21 FEBRUARY 1874, Page 2

As we apprehended, Mr. Fortescue was defeated in Louth, and

Ireland, like Prince Schwartzenberg, may boast that it has astonished Europe by its ingratitude. That the same county which in election after election enthusiastically returned Mr. Fortescue at the head of the poll, confiding in his advocacy of religions equality, and tenant-right, should reject him when he presents himself as the Minister during whose Irish adminis- tration the Church and Land Acts were carried,—this shocks all sense of political decency. His faithful service for so many years, the great measures that will for ever be associated with his name, his high and accomplished capacity, the dignity of his personal character, are all, without notice, rudely ostracised. For what ? The brace of Arcadians who now represent Louth will be one of the least attractive studies of the coming Parliament. Mr. Callan is already known at Westminster. The decadence of Irish political life is, perhaps, most completely suggested by the fact that he and Mr. O'Connell -are the only Irish Catholics who ever were elected by two constituencies at the same time. From Mr.O'Connell to Mr. Callan is such a fall as from Demosthenes to Cleon. Mr. Sullivan may be judged by the following pas- sages from his great speech at Dundalk :—" I tell Mr. Fortescue that though the people respect him fully on account of his family,

they will hunt him from the county Louth If there is a man in Louth who believes he ought to wear chains on his hands and rings in his ears, let him go over to Fortescue." Mr. Sullivan is regarded as one of the most accomplished Irish orators of the day.