IRISid TITHE MASSACRES: DOWN WITH THE TITIIES !
THE Election in Ireland may be called, without a metaphor, a struggle on the part of the Catholics for life or death. The con- tinuance of the Tithe war will be the consequence of electing a Tory majority ; and the intelligence which is daily received from Ireland proclaims as with the voice of many trumpets how bloody and ferocious that war has become. A few days ago, thirteen men were shot, and eight others wounded, in resisting a ',arty of the military, who were employed to force the payment of tithe from a widow woman, to a dignitary of the Church,Archdeacon RYDER, in the county of Cork. It matters little how the massacre began: it may be (though the accounts are, as-usual, contradictory,) that the country-people commenced the attack by throwing stones. This may make a material difference as to the strict legality of the slaughter that ensued, but does not lessen our abhorrence of the system of supporting that unbearable nuisance the _Irish Churrl, which the Tories are pledged to maintain. The Rath- THE Election in Ireland may be called, without a metaphor, a struggle on the part of the Catholics for life or death. The con- tinuance of the Tithe war will be the consequence of electing a Tory majority ; and the intelligence which is daily received from Ireland proclaims as with the voice of many trumpets how bloody and ferocious that war has become. A few days ago, thirteen men were shot, and eight others wounded, in resisting a ',arty of the military, who were employed to force the payment of tithe from a widow woman, to a dignitary of the Church,Archdeacon RYDER, in the county of Cork. It matters little how the massacre began: it may be (though the accounts are, as-usual, contradictory,) that the country-people commenced the attack by throwing stones. This may make a material difference as to the strict legality of the slaughter that ensued, but does not lessen our abhorrence of the system of supporting that unbearable nuisance the _Irish Churrl, which the Tories are pledged to maintain. The Rath- cormack massacre adds one other to the thousand proofs already before the British nation, that the Church in Ireland can only be maintained on its present footing by bayonet and bullet. In
England, it was deemed a sufficient reason for putting an end to z!le collection of Church-rates, that unseemly contests took place in the parish vestry-room ; but hundreds of bloody conflicts, and the death of thousands, will not induce the Orange Tory faction to put an end to the Irish Tithe system. Even when under the restraint (such as it was) of the Whig Government, the perse- cuting spirit or the Orange faction broke out perpetually ; and now that there is every reason to believe that their most violent proceedings will be pardoned, if not applauded, at head-quarters, what hope can exist of more humane and just conduct? The filet is, that the Irish Orangemen cannot conceal theirexulta- Lion at the prospect, which the Government of Mr. GOULBURN af- fords, of a return to the extirminating system of 1798. Even Lords-
Lieutenant of counties set the example of collecting large masses of infuriated bigots together for the purpose of intimidating the
Catholic peasantry by a display of physical force, and giving vent to their factious hatred of every thing like Church Reform. Last week, the Earl of CALEDON, Lord-Lieutenant of the county of Tyrone, presided at a great Orange meeting at Dungannon. Lord Bits- at ORE, late Governor of Jamaica, and Custos Rotulorum in Tyrone, with the Marquis of Ansacoarl and his brother and a host of Tory noblemen and gentry, disgraced themselves by taking part in the display. Thousands wore Orange scarfs and ribands; guns were fired, and factious music played. Nor were these ex- hibitions confined to the ignorant and poor ; for after the meeting was adjourned, several persons of distinction, among them Lord CLAUDE HAMILTON, were chaired through the town with Orange flags and banners, and sworn in Members of Orange Lodges,— thereby countenancing what even in Lord LIVERPOOL'S time was held to be not only inflammatory, but illegal.
We doubt not that many moderate Tories in Ireland, and such Whigs as may have been duped into the belief that the Duke and Sir ROBERT were about to apostatize from rank Toryism, com-
forted themselves with the hope that such meetings as that at Dungannon would be discountenanced, if not reprobated, in Lon- don. Their expectations, if such existed, would not outlive the
arrival of the mail which brought them the account of Lord RODEN'S appointment to the office of Lord Steward of the House- hold,—a place near to the King, and affording a ready oppor- tunity for the use of back-door influence. Lord RODEN'S zealous fanaticism is notorious : it approaches to Methodistical deliration.
He deems it a sacred duty to preserve the abuses, or what the
Nation deems the abuses, of the Irish Church, in all their di-gust- ing entirety. His selection by Sir ROBERT PEEL to a omfid utial
and high office, will be taken as marked encouragement to a perseverance in such proceedings as those at Dungannon and theorm aek.
The useful lesson to be drawn from these facts, and the evident
intention of the Tories to preserve Church abuses by means of the sword, is the necessity of uniting for the return of Liberal Members at the next election. If ever human beings haul over- powering motives for exertion, the seven millions of Irish Catholics have them now. All depends upon the events of the next few weeks. Let the plundered peasantry be instructed that they have no chance of deliverance except by peaceful exertions ; that nothing would give their oppressors such unfeigned delight as the renewal of the civil war of 1798, when the cannon of the soldiery would mow them down in helpless thousands. The Irish Catholics must beat their opponents at the hustings. Let the monopoly of illegal weapons of violence be the Orangemen's. Let every Irishman remember, that in his country, " Down with the Tories" means "Down with the Tithes."
Previous page
