The Sun.
London, England, 1834-11-24 00:00:00

MEETING OF REFORMERS IN DUBLIN.

(From the Dublin Morning Register of Saturday. )
MR. O'CONNELL.
Yesterday there was a very crowded meeting held at the
Corn Exchange, in consequence of the following advertise-
ment which appeared in the morning papers :
" Mr. O'Connell, M.P. for the city of Dublin, requests the
littendance of such of his constituents as are sincere friends of
reform, at the Great Room, Corn Exchange, on this day (Friday)
the 21st of November, at the hour of two o'clock in the afternoon,
to consider the best means of combining all the friends of political
amelioration, in opposition to the supporters of oligarchy and mono-
poly in church and state.
" Merrion-square, 21st Nov. 1834."
Amongst the gentlemen present we noticed Charles A.
Walker, Esq., M. P., Richard Lalor Sheil, Esq., M. P., A.
Carew O'Dwyer, Esq., M.P., Christopher Fitzsimon, Esq.,
M. P., Thomas Bish, Esq., Member for Leominster, Cadwal-
lader Waddy, Esq., M.P., Dominick Ronaytie, Esq., M. P.,
Morgan O'Connell, Esq., M.P., E. Ruthven, Esq., the Mem-
ber for Kildare, Ebenezer Jacob, Esq., M.P., G. F. Young,
Esq., M. P., for Teignmouth, and Frederick William Conway,
Henry G. Curran, William Grace Kelly, Alexander Seton,
John M. Dolan, James O'Dowd, R. Barrett, William P.
Kenny, Michael Staunton, J. A. Curran, J. Redmond, W. P.
O'Connor, T. Nugent, and D. Doyle, Esqrs.
At half-past two o'clock Mr. O'Connell entered the room,
and was greeted with the most deafening cheers, which con-
tinued for several minutes.
C. A. WALKER, Esq., M.P., was called to the chair.
Mr. DWYER was requested to act as Secretary. He read
the requisition for the meeting.
Mr. O'CONNELL rose amidst the most enthusiastic cheers,
which were continued for several minutes. As soon as they
had subsided, he thus proceeded :—Mr. Chairman, we have
heard that his most gracious Majesty, of whom we always
speak in respectful terms, has been advised, as I believe, by
the basest and the worst advisers—by those who are the foul
enemies of the peace and tranquillity of the country, and of
the security of the Crown—by those he has been advised
to dismiss the Members of the late Administration.—( Hear,
hear.) By such has he been advised to form a new
Administration, at the head of which is the chance victor of
a battle, but also the determined foe of every principle of
freedom and liberality.--4 Loud cheers.) Let me recal
to your recollection the situation in which we are placed.
England has received mighty boons from-the Grey Adminis-
tration. The corrupt boroughs —the profligate nests of bribery
in the hands of the oligarchy—those base weapons by which
they were able to fleece the people to whatever side they
turned—those instruments by which the oligarchy in one coun-
try increased the debt to a thousand millions, and more than
a thousand million of lives were expended in the pursuit of
the most sordid and selfish of purposes ; for the oligarchy of
England is like every other oligarchy, sordid, corrupt, and
the worst enemies of the liberties of the people. The rotten
boroughs, by which that oligarchy worked and thrived, have
been swept away by the Grey Administration.—( Hear.) Who
will tell me that the people of England, who have emerged
from every revolution, will not now shake off a profligate ty-
ranny ? England has shown herself great and powerful ; but
the name of England will be covered with eternal disgrace if
she quietly submits to the change that is now made—if she does
not pluck down from the place of authority and power the head
of Toryism, who has now come into office.—( Here Mr. Shed,
M. P., entered the meeting, and was received with c heers.)
The principles of amelioration were in the late Administration,
anti they were advancing. Take notice that lam not here the
advocate for the late Administration. I have seen too much of
them to be so ; and I forgive them not. I never can forgive
them, as a man and an Irishman, their vile Coercion Bill.—
( Cheers.) I will not then be misunderstood as coming here
the advocate of the late Administration. I came here to do
justice. We are now stopped—the Administration is turned
out at the very moment at which it is most wanted, and in
which it intended to do at least one great good. The ques-
tion is not whether we will do anything for the late Adminis-
tration—for I do not require you to do anything for them—but
I do require that every man will join with me in opposing
the present Administration.—( Hear and cheers.) Igo this
length, and say, that no man is honest who does not join
me in opposing the present Administration.—( Hear, and con-
tinued cheering.) Let no man come out on me, and say,
" The Duke of Wellington is an untried man—he is a mere
soldier—he is not a tried man in politics." My answer is, he
is not an untried man. No man can come forward and look
you in the face and say so, as it has been said by the base and
mercenary hirelings of the Courier and the Times. —( Hear.)
I want to know why it is that when persons about the London
press act the vile part those are doing, they should not be
dragged out to public view ? Instead of speaking of the
Courier, why should we not talk of Stuart ?—and instead of
descanting upon the Times, why not mention the names of
Walter and of Barnes, that the public might see what miseta-
ble wretches they are who take the majestic " we ?"—that,
divested of it, the world might know what squalid, mi-
serable, and contemptible scoundrels they are.—( Cheers
and laughter.) If I live to go to London, I will certainly
get the history of their lives, and proclaim it. I shall do
this with Stuart and every one of them, for it is the only way
of exposing, and holding up to public scorn, such mercenary
wretches, and disarming of all effect such hireling scribes.
The Duke of Wellington being at the head of the Adminis-
tration leaves no excuse for any man who calls himself a Re-
former. There is no pretence for not opposing his Adminis-
tration.—( Hear.) Every man who calls himself a Reformer
is a hypocrite—a vile, paltry, base hypocrite—a man sold to
corruption, who will not oppose himself to the new Adminis-
tration. Recollect that now no man assails the late Admi-
nistration but one who wishes to serve the present. We quar-
relled with the late Ministers because they were like the To.
ries—a copy of them. Now we have the original itself. What
are we to do then ? Is it by railing at the late Administration,
to strengthen the present in office ? Is the Irish intellect to
be thus clouded ? Are we for a moment to be deceived by this
species of ingenuity, and to serve the Tories out of hatred for
Toryism ? Oh, no ; it is our business to rally together,
whatever differences there may be amongst us. What does
it become us as patriots to do in a great crisis ? To sacrifice
something—to throw away some favourite feeling, or even pre-
judice. I will have nothing to do with by-battles now. I
call upon all reformers, who are not repealers, to join with me
—I will ask them to let me join them—l will go to their
camp, if they think it a degradation to come to mine ; I will
go upon my knees to get one man now to assist me against the
Duke of Wellington.—( Cheers.) I will state to them more
—if they come to our meetings, and join with us, they will
find that we will keep faith with them. No resolution shall be
passed here which they do not sanction. The object of all
will be to get out the Duke of Wellington.—( Hear, hear. )
We will not seek a Repeal pledge if the reform pledge be
given at the coming contests.—( Hear.) Do I relax Repeal
by this ? Those looking to future events will s•ee that Ido not.
We will have an election. The Conservatives are putting
forth their strength. Our first thought should be the elec-
tions. A great deal of the South is safe. lam told we earl
make an impression on the North.—( Hear and cheers.) We
regret extremely that want of space obliges us to omit the
conclusion of Mr. O'Connell's speech. He concluded amid
loud cheers by proposing resolutions to that effect.
Mr. A. C. O'DWYER seconded the resolutions, which passed
unanimously.
Mr. SiSIEL said—The Conservatives take their ground on
the Irish church. Can it be done ? If so, how ? Through
the present House of Commons? That seems impossible.
By a new one ? Even supposing that upon a new election the
church might gain materially in England, still the great majo-
rity of the Irish members would remain in determined opposi-
tion to the abuses of the establishment • and what would in a
short time become of a government which would be resisted on
an Irish question by at least two thirds of the representatives
of this country ?—( Cries of " Hear, hear, hear," and cheers.)
What does it become Ireland to do ? There is the main
question. Let us remember what we have done, how we have
Gone it, and what remains to be accomplished. We carried
Emancipation, we carried Reform, and it will go hard with us
if we do not carry what appears to be of Emancipation and of
Reform the inevitable result. Let us meet ; form a Church
Reform Association, establish county clubs, and command the
elections of Ireland. " The Church, the Church, the
Church I" let that be our rallying cry ; let us relinquish all
other pursuits for an interval, and bring to bear on the Estab-
lishment the united and concentrated energies of a great people,
who return a preponderating majority of the Representatives
of Ireland to the House of Commons.
Mr. O'CONNELL—I rise to move that a committee be named
to carry these resolutions into effect. It is absolutely necessary
that we should not lose a moment.—( Cheers.) The com-
mittee will be open to the public, and will meet to-morrow.
They will prepare a report which will be submitted to the ad-
journed meeting on Monday.
Thanks were then voted to the Chairman, and the meeting
adjourned to Monday next.