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Northern Star (1837-1852), 15th January 1848, Edition 1 of 3, Page unpag, Untitled Article

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    • TO THE OtD GUARDS OF CHARTISM.
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      Mt Old Guards , ¦ ^ Mt comrades throughout the war of the 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 lias waged against tyranny ; with rags , destitutionj 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 tran&pert , the scaffold , the hangman , and the press upon the other Bide—read the following correspondence , and then say , if you can , that I have counselled falsely , or propounded zny doctrines in Tain .

      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 giving 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 win ^ s to political agitation . Always , Old Guards , bear this great fact in mind , that we , the Chartists , are the only party in the world who have silenced the cannon ' s roar , gagged oppression , and manacled the hands of tyrants ; and . why ? because , upon the breaking up of the old system which is no « ' 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 Tis 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 in 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 labour , 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 , caDitalists , railway contractors ,

      merchants , and shopkeepers , whose onlypro-£ ts are derived from the diminution of wages ; of lawyers and attornies , ever the deadliest foes of liberty ; the greatest lickspittles of the sninistry J 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 ¦ vots that would confer liberty , prerogative , justice , or privilege upon the weak but many , upon whom all live in splendour and luxury . I ' feel ashamed in telling you those things , because they bespeak the subserviency of the

      snany . But read the following correspondence between Mr Duffy , 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 XATIQX-MR MITCHEL AND MR DUFFY , For the last fire weeks oue of my closest friends , and seos : Talued contributors , John MUchel , has ceased toba ¦ connected with The Natios . In Dublin the circumstance of conrse becaae known ; and as the cause iras generally unknown , it has given birth to a ninltitnde of rumours and surmises : some of thra suffliientlj extraTaaant , and all without exception ( as far as I know them ) erroneous . It is not trae for example that there has been any personal quarrel , or the smallest possible shade of angry ieeliug , between us . It is not true that a difference has arisen on tbe right of Ireland to win her freedom by arms . It i = not true that the settled peiicy of The Natios has ^ mae-gone « uijr change . It is not true , as some enemies represent , that an angry feud has sprung up in the Confederation which threatens its very existence . These things are net true , ner anything resembling them . The difference between as is entirely a moral one . A digerencs which may very weU , and perhaps healthily , exist in one national leagae ; but which could not exist auifceSeTelspsdiii oue journal without uainaging its -efficiency . As neither of us have anything to fear from the truth , I hare obtained Mr ilitchei ' s consent to make the exact nature and circumstances of this difference public . In honest dealing the simple truth is an infallible spell for ' laying" all the gloomy spectres that spring up in the Saraness of uncertainty and suspicion .

      And indeed the feeling that any difference existed with 50 Esar afiiendhas been so painful and embarrassing to me in conducting The Nation , t ' aat I rejoice on personal grounds to haTe an opportunity of putting an end to all Hiysterr in the matter , that henceforth I may not fear in maintaining my own opinions to be interpreted as ungenerously attacking fcis . These opinions i must maintain ; they are part of nayself ; I could no more weakly jieli them through regard for John Jlitchel , than I could Iiar-a meanly yielded them through apprehension of Daniel O'Connell . Here then is a brief history of this transaction , as far as it concerns the pnblic cause : — In the autumn of last jear , the Council of the Confede . nation direesea that a systematic plan of operation should he drawn up , showing " tha means by which we expected to attain an Irish Parliament . Iheartily approved of this measure , partly because I knew that many men "ere held away from the movement by disbelief in the possibility of success , hnt mainl y because all modern history preaches the lesson ( aad our own history in the most marked and . significant way ) , that without a matured plan of action . t- ; e greatest designs fall into ruin ; and , in f ' . et , in the . short career of the Confederation , we found the want of such a plan a serious stumbling block , on n ; oretfann one trying occasion . The report was unanimously onlered , aad Mr Mitcbel and I were named of the committee appointed by the Couai-il to prepare it .

      Acting always together in a spirit of tbe most cordial ani unreservtd 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 wheM the necessity came of applying them , not merely to passing events , which we could touch and measure , but to that chain of possible contingencies and -dim speculations which compose the Future , we detected a radical difference . And this difference , as a practical impediment , was aggravated by the fact that Mr Mitthel Conceived the time was come , or fast coaimj , for abando = ic £ the policy ; it which we had both been labouring , 3 & 3 policy of reconciling classes , ana iusing the discordant elements of the Irish nation into one common power .

      It is a delicate task to specify opinions which one intsnd . to combat ; but I believe I will not err in statin ? generally that Mrllitchel , 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 Foor Law as an instrument des'fined to ruin that class ; the present commercial system as a drain of onr wealth to England ; and all English law as tbe natural emmy of the Irish people , he sees in the universal refusal of the poer rate , in the withdrawal cf the people ' s money from the savings' banks , and in the repu . diation and defiance of certain laws , the natural protection aad security of the people . these rieurs

      To I eriiewruured to oppose my own convictions . 1 st—That tljelanded gentry , though in general witliout public spirit and shockingly selfish , had sent from among them such men as Smith O'Brien , Lord "Wallscourt , Mr 2 Ionsell , . Mr Hoss , Mr Sliarman Crawford , and others , who gave promise of many more . That thoag ' n , as a class , they would proba ' nlv never he won to nationality , jet enough of them would be won to repre . ¦ seat that inttrest la a national struggle . That wa knew of importintaecessuns which we could positively reckon apon ; and that it would be a national crime to deliberately throw away this element of strength . 2 nd-Th . it the middle class , though undoubtedly corrupt and meanspirited , had stiil good men enough to redeem it from -abanilonnic-nt- That it was the ujTper ana middle classes who won ' 82 , and were as competent to win a new 'Si if tLay could be inspired again with the sphit of that t-ra . : Brd—But mainlj , thst thonjih the agricu'tural classes Lmust be the 'ubstantial strength of every national or-^ ganisatioa in Ireland , no mere class movement v > as adc-Oguata to tiie work we had undertaken . And especially othat that wo / k csnld not bet-fleeted hy surh means as he rtca-emplated . That , instead of exciting the national njPirit , he would probably produce sorial confusion ; that , gj f ho disregarded this consequence , the road leading from , iiat confusion to national independence ou .-ht to be zr-ear and certain—whereas it remained a positive foe ¦ Be ub-curity . FoAnd I instanced fha Chartist movement in England as the'ase in point , illustrating the JiopelfES errors of such a gra irSL-. When the ^ English Uudieals first demanded the OQ arier , they impeded the law—held torch liglit meet-I is—ran upun the banks—interrupted all assemblies -not II for Chartist purposes—proclaimed a comi . vg reroluou \ , which licver came—and , finally , with substantial 9 ' ; ags 13 be redressed , and leilhymen , amuiij ! wlxim i i- fciomc nf the purest public viitus , fell into division V weakness , winch lasted for years ; a result which - own leaders now attribute to mistaken tactics , and which they have learned the moral of an altered Bore deliberative polipy . j I maintain that the natural tendency of such opais as ho reliad upon was in a direction which he did » liy foresee , and which I believed a dozen Confedel if they foresaw It , would not adopt ; for th-jugh yority of theai wquW not refuse , if need , were , to

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      pass over the battle field to liberty , thoy would certain ^ refuse t ! is smallest risk of passing through the- shamble " of social anarchy . I further maintained thatihere was a way to our purpose high , pure , and chivalrous—n policy wanting neither the boldness ' . ' . or the resources that ought to belong to a national struggle—onethat would lift up our cause above al ! 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 . ' * nd will noon come under consideration in tbe Council and tbe Confederation . I btlteve it will not be found at Tarianee with any opinion I have ever maintained in this journal , but the natural result and completion of the boMest of these opinions . ^ ——*—»—

      To bring Ciese differences to a practical solution Mr Jlitchel and I ( by my desira ) took council on this question of national policy with eight or tan of our most intimate political associ-. 'tes — the men who had been our companions in the Secession , or our fellow-labourers in Thb NiTios and the 'Library of Ireland . ' The question was debated carefully and anxiously , and at the close Mr Mitenel's Tiews were adopted by only oni of the party—Mr T . D . ReilJj-. ' Under these circumstances Mr Slitchel—who often before , when crossed in his particular views , exhibited a generous readings to adopt those which prerciled against hi 11—seemed willing to acquiesce in the policy of his friends . At least I fully bdieTed eo , aud confidently looked forward to that vigorous and systematic enforcement of our policy which 1 had lonjt desired .

      But the Coercion Bill came and altered bis resolution . He declared that patience with a GoYernment which had abandoned the pecple to despair , ind disarmed and coerced them in their weakness , was intolerable . I , and the others of his friends , urged upon him that the settled asd matured policy of a country to win its freedom ought not to be affected by such aggressions as this ; that we must not let anger or indignation make us forget that the one question for us was—How Ireland could be permanently freed , and that the Coercion Hill did not touch that question . It was a new and scandalous outrage , but the problem to be solved remained exactly what it wa « , and must be treated by exactly the same mca »« , of which patitat courage , in working out our purpose ,

      was one . At the meeting of the Confederation on the 1 st of December , Mr Mitcliel delivered a very able and remarkable speech , wnich left me in no doubt that he had made up bis mind unalterably on his original views . As we walked home together to the country from that meeting , I remonstrated with him earnestly on the subject . I u- ged in the strongest way that he oufjlit to bring his scheme of policy deliberately before the Council , or before the entire Confederation , and obtain their assmt for it before he took any steps to promulgate it through the public meetings of the body . I assured him that maturer reflection had only deepened" my dislike to it , and that I would rather perish than halp it bv act or word . In the matter of the Pool

      Rates I declised being a party to stoppincr the collection of them , till some other sure and specific method was shown of feeding the people through the coming winter ; and though it wsu probably true , at he maintained , that the Poor Law would be a WHOLLY insufficient provision for that purpose , I still urged that it wns better than no provition . I fu'ly conceded that if any adequate mode of meeting the famine could be put in its p ! a » e , resisting it would be justiciable ; but I refused to leuve the people to chance , for a most uncertain result ; or for any result possible in thecass . He , of course , did not deliberately contemp ' ate leaving them to chance either . Hut I assumed that that would be the necessary result of a general re fusal of the rates . We debated the question long and auriouslv . bat 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 relieve me and himself from the chance of painful disagreement , by retiring from Thk Nation . To move so tried a friend from this resolution I omitted no suitable entreaty or no honest concession , but his purpose was fixed . Mr Keilly , who shared bis opinions , retired along with him . Thij is the history of the past . As to the future , I agree with Mr Mitchel in believing that the national cause will he served by this separation .

      If Mr Mitchel ' s opinions be sonnd , it is well that they will be fully developed in a new sphere of action ; where , as , in this journa ' , they never could have been developed , while my judgment and conscience so unequivocally re jeetedthem . On the other hand , The Nation , free from any unsteadying bias , will be able to carry out it * princip les and opinions with that unimpeded harmony of design essential to progress aud success . We will bjth have fair play ; and , what is more important , the truth will have fair play too . One relation we have not altered , that which 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 ( fur I hare 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 sacrifice . HU errors , fatal as I believe them , are thosu of an heroic heart . Chaeles Gavak Dem . Uerton , January 7 th , 1817 .

      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 mijhtmakein his own name . 1 tvonld never have attempted to draw it up at all if his assent had 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 fram Tbe S ation . I did desire it ; and he has sent me the subjoined letter . Its tone has deeply surprised me , but I priai it without any comment . As far as I hare attempted to describe Jlr Jfitchel's opinions , I invite all readers to prefer his own description of them , which aro necessarily more accurate ; but in the report of the opposing reasons which I urged upon him , and of the matters of fact , I havo nothing to qualify or alter .

      MR DUFFY AND MR MITCHEL . The subjoined is the letter from Mr Mitchel referred ta in Mr Duffy ' s statement : 8 , Ontario Terrace . Riithmines , 7 th Jan ., 1848 . Dear Duffy , — If the public h » 3 any curiosity ( of which I hare 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 boTdness 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 , slight and casual at first , became gradually more constant and annoying ; and that , while the times demanded , in m y ojdnion , more antl morb unmitigated plain speaking , as tu the actual relation of Ireland towards the English government , and the real designs of that government against the properties and lives of Irishmen .

      Tbe 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 nailed by the landlords of this country—these things rapidly brought our differences to an issue . The effect wrought upon we by all the events I saw passing , was a thorough conviction that Irish landlords had finally taken their side against their own people , and ^ br 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 inio 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 desired to say all this to the people p lainly . 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 right , and to enable the landlords to eject , * distrain and exterminate in peace and security . I desirrd to preach to them , that every farmer in Ireland has a right to his land in perpetuity ( let ' lavt * say as it will ) : —ihat no landlord who denies that right ought to receive any rent . — that Tenant-right , however , though the universal right of all Irish fanners never had been , and never would be recognised or secured by English law : — that there was , and will be , no other way of establishing and securing that right except , as in Ulster , by successful intimidation , that is to say , by the d ' plermiv . ed pullic opinion of armed »? eu : —that

      therefore , the power calling itself a ' government , ' 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 tiieir lives . I desired to warn my countrymen accgrdingly , that if they should carry their guns to the police stations when ordered by Lord Clarendon , they would be 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 siate of v . ar— a war of ' property against poverty—a war of' law against life ; aud that their safety lay , not iu trusting to any laws or legislation of the enemies' parliament , but solely in their determination to stand upon their own individual rights , defend those to the last , and sell their lives and lands as dear as they could . I dewed also to , sUqw them that the new poor

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      Law , enacted under pretence of relieving the destitute , was really intended , and ia calculated to increase and deepen the pauperism of the country ; to break down the farmers as well as the landlords hy degree * . 2 nd uproot them gradually from the soil , so as to make the lands of Ireland pass ( unencumbered by excessive population ) into the hands of English capitalists , and under the more absolute sway of English government . In short , I wished to make them recognise in the Poor Law what it really

      is—an elahorate 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 , but 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 no 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 , onee or all , to turn men's tnihiU away froth the English parliament , and from parliamentary and constitutional agitation of all kinds . I have ' made up my mind that inasmuch as the mass of the- people have 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 by corruption and bribery , and inasmuch as any combination of the ' gentry' with the people ia now and henceforth impossible , —that for all these reasons , any organisation for parliamentary or constitutional action , would be merely throwing away time and strength , aed ensuring our own perpetual defeat . Therefore

      I desired that The Nation and the Confederation should rather employ themselves in promulgating sound instruction upon military affairs—upon the natural lines » f defence which made the island so strong , 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 t agitating , ' that have made our country an abomination to the whole earth , should he changed into a deliberate study of the theory and practice of guerilla warfare ; and that the true and only method 0 / regenerating Ireland might in courae 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 Thk 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 exptict 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 pos-ibly represent two sets of opinions so very incompatible as yours and mine ; and when you informed me that the columns of The Nation shnnlrl

      no longer be open even to such a modified and subdued exposition of my doctrines as they had heretofore been , I at once removed all difficulty by ending the connexion which had subsisted between us more than two year 3 , I have not entered into any details of the difficulties and disagreements that preceded this final step : but I cannot avoid mentioning the circum . stance 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 : but if there had been no other reason urging me to the course I have taken , this alone would have been enough to make me resolve on never writing another line in The Nation . I am boand to add , that I did not discover the fact of this suppression until the next morning after- I had finally dosed my Connexion with The Nation ; so that it did not actually influence me , though it fully justifies me in what I have done . In ibis 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 bad one . It is enough to say that the pre 3 « nt 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 of our differences , such as you say are now current . I remain , faithfully yours , John Mitchel . Mr Duffy ' 9 three propositions , contained in the eleventh paragraph of his letter , and the whole of the twelfth paragraph , I gh ;*! l reserve for comment till next v / eek , { mei-siy asking . you , for the present , does that le ce / , ur does it not , convince you of the justice of my frequent assurances , that the Nation newspaper was wholly ignorant of our movement , views , and motives ; while its conductor had ga ; Mini our speeches , trying to turn them iaio ridicule , withheld our resolutions , our immifoJd triumphs , our adherence to principle amid the most systematic persecution of the Law anil the Press , until , at length , it is compelled to admit the strength of our position ? Is not this something ?

      Ah , my 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 ouv 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 them jump with joy next Saturday ; and if his patriotism and devotion to truth should banish 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 , Feakgus O'Connor .

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      TO THE IRISH PEOPLE , My LoVEb 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 . . Pricte that I shouhihave outlived thirteen years of bitter prejudice ; and sorrow that your condition should render individual service a Blatter of applause , or that the degeneracy of

      youfsepresentathjtea should make mere performance of duty mf | ter of distinction . ' However , consoling mys | | f with the maxim that " a-people are seldofii wrong and-never very long wrong , " wpe I heve u 0 img to atone for , no offence to 4 « k forgiveness for , now that you have . feadej | r , oper atohemeftj for the systematic ija } y ^ J | % , ^^ iilich ,. for-56 lo . ng , a pesiod , I have been s' ^ jecte'd , I pardon you , jjfrom : my soulj for those ttianifold 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 nould not 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 hou * that I was denounced as unworth y the confidence 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 follovred by repeated attempts upon my life by my countrymen in England .

      " When hounded by ' . rader and traitor they aimed , To shed my life ' s , blood in their madness and woe , ¦ I xeaisted with reason alone till I tamed , The spiritless courage Infused by tbe 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 cf our small body were nearly 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 vow , my countrymen ,

      that a reunion has taken place between us , is it not mortifying , after the sacrifices you have made , the terrors you have 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 mortifying to think , that a people whose forefathers , in the seventh , eighth , and ninth centuries , gave literature and instruction to the uneiviliged world , should now stand in need of instruction in the literature of the 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 .

      In 1835 I 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 ha 3 ever been based the strength of the oppressor . '' Divide and conquer " . being thejtyrant ' s maxim , and its accomplishment rendering the UNDERTAKER most acceptable to the tyrant . Now , if 1 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 ne stand , divided wo fall—" and that then * power ever depends upon the peopled disunion . Having , then , merged all considerations in this one of paramount magnitude , will the wisest of your leaders , will the ,-most enthusiastic ofyour diief- ; , will the most Irish ii'viugand English hating of your subjects Vl' 11 me / in uUat single instance the £ ni ( lish j . » 8 oj )!<; li : i-ve . ji . » iiii > d the Minister in liis acts of Irish wppressiou ? while your Representatives bin eviiv i . H ! f . ' . i the surest took in th >' Minister ' s hand , whea a Wow was to ha shmk at liberty .

      . But , my countrymen , what is . still nioru strange—as stated unguardedly by Mr llmne . on the debate on the Irish Coercion Bill—is , that he . had never . attended a single public meeting in Englfind 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 , 1 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 for liberty , and devotion to Ireland , they would have loved to tell you .

      These , my countrymen , are my re isons 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 right against might , of justice against injustice , of knowledge against bigotry and intolerance , is raging hotly , and when tho league of Kings and oppressors are trying to recruit their forces for a combined action against Jiberty , 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 "GreatCaptain' ' of the age—the Iron Duke—now lamenting over that defenceless state in which trading governments h ; rre left the country , which he now proclaims to be at the mercy of any handful of adventurers who choose to contend for the prize ; and in order to save those institutions , so valuable to aristocracy , he proposes an augmentation of the standing army , anil the raising of 150 , 000 militia men , no doubt to be recruited from the ranks of his famishing countrymen .

      It must must be clear to you , or at least it must be made clear to you , that this ducal hussive—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 you will be mindful of one portion of your oft-taught lesson , which hasjbeen always placed in abeyance when the Whigs were weak , or when they were in power , that "Bnglnnd ' s weakness is Ireland ' s opportunity . " But , tny countrymen , when I read the blasphemous doctrine . of passive obedience and non-1 resistance , even yefc sought to be ^ inculcated

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      in the minds of the famishing Irish people , and vvhsiu this doctrine is sought to be enforced without comment or qualification , I fear lest my countrymen should again VSecome tools in the hands of the artful . I look upon hypocrisy as the greatest crime of which a public man can be guilty 7 and I consider the Catholic , whether he be priest , prelate , or layman , who inctrlcates ' the doetrine of passive obedience and non-resistance , as a hypocrite ; and I consider the Catho&e , whether he be priest , prelate , or lay / nan , a traitor to his religion and to lira counfcrv , wfio

      avows his unqualified loyalty to a ProtesJanft Monarch , whose coronation oath binds him to ' support the ascendancy of an adverse ChurcJ v whose pampered priests are to be fed and tc 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 sucn

      v < % seji ^ ifij ^» t : fupnorc 01 a oiaspnemous doctrine , ;;> , $ r . l " "Whatf tiist Tpyalty is to ~ be unconditional ? That there is to be no protection inreturn 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 God , 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 dely the most « ubtle 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 daily 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 of unconditional loyalty , pasaive obedience , and non-yesistance , does not lead to the violation of ?

      My countrymen , from the hour that I discovered the fact , that to the pressure from without liberty must owe its triumph , 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 , AUD FAIU REPRESENTATION OF THE WHOLE PEOPLE IN THE COMMONS HOUSE OF FAR . LIAMENT . "

      _ Now , pray do not start at this declaration of political faith , especially when I tell you that it was the one , the only one , valuable ingredient in the catechism of the Irish Volunteers in 1782 , and of Charles Fox and the English Radicals in 1780—which , however , was abandoned by For when he got into power , and by Charlemont and his gang when they had raised the 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 Cliartism , 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 . We are told that it is as impossible for the rich man to enter tlie 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 v ; ilue of Annual Parliaments , because it is the first point of the Charter , and lam now laying the foundation for the enforcement of Universal ' jiiffr . -i ^ e , in obedience to divine injunction , Whi : ; ' uu ; . \ to ? . and the immutable laws of jusfi ' - v . lvi .-r : i ; fii , i ; iM'cry u \? . n who has been prematur . 'W . . v .. ns iir : i »< l u » *' : >; wl ' . . grave through

      want , v . 'i . iie f : e iv . i- ? in V , e t .-. idst vi ?' :-- 't abunfiiinoc created by his o-. vn inilii . stry ; -r : A h ;! fo : ir , brt whirh v . as tlmg ' j ^ il f rom bi : n .-mi spoiled to . ' -uniish h \ 6 tyrant ' itiuilord whh the nn . '< i ! i 8 ( . ( 'dissipation , while the pvorluuu- was starving —• I ask , if tvery lioiav-t Lehman , thus cut in , had been armiui with the . elective francin ^ , would not all such freemen nsive been f-qual , 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 dogenerate , 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 fesrj to talk of ' 93 «' Well , we , the bloodthirsty Chartists , do foav to talk of the massacres and the murders ot ' 98 , but we do not fesiv 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 ate but two olives who should be disfranchised ; those * ho have the v ^ tc now , nnd refuse to confer it upon others , and those who have not the vote , and do not consider it worth contending for .

      Indeed , 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 be served up . They are asking far an increase of the Parliamentary franchise , but they don ' t know how . to look for itthey sive 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 vole 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 hia life , if necessary .

      Just 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 1 ig is sure to receive from his landlord for its exercise . Mark the willing sacrifice that this poor fellow is ready to make

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      nnd then , bear in mind that the extension o £ the franchise to all would be a-protection to the present martyr , and that then , instead { o £ the disobedient being punished for his loyalty to his country , all would be courted for the bestawal of the power which all would then possess , AND NONK WOULD STARVE . Then , there would be no bribery—there would be no corruption—no broken pledges—no violated treaties—no traitors to denounce at Conciliation Hall treason would be

      , as an unpvofitaWe trade . If every Eng lish win-king man , and every Irish working man , of twenty * one years of age , had a vote , you would very speedily see such a parliament sitting in GqU lege Green , as never sat in College Green h& * fore . You would see the last fragments < i ( L Protestant ascendancy , and the penal code >> snapt asunder . You would see tithes b : inish ^ from thehnd—the represents tivesoppoihild ' , bf the people— -the magistrates appointed by-tha peopfe > and such a tenant ri ^ ht bilf as- . \ v 6 s | S . make if impossi&Fe' for the haughty ljTaiit . 0 : disinherfs an enfranchised freeman who 'h&i&

      honestly performed ! his part of the contract . ;; My countrymen , there are three stages ut agitation : —• ^ , ' . ; - Firstly . — ! he creation * of a popultiv imsiS , Secondly . —The organisation of the-. popular wi 31 , and Thirdly . —Tfes directibni of that power essanatinjf from the popular will , .- . ¦'¦ How , the peopte * of England are in tlie Idnt a&i'geoftfle process ; while- yon lave not y < &

      entered upon the n «? t ; : and ; yet , you pertinaw ciousiy and systematically refuse the co-opera * tiara of the greater power . Tfois are also look * - in # ire some round-about- way for mura mem ^ bers for Ireland , ' while ,, liy that principle iri the People's Charter called Equal Iteiiresenta--tion , Ireland would be entitled' to about twor -hundred and twenty representatives , but ^ this point of the Charter I shall ^ svote anoiheli letter . .. % , , . _ '"¦ I have now shown you But a very- fevble outline of what Universal Suffrage wgasIcI lead to , and I will call your attention to 1 a few start * ling facts . They are these :: — That every single amelioration 1 contended for in the resolutions of the Catholitr hierarchy of Ireland , I have been contending for for the last thirteen years , viz ., the propriety of allowing the Irish people to cultivate the waste ands for themselves , and to make every work *

      house a self-sustaining establishment by allotting to it a sufficient amount of-land to employ all the labour of the inmates , and dividing thesurplus after consumptionainongst them , instead of distributing it amongst heartless officials and pampered menials- - And , as to the application of the Irish oharch property to the support of the poor of ihat ^ country , the English people were two years in advance of the Catholic hierarchy , because , afc

      the commencement of the famine in i » 45 , 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 wf supporting and educating the poor of Ireland . And then , there is another recommendation from another source , by which ther value of rent of land is to be ascertained ; while , I dare say , those who propound the plan are not aware that in 1835 , 1 £ : lve notice of the following motion in the Ilou ^ e ot

      Commons : — "To move for leave to bring In a bill to comsel landlords to make ltaieH for ever nt a com rent , ana th ; it in all oases whore lands aru now belli upon leasj * t too liigh a rent , tlie fair value bhull . bo ascertained in all -sai-h caae » by a jury , in likainanner as the value of property required by tbe C ' nwn or clmrtt-rod corporations is m >« - ascertained ; and further , tl . ; it all Protestant cluvj "" - ' ' shall , from and nfter a period to be named , cease to be eligible to ba Justices of the Peace in Ireland . "

      I also gave notice of a motion to strike the name of Lord EUenhorough off the | . > en ? io » list , and to divide his pension between the ? widow Ryan , and the sufferers from th .-JMu--cormac slaughter , as a verdict of " ^ iii ' ui Murder" had been returned again ¦ Ur ; murderers . My countrymen , I enforce these g-re . v r '; i 'i - ; . to convince you that more has been duao for Irish liberty by the | English people , tluir . h : v ; been done by the Irish for themselves ; h , ~ u . also to prove to you , that you , must y ^ -s-vu-i equal political rights before you can hope to accomplish a Kepeal of the Union .

      Let Irish agitation be conducted upon proper and honest principles , and let an honourab . Ui union with England be courted , and I wiis . pledge my existence , that , before the cl-se of tn i year 1850 , you will see a parliament sitting iji College-green , elected by the will of the people , and not by the whim of a spurious , indolent , ig-norant , upstart , alien , aristocracv-Then you will see your members returningto 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 un « sullied character—I have been absent ^ now neh-r ! ' / -fifteen year , and , during thaftperiod ; 1 - have never published .. ' si sentence , or uttered , a word , adverse to the interest of Ireland ^ and . while I possess more power and more public ? coil . fidence than any man living , or than any ' man that ever did live , in tlie achievement of that position , I have never been guilty « if an act at

      which the most fastidious need blush . I have been prosecuted six times , and consigned for nearly eighteen months to solitary confinement in a felon ' s cell , and I devoted much of that period to disabusing the English mind of those prejudices created " by the English press , and especially by the Weekly Dispatch , against the Irish people . With my own hand I wrote every one Ot those articles in the Northern Star , upon Ireland nnd the Repeal of the Unior , in IS 41 , and wiiu-h . wettt attributed to the llev . W . Hill .

      Win . !! Mr O'Connell was consigned to his l . vkon , 7 held nu ' t'tin ^ throughout England to strcngtlifi . 'i him . ; tnd eonuV . im his tyrants . I got ii , - - tha meeting in Covent Gfrdcn- Market 1 'hcel ami p k ! nl ! t ! . ;» expends cut of :.-. y own piu-kw . ; a » n W uas & , '• . . y-: >\^> y ' M vVvi'iu GaiviL -nt T ! r' ;\ lrs , s i ii . - . i-. v-tv . - i '; : ! i ;; ii ! fhs Ci :: i :-tisi . p-r-rr ' fi'Miiic . tin ? I ' ' .-:- ] > v ' - ' i }' : >~ that enter ! .::. i ' : ! V !< -ut :-. i : tsi » i ; -r . ' i ; '¦[ thr j- - '' ' : honour that omlv ^ . r , u :- er . ri ¦ ¦ 1 , ^ : jC- \^ r ' .. -s ThoniasSlingsb y Dunconilit . ii • : ; .. M . V ' !' -- 't take the chair . limh ! 1 i

      In conclusion , my countrymen , ;> n-. you to think soundly and act wisely ; t-. > ihin ^ of the host of power that is opposed lo you , and of your weakness , if obliged t <> win lend singly " against that power ; of the identity of interest that exists between you anil 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 hail endeavoured to serve . I remain , Your faithful friend and countryman , Feargus O'Connor . Minster L-jvel .

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      Lowku WAiaEt .-Meam . -R- ^ hton and H- » Mf tt will ad . lrps * the Chartists of this plrwon bunctay January 10 h , at six o ' clock in tho evening . ' J Lkbbs .- IVo lectures wore delivered by Mr JartWj Lead ., in the Bnziar . on Sunday evenms ! last , lna room iu tho waning mu crowded in ewrypart «• »» b » meeting of tho oM times-avery one aj-pe . «« highly delighted with tho lecture . . At »\« <»» llu " - 3 : Mr Leach staled tb « 4 ho wns goin' to V £ ™ £ tend a meeting c bsl : «! of H « c Ivwh ^ 1 0 ^ e - ^ and . ha should 1 *^^^ of to Ku , urlS t ^ ^ W . ° J ! "V SS ; S , VaS chairman put M" * to . [¦« . ' , 7 ,., T ; ; . t . 11 .... ; u > - iTvp-it , api > lNUs =. mi Lf nun siiu K A YO te of thanks wavthen gmn to the

      kc-S > nKE < psAi » a ConttfCTED . — 'Fruiltj , thy twao is wom- ' n ' says the ungallant dramatist . A a .-ui-.- . i u-. tortoiiie Jou&mal v > e Houen , quoting the ps ^ . -aiS , improves it thus : — ' Fragility is the nanio ct a W Muio ' lbt . — Mr Bowden will lecture at this plao 0 , on Sunday , January 10 th , at 8 U O ' clocli ia «» 9 evening .

      To The Otd Guards Of Chartism.

      TO THE OtD GUARDS OF CHARTISM .

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      Bb » hnai Ghbes Mr Jones delivered a most elo . quent lecture on Sunday , January 9 th , at Mr Leraay ' e , Barley xMow , Old Bsthnal Green-road Subject : ' The plunder of the property of the poor . ' This locality promises to bo on 8 of the most prom'Sinx in ttia Tower llaralet ? , CiiLOKoyouif is Ojssr £ rn : c Opjbbatioss—A very successful case , iu which-the agency of the chloroform wa 3 administered , occurred on Thu rsday week to the wife of M y Goodman , working jeweller ot East Reaeb , in this town . Mrs Goodman , about a fortnight since , having fallen down a flight if stairs , and being within a few hours of her expected confinement with her twelfth child , home apprehension was felt lest the accident might be productive of mischievous results , especially as on all previous occasions the crisis of parturition had been peculiarly painful . About three o ' clock on Thursday morning last , premonitory svniptoma of labour having oc

      curred , Mr Ali ' ord , surjieon-accoucheur , ot this town , wasaentfor , and Airs Goodman , having rend in the newspapers statemtnts of the salutary influence ot chloroform , expressed her wish to try its effect * . Alter aomo hesitation Mr Alford yielded to her entreaty , and having been asa'a 6 eilt f ° r at * oUr o ' clock , applied on a handkerchief , which she held to her nostrils , some drops of the fluid . This was repeated two or three times , when the patient gently resigned herself to a sound sleep , and to her infinite delight and aston-shruent , on awaking lUiont lialfpasU ' our , was informed that she had been safely delivered of a healthy boy . The incredulity ot Mrs Goodman on receiving that assurance was only equal to her delight at the occurrence . She was totally unconscious o f the least pain , both during and after the event , and continues in a better state of irajsroyement than she ever before experienced . Tlie child is also in , a tiljiyiiis condition , — Taunton Countf ) Btmn ,

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      " O a ward and we corqaer , Backward and we falL " "THB PEOPLE'S CHARTER ANDNOSURRENDER . "

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      ' ' ' ^' "Onward , and woponqusri f ^ . rTSss&wftrrf , nsd fie fall !" "the PE&gife'S Master as » no strcsKgNDER \" ' How oft have I sighe 4 through my eoH prison bars , As I thought of the magic thut bound thee a" slave , When yoa haya cursed the Lord Edward that dUa of big scars , And reviled thayouagEmmett that sleeps la his graro . "

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      . . ' r : r ' < & - ; . : ¦ : \ - . \\ " / 0 ##± //^ e&z ^* ^ " '

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      VOL XLNg 534 . MMWMJK ^ Tive ^ JI ^ ^^ Z ^ —^ _ ^^^' ___ ¦«¦! 1 . . 1 f ¦ 11 11 ¦ . « •¦ ¦__ —— _^»_^__^_ " _ .

  • Citation
    • Northern Star (1837-1852), Jan. 15, 1848, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1453/page/1/