NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE state of Ireland has not materially altered during the week ; though, if any change is perceptible it is that the danger appears less imminent, while the extent of the disease is more obvious. Mr. O'CONNELL sees fit formally to laugh and jest about the "re- bellion," at the Corn Exchange; in fact, he disclaims the intention of heading a revolt, and puts his disclaimer in the safe, convenient, and more telling form of joke. But he does not abstain from fos- tering the excitement. Like some jovial but discreet confessor, while he practises the arts of seduction he preaches chastity, re- gardless of the temptations other than his own which may beset the excited passions of his victim. Nor are the actual confessors, the priests—eminently the keepers of the people's consciences— inactive spectators, or active only as peacemakers. Dr. MURRAY has repudiated Repeal; many more may abstain from ostensible interference ; but, so far as public avowals go, the Repealers may almost be said to monopolize the Roman Catholic clergy. Not a display of physical force, not a convivial review of more influential adherents to the cause, but many a " reverend " is busily engaged ; while the letters and speeches of conspicuous prelates, in highly- spiced and exciting language, are as much matters of course as the wine-bottles. The Roman Catholic priesthood, by its represen- tatives, helps Mr. O'CONNELL to rouse the passions of the people in these war-dances.
Blood has been shed. One Orange watchman has shot another, taking him for a Repeal trespasser seeking green boughs for one of O'Coaasx.r.'s triumphs. Suppose the murdered man had been a Repealer—who can tell the consequence-8? Since that, a party of Orangemen and Repealers have waged open war : the Orangemen were worsted, and they retaliated by wrecking the Repealers' houses. Some agents caused a party of police to fire on people who obstructed the posting of ejectment-notices, and a man was shot dead. This Lynch law and bloodshed happen while the peo- ple are kept in a state of continual excitement, in a fever of Anti- English hatred, and familiarized with allusions to civil war and foreign invasion. The idea that Mr. O'CONNELL wishes actual re- bellion is absurd ; that it could succeed for its professed objects, equally so ; but no less absurd, that he could prevent disastrous results should a spark fall on the heap of combustibles which he has collected.
The moderate Liberals in Ireland, represented by the Dublin Monitor, seem to have some notion of starting an agitation to ob- tain Local Parliaments for local purposes, as a means of absorbing the Repeal agitation in one of a safer kind. Mr. O'CONNELL has not been caught by the bait : his son JOHN has said, that the Repealers will not reject the proffered alliance, but they will go on with their own projects. The plan suggested by the Monitor is not without the promise of some advantages ; but in no respect is opinion upon it sufficiently ripe to give it a practical character. The Repeal agitation will have expired before that begins. Others echo the cuckoo note of a policy of "conciliation." What does the word mean, except special methods pursued by trading politicians to keep their adherents in good humour? It is the very complaint of the Irish Tories that Ministers already deal in too much "conciliation." In the slang of the Irish poli- tics, " conciliation," as used by one set, means truckling to the Irish "Liberal" party, composed of Whigs, Radicals, and Re- pealers; as used by the Tories, it means not hunting down the antagonists of Orangemen—whether reckless clearers of estates or house-wreckers. If there is a party in Ireland that really desires tranquillity with the least possible delay, its voice is drowned in the storm of contention.
