The hatchings of the Cabi...
The Times, 1824-12-25T00:00:00

The hatchings of the Cabinet on the affairs of Ireland, wlhich we hinted at not many days agyo, have even thus *arly burst into life. O'CONNELL has been arrested, and held-.to bail, for " seditious words !" as the Dublin news- papers of Tuesday and Wednesday last inform us. And what are the seditious words ?-that "If the Irish shoulld ' ever (which he trusted would not happeni), but if the ' Irish should ever be driven mad by persecution,-why ' then he hoped that somenew BOLIVAR might be found, and that the spirit of the Greeks and of the Soutl. Americans might animate the people of Ireland." And this is sedition! And for this hypothetical effitsion, an cx- temnpore speaker in a public assembly, under what is called X free contitution, is to be attackedby theKiNo'sAttorney- Gcneral, and prosecuted as if his design were to overtlirow the State. We have read the imputed words thricc over: we see nothing in their tair mcaniing which an honest man may not adopt to the letter. If O'CONNELr. be seditious for expressing his hope that should Irelandl be driven mad b,y persecution, she may find a patriot to deliver her, theen are we his fellows in sedition ; for we have the samne spe- cific hope for Irelard, Ir she be persecuted-for Englandl, iF she be oppressed-for all mankind, in every region of the world, and in eyery age, to the remotest posterity. It is the native prayer of all Englishmen, that oppres- sion, where it does exist, imay be opp: sed and punished. So far as politics went, it was the religion of our fore- fathers. WVhat is BOLIVAIt but the WASHINGTON of thie 19th centuiry? What was WVIL[IAM III., in principle, but the BOLIVAR of the 17th ? Resistance to lawless power was the characteristic glory of them all. Do the law- officers of the Crown in Ireland dream of getting any but an Orange jury to convict a British subject for words like those ascribed to Mr. O'CONNELL ? Mr. PLUNK ETT, in- deed, knowst of wlhat materials such juries are composed, aud so far his confidence may not have been rashly placed in them. But, good llcaven! wvill he descentl so lowv as to make the authors of' his otvn wrongs his instruments of vengeance against others ? The words reportedl are, as we have said, what no virtuous and intelligent Jury can con- vict upon-they are suchl as nlo man who has read the history of the British Constitution, or who is animnated by its spirit and principles, nced disavow; and yet, strange to say, they are declaredl by Mr. O'CONNELL to. have been a gross misrepresenitation of his languiage, and ho has-ac- cordlingly instituted a prosecutioni against the Editor of the paper in which they were, we believe, exclusively reported. However, let us grant tlac illcgality of these expressions- that a jury should be found to bring in a verdiet of guilty -and that somc Lord NORBU AY should,in the excess of' his watchfulnessover thepublic safety, sentence lr.'Co N N ELL to the almost inconceivable rigour for such an offence, of 24 hours' imprisonmrent, and. a fine of 4ss. WVe ask any person in his right senses-even granting the lawv to be with the Attorney-Genieral-what is the policy of a prosecution lhke this? O'CONNELL, a chief of the rabble-a politician distrusted by nine-tenths of the Catholic gentry for his shallowness and indiscretion-a man losing grotnd froin day to day in the oppimsi6n of every one capable of forming an opinion,-who must have talked and. tumibled himself into utter insignificance at last,.-this very common per- sonage is lifted bodily, by the act of the Government itself, which ought to have looked on- and lauglhed at him, into a hero and a martyr ! Do they iwant to deaden his already half-paralyze(d activity? This gratuitous and egregious prosectt ion will quickeni every pulse within him, an'd add anotlher age to O'CONNELL'S exertions as a demagogue. Is it thus the Governmnent seek to seduce the lower orders fron2 this scarecrow-to relax their admiration of him-to leave him no remniant of moral or political power? Of course, if Alr. O'CONNELL SO em- ploys his opportunity, he may defend himself in a manner which would effect some puiblic good. He may explain his owii politics (if lie have any settledl polit3cs)-he may defend and justify the Association, stating what is the real object ofits leaders, (provided they have any definiitive objects)-he may thus tranquillize the zainds of the peo- ple of England, and undo part of the mischief vhich his previous intemperance has produced. But this is hardly to be expected from one who must, by acting a sober part, forego all thlose enjoyments of self-love which a frcsh display of tawdry violence may administer to an appetite insatiable of vulgar adoration. The sum is, that the Go- vernment,by this sort of peevish vigour, has revived an hun- dred chances of evil wlhich were in hourly progress to- wards extinction. It has recrowned a falling Monarch- it has raised him to the honour of martyrdom, without in- flicting on him the slightest of. its pains. The measure is at once harsh, imbecile, and only not odious because ridiculeus. If this be the commencement of a qystem, of energy-a specimen of the spirit which presided over the late Ministerial insubations-if this be the first chick that breaks the egg-shell, vwhat, in the name of won- der, will be the rest of the brood ?