minds of our own intelligent fellowcountrymen. The lazy peer, or wealthy proprietor can now no longer slumber on stores of wealth, of which a more intelligent tradesman can tell him that the Bible (and what higher authority could he quote?) says he is only the steward. The Lords and wealthy Commoners in Ireland must at least be willing to infuse into the minds of such of the people as will hear them the principle of various gradations in society—of our balanced Constitution and the Monarchy;-they must insinuate themselves into the affections, and their precepts into the minds of the people, at least of their own partizans, or they may find themselves, when a crisis arrives, without any party whatsoever." "This association, sir, aims at nothing chimerical or unattainable. Sir, I venture to take upon myself to make an assertion which I know will meet the concurrence of the meeting. This assembly, many of whose members, persons in a middle class of life, formed the stamina of the Orange Society, seek nothing violent or visionary; if their very utmost political aspirations were to be expressed, I take upon myself in their name to say that they wish for-not an Orange, not a Tory; no, sir, a moderate, a convincing rather than conciliatory, and yet both Government. Sir, they would desire to see such men as Graham, a Stanley, and a Peel, guiding and giving glory to the councils of this unrivalled empire. And Wellington is yet alive, and the lords are not degenerate from the days of Runnymede. No, sir, the barons of Runnymede and the lords of the Pale are rushing to the rescue—the vestal flame of British honor burns pure upon the tripodal shrine that Britain rears to the genius of constitutional freedom; her triune Constitution, in King, Lords, and Commons. What is constitutional freedom? It is the liberty which our constitution ensures to all who partake of, and uphold it, of enjoying the utmost limits of his own province, by preventing each from encroaching on the province of the other. Thus still can the battle of the Constitution be fought within the pale of the Constitution: to this intent are we a Central Metropolitan Conservative Association." The next passage we shall quote is from the address of the Rev. M. O'Sullivan: "What is likely to be the natural result, VOL. VIII. if this warfare of the registries is to engross all men's thoughts and anxieties? This, Sir-that the contending parties in the State shall become confirmed in feelings of mutual disesteem. Opposition will harden into antipathy, and within the boundaries of the same realm there will be two distinct, estranged people, to each of whom the overthrow fo its rival will be an object of greater desire than the advancement of the national interests, or even than its own ascendancy. This must be the result. If two parties are committed against each other, in a conflict of absorbing interest, four times in each year, and if their attention is fixed perpetually on the incidents and issues of each encounter, it must be, that in making preparations for the coming struggle-in reflecting on the circumstances of that which preceded in anxiety to avoid errors which had caused danger or disaster-to guard against a renewal of adverse and discreditable practices each party will be brought to regard itself and its opposite, as the objects on which alone consideration should be fastened, and thus patriotism will merge into faction, the rivalry of parties will be exasperated into mutual and deadly hatred, and their competition will be inflamed into feuds which shall be, in all but the shedding of blood, civil war, if even blood long cease to be shed in the incidents of their baleful contention. What then are we to do? We must engage in the hateful struggle-we must persevere in it. This is not matter of choice. A hard, I may say, a cruel, necessity has imposed the duty upon us. It was, indeed, little to be anticipated, and very much to be deplored, that in a country to which, beyond all others, repose from political agitation seemed desirable, it should be appointed four times in the year to bid the storm blow. We are not responsible for the measure; but we are responsible for our use of the precarious privileges with which it has endowed us. We have not shaped for ourselves the circumstances in which we are placed; but we must adjust our measures to the demands they make upon us. We must attend to the registries. must, if we would avoid ruin, persevere in activities which involve acrimony and hate. What must we do to correct the dom shall we be enabled to moderate the injurious consequences? By what wispassion of the controversy to which we are compelled, or protect our enforced competition from the evil effects of which 3 D We without correcting influences, it must be productive? The craft of the adversary should instruct us. What is his wisdom? Concealment, disguise, confusion. He would hide his designs and plans; he would put out of sight the character of your principles and your claims. Justice, order, truth, he would have swallowed up in thick night, and would leave nothing distinguishable, except the strife and tumult of the combat. It should be your part to defeat this self-accusing subtlety. I would address to you the supplication of Ajax- Restore the day; and, if the cause of Protestantism is doomed, let it perish in the light.' But I make the supplication without alarm. It is your wisdom as it is the province of your Association, to provide that the contest for truth shall be in truth's own element. Let the disguise by which the adversary would cover his plans be penetrated by splendour-let not the high principles which influence us, and the endeavours by which we would uphold them, be for a moment obscured. Make it impossible for the adversary to gather darkness over his devices-bid the darkness, which has too long been permitted to rest on your defences, disperse. Whatever the conflict may be, however sharp, however stubborn, let there be light upon it, and feel assured that the deeds which are evil will be reproved, and that the hostility cherished in ignorance against those whose actions and desires can abide the test, will become sensibly abated.” We regret the less, the very brief notice we have been enabled to take of this important meeting, because we have been informed that the Society have at this moment in the press, a full report of the whole proceedings, which they intend to circulate among their friends, not only in this, but in the sister kingdoms. We shall now conclude with two more extracts. The first is from the truly powerful and statesmanlike speech of Mr. West, our esteemed representative; the other from that of that gifted advocate of truth, the Rev. Mortimer O'Sullivan: The resolution which I am asked to propose furnishes me with an ample sub ject, but what Irish Protestant can speak to it without shame aud sorrow? It recites that memorable declaration of our Conservative leader, that the battle of the Constitution is to be fought at the registries,' that maxim so well remembered in Scotland-so thoroughly understood in England-forgotten only in Ireland. The Scottish Presbyterian, faithful to his own Church, and retaining all his notions of liberality, recollects, nevertheless, that Protestantism is the living principle of the Constitution; and, seeing Protestantism assailed even in Ireland, he has armed himself for battle at the registry. No Englishman will endure the application of a principle injurious to his birth-right of freedom, even in another land. Yet the person of a Scotchman is in no danger; the property of an Englishman is secure. The Irish Protestant alone, upon whom the danger is pressing, shrinks from the discharge of a sacred duty, and leaves the enemies of his faith to take the benefit of the lesson taught by the wisdom of Sir Robert Peel." 66 Is there one who thinks that by surrendering the objects to which the claims of their adversaries are now limited, the Protestants of Ireland could purchase lasting peace? No. If you gave up the establishment of your religion-if you submitted yourselves to municipal bondage-if you legalized the exactions and the ascendancy of the Roman Church, consenting that the souls of men should be her merchandize, and that the wealth of the land should be poured into her coffers-if, shrinking from the duty of asserting your rights and supporting your friends, you were satisfied to see her instruments occupying all the posts of legislative influence assigned to the keepg of this country, and by their union and determination dictating the destinies of the empire so long as you persisted would furnish occasion for invective to to abide in the laud of your birth, you that party among your antagonists whom concession renders courageous to do wrong, and you would not engage the sympathies of that larger portion, who, because you did not well to yourselves would not speak well of you." INDEX TO VOL VIII. Abbey, the Ruined, 561. 623. Authologia Germanica, No. VII. Ker- College. Romance, Chapters of,-Chapter Collision, the, 135. Consolation, the Poet's, 155. Conservative Society, Irish Metropoli- tan, 738. Constituency of the City of Dublin, 471. Cousins, a Chapter on, 27. Curious and Instructive History of Lord Daughters of Time, an eclogue, 298. Dublin City, Constituency of, 471. No. 1. Emigrant's Tale, the, 39. Gallery of Illustrious Irishmen.-No. V. Garden, the, that fades not, 152. Hazlitt, William, Remains of, 406. 112;-No. II. Scenery and Society, Irish Metropolitan Conservative Society, 788. Italiani, I Fiorelli.-No. VIII. 190. Latrobe's Rambler in Mexico, review of, Letters from an Irish Protestant to the People of Scotland, 367. Life is the desert and the solitude, 160. Hazlitt, review of, 406, Man must be a believer, where love is the Meditation, a Moonlight, 192. Miser of Padua, a tale, 645. 721. Sick Man, the, and the Voice, 156. Poetry Songs by Robert Gilfillan, 15, Schiller's Drama of Wallenstein's Camp, Poets, English, Essays on the, No. I. Remarks Upon the Writing on the Review Of O'Sullivan's Case of the Revolution, French, Alison's History of Society, Irish Metropolitan Conserva- Songs, by Robert Gilfillan, 15, 523. Speeches of the Rev. Mortimer O'Sul- Stanzas to—, 163. Stray Leaflets, from the German Oak, Tales and Narratives-A Chapter on The Love Adieu, 159. The Three Wishes, a Tale, 156, 308, 554. Thubber-na-Shie, or the Fairy-Well, Time, the Daughters of, an Eclogue, 298. 623. Walsh's Residence at Constantinople, Wanderer, the, from Kerner, 146. Rich's Residence in Koordistan and Ni- Wanderer's Chant, the, 149. |