The Sun. — 1825-02-28 (London, England)

POST.] The general Catholic ;Meeting which took place on Skop.lay at the Freemasons"favern, appears to-us to have been got up chiefly to gratify an amiable weakness—in other words, to give some curious-people an opportunity of hearing two Or three Irish Catholic Agitators declaim in public. 'We trust these singular critics are now satisfied ; for, if we may judge from the reports of the rations , we • imagine it will be long before they `-'cove,i a repetition of the exhibition. What did the eloquent strangers who spoke at the Freemasons' Hall advance to weaken the sound judgment on which Mr. Goulburn's Bill has passed the lower House of Parliament ? They fulminated dreadful imprecations against those who spurned" their prayer to grant permission that they might hear themselves spout at the Bar of the House of Commons—but were they able to mention a solitary fact militating against the validity of the grounds on which the measure has been adopted ? A highly coloured epitome of Irish history for 7 or 800 years was, we presume, a poor apology for the refutation of the penal charges against the Association. In the opinion of the Deputy Orators the subject seemed unworthy of argument—they talked wildly and wantonly—figuratively and -f.rociously—but a single reason we cannot discover in the whole web of their long spun discourses. Was it then trash of that sort which the House of Commons has rejected—Was it such maudlin attempts at vindication, and rancorous but impotent displays of vindictiveness, that the Legislature was solicited to endure ? Verily, we opine our wise men of the West are doomed to little honour out of their own country ; --there, may hap, they are the tritons among the minnows, and make a dreadful plutter no doubt ;—but here, we take leave to warn them, their philippics are equally unworthy of being reported and read. We are almost inclined to join with Mr. Secretary Canning in the wish that these Gentlemen might appear for once in their Eves in Parliament—for assuredly that is the place where " all demagogues shrink to their proper dimensions."  [monNt No ctinONICLE-] Our readers will find elsewhere an ample account of the Catholic Meeting at Freemasons' Tavern, on Saturday last. We have so often expressed our sentiments on the subject of the Bill to put down the Catholic Association, that we will offer no remarks on it at present. We shall merely observe, that Mr. O'Connell gave a masterly review of the Catholic persecutions, and summed up the grounds for passing the Suppression Bill, which might be all comprehended in the single one, that the Catholics were now unanimous. He contrived to place the objectors to the word hatred in the far-famed Address of the Association to the Catholics of Ireland, in rather an awkward position, by reducing them to the necessity of either approving of the Orange Societies, or disapproving of the Bible.—" I ap"• pealed," he says, " to the judgment, the pas" sions, and the fears of the people to support " my earnest recommendation to be peaceful, and ".why should I not appeal to them by the strong " feelings of resentment, by the natural hatred " they had to oppression ? If I had not, my sin" verity must have been doubted ; they might "have said to me, you have left out the grin" cipal ingredient of the dish. You are acting the " Advocate, but you have neglected to call the I " principal witness. Is is not legitimate to hate the robber, the oppressor, and the murderer? " I should prove that the Orangeman was all " this. Do I hate their persons ? No, God for" bid !—but 1 hate their principles. I shall " refer you to a book which we all respect, and 66 in which resentment is not alluded to in the " lady-like terms that mighf be agreeable to the 66 House of Commons. I will read you the lan-66 guage of Poetry. Iu Psa inr 132, v. 21,22, you " will find these words—' Do not I hate them,o " Lord, that hate thee ; and am not grieved with " those that rise up against thee ? Yea, I hate them ".right son. ; even as though they were mine 64 enemies!' "—Nit.. Shiell stated the outlines of a few of the cases of oppression which are of constant occurrence in Ireland, which admirably serve to illustrate time argument of those wlio. contend that the Administration of Justice in Ireland is every thing that it ought to be.  [Bit/TM'