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that among the few chances that remained for their obtaining emancipation, one of the only chances was to join heartily the reformers (hear, hear) in endeavouring to procure a change in that system, by which the great borough-mongering families were able to influence the returning of members for rotten boroughs, and thus perpetuate that oppression and misrule under which the country had so long groaned.

He was, however, aware that the Catholics were not yet prepared for that step, and he should for the present move for the appointment of a committee of eleven to petition parliament for the administration of justice in Ireland.

MR. O'CONNELL then moved, that the petition for the administration of justice in Ireland, should be confided to Mr. Brougham. (Carried unanimously.)

He then gave notice for an address to the Catholic people of Ireland, warning them against secret societies; he would willingly take charge of Mr. Lawless' motion, which was for the adoption of a petition to the Lord Lieutenant, praying his excellency to prevent any Orange display which might cause a reaction of the Ribbonmen.

In reply to an observation of Sir John Burke

MR. O'CONNELL observed, that he had not applied any observation to the private character of the chancellor, nor did he speak of him in his judicial capacity.

He spoke of him in his character as a statesman; he said he courted the vapid applause of an eating club, where one of the toasts went, by inference, to include the Marquis of Wellesley among the exports of Ireland. It was for his conduct as a statesman that he had arraigned and would arraign him, until he should see the propitious day when he (the chancellor) should himself become an export from Ireland.

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We jump for a moment from politics to law, to return to the former immediately. a course is not unsuited to a sketch of Mr. O'Connell's life, the habit of which for 80 mary years it resembles; those years, when almost the only recreation he knew, was by a change from one engrossing occupation to another-from the Four Courts to the Association mee.. Ing--from thence to his study, to prepare for the courts again.

CRIMINAL INFORMATION.

THE KING at the Prosecution of MICHAEL O'CONNOR, Clerk, v. JOSEPH TIMOTHY HAYDEN AND WILLIAM GLYNN, Proprietors of the Public Newspaper called "The Dublin Evening Mail.”

IN THE KING'S BENCH, JUNE 14TH, 1823.

MR. O'CONNELL (upon the same side as Mr. Goold) submitted to the court, that the subject before them necessarily resolved itself into three branches.

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First, whether the publication was libellous.

"Secondly, whether the persons libelled be such as are entitled to make their complaint as a public body; and,

"Thirdly, whether the conduct of the professional persons concerned for them, in directing the prosecution, has been irregular, and must be visited upon the aggrieved persons prosecuting."

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The court in deciding the first position, were called upon to determine whether the encouraging of midnight assassination and atrocities of the most appalling nature, and in the worst shapes, were crimes, as it was for the encouragement of such of fences that the Catholic clergy were accused in the libel, not under the guise of impartial discussion, but by a direct accusation; not weighing the probability of the charge, but convicting at once, and calling upon the public vengeance; for if any man believed the charge, must he not feel exasperated, and would he not be bound to exert himself by all legal means, and procure the punishment of wretches base enough to disgrace their religion and their calling, by the conduct here imputed to them.

Did not such a charge go to a direct encouragement of the lamented atrocities, by tending to occasion a relaxation of the exertions of the Catholic clergy, when they found their interference and their communication with the peasantry so maligned and misrepresented; and was he to be told, that for fear of agitation, the calumniator who works such mischief, should not be prosecuted; that the priest was to suffer, and not his calumniator.

The learned counsel, after commenting very forcibly, but temperately, upon the nature and tendency of the libel, went on to argue, whether the Catholic clergy were a body of men entitled call upon the court for its protection from such calumny.

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That was a question, he said, of mere law, and would be more properly argued when the case was before a jury, or upon arrest of judgment. The Catholic clergy, he argued, were recognised

and regulated by acts of parliament; they were liable to certain oaths in their ministerial capacity, binding them to the constitution, as well by gratitude for its provision, as by duty for its protection. The Durham case, he conceived, to be conclusive upon their right of appeal as a public body, for in the rule granted in that case, there was no use of the word established clergy of Durham, as relied on by Mr. Johnson. The rule could not apply to the established clergy alone, for no term was more indefinite or undefined, than the established clergy.

After arguing at much length upon this point, the learned counsel proceeded to the third-that of the conduct of the prosecutor having dealt unfairly, and disentitling himself to the information. He then read an affidavit stating, that he (Mr. O'Connell) wrote a letter upon the 1st of May to the defendants, informing them that it was intended to take proceedings against them for the publication of the libel upon the Catholic clergy, but that if they without delay gave up the author, and acknowledged the proprietorship and publication in one of the southern counties where the paper circulated, and where the circumstances were best known, that the proceedings against them would be relinquished.

Upon the 4th of May, Mr. Hayden, one of the defendants, waited upon him (Mr. O'Connell), and prayed time until Mr. Cooper, the author, returned from the country; that it was granted to him, and upon the 7th, Mr. Cooper wrote to Mr. O'Connell, acknowledging his readiness to stand in the place of the proprietors, but refused to acknowledge the publication in Kerry or any of the southern counties, and that through this ingenuity, the time was got over until the 17th of May, when it was too late to file an information, so as to have the trial in the next assizes, and that the author not having complied with the terms of his (Mr. O'Connell's) letter, he was at liberty to proceed as he had first intimated.

That his object in having the trial in some of the southern counties was, that those Protestant gentlemen to whom the con duct of the clergy was best known, might have an opportunity of proving and deciding on it. If the defendants had not the gratitude to thank him (Mr. O'Connell) for the liberal and candid communication made to them in the first instance, and the indulgence granted them subsequently, they should, at least, have abstained from charging the prosecutor with unfairness and misconduct, because he would not receive the author in place of the printer, on his (the author's own conditions.

CHURCH RATES.

The transitions we have recently spoken of from politics to law, and law to politics, which so quickly succeeded each other in the everyday current of Mr. O'Connell's existence, are well exemplified at this stage of our sketch, when we have to give a political speech of his upon the same day that he made the law argument which we have last inserted. It was at a meeting of the association, relative to Church-rates.

MR. O'CONNELL rose to move upon his notice respecting Church-rates.

There was, he said, no grievance which afflicted the peasantry more than the present mode of levying church-rates.

In the country the hardship of the system was intolerable, and pressed with a severity that made it no longer possible to submit in silence. The plan of assessment was equally arbitrary as inconsistent; as long as the levy was made for occasions which might not come immediately within the statute, but which were all reasonable, there was no complaint on the part of the people; but when the magnitude of the demands rendered compliance no longer possible, and that recourse was had to the remedy of seizing upon the little all of the impoverished peasant, then remonstrance forced itself from the still reluctant complainant.

Up to the reign of Henry the Eighth, the great burden of repairing and building churches fell upon the clergy, as also the support of the poor from the Church revenues, and so continued until the confiscation of Church property in England. It occurred in a few particular instances in Ireland, that special parliamentary grants were made for the building of churches; but this never occurred but from some peculiar circumstances, such as to suit the alterations of modern residence, or change the site of the church from inconvenience of situation, and this was not on more than five occasions up to George the Second. In Ireland, Church property, at the Reformation, was not confiscated to the same extent as in England, because the country adhered to the original faith, and the provision for building churches from Church revenues remained in force.

The first date from which Catholics can count the origin of their peculiar hardship in the management of church-rates, was the 12th George I., when they were for the first time rendered ineligible to vote at vestry meetings upon the subject of building or repairing churches, and the statute remains in force to this day; but on this point considerable mistake prevailed, for the intolerants would have it, that by the provision of that act,

Catholics were excluded altogether from vestries, whereas they were not prevented from delivering their opinions, or taking part in the discussion upon building of churches, but only from voting upon the question; and that statute of the twenty-fifth of the late king, was further accompanied by the particular grievance, that though they might vote for parish cess, they could not vote for churchwardens, though they themselves were rendered eligible, and could be compelled to serve the office.

In the 3rd George II., how glaringly intolerant, persecuting, and bigoted was the provision rendering Catholic churchwardens personally responsible for the amount of the whole parish cess; it was found useful, when the parish was composed of poor Catholic parishioners, to single out a Catholic of substance, and make him pay, by privation, too, of himself, for the poverty of his fellow-sufferers. Surely, Catholics were the most unfit people in the world for the office of churchwarden, part of whose duty was to keep order during the service, and to procure the elements for the sacrament. Now he (Mr. O'Connell) would remark, that the Catholic churchwarden's attendance at the service of his own religion might clash with his assisting at that of another, even were there no other impeding cause; and from the opportunity this law afforded to harass and annoy a respectable Catholic in the country, it was incumbent upon the association to seek its repeal.

The peculiar grievance of the statute was, however, more sensibly felt in the strange and numerous jobs that were effected under its provisions; the moment a Catholic rose to object to such proceedings, he was immediately silenced by changing to, or introducing the subject of church repairs, or church building, and told he had no privilege to vote upon such a question.

From among the numerous instances of misapplication under this act, he could mention one that had been verified by affidavit before the Chancellor and the Court of King's Bench, and which to this day remains uncontradicted. In the town of Mullingar, it was determined to pull down the old church, and erect a new one; and it was the general calculation, that with the materials of the old, and about one thousand pounds, a new one could be built: and, accordingly, in 1813, an assessment was made of ninepence per acre, which produced the sum of £360; in the year 1814, another levy of one shilling and ninepence per acre, which produced the sum of £860, making with the former a total of £1220, which the parishioners thought was

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