Naked and unprotected, with a ministry too weak to offer you any powerful protection-with proofs against you too plain for any chicanery to evade-you must meet the charges of those whose franchise your government has attempted to neutralize by corruption. Let your Excellency be well assured of this-your late interference with the freedom of election has raised a spirit which will soon make Ireland too hot to hold you." Will Lord Mulgrave believe that we offer him this advice in all sincerity. Happy would we be if we could use to his Excellency the language of sincerity without being forced to severe. We are anxious to offer a few observations upon the result of some of the Irish elections in detail. Our readers will understand from what we have said, our views as to the prospects which the general returns warrant us in entertaining. We may congratulate every patriot in the land-the country is saved. Most cordially do we join in the noble exultation of Mr. O'Sullivan, with which he concluded his splendid speech at Arinagh: "Be instant, then, in preparing for the events which are to come, and in redeeming the time which is accorded to you. Revolution, I am persuaded to hope, is yet afar off. England has righted herself; the good ship was hurt among the breakers-it was committed to the waves of popular opinion—the tide has set in the stranded bark has been floated over shoals and breakers-it has been carried up high on the beach-it is secure no returning wave shall hurry it back to the hazards of the tempest; and unless the ministers of the Crown resolve to exhibit themselves before their Royal Mistress, not as the guardians of the shore, but as the remorseless felons who hang out false lights to lure gallant barks to destruction, and if the danger has been escaped, rush out with murderous purpose to destroy what the storm and the coast has spared;-unless the Ministers of the Crown exhibit themselves thus in the sight of their Royal Mistress, and make a wreck that they may pronounce one, England is safe, and felon legislators, who would hope to profit by the wreck, are balked of their expected plunder." We have already said that we feel confident that the prosecution of petitions will altogether annihilate the ministerial majority. We confine ourselves to the Irish returns. The metropolis, of course, first attracts our attention. That the petition will make Mr. West and Mr. Hamilton the sitting members there cannot be the slightest doubt. There are, however, some circumstances connected with this contest to which we are anxious to direct special attention. There never was an occasion on which Protestants of all classes were so firmly and entirely united-men of all ranks and classes seemed bound by some new bond of union-men who had been liberals all their lives now nobly came forward to redeem their characters for consistency by supporting the Conservatives. We say their characters for consistency-for surely the grossest inconsistency is that of the men, who being united with the Roman Catholic party in their professions of 1827, adhere to them in their actions of 1837. There have been many splendid examples of individuals who have broken through the ties of party to preserve their honour, and left their former associates when these associates violated their former professions. Well and truly has Arthur Guinness proved that he was sincere when he advocated the admission of Roman Catholics to equal privileges in the faith that they would ask no more. Every day is detaching from the ranks of revolution the respectable men who were to be found in them. One, perhaps, of the most gratifying features in the late contest for Dublin was this that the middle classes made the cause their own. It is to the energy, the devotion, and the untiring exertions of the middling classes that we are indebted for the splendid stand which the Protestants of Dublin made against the combined influences of government and mob intimidation. Never, perhaps, was there a contest in which so much high and generous feeling was called into action. Many in business and in trade were found ready to reject the bribe of the Castle, and to defy the intimidation of the mob. Men in humble circumstances went to the poll in defiance of threats of ruin. Menaces of exclusive dealing were defied by those whose little custom the system might destroy. There is earnest of good hope in all this; the cause in which such noble sacrifices have been made is not one which heaven has yet forsaken. But let it be remembered, that those who have made these sacrifices deserve to be upheld. A duty is thrown upon the Protestants to support those who have supported their cause. It is a duty which all honour and all gratitude enforce. We are not the advocates of exclusive dealing; God forbid: but our enemies act on it--and this we say, that the man is no Conservative, that he has no heart to feel, that he has no conscience to control who will see the poor Protestant shopkeeper suffer by his support of our cause, and not employ all the influence which wealth and station give him to remedy his wrong. We wish to speak with all plainness -would that we could urge on the Protestants in the higher classes their duty we carnestly as we feel its importance. Perhaps the best way is simply to state what has occurred, what is at this moment occurring, in this city, in a hundred instances. A man in middling circumstances, struggling hard to main tain his family by the gains of his toilsome industry, able by rising up early and taking rest late to keep the honest station of his fathers, and bring up his children to succeed to the same. His bread, his children's bread, depends upon the custom of his shop. Just before the election the servant of the Castle calls on him, he offers him the patronage of the Lord Lieutenant on condition that he votes for the enemy of his religion; the honest tradesman rejects the tempting bribe; he is next assailed by the threat of exclusive dealing-he defies the menace; at the polling booth he does his duty by his country; he returns home, and now comes the trial; his liberal customers withdraw in indignation that he has dared to give his vote in opposition to them; his shop door is deserted; the magic circle is drawn round it, and his little hopes of prosperity wither in the fatal spell; beggary stares him in the face. This is no fictitious picture. We could give the names of the voters, and of the liberals who have withdrawn their custom. But we ask of every Protestant will he permit this man to be ruined by his vote? We put it to the rich man who is loud in his professions of attachment to Protestantism-it is easy to retire to the comfort and security of fashionable elegance and talk Conservatism there; but the man who will not now act on the only system that can secure the poorer Conservative from ruin-the man who will see the humble Protestant reduced to beggary by his adherence to his religion, may prate about Conservatism in the midst of pampered luxury and ease, but he has no heart to feel the claims of jus tice, of honour, or of honesty. The Protestants must now act upon a system of protective dealing; they must see that no man suffers by supporting them, or it is vain to hope that even the spirit of their humbler brethren can long resist the crushing influences to which they are exposed. It is almost a formal expression to allude to the obligations which we are under to the gentlemen who stood forward as our candidates on this occasion. We once had occasion to differ with regret from Mr. Hamilton, but never did we for an instant forget the debt which Irish Protestantism owes to his noble devotion, to his great talent, his unwearied industry, his uncompromising integrity and fearless boldness in the cause of truth. At this election he has added to that debt, and sincerely do we trust that never will Protestants forget their obligations to him; but we know that we only do justice to Mr. Hamilton's feelings when we acknowledge that to Mr. West preeminently belongs the title of champion of the independence of Dublin. He it was who first made the attempt to establish, it at a time when it seemed hopeless, and continued his unwearied and disinterested efforts until his perseverance was crowned with success. We say nothing of the pecuniary sacrifices, of the loss of professional emolument, of the sacrifices of personal ease and comfort which this single-minded gentleman has made. The protracted proceedings of the last petition are still in the recollection of our readers; they remember how Mr. West persevered almost against hope, how his patience was unwearied by the delays by which his opponents sought to turn him from his purpose, how his courage was unshaken by the discouraging predictions of his friends. To Mr. West the citizens of Dublin owe the independence of their city, and we know that we but speak the sentiments of every honest Protestant within its circuit, when we say, that so long as Protestant energy or Protestant influence can command a vote for the representation of the metropolis of Ireland, that vote is at the service of the man who first rescued it from the nomination of O'Connell. In Youghal, in Carlow, in Longford, in Queen's County, in Kinsale, in Wicklow, and in Belfast, there is, we believe, very little doubt that petitions will seat the Conservatives. The Conservatives of Belfast are proceeding energetically with the petition. Next to Dublin Belfast should be with the Conservatives a national object. We trust that the funds to carry on both these petitions will be raised by general contributions through the country. It is a singular incident in the late election, that Kerry is the only one of the southern counties which has asserted its independence of the priests. Out of three members which Kerry returns two are Conservatives. We trust that this is only the setting of an example to the rest of Munster-singular that it should be set by the county of O'Connell. "Via prima salutis Quod minime reris Graia pandetur aburbe." In the defeat of O'Connell in his own county there is a moral lesson to the rest of Ireland; there is a lesson to his deluded followers that may teach them how little he is respected where he is known; there is a lesson to the landlords of every county in Ireland to teach them what may be done by combination. Let the Protestants of Ireland take to heart this humiliating lesson with all the wealth, the intelligence, and the respectability of the country, they have sent to the imperial parliament thirtytwo members out of one hundred and five. Let them take this to heart-let them charge the blame where it rests, upon their own cowardice; let them at once prepare to gain the political position to which their strength entitles them. England has declared by a large majority on the side of justice to Ireland, but the Protestants of Ireland have not been true to themselves. The last election, thanks to the people of England, has given us a breathing time; let us remember that the final issue of the contest depends upon the manner in which we employ it. A high and a sacred duty is thrown upon the Protestants of Ireland; it is not merely that they are called on to defend the rights which they have inherited from their ancestors; they are placed in the front of the battle for their country and for mankind. Ireland has never yet taken her place among the nations of the earth; superstition has cast its darkness over her people; her energies have been blighted by the influence of an unscriptural religion, and every hope of her regeneration which the heart of the Christian patriot will acknowledge, is centred in her Protestantism. If ever her degradation is to pass away-if ever her crimes are to cease, it is Protestant Christianity must work the moral change. When truth has shed its holy radiance on her glens and valleys, the red stain of blood that dyes them will become discoloured in its light. Nationally as well as individually religion's ways are ways of peace, and peace will only come to this distracted country when the influence of a pure religion is felt throughout the land. But not merely the interests of our country, the destinies of mankind are entrusted to our care. It seems as if the powers of darkness were gathering all their strength to extinguish for ever truth and religion upon earth. The principles of good and evil are engaged in a struggle throughout the globe. Britain for centuries has been the home of regulated freedom, the altar of a pure and scriptural religion. Long has she raised among the nations the standard of Protestantism, and it seemed as if in the latter day some noble lot awaited her in the destinies of the human race. it credulous to believe that it may be therefore, that the fiends of anarchy have been busy with her constitution, and infidelity and superstition have been united to assail her church, that with the downfal of British greatness might perish the citadel of freedom and of truth, and revolution sweep the world unopposed. The destinies of mankind hang upon the contest, and the Protestants of Ireland who guard the Thermopyla by which British greatness is assailed, hold the keys of the Protestantism of the world. Is This we believe to be the lot which Providence has assigned to the Protestants of Ireland. It brings with it its fearful responsibilities, but has with it also high and noble associations to cheer and to encourage. It inspires motives, in comparison with which the most hallowed affections of the heart seem allied with selfishness; it points to hopes beside which the mere patriot's most glorious aspirations become little; and it animates and strengthens, by principles, before the loftiness of which all the temptations of self-interest, all the inducements of ambition, sink powerless and abashed. In the confidence of these high and noble principles, in the solemn consciousness that they are the guardians of the universal cause of freedom and of truth, the Protestants of Ireland must prepare themselves for the struggle, and as their responsibility, if they desert their solemn duty, is fearful, so is their reward, if they acquit themselves of their high obligations, great. Vain all the spacious halls of pride The sorrows of the heart to quell, Unless affection there abide And breathe around her blessed spell. IV. Nature her brightest beams hath made And many a tear, and many a sigh, And yet we would not bid them stay Better far their quiet sleep V. It is the depth of night, No star to light the wave, It is the depth of night That curtains round the brave. What heed they though the sky Ay, louder than the thunder peal, Farewell our happy homes, Farewell our native land! Our home is now the billowy tide, Our friend the trusty brand. The heroes of old time Are beckoning from afar : A grim smile lights their cheeks, to see They come, they come, once more On, on, their dark forms stalk On. with our good broadswords we'll show |