The Sun.
London, England, 1835-09-21 00:00:00

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anner In . which their fathers worshipped in sincerity and
truth, wr ;re proscribed is aliens in the land that gave them
birth. - I hardly remember the period when the aspirations
cV.d. no .t throb in my bosom to be able to remedy' these I
evils, and banish these mischiefs.—(Cheers.) I have strug-
zl,-.:(1 long for it. Not for a sectarian triumph—not for
victory of one sect of Christrians over another ; but for
tie sacred principle of freedom of concience to o.—f:im-
mense cheering.) I never put it on. any other fe.oting.
We, Roman Catholics, blessed be the great God, suc-
ceeded ; but not till we had obtained liberty to -Protestant
Dissenters, which we did a year before we achieved our
own liberty. I have long been of opinion. that man can-
mit have too much or enough of religirn between himself
and his God. It is a question of awful concern, not limited
by time or space, hut involving an eternity of weal or woe.
I have long been impressed with this feeling, and I respect
_ _

those who feel with the same, intensity, leaving the question
between himself and God Ps to who is in error. With these

sentiments overpowering me, I insist that human law shall
- be confined to unman, action ; and I call that man a blas-
phemer who :,,aterferes between the created and the Creator,
whose nacre be blessM for ever.—(lmmense cheering.)
That is trip principle of action, and it is the principle which
has cowgregated you here together to-day, to testify your
appreciation to these Christian sentiments.-7(Cheers.) I
have always insisted that government was made for man,
and not man for government ; that rulers were made for
the people, and not the people for the rulers.—(Cheers.)
My principle has been for the utmost extension of the elec-
tive franchise. Yo,..maddress has referred to household suf-
frages. .w I have enetimes seen men who had not houses as
good as men wleo had.---(Laughter and cheers.) Although
I am ready tr, concur with those who are anxious for good
government, yet having Made one good step towards the
achievemen t of our liberty, my principle is, that let this
experiment be tried, and if we can succeed with a less ex-
tension of, the suffrage, though I shall never cease to sigh
after it, 1 shall never disturb the peace of society so long
as the • progress of liberty is not improperly obstructed. If
- it shoe Id stop, I shall then put my shoulder to the wheel, if
there 'is no danger of upsetting the coach,--(Laughter and
chee.s.) I think triennial Parliaments long enough in all
cowseience. No man hires his servants for seven years
without power of dismissal before that period, and until I
see the habit established in some prudent steady Scotch
burgh of hiring servants in that manner, I shall continue to
think Triennial Parliaments long enough.—(Cheers.) Per-
haps even ' that period is too long, but it is a good old
principle, having originated in the glorious revolution of
1688 ; and I always like to keep as much of the old as
possible, if it will not spoil that which is new.—( Cheers.)
Without vote by ballot we shall never have honest elec-
' • tions.—(Cries of " Hear, hear," and cheers.) I really think
that is the only point on which 1, should be inclined to
be intolerant. We cannot well have good government
without it. With ballot the landlord cannot know how
the tenant votes, unless he is -fool enough to tell him, in
order to be punished.—(Laughter.) . But, it is said, they
won't keep the secret. Why, thieves and pickpockets
keep their secrets, and will it be said that honest men will
not ? I won't believe it. (Cheers.) Besides, there would
be no l2ribery if we had vote by ballot : for the blockhead
who would sell his conscience for money would be scoundrel
enough not to earn it. These are my principles, and I re-
joice in this meeting, because it confirms them. (Cheers.)
I hold that every public servant should be responsible, but
there is one anomaly—a, hereditary House of Lords.
IVlio would think of hereditary lawyers or hereditary sur-
geons? If you had a suit, and a person came to you offer-
ing his assistance as counsel, and you asked him " was lie
learned in the law ?" what would you think if he answered
" No, I am not, but my father was a great lawyer !" And
if you were sick, and a person came to you offering to cure
you, on the ground of his father having been a great doc-
tor, you would be tick indeed if you did not fling the first
thing that. came to your hand at his head. And the pre-
tensions of the Lords are not higher than those of the
lawyer or the quack I have alluded to. Indeed many . of
them have not so good a tale to tell, for few of them can
say that their father was a great or a good Statesman.
(Great laughter.) ' But since the revolution the Crown has
become the safeguard of the people ; it is a shield to pro-
tect them, instead of a sword to cut them down. Its pre-
rogatives were cut down to the mere purpwJes of utility
and immediately the government of interest between the
Lords and the people ceased. But the selfish interest of
the Lords continued ; and not content .with their own ex-
istence, they absorbed the independence of the House of
Commons by their rotten boroughs: and then they got the
union with Scotland—that was a perfect God-send to them,
for before the Reform Bill, all Scotland•was one rotten
hurgli ; and, accordingly, more public plunder sans carried
off by the Scottish representatives than by all the other
Members of the whole British nation.—(Laughter • and
cheers.) They were the willing. servants of the Lords—
. not of the Lord, wllose servants we all ought to be—
(Laughter and cheers)—but worldly mammon, the lord of
this world, living upon and pocketing public plunder. You
have now your own representatives—the first Commencr of
- the British empire, Mr. C. Abercrornhie—(Cheers)—and
the first lawyer at the English bar, Sir john Campbell.—(Cheers.) *These are your Representalives, and when the
franchise is extended, 1 have ro"doubt that Edinburgh will
continue to. send men of equal worth and intelligence to
represent this great community in the British Legislhture.
(At this moment a rather smart shower of rain began to
fall.) Mr. O'Connell continued-'-.Gentlemcn, we have
strong authority for saying that the rain falls alike upon the
just and the unjust—(Latighter)—end I regret that the
necessity of thinking alotul in your presence compels me to
detain you—and yet why should I detain you longer ?
(Cries of," Go on.") I perceive that those who arc safe
under the shelter of the hustings are the readiest to el.),
" Go on."—(Great laughter and eheering.) The Lords arc
determined to regain their former power, and to swindle
you out of the .7R e en r m Bill. They made a desperate
attempt upon. England at the last election—an attempt
which was worthy of one of those worthy drill-corporate
they call Generals—it was worthy of Wellington.—(Cheers
and laughter.) He made a bold. attempt again to pessess
himself of power, and it had nearly succeeded. The fact
is, we Radicals were not sufficiently ready to make allow-
- ance for the position in which the Whigs were placed,
and the Whigs were not sufficiently alive to the necessity
of carrying the people along with theiM They were in-
clined to put confidence in the Court faction, and they
thought that common sense would teach that fiction to
leave the Whigs in, rather than put them out to make
way for Reformers of a more determined character. But
the Duke did make the attempt ; he sent his military ad-
venturers with full powers to Ireland, and he sent his
legal adventurers to the freemen of the old boroughs of
England, where men are called freemen for no other reason
than because they are willing to sell themselves for slaves.
—(Cheers.) He hired, he bought up the Press—hired
that instrument of venality and corruption, the vagabond
Tinws—he even bought up that wretched rag, the Illornin.;
Hcrald.—(Cheers.) He succeeded in his attempt in Eng-
land, for there was a majority of 27 in the English and
Welsh Members against human liberty. Bat Scotland
stood by her colours well—the flag of freedom floated over
her cities, her counties, and her towns—and Scotland. sent
a majority against the Duke, of 18 out of 53. That, how-
ever, would not lansivnr ; there was still a majority of nine
against liberty,
—Pat drove 'Slit, hurrah, for poor Pat—(Great laughter)
into the thick of the fight.—(Cheers.) It's'
a custom l:,e has ; and, really, Gentlemen, he cannot help
it.--(Continued laughter and cheers.) - He would be braver
than either the English or the Scotch, if braver than either
of these,brave nations could be found ; but he well de-
served to stand along with them.—(Loud cheers.) Well,
Paddy sent a majority of , 33 for liberty ; and here
am I, as large as life, one of them.—(Great laughter,
and cheering)--and though all the 33 cannot tall;
so loud and as long as I can, yet they are all
equally devoted to the amelioration of their institu-
tions, • and to the ultimate triumph of 'freedom.—
(Cheers.) Well, we gained the -victory ; but, though
the Commons are with us, vet the House of Lords
are against us, and they have determined that they
will not concede a portion of freedom which they
can possibly keep back. - They have stood upon
the limits of abuse, and have declared, with respect
to improvement, " Thus far shalt thou come, and no far-
ther." They have assumed the prerogative of the Crea-
tor-; and as the Almighty has set bounds to the ocean, so
the evil principle of Manichaeism has entered into the
Lords, and they have said to human improvement " There
is your boundary, and the Lords won't permit you to pass
it." But we have burst many stronger barriers than this,
and this also shall be broken down—(Cheers)—and it will
not be endured that 170 men shall have the control of mil-
lions.—(Cheers.) Oh ! but say some, it is an ancient in-
stitution. Now, I should be glad to know, if 170 damsels
of the Court of George IV., faded and toothless as they
must now be, were to be allowed to stop the progress of
useful measures, and prevent liberty from extending in a
country where the arts, and sciences, and manufactures are
extending on every side, what would you do with the old
ladies ? I suspect that, notwithstanding your respect for
• the sex, you would kick them out.—(Cheers.) Now, I
like the 170 old women in pantaloons much less than the
170 old women in petticoats.—(Laughter and cheers.)
I have come on a mission to rouse Englishmen and ani-
mate Scotchmen to put their shoulders to the wheel, and
help us to dismiss the 170 pantaloon wearers—as we have
turned out the old corporators—every man of 'em, and
substitute a principle of common sense in their room. Sir
Robert Peel—the greatest humbugger that ever lived,
and as full of political and religious cant as any man that
ever canted in his canting world—(Cheers)—Sir Robert
Peel, feeling himself quite safe on' his own dunghill, says
that we want but one Chamber—one House of Radical
Reformers. He knew that, in saying this, he was saying
what was not true, We know too well the advantage of

d.ouble deliberation not to support two Houses ; but they
must be subject to popular control—they must be the
servants, not the master of the people.—(Cheers.) The
rst step we must take is to be perfectly unanimous among
ourselves ; let the names of Whig and Radical be for ever
buried in the common name of Reformer.—(Cheers.) We
have nothing else for it. Besides, to my certain know-,
ledge, the Whigs of this year are not the Whigs of last.
Having now seen the want of popular support, and felt the
fangs o the Aristocracy, they have come round to us ; and
we should be blockheads if we did not go the rest of the
way to meet them. Unanimity is of no avail, if a man
says, " I shall be unanimous, if you agree with me." The
unanimity of statesmen and patriots is not the abandonment
of principle, but a compromise in the working out of it, in
order to insure general consent—to secure the operation of
it with perfect safety. The Whigs have gone far enough
at present ; they will go the rest by degrees, if they are
not shoved on too fast. They introduced too great mea-
sures, and it was near the fag end of the session ere the
Tories allowed them ; the one of these measures was Cor-
poration Reform, the other was for the peace and tran-
quillity of Ireland. The Lords mutilated the one, and
assassinated the other. But that was not the fault of the
Ministry; they deserve your support. lam a good Radi-
cal, and as ultra as need be in abstract opinions ; but I am a
practical man. I am willing, practically, to support and
advocate measures of utility, giving me a better title to
shove Ministers on if they should stop, and to oppose them;
if (which I am sure they never will do) they attempt to
secede. Let us be unanimous. The Lords are unani-
mous. The Tories are unanimous—they are all agreed as to
their ends, and not over scrupulous in their means. Why,
Tories, the name originally signified a robber, and it has
never deviated from its original signification—(Laughter)
—and what is worse, it meant an Irish robber ; but here
the name has deviated, for the English and Scotch Tories
have carried off more public plunder than was ever seized
by the Irish mountaineers under the name of Tories.—
(Continued laughter.) In one of our most moble tragedies,
which does honour to English literature, and the scenery
of which is laid in your own lovely, country the child of
Lady Macduff is made to listen to the instructions of
his mother, to be honest—because knaves are
hanged ?' " Why, mamma," asks the shrewd child," are ail
knaves hanged?" The mother was here brought to a stand,
and endeavoured to waive the question by answering, "that
they ought to be." But the child immediately rejoined,
" Mamma, why are the knaves such fools, when they
are so much more numerous than the honest men, that
they might hang them all out and out ?" The To-
ries followed that counsel so long as they were strong
enough, and transported and hanged the honest men ; but
the knaves have now become the fewer, and the honest
men the more numerous party ; but they will not seek to
hang, but kick them out, and leave them to their wits. Let
us have unanimity against the Lords, and on this unanimity
will rest our strength and security. You have already prac-
tically recognized this doctrine by returning two Whigs ;
when every radical at the last electon gave them his honest
and disinterested support. ; and on another occasion I have
no doubt the Whigs will be finind giving their support to
honest Radicals, But you must keep out the Tories—
their power is strong, and their plans dangerous to Ireland.
The Hon. and Learned Gentleman then alluded to the re-
marks of Sir R. Peel regarding Lynch law in America, and
referred that Honourable Baronet to the Manchester mas-
sacre— the sacrifice of blood at Rathcormac and other
places, es more than a parallel to that occurrence in Ame-
rica. He also alluded to Sir R. Peel's vivid eulogiums on
Louis Philippe, the tyrant of France, which be described
as uncommonly impudent and audacious, and as indicatory
of foregone conclusions. People never praised what they
were not prepared to imitate. He then proceeded—Gen-
tltmen—l have detained you too long.—(No, no!) I
have delighted myself with " thinking aloud" in your pre-
sence. From you my thoughts wander to the oppressed
land of my hirth. I remember her romantic valleys and
her splendid hills ; the ever green verdure of her plains ;
the sound of her mountain streams falls on my ear; the rush
of her waves against the cliffs, announcing with the voice
of eternity that that nation is not to be enslaved nor de-
graded.—(Renewed cheers.) My countrymen will hear
with delight the mminer in which I was received in Eng
land end in Edinburgh.—(Long and loud cheering.) That
shout shall reach from one end of Ireland to the other, and
many a true-hearted Irishman will feel his heart animated
and uplifted within him when he hears how Scotland has
received the humble individual now before.you. Many- on
Irish mother, while she hugs her babe to her breast, and
sings it to repose with an Irish air, will mix the noble strain
with " Auld Langsyne," or " Seats who. hole wi' Wallace
bled," and as the accents lull her babe to sleep, will raise a
prayer to God to bless the generous people who stood by
odd Ireland in her days of need.—(lmmense applause.)
Mr. PEATT then moved a vote of thanks to the Lord
Provost and .Magistrates for granting the use of the
ground, which was carried by acclamation. Three cheers
were then .given to Mr. Aytoun, followed by loud cries
for that gentleman.
Mr. AYTouN then came forward and said, they bad
listened to such a magnificent display of eloquence from
him who might now be styled the first orator of the British
empire, that he would not presume to detain them above a
few moments. Mr. Aytoun then made a few remarks on
the welcome whiCh Mr. O'Connell had just received in
Scotland, and concluded by proposing . three enthusiastic
cheers for that gentleman ; a call which was loudly re-
sponded to by the' multitude:
Mr. O'Connell then returned to the Waterloo Hotel,
at the door of which a great crowd was waiting to receive
him. The trades left the ground, and marched to their
respective stations, where they dispersed.
The - most exact order was preserved throughout the
whole of the day.