The Sun.
London, England, 1835-09-17 00:00:00

• -

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 183,5.

not ; one hundred and seventy irresponsible masters.
What is the title by which they claim to rule you ?
That they are an ancient institution. This looks all very
well ; but I should as soon think of suppressing the power-
loom and annihilating the steam engine, because they have
taken the place of less useful machinery, as I would think of
upholding an institution because it is old. I am not saying
that those institutions were not at one time useful, but they
were useful just as the hammer was useful when it beat out
nails before you got the nailmaker's machines And we must
have improved machinery for legislation as we have for ma-
nufactures.—(Great and lons- continued applause.) T see
those throbs and throes for liberty at one period overturning
the throne, asd covering the scaffold with blood, because the
people could not believe in the word of their king, and it is
a sad thing to have liars about the throne.—(Applause and
laughter.) I see that that struggle ended in giving to
military despotism that obedience which the people would
not yield to legal monarchy. Then came 1665, and a
despot of the same unfortunate breed, agreeing with me
in religious opinion, but most widely differing from me- in
political principle and love of human freedom. The English
people were growing wiser than to think of cutting off his
foolish head, but sent him to carry it through Europe to
show the folly of an attempt to reduce Britons to the condi-
tions of slaves. Perhaps 170 more of the gentry may go upon
their travels.—(Applause and laughter.) From the revolu-
tion tillnow you had but one system followed. Shakspeare
has indicated the course which it has been thought advisable
to adopt. Only involve this country in a war with France,
and the people will forget their grievances. Shakspeare
was the Apostle of human nature—he it was who trans-
lated the human mind into language. What he had alluded
to was carried into effect. The effects of this policy have
been seen in many tyrannical shapes ; as an instance, I may
advert to the blood shed at Peterloo. These are the re-
sults of the sway of an overweening oliga'chy. We ob-
tained a Reform in the representation, and in spite of every
intimidation and bribery, there was still a majority in the
present Parliament in favour of the people. lam afraid I
cannot say the people of Newcastle have entirely done their
duty=they certainly sent us one good Member, but it was
not wise to send one good Member white as the day, and
a black one to neutralise him—the name of the black .one
happens to be White, I believe.—(Laughter and applause.)
The majority of the Representatives were determined to do
what ? To produce a revolution—to destroy private inter-
course—to derange and put an end to commerce and 'ma-
nufactures ? No, our object was to tate away abuses—to
free the people from those who had fed and fattened upon
public spoil—to drive away the owls and bats of the old
Corporations—to turn out the Aldermen and capital bur-
gesses—to do justice to Ireland : these were the wise pro-
jects of the Reformers. We had a lesson read to us. The
enemy is wise in his own generation, and accordingly we
saw that our business was, to close our ranks—to give
up dissentions amongst ourselves—to agree with every
one who agreed with us—to avoid quarrelling amongst
Reformers, and not to produce divisions before the time
for them arrived. This was the plan of many Reformers.
That poor fellow Hunt was always quarrelling with the
Reformers on some question that was to be decided three
or four years afterwards. The people in my country are
sufficiently quarrelsome, but we never quarrel about what
is to happen next year—(Laughter and applause)—that is
a blunder Irishmen never fall into. A combination of
Reformers will see the gradual progress of amelioration, the
wish to drive no man faster than he would go ; • all that
we insist on is, that he should keep moving.—(Laughter
and applause.) Slowly, if you please ; put the drag on, if
you please ; but go forward as long as abuses are to be
redressed, or reform is to be effected. I think that the
people of England and Ireland will consider this a wise
plan, and I am sure that you will:approve of it and carry
it into practice. We are oppressed, and by whom ? By
the House of Lords—very unwise and sagacious council-
lors—they turned out three bills, because one man bad ap-
proved of them. if that man, who shall be nameless, were
wrong, the reasons that showed he was wrongs ought to be
sufficient to induce them to, reject the bills ; but if he
were right, as some of you suspect, it may be undignified to
say so, what dolts and knaves were they who threw them
out because they knew lie was right? I have had occasion
to compare them to a society who held their' meetings in
Fetter-lane, of Fleet-street. At one of their meetings, a
member proposed the appointment of a treasurer ; another
member got up and said, " Don't do that ; you have no
money to keep." What happened? He was found guilty
of talking common sense, and expelled the society. This
was a society of odd. fellows. They have since given up
their sittings in Fetter-lane, and transported them to the
House of Lords. It would really amuse one to see what mis-
chief they have been doing. There was, for instance, a
bill for the abolition of imprisonment for debt; that bill was
to enable the creditor to recover money to come into possess-
sion of the property of the debtor without sending his per-
son to prison. It was to give to honest men what they
could not by the present law obtain. What did the society
of odd fellows do ? One of these odd fellows went to
Brighton and hired a house, and ordered goods of twenty
different tradesmen ; then went to London and sent his
compliments down to say that it was not convenient to pay
them. They suffocated that Bill. There was another
Bill to give counsel to prisoners ; the necessity of such a
measure is soon seen. A prisoner is put upon his trial, the
evidence against him is circumstantial, the counsel for the
prosecution has in his address remarked on a chain of evi-
dence which witness after witness is made to complete in
the estimation of a jury ; but if that prisoner had had the
benefit of an able counsel to defend him, he would have
exposed the sophisms by which the charge was attempted to
be sustained, and would have shown that the very circum-
stances on which such stress was laid were sufficient to
establish his innocence. And why is not his counsel heard?
because one of our ancient institutions prevented it. They
call themselves the friends of the poor, forsooth. We sent
them another Bill, which gave indemnity to witnesses who
should give evidence to the House of Commons in cases
of bribery. It was necessary that we should be enabled
to protect witnesses, or we should never be able to put
down bribery. We know the people who bribed—we
know the banker through whom the money went, as in
the case of the York election—we know the man who
pasted in the two pounds a-piece for plumpers. Well,
the moment the witness is in the box, he throws himself up
and says, "I am not bound to criminate myself." If he
is criminal, who is more fit to criminate himself? If he
was innocent, he would have nothing to fear. The House
passed that Bill, securing to every witness protection from
any other tribunal for the disclosures he made before the
committee. But the House of Lords, with virtuous in-
dignation, kicked it out. There is a foolish law which re-
quires, for bequeathing real property, that the names of
three witnesses should be signed to -a will: We proposed
that two witnesses"should be sufficient, for if two were guilty
of perjury, they would surely get a third to keep company
with them. That Bill was kicked out also by the society
of odd fellows. Another Bill or two were kicked out, and
then came the Corporation Bill. In the discussion upon
that Bill were exhibited the two contending principles. We
have heard of the doctrine of the Manichees, of there being
a god of good and a god of evil, and as soon as this Bill was
taken up by the odd fellows, the diabolical principle came
into operation. Lyndhurst' took out his shears—Ellen-
borough brandished his scissars—WicklOw, the Narcissus
of politicians—Winchelsea and Newcastle and the rest, did
as much mischief in two months, aided by that wiseacre,
Londonderry, as they could. contrive, and sent the Bill
down to us mutilated and disfigured, but still containing
some good principles—the turning out, for instance, the
old corporators stock and crop, cleansing the Augean stable,
the appointment of the new town councils, the publicity of
accounts, making the best political union that could be
effected. Indeed, the publicity of accounts prevents the
possibility of peculation, without the Joe Hume of the
body being able so put his finger into it. All these prin-
ciples were introduced into the Bill, but there was an
aristocratic principle in it which originated in Peel, who
cants about reform from his dunghill at Termsorth ;
we were obliged to submit to the injustice of a qualifica-
tion, but while' I am in Parliament, no session shall pass'
without my giving them at least one debate in the session
on the subject. Now I shall take the odd fellows to
Dublin. Tie Dublin police costs not the inhabitants of
that city, but the people of this country, for the money is.
taken from the consolidated fund—no less a sum than
48,0001. per annum.—(Cries•of " Shame.") A Bill was
brought in to improve that police which is exceedingly bad.
That Bill would have materially diminished the expense.
I have the honour to represent the city of Dublin, and it
was my business to support it. I did support it, and they
threw it out, for no better reason than this, that 1 had sup-
ported it. The maniacs of Bedlam would not have given
such a reason for their conduct. The constabulary of Ire-
land were deeply tinged with Orangeism ; in every petty
quarrel they were anxious to use ball cartridge. A Bill
to prevent such party vindictiveness was with great pro-
priety introduced by Ministers. That also was kicked out
by the society .of knavish fellows.—(Laughter and aP-
plause.) A Bill was introduced to regulate marriages in
Ireland. 'At present it is necessary that a man shall have
been a Catholic for twelve months before he is married by a
Catholic priest. The effect of this law is often to produce
great misery and injustice. When a priest has seen a per-
son attending his congregation for many months as a Ca-
tholic, and that person applies to him to be married, he can
have no hesitation in performing the ceremony, for it is im-
possible that he should know that be has not been quite 12
months a Catholic. I have known very disastrous results
from such unions. The man is not punished in such cases,
but the woman is often punished by the base desertion of
the man ; and the children are often brought up and edu-
cated as if they were untitled to property, and are suddenly
reduced to penury and starvation. We sent a Bill to re-
medy
t
edy
ie
that,T butthat
acA
alspopsrvopra
was destroyed
ill.
siotroyßedblt[brehe Lords. Then
Hon. Gen-

tleman here entered into minute detail, showing how greatly
the Catholics preponderated beyond every other religious
community in Ireland, and added]—Did we seek that the
surplus derivable from the Church revenues should be ap-
plied exclusively for the benefit of the Catholics ? No, no.
All we asked "Was, that it should be applied equally to the
moral and religious education of the people, without discri-
mination as to what sect or belief they belonged.—(Great
applause.) What did the House of Lords do ? We asked
them—Won't you give any thing for education ; and their
reply was—Not a sixpence, not a penny. But then they
said, after Sir Robert Peel, there is no surplus from the
Irish Church. If there is no surplus to be employed, what
harm is there in giving a declaration of the principle.—
(Great applause.) The House of Lords knocked down
that Bill, though that principle would have been a very
great thing for the people of Ireland. Six million five hun-
dred thousand people pay for clergymen they do not want!
If any man said that the Catholics should pay for the
lawyers, physicians, or surgeons of the Protestants, would
it not be called robbery ? Is it not equal robbery, then,
to make them pay for their spiritual physicians.—(Great ap-
plause.) You see what a quantity of mischief, of injustice,
the House of Lords have committed. Look back and see
the number of bills they have destroyed. Thus it is that
they perpetuate the sickness of the heart from hope de-
ferred. Looking for the redress of her grievances, and look-
ing for it in vain, would you endure that any gang or ban-
ditti, I care not by what name you call them, should treat
them and you contemptuously. In one word, I will call
them rogues. I inculcate peace, Ido not want the stones
to, mutiny, but I recommend to you perseverance and per-
petual agitation until you obtain the amelioration of your
institutions.—(Cheers.) The cry will go through England,
each man will look at his neighbour and say, ate you for
the slavery of England, or for the improvement "Of her in-
stitutions ; or.will you suffer the Peels and the Goulburns to
prey upon the freedom of England, to tarnish that which
they cannot destroy, and to prey upon that which is too
bright and too glorious for animals so obscene. The speech
of Sir Robert Peel at Tamworth is a speech of utter de-
fiance of the people of England. He says he will have
power over you and over us, but I think he is greatly mis-
taken, and I read badly. the History of England, if English-
men will submit to such a ruler. He says I thought I could
have managed the affairs of England, because I thought I
was strong myself, and because I thought the reformers
would quarrel amongst themselves. Fas est ab poste
doceri. We see what our enemies wished we should do ;
we see the prudence of the course we have adopted of union.
Peel said, I thought the Irish and O'Connell could never
agree with the Melbourne Administration. We had a hang-
dog choice ; if we did not take Melbourne we must submit
to Peel, and that would have been a perpetual coercion bill
for Ireland, and from this spot I taunt Peel in reply.
I tell him that the choice we made our heads dictated, and
our grateful hearts now confirm. From the moment they
came into power there is not a single act which the Mel-
bourne Administration could do to promote the welfare of
Ireland, to relieve her distresses, to soothe her sufferings, and
to mitigate her oppression, that they have not done freely
and actively.—(Cheers, and great applause.) The next
part of Peel's speech referred to the Protestant Dissenters.
These hypocrites have bad memories, Joseph Surface is
liable to forget. I have the honour to be acquainted with
a great many Protestant Dissenters. They are generally
well informed ; there are blockheads amongt them, there is
one in this neighbourhood, who, though a Dissenter, stands
up for the Establishment. If there be such a member,
what a fellow he must_ be ! If the Establishment be right,

he ought to join it ; i 1 wrong, he should not attempt to
support it. The most of Dissenters that I have met with
are intelligent and well-informed. Does Peel think that
they forget his history? He stood against the repeal of
the Test and Corporation Act. Last year there was a ques-
tion whether Dissenters should be allowed to take degrees
at the Universities. Honest Peel, the friend of, the Dis-
senters, opposed it.—(Laughter.) And at the end of his
Tamworth speech, he sets about praising Louis Philippe,
the French despot who stops the freedom of the press, which
teaches men to know their rights—which expands the
powers of the human mind—he stops the progress of the
most valuable information—information that teaches men
to defend their liberties, but not to endanger the peace of so-
ciety ; this was the Prime Minister of last year, who wishes
to be Prime Minister again. The trial by jury in effect is
annihilated, and the House of Peers of France turned into
a kind of perpetual criminal court. A majority of the jury
is sufficient to convict ; their names are not even to be pub-
lished, but they are to write them down individually, and
hand them to the judge. If this were done in England, is
there a man in England who would not rather be ready to
die than to submit to it ?—(Long-continued cheering and.
applause.) I expected that ;it you had not given me that
response, I should have appealed to the bones, of your fa-
thers, and your grandfathers and your ancestors, and they
would not have remained quiet in their graves. I cannot
conclude without appealing to your generosity. I call upon
you to remember that if the Peers are allowed to rule, there
will be no peace for Ireland. The artillery and cavalry
will be again let loose, but after all the people of Ireland
will not pay tithes.—(Great applause.) The Hon. Gen-
tleman here alluded to some cases of great cruelty and bar-
barity that have recently occurred at Rathcormac and
other places in Ireland, in consequence of the present sys-
tem of collecting tithes, and added, are these massacres
committed in some savage country, in the wilds of Ame-
rica? No ! they occur in Ireland, where the people speak
the same language as yourselves, where they sympathize
with you, and rely on you, the good people of England,
under the blessings of a kind Providence, to rally round
them, to aid and support them, in obtaining a release from
their oppression.—(Great and continued applause.)
The CHAIRMAN proposed that the meeting should give
3 times 3 cheers, in honour of Mr. O'Connell's speech,
which were given most heartily. •
Mr. A. L. POTTER proposed the health of Lord Mel-
bourne and his Majesty's Ministers.—(Great applause.)
Mr. DOUBLEDAY proposed as a toast, " the Cause of
Reform, and may its' fruits be speedily realized in spite of
every effort of the oligarchs to obstruct it."
Mr. CHARNLEY said, he rose to propose the health of a

distinguished Nobleman, who was a native of this county, to
omit whose name at a meeting of this kind would be to be
guilty of a, neglect of a great public duty. " The Health
of Earl Grey, the Father of the Reform Bill."—(Applause.)
Mr. LARKIN was then called upon by the Chairman;
and was, on rising, received with loud cheers. He com-
menced by saying, Gentlemen, if it would be difficult, under
the circumstances, to address you on any subject, how
are those difficulties increased to me when the subject on.
which I have to address you is Ireland—( Loud cheers)
—wretched, oppressed, insulted Ireland.—(Cheering.) Oh,
Sir, when I attempt to touch that harp (pointing to the
device at the bottom of the room) the harp of his native
country, in the presence of the great master of its strings—
(Enthusiastic cheering)—l feel indeed my rashness checked
and my hand paralysed.—(Cheers.) Who shall dare to
bend the bow of Ulysses ?—(Cheers.) Who shall talk of
Ireland, its woes, its oppressions, and its wrongs, in the pre-
sence of O'Connell ?—(Loud cheering.) I leave the theme
to the burning indignation of his eloquence, to his tongue of
fire and soul of flame.—(Cheers.) But though I dare not
touch this theme, there is one subject to which I have
confidence to allude. I know Mr. O'Connell's love for his
country—l know his grief for its suffering. Ido trust that
the reception he has met with this day—(Cheers)—its cor-
diality and enthusiasm, will carry some degree of consolation
to his mind.—(Cheers.) The applause in this room, the
enthusiastic shouts of the people on his entrance thiS af-
ternoon ; the crowds, the thousands, the tens of thousands,
who pressed forward to greet and welcome his arrival ;
the huzza4 u.nd acclamations which marked his appearance
on the hustings, and the bursts of approbation with which his
remarks have been received, as well in the open air as in
this room—oh, he has, indeed, been received with, in the
v.-ords of the device before us, Cead mine Faille, a hundred
thousand welcomes.—(Cheers.) This reception will, I
trust, convince him that there are multitudes of Englishmen
who admire the noble advocacy of the cause of his country,
Who sympathise in her sufferings, whose breasts burn with
indignation at the recollection of its wrongs, and pant with
an ardour only inferior to his own to redress them. He has
imbued us with his own feelings, and from the contact and
contagion of his eloquence and patriotism, we have almost
become Irishmen ourselVes.—(Cheers.) Every thing about
this country is strange, anomalous, portentous. But a while
ago the law regarded the very people of the country as
aliens in their native soil. A whole people were depressed,
while a faction was rendered predominant and triumphant.
The estates of the inhabitants were confiscated, while foreign
plunderers entered upon its fields with swords in their hands,
and expelled the original proprietor, partitioned out the
soil as spoil among themselves, and the proprietors
of which are now, for the most part, absentees
from the country. A church has been established and
enriched with the plunder of an ancient Catholic Church
among a catholic people. The proportion of protestants to
datholics has been explained to you by Mr. O'Connell—a
few hundred thousand protestants among seven millions of
catholic people. The clergy of this minority, whom the
law cherishes, while it neglects the millions, are advanced
to riches, to dignity, to honour, and to legislative power,
while the friends of the people are stigmatised, degraded,
dishonoured, calumniated, and denounced. Look then,
gentlemen, at the services of Mr. O'Connell. He has abo-
lished the test.and corporation Acts, for the merit of that
act of justice to the Dissenters was principally his ; he
destroyed the penal code ; achieved emancipation ; lifted up a
low degraded nation of Catholics to an equality with their
protestant fellow-countrymen ; he has exposed the injus-
tice of the tithe system, which, as you have learnt from
him, that the people whom we have this night drunk
as the only source of legitimate power in the exercise
of that as it were regal prerogative have abolished.
The parliament having failed to do justice, they have done

__
_____,

justice for themselves, and trampled under foot an unjust
laW, which itself tramples upon the highest privileges of hu-
manity, the rights of conscience.-=--(Cheers.) Since he came
into parliament the oppressiveness of the Irish ecclesiastical
establishment has been admitted, its abuses have been sub-
jected to a vigorous investigation, ten of its gorgeous mitres
have been blown away 'ay the breath of public opinion, and
the right to Parliament to appropriate to what purposes it
pleases its revenues has been fully, completely established.—
(Cheers.) Now is it possible, I ask, that such a man
should not beloved and adored by the people, whom he has
served with such unexampled devotion and fidelity ?
(Loud cheers.) Talk of his power ! Talk of his influ-
ence ! It would be strange and mysterious indeed, if such
a man (lid not possess influence and power. What ! a man
.with such energies, such industry, with such eloquence;
and scattering such blessings on his country, the champion
of its liberties, the advocate of its rights, and avenger of its

wrongs, it is impossible that he should not possess influ-
ence and power. The enemies of the people dread that
power, and are bending all their energies to its destruction.
COurnny is their principal weapon. But is itin the power of
hireling calumniators to destroy or injure the character of
such a man?—(Shouts of " No.") What other effect can ca-
lumny have but to endear him the more to the Irish people
—to make them cling with more ardent affection to him ?
It is not, in the power of any calumniator, whether he be

duke or baronet, lord or commoner—it is not in the power
of the cold, cautious, prudential, and calculating malignity
of the Duke of Wellington in the House of Lords, nor the
artful sneers, and considerate malice, and " sweltering
venom" of the "clap-trap" Sir R. Peel, at Tamworth, to
destroy that influence.—(Cheers.) Mr. Larkin concluded
an able and eloquent address, which was loudly applauded,
by proposing as a toast, " The Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland,
and equal rights and prosperity to that country."
Mr. CHAlRMAN—Gentlemen, I have the honour to pro-
pose " Mr. Morgan O'Connell, and the Reformers of
Meath."

MORGAN O'CONNELL, Esq., M.P., returned thanks.
Mr. O'CoNNELL proposed the health of the Chairman,
which was drunk with three times three, and very great
applause.
Mr. CHAIRMAN gave, " Mr. Ord and the Reformers of
Newcastle."—(Great enthusiasm.)
Mr. JOHN RAYNE, jun., proposed " Lord J. Russell, and
the glorious Majority in the House of Commons who drove
the Tory Faction from Power."
Mr. W. L. HARLE then rose and said-1 rise to give
you the " Health of Henry Lord Brougham, and the
speedy Acquisition of an Unstampcd Press."—(C ers.)
Lord Brougham came not into political existence the
i
Reform Bill of thirty-two ; but years ago, when parlo iampn-
tary reform was a phrase at which most men grew pale, and
when Lambton and Russell brought forward their motions
on that dreaded and intolerable point, in their houses, amidst
the gibes and the scorn of placemen and boroughmongers,
Lord Brougham, as plain Henry, and itinerant working
lawyer upon this circuit, and the representative, too, of a
decayed borough, smote hip and thigh the Philistines of the
day, the Castlereaglis and the Peels, the Vansittarts and
the Goulburnsl—and made all England ring from side to
side, with the bitterness of his invective, and the terrific
storm of his wrath and his sarcasm.—(Cheers.) The mid-
dle age of Brougham, to his immortal honour be it spoken,
was thus spent in attempting to crush with his voice and with
his pen, that haughty, intolerant, and anti-popular faction,
which, though bereft of its head by Lord Grey, has yet
most unfortunately, like the men of the Dog Star, de-
scribed in Munchausen—sufficient vitality and hardihood
to stand, and even to try locomotiojk with the head car-
ried under the arm.—(Cheers and laughter.) Again and
again, in the days to which I have alluded, the fortunes
of Brougham, politically and professionally, might have
fertilized in showers of Treasury gold ; but firm to the
great principles of freedom—sworn at the altar of Re-
form to maintain the rights of the people—he laboured
in his literal vocation, until the day came, that he rose
to the highest honours of the State, not at the bidding
of this man or of that, but with the thundering accla-
mations of the grateful millions of the erripire.—(Loud
applause.) He has been; at one and the same time, a
reformer of the common law, and an author of natural
theology—the supreme judge in equity, and a scientific
authority upon the steam-engine—the leading debater in
the House of Commons, and a lecturer to school-boys
at Glasgow on Demosthenes and Dante—the Speaker
of the House of Lords, and a slashing and merciless re-
viewer in the blue and yellow—the great enquirer into
charitable abuses, and the supporter and the advocate
of Penny Magazines—the leader of the anti-Slavery So-
ciety, and the founder, or at any rate the most powerful
friend, of Mechanics' lnstitutions.—(Applause.) All this
• energy, all this genius, all this activity, devoted to the
mental amelioration of the people, and to the increase of
their liberty and happiness, must surely have produced
wonderful effects, and must surely be entitled tk) your
._.

affectionate gratitude, and your oarnest praise.—(Cheers.)
If the monopoly of the Press were destroyed, Lord
Brougham would seldom, with impunity, be termed
drunkard, madman, and harlequin, as he has so frequently,
and so disgustingly been, by that shame to our country, the
Times. The odious monopoly created by the stamps upon
newspapers gives the poison and the sting to virulence and
abuse. You are told till you are tired, if the stamps wet.
removed, the licentiousness and the vileness of the Press
would be tenfold increased. Is it possible, however, that
any radical unstamped paper could be more atrociously
licentious, malignant, and debasing, than the renegade Tory
Times, the 131111, the Age.—(Cheers and laughter.) Thanks
to Lord Brougham in the Upper, and to Mr. Bulwer in the
Lower House of Parliament, we have now a prospect of a

cheap and an unstamped, as well as of a free and intellectual
Press.—(Cheers.)
Mr. CHAS. RAYNE proposed " Mr. Hume, the indefa-
tigable Assertor of the People's rights, and the suc-
cessful Exposer of the Orange Conspiracy."
The CHAmm AN gave—" Poland, and may that noble
country soon triumph over its oppressors."—(Cheers.)
Mr. CHAlRMAN—Gentlemen, I propose " the health of
Mrs. O'Connell and the family at Derrynane Abbey."—
(Great enthusiasm.)
Mr. O'CONNELL returned thanks.

The following toasts were then given—" The Earl of
Durham and Union among Reformers " Mr. Shiel, and
the Patriotic Representatives of Ireland ;" Sir avid Ers-
kin'e, and the Independent Representatives of Scotland."

Mr. CHAlRMAN—Gentlemen, I have an old fashioned
toast to propose, which involves the principle of freedom
without any reference to financial oppression or prosperity."
" Civil and Religious Liberty all over the World," and
with this sentiment we conclude this most triumphant
meeting.—(Cheering.)
The company broke up about twelve o'clock, apparently
highly gratified with the proceedings of this interesting and
important festival.

REMARKS. OF THE FRENCH PRESS

ON SPANISH AFFAIRS.

The Constitutionnel enters into historical details relative
to the decline of Spain, while France and England have re-
gularly increased in power and wealth. Her destiny has
been to take a course directly opposite to that of England
and France. It was her misfortune to be enriched by con-
quest, while she scattered her real force, and left herself '
without a centre of life and- nationality, a focus of industry
and progress in civilization. Her conquests have vescaped
from her grasp, her riches have passed into other hands,
and her credit is gone. When England carried her arms
into foreign countries, she also carried her commerce. She
gave of the exuberance of her, population ; whereas Spain,
having constantly lost the flower of her people,' has wanted
arms to work, and 'heads to rule' and regulate ; her soil
could produce nothing for commerce, for she had not
enough for herself—she was ruined by her conquests. Her
colonies for 25 years 'past have been in a state of fearful
anarchy, without laws, without principles, without popula-
tion, without commerce, without industry ; whereas tlte
English
.colonies had but to pronounce a single word no,
and they became at once a powerful nation. The emigra-
tions, which were so fatal to the Spanish nation, were fa-
voured by the Government in its attempts to become abso-
lute, and to annihilate liberty. The insurrection of the
communes in 1520, the last sign of' life given by liberty in
Spain, was stifled when Cortes took possession of Mexico.
At a subsequent period Charles-Quint had other occupation
for his people, and South America completed the enslave-
ment
of the Peninsula. Spain has lived on her capital
without having placed it out at interest, or having employed
it to profit ; it is now from her soil and industry alone that
she must seek wealth, but for that purpose she must be-
come free and united. Her freedom must be wrought out
by herself alone, without foreign intervention, for wealth has
no value unless procured by labour, and we are too apt to
misemploy that which comes by chance. As to the present
provincial juntas in Spain, which might proye dangerous by
disuniting the people, there seems to be yet the means of
safety, and that is by mutual concessions. Federalism would
prevent the regeneration of the country. Let the juntas
abandon their form, and let the Government accede to their
just complaints. It is now three centuries since the Go-
vernment obtained n complete victory over the communes,
and that fatal victory ruined the country. Let not the
communes now seek to obtain victory, but let them have
satisfaction, in order to preserve that equilibrium which
constitutes the force of nations. _

The Temps observes, that in the present situation of
Spain, it would be superfluous to predict what is about to
become her fate. Every thing is possible in that country,
rdid the crisis which agitates it may have a sudden and un-
expected issue. Of one thing we may be certain—namely,
that the movement in the provinces has more particularly
been determined by the rumours of treachery and compro-
mise with Don Carlos. The Spaniard has seen the hand of
the foreigner in the late events, and nothing more was want-

inz t) exasperate his pride. Our Ministry is now dreaming,
not of direct intervention in the Peninsula, but of the grand
sanatory cordon, .which gave rise to much mockery, even in
the tim3 of Lours—XVlll. Numerouf regiments are mov-
ing towards the Pyrenees, and it is announced with mystery
`that in a month we shall have, 44,9(30 ' isposatle at
that point. We date not yet beilteveln-fh, of an in-
tervention, especially in the intefst.of.an iniposS. system.
Assuredly the insults offe.ted. •.our frontier ougliy4 be #re-
pressed, and we are too war kttaebed.to the ' our of
the French name ever to s :ttan:;:egr.ani)vithongthe in-
tention of avenging it i we aOhref,eio,...ntAceive the pro-
priety of sending troops to tlytAk!.p.o6y*fldpkts the inso-
lence of the Carlists. But an<1t1V,,.4141%-the form and
in the ideas of 1823, as a ports. It f t:„...ti tlyitiet wishes it,
would be disapproved by the who , DT. The inter- .
vention of 1823 cost France 150,000,000 f., and she has no
desire of making a second experiment. •