In the Stockport riots the country is beginning. to reap
the fruits of the Durham Letter. By that characteristically cunning but rash stroke of policy, Lord John Russell " sowed the wind to reap the whirlwind." His successors in office have turned his own arms against him, and use them more recklessly. Their Procla- mation against Roman Catholic processions bears a similar re- lation to the Durham Letter that the harangues of Minton and Robespierre did to those of the Girondins. Lord Siilin was the first to appeal to those vague and fierce prejudices of the rude, ignorant Masses, which are by courtesy designated " Protestant sentiment"; his rivals have followed his lead, and " gone far to better his instructions." Indirectly, if not directly, the procla- mation against Romanist processions has caused the Stock- port riots. It fell upon the resuscitated jealousies of igno- rant Protestants and ignorant Romanists like a spark upon tinder, and prepared them to break out into flame with the first supply of fuel or breath of 'wind. The religious jealousy ap- pears to have been by no means unmixed ; but the occasion was probably welcome as a vent for standing fends between English and Irish, discontented factory hands and " knobstioks," as well as Pro- testant and Catholic. Tfie procession was not one of those against which either the law or the proclamation was levelled. It was simply an anniversary array of charity scholars, such as is every- where customary, and among all sects or educational associations. It was marked by no ecclesiastical insignia. The Magistrates, though their attention was called to it beforehand, did not feel themselves warranted to prevent it; and in acting thus they in- terpreted the law rightly. But the mob •did not understand the difference between legal and illegal processions of the same in- dividuals, and the display was regarded as a triumph by the low Catholics—as an insult by the low Protestants. Hence angry dis- cussions among polemics of the beer-shop, street-fights, and the wrecking and plundering of houses and chapels. If the Magistrates evinced a correct understanding of the law in not interfering with the procession, the delay of decisive measures to atop the brawls which ensued from it needs explanation. Preliminary skirmishes were in progress from Monday till Wednesday, yet no serious effort was made to stop them, or to add to the strength of the police by auxiliaries. The sequel has been, a series of outrages unexampled in this country since the time of Lord George Gordon's riots. The work still goes on at intervals ; and the orderly inhabitants are dis- tracted between the outrages they see perpetrated under their eyes, and rumours of inroads of the Irish Papists from the surrounding districts to avenge their brethren. Stockport is now filled with soldiers, called in to repress anticipated frays.
What has happened at Stockport may happen at any moment in any part of England or Scotland where Irish labourers have been attracted in considerable numbers : and what effect is the news of thiabilitheak calculated to produce in Ireland P Surely there is vents a sufficient warning to all reasonable men to desist #0 e tioneering " No-Popery " howl.
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