Four hundred of the nobility, clergy, and gentry of the
county and town of Galway, have signed the following public declaration— - " We, the undersigned nobility, clergy, and 4-entry of the county and county of the town of Galway, having received authentic information that her Majesty's Government have determined, in carrying out the provisions of the act of the last session of Parliament for establishing Provincial Colleges in Ireland, to erect a College in the town of Galway, hereby publicly declare our grateful acknowledg- ment to her Majesty's Government for having selected Galway as the site of one of the Colleges, and conferring on our distinguished and respected townsman the Very Reverend J. W. Kirwan, D.D. P.P., of Outerard, the Presidentship thereof."
Among the signatures, it is said, there are to be found the names of only one clergyman of the Established Church, and of only two Roman Catho- lic priests; but there are the names of Mr. P. M. Lynch, High Sheriff, Lord Wallscotut, Sir Valentine Blake, M.P., Mr. T. B. Martin, M.P., and a considerable number of Deputy-Lieutenants, Magistrates, and other gentle- men, without distinction of creed or party. Sir Valentine, we believe, is a hot Repealer. It becomes daily more apparent that O'Connell has made a mistake in opposing the Colleges Bill, and that the majority of the Roman Catholic clergy have equally blundered in backing him. And the Re- peelers know it; as witness this jeremiads, spiced with falsehoods, in one of their organs published at Waterford-
" Already has the foul machination of the enemy commenced operations. Cler- omen and laymen welcome the insidious monster. A few nicknames given to Yuman knowledge are about to cheat the people into a resignation of their faith. A priest in the West, [Dr. Kirwan,] not having been appointed by the Holy See to rule the Church of God, eagerly grasps at the gift of the British Government to rule a godless college. A man of science, [Professor Kane,] a contemner of his own Liberator, is appointed to another; and the hierarchy are divided. This is indeed a sad state of things. A law is passed confessedly to divide [ .1] the Catholic Church and to conquer Ireland, and passed by men who planned a massacre [11 of the Irish people, and imprisoned as a felon the emancipator of Heaven's Church in Ireland, England, Scotland, and the British Colonies, and the man who made that church respected all over the world. This is indeed a sad state of things. For what is a people who are not able to keep their self-respect ? What is a na- tion that knows not the dishonour of ingratitude, and the crime of truckling to an enemy ? Genius of Erin! weep now in reality. The life of thy children is not taken—they are not banished to caverns and to mountains—a price is not set on the head of the priest or a schoolmaster—your land is not stricken down by the sword; but, alas.! your children are ungrateful—your Church is almost disho- noured—your enemy is smiled upon as a giver of beauty and of intellect, whilst he but passes the bitter and venomous chalice to your unhappy country. Now, indeed, your story may blot the leaves of the pages of history ! No wonder that famine threatens the land—no wonder, indeed, that such things are come to pass as are passing before us."
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