The Sun.
London, England, 1834-09-06 00:00:00

—that has been the cant used in this country by the hirelings
of the ig,tft until it has actually sickened public indigm-
son. Will not, I tell you, wait. We ought not to wait
longer. :You cannot safely postpone us. You will lose the
popliar support of Ireland, if you attempt to procrastinate re-
Bet. We will not be baffled; we cannot be deluded.
All we ask is that you should put out of office our enemies
and yours. All we require is, that the Orange faction should
not continue to be, as they have hitherto exclusively been,
your only instruments of rule in Ireland. We simply ask of
you not to entrust power, as you have hitherto done, to your
moral enemies, but to govern Ireland by avowed and tried
friends of reform and of the Irish people—by such men as you
ere yourself.
In the name of common sense I ask whether anything can
be more reasonable and just than our demand ? You cannot
conciliate the Orange banditti, even if you were to continu:
it is odious and
administer Ireland through the instrumentality
of fac-
tion—a faction which, believe me, is as weak an,' powerless.
save for minute and individual mischief, a',
detested in the judgment of every intell;:gent and honest man
--and as it also is, I humbly believe., in the sight of the living
God of charity and truth.

I now come to my detail's—l now come to an epitome of
Irish history since the Nr rigs came into power. I will give
you chapter and verse for everything. And to begin—
[As this portu of Mr. O'Connell's letter is somewhat trite
and tedious T:ie have thought fit to " curtail" it a little of its
" foul proportions," carefully, however, keeping in all the
main points of his charges.")

CHAPTRR THE FIRST.
" Containing a brief catalogue of some of the follies, faults,
and crimes, perpetrated on the people of Ireland by the
Whigs since they came into office."
FIRST—The first folly begins with the beginning. When
Earl Grey was made Prime Minister, the only persons he con-
sulted or entrusted with the Government of Ireland were
Lords Plunkett and Anglesey. This was a grievous folly--
and although I do not agree with Talleyrand, that a folly is
worse than a crime, yet this folly has been the fruitful source
of many crimes.
Lord Grey did not deserve his station unless he was aware
that there never lived a public man in Ireland so devoid of
popularity as Lord Plunkett. He had obtained rather than
earned the hatred of all parties. There was something about
him vihich made it impossible to place confidence in him.
A Presbyterian in his days of poverty—a Protestant as he
grew into wealth. The advocate, and yet deemed the deadly
foe of the Catholics. His whole mind seemed concentrated
in self. His cold repulsive manner, the sardonic sneer which
ever played about his lips, marked him as a man without a
friend—friendships he had none. The most efficient advocate
the British empire ever produced—he had no reputation as a
lawyer, and gave anything but satisfaction as a judge.
As to Lord Anglesey—poor man !—a compound of the most
ridiculous weakness, with some splendid and useful theories.
After his appointment I had a dialogue of two hours lenrsth
was
almost him (if that may be called a dialogue where the taPa
almost exclusively his), but in which I ventured to predict to
him that he would not be six months in Ireland besiore he be-
came the most unpopular Lord-Lieutenant that, country ever
saw. Alas, he took care to verily my prediction within one
fortnight after his arrival in Dublin.
Lord Grey should have known him *better. Lord Grey's
folly was the greater, because of his ceainection with you. He
should have consulted you—there vas no excuse for his not
consulting you. He ought not to have made arrangements for
Ireland without having the benefit, of your knowledge of this
country, and of your sound ar.avice. He might—to descend to
smaller faults--have conci,eseended to consult me—but I had
earned his personal hostility—so long since as 1825, and that
hostility, "miserabile dictu"—became a directing principle of
his misrule of Irelasid—but there is no excuse for his not con-
sulting you. Hoer many of the subsequent faults and follies
might he not have. avoided had he consulted you and attended
to your advice.
Second—Tee second fault and folly followed rapidly the
first. The /office of Chief Baron was vacant by the retirement
of Chief Baron O'Grady, whose declining age required repose.
Here was a glorious opportunity to appoint to an office of great
dignity and great emolument a barrister of eminent talents
and liberal opinions. There were to be found at the head of
the Irish bar some such men—men who had endured many
sears of persecution arid professional slight by reason of their
avowal of their principles. Was any one of these chosen?
Was even a neutral sought out and selected for that high office ?
No, no—one hundred times no. Lord Anglesey took a dif-
ferent course. He went at once to the head of the Orange
bar, be took Mr. Joy—the man in profession best known for
hostility to the civil rights of the Catholic—a man who owed
his elevation to office of Attorney-General by the former Ad-
ministration, not to his talents, which were considerable, or to
his legal knowledge, which was extensive, but exclusively to
the superior tone and vigor of his Orange Toryism.
Such was the man whom Lord Anglesey selected as Chief
Baron. There was also one individual objection to him. He
was almost as old as his predecessor, who had just resigned from
old 'age.
Third.—The third folly treads close on the heels of the
second, and is of the same class, but of a deeper colour. The
nomination of Plunkett to be Chancellor left vacant the Chief
Justiceship of the Common Pleas. Here was another great le-
gal prize in the gift of the new Ministry—here was another glo-
rious opportunity to recompense the unconquerable fidelity of
some of the friends of civil and religious liberty at the bar.
One would think that the slightest glimmer of common sense
would have dictated a choice from some such men. But com-
mon sense was not an article in which Lord Anglesey dealt—
he-accordingly selected Mr. Doherty for the office.
I need not tell you, my Lord, the thrill of surprise and in-
credulity with which the intelligence of Mr. Doherty's ap-
pointment was received., It was said that there was but one
cause for his promotion—namely, that every possible reason
existed why the Whigs should not promote him. The rule of
contraries which has distinguished so many appointments of
the Whigs could alone account for his exaltation to so impor-
tant and emolumentary a station. His own most sanguine
dreams could never have reached so high. I have no doubt
he would readily have accepted the office of Assistant Bars:is-
ter, and thought himself happy in getting it, when he found
himself, as if by a miracle, made Chief Justice.
There was, indeed, nothing, to recommend him, to the
Whigs. He was their political enemy, but without party or
other influence. His talents were very modereee—his reputa-
tion for legal knowledge by no means great---his success at the
bar exceedingly trivial. He would have probably felt flattered
at being called a sixth or seventh-rate barrister.
The manner in which both theso offices were bestowed filled
the popular party with indigretelon ; and never was their in-
dignation more just and reasonable. If the ministry in Eng-
land had laid hold of Scarlett and Sugden, after some of their
bitter and sarcastic kiarangues against the Whigs, and con-
verted them both into Chief Judges if they had made
Sugden Chief I:_;aron, and Scarlett Chief Justice, without
getting any vencession or recantation of hostility from them,
would not eal England have risen to a man and rooted the
Whigs O'.it of office ? At least they ought to do so. Yet
Scarl''tt and Sugden, in point of talent, legal knowledge, and
success, would have justified any promotion.
But if, in addition to this, the Whigs had looked out
amongst their violent political enemies and found a seventh-
rate barrister, making, perhaps, about 500/. a year at the bar,
and had converted him at once into a Chief Justice of the
Common Pleas ; if the Whigs had so acted in England, would
they not have been the laughing stock of the merry, and the
contempt of the wise ? Thus, even thus, have they behaved
in Ireland.
Tmee—The third fault was not merely a folly—it was a
crime. The office of Attorney-General became vacant; an
office of enormous emolument in the hands of a prosecuting
Attorney-General, and of the very first political influence.
The Irish government is identified with the Attorney-Gene-
ral. It is not of so much importance how the other offices are
filled, if the Attorney-General be a man of sound principles.
This was the Prime, the lasting, the continued blunder of the
Whigs. They selected for their Attorney-General Frances
Blackburne You know him well. I appeal with confidence
torthe opinion which you must give your colleagues in the
confidence of official intercourse. I appeal to your opinion as
I would to your oath in a court of justice, for the truth of this
assertion, " that so unhappy and fatal a selection was never
yet made."
Why was Mr. Blackburne chosen to he the principal in-
strument of the Whig government ? The history of his
life seemed to forbid such a choice. It is quite true that he
had• been successful in his profession ; his reputation as a
lawyer considerable ; an overrated man certainly, but a man of
high standing in profession ; but then he was the most con-
stant and decided enemy of both the Whigs and the people.
By a singular fatality the first act of his political life was one
of' violent hostility to the Whigs. When that party were in
power, in 1806, the Irish bar had a meeting to address your
relative, Chancellor Ponsonby, and Mr. Curran, on their pro-
motion. Blackburne, then a young man at the bar, made a
virulent harangue against the Whigs, and actually divided the
meeting against the address. His political career since was
perfectly consistent with such a beginning. He enrolled him-
self as a leadsr amongst the virulent and vexatious saints of
Kildare-place. He was also a constant attendant at those
Bible meetings and tract societies, at which the religion of
the people of Ireland and the people themselves were the sub-
ject-of every species of vulgar ribaldry and abuse. He was,
besides, the chosen and the standing orator at those scenes of
good feeling and bad politics, the corporation dinners. You
know that these dinners were, and are, the rallying points of
all that was and is violent and bigotted in the Irish metropolis.
At these dinners Blackburne for years filled the station which
Shaw now occupies, and his tirade against " Pope and Popery"
formed a regular part of each entertainment. Yet it was this
man—fresh from the oratory of bigotry, and from signing the
last and worst petition against emancipation—that Lord An-
glesey appointed Attorney-General.
I need not remind you of the active patronage which your
Attorney-General bas afforded to the most Orange part of
the Irish bar. But you, my Lord, knowra--you know
him
well--and you must feel that you cannot hi
preserve any species
of character for consistency or political integrity unless you,
without any delay, either change your Attorney-General or
resign.
As I proceed in this chapter, I will notice his prosecutions
—prosecutions 'Contrived to raise a wall of eternal separation
between the popular party in Ireland and the Ministry. It
is true that these prosecutions had the sanction of Mr. Stanley
and of Earl Grey ; but recollect it is the faults and crimes of
the Whigs I am commenting upon, not those of their Attorney-
General.
Have you, ray Lord, inquired into the prosecution for
murder in the county of Kildare, in which the accessary was
executed and the alleged principal not brought to trial ? For
heaven's sake inquire into that case. I- dare not commit the
publisher of this. letter by stating all that is believed on that
subject.
Thee eau, my Lard, inquired into the case of the murder of
Catheres; perpetrated by some Orangemen, and tried at the

last assizes for Carrickfergus ? The principal in that horrid '
,outrage was arrested before the spring assizes, and indicted
then for murder, under the directions of Mr. Sergeant Perrin,
who conducted the prosecutions on that circuit for the Attor-
ney-General. Well, that indictment was quashed, in the ne-
cessary absence at the last assizes of Sergeant Perrin, and an
indictment for manslaughter substituted ! The prisoner was
convicted, and the Chief Justice, in passing sentence, ex-
pressed his surprise at the trial being for manslaughter, de-
claring that the case was murder. Hare you inquired how
this prosecution was mismanagedunder the control of the Attor-
ney-General's officer, that is, by
„
t,!:' himself, or by the counsel or
agent who represan - him at the trial ?
This inqui;
Is the more necessary, as the truculent Orange
leaders. "dt the late meeting in Dublin, have proclaimed the
cY...ermination of the labouring classes of the Catholics. Shall
the hope be held out to the Grangemen of Ulster that the only
penalty which awards the murderer of a Catholic is the miti-
gated punishment for manslaughter? Think you that public
confidence can be obtained by our ministry, if you continue the
present Attorney-General ?
Have you inquired into the insults offered to Catholic jurors
in the prosecutions carried on through your Attorney-General
as reported to the House of Commons by Sergeant Perrin and
Mr. More O'Ferrall ? But why should I weary you with
these questions ? I appeal to your common sense whether
there be any possibility of reconciling the popular party in
Ireland with the Ministry so long as you continue in office so
decided a political enemy upon principle of both as your Attor-
ney-General.
I must conclude for the present. I have noted down no
less than twenty-one separate charges against the Whigs which
fall within the categories included in the chapter of Irish
history which lam writing. I must defer the remaining
eighteen to another letter.
These letters are tedious ; but I implore of you, my Lord,
to read them with attention.
Your nomination to be a Cabinet Minister was hailed as the
commencement of a better era. It was a pledge that the vile
and silly system of promoting enemies and excluding friends
should be terminated, and the rational plan of at length making
a government party in Ireland by conciliating the people,
substituted. I myself saw your appointment in this light, and
proclaimed it as such. I took your good sense and knowledge
of Ireland as a pledge of the approach of better times. But,
alas, how vain are all hopes arising from the past character of
statesmen !

You, my Lord, are two months—two long months—in office,
and you have not taken one step to redeem all or any of your
pledges—for pledges I justly call them. It is, indeed, given
out that you have pourself chosen for your private secretary a
rank and inveterate Tory. Alas, alas, for poor Ireland !!
Until Parliament meets we require that you will discounte-
nanr,e and dismiss your and our enemies—that you will govern
y and through our and your friends.
Sacred Heaven I—that it should be necessary to mako such a
request of any men not confined within the walls of Bedlam 1
For the present—and awaiting the exposition of eighteen
more " follies, faults, and crimes," of the Whigs—
I have the honour to be, your faithful servant,
DANIEL O'CONNELL.