WITH THE SYMBOLS OF FACTION AND OF BLOOD. Why, then, make further conressions to the corporation? Who will ensure us that FURTHER INSULT WILL NOT BE OFFERED? The SMALLEST ordinary RRECAUTION would have PREVENTED the decoration of the statue or removed it. For what were the citizens paying such enormous taxes for the police establishment, but that the peace of the city might be kept? For his own part he thought it better to speak out at once. and let the matter be decided. Mr. Shiel concluded by moving the following resolutions:-

"RESOLVED-That animated as we are by the deepest sense of gratitude and joy at the anticipated visit of our gracious sovereign to this country, and yielding to no class of the community in fidelity and attachment to his royal person, we had received with the utmost cordiality the expression of a wish of the lord mayor and corporation of the city of Dublin, that we should co-operate with them in the celebration of so fortunate an event, and that we entertained a hope that the assurance which was given that all offensive symbols of faction should be laid aside, would not have been violated upon an occasion when all religious differences should be merged in one united feeling of devotion to his majesty.

"RESOLVED-That after so distinct an engagement, that all party and offensive ceremonies should be discountenanced, the investing of the statue in College green, in the colours heretofore employed for the purpose of insult, is a breach of that undertaking which, while it provokes political passions into a violation of the public peace, is more peculiarly calculated at this moment to interrupt the harmony to which we were earnestly anxious to lend our co-operation."

"MR. JAMES FARRELL said he had called on the lord mayor; that his lord ship declared the decoration of the statue was entirely contrary to his wishes and that in consequence of these not being complied with he had since WITHDRAWN HIMSELF ALTOGETHER FROM THE ORANGE SOCIETY.

"MR. LUKE PLUNKET here said, that Alderman Darley had yesterday informed him, that the lord mayor had advanced twenty guineas towards the decorations for the statue, and that there were upwards of 8000 combined Orangemen in Dublin.

"MR. MACDONNELL approved of the resolutions of Mr. Shiel so far as they went. He thought it necessary, however, to go a step farther, and propose that a public dinner take place on the 23rd instant, to which all liberal Protestant and Catholic gentlemen be invited, and that this dinner be wholly unconnected and distinct from that of the Dublin corporation, at Morrisson's.

"MR. COSTELLOE said, that he was present both at the dressing and undress-" ing of the statue. The mob on the first occasion, was sober and well-dressed, consisting, for the most part, of shopkeepers. [A gentleman observed, that a Mr. Sutter, and a Mr. Pim, a flour merchant, were amongst the mob, assisting in the operations. It was also said, that Alderman Darley and Sheriff Brady passed during the proceedings, and that there was a groan for Popish Giant.'] On the second occasion, Mr. Costelloe said, the mob was, indeed, most ragged and most infuriated. They were well armed, and many were drunk. There were in the crowd several of the 12th Lancers, and he saw these distinctly draw their swords brandish them in the air, and vociferate 'down with the Papists,' 'to hell with the Pope,'' to hell with Popish defenders,' the Pope in a pillory in hell, and the devil pelting O'Connell at him,' 'to hell with O'Gorman,' &c.

MR. MACARTHY said he had seen the farce of dressing the statue, and the yells of the ruffians were music to his ears, as he hoped their being drunk would bring others to their senses. He clearly saw that the trick intended by getting the Catholics and the Orangemen to appear cordial together, was to show the king that all those reports which have gone abroad concerning this country are All-founded; and when the king would see O'Connell (the agitator) and Abraham

Bradley King cordial together, he would conclude, that it must be unnecessary for Mr. Plunket to be labouring for the repeal of laws which are not injurious.

"MR. HOWLEY was happy to perceive, that his learned friend had yielded to the manly feelings of the meeting, in withdrawing his intention to move an adjournment; either the lord mayor had or had not the power to prevent the outrage; if he had, why did he not? I saw, continued Mr. Howley, a novel parade about the damned idol of an expiring party; several ruffians armed with pistols, surrounded it, as if to tempt the people of this metropolis to acts of violence. When the olive branch is held out to us, if we rush forward to catch the hand that offers it, and are afterwards deceived, who are to blame the Catholics or those who deceive them?

"Mr. O'CONNELL said he could not bring himself to believe that they could not as well decide after due deliberation. He believed Mr. L. Plunket as to the conversation about the robes; but he (Mr. O'Connell) had it from good authority, that the lord mayor had forbidden the robemaker to give out, the articles. Another consideration, and what ought to go in extenuation of the lord mayor's conduct was, that he might possibly have no confidence in the military wher. called out, for numbers of the 12th Lancers were seen to join the mob in their operations on Thursday last.

"MR. SHIEL's resolution was then put and carried.

"A resolution for a separate dinner was afterwards moved by MR. MACDONNELL, in which the day was left blank.

"MR. HOWLEY moved, as an amendment, that the words of the resolution be, that a committee be appointed to consider and report on the best mode of celebrating his majesty's coronation.

"The resolution, as amended, was unanimously agreed to, and Mr. O'Brien having been voted into the chair, the thanks of the meeting were unanimously voted to O'Conor Don, and the meeting adjourned to Monday next."

1

CATHOLIC MEETING.

"Yesterday there was an adjourned meeting of Catholic gentlemen at D'Arey's great rooms, Corn Exchange Tavern.

"At half-past three o'clock the EARL OF FINGAL was called to the chair. "MR. FINN shortly addressed the chair. He thought the late outrage on the public feeling laid the foundation for the Catholics and Protestants, of Ireland to join in a petition for the putting down an illegal association. He (Mr. Finn) might well call the Orange associations illegal, when they had been termed so by the bench, and before the parliament of the United Kingdom. He believed the lord mayor was perfectly sincere in his wish for the conciliation. (Hear, hear.) He had heard that an address to the lord lieutenant would be proposed; his opinion, however, was, that nothing should be done in that respect. was a prospect of better times; unfortunately, the Catholics and the corporation could not meet at the present moment. The idea of dining with the lord mayor, he conceived, was totally abandoned. (Cries of 'yes, yes.') An approach to conciliation had been made, and at no distant period we might be more succesful. "MR. SHIEL said, that under the peculiar circumstances in which the Roman Catholics stood, after the facts which had been disclosed relative to the decoration of the statue in College green, which had been disclaimed and censured by

There

the lord mayor and magistrates of the city-after the violation of the assurance which had been given by the municipal authorities, that all symbols of party should be discontinued, it was matter for the serious consideration of the meeting, whether measures should not be adopted for the purpose not only of preventing the recurrence of the evil, but in order to put a stop to that system of factious domination from which so much public detriment had already flowed. He was not inclined to lay any blame to the lord mayor or to the magistrates of Dublin; on the contrary, he believed that this insult had been offered, not only without their approbation, but against their express desire. It had originated from the ferocious spirit of a set of men, leagued by illegal bonds in a barbarous and truculent affiliation. He had a confidence in the good intentions of government at this auspicious moment, and he felt convinced that an appeal for protection and redress would not be addressed to them in vain. [Here Mr. Shiel read an address to the lord lieutenant.]

"LORD FINGAL would merely observe, that the impression upon his mind was, that the lord mayor had been quite sincere in his original offer of conciliation; and the noble earl still continued to hold the same opinion, notwithstanding the unfortunate and discreditable transactions of the 12th of July.

'MR. O'CONOR DON stated that he had been inimical to any resolution on that insult; but on consideration, he thought it could not do an injury and he felt it was necessary to come to some resolution on the subject.

"MR. O'CONNELL could not concur in the opinion that the address on the subject of the late insult was necessary. There were many parts of that address which might be contradicted as to facts, and the language was not of that nature that would tend to allay the dissensions that had too long subsisted amongst them. The firing round the statue of King William was practised by the Volunteers of Ireland, a body of men to whom they might look back with pride.

"THE EARL OF FINGAL here said, that he recollected when Catholics and Protestants were in the habit of firing round the statue which had been erected at the very spot where the battle of the Boyne was fought, and that when they afterwards retired together, to celebrate the day, one of their toasts was the Pope's health.

MR. O'CONNELL resumed.-He should not speak of cups and daggers, although there were many bitter recollections that he might indulge in, were he so inclined; but, instead of looking back for causes of disunion, he preferred looking forward for reasons for conciliation. We forgave insult-(no, no)—I speak not of the present insult; but, I repeat it, we forgave insult when we accepted offers of conciliation. By adopting (said Mr. O'Connell) an address on that outrage, we lose the vantage ground on which we are placed. They say they do everything in their power to conciliate, and we do nothing; our reply to them isyou, who have been wrong, atone for it. Although I may be called an "unhappy man,' yet I still declare that I hailed with joy, and still hail with joy, the day on which the lord mayor of Dublin (the deputy grand-master of Orangemen) made A PEACE OFFERING to the Catholics of Ireland.

He confessed, notwithstanding the ridicule to which the admis

sion might expose him, that he was weak enough to wish to see those distinctions, which had been the curse of his country, sunk in the single name of IRISHMAN; and he was credulous enough to think that "a consummation so devoutedly to be wished" was by no means impossible. Indeed, he still thought a most important advance had been made by the lord mayor; and he still believed his lordship to have been perfectly sincere.

The address proposed went, by implication, to charge the government with connivance. Mr. Shiel has said that the Orange oaths are illegal; but what is Mr. Shiel's remedy ?—an address to the Castle. Oh! by all means present an address to the Castle, and you will find ample redress. The statue will never be dressed again, and you will never be insulted in future. You may be told also, "that the courts of law are open to you;" and, should you look for redress there, perhaps you may get the opinion of the attorney-general as to the illegality of Orange associations; nor need you be much surprised if, like some of the government prints, he should at the same time speak of their "immense loyalty!" In my humble judgment, my lord, there is but one hope for Ireland-that hope is unanimity; we owe all our misfortunes to dissension.

Neither our space nor subject will allow of any particu.ar notice of the royal visit of 1821' and its attendant circumstances. The deceit as to the king's intentions and disposition towards his Catholic subjects, we have before alluded to; as also the fact that of the leading Catholics, few were really caught by it, although willing to let it be supposed successful. But there is no doubt at all that the reiteration, while here, of the king's promises and fair assurances had, at last, the effect of causing them to be generally believed; and we may the less wonder at it when it is ascertained from a passage in the memoirs of Lord Eldon, from the pen of Horace Twiss, that the king at one moment half believed himself that he was sincere, to the great fright of Lord Eldon and his associates, who thereupon hastened the measures for his departure. On the day of his embarkation, Mr. O'Connell, at the head of a Catholic deputation, presented him with a crown of laurel, which was received with sufficient graciousness. A few days afterwards, came a letter from Lord Sidmouth expressing, in the king's name, his gratification at all that had occurred during his visit to Ireland-his anxiety to promote her interests, and internal peace among her people; and his desire that all parties would join him in his endeavours for that purpose.

The orange party-who had signalized themselves by not refraining from their shibboleth, of "The Glorious, Pious, and Immortal Memory," even at the corporation dinner to the king (though, of course, not proposed till after he had left the room)-laughed in their sleeves at this letter. The Catholics took it in earnest, and set about preparing to me it in what they deemed a corresponding spirit, having summoned meetings and prepared the outlines of an organization for the purpose, which was intended to include men d every class and shade of opinion. But the illusion about conciliation was 30on over, the corporation having lost no time in dispelling it, by renewing their old orange orgies within one month after the king's departure.

THE MARQUIS OF WELLESLEY.

Lu the beginning of the following year, 1822, the Marquis of Wellesley was sent to Ireland en Lord Lieutenant, and his coming hailed with very general satisfaction—both as he was the first Irishman for centuries appointed to the office, and because of his personal eliaracter.

A Catholic meeting was held on the 7th of January, 1822, at D'Arcy's (Corn Exchange Rooms), to consider of an address to be presented to his lordship

The Earl of Fingal in the chair.

After the requisition, &c., had been read, and the object of the meeting stated by the noble chairman, who expressed his great pleasure and gratification at having been called apon to preside over such a meeting, on so very pleasing an occasion, Mr. O'Connell, who was loudly cheered, proceeded to open the business of the day

He commenced by observing that he was sure that all present coincided with their noble chairman in what had fallen from him respecting the object for which the present meeting was convened -which it was scarcely necessary for him to repeat, was the gratifying one of addressing an Irish Viceroy.

That the most cordial unanimity would prevail in the discharge of so pleasing a duty, he felt convinced. The Marquis of Wellesley was an Irishman, and was always found among the most distinguished of Irishmen in advancing her interest and endeavouring to ameliorate her condition. His eloquence, which was of the most classical and impressive character, was always most readily exercised by him on every question that regarded the welfare of his native country; and on no question with more impressiveness, energy, and effect, than on that which related to the emancipation of his Catholic countrymen; and whenever the day of their restoration to the privileges of the constitution should arrive, they must gratefully remember that the influence of his example, and the splendour of his talents, have mainly contriputed to the attainment of that desirable object. (Applause.)

At an earlier period, when the manifestations of favour towards the Catholic people were less strong and frequent than they are at present-at the interesting and eventful period of 1782, when the spirit of liberty was abroad, yet it was not extended generally to the Roman Catholics; and the Marquis of Wellesley was the first person to raise a volunteer corps, in which a principle of exclusion to persons professing that creed was not acted upon, countenanced, and cherished. (Much applause.) After such re peated proofs of a kindly feeling towards us, it was impossible not to feel a lively sense of gratitude towards him; and feeling it, it would be unpardonable not to express it.

Such a man would surely not be seen attending festivals,