The Sun.
London, England, 1835-09-22 00:00:00

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SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNAL S.

There is one part of Mr. O'Connell's speech at the-
Edinburgh Dinner that is worthy of peculiar attention.
We allude to the concluding part of his address, in
which he adverts, in language of burning and impas-
sioned eloquence, to the condition and prospects of
his native country, and his own policy with ret.,,,,rd 'to
the all-important question of a Legislative LTaion.
In the expressed sentiments of Mr. O'Connell upon
these topics, what Englishman is there, with a heart
to feel and a pulse to throb with sympathy for liberty,
and detestation of slavery and oppression, that will
not cordially concur in these animatef.i and eloquent
erpressions ?
:,I*:?aturaliy plead for Ireland (said Mr. O'Connell), and
who can :..`lame me ? I have already done my country some
service ; and I do imagine that if I were to descend to my
grave to-morrow, I should do so with this consolation, that -I
death than I found her at my
left my country bettOr At my
birth. It has been slid—.(here the Hon. and Learned Gen-
tlemanefophasis)—tbat England and
spoke with peculiar
Scotland are opposed to a repe!ll pf the Union. Why, so
am I, if justice be done to Irelond•—(Great cheering.)
My object in this mission is to excite the people of England
and Scotland in favour of my country, and so to render
the repeal of the Union unnecessary, by ina.king it a real
union instead of a parchment union. Why should not the
people of Ireland have the franchise the same as England
and Scotland have ? Why should they not have corporate
rights as England and Scotland have—why should they not
be freed from the domination of a paltry faction, as Eng-
land and Scotland are—why should not the consciences of
the Irish people be free and unfettered as, thank God for
it, the people of England and Scotland are ? Answer these
questions in the negative, and I tell you, that, though the
game may be hopeless, you drive me to become a li:lpealer
again. Answer them in the affirmative, and Ireland will
join you heart and hand, and will be ready to fight your
battles.--(Gf.?at cheering.) England and Ireland have too
long answered to the fable of the dwarf and the giant, where
comes in for the honour a.nd plunder. Now, I tell you, we
the dwarf gets all the blows and the wounds, and the giant
will not endure that Ireland ,7hould be the dwarf by the side
of such a giant power as Englanci.t But raise her political sta-
ture to the standard of England and Scotland, and then—hur-
rah for the Union.—(Loud and long,continued cheering.)
For 600 years the iron hoof of misrule has ;:rampled upon the
green isles of my lovely land. Her soil is fertile to exu-
berance, for no summer sun scorches it to scrility, nor
does the winter chill it into barrenness—fertile io exube-
rance are her valleys—lovely are her rivers, as they rush
gofreheenr plains —oh oe not u
do btue a
Hr oe na
vtehue i
it bwo seor me s; the t p
export
ox dp uocr
tt s_
from the sides of her mountains, and flow through her
l
ing from the land the very necessaries of life, while
their banks are lined with a starving people. Her har-
bours are safe from every gale, and open at every hour
of every tide, and yet, though a solitary sail may occa-
sionally be seen on her seas, commerce she has none—her
j„,;ns wander over every land as the accursed of heaven,
aod they are to be found in every country toiling for that
subsistetNe which is denied them at home—supported in
their exile only by the exuberance of their native spirits,
and sighing in secret sorrow that they never more
behold the land of their birth.—(Great ehe;lrs.) Why is
Ireland without commerce ?—Misgovernment. Why is
she without manufactures ?—Misgovernment. Why are
her sons starving among fields that teem with produce ?
Misgovernment. I call upon you to rid your souls of the
crime of acqz:;escing in this mischief.—(Loud cheers.) I
shall carry back to my
own country a tale of joy. I shall
.
tell my country„no that I read in the countenances of
a.nd discerning people of Scotland, a
the manly, shrewd,
determination to join As in struggling for our rights.-
-n
(Cheers.) I shall tell the. that a nation, never exceeded
in the arts of war, and ithe bravery of her sons—l
n
shall tell them that a country w.sich,in the words of one of
our countrymen, who was an oratn.r, soars in the full blaze
.l
of the arts and sciences, " with an ye that never winks,
and a wing that never tires"—l will teg them that Scotland,
strong in her manly sons and generWs sentiments, has
vowed that Ireland shall be free."
It is the injustice which Tory Governments have
inflicted upon Ireland—it is the trampling' upon the
rights of the many for the advantage and ascendancy
of the few--it is the attempting to govern a gr,eat and
populous community as a tributary province or It eon-
iipered colony, that have raised up against British do-
nun:on the warmest and best of the offsprings of the
sister ista:ud. "Do justice to Ireland," says Mt.
O'Connell, ‘" and make the Union with England a
real instead ,of a parchment bond." Let Ireland
be governed t,Tion equitable principles—let the
Irishman be trea;ed as the Englishman—the Ca-
tholic as the Protest,mt, and the two countries may
go hand and hand, ,smid their Uuion will be a
source of mutual strei,:g,th, and guarantee of
mutual prosperity. But Obat right have we to
expect that Irishmen will ,tranquilly acquiesce in
British dominion, if the Legislative Union be-
tween the two countries is to Lbe made the means
of perpetuating the grievances L'nder which Ire-
land labours—if it is .to be inaa',l the medium
of ruling a people essentially Catholic upon Orange
and Ascendancy principles ? A union that, rest-
ing as it floes upon no ground of reason, ci.'n be only
maintained And perpetuated by the sword. idike Mr.
O'Connell, we desire a real union—a union of inte-
rests—a union d affection and of sympathy. .Every
. is ,
other species of anion nut an empty sound ;itis a
mere mockery of langz,age—a word, and not an idea
—a name, and not a thl;:sg. We have heard that the
assemblage that honoured . themselves by honouring
Mr. O'Connell comprised io their numbers few of the
leading Whigs of Edinburgh. That the metropolis of
Scotland should be deserted by of its wealthy and
aristocratic inhabitants, at a season like this, is what
might be expected. While London ;s deserted for the
country, would it be reasonable to expect Edinburgh to
be full ? We do not mean to assert, nev-,:.rtheless, that
there might not be some fewgentlernen, respectable from
their station, whG, professing to be friends of the present
Government, might have allowed some petty feelings
or local jealousies to p; event their attendance upon the
above occasion. All we can say is, that we do not
admire the feelings or the taste which actuated the
individuals in question. Ma:ly persons in Edinburgh
will,,no doubt, remember a sayir,;_c.%of Dr. Gregory's—
that there was a certain scale oh intellect, on which
perfect intelligence stood at one end and a well-known
professional adversary of his at the o: her. Certainly
the Liberal aristocrats in question hace no claim to
stand at the upper end of the scale. We ;.,-uppose that
they or scarcely one of them would be be .rd of six.
months after his death, unless it had been in eonnec-
tion with the dinner in question. But, after all, of
what possible consequence 7c it whether the entertain-
ment at which Mr. O'Connell was feasted by 1,500 of
the industrious and intelligent citizens of Edinburgh,
was honoured by the presence of a few gentlemen, re-
spectable, no doubt, in their private capacity, but
ranking only as fifth and sixth rate poi;ticians ? But
we are wrong in wasting'our efforts thus to break
a fly upon the wheel.—Morning Chronicle.
Daniel, pursuant to public announcement, made his
first appearance at Edinburgh on Thursday to' an au-
' dience which, the place and promise considered, was
insivificant even in number, and for character utterly
below notice, except with time view of exposing the
humbug of the thing, and rescuing the respectable part
from the imputation that
of the Scottish community
they have any feelings in common with this upholder
of the freedom of election b‘,"
the compail appear to
and cross-bones. The elite of .
means of death's-heads
have been Mr. Aytoun, the RatliCal
but unsuccessful
Tait, a Radical
opponent: of Sir John Campbell ; Mr.
but anything
whom w;1 never heard
bookseller ; Dr. Bowring, a Radical als,":
but a book-seller; Dr. Browne,
of before, and who tags to his name LL.O2 as any-
body else may do in Scotland for L.S.D. ; Epps,
"of London" (any relation to " ham and bee of
that ilk ?) ; mild Mr. i! utliven and Mr.
O'Connell, both, Daniclis gri:fia, M. P.; Mr. Gil.
lon, M. P., chiefly known for unnoticed notices of
motions, to which, however, we are indebted for the
house being counted out every now and then : divers
" councillors" and others ranking no doubt vefy high
among the " illustrious obscure" of the Radical aristo-
cracy of " Modern Athens," but whose fame has not
reached the cars of our readers—together with the
Rev. Mr. Nisbett, of Cowgate Chapel, and the Rev.
'Mr. Halley, of Leith (two of Dan's chaplains, We
suppose), and a gentleman with the appropriate nonie
of hint-owl. Such was the nature of this " gather-
ing," as it is called, and in one sense appropriately
enough. Not a single person of any mark or likelihood,
of whatever party, did curiosity attract to see the sa.
vage : and that curiosity, and nothing else, moved the
1,000 or 1,509 who paid their t,diillongs for the show,
• would be manifest from the accounts of the affair
in the Scotch papers alone. They describe: Dania