Dublin accounts of Thursday display Mr. O'Connell still busy about
the Charitable Bequests Act. In the first place, he has published a
legal "opinion," in which he declares that the act places the regular (that is, the monastic) clergy in a worse position than they had under the Emancipation Act. Under that act, a donation to any religious community of men was void in law ; "but a donation for charitable purposes vested in a single regular was, before the statute of the last session, in my opinion, valid." Under the present act, "no single re- gular can take or enjoy any species of property, either in laud, houses, or money, for the support of the order or of any portion of the order." And the act places the Catholic Commissioner of Charitable Bequests in direct antagonism to the regular clergy, because "it makes it the duty of every Catholic Commissioner to sue for the recovery and application to other purposes of all charitable property withheld or misapplied."
The next affair is more amusing. A meeting of the united parish of St. Michael's and Sr. John's was held at the Royal Exchange, to pass resolutions against the act ; which were passed of course. But the hu- mour of the speakers touched upon another matter—divers unknown motives for Mr. O'Connell's imprisonment were disclosed. The learned gentleman himself complained "highly and haughtily, that they had confined him in gaol while they passed the bill" I A Mr. Murphy con- curred, but discovered a yet more distant motive— Two disgraceful occurrences had taken place during Mr. O'Connell's unjust incarceration : one was the visit of the monster Nicholas to England, who, he was persuaded, would never have dared to have degraded her soil had 0' Con- well been free ; another was the passing of that bill, which O'Connell would have died on the floor of the House sooner than have consented to.
So, the Great Bear of the North walks about in dread of O'Con- nell; who ought decidedly to give a counter-growl or two on behalf of the Poles and the Caucasians. And, had O'Connell been free, the de- bate on the bill would have terminated in a broad-sword combat, after the manner of Astley's ! What a coup de thicitre Peel deprived us of!
Previous page
