Having completed our budget of foreign intelligence, we turn to
the far more interesting and important affairs of the Sister Isle; Having completed our budget of foreign intelligence, we turn to the far more interesting and important affairs of the Sister Isle;
where, after an interval of comparative calm, the storm which
we have seen gathering- for some weeks past, has at length burst forth, and promises to rage with the- accustomed fury of the season.
It is to be hoped that the pilots lo whose guidance the state vessel is consigned, are blessed with steady hands and stout hearts, for verily they will need them much.
Mr. O'CONNELL made his appearance at the Four Courts in Dublin on Saturday last; and, with the apparent determination
not to lose a moment's time, walked to his old arena, the Corn Exchange; where he drew up and signed a requisition for a public meeting to petition against Tithes and for the Repeal of the Union. This is his first step of renewed agitation in Dublin ; which he has declared shall be kept up with unusual energy ; and there is every reason to believe that he will keep his word.
The Government, on the other hand, have commenced their operations : we wish we could add, that they have commenced discreetly. On the contrary, their very first act lays them open to just animadversion, and affords an admirable handle to the agi- tators to hold them up to public odium. It will be recollected that some months ago, the editor of the Dublin Pilot copied a letter from Mr. O'CONNELL to the People of Ireland, which was first published here in the True Sun : for this he was prosecuted by Lord ANGLESEA'S Government ; but, owing to some misma- nagement, accidental or wilful, there was no jury to try him, and the trial was postponed. It was generally supposed that the prosecution was given up ; as, although the Judges have been sitting for some time, no application to-fix a day of trial was made till Monday last; and even then, it was made without any pre- vious notice to.the defendant. The Court has appointed Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday next, whichever shall be most conve- nient for the trial.
Now this ,proceeding is avowedly meant as a retaliation for Mr. O'CONNELL s renewed turbulence: in other words, the Dublin editor is to be punished for the offences of another,—offences which in themselves do not render the man who commits them liable to any punishment at all. The conclusion that will be drawn from this is, that the Government is both cowardly and vindictive ; else why not prosecute Mr. O'CONNELL himself, the avowed author of the alleged libel ? Why make a comparatively powerless opponent the victim for the sins of his formidable patron? It is not impro- bable that the Government will be defeated in this prosecution : it can gain neither credit nor strength by success: whatever the re- sult may be, Mr. LITTLETON will find that he has taken a wrong step, and given a most gratuitous and unnecessary advantage to the enemy. From the tone adopted by the Ministerial Globe on this side the water, and its Dublin correspondent on the other, it would almost seem that Government is inclined to curry favour with the Orangemen, "whose attachment to the Constitution and the con- nexion between the two Islands " is made the subject of laud and congratulation ; while the combination between Popery and Re- peal is specially noted, and declared to be fully established in Ire- land. If an alliance with the Protestant party were aimed at, however, it is hardly rational to suppose that Mr. LITTLETON would have procured the unceremonious dismissal of Colonels BLACKER and VERNER from the Magistracy, which has thrown their faction into a perfect fury, Altogether, Irish politics are as in- explicably jumbled at the present time, as they have constantly been since the old rule of government, that of supporting Orangeism through thick and thin, in spite of justice and mercy, was of ne- cessity abandoned.
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