The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-31 00:00:00

THE ABANDONED DEMONSTRITiON:

A Conservative journal (the Leimter Express),
which at first rather encouraged the projected
meeting of the landlords, so far, at least, as the re-
pression of agrarian crime was an object of solici•
trade, now says :—" We never could concede to the
landlord class a superiority solely to entitle them to
the discharge of the several duties appertaining to
the maintenance of peace, and much less can we
acknowledge their predilections in behalf of those
industrial projects calculated to promote the pro-
sperity of Ireland. Territorial possession, no doubt,
gives a certain station and stake, and there are
many landowners who are alive to the responsibility
o ftheir position cannot be denied; but that, as a
ody,they are to be exclusively entrusted with, or
consulted upon, any of those measures which conduce
to the public welfare, is not alone a gross fallacy,
but an insult to the understanding, the judgment,
and enlarged views of men of industrial wealth,
enlightened mind, and liberal education. The de-
signation of a Landlord meeting,' justified in some
measure by a departure from the terms of the requi-
sition, as circulars are stated to have been sent ex-
elusively to the possessors of landed estates, has been
the principal cause of the failure : for that it was a
decided failure it is useless to deny ; and the most
judicious mode of retreat appears to have been
under the shield of an Address of the Landed
Proprietors to the Lord Lieutenant .
Apropos of the abandoned meeting, an Orange
journal contains some curious revelations of the
reasons which led to the sudden hauling down of
the landlord flag. After alluding to the brilliant
auspices under Which the meeting had been con-
voked, the Derry Sentinel angrily asks :—" Why,
with such prospects and under such favourable cir-
cumstances—in the midst of the spring-tide of
success, did the committee haul down their colours ?
Were they unequal to the occasion ? Did they
shrink from the responsibility they had assumed!
Did they waver as to the soundness of their polio}'?
Did the Marquis of Downshire refuse to take the
Perit assigned to him ? No. The committee were
:firm and-confident, and Lord Downshire was wait-
ing for the telegram to start from London in order
to take the chair. The meeting was abandoned,
we are sorry to say. The movement was arrested
by parties actin on behalf of the Government.
Some of these gut themselves added to the com-
mittee, and acted their part in the guise of friends,
others set the Kildaretreet Club in motion, and
brought their influence to bear with the utmost
pressure on all the highest personages that were to
assist in the meeting, by representing it as a rash
proceeding, injurious to the Government and cal-
culated to endanger its existence, while the
object sought could be better obtained through
the action of the Executive, without stirring up a
dangerous agitation. The persons who understook
to carry out this plan assisted the committee in
their rooms so effectively on Thursday and Friday,
that at length they felt themselves compelled to
give way, substituting for their intended reso-
lutions a memorial ,:.to the Lord-Lieutenant. It
must be admitted that it is quite natural that such
a movement should be distasteful to the Govern-
ment. All a"ernmentli wish that the public