14 SEPTEMBER 1844, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

O'CoNazu, is at large ; Repeal is up once more. Dublin escorted the Liberator from his prison on Saturday ; on Sunday he was the chief object at a religious ceremony, in which he was held up to the Roman Catholic people of Ireland as manifestly favoured by the Blessed Virgin ; on Monday he was at the Conciliation Hall, recommencing the Repeal agitation. He begins again in charac- teristic style, with unbounded confidence in his own resources, astute caution, imposing plans, and a flood of words, often disfi- gured by the vulgarest traits of his eloquence. He does not scruple to class his deliverance with rain vouchsafed in time of drought at the prayer of " faithful Christians"; and with those sacred, or rather sacrilegious allusions, he mixes coarse attacks on "that in- describable wretch BROUGHAM," that " vinegar-cruet on two legs" Mr. Attorney-General SMITH, Sir ROBERT PEEL "the monster liar in Parliament," and the like. Being an astute person, it is to be supposed that he selects that kind of eloquence which is most suited to the Irish wind: and it appears to be so, not excepting even some educated Irish,—a fact not to be forgotten in considering the influence of his harangues. He assumed as a basis of the revived agitation, that he had beaten • his prosecutors in law ; and he had the hardihood to assert that the final judgment under which he was released was :founded not upon technicalities but upon "the merits" of his ease I The proof which he advanced was, that the two counts, the -sixth and seventh, which charged him with " intimidation " by multitudinous assemblages, were pronounced to be bad. It is bardlY necessary to remind the reader, that those two counts were pronounced to be bad, not in substance, but in structure ; that the same charge of " intimidation " was set forth in a subsequent count, unanimously sustained by the Judges; and that he was re- leased, not because the Judges of appeal thought him absolved from crime, but because they could not tell how much of the punishment was founded upon the faulty counts : so that in truth he was let off upon technicalities. Still, for the time, the very fact of his being at large is a practical triumph ; and his new plans need no apology from one whose will is so far law with the susceptible Irish. The Repeal agitation is continued from the point where it was broken off by the proclamation against the Clontarf meeting and the prosecution ; but with a difference. There is to be a deli- berate consultation as to whether it is necessary still to hold the Clontarf meeting ; Mr. O'CONNELL thinking that it is not neces- sary, as the " principle" has been sufficiently established. What "

principle" is meant, we are not told : the " monster meetings " did not profess to be held in assertion of the right to meet in great numbers, for that was presumed, but for the purpose of "counting 'noses," which is not a principle but an application of arithmetic. How- ever, it is clear that the monster meetings are not to be carried on ;

O'CONNELL has thought better of that : he has triumphed over his _prosecutors, he declares ; but he discreetly lets "I would not" wait upon 'U may,"—implying some inkling of doubt as to the potential

part. Tile next point is the assemblage of three hundred gentlemen as a " Preaervative Society"; but here too with a difference. Whereas

the three hundred were to form a sort of legislature to make laws for voluntary observance by the people, they are now to constitute -a body to negotiate with Government, and a sort of court of review over the Repeal Association—a drag upon it, not an extension of its usurped legislative functions. And even in that modified sense, the project is to be subject to a severe scrutiny, with the opinion of the ablest lawyers taken as to its legality and safety. Lastly, there is to be an impeachment of the Judges by whom Mr. O'CoN- Razz was tried. This is an idle bravado, harmless except in so far as it is a delusion of the Irish people : but it will serve to keep up the show of "important business' transacted by the Repeal As- sociation. An impeachment is a very imposing measure ; and for shilling a year, a penny a month, a farthing a week," every logrotter can have his share in it. Ministers also are to be at- tacked : the Liberator threatens an agitation for support in Eng- land, with a view to drive Sir ROUERT PEEL from office. Every agitator and projector can make sure of some following in England, from a Lord GEORGE GORDON or a WILKES to a Canterbury Taw* or a Captain ATCHERLY ; and Mr. O'CoNaer.r. may perhaps fairly count on a good market for his Irish grievances among the mere

traders in opposition that infest every hustings and election-room.

But, unluckily, he cannot speak in Ireland without being read in England ; and his ambiguities are not relished by the downright English,—which must ever prevent his acquiring any very formidable influence on his own account with the English people. They go to see him, they listen to him; but they bear in mind his equivocations, and his denunciations of "the Saxon,"—who is eminently the ple- beian, as contradistinguished from the aristocratic Norman. But, by an unprecedented display of conciliation, he courts other alli- ances. The Orangemen—no longer so called, but" Anti-Irish "— he invites with affection ; and a decoy Orangeman, newly caught, is paraded as a member of the Association to attract others. The Protestants of Ireland are importunately asked to join in the Repeal struggle ; and one gentleman having betrayed some inclination, is clamorously besought to surrender himself in full. Mr. O'CON- NELL exalts to the highest pinnacle the" rank" of this gentleman, Mr. GREY PORTER; offers to yield to him the leadership of Repeal; and treats the half-convert as if Ireland awaited his acceptance to signify its allegiance with " an obedient start." It must be a temptation to any man thus to have Ireland offered for his rule; and every one asks who is this great person, thus commanding universal allegiance on the mere vouchsafing his presence ? You suppose that you have suffered an unaccount- able lapse of memory, and that some Irish Fox or LAMBTON, some Lord EDWARD FITZGERALD Or some CHARLEMONT at least, has lain perdu unremembered: you feel bound to know who Mr. GREY PORTER is, and look modestly to the Irish papers to instruct your ignorance. It seems, however, that he is not familiarly known even in Ireland; where he has attracted notice by a recent pamphlet in favour of Federalism. A leading Repeal paper tells us that he is High Sheriff of Fermanagh ; adding—" We know nothing person- ally of Mr. Porter. We are told he is a young man—educated, and of much vigour of mind. The latter is manifest from his work ; in which, however, even our glance' has shown us some errors." Such is the recruit, to attract whose person to the Conciliation Hall Mr. O'CONNELL offers to give up the leadership of Repeal. O'CONNELL aims at one still more powerful alliance—that of the " base, brutal, and bloody" Whigs ; whom he now cajoles with grateful flattery for appointing the three Law Lords by whose vote he was let loose. To conciliate these alliances, and especially the last, he declares in favour of a Federal Parliament, as an experi- mental step. He offers a new Lichfield House compact ; and, after Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S overtures, he does not make the offer quite unwooed. In short, the new campaign is to be signalized by a more measured caution, learned from the conviction and sentence, and by a more imposing vastness of resources and pageant measures, conceived in the inspiration of the final triumph. The Agitator starts with victory over Ministers as a lawyer and combatant on the ground of " the constitution"; he vaunts a compact alliance with Heaven ; he is at the receipt of ad- vances from discontented Orangemen, from mild theorists growing familiar to discussions about Repeal, from Whigs tired with exclu- sion from office. He seems ready to postpone the fanatical but neutral doctrine of absolute Repeal, and to aim at coping with the

Government by a revival of Party, which had sunk, in the contests of Whig and Tory about distinctions without a difference, into the

lowest stage of impotence. The Whigs are no lorger disowned; Repeal is no longer a neutral but a party matter: will the Whigs be able to resist the proffer of that aid in their ex- tremity ?

The question is preceded by another, of larger scope. What will be done by the leading English statesmen, of whatsoever party, and especially by the Liberal leaders ? Will they consent to any equivocal encouragement of a project to repeal the Union ? To an unequivocal encouragement, of course, they never would assent ; because, as the English people would never submit to the seve- rance of the British Isles, no English statesmen would venture to be instrumental in such dismemberment. As to an equivocal dal- liance, if their own conscience permitted it, will political opponents permit it ; or will not an explicit declaration be extorted from the Whigs, whether they really consent to Repeal or not ? Would Lord Jona Russara, avow such consent ? Would any mere party

combination of Liberals be possible just now without Lord JOHN? So far as the Whigs are concerned, these questions seem

to answer themselves. But it is to be doubted whether in his new

blandishments O'CONNELL will be easily repelled. He says not. Even should the Whigs ease their consciences by disavowing Re- peal in every modification, he will probably support them in their projects ; confident that if they do not in return give him direct support, they will again help him to frustrate the measures that may be taken to control him and bring him to account, as he now thanks them for having done. The prospect for Ministers is a troubled one at the best. It does not suffice to criticize O'Coranaves speeches and find them trashy—his measures and find them foolish; for idle as may be the adventurer's projects, shifty as his allies the Whigs may be, the Premier can boast of no very felicitous combination of forces to oppose to them. There is a bad cohesion in his own party ; por- tions of it bang loose ; and none of it is so well under command but that any accident to the leader might subject him to the fate of the wounded hywna, to be finished by his fellows. He may calculate on his party-majority : but Parliament will be in its fourth session— two more years will bring it to an end, even should it attain the patriarchal ante-Reform-Bill age; and although a general election might not at once convert the majority into a minority, it might so seriously diminish his strength as to reduce him to the ridiculous level of the Whig Cabinet that he turned out. He has already sustained a session of mortifications—of measures defeated or crippled ; and especially in regard to Ireland, he has suffered an- other year to go by without doing anything. The old reproach against the Whigs—promise mocked in shortcoming performance— grows upon him. He foregoes the only means of disarming the Repeal or any other agitation—measures sincerely devised and vigorously urged to begin and carry forward extensive improvements in the condition of the Irish people. England will never enjoy a peaceful neighbourhood, English Ministers never have ease, except while Ireland is steadily advancing to a state of comfort.