The Sun.
London, England, 1828-10-20 00:00:00

ARREST OF MR. LAWLESS.

Mr. Slim said the arrest of Mr. Lawless is a
momentous incident. It awakens feelings which it
would be a wrong to the public to suppress. I
have riot risen in order to denounce this proceeding,
or to pronounce any opinion upon its legality, but to
intimate a strong surprise that the Government
should have resorted to such a measure. I own
myself to be astonished at it, and although my con-
fidence in Lend Anglesea is not shaken, yet I own
that I considei this expedient to appease the Orange
party as exceedingly unfortunate. It is lamentable
that a good and kindly natured man, whom I be-
lieve to be unaffectedly solicitous for the tranquilliza-
tion of Ireland, should adopt a course of proceeding
which, at least, affords a strong ground for appre-
hending that some evil influence still exists at the
Castle. Let us see what has taken place—the
Catholic Association has condemned the assemblies
in the South, and had recalled Mr. Lawless by a
private communication. The Government issue a
proclamation. This was unnecessary. The Southern
Catholics had already obeyed the Association, and
Mr. Lawless had paused in his career. But its
superfluity was not the chief mistake in the procla-
mation. It is so infelicitously worded that it ap-
peared to apply to Orangemen alone. It applies to
" persons passing through the North." Lord An-
glesea may have intended, and I make no doubt of
it, to apply this injunction to all parties, but he em-
ployed very inefficient phraseology to express his
impartial dispositions, and but for our habitual reli-
ance upon him, would have give us occasion to con-
jecture that the system upon which Ireland has been
so long governed, was to be despotically adhered to.
(Cheers.) After the proclamation had issued, what
did the Catholics do ? They reiterated the recall of
Mr. Lawless, and he returned. The South was
tranquil, the North was laid at rest. No further
Catholic assemblies were held. The Government
ought to have been satisfied with this acquiescence
upon our part. But we did not stop at mere acqui-
escence. Mr. Lawless addressed a letter to Lord
Leveson Gower, in which he uses the following
I words :—" Lest the proclamation should allude to
my proceedings in the North, I have determined to
call no more parochial meetings."—(Cheering.)—
Here then was a distinct intimation that the indivi-
dual chiefly pointed at, would not disobey the wishes
of the Executive. We, of course, bad imagined
that the whole matter would end here. The pur-
poses of prevention had been all attained, complete
tranquillity had been restored, and all hazard of fur-
ther disturbance was gone. Well, three weeks after
the meeting at Ballybay, a fortnight after the procla-
mation, when the Association had dispersed the
people in the South, and recalled their Deputy, and
when that Deputy himself.had declared his resolu-
tion to obey the orders of the Government, all that
could have been desired having been accomplished,
Mr. Lawless is arrested t.—( Loud cheering.)_ Three
weeks elapse, the offender is all that time in the
public eye, the people submit, the Association co-
operate and confederate with the Lord Lieutenant—
the obnoxious assemblies are abandoned, and then
the sword of the Executive is drawn forth, and Mr.
Lawless cut down.—(Loud cheers.)— Wherefore is
all this? Why should Ireland be invited to bow
down her head, arid when she lays it in the dust,
why is it trodden upon ? Yet, let me not em-
ploy phrase so strong—let me not forget that Lord
Anglesea is our Lord Lieutenant, and Lord Leve-
son Gower is his Secretary—let me rather lament
than reprobate these mistakes on the part of our
friends, which would be wrongs on the part of men
less devoted to our interests. Lord L. Gower has
heard a great deal of Goethe, and of Schiller, and
of Lessing, arid of Kotzebue, but he has heard little
or nothing of a certain Irish Judge, who had very
little German sentiment, but a great deal of British
feeling, mid whose name was Mr. Justice Fletcher.
(Loud cheers.) This man had a vigorous and manly
intellect, and a warm and intrepid heart, and from
the seat of judicial authority itself, gave the follow-
ing character of the Orangemen of Ireland :—" The
Orangemen (says Mr. Justice Fletcher, in his cele-
brated charge delivered at Wexford) poison the very
fountains of justice; and even some Magistrates,
under their influence, have in too many instances
violated their duty, arid their oaths of this
I am certain, that so long as they are permitted to
act in the lawless manner they do, there will be no
tranquillity in the North of Ireland. Here those
disturbers, who assume the name of Orange yeo-
men, frequent the fairs and markets, with arms in
their bands, under the pretence of self-defence, or
of protecting the pubbc peace, but with the lurk-
ing view of inviting attacks from the Ribbon-
men--confident that armed as they are, they
must overcome defenceless opponents, and put
them down. Murders have been repeatedly
perpetrated on such occasions, and, though le-
gal prosecutions have ensued, yet such has been the
baneful consequences of these factious associations,
that under their influence petty juries have declined
to do their duty. These facts have fallen under my
view." (Loud cheers.) This honest Judge adds
these strong expressions,—" Suffer them to prevail,
End how can justice be administered ?" They are
suffered to prevail, but justice, I suppose, is still to
be administered. This was the state of things in
1814, when Judge Fletcher delineated the Orange-
men of Ireland. Has their ferocity decreased in
1828 ? Have they not been strengthened and em-
boldened ? Have they not acquired new fearless-
ness, and a fresh voracity of blood ? Not only the
veterans in torture, the old tormentors and hoary
liberators of 1789, have offered up their sanguinary
aspirations for carnage, but the Priests of their reli-
gion have offered up their blasphemous invocations
for bloodshed, and while they have " spoken dag-
gers," have invited their followers to " use
them." Is it then at a tune like this, that a
proclamation should issue against the Catholics,
and a Catholic Envoy should be arrested, while
ssi'l3:llisere(lotolikreenly Lord Anglesea,
thousand Orange-
men r al‘nigoen a
gprocessions (look, my Lord Anglesea,
at Monagha e,
indatyhseirago'with arms in
career of tumult
mtheenir a
hs
as en md
str)l e dmarch
e w
without disturbance, and anOrange assassin is
allowed to Offer insult to Justice, and Catholic
blood continues unavenged. It is then our duty to
the people arid to ourselves, in whom the people have
placed their trust, to express our surprise at proceed-
ings of this nature. I do not wish to employ any
stronger expression than one of mere surprise. I
have therefore drawn two resolutions expressive of
that surprise, and setting forth the facts, in order
that the public may judge how far that surprise is
I well founded. I have added another resolution. The

Government have omitted to offer a reward for the
arrest of that Orange assassin. Let us supply their
omission, and out of that fund vested in our hands
for the sacred purposes of national protection•--out of
the treasury of the oppressed and of the poor, let us
offer a reward of 500/. for the arrest and the con-
viction of the villain, who in the open day imbued
his hands in the peasants' blood.—(Loud cheers.)
Mr. Sheil concluded, amidst continued cheers, by
moving the three following resolutions.
First—That the arrest of Mr. Lawless, after three weeks
from the alleged commission of the offence against the
public peace, when the proclamation, which is exclusively
prospective had been obeyed, and when Mr. Lawless, who
had been recalled by the Association, bad intimated his
resolution to comply with the wishes of the Government,
has excited our surprise.
Secondly—That our surprise at this cx post facto pro-
ceeding is augmented, when we consider that a Catholic
has been recently murdered at Ballybay, and that no efforts
have been made for the apprehension of his assassin.

.....
Thirdly—That no reward having been offered by the
Government, we do hereby offer a reward of 5001. to any
person or persons, by whom the Orange assassin shall be
apprehended and prosecuted to conviction, for the murder
of a Roman Catholic at BAllybay.

Mr. LAWLESS fully agreed that this was the most
important era that had ever occurred to the Catholic
cause. Had Lord Talbot, or some others, formerly
the Chief Governors, now filled that situation, he
should not have been at all surprised at the treat-
ment he had received. But he flattered himself
when the Marquis of Anglesea came over here as
their Viceroy—when Lord Gower became his Se-
cretary—and when Sir Anthony Hart was their
Lord Chancellor; he always flattered himself in the
expectation that equal justice would be distributed
to his poor countrymen, and that the mistaken sys=
tern under which Lelandd before suffered, would be
done away with. Mr. Lawless, in allusion to the
kind of place where he was to be tried, proceeded to
observe, that he did feel that he deserved not this from
the Government of Ireland--to be sent to the lion's
den to be worried by the lions; but he cared not even for
this, he had men of the most undoubted honour and
loyalty,and of the first consideratitin, to bear testimony
for him. When- Sheil would state his case, followed
by his simple countryman, O'Connell, what scenes
would be laid open ! Dan goes to the House of
Commons in March, but he would keep him at home
to plead his cause, for he intended to go there with
O'Connell himself.—(Laughter.)—When two such
men as these were arrayed against the Magistrates
of Monaghan, and when these Magistrates would be
undergoing dissection under their anatomising knives,
the people there would exclaim. " Well, Lawless,
this is certainly the happiest hour of your life."—
(Great laughter.)—He would now advert to his
present ease, and give the Meeting a short state-
ment of it :-1 happened (said Mr. Lawless) to be
dressing this morning, when a very decent-looking
'man (and who, lan' quite satisfied, is in reality fully
as decent as his appearance bespoke him, for he cer.
tainly treated Inc with the utmost courtesy);came to
my house; this was Mr. Farrell, of the head office
of police, whom I had never had the pleasure of see-
ing before. Now you must know that I have the
good fortune to have an uncommonly attached ser-
vant maid. Mr. Farrell entered, and said be
wanted to see Mr. Lawless ;-0 ! (she replied), my
master is up stairs dressing, and you cannot see him.
But I must see him, said he, and he passed by my
poor girl, came into my room, and arrested me, on a
warrant from one of the best Judges on the Bench,
Judge Burton. The warrant was grounded on this
information :—that on the 23d of September last I
headed 20,000 men, to the great dread, horror, and
perturbation of all his Majesty's subjects, and that I
had a few days before arranged to have them col-
lected. I could not have prevented this. But I
will go to trial with the consciousness that 1 per-
formed my duty to the Government, to my country,
and to myself.

The amount of the Rent for the past week was
then announced to be 1991. 9s. 6id.; and Mr. Law•
less having been called to the Chair, thanks were
voted to Mr. Corballis,- and the Meeting adjourned.