THE CLARE ELECTION.
THE PRESS.
STANDARD-It is not surprising that such an exhibition as we have witnessed should set all men to look for a remedy ; but we think that the very agitation which inspires this universal pursuit of the cure is, if not controlled, likely to lead us astray rather to the object of our solicitude. Law,' says a great authority, 'ought to be a mind without passion :' from which it would follow, that a season of excitement is not the proper time for considering and consummating measures of great and permanent operation. Disfranchise the forty-shilling freeholders, by raising the qualification to ten or twenty pounds, says our respectable contemporary the Morning Post. But would this, we ask, be either just or politic ? it is not qua poor or, if our contemporary pleases, quit fictitious freeholders, the Clare electors Lave transgressed :-of pecuniary, considerations the wretched creatures have proved themselves madly independent ; it is as abject slaves of the popish priesthood, that they have shown themselves unworthy to exercise the privi- leges of freemen ; and the Roman Catholic freeholder of 10/. or 201. would not be one iota morn independent of the priest than the barefooted creature who falsely swears his holding to be worth forty shillings. And we ask again would this be lair to the poor Protestant freeholder ? Would it be wise to erect in Ireland, the poorer country, a higher standard of quali- fication than that adopted in this kingdom ? Disfranchise, if it be necessary. the Roman Catholics as Rmnan Catholics, for that which as Roman Catholics they have • done ; but do not do that indirectly and unjustly, which it is in your power to do do directly and without injustice. We do not think, however, that such a measure is necessary- and unnecessary legislation is ale ays mischievous. If we are not mistaken, the Roman Catholic f. rty•shilling freeholders have fully secured their own disfranchisement by means perfectly uninvidious, gradual, and working sine strepiltt. The Protestants are the proprietors of the soil. They have been satisfactorily assured by the priests, however, that they are not to expect the support of its tenants ; the leases enjoyed by the freeholders, as the potatoe. eaters are called, are short-they must soon expire ; at all events the registries, which are of but six years' duration, and are always made at the expense of the landlords, must soon expire ; and it is impossible to doubt, that either the landlords will give DO new freehold leases, or that they will give them to Protestants alone.
TIMES-Let it be observed, that the power which we now cry out against, exceeds that enjoyed by any other hierarchy on earth,--far exceeds that of the Popish Church under any Popish monarchy in Europe, or out of it. Nowhere can the Popish clergy direct by a nod,-no not in Spain or Portugal, much as we despise them,-the whole labouring population of the soil to any given end, in the presence of, and in defiance of, the whole property, rank, and education of the community. Nowhere can 30,000 men be drilled, not merely into such political order as to act against all their ancient habits, as if but one soul inspired them, but into such perfect moral discipline as to forego, with the firmness of anchorites, their most cherished indulgencies, and to restrain their most rooted propensities to excess. Mr. Shiel terms this organization frightful.' We so distinguished it many days ago. And under what system has this dreadful edifice been reared, of boundless influence, and eager prostration ? Why, under the penal laws-under the much-praised and much-loved system of SECURITIES to our Protestant Church and State ! This is the effect of our incomparable guarantees to Protestant ascendancy, -the birth and growth of a despotism over the souls of our fellow-subjects, which we declare, without circumlocution, is of force to sweep away, in a single moment, the strongest temporal government that was ever seen on earth. We add further, that the tyranny now with so much truth complained of, has not grown up in the neighbourhood of our Protestant securities only, and in spite of them. It has been born of them,-the young tiger has been suckled by them,-they have trained, encouraged,-they have then provoked, and sunk under its fury. For the hundredth time, it must be asked of the King's Ministers-Will you let this evil go on
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