The Sun.
London, England, 1835-12-17 00:00:00

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PRICE 7D.

PROTESTANT MEETING

AT BRIGHTON.

A public meeting was held yesterday at Brighton, for
the purpose (as the advertisements stated), of affording the
Reverend Mortimer O'Sullivan an opportunity of " making
known the real character and purposes of Popery, as exhi-
bited in Ireland, and the Dangers to Protestantisre."
At twelve o'clock Mr. SHARWOOD proposed that Mr.
Churchwarden Good take the Chair. Considerable oppo-
sition was made to this by the parties who had got up the
meeting ; and Mr. Good having been chosen to fill the
Chair by the loud acclamations of those who were fa-
vourable to his election, proceeded to occupy the Chair ;
but his design was opposed by the parties on the other
side, who hastily mounted the platform, and defended the
vacant seat. Mr. West, the Reverend Mr. Elliott, and
another gentleman, were foremost in the party ; and in the
struggle for the seat considerable tumult occurred. A per-
sonal conflict took place betwegn Lord Teignmouth and Mr.
Good in front of the platform ; similar contests occurred at
the back, chairs and forms were overturned, the combatants
were rolling over each other on the floor, the ladies shrieked
and fled in affright, and the scene at one period presented
really a very alarming appearance. By degrees, however,
order was in some measure restored, Mr. Good gained pos-
session of the empty seat of honour, and the business of the
meeting commenced.

Amongst the crowd of distinguished persons present
during the meeting, we observed Prince George and his
tutor.
The Rev. M. O'SULLIVAN then came forward, and
claimed an impartial hearing, which, he said, he was sure to
obtain from an English assembly. He had been accused,
and now appeared before a jury of his countrymen to de-
fend himself. A placard had been issued, headed " The
Ratheormac Massacre v. O'Sullivan ;" he lamented that
unfortunate affair. The placard said he was allowed 2,000/.
a year out of the Conservative Fund ; that was a state-
ment unnecessary for him to notice, but having come for-
ward he could not pass it over in silence. At great pecu-
niary and personal sacrifice he had engaged in advocating
the cause of a most persecuted claSs in Ireland, because his
conscience, told him it was a duty. Mr. O'Sullivan then
proceeded to state that it was right bad laws should be al-
tered, but all laws should be obeyed till repealed ; there-
fore so long as tithes were sanctioned by law they ought to
be paid. The objection to tithes in Ireland was, that it
was unjust to call upon professors of one religion to contri-
bute towards the maintenance of another. Now if there was
one Roman Catholic in Ireland who could be said to pay
forced tithes to a minister of the Protestant religion, he
would say they ought to be remitted. The fact was, a
tenant came to a landed proprietor and offered to take a
piece of ground ; the landlord named the rent at so much
and the tithe at-so much ; the tenant found the land was
worth the money, and took it subject to the tithe. But would
it be said the tenant therefore paid forced tithe ? He
knew an instance where a piece of ground, tithe-free, was
charged 6d. an acre higher rent than the adjoining ground,
which paid tithe, and was worth 6d. an acre less. If the tenant
paid no tithe, he paid higher rent. Nineteen-twentieths
of the land in Ireland was held by Protestants ; therefore
it was not true that the tithes were paid by Catholics. The
speaker then went on to show that, in the province of
Ulster, where Orange societies prevailed, there had not
been from 1798 to 1835 so many murders and outrages
committed as in Mr. Shell's own county of Tipperary, where
Riband societies had the sway, within the last two Years,
and not one individual had there been brought to justice.
He therefore contended that the Orange societies had a
good effect, and rejoiced that he belonged to them. The
speaker next proceeded to say, the whole question, how-
ever now was, shall the Protestant or the Roman Catholic
religion predominate in Ireland ?=---(Loud cheers, and cries
of " neither !" Mr. Goulty asked what Mr. O'Sullivan
meant by the Protestant religion ?) He meant by the
Protestant religion—(a voice, " Pounds, shillings, and
pence.") In the case of the individual ' interrupting him,
that might be the truth ; but his (Mr. O'Sullivan's mean-
ing of Protestantism was, the right of private judgment—
(loud cheers)—the liberty of conscience—(renewed cheers)
—and a free circulation of God's holy Scriptures.—
(Cheers.) Rome, when she had ,the power, would again
renew her perseCutions, because the principle of the Catho-
lic religion was not to tolerate any other sect but her own,
considering that every man who resisted or dissented from
her had sentence of death passed upon him.
At this period of the address, a Gentleman rose and ex-
claimed with much earnestness that Mr. O'Sullivan was
misrepresenting the tenets of the Roman Catholics. Mr.
O'Sullivan at once recognised the Gentleman who inter-
rupted him as Mr. Carew O'Dwyer, who, lie said, lie was
glad to see there to answer him, as he ras an individual
who had been deemed so worthy of the confidence of his
fellow countrymen in Ireland, as to have been selected by
them as a representative in Parliament. No doubt the
Hon. and Learned Gentleman would make out the best
case possible. He (Mr. O'Sullivan) would be glad to meet
him at any time to-morrow, or any other clay, and discuss
the subject.
Mr. O'DwYER—" I will meet you now."—(Cheers.)
Mr. O'Sowvasz resumed—He should be glad to hear
the Learned Gentleman answer him.—(Loud cheers.)
Mr. GoULTY then asked what was meant by the sen-
tence of death ?
Mr. O'SULLIVAN went on to show from Dens' Theology,
which he said had been published by authority of the Irish
Catholic bishops as the best guide for their priests, that by
the canons of the Catholic Church and the councils of La-
teran, Constance, and Trent, it was lawful for the Catholic
Church to punish heretics with death, and Dens defined a
heretic to be one who chose a religion for himself ; so that if
the argument were carried to its full extent, a man who was a
Catholic by choice was a heretic.—(Cheers.) After some
other observations, the Reverend Speaker sat down.
Mr. CAREW O'DWYER then ascended the platform, and
was greeted with loud cheering, intermingled with some
hissing from the Tory party. One of the placards so pro-
fusely circulated in the town for some days had been placed
in his hands, and in that vile document he found his own
name set down as amongst those who had committed per-
jury by voting in Parliament in favour of Irish Church Re-
form ; he also read in that statement a disgraceful misre-
presentation of the tenets of the Roman Catholics, which
was reiterated in the speech of the Reverend Gentleman
who hail sat down, and which, to use the precise words of
that Gentleman, asserted that " Popery had for its object
the extermination of Protestantism, and that in the opinion
of the Roman Catholics all those not belonging to their
Church were adjudged to have sentence of deat pronounced
upon them, and were to be considered as being under the
Divine wrath." I could not (said Mr. O'Dwyer) repress
my determination to meet my calumniators on this plat-
form. My first duty shall be to inquire, what is the oh-
ject of this meeting ? I am bound to give the Reverend
Gentleman who preceded me full credit fur his positive as-
sertion, that his missionary wanderings in this country are
instigated by motives more honourable to him, than the
stimulus afforded by the rumour which has received his
contradiction, of his having received two thousand
pounds a year, by way of viaticums, from some Conserva-
tive fund. Yet I am persuaded the motive must have been
lofty and cogent, indeed irresistible, which could have
imposed on him the painful task of making a martyr
of his duty, and leaving his parishioners of Killyman to
take care of themselves, devoting himself to such exhibi- ,
tions as we have witnessed this day.—(Loud laughter.)
Possibly, the Reverend Gentleman might yet receive a
reward suitable to his services to his party which would
satisfy his pious ambition, and glorify the cause to which
he had espoused himself. If a certain party returned to
power, it was to be hoped that some persuasive member of
the new Administration may overcome the objections of
the Rev. Gentleman, and by a gentle violence, force a va-
cant mitre upon his ample brow.—(Laughter.) But the
object of this meeting--was it religion, or haply was' it po-
lities—(Loud cheering, and cries from the Tories " No po-
litics! How innocent is that cry proceeding from the
gentlemen of "one class of opinions."—(Cheers.) What
was the drift of the Rev. Gentleman's long speech ? Politi-
cal, and nothing but political;—(Hear, bear.) Ycs, and it.
is the manly way at once to denounce the object of this
meeting. I assert that this meeting has been convened to
raise a No Popery cry within the hearing of our Gracious
Sovereign. This place is now the resort of the titled and
the wealthy of the land. This meeting is composed
largly of that class, who may be said to have
great influence in high places. It was the design
of this meeting, by the inflated assertion of Irish Pro-
testant grievances, to act upon the alarms, the prejudices,
and the interests of many who are identified with the
existence of the present Church system, and to produce a
re-action in the -public mind in favour of an Administration
who were resolved to uphold the Irish Church in the inte-
grity of its abuses.—(Loud cheering.) Mr. O'Sullivan
conceives it no grievance that a Roman Catholic popula-
tion should pay tithes to a Protestant Church. He says
that the tenant, on entering into the possession of the land,
is apprised that it is subject to the payment of tithes, and
that if there were no tithes payable the landlord would
place on his land an additional rent. Mr. O'Sullivan also

states that tithes are properly granted, to the protestant.
Clergy on the conquest of Ireland. The first of these
statements is a great fallacy. Then, as to the nature Of
tithe property. It cannot be said that the Protestant
Clergy hold tithes by a better title or on a different foun-
dation than they were held by Roman Catholic Cltrgy be-
fore the Reformation. When the tithes were trahsferrecl
from one Clergy to another, they came charged with all
the incidents appertaining to them before the change of
possession. In Catholic times, the tithes were applied to
the quadriparte objects of sustaining the dignity of the Bi-
shop, repairing the church, maintaining the clergyman,
who was of the religion of the people, and feeding the dis-
tressed poor. The case now stands thus : The clergyman
is not of the religion of the people from whom he exacts
tithes, and he appropriates to himself, to the exclusion of
the bishop, the church, and the poor, the tithe which ho
receives. There can be no doubt, however, that tithe
is public property, and that as it has been dealt with
before by Parliament, so • may it again..—(Cheers.) The
Rev. Gentleman defined Protestantism to meth.] liberty of
conscience, and a free circulation of the Scriptures. If this
be Protestantism, I avow myself a Protestant. I should
say that this is Catholicity.—(lllnch cheering.) Therepow
remains ok.ie charge of the Rev. Gentleman, to which I
come. Mr. O'Sulivan has stated that the Catholic reli-
gion encourages the extermination of Protestantism. lam
sorry that the Rev. gentleman should have gravely asserted
the prevalence of a doci:ine which he must know—he can-
not be ignorant—has been repeatedly repudiated and so-
lemnly abjured on oath by the Roman Catholic body. But
on what authority does Mr. o'su2livan rest his charge ? on
the authority of Dr. Dens? Who is Dr. Dens? Why,
he was a mad Flemish priest, and is no more to be consi-
dered an authority amongst the Catholics than any of our
grandmothers. I shall now add, that I am one of those
who, at a period not remote, was opposed to a continuance
of the Legislative Union between this country and Ireland.
I am free to confess that my opinions upon this point have
undergone much modification, if not a total change. I
witness daily proofs of the growing sympathy of the. English
people for their Irish brethren ; and I have every confi-
dence, that if the will of the English people prevail, there
will be ample justice done to Ireland. Let the Irish Church
be reformed, not destroyed. Let it be made commensurate
in its establishment to the duties which it has to perform.
This will be one great move towards justice for the Irish
people ; because, under the protection of the Irish
Church;there grow up a thousand other abuses. If the Irish
Protestant Clergy now suffer distress, they are victims to
the policy of the ferocious leaders to whom they have com-
mitted the conduct of their cause. I sincerely pity their
distress.—(Here a person at the Tory side laughed out.)
I care not whether the person who expresses his incredulity
believes me or not. lam sure I would go as far to
assuage the individual suffering as he would. If I see a
man struck down and bleeding in the highway, I shall not
stop to ask if he have been attacked by robbers, or if he
have been himself a spoliator. My first duty as a Chris-
tian, is to bind up his wsunds, and minister to his neces-
sities.—(Loud cheering.) -
Mr. COLQUIIOUN, after declaring himself a Liberal, in-
timated that he had applied for the use of the Town Hall
tor the meeting, which was refused him ; an assertion which
called up Mr. Slight, who refuted the assertion of Mr. Col-
quhoun. Mr. Slight then entreated the meeting not to
be led away by the statements of itinerant lecturers, but
to keep clear from polemical and religious animosity. He
was followed by Mr. Mott, who adverted to his having
known Mr. O'Sullivan when a boy in Ireland, and produced
a strong impression on the mind of the auditory by a
description of some of the horrors which he witnessed
during the rebellion in Ireland. He concluded by moving
a resolution to the effect : " That it is inexpedient for this
meeting to entertain any question as to the regulation of
ecclesiastical affairs, and the difference between the Ca-
tholic and Protestant religions as introduced to the meet-
ing," which being carried by acclamation, the meeting sepa-
rated, after giv.ing three cheers for the chair.