IRELAND.
An adjourned meeting of "Protestants" was held at Belfast on Friday. It was attended by several noblemen and gentlemen connected with the province of Ulster, and others sent letters of concurrence. The Earl of Roden presided. An address to the Protestants of the British empire was proposed by the Earl of Erne, seconded by the Honourable Somerset Maxwell, and adopted unanimously. It begins with the remark that the meeting make their appeal in a "season of great danger and trial." They believe that the fall of Protestantism in Ireland would be felt throughout Christendom as a blow to the cause of truth. To the present administration, on their accession to power, eager support was given by the Irish Protestants; and they still disclaim any indisposition to cooperate with Ministers in a conciliatory policy towards the Roman Catholics. In spite of misgivings, the past was buried in oblivion- " It was hoped and believed, that a Conservative Government would have endeavoured to remedy and reverse the ruinous policy of their predecessors, as regarded this part of the empire; that they would not have encouraged the advancement of the Church of Rome, but, guarding against its encroachments, that they would have befriended the Protestant cause, and zealously consulted its interests; that, in questions relating to religion and education in Ireland, due regard would have been paid to the principles of Scriptural instruction, and to the claims of that Reformed faith which is interwoven with the constitution, recog- nized by the laws, and is the corner-stone of the British monarchy. Such were our expectations. We challenge the most moderate to point out in the policy of the present Administration any signs of affection to the Protestant cause, or any symptoms of resistance or discouragement to the march of the Church of Rome." They apprehend "still heavier blows and greater discouragernents" in store; they find themselves encompassed by a wide-spread and sanguinary conspiracy; and the Irish Protestants claim just constructions in writing for self-defence-
" Our fair country has been made notorious amongst the nations of Europe as eland of blood and crime: the perpetrator of the foulest murder escapes into triumphant security, and the arm of the law is utterly powerless. We will not dwell upon this fact; but we earnestly beseech you, in forming an estimate of the conduct and circumstances of an Irish Protestant, to give full room and weight to this sad and horrible ingredient.
'To associate firmly and peacefully, in the earnest spirit of men who feel the Importance of religious truth, and with the cordial loyalty which renders full obedience to the law, has been the thought and is the wish of the Protestants of Ireland: let your judgment as to this desire be deliberate and impartial." They complain that Magistrates have been dismissed from the commission of the peace, because they had united for an object legal, conservative, and „ religious: if' that be allowed, any Government may convert the Magistracy into a body of political partisans. They will not believe that a cause so righteous as theirs can be wanting in support from the people of the British empire. Addressing the Protestants of Ireland in particular, they exhort them to be calm and united; and not to neglect the registries. " England," they say, "cannot abandon you without sacrificing her Protestantism and forsaking her God."
Mr. O'Connell has continued his progress in the West. On the 15th,. there was a monster-meeting and dinner at Sligo. The Pilot says that his journey from Ballina "was a Repeal demonstration the whole way"; and that there were present at the meeting " countle -s thousands." The speeches were unusually stale.
At the meeting of the Repeal Association, on Monday, the presence of Mr. O'Connell drew a full attendance. The Agitator delivered a very mul- tifarious speech, mostly on very trite subjects; but some were less worn. He made three reports on dissensions among Repealers in the towns of Limerick, Loughrea, and Sligo. In Limerick, the Repeal Warden has re-. signed his post, to procure unanimity; for which Mr. O'Connell moved the thanks of the Association to him. At Loughrea, Mr. Doheny had settled a. dispute between two parties of Repealers; but it broke out again as soon as he turned his back, and was not finally settled without the intervention of Mr. O'Connell himself. At Sligo, even Mr. O'Connell failed to settle the differences: the Repealers in the Town-Council are divided; the minority headed by the Mayor, have joined with the Tories; and though still sup- porting Repeal, that minority decline to place their votes at the disposal of a Mr. Verdon and his followers, who are supported by Mr. O'Connell. In a letter to Mr. O'Connell, the Mayor expresses a hope that the evidence taken by Mr. Dillon Browne will satisfy the Association as to the zeal of the minority in the cause of Repeal. Mr. O'Connell, however, appeared to be for from satisfied. He next passed some strictures on the conduct of Sir Henry Winston Barron; who, although a declared Repealer, has not become a member of the Association. Then he attacked the appointment of Lord Rosse to be a Visiter of Maynooth College; because at the time of Lord Norbury's murder, Lord Rosse (then Lord Oxmantown) denounced the Roman Catholics for harbouring assassins, and recommended landlords to take pattern by Lord Lorton.
Mr. O'Connell said he did not believe it was one of the peasantry who had as- sassinated Lord Norbury; for he was kind and good to them. 'I he spot where the assaesin stood bore traces, not of the iron-studded brogue of the peasant, but of a London-made boot. He challenged the Recorder to deny that fact at the time, and the learned gentleman was forced to admit it [Having read an ex- tract from a speech which Lord Oxmantown delivered at a meeting of Magistrates, Mr. O'Connell proceeded.] Was that not too bad, to appoint such a person as that, living in peace, notwithstanding the utterance of those base and lying calumnies, a Visiter to Maynooth ? And yet it was Ireland gave him birth—an Irishwoman gave him suck; and he dares to use such language of his country. Who was the assassin? Lord Oxmantown Who concealed him? Might he not have been concealed beneath his Lordship's roof? Those were his calumnies. (Laud cries of" He lies!") He knew that, without their telling him; and Lord Oxmantown knew it too at the time he was uttering them. What a qualification for a Visitor- to Maynooth to be the vilifier of the Roman Catholic clergy Why, if he had 4 particle of shame about him, he would refuse to accept the office, Mr. O'Connell passed to the Fine Arts Commissioners; whom he assailed for their choice of men to be represented in statues— In the first place, they gave a statue to Stephen Langton, whose name was great in history as a Catholic Archbishop of England, and who bad performed mass for the Barons before they wrung Magna Charts from King John; but they would not give a statue to the Archbishop of Dublin: why 2—because he had no see in England. Well, to be sure, the taste and judgment of that I Continuing the subject, he would observe that they had left out one of the very greatest men. that England ever produced—Thomas a Becket, the defender of her liberties; at whose shrine 100,000 Englishmen, when England was Catholic, had assembled int homage, because they knew him to be the advocate of their liberties. They omitted that really great and magnificent man, who died a martyr as he had lived a saint; the defeater of Henry and his tyranny, and whom he would sooner have for an Irishman than almost any other that had ever lived. Well, they left him out; but to whom did they give a statue? Why, to Oliver Cromwell (Cheers, groans, and laughter.) They had also given one to Monk; than whom a meaner or more despicable traitor—however useful his treason—never existed. Why, they might as well have put up a statue to Judas Iscariot. (Loud cheers and laughter.) Indeed, they only wanted a third to make up a trio complete—they should have added the statue of the Devil. (Tremendous cheers, and laughter' again and again.) The group would then have been completed by the pre-senea of their master. After narrating the atrocities of Cromwell's soldiers in Ireland, and the storming of Drogheda, Mr. O'Connell asked, could they not have spared Ireland the insult of a statue to such a man?
'rho rent for the week was 3781.
Mr. Thomas Lloyd, the new Protestant Repealer, has been duly removed from the Commission of the Peace and Deputy-Lieutenancy of Limerick.
As Mr. Egan, of Strokestown, was returning home on Friday week from Castle- rea, (where he had been to prosecute some civil suits) he was met by four men, one of whom fired at him; the slugs with which the piece was charged lodged in the hip of a mare that Mr. Egan was driving. Next day, three men were arrested on suspicion.
Mr. Downer, a medical gentleman, has been knocked down in the streets of Roscrea, at night, by three ruffians, and almost beaten to death.
The steward of the collieries of the Mining Company of Ireland at Shevendah, in Tipperary, has been fired at, and severely wounded.
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