The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-20 00:00:00

people. The Irish peasant came over to this
country in the harvest, where he saw men of
his condition enjoy all the comforts and happiness
of a highly civilized nation, and he went back to Ireland
at the close of the harvest time with no feelings of dissa-
tisfaction, for the Irish peasantry, above all others, were
remarkable for their gratitude ; but he went back
to Ireland an unchanged man, without exhibiting any
desire to adopt the improvements and the advantages
of those which he had witnessed in England. To what
could that be attributed but to the want of education.
He would recommend the adoption of measures to put
an end to that state of things, and he would
have the Protestant and the Roman Catholic
of Ireland put upon a footing of the most
perfect equality. It was by such means they would
ultimately effect the amelioration of the condition of
that unhappy country. He did not think, as some
others seemed to be of opinion, that nothing would
satisfy the Roman Catholics but the spolia-
tion of the Church- Establishment. That Esta-
blishment did' not press upon the Roman Catholics
for it was supported chiefly by the Protestant landlords.
There was another point to which he wished to refer.
It appeared to him that of all the symptoms he had
seen since he had the honour of a seat in that House,
from which he could augur a better state of things for
Ireland, it was the tone they had adopted in the present
debate—he meant the tone of kindness and good feeling
in which every Hon. Gentleman who had spoken on that
side of the House had referred to his Roman Catholic
fellow countrymen. He believed he spoke their senti-
ments, as well as he did his own, when he said
they were willing and anxious earnestly, and at
once, to co-operate in effecting the improvement
and amelioration of their common country. He made
these observations by reason of the interest
he took in the subject; and looking with anxiety to the
proposal which the Government meant to make, he was
prepared to give their measures not the equivocal assent
or lukewarm vote of one in office, but conscientiously to
give them his warm, earnest, and hearty, approbation.
Mr. SMYTHE said that he rose for the purpose of
explaining a sentiment in a speech which be made last
year. It had been said that he wished to see Ireland
governed in the spirit of O'Connell. Such a sentiment
was never expressed by him. He said the very reverse.
What he said was, that while he disliked both extremes,
he preferred seeing Ireland governed in the spirit of
O'Connell, rather than that of Cromwell ; but he disliked
both extremes—persecution and prosecution on one hand,
and undue truckling to the Roman Catholics on the other,
He could not give his vote on this occasion without ex-
pressing a hope that the Government would come for-
ward with some well-timed measures—such as the
settling of the relations between landlord and tenant,
which, if brought forward in a spirit like that which
animated the concluding remarks of the Lion.
Gentleman who had just sat down, would renew
the link which should subsist between the people of
Ireland and the Conservative party. He hoped the Go-
vernment intended to move and bring forward this and
other measures, and if they did so he did not despair of
seeing the Irish people once more looking to them for
sympathy, and not prepossessed against them.
Mr. JOHN O'CONNELL said that the Catholics of
Ireland were satisfied with their priesthood, whom they
loved and revered, and who were worthy of their love
and reverence.—(Hear, hear.) He challenged them
to show any priesthood so pure in every act, so
devoted to their religious duties, such admirable
ministers of religion. The Hon. Gentleman said that
the Catholic religion was a monarchical religion. In his
opinion, it would be more correct to designate the reli-
gion to which the Hon. Gentleman belonged as a mo-
narchical religion, because the Sovereign was at the head
of it. They accounted it one of the proofs of the divine
origin of their religion, that it perfectly adapted itself to
every phase and state of society which existed. It was
under the fostering care of that religion that Belgium was
working out a spirit of rational liberty, and they looked to
it as the religion which would supply the elements of
order against the wild outpouring of irregular liberty
in North America. It was that religion which restrain-
ed the people of Ireland under excitement, and enabled
them patiently to bear distress and poverty. It was that
religion which instilled into the people those sentiments
of liberty
-which he trusted would ere long have fruit in
the prosperity and legislative independence of the country.
He had not risen with the intention of answering the
Hon. Gentleman on the other side. He had risen as
one of those who in an early part of the debate had
been styled convicted conspirators.—(Cheers.) He did
not acknowledge the justice of that designation unless
it could be considered as a conspiracy for
men to labour to their utmost to discharge
the duty which they owed to their country—(Cheers)—
which was the next in importance to that which they
owed to their God.—(Loud cheers.) As one of those
convicted conspirators, he rose to speak, perhaps, his
last words in that House—to make his parting declara-
tion before he returned to Ireland, to meet and
to incur the vengeance of the Right Hon.
Gentlemen opposite.—(Cheers.) He said to incur their
vengeance, for he should continue to exert him-
self with as little ability perhaps, but with more ar-
dour and zeal than ever, to incur their vengeance, by
exerting himself 'in the cause of his country.—(Cheers.)
He did not rise for the purpose of offering any apology,
or urging anything in palliation of that for which he,
amongst others, had had the honour of having been con-
victed. If he urged anything on that point, it would
only be to call upon every man in Ireland, who had not
yet joined the repeal movement, to act as he (Mr. J.
O'Connell) and his companions had done—(Cheers)----
to devote their liberty, their property, and if necessary
their lives, as he and his companions had done and were
ready to do—to restore legislative independence
to their country, which was her inalienable right. He
would ask the people of England what after all had been
secured by the course which Ministers were pursuing?
What had they gained by their victory?—(Cheers.)
Had the cause of the repeal of the union received a
check 2—(Cheers.) On the contrary he firmly believed
that two or three years of the most active agitation
could not have given that cause the firm hold on the
minds of the people which that prosecution had given it.
—(Loud cheers.) They had not by that prosecution
strengthened the connexion between the two countries.
He believed that if the connexion between the two
countries were based upon firm and equitable principles,
and the people were placed upon a perfect equality, it
would tend to the prosperity and welfare of both.—
(Cheers.) He spoke not from any personal considera-
tions. If he spoke from any personal considerations, he
should ask that the heavier weight of punishment should
fall 'upon him who was young and better able to bear it,
than upon one who was not so well able to bear it on
account of his years, and his immense labours in the
cause of his country.—(Loud cheers.) But as a friend
to the connexion between the two countries,
he regretted the course which the Government had
pursued, as tending to weaken that connexion. The
people of Ireland had been taught last year, in that
House, that they had nothing to hope, either from the
Government or from the House. They had been in-
formed, not by one who spoke merely as an individual
Member of Parliament, but by the Right Hon. Gentle-
man the Secretary of State for the Home Department,
—(Loud cheers)—that concession was at an end in
Ireland.—(Loud cheers.) What course did the people
of Ireland pursue in answer to that insulting declara-
tion ? Did they have recourse to violence? No.—
(Loud cheers.) They betook themselves to constitutional
agitation.--(Cheers.) They attended what had been
,called multitudinous meetings, at which might be seen
hundreds of thousands of poor men, sweating under a
sense of their wrongs—(Hear, hear)—ground to the
earth by the tyranny of their landlords—(Hear, hear)
—but one degree removed from absolute want—(Hear,
hear)—meeting peacefully, legally, and constitutionally
—(Cheers)—to listen to the advice of those who told
them to avoid every breach of the laws of God or man
—(Loud cheers)—to commit no violence, but to trust
to the powers of the Constitution, and to the efforts which
were made, peacefully and lawfully, to obtain redress.—
(Cheers.) The good order which had been maintained
at those meetings had been confessed by all. A high
authority in Ireland had said, that those meetings must
inevitably tend to outrage. Forty of those meetings
had been held, and no outrage had been committed, ex-
cepting the destruction of a gingerbread stall, if that
could be so denominated. Not a single accident had
happened.—(Hear, hear.) Females had mixed in those
meetings unhurt.—(Hear.) He had himself seen the
Hon. Member for Cork dragged up the hill of Tara by
the efforts of the people, rather than by those of the
horses of his carriage ; and there were young mothers
there, who were as safe and as kindly treated as if they
had been by their own firesides. It had been asked in
that House why, instead of resorting to those meetings,
they had not come to Parliament ? What hope could
they have from Parliament, when they had been told
that concession had reached its limits ?—(Cheers.) But
an Hon. Member had appealed to the House for them.—
(Cheers.) The Hon. Member for Limerick, one whom
he was proud to call his friend, because he had showed,
and was showing, himself the true friend of his oppressed,
fallen countrymen, had made an appeal to that House.—
(Cheers.) And what had been their answer ?—(Hear,
hear.) He had asked merely for inquiry ; that inquiry
had been refused by an overwhelming majority—
(Hear)—and that majority had been taunted by their
base and infamous press, because they had extended to
his Hon. Friend the common courtesy which was due to
every gentleman, of listening to him.—( Loud cheers.)
What had been the course which they had pursued in
Ireland ? They had allowed those meetings to go on,
and when the eleventh hour had nearly elapsed, then
came out the proclamation against the meeting at
Clontarf. With respect to that proclamation he
found it difficult to speak with anything like
temper, even after this space of time had elapsed. At
the time of the occurrence he certainly thought
that those who originated that proclamation were
murderers in intention. Since that time he had
laboured, and he hoped, not unsuccessfully, to abandon
altogether the belief that, among Christian men,
there could be found those who could entertain so fiendish
an intention. But if they had intended to cause a massacre
at Clontarf, they could not have gone a better way
about it. The Right lion. Secretary of State had said
that that proclamation was posted up at three o'clock in
the afternoon. He had no doubt that the Right Hon.
Baronet believed such to be the fact, but he
had been grossly misinformed. That proclamation was
not in the hands of the Lord Mayor of Dublin till
four o'clock, and it was not posted in the
village of Blackrock, near which he resided, till
it was too dark for it to be read.-
-(Loud cries of "Hear, hear.") The late Mr. Tyrrell
lost his life in consequence of the late hour at which
the proclamation reached his parish, which was
in the vicinity of the place of meeting. He
was obliged to leave his bed—to expose himself
to the weather, and contracted the mortal dis-
ease, of which he died, in endeavouring to save his
parishioners from the hazard which they would other-
wise have incurred. In spite of all their efforts
an enormous crowd did assemble at Clontarf, though, of
course, it was much less than it would have been.
It bad been said by the Noble Lord opposite that Mr.