The Sun.
London, England, 1844-11-29 00:00:00

filtentilta

LONDON, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1844.

For the first time since his return from Darrynane
Abbey, Mr. O'CONNELL attended the Dublin Con-
ciliation Hall on Tuesday last, and addressed the
Repealers in an elaborate speech characterised by his
usual animation, and by no means deficient in those
rhetorical claptraps of which he is so consummate a
master. He began by saying that he had reason to
indulge in the brightest anticipations for the future,
and notwithstanding the hostility of England, he felt
confident that at no very distant period he should be
able to carry the great question of Repeal. He then
went on to state that when he brought this question—
which he felt he did prematurely—before the House
of Commons, it was opposed by all parties with
overwhelming power, but that immediately after-
wards, Parliament, by way of adopting a conciliatory
tone, pledged itself in an address to the King that the
grievances of Ireland should be promptly and effectu-
ally redressed. In consequence of this deliberate pledge
he made a pause in the agitation of Repeal, think-
ing it but just and fitting that ample time should be
allowed the Legislature to fulfil its promise. Even
when he renewed the agitation, he did so in no hasty
or intemperate spirit, but formed the Precursor So-
ciety, in order that Government might he fully ac-
quainted with his objects ; and, moreover, be deprived
of all pretext for accusing him ,of?precipit'ance. And
what had been the consequence ue f
Ireland's
Parliament
Notg one redeemed its pledge?
was
us
tnel
laeri.
gs
ed
but
s,
u Tt ahe
con-
gregation substan-
tial grievances had been redreseseod
de-
claration," said the speaker,
of falsehoods. In fact, to hort.lan-
guage, it was a lie—a practical lie!"
Disappointed
and disgusted with such conduct on the part of the lin-
erial Legislature, and resolved so longer to place faith

in it, he had organised the Repeal Association, which
from this time forward would insist on nothing short
of a full and complete restoration of the Irish Parlia-
ment in College-green. With reference to Federalism,
Mr. O'CONNELL observed emphatically, hat it was
not worth a snap of his fingers. Sur • y this is a
strange, inconsiderate sneer to proceed from one
who, not two months since, expressly stated, in a
manifesto dated from Darrynane, that, on the whole,
be was disposed to prefer the Federal principle to that
of simple Repeal ! He knew, it appears, quite as
much about the matter then as he does now ; and yet,
though no one has yet ventured to explain the nature
and bearing of the Federal scheme—unless it be Mr,
SHARMAN CIAWFORD, whose explanation is exceed-
ingly meagre and perplexing—Mr. O'CONNELL has
seen fit to declare himself its decided opponent !
The truth is, he should never have said a word in its
favour, for, so far as we can make out, it is about the
most absurd crotchet that ever entered the brain of a
politician—worse even than Repeal, which is a question
that is at any rate intelligible, however pregnant with
mischief it may be. The Hon. and Learned Gen-
tleman did not omit the opportunity of having a hard
hit or two at both Whigs and Tories. It is evident
that he is passionately enamoured of neither of these
decaying parties, but he did the Tories no more
than justice when he averred that they were a thou-
sand times worse than their rivals, and had inflicted
a world of mischief on the community by their
dogged perseverance in the system of class-legisla-
tion. In the course of his speech, alluding cursorily
to some recent attacks made on him by the French
press, Mr. O'CONNELL launched out into a caustic
tirade against M. TMIERS and LOUIS PHILIPPE, nei-
ther of whom he appears to regard with more affection
than Satan is said to exhibit for holy water. Of the
former he remarked :—" THIERS was out of power, and
was not likely to get in again. In his History he gave an
account of the massacres of September, when fifteen
bishops and archbishops, and nearly three hundred
p,-iests were massacred in the streets of Paris ; but he
related the e-ent with all the gentle flippancy of an
ordina.77 occurrence." Mr. O'CoNNaLL does the his-
torian gifeat injustice :by this remark. So far from
showing avy " gentle flippancy," when giving the
particulars of the massacres in question, M. TRIERS
speaks of them with a very commendable feeling of
disgust and horror, and closes his chapter with
an expression of astonishment that such atrocities
should have been conceived and executed in
the enlightened eighteenth century. As for Mr.
O'CoNNELL's dislike of LOUIS PHILIPPE, this
may be accounted for without any great difficulty.
That astute and sagacious monarch is opposing to the
utmost of his power the unwarrantable pretensions of
the French clergy in the important question of na-
tional education. They are anxious, for reasons that
may be easily divined, to get the whole matter into
their hands, while Louis PHILIPPE, well aware of the
extent of public mischief that would ensue were they
to succeed in their attempts at monopolising the edu.
cation of the people, is determined that they shall ex-
ercise no more than a just and limited authority on
the question. Hence Mr. O'CONNELL'S taunt that he
is "scheming to give education into the hands of in
fidelity"—a sneer as unfounded as it is uncharitable.

" I feel," writes Mr. CARUS WILSON, in a letter
,o the Times, remarkable for the force of its com-
position, and the moderation of its tone—"l feel
that I am a prisoner in this rile custody for life, and
that the Habeas Corpus Acts are a dead letter. The
Royal Court of Jersey has no power to bail me ; it
knows not even the form of a recognisance ; and if
the Court of Queen's Bench cannot release me by
habeas corpus, it most assuredly cannot release me on
bail." The case of this gentleman—the victim of the
petty resentments of some trumpery authorities in
Jersey, on whose proceedings he is charged with
having expressed himself with (what here in Eng-
land would certainly not be considered) " undue
warmth," is of course fully within the recollection
of our readers. In former articles we have demon-
strated the enormous oppression inflicted upon him,
an English subject, by the vindictive and insolent
conduct of one of those bastard, "pii-poudre" courts
of legal vexation, which, under such sounding
names as "Royal Courts," with " Grand Baillis"
and small Viscounts, still sur-ri:rc to plague honest
men, the QuE4ri's lieges, in the Channel Islands.
On former occasions we were certainly disposed to
k- skitused with, but •!!: awe Lb,
contempt, the ridiculous pretensions of these irascible
insular n.- =:trates and " Crown officers" (Gon help
us !), to a species of consecrated infallibility, unre-
bukable even by the wholesome censures of that
chartered libertine, the Press. We could conceive
nothing more ridiculous than the unsuspecting gravity
with which M. le Bailli DOGRERRY, running his head
against M. le Grand Jurat VERGES, in his haste to
mount the judgment-seat of the Cour Royale, inti-
, mated his conviction that " the eyes of all Europe
were upon them"--(as some Duke-street tailor said,
a few years ago, when there was a public meeting of
the masters to consider what " measures " were to
be taken with their revolted men). 'We were tickled
with the professional vanity of the Attorney-General
—(for such an office, or something tantamount to it,
forms part of the judicial state of this modern Bara-
taria, just as a popular tenore, or a foreign ballet-
master, has, now-a-days, on his staff a secretary)—
of the Jersey Attorney-General, who was willing to
do his duty, on the condition of Mr. CARUS WlL-
soN's previously apologising to the Court for having
done that which it was of the essence of his case to
show was nothing wrong, and therefore not to be
punished, and still less to be apologised for. From
the indecent " ribaldry," as Mr. 'WILSON justly
terms it, of the Judge who presides in this island
Court, it would seem as if a real GULLIVER were
once more entrapped and tied down by the spiteful
little people of a new Lilliput. They quarrel even
with his stature. But really their worrying has
grown into a serious nuisance; and this nuisance
must be put down.
Were we inclined, or did we imagine our readers
disposed, to go once more into the legal argument on
this case, or to discuss the startling speech of the
Solicitor-General, and the opinion avowed by Mr.
Justice PATTESON the other day in the Bail Court, on
application to have a rule for the return, in WILSON'S
case, to a writ of habeas corpus, already granted by
the Queen's Bench, enlarged, we should but weaken
the very able appeal contained in the prisoner's letter
already alluded to. And what does that letter esta-
blish? An unanswerable case of a grievance and a
punishment, hopeless, irremediable, absolute in the
event of the Court of Queen's Bench finally deter