The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-06-05 00:00:00

MURDER OF A PROTESTANT CLERGYMAN

From the Dublin Evening Mail.
With a horror that baffles description, we have this day to
announce the appalling murder of a protestant clergyman, by
some of that sanguinary peasantry, who are driven to deeds of
blood and desperation by the wicked incitements of their de-
magogues; and whose unchecked propensities revel in the ex-
pected impunity artfully held forth to them of a government too
hostile to tithes, and too favourable to popular rights, to be any
thing but lenient to the perpetrators of what is softened into
predial agitation.
The present atrocity seems to have arisen from the connexion
between landlord and tenant ; but the victim selected for pub-
lic example shows what we have ever forewarned the laity of,
that rents and lands would soon be mixed up with tithes and
churches, and that the ruin of one would be but the prelude to
the destruction of the other. In the person of the Rev. Mr.
Dawson both these characters were united—a clergyman and
a landlord, he presented a double mark to the assassin's bullet;
and in slaying him his murderers rejoiced in the economy of
killing two birds with one stone.
To what will this unhappy country come if the rule of Jaw be
not speedily restored ? Where will the peaceable find refuge,
if an imbecile government—not wittingly,,but by its very im-
becility—give a stimulus to the angry and vindictive passions of
a lawless and inturialed peasantry ? Where can right establish
her fortress, if life in the pursuit of it be insecure?
Oh ye whigs—ve whigs ! read this bloody narrative—and
learn in it with horror (if ye be capable of feelings) the effects
of your long encouragement of O'Connellism—of your
sanctioned "passive resistance" to the rights of property, in
the instance of tithes. Read this dreadful story; and if ye
would not have the righteous blood upon your heads and the
heads of your children, either reverse your misguided policy, or
give pl*ce to men whose principles and whose powers will
restore the order of government and the tranquillity of law to
this unhappy portion of the empire. It will be seen from ex-
tracts of private letters under the head of "State of the Coun-
try," that the same diabolical spirit against the professors of the
protestant religion and its ministers is manifesting itself in every
direction.

We subjoin the particulars of the atrocious murder of the
Rev. Mr. Dawson, as they appear in the Limerick Star (a
liberal journal), which reached this clay :--
'1 MURDER OF THE Rev. MR. DAWSON.—A dreadful occur-
rence took place about five o'clock on yesterday evening, at
Ballincarrig, within about nine miles to the west of this city.
The Rev. Mr. Dawson, brother-in-law of Mountiford Westropp,
1 Esq., of Melon, had been for some time previous endeavouring
to g t possession of their holdings from several of his tenants
in that neighbourhood, and found them, as it appears, unwilling
to surrender their farms without a promise of renewal, which
the reverend gentleman was not disposed to give, his object
being, it is said, to get the land into his own hands, and to re-
side upon it. The tenantry were doubly obstinate in insisting
On such promise from Mr. bawson, as the hind is the property
of Lord Charleville, who generally gives a renewal tothe tenant
in possession. provided all arrears are paid up, as was, we un-
derstand, in a great measure the case in this instance. For
some weeks past affairs had been in this condition, Mr. Dawson
threatening to eject, and the tenantry resolving to keep posses-
sion. On yesterday, as the reverend gentleman, accompanied
by one of the tenants of the name of Lynch, was walking across
a field near Mr. James Enright's house, he was suddenly at-
tacked by three men partly disguised in women's clothes. -Mr.
Dawson and Lynch both ran. Lynch threw himself into a
dyke, from whence he heard two shots fired, and, getting up,
ran off to Mr. Westropp's,house at Melon to tell what he had
seen. In the meantime the body of Mr. Dawson was found
quite dead within about rerty yards of the place where he had
been first attacked. It was conveyed to Mr. Enright's house,
and examined by Dr. Griffin, of Pallas-henry, when the fol-
lowing appearances were observable :—One of the shots appeared
to have been fired from -a gun loaded with slugs, which had only
the effect of grazing the back, and tearing the clothes between
the shoulders. The other shot was more effective It must
have been fired with the !nuzzle of the piece close to the shoulder
of the deceased, as the shirt, waistcoat, &c. were actually burnt
by the discharge, while the two bullets with which the' piece was
loaded entered together between the neck and left shoulder be-
hind, broke the spine in passing, and came out in separate
places on the right side of the neck. In addition to this, the
skull was beaten in behind with stones, or some other weapon,
so as to present a most shocking spectacle. It would appear
that the murderers, having effected their purpose by the second
shot, were resolved to make assurance doubly sure, by beating
in the skull when the unfortunate gentleman had fallen. After
the examination, the body was conveyed to the house of Mr.
Westropp, at Melon, where a coroner's inquest is to be held this
day. Lynch is at present in custody, but ao trace has yet been
found that is likely to lead to the detection of the perpetrators
of this dreadful crime. It would be strange, however, if such
au act, committed in the open day and within hearing of seve-
ral houses in the vicinity, should not, sooner or later, be traced
home to its blood-stained authors. The reverend gentleman,
we underetand, has left a wife and child."