The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-07-09 00:00:00

Mr. EDWARD GROGAN was then proposed by Mr. ROBT.
SMITH, and seconded by Sir GEORGE COCKDURNB, K.C.B.
Mr. O'CONNELL then came forward, and, after some
foolish remarks about the corporation, he proceeded to say :
—" I here declare that I will only give my support to the
whigs as long as they shall work for the benefit of the people,
and above all for the benefit of the people of Ireland. (Hear.)
It is well known that I have only supported the whigs as
Paddy used his hat ; not to let in the light, but to keep out
the rain. (Laughter.) • Well, then, it is thus that I shall
support them again ; and here in the presence of those who
have been my late constituents, and I hope will be so again,
I solemnly declare that if I be returned to support the
Queen's ministers, it will only be for so long a time as they
shall support the interests of the people—(hear, hear) ; and
whether they do or not, or whatever may become of them,
here stand lan advocate for the repeal of the union ! (Great
cheering from the radical side of the court.) Let no man
vote for me who does not know that lam a repealer. And
let me ask is there a freeman in the city of Dublin who
would not be the better for a repeal of the union ? (Hear.)
Would not repeal give employment to the tradesman and ar-
tisan ; in fact, if any one would benefit more than another
by repeal it would be the freemen ; and here, standing be-
fore the citizens of Dublin, I challenge any man to tell me
any one thing which would be better for Ireland than repeal.
I have thought it necessary thus to pledge myself as a re-
pealer, and proclaim It to the electors of Dublin, that no
man say he voted for me through mistake : at the same time,
however, let me say that I would not refuse any man's vote
because he was no repealer. (Laughter.) lam proud that I
have been nominated to-day by two honest repealers—one of
them an humble man, to be sure, but not less honest for that.
The people of Ireland would have no protection it' the Tories
came into power, and if Tory nominees were put on the bench.
He saw as honourable a man as ever filled that bench, placed
in office by means of that party, and he told him to his teeth
that he was rendered partial by his prejudice, and unjust by
his bigotry. (Cheers.) And what were they to expect now,
when extermination was proclaimed through the country—an
openly avowed extermination of six millions of Irishmen ?
(Hear.) He trusted they would give as good a hearing to
Mr. West and to Mr. Grogan as they had done him ; he
would conclude by stating as he had begun that he was a re-
pealer ; he devoted the rest of his life to the struggle. Ire-
land was a nation before he was born, and he hoped before
he died she would be a nation again. The learned gentleman
sat down amid loud cheers.

Mr. HurroN then addressed the meeting, and explained
his reasons for again coming forward for Dublin.

J. B. WEST, 'Esq. then came forward, and was received
with loud cheers. After some introductory remarks, about
several charges brought against him, he said,—l tell you,
gentlemen, that although persons may bring forward such
charges, because they may think it does their party a service,
the respectable portion will not be induced to give support to
a cause by the use of such means. Humble as I am, and
only possessed of -a moderate fortune, I will tell you what I
do. I am charged with giving a preference to—(Scotch
painters)— ; let me inform you that 1 give employment, in
the county of Galway, to two hundred individuals, and they
receive each week from forty to fifty pounds in wages.
(Hear, hear.) I was going to add, I found those tenants on
the estate when it was purchased. He who now superin-
tends there has my direction, and indeed it is his own wish,
to benefit their condition, and of the two hundred there is
not a man except an Irishman, and but two who are not
Roman Catholics. (Hear, hear.) HON am lan extermi-
nator? (Cheers, and mingled cries of " No, no," and " Yes,
yes.") I challenge investigation. There are fifty individuals
from the county of Galway, of double the fortune I have, and,
with the exception of one, I give double the employment of
any of the others. (" Hear, hear," and loud cheers.) It is
displeasing to go into these particulars, and I am most un-
willing to glorify myself ; but it becomes necessary to resort
to facts when unfounded calumnies are circulated. Ido all
which has been stated, no doubt, to benefit my property, but
it is my desire to see the people comfortable also, and to every
class of my fellow-countrymen I owe the greatest good-will.
I have spent twenty-four years of my life on the circuit where
there is the greatest number of Catholic barristers ; I have
some dear and intimate friends among them ; and I would
appeal to Mr. Monahan, to Mr. Blake, or to Mr. Malachi
Fallon whether any of them ever heard me either abetting or
approving of any principles which could possibly belong to
an exterminator. If any of them said they did, then I
should retire from the contest of the City of Dublin. I en-
tertain no such principles as those which have been charged
against me, but from my soul abominate and abhor them.—
(Cheers.) My intention with my tenants is, that every man
of them would be made still more comfortable," and enjoy
their little holdings, and if I am spared for ten years, there
shall not be one who will not be in a superior condition to
that in which he has been. (Cheers.) A man wrote me a
letter to inform me that by giving a preference to other
workmen than Irishmen, I had dissatisfied many of my sup-
porters. My answer is that the assertion. (A Voice?—
What of the painters ?) I have no house in Dublin, but
reside in that of my father-in-law, and all the work done for
him for twenty years has been done by Mr. Browne, Mr.
Graves, of Stephen's Green, and Mr. Luttrell, a friend of
my own, with one exception. I saw a beautiful specimen of
• work in the Sackville-street Club, and another in the house
• of a friend, near the Circular-road, in imitation of Morocco
leather. One of my family was recommended to the painter,
a person residing in Dublin, and having his house in Dub-
lin, and one room was done in the style which had pleased so
much. But why do I say this ? Am Ito suffer any man to
dictate who lam to employ ? (Cheers.) I will never sub-
mit to the tyranny of any man, and if this be liberty, and if
a tradesman, not a native of the country, but settled here,
introduces some new improvements, yet because he is not a
native, he onght to be for ever neglected. Hence I say, I
will have none of your liberty. (Hear, cheers, and uproar.)
If this be the only charge you have to make against me, I
am proud of it. (Hear.) Now, gentlemen, I have been
called, and every where represented in placards as an orange-
man. (What else are you?) They even placarded me as
Orange West, and my friend as exterminating Grogan. All
this may be fair in war, and if you can get a vote by these
means you arc welcome to it, and can so placard me as long
as you wish. lam not as much an Orangeman as O'Con-
nell himself. (Cheers, and very great uproar.) I never
was an Orangeman in my life—l never was admitted one—
I never was an Orangeman, but I will never hesitate to avow,
and never will conceal my opinion, that the principles of real
true Orangemen are, devoted loyalty to the Sovereign, and
unbounded toleration to every human being in civil and reli-
gious matters. Any man who hears me in those galleries
must avow that those principles are his as well as mine.
(Hear, hear.) If these are Orange principles, lam in spirit
an Orangemen, but if by the name is meant extermination,
or the oppression of Roman Catholics, then those principles
are not mine. But I believe they are not of this latter kind;
it was sworn they were not by men of high station and of
honour; and too much importance has been given to mere
colours. At a recent meeting of ours, I took out an address,
printed on orange-coloured paper. It was thought to be
mine because it was on that paper, but it was not. At Eng-
lish elections each party has its distinctive colour : but the
address in question was from an English Roman Catholic,
who selected the orange colour ; and who would have thought
for:a moment, from that circumstance, that he was an exter-
minator ? (Cries of " Name.") The gentleman is Mr.
Langdale, the late member for Knaresborough. I have the
address still, and am sorry I did not bring it with me, but
any one who chooses to call to my house is welcome to it.
A Gentleman observed that Mr. Langdale was not a can-
didate at the present election for Knaresborough.
Mr. WFAT.—He was the member for Knaresborough, and
the address is his retiring one. He is a Roman Catholic,
and canvassed the town again since the dissolution upon the
ministerial principle of cheap bread—that is, a repeal of the
corn laws; but he had to express his regret that the princi-
ples of the electors were not in accordance with his own. You
all know the opinions of Lord Morpeth, and what is his colour
at the Yorkshire election ? I understand it to be an orange
banner, and at this moment does any man suppose that Lord
Morpeth is an oppressor or an exterminator ? Give me leave
to say this, and take it without offence, if you complain of us
and charge us with seeking to influence electors to vote,
what can be said as to your own practices? Mr. O'Connell
read two letters with great emphasis, written by my respected
friend Mr. Cornelius Sullivan, the agent of Mr. Herbert,
and I will tell you what was the extent of those letters. He
says that no one of the tenants is to expect any favour who
votes for Mr. O'Connell or Mr. Hutton ; and of course it
might be expected from a Conservative member, the Conser-
vative member for the county of Wiltshire, that he would
not ektend favour to those tenants. But look at the pro-
ceedings in the county of Carlow. (Hear, hear.) There
are four candidates there, two conservatives and two liberals,
and many Roman Catholic voters wished to go with their
landlords; they had been brought up with them, and many
wished to go with them ; but what was done to them for
this ? They are not told they arc not to expect any favour,
but if reports, and published reports be true, they are put
upon cars, tied with ropes, and carried away after their
houses had been broken into. (Hear, and cries of " No.")
I hope in God the facts are not so. Is not that a pleasant
picture of civil ane religious liberty ? (Confusion.) That
may not be true—and I hope sincerely it may not—but let
me give you an extract from the speech of Mr. O'Connell
himself, upon what Ss meant by civil and religious liberty,
and then we will see whether our party ever does anything
like what he recommends. (Hisses, groans, and great con-
fusion.) lam now going to read for you part of Mr. O'Con-
nell's speech—and a very laboured speech it was—delivered
at a meeting f the parish of St. Peter's the other day. Now,
hear Mr. O'Connell's civil and religious liberty. (Cheers
and hisses.) You will see howjittle you know me. I could
have taken this and many other of Mr. O'Connell's speeches
from other newspaper', more in favour of my own opinions ;
hutinstead of doing that, I have selected the Freeman's
Journal, as being a paper most in Mr. O'Connell's interest.
I would not and I have never, upon any occasion, con-
descended to quote a line of Mr. O'Connell's speeches from '
a newspaper which 1 knew to be adverse to him in politics.
(Hear and cheers.) How many respectable Protestants in
Dublin would vote for Mr. O'Connell? (A'Voice—Hundreds.)
Be it so; hundreds will vote for him ; yet not one of them will
be publicly censured by us because they did so. (Cheers
from the conservatives, mingled with hisses from the oppo-
site party.) There is Mr. George Roe and Mr. Arabin, both
on leo
n: n
ehl al voer
mw
Hv eurt
tcoenn, sourrefdo r tal themr.
onfeorelsveottihnegy pfolerasMedri
Certainly not. (Cheers.) Now you all know Lord Francis
Leveson Gower, as kind, as good, and as benevolent a man
as ever lived—a man possessed of property to the amount of
one hundred thousand a year in England, and the greater
part of that is spent by him as a means of good to the poor.
He is now Lord Francis Egerton, and happening to be op-
posed to the views of Mr. O'Connell, it was said he was to
be supported as a candidate for the representation of Lan-
cashire by Sir John Gerard, a Roman Catholic gentleman
of most influential fortune in that part of England. How
did Mr. O'Connell speak of Sir John Gerard, because he
voted for Lord Egerton ? Here is the extract 1 told you I
have taken from his speech, as reported in the Freeman's
Journal. Mr. West "
then read part of Mr. O'Connell's
speech, in which he said,Sir John Gerard should be called
Judas, and he (Mr. 0 Connell) did not doubt but that some
Roman
upon
his gate.' (Cheers from the O'Connellite party.)
-I confess (continued Mr. West) that cheer is the first thing
name
that occurred to-day Since I came into this court that I re-
gret. Ido regret that some of the respectable gentlemen
whom I see here opposed to me should. approve of the prin-
ciple that, because Rom. an Catholics of liberal principles
should be found to exercise their elective franchise honestly
and without restraint, they are b 9 held up in this way to
public odium for it. Ido not think it fair, and lam glad to
find that not one in that gallery (pointing to the gallery oc-
cupied by some of Mr. O'Connell s friends) has responded
to the cheer which came from another part of the house. I