only such things as are necessary to be changed
in Point of form—but praying the House emphatically to
protect the Irish people from the insults and machinations
of rabid and sanguinary Toryism.
" We (anther do recommend that the address to her
leajeaty be signed as numerously as possible. Your Com-
mittee have taken into their moat serious consideration the
recommendation of the public meeting relative to the for-
elation of •an Irish Protection Society ; and if it should
appear advisable at •the present moment to form such a
Society, they conceive it should be framed on the follow-
ing basis :

First—To watch over all Tory and bigottectattacks
upon the religion or liberties of any portion of the Irish
people to give emphatic contradiction to Tory calum-
nies ; and to take all legal and constitutional means to
protect the characters, properties, and persons of the Irish
people from Tory domination and misrule.
" Second—To ascertain in every parish how many per-
sons are registered as voters, or capable of being regis-
tered, sod in all other respects to aid and co-operate with
any other Public body or bodies in extending the registra-
tion of voters in,the Liberal interest.
" Thirdlye...To prepare drafts of petitions to Parlia-
ment, said addresses to the Queen, for the redress of all
grievances, and the alteration of all unjust and oppressive
laws ; and, in particular, for the reform of the Corpora-
tions of Ireland .and the extension of the franchise.
" Fourthly—That it be an especial purpose of such
Society to procure, by legal and constitutional means, the
assignment of the tithe rent-charge as speedily as possible,
to the Commissioneis for carrying into effect the poor-laws
in Ireland, in substitution or in aid of any other funds for
the support and maintenance of the destitute poor.
" Ftfthly-That it also be the business of such associ.
eiation to prevent the existence of all private and illegal
societies • whatsoever, and to conduct their
withtheir
souwon,
pbuubsiiiiiceistsy,
not only • in obedience to the law, but
as would render it impossible to have any illegal act done
contrary to law, without the knowledge of the police and
the Magistracy.
" Sixthly—That every individual who shall be pleased
to subscribe 11., et the lowest, and shall be proposed by
one member and seconded by another, be a member of the
said Society, and that such Society do appoint a Secre-
tary, and Treasurer or Treasurers, and have its accounts of
receipts and disbursements; always open fur the inspection
of every member.
" Seventhly—That such Protective Society do meet at
least once a fortnight in the City of Dublin.
" Your Committee have felt it their duty thus to de-
tail the fora;--and organization of art !resit PROTECTION
SOCIETY. But it-has been very strongly impressed upon
them that the immediate organization of that Society
Would interfere unfavourably with the present Registration
Societies—es Well that which meets in Westmorland-
Street, as the one which meets in the Corn Exchange.
And, as that subject is likely to be fully canvassed at the
greet meeting which viiil be held in Dublin on the 10th
of January, sour Committee respectfully recommend the
postponement of the adoption of their plan until after the
85id meeting of the 10. th, by which time they will be able
to ascertain the opinions of all the influential friends of
Ireland as to the time most suited for the organization of
the said Irish Protection Society.
" Your Committee have further, according to the re-