IRELAND.
The following passage from the speech of Mr. Villiers Stuart, at the Waterford county meeting, is worthy of attention, as coming from the representative of one of the oldest and wealthiest Protestant fami- lies in Ireland. Speaking of tithes, Mr. Stuart said-
" Place upon us Protestants the sole and exclusive burden, or rather he should say, duty, of maintaining our own ecclesiastical establishment ; and absolve Roman Catholics, once and for ever, directly and indirectly, from main- taining any other church but their own. He was ready to make every allow- ance for difficulties with which the Government and the House of Commons were beset on this question. If any member of either House of Legislature brought forward a measure to effect this desirable object, it should have his most strenuous support. ' To this complexion must we come at last ;' and till we do, Ireland will never enjoy any degree of tranquillity ; nor will she be able to develop her resources and consolidate her property."
He adverted to the "collision "—
" If justice was only to be done to Ireland by a collision between the two branches of the Legislature, every man must make his election whether he will stand by the House that refuses or the House that concedes equal justice with Great Britain. He, for one, should stand by that House which would consoli- date their interests and protect their rights. He felt as every Irishman must feel, that he was not only nationally, but individually degraded by the recent conduct of their herdeitary legislators, in marking out this country with con- tumely, as undeserving of equal justice with England. Would he have it then supposed that he was anxious for a collision—for that organic change that must ensue in the primary elements of the constitution, by a perseverance on the part cf those hereditary legislators in denying justice to Ireland ? On the contrary, he deprecated and deplored such a result ; but he felt it his especial duty to de- clare, that if the Peers should persevere, and allow of no alternative, then he for one would prefer destruction to dishonour. The Peers have determined, in their wisdom, that became the majority of us are Roman Catholics, we are not 'vigilant enough to watch over our town affairs, nor illuminated sufficiently to look to the lighting of them, nor honest enough to do justice between man and man. If so, the Lords have not gone far enough ; if so, they should repeal those sets which enab!e Roman Catholics to sit on the same bench with themselves."
Meetings to petition against the Lyndhurst Bill have been held in Mayo, Kildare, Wexford, Queen's County, and numberless towns and districts throughout the country.
Mr. O'Connell has been summoned to appear before the Barons of the Exchequer Court in Dublin as a tithe defaulter.
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