TO HIS GRACE THE OHRE OF WELLINGTON. TO HIS GRACE

THE OHRE OF WELLINGTON.

The latter is certainly my e. London. Stohn September MdaeSp.

MT LORD Does— "Some achieve greatnew, and some have greatness thrust epos them—Seassmses y.. eaIhavegnesHeu meIm convinced that it is also, but in • different mode Alm ease of your Grace; anti in the

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.charge against me publicly in your place in Parliament, and I have as often, in my No : there is but one remedy. and that is. to do justice to Ireland.

these indictments, that they were publicly, and on the record, given up by Mat At- Now do just look at these few facts.

terms : That no attempt should be made to proceed to judgment without giving me the your mind are quite familiar to me. to 72/. 15s., that is, a loss of 211. 5s. upon every 1001. of legal income.

dotted my prokssion. land 271. 5s. per cent., that is, to 72/. 15s. for every hundred pounds.

Protestants—not to have given me that precedence twenty years sooner. Industry. Let this be but understood. Last year the Irish Protestant clergy could have got and above all. Providence, bad given me those faculties which placed me in the first rt. 10s. per cent, secured, payable at the Treasury; but that you and your Lords pre. liminess in my profession. For twenty-five years I had the misery to see my juniors vented it, and threw out the bill.

lave I returned home from court hearl ac sand the men who thought aud acted with you, so long and so shamefully withheld. This year you offered to take 721. 15s. per cent., but at the same time destroyed the But injustice, gross. palpable injustice, is not only the motto, but the daily practice of bill which was to secure it. the party in I relaud to which yon are and always have been so strongly devoted. Was there ever folly. absurdity—should I not add wickedness—equal to this?

Seated since the Revolutions iii 1698," is still more unfortunate than the first. 60/. per cent. as was at one time proposed. The purchaser of the Sibylline books was I have no power, properly so called. I have. it is true, some influence ; nay. con- vastly wise. compared with the party of which you are the leader and manager. siderable influence. I discover, occasionally, that I possess more influence than I But what a party it is vaiich you do manage. How I should like to see a catalogue

couid previously trust myself to believe. raisonce of the whole! Wiuchilsea immersed in fanaticism and fatuity ; Lyndhurst,

Well, you may call this power if you please; but then, if you have any thing of the buoyant in legal dexterity and political tergiversation ; Newcastle, stammering unin- statesman about you, should you not ask, ay, and answer these questions—What has telligible arrogance; Kenycn, blubbering Orange rhapsodies ; the sinecurist Ellen- created this power ? what continues this power ? how is this power to be extinguished ? borough (how long is he to have this sinecure ?) talking low Toryism; and the sagacious

To answer these questions it would be necessary to understand the past history and Deron, more of a clerk still than a Lord. present state of Ireland, and this, my Lord, you du not do: I must. therefore, endeavour But I am weary of the mustearoll. I only exclaim. as I review the entire, "Be to assist you. these the masters of the British People ? Are these the absolute and unaccountable

In the first place, you will admit that I do not owe this influence to the advantages arbiters of the destinies of millions?" What drivelling nonsense, to talk of constitu- of superior birth; for, whatever my pride of ancient chieftainery may be. I am but the tional rights or liberties, of freedom, of social guarantees OF LIBERTY, if these. and son of a private country gentleman. Nor do I owe this influence to superior fortune, such OS these, be the uncontrollable regulators of all that is near and dear to fretaboris for mine is but a small competence; and the balance of favour in this respect is be- souls. Two hundred men the masters of millions! and the millions daring to assume stowed on, not ti me. Nor do I owe it to superior talent, for mine is but of plain and any other denomination than that of slaves I Oh, shame! ordinary dimensions. But for the present I forbear this topic. and I come back to the Isiah part of your To a hat. then, do I owe all you call power ? I will tell you, my Lord Duke. I owe colleagues—those especially who have assailed me. it all to you, and to men like you. It is you, and en like you. who have created that They are few and foolish. And first, there is Londonderry—bless the mark The power, who continue that poweroand who.if you be not checked and controlled. will sapient Londonderry, described by an uneducated Irishman in terms you would call augment, increase, and accumulate that power, vulgar, but which I believe to be very accurate, " As not having understanding enough It is in the grievances, in thz oppressions. in the wrongs of Ireland. that the source of to herd geese upon a common." I verily believe, for my part, he would not know bow any power is to be found. It is to the sufferings. to the woes, to the miseries of the many he ought to bring home in the evening, although I answer for it he would bring People of Ireland, that my power is to be traced ! home one goose more than could be eaten. You, and men like you. have always governed Ireland a ith a wrong view and in a Then there is Lord Limerick, the only man upon whose estate it is a familiar thing sinister spirit. You have encouraged a party and disparaged the People. You have to have human beings die of hunger. Ile has a large income. Did anybody ever hear courted and caressed a faction, a "pale." a particular denomination, a sect, or a per- of his contributing to a charity ? And yet this aged being is quite vivacious when any suasion; and you have insulted and despised the nation. This has been the course mishief is to be dune to Ireland. and career of British government in Ireland for six huudred years; and here are you Next I should enrol Lord Strangford. But for the present I shall spare him, with and your .• amstitutional blood hounds," as your gallant friend Colonel Sibthorpe calls this caution, not to assail me again, else I will publish his hereditary honours in the them, as fresh, as untied, as ready to start upon another crusade of oppression, insult, shape of an act of the Irish Legislature. Ile will understand me, and pass me tun devastation, slid slaughter, as if you were now to begin only for the first time, and that noticed in future. the misgovernment of Ireland had in it all the freshness and incitement of novelty and I am indeed weary of describing, even so shortly, those who have made personal of untasted gratification. • attacks upon me. I come back readily to the influence I possess in Ireland, which These are the causes which naturally account for the predisposing symptoms of my you call power, and simply ask how much you and your party in the Lords have done Influence. It is the insulting misgovernment—it is the audacious preference of the this session, to continue and consolidate that power? bloodstained Orange faction to the Catholic population of Ireland—it is the partial First. You have annihilated the Irish Church Reform Bill, and wisely insisted that administration of justice by partisan Magistrates, party Sheriffs, prejudiced Judges. the Irish Protestant Establishment should be kept up to the most superfluous extent and bigoted, factious Jurors. It is the establishment and insolent triumph of a sine. of inutility. cure Church; it is the exaction of tithes from an impoverished people, to support Secondly. You have rejected the Irish Constabulary Bill, which would have clergymen whom they never see, and Pillage spiritual assistance they are far from effectually converted the Irish police from a partisan into a protective force, diminished requiring. It is the still more insulting insolence towards the clergy who serve the its expense whilst it increased its efficiency,—and this you did on the very worst prin. People, and who are calumniated and vilified uuder your auspices, by every worthless ciples of partisanship, that is, because the bill contained an oath prohibitory of Orange defamer, from the haughty Bishop of Exeter down to the miserable Knight of Kerry. or other illegal societies. For this most insufficient reason Ireland is deprived of ala These, mu, one thousand other crimes committed towards Ireland, and the myriads of economic and most useful measure. additional evils which hey generate, are the originating causes of the popularity and Third. You threw out the Irish Marriage Bill, and left the guilty parent to revel influence ence which you attribute to e, and which I believe I enjoy. In his iniquity with impunity, whilst you inflict all the punishment upon the innocent Allow me to add, that the Irish nation know me to be sincere and honest. They con- aud defenceless children. Oh! what heads and hearts there are amongst you Tories, fide in my moral courage and indefatigable perseverance. They know I never will lay and episcopal! lease to agitate whilst one grievance remains unredressed. They are certaiu that my Fourth. You rejected the City of Dublin Polite Bill, and left that city to the proton. untiring energies are devoted to the good of my native land. They, of course, are tion of a most inefficient and expensive police the expenditure over 48,0001.5 year,- aware of the infirmities of my nature, and the paucity of my ability, but they confide in the utility, below zero; anti this was done lest the bigoted and beggarly Corporation of that gracious God, who, in using so worthless an instrument as myself, and in procuring Dublin should have any erns blushing honours tarnished. through such feeble instrumentality some ameliorations or the evils of Ireland, seems to Fifth. You effectually cushioned the Irish Corporation Reform Bill, and left that Indicate that a period of mercy, after centuries of affliction, approaches. hornets to enjoy, for one year more, the plunder avid the venom of their own corruptions. But more than enough of myself; and yet the question remaiw, how is the influence, You have given them another year or impunity and peculation, although ou are aware

or—if you please to call it so—the power I possess to be terminated ? that there are bat 13.000 corporators of all sorts and sizes to manage the municipal This is a question which, if you were a rational statesman, you could answer at once, affairs of cities and towns comprising more than 900,000 inhabitants.

BY DOING JUSTICIC TO IRELAND.—DO what you please, to this complexion you most inqsatial, the most useful measures to the purposes of economy

31y influence. my power, is to be annihilated by one mode, anti by ene mode alone.

some. and justice that There is no other method of obviating irregular influence and power —starics TO ever was brought into Parliament. It is quite true that if that bill passed into law no Iaziawnettam COMPLETE IUSTICE TO IRELAND. This is the remedy, this is the only more seats in the House of Commons would be disposed of by the oaths of Tory

way to destroy my power, You may try any other method you please. but ybn will After all this black catalogue of mischief,

not, you cannot snowed. We fear not your swaggering sword; we care not for your influence of power ; but, as a rational man,! if:;:tylfIlleaynocot mtepalueiknyoefawith.at prospect call undue fellowship of thisconviction, I proceed to settle a short amount which stands maimed exaggerated report of the number of Orangemen ; Piet are not altogether att. haftired i between us.thousand, including the over old and the over yoting, the halt, the blind, the lame. flaYou are reported by sill the newspapers of the last week, I care not In what debate, Suppose them, however, one hundred thousand fighting men : there are six million five to have said of me these two thiugs:hundred' thousand Catholics ; there could be, and if absolutely necessary there would First, That I had been convicted of a nsisdemeanous, and afterwards promoted by the be, one million of fighting men in the field—ay, in the field : men—a million of men— Irish Government. who would bedelighted to get " leare to fight." lint this is a subject I hate to dwell Secondly, That I have more power than any individual possessed since the Revolution on; 1 mention it merely to show how futile and foolish any reliance on the physical of 1688. force of the Orangemen must be, now more especially that the conspiracy—the treason- The first assertion, my Lord, permit me to tell you, is totally unfounded, and you able conspiracy amongst so many of the underlings of that body, to alter the succession. tight to base known it to be so.

and to supersede the Princess Victoria—has, in despite of the concealment of the official

The second is a gross exaggeration, and you must have known it to be so. menial, exploded; and that the most noble Grand himself has borne his blushing h.We may dispose of the first in a few words. You have more than once made this flours and gray whiskers to the meeting of crowned despots at Kalisch.

place in the- other House, distinctly and emphatically contradicted it. This should Let but this remedy be adopted, and there never used a man more ready to abdicate

-Lave put you upon inquiry into the facts before you ventured to repeat the calumny. all power than I am. JUSTICE TO IRELAND I insist on. Justice from Eugland, and in Nay more, you bad the proof in your lands that your assertion was unfounded; legislative connexion it ith England, I am xow ready to be satisfied with—that is, if ameanee, when you first made it in the licuse of Lords—it being, even then, contra- it be speedily and effectually conceded. But if you and your colleagues refuse justice dicted—Lord Eldon, who came in aid of you. moved for a return of all the proceedings to Ireland, then I fall back on the Repeal," and conjure the Irish to insist, and, against me. That return was made, that return was printed by the House of Lords, if unanimous, they a ill not insist in vain on the restoration of a domestic legislature.

was abandoned upon the record by the Attorney-General. despite of reason or common sense, proceed at once to destroy every legislative enact. No man ever hated another more than Lord Anglesea hated me. Ile is not, as you, meta fittourable to Ireland.

be committed against a vain and unwise man. Ile accordingly hated me cordially ; Why only look at what you have been doing I First take the simple facts. and see and Mr. Illackburne, his Attorney.Generai (whom you more congenially continued in whether t lie maniacs in Bedlam could act as wildly, as absurdly, as ridiculously, as you office) rivalled his Lordship in animosity. Yet so totully false were the charges in and your majority of Lords have done.

torney-General. This you had in the printed return. This year. you and your "war battalion" in the House of Lords have taken up ihe

There remained one indictment. It was for disobeying a proclamation ! Yes. Irish Tithe Bill as it came from the Commons. You have, it is true, rejected the A p- literally for disobeying a proclamation, without any illegal or improper intent being so preprint ion clauses; but it is equally true that you have unanimously adopted so much much as alleged. of that 'lithe Bill as related to the income and payment of the clergy of the Establish. I insisted that it was no offence to disobey a proclamation ; and relying on that ment in Ireland. Now let not this be forgotten. plain principhe of law. I declined to plead to that indictment, having first secured these clauses of ti tlwrzoAlisily.ou accepted, adopted ev , and en urged forward the tithe regulation

One word as to the promotion you say I have received. Why. it was neither place This plan you and your Lords not only agreed to this year, but urged on the Govern.

Your second assertion, namely, That I hare more pareer than any individual pus- What will you take next year ? Why, I suppose you will be delighted with getting

Lastly. You have rejected the Irish Registry of Voters Bill, one of the wisest, the

Com- mittees—to yoe a deplorable consequence. man be of ditninishing that influence or power, whilst the only hope of Ireland is watered in those friends to whom she eoncedes that power, and who she knows by expe. rience will persevere in ceaseless exertions until they extort from reluctant and selfish bigotry a full measure of justice fur Ireland ? Even the letter I now address to you is one of the labours of my vocation. It demon. stratus to the people of England the persevering malice of those who refuse to Ireland any relief or redress. It makes the wise and the good in this country understand the pertinacious iniquity which weighs down Ireland and weakens every part of the British dominions.

I conclude, with assuring you that there is but one way to destroy the power of the agitators in Ireland. It is to put that couutry on a perfect equality of rights, privileges, and franchises with Great Britain. We demand no more; we never will be content with less.

From you we expect no aid; you have always hated or despised your own country ; you never called yourself an Irishman. There is that about you so ttngenial as never to have been shared by any other native of the green and lovely isle. There is another feature in your character perhaps more strange still. It is this—you are the only man who has attained greatness without having once used a generous or ennobling sentiment. There is nothing of the mews divinior in your composition; you were never accused of bringing forward modest or unpatronixed merit; the objects of your patron- age were and are your parasites, or worse- You, also, were never suspected of one generous action. Again, see what your history as a statesman is; one month you declare publicly that you should be mad if you were to accept office, the next month found you Premier I Again, you declared that the old rotten borough and nomination system was the per- t action of human wisdom. Yes, it is literally true, you called it the perfection of human wisdom ; and now, forsooth. you are a follower of the Tamworth Reformer, who only pants fur power to extend the blessings of reform to all the branches of the State. For the present I have done with you. My next "familiar epistle" shall be to your Reforming colleague, Sir Robert Peel, in reply to the impudent specimens of claptrap bypocrisy exhibited by him at Tamworth. I have the honour to be, my Lord Duke. with all the ceremony of courtesy,

Your obedient servant, DANIEL O'CONNELL.