The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-15 00:00:00

the union Was that with respect to the national debt, for
at the time the union was passed the debt of Ireland
amounted to 20,000,000/, while that of England was
45r 000,0001.-(Hear, hear.) Ireland ought to-have
156 members at least. There was no union unless she
had. The number of inhabitants in the county of Cork
was 713,000, and there were 150,000 more in the
towns, in all, more than 850,000 inhabitants, and yet •
the city and county of Cork only returned eight
members. The number of inhabitants is Wales was
800,000, and they returned twenty-eight members. The
800,000 inhabitants had twenty-eight members, and the
850,000 had but eight members.—(Cries of " Shame.")
Why it was a shame,', and no man was honest that would
not stand up against it. It had been said that the mem-
bers a place ought to return should be estimated at the
amount of revenue it paid. Why Cork paid 650,000/
revenue, whereas Wales only paid 235,000/. If, therefore,
the number of members were to be apportioned accord-
ing to the amount of revenue, Cork would return twenty-
eight
members, and Wales fourteen.—(Cheers.) Such
a state of things ought to, be altered. He
had applied to the Tories to do it, and they
had refused. He had applied to the Whigs, and they
also refused. Repeal -was the only thing which was
calculated to confer benefit on Ireland. Ireland had .
always been-wronged and insulted. Scotland and Eng-
land
refused ob tenei:.lo
r a
fouryears, corporatewhen
Reform
they Bill,
gotbuonet Irelandwich
was
an insult to them. In England, in every corporate
town, every man was entitled to vote as a burgess, who
paid his poor-rates. In Dublin no person could vote
unless he paid eight or nine different taxes. Sir Robert
Peel had said, that when the Irish Parliament was in
existence it was a most corrupt one, and sold itself ulti-
mately. Now he (Mr. O'Connell) admitted that Sir
Robert Peel was a good judge of corruption.—(Cheers.)
He was perfectly competent to judge of bribery and
undue influence. Mr. Roebuck and Sir R: Peel had
both stated that there never had been more bribery or
undue influence at any , election than that which was
practised at the last general election. This, too, had
been admitted by everybody. He (Mr. O'Connell)
would rather have a corrupt Irish Parliament than a
corrupt English one.—(Cheers.) It might be considered
bad taste, but it was not bad discretion. The Irish-Par-
liament, corrupt as it was, kept the debt in Ireland down
to 20,000,0001., while the English Parliament made the
debt in England 445,000,000/ He would ask Sir Robert
Peel what the English Parliament was before the
Reform Bill ?—(Loud cheers.) He would not, from
motives of delicacy to the Right Honourable Baronet,
ask what it had been since.—(Cheers and laughter.)
Why it was an English Parliament that sanctioned
the expedition to Walcheren. An English army was
sent to a pestilential climate, and what was the result?
Why, that army was eaten up:by disease. Yet that ex-.
pedition was approved of by the English Parliament.
Let them show him when an Irish Parliament had been
guilty of such a crime. He called upon Sir Robert Peel
to give such an instance of corruption in the Irish Par-
liament.—(Cheers.) The Irish House of Commons
carried a measure for shortening the duration of
Parliament, and this in spite of the Government.
They also gave free trade to Ireland. In the
year 1785 Mr. Pitt came with a proposition to
shackle the commerce of Ireland. The Irish Parliament
rejected that proposition. It was not a corrupt Par-
liament in Ireland that they sought, but a Parliament
founded on democratic principles.—(Cheers.) Mr.
M‘Lean had talked of a meeting being held on Kenning-
ton Common. That was a very foolish thing to think
of. That was the sort of meeting the Government would
like. All they wanted was to have such a meeting, and
they would then say " We should not have imprisoned Mr.
O'Connell if it had not been for these symptoms in Eng-
land." The principle upon which he (Mr. O'Connell)
proceeded was that of peaceable agitation. Nothing could
justify the shedding of one drop of human blood.—
(Cheers.) The only way to improve the social state,
to elevate man, and to give real freedom to the people,
was by peaceable combination. Let them be decided
and determined, and they would not be the less deter-
mined because they were peaceable. He was a Chris-
tian man, working for the benefit of a Christian peo-
ple. Let their struggle be peaceable, and they might
depend upon it that that struggle would be successful.
There had been forty-one monster meetings in Ireland,
and not a single act of violence was committed at any
one of them.—(Cheers.) Old men were there with the
memory of wrongs in their minds, and festering in their
hearts; there were the young men, conscious of their
strength and stalwart power ; the boys were
there, roaring in their hope of liberty ; and
young children were also there. Young mothers
carried their infants there, and ancient matrons
led their daughters to them, quite sure that no disrespect,
either personal or by words, would be offered to them.
The assemblies in drawing-rooms never could have be-
haved more courteously to each other than the Irish
people did on those occasions. There was no violence—
no tumult—no blow struck, and, most miraculous, there
was not even a single accident. When he was in Cork,
on the banks of that magnificent estuary, he saw women
amidst the crowds, with young infants in their arms,
and room was made for them in those vast crowds, so
that the infants should not be injured. Oh, Heaven,
what a people !—(Great cheering.) Let them in Eng-
land be peaceable, and obey the law. Let them redouble
their activity, increase their numbers, and augment their
resources. Let them revenge him—he wanted
them to revenge him—by being doubly assi-
duous in the Repeal struggle.—(Vehement cheering.)
There were many excellent bodies of men in this country,
and he would be glad to see all the Repealers joined with
them. There was an excellent set of men who were
seeking complete suffrage—that was that every man
should possess the franchise who had attained the age of
21. There was an excellent set of men, too, who sought
the attainment of the honest ballot, the shortening the
duration of Parliaments, and the abolition of the pro
perty qualification. He hoped the Repealers would join
with these.—(Loud cheers.) He confessed frankly that
he did not want them to join the Chartists—(Cheers)
—and he would tell them at once why he did not. It
was because they did not allow other people to meet
together without disturbing their meetings. Let the
Chartists alone—let them meet as often as they pleased,
but let no Irishman meddle with them. They had a
right to meet, and any person would be wrong
who attempted to interfere with them, and it was equally
wrong in the Chartists to interfere with others. Mr.
Sharman Crawford had complained of this in a letter to
the Morning Chronicle . He (Mr. O'Connell) could not
sit down without expressing his delight at the admirable
manner in which that monster meeting had been
managed.—(Loud cheers.) If anybody were to re-
proach them for continuing the agitation, let them reply
that the only means of remedying the evils of Ireland
was a domestic Parliament.—(Cheers.) The English
Parliament promised them nothing, and they would
faithfully perform that.—(Cheers, and laughter.) They
were very excellent fellows in keeping their promise
when they promised nothing.—(Renewed cheers and
laughter.) Sir James Graham had told them last year
that concession had arrived at its utmost limits. This
year he lowered his tone a note or two, but he
was equally obstinate in his determination to do nothing.
A sympathetic spirit with respect to Ireland was rapidly
spreading through England. The people of England
knew that it was not separation, but equal rights and
liberties, by means of a local Legislature, that the people
of Ireland required. It was for this that he had laboured,
and though he might be locked up in a dungeon he would
be happier far than those who sent him there.—(Great
cheering.) The Government might imprison him, but
they would never frighten him.—(Renewed cheering.)
He might wear his eyebrows out against the bars of his
prison, but he would be supported by the knowledge
that he had been sent there for his love of Old Ireland.
"Unprized are her sons till they learn to betray,
Undistinguished they live if they shame not their sires;
And the torch that should light them to victory's way,
Must be caught from the pile where their country expires."
—(Loud cheers.) In early life he had registered a vow
in heaven to write his name in a page of the history
of his country. He believed he had already done so.—
(Vehement cheering.) From his earliest youth the
cause of Ireland had been ever dear to his heart, and that
love of his country would ever animate his heart, either
in a prison or in his own native home.—(Cheers.)
" The nations are fallen ; but thou art still young,
Thy sun is but rising, while others have set ;
Though slavery's chain round thy morning was hung,
The full noon of freedom shall beam round thee yet."
The Hon. and Learned Gentleman sat down, amidst the
most enthusiastic cheering.
On the motion of Mr. MORGAN J. O'CoNNELL, a Tote
of thanks was passed to the Chairman; after which, the
meeting separated.

CELTIC ENTERTAINMENTS.—Tuesday evening the
Music Hall in Store-street, Bedford-square, which has been
so often the scene of Scotch entertainments by Mr. Wilson,
exhibited a different series, under a similar title. When her
Majesty visited Scotland, last year but one, she was highly
amused at Tavmouth Castle, the princely seat of the Mar-
quis of Breadalbane, by a party of Highland pipers and
dancers, who exhibited before her Majesty and Prince Al-
bert and suite, the varied characteristics of their country in
music and dancing. The same party, after performing in the
English provinces on their route, have visited the metropolis,
and every Tuesday evening offer their entertain-
ment at the Store-street Music 'Hall. The performarice of
Tuesday night contained many of the dances and pieces per-
formed before Royalty, and a highly respectable company justly
and rapturously applauded the untiring Scotchmen. The party
is five in number,—two, viz., Duncan Mackay and John
Cameron are the pipers, and two others, Arcibald Macdonald
and Donald Macdougal are the votaries of Terpsichore, being
assisted by a fifth countryman in the four-handed reels.
The war marches of the various claw, and the merry danc-
ing measures of the hardy HighlandMs, are performed with
great taste and freedom, and the dancing exhibits with sin-
gular avidity the agility of the nobly-proportioned Celt.
The reels were astonishingly well managed, and were all
encored. The entertainment, replete with interest, was com-
pletely successful ; it is both novel and instructive, and will
afford considerable information to those who have read of, but
never saw or heard, the Highland minstrel, and his shrill
pibroch, which so oft has blown the note of slaughter, or
awoke the mountain echoes to the agile bounding of the
lilt, the reel, or fling. It must not be omitted that the whole
are habited in the characteristic costume of their country.—
Advertiser.
EXCISE SALES.—On Wednesday, at one o'clock, in
pursuance of instructions from the Commissioners of Excise.
a sale by auction was announced at the sale-room of the Ex-
cise-office, Broad-street, City, of a large quantity of spirits and
other articles, under forfeiture to the Government. They con-
sist of 1,300 gallons of illicit Irish whisky, 16,000 gallons of
brandy, 4,000 gallons of Geneva, which have been condemned
and re-distilled, 6,4001b5. of scented and other soaps, 1,617
lbs. of British sugar, 102 eases of British mixed brandy, a
large quantity of bottled and pale ale, plain spirits, Scoich
whiskey, compounds, sweet leaf tobacco, cheroots, wearing
apparel, copper stills, tubs, casks, &c. &c. There was a crowd
of bidders for the various lots in the room, the greater portion
of whom were of the Hebrew nation. In consequence of the
numerous lots, the sale will occupy three days of the present
and one of the ensuing week.
The lovers of music in Manchester, with their
usual spirit, are about to erect a new music hall. At a pre-
liminary meeting held at the Wellington Rooms last week,
the Stun of 2,1904 wag subscribed as a eoramencement•