The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-06-13 00:00:00

KILKENNY,

This demonstration came off on Thursday. A correspond-
ent of the Pilot of Friday thus describes it :—" The proces-
sion, consisting of the trades, with a numerous assemblage
of horsemen and the people of the city, left this at twelve
o'clock, and extended the entire road from the city to the
stand-house, upwards of three long Irish miles. The assem-
blage at the race-course, when the meeting commenced, ex-
ceeded, on the lowest computation, 300,000 persons. P. S.
Butler, Esq., took the chair." The meeting was addressed
by the liberator, Mr. Steele, and 13 other gentlemen. The
procession returned in the same order as in going out, and
did not reached the city until nearly seven o'clock. Six hun-
dred tickets have been sold for the banquet, which takes place
this evening at the Black Abbey. Mr. O'Connell suggested
that in future no green boughs should be carried at repeal
processions. . _ .• _

Mr. O'Connell was received with the most enthusiastic
and deafening shouts of applause. When silence was re-
stored, the hon. and learned gentleman proceeded as follows :
—ls there a band within hearing ? If there be, let them play
up " God save the Queen." (More than a dozen bands here'
played up the national anthem, the entire vast multitude re-
maining uncovered. At the termination of the air three
hearty and deafening cheers were given for the Queen.) I
will now give you another subject to cheer—three cheers for
the Queen's army—the bravest army in the world. (Tre-
mendous cheers.) Three cheers for the Irish people—the
most moral, the most brave, the most temperate, and the
most religious people on the face of the earth. (Great and
continued cheering.) And now, having gone through these
heartfelt ceremonies, I present myself before you to address
you on topics of the highest interest. It has never happened
to use to behold a more- gorgeous assemblage of human beings
than that now before me. 1 have never seen anything to trans-
cend it, though I have seen some sights equal in importance
and in moral dignity. I have before me more physical force than
any military commander that ever existed, and I have that
physical force perfectly cognizant of this fact, that they could
not do anything that would be such great injury to the cause
of repeal as committing the slightest breach of the peace.
(Cries of " Never fear.") Somebody says " Never fear."
Why, I am afraid of nothing except being wrong; for as
long as I am right I fear nothing, and I think 1 have plenty
here to join me in being right, and to join me, too, in fearing
nothing. (Great cheering.) No, the only thing I could ap-
prehend would be any species of a breach of the law. There
never yet was any country presented the same moral specta-
cle as Ireland, or where the people were so determined to
carry the restoration of their national independence by con-
stitutional means. (Hear. bear, and cheers.) I promise
you the repeal of the union. (Tremendous applause.) I
repeat it, I am able to promise the repeal to you speedily
and rapidly ; and it is more near to us than even the most
sanguine imagine. (Renewed cheers.) I -suppose you have
heard of the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel having
come down to parliament one fine evening, and declared that
they would, prevent the repeal of the union even at the
expense of a civil war. We will not go to war with them,
but let theni not dare to go to war with us. (Tremendous
cheering, which continued for some minutes.) We will act
on the defensive, and believe me, men of Kilkenny, there is
no power in Europe that would dare attack you and the
people of Ireland, when they keep themselves in the right
and act on the defensive only. (Hear, hear.) They threatened
us with this civil warfare, but we only laughed at them, and
you are at liberty to laugh at them again. (Cheers and laugh-
ter.) I hurled back my indignant defiance to them from the
Repeal Association, arid told them what I now tell you, that
we never would violate the law, or commit any violence, but
that we have hands enough to defend our own heads, if they
dared to attack us. (Great cheers.) What was the conse-
quence? The great Duke of Wellington and the crafty
Sir R. Peel pulled in their horns a little, and they said they
did not mean to attack us. (Hear, hear.) Very well. There
is peace then, for we will not attack them, and they will not
attack us. (Laughter.) But they have sent over 36,000
artillery, cavalry, infantry, and marines here, and I am very
glad of it, for they will spend 36,000 shillings every day
while they remain in the country. (Cheers.) It would
be a kind of little repeal of the union in itself. ( A
laugh.) As to the army, it has been always on the hest
terms with the people. In the Whiteboy times the people
never shGwed the slightest animosity to the soldiers, who did
no more than their duty, though they disliked the police, and
small blame to them. The Queen's army is the hest in the
world, and the class of sergeants that it contains is the most
educated in existence, and I trust that the day will come
when all the sergeants will be in a fair way of becoming com-
missioned officers. (" Hear, hear," and loud cheers.) I will
tell you a secret, and mind you promise me to keep it—(a
laugh)—it is temperance that will give us the repeal. (Cheers.)
Temperance will give it to us, for I can now trust in every
one of you, as I am not afraid that any drunken vagabond
will get into a riot, or that a drunkard will, in his haughti-
ness, refuse to obey my commands. (Cheers.) 1 have you
disciplined by temperance, and I defy your enemies. (Cheers.)
Irishmen, your country shall not be enslaved. The repeal of
the union is approaching!' From this spot I proclaim to you
liberty and prosperity to old Ireland. (Loud and continued
cheers.)

Several other gentlemen spoke, and in the evening the
liberator spoke at a banquet given him.
REPEAL IN ENNIS.—The repeal demonstration in Ennis
will take place on Thursclay and it is expected to be the
greatest display of strength that has taken place. With res-
pect to the progress of actual organization of the masses, the
Galway Standard states that, " there is not a town, there is
not a village, in this hitherto peaceable country, whose inhabi-
tants are not well organized—ready for any event. They
have their daily, their nocturnal meetings ; their proceedings
are secret, and the deluded peasantry have so much confi-
dence in demagogues, that at a day's notice they would, if
called upon, take up arms against the Queen's troops. They
are well drilled, and have their inferior and superior officers,
and yet there is no part of Ireland left more at the mercy
of the disaffected of Galway. We must call on the Govern-
ment emphatically for a sufficient protective naval and mili-
tary force."