NEWS OF THE WEEK.
Ms. O'CONNELL has signalized the week by another act of aban- donment. When he came out of gaol, he held up a programme of Ms. O'CONNELL has signalized the week by another act of aban- donment. When he came out of gaol, he held up a programme of
performances,—consideration whether the " monster meetings " .should be continued, the meeting of the Preservative Society of 'three hundred gentlemen with a hundred pounds apiece in their 'pockets, the impeachment of somebody, and a mission to England
to gather support for that impeachment and for Irish measures generally. All those projects have been successively relinquished, as a child who has gathered a posy in the fields grows tired of his handful when the weeds droop, and throws them away one by one. It was soon decided that the monster meetings should not be con-
-. the meetkg of the Preservative Society has been post-
tinny..., . ' ••-•‘, taken the innocent form polled indefinitely; The impeachment....-...._ - - of an inquiry ; and now the mission to England is given up. Dar- O'CoNNELL has discovered that the press raises an " adamantine wall " against the penetration of his arguments to English convic- tion; yet this English press, which prevents opinion in England, he describes as following the predetermined opinion of England. In short, Mr. O'CosiNELL is conscious that he is not so well suited to succeed with the English as with the Irish people : his heart misgives him that he shall encounter that damaging thing failure ; and he throws the odium of his shrinking upon the presumed .repulse by the English. Anything for something to say. But be seems, for the time, to have lost ground in Ireland within the last few months. Occasional sneers, in the thoroughpaced O'Connellite journals, at the Nation and the Young Ireland party, show how much consciousness there is that the Liberator was some- what unpleasantly brought-to in his dallyings with Federalism. The manifest sinking of the Repeal rent, as announced at the Conciliation Hall, speaks less forcibly of declining finances than Mr. O'CONNELL'S new and earnest exhortations to weekly collec- tions, as if aware that there are no more large sums forthcoming to swell the weekly returns announced by the Association. He said at Waterford—" Let there be weekly collections of the Repeal Tent : no man need give more than he can afford—if he cannot afford a halfpenny let him give a farthing" ; and at his bidding the Repeal Association have formally decreed weekly collections. In another matter he has lost ground : in spite of Mr. O'CoN- Tvarm's special agitation against the Charitable Bequests Act aided by Josh of Tuam's fulminations, Archbishop MURRAY has adhered to his intention of accepting a post in the Commission : he, and the Roman Catholic Primate, and a Bishop, were actually gazetted as Commissioners last Tuesday. O'CoNNELL has made a mistake—has .exposed the fact that he is not quite Viceroy over his masters the Bishops ; and he has done so in the ugly effort, not to better, but to frustrate a measure substantially beneficial to his country. His loss of ground is shown in his shifting, random, and hazardous struggles to maintain his position ; and those struggles have been conspicuous ever since he was liberated. The labour of himself and his friends is to force a conviction that they have been "martyrs" ; but, from :their asserting it so loudly and repeatedly, It should seem that they are not quite satisfied with the extent of
• the belief in their martyrdom.
The prospect of some abatement of the Arch-Agitator's influ- ence is not bad for Ireland : it promises less provocation to the perverse passions of party; and those who desire practically to -benefit the country may do so without the irritation or embarrass- ment of seeming to do it on compulsion. It is surely time to do something, not merely commendable in itself " as far as it goes," 'but of a large and holielil kind. There are long-existing evils that attire everybody in the face : -:!nf what use is it," justly asks the Times this week, " still to tnquire • ' : "—reports already super- abound, be abound, and every opportunity should b s -eizeu for action. If Ireland should enjoy a lull in politicalagitation next sessiuu, Sir ,ROBERT PEEL ought to be proportionately busy and resolute in images of real improvement. I
