The Sun.
London, England, 1867-06-24 00:00:00

EVENING, JUNE 24, 1861.

pocket." We do not the least wonder that the
greatest consternation was manifested on his ap-
pearance in the place, and that the Mayor very •
properly refused to allow him the use of the Town-
h di. Nothing daunted, however, Mr. Murphy and
his friends erected a tabernacle large enough to
hold about 4,000 persons; where on Sunday after-
roon he began to hold his " services." his manner
of commencing the first "service" we have already
quoted. lle followed it up by the assurance that
" they knew him, and he could prove what he said."
His notions of proof, 'rowels r, are singular. We
used to be taught that it is impossibl 3 to prove a
universal negative. But till this feat is accom-
plished by his Roguish opponents Mr. Murphy con-
siders' his own cause to be triumphant. " He was
prepared to meet any Popish priest, from Bishop
Ullathorne to the biggest ragamuffin in the lot ;
and if ever there was a rag-and-bone:gatherer in the
universe, it was the Pope himself; and if what he
said were not true let them prove "it." That is to
say, the Pope is proved to be the. biggest raga-
muffin in the universe, and every priest a " mur-
derer, cannibal, liar, and pickpocket," till they have
proved to Mr. Murphy's satisfaction that they are
not! After this hopeful commencement it seems
to have stmt.& the lecturer that his language
was not altogether calculated to win the
confidence of the Papists he intended to
convert, for he said that he had come to
Birmingham at the risk of his life, that " his life
was in the hands of God"—rather a strange reason
for using it to break one of the first commandments
of God—and " he was eternal until his work was
done," a view so exceedingly recondite, both in its
metaphysical and theological aspects, that we can-
' not presume to explain it. Mill less do we choose
to retail the tissue of profane nonsense which fol-
lowed, and which only serves , to show drat Mr.
Murphy's respect fol. the first table of the law is
equal to his respect for the second. But when be
proceeded to insist that " if Popery had the power
she would roast .him," we can hardly be wrong in
observing that if Murphy had the power he would
roast the Papists, as indeed he does already to the
utmost extent of his power. A violent attack fol-
lowed on " the cowardly act of the authorities" in
refusing him the Town-hall, winding up with the
following challenge—we prefer to give the ipsissima
verba of the speaker —" They will walk over my
dead body in Birmingham, or I will have my five
weeks' say. They shall walk over the dead body
of Colonel Brockman and of Robert Steel, our
Secretary ; or we will have freedom of
speech and liberty of conscience in Birming-
ham." We sincerely trust that the " five weeks'
say" will be very considerably abridged, though
without the " martyrdom" of the doughty Protes-
tant triumvirate—for Mr. Murphy also intimated
his prospect .of joining " the glorious army of
martyrs ;" and we cannot but regret that the Mayor
did not carry out his professed intention on Monday
of requiring the lecturer at once to quit the town.
During the whole of Monday Birmingham was in
a state of chronic alarm, the troops were called out,
and the magistrates sat en permanence. On that
morning, however, a new actor appeared on the
scene in the person of Mr. Whalley, M.P., who had
an interview with the magistrates, not for the pur-
pose of strengthening their hands in quelling this
disgraceful outrage, but to claim for Mr. Murphy
" the right of freedom of speech," and to deny that
he had been " indiscreet in his language !" This, be
'it remembered, was after Murphy had said all we
have quoted and a good deal more, for he held an
" evening service" also on Sunday, in his Tabernacle.
The Mayor very properly replied that he held Mr.
Murphy morally, if not legally, responsible for the
riots, and should require him immediately to quit
the town—a" requisition which, for some unexplained
reason, was unluckily not enforced. Instead of it,
'two more services were held on Monday evening—
one at half-past six and another at eight o'clock—at
the latter of which Mr. Whalley delivered a long
address in abuse of the Mayor. At the earlier ser-
vice Mr. Murphy discoursed on the same exciting
theme as follows. The passage is a fair sample of
his style of oratory :
Ho had got a building that was a witness against
Popery and Tractarianism. (Loud cheering.) It was
a building that was a witness for the right of speech and
liberty of conscience. (Great cheering.) That right he
would carry out though they should walk over his body
as a corpse. (Cheers.) Ile 'laid to the Mayor of Birming-
ham he must and should protect him.. lie would say to
that gentleman that ho was his (Mr. Murphy's) servant
while ho was iu Birmingham. (Loud applause.) And as
his servant he must do his duty. (Hear, hear.) Thero
was a stone thrown at the Mayor that day. He hoped it
would do him good, and that the Popish stones would lot
him see what Popery was; and he would be better if he got
a couple more blows. (Hear, hear, and great cheering.;
It would be idle to waste any words on Messrs.
Murphy, Whalley, Brockman, and Co. We can
say nothing better, and we need say nothing worse,
of them than that they are' quite worthy of each
other. One thing is quite clear. If the bird that
can sing and won't sing ought to be made to sing,
the bird that can only sing a song which turns all
other songs into discord should be made to hold
its tongue. Mr. Murphy's claim for " liberty
of speech" is simply the claim of the foul-mouthed
ruffian who walks up to you in the street and informs
you that you are a thief and a liar, and he will
knock you down, or get his friends to do it for. him,
if you deny it. His lingo is a mongrel compound
of Ilolywell-street and the cockpit, interspersed
with the pious profanity of Exeter Hall and the
Record. The object of his attack is the religion of
some millions of his fellow-countrymen and fellow-
Christians—if it is not to prostitute the name of
Christian to say so ; and its professed intention is
to rouse to fever-heat the fiercest animosities be-
tween those who are just beginning to learn, after
three centuries of barren controversy, that they
have Common sympathies and a common work in
this life, and conanson hopes in the next. It would
be difficult to conceive any object more unmixedly
detestable, or any more criminal means of promot-
ing it, than this. truculent preacher of to
men has hit upon. Neither shall we stop to argue
with those members of the "Protestant Electoral
Union," if such there be, who consider this method
of advocacy beneficial to the cause of Protestantism.
Appeals to their reason would be as inappropriate as
appeals to their charity. The staunchest Romanist
could desire• nothing better in the interests
of his creed than that Mr. Murphy should have
his "five weeks' say" unchecked at Birmingham.
There is a further point to b 3 notedin the case of
this mountebank hireling, who goes from place to
place, scattering broadcast the most brutal calum-
nies against a loyal and peaceable body of religions
ists, that he takes care to select for the scene of his
insolent abuse precisely those localities where it is
sure to lead, and probably intended to lead, at once
to a breach of the peace. It is too much to expect
human nature, and especially Irish human nature,
to remain unmoved when a tissue of the vilest
ribaldry is directed against all that the hearers hold
most sacred. Nor is this all ; Murphy is not con-
tent with abusing their religion. There are at most
some 20 or 30 Catholic priests in Birmingham,
every one of whom must be known by sight to the
great majority of his audience ; when, therefore, he
speaks of the Roman Catholic clergy as cannibals
and murderers, it is very much the same thing as
saying that Mr. A. and Mr. 8., who live
in the next street, are cannibals and mur-
derers. Such language is not only foully libellous,
but is a direct incitement to tumult and blood-
shed. It is high time some way should be found to
put down a public nuisance of this kind by the
strong arm of the law. The only argument that
Murphy and bi 3 - fellows are capable of understand-
ing is an argument 'enforced by the police.. The
sooner be and his employers of the " Protestant
Electoral Union" are made to realise their direct re-
sponsibility before the law for the attacks on life
the immediate in-
stigators, tni
gd a property,tor wh e
roefv we
rh itchhe
they
theythe are the
paid emissaries
appear, the better. Lord George
Gordon was sent
Catholic doctrine of the
to prison in 1780 for just the same crime. We
ohbirsrcvuerrtilhitayt, the resources of
mass, Murphy is announced next to lecture on
" the Confessional." For the interests, not only
o nh o nerxahna
of public order, but of common decency, We trust
he will be silenced before this part of his pro-
gramme is carried out. If he is not, the worst of
the Birmingham riots may be still to come.
THE " EXAMINER" ON TIIE "PROTESTANT PLOT."
—Mr. Whalley may yet live to be known in song as
the Protestant Guy Faux. When men simply con-
temned the foul-mouthed fanatic Murphy, who last
Sunday disturbed the day of rest at Birmingham by
stirring up in God's desecrated name the wicked
passions of the ignorant, there came upon the scene
Mr. Whalley, as open alder and abettor in the plot
for blowing up the minds of her Majes: y's poor Irish
subjects at Birmingham with the gunpowder of
theological hate. There was Mr. Whalley showing
his lantern, throwing light on some hitherto unheard-
of gang having a name with the misused word "Pro-
testant" in it, and identifying. Murphy as one with
himself in the conspiracy. Since there can be no
doubt that the direct and inevitable result of such
foul language asMurpby used, in a booth set in the
midst of an illiterate population whose deepest and
strongest feelings he took the vilest ways he could
and-of insulting, must be a breach of the peace, it

might be worth while to inquire bait far Mr.
Whalley and others are legally responsible for a
conspiracy of which Murphy was the agent, and
that breach of peace the in.efital,le issue. We
believe, however, that they expected nothing of the
kind. If they had been men of sense they would
have expected it, but there's great virtue in an if.
If they were not men of sense no blame attaches
to them. They are as wise as Hood's experi-
enced cook, who cleared a copper flue with
all the contents of her master's powder-horn, and
said contemptuously to the doubting kiechen-maid,
Before ever you was born I was usvd to things like theso,
I shall put it in the fire and let it burn up by degrees.
Murphy was sent down to clear with a little of his
oratorical gunpowder some of the flues of theology in
Birmingham and the black country. lie poured out
all his gunpowder .at once and it refused to burn up
by degrees, but blew up with a bounce that, for the
moment, startled all the country. It would have ,
been some comfort to us if the operator had been
himself laid on his back. But on the whole it is better
news that there were no bones broken. The poor
ignorant Irish might well be stirred to riot by abu-
sivelanguage that few educated Protestants have read
without strong anger and contempt. The Murphy-
ites retaliated with a cruel raid upon the homes of ,
the poor Irish, the police and military were called
in, but there was no more danger. The explosion
was over, and could no more be sustained through
several days than if it had been literally an explo-
sion of gunpowder. Murphy remained to magnify
himself and his nostrums before thin audiences,
though access to his booth was free as access is to
any quack in the world's fair. The paltry fellow
was in no danger of being roasted, except by the
inquisition of British jokers, who are never without'
a citizen or two upon the spot.
THE " WESTMINSTER GAZETTE" ON THE BIRMING-
HAM ItioTs.-=•We had occasion to allude, a short time
since, to certain transactions that took place in
Wolverhampton in connection with a person named
Murpby, who was then instrumental in disturb-
ing the public peace of that town, under a body
calling' itself the " Protestant Electoral Union."
We do not profess to be the abettors of Protestan
tism ; yet we are not so far its enemies as to judge
of it by the language of the lowminded and foul-
mouthed agent whom the above-named society has
chosen to speak in its name. We are sure that
there is no respectable Protestant in these king-
doms, in the enjoyment of his right senses, but
feels ashamed of the wretched hireling who so wan-
tonly insults his Catholic fellow-subjects, and who,
utterly regardless of the laws of both God and
man, wickedly bears false witness against his
neighbours, and then disturbs the public peace, and
causes riot, disorder, and bloodshed, in the name
of Protestantism. No, we shall not do such an in-
justice to the respectable members of any sect of
professing Christians as to believe that they have
any sympathy in common with a being so degraded
as Murphy. Speaking of the Catholic clergy, that
vile man has said, in one of his demoniacal har-
angues, " that every Popish priest was a murderer,
a cannibal, a liar, and a pickpocket." And we are
told by the local papers, in the
.report of the
proceedings, that this language was received "with
applause by those who went to hear him. This
shows that the ignorant fanatics and roughs who
gathered round him were, if possible, as unscrup-
ulous and foul-minded as himself. But we conclude
that those who applauded such language were not
Protestants in the true sense of the word, but must
have been the off-scourings of Birmingham, al-
though there are three or four names mixed up
with the proceedings, whose owners, although
narrow-minded and proverbially uncharitable to-
wards Catholics, would have shown more self-
respect by keeping aloof from such company. Not
satisfied with spewing out these vile calumnies on
the Catholic bishops and clergy, this hireling, paid
by those from whom better things ought to be ex-
pected, next lavished his foul abuse upon the Pope,
of whom he said, "If ever there was a rag and
bone gatherer in the universe, it was the Pope him-
self." And the report of the meeting adds that
this language was received with "laughter." Un-
less positive madness could be pleaded on his
behalf, it is certain that Murphy is answerable for
the consequences naturally 'resulting from language
so false, malicious, and irritating ; but whilst we
hold him answerable, we say there are three or four
others identified with him who are doubly so, and
hope they will be made amenable to the law.
11Invphy.is but the paid tool, the buffoon, the fire-
brand thrust forward on the stage by others, as
appears by their own statement. For a deputation
consisting of Colonel Brockman, Mr. Whalley,
M.P. the Rev. Dr. Armstrong, and a Mr. Steele,
waited on the magistrates of Birmingham, and told
them that Murphy was employed for the purpose
by them. Thence they are the stage managers of
the "Tabernacle," and Murphy is only their hire-
ling in getting up disturbances of thepublic peace.
If Murphy and Whalley be placed in the criminal
dock to take their trial for the gross outrages on
English society of which they are the authors, we
apprehend that the plea of insanity cannot be sus-
tained on the part of the former. We arc glad to
tf ioaat rnunodtadfeld
see that every respectable journal in this metro-
polis, without regard to politics or religion, agrees
in condemning this Whalley-Murphy system of Pro-
testantism, carried on by smashing the doors and
windows and plundering the property of the Ca-
tholic inhabitants of Birmingham. Well may all
respectable Protestants exclaim, " Oh, save us
from our friends." But while we hope to see
the law vindicated, and society restored to its usual
quiet in Birmingham, we also trust that the con-
duct of the police in that town will be strictly and
impartially inquired into. The civil force is main-
tained in these kingdoms for the purpose of pre-
serving public order, and hence it is above all things
necessary that it should act with perfect impar-
tiality ; and not only this, but that it should act in
such a manner as to be above suspicion in this
respect. We know that the police often have un-
pleasant duties to discharge, and are unwilling
to say one harsh word regarding them, or to
judge them prematurely. We, therefore, abstain
at present from uttering anything in their con-
demnation, but feel sure that all who desire to
see the laws respected, and, life and property
, protected, will agree with us that the recent
conduct of the police force employed at Birming-
hamy
a temhpcbemoayir
rredkdi
ssahghtt
ereutetoaet
Park-street
hrdose
have
testimony
aearvnso
Government.
m.
othereir o
tim-
bers torn from their houses, and converted into
r.
Jaffrey, J.P., given at a privatesitting
of the magis-
trates, the destruction of Park-street was the work
of the Whalley-Murphy rioters who called them-
selves "the party of order." Mr. Jaffray is reported
in the local papers to have told his brother magis-
he
trates that " the unvarying testimony of the people
bpitnolluuhdnabbdgecieetaroallenindnsst:s;
of Park-street and its immediate neighbourhood—
English and Trish, Protestant and Catholic, rich
and poor, respectable and otherwise—is, that the
destruction of Park-street was the work of the so-
called party of order.' rhese generally leading
the police, but sometimes led by them, and actuated
by a desire for mischief and plunder, were let loose
upon the unfortunate inhabitants." Here is thei
representation of a gentleman holding her Ma-
jesty's commission of the peace, who reports tor
kers
magisterial colleagues that this party
of
wreckers
and plunderers demolished the windowsc
Queen's subjects,
and plundered the property of the
enseelned by, the
44 generally leading, but somavecunchar,e
n. advanced
police." This is a very
even by any ordinary
against the police. If made_
character to call
. person it is of a sufficiently graveouolt forward by
for investigation ; but when br
ought
one of the magisterial body, d
we do not see how the
Government can possibly hesitate to instituteof
the plundered people o
in-
quiry into the subject, both for the satisfaction
f Birmingham, andfor the
In
sake of the police themselves. .a former article
we felt obliged to condemn the decision of the Re-
corder of IVolverhampton whereby he reversed the
judgment pronounced by the bench of magistrates,
who had prohibited Murphy and Scott from selling
their " obscene" pamphlets. The Recorder ordered
that these books, which he pronounced to be ob-
scene and immoral in their tendency, should be re-
stored to their money-grubbing vendors ; and we
now have some of the consequences resulting from
the encouragement thus given to men who are dead
to all sense of either morals or decency. We have
the Catholics insulted in the grossest manner, their
clergy denounced as " murderers every one," their
houses wrecked and plundered, and the chief ma-
gistrate held up as an object of assas&nation • , for
Murphy at his evening meeting in the "Taber-
nacle," said there was a stone thrown at the Mayor
to-day—hoped it would do him good, and he would
be the better if he got a couple more brows." We
read in the report that this was received with cries
of " Hear, hear," and great cheering 1 We have
carefully read through the proceedings, and cannot
see that Mr. Dixon, the Mayor of Birmingham, has
done anything to deserve being held up by this
mercenary as a target for stonethrowers. Indeed,
the only fault we see on the part of the Mayor
, and his magisterial onfreresi is that they did not

PRICY
STAMPED sd.

inMurphy3ii thereby
oa nyk
we
of t
al
it
adhere to their resolution, and prevent Murphy,
,lausing so serious a breach of the peace.
whaut:v, and Co. from holding their meeting, and
hg's now announced that he is an Irishman.
what relation he is to the pseudo-
Dame, who formerly lived in the town
of Youghall, in the county of Cork, who furnished
his house in splendid fashion at the expense of
honest tradesmen, and who then suffered a dis-
,,raceful imprisonment in Cork gaol? As this man
0
is not ashamed to parade his name in the news-
papers as an Irishman, perhaps he will supply the
public with the information here asked for?

TIIIs ATLANIIC CABLES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sm,—lnterested as all the world now is in the
question of submarine telegraphy, it will hardly
need any apology on my part for forwarding you
the enclosel copies of telegrams received by me as
managing director during the recent repair of the
cable of 1866 in Trinity-bay.

The cables of 1865 and 1866, as they are called,
once laid successfully, the next question to their
proprietors was whether they would pay, and
whether they could be subject to much injury from
the drift of the Polar ice, and consequently entail
costly and constant repair. The revenue, which
this year promises to touch £450,000, or within
£150,000 of the original cost of the last laid cable,
answers the first query in a very satisfactory man-
•ner ; the second doubt is equally well disposed of.
Throughout the Spring the Atlantic Ocean on the
American shore was beset with an unusual amount
of ice disengaged from the Arctic regions by a sin-
gularly stormy winter, yet so well had the cables
been carried along the deep trough of Trinity-bay
that both remained intact, except in one case.

In a heavy storm an iceberg drifted into the bay,
and grounded about two miles and a half from the
station at Heart's Content, resting, doubtless, on
the 1866 cable and eventually crushing it.
We were requested by the Anglo-American Tele-
graph Company to test the point at which the in-
jury had occurred, and to undertake the repair as
quickly as possible. Mr. Latimer Clarke and
Mr. Willoughby Smith, the electrical engineers
of the two companies, decided that the injury
had occurred only at the point above indicated. The
steamer Chiltern was prepared by us, and de-
spatched on the sth inst., under the command of
Capt. Edington, who, you will remember, assisted
in the Atlantic cable-laying expedition of last year,
with a proper staff of competent persons under the
superintendence of Mr. Clifford, one of this com-
pany's engineers, and, as the following telegrams
show, went to the spot indicated, and within a few
hours effected the necessary repairs at a very trivial
charge to the revenue of the cables :
."
No. 1. " June 17.
" From Heart's Content-office to Managing
Director.

" Chiltern arrived at 11 last night, all well, good
voyage. Clifford says to you that Kerr (the Naval
Surveyor) is not here, but he has left the chart and
necessary instructions.
" No. 2. " June 17, 1867.
" From Willoughby Smith, Esq., Valentia, to
Captain Osborn, London.

" May makes fault two miles from Heart's Con-
tent, and Clifford commences at once to repair.
" No. 3. " June 18, 1867.
" From Willoughby Smith, Esq.., Valentia, to
Captain Osborn, London.

" Insulation of '66 cable perfect from where they
buoyed it last night ; distance about two miles from
land (heart's Content). They commenced again
at fivo this morning, and are working with two boats
just off the harbour.
" No. 4. " July 19, 1867.
" From Willoughby Smith, Esq., Valentia, to

Captain Osborn, Loudon.

" Weather fine in Trinity-bay yesterday and last
night. Spoke with May on board (Chiltern)
through the '66 cable about 12 last night; said
they had just made pplice to deep sea end, and
were paying out towards shore end, and they hoped
to complete it early this morning. They are not at
the office yet. Mr. Clarke is perfectly satisfied
with the present arrangement of the shore end of
the '66 cable, therefore 1 shall not alter it.

" No. 5. " June 19, 1867.
" From Willoughby Smith, Esq., Valentia, to

Captain Osborn, London.

" Cable perfect to shore (in Newfoundland).
They are making a splice on beach. Mr. Clarke
will then make an official test and will write you
the result.

" No. 6. " June 19, 1867.
"nom Willoughby Smith, Esq., Valentia, to
Captain Osborn, London.

" The '66 cable is all right ; Mr. Clarke has given
me certificate. Shall I send it by post, or keep it
until I return ? They are now working through
'66 cable.
" No. 7. June 19, 1867.
m" eFromnsel y ;Wtrhi `Willoughby
Captain Osborn, London.
youbgohtbhy
give Smith, Esq., Valentia, to
"The insulation of both cables has improved im-
mensely
resistance theydid
and both give the same results.",
fuwllhyendotuesbtleedthlase
last year
Mem.—No. 7 telegram refers to the improvement
of the cables during the past twelve months.
The ice is now gone for this season. The only
cable touched will have be relaid in deeper water at
that point, and the chances are that we may not
have another injury for years—at any rate, of only
a similarly trivial character. That, however, I trust
will be still further guarded against by having in
Trinity-bay a steam vessel properly fitted to main-
tain the only portion of the Atlantic cables likely to
be injured in any way,—a necessary insurance on
the magnificent revenues those cables are yielding.
I may mention, in conclusion, as an interesting
fact that during the repairs I received a telegram in
Broad-street which left Heart's Content-bay only
35 minutes previously, the major portion of the
time having been occupied in the forwarding and
delivery between Valentia, in Ireland, and London.
—Yours obediently, SHERARD OSBORN, Captain.
Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Corn-
pany, Old Broad-street, London, June 21.

GRAND ASSAULT OF ARMS AND FIELD SPORTS OF
THE HON. ARTILLERY COMPANY. The annual
sports of this celebrated corps took place on Saturday
afternoon last., at the Finsbury Armoury Grounds, in the
presence of a largo number of spectators. The programme,
which included walking, hurdle, flat, blindfold, champion,
stilt, heavy marching order, sack, and other races, cavalry
practice, bayonet v. sabre, riding at the ring, gun dis-
mounting, fencing and boxing, and the standard feats of
cutting legs of mutton, silk, gauze, ribbon, ladies' gloves,
Sm., was ably conducted under the personal superinten-
dence of an hon. committee of gentlemen of the corps, and
the different items were contested with considerable spirit.,
amid the frequeat applause of the fashionable assemblage,
which included a large number of gaily-dressed ladies,
who appeared to take deep interest in the success of the
"favourites" in many of the contests. The tastes of the
admirers of the "sock and buskin" were provided for in
"Richardson's Show," where a thrilling romantic drama,
in one act, entitled "Bragauzeo the Brigand; or, The
Spirit and the !'roof," was produced at short intervals.
The original Christy Minstrels•-" no connection with St.
James's llall"—also displayed their mimic and vocal
talents for the entertainment of the visitors. "Aunt Sally"
suffered front considerable attacks on her features during
the day ; and the entertainments, which were enlivened
by a choiee selection of music, admirably performed by the
regimental ban•i, under the direction of Mr. Rini, were
carried out in a highly successful manner.
Wonder of Modern
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