purpose were lately held (hear, hear, hear); and he was in possession of the entire of their proceedings.

He was also aware of the late consultations with their present most worthy lord mayor, (a Welch importation,) in order to apply the same rule of proceeding towards the suppression of the Association, which was adopted towards the worshippers of the statue, by obtaining the affidavits of persons who could swear that they apprehended the Association would create a breach of the peace.

When they found it impossible to put the Association dow by fair and legaì means, foil and dishonest ones must, no doubt, be resorted to. Who could believe, who could swear there was danger to the public peace from the meetings of the Association, when there was not a man of the four hundred respectable citizens by whom he was then surrounded, who would not be ready to lend their aid, as special constables, if the police required it, for the preservation of the peace of the city-(long and continued cheers.) But nothing that was odious, coming from the foulest, basest, and talentless herd could surprise them, for they were as grovelling in intellect as base in principle-and yet Lawyer Ellis published a letter addressed to the Skinner's Alley folks, in which he stated, that the Catholics were inferior in mental endowments to the Protestants (laughter.) He (Mr. O'C.) recollected going circuit more than once, not exactly in company with, but at the same time as the learned worthy who had the advantage of religion and the influence of placemen. The judges afforded Mr. Ellis great encouragement, and they heard him (Mr. O'C.) when he insisted upon it, and they could not help themselves ; (hear, hear ;) and yet when he was labouring to carry his bag into court, the learned master was preparing to put on his dansing shoes, having plenty of his time to himself. In fact his career was one of tried professional incapacity, (hear, hear,) an acknowledged total failure in every way.

The master has published and declared the mental inferiority of Catholics; but through, he supposed, some strange delusion or other, clients professing the bitterest Protestantism, passed over their Protestant advocate and employed the inferior-minded Popish lawyer. (Laughter.)

Mr. O'Connell then read the address to the people, and moved its adention.

The address was as follows:

"TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND

"FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN,-We are your friends, your sincere friends, desirous to protect and to serve you. We address you from motives of pure kindness and disinterested affection.

"Listen to us, because we are your friends-attend to us, be cause we are most desirous to be of use to you. Weigh well and deliberately what we offer to your consideration. Consider it carefully. We appeal to your good sense and your reason; make use of that common sense which Providence has in its bounty given you in a degree equal, and perhaps superior to any people on the face of the globe.

"Think coolly and dispassionately upon the advice which we give you, and you will find it consistent with good sense and honesty, and strongly recommended by every principle of mora lity, and by all the sacred dictates of religion.

"We advise you to refrain totally from all secret societies, from all private combinations, from every species of Whiteboyisrn or Ribbonism, or by whatever other name any secret or prirate association may be called.

"We woul. not attempt to deceive or delude you; we could not obtain your confidence, if we were to state falsehoods; au if we could we would not purchase confidence at the expense of truth.'

"We do not come to tell you that you have no grievances to complain of, or that there are no oppressions to be redressed. We are sorry to be obliged to admit, that you have just cause of complaint, and that there exist many and bitter grievances, which ought to be redressed. We know that these grievances and oppressions are the excuses which too many of the uneducated classes of our countrymen have given for turbulence, violence, and the forming of secret associations; but we also know that proceedings of that kind only aggravate the mischief, and increase the quantity of suffering which they pretend to redress. "It is to this that we call your particular attention. It is te this that we request your deliberate and full consideration.

"We most solemnly assure you, that secret and illegal socie ties that Ribbonism and Whiteboyism, and violence, and outrage, and crime—have always increased the quantity of misery and oppression in Ireland, and have never produced any relief or mitigation of the suffering of the people.

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Every one of you have heard of, and

many of you are old

enough to have seen, the effects of several secret societies, and of various descriptions of Whiteboyism, and of much illegal vio lence, and many minor crimes, as well as horrible outrages and murders.

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Now, setting aside, for the present, all other objections, we will ask you whether any good has been ever produced by such proceedings or atrocities? You must answer in the negative, and you must perceive that the people have never derived any benefit from them. Many individuals have suffered long imprisonment by reason of them-they have caused multitudes to be severed from their families and nearest connexion-they have crowded the decks of the transport vessels-and they have thronged the gallows with victims.

"There are other evils which have attended Whiteboy and Rib bon disturbances, and in particular, the innocent frequently suffer for the guilty. When property is burned or otherwise destroyed, the value is levied off the parish, barony, or county. The person intended to be injured gets as high, and frequently a higher price for his property, than he probably would otherwise obtain for it. But who are they who pay for it? Why, nine-tenths of them must be persons who had no share in the crime.

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And who is it can make restitution to the innocent people who are thus obliged to pay their money? What a load of guilt does not this bring home to the persons who commit the crime? They can never make adequate restitution, and how can they ever expect to obtain mercy from the All-just Providence, while they are the means of uncompensated injustice? Again, whenever Whiteboy or Ribbon offences are commit. ted, many innocent persons will inevitably be convicted of crimes which they never committed. How many innocent persons have we known to suffer transportation-and how many have we seen suffer death by reason of Whiteboy crimes? Some may blame the administration of the laws for these frightful results? But good sense will soon convince every dispassionate man that they are the necessary result from the passions which are naturally excited by Whiteboy and Ribbon outrages and crimes, and from the rewards which at such periods are justifiably offered to informers, amongst whom will be found the very basest of mankind.

"Fellow-countrymen, we tell you nothing but the truth. No good, no advantage, no benefit has ever been produced in Ireland by Whiteboyism or Ribbonism, or any other species of secret association. Such associations are forbidden by the law of

man; and as they are necessarily productive of crimes, they are more powerfully forbidden by the command of God."

66 By the law of the land, any man who joins a secret association, bound together by an oath, or any engagement, or promise, whatsoever, is liable to be transported.

"Any person who joins such a meeting by day is liable to fine, imprisonment, and whipping.

"Any person who joins them by night is liable to transpor

tation.

"Any person who joins them at night in rapping at a door, or even verbally demanding arms, or ammunition, or horses, or uses any threats or menaces against the inhabitants of the dwelling houses, is liable to be executed quite as much as if he had committed a robbery or murder.

"And besides all these punishments by the regular course of the law, there is the Insurrection Act, which can be applied by the government to any disturbed district, and by means of that act any persou who is out of his dwelling house from sun-set to sun-rise may be transported without judge or jury.

"We have given you this brief abstract of the legal punisù. ments that await the disturbances produced by secret societies. Every act done by them is illegal, and liable to punishment. We deem it a duty we owe you, to put you on your guard against incurring either the guilt or punishment.

"There is another and a far more important object. These secret societies, and the outrages which they generate, are forbidden by the awful voice of religion. Your religion directs you to be submissive to the laws. It orders you not to do an injury to any man whatsoever. It tells you that you are not to commit any crime whatsoever, however small, even though such crime were to produce the greatest possible good.

"Your religion informs you that if you take or injure the property of any man, you cannot obtain forgiveness of the offence, without making restitution to the full extent of all the property you are possessed of. We need not tell you how your religion abhors every thing that approaches to robbery, murder, or blood. You cannot really be Catholics-you cannot really be Christians-if you do not feel and know what we say to you is literally and exactly true.

"There are other matters which equally deserve your atten、 tion. These disturbances have not only never produced any good effect, but they can never possibly be successful. They usually produce some robbery of arms-some plundering of

houses the destruction of corn, cattle, and other property-and they also cause many murders; but no human being ever was. or is benefited by them; and beyond these crimes it is not possible that any success can attend the perpetrators. They are totally unable to face the constabulary in open contest. The policemen are quite sufficient to put down the strongest Whiteboy force in anything like a regular attack; and if they were not, the police are reinforced by the yeomanry corps, and these again by the regular army. The government has at its command upwards of 100,000 infantry, cavalry, and artillery, and if it wanted foreign aid against domestic disturbances, it could easily procure 100,000 more, so that all notion of being successful by means of Whiteboyism or secret societies, is as ridiculous and absurd as it is wicked and criminal.

"Let it be recollected too, that in all these disturbances and secret societies, no person of education, character, or property, takes a part; they are condemned by every honest and every intelligent person; and above all, they are reprobated by your truly amiable, intelligent, laborious, pious, and beloved clergy.

"How is it possible that you can forget the admonitions and advice of that clergy? Do you not know that they have no other interest but yours, and no other object but your temporal as well as eternal welfare?

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Fellow-countrymen, attend to our advice; we advise you to abstain from all such secret combinations. If you engage in them, you not only meet our decided disapprobation in conjunction with that of your revered clergy, but you gratify and delight the basest and bloodiest faction that ever polluted a country, the Orange faction. The Orangemen anxiously desire that you should form Whiteboy and Ribbon, and other secret societies; they not only desire it, but they take an active part in promoting the formation of such societies.

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They send amongst you spies and informers, first to instigate you to crime, and then to betray you to punishment. They supply their emissaries with money, and they send them to dif ferent parts of the country, holding out to the people the pretence of being friends and fellow-sufferers. The instances are not few or remote, of such instigators; and it is quite natural that the Orangemen should adopt such measures, when the country is disturbed; it is the Orangeman's harvest. He is then employed in the constabulatory force, and in the police, and he obtains permanent pay in the yeomanry corps. He shares the rewards with the informer, and often keeps him to