TOPICS OF THE DAY.
O'CONNELL'S MISTAKE.
Mn. O'Connell:8 view of English hostility to Ireland has been sufficiently controverted by three different parties,—by the Liberal press, which, on behalf of the Reformers of England, earnestly denies the charge; by the Tory journals, whose warm approval of Mr. O'CONNELL'S statement goes to put him in the wrong; and lastly, by Mr. O'CONNELL himself, who, in the latter part of his letter to us, fully accounts for that election at Newcastle, which he had before attributed to English hostility towards Ire- land. But there is one assertion in his letter, which has been overlooked by our contemporaries, and therefore still requires contradiction. He says- " Patience, my good Sir, patience—you go too far. Recollect that Newcastle did not merely and singly reject BLA CK ET for riot being Reformer enough, but elected HODGSON, who is no Reformer at all. If the Newcastle men acted on your principles, and rejected a were Whig, why, what confounded blockheads must they be, to elect an unequivocal Tory !"
The Reformers of Newcastle did "reject" BLACKET the mere Whig; but they did not "elect" Il000son the unequivocal Tory. They were careless about the election. The only candidate for whom they could possibly vote, was not Reformer enough, either for Ireland or England, to please them. The unequivocal Tory had the strenuous support of his party : a mere Whig has no party anywhere, except in such rotten places as Caine. The Re- formers of Newcastle rejected BencEsr because he is almost a Tory : that is, says Mr. O'CONNELL, they "elected Honoson because he is quite a Tory." The fallacy is transparent. Even its author must see the truth through it—the plain truth ; which is, that " disaffection to the Whigs is not hostility to Ireland," and that "the Irish question" was not tried at Newcastle. The question of Reform for both Ireland and England has been tried in East Cumberland, where an " unequivocal "Reformer walks over the course. Oh, that Lord MELBOURNE had a Cabinet of unequivocal Reformers !
Previous page
