The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-08-01 00:00:00

FAULTY CONDUCT OF ENGLAND TO IRELAND

From the reign of James the First to the Revolution, the
hostile spirit of the Roman Catholic faith never ceased to
manifest itself. In the massacre of the Protestants in 1631,
in the wars with Cromwell, in the troublous period of the
second Charles, and in the wars of James, the Roman
Catholics but asserted their unquenchable hostility to the
British connexion, and to the English Protestant settlers
in this country. The iron energy of Cromwell crushed
and for ever annihilated the power of the old Irish chief-
tains; but the envenomed spirit of religious rancour was
too subtle an antagonist even for his master-spirit to grap-
ple with. Ireland was thus everlastingly in revolt; there
was but one effectual means by which this could have
been prevented—namely, by sedulously spreading the
doctrines of the Reformation, and thus identifying the
sentiments of the two countries. This duty England
most shamefully neglected. Spencer tells us that the
Roman Catholic priests spared not to travel from Spain
and Rome to Ireland, where they knew peril of death
awaited them, and no reward was to be had only to draw
the people to the Church of Rome; but that our idle
ministers would, neither for the love of God, nor zeal for
religion, nor for all they could do by winning souls to
Christ, be drawn forth from their warm nests. So utterly
worthless was the ministration of the Established Church,
that very many of the settlers who came over with Crom-
well and with William, lapsed by degrees into the Roman
Catholic faith, and amalgamating with the ancient Irish
and original English settlers, added their numbers to
the array of the numerous enemies of England. The
north escaped this evil by deriving its clergy chiefly
from the active and intelligent people of Scotland. But
when we recollect the number of Protestants who came
over with Cromwell and with William, and in the inter-
mediate period, and who settled on the lands which were
then confiscated and appropriated to their use, and com-
pare them with the comparative numbers of Protestant
and Roman Catholic as they now exist in three provinces
of Ireland, it is plzin to demonstration, even if we were
without the aid of express authority on the subject, that
a large proportion of the new Protestant settlers must
have joined the Church of Rome; indeed we could point
to districts in Ireland where the same names, and
obviously the same families, are to be found, those of
them in the plains adhering to the Reformed faith, and
those in the adjacent mountain districts, which the zeal
of the clergy of the Established Church, at that day, was
unequal to penetrate, professing the doctrines of the
Church of Rome.

THE laisH REBELS.—The London Times has lately
spoken of the proceedings of the repeal leaders as if they
were of rather a formidable nature, but yesterday our
contemporary spoke of them in the following altered
tone :—" O'Brien has not a chance. Would that our
words could reach him, and would that he could listen to
them ! Let him giye himself up at once, and compro-
mise for lodgings and light work at Bermuda. As for the
other rebel chiefs, Doheny, it is said, follows the fortunes
of O'Brien, and by his want of respectability contributes
to the premature decay of the royal cause. No one
appears to know where Meagher is flourishing his sword,
but if he is fighting anything, it must be the air.
Dillon is equally inconspicuous. Lolor, the hero of
Holycross, has been arrested. O'Reilly has surrendered.
The rest are all hiding. Little will be heard of them for
some time, except in the Hue and Cry."

ARRESTS FOR SEDITION AND TREASON AT BELFAST.
—To-day, at the police-court in this town, says the Ban-
ner
of Ulster, in a bulletin published on Saturday, P.
Kane, a compositor in the Northern Whig office, was
brought up, charged with firing pistols on Friday night
last, in Smithfield, to the terror and alarm of her majesty's
subjects in that neighbourtmed. He was arrested by
Constable Slane. who, after having taken him to the
police-office, searched him and discovered upon his per-
son two pistols and a ticket of membership of the John
Mitchel Club at B elfast. The magistrates, after confer-
ring together for a length of time, stated that they would
suspend judgment until Tuesday. ApplicAt ion for bail
was applied for, and granted ; the bench, however, refused
to let him out on his own recognisance ; he was required
to find bail, himself in £lOO and two sureties in £5O each.
William Downing. a respectable tailor, residing in Castle-
place, was next charged with using seditious and treason-
able language against the statute. Tne expression he
made use of was, "To h-1 with the Queen !" He was
also remanded till Tuesday, but was admitted to bail,
himself in £5O, and two sureties in £2O each.
LORD HARDINGE AND THE IRISH COMMAND.—It is
not improbable, says the Observer, that Lord Hardinge
will proceed to Ireland to assume an important military
command. The alarming condition of the south of Ire-
land, and the necessity for a great increase of troops in
that quarter are in themselves sufficient reasons for the
establishment of a special and separate command. It is
not at all intended to interfere with the duties of the
Commander of the Forces in Ireland, Sir Edward
Blakeney, who has held that command so long, and whose
ability and judgement are equal to his great experience.
He will remain in Dublin to command in chief the troops
of the metropolis and to direct generally the military
movements throughout the entire kingdom. The condi-
tion of the southern district, however, is so serious, that
the presence and command of a soldier at once so succes-
ful and so eminent as Lord Hardinge may be immediately
necessary, if it have not become so already. Notwith-
standing his rank and eminent services, Lord Hardinge
has at once waved all perSonal considerations, and placed
himself at the disposal of the Government, to be employed
in any capacity where his services might be deemed most
useful. His ready acquiescence, as well as his name and
reputation, will be of themselves most serviceable in pro-
ducing confidence in all quarters. [We learn by the last
advices from London that Lord Hardinge would leave
London for Liverpool last night.]
POSTAL DISPUTE WITH AMERICA.—The answer given
in the House of Commons on Thursday to the question of
Mr. W. Brown, of Liverpool, concerning the postal dis-
pute with America, has been a subject of comment since
amongst the merchants 'connected with that country.
The point urged is that the matter has been too long in
uncertainty, and that an immediate settlement is esential,
not merely in deference to mercantile interests, but to
prevent that growth of ill-feeling which must inevitably
arise from every day's continuance of a system having for
its end nothing but mutual damage and annoyance.
After nearly a year of vain effort the statement of the
government, therefore, that negotiations arc still " pen-
ding," when the summary method just adopted by the
United States seems to indicate that on their side at least
all present hope of a settlement is over, affords very little
ground for satisfaction. The real thing on which the
public are anxious is, not as to whether negotiations are 1
pending, for it was of course not supposed, even in the
face of the retaliation just enforced against us, that the i
question could have been altogether abandoned, but
whether there is any chance of these negotiations being
brought to a speedy termination. It is while the matter
is "pending" that the merchants are suffering, and hence
the argument, that as the people on both sides seem dis-
posed to come to an equitable conclusion if they could but
get at the matter as it stands, it would be better, unless .
there be an immediate prospect of agreement, for the
English to follow the example of the American Govern-
ment, and by giving an open statement of their case to
facilitate the adjustment of it by the aid of public opinion.
. THE WOUNDED IN THE LAST INSURRECTION IN
PARIS.—A friend has favoured us with a copy of the
Boulogne Gazette of the 25th ult., in which there appears
an interesting surgical account of the state and treatment
of the wounded in the recent insurrection, from the pen
of Mr. Bennett Lucas, an eminent London surgeon, who
visited the Parisian hospitals. It appears from this, that
the wounds received by the combatants "entered in every
direction, save one, and that was behind." He saw 400
patients at one hospital, and but one hod to expose his'
back to examine the orifice; the exit of a bullet which the
brave fellew had received directly in front. There were
no sabre or bayonet wounds. The bullets were sent face
to face, at or from windows; some balls consequently
entered the body in front, others entered it from above
downward, and a few in the contrary direction. A con-
siderable number entered the body laterally and with few
exceptions took an oblique course. Great attention was
paid by the surgeon in dressing the wounds. "A young
garde mobile received a shot in the centre of the forehead
between the eye-brows ; this coursed beneath the skin,
following the direction of the brow and was extracted at ,
the temple, without doing any material mischief." Shat-
tered fingers were innumerable, and none of the principal
joints of the body escaped injury. "An injury to the hip
joint was of peculiar interest; a bullet entered it in front
and fractured the neck of the thigh bone. The interest in
this case, as well as in some wounds of the shoulder and
elbow joints, arose from the well directed endeavours of
the surgeon to preserve the limbs to their owners. In
short it would take a volume, and that of no ordinary
pretensions as to size, to enumerate the number, variety,
and complications of the various injuries which came under
my notice ; whilst a page would almost suffice to describe
their treatment." Apart from primary amputations,
nothing more was done than to assist nature, leaving the
rest to her handywork. At Boulogne and elsewhere, the
ladies were busily employed making lint for the use of the
Paris hospitals, and their exertions were gratefully
acknowledged by the medical and municipal bodies of the
city.