The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-02 00:00:00

' and the plea for Irish intervention from abroad can
never be met unless by restoring Ireland her na-
tionality—re-establishing the Sovereign and the
Lords and Commons of Ireland.
" Before the face of Ireland and the whole world
we make this declaration—in the interests of Heaven
and earth, the present and future. With the
thoughtful men who sway the destinies of these
kingdoms we leave the issue ; but our own honour
and conscience required that we should tell the
truth and nothing but the truth, in the face of
eventualities of which a Christian clergy should not
desire to take the responsibility. We have dis-
charged our duty, and on the statesmanship of
England now rests the deeply important issue.
Given this 23d day of December, 1867.
"R, B. O'Brien, D.D., "John Hayes, D.D., C.C.,
V.G,, Dean of Lime- Newcastle.
rick. "John O'Sullivan, C.C.,
" James Synan, P.P., Newcastle.
V.G., Shanagolden. " John Irwan, C.C., Cool-
" Daniel O'Connor, Da.). eappa.
P.P., Ardagh, " Luke Gleason, C.C.,
" James "flukey, P. 1?., Glynn.
Askeaton. " John Morgan, C.C.,
" John Clifford, P.P., Castlemahon.
Monegay. " Michael Mahone C.C.
"John Welsh, r.P., Limerick. , ,
Temple of Glantine. "T. Ryan, C.C., Ardagh.
"E. Costello, P.P., "T. Benson, C.C., Pat- ,
Stonehall. rick's Well.
" Martin Ryan, Adral- "E. Connery, C.C., Sim-
nistrator, Athray. nagolden.
" Luke Hanrahan, P.P., "M. Fitzgerald, C.C., As-
Castlemahon. keaton.
N.B.—The members of the Committee will re-
ceive names, or lists of names, until the Ist day of
February, 1868."

REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND.

The revolutionary influences which have been
continually breaking out in violence and blood-
shed on the continent, at length are beginning to
tell in these islands. The geographical position of
England, and the common sense of the nation, to-
gether with that ballast which enormous middle-
class and commercial affluence creates, have served
up to the present as a powerful check to those
democratic aspirations which begin with the fana-
ticism of, those who have nothing to lose, and gra-
dually mounts, like fire, up the social scale, till the
whole of a country is in conflagration. But by
degrees a stronger influence than the power of the
middle and upper classes, and a force which is not
to be confined to any particular sea-board, has
made its way into the heart of the country. Logic
and the appreciation of the effects of principle, are
not points which hold out to the Englishman an
object of very interesting investigation. And
though his ignorance of, or his want of sympathy
with such studies may have. been in one sense a
safeguard against any very violent social revolu-
tions, at the same time it opens the gates to this
serious danger—that he may, without being aware
of it, be the sower of the seeds of his own destruc-
tion. Englishmen, it seems, will not see that prin-
ciples cannot stop short of their ultimate conclu-
sions. If once they are set in motion, they inevit-
ably work themselves out. This is a fact which is
not only attested by principles of philosophy, but
is proved without an exception in the region of
practice.

Moreover, what is equally true, and possibly still
more evident, is the fact;that those principles which
are the most popular, and which adjust themselves
most freely to the passions, the rapacity, and the
" aspirations " of the masses, are the very ones
which, when once implanted in the popular mind,
not so much take root like seed as burn like fire
There is no element in creation more combustible
than the mind of a needy multitude, with just so
much education to take in theories of self-aggran-
disement, and just so little real religion as will
minister texts of Scripture to justify their claims
to the property of the rich. That there exists in
this country a vast multitude which occupies the
position just described, we suppose no man of
any observation will for a moment doubt. Indeed,
the minds of the masses in this country are in a
position which probably renders them more easily
affected than foreigners can be by the principles of
disorder which are in keeping with their aspirations
They are poorer, harder worked, more ill-used,
reduced to a far more servile slavery, especially
in the mining and manufacturing districts, than is
the case with any other people in the world, in-
cluding the slaves under American drivers in South
America. As to religion, either they are totally
ignorant of its first principles, and the first dictates
of morality, or their minds are possessed with a
superstitious fanaticism which acts violently on the
nerves, and manifests itself in. Psalm singing,
hymns, "conversions," dealings with " the spirit,"
and those other varieties of Methodism which make
up the religion of the English "poor." The rich
are far above them, and to an immense extent alto-
gether isolated from their sympathies ; a fact which
has the simplest proof in the world—namely, the
invention of " workhouses," and the mechanical
relieving the distressed—a method which assuredly
would never have been adopted if the tendency of
the wealthy classes had been to sympathize with
poverty and disease.
Now, there are two classes of men who act most
powerfully on and educate the multitude the
leaders of the country, and the exponents of the
people. By the leaders of the country we mean
those who are responsible to the nation for the right
government of the country, members of Parliament,
slid particularly the Ministers for the time being
in power. By the leaders of the people we mean
those men who, belonging to the people, have by
their powers of mind and speech raised themselves
up as the exponents of the people's mind, and who,
by a greater insight into principles, are able to
lead the masses premise by premise to their logical
conclusions. Generally the popular leaders are in
advance of the most liberal leaders of the nation.
They are even on the alert to detect principles in
the action of the State which correspond to their
own revolutionary ideas, and the moment they
discover a point of contact between the two
through the force of logical sequence they attempt
to drag an unwilling Government violently in their
own direction. Where the leaders of ,the nation
and the leaders of the people combine in inculcat-
ing a set of principles which are in keeping with
the aspirations of the masses, the education of the
latter is begun—the spark has been thrown in :
the explosion is merely a matter of time.
Now, what has been the state of the case in

England ? What has been the action of the leaders
of the nation and the leaders of the people ? What
principles have they sown in the popular mind?
Have they been teaching the doctrines of autho-
rity, order, submission to law, inviolability of

private and public rights ? If there are seeds of
revolution in the popular mind, who put them

there? Whence,proceeded those principles which

have resulted in the outrage of the Fenian ring-
leaders in Manchester, the rescue of Kelly, the
avowed sympathy of a London mob with the mur-
derous attack on M'llonald, in the meditated attack

upon Chester Castle, in the bread riots in Exeter

and Teignmouth, in the doings and sayings of a
Bradlaugh, a Broadhead, a Crookes, a Lucraft, an
Odger, a Cremer, a Dickson, and a Merriman ?
Whence come the trades' unions associated with

,he most revolutionary section of continental dis-

order, and the most bloody deeds of home violence ?

Whence proceed the liberty with which a Murphy
may bring misery and agony in the homes of the
poor, and cut: their hearts out by the vilest and
most odious att .cks on their religion? Whence

comes it that a mob of ruffians impede our thorough-
fares with seditious processions, and that prison

walls are blown down, houses shaken to the ground,

and innocent men, women, and children killed or

maimed for life in the public streets of the capital

of the commercial world ? Have the people re-
ceived the principles which result in these actions
from the clouds? Did they take possession of
them in their sleep ? Did they come by the minis-

trations of some supernatural power? They came

neither by chance nor by the mediation of the other

world. They have come out of this world, and
have been fashioned and perfected and put into
the minds of the masses, not by France, not by

Italy, not by some adventurer amongst the lower

orders, but by the distinct teaching of th ose agains

whose destruction they are now directed.

The leaders of the nation have brought this on
us. If we are driving towards anarchy or revo
lution, let them look to it. If they fall in the