The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-06-01 00:00:00

There can be nothing more clear, unequivocal, and
express than the spoliation meditated. It is both
avowed, and sought to be justified by these vagabonds.
We rather think they have stolen a leaf out of the
book of the Irish 'Jack Sheppard—that wonderful
man ; but sometimes there is an undesigned though
curious coincidence between, great minds. O'Connell,
however, has certainly used the same argument re-
peatedly to the Irish peasantry. Indeed nothing could
please that admired patriot better than to expel the
landowners of Ireland, who are for the most part Sas-
senachs and Protestants, from their possessions. It
is just what he wants. It would be effectuating " Re-
peal" by a very short method, and, doubtless, be,_will
eagerly fraternise with the Cobdens and Ashworths,
and other donkeys who bray continually on this sub-
ject. But we put it to all reflecting, rational, and
right-minded Englishmen, if these Cobden fellows be
not as vile a crew as ever vexed the dull ears of a pa-
tient world—as stupid as they are ignorant--and as
'mischievous, or, at least, as mischievously diSposed as
the one or the other. So fat-witted are the creatures,
that we protest we could not wish for a better scourge
to flog them through the world with, than their own ar-
guments tied up in a neat fasciculus.
It is the duty of every honest man to rescue the
people and the country out of the hands of such
wretches ; and we own we are not quite satisfied that
the honest Tories of Liverpool did right in not stand-
ing forward, last week, openly to oppose them in their
Amphitheatrical dramas. They should not avoid any
opportunity of discussing the corn question. Let them
rest assured of it, that the agitation is based upon a
huge fallacy—to give the thing its most favourable
construction and mildest appellation; and that it is a
mist which cannot stand before the light of truth. The
'agitation too ought to be put down. It is an abomi-
nable piece of sedition, and it would, if successful, be
the destruction of England. It -begins with an open
avowal of its plundering intents—its revolutionary,
levelling objects; and -it enlists, or seeks to enlist on
its side, all the necessitous and the ill-disposed—the
profligate and the disaffected. It would plunder the
wealthy, but it would also cheat the poor ; and, con-
ducted as it is by men eaten up by avarice, and pur-
blind with selfishness, it would in the end involve
them, as well as all other orders of the community, in
one common ruin. We should court, rather than de-
cline the discussion; for a proper investigation will not
fail to exhibit this wretched affair in its true colours.

The mob cry in Ireland coincides with the mob cry
in England, and is—for repeal of the corn duties.
Several meetings lately convened by the gentry of that
country, for the purpose of petitionirg Against any
alteration of the existing laws, have been broken
in upon by mobs, and prevented by clamour and
disturbance from passing the resolutions which they
had intended to adopt, or have seen others of a dia-
metrically opposite tendency moved and carried in
their place. To many this must seem rather a
strange affair—a something which wants explanation.
We have touched on the subject already in another
article ; but it is important that it should be rightly
understood, and we will here take the liberty of offer-
ing some further explanatory remarks with regard to it.
In this country, people commonly look after their
own interests. 'We have our class interests, and each
looks after that which it conceives to be for its own
advantage. It is the operation of natural causes upon
minds unclouded by superstition, and left indepen-
dently to follow their own bias ; and there being an
impartial tribunal to hear and determine between con-
flicting agencies, good and not evil is generally the
result. We look to Ireland in the expectation of find-
ing a similar process in action ; but we do not find it.
Here agriculturalists, and all whose bread depends on
agricultural industry, naturally look to their defences :
in Ireland, where there is in fact no second class, the
popular cry (we do not include that of the gentry, the
mercantile body, nor of the Protestants, under, this
term) is entirely for the destruction of that interest !
This surely is a little enigmatical. It is indeed so
apparently preposterous and absurd, that if there were
n 6 way to account for it, it might fairly be said that
the people—worse than Bceotians, and clouded with
more than Cimmerian darkness—were absolutely mad.
But conceive them to entertain the design of seizing
the country into their own hands—conceive the popu-
lace to be primed with the notion of appropriating the
estates of the gentry to their own use—suppose them
to be charged with a bigoted hatred of English con-
nection, and longing for a favourable opportunity to
declare their independence—why, then we have at
least some consistency. There is consistency even in
madness•; for madmen, according to Locke, " reason
right from wrong principlei."
See, then, the connection between the two repeals.
Repeal the corn duties, and repeal of the Union will
follow as a matter of course : it will render it inevita-
ble. Here we have the true explanation of O'Connell's
mock sympathy for the English poor, and fraternisa-
tion with the factory millionaires ; they help him, and
he helps them, The cotton lords do not, most likely,
see the consequences of their own acts; in general they
can scarcely see the length of their own noses : but
not so the old, well-disciplined Jesuit ; he does.
Repeal the corn-duties, then, and you cause an im-
mediate revolution in Ireland. It will be tantamount
to a forfeiture of their estates by three-fourths of the
landlords. They can obtain no more rents. The
thing will be utterly impossible with an eight-shilling
duty on foreign corn. Then what follows ? Why,
the tenantry will hold their estates discharged of rent,
and of all other obligations ; that will just be the con-
sequence.

But, it may be said, the tenantry will be quite at
the mercy of their landlords ; if they do not fulfil the
condition of their several leaSes or agreements, they
will be removable at the pleasure of the proprietory.
Yes, by law they will be so; but not in fact. There
is a power in Ireland superior to the law. There is
the power of Popish priests, and there is the power of
the Ribbon conspiracy—if indeed they be not one and
the same thing, as we most firmly believe they are ;
and against this power the landowners will he power-
less.

The murdering of landlords has long been a fa-
vourite pastime with the Captain Rocks of Ireland ;
but never was the practice more in vogue than it is
just at this moment. The week before last, Mr. Hall
of Merton, a gentleman of fortune in the County Tip-
perary, and a great liberal in politics, was shot on his
own ground—another victim to the long catalogue of
those who have fallen under the Ribbon proscription;
and last week, at Ferns, in the County Wexford, Mr.
Butler Bryan—(the purchaser, be it remarked, of the
palace and see lands of the suppressed bishopric)—this
gentleman was also taken off while riding about his
demesne, in like manner as his immediate predecessor
on the road to that " bourne whence no traveller re-

turns."

The hired assassins of the Ribbon conspiracy tra-
verse the whole country seeking those whom they are
commanded to destroy, and their aim is pretty sure.
Few escape their deadly fire.
The Dublin Evening Mail assures us that there were
lately a dozen landed proprietors on the Ribbonmen's
list for assassination ; there remain ten to be disposed
of.
Well—in the face of this murderous league, we ask,
what would landlords be able to do with a tenantry
whom the repealed corn duties would render unable to
pay their rents ? Nothing whatever. They would
have to abandon the soil to them. And the tithe
rent—it would necessarily be extinguished, and the
church be involved in the common destruction.

Do our readers now perceive which way the wind
sits ? Do they perceive whose cause is identified in
Ireland with a repeal of the corn laws? O'Connell
commends it. Why? That he may have Ireland to
himself. He knows that after that repeal there will be
no more remittances to absentee landlords—most of
them, by the way, residing in this country; he knows
that it will cause a revolution in landed property—a
revolution which he has a hand well trained and dis-
ciplined, and ready to confirm; and that, "not least
though last in his esteem," the estates of the church
will be annihilated.

The Chamber of Commerce of Limerick petitions
against a repeal of the corn laws; and so will other
chambers of commerce ; and so will high sheriffs of
counties, and county and town meetings also, when
and where they can ; but as to the popish multitude—
O'Connell's people, the priests, and the Ribbonmen—
they will not. It will be all " hurra for repeal"—any