1831.] Affair 9 in General. 559 



pounds. This is not like ruin. And with all our sorrow for the elegant 

 intriguer, whose accession to six thousand pounds a year above his 

 income was (e his ruin," we must ask, why are we compelled to furnish 

 the purchase of the mansion, however elegant, in Chester-terrace ? 



We told our readers, from the beginning of the transaction, that 

 O'Connell would slip his neck out of the noose of Irish law. As the 

 trial approached, we told them there would be some wretched mis- 

 management which would leave the matter just as it found it, and that 

 we should have the " Agitator" laughing, as he undoubtedly has a right 

 to laugh, over the trifling and timidity of the whole rabble of authority. 



When the first account of his being suffered to withdraw his plea and 

 go at large came over, the opinion of every man of common sense in the 

 country was the same ; and when the Marquis of Chandos demanded 

 of the Irish secretary Stanley whether any compromise had been entered 

 into, we were certainly astonished to see Mr. Stanley stand up, and 

 gravely say in his place, that none whatever had been even thought of, 

 and that O Conn ell and his fellow culprits would be brought up for 

 judgment like any other culprits, and treated accordingly. The Mar- 

 quis of Chandos bowed to all this, and expressed himself satisfied. But 

 not having such exalted ideas of human politicians as the Marquis, we 

 felt only more sceptical, and pronounced that we could not comprehend 

 why at that hour the whole band in the indictment were not together in. 

 the jail? why judgment was not pronounced at once, and the direct 

 and natural means taken of suppressing a faction whose object Mr. 

 Stanley himself distinctly declared to be separation, or, in other words, 

 Civil War in the empire ? Before a danger like this, and this danger the 

 proclamations avowed, all mere diplomatic politeness ought to have 

 given way. The hand of justice should have been instantly fastened on 

 the criminals, and before a day was over they should have received the 

 practical proof, that the peace of the country was not to be the toy of a 

 desperate faction. But then Mr. Stanley came, armed with the Attorney 

 General's letter, which being altogether a piece of technical stuff, 

 wrapped up the reason in legal nonsense, and let nothing escape but the 

 fact, that the faction were to be at large. And at large they were with 

 a vengeance. For at the moment when the Irish Secretary was with 

 triumph boasting of his having O'Connell fast in his trap, the Agi- 

 tator, who has ten times the brains, and a hundred times the influence 

 of the whole Irish government, was marching in a true triumph of his 

 own, from post to pillar, declaring that the government would not touch 

 a hair of his head, that the Union must be repealed, and that he must be 

 the repealer. 



Well then, the day comes at last, when the Irish government were to 

 perform their miracle, and the faction are to appear in court for judg- 

 ment; thence, of course, to go to their respective jails. What follows. 



"Dublin, April 21. In the King's Bench; O'Connell, Lawless, Steele, and 

 the other parties included in the indictment, were this day called upon their 

 recognizances. Steele was in attendance, but in consequence of the applica- 

 tion of the travelers' counsel, it was ultimately ruled, that they should be 

 called up for judgment on the 3rd of May; when, it is said, they are to have 

 the right of arguing in arrest of judgment." 



So they are at large still. And after having had a couple of months' 

 holiday, during which O'Connell has been suffered to come over here 

 and harrangue for the Greys, they are to have a fortnight more, and 



