Another letter from O'Connell, addressed to the "Reformers of Ireland,"
has been published in the Dublin Pilot. The object of it is to inculcate the necessity of a union of Liberals of all shades of opinion in support of the present Ministry and in opposition to Toryism. Mr. O'Connell reminds the Irish Whigs, that the Radicals and Repealers have been foremost among the honest supporters of Lord Melbourne; that they have agreed not to press questions which must lead to dis- union ; and endanger the stability of the Government. He calls upon the Whigs to meet them and unite for the purpose of keeping out the Tories. He dwells forcibly upon the danger to public tranquillity in Ireland from the return to power of a Tory Administration ; and thus describes the power and objects of the Orange faction, while the want of organization in the Liberal party to oppose them, is snore apparent than ever- " The Orange faction are incessant in their activity ; they are combined; they are united as one man ; they are ever vigilant ; they are neglecting no ad- vantages; they are stopped by no obstacles ; they are utterly regardless of the means they employ. They cajole, they oppress, they corrupt. They employ bribery and intimidation—force and fraud. They pervert the law. They pro- cure aid from perjury. They render the Bench itself ancillary to their pur- poses . In short, there never was a more wicked or a more active party. They have with them the Magistracy, most of our Sheriffs, and of the list of midi- dates for that office presented by the Judges ! !! They have with them, in feel- ing, perhaps some of the Judges themselves. They have with them the Lodger Assistant Barristers.' The County Officers, Clerks of the Peace and of the Crown, Secretaries of Grand Juries, many Police-officers, and multitudes of privates of the Police, are with them. In short, the Orange conspiracy has its ramifications far and wide, extending everywhere, and powerful exactly in the proportion in which it is yielded to, or not directly resisted. " Still that faction which, whilst yielded to, is powerful and predominant, is weak and insignificant if properly resisted. That this truth is certain, is de- monstrated by the success of the late election. But the Agitators were then abroad—the Agitators in whom the People were accustomed to confide. We were able ag Mist all the force and weight of the Government to beat down our Orange adversaries. The People—the holiest energetic, I would say, heroic People—assisted us; and the result was the overthrow of the late base Admi- nistration
" But we Agitators have withdrawn from active exertions. We have no longer any centre of unity. We have no combination—no association—no machinery whatever to oppose improper claims to register—no arrangements to bring forward the claims of Reformers. In short, we have made way for the Whig Reformers. The ground is unoccupied, and the cause of Reform is abandoned."
Ile refers to the " truculent atrocity of language " used by the Times and Standard, as proof that the'English Tories seek to provoke the Irish to rebellion, and make the " entire nation one blood-red Rath- comae." The Times and Standard are the organs of the Peel- Welling. ton party ; and they are instructed to call the People of Ireland " an idle, parr, untaught, unprincipled, fierce, savage, barbarian RABBLE." But their virulence against the Catholic Clergy of Ireland exceeds all bounds ; and O'Connell, in the following passages, turns it to account, in a manner which the Courier describes as " quite startling."
"Never were the lowest and vilest of mankind so assailed with foul and filthy language, as are the laborious, intelligent, learned, faithful, exemplary, and pious Catholic clergy of Ireland—assailed by the most strenuous supporters of
the Tory opposition. Let me present you with a few specimens of the manner in which the Tories treat the Catholic clergy of Ireland. These are the speci- mens of Tory virulence selected from the pliers I have mentioned, but particu-
larly from the Times. Our clergy are a disgrace to the name of
Christian ministers'—' absolute, selfish, coarse, and hateful tyrants vul- gar-minded, shallow, and unprincipled quachs'—' spiritual tyrants brutal autocrats siaplked ruffians'—' wretched impostors'—' Popish ruffians'
—' pious terrorists '—' atrocious hyprocrites'—' a brutal priesthood.'
" When misery presses hard upon the lush peasant, he has one friend, one only friend—the priest. When distress wrings his soul, he has one comforter, one only comforter—the priest. When crime covers him with disgrace and consigns him to punishment—when his heart sinks within him at the appre- hension of man's vengeance, and with the terror of God's wrath, he has one consoler, one only consoler — the priest. When famine stalks abroad, and his children wail in starvation, there is one incessant in collecting the means of of relief—one, only one incessant collector—the priest. When pestilence in- vades the land, aud brings desertion of friends, aud agony and death, there is still one who does not futsake hint living, nor desert him dying—who stretches upon his straw, impregnated with infection, and pours the last words of Christian comfort upon that dying breath, from which, in return, he inhales disease, and perishes, the martyr of duty, of charity, and of God—the 1•RIEST —T.1 PRIE,Sr.
" Yet it is on that priest, who lives in a constant martyrdom, that the au- thm ized and pampered fiends of the Tory press exhaust all the resources of the nee,t, indignant minds and of the must practised and vulgar scurrility of language.
There is no class of that priesthood too exalted—there is no virtue too dig- nified—their is no piety too sacred to escape this To, y persecution. Behold the ippellations which these Tory minions bestow upon our Archbishops. Dr. 11' Hole, a model of the highest order of classic literature, who dignities his high station by his patriotism, his piety, and his charity, still mote than by his l-arning, is denominated by one of these wietches 'a wolfish fiend!' Dr. hurray, the mildest and meekest of living gentlemen—he who never meddled in politics, but to mitigate asperities and temper our violences, and to point out the mode of merging political Aide in Christian charity—he, even he, is called
_what a disgusting demagogue.' " But are these all idle words? No ! one thousand times no They are the whetting of the knife—the sharpening of the dagger—the cocking of the pistol —the full and fell preparation for slaughter—the readiness fur the burst of )range persecution over universal I, elaud. Let the Tories regain power, and those inrernal passions which at present had vent only in the audacious atrocity of vituperation, will, in the musket or bayonet, the pistol or stiletto, exhibit still more congenial weapons."
The rejection of Dr. Murray by the Royal Dublin Society is de- clared by O'Connell to be an intentional insult to the whole body of Irish Catholics. And the letter concludes with an exhortation to the Protestant nobility and gentry to head the movement, and begin to form, what has hitherto never existed among the Liberals, a Govern- ment party in Ireland.
Previous page
