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Se ws RE A AA TRI LE

268 THE EXAMINER.

a IR EE | es a ———

as ieapotent as the citeeneasy a. temple of Isis of | part taken by him in the Land Tax Bill Debate is not |

old, which gave forth no oracles but those that were fa-| likely to render his name immortal, as the pan of a shioned by the lips of its selfish, corrupt and cunning ters and friend to mental prone: The Liberal | priests. One day or other this unholy structure must | Party—or the “ pseudo Liberals, as the bungler of the be levelled with the dust. The arm of Democracy oe denominates them—wished to appropriate the rather increased than lost any of its muscular power—! whole of the Land Tax for educational purposes, ant and now that it has been bared, and given to every sec- | voted against the grant of L500 to the Lieutenant Go- tion of the world evidences of its might, we may rea-,vernor; but the Snarler-in-Chief— becoming, ne doubt, sonably indulge the hope, that it will be Sancta eee alive to the beauties of Snatcherism, and de- rather than provoked, and be permitted to sweep away |sirous, perhaps, of “ feeling his way” to the back-stairs this relic of a barbarous time. of Government House—voted to secure the L500 to Sir It is, indeed, a circumstance to be regretted that no| Donald, before any amount was set apart for wet man’s voice was effectively raised in the recent Session | Mr. Donald (McDonald then moved that three-fourths 0 of Parliament in favour of this important question. It} the Tax be appropriated for education. This we se is perhaps, however, no fault of the party with whom we ried ; and although Mr. McLean voted for it, he ¢ : = act in the Assembly. Had that party maintained their thing more than was done by every ner of the Li a majority—had Messrs. McLean, Conroy and Montgo- | Party. The day — Mr. McDonald’s oe passe mery been true to their principles—some progress might the Committee, the Land Assessment Bill was menony: have been made towards the establishment of a system |mitted for the purpose of increasing the Tax on Town- of Government which would have given us the charac- |ship Lands, because Mr. D. anon and his friends ter as well as the privileges of freemen. But these | discovered, that if three-fourths ofthe Tax were to * set gentlemen having abused the confidence reposed in |apart for Education, the L500 could not be realized for them by their constituents—having sold themselves (for| His Excellency ; while the Tax on Lands in the Towns what price or consideration we know not) to the vam- |and Royalties was left unaltered. . This great public pire Compact that has sucked the blood and brains of/ benefactor voted forthe additional imposition, and thus

our infant Colony—it was justly apprehended, that the! question of Responsible Government, had it been intro- | duced, would either have been strangled, or so deformed,

friends.

added to the burthens of the agriculturists. It is really amusing to find the Organ of exclusiveness and monopoly—the panderer to, and apologist for, every

iniquity —encircling the once-levelling and Democratic

as to render it unrecognisable by its truest and ae Tory prejudice—the filthy screen for every official

Many a time during the late Session,

his co-Delegate to London (‘the learned member for}

Charloitetown,” as he is now and then infelicitously styled) had the superlative audacity to taunt the Liberal Party with an abandonment of their adherence to Res- ponsible Government. What shadow of a right had they to make the taunt >—with what degree of consisten- cy could they allege a complaint upon such a ground? They were, and are, confirmed enemies to any change from the present corrupt system; for if they were not, they had the power—by means of their subservient “ majority’—to effect a change. With impudence which no other men could parallel, they usurped a right to dic- tate to the Colonial Minister in Downing Street a policy to be pursued on questions of a local character; but, judging from a perusal of their published correspond- ence, and from an examination of their tavern eloquence, we are led to conclude, that, in their interviews with Earl Grey, they were discreet and taciturn on the sub- ject of Responsible Government.

The little motives of these narrowed minded men are too apparent to need comment. ‘They would fain have

_ the country believe that they entertain an opinion favour-

able to the question of Responsible Government; but their real object was to drive their adversaries into a position which they knew they had nota majority to sustain. If we are doomed (as appears quite probable) to grope along under the present old system, while the existing Parliament survive, the country must be pre- pared to return at the next Election, a majority of Re- presentatives, who will not only discountenance upon the Hustings the corrupt, aggrandizing, and illiberal|

views of the Official Junto and their caddies, but whose’

known political integrity and firmness may entitle them| Meagher. The grand jury having been sworn, Mr.' : sn . Justice Crampton, the presiding judge, proceeded to| would retire from the association. A resolution con-

to the trust.

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P. E. ISLAND DEBTOR TO DUNCAN McLEAN, ESQ., M.P.P. We observe by the Islander of Friday weck that some *prentice scribe has written a very clumsy editorial for Mr. Ings, through which the public are informed, that this Colony has incurred a heavy debt of gratitude to Mr. Duncan McLean, for this gentleman is said to have originated the proposition, to appropriate for the encou-

the Speaker ang| Duncan within its folds! Two or three years ago, the

[slander could not use terms too opprobrious against per- sons who would dare to exercise the elective franchise in favour of Mr. McLean ;--the “ New London Radicals,” as they call themselves, were then not less odious to the patrons of that paper than Kamtschatkans. But now they would be worthy of all praise, if they continned to repose confidence in their metamorphosed Representa- tive. The article inthe Islander was meant to be a puff for Mr. McLean and a feeler for his constituents; ‘but it is false without being ingenious,—-it is like a pill that sickens before it is swallowed, or an emetic which unsettles the stomach without renovating the system.

News by the last week’s English ail,

STATE OF AFFAIRS IN IRELAND,

The preliminaries to the prosecutions against Messrs. Smith O’Brien, Meagher, and Mitchell, commenced on the 15th. As it was announced that the traversers would proceed in procession, accompanied by a train of admirers, to the Queen’s Bench to appear on their recognisances, precautions were taken by the civil and military authorities to prevent any breach of the | peace that might arise out of this ill-advised display. The military force in the Castle was doubled; another body of troops, with two pieces of artillery, was posted in the vicinity of the Four Courts; and the horse police patrolled the streets from an early hour in the morning. At half-past eleven o’clock the traversers, followed by about twenty or thirty gentlemen, and some members of the Confederate Clubs, walking two abreast, proceeded ion foot to the courts. The mob, which was not ‘numerous at the hour, owing perhaps to the extreme

| }

i wetness of the day, preserved an ominous silence until

the traversers entered the gates of the courts, when a cheer was raised for Messrs. O’Brien, Mitchell, and

ground they had already prejudged the case, and hence were not eligible for impartial service in the jury box. Should the move be successful, the jury must neces- sarily be composed exclusively of Repealers, and the idea of obtaining a verdict of guilty melts into thin air. There is undoubtedly something feasible in this. We shall see how it turns out.

If Smith O’Brien be convicted, his property, which amounts to between four and five thousand pounds a vear, will be confiscated to the Crown. One of the charges against him is tampering with the military.

“ome of Mr. S. O’Brien’s legal friends, we beleive, Messrs. Homes, O’Hagan, and Sir Colman O’Loghlen, are engaged in searching over the state and other less remarkable trials, to supply him with materials for hie address to the jury. The chief object is to ascertain where acquittals have taken place, with language as strong, and apparently as seditious, as Mr. O’Brien has used.

The drilling act has been put into operation in Dublin. Accordingly, a number of young men, thirteen in number, were arrested on Sunday evening last, April 16, while performing military evolutions in a iarge room ofthat city. They were lodged in the station-house, and brought up for examination at the head police- office on the following day, when they were committed for trial at the next commission. The offenders, if con- victed, are liable to transportation.

The complimentary soriee to Messrs. S. O’Brien, Mitchell, and Meagher, alluded to in our last, was held on the evening of the 15th inst. The Music hall, in which the meeting was held, was densely crowded in every part. The interior of the building was festooned with flowers and evergreens, interspersed with a variety of banners, containing inscriptions, such as “ Ireland for the Irish,” “The Irish Volunteers of 82,” “ Wel- come home, the Irish deputation from France.” “ The Queen, Lords, and Commons of Ireland,” “Irish Le- gislative Independence,” &c. Conspicuous above these waved a broad tricoloured flag, of yellow, white, and blue, attached toapole 12 feet in length, at whose summit gleamed the long, bright, and thin blade ofa pike of Irish manufacture. ‘This flag was committed to the custody of Mr. ‘l’. F. Meagher during his stay in Paris, as a gift from the young men of France to the young men of Ireland. The erection of this new national emblem was the signal for a burst of applause which shook the hall, and was kept up for several minutes. At eight o’clock Mr. Smith O’Brien and Mr. T. F. Meagher made their appearance, and were re- ceived with enthusiastic shouts of applause. The chair was taken by Mr. A. Stritch, barrister. The chairman proposed the health of the Queen, which was received with a volley of hisses, and some few cheers. In the midst of the uproar a voice exclaimed, “The Queen of Ireland.” “ Yes,” said the chairman, “The Queen of freland.” (Cheers and hisses). A man in the gallery observed that the toast ought to be allowed to pass in silence. A few individuals drank the toast amidst hisses and groans. “ The people, the true source of le- gitimate power,” was the next toast, and was of course received with deafening applause. But the toasts of the evening were “Ireland’s uncompromising patriot, Win. Smith O’Brien, and Messrs. Meagher, O’Gorman, and Hollywood, the other deputies to France.” The speeches of the traversers were just as seditious as those for which they are being prosecuted. Mr. Frazer pre- sented an Old Volunteer flag of 82 to Mr. O’Brien, and Mr. Mitchell conferred a similar compliment on the chairman with a tri-coloured flag brought from France. The chairman expressed a hope it would wave over the chair of the president of the new constitution. The meeting separated soon after 12 o’clock.

The usual weekly meeting of the Repeal Association was held on Monday last. The proceedings were not very important. Mr. Maurice O’Connell addressed the association on the necessity that existed for peaceful and determined action; stating that if the policy which

he considered the safest was not adopted, he for one,

deliver his charge, in the course of which he dwelt at demnatory of the Government for their conduct towards

some length upon the law of sedition and its conse- ‘quences, and stated in a lucid style the nature of the ‘evidence which the grand jury should have before they found true bills ofindictment. Before the rising of the court, at four o’clock, true bills were found against the |traversers upon every count in the indictments sent to the jury. They were then severally given in charge, and the usual four-day rules to plead were entered. |The Attorney-General was the only Crown counse] who ‘appeared in the court. The traversers did not appear by counsel, but applied to be allowed to do so in future.

Ireland was brought forward by Mr. Galway, which was seconded by the Rev. Dr. Miley in a speech of nearly two hours duration. The reverned speaker’s ad- dress contained advice to the people to be peaceable, but to show a most determined front to the Government. The speaker stated that he hoped the cause of Ireland would succeed without any violence, but added, that if necessity drove the people to force, the clergy would be with them, as the clergy on the continent were with

their people. The fears of Protestants as to Catholic

ragement of education the surplus money arising from At the rising of the court, the traversers were loudly

ascendancy was next adverted to, and the speaker en- tered into proofs to show the groundlessness of such ap-

the Assessment upon Land. Now, we do not at al} cheered in the hall and upon their route homeward.) prehensions, it was also stated by the same gentle- object to the Islander people strewing their filthy laurels| On the 18th, at the sitting of the court, the Attorney-/ man, that a British peer, whose name he was not yet at

‘General, in reply toa question from the chief justice, wheresoever they please. Duncan has, perhaps, de-|intimated his intention of not resisting the motion for

served well of them—for if he has not changed his re-/the traversers to appear by attornies to offer opposition.

saat inly changed his politi .,|He further added thathe had not any desire to give am, ae ham crate ee this! ate, O’Brien any trouble by compelling him to attend might be enough to entitle him to absolution for all the court from day to day. The same rule was made

the heretical opinions on Theology published in his in the case of the other traversers, who were absent. Epistles to the Vharlottonians. But we do object to the Mr. O’Brien was in attendance, and took his seat at publication of a cool and impudent falsehood, such as “4¢ traverser’s bar.

ea a A curious move is a-foot in favour of the traversers. that contained in the editorial alluded to. However \Itis intended to challenge every juror on the panel anxious Mr. Mclean may be to promote Education, the | who signed the declaration of loyalty in Dublin, on the

liberty to mention, had just embraced repeal opinions.

Mr. John O'Connell next spoke, and recapitulated his conversation with Lord John Russell, and also the com- mencement of the debate on repeal, which had been ad- journed till after the Easter recess. Mr. O’Connell then said—* If the people of Ireland repudiated me, and refused to allow me to labour in the cause—if they gave themselves up to bad councels, so that I could not restrain them from a course that might be destructive, that moment I would seek in France, or in free Ame- rica, an humble retirement, where I would deplore the ills of of my country—where I would be free from

Soe TEE eee

Ho STP aR