The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-19 00:00:00

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3 LONDON, FRIDAY
No. 16,08,

JANUARY 19, 1844.

PRICE sd.

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with t est mugs, and hit
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their present tyrant—a home pan
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to be a•hnirable and strongsmt
earth. But now—oh ! joy hiv*
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distrust have fled. The stor
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al; wing th 0 .itt rt,3ttiot 414 v
rked apart by the ocean,
resources, were destined
long the nations of the
ia,,praise !T—apathy , arid
of ~ix'ti reality has rent
Li4Sirnd .-11-47.-eren. now it
lds us k-lithpiscpif serene

"We ask those who still hesitate, to remernber what
has been done in a year.
" The itcpeal rent was fifty or a hundred p.;unds a
week—it is now, on an average, fifteen htindred. Tha
enrolled Repeaters were scarcely
a cthousand—they are now runningtoLpalre of,
astwhdre
ounroild,
lions. It had then half-a-dozen Protestant mem-
bers—it has now thousands, from the wealthiest
of the gentry to the most stern of the democ-
racy. The entire Catholic hierarchy and priesthood
have given it open support of tacit assent. There is no
one worth naming in Ireland actively hostile to it. Most
of the counties of Leimter and Munster, and some in
Ulster and Connaught, have come in masses together to
declare that they are ready to make any sacrifice—
money, repose, or life—to achieve their independence.
" There is Nothing recorded in history like this dis-
play. The numbers of these meetings were unequalled in
any population. The time, and labour, and loss suf-
fered by the people, in their long marches to them—
were never before voluntarily borne, save in the excite-
ment of war. But the order observed in coming and
going—the organisation necessary to produce such corder
—the serious good temper—the absence of riot or vice
—made each of these meetings a strange and formidable

That was not his (the Attorney-General's) language—it
was the language of one of the accused parties, " that the
absence of riot, or vice, made those meetings a strange and
formidable event." It was true, that at those meetings
Mr. O'Connell preached peace ; it was true that he wished
the meetings to obey his injunctions to disperse peaceably:
every person must rejoice that his injunctions were
obeyed, that they had up to this time been saved the
misery that would result if the active course was
taken by the people; but the absence of riot, or the
commission of actual violence, however they rejoiced
at it, did not take away the illegality of those
meetings, because the intention was to organise
the country throughout, that they should be peaceable
until the organisation was complete ; but still at the
time those meetings took place, that very absence from
riot, in the words of Mr. Duffy, made each of those
meetings a " strange and formidable event."
" There was a time when such meetings might have been
plausibly resisted by our despots, and the country forced into
a premature contest. Now there is no such danger.
" The meetings have been held, and no single event has
occurred to furnish the worst Meister with an excuse for pre-
venting their repitition.
" The stopping of them might hazard public peace—not on
the instant, for the people know their policy too well for that;
but such oppression might ultimately produce war.
" The continuance of them has caused no offence—the repe-
tition of them prevents crime, by giving the people hope from
a higher source than parish law, and surer justice than revenge.
No power dare interfere with those meetings now.
" If the repeal organisation,: by general, provincial, and
baronial inspectors, by wardens and collectors, by volunteers,
members, and associates, have any efficiency is it, it will now
have a fair trial. A far inferior machinery, though checked
and hampered, carried emancipation. The present organisa-
tion will be extended to every parish in Ireland, and perfected
in every parish. The whole nation will be arrayed under that
system. There is a full purpose in the mind of the repeal
leaders net to resist until it is carried out. The people will
gradually, but surely, be arranged, classed, organised, and
bound together. Subordination of ranks, community of
thought, obedience to orders from trust in these who command,
constant activity in teaching and learning the means of libera-
tion, are rapidly becoming general.
" Nor will the organisation stop at arraying the people in
their parishes, and massing them all under one will ; it will
every day extend its operations. It has resources in it to ad-
vance as well as to maintain itself. Even now a step lately
taken is about to be carried into active operation.
" Arbitrators will be appointed in every barony. If they
should. as we are sure they will, be men of education and
pure character, all disputes will be referred to them, and
their decisions will be obeyed more exactly than any judges in
the land.
" Their's will be an honourable and holy office—the unpaid
and chosen dispensers of justice. The people will reap an in-
stant benefit from this costless, simple, and kindly administra-
tion of justice. Patriotism will make their jurisdiction uni-
versal, and public opinion will so sanction their decrees, that
no man will disobey them. But woe to him who disabuses
this office by negligence or partiality—woe to him who sullies
this popular ermine by partiality—and curses upon the man
who, from bigotry, friendship, or vanity, helps to place such a
power, for good or ill, in the hands of an uneducated, weak,
or vicious man !
" How soon the three hundred trustees of the Irish Fund
will come to Dublin we need not now anticipate. Suffice it,
they will come, and we fancy their advice will pass for law
with the people.
" Ireland is changing into a nation."
This Preservative Society was thus to usurp the functions of
the Legislature—they were to send over their Bills to the
United Parliament, with directions that they shall receive
their sanction—in the meantime, they were to pass laws for the
Irish people, and if the United Parliament did not give their
sanction, then her Majesty was to be commanded to issue writs
ummoning the Parliament in Ireland, which Parliament was
to consist of those three hundred members of the Preservative
Society, who were not to be returned to the first Irish Parlia-
ment, if they did not discharge their duties satisfactorily to the
country. The article went on to say--
" She is obtaining all the machinery of one—public opinion,
order, taxation, justice, legislation. What will be wanting when
the work is done, but to call her what she then will be—a nation?
" When Grattan walked into the Commons in his Volunteer
uniform, and proposed liberty, he had less power at his back
than O'Connell will then have, or, indeed, has now. He had
the armed and clothed, but untrained Volunteers, and he suc-
ceeded. He had none of the machinery of a government in his
hands, and his thousands in bright array had no elements of
success but courage and arms.
We are better off now—we will before another year be in-
finitely stronger.
" We have an oroani7oknroapylivv2,ll724-4,„Reonle-
structible tie binainrhentiFest andgiene lowest for a common
end; we have many even of the accessories of national pomp--
our bands, for instance ; we have education, temperance, and
patient resolve; we will, when our system is finished, have the
form as well as the bulk of a nation—who, then, will dare to
question our independence?
" We need not again refer to the state of our foreign policy.
That policy has grown up without the tricks of diplomacy
from the sympathy felt for our sufferings, our virtues, and our
hopes, and it has been confirmed by the obvious interest
Europe and America have in the freedom of Ireland. The
declaration of disciplined masses in America, that, if lawless
force were to come upon Ireland, their sword would mix in the
fray ; and the well-understood will of the finest spirits and
most Went citizens of France, not to let us contend alone, are
full of warning to England.
But their first service is to diminish the likelihood of a
contest.
" He will be a bold Minister who believes that the profes-
sions of France and America are not idle boasts, and yet draws
his sword against Ireland. We have some chance now, not-
withstanding the hot words of the fallen Henry Brougham,
that we will be allowed to work out our liberties unrestricted.
This chance is in part owing to our foreign relations.
" Nor is England combined against us. Her people groan
under the sway that ruins us. The successors of the Norman
aristocracy still monopolise their land and harrass their indus-
try ; and they begin to murmur that they will net legislate nor
fight against us.
" But, again, we tell Ireland she must free herself by her
own might. We have much to do. After all that has been
done, we are only at the gate of the temple. Ere we reach
the liar we must overcome many a foe, and correct many a
vice; and we must bear, and battle, and be steadfast.
" The organisation must not only be carried everywhere, but
it must be revised everywhere. If the repeal wardens of any
district do not see that the organisation, division, and training
of all the Repealers in their district is perfect—if they are
not sure that the people are qualified, by simplicity and com-
pleteness of organization, by self-denying obedience, by know•
ledge of all a citizen's duties, by courage and habitual order,
to take their 'place among the men of a free nation—these
wardens have not finished their duty—that district is not ready
for liberty.
" The Protestants must be won. They have no interest
different from that of the Catholics. The riches and glory
of Ireland would be their's in perhaps a larger proportion. It
is sheer folly to suppose they can continue to sacrifice interest,
patriotism,' charity, and happiness, to the wretched dreams of
an ascendancy, which England will as little tolerate as Ireland.
Bigotry, or neglect, or fretfulness, can alone prevent them
from accepting the blessings offered them. If treated as they
ought to be—if treated as they have a right to be—they will
all take post in the ranks of the Council of the nation.
" Organised and united we will be free."
That was the statement made by one of the defendants of the
state of the country at that time, of the effects of the ergani-
'
ration and the objects of the persons planning and carrying
out that organisation. He would call the attention of the
jury to the next meeting which took plane, and which was
held on the 15th of August last. There were two meet-
ings held in a few days after that publication—the first
in Clontibret, in the county of Monaghan, at which one
of the defendants was present, and spoke. The second, and
perhaps the most remarkable of all the meetings, took
place on the 15th of August, and was called the " Great
Para DemonstratiOn." There were present at the meeting
Mr. O'Connell, Mr. John O'Connell, the Rev. Mr. Tyrrell
(now no more), Mr. Steele, and Dr. Gray. The looality of
Tara was well known, and was selected for two purposes to
hold the meeting there. It was selected on two guounds—
first, it was the place where the ancient monarchs of Ireland
were elected and crowned; and, second, it was the scene of a
battle which took place in 1796, when those engaged in the
insurrection were defeated. Immense numbers attended at
that meeting, and the highest calculation that was made of the
numbers who attended was one million of people, and the
lowest at one hundred thousand. He did not believe there
was a million of people present on that occasion, but he cared
not as to the difference in numbers ; but let them look at a
meeting composed of one hundred thousand persons, and was it
not sufficient to terrify any peaceably inclined person ? and the
spot selected was done so in order to exasperate the minds of
the people who were collected at the scene of the defeat of
1798. Hundreds of persons who assembled at Tara were to
be seen on their knees, on the graves where the remains of the
people who fell there were interred ; and people were sees
with a red and green leaf, which was emblematic of the super-
stition of the people of this country, planting it on the graves
of the dead. This scene was selected for these reasons, and
was calculated to exasperate the feelings, and call up the re-
collections of the past time. There could be no mistake about
the selection of this place for a monster meeting, as it was
clear for what object it was held. At that great Tara demon-
stration Mr. O'Connell was present, and addressed the ponds
in these terms :
" Yes, the overwhelming majesty of your multitudes will be
taken to England, and will have its effect there. The Duke
of Wellington began by threatening us. He talked of civil
war, but he does not say a single word of that now. He is
now getting eyelet-holes made in the old barracks; and only
think of an old general doing such a thing, just as if we were
going to break our heads against stens walls. lam glad to
find that a great quantity of brandy and biscuit has been lat.
terly imported, and I hope the poor soldiers got some of 'hoes.
and Banudt tihaemDgulkaed
of
iWt
;ellibnugttonl itsenllowhitalmktihnigs, of attacnkoi
Idmeoeanduete disre-
spect to the brave, the gallant, and the
n good conducted
theta aye
have
sol-
diers that compose the Queen's aremba d
conducted. There is not
in this country are exceedinglyte comwplaint to make against any O.
one of you that has a s
ft
oh
reemi
maeraenthtee
disparage them
in the
atlhle; wbuortldl,feaneldittthoez
I nd roused as she is at the present moment,
a fact that Jre a ,
do Tnhoety
tiro of the Queen's forces. At the last fight for Ire.
bme-oautldth,eifetnhey made war upon us, furnish women enough to
land, when she war betrayed by laving confided England's