The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-07 00:00:00

/7"

here—as determined there as I am

influence over the people of Ireland
there as I have here.—(Cheers.) They may shorten the space of
my daily walks, but they cannot lessen the sphere of my PolitAral
influence. Crone what will, we will struggle with you, that you
shall be protected from all oppression—by the ballot, the honest
ballot, under which the man would give his own vote, and not the
vote of his master, or his landlord, or his customer—the honest
ballot, which will prevent men from offering bribes; for who will'
be fool enough to give a bribe when he is not sure that the vote
will be given ?—that the man who is rascal enough to take a bribe
may not also be scoundrel enough not to earn it ? To be sure, the
fellow would rise to something like virtue in so disappointing the
villain. I need not tell you that your Parliaments also would be
shortened. Why do I say these things ? It is to show you that
I am not here for Ireland only, but that I speak equally for my
English fellow-countrymen; that there is nothing I would strug-
gle to obtain for my own countrymen that I would not equally put
my shoulder to the wheel for on behalf and fsr the benefit of Eng-
lishmen. But remember the adage I have so often repeated to my
Irish fellow-countrymen— I address it now to the slave class—
" Hereditary bondsmen, know ye not
Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow l"

Who is it that gets friends ? The loan who can do without them;
The man who trusts to others to do his business never gets it dose,
(Hear, bear.) Through you I thank thl people of England-in the
name of the people of Ireland I thank you, for I am not vain
enough to suppose that these thousands came here to pay me in-
dividually a compliment. No; they had higher and nobler feel-
ings. They came here to meet me to-day because I represent the
people of Ireland.-(Cheers.) Aye, that shout was for the people.
of Ireland; and I now next appeal to you against the gross injus-
tice of the recent proceediugs. I protest in the face of man-even in
that of the Creator-against that proceeding, and I say that it was
one of the basest proceedings that ever occurred, even under the
basest governments. They may increase my sentence, but they
shan't terrify me from expressing my opinions. It is my duty to
remind you that what to-day is a fact as regaads me,
_may tomor-
row he turned into a proceeding against you. Look at the whole
of their proceedings. The people of Ireland appealed to the Eng-
lish Parliansent for redress. aVe showed the grievances of Ire-
land-her poverty and distress. We showed that there was no
real union at all; because, if there was, we should have equality
of rights. Now, have we equality of rights P lam not going to
take up your time with many calculations, but I will just com-
pare the condition of Cork, the county I represent, with the
condition of Wales, as regards the number of representa-
tives. I stand here as the Parliamentary representative of
750,000 persons, and the counsy of Cork has only two represen-
tatives; while Wales, which has only one-sixteenth more of popu-
lation than Cork, or 800,000 people, sends 28 members to Parlia-
ment.-(Cries of " Shame :") Aye, shame, and sin, and sorrow,
and blighting confusion to those who have not honesty enough
to recognise the extent of that atrocity, and fear of man and God
enough to redress the evil immediately. But it may be said that
Wales is the richer of the two. Let us see. The Customs' duty
paid by the county of Cork is 263,36.1/., and the Excise duty paid
is 272,5251., making a total of 535,889/, ; Wales pays to the
Customs 26,1301., and to the Excise 176,0461 making a total of
202,185/. So that Wales pays less than Cork county to the
amount of 333,7041.-(Cries of " Shame!") Now, I think this
is a piece of statistics worth knowing. Wales, which yields to the
revenue only half whieh is yielded by Cork, has SIS members,
while Cork has only two.-(Shame.) Suppose the case to be re-
versed, is there a single fiery Welehman, from the eldest son of
Rebecca down to the last of them--(A laugh)-who would not
burst forth in anger and indignation, who would not at once ex-
claim that he was a Briton, and insist, with the resolution of a
Briton, that the tyranny should be put an end to ?- (Cheers.)
But I will show you also how it operates with regard to the
voters. Cork, with a population of 750,000,1ia
3587001y0 1,500
voters, while Wales, which has only 8.00,000, has
-(Hear, hear.) Should Ibe a man if I stood quietly by and
saw this without remonstrance P Should I, I say,
having acquired the confidence of the Irish people and
their affection to a degree which is indescribable P Oh
if you saw how their eyes glisten on me as I go along-if you saw
how the aged women raised their hands and eyes to heaven for a
blessing on me-if you could see the stalwart youths leaving their
toil in the fields, and standing by the roadside with their hats in
their hands and tears in their eyes, and crying, " Oh! long life
to you, O'Connell, for the sake of Ireland !"-Oh, if you heard the
praises spoken by the sweet voices of girls, and even the lisping
babes, as I go along, praying for prosperity to Daniel O'Connell !
-you would think me the most hardened of human beings if my
heart did not expand, if my blood did not throb in my veins-aye,
and if my arm, thongh years may have impaired its strength, did
not rise superior to the decay in the powers of life-if all the
thoughts and feelings of my soul did not concentrate in one deter-
mination to devote all my efforts to obtaining justice for Ireland.
-(Loud cheers.) As we have talked of corporations, let me
show you the effect this inequality produces with regard to the
votes for corporations. Altogether Ireland is the poorer country;
no man can vote as a burgess unless he be rated at 10/. per
annum to the poor-pate. In Dublin, unless a man be so rated,
he cannot vote for members of the corporation, for poor.law
guardians, for town-councillor-not can he do so until he has paid
no less than nine different taxes which bang over him, In England, if
a man has paid his poor-rate and borough rate he is entitled to vote,
but in Ireland he must occupy a house relatively of the value of
201., and pay 'lithe taxes I have referred to. What is the conse-
quence ? Why, that out of 1,800 houses in Dublin, the right to
vote only attaches to 600. Now, when you talk of equality of
privileges, I say it is a lie. You may give it a more civil name if
you like.-(Cheers and laughter.) Now, I appeal to yet' against
all these proceedings. I have told ydu that we applied to Whigs
and Tories, who alike refused redress. In 1839, when I moved
for leave to bring in a Bill to extend the franchise, the Whigs did
not wait for the Tories to oppose it, but Lord Morpeth got up and
would not give me even the privilege of laying the Bill on the table.
Well, I told the people of Ireland of all those things, and they have
rallied round me in consequence. They rallied round use. There
were forty-one meetings. These were all legal meetings, because
they were perfectly peaceable ; there was no riot, no violence, no
property destroyed, no injury done, no tumult, no turbulence-
miraculous to say, there was not even a single accident at them. 1
will tell you how this miracle occurred. It was because every one
was forbearing to his neighbour-was thinking more of being kind
to his neighbour than of taking care of himself. Up starts an Attor.
ney.General and says, " Although these meetings are all legal, you
arc nevertheless conspirators." Why, as I told him, you may mul-
tiply cyphers for ever, and you will get no quantity. But in law.
1 logic it seems that these meetings, legal in themselves, form loge.
ther a foul and seditious conspiracy. Men of England 1 I say,
look to yourselves. What is our case to-day may be yours to.
morrow.-(Cheers.) Our friend Sturge may have yet to answer at
the bar of the Queen's Bench before a hardy judge and a profligate
jury.-(Hear.) I tell you that it will be impossible for you to,
ameliorate your institutions if you do not stand by us now-if you
do nut put an end to this judge-made law.-(Hear, hear.) For
you are not safe under this law. You may think it will not reach
you ; but that is the way ruin conies upon nations. You would
wait till the pestilence comes to yott next door before you would
send for a physician. I say cleanse the filth at once from the Au-
gcan stable. Let it accumulate, and there will not be a particle of
soundness in your constitution, nor any power of recovery.-
(Cheers.) I arraign the charge of conspiracy and that prosecution
as one of the foulest plans ever adopted by the basest Govern-
ment to put down the liberties of the people. But when I come
closer and look at the packed jury, I feel a sense of indignation
I cannot describe. 1 call on the people of England to support trial
by jury. Whatever liberty they have they owe to the shield of pro.
tection thrown over them by trial by jury. What were the pro-
ceedings with regard to the Jury in the late case? First, all the
Roman Catholics were struck off the jury-an insinuation that
they were perjurers, and could not be trusted to give a verdict
on their oaths.-( Shame.) They must have an exclusive
Protestant jury to try ins, the great Catholic agitator of Ire-
land But then they say, that all the Catholics were Repeaters.
Suppose they were-suppose there were 6,500,000 Repeaters in
Ireland ; their being Repeaters would not be a legal ground of
challenge to one of them. But the prerogative of the Crown, in
the hands of a fighting Attorney-General, serves to do that whirls
could not be done by the common law of the land. The impute-
tion, however, is worse than the insult ; it is a lie. They made a.
bad excuse worse by telling a falsehood.-(Hear, hear.) But who
were the jury that, after all, were appointed to try me ? Why,
a jury of violent Antisßepeaters, eight of whom had voted three
times against me in Dublin. Now, was it fair to strike off all the
Repeaters, and pack a jury of strong Anti-Repealers ?-(Hear.)
Why, shame upon them !-(Cheers,) Suppose a jury of parsons
were inspannelled to try Joseph Sturge for non-payment of tithes.
That would be purity of trial by jury.-(A laugh.) And when
t bey talk of their anxiety to have a fair Jury, I am afraid it is a left-
handed anxiety. Justice, I fear, In my case, has had a paralytic
strike-(A laugh)-and the mortified side was turned to me. I
repeat, that it was a packed jury. England, nay the whole world,
responds that it was.-(Cheers.) They may say that they could
not get an impartial one. Then why try at all ? Vindicate the law
by all means on your own responsibility, but do not try a construc-
tive offence-one existing by the imagination of lawyers only by
party jury. Don't make your giants as Tom Thumb did.
in order to kill them. Don't make a sort of spectral crimes
originating only in imagination and poetic description. Don't at..
tempt to get a jury at all if you can't get an impattial one. And
whose fault is that you cannot ? Oh ! it is the fault of your
vernment, which has not been impartial-which, instead of being
neutral, has taken the part of a faction. There is one fact, how-
ever, which they never can get over-I mean the omission of then
names of nearly 40 Roman Catholics from the jury list. We placed
on the record a charge that this had been fraudulently done, and
the judges decided against us because we did not state who com-
mitted the fraud-so that a man must not be charged with murchirs
because we do not know his exact name or the name of the de.
ceased. Why did not the Attorney-General try the question or
fraud P Because he preferred to rely on the judges.-(Hear, hear,)
He did not hesitate to avail himself of the fraud, though he denied
having any hand in it.-(Hear.) Then came the charge of she,
judge. As I said in the House of Commons, never since the time
of Scroggs and Jeffreys has there been so uncandid a charge-
Everybody attacks the judge-nobody defends him. But when we
reflect on how the judges have been appointed in Ireland, no won-,
der that they should deliver left.handed charges. The lion. and.
Learned Gentleman here referred to Lord Normanby's speech,
the other evening on the snbject of the proceedings with re-
gard to the school at Ballysack, and the interference of Judge Le-•
froy and Sergeant Jackson. These, lie said, were a specimen of thee
sort of judges who had been supported by the present Government,.
But how had others been treated who had used language far mores
strong than he had done? Ile reminded them of the great Bino
mingham meeting in 1832, when Ministers were about to resigns
from not being able to carry the Reform Bill-a meeting of 100,00 D
persons, where a petition and resolutions were agreed to, signed.
by Mr. Thomas Atwood, as the Chairman, in which it was, among,
other things, agreed that the people of England should arm them-.
selves to be prepared against circumstances. That was what in.
Ireland would be called a hints He presented that petition to the
House of Commons. Why did not the judges declare then that.
he was, wills others, guilty of a conspiracy ? Nothing he had ever
said in Ireland approached at all to the language of that petition.
He had long since adopted the principle that peaceable means, ass
they were the only legal, so were they also the only effectual.,
weapons to use. That petition was printed by order of rhea
House; and what did they do to Tom Attwood, who signed it Er'
Why, they actually made him a magistrate for the county'
of Warwick. That was in 1833, when Lord Brougham was'
Chancellor-(Hisses)-and afterwards he was, on the recomrnen-s
dation of Lord John Russell, appointed by Lord Cottenham firsts
on the list of borough magistrates for Birmingham. This was thee
way Mr. Atwood was treated, continued Mr. O'Connell; yet I ant
nothing as a conspirator compared with what he was. Doubly',
justice of the peace! and long life and prosperity to him. Long
may he enjoy the honours his country has conferred on him in.
grateful acknowledgment of his services. I wish he was here work-.

ing for Us now.—(Cheers.) I repeat it to you, men of Birming.,
ham, that England is not safe if the law by which I was tried goes?
forth and is established. Suppose the Tories had been able toe
come in at that time, what would they have done to Mr. Attwood
Perhaps even now he may not be protected from their vengeance.;
I therefore from this spot at peal to the people of England. V.
call on them at this exciting time to arouse themselves on behalf
of their liberties—to throw the shield of their protection over their
Irish fellow-countrymen. Never yet did the meteor flag of Eng—
land beam over the battle field that it was riot sustained by thee,
stalwart arms of the Irish. Never yet was the shout of vie—
toiy raised on the decks of our gallant navy, but the Irish~:
bore a part in:it. We have joined you in the battle and in thek
strife, and we are yet ready to join you in the struggle for the pre..
nervation of our civil liberties. 1 say, England, Scotland, and.
Ireland for ever ! The Hon. and Learned Gentleman then retired
amidst loud and continued cheering,
Mr. S. CRAWFORD was then introduced to the meeting by thei
Chairman, and proceeded to address them. He recapitulated tow
the meeting the various attempts he had made to enforce his views
on the House of Commons, and the results. He assured them,;
that although he had as yet been unsuccessful, he was not dis..
heartened. The people must crowd the table of the House 00
Commons with petitions, and then, perhaps, by another session, the
Members of that House would better understand the feelings of tho
people out of doors.
The Rev. Mr. IltirroN then moved the thanks of the meeting
to Mr. O'Connell and Mr. S. Crawford for their attendance at thiq
meeting.