The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-29 00:00:00

would be shaken by the roll -of the gorgeous equipages in
which the first nobles of the country would be borne to the
senate house, from which the money' changers should be
driven. The mansions of the aristocracy would blaze with
that useful luxury which ministers to the gratification of the
affluent, and to the employment and the comforts of the poor.
The Sovereign herself would not deem the seat of her Parlia-
ment unworthy of her residence. The frippery of the vice-
regal court would be swept away. We should look upon royalty
itself, and not upon the tinsel image: we should behold the
Queen of England, of Ireland, and of Scotland, in all the pomp
her imperial regality, with a diadem—the finest diadem in
the world—glittering upon her brow, while her - coon'.:
tenance . beamed with the expression of that sentiment
which becomes the throned monarch better than the crown.
We should see her accompanied by the Prince, of .ifliorn it is
the highest praise to say that he has proved himself to be
not unworthy of her. We should see her 'encompassed by
all the circumstances that associate endeartnent with respect.
We should not only behold the Queewibut the mother and
the wife, and see her from the hikrjlest station on which a
human being could be placed, pliesenting to her subjects
the finest model of every conji%gal and maternal virtue.
I am not speaking in the lawruage of a fictitious enthu-
siasm when I speak thus orher. I, am sure that this
project is not only featiible, but easy. If the people of
this country were to coMbine in demanding it, a demand
so just and reasonable eflijd not be long refused. It is not
subject to any ono of We:objections which attach to the re-
peal question. No rupture of the two Parliaments—no dis-
memberment of the einpire is to be apprehended. Let Irish-
men unite in putting orth a requisition for a purpose which
the Minister would not only find expedient, but inevitable.
But if you, gentlemen, shall not only not assist in an under-
taking so rea.sonable and so safe, but shall assist the Attor-
ney-General in crtighing the men who have had the boldness
to complain 'of thefgrievances of their country, you will lay
Ireland prostrate.,Every effort for her amelioration will be
idle. Every rembhstrance will not only be treated with dis-
regard, but with disdain ; and for the next 20 years, we may
as well extinguish every hope for our country. Gentlemen,
you may strike agithtion dumb—you may make millions of
mutes ; but beware of that dreary silence, whose, gloomy ta-
aiturnity is significant of the determination of its fearful pur-
pose. beware of producing a state of things which may
eventuate in those incidents of horror which every good man
will pray to avert, and which will be lamented by those who
contribute to their occurrence, when repentance, like that of
those who are for ever doomed, shall be unavailing, and con-
trition shall be in vain. Gentlemen of the Jury, I do not
deny that strong speeches hays been made by my client,
and by the rest of the traversers ; but I deny that those
speeches bear, when taken altogether, the interpretation put
upon them. To this subject I shall revert. At present
I entreat you to consider whether the speeches of Mr.
John O'Connell are of a more exciting and inflammatory
character than those which are spoken in almost every popu-
lar assembly, whether it be Whin., Radical, or Conservative.
Mr. John O'Connell proposed the health of the Queen in lan-
guage of enthusiastic loyalty at Mullaghmast, and added that
the speech delivered by the Queen was the speech of the Mi-
uisters, and could not be justly considered as the emanation
of her own unbiassed mind. This is, beyond all question,
constitutional doctrine ; although the Attorney-General
took most especial care not to tell you this. Indeed he
made an ultra-forensic endeavour to convey to you
the impression that the traversers had spoken of her
Majesty in the language of personal disrespect. This is
most unfair. Mr. John O'Connell adds, that if the lli-

nistry were wantonly to attack the people—in other :
words, if they were, without a proclamation, without a no-
tice, without any form of law, to let loose the soldiery upon
a public assembly, resistance would be the result. But he
and his father had again and again said, that to the law they
would submit; and that if a single' magistrate came into a
meeting to disperse it, he should be obeyed. Mr. John
O'Connell may have used strong expressions, but he is not
indicted for them. He is indicted for a conspiracy, and for
nothing else. And even if he were indicted for these
strong expressions, in the uniform habit of Englishmen in
their public discussions he would find a justification. You
probably have read some of the speeches made at the meet-
ings of the Anti-Corn-law League. They were fully as vio-
lent as the repeal harangues. The aristocracy is de-
nounced as "selfish," "sordid,'' and "base-hearted." A total
overthrow of the existing order of society is foretold; refe-
rences are made to the French Revolution ; and the great
14roprietors of the country are warned to beware. But the
Anti-Corn-law League, it may be said, is a Radical institu-
tion. How is it ? The Tories themselves, when under the
influence of partisanship, expressed themselves in reference
to the Sovereign herself. lou cannot have forgotten the
contumelies heaped upon the head of the Queen upon the
resignation, in 1839, of Sir Robert Peel. I will not, gentle-
men, disgust you by a more distinct reference to those
traitorous diatribes, in which even clergymen took part.
It is better we should inquire how it is that gentlemen
connected with these very prosecutions have thought it de-
corous to comport themselves when their own passions were
excited. The name of the Right Honourable Frederick
Shaw is attached to the proclamation. I hold in my hand
the peroration of a speech delivered by that gentleman, and
reported in the Evening Mail of 9th March, 1835 :—" The
Government might make what regulation it pleased; but he
trusted the people knew their duty too well to submit
to its enactments. We might degrade our mitres; it might
deprive us of our properties ; but if the Government dared to
lay its hand on the Bible, then we must come to an issue.
We will cover it with our bodies. My friends, will you
permit your brethren to call out to you in vain ? In
the name of my country and my- country's God, I will appeal
from a British House of Commons to a British public. My,
countrymen would obey the laws so long as they were pro- ,
perly administered ; but if it were sought to lay sacrilegious
hands on the Bible, to tear the standard of the living God, ,
and to raise a mutilated one in its stead, then it would be
no tima to halt between two opinions—then, in every bill
and every valley, would resound the rallying cry of To
your tents, oh, Israel !" I won't ask the Attorney-General of
Ireland what he thinks of this, because this speech refers
to a subject somewhat embarrassing to him ; and what •
his opinions are, upon the Education Board, it is not very
easy to conjecture; but I may venture to ask the Solicitor-
General, who is himself a commissioner of the Education ,
Board, whether Daniel O'Connell, in :his whole course of
agitation, ever: uttered a speech half so inflammatory as
this? With respect to Mr. Sergeant Warren, he, I suppose,
agrees in every word of it, and only laments that after so
much sound and fury the Recorder of Dublin is the steadfast
supporter of the Government, by whom all the misdeeds thus
eloquently denounced have -been subsequently committed.
Gentlemen, I find in the Evening Packet of the 24th of Ja-
nuary, 1837, an account of a great Protestant meeting which
took place at the Mansion-house, where all the great represen-
tatives of the Conservative interest in this country were as-
sembled. Some very strong speeches indeed were made at that
meeting. The Earl of Charleville said, " Well, gentlemen, you
have a rebellious Parliament ; you have a Lord Lieutenant,
the slave and minion of a rebellious Parliament." That
speech was heard by the Right Hon. Thomas Berry Cusack
Smith. Did he remonstrate against the use of language so
unqualified? Not at all. He got up and made a speech, n
which he stated that " he was sorry to find that Roman Ca-
tholic Members of Parliament paid so little regard to their
oaths." When the Right Hon. Gentleman had such im-
pressions, I cannot feel surprised that care should have been
taken to exclude every Roman Catholic from the
.jury-
box. Let him not misapprehend me. Ido not refer to
his language in the spirit of resentment. Resentment is
not the feeling which the conduct of the Right Hon.
Gentleman is calculated to produce. The Right Hon. Gen-
tleman has expressed great indignation at the references
made at Mullaghmast to transactions from which the veil
of oblivion ought not to be withdrawn. lle said, and justly
enough, that men should not grope in the annals of their
country for the purpose of disinterring those events whose
resuscitation can but appal and scare us. But how does the
Right Hon. Gentleman reconcile that position with his having
been himself a party to a resolution passed at the meeting of
which I am speaking, in which it is stated, that the con-
dition of the Protestants of Ireland is almost as alarming
as it was in the year 1641, when events took place, from
whose recollection we ought to turn with horror and dismay.
I referred you, gentlemen, to speeches. Permit me now to
refer you to the great monster meetings which have taken
place in assertion of the rights of the Protestants of Ireland.
Mark, Ido not complain of those meetings. Ido not com-
plain
that seventy-five thousand men should have as-.
sembled and moved in order of battle ; but I do complain
that the men who looked upon those assembleges with so much
indulgence, when the purposes of their own party were
to be promoted, denounce as treasonable assemblies in
which no such demonstration of organised and per-
fectly disciplined physical force was made. The following
account of the Hillsborough meeting was given by the Even-
ing Mail At an early hour of the morning (some of them,
indeed, over night) the great landed proprietors of the county
repaired to the different points on their respective estates at
which it had been previously agreed: they should meet their
tenants, and march at their head to the general place of as-
semblage, so that the area in front of the hustings did not pre-
sent a very crowded appearance, until the arrival of the men
in large masses, each having a pride of marching border-fa-
shion, shoulder by shoulder, beside his neighbour and bro-
ther, with whom he was ready to sacrifice life in defence of
his country and • religion. Shortly after eleven o'clock, a
tremendous shout from the town announced the approach of
the first party. They were from Moira, and were headed by
the Rev. Holt Waring, who was drawn by the people. A
flag, the union jack, was hoisted at Mr. E. Reilly's, as the
signal of their arrival. In a few moments they were seen
descending the steep hill from the town, and approaching the
place -of meeting in a close, dark, and dense mass, comprising
certainly not less than 20,000 persons. Having escorted Mr.
Waring to the foot of the platform, they received his thanks,
expressed in warm and energetic language, and having given
three cheers, deployed round and took the position assigned
them. . . . Amongst those who marched at the head of
the largest battalion, if we may use the expression, were the
Marquises of Londonderry and Devonshire ; Lord Clanwil-
limn, Sir Robert Bateson, Colonel Forde, Colonel Blacker,
Lord Castlereagh, and Lord Roden. The latter had 15,000
men in his followers. They marched from Dromore. At
twelve o'clock, the scene was the most imposing that fancy
could conceive, or that language possesses the power of de-
picting. The spectacle was grand, unique, sublime. There
certainly could not have been, upon the most moderate
computation, less then seventy-five thousand persons present,
exclusive of the thousands who filled the town, or thronged
to absolute impediment all the adjacent roads and
avenues." From that description, gentlemen, I turn to a re-
solution, passed by the Irish Orangemen on the 12th Novem-
ber, 1834, and which I find in the appendix to the report from
the Select Committee on Orange lodges :—" And, lastly, we
would beg to call the attention of the grand lodge, and
through them return our heartful thanks and congratulations
to our brethren through the various parts of Ireland, who, in
the meetings of three thousand in Dublin, four thousand at
Bandon, thirty thousand in Cavan, and seventy-five thousand
at Hillsborough, by their strength of numbers, the
rank, the respectability, and orderly conduct of their
attendance—the manly and eloquent expression of
every Christian and loyal sentiment, vindicated so
nobly the character of our institution against
the asperion thrown on it, as ' the paltry remnant of an
expiring faction.' " That phrase, gentleman, is one which
Lord Stanley, in one of his variable moods, was pleased to
apply to the Orangemen of Ireland. Gentlemen, m the part
of the report which I have read to you there are some re-
markable entries relating to a subject of which you have
heard a good deal from the Attorney-General ; and although
I deviate, I am aware, from the order of topics which I had
prescribed to myself, yet, finding in the book before me
matter which seems to me to be exceedingly pertinent to
that topic, I shall now advert to it." Gentlemen, the entries
to which I am alluding are these—" 15th February, 1833,
William Scott, 16th company Royal Sappers and
Miners. That the Committee would most willingly
forward all documents connected with the Orange system
to any confidential persons in Ballymena, as prudence would
not permit that printed documents should be forwarded direct
to our military brethren." " Ist January, 1834—Resolved
that warrant 1,592 be granted to Joseph Mina, of the Ist
Royals." "17th December, 1829, moved by the Rev. Charles
Boyton, seconded by Edward Cottingham, that the next
warrant number be issued to the 66th regiment, and that the
Quebec brethren be directed to send in a correct return, in
order that new warrants may be issued." Gentlemen, I
refer you to these resolutions with no other view than to show
you what proceedings men who conspire to establish an in-
fluence over the army naturally adopt. If it was the
object of the traverser to seduce the army from their
allegiance, would not expedients have been adopted
very different from those imputed to the defendants? Would
not .Repeal societies have been formed? Would not a