88 NOTES OF THE MONTH. 



The Tables Turned. — Mr. Mortimer O'SuUivan, and the other 

 reverend church-and-state itinerants, have hitherto had it all their own 

 way in their denunciations of poor Peter Dens and his system of theolgy. 

 With meetings packed with as great intolerants as tliemselves, every 

 thing they uttered was applauded to the echo, and they hegan to look on 

 themselves as specially commissioned to establish an Orange Church on 

 the ruins of the Roman Catholic religion. Matters, however, have 

 begun to take a turn. A meeting was appointed to be held at Brighton, 

 on the 1 6th ultimo, for the purpose of again parading the ghost of the 

 aforesaid Peter Dens, and dealing out " damnation on the Roman Ca- 

 tholics." The usual precaution of admitting only by tickets, was 

 adopted on this occasion ; so that, but for a rather ingenious expedient 

 on the part of the liberals of Brighton, there would have been an 

 audience of the usual complexion, and Mortimer would have received his 

 accustomed modicum of cheers from "the gentlemen," and of approving 

 smiles from the ladies. The more tolerant portion of the community of 

 Brighton, determined not to be " done" by the reverend zealots, sent 

 the public criers through the town, announcing that the meeting would 

 take place an hour earlier than was originally intended. A vast con- 

 course of persons, of all classes, and both sexes, assembled ; when the 

 liberal party, after a hard struggle, succeeded in inducing Lord Teign- 

 mouth, Mr. O'Sullivan's chairman, to withdraw, and in appointing a 

 Mr. Good, a hairdresser, in his place. Lord Teignmouth, on leaving the 

 chair, declared the meeting adjourned. The liberals maintained it was 

 not ; and the point of adjournment was settled by a scuffle, in which 

 the antagonist chairmen — the noble lord and the " democratic hair- 

 dresser," " with several other couples" — we quote the Times' account — 

 " rolled on the floor together." The opposing parties in the hall in 

 which the meeting was held, got up " a scene" in exemplary imitation of 

 the chairmen. The chair — as a prelude, we ] resume, to the fate of the 

 Church of L-eland — was overturned ; and the benches followed the example 

 of the Orange chair. The ladies were to be heard screaming, and to be 

 seen fainting, in all directions. They could not have been more aflrightcd 

 had Peter Dens himself made his escape from purgatory, and suddenly 

 appeared amongst them. Order being at length restored, Mr. O'Sul- 

 livan addressed the meeting in a speech of three hours' length. Of 

 course, it was the old story over again. Mr. O'Dwyer, the ex-member 

 for Drogheda, replied to the rev. bigot ; and the whole affair was very 

 appropriately wound up by a resolution being proposed and carried, 

 amidst loud acclamations, to the eflect — " That it was inexpedient to 

 interfere with the regulation of ecclesiastical aflairs, and the differences 

 between Protestants and Roman Catholics, as the subject was now under 

 the consideration of government!" The example of the inhabitants of 

 Brighton is not likely to be lost on the liberal part of the population of 

 those places where these politico-religious mountebanks may contemplate 

 playing off their fantastic tricks. It is clear, that a few such receptions 

 and results, would put a stop to the" mission," and ship the missionaries 

 hack to their own country. We hope O'SuUivan has taken care not to 

 make the amount of his remuneration dependent on the continuance of 

 his mission, but that the £2000 he is understood to receive from the 

 Orange party for his exhibitions, is to be equally paid to him whether it 

 shall be found expedient to repeat those exhibitions or not, 



