The Sun.
London, England, 1870-02-03 00:00:00

NOMINATION DAY AT MALLOW.

The Irish generally save us all trouble in estimating
the value of the wisdom.propounded in their nomi-
nation speeches. Most commonly there is such an
uproar that it is well if the reporters can treasure up
the candidates' orations for the use of posterity. At
Mallow the town was pretty quiet, but, to make
amends for this discredit to Irish politics, " the
Court-house was crammed with a mob armed with
bludgeons, and including. a considerable number of
women, who contributed more than their fair share to
the general uproar." Mr. Munster's supporters had a
decided majority amongst the mob, and consequently
neither Major Knox, nor his proposer nor seconder,
could obtain a hearing. He gallantly vowed that
he would stand until morning rather than succumb
to clamour. For a lone time Mr. Munster
appealed in vain on behalf of his opponent,
who at length was allowed to utter a
few sentences, the burden of which was that
he (Major Knox) was au Irishman, whilst Mr.
Munster laboured under the insuperable disadvantage
of being an Englishman. Mr. Munster was con-
strained to admit this afflicting disqualification, "but
tie believed that to be an advantage to him and to
the borough, for the relation of the intolerable
injustice under which the Irish tenant laboured
would have more weight coming from an English-
man than from an Irishman." Whether English or
Irish, Liberal or Conservative, both candidates were
lavish in their promises. They ()tiered everything
that the mob could wish—release of the Fenian
prisoners, the " rights " of farmers and labourers,
and the rest of it. All of -which probeedings
furnish one more instinctive comment on
the blessings of nomination day. Can anything
for instance, be neater than to procure a mob " armed
with bludgeons" to drown the voice of your antago-
nist, and then charitably appeal to the tender mer-
cies of the crowd for a bearing ?
The Times publishes a letter which gives us a
liyely picture of life in the North of Ireland in this
very highly civilised generation. It could hardly be
paralleled, except in some white habitation in a dis-
trict of savages. The writer describes what he saw
returning from a ball in passing the dwelling
of a gentleman whose life had been threatened.
This gentleman—a landowner—had once been
shot at while in his carriage. His coachman was
killed instead of himself. "In consequence of this
(says the writer of the letter), his house was now
garrisoned by a dozen constabulary, and is barri-
caded from top to bottom. I happened to come
across the old gentleman going out for a constitu-
tional, and a pretty sight it was in a civilised land.
First came a brace of policemen armed with carbines,
who kept a sharp look out round all the hedges
and other places that might hide a murderer in
them. At a distance of some twenty yards or so came
the old gentleman and his son, each with a double-bar-
relled gun over his shoulder, and flanked by other
policemen, with two more in the rear. Nobody dared
to stop at his house for the ball, lest they should be
shot at in passing to and fro." Truly an exciting place
for lovers of adventure.