130 Ireland, the Orangemen, and the Papisls. [[Auo. 



about liis conscience ; started, in a fit of theatrical virtue, from the 

 Treasury Bench, and wrote sentimental billets at two in the morning. 

 He was undone. Whether he dismissed liimself, or was dismissed by 

 his master, was, to the master, perfectly indifferent. He found no place 

 for repentance. His lachrymose struggles to return and receive his pay, 

 were answered with the haughty scorn of a military despot. " It is no 

 mistake, it can be no mistake, it shall l)e no mistake," was tlie sentence 

 branded on him, and he will carry it to his tomb. 



One influence more is still to be subdued — the Protestant influence. 

 Lord Eldon, Lord Chandos, and, still more important, his Royal High- 

 ness the Duke of Cumberland, are to be trammelled in the ministerial 

 nets. We eclio but the national voice, Avhen we say to these distin- 

 guished persons, that the day on which they shall unite with the present' 

 administration, is the last day of their political respect. They will be 

 instantly stripped of their national power, and turned into officials of the 

 man who will suffer no equal. The Duke of Wellington's conduct in the 

 Catholic question has decided his character with the empire for all time to 

 come. If there be one political maxim, that ought to supersede all others 

 in the mind of a protestant senator, it is, that no alliance is to be formed 

 with the Duke of Wellington — " Dclenda est Carthago." 



Mr. O'Comiell has just published an address to the " Men of Clare." 

 His words are another intelligible answer to those tender lovers of the 

 constitution, who, forsooth, " were sure that admitting papists into 

 parliament was the very reverse of lowering the dignity of protestantism," 

 which heaven forbid they should ever do. " IMen of Clare," says the 

 Agitator, " the fell incubus of protestant ascendancy, an ascendancy 

 which was as disgraceful to the Protestant as it was oppressive to the 

 Catholic, has been shaken off for ever. It lies prostrate and overthrown." 

 His description of the parties in parliament is a pleasant document to 

 secure the respect of the populace for the legislature. 



" There has been a ministerial party in possession of present pay and 

 plentiful plunder ; an opposition party, fed with forlorn hope and con- 

 tingent expectation. The saints, as they are called, have a party. The 

 owners, oh, profanation ! of slaves in the West Indies, have a party. 

 Every faction had a party in parliament — the people alone have had no 

 party. I go to form a party for the people." 



The other labours of the Agitator's life, however, are to be reduced to 

 what, in less lofty phraseology, would seem a rather vulgar result of 

 overthrowing all parties. The Irish populace " shall be able to have 

 meat for their food for at least five days in the week, and plenty of other 

 diet for the remaining two, should they from any motive jjrefer the 

 alteration." The orator here is guilty of a little subterfuge for the 

 benefit of the English ear. Fridays always, and Wednesdays often, are 

 the fasting days of the papist ; the weight of Popish crime consisting not 

 in eating salmon and turtle, fruits and confectionary, to any amount the 

 opulent papist can swallow, nor in swallowing whiskey to any amount 

 that the populace can swallow, but in beef and mutton. ]Meat is the 

 deadly sin on those sacred days ; and a beef-steak may cost a thousand 

 years of grilling in purgatory, unless, and the exception is incomparable, 

 unless the sinner can lay down the money appointed by the Pope to go 

 into his pocket as the general purifier of all sins. This grand cleanser 

 washes away the profligacy even of eating a beef-steak, and the sinner 

 goes, with his certificate in his pocket, straight up to the gates of 

 Paradise, as unstained, as if he had never done any thing worse than 

 rebelling against his king, and plunging his country into bloodshed and 

 flame. 



