The 4th of November, a day dear to the Irish
Protestants, was fixed for the first grand meeting of the Brunswick Club of Ireland. If numbers, wealth, and title, give a claim to respect and a guarantee for wisdom, then should the resolves of this meeting deserve high consideration indeed ; for few more respectable assemblies have ever been held in that country. About three thousand persons (we take the numbers from the Standard) congregated in the Rotunda, the largest room in Dublin,—including peers, baronets, senators, and gentlemen, headed by the Earl of Longford. This nobleman explained, that the object of the societies, of which this one was the parent, was the "preservation of the integrity of the Protestant constitution ;" and the means which they were to adopt to this end, were " firmness, union, and moderation." The special business of the meeting was to receive the report of the Committee, as to what had been done during the three months since the Brunswick Club of Dublin began. We subjoin a summary of the contents of this report, as it was read to the meeting by Major Eccles.
It explained the -steps hitherto taken by the managing cpinmittees of the Brunswick Clubs throughout the kingdom to obtain a unity of ac • tion, which would give strength to their exertions. It stated that branch. clubs were established in every county, and almost in every town in the kingdom, in connexion and correspondence with each other, and others were still being formed. The Society was denominated strictly defensive, its existence being derived from the violence of "the body styling itself the Catholic Association of Ireland." A general but voluntary contribution was recommended as a necessary assistance to carrying into effect the extended views of the clubs. It expressed much gratification at the result of the meeting at Penenden Heath, as indicating that the English Protestants had responded to the call of their Irish brethren; and as likely to be the forerunner of a similar expression of Protestant feeling throughout the empire. The Committee had adopted means, through the medium of the press, to inform the public mind in England on the subject of the demands made by the Catholics, and of the present state and past history of Ireland. It was recommended that petitions should be forwarded to both Houses of Parliament in support of the constitution ; and an address to the King was also recommended, explanatory of the views and tendency of the club. Allusion was made to the threats held out, and in some places practically enforced, of withdrawing Catholic custom from Protestant tradespeople. But were the Catholic population prepared for the measure of the Protestant gentry engaging only Protestant servants, and of treating only with Protestant tenants ? The Club would not recommend any measures of retaliation at present,— trusting that the Catholics would depart from a resolution which would be prejudicial to themselves. All personal hostility to the Roman Catholics was disclaimed ; and every member of the Clubs individually adjured not to carry into the relations of social life any of that opposition, which as Protestants, and upon public grounds only, they were obliged to show to the political claims made by their Roman Catholic brethren.
From the statement read by the Secretary, it appears that the Brunswick Clubs in Ireland are considerably above one hundred. Various gentlemen spoke, and moved resolutions declaratory of propositions in the report ; and both the resolutions and speeches were characterized by a mildness in the manner, as well as a moderation in substance, that we have not observed at any of the inferior Brunswick meetings.
The leaders in these Clubs seem to think that our ancestors reached perfection, in the way of mending the constitution, in 1688. At the Leinster Provincial Meeting, on Wednesday week, this notion was exposed to some ridicule, in favour of the Catholics, by the Marquis of Westmeath. The Leinster Protestants and Catholics, of which this meeting was composed, showed a strong desire that means should be taken to conciliate the populalation. They expressed no dismay at the decision of the " Men of Kent ;" but they lamented that so much "practical bigotry" should exist among any class of Englishmen as was manifested at the late meeting. The following resolution embodies their sentiments on the whole matter.
"That we are, however, much pleased that Abe great question of freedom of conscience has been brought before a meeting of the people publicly convened ; and although the decision of the meeting on Penenden Heath has been adverse to that sacred principle, yet, as the English mind can best be enlightened by public discussion, we earnestly call on the friends of truth and justice to continue to hold public meetings, so that it may be ascertained whether the English mind be so far behind hand with the rest of the civilized and Christian world, as to continue persecution on account of conscientious belief, after religious liberty has been established in almost all the Catholic and several of the Protestant States."
The Brighton Gazette has revived the dormant rumour that Ministers are preparing to concede the Catholic claims,—qualified' however, with "restrictions and conditions," which will render the . gift ungracious. One of these is the suppression of the Association,—a measure, possibly, which even Catholics might not regret if its labours were rendered. useless ; but it is.not probable that the disfranchisement of the forty-shilling freeholders—another of the "restrictions"—would prove acceptable in Ireland, or be regarded in England as a precedent altogether safe.
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