POLITICAL MON EME N 'rs IN IRELAND.
OF 011r Irish brethren we may say, with Puff in the CM/a, give them a good thing, tiny never know when they have enough of it. We noticed sonic time ago the institution, or attempted institution, of a National Union by O'Connell. Were it possible to .imagiee that any histitution in Ireland. /amid be limited to its ostensible object, the National Union contained nothing that we were not prepared to praise. It was but another lever by which the People were to assist the Ministers in heav- ing off the great load of corruption. We cannot say it has been limited to the purposes of Parliamentary Reform merely ; but there is one thing very obvious in it—whatever may 1w the creed of its supporters, the society itself has nothing to do with religion. The modification of tithes is cue of its objects ; but thi< is a Subject in which the Pro- testant part of Ireland, and most assuredly the Protestant Dissenters, are quite as deeply interested as the Catholics. Whatever political opposition might be manifested towards the Reforming Union, there- fore, we cannot believe that a religious opposition to it is in any respect called for. However, our neighbours think otherwise; and we have now the spectacle in Ireland of a National or a Catholic Union, for the purpose of furthering Reform, and an exclusively Protestant meet- ing formed for the express purpose of opposing all Reform. The Protestant Anti-Reform Association—which is no other than a resurrection of the Orange Grand Lodge of old, the last form of the spirit of persecution being the Brunswick Club, which the Earl of lirinchilsea and others were so anxious three years ago to transplant to the dryer clime of England—claims for its authors, Lords Roden, Longford, and Lorton, the late Attorney-General Saurin, and Mr. Sergeant Lefroy. The meeting at which the Association was formed was summoned by a private and confidential circular, signed by these Lye individuals. It took place on the 7th, at Morrison's Inn, and was continued by adjournment on the 8th and 9th. Lord Roden was the chairman ; and the following noblemen and gentlemen are named as his supporters— Lords Longford, Rathdowne, Mandeville, Farnham, Castlemaine, Duni% the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Right Honourable William Sault], Honourables Colonel Wingfield and Captain Trench, Colonel Pereeval, M.P., E. J. Cooper, M.1'., Sir Robert Bateson, MP., Henry Maxwell, M.P., Sir II. Brooke, Bart., Sir Richard St. George, Bart., John 'Young. Colonel Irwin,', Reverend Charles Boston, Colonel Blacker, Revere ad John C. Martin, George Alexander Hamilton (Hampton). Admiral Oliver, Mathew Tortescue. Sir Armor:ad Dancer, Bart., Andrew Crawford, Daniel Todd, Denis Kelly, lIugh Eccles, It evtrrend Holt Waring, N. D. Crommelin, William Filgate. Major Alex- ander, Jaw, IlamiItou (Sheep hill), Ilartstonge Robinson, Reverend Marcos Beres- Ibrd, Robert Smith, George Moore, Robert Jones (Fortland ), — Smythe (Barliavilla), henry Hamilton (Ballinagard ), Colonel Vesey, Sir Richard Levinge, Bart., John Illayne, George Woods. Sir Augustine Fitzgerald, Bart., John Armstrong, John Clan- anus Berestimi, Captain Cottingham, Robert Blakeny, Colonel Palliser, Peter F. Ilenchy, Colonel Pratt, Isaac D'Olier, R. T. Orpen, Captain Graham, Major Jackson,
Smyth.
The Dublin Evening Mail adds " &c. &c. &c." to this enumera- tion' but as the meeting consisted altogether of but seventy persons, such an expression for the unenumerated ten seems hardly legitimate. 'The first day was spent in reading the excuses which bad been trans- mitted to the meeting for non-attendance. Of the excuses, the Mail giws the following formidable list— The Marquises of Ely and Westmeath, Lord Aldborough, Earl of Carrick, Earl Nor- lanes, /Immoral de A. Stewart, Honourable General Taylor, Honourable A. Cole, M.P., General Arehdall, M.P., Earl of nandea, sir Hugh Stewart, M.P., Colonel Cottony, 3ll.1'., Lord Itlaynev, Earl of Molnar:1,11,k Earl of Em:A:Mon. Sir Robert Gore Booth, Mart., Theophilus Jones, M.P., John Fti'lliot, Alxd Ram. William Ormsby Gore, Robert hedges Eyre. A. N. Montgomery, C■d,mel Sankey, Roger Hall, Sir John Ribton, Bart., 3 ail Clani-artv, Richard Ilinelciwk, sir Edmond. II roves, M.P., George Mavartney, ZCilliam Westin', Sir James St 'mart, Bart., Earl a Wicklow, Lord Frani:Lie, John 'Wynne, M.P., Lieutenant-Colonel Lloyd, Colonel Jackson, Anthony Lefroy, M.P., and Sir G. G. Aylmer, Bart.
The excuses, it will be seen, make up more than half the persons Invited. The second day was occupied in discussions respecting the formation of the association. On these two days, we suspect, the gen- tlemen of the press were excluded; for we are not furnished with any of the eloquence of either. On the 9th, the love of fame, the universal passion, broke down the barriers that modesty had imposed, and the reporters were let in and the speeches let out. We cannot, of course, .Jet them out in the Spectator, for that would compel us to put away Snore attractive matter than even the argument of Lord Roden. The avirit of the meeting does not require much eloquence to exhibit it. 7he cause, in the opinion of Lord Roden, is the cause of the King- offreedona–of truth—of God ! Old Fra Paolo remarks on the addi-
tion by the Catholic clergy of the works of the Saints to the works of the Saviour, thatthe infimte part might have done all that was required. If Lord Roden can prove the cause of Anti-Reform to be the cause of God, he may dispense both with William the Third and William the
Fourth. The Reverend Holt Waring, an old man and a clergyman, but who retains all that pleasant recklessness in words by which V men and lairs, especially in Ireland, are so often distinguished, spoke of the Protestants as possessing nineteen out of twenty parts of the in- telligence, wealth, and respectability of the country :—a poor account of the Catholics ! He described the Ministers as servile trucklers to Jul.. O'Connell, and as filling up their appointments at his sole dicta- tion. He insinuated that Lord Cloncurry ought to have been hanged, instead of being made a Lieutenant of a county. He described the processions which formerly took place in respect of the decorating of the Statue, " which were the delight of his youth and were not for- gotten in his old age." Finally, he commented on the atrocity of Go- vernment in depriving a respectable Distributor of Stamps of ?OZ. a year for wearing an Orange ribbon on the 12th July last. Lord Valentia particularly blamed Ministers for their persecution of the Magistrates and Yeomanry of Newtownbairy ; and charged them with a settled design, by every process of injury and insult, to exterminate the Pm- testant religion altogether. His Lordship is decidedly of opinion, that if the Irish Reform Bill pass, the Union will be dissolved, and the Protestant Aristocracy will perish. Lord Mandeville dwelt chiefly on the statistics of Protestant Ireland. According to his Lordship, the Protestants amount to two millions and a half, the Catholics to six millions and a quarter :—the odds are fearfully against time association, even on this assumption. The meeting was dismissed by Lord Roden, in it speech in which he appropriately declared his strong abhorrence of all party feuds. The resolutions of the meeting were numerous, but there is one only which requires special notice.
When we ask what is the nature of that crisis that has put the Pro- testant magnates in such a pucker, we are told, by the Reverend Hall Waring, that it is occasioned by the tolerance granted by Ministers to Political Unions—the making of appointments at time dictation of their leaders—the dismissal of Yeomen for celebrating the 12th July—the denial of protection to the Protestant Clergy (in levying their tithes, we suppose), and the pardon of the two persons implicated in resist- ing the payment of tithes — the grant to Illaynooth ! What great events from little causes spring ! We confess we cannot help looking on this association as but another trick of that small but vivacious party which it is the object of time Reform Bill-to crush to pieces. They blustered in England until bluster there was no longer possible ; they next tried it in Edinburgh ; they are now invoking the echoes of Dublin to listen to their story. It won't do. Lord Roden may pre- pare for the dirge of his borough, as Lord Farnham has already for his pension ; for, as sure as the one has gone, the other will follow.
The Liberal Irish papers are most unnecessarily angry with this new association—it has nothing formidable in it. The Anti-Reform pa- pers are as unnecessarily lifted up. The Standard views it as another great movement. It was the Country party before, now it is the Irish party. The one will go with the other. We have beaten the English Tory faction, and we will not stoop to be dictated by that which is its inferior in all things, the Irish Tory faction. Some timorous people look with alarm on the array of Protestant Associations and National Unions. We have no fears on the subject. Irish speeches are not to be taken literally : our neighbours talk big, but their acts are no bigger than our own.
On Saturday, the day after the last of the Protestant Club meeting, the National Union held one. The only noticeable point of the latter meeting was a proposal of Mr. Staunton, of the Morning Register- " 1st. In order to remedy the evils of foreign proprietorship, to impose an absentee tax of 25 per cent., with facilities for the transference of absentee property, and a loan fund of adequate magnitude to assist resident purchasers. 2nd. To remedy the evils of resident proprietors, by the enactment of suitable poor-laws. 3rd. To repeal four mil- lions and a half of taxes, being the portion of relief Ireland is entitled to under the Act of Union, and less than the amount of new taxes imposed between the years 1504 and 1815."
Mr. O'Connell seconded these resolutions. The Globe drily remarks, that it will not be easy to repeal four millions and a half of taxes, in a country- where the taxes amount to only four millions. With English- men, we confess, such a repeal would not be easy; but all things are easy with an Irishman, when he sets himself about them. O'Connell praised the new Club !—is there any thing beyond this ?
" It was deliberately proposed," says the Dublin 77112CS, " and seri- ously entertained, at the Protestant meeting, to seek the cooperation of Mr. O'Connell to pull down Lord Grey's Government ; but, after a long debate, the thought was abandoned, upon the ground that Mr. O'Connell could not be trusted by any party." Daniel is certainly a bad party man. A. Protestant clergyman, near Carlow, is reduced with his family to such distress, from the impossibility of collecting tithes, . that a public subscription has been set on foot for their relief.—Cork Reporter.
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