The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-03-01 00:00:00

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POPISH AGGRESSION IN IRELANb.

From the following extracts, which we have tran-
scribed from the last number of the Achill Missionary
Herald, our readeri will perceive that the persecuting
spirit of Popery is unaltered :
The widow of the late Francis Reynolds, Esq., chief officer
of coast guard, who was lately murdered in this island, de-
clared in the hearing of the constable who commands the
police, that she heard the priest, from the altar, command
his congregation to go down to the Protestant settlement and
destroy it, that when the people manifested a reluctance to
obey his commands, he taunted them with cowardice, and
told them if they had not courage enough to do the work, to
get persons that had, adding that if they did not, he would !
Mr. Reynolds being a Roman Catholic, heard this atrocious
harangue in the course of her attendance on the priest's mi-
nistrations.

As two young men from this settlement travelled along the
public road, passing the village of Cashel, in which the
Romish priests reside, they were hooted after by one of the
priests' schoolmasters. Shortly after they overtook one of
the priests, the Rev. James Dwyer, who was walking in
company with his brother and another man who is employed
by the priest in the capacity of a servant, as soon as the two
young men passed the party, the priest's brother and servant
also shouted after them, unrebuked by their Rev. companion!
This is the gentleman who was lately in England soliciting
aid for the erection of chapels in this island. We dare say
the smoothness of his manner, and the softness of his speech
on that occasion, induced many of our simple Protestant
brethren to imagine that he could not be guilty of such un-
mannerly conduct. We know how well Romish priests, to
suit their own ends, can dissemble their real character.

On Wednesday, the 23d ult., the T. De V. Coneys, a cler-
gyman of the Established Church and one of the mission-
aries belonging to this settlement, went to Bullsmouth in
this island to inspect a school and give religious instruction
to the coast-guards who are stationed there. While engaged
in inspecting the school he was informed that Wallace, the
priest's schoolmaster, was approaching towards the school-
house, at the head of about twenty men. Shortly after this
Mr. Coneys left the school, and as he passed to the coast-
guard station, meeting Wallace and his party, he entered
into conversation with them. One of them objecting to Mr.
Coneys' statements he endeavoured to show him his error, at
the same time studiously avoiding the bitterness of contro-
versy. But all his efforts to preserve peace were unavailing.
Wallace having previously used the most insulting language
against the Holy Scriptures, spit in the face of John Connor
the Protestant schoolmaster, who, with the most becoming
calmness and patience bore this irritating insult. A man
named Michael Devir, a convert from popery who stood by,
said that if he were so treated he would not bear it so
patiently ; he was then violently seized by two men, and,
while Mr. Coneys was endeavouring to separate them, Cnn-
nor was thrown down with great violence on a heap of stones ;
another man assaulted Mr. Coneys in the same manner, but
did not succeed in bringing him to the ground. The alarm
was then given at the coast-guard station that Mr. Coneys
and his men were being murdered. The party immediately
came to their assistance, when their cowardly assailants fled.
Had not the coast-guard been at hand and come to the aid
of Mr. Coneys and his men, this assault would in all proba-
bility have ended in the murder of one or more of the Pro-
testants.

Our readers will recollect that so far back as October 18,
1838, a letter was addressed by the Rev. Edward Nangle to
toe Chief Secretary, Loid Morpeth, complaining of a mur-
derous attempt made upon Connor in his own house. His
Lordship promised that immediate inquiry should be made
into the circumstances of that outrage. Yet no inquiry, so
far as Mr. Nangle is informed, ever took place. A month
after another letter was addressed by Mr. Nangle to Lord
Morpeth complaining of the continued oppression and perse-
cution to which Connor was subjected. No notice whatever
was taken of this letter, the writer could not procure so
much as the courtesy of an answer. Perhaps Lord Morpeth's
silence may be explained by the fact of Connor's being par-
ticularly denounced by Dr. O'Hale in a letter addressed to
Lord John Russell. After the lapse of another month a
third letter was addressed to Lord Morpeth but it was treated
with the same neglect as the former ones ; up to this moment
it remains unanswered. We cannot tell what Lord Mor-
peth's motives may he; but we hesitate not to say that his
conduct expresses connivance at outrage. This of course
gives great encouragement to evil doers. Since Dr. M`Hale's
denunciation of Connor and his practical abandonment by
the government to the fury of the rabble, he he has been
three times assaulted. A Protestant chief officer of coast-
guard has been murdered, and a Protestant minister cannot
travel through this island in the peaceable performance of
his duties, without the certainty of being insulted, and the
probability of being assaulted or murdered ! How long will
it be ere English Protestants rise as one man and call upon
our Gracious Queen to dismiss a ministry, which, to say the
least of it, manifests a cold-hearted indifference to the wrongs
and oppression of their brethren and her loyal subjects in
Ireland ?