IRELAND.
At the meeting of the Repeal Association, on Monday, Mr. Smith O'Brien made his first appearance after a long absence; and his may be accounted the principal speech of the day. Great part of it was devoted to the subject of the potato crop; about which he spoke in terms of much despondency. He congratulated the meeting on the spirit already evinced throughout the country to refuse " charity" from England; called upon them, as they valued their national character, to meet the present crisis with energy and resolution; recommended the manufacture of potato
" farina"; severely criticized the demeanour of the Lord-Lieutenant in receiving the Dublin deputation; and denounced Government for not having the decency to call Parliament together, throw open the ports, and employ the people on railways— He told them that they committed a sin against God and a crime against man if they did not convene Parliament before Christmas to consider the state of the country. An Irish Parliament would apply the revenues of Ireland to the relief of the Irish people, and would rather tax the property of Ireland than reduce them to accept eleemosynary aid from England. Let Government commence by taxing the absentees, whom it was the duty of the State to make contribute to the support of their countrymen. (Cheers, of course.) He assailed the Colleges Bill; complaining of Government for withhold- ing the selection of Galway, Cork, and Belfast, as the sites of the proposed Colleges; which he attributed to their desire, by opening an apparent com- petition between various localities, to pledge as many persons as possible to their scheme. Here Mr. O'Brien, in spite of the adverse sentiments of Mr. John O'Connell, expressed an opinion in favour of mixed education. [This occasioned a reproachful " Hear, hear! " from Mr. O'Connell senior, for raising the question.] Adverting to the general subject, Mr. O'Brien ap- pealed to the monster-meetings as proving that the people of Ireland would never abandon Repeal, although the people of England said that it must be suppressed— There were two ways of doing so: one by obviating the evils of the Union, which he invited the English Parliament to attempt; the other, a step for which he and they were prepared—coercion. Already had the bloodhounds of the Eng- lish press been hallooed on against the people of Ireland. As to that step, " I tell them," said Mr. O'Brien, " that I defy them." [Immense applause, in the midst of which a loud voice cried—" France and America.") Mr. O'Connell—" What was that? What were those words ? (Energetically) I desire that that man may be put out." [Cries of "Tarn him out!" during which the man was turned out.] Mr. O'Connell explained, that he had inter- rupted his friend, because he knew there were spies abroad. There had been people distributing handbills in the North part of Dublin inciting the people to assassinate their landlords, which had been forwarded to the Castle by Mr. Atkins; but no attempt had yet been made by the Magistracy or Constabulary to arrest the persons who had been circulating them. Mr. O'Brien proceeded. He warned England not to attempt to coerce the Irish people. Although England seemed prosperous, he believed appearances were de- lusive. There never was, he believed, a time in which England was in greater danger, not so much from internal decay as from her political position. At that moment she had not one friend among the nations of the earth. (" Hurrah!" " Bravo, bravo!" and other congratulatory exclamations.) Opposite her shores was her ancient rival, whose joy it would be to encounter her in arms. (Loud cheers.) That rival possessed a magnificent military establishment, 400,000 MU backed by the 1,000,000 bayonets of her national militia. Were Louis Philippe to die tomorrow, an aspiring prince could not better establish himself than by going to war with England. The maritime supremacy of England was gone. That fact he had witnessed at the sailing of the experimental squadron. The Queen of England was there—where a Queen of England ought to be—leading her fleet to sea. There was no wind, and for a time those enormous batteries did not move; whilst round and among them were flying steamers, large and small. France was not far inferior in steam power to England; and in event of war what was to prevent their having every town on the English coast? In such a time, what had England to fall back upon? He told her, the Irish people—those who had saved her before. Tell him not, then, of coercion: Ireland, he said, controlled the destinies of the British empire. Mr. John O'Connell made a controversial speech, combating Mr. O'Brien's approval of mixed education. He regretted the recent adhesion of Dr. Kir- wan to the new Colleges; admitting the piety, eloquence, and learning of that divine; and he expressed strong disgust at the conduct of the Gal Vindicator, [the Repeal paper from which we quoted in our last Postscript,] which shouted and hallooed over a paltry grant of money to be spent in the erection of a moral bagnio. He could not trust himself to speak on that subject. He regretted that his conduct had exposed him to censure; but he did not, could not, would not repent the act; and to the last moment of his life he would oppose the Infidel Colleges Bill.
Mr. O'Brien explained, that he rather deprecated Mr. O'Connell's censure than bestowed his own, and regretted that he had been misunderstood.
Mr. John O'Connell was about to reply; but Mr. O'Connell senior inter- posed, saying that Mr. John seemed to have put a needless construction on the other's remarks. At the same time, he declared that Mr. O'Brien's speech would render him more popular than ever. Mr. O'Connell went on to discuss a variety of the standing topics; and then came round to the Colleges Bill and "the fall " of Dr. Kirwan—
He could not trust himself on the subject of the Galway College. It was im- possible to say one word derogatory to Dr. Kirwan. He was his bosom-friend. He could not have believed—and his heart was wrung with a bitter pang when he heard it—that Dr. Kirwan would have countenanced a scheme which had been unanimously condemned by the hierarchy. " God help the people of Ireland, but I trust the thought will not cross their minds that their clergy would be accessi- ble to bribery. Had any man told me that Dr. Kirwan would have taken a situa- tion under the Colleges Act, I would have said I would as soon believe that a stream could return to its source."
The rent for the week was 3011.
A correspondent of the Dublin Evening Mail makes this statement, pre- faced by the editor with some indignant sneers at the " national" establish- ment in question— "God (they say) helps those who help themselves, and we are all in the habit of finding fault with the English for distrusting us Irish. It is very natural that they should distrust us, when we proclaim to the world that we distrust each other. Now, there cannot be a stronger proof of distrust in the Irish, by the Irish, than that exhibited by a late notice from the Bank of Ireland, that they will discount English bills at four per cent and Irish ones at five. This is the corporation which was chartered to tester and protect Irish trade; and from the foundation of the Bank to this hour it has been a nightmare upon its trade. They never did a useful thing for Irish interests that they were not compelled to do by competition; and it is really too bad that they should still, while enjoying the be- nefits of their charter, cripple our trade by making a difference of one per cent in favour of the Saxon; and that too at a time when they are about to charge five per cent for ninety-four-day bills to the Irish trader, which the Bank of England will cash for an English trader at three and a huff."
[A bill is a promise: it seems that the Irish estimate an Irish promise at 25 per cent less than an English promise. What, by the by, would be the discount charged on Mr. O'Connell's six-months promissory note for Repeal?]
The Ballyshannon Herald says that a disease has made its appearance among the cattle in that part of the country, of which several have already died.
Mallow has been visited by two floods; one from the Glen Stream's having overflowed its banks, and the second and more disastrous from the swollen state of the Blackwater. Mach property was washed away. Mr. Barton of Clonelly, who was wounded in the side by an aqqassin, is still in a my dangerous state.
The steward of Mr. Costello, of Lanesboronght in Longford, has been fired at by two ruffians: fortunately, they missed their aim.
Colour-Sergeant Caldwell, of the Sixty-fourth Regiment, has been wounded by Hilditch, a soldier of the same regiment, at Dublin. For the purpose of calling the roll, the Sergeant went to a room where Hilditch was lying on a bed; when the latter raised a gun which he had concealed under the counterpane, and shot Caldwell through the hips. The wounded man is going on favourably. It is supposed that the assassin had a pique against the Sergeant, suspecting that he bad been punished by his means.
Previous page
