Even its Ireland, where there is real bitterness and stir
of the blood, there is a like unreality in overt acts, because there is no true object. The Orangemen, divided, bent on no common pur- pose to which all the members of their party can agree, are busy- ing themselves about a calumny against Lord Clarendon. The exact nature of the charge is not clear to us, but it seems to be twofold. One is, that in 1848, the Lord-Lieutenant entertained a project of inviting the Orangemen to afford the Government an armed support, and of then proceeding against them for turbu- lence,—with a view, we suppose, of conciliating the Roman Ca- tholic rebels. The other charge is, that he endeavoured to bribe certain Orangemen to be spies upon the Roman Catholics; which they refused. Both projects are too unlikely for serious attention : if there is any treachery on either side, depend upon it that the traitor is some Irishman, for those who betray the Irish are always Irish. Mr. Duffy keeps up the sport of a " National Conference"; at Which Mr. Feargus O'Connor, late of Snig's End, appeared and spoke .Chartism, just as if he had never retired from business ! So he is "starring" it with the Irish Nationalists as well as the English Financialists ; and with both he is equally copious in his asseverations of good fellowship. But what the Irish Nation can want with Chartism, or the Financial and Parliamentary Reform Association, we do not see ; unless it is to get up a perfectly base- less and transparent semblance of alliance.
