The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-10-01 00:00:00

REPEAL ASSOCIATION MEETING.

The weekly meeting of this body, on Monday, was at-
tended numerously, owing in all probability to the expec-
tation that it was the last Mr. O'Connell would attend
prior to his departure for Derrynane. Mr. Kelly, M.P.,
took the chair, and after several of the minor fry had
spoken, Mr. O'Connell handed in one pound from
Antrim, and read a letter stating that a species of ribandism
prevailed in that county, which he was called upon and
did denounce most emphatically. Mr. O'Connell then
alluded to the withdrawal of the proprietors of newspapers
from the association, and said that he was desired by the
committee to state that in future every member of the as-
sociation mould have the privilege of buying any Dublin
newspaper he thought proper ! With respect to Repeal
reading-rooms be moved a resolution, at the instance of
the committee, that members might form Repeal reading-
rooms, to which the association would give every support
in its power, but would not pledge itself to make any pe-
cuniary grants I The announcement of these two va-
luable privileges elicited loud cheers. The first thing to
be considered was, whether it was necessary to hold the
Clontarf meeting. The holding of that meeting he re-
garded as a constitutional privilege, and the prevention of
it as a constitutional wrong. The holding of such meetings
was the simplest and the surest method of ascertaining the
public mind respecting any alleged grievance. Lord
Althorp, who said he preferred a civil war to the granting
of Repeal, yet, with that constitutional justice which was
an ingredient in his mind, said—" I will admit that if the
great and overwhelming majority of the people of Ireland
demand a Repeal of the Union, they are entitled to have
it." He had tried first a Precursor Society ; but every-
thing they solicited from England was refused. He then
commenced the Repeal Association to call out the people,
and let the universe know that the people of Ireland de-
manded Repeal. He made that experiment, and it was
perfectly successful. In no other country but Ireland
could he have made it. He then, proposed his usual
hackneyed eulogiums on the Repeal multitude, and talked
of the perfect peacefulness of the monster meetings.
Judge Burton, when passing sentence on him, admitted
this ; and yet the court was unanimously of opinion that
tghiieustey
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be
in the power of the judges to say what number of persons
would constitute a lawful or unlawful meeting ; and he
would as soon take the length of a judge's foot as the
measure of the question, or the judge's conscience. But
the English judges had unanimously decided against the
Irish court, and that was a decision of the utmost im-
portance. They had thus vindicated the principle, and
the vindication was most complete. What need, then, of
a meeting at Clontarf to vindicate that which was already
vindicated? The committee had taken this view, and
had unanimously resolved that such a meeting was unne-
cessary. Next as to the Preservative Society—the com-
mittee on this subject desired to sit again, as great diffi-
culties surrounded it. The Irish convention act was a
serious bar to its formation. Haste, therefore, was
dangerous. It was quite right the public mind should
ripen on the subject of Repeal and federalism. There
was a great and growing disposition on the part of those
styled Conservatives to consider and adopt a plan for the
restoration of the Irish parliament. They thought a fe-
deral parliament more easily obtained, and they thought
it equally protective of Irish rights. It was the duty of
the association to receive every man who was a Repealer,
whether he was a federalist or not ' • and every man was a
Repealer who was for the repeal of the act of union,—for
there could be no federal parliament till that act was re-
pealed. The Catholic Bishop of Killaloe and several
other clergymen had become federalists. He (Mr.
O'Connell) was not hurt at the unfounded opinions of
Mr. G. Potter; he was brought up in Protestant preju-
dices, and ought to be looked upon with a kind and gene-
rous feeling. He was to be admired with his Protestant
prejudices more than if he had none of them, as they
showed he was the more sincere and determined. He
had written a work on draining land, but it would not do
—lreland had been sufficiently drained already. (Laugh-
ter.) He (Mr. O'Connell) was convinced that an ab-
sentee tax should be imposed on every Irishman who kept
a permanent residence out of Ireland. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. Sharman Crawford had lately expressed his difference
of opinion from some distinguished leaders of Repeal, but
hoped that " some means might be devised for uniting
those who agree on the common groands that Ireland
ought to have a representative body, with powers com-
petent to give her the management of her own resources."
He (Mr. O'Connell) agreed with Mr. Crawford in that
principle, was ready to join him in any effort that would
give the Irish the power of taking care of themselves, and
wondered why Mr. Crawford did not come forward with
such a plan. (Cheers.)

The wheat crop through Ireland this year is most
abundant. Several farmers in the county Kildare have
20 barrels to the acre.
EFFECTS OF THE PEEL POLICY IN IRELAND.—It
has been often said that the apathy of the Protestants of
Ireland towards the present government has no existence
but in the representations of a dissatisfied press. The
following fact, however, proves the contrary. On Tues-
day, at a meeting of the Conservative Registration Society
of Dublin, a report of the committee was read, in which
they say that, not having the means of defraying the ex-
penses of the past week, and being involved in consider-
ble debt, they had resolved to suspend their operations
for the present, and dismiss Atic—ci,rit. it, the;r
meat ; and it was only at the earnest solicitation of a
number of gentlemen present that the committee con-
sented to continue their exertions until a public meeting
of the Conservative constituency shall have been held in
November. On the accession of the present government
the Conservatives in the city of Dublin were vigorous al d
united. Against all the intrigues and threats of a Whig
Lord Lieutenant and his officials, they had sue :eeded in
rescuing the representation from Mr. O'Connell. At the
registry in 1840. and during the years which preceded Sir
Robert Peel's attainment of office, they defeated their op-
ponents at every registration session ; all was activity and
exertion. At the session of 1841, immediately succeeding
the expulsion of the Whigs and the succession of the To-
ries, the Conservative majority numbered 247; they re-
gistering 729 claimants to 482 Radicals. On the corres-
ponding session of the next year, 1842, when Sir Robert
Peel's system began to be developed, their majority
dwindled to 36; they being able only to register 139 to
103 Radicals. On that of 1843, their majority was turned
into a minority,i their opponents registering 60 Radicals
to 47 Conservatives ; and then, at the May sessions of the
present year, 1844, they registered only 118 Conservatives
to 223 Radicals, leaving the Repealers a majority of 105 ;
and on that of last August, but 150 Conservatives against
286 Repealers: leaving the latter a majority of 136 on that
session. Such are the results of the three years practical
working of the Peel policy in Ireland, with respect to the
Conservative body : a disheartened, broken-down consti-
tuency—a dispirited, almost bankrupt, Registration So-
iety, succourless, disgusted, and on the eve of dissolution.

NATIONAL EDUCATION IN IRELAND.--The Lord
Primate of Ireland, in his recent Visitation Charge to the
Clergy of the Diocese of Armagh, observes—" With
reference to a subject upon which the clergy have ex-
pressed an almost unanimous determination, I must offer
a few remarks—l mean the subject of education. The
attempts of the Commissioners of National education to
remove objections to their plan have been generally felt
by the clergy to be insufficient for the purpose. My own
opinion is that they were so ; and that co-operation with
the National Board on the terms proposed could not have
been agreed to. Having explained my views upon this
question at much length in my last charge, it is not my
intention to enter into a discussion of it at present. I
shall only observe, that the views which I put before you
at that time I continue to entertain. The more 1 reflect
upon the subject the more firm is my conviction that
education, to be really beneficial, must be based upon
religion ; and that the instructors of youth do little to
pro mote their well being if they do not instil into their
minds the principles of Divine Truth for the regulation
of their conduct in after life. I will take leave to add
what I said on a former occasion relative to the plan of
National Education, when its rules were first promulgated
—that if it be consistent with the principles of the Roman
Catholic Church to debar the members of its communion
from the use of the Scripture, I maintain that it is not
consistent with the principles of the Protestant Church to
establish a system of National Education founded on such
pretensions. I presume not to interfere with the Roman
Catholic priesthood in the exercise of any power which
they may conscientiously believe to belong to them. But
if they wish to preserve their consistency as Roman Ca-
tholics, let us endeavour to preserve ours as Protestants.
If they are persuaded that religion may be taught with-
out the Scriptures, be it so, as far as regards themselves ;
but lit not us, as Protestants, sanction such a principle
by establishing schools which shall be called national ones,
in which the essential truths of revelation are not set
forth, in which the Scriptures are not recognised, are not
appealed to, are not devoutly read, as the only pure and
authentic source of religious faith and practice." We
need scarcely say that we agree perfectly in the opinion
so ably, so lucidly, and so forcibly expressed by his
Grace.

TO THE DISPERSED PROTESTANTS IN THE
SOUTH AND WEST OF IRELAND.

BRETHREN.—In these evil times, as I have seen some
faint hearts amongst you, and know of more, permit one
of the dispersed of your body respectfully to give you a
few words of counsel, and not to count it to him for pre-
sumption.
The Snake has thrown a new lure—a federal parlia-
ment ; whether the infatuated Mr. Hutchinson it was
who started the hare, or the Snake himself, no matter;
the Viper has adopted it as his own. Does it require
anything beyond common sense to discern that as far as
the father of lies is concerned, he only wants that toy
well packed with popish influence and craft to blow up
a quarrel between it and the imperial parliament on any
invented pretence, and then to arrive at his darling
repale.
Surely, surely, no Protestants awake will heed him.
It may be true that much of our business is mismanaged
by English officials, who know little of our country, and
are backward to learn it, but these are only matters of
detail ; the basis of the union is fraught with advantage
even to excess for Ireland, and it is part and parcel of the
plan of the agitators to shower inventions so thick into
the House of Commons that there should be no time
for ministers to effect business ; but were the country
once at peace within herself, the Scorpion crushed, and
his 'lvo:end coadjutors put on their good behaviour, the
prosperity of Ireland would know no bounds.
It is true, we have at present the hideous deformity in
the heart of the country of a band of infuriated democrats
consuming her bowels, inviting adherence and co-ouera-
tion, threatening massacre, and thirsting for blood; for
what else means their phraseology of " Ireland biding

her time?" The bait of plunder flung out to the peasant
must have had its influence ; for by the Jesuit finesse he
is perpetually urged to put into the raffle, that he may be
eager for the day of drawing; yet the poor people are not
ill-disposed if let alone, and the proof is that it is thought
indispensable not to relax for one moment the stimulant
of sedition upon them. All this is true, wofully true;
and as it constitutes a government within the government,
having the torch and the stiletto for its device, it may
make scme honest hearts to quail. But, Protestants, re-
member you are hated because you hold the Bible. It all
resolves itself into this. The Bible and the right of private
judgment in religion it is that renders popish priests su-
pet fluoas lumber—that it is translated into every known
language for circulation by Saxon aid maddens them to
fury—now that they blindly suppose that they have only
a short time to wait to sacrifice your church, which has
taught you to know what they are, and what they are not.
You cannot have forgotten the pope's circular, dated
from Rome on 4th May last, addressed to his worship-
pers in Italy, denouncing the New York Bible Society.
He tells them plump, that reading the Holy Scriptures, in
the vulgar tongue, leads to certain perdition ; and forbids
what the Saviour enjoined. If this be not the beast drawn
in the Revelations, God has given us our reason to betray
us. This circular was published in all the papers. So,
Protestants, take your line. Waver not. Have no fel-
lowship with their principles. I was once an emancipator
myself, a conciliator, and am well reviled as a dupe and
worse. Observe the return which the Duke of Welling-
ton and Sir Robert Peel daily get for having brought for-
ward the emancipation act ; and mind, this is not the ex-
ception but the rule. What folly, then, is it to hope that
the sense of shame will associate some of the more re-
spectable persons of the Romanist persuasion to denounce
the agitators! They don't come forward ;at least I
know of but one or two that have, a'id they are well
scoffed and spit at by the demon for their honesty. Be
not seduced by any of his baits. Hold aloof to the last.
It is the trial of your faith. Let every Protestant say to
himself, " if 1 was the only one left I never would unite
with them." Nail the Bible and the Union Jack together
to your heart. Have something in your hand also to
make him repent who would approach with the rags of an
Italian priest to defile either. The English Protestant
people will yet consent to distinguish between the true
and the false in Ireland. Our brethren of the north are
alive to our sufferings; nay, the English dissenters, much
as they dislike the monarchical principle, and the Church,
will yet, from a sense of shame, postpone their aversion
to these elements in order to teach the turbulent popish
agents here that if they expect protection and security
they must at least let others enjoy it. Watch. Be fi-m.
Be indifferent alike to their cajolery or their threats.
Call to mind the words of the Psalmist, which cannot be
found, by-the-by, in the popish Missal—" I was young,
and now am old, and yet saw I never the righteous for-
saken ;" &c.—l am, brethren, your sincere well-wisher,
WESTMEATH.
Clonyn, September 21st, 1844,