The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-07-04 00:00:00

SAXON".

that demagogue priesthood, whose avocation seems
to be to point out to their duped flocks the path of
outrage andbloodshed, rather than the path of peace,
may, possibly, have returned to their homes without
precipitating the crises which every man feels is
approaching. No sword may, as yet, have been
drawn ;no life may have fallen a sacrifice. An
overruling providence may have prevented a col-
lision between these maddened and inflamed
crowds, and their victims; but it is morally and
clUbellCe ot po-
sitive information, we can, at any time, now, con-
gratulate ourselves upon the assurance, that Ireland
is not, from north to south, one wide scene of

massacre and outrage! A day may bring it; the
occurrence of an hour may tear from before her face
the veil, under which Great Britain is sleeping, un-
conscious of the storm which is gathering, or per-
haps is fully gathered and ready, to descend in ruin
upon her head!

When, we ask, will that weak and timorous policy
be laid aside which hesitates to put down, at once,
an agitation so fiercely menacing—an agitation whose
issue is so clearly to be foreseen ? 'When will the
British nation be permitted to know the fact that
their sovereign and the law are more powerful in
Ireland than a ruffian demagogue or his priestly auxi-
liaries ? We are waiting—for what ? We are wait-
ing until rebellion gains strength and daring suffici-

ent to strike the first blow ;—for we cannot be so
triad as to imagine that, whatever may have been his
past course, with minor crotchets, its leader can ever
be induced to lay aside the agitation of repeal ;
he cannot if he would ! He is chained to it. Like
the German student, he is hunted by the monster
of his own creation. He must go on with it, though
it lead to the scaffold or the gallows,—though he
knows it to lead to the desolation of that land
which he professes to love so well! To an issue—
a trial of strength between the powers of the law
and the passions of the people of Ireland—it must
come at last; and we are waiting,—blindly, timidly,
madly waiting—until the time approaches, or is
precipitated upon us, when the power of the con-

stitution and the law can only be vindicated by the

sword or the bayonet.
This is, unquestionably, the position and the po-
licy of the conservative government of this country
in the present imminent crisis of affairs in Ireland.
We might have crushed this agitation in the egg.
We might crush it, at more hazard and with greater
difficulty, even now. But we are hanging back until
our opponent shall be full grown, fully armed, and,

" Brought to bear all thee
vairnblietnratrTntrpursiritncnipinep
in-
justice, of
perhaps, aided by confederates in the struggle t We
Prussiant despotism, and all th
senaaperriel;,ait:.indt arbitrary government,
l not upon our-
are hesitating to put forth our energies, until a period
ts.7,ehetrae.(yoliitr
as childrensl
jfaucstolereie
arrive when their exertion must be destructive and
were to be educated, and who weree
fatal to Ireland, and at the same time weakening in
tyoouctrhoutcohbefore the lash, or to bear the yoke in theiraves
effect, and full of peril and disaster, to Great Britain
ouusetshat he
despotism. He held that this clause in
herself ! present bill was as objectionable as any thing that ap.the
We may be told that the first step made to put tfraarLdmin h
stldleplpareeer
in
ns
this
sti2 offt it. But Sir James
ertellin
down the repeal agitation will be the signal for the had withdrawn the educational clauses,
yeHemtlilefnacptornryeeededt without
12 telling
of a fierce and bloody insurrection in qttuleireesduticiasttionno oefhifladcstrayll cbe
eieldrellt ; the first of which re-
commencementupon
certificate of attending a school.p
that unhappy land. So threatens the arch traitor,
iiinirsepcetzttnhrarte,pinfratinscghnoponlndiidt, ntl)3ttplee an inspector, the
schoolmasterany child shouldshnnld noti:,e
Daniel O'Connell. So howl, in echo, the priesthood
of Ireland. So proclaim the sympathizers of the be able to give a certificate; and if
tni:slpploaryeendtsinsiainsacihdozlensontbleuteytitng suchl a certificate, he or
enndaintgyilnhe child for nott
American continent and of France. But do they
attending, or his parents /or not so
ending offer us an alternative less dangerous, short of con-
cession to the most violent and insolent of their de- beingti mill
to a
a pound ; while the master ofy
penalty ofer from £5 to £lO
mands ? Glance, for a moment, at the language in for such employment of the chrled
requiringndschool attendance from chit-
which e was something
like despotism
w
which they paint the future position of Great Britain eth eigi bill nt
and Ireland. Take, as a specimen of their feeling. they don't provide schools,ee taond provideve t r
esqcnbioroelsa:tebnucfance,
c here
the following which fell from the lips of a priest, the :ionsdp
et
ehteo
rc e rat iofi: ate
themeyi
lbde
working a
tat the caprice of the
a ill
Rev. Mr. Murray, at a recent repeal gathering in the subject to a penalty, and the master
alsmofiaarfteemr :tlhnat)ig
is
him. If this bill were not a conspiracy against then
county of Cork : liberty of manufacturers, a combination of oppressors
" Suppose England to-morrow at war with France or against the feelings, wishes, and enterprise of people,e
Russia, a circumstance not perhaps so unlikely or remote he (Mr. Massie) knew neither what a conspiracy was,
as may appear to some (hear, hear), and that their grand nor what a combination of oppressors could be."
differences were to be decided on the banks of the Rhine
Now what is the meaning of this furious raving,
or the Danube, would they not rejoice at the blindness
which should retain one of the armies of England at so if it be not hostility to education, as a condition of the
great a distance from the theatre of war, and would not
employment of children in factories ? It is not hos-
the disaffection of Ireland be to them a subsidy of 6,000
men? It is not wisdom, then, on the part of England not tility to this bill, for any particular defect or fault in
to reconcile Ireland, her right arm, and her most faithful it
and powerful ally. It would be better to be wise in time capable of being remedied, but a deliberate desire
—concessions may come too late." to sacrifice the minds and the morals of the rising ge-
They would betray us in our extremity. They would
neration of Englishmen upon the shrine of manufac-
deliver us up, bound and shorn of our strength dr! • d
luring cupidity ! It is "despotism" to compel chit-
union, into the hands of the first foreign power, dren to attend school—despotism to place the Bible
which might be willing, in return, to aid the eats- in their
hands—despotism to teach them that they
blishment of a popish supremacy in their own land. have souls to be saved, minds to be cultivated, pas-