WHAT IS REBELLION?
TOPICS OF' THE DAY.
IT was never doubted that the Irish Catholics would return Catholic Members to Parliament : they now fancy that they can, and that the members they send will be able to sit. Accordingly they have elected Mr. O'Connell, and they have clone it in triumph. But this is neither insurrection nor rebellion. It is no more than would be done in Yorkshire, or elsewhere, on any party question. It is true, the Irishman expresses his emotions with more uproar than a Yorkshireman ; but he is not the more rebellious, because he is the more boisterous. It is said in the Standard, that the " whole strength of the law is to be put in action to put down the lay and ecclesiastical incendiaries who are now goading the miserable pea- santry of Ireland to rebellion ;" and that, " if the present laws shall not be found strong enough, new laws will be demanded." Measures of violence, such as are here contemplated; are only likely to divert the people from an enthusiastic trial of what are their consti- tutional privileges, into an anti-constitutional state of irritation. What do the transactions amount to, which have been pompously clubbed together under the name of Irish Rebellion ? At Ballina- more, a party of about five hundred men assembled, with such rude weapons as a population can always command, in order to oppose an Orange triumph which never took place : at the first sight of the military and police, they all ran away : the magistrates, however, thought it advisable to have a flying shot, and ordered some of the police or soldiery to fire, and they fired : three shots are supposed to have taken effect, and the party moreover took fifteen prisoners. Does this " smack of civil war ?"—and "yet," as the Times says, " horse and foot were called out to suppress it." At Fermoy, one of the most peaceable places in all Ireland, a procession of children took place in honour of Mr. O'Connell's election : the police in- terfered, and a riot ensued ; the riot-act was not read, but the military fired, and the mob dispersed ; several individuals were wounded. Does " this smack of civil war ?" If this be a rebellion, it has none of the usual marks : we have seen such rebellions in towns in England, which have scarcely been thought worthy of a paragraph in a provincial newspaper.
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