Mr. O'Connell pronounces it " criminal " in English writers
to say that the interest in Repeal begins to flag ; a violence of as- severation which raises doubts as to the asseverator's anxiety lest he should not be believed. Other matters suggest doubts : the attractions of - Repeal are ostentatiously paraded ; and we all know *hat that Implies in business. Among the attractions, we
presume, may be classed the privilege of paying into Mr. O'Con- nell's exchequer ; which the Irish, like a late royal epicure who contrived to make a glass of wine trickle with wondrous slowness- down his throat, are prolonging with a fond, reluctant, amorous delay, attesting their delight. They are spreading the pleasure of giving in the tribute over as long a time as possible ; so that it has been necessary to haiten their movements. Another attrac- tion is promised Air the admiring public by Mr. John O'Con- nell; who is revisingfifty:five huge volumes of essays =Repeal, some of which will -be prize-essays. They are all ad good that all ought to be prize-essays ; and we-may imagine, from-, Mi_ being able to get h t through such_ a 'mass of light literature, that the matter must be as stimulating to the devourer as novels .or romances. Another fresh attraction is " the '821Clubr_iiitic its revolutionary _memories and ;pretty: uniform. The piinciplei must be irresistible which come.dothed. in " A gieen-body,coat with velvet•collar,- white skirt:linings, and gilt buttons," " white tabinet vest "-white tabinet_vest1— green pantaloons, uniform coat in "tinter, 'and white duck .in in summer ; patent leather boots "—patent leather !—" white kid- gloves "—white kid 1,=. ." and black satin stock, subject to changes by the committee.'.' The committee "will deliberate on the stock: "What' fine Roman -.hand-is discerned in this lovely slescription ? We have it—Toni Arkins=" King of men,-I..know, thee 'ifoiv I" The costume is in-
yincible). a
it is an.. immense improvement on the tailvvappolice;- man—snatching grace, as itwe'i's from Yourig England On then one hand, and on the other from the " walking gentleman" in the abstract ideal costunie7seeillSnli on the stage. But that con- tribution to the fashions for, the season sloes _not exhaust O'Conl- resources : 'his son J-ohn-dressed, we supposefin this killing dressis to go on a deputation to Rome, attended by I.rd Ffretia_ and a few: Bishops. Will there not be a " Deputatiod-fund an Touching-this deputation we learn much from the That feitol. joernalatas a,poirespontlent who has a coirespondent at Rome, who Vvritesffir a'sure those whom it may concern at home, that " diplomacy " is vigorously at work in the Eternal City : and the dismayed Hibernian declares, that " if some accredited representative--some Irishman worthy of his country—one in whoth implicit faith may be placed—be not sent here, and that immediately, the 'Consequences, I fear, will be deplorable." The Pilot confesses that the rescript received by Dr. Crolly is an " untoward event" for Repeal. A deputation therefore must be despatched. The Pope "has been imposed upon by the agents of the British Government " ; [he° seems• to have been told that certain priests had used imprudent and exciting language, in public meetings and in church ;] and the deputation must tell him that there is " nothing rash or imprudent"—[not, for instance, in the Bishop of Ardagh's heated eloquence]; that "we require no foreign aid"—[not money from France, Germany, America, &c.] ; and the delegates must "set before the eyes of his Holiness the true state of Ireland, and explain to him why it becomes neces- sary, and in some degree a duty, for prelates and clergymen to take an open part in politics on behalf of the people." We do not know how a potentate of Italy is to be convinced that it is necessary for priests to agitate with people against constituted authorities ; but we see very clearly, from what the Repealers call false in the reports already made to the Pontiff—who has been told that the priests are too much addicted to politics, imprudent in speech, and so forth—that what the Repealers call " true" will be what others would call false ; and there- fore we may infer that the delegates are to proceed to Roma for the deliberate purpose of misrepresenting the facts to their spiritual head. There are now-a-days few occasions on which private persons can, as such, perform good service for the state ; but an opportunity seems to offer here : the indepen- dent, intelligent, and influential among the Roman Catholics of England or Ireland, should make it their part to see that false in- formation is not to be, alone and without counteraction, laid be- fore his Holiness. The British Government cannot so well inter- fere; or if it do it may need confirmatory evidence; and there must be many, known to the Pontiff as his sons in this country, whose station in society would give to their testimony the greatest weight. Some may be in Rome already ; for others a Journey thither would be neither ruinously expensive nor fatally laborious. If Gregory the Sixteenth be left to depend on the O'Connell retinue for evidence as to the actual state of Ireland, shame on the great Catholic families of Britain.
