The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-07-27 00:00:00

TUESDAY MORNING, JULY

27. 1552.

IS IRELAND FIT FOR FREE INSTI-
TUTIONS ?

THAT the possession of the Franchise has been the
source of one-half cf the sufferings of Ireland, is
a fact which we have long maintained, and which,
after the proceedings which have occurred at the
recent elections in that country, few will dispute.
Ground down as the Roman Catholic population
are by a spiritual tyranny the most gross and im-
pudent which has been witnessed in modern days,
they are mere instruments in the hands of brawling
demagogues and an incendiary Priesthood. They
are compelled to exercise the Franchise for the
most senseless objects ; never in behalf of any
measures, or any policy, by which their condition
can be practically bettered. To-day it is for Tenant-
right, or we might rather term the wild scheme pro-
pounded for their acceptance confiscation of the
soil. Three or four years ago it was Repeal of the
Union which was their rallying cry. A dozen
different pretences have been got up to draw their
attention from the real evils which surround them ;
but paramount above all, and to which every other
object must be sacrificed, is the aggrandizement of
the Church of Rome, and of the power of its
Priesthood. To promote this object, the Roman
Catholics of Ireland are, as much as possible, with-
drawn from all kindly intercourse with their Pro-
testant fellow-countrymen, and brought into an
antagonism with the Landed Gentry. For this they
are compelled to break the ties of gratitude, how-
ever strong and to tempt and promote retaliation.
For this they are driven to keep up a system of
terrorism throughout the country, which has
hitherto baffled every effort to improve its con-
dition, and to develope its rich resources. Ireland
might become great, and her people enlightened,
prosperous and happy ; but Rome's power over
her is built upon her ignorance, her poverty, and
her distractions.

There is something in the present attitude of
Popery in that country of darker significance than
meets the eye. Her people, ruined by the imperial
policy of the past few years, are fleeing as from a
land of pestilence to seek a sphere for their in-
dustry in other lands. Ireland has ceased to be the
granary of this country. Her soil has been rapidly
going out of cultivation. Her provision trade is
almost lost, and her manufactures declining. Yet
against a Ministry which proposes to bring forward
measures to restore her to prosperity, the Priest-
hood of Rome are striving with almost demoniac
eagerness. Capital is seeking investment in Ire-
land. The encumbered property of her improvi-
dent gentry is gradually falling into new hands, capa-
ble of improving it, and of doing justice to the
peasantry who live upon it. Railway communica-
tion on a large scale is proposed to be provided,
rivers and harbours to be improved, fisheries to be
prosecuted, and drainage and sanatory messures to
be extended. Yet it is at such a crisis of Ireland's
fate that her Priesthood seek to provoke between
the owners of the soil and the people about to be
benefited, a war of extermination ! It is not an
increased amount of emigration which they seek
to promote, as the result of their incendiary
proceedings ; yet they know that must ensue.
They know that thousands, hitherto kept at home
by the kindness of landlords, whom they have just
insulted and defied, must take refuge in another
country. It is not to seat in power any adminis-
tration capable of governing for the benefit of Ire-
land that they have been contending, for they ex-
ecrate the Whigs even more than they dislike the
Conservatives. To the ordinary observer the course
which they are pursuing is one of self-immolation.
It is the course of frenzied madmen seeking their
own destruction.
The conduct of these men is not Even
consistent with the ordinary policy of the church
to which they belong. Two years ago they
were boasting of the increase of influence which
they had acouired, and of the conversions which
were going on in Great Britain itself. But their
present conduct is sufficient to disgust all thinking
men with a system of which such atrocities are a
portion, and to satisfy even the most liberal states-
men that further concessions to Rome cannot be
granted without danger to the liberties of the
British people. What, then, is the hidden path by
which that power is approaching the realization of
its designs ? Is it a war of religion throughout
Europe, whose powers are to be banded together
to crush Great Britain, if she attempts to restrain
the rebellious and insolent Priesthood of Ireland,
and to protect the lives and property of her Protest-
ant people ?
Some such wild project must be floating in the
minds of that power, of which the vulgar brawlers
who have so far outraged decency in Ireland are the
mere puppits. The conclave seated in the Vatican
feel that their influence in this country is tottering;
and that even in Ireland the numerical force of
their followers is rapidly decreasing. Education is
doing its work ; and when it is boasted that " Rib-
bon notices are now better written and spelt than
formerly," it is also felt that there must be more
people who can read the Bible. The Protestant
clergy in Ireland have for years been doing their
work well and faithfully ; and missionary exertions
have reaped a rich reward. Capital and enterprise,
too, must eventually be introduced there, despite
the frantic efforts of the Priesthood and the ribbon
conspirators to repel them, by producing a state of
terrorism ; for they will be welcomed by the bulk of
the people, who are becoming daily more alive to
their own real interests. Rome is conscious of all
this. She is afraid of the exposure which must now
be made of the doctrines taught at Maynooth, and
of her conventual system ; and she sees in Lord
DJRDY and his colleagues a Government which will

polling at the late election, is too notorious to be
denied. The records of the Police-court vouch for
the fact ; and we most firmly believe that the great
source of the confidence manifested by certain ex-
treme Radicals in the success of their candidates was
the expectation that the Irish Roman Catholics would
be enabled to produce a state of terrorism in the town.
We do not remember, however, that in Liverpool
an election was ever attended by exclusive dealing;
yet it appears that such a system has been esta-
blished in many parts of the town during the past
fortnight, and no doubt its spread will be greatly
promoted by the Mercury's publication of the names
of the voters. We gave on Tuesday last a report
of an inquest upon the body of a man who had died
from injuries received on the evening of the day of
polling. In the evidence it was stated by a
party that on that evening " an attack was made
upon his house by a mob of about five hundred
persons. The doors and windows were completely
smashed; and had it not been for the timely arrival
of the police, he had no doubt the lives of both
himself and his family would have been sacrificed.
The reason for the attack was, because he had voted
for MACKENZIE and TURNER." Two other par-
ties—females--deposed to being brutally insulted.
The most striking evidence, however, is the follow-

" Mrs. Johnson, whose husband keeps a baker's shop
in Bispham-street, said their premises had been entirely
destroyed. _ _

"The son of Mrs. Johnson also stated that their re-
ceipts from being £3 les. per week, had fallen off• to ss.
Respectable people dare not deal with them.
" Mr. Ride said Mr. Johnson was not a party man.
The attAck was made upon his premises simply because
he had voted for Mackenzie and Turner.
" The coroner said he hoped the feeling against the
parties would now subside. He, however, had no power
to interfere in the matter."

In Ireland, where the ribbon system prevails and
the priesthood are rampant in their bigotry and in-
tolerance, such cases would scarcely excite wonder.
But in Liverpool it is not a little surprising that
they should occur, and he perpetrated by the allies
of a party which boasts of its advocacy of the prin-
ciples of " civil and religious liberty." By whom
are the Irish residents in Liverpool chiefly em-
ployed ? By the Conservative merchants and trades-
men of the town. Were these parties to resort to
the system of exclusive dealing,—were they to say
" we will have loyal English Protestants only in our
warehouses, and to load and discharge our ships,"
—we should hear a howl from every Romish chapel
and every Radical print in the town. But we have
not a word from the party deprecating such con-
duct, when practised by their own slavish rabble
towards an humble tradesman. On the contrary,
although the coroner, on this occasion, very pro-
perly expressed his hope that `: the feeling against
the parties would now subside," the Liverpool Mer-
cury—the organ of the " civil and religious liberty"
men—has been doing his utmost to keep up that
feeling by the publication of the poll books.

THE ELECTIONEERING ROMISH PRIESTS•

THOSE who pique themselves upon their tole-
rance in matters of religion—who suggest that the
recent Anti-Papal movement has been the offspring
of bigotry, and denounce the Government party for
raising the Protestant cry at the moment of an
appeal to the country, will do well to examine the
reports of the recent elections in the " Sister Isle."
However lukewarm and indifferent to the interests
of vital Christianity and true religion the ordinary
observer may be, he cannot fail to be struck by the
unambiguous expressions of political and social
mischief there manifested by the conduct of the
Priesthood. Throughout the whole kingdom of
Ireland, the Romish Priests will be seen wresting

from the people the privilege granted to them by
the Constitution; appealing, where religious coercion
is insufficient, to the worst prejudices and passions
of the ignorant, the bigoted, and the brutal; and
setting at defiance all restraints of decency and
good feeling, in the hopes of ensuring the triumph
of a faction from whose gratitude they may expect
not so much the promotion of the Roman Catholic
religion, as the political aggrandisement and an
increase of the social influence of the Roman Catho-
lic Priesthood. Threats, imprecations, and violence
distinguish the public performances of these strange
ministers of the gospel of peace. In audacity, in
virulence, and ruffianism the Irish layman seems to
pale his ineffectual fires by the side of the Hiberno-
Roman Churchman. The Irishman is excitable
and ignorant. The Priest rouses his passions and
alarms his fears, and forthwith becomes his master
—his tyrant. What an outcry we should have in
England, not from the Roman Catholics merely,
but from the great body of the English people, if
Protestant Clergymen attempted to influence their
flocks in the exercise of their political rights, and
publicly took part in the exciting demonstrations
of an election contest. And yet, during the last
ten days, on glancing at the accounts of the Irish
elections, we have constantly found Rev. P.P.'s pro-
posing or seconding the opposition candidates, and
infusing into their harangues an amount of animo-
sity and bitterness seldom displayed by the keenest of
laymen. We may refer at random to MONAGHAN,
SLIGO, TIPPERARY, WEXFORD, KILKENNY,
CLARE, MEATH, and MAYO as cases in point.
The graphic account of the performance of a certain
FATHER Tom SHEA, at KILKENNY, in opposing
Lord JAMES BUTLER, the Government candidate,
gives us a lively notion of the dignified gravity and
Christian-like forbearance of the Romish Priest at
an election. "He got on the table," we are told,
" he sprang into the air, and roared like a maniac ;
he foamed at the mouth, his eyes were bloodshot and
staring, and his voice was raised, hoarse and shrill as
a screech owl, whilst he shook his clenched fist in
Lord JAMES BUTLER'S face, and seemed every
moment about to strike that nobleman off the
bench." No wonder that the result was that the
mob were lashed to fury, and the scene of tumult
became terrific. It is, verily, edifying to see how the
Priests play up to the mob, and the mob to the
Priests. One Father M'QuAin, of CLARE, asked
his hearers what answer he could give, supposing
the French landed at Bantry Bay, and the people of
Ireland were told that the English power was in
danger; whereupon the mob, catching their cue,
lustily replied by "consigning England and its
power to the d—l."
There is a wide difference between tolerance and
a pusillanimous or dangerously apathetic submission
to audacious bullying and unscrupulous intrigue;
and if the people and the Parliament of Great Bri-
tain be prevented, by the fear of being deemed
bigoted and intolerant, from marking with indigna-
tion such conduct as that recently indulged in by
thepotloitiperaelyPenrit hesttse recurrence
ofl
of u
Ireland, and for taking
taiking scenes,mea-
sures
it
is not the Protestant religion only, but all the most
cherished institutions of the kingdom which will
be in imminent peril.

Lord DERBY, even according to the showing of
the organs of his adversaries, will have at least 300
firm supporters in the new House of Commons.
How many, we would ask, would Lord JoHN
RUSSELL, or any other member of the Opposition,
be able to command on any save the one question
of Free Trade ; which, for the present, must be taken
not to be at issue. On what vexed point could nct
Lord DERBY, in opposition, beat any probable
Ministry ? On what project or measure could the
forces of the Opposition be made to act together,
save for the one purpose of driving the Government
from office ? There is already much talk about a
vote of " want of confidence" immediately after the
assembling of the new Parliament ; and already
dreams of Downing-street are disturbing the repose
of Radicals and Manchesterians, and political
Nothing-arians, and all other classes of " Liberals."
Should this most characteristically "Liberal" per-
formance be indulged in, we are very far from sure that
the freest use of the Liberal whip would ensure even a
bare majority against the Government. But even if
there should be such a majority, what reference
could be reasonably drawn from the fact ? Surely
not that the country would have more confidence in
any other party, or in any possible combination of
parties, than it has in the Government of Lord
DERBY ! What the conduct of the noble lord
should be after a vote of want of confidence passed
against him, is a question not without difficulty.
Although constitutional etiquette—if we might be
allowed to use the phrase—may prescribe instant
resignation, it would be little short of breach of
trust to desert office at once, in consequence of a
rude rebuff undir the existing circumstances of the
nation. The meaning of the practice with respect
to votes of want of confidence is very obvious.
If a Government possessing the confidence of
the Sovereign ceased to command the confidence of
the great body of the people, as evinced by their
representatives in the House of Commons, it can-
not hope efficiently and satisfactorily to carry on
the administration of affairs ; but if it be evident
that a parliamentary defeat of the Government
party be attributable not so much to a strong hos-
tile sentiment out of doors, and a preference enter-
tained by a parliamentary majority of and by the
body of the people, for another party, as to a fac-
tious desire to cripple the existing Government, it
seems to us that it would be a desertion of duty on

their part to succumb at once to the pressure of
faction. Of the rule ordinarily followed in such
matters, we would only say, " Übi cessat ratio, ihi
cessat lex." But again, we repeat there is small
reason for fearing such a temporary triumph of the
Opposition as we have been contemplating. We
believe that even in its ranks there are many men
who see and feel the dishonesty of factiously im-
peding the public Administration, when there is no
chance of forming an efficient new Government ;
and we therefore feel certain that a muti-
nous expression of want of confidence in Lord
DERBY'S Ministry will be defeated. Were
it to succeed, Lord DERBY need not feel himself
bound to retire—even if he did resign his office, we
believe our gracious Socereign, actuated only by a
sincere desire to promote the welfare of her people,
would be slow to dispense with his services. But,
at all events, Lord JOHN RUSSELL may make up
his mind that, now he is out of the manger, he will

bited by Irish Roman Catholics. The wealth and respec-
tability of the county is clearly against the THERSITES
of the House of Commons.

ONE HAND

" There being but one hand held vpfor Mr. Grattan, the
sheriff declared the show of hands to be in favour of Mr.
Corbally and Mr. Lucas."

Such is the statement of the reporters as to the decision
of the democracy, at the nomination for Meath, on Mon-
day last. Bnt one hand for a Grattan, and a whole forest
for a Quaker cotton-twister from Yorkshire! What a
feather to indicate the quarter of the aura popularis,
the steady fidelity of the Irish Bellua. Tt is almost a
wonder that even that solitary hand had not a dagger
in it. It wanted nothing more to be a complete type of
the gratitude of the faithless rabble which calls itself the
Irish people. So passes away the son of "my father."
Alas ! poor Nominis Umbra !

Mr. Grattan is refused simply and solely because he is
not—as Mr. Lucas and Mr. Corbally are—a member of
the Romish church in Ireland. That is the head and front
of his offending ! and, were he the son of Robert Emmett
or of John Mitchell—names infinitely higher in the rever-
ence and esteem of the same canaille than ever was the
name of Grattan—that black mark would be fatal to his
ambition.

The results of this general election will effectually dis-
pel the illusions from the minds of " liberal Protestants"
that they are, or ever can be, secure in the confidence of
a people ruled and led by Romish priests. Everywhere
we see practical avowals of a doctrine hitherto disowned
by them, that " no faith niust be kept with heretics.'
Their treatment of Mr. Grattan is only more remarkable
than their desertion of many others, because of his his-
toric name, and the hereditary claims which, as long as
he remained faithful to their colours, they were bound,
by every tie of honour and gratitude, to acknowledge.
That one hand writes bitter things.—. Dublin _Evening
Mail.