IRELAND.
Mr. O'Connell had a demonstration at Ennis, for the county of Clare, on Thursday the 15th instant ; and the meeting is described as more numerous than any that preceded it—the numbers are stated at 700,000 ! The Limerick Chronicle, which makes pretensions to being very pre- cise, estimates the number at not less than 150,000, including about 6.000 horsemen ; and says that the cavalcade of cars extended from Ennis to Newmarket—six miles. The preparations for his reception were most elaborate: at the entrance to the town " whole trees were planted," with triumphal arches across the road, mottoes, and devices. " On entering Upper Gaol Street from Limerick, you beheld nothing but planted trees, with triumphal arches." The inscriptions, in verse apparently not intended to be doggrel, were praise of O'Connell and freedom, and abuse of " the Saxon tyrants." The descriptiou of one -device is worth transcribing-
" The next was a chain extended across, the centre cf which was joined by a cord, and on a green banner over it was inscribed- ' The Liberator of Ireland
Will cut asunder The chains of slavery We labour under!'
Here a mum bad taken up his position with a sword ; with which, as the Liberator approached, be cut the cord in the centre ; and the chain was shivered on both aides, amidst the shouts and acclamations of thousands, that rent the air for some minutes."
The meeting was held on the race-ground ; and Mr. O'Connell ascended the platform, accompanied by Mr. Tom Steele, Mr. Charles O'Connell, " Counsellor" O'Leary, and three French gentlemen. On the motion of Mr. H. Bridgeman, M.P. and Justice of the Peace, the chair was taken by Mr. Cornelius O'Brien, M.P. and Justice of the Peace. Mr. O'Connell's speech did not materially differ from the ge- neral run of those which he has lately delivered ; but he announced a new stage in his agitation, and gave an important explanation— He would tell them, that the moment he had three millions of Repealers, he would begin another career : and he might as well then announce that the prin- cipal impediment which existed against Emancipation did not at all exist as regarded Repeal of the Union. It was necessary for an English Parliament to pass a law granting Emancipation ; but in the case of Repeal it was not ne- cessary. The House of Lords at first threw it out ; but the people gave a little chirp, and it was soon allowed to pass without any very strenuous opposition. The Queen's prerogative could revive the Irish Parliament (1)—as James the First did when he created 44 boroughs in Ireland, giving suffrages to 12 Protestants ; and Ennis was one of the bad bargains. The time bad arrived for her Majesty to order new writs for the Irish Parliament ; and be assured them he was not talking of imaginary things when he told them distinctly and emphatically, that by the aid of the Queen's name, and without any appeal to Parliament, they could obtain a Repeal of the Union. Let Englishmen have England ; let Scotchmen have Scotland ; let Frenchmen have France, and it was a beautiful country; let Dutchmen have Holland, with its dikes and ditches; but the Irishmen should have Ireland.
At the subsequent dinner, four hundred gentlemen sat down, Dr. Kennedy among them ; and Mr. Cornelius O'Brien again presided. In his first speech, Mr. O'Connell alluded to the chill of suspicion which existed throughout the country, even against himself, when he sus- pendrd the Repeal agitation, on an English King and an English House of Lords making promises only to be broken : but he had since made more speeches, printed more letters, and made more declarations to the people, than ever he had done in five times that period ; and the atmo- sphere had warmed by degrees, until a more genial glow came over the public mind. He attacked Lord Fortescue for his avowals against Re- peal. He gave fresh news from the Cabinet- " Let me tell you, that the Ministry have been employed latterly in deep debates upon the state of Ireland ; that division reigns among them. 1 may venture to assure that coercive measures will not be used. (A voice—" They dare not 1 have received information on which 1 can implicitly rely, and from a quarter incapable of being deceived or deceiving me, that Peel's party of conciliation in the Cabinet triumphed ; and an attempt will be now made to see how they can buy us off. (Cheers and laughter.) They want to coax us; and they shall succeed in doing so when they coax the birds of the bushes." (A laugh.) A meeting at Athlone on Sunday was less numerous than many : the numbers are variously stated—from 50,000 to 400,000, many of them women ; and one writer says that about 100 priests were on the ground. The gathering took place at Summerhill. Before it, mass was said in the open air, for the benefit of those who had left their dis- tant homes too soon to attend morning service. There were two plat- forms, one for men, another for women. The Chairman was Lord French. Among attractions held out as consequences of Repeal, Mr. O'Connell promised sugar at a third of its present price ; three-fourths of the duty to be taken off tea; one-half off tobacco ; county-charges to be paid out of the national treasury ; hospitals, and the sick and des- titute, supported out of the ecclesiastical revenues ; no absenteeism, with 9,000,000/. spent in the country instead of out of it ; and "fixity of tenure." This last lie explained : no landlord should recover rent unless under a lease for twenty-one years ; at the termination of that period, he should be compelled to renew the lease, or pay the tenant the value of his improvements ; and to prevent putting too much rent in the lease, it should not be higher than the Ordnance valuation of lands, or, in the absence of that test, where the Ordnance Survey had not ex- tended, it should be fixed by the solvent-tenant test—what a solvent-
tenant would give for the land. These were the solid and lasting fruits he anticipated from the Repeal."
At the subsequent dinner, among his usual threats, he insinuated this qualification- " They bad come there to be free or to die. (Here the company rose, waved their hats, and cheered for some time.) But he thought they might put dyiog_ out of the question. He always preferred one living patriot to a dozen,dkod ones—(Laughter)—and he had merely introduced the alternative of deaf, the fine phrensy of oratorical display—(Laughter)—to show that they,wene ready for the attack if it was put upon them by the enemy, if the constingisp. was trempled on to their prejudice.
At the weekly Repeal meeting of the Repeal Association, on Mon- day, Mr. O'Connell announced that the Repeal rent for the past week. amounted to 3,1034 Is. 6ici. The largest sum received in one week by the Catholic Association was 2,700L, and that was during the height of the agitation for the Clare election ; in general the average of the re- ceipts did not exceed 350L The Dublin Evening Packet says—" We have been apprized by a gen- tleman from the county of Down, of the important fact that French officers, disguised as priests, have been organizing and drilling the pea- santry in some of the provinces." The Belfast Newsletter adds—" One of these disguised military officers is understood to have been in Belfast within the last eight days. Disguised French officers, of coarse without the concurrence of the French Government, are said to be now peram- bulating the rural districts, for purposes which cannot be mistaken."
Mr. Thomas Phillips, of Clonmore, has resigned his commission of the Peace. He sent word to the Lord Chancellor that he bad attended a Repeal meeting, before the Ministerial manifesto ; but, not being super- seded, he resigns, unaware how innocence can be turned into guilt at the will of a Minister, and unwilling to hold a commission at the price of character and opinion. Lord Cloncurry and Mr. John Hassey Walker have also resigned.
A system of hoaxing is carried on, by sending in forged resignations purporting to come from persons who really have no such intention-. One of those detected was the pretended resignation of Mr. John Ire- land, who had already sent in a real resignation.
In deference to the advice of Lord Farnham, several of his friends- and tenants have resolved to discountenance the usual Protestant and Orange anniversary demonstrations of July.
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