1843.] 
THE GARDENERS 
CHRONICLE. 
the usual official channels, or by the post, in time to have 
its contents known to the persons intending to meet at 
Clontarf for the purpose of petitioning, as aforesaid, 
whereby ill-disposed persons may have an opportunity, 
under cover of said proclamation, to provoke breaches of 
the peace, or to commit violence on persons intending to 
proceed peaceably and legally to the said meeting. We, 
therefore, the Committee of the Loyal National Repeal 
Association, do mo; i} earnestly request ’and entreat that 
all well-disposed pétgons will, immediately on receiving 
this intimation, repair to their own dwellings, and not 
place themselves in peril of any collision, or of receiving 
any ill treatment whatsoever, And we do further inform all 
than that of the Government. The greatest excitement 
prevailed, more especially as the city was filled with troops, 
three war steamers having arrived during the preceding 
night with portions of the 34th and 87th Irish Fusiliers. 
The guns at the forts were ready for action, and the guards 
were doubled. ‘The road to Clontarf bore all the indica- 
tions of a formidable military campaign. The 11th Hussars, 
commanded by Lord Cardigan, the 5th Dragoon Guards, 
the 60th Rifles, the 5th Fusiliers, and the 54th Foot, were 
feeling of curiosity. There was neither cheering nor 
8roaning ; and the multitudes along the line conducted 
themselves in an orderly and peaceable manner, The troops 
on the ground also behaved with great good humour, and 
presented no obstacle to the people passing and repassing. 
About 4 o'clock, Mr. Steele, who had been occupied all 
day in inducing the people to depart from Clontarf, 
returned towards town, followed by a great number of cars 
and a considerable body of pedestrians. There was no 
cheering, or noise of any kind. ‘The voice of Mr. Steele, 
who bore a small green branch in his hand, was alone 
heard, calling out quietly,, but emphatically, ‘« Home, 
ome !”’ and the people, in all directions, readily obeyed 
the command. Shortly before six—it being then nearly 
dark—the various regiments and the artillery returned 
to town, and moved on towards their respective barracks. 
On Monday the Repeal Association held their weekly 
Meeting at Calvert’s Theatre, instead of the Corn Exchange, 
In order to accommodate the Repealers who had come 
©ver from Manchester and Liverpool. After several 
Sympathisers from Liverpool, Manchester, and Staley- 
tidge had been presented in due form, several sums were 
handed in as ‘ proclamation money,’’ the parties stating 
that it was contributed on account of the proclamation of 
Saturday, Mr. O’Connell then addressed the meeting. 
© said he never, in the course of a long and event- 
ful life, rose to address a public assembly with a 
Stronger, a fore awful feeling of responsibility than 
at the present moment. At the same time he never ad- 
dressed a meeting with a more confident feeling of personal 
firmness, He would say at once, it was not the fault of 
the English Government that there was not a massacre. 
© did not hesitate to repeat it; and if he were to go to 
the scaffold to-morrow—( Voices, ‘ No, no, no, never,”)— 
if he were to go to the scaffold, he would not hesitate to 
Say, that if the Government had intended to entrap the 
People into a massacre, they would not have acted other- 
Wise than they did. Such folly and absurdity had per- 
Yaded their entire conduct respecting the Repeal agitation 
of giving rise to that which, but for his interference, 
might. have ended—and probably would have ended—in 
thentssacre, He there} proclaimed to all Ireland that 
ec was but one safety—one hope—of gaining Repeal, 
thi that consisted in the most perfect obedience to every- 
shag that had the shape or form of legal authority, They 
ae not question whether the authority was exactly 
asl He did not question the legality of the proclama- 
me Nn. He called upon them to obey anything in the shape 
legal authority ; for resistance would not be legitimate, 
the form and law of authority was done away with, 
ae Re Open and red hand of violence was distinetly 
nes + This had not happened—he was convinced it 
is ®t would happen. He called upon the people to obey 
Pything which looked like legal authority—to yield—to 
ae way—to let the illegal authority demonstrate itself ; 
Tel 80 long as it called itself legal, he told the people. of 
Cland, if they wished for safety, and above all, for Repeal, 
they would obey it. Having first proclaimed that obedi- 
ence should be observed, he would next declare his 
thorough conviction that the conduct of the Government 
was calculated to produce a massacre of the innocent 
people. He was not accusing them of any intention to 
do it ; but he would demonstrate from facts that they had 
escaped the hour of that crime, and that innocent men 
escaped slaughter, by the accident of his having been in 
Dublin to explain to the people the line of conduct which 
they should follow. He would give dates. For nearly 
three weeks the Government were apprised of the 
meeting. It had been advertised for more than a fort- 
night, and they were quite apprised of it. For more than 
a week they were determined to take the step which they 
had taken, They had everything arranged, and two regi- 
ments were upon their passage, which were settled to arrive 
there the morning of the meeting, and were therefore de- 
termined to want them. They could want them for one 
purpose only; and what he complained of was, that 
they did not let the people know that they intended to 
put down the meeting, nor signify to the leaders of the 
people the necessity of warning them against falling into 
such danger. They had for ten months past promoted and 
countenanced similar meetings, at Mullaghmast, Conne- 
mara, Loughrea, Waterford, Tara, Donnybrook, and other 
places. All these meetings had taken place. They knew 
who had attended them ; their names were ostentatiously 
proclaimed. Was there a proclamation, or the smallest 
hint given, of their illegality? Was any magistrate, any 
policeman, sent to caution them? In fact, with the most 
perfect knowledge of Government these meetings took 
place. The meeting at Clontarf was peculiarly circum- 
stanced. If there were any meeting which had a superior 
distinctness and legality about it than another, it was that 
meeting. The others were called by a requisition of lay- 
men and clergymen, the laymen being more numerous; 
but the requisition for the Clontarf meeting was not 
signed by any man but a Roman Catholic clergyman, so 
that it was marked, as it were, with tranquillity. The 
Government were in Dublin upon Friday. It was the day 
upon which the Gazedée should appear, and was the legiti- 
mate day for a proclamation. He would, therefore, ask 
the British Ministry how, in the name of common sense, 
they could account for passing by Friday? If they had 
issued the proclamation upon that day, they would have 
sent down to the different localities, and told the people 
to obey it; but they did not do it until Saturday, atiso 
late an hour, that the people had only a few hours of 
light to enable them to read it. The proceedings of the 
Repeal Association should still go on; and if it were pro- 
claimed down, he would be the first person to go to the 
association; but he would not oppose the law. He 
would obey even the semblance of authority. He then 
declared his intention of having simultaneous meetings 
throughout Ireland after prayers on a Sunday (the day he 
would not yet select), to petition against the insult and 
assault upon national rights which had taken place. He 
would see whether the Government would suppress those 
meetings, as they had done the “ monster meeting.” He 
concluded by again calling upon the people to be tranquil, 
orderly, submissive, and peaceful. A resolution, expres- 
sive of the determination of the people, proposed by Mr. 
O'Connell, and seconded by Captain Seaver, was carried. 
Mr. M. O'Callaghan proposed a vote of confidencein Daniel 
O'Connell, which was carried by acclamation. Mr. O’Con- 
nell then announced the week’s rent at 1,105/. 3s. ld. 
On Monday evening the Repeal dinner, which was to have 
followed the meeting at Clontarf, took place in the Ro- 
tunda, all the rooms in that vast building, the most spacious 
for public accommodation in this city, being devoted to 
the entertainment. The doors were opened at five o’clock, 
when the rush was tremendous. All the tickets were dis- 
posed of early in the day, upwards of 2000 having been 
issued. The papers of both parties agree that nothing 
like it, as a popular demonstration, had taken place in 
Dublin before the issuing of the government proclamation. 
Hundreds were obliged to stand, and the heat was extreme. 
Mr. O'Connell presided, dressed in the robes of Lord 
Mayor. ‘The first toasts proposed were the Queen and 
Royal family. The next was—The people the source of 
legitimate power.” Mr. O'Connell then proposed--“ Repeal 
of the Union.”” He said that Ireland would never com- 
promise—that she would never accept of an instalment of 
the Repeal—that justice could be obtained from a local 
legislature alone. In reference to the recent conduct of 
the Irish administration, he observed that some people in 
England, looking to their acts, would say that he had 
bribed them; but even if he had, they had not vicious 
ingenuity enough to serve him half so well as they had 
done. Then it was said that in case the union was re- 
pealed, the Catholics would take ascendancy ; but that 
supposition was absurd and futile. The Catholics had 
been three times in power, and they, unlike their Protes- 
tant brethren, refused to persecute at all. Let them pro- 
duce one instance of persecution on the part of the 
Catholics, and he would give up the cause of Ireland jand 
they might readily know that he would not make such an 
offer, unless he knew it was impossible to meet it. It was 
said that if the union was repealed the House of Lords 
would be Catholic. That was ridiculous; for twenty to 
one would be Protestant, and they would have, besides, 
Protestant England and Scotland at their back, and then 
they would have an equal share in the selection of the 
House of Commons, He had entered too much on the 
subject for an after-dinner speech, but his mind was filled 
with Repeal. He did not want the Repeal without the 
assent of a large portion of his Protestant fellow-country- 
en. He was working for them as well as for the Catho- 
lics. He would have no distinction. Liberty to all was 
what he required, and that was what was’ meant by the 
5 
Repeal of the Union.”” Mr. O'Connell, in proposing the 
next toast, which was the last upon the list, took occasion 
to exhort his hearers upon the necessity of maintaining a 
peaceable demeanour, and yielding implicit obedience to 
the laws, at a crisis so vital to the country as the present. 
He implored of them to show their devotion to the cause 
of their country by acting towards their antagonists in a 
spirit of forbearance and good feeling. More important 
considerations were at stake in the present contest than 
even in the struggle for emancipation. They would 
forego all excitement, and should approach the considera- 
tion of the great national question of Ireland with calm 
nd dispassi minds. Simult; meetings would, 
he trusted, be held all over the country, for the purpose 
of entreating her Majesty to dismiss from office the men 
to whom the executive powers were now entrusted. Six 
or seven millions of signatures should be procured to peti- 
tions begging that Lord de Grey might be sent to mind 
his oxen—that Lord Eliot might be permitted to go where 
he liked for his own diversion—that Mr. Lucas should get 
directions to proceed to Monaghan—that Brewster, Smith, 
and the rest of them, should be sent to mind their own 
business, and not to meddle with theirs, and that the 
people of Ireland should be sent to College-green to make 
laws for themselves. Meantime his motto was ‘ Peace, 
order, tranquillity, and resolution.’’ The company gave 
three cheers for “* The Queen and Old Ireland,”’ and three 
for Mr. O’Connell; after which they quietly dispersed.— 
The Association met again on Thursday; and was the 
least numerously attended meeting of any that has taken 
place since the commencement of the Agitation. Mr 
O’Connell said that his object was to remove, as much as 
possible, irritation from the public mind. When that 
should be effected, he would have simultaneous meetings 
in every parish in Ireland, to petition the Queen for the 
dismissal of ministers. He entreated the people to sub- 
mit to everything which has even the semblance of 
legal authority. If they would only continue peace- 
able, he was certain of obtaining the Repeal of the 
Union, He said he had heard a report that the issuing of 
the proclamation was not the act of the Cabinet, but a 
thing determined on by Wellington, Sugden, and Lord de 
Grey, who met together on Tuesday or Wednesday last, 
and remained in consultation for four hours. It was 
intended to take the people of Ireland by surprise, and to 
attack them when they were unarmed. He might be 
blamed for shrinking, but his courage consisted in keeping 
others out of danger ; he was careless what might occur 
to himself. He concluded by moving—That an address to 
the Irish people be prepared, calling upon them to perse- 
vere in their exertions for repeal, but without violence, 
force, or tumult of any kind, and without resistance to 
any legal authority. é 
Waterford. The first provincial demonstration in 
reference to the Government proclamation took place in 
this city on Sunday, within a few hours after the mani- 
festo had been received. The Rev. Mr. D’Arcy presided, 
and resolutions were adopted expressive of unbounded 
confidence in Mr. O’Connell, and a readiness to follow the 
course prescribed by him at the present crisis. The cor- 
poration met on the next day, the mayor in the chair, and 
adopted resolutions ‘‘solemnly protesting against any 
infraction of their legal rights to meet to petition Parlia- 
ment, upon the assumption that the public peace would 
be disturbed,—an assumption disproved by the experience 
of similar meetings, and by the alacrity with which the 
meeting to have been holden at Clontarf was abandoned ; 
and declaring their deliberate intention to continue their 
support to Mr.O’Connell in the same constitutional course 
which has characterised the Repeal movement under his 
guidance.’” 
2 
‘SCOTLAND. 
Cromarty.—The Ross-shire papers state that the riot 
at Resolis has been followed by the rescue of the female 
prisoner, who was lodged in the gaol of Cromarty on 
Thursday week. Although the prison was surrounded 
till nearly daybreak by a mob, no attempt at rescue was 
then made. On the following night, however, some 
hundreds of men and women made their appearance in 
the town, armed with stones and bludgeons, with which 
they commenced an attack on the gaol, and eventually 
succeeded in battering down the door, and in liberating 
the woman, who was carried off amidst yells and hurraing. 
The previous outrages in Rosskeen, Logie, and Resolis, 
on the adherents and ministers of the Church, have 
alarmed the authorities ; and, accordingly, the Sheriff 
has applied for military aid to the Lord Advocate. This 
application has been promptly replied to, and a detach- 
ment of the 87th Irish Fusiliers, consisting of 150 men, 
arrived at Invergordon, from Leith, on Wednesday. The 
Lord Lieutenant and Sheriff went to Invergordon on 
Tuesday week, to arrange measures for the prevention of 
further riots, the establishment of the deforced ministers 
in their parishes, and the apprehension of the offenders. 
Stirling. —On Wednesday, Allan Mair, an old man in 
his 84th year, convicted at the last Stirling Circuit before 
Lord Moncrieff of the wilful murder of his wife, by beat- 
ing her to death with some heavy substance, was executed 
in front of the Court-house. The execution was attended 
by circumstances which have produced a painful sensation 
through the whole of this part of Scotland. The old man 
protested his innocence to the last, and died uttering hor- 
rible imprecations on the witnesses at the trial. 
Inverness.—The annual gathering at Inverness com~ 
menced on Wednesday week, Prince Alexander of the 
Netherlands accompanied the Duke and Duchess of Rich- 
mond from Gordon Castle, and was induced to prolong his 
sojourn in the Highlands, in order to be present on this 
Occasion, as he was so much gratified with the Bracmar 
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