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

IRELAND.

MEETING OF THE DUBLIN CORPORATION.
On Wednesday last, as announced in our last, a special
meeting of this body was held for the purpose of consi-
dering the adoption of a petition to the Queen, upon the
motion of Dr. Maunsell, praying " that her Majesty will
be graciously pleased to hold her Court, and to summon
an Imperial Parliament, to meet at least once in every three
years, in her loyal city of Dublin ; also, that she will re-
commend to the consideration of Parliament the propriety
of making such provisions as shall secure that the same
shall be done in future times." For an hour previous to
the time announced for the commencement of the pro-
ceedings, every available seat in the body of the Assem-
bly-room—and in the gallery was crowded to excess. The
chair was taken by the Lord Mayor, and shortly after the
opening of the meeting
Dr. Maunsell, after a few introductory remarks, said,—
Let us consider the probable operation upon Irish Pro-
testants of an arrangement for the periodical transference
of the court and legislature to Ireland, and I will ask
would not such an arrangement be, at the least, as safe for
Protestants as is the present plan ? What is now the po-
sition, and what may be the reasonable expectations of
Irish Protestants ? Two institutions, and two only, in
which they have a special interest, have been suffered to
remain—the University and the Church. Now, I ask
any reflecting man will he engage that the Protestant Uni-
versity (already
,threatened) will not, within a year, be
thrown es a sop to the monster of agitation ? On this
matter the handwriting of the Premier has but recently
appeared upon the wall : the vision of those who cannot
read it must be strangely distorted, either by their wishes
or their interests. The question is no longer a moot one :
the days of the University of Dublin, as an exclusively or
special Protestant institution are numbered, and I will
again ask, when the university shall have been sacrificed,
how long do Irish Protestants suppose their church, as a
national establishment, will survive? Surely, if the his-
tory of the last fifteen years be remembered, no one, not
the most sanguine truster in statesmen, can in his sober
moments fail to see that this establishment is already
doomed—that the purses of the great English proprietors
of Irish soil already gape for that remnant of the patri-
mony of the church. to the appropriation of which they
have already made a first step, by converting it from an
actual property in the land to a stipendiary rent-charge?
The ostrich biding his head in the sand in the belief that
he thereby conceals himself from his pursuers is a type of
exalted wisdom in comparison with our example of folly,
if we continue obstinately to shut our eyes to those facts.
No ; let no one hope that a minister whose mind is trained
in manoeuvres for riding over political shoals—(l adopt
the simile from the Quarterly Review)—will hesitate to
slip these the two only remaining anchors of Irish Pro-
testantism, as a national establishment, if doing so will
enable him to escape official wreck, even were it but for a
session. I presume I need scarcely ask are the personal
and individual interests of Protestants at the present time
likely to be safe r than those of a collective kind ? I will
waste no time in proving at this time of day, tha: if there
be any patronage in question, it will be exercised, less in
recompensing the services of former friends, than in pur-
chasing the future support of renegade repeaters or nomi-
nal Protestants. (Cheers.) This policy has been frankly
enough avowed by the Prime Minister himself—it has
been defended without scruple by the organs of his govern-
ment—yet though all these concessions shall be made to
the popular outcry, a period must arrive when to concede
more will become impossible; and I ask those who know
Ireland will not that period be the commencement of the
real struggle for repeal. By sacrificing the university and
the church, and by postponing thg individual interests of
Protestants, the consummation may perhaps be delayed ;
but it will no less certainly arrive at last, and when it
does come, it will find the Irish Protestants a betrayed,
weakened, denationalised garrison of England, not even
possessed of a spoil to mollify their conqueror. To my
Protestant brethren I would then say—make your terms
before the breach in your bulwarks becomes indefensible.
Despair not of saving your strong places, or, at least, if
treason within obliges you to sacrifice them, secure the
honours of war. This can only be done by some exhibi-
tion of national Protestant strength—for there is a Pro-
testant nation in Ireland, and they can show that such is
the case—by a demand that before further legislation shall
be engaged in to our ruin, legislators shall see Ireland,
Protestant as well as Roman Catholic Ireland, with their
own eyes. We must no longer be objects of barter and
sale between Irish lawyers and place-hunters, and English
ministers, ignorant of our real position. If Irish Protes-
tantism is to be sold, we ought to insist upon the bargain
being made in our presence. But s'aould the plan which
I have taken the liberty of proposing to the consideration
of this house ever be brought to perfection, I confess I
see a future very different from that which now awaits us.
Holding the court and parliament here alternately could
not render the condition of Irish Protestants worse than it
now is ; but it would render them, in common with other
Irishmen, more respectable as a body—it would enable
Englishmen to learn, what they do not now know, the ac-
tual position of Protestants in Ireland ; and if that was
once known to legislators, a due weight would be given to
Protestant as to other Irish interests. I will hang out no
false colours in the hope of gaining a vote from gentlemen
opposite. I tell you frankly, my lord, it is my hope and
firm belief, that by giving Irishmen their due share in le-
gislation, and at the same time protecting them from the
domination of the Romish church, a long step would be
taken towards Protestantising Ireland, and that, too,
without curtailing the liberties of my fellow-countrymen
in any particular—nay, with the certain effect of raising
an impregnable bulwark for the defence of the common
liberties of all. Thus, I think the plan I propose would
vastly benefit the collective interests of my brethren in
religion. As to their private interests, I will only ask,
would it be less advantageous to the Protestant than to the
Catholic barrister to have the field of imperial parliamen-
tary practice thrown open to him ?—to the physician to
have the squares of Dublin, and the provincial mansions
of the aristocracy filled with the noble and the wealthy ?
—to the speculator to have the opportunity of urging his
railway bill within a walk of his own office ?—to the
tradesman to have his employers (,uadrupled ?—to the
peasant to have his landlord resident at his door, as a
sympathiser and supporter in his daily toils and wants, not
an occasional visitant in the capacity of a collector of rent ?
If these would be ben fits, they would, I submit, be se-
cured to the Protestantls well as to the Catholic resident
in Ireland, and that wi bout risk,hy the plan I now propose.
The ]earned gentleman proceeded to argue that the plan he
proposed would be beneficial to the interests of England
by fixing another political centre in the empire and thereby
raising a greater probability of the landed gentry residing
permanently amongst them—and by making English
capitalists acquainted with the economical resources of
Ireland. He also spoke at great length to show that the
legitimate objects of the repealers would be advanced by
the proposed plan, and concluded as follows :—" What
benefit have the masses of the Protestant or Catholic
people of Ireland obtained from Whig or Tory ? I
ask this house have they been sufficient to recompense
either party for the cruel injuries that the feuds of the
English parties have brought upon our country ?—for the
neglect of our social interests that these political feuds
have engendered and perpetuated among ourselves ?
Would it not be for the common good of all, if we could
give the world a practical demonstration that English
political parties in Ireland are (as is the fact) resolving
themselves into their elements ; and that, in the ordinary
course of nature, those elements must, sooner or later,
enter into new combinations—(loud and long continued
cheering from both sides). It will be remembered that I
am now speaking of political dissensions—l make no al-
lusion to religious differences. I advocate no latitudina-
rianism—no conciliatory concessions on points of reli-
gious doctrine or religious practice. Even here, where so
many differ from me in religion, I do not fear to avow
that I feel the stronger interest in the welfare of my Pro-
testant fellow-countrymen—but the plan for which I ask
the support of the council involves no religious conces-
sion. Let us agree to differ in religious matters—but let
us break the spell that has so long bound us to the tails
of English Whigs and English Tories. Let us, if it were
but far the sake of novelty, give one unanimous vote for
old Ireland—(long-continued cheering.) When the ap-
plause subsided, Dr. Maunsell again rose and fomally
moved the resolution set forth in his speech, stating at
the same time that he had consulted but two members on
his side of the house, one of whom was Alderman Butt,
upon the subject, and they had declared their approval of
his proposition. He had expected that one of these
gentlemen would have seconded his motion, but it now
appeared that they had changed their minds, and he there-
fore withdrew his motion.
Mr. O'Connell congratulated Dr. Maunsell, warmly on
the tone, temper, and manner of his address, and closed
his speech in the following emphatic language :—" Things
cannot remain as they are; there must be a change, and,
God forbid that that change should be effected without
the assent of men of all persuasions and all religions. I
would consider it not a blessing but a curse, if a change
were forced upon any portion of the Irish people. I am
rejoiced to see every hour symptoms which tell me that
other combinations are about being formed, which will
meet more than half way every assistance which we can
give towards attaining those advantages to Ireland,
which the learned doctor would have extended to us once
in three years, but which I should like you should have
every summer season—cheers. That period is approach-
ing, and I believe in the course of a few weeks a manifes-

tation will be made which will be totally devoid of reli-
gious partizanship, and presenting a combination of
Irishmen for the benefit of their fellow-countrymen."
The assembly was then adjourned.