The Sun.
London, England, 1848-08-28 00:00:00

trb Miittxm

SUN OFFICE, Seven o Clock.

CRIMINAL COURT.-(THIS DAY.)
OLD COUR 7.
(Continued from our Afternoon Edition.)
John James Boyer, 32, described as a labourer, was
then placed in the dock, upon an indictment charging
him with sedition.

The ATTORNEI-GENERAL said that the speech which
the prisoner was charged with delivering was delivered
at a meeting held on the 28th of July, the day following
the ill-founded and fated rumour of an insurrection in
Ireland, and of the disaffection of the troops, at the thea-
tre in Milton-street, Cripplegate. There were at first
about 500 or 600 present; but when the prisoner deli-
vered his speech there were nearly 1,000 present, con-
sisting chiefly of Irishmen and persons of the labouring
classes, who were highly susceptible of excitement. The
prisoner was a fish dealer—he sold fish about the streets
—(Laughter)—and was possessed of considerable powers
of the tongue. His speech ran as follows :
" It is not the fashion of Chartists to prevent free and
fair discussion. I love discussion. I glory in being in
a discussion, and simply because I think that
discussion, based upon fair and equitable
grounds, is the best way of arriving at the truth.
Now, as to the resolution I hold in my
hand:—' Resolved, that this meeting deeply sympathizes
with the struggling people of Ireland, and is resolved to
assist them by all and every means in their power; and
that we consider the physical preparations of the Go-
vernment unjustifiable without the proper remedial
measures attached thereto.' Brother Chartists! brother
Republicans! brother Democrats)—for 1 don't know
that I can address you by any better name than Demo-
crats, for the principle of democracy is the principle, of
fair play; the principle of democracy is the principle of a
free stage to all and no favour to any ; the principle of de-
mocracy is the rights ot the rich and no more; the prin-
ciple ot democracy is the rights of the poor and no less;
the principle of democracy is the greatest amount of good
to the greatest number. In short, the principle of de-
mocracy is the principle or justice and ot truth. Demo-
crats are the same in every nation. The democrats
of Russia, the democrats of Poland, the demo-
crats of Switzerland, the democrats of Ger-
many, the democrats of France, the democrats of
Ireland understand each other. They are all travelling
the same road, they have all one mind, they have all
one aim, they have all 'one object in view; and that ob-
ject
is glorious liberty, they are all singing one song—
not in the same language, perhaps, but the same senti-
ment.

"' Oh, liberty, will men resign thee,
Once having felt thy glorious flame?
Shall locks or bars or bolts confine thee,
Or whips thy noble spirit tame?'
That is part of the Marseillaise Hymn. Tyranny
has not tamed John Mitchel yet, I will be
bound. It has not yet tamed Ernest Jones, I will be
bound. Did it tame the men of old when they were
burned at the stake? No, it did not; it actually pro-
gressed their principles more than they would have pro-
gressed. And let tyrants beware. You had better shut
up shop; you had better put up your swords and cut
and run, for democracy is spreading, depend upon it,
and sooner or later will overwhelm you nil. We have
seen - lords and dukes and princes, and all the rest
of the mob in different nations cut and run.
Louis Philippe had to change his clothes and his
whiskers, and to take his umbrella, and run away. We
shall live to see greater changes yet. As a democrat, I
hope so. Every man that works for his living honestly,
either by his head or hands, is a respectable man, though
by bad laws he may be badly clothed and badly housed
and badly fed ; and those who do not work for their
living, but who fatten upon the labour of others, are
not respectable people, but, on the contrary, are
thieves and rogues and vagabonds, though they may
wear fine linen and fare sumptuously every day—though
they may wear crowns upon their heads and have swords
hanging at their tails—though they may be called Lords,
and Dukes, and Marquises, and Viscounts, and Right
Rev. Fathers in God, and Knights of the Garter, and
Grooms of the Stole, and Lords of the Bedchamber, and
all the other flummery, and mummery, and humbuggery.
I therefore will address you as respectable people,—for
I presume that with the exception of a sprinkling there
and a sprinkling here, and a few of these despi-
cable wretches who have hired themselves for
blood money—with the exception of those creatures we
are all respectable people. If Lord John Russell
wants to know what I am—l am a merchant
in the city of London, and though perhaps
I have not much 'rhino,' I am perhaps more
respectable than many other merchants, for I market
with ready money. I sell fish about the streets.
If we perform our duty well, generations yet unborn will
bless: us, if we perform our duty ill, generations yet
unborn will curse us. What is that duty? The Northern
Star of last week says, our duty is to sympathize with
Ireland. Well, is our duty to end there ? Our duty is
to help Ireland, and I will tell you how we will
help her. lam not going to say, in God's name,
get arms,' for that is sedition : I am not
going to say, in God's name get pikes,' for that is
felony; but I am going to say, in God's name get
uo-ibrellls," in God'. name see gee.te..t..' lam not
going to tell you my opinion of the Government of this
country; but I will give you the opinion of somebody
else, and as this man is a long way off I don't think
that the Government will be able to catch him—and
that is the Editor of the New York Herald. lam read-
ing from a stamped newspaper, the most loyal paper in
the world, and therefore there is no treason in that.
This is what Brother Jonathan thinks of the British
Government. They say, we are a nation '—you and I—
'we area nation,' say they, grovelling in abject slavery.'
There is a shame. A narrow oligarchy is grinding the
masses of our population to powder ; it rules, taxes, and
plunders the State for its own lucre and ambition. The
church, the law, the navy, the army, and the Crown are
kept up only to catiate its hungry maw and aggrandise
its power. The middlo classes, says Brother Jonathan
—I don't say so—' are either slaves or toadies—the
lower classes only slaver.' Chartism is the natural and
true expression of the popular feeling. The unconcealed
wish of the majority of the people is for a Republic, and
they are only kept in check by the terrors of military
force. And now, something to the point that has called
us together this night. We will quote Brother Jonathan
again, because they cannot eaten him:—' If ever there
was a people,' says the New York Herald (which, mark
you, is the organ of the war party, and the war party in
America is now getting the ascendancy, and that is
another significant fact) if ever there was a people aho
bad cause to rise and strike their tyrants, the Irish are
that people. If there ever was a time to do it, the pre-
sent is it. The crisis may be delayed until after harvest,
but we are inclined to think that it will come then beyond
all peradventure. They will gain an accession to their
ranks from Mitchell's conviction and transportation of
thousands who have heretofore opposed their move-
ments; and if, after rising in arms, they can but hold
their ground for five or six weeks, their example „ill
assuredly be followed by the Chartists, and the result
will be the downfal of the great tyrant of the universe,
one of the most corrupt, tyrannical, grinding,
and despotic Governments that Providence ever
permitted to afflict a world. In this down fel
the nobility and aristocracy, the well-fed pup.
pets of the Government, they who have lived
on the fat of the land, and reverted in luxury purchased
by the sweat and anguish of a nation, will be crushed to
atoms.' The gagging' Bill does not say we must not
read, so you seo I like to do everything according to
law. Brother Jonathan says By the last arrival
from England we have some indications of the
policy which England has shaped, and which from
all appearances she is determined to pursue. It
is not a direct, open, and honest policy, such as
Russia has marked out, but a mean, panditiful
,
sneaking, and underhand system of petty intrigue
Machiavellian deception, which has alwayscharac-
terised her Government from time immemorial. Fear-
ing the powerful Republic, its increase, its stability,
and its future greatness, and knowing herself
to be powerless to oppose any obstacle in its
way, this wicked, atrocious, and diabolical Govern-
rnent has embarked in a policy which would disgrace the
Things of India. She dare not meet the Republic in the
field, and there manfully and honourably dispute the
spread of the principles of free government in Europe.
The' first shock of battle would show her nakedness
and prostrate'her. But she can play the assassin. She
can stab her enemy in the back, as she has done on
former occasions, and as she is attempting to do so again;
but it will be seen with what success eventually. The
policy which she has determined upon is to send
abroad her agents for the purpose of intriguing the
people and with the Governments of the continental
nations, of putting the people against the Governments,
and the Governments against the people—of inciting
the masses to rise for their rights, and inciting the Go-
vernments when the masses have risen, to massacre
them, as has been done in Naples. There is not only
every probability, but it is almost a moral
certainty, that the late dreadful massacres in
the city of Naples were the work of this trea-
cherous and mean Government through the agency
of its intriguers. At the present time there is no doubt
that England has her agents scattered throughout all
Europe, whose missions are of this character, and who,
if successful, would deluge Europe with the blood of her
people, and re-establish, amid carnage and desolation,
monarchy in France, and prevent the progress of the
principles of free government from making further
headway in Europe. 'These are the despicable
and underhand means which this assassin Go-
vernment has resorted to 'to overthrow France,
not during, as we have befOre stated, to measure
lances with the giant Republic.' Now, there is an
important question •in this bill. Is Ireland up ?'
think she has been down long enough, and another
thing you will own, too, that it is time she was up, and
if she does not get up herself as one man, serve her
right for being down, and servo any one right that kisses
the chains that bind him. It is a shame that those who
pant for liberty should still be in bondage, whilst some
are slaves at heart ; but I hope that Ireland is not a
slave at heart, and the time is fast approaching—
perhaps at this very moment she is at it, and if she is,
God of the suffering poor defend the right. Tyrants
have reigned in Ireland for seven centuries nearly, and I
hope that those who have mocked her sufferings
and starved her may now meet with the reward
w hat y would
e
people. The Irish have a right to govern
hsoheeverhatdhehyera
themselves. Let
Ithreelyandmedroit'ifw are. 'But
nationality?'
the Irish nation, as every other nation, govern itself by
its own laws. Some people say what have the English
to do with it ? The English, I consider, if they are
democrats at heart, have to do with everything that is
oppressivb and-- unjust ; they have raiser, their voice
against injustice and oppression not
raise their voice when injustice and oppressioll are per-
't
in Poland.• Why
per-
petrated in Ireland ? I say the Goverp went are