IRELAND.
The Lord-Lieutenant and the Countess De Grey,- with their Salley sailed from Kingstown on Friday evening, on their *a 10 LOodoit. The usual weekly meeting of the Repeal Association was held on Monday. The first business was brought forward by Mr. Thomas Steele' namely, a motion respecting the statue of Mr. O'Connell for the new Conciliation Hall, to be made by Mr. Hogan. With his usual oratory, Mr. Steele blended not a bad story of an Irish bull ; looking, however, very like a Joe Miller— A question arose in the Committee as to whether the design should repro- sent.O'Connell presiding over the assemblage at Tara Hill—an assemblage such as had never before been seen since the creation of the world—or in the position of delivering his speech of fiery defiance to the threat of the Saxon at Mallow. The latter was decided on; and the moment was to be that at which he uttered these words of defiance—" They may trample on me ; but if they do' it shall be not upon the living man but on my corpse." (Loud cheering, wed cries of "Bravo ! ") These words, which had decided the destiny of Ire- land, had been uttered in reply to the Saxon threat of those impudent and bloodthirsty puppies Peel and Wellington. That old dotard—that bloody old Irish. Indian Sepoy—would, if he dared, revive in his native country those scenes of horror which he had perpetrated in India. (Cheers.) But England had not dared to put her threat Into execution. Sir Robert Peel talked about a year e of prescribing as state physician for the country. This reminded him of afarrier in the county of Clare, who sent in his bill to a gentleman "for curing his horse until be died-16s." If the present Ministry and the present system of Government went on much longer, Sir Robert Peel would have to send in his bill to the Queen "for curing her Majesty's empire until it died." (Cheers and laughter.) Mr. Steele concluded by moving that the statue to be erected to the Father of the Country should represent him in the position of giving a fiery defiance to the Saxon, and that on the pedestal be in- scribed the words already quoted. (Cheers.) The motion was carried unanimously. Mr. O'Connell afterwards entered, and made the amende honorable to a gentleman of the press. At the previous meeting Mr. O'Connell had adverted to the report in the Times of the Tara meeting, which stated that persons had been forced to attend the meeting ; Mr. O'Connell declaring, in very strong language that it was false, imputing it to party-spirit, and intimating that at the next weekly meeting he should personally call the reporter to account and move his expulsion from the room. It appears that the writer of the controverted account was not in Ireland last week ; but on his return he wrote a very temperate letter to the Freeman's Journal, disclaiming the party-spirit imputed ; pointing, on the other hand, to the intense party-spirit of the Repeal journals ; averring that he had heard the particular fact mentioned by ardent Repealers as a proof of the people's determination to carry their object ; and appealing to several members of the London press in vindication of the impar- tiality of the writer's reports. To this letter Mr. O'Coonell, victi voce, replied thus— Be had read that letter with the greatest attention, and with much pleasure. Be liked both the tone and temper of it. ("Hear, hear!") Its author had as- serted himself with the dignity of a gentleman, and without the slighest ill-feeling or anything inconsistent with the strictest propriety, while he had convinced him (Mr. O'Connell) that he was in the wrong. ("Hear, hear! ") He had sud- denly asserted, that the gentlemen who reported should be totally neutral; but if he had reflected for a moment, he would have remembered that reporters act also as private correspondents for newspapers all over the world, and would of course have seen that he had totally forgotten one part of their duty. He wished, therefore, to observe, that he considered the neutrality of reporters to be confined to the reporting of the proceedings of public meetings; and so long as they reported those proceedings fairly, they were entitled to every aid and assistance which could be afforded them. They were the most useful class of the public in perpetuating sentiments which could otherwise be evanescent and perish with the voice of the speaker who uttered them. ("Hear, hear! ") He had only to repeat, that he was in the wrong, and the gentleman to whose letter he referred was in the right. (Cheers.)
The rent for the week was announced to be 1,380/.
The meeting was specially adjourned to Tuesday, in order that Mr. O'Connell might comment on the Queen's Speech in proroguing Parlia- ment; and accordingly he dilated for two hours on that text. His address may be divided into three parts,—an attack on the Union, with no new matter in it ; an attack on Ministers, their conduct and appoint- ments, made up of stale topics ; and a critique on the Speech, also more bitter than noveL He took pains to make out that the Speech was not really that of the Queen, but only of Ministers ; and he pronounced it to be "an excess of impitdence and stupidity combined." He repeated his conviction, that if tge Union were not repealed peaceably, during his life, the result would be a sanguinary struggle, and perhaps total
separation ; and he added, (with something of a bull,) while be lived, "the struggle would be conducted legitimately and constitutionally ; but
he bequeathed to those who followed him their own course ofproceeding."
He moved that a committee should be appointed to prepare the draught of an address to be laid before the Repeal Association, stating the
enormous grievances under which the people of Ireland labour, and the course they deem it prudent to adopt under the .present circum- stances ; and detailing the injustice which not only Justifies but de- mands the continuance of the present agitation. This motion was carried.
An address has been presented to Mr. O'Connell from the ladies of Mountmellick, beginning, " May it please your moral and irresistible greatness" ; stating that they, "the daughters, sisters, matrons, and wives of countless thousands,' "prostrate themselves before his irre- sistible greatness " ; with more of the same kind, which the Dublin Evening Mail alludes to as very equivocal and very funny.
The following passage from the Pilot—who, by the by, has been reviving accounts of " the battle of Tara '—is a tid-bit in Repeal lite- rature. The London Standard had expended some indignant com- mentary on the statement of Irish grievances recently made to the Eng- lish people by certain Irish Members ; and the Pilot is in turn wondrous wroth with the Standard. It begins the elegant extract which we quote with the words of its London contemporary, thus set forth—
"AND THIS FARRAGO OF IMPUDENT MENACE AND LOATHSOME HYPOCRISY (the said address of the Irish Members) IS EMPLOYED BY MEN, SOME OF WHOM PRETEND TO DE- PRECATE A REPEAL OF THE UNION! AND IT IS AD- DRESSED TO THE BRAVE AND HONEST PEOPLE OF ENG- LAND. IN THE NAME OF THAT PEOPLE, WE WILL VEN- TURE TO ANSWER, WE DEFY YOUR THREATS, AND WE DESPISE YOUR HYPOCRISY ! ' DO YOUR WORST
"Here it is—we give it in capitals, to render it more marked; and if it be not stereotyped in every Irish newspaper, these insolent expressions will be engraven on every Irish heart. Look at the language of the address—look at
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this Saxon commentary, and then judge what are we to expect from a people among whom such an address inspires such a commentary. 'Do your worst,' says the Saxon. Ay, will we—but that, in Irish, means doing our best. Scoundrel Saxon, and organ of Saxons, come on, if you dare! If you assault, we'll lick you—if you forbear, we won't thank you : in either case we'll triumph over you ; and, if you persevere in injustice too long, we'll make you a bank- rupt!! This is the only answer the Saxon insolence we have recorded above deserves from an Irishman, be he Tory, Whig, or Repealer."
The Northern Whig publishes a long letter, addressed by the Mar- quis of Londonderry to the Earl of Roden, dated 101h August, depre- cating the contemplated Anti-Repeal meeting at Belfast on the 7th of this month, as tending to kindle new fires, "when the sole object of our beloved and far-famed county of Down should be tranquillity, peace, and good order." With assurances of the greatest friendship and re- spect for Lord Roden, the Marquis quotes accounts which he had re- ceived from Down, contradicting Lord Roden's representations of ex- citement in that part of the country : one reported meeting at Down is declared to have been a mere fable. Lord Londonderry proceeds- " Now, I beg your Lordship to understand, that I do not transcribe these opinions with the presumption of changing your sentiments, which 1 have no doubt are formed in your mature wisdom and judgment ; but I state them to prove, that if this meeting takes place, a great diversity of opinion as to its prudence and utility will arise among the Conservative Protestant party of Ulster. Such division will only be encouragement and triumph to the Liberals and Repealer.. The friends of the present Ministry, reposing confidence in their views and system, will avoid attending demonstrations without defined objects : and I apprehend no proceedings can grow out of the public projected meeting, but what will trench upon illegality, or border upon inutility. " If it is said that the Protestants want protection, and conceive themselves deserted by those who should shield them, I would ask, what guarantee of pro- tection would a tumultuous meeting afford, where the leaders of the same prin- ciples and cause would probably appear divided as to the measures before them ? " We have had already experience of a great Northern meeting at Hills- borough, in times less menacing than the present ; and I would ask again, what advantage did it produce ? Great party and personal strife and perse- cution, upon causes widely remote from Irish polities, in which men joined for their immediate objects at the moment." The writer goes on to suggest that the intended meeting would be in- consistent with Lord Roden's "incomparable letter" to the Protestants, dissuading them from processions on the 12th of July. If the Pro- testants need protection, it were better to look to the Army, with a Wellington at its head, and to the fact that it must ever be the policy of Great Britain to uphold the Irish Protestants, than to trust to " the multitudinous meetings, which can only evaporate in bluster, and end in weak if not ridiculous defiance." In accordance with these views, though, as the brother of " that great statesman who mainly accom- plished the measure of the Union," Lord Londonderry execrates Repeal, he shall feel it his duty to avoid encouraging or aiding any thing like public demonstrations of party-feeling.
Peter Dolan has been committed for trial on the charge of murdering Lord Norbury, ; after a long and private examination at Dublin Head Police-office, during which the prisoner was observed often to shed tears.
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