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We could also show (it

general resources of Ireland, &c., &c. went on to say) how we have endured fever in one year, and famine in another and often both in one, and all patiently; how we were laden with taxes until their excessive accumulation proved our only relief, and our best friend; how the great progress which Ireland once was making was stopped by the Union, and all her improvements as a nation checked."

It protested against a repeal of the habeas corpus, against insurrection bills, &c., &c, and against a "constable bill" of that year, containing the monstrous principle of go 7erning this country by a stipendiary magistracy, and an armed police-alarming and un. constitutional substitutes for a resident gentry.

It concluded by an exhortation to the House of Commons, to take into consideration the propriety of repealing the act of Union-"a measure which, carried by such illegal, such unconstitutional means-by the sale, notorious as it was, of all our sacred, our judicial, our political institutions-never could prosper, but must end in calamity, and recoil upon the authors of so much evil;" and the exhortation was enforced by reminding the house, that "the pressure of business upon you is too great, the inconvenience to Irish members to attend is too great, the wants of seven millions of people were too great.'

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There were in this petition grievous faults of style and arrangement, and a want of sustained force of expression; but the substance, coming from an Orange Guild of the city of Dublin, was sound and good, and proved how national feeling will sometimes break through the strongest barriers of miserable party prejudice and interest.

A question of a good deal of interest relative to bar practice was involved in the matter, which drew the following letter, published in the Freeman's Journal of Saturday, the 1st of December, 1822 :

“TO THE PROPRIETOR OF THE FREEMAN'S JOURNAL.

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Merrion-square, 6th December, 1822. "SIR-There is a statement in your paper of this day, of an occurrence in the Court of King's Bench yesterday, during the trial of the cause of Crowe v. Fleming, which is singularly inaccurate. I request you will publish the following accurate detail of the facts:

"I was counsel for Mr. Crowe at the trial of the first cause, instituted by him in the Court of Exchequer, and tried at Ennis in the Summer Assizes, 1819. He was unsuccessful, and the cause was at an end.

'He afterwards filed a Bill against Mr. Fleming in the Court of Chancery. In that cause I was not counsel for either party; Mr. Crowe had a right to leave me out, and he very properly exercised that right.

"He next instituted this suit in the Court of King's Bench, and issue had been for some time joined in it before either party applied to me. Mr. Hickman, the defendant's attorney, was the first to do so. He offered me a retainer. I at first declined to receive it, saying, that as I had been counsel for the plaintiff in the former cause, I was unwilling to be counsel against him in this.

Mr. Hickman asked whether I was retained in this cause?

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I said not. He insisted upon it, as the defendant's right, that I should accept of his retainer, and that I could not consistently with professional propriety refuse. I told him I would consider of it for a day or two, and that if ultimately I was of opinion that I was bound to take the defendant's retainer, I would take it as if given on that day.

"In the interval the plaintiff's attorney left some papers in the cause at my house. I told him what had taken place between Mr. Hickmau and me. He immediately laid claim to the plaintiff's prior right to my services. I told him I could not admit that right. He asked whether I would refer the point to any other counsel. I said I would readily, to any one whom he should name. He named Mr. Edward Pennefather, and I said it was not possible to make a better choice.

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Accordingly, in a few days, the plaintiff's attorney called on me, and we went together to Mr. Pennefather's house. The facts were stated to Mr. Pennefather by the plaintiff's attorney, and upon that statement he decided that I was bound to accept the defendant's retainer.

"In that decision, of course, I acquiesced. I could not be wrong in submitting to it, but I must say, that I am convinced it was a perfectly right decision. The plaintiff himself does not think that he is bound to employ the counsel he had at the trial at Ennis, and in point of fact, there are two of those counsel whom he has not employed now, and who are not engaged at either side. The condition of the clients would be grievous, if they were under any obligation to employ in every cause, all the counsel they employ in any one suit respecting the same property. "Your report of this morning makes me say, that I was leading counsel at the former trial. I was not leading counsel. Another gentleman was, and the plaintiff has not employed him in the present cause. You also make me say, that it was I who named the arbitrator. You perceive now it was not I; it was the plaintiff's attorney who named him. I pass over other in

accuracies.

"Your report will probably be copied into other newspapers. Those who copy it, if they affect fair play, will also copy this letter. I confess I scarcely expect so much candour.

"I am, Sir,

"Your obedient Servant,

"DANIEL O'CONNELL"

MEETING IN THE ROYAL EXCHANGE.

20th December, 1822.

OUTRAGE AT THE THEATRE.

In December, 1822, occured an event that has a place in the Annals of Dublin as the "bottle throwing" conspiracy. On Saturday, the 14th of that month, the Lord Lieutenant, Lord Wellesley, attended the theatre in state, and was warmly received by the audience with the exception of a party of Orangemen, chiefly of the lower class, whose ire he had provoked by no great practical exhibition of impartiality in his government; but rather by a less than usual active favouritism towards the old ascendancy party. From groans and hisses the malcontents proceeded to open violence-and a quart bottle, and shortly Afterwards a large piece of wood, part of a watchman's rattle, were flung, happily without Cect, at the viceregal party.

Among other public demonstrations on this occurrence, was a meeting at the Royal Exchange, of persons of all parties held on Friday, the 20th December; the Lord Mayor (Fleming) in the chair.

After several speeches, Mr. O'Connell, having been repeatedly called upon, came forward, and, after the cheers with which he was received had subsided, spoke nearly to the fol 1.wing effect:

My Lord Mayor and Gentlemen-It would be very great affectation in me not to come forward at the call of my fellowcitizens, to express my thankfulness for the kindness with which I have been greeted, and to offer my humble sentiments on the present occasion.

And permit me, in the first instance, my lord, to express the delight which I feel in addressing your lordship as the chief magistrate of this city. Your career of office since the commencement, has been one of which every well-disposed man in the community must approve. It has been marked by an impartial administration of the law-by a meritorious obedience to the directions of the supreme magistrate of the country-and by creditable exertions to regulate the conduct, and stimulate to the execution of their duty, the officers and magistrates of subordinate station.

As to the event which has occurred, and which we have assembled to deprecate, I am satisfied that only one feeling of indig sation, of sorrow, and of shame, can prevade the mind of every man in the country. It was an outrage without parallel in any former instance of wanton, unprovoked insult. If the accused be innocent, their acquittal will clear their characters from the foulness of the imputed guilt; if guilty, impartial justice will avenge the laws which they have outraged. To that law I am anxious they should be submitted; and sure I am, that whether innocent or guilty, I may be pardoned the vanity I take in my

profession, in the assurance I give, that they will be dealt with fairly, uprightly, and impartially. With that distinguished ornament of the bar and of Ireland, Charles Bushe, presiding in the Court of King's Bench, aided by Mr. Justice Jebb, by that admirable Englishman, Mr. Justice Burton, and by that excellent gentleman, Mr. Justice Vandeleur-there is not a country in Europe where justice is more purely administered, than in the King's Bench in Ireland. (Applause.)

Whatever, therefore, may be the punishment, it would be the award of justice. On this topic, or on any other, my lord, I am not disposed to use irritating language, and, if I were so disposed, the presiding presence of your lordship would restrain me from the use of it. I am not even disposed to animadvert with harshness upon the events which have, either remotely or immediately, preceded this last unparalleled atrocity. These events it would be better, perhaps, to forget; and, taking this atrocity for an example of the baneful and dangerous excesses of illegal associations of every description, we should all unite and join in the universal inculcation of the salutary lesson, that loyalty, to be genuine, should be rational; and that loyalty is not the peculiar prerogative of one sect or another, but is the legitimate and appropriate characteristic of all his majesty's subjects, of every class, every rank, every denomination. (Applause.)

Much polemics had been abroad in the world at the present day, and learned disputations had lately occupied the attention and no doubt edified the piety of the public; but that religion is alone worthy the character of Christianity, which does not exasperate or divide, but which unites every man, and all men, in the bonds of brotherly love, reciprocal kindness and mutual benevolence.

If Ireland, with the richest soil, maintained the poorest people, if her prosperity had been marred, if her riches had been drained and squandered in foreign dissipation, it was because her children, instead of combining in effectual co-operation to consider how best that soil might be cultivated, how best that prosperity might be advanced, and how best her wealth may be distributed for the nation's weal, abused their time, and aban doned their duties in attacking each other, and running a dishonourable rivalry in their endeavours to tear their country into pitiful and tattered fragments. (Much and continued cheering.) It was true, that great misery, as Mr. Leader had eloquently depicted, existed in the south of Ireland. And it was true also, that crime had been abundant there. The Irish peasantry, in

the insanity of their poverty and wretchedness, had taken up arms. In the dark hour of midnight, they prowled to the perpetration of horrible excesses. Of those I am not, God forbid I should be, in the most distant degree the apologist; however, it should be remembered, that their wants and their wretchedness were extreme; it should not be forgotten, not as a justification, but as some trivial mitigation, that the weight of misery pressed upon them so heavily as to provoke them, in some degree, to burst these bonds of order which, under any circumstances, it was their bounden duty to observe and revere.

But was it ever known of an irish peasant, that in the midst of gaiety, of luxury, and of merriment, he became a murderer ? Was it ever known of him, that in the moment of joy and gratulation, surrounded, too, by our beautiful country women, whose presence it was the chivalrous pride of an Irishman to respect; was it ever heard that he degraded his name, his nature, and his humanity, into the character of an ignominious traitor, and a base assassin? (Cries of no, no,' and continued cheering.) And who was the object of this outrage? The man who was the delegate not only of the king's power in this country, but the delegate also of his benevolence, and the representative of his affection for Ireland. (Cheers.)

I am myself a reformer, I always avow my opinions on the subject of reform. I differ, respectfully differ, from the Marquis of Wellesley, from the sentiments which at the early part of his active and glorious public life he expressed upon that subject; yet, his distinguished services on that occasion could not preserve him from the outrage of those who affect all the loyalty of the land, and make that loyalty to consist, perhaps very properly, in an opposition to reform. I pass over his glorious administration in India, where he introduced the blessings of British law, and where the wisdom of his government displayed itself in the increased civilization of the people, and the augmented glory, strength, and power of the British empire. But that one of his eminent services on which I dwell with the greatest pleasure and satisfaction, is, his conduct as representative of his sovereign in Spain. He was the person who had sown that seed vhich had risen to a magnificent tree, which, in the maturity of its growth, overshadowed the odious and abominable inquisition, and under the shade of whose spreading branches the forlorn liberties of mankind found security and shelter.

At the time when the armies of France threatened desolation to Spain, the Marquis of Wellesley was at Cadiz, and then

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