The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-25 00:00:00

overlook the immense stride which religious
equality makes under its provisions. It is
no doubt a triumph over him, but it is, as he says,
the triumph of one portion of the Catholic population
over the other; and Mr. O'Connell ought to see and,
to respect the feeling that has led to this first open
division in his ranks, as well as the agency by which
it has been effected. Let him be quite sure that this
revolt against his authority proceeds from no personal
jealousy and no merely temporary difference of
opinion. It is a protest from the higher and more
reasonable of his fellow Catholics against his unwise
course in refusing all save, impossible concessions.
Archbishops Crolly and Murray, are, in fact, opposing
him in-the name of that wise principle of receiving
every instalment, by adhering to which he won the
memorable victories of his earlier days. If Mr.
O'Connell means to persist in rejecting every con-
cession, with a view solely of keeping up the
excitement of the most ignorant of hii followers, he
may depend upon it that the time is come when
he will separate from him a large and influential
portion of the Irish Catholics. He will place him-
self in open hostility not only to the hierarchy of his
own country, but to a still higher authority of his
Church. For there is very little reason to doubt that
Archbishops Crolly and Murray have been encon-
' raged to take their present course by very earnest
requests from the Pope himself. We cannot but
think that Mr. O'Connell would not only avoid the
serious mischief of such a schism, but that he would
make what has happened tell to the advantage of his
country, were he to take the view of the matter
which we believe to be really in accordance with the
fact. Instead of putting himself in so false a position
as that of being obliged to confess the composition
of the Commission to be a triumph of one por-
tion of the Catholic body over the other, he might
with truth have represented it as a most impor-
tant concession to his country and his religion,
won by himself. He might with truth say that this
marked concession was entirely the result of the
agitation of 1843 and the State trials of 1844.
He had brought the English Government to be
aware of the danger resulting to them from the spirit
which he had excited in the masses, whose numbers
he had displayed in the monster meetings. The pro-
secution ar.d imprisonment of himself had imposed
on that Government a necessity for some concessions
to the people, as a sop for the persecution of their
leader. "By my agitation and by my bonds," he
might fairly say, " I have gained this triumph for
you, my countrymen, and your religion. The pre-
lates, whom I recollect unacknowledged, contemned,
and almost proscribed, I have raised into a position
of legal authority and trust, and given them rightful
precedence over the highest of the aristocracy. Let
such a success show you the value of our exertions
and our sufferings in our country's cause. Let it en-
courage you to fresh assaults on the bigotry and in-
solence that have so long depressed us. For after
this there is nothing which we may not hope to gain
from a Tory Ministry."
GLOBE.—Mr. O'Connell's ieeent, conduct has
been such as to disappoint and grieve his best friends,
and to ratify his worst enemies. We allude not
here to his speeches at the repeal meetings; although
these have of late savoured more strongly of seditiofi,
and been more freely impregnated with the elements
of mischief, than any of his former harangues. These
imprudent addresses to the prejudices and passions
of an easily-excited populace have not been allowed
to pass without censure by us. We should have beers
justly regarded as "approvers" of his offences had we
refrained from rebuke and condemnation. Admit-
ting, as we do, the strong provocation which the pro-
ceedings of the Government have supplied, and the
gratification which Mr. O'Connell's personal feelings
may receive from the indulgence of vituperation
against those whom he designates his "persecutors"
—we cannot admit that this motive can excuse,
much less justify, those unmistakeable appeals
to the ignorant passions of the rabble with
which his recent speeches at Limerick and
Waterford were interlarded. There is neither
dignity nor patriotism in such harangues• They
would ruin a good cause, and brand with infamy in-
delible a bad one. The repeal project is dying by
inches under the blighting influence of Mr. O'Con-
nell's inflammatory orations. This would be mat-
ter for congratulation—affected by whatever means
which did not include an infraction of constitu-

tional rights. But, unhappily, the substantial
wrongs—those prolific sources of suffering and dis-
content among the Irish people, are permitted to
continue. Successive chimerical schemes for effecting
organic changes in the government are broached.
Thus the attention of the people is distracted from
their real interests, by endeavours to persuade them
that nothing but those changes in the constitution of
government can improve their physical and social con-
dition. The effect of these agitations upon the pub-
lic mind in this country is necessarily injurious to the
best interests of Ireland. Those who are now espe-
cially disposed, as they have ever been, to employ
their power, and to exert their influence, to improve
the condition of the Irish people, are discouraged.
They see their endeavours scorned—ridiculed—coun-
teracted—by an influence which has held that people
as by a spell ; and thy suspend their endeavours until

the ;pen shall be broken, and the delusion destroyed.
Every indication of an approach to this better state
of things will be hailed with pleasure by all who desire
to see Ireland in possession of tranquillity. Whether
the desirable change he brought about by an improved
course of conduct in Mr. O'Connell—whose power
over the Irish people, if wisely directed, might now
be, as it has formerly been, the instrument of achiev-
ing for them vast benefits ; or, persisting in a course
of factious violence, he unveil his real character ;.• stand
forth the confessed demagogue in a patriot's guise ; and
thus disgust, and detach from his project, those well-
meaning men who were induced for a time to connect
themselves with his schemes, in the hope that they
would result in practical advantage to their country.
By whichsover of these means the end be attained, is
comparatively of little moment. We should feel re-
gret if the latter be the means. We would rather
that the great leader, who conducted the Irish people
from the ignoble and unrighteous bondage in which
they were held by penal statutes enacted against their
creed, should continue as their recognised benefactor,
employing his acknowledged talents and indomitable
seal in their cause. But if Mr. O'Connell abandon
that position—if, through mistake, or design, he set
himself against, and employ his influence to prevent,
the attainment of substantial improvements—real and
extensive recognitions and concessions which the
Government has made to the Roman Catholic religion,
the clergy and members of which Church were re-
cently proscribed by law—if this be Mr. O'Connell's
conduct, and he persist in pursuing such a course:then
do we say, let the alternative be joyfully accepted;
let Mr. O'Connell's obviously diminished influence
over his countrymen be the precursor of his total
abandonment by them. He will then be the author
of his own fall from power. Better that they
should desert him, than that they should remain
with him, to be the sharers of his deserved ruin,

the victims of his recklessness of head or heart.
The resistance which Mr. O'Connell has made to
the Catholic Bequests Act, and to the formation of a
Board constituted under its provisions for carrying
out the objects of its enactment, have led us to these
remarks. The agitation which Mr. O'Connell at-
tempted to get up against it, has signally failed. His
denunciations of the heads of the Roman Catholic
hierarchy who have accepted seats at the Board,
and whose office in that Church are recognised
by the Crown, for the first time, in the Com-
mission by which the Board is constituted—the
reproaches heaped by Mr. O'Connell on two Ro-
man Catholic gentlemen of high rank and unble-
mished probity, for accepting seats at the Board—
these ill-judged and injurious attacks have estranged
hundreds, perhaps thousands, of the more respectable
of Mr. O'Connell's adherents from him and his
cause. The attempts to intimidate-the Roman Catholic
Archbishops Murray and Crolly, and the Roman
Catholic Bishop Denvir, have failed. They re-
fused to be influenced by his threats, or to be cajoled
by his persuasions. Mr. Blake and Sir P. Bellew.
were equally firm in their disregard of the agitator.
They have accepted the trust created by the Act and
offered to them by the Government. Mr. O'Connell
has opened the eyes of the most worthy among hie
countrymen to the real character of his opposition,
and the worth of his present political schemes. lie
has caused a schism in his own camp. Ile has placed
a gulph between himself and those whose countenance
and aid are essential to sustain him under any future
struggle with the Government.
STANDARD.—It is to-day our task—a very un-
usual task with us—to defend Mr. Daniel O'Connell,
and to defend him against the accusations of journals
with which he has been intimately and long con-
nected ; though, like other friends, and even like
parties more closely united than by the ties of friend-
ship, the parties have had their quarrels—we speak
of the Times, which for about twenty years served
" the monster mendicant," and of the Morning Chro-
nicle, which was his obsequious follower for a OM
longer period. The two journals named this morn-
ing agree in charging their late employer and
patron with the commission of a capital mistake in
taking the line which he has taken with regard to
the Charitable Bequests Act. Now, we contend
that there has been been no mistake in the matter;
that in his late proceeding Mr. O'Connell bas acted
as cunningly as he ever acted in his life. It was
not in his power to evade the difficulty in which he
was placed by the wisdom and justice of the Govern-
ment; but a moment's thought will show, that ha
has adroitly made the best of the perplexing position,
from which it was impossible for him to escape. The
;;heritable Bequests Act, as our readers are aware, is
a law enabling Roman Catholics to make endowment
by donation or devise to secure a provision for
their secular clergy, but guarding the death. #
bed from improper solicitation, by requiring
that the endowment shall be executed and
enrolled three months before the death of the