23 OCTOBER 1841, Page 4

IRELAND.

The Lord-Lieutenant and the Countess de Grey, with the Viceregal suite, arrived at Dublin from Holyhead on Saturday evening, and im- mediately proceeded to Pharnix Park. They had had a very rough passage over the Channel.

It is rumoured in well-informed circles, that the Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench (Bushe) has tendered his resignation ; and that his office will be offered to Mr. Pennefather, the Solicitor-General, who is abroad. In the event of his acceptance, Sergeant Jackson is likely to succeed to the office of Solicitor-General ; and either Mr. Litton or Mr. West to the Sergeantcy. It is generally believed that Mr. Black- burne will remain stationary.—Dubien Evening Packet.

By the death of the Right Honourable George de la Poer Beresford, Bishop of Kilmore, who died on Saturday, the Bishopric become ex- tinct as a separate see : it is merged, as the see of Ardagh was before, in the Bishopric of Elphin. Seven of the ten Bishoprics to be extinguished have now come under the operation of Lord Stanley's bill : those which remain are Dromore, Clogher, and Kildare. It is said that Bishop Beresford died immensely rich, after forty years' enjoyment of his episcopal revenues.

Mr. Sharman Crawford has issued a long letter of " Observations addressed to the Repealers of Ireland," in which he declares the reasons why he cannot join their cause ; which he condemns as mischievous, delusive, and nugatory. He does so in reply to a challenge from Mr. O'Connell, who called upon the opponents of Repeal to avow their reasons. He agrees with Mr. O'Connell that the time for neutrality is past-- " To keep such a question as the Repeal of the Union in suspense,-is para- lyzing every effort to advance the real interests of the country. It is a ques- tion which, if useful and practicable, should be urged on with prompt and de- cisive action ; but if, on the other hand, the nature of the proposition renders it either objectionable or unattainable, it is not right that the energies of a country should be wasted on a phantom, and that contributions should con- tinue to be levied from an impoverished population for unprofitable specula- Cons. It is time that the friends of Ireland should endeavour to bring to a close that futile system of varied agitation which has been carried on for the last ten years without any consistent principle of action and without any use- ful result, but with the greatest damage to the cause of Ireland, and to the cause of public liberty, as well as to the character of every public man who has been directly or indirectly connected with it ; and has thereby been the chief means of elevating to place and power that party whose system of government has been hitherto so justly offensive to the Irish people and hostile to the general extension of popular rights."

The Repeaters are losing the substance in reaching after the shadow-

" I oppose the present repeal agitation ; because I consider it a mere delusion- in every sense of the word. Under the specious pretext of raising Ireland to the dignity of a nation and the powers of independent legislation, it is swamp- ing her practical weight in the Imperial Parliament, and preventing the pros- pect of its increase; it is following a shadow and losing the substance; it pro- vokes the hostility of England and prompts a resistance to the just demands of Ireland; it is an attempt to bully without the power, which is the sure way to render either an individual or country contemptible; and, in my judgment, can have no other effect than that of weakening her moral force as a nation, and thus increasing her legislative dependence upon her irritated superior, and in this way creating a greater degree of provincial degradation."

Mr. Crawford shows that Ireland could not have a legislative consti- ttnion independent of the Imperial Legislature-

" Whilst I am ready to admit the value of that which I have before con- tended for, namely, a system of local legislation by a local legislative body, in conjunction with an imperial representation for imperial purposes, I am of opi- nion that the project of restoring to Ireland the Parliament of the constitution of 1783 is equally objectionable and impracticable. I deny that it is possible for Ireland to possess an independent Parliament in connexion with the British Crown. The Parliament of the greater country must control the Crown, and the Parliament of the lesser country must submit, or separate. * • • if the Irish Representatives had been sitting in a separate Parliament, the vote which has placed a Tory Ministry in power would have been rejected in that Parliament, whilst it would have passed in the British Parliament by an over- whelming majority,:rendered greater by the absence of the Irish Representatives. I ask, then, could the Queen have retained her late Ministers, in accordance with the vote of an Irish Parliament, in opposition to that of the Representa- tives of England, assembled in a separate Parliament ? The most ardent Re- pealer must answer in the negative. Then how would your Irish independent Parliament have secured you from Tory misrule ? 1 shall be answered, the Irish Parliament would exercise the right which her constitution would confer— she would stop the supplies. But would this stop the machine of Government, and compel the Crown to submission P—No such thing. The Crown would have supplies from another quarter. How impotent would be the puny wrath of an Irish Parliament stopping the supplies—not more than one-tenth of the revenue—when the British Parliament would vote the other nine-tenths I The British Parliament would vote the supplies. What then ? Behold the ex- ample of Canada! The British Minister would put his hand into your Irish treasury ; he would pay the state charges without the vote of your Parlispent. Then, if you were still disobedient, the English Parliament would treat yau as they did Canada, and were about to treat Jamaica when her Parliammit was refractory. The British Parliament would extinguish the mockery of your in- dependent constitution. Then you would have the alternative of submission, or fighting for separation, (and recollect, the British Sovereign, by the terms of your constitution, would have the command ofyour enemies); and if you failed in the contest, what would be the result ?—You would be the unrepresented slaves of British domination."

Separation, to be attained at all, must be complete ; but could com- plete independence of England be beneficial to Ireland?—

" I would call upon every Repealer deliberately to consider that question

which the Repeal of the Union virtually raises, namely, whether Ireland can exist as an independent state? whether she can prosper as such? It is plain that she cannot exist by her own individual .power against a hostile neighbour so very close to her and so powerful as Britain. She must enter into alliance with some foreign state; this state will be at enmity with Britain ; Ireland will be the field on which the attack and defence of the British territory will be contested ; the powers of Europe will join in this warfare. These are certain consequences. Let Repealers consider them, and inquire how the prosperity of their country is to spring out of such a chaos of evil." Mr. Crawford would contend for objects of less doubtful advantage- " I confess I am not prepared to join in the struggle of blood on this doubt- ful prospect of advantage, and I will not be a party to a delusive agitation. I think there are other remedies for the evils of Ireland, and other securities for her rights and interests. I think that a full proportional representation of Ire- land in the Imperial Parliament (together with an equalization and extension of the franchise) is the only basis on which the rights of Ireland can be secured under the sovereignty of the British Crown. I consider this object should be contended for, not as an Irish question, but on the principle of a new distribu- tion and equalization of the electoral districts over the United Kingdom ; and that its attainment should be sought by a thorough union of Irishmen with those of the aggrieved and unrepresented classes in England and Scotland, who would join in seeking like objects by constitutional means ; thus insuring jus- tice to Ireland by making it the common cause of justice to England and Scotland also. No other basis of security can be founded. Local elective bodies for local purposes would be a most important and valuable addition both in Ireland and Scotland ; but the hostile principles on which the present Repeal agitation is conducted bar the consideration of such a proposition, and neces- sarily set aside every other consideration but union or separation. "I shall be told that an experiment has been made, and that England has refused equal rights and franchises to Ireland : I maintain that a fair experi- ment has not been made. As this is a matter of great importance, I shall re- serve the discussion of it for a subsequent section.',

This second section is forthcoming, and it is still more voluminous than the first. Mr. Crawford begins his endeavours to prove that England has never had a fair trial ; observing, that the act of Eman- cipation was granted as the closing link of the bond of union, but that no sooner was it granted than Repeal of the Union was demanded, be- fore England had created any new grievance by legislative enactment. This was considered to be a breach of faith ; an ill feeling was created between England and Ireland ; and Mr. O'Connell himself lost influ- ence in the House of Commons. Mr. Crawford then enters upon a long retrospect of Mr. O'Connell's public conduct, and traces the un- steadiness of aim which has characterized his agitation down to the very last ; when in one day, lately, he announced that the Repeal Asso- ciation was to petition for incompatible objects, Repeal of the Union and an increased representation in the Imperial Parliament. The agi- tation of Repeal had forced the best friends of the rights of the people, especially in the North of Ireland, either to withdraw from public affairs, or to coalesce with the Conservative party ; and it checked landlords in giving leases, lest they should qualify Repeal voters. Union with the friends of liberty throughout Britain could alone secure to Ireland the relief of freedom. Mr. Crawford concludes with the hope, that if Mr. O'Connell cannot controvert his arguments, "he will be in- duced to desist from so injurious a course, and to apply his talents and vast influence over a confiding people to more beneficial objects."

At the meeting of the Repeal Association on Monday, Mr. O'Con- nell replied to Mr. Crawford viva voce; first moving that his letter should be inserted in the minutes of the Association. He complained that Mr. Crawford did not treat the subject fairly, since he only brought forward a bundle of crotchety objections to the Repeal of the Union, without attempting to reason upon the evils under which Ireland suffered, or their remedy- " He (wilt to have shown what they had suffered from England by the Union. Mr. O'Connell should first of all remark, that Mr. Sharman Crawford in his present letter admitted, by a kind of parenthesis, the value and utility of a system of local legislation, but then, he said, connected with an imperial one. Yes, he would have a grovelling and inferior legislature. But what did they want P—An independent, national, and resident legislature." There was no desire to return to the rotten constitution of 1783, as Mr. Crawford imagined. Mr. Crawford's letter was taken up with a defence of the Union : but that such was not always his opinion, Mr. O'Connell proved by quoting another letter by Mr. Crawford, written in 1833, in which he condemned the Parliamentary Union, and said that a union of the two nations could only be upheld by a separation of the Parliaments. The fact was, said Mr. O'Connell, he need not attempt to answer Mr. Crawford's arguments, for Mr. Crawford did him the honour to answer them himself, though he seemed to forget it. In reply to the reproach that for the last ten years Mr. O'Connell's party had been agitating without any consistent principle, be instanced the Reform Bill, eorporate Reform in England and Scotland, the keeping up the Registry in Ireland, and the Irish Corporation Bill, as the results of a uniform principle of agitation— Was the man asleep, that he saw _none of these results ? How dare he say there were no useful results? would not the old Corporation be still in being, and the new one nearly as bad as it, were it not for the agitation in that room? How dare he, he said again, say at such a moment there were no use- ful results ? W s it nothing that the incoming Lord Mayor' the new Alder- men, and the Common Council, would necessarily be all Repealers ? All these great results had taken place from the agitation ; and yet up sneaks Sharman Crawford, wriggling from right to left, and told him there were no useful results. Now he would ask Sharman Crawford, what good had be ever done P—None. He should admit he never did do any. He came forward with plenty of crotchety objections and chicanery, but what good had he ever done ?—None. Oh, he would say, perhaps that he set up the Ulster Asso- ciation. Why, it certainly met ; and he believed they dined together, and talked—oh ye gods, how they talked ! They formed committees of finance and other things, and Sharman Crawford made roles for them. Why, the newspapers were filled up with all the rules he made for them. But what did they do ? Nothing, said somebody near him. He would say less. • • What fine doings had the Ulster Association to boast of? The mountain, as the fable said, was in Labour, and produced a mouse; but this mountain pro- duced nothing. Did Sharman Crawford get a seat by their assistance?—No. He had to go over among the English for that. The mountain had then_pro- duced a kind of Anglo-Saxon rat, in the person of Sharman Crawford. What was this Anglo-Saxon rat doing ?—Notbing. He was like the Irishman who, when a gentleman asked him, What are you doing, Tom ? "—" Nothing, Sir," replied the man. " What are you doing, Dick ?"—" Helping Tom, Sir." Some one might say to Sharman Crawford, "What are you doing, Sharman ? " He would answer, "Nothing, Sir." But if he (Mr. O'Connell) were to be asked next what he was doing, he would not say, "Rd1 ing Shar- man Crawford." No, no ; he would never help a man who was doing nothing. On the same occasion, Mr. O'Connell pronounced judgment on Lord Eliot. First, he made Mr. Ray read the following passage in Lord Eliot's speech at his reelection for Cornwall- " The Executive Government of Ireland, he repeated, would vindicate the authority of the law—would repress with vigour all turbulence and outrage ; but would exercise its power with moderation and justice. It will pay court to no party, but it will do justice to all : it will not be the government of a. party, but the government of the whole Irish people." "That speech," said Mr. O'Connell, "is a delusion ; and I proclainato the entire country that it is a humbug, and that in future Lord Eliot will be called 'Humbug Eliot'"; for he had not acted up to that decla- ration. Mr. O'Connell's proofs were, that Lord de Grey on leaving his native county, of which he is Lord-Lieutenant, had appointed Sir Robert Inglis, a determined enemy of the Catholics, to be his deputy ; and that Mr. Brewster had been appointed secret Law-adviser at the Castle, he, though "according to his lights a conscientious man," being a most "truculent enemy of Catholics and Catholicity." To prove that again, Mr. O'Connell quoted a statement made by the Reverend Mr. Lalor to Mr. Vigors, in which it is asserted that when Mr. Brewster succeeded to an estate in 1831, the leases of about half the property ex- pired, and he ejected seventeen families, comprising 80 individuals; and in 1835, when the other half of the leases fell in, he ejected seventeen more families, comprising 93 individuals : he could not have done so in order to improve his estate by a consolidation of the farms, because many of the tenants held considerable tracts ; but those who were ejected were Catholics, nod they bad not voted in a manner agreeable to Mr. Brewster. However, Mr. O'Connell somewhat qualified his con- demnation of Lc,rd Eliot, so far as his intentions were concerned- " The story is now well known, and we must do Lord Eliot this justice, that he opposed Mr. Brewster's nomination, or rather the confirmation of his no- mination. Mr. Blackburne appointed Mr. Brewster at once : that was quite consistent on his part, and he ought to have done so. Lord Eliot opposed it. There was at once a mutiny in the legal camp : man after man they were to resign, if Mr. Brewster was not appointed. Mr. Blackburne was to resign at once, and even Mr. Pennefather tendered his resignation. They had Lord Eliot that moment at trial : that was the time when be had an opportunity of vindi- cating his own opinions, or of crouching to a party ; and he stood out for a moment when his character depended on the result. I said to Sir Robert Peel in the House of Commons—and it was one of the things that put him in such a passion with me—' you cannot govern Ireland if you did not give it up to a • party ; they will turn on you if you do not give the country up to them to plunder.' I stated that to Sir Robert Peel ; and see how those legal men by their conduct have justified what I then said. The result of the contest was, that Lord Eliot consented to the appointment of Mr. Brewster."

Mr. O'Connell complained of defection among the Catholics, in the Municipal contest-

" We have in our own hands thirteen out of fifteen of the wards, if the people will but do their duty, and be true to themselves : and the people will do their duty. If I were addressing myself merely to the rich men and aris- tocrats of the land, then indeed I might feel some scepticism as to whether they would obey this injunction. It is the wealthy and exalted who neglect to do their duty ; but never have I known an instance where the operative or middle classes have forgotten what they owe to their country and themselves. In George's Ward alone, there are fifty wealthy Catholics whose franchise is lost to the Liberal cause from their having neglected to pay their taxes." So he moved a resolution of prospective censure upon all who may not be hearty in the cause : it was of course carried- " Resolved, That any burgess enrolled on the Liberal interest who does not vote for the whole ticket at the ensuing Municipal election is an enemy to the principles of civil and religious librety, injurious to the cause of Irish manu- facture, and a foe to the Repeal of the Union."

At a meeting of the " Repeal Board of Trade," on the 14th, Mr. O'Connell proposed the following declaration to be taken by shop- keepers. " I solemnly promise that I w ill not myself sell, or allow any person in my establishment to sell, any article of English or foreign manufacture for Irish, but that all I sell for Irish shall be genuine Irish manufacture." He proceeded to say that he next intended to move that they should call upon every person pledged to the use of Irish manufacture, not to deal with any shop- keeper or retailer that did not enter into the pledge, and keep a copy of it publicly exposed in his place of sale. Afterwards, Mr. O'Connell moved to add to the declaration these words, "and promote the fabri- cation and consumption of all articles of Irish manufacture." The motion was carried unanimously.

At a meeting of the Newtownards and Comber Farming Society, on Friday, the Marquis of Londonderry, who was chairman on the occa- sion, expressed great apprehension for the ultimate fate of the Corn- laws—

know the great agricultural interest of this country is at present i

threatened. Commerce and agriculture have hitherto gone hand n hand. They have been combined together, and have at all times tended to keep up the prosperity of the country. This is a state of things which every true English- man would wish to see and to facilitate. But, unfortunately, it is the case that questions have been raised with respect to the topic at the present day that are calculated to be very injurious to the present state of society which we have been enjoying. I shall not enter into the causes of this excitement ; but you cannot but perceive that these two interests, the commercial and the agricultural, are now pitted against one another. We, the landlords, are called Monopolists; and the other party are called Anti- Monopolists, who cry out cheap bread, and say that the manufacturing districts are depressed by the Corn-laws. Now, gentlemen, if you read the resolutions lately passed in Liverpool, Manchester, and elsewhere throughout the country—if you read, in fact, what is published on both sides of the question, and if you take into consideration the arguments on both sides of the question—I defy you, or any others, to understand what is the real and true character of the question. Gentlemen, I defy any legislature or legislator to say what is best to be done in the circumstances under which each party advances its appeal to the understanding. If you pursue a middle course, one party will suppose you endeavouring to overturn the constitution, and the other party will pronounce you to be the enemy of the great interests of your country. I hope the Government, in such a state of things, will weigh the subject well before they touch the Corn-laws. If they touch them rashly, they act wantonly with what is the vitality of the country's existence. • • That has now become a party question. Were it tried on its own merits, there would berrothing to fear for a satisfactory settlement ; but it has assumed tbe feature of a party, and the minds of most men are rendered incapable of judging rightly on the subject. The great American question formerly, the Revolutionary war in France, Catholic Emancipation, were all party questions ; and now the annihilation of the agricultural interests of our country and the demand for flee trade have become party questions. The state of the question places all men in the coantry, by whatever relations they may be connected with society, in such a perplexity and anxiety, that it is:difficult to expect a fair, rational, and satisfactory arrangement of the interests now so much before the public. Here, then, I shall address myself to farmers especially : I say to you, if you have hitherto devoted your attention to the improvement of your land, that you are called upon now, more than ever, to sedulously cultivate your soil—and call into action all its powers of production. This now is your only hope ; in fact, the only prop upon which you can safely rely. This is my advice to you, and I entreat you to follow it. You do not know what a Government may do when forced to it."