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Northern Star (1837-1852), 15th January 1848, Edition 2 of 3, Page 1, TO THE OLD GUARDS OF CHARTISM. Ml Qw> Gu...

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    • " Onward end we conquer, Backward and we fMl." "THE PEOPLE'S CHARTER AND NO SURRENDER."
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      " Onward End We Conquer, Backward And We Fml." "The People's Charter And No Surrender."

      " Onward end we conquer , Backward and we fMl . " "THE PEOPLE'S CHARTER AND NO SURRENDER . "

      To The Old Guards Of Chartism. Ml Qw> Gu...

      TO THE OLD GUARDS OF CHARTISM . Ml Qw > Guards , M y comrades throughout the war of the i rich oppressor against the poor oppressed—you whose confidence , whose love , affection , and devotion have sustained me in my dungeon , and throughout the unequal battle that poverty has ' vraged against tyranny ; with rags , destitution , and want upon one side—the monarch , the minister , the army , the . navy , the church , the bench , the bar , the police , the jurors , the masters , the magistrates , the shopkeepers , the jailors , the masters of bastiles , the dungeon , the transport , the scaffold , the hangman , and the press upon the other side—readthe following correspondence , and then say , if you can , that I have counselled falsely , of propounded my doctrines in vain .

      Oh , my comrades , how we have hoped against hope , and struggled against those fearful odds ; but how our perseverance is now rewarded , when we find that we have been g iving lessons of practical liberty to the world —when we find Young America , Old Ireland , and Middle-aged France , compelled to adopt our GREAT FACT , that to practical , and not theoretical , changes the progressing mind of man is to be directed . The GREAT FACT , that social perfection is sure to lead to representative equality , and that the hope of that social perfection will

      give wings to political agitation . Always , Old Guards , bear this great fact in mind , that we , the Chartists , are the only party in the world who ' - -.. : a slewed the cannon ' s roar , gagged oppiS £ = ri 4 aa & manacled the hands of tyrants ; and why ? because , upon the breaking up of the old system , which ie now crumbling , and will shortly moulder into ruin—we alone are prepared with a new system , which will not allow diplomatists or cunning men to seduce lis into a warfare in which labour should bear all the blows , nor admit of an interregnum which would allow the concoctors time to

      project a more fascinating , but not a less tyrannical , system . Bear ia mind , Old Guards , that I have told you , a thousand times over , that it is as impossible for capital to represent labour , as it is for "the lamb and the tiger , the mouse and the cat to unite . " I have shown you that the House of Commons consists of lords with their privileges hostile to lahour , of baronets , knights , admirals , naval officers , generals , colonels , captains , lieutenants , and military officers , all qualifying for promotion by subserviency to the minister in power ; of bankers , manufacturers , capitalists , railway contractors , merchants , and shopkeepers , whose only

      profits are derived from the diminution of wages ; of lawyers and attornies , ever the deadliest foes of liberty ; the greatest lickspittles of the ministry ; men without principle , prostituted to the indiscriminate support of right and wrong * ; of officials in power , and toadies looking for power ; of placemen , pensioners , and tax-eaters respectively ranged under their respective leaders , ready to vote black white , or white black , but never prepared to give a vote that would confer liberty , prerogative , justice , or privilege upon the weak but many , upon whom all Uve in splendour and luxury . I feel ashamed in telling you those things , because thev bespeak the subserviency of the

      many . But read the following correspondence between Mr Dni « y- the proprietor of the NATION , and Mr Mitchell , the former editor of that paper—and then say whether I have been wrong in my teaching , and you have been dull in learning .

      The Na.Tiox-Mr Hitched Axd Mr Duffy/. Fo...

      THE NA . TIOX-MR HITCHED AXD MR DUFFY / . For the last fire weeks one of my closest friends , and most valued contributors , John HiCchel , has ceased to be connected with The NiTiojr . InDutilin the circumstance of coarse became known ; and as the cause was generally unknown , it has prea l ) irth to a mnltitude of rumours and surmises ; some of the-nsnffitfientlyexiravaffantjsndall without exception iss far as I know them ) erroneous . It is not tree for example that there has been any personal quarrel , or the smallest possible shade of angrj feeling , between us . It is not true that a difference has arisen on t ^ e right of Ireland to win her freedom by arms . It is not true that the settled pelicy of Tee Natiok has undergone jny change . It is not true , as some enemies represent , that an angry fend has sprung up in the Confederation which threatens its very existence . These things are not true , nor anything resembling them .

      The difference beip-een as is entirely a moral one . A difference which may very well , and perhaps healthily , exist in one national league ; but which could not exist and be developed in one journal without damaging its efficiency . A 6 neither Qf is have anything to fear from the truth , I have obtained Mr ilitchel ' s consent to make the exact nature and circumstances of this difference public . In honest dealing the simple truth is * n infallible spell for ' laying all the gloomy spectres that spring isp in the darkness of uncertainty and suspicion .

      And indeed the feeling that any difference existed with eo Hear & friend has been so painful and embarrassing tome in conducting The Satioh , that I rejoice on personal grounds to hare an opportunity of putting an end to all mystery lathe matter , that henceforth I may not fear in maintaining my own opinions to be interpreted as ungenerously attacking his . These opinions I must maintain ; they are part of mvsslf ; I could no more weaklv jiel £ them tbrougo . regard for John Mitchel , tuau I could have meanly yielded them through apprehension of Daniel O'Connell .

      Here then is a brief history of this transaction , as faras it concerns the public cause : — In the autumn of last jear , the Council of the Confede . ration directed that a systematic plan of operation should be drawn up , showing tha means by which we expected to attain an Iiish Parliament Iheartily approved of this measure , partly because I knew that many meu were held away from the movement by disbelief in the possibility of success , but mainly because all modern history preaches the lesson caad our own history in the most marked and significant way ) , that without a-matured plan of action , the greatest designsfall into ruin ; and , inf < ct , in the short career of the Confederation , we found the want of such a plan a serious stumbling block , on more than one trying occasion . The report was unanimously ordered , and Mr Mitchel and I were named of the committee appointed by the Council to prepare it .

      Acting always together in a spirit of the most cordial and unreserved confidence it did not need a set occasion like this to unveil our respective opinions to each other . " We had known them long and thoroughly . But undoubtedly when the necessity came of applying them , not inertly to passing events , which we could touch and measure , but to that chain of possible contingencies and dun spcculatioas which compose the Future , we detected a radical difference . And this difference , as a practical impediment , was aggravated by the feet that Mr Mitchel conceived the time was come , or fast coraing , for abandoning the policy : it which we had both been labouring , the policy of reconciling classes , ana fusing the discordant elements of the Irish nation into one common power . It is delicate task to

      a specify opinions widen one intends to combat ; bat I bsliere I will not err in ftntin ? generally that Mr Mitchel , after the experiment of the 'Irish Council' despairs utterly of the landlord class ; that he regards the middle classes as fearfully corrupt or cowardly , and sees no basis to rest upon safely but the peasantry and small farmers . And that regarding the present Four Law as an instrument des i gned to ruin that class ; the present commercial system as a drain of our wealth to England ; and all English law as the natural enemy of the Irish people , he sees in the universal refusal of the poer rate , in the withdrawal of the people ' s money from the savings' banks , and in the repudiatton and defiance of certain laws , the natural protection and seouvitv of the people .

      To these views I endeavoured to oppose my own convictions . 1 st—That thelanded gentry , thounn in general wifhont public spirit and shockingly selfish , had sent from among them such men as Smith O'Brien , Lord Wallsconrt , Mr Monsell , Mr Ross , ilr Sharman Crairlord , and others , who gave promise of many more . That though , as a class , they wonld probably never he won to nationality , yet enough of them would be won to represent that interest ia a national struggle . That we knew of import vnt accessions which we could positively reckon upon ; and that it would be a . national crime to deliberately throw away this element of strength . 2 nd—That the middle class , though undoubtedly corrupt and meanspirited , had still good men enough to redeem it from

      abandonment . That it was the upper and middle classes who won ' si , and were as competent to win a new ' 82 if they could he inspired again with the spirit of that era . 3 rd—But mainly , that though the agricu tural classes must be the -ubstantial strength of every national organisation in Ireland , no mere class movement vtas adequate to the work we had undertaken . And especially that that wovk ceuld not be effected by such means as he contemplated . That , instead of exciting the nations ! spirit , he would probably produce social confusion ; that , iz ho disregarded this consequence , the road leading from thhi confusion to national independence ou . httobe clear and certaiu-w . kerens it remained a positive foir Of objcurity .

      -ind I instanced the Chartist movement in England as a case in point , illustrating the hopeless errors of surh a course . "WLen tfcs English Kaaicals first demanded the Ulfir ' , jhe . v Uilf . eded the law-kftld toreh light uieet-J w 7 r n upon , he bal »!« -tntern ( pfcu' all « K « mWics not fit A for VharlUt purposes -proclaimed a coming revolution which never came-and , finally , with substantial wrongs tD be redressed , and led by men , among whom ? nV , ~ , ? * - P ? 1 ^ 1 » "abUc xUtae - » int ° division and weakness , wi , ch lasted for years - , a result which their own leaders- now attribute to miftaJ-cn tactics , and -rora which they hare learned the moral of an altered andmoredelty . 'ivtttr-: policy .

      And I maintain that the natural tendency of such operations as he relied upon was in a direction which he did not iul ; y foresee , and which I believed a dozen Confederals , if they fos-.-saw , it . wrnld not adopt ; for thonjrh the majority ct them , would not refuse , if ue « a were , w

      The Na.Tiox-Mr Hitched Axd Mr Duffy/. Fo...

      pass over the battle-field to liberty , they would certain ? refuse the smallest risk of passing through the shambles of social anarchy . I further maintained that there was a way to OUP purpose high , pure , and chivalrous—a policy wanting neither the boldness nor the resources that ought to belong to a national struggle—one that would lift up our cause above all chance of falling into a mere jacquerie , and place it where it would win the sympathy of the nations;—above all , a policy which would be successful . I need not specify the details of that plan here , as it has since been enlarged and fortified by many valuable additions In the « Committee of Organisation . ' and will « o » n come under consideration in the Council and the Confederation . I believe it will not be found at variance with-any opinion I have ever maintained in this journal , but the natural result and completion of the boldest of these opinions .

      To bring these differences to a practical solution Mr Mitchel and I ( by my desire ) took council on this question of national policy with eight or ten of our most intimate political associates—the men who had been our companions in the Secession , or cur fellow-labourers in The Nation and the 'Library of Ireland . ' The question wag debated carefully and anxiously , and at the close Mr Mitchel's views were adopted by onl y one of the party-Mr T . D . Reffly . Under these circumstances Mr Ififcnel—who often before , when crossed in his particular viewe , exhibited a generous readiness to adopt those which prevailed ag & init him—seemed willing to acquiesce in the policy of his friends . At least I fully believed so , and confidently loeked forward te that vigorous and systf matic

      enforcement of our policy which 1 had Ion ? desired . But the Coercion Bill cams and altered his resolution . He declared that patimtx with a Gorernment which bad abandoned the people to < fe * pat ' r , » nd ( foamed arid contort ) them in theft t « afc « M , « s * fctotCrcSJs . I , cjid . ; the others of his friends , urged upon Mm that the settled and matured policy of a country to win its freedom ought not to be affected by such aggressions as this ; that we must sot let anger or indignation make us forget that the one question for us was—How Ireland cquld be permanently freed , and that the Coercion Bill did not touch that question . It was a new and scandalous outrage , but the problem to be solved remained exactly what it wa * , asd must be treated by exactly the same means , of which patient courage , in working out our purpose ,

      was one . At the meeting of the Confederation on the 1 st of December , Mr Mitchel delivered a very able and remarkable speech , which left me in no doubt that he had made up his mind unalterably on hi * original views . As we walked home together to the country from that meeting , I remonstrated with him earnestly on the subject . I urged in the strongest way that he ought to bring Ms scheme of policy deliberately before the Council , or before the entire Confederation , and obtain their assent for it before he teok any steps to promulgate it through the public meetings of the body . I assured him that maturer reflection had only deepanedtny dislike to it , and that I would rather perish than help it by act or word , In the matter of the Poor

      Bates I declined being a party to stopping the collection of them , till some other sure and specific method was shown of feeding the people through the coming winter ; and though it was probably true , at he maintained , that the Poor Law would be a WHOLLY insufficient provision for that purpose , J still urged that it was better than no provision . I fully conceded that if any adequate mode of meeting the famine could be put in its place , resisting it would be justifiable ; bat I refused to leave the people to chance , for a most uncertain result ; or for any result possible in the case . He , of course , did not deliberately contemplate leaving them to chance either . But I assumed that that would be the necescary result of a general refusal of the rates . We debated the question long and anxiously , but with no approximation to agreement .

      In a couple of days after Mr Mitchel informed me , in a spirit of characteristic frankness and generosity , that since a moral difference so wide had sprang up between us , he felt bound to relievo me and himself from the chance of painful disagreement , by retiring from The Nation . To more so tried a frjend from this resolution I omitted no writable entreaty or no honest concession , but his purpose was fixed . Mr Reilly , who shared his opinions , retired along with him . Thi « is the history of the past . As to the future , I agree with Mr Mitchel in believing that tfee national cause will be served by this separation .

      If Mr Mitchel ' s opinions be sound , it is well that they will be fully developed in a new sphere of action ; where , as , in this journal , they never could have been developed , while my judgment and conscience so unequivocally rejected them . On the other hand , The Natiok , free from any unsteadying Via ? , v . Ul hs able to carry out its princi . pies and opinions with tbatnnimpeucd harmony of design essential Uiprogress and success . We will both have fair play ; and , what is more important , the trnth will have fair play too . One relation we have not altered , that whfch first brought us together . However marked our present difference is , however wide it may grow with time and events , by one belief I will hold fast ( for I have proved it well ) , that a man of purer and more unselfish patriotism never existed than John Mitchel . _ He is incapable of the smallest exaggeration of his opinions for any political effect , or the smallest concealment of them from fear ; and such as they are he will uphold them at every

      lacrifice . His errorSj fatal as I believe them , are those of an heroic heart . CHAjaXB GiVAN Ddfjt . Merton , January 7 th , 18 ( 7 . P . S . —I submitted the above statement to Mr Mitchel for his approval , offering to alter any portion of it he considered incorrect , and to append any observations he might make in his own name . 1 would never have attempted to draw it up at all if his assent bad not been previously given . He , however , rejected this statement as an account of our difference , or of his opinions ; and offered , if I desired it , to draw up himself an exposition of his own opinions , and of his motives in withdrawing frem The Nation . I did desire it ; and he has sent me the subjoined letter . Its tone has deeply surprised me , but I print it withont any comment . As far as I have attempted to describe Mr Mitchel's opinions , I invite all readers to prefer his own description of them , which are necessarily more accurate ; but in the report of the opposing reasons which I urged upon him , and of the matters offset , I have nothing to qualify or alter .

      MR DUFFY AND MR MITCHEL . The subjoined is the letter from Mr Mitchel referred te in Mr Duffy ' s statement : 8 , Ontario Terrace , Rainmines , 7 th Jan ., 1848 . Dear Ddffy , —If the public has any curiosity ( of which I have seen no symptom ) to know why I renounced connexion with The Nation—or if you desire on your own account that a statement of my reasons and motives should appear , —I will make that statement shortly , and you can do as you please with it .

      Our differences of opinion , as you well know , are not a matter of yesterday . For some months past , I have found myself precluded from speaking to the public through The Nation , with that full freedom and boldness which I had formerly used , by objections and remonstrances from you , to the effect , that what I wrote was ' seditious' or 'impolitic . ' This kind of restriction , sli ght and casual at first , became gradually more constant and annoying ; and that , while the times demanded , in my opinion , more and more unmitigated plain speaking , as to the actual relation of Ireland towards the English government , and the real designs of that government against the properties and lives of Irishmen .

      The failure of the Irish Council , ' the hurried calling together of the English parliament , the bill for disarming the Irish people , and the horrid delight with which that bill was hailed by the landlords of this country—these things rapidly brought our differences to an issue . The effect wrought upon me by all the events I saw passing , was a thorough conviction that Irish landlords had finally taken their side against their ow ^ people , and for the foreign enemy—that all the symptoms of landlord ' nationality' which had deluded us into the « Irish Council , ' and had kept us so long vainly wooing the aristocracy into the ranks of their countrymen , were a deliberate fraud—were , in fact , a demonstration intended to act upon the English;—and that the disarming-bill was the first fruit of a

      new and more strict alliance between traitors at home and foes abroad . I dtsired to say all this to the people plainly . I desired to point out to them that this infamous Bill , falsely entitled ' for the prevention of Crime , ' was merely an engine to crush Tenant-right , and all other popular ri ght , and to enable the landlords to eject , distrain and exterminate in peace and security . I deshfd to preach to them , that every farmer in Ireland has a right to his land in perpetuity ( let ' law' say as it will ) : —that no landlord who denies that right ought to receive any rent . — that Tenant-ri ght , however , though the universal rig ht of all Irish farmers never had been , and never would be recognised or secured by English law : — that there was , and will be , no other way of estabtishing anil securing ( hat right except , as in Ulster , bv successful intimidation , that is to say , } jv the

      determined public opinion of armed men ; —that therefore , the power calling itsel f a ' govenunent , ' which called on the people of Ireland to deliver up their arms , under any pretext , must be the mortal enemy of that people , their rights , their liberties , and their lives . I desired to warn my countrymen accordingly , that if they should carry their guus to the police stations when ordered by Lord Clarendon , they would he putting weapons into the hands of their deadly foes , and committing virtual suicide . I desired to preach to them that the country is actually in a state of war—a war of ' property against poverty—a war of' law against life ; and that their safety lay , not in trusting to any Jaws or legislation of the enemies' parliament , but solely in their determination to stand upon their own individual rig hts , defend those to the last , and sell their lives and lands as dear as they conld . I desired also to show them that t . Ns new Poor

      The Na.Tiox-Mr Hitched Axd Mr Duffy/. Fo...

      Law , enacted nnder pretence of relieving the destitute , was really intended , and is calculated to increase and deepen the pauperism of the country ; to break down the formers as well as the landlords by degrees , atid uproot them gradually from the soil , so as to make the lands of Ireland pass ( unencumbered by excessive population ) into the hands ef English capitalists ,, and under the . more absolute away of English government . In short ; I Wished to make them recognise in the Poor Law what it really

      is—an elaborate machinery for making final conquest of Ireland by' law . ' I therefore urged , from the first , that this law ought to be resisted and defeated ; that guardians ought not to act under it , hut in defiance of it ; that ratepayers ought to offer steady and deliberate passive resistance to it ; and that every district ought to organise some voluntary mode of relieving its own poor;—and for this purpose , as well as to stop the fatal traffic with England , that the people should determine to suffer bo grain or cattle to leave the country .

      With reference to the future direction which should be given to the energies of the country , and Of the Irish Confederation , I desired in the first place , once for all , to turn men ' s minds away frota the English parliament , and from parliamentary and constitutional agitation of all kinds . I have made tip my tuinil ; that inasmuch as the msss- ' of .-. tyie p ^ o pTe'hsrVe no franchises , and are not like to get any , and inasmuch as the constituencies , being very small , very poor , and growing smaller , and poorer continually , are so easily gained over hy « orruption and bribery , and inasmuch as any combination of the ' gentry' with the people is now and henceforth impossible , —that for all these reasons , any organisation for parliamentary or constitutional action , would be merely throwing away time and strength , and ensuring , our own perpetual defeat . Therefore

      I desired that The Nation and the Confederation mould rather employ themselves in promul gating sound instruction upon military affairs—upon the natural lines t » f defence which made the island so i-ing , and the method of making those available upon the construction and defence of field-works , and especially upon the use of proper arms—not with a view to any immediate insurrection , but in order that the stupid , ' legal and constitutional ' , ' shouting , voting , and ' agitating , ' that have made our country an abomination to the whole earth , should be changed into a deliberate study of the theory and practice of guerilla warfare ; and that the true and only method of regenerating Ireland might in course of time recommend itself to a nation so long abused and deluded , by . « legal ' humbug .

      These are my doctrines ; and these where what I wished to enforce in The Nation . I knew that it would be ' illegal * to do so : I knew that it would subject you , as proprietor of that paper , to prosecutions for sedition , ' & c . I knew , besides , that your own views did not at all agree with mine ; and I could not assuredly expect you to incur legal risks for the sake of promulgating another man ' s opinions . Therefore , when I found , which I did during the progress of the coercion bill , that no one journal could possibly represent two sets of opinions so very incompatible as yours and mine ; and when you informed me that the columns of The Nation should no longer he open even to such , a modified and subdued exposition of my doctrines as they had heretofore been , I at once removed al ! difficiilt ^ by ending the connexion which had subsisted tatweeu us more than two years .

      I have not entered into any details of the difficulties and disagreements that preceded this final Step ; but I cannot avoid mentioning the circumstance that during the very last week of my connexion with The Nation , you felt it necessary to suppress a portion of a speech delivered by me in the Irish Confederation , which you considered seditious and impolitic . I do not impugn your motives for this : hut if there had been no other reason urging me to the course 1 have taken , this alone would have been enough to make me resolve 6 ft never writing another line in The Nation . I am bound to add , that I did not discover the fact of this suppression until the next morning after I had finally closed my connexion with The Nation ; so that it did not actually influence me , though it fully justifies me in what I have done .

      In this letter , you will observe that I have not attempted to describe or characterise your opinions . I leave that to yourself . You have The Nation at your command , and have had five opportunities of expounding your own policy since I had one . It is enough to say that the present policy of The Nation does not suit me . If you publish this letter , I hope there will be no possibility of any future misrepresentations and vague rumours about the causes ol our differences , such as you say are now current . I remain , faithfully yours , John Mitchel .

      Mr Duffy ' s three propositions , contained in the eleventh paragraph of his letter , and the whole of the twelfth paragraph , I shall reserve for comment till next week , ( merel y asking you , for the present , does that letter , or does it not convince you of the justice of my frequent assurances , that the Nation newspaper was wholl y ignorant of our rnevement , views , and motives ; while its conductor had garbled our speeches , trying to turn them into ridicule , withheld our resolutions , our manifold triumphs , our adherence to principle amid the most systematic persecution of the Law and the Press , until , at length , it is compelled to admit the strength of our position ? Is not this something ?

      Ah , ray friends , ere long , Mr Duffy and others who have opposed us—and no paper has more strenuously endeavoured to damage us than the"Nation '—will very ' shortly discover that our adherence to principle and our propagation of knowledge , has taken the mask off of hypocrisy , and exposed the ignorance of false teachers . If the address of the '' Edinburgh Weekly Express" gladdened your hearts last Saturday , the letter of Mitchell will make thfim jump with joy next Saturday ; and if his patriotism and devotion to truth should banteh him from the land of his birth , as it has me , he will find a welcome home in the land of the brave and

      warm-hearted Saxon , as we have bridged the gulph which- the " Nation " would have made deeper between the patriotic of all nations , I remain , Old Guards , Your faithful and attached friend , Feahgus O'Connor .

      - ¦J. 0 *% D" #/^^0ifo»*4c£> </~Y ^T^^^J...

      - ¦ J . 0 * % d" # /^^ 0 ifo »* 4 c £ >

      And National T|Abbg* Iqurnal , ; ' *^*^M...

      AND NATIONAL T | ABBg * IQURNAL , ; ' *^*^ ^^* *^ ^ ^^^^^ ? ?? ^ ^^^ T ^^**^ * ^ 'l * ' ^**'' B * immm ^ m' ™' l ^ to * 'Bt *^**' **** ' ***^ ' ' ' ' ' ¦ iiMiiniiiB nw ¦¦¦¦ iiih « imiii . ih ^ iwiiw > mim urn i > w * ir—mriB ¦¦ ¦¦ VOLIL NQ 534 LONDON , SATUTOAY , Jl ^ VAM W p ^

      Bsthn'jii, Green.—-Mr Jones Delivered A ...

      Bsthn'jii , Green . — -Mr Jones delivered a most elo . quent lecture on Sunday , January 9 th , at Mr Lemay ' s , Barley Mow , Old Bethnal Green-road . Subject :- * The plunder of the property of the poor . ' This locality promises to he one of the most promising in the Tower Hamlets IIaupax . —At a meeting of the Chart st Election Committee , it was unanimously resolved : — That 1000 copies of A ! r . Ernest Jones ' s letter to the electors and non-electors be printed and distributed among the electors . ' * That 4000 more be printed and distributed among ( lie non-electors . ' ' That a public meeting be held on the 24 th inst , and that Fearsus O'Connor , Esq , M . P ., and Ernest Jones , " Esq , be requested to attend .

      FoniHcouixo Meetings . —Merthyr Tydvil , branch No . 1 , will meet on Monday next , 17 th inst ., ( postponed from 10 : h , ) at same place as last convened . — Manchester , on Sunday next , at Im p . m . —Kidderminster , Monday next , half-past seven p . m .. at falcon Inn . —Bolton ; ' . he several lectures of the money clubs to assist ihe Land and Labour Bank , meet every Monday nis ; ht in their subscription rooms'to receive subscriptions . —Lincoln ; on the ISth inst , at the Green Dragon , Broad Gate , —Wakefield ; on Tuesday next , eifiht p . m ., at Mr Lancaster ' s' Kirkgate . —Smethwick , on Tuesday evening next . Tower Hamlets — The committee of minngement of the Whittinston and Cat branch , are requested to meet on Sunday afternoon , at half-past five precisely , Leies . —Mr John Shaw willcViiver a lecture tomorrow evening at balf . past six .

      Lower Warley . —Messrs Rushton and Hooson will address the Chartists of this place on Sunday January loth , at six o ' clock in the evening , i

      "Onward, And We Conquer! Backward , Sad ...

      "Onward , and we conquer ! Backward , sad we foil >" "THE PEOtLE ^ S CHARTER AND NO SURRENDER !" How oft I have e ! gli « 4 thtoUgh my eold prison bata , As I thoiigbt of . thfttiiaglo that bound thee a slave , When yon have cursed the Lin-d Edward that died of his ecara And reviled tho young Emmett that sleeps la his grave . "

      To The Irish People. My Loved And Honour...

      TO THE IRISH PEOPLE . My LoVed and Honoured Countrymen—I receive your many flattering notices of my poor exertions in the House ef Commons with a mixture of pride and sorrow . Pride that I should have outlived thirteen years of bitter prejudice ; and sorrow that your condition should render individual service a matter of applause , or that the degeneracy of

      yourjrepresentatives should make mere perfovmance of duty matter of distinction . However , consoling myself with the maxim that " a people are seldom wrong and never very long wrong , " while I heve nothing to atone / or , no offence to ask forgiveness for , now that you have made proper atonement for the systematic injustice to which , for so long a period , I have been subjected , I pardon you , 'from my soul , for those manifold acts of thoughtlessness .

      To you , my countrymen , constituting the Grattan Confederate Club , I tender my especial thanks for your appoval of my parliamentary conduct , while , humble as I am , I would uot consider the treachery of a degenerate Roman a sufficient justification for the abandonment of myjeountry ' s cause ; and , therefore , I cannot see that Ireland ' s disregard of me could furnish any , the slightest , justification for my disregard of Ireland .

      I agree with the moralist who has said " that a good man struggling against adversity is an object of the greatest admiration ;* ' and , God alone knows the pangs that I have silently endured , and proudly contended against , from the hour that I was denounced as unworthy the confideuce of the Irish people , who were told , that , when the struggle between the people and their enemies commenced , Feargus O'Connor would be found in the foremost ranks of

      the enemy . Not only was this judgment the signal for every description of insult in Ireland , but it was followed by repeated attempts upon my life by my countrymen in England . " Whenthounded by trader and traitor they aimed , To shed my life ' s blood in their madness and woe , I resisted with reason alone till I tamed , The spiritless courage infused by the foe . "

      Yes , my countrymen , although some Irishmen became the hired tools of Saxon free traders to shed my blood , and although in the unequal contest of nearly five thousand to forty-six , I received seven wounds , and all in the front , and although thirty-seven of our small bod y were nearl y murdered , yet , even after such justification , I neither abandoned the pursuit of Irish liberty , nor did I abuse the dupes who had thus recklessly lent themselves to the destruction of him in whom they now recognise a friend . And now , my countrymen , that a reunion has taken place between us , is it not mortifying , sfter the sacrifices you have

      made , the terrors you hava braved and the sufferings you have endured , that in renewing our intercourse I should feel myself compelled to commence my addresses with the A . B . C . of politics ? Is it not mortif ying to think , that a people whose forefathers , in the seventh , eighth , and ninth centuries , gave literature and instruction to the uncivilised world , should now stand ' Wisi ^ viWISH ^ M 1 n' ^( l ^ W ^ i & of tile day ? And yet so it is , the fact being , that the English people are now much better informed in all matters of Irish history , Irish grievances , Irish sufferings , and the Irish character , than the Irish are of the English character or English history .

      It ) 1835 1 found the English people thoroughl y ignorant of the Irish character , and as doggedly opposed and hostile to everything Irish as the Irish have been , and still are , to everything English . Upon this unfortunate misunderstanding has ever been based the strength of the oppressor . "Divide andconquer ' . being the tyrant ' s maxim and its accomplishment rendering the UNDERTAKER most acceptable to the tyrant . Now , if I was to merge all your detailed folly and to allow it to pass into utter oblivion , I could trace your every woe and England ' s every sorrow to this wholesale treachery , because the strongest combination of tyrants is well aware

      that" United we stand , divided ive fall—' and that their ^ power ever depends upon the people ' s disunion . Having , then , merged all other considerations in this one of paramount magnitude , » iJJ the wisest of your leaders , iv-ilJ the most enthusiastic of your chiefs , will the most Irish loving and English hating of your orators tell me , in what single instance the English people have joined the Minister in his acts of Irish oppression ? while your Representatives have ever been the surest tools in the Minister ' s hand , when a blow was to be struck at liberty .

      But , my countrymen , what is still more strange—as stated unguardedl y by Mr Hume , on the debate on the Irish Coercion Bill—is , that he had never attended a single public meeting in England where the acts of Ministerial injustice to Ireland had not been denounced and severely rebuked . Well , inasmuch as I would blame the master for the wrong teaching of the scholar , and the parent for the wrong training of the child , I blame your teachers of the press , and the parents of your agitation , for your ignorance of these facts , which , had they been sincere in their professions of liberty , and devotion to Ireland , they would have loved to tell vou .

      Ihese , my countrymen , are my reasons for so cheerfully forgetting the past , because I attribute your manifold transgressions to the systematic ignorance in which you have been kept of those matters . And now that the war of ri ght against might , of justice against injustice , of knowledge against bigotry and intolerance , is raging hotly , and when the league of Kings and oppressors are trying to recruit their forces for a combined action against liberty , it is the duty of the long oppressed toiling millions to unite their forces

      against that phalanx which would otherwise be irresistible . You find the "Great Captain " of the age—the Iron Duke—now lamenting over that defenceless state in which trading governments have left the country , which he now proclaims to he at the mercy of any handful of adventurers who choose to contend for the prize j and in order to save those institutions , so valuable to aristocracy , he proposes an augmentation of the standing army , and the raising of 150 , 000 militia men , no doubt to be recruited from the ranks of his

      famish-M { j countrymen . It must be clear to you , or at least it must be made clear to you , that this ducal missive—much longer than His Grace is in the habit of wiiting—is intended as the groundwork of some such proposal by the Minister ; and then I trust yon will he mindful of one portion of your oft-taught lesson , which has * been always placed in abeyance when the "Whigs were weak , or when they were in power , that " Englnnd ' s weakness is Ireland ' s opportunity . "

      But , my countrymen , when I read the blasphemous doctrine of passive obedience and nonresistance , even yet sought to be inculcated

      To The Irish People. My Loved And Honour...

      in the minds of the famishing Irish people , and when this doctrine is sought to be enforced without comment or qualification ; I fear lest my countrymen should again become tools in the hands of the artful . I look upon hypocrisy as the greatest crime of which a public man can be guilty ; and I consider the Catholic , whether he be priest , prelate , Or layman , who inculcates the doctrine of passive obedience ~ and non-resistance , unconditionally as a hypocrite ; . and I consider the Catholic , whether he be priest , prelate , or layman , a traitor to his religion and to his country , who

      avows his unqualified loyalty to a Protestant Monarch , whose coronation oath binds him to support the ascendancy of an adverse Church , whose pampered priests are to be fed and to live sumptuousl y upon tribute exacted at the point of the bayonet , from those professing the Catholic religion . And I tell you , more , that all the theology , all the philosophy , all the history and the learning that the world ' s archives or the inventive mind of man can produce , would never reconcile me to these heresies , because the most learned expounder of God ' s word will not eke out of Holy Writ one sentence in support of such a blasphemous doctrine .

      "What ! that loyalty is to be unconditional ? That there is to be no protection in return for allegiance ? Or that the contemplated protection consists in the idle living luxuriously , while the industrious die of plague , pestilence , and famine , and are told to hug the emancipated earth passively and obediently , and to proclaim their loyalty submissively . I read that man is made after the image of his Clod , and that the all-wise Creator has told each man that he is to live in the sweat of his own brow , but I cannot find in Holy "Writ a single injunction ordaining that one man is TO

      LIVE IN THE SWEAT OF ANOTHER MAN'S BROW ; and I defy the most subtle casuists to reconcile the laws of monarchs to the ordinances of God . Indeed , I feel a blush on my face , when , in the nineteenth century , I can write so calmly upon the philosophy of loyalty and duty , while within the past year one million of my countrymen have been consigned to the cold grave , or

      rather to death without the grave , " unhouselled , unappointed , unannealed . " Will any divine point out to me one single one of the ten commandments which is not dail y violated by monarchs , autocrats , and men in power ? Or , will any divine point out to me any single injunction in those ten commandments which the enforcement 0 / unconditional loyalty , passive obedience , and non-re 3 ista 5 oe , ^ loes no t lead to the violation of ? '

      My countrymen , from the hour that I discovered the fact , that to the pressure from with ? out liberty must owe its triumphj I betook myself to the organisation of the sane mind of this great country—to the end that its proper and judicious exhibition and direction may lead tola « FULL , FREE , AND FAIR

      EEPRESENTATION OF THE WHOLE PEOPLE IN THE COMMONS HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT . " No if , pray do not start at this declaration of political faith , especiall y when I tell you that it was the one . '; htt only one valuable ingredient in tin catechism of the Irish Volunteers in 1782 , and of Charles Fox and the English Radicals in 1780—which , however , was abandoned by Fox when he got into power , and by Charlemont and his gang when they had raised ihe value of their borough property , and increased the amount of Protestant patronage in Ireland .

      Well , my countrymen , that ' s the whole , the entire creed of Chartism , which you have been taught to denounce as a blood-stained principle ; and in order to show you that even Governments do not preach passive obedience and non-resistance , when resistance may lead to power—the maxim of Whiggery until the Whigs achieved power , was , " That taxation without representation was tyranny , and

      SHOULD BE RESISTED . " We are told that man is made in the image of his maker . We are told that all men are equal in the sight of God . Wg are told that it is as impossible for the rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven , as that a camel should pass through the eye of a needle . We are told that man is to live in the sweat of his own brow . And I defy you , by any means , or by any sophistry , to believe in those great truths , and to disbelieve the Chartist principle .

      In my last address , I showed you the value of Annual Parliaments , because it is the first point of the Charter , and lam now laying the foundation for the enforcement of Universal Suffrage , in obedience to divine injunction , Whig maxim , and the immutable laws of justice . Irishmen , if every man who has been prematurely consigned to the cold grave through want , while he was in the midst of that

      abundance created by his own industry and labour , but which was dragged from him and exported to furnish his tyrant landlord with the means of dissipation , while the producer was starving —I ask , if every honest Irishman , thus cut off , had been armed with the elective franchise , would not . all such freemen have been equal , in the eyes of the minister , with the wealthiest noble in the land , if the vote of the peasant counted equally as the vote of the peer .

      But are you , my countrymen , become so degenerate , as to shudder in 1848 at the very principle , for the accomplishment of which your gallant sires raised the standard of Rebellion in 1798 ?

      " Who . fears to talk of 98 «" Well , we , the bloodthirsty Chartists , do fear to talk of the massacres and the murders of ' 98 , but we do not fear PEACEFULLY to proclaim the peaceful principle which would silence the cannon ' s roar , and turn the murderer ' s sword into a ploughshare . We were too weak for revolution when we were disunited ; we will be too strong for revolution when the union of the industrious of the two countries is too powerful for the union of the idlers of the two countries . There are but two classes who should be disfranchised ; those nho have the vote now , and refuse to confer it upon others , and those who have not the vote , and do not consider it worth contending for . Ill-:

      deed , it is a curious fact that your leaders are now nibbling at the dish that we have been cooking for the last fourteen years , and is now nearly ready to he served up . They are asking for an increase of the Parliamentary franchise , but they don ' t know how to look for itthey are beginning now with our alphabet ; so much so that I find it my painful duty to tell you what Universal Suffrage means . It means , then , nothing more nor less than that every sane man of twenty-one years of age and not guilty of crime , shall have a vote for a member of Parliament . And I defy any politician in the world to point out any other equitable standard of franchise , and one for which every freeman should contend with his life , if necessary .

      JllSt mark this one fact—how your several election committees strain every nerve to compel every elector , who is entitled to the capricious vote , to register in defiance of the tyranny that lie is sure to receive from , ins landlord for its exercise . Mark the Willing

      To The Irish People. My Loved And Honour...

      sacrifice that this poor fellow is ready to make and then , bear in mind , that the extension of the franchise to all would be a protection iQ the present martyr , and that th & i ) instead | of the disobedient being punished fdr : his loyalty to his country , all would be courted for the bestowal of the power which all / jwould & ett possess , AND NONE WOULD STARVE . Then , there would be no brihery-rtnMe would be no corruption—no broken pJedges- ^ no violated treaties—no tfaifora to ^ dBnonnce at Conciliation Hall , as treason wofflC'Msaa unorkin

      profitable trade . If every EnpH ?|^? S r man , and every Irish working n 1 a % Wjwenty one years of age , had a vote , yon would verv speedily see such a parliament sitting in College Green , as never safelif College Green before . You would see the last fragments of Protestant ascendancy , and the penal code , snapt asunder . You would see tithes banished , from the land—the representatives appointed by the people—the magistrates appointed by the people , and such a tenant rig ht bill as would make it impossible for the haughty , tyrant to disinherit an enfranchised freeman who had \

      honestly performed his part of the contract . M y countrymen , there are three stages in agitation : — Firstly . —The creation of a popular mind , Secondly . —The organisation of the popular will , and Thirdly . —The direction of that power emanating from the popular will . Now , the people of England are in the last stage of the process , while you have not yet

      entered upon the first ; and yet , you pertinaciously and systematically refuse the co-operation of the greater power . You are also looking in some round-about way for more members for Ireland , while , by that principle in the People ' s Charter called Equal Representation , Ireland would be entitled to about two hundred and twenty representatives , but to this point of ihe Charter I shall devote another letter . - ^

      I have now shown you but a very ^ feeble outline of what Universal Suffrage would lead to , and I will call your attention to a few startling facts . They are these ;—Z . That every single amelioration contended for in tne resolutions of the Catholic hierarchy «> f Ireland , I have been contemliutt for for the last thirteen years , viz ., the propriety of allowing the Irish people to cultivate the s \ aste lands for themselves , and to make every workhouse a self-sustaining establishment by allotting' to it a sufficient amount- «> J land toemploy all the labour of the inmates , and dividing thesurplus after consumption amongst them , instead of distributing it amongst

      heartless officials and pampered menials . And , as to the application of the Irish church pro « perty to the support of the poor of that country , the English people were two years in advance of the Catholic hierarchy , because , at the commencement of the famine in 1845 , at a large meeting in the Crown and Anchor , they passed a resolution that thirty-three per cent .. of that property should be sold for the purpose of supporting and educating the poor of Ireland . And then , there is another recommendation from another source , by which the value of rent of land is to be ascertained ; while , I dare say , those who propound the plan are not aware that in 1835 , I gave notice of the following motion in the House of

      Commons : — " . To nioVe for leave to bring in a bill to compel landlords to make lease * for ever at a corn rent , and that in all easels where lands are now' held upon lease at too high a rent , the fair vain ? shall be ascertained jn ; ili such cases by a jury / fa like manner as tne value ofpfcyy Hj r required by the Crown or chartered corporations is now ascertained ; and'further , that all Protestah ^ clergjmen shall ,, from and after a period to be named , c 6 ase to bo ebgible to be Justices of the Peace in Ireland . " ' ¦

      Ithemurderers . My countrymen , I enforce these great facts to cbTiYiDce you that more has been done for Irish liberty ov uie . ^ English people , than has been done by the Irish f' » r tfemseives ; and also to prove to you , that ym . must poss-iss equal political rights before yc-ii can . hop ' accomplish a Repeal of the Union . Let Irish agitation be conducted upon y > i , >} . _ . and honest principles , and let an honourable union with England be courted , and I will pledge my existence , that , before the close of tin year 1850 , you will see a parliament sitting ii * College-green , elected by the will of the pople , and not by the whim of a spurious , insoleiit , ignorant , upstart , alien , aristocracy .

      f hen you will see your members returning to you at the close of each session , courting your smiles as the reward of virtue , or receiving your frowns as a punishment for vice-Though you have outlawed me , I have invariably told the English people , and they have cheered it , that , if I could prevent it , they should not have liberty a day or an hour before my country had it . I came here with an unsullied ( uinfatuor—I huv . been -l-- -. — * ;• ,. ¦• . ? - nearly fifteen years , and , di : / : n . !/ ' .. i . ' ! . 1 have never published a sentr" .. - ' . d a wt / d , adverse to tin iritenv : ^ while I possess more power an- - - < ' ¦' - ¦ - 'On-Menee than any man living , ¦¦ -.- > . ' ..-. ?' that ever did live . : u tha : u'i . ' ¦ ¦ ¦¦ ' ¦ ¦ ¦ '¦ at

      position , -. have- nev « r bw : ! gu " : ' ¦¦ ' . if w \\' -. \ the twit fastidious need hi : >• ' ' rn- 'e bw . ' i proved ;;< : six times , ami ¦ ¦ ¦ - < . •¦•• ¦ ! jr nearly , Mi : ut < v . "i : nonthii to solitary nii . 'lit . vmvnt in a icion ' s cell , and I devoted lunch vl that period to disabusing the English inir :. ! ¦ . > . ( hose prejudices created by the English \> v e- > . .. ml especially by the Weekly Dispatch , ; it : : hi .-t r !< e Irish people .

      With my own hand I wrote ever- , rno ;•; those articles in the Northern Star , upor . inland and the Repeal of theUnior , in 1841 , and which were attributed to the Rev . W . Hill . When Mr O'Connell was consigned to his prison , I held meetings throughout England to strengthen him , and condemn his tyrants . I got up the meeting in Covent Garden Market Place , and paid all the expenses out of my own pocket ; and when he was entertained in Covent Garden Theatre , so powerful had the Chartist party become , that the promoters of that entertainment considered it the highest honour that our leader , an enrolled Chartist , Thomas Slingslry DuncombejEsq . jM . P ., should take the chair .

      In conclusion , my countrymen , I implore of 3 'ou to think soundly and act wisely j to think of the host of power that is opposed to you , and of your weakness , if obliged to contend singly against that power ; of the identity of interest that exists between you and the English working classes , and the impossibility of resisting your combined power . Though fifteen years absent from you , it is my pride to be able to say , that I have never travelled a mile or eaten a meal at the expense of any party whose interests I had endeavoured to serve . I remain , Your faithful friend and countryman , Feargus O'Connor . Minster Ltivel .

      Leeds.—Two Lectures Were Delivered By Mr...

      Leeds . —Two lectures were delivered by Mr fames Leacb , iii the Baziar , on Sunday evenin g last . The room in tho evening w ; is crowded in every part—it was a meeting of tliookl times—every our- appeared highly delig hted with the lecture . At iteMncl Miia , Mr Leach stated that ho was going to JXi ^' M ?» attend a meeting on behalf of the Irish of 5 f . inelu . ^ r ; nntl ho should like < o know if the me- , ting . were anlious Si ;! to workta •!«« «? . J ? te H 8 united together to obtain tho . rrwpeo ¦ veru'hfe Fhe chairman put this to the meeting when every hand L , held up amidst great applause . Mr Leach said ke would convey with lum the request of the meetin / , ' - AT vols of thanks was then given to the

      lec-I " mb ^ -d AIr s 0 . Kkas at thb'IImmabket . —We have great p leasure in announcing that the appearance of Mr arid Mrs C .-Kean postponed owing to the illness n aco on Monday next . ance of Mrs 0 . Kean ( hailed with delight by all Mr Kean has loog merited of the people , in spite of the monopolising clique .

      !

      %Qjj^Q«I)R^> Of Mrsx^",7"Raaw» ' J We Ar...

      % Qjj ^ Q « i ) r ^> of MrsX ^ " , 7 "raaw » ' J We are ^ ih ^ e ehe-jappear-Miss J EJler ,:, f && frpyjLbf £ lover / of true ^ iS . u ? -= g »« J < an , 4 faceived the sitwgojjrf cassis of ibe press ? a d . 5 ^ " V " '' . "¦' . ? - >•; ? ss ot Mrs 5 j ?^ , J"raaw » Fe are sifre wie-ja ^ tear-** m ^ mi ^ f \ overs , of ' true : gfertiu ? = g 5 jg < . \ andfaceived'tlie sUp ^ ffrACA : ciiihsls ofjtbe press kM &' , ' . ¦ ,., \ . ¦ v- - ... . ¦ •'; .-:. 1 . .- ¦¦ - - ¦¦; ' ; ' ' - < - ~ w

  • Citation
    • Northern Star (1837-1852), Jan. 15, 1848, page 1, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/ns2_15011848/page/1/