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About Weekly constitutionalist. (Augusta, Ga.) 185?-1877 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 28, 1866)
THE WEEKLY OONSTITUTIONATLIS. No More Punishment. . GERKIT SMITH TO PROFESSOR LEWIS. There were no writings in and on our late ■war more scholarly or better reasoned than your owy. That they were also eminently pa triotic was no more than td be expected oi one who cave up his beloved sons to seal with their blood their devotion to their country. I see that yon continue to write for the salva tion of that dear country. Well you may ! for she is, this day, more fearfully imperilled than she was at any time during “ the clash of arms.” I have read your pamphlet entitled: “ The Heroic Periods of a Nation’s History.”— I wish every one could read its wise and high souled pages. They favor the shedding of more blood. You would have had the South punished after she had laid dotvn her arms.— Some of her most prominent men you would have had punished with death. I wonder that yon, who are so familiar with the writings of the most approved publicists, do not tall in with their conclusion, that a strife, which has reached the dimensions and dignity of a civil war, and especially a civil ■war, which, like our own, divides a people into distinct and completed national organizations, has outgrown the crime of treason. Their ar guments for this conclusion, together with such as would suggest themselves, to a mind as en lightened as your own, must, it would seem, lack nothing to convince you of its entire soundness. I need hardly add .that I dissent from your definition of a civil wat. * It is maiuly the fault of the Government when oue-half of a nation breaks away from the other. Had our Government been cvor wise and just, the Great Secession, which has soak ed our soil with blood, would not have been. When one-half of England or France or Spain shall break away from the other, the world’s sympathies will pretty certainly be with the in surgents, for the world will, pretty certainly, infer that the insurgents were wronged. More over, if the insurgents shall fail to maintain their cause and to right their wrongs, the world will, pretty certainly, feel that their failure is of itself their quite sufficient punishment.— Who is so foolish as to believe that, had the whole history of onr Government been bright with wisdom and beautiful with justice, there would have been this throwing off its restraints and this defiance of its power. I have expressed my wonder that yon, who should stand at this point with the Republicans and Revolutionists of Europe, are so far be hind them as still to recognize the crime of treason in a civil war. Rut more do 1 wonder at your overlooking the fact that,'however much punishment the South may deserve, she deserv s noneat all at the hands of the North. The armed rising of the South was the effect, not to say neecssary effect, of her pro-slavery edusatiou. For this education it is true that she was herself responsible. But the North was more responsible for it. Northern words for slavery had peculiarly great weight at' the South, because the North, from having no slaves, passed for a disinterested witness. This taken-for-granted disinterestedness must never be lost sight of when we would account for the great inflttehce at the South of Northern apol ogies for slavery. When Northern press, pul pit, college, merchant, manufacturer spoke for slavery, as with well nigh insignificant excep tions they all did, was it strange that the South should listen with both her ears, and set a special value upon the testimony? It was the voice of the North for slavery ! —of the disinterested North /—ay, of the anti-slavery North ! You seem to forget that there was a day when the statesmen, or, better say, politieians of the North, were proclaiming that the Constitution bound us to uphold slavery; and when the great majority of the colleges and churches oi the North held with the slaveholders that the Bible is for slavery. I say you seem to forget it: — for did you remember it, would not pity, in stead of punishment for the South be your plea? Perhaps you will say that the South was without excuse, because the Abolitionists were, all this time, faithfully telling her of the match less wickedness of slavery. I admit that they tried to tell her of it. But the voice of those few and obscure ones could not be heard by her when the great andauthoritative'onesin Church and State commanded her attention. Perhaps it will be said that the doctrine of Slate sovereignty contributed materially to this artned rising of the South. It certainly did somewhat. But this was far from being an ex clusively Southern doctrine. It enjoyed wide spread favor at the North also. Moreover, the Constitution not sufficiently guarding against it makes the whole nation measurably responsi ble for the pernicious doctrine. Jefferson and Madison would have given it no countenance, -had they seen it to be clearly violative of the Constitution. The North desires Peace with the South—a sound and therefore an enduring peace. She can have it. Her first step to this end is to prove her sense of justice: and in no other way can she do so much to prove it as by according equal justice, and therefore the ballot, to all races. Having proved this she will have laid a foundation on which to build up her claim to the heart of the South. And this, by the way, it will bo far more difficult to succeed in than it would have been eighteen months ago. From what has passed in this time, it is far harder now than it was then to win her heart. It will cost far greater concessions to accomplish it.— In the first place, we must take the ground of no more punishment of the South—no more depriving her people of life, liberty or estate. In the second place we must restore them, great and small, to the fulness of political rights. In the third place we must show fraternal pity for her poverty and desolation : and I think of no better way to do this than to exempt her for a number of years from direct Federal taxatiou. But would she, even then, consent to hold the National debt sacred and to let the Confederate debt drop ? I believe she would. For, I be lieve, that we should by that time have won her heart. “I see it! I see it!” exclaimed an Indian convert to his Christian missionary, who was instructing him—“for I see it with my heart.” The South will see the necessary terms of paci fication in the right light when she shall come to see them with that right heart, which it is in our power to create in her. But, my learned friend, we can have no part in creating it, so long as we persist in our desire to punish her —or in other words, so long as we persist in that state of self-rigliteousness, which inspires so lively a sense of others’ sins, as to leave no remaining sense of our own. Al] our services to this end will be unavailing, so long as we feel that the South is to be hated* instead of loved by us, punished instead of pitied. I add that we can have no part in regenerating the spirit of the South until we feel that she has suffered enough; and that the War in which she has suffered so much is to he traced back to guilty causes for which the North as well as the South is responsible. A Literary Theft. —Swinburne is accused of plagiarism. The critics say that his distich — “ I dare not always touch her, lest the kiss Leave my lips charred”— is evidently borrowed from the old poet’s mon key, which “ Married the baboon’s sister, Smacked his lips and then he kissed her, Kissed to hard he raised a blister ; She set up a yell.” Seeing the Angels.—A little girl in Nor folk, after listening to her mother’s description of meteoric displays, exclaimed : “ Oh, me! but if the stars fall out, can’t we see the angels through the holes ?” Antonio Barbarino, proprietor of a street corner fruit stand in St. Louis, died a few days ago, leaving an estate worth over 150,000. "Mr. Bright in Ireland. The Question of the Ballot— The True Remedy for the Wrongs and Grievances of Ireland. On the evening of November 2, Mr. Bright addressed a large meeting of the workingmen of Dublin. On risiug to speak, he was loudly cheered. He said: Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: When I came to your city I was asked if 1 could attend a public meutiug on the question of Parliamen tary Reform. I answered that I was not in good order lor much speaking, for I have suf fered, as I am afnid you may find before I come to the erd of ray observations, from much cold and hoarseness, but it was urged upon me that there were at least some, and not an inconsid erable number, of the workingmen of this city who would be glad if I would meet them, and it was proposed to offer to me some address of friendship and of confidence such as this which has been read. I have no complaint to make of it but this: that while I do not say it indi cates too much kitiduess, yet that it colors too highly the services—the small services—which I have been able to render to any portion of my countrymen. [Cries of “No, uo.”j Your countrymen are recognized generally as being a people of great gratitude and of much enthu siasm, and therefore I accept the address with all the kindness and feeling of friendship with which it has been offered, and I hope it will be at least in some degree a stimulus to me in whatever position in life I ant placed to remem ber, as 1 have ever in past times remembered, the claims of the people of this island to com plete and equal justice with all portions of the. people of the United Kingdom. [Loud cheers. J Now, there may be persons in this room—l should be surprised if there were not—who doubt whether it is worth their while even to hope for substantial justice, as this address says, from a Parliament sitting in London. [Loud cheers.f If there be such a man in this meeting, let him understand that I am not the man to condemn him [cheers] or to express surprise at the opinion at which lie has arrived, but I will ask him in return for this that he will give me, at least for a few minutes, a patient hearing, and he will find that whether justice may come from the North or the South, from the East or from the West, [several voices, “from the West” and cheers] at any rate I stand as a friend to the most comffiete justice to the population of this island. [Cheers j When discussing the question of Parliamentary Reform, I have often heard it asserted that the people of Ireland—and, I am not speaking of those who are hopeless of good from a Parlia ment in London—that the people of Ireland generally imagine that the question of Parlia mentary Reform has very little interest for them. Now I will undertake to say, and.l think I can make it clear to this meeting, that, what ever may be the importance of this question to any man in England or Scotland, if the two islands are to continue under one Parliamentary Government, it is of more importance to every Irishman. * You know that the Parliament of which I am a member contains 658 members, and of those 105 ero.ss.thc Channel from Ireland. When the 105 Irish members get across the Channel they meet, assuming that they all assemble together, 553 members who are returned from Great Britain. Now, suppose that your 105 members were absolutely good and honorable represen tatives of the people of Ireland—l will not say whether Whigs, or Tqjjties, Radicals, or -Repeal ers, but anything you like —let any man sup pose, for instance, that all those members wore exactly the sort of members he would wish to go fjorn Ireland, when they arrive in London they meet with the 553 members who are re turned from the rest of Great Britain.. But sup pose that the Parliamentary representative sys tem of Great Britain is very bad, that it repre sents but very few persons in that groat island, and that those who appear to be represented are so distributed, in small boroughs and dif ferent parts of the country and in counties, un der thumb and finger of their landlords, it is quite clear that the whole Parliament —less your 105 men, who might be very good men—the whole Parliament to legislate for the United Kingdom might still be a very bad Parliament. ; [Cheers.] Therefore, if any man imagines, and '■ I should think that no man can imagine, that | the representation of the people ot Ireland is 1 in a very good state, still, if he fancies that, un j less the representation of Great Britain were ; equally good, you might have 100 excellent i Irish members in Parliament at Westminster, ; but the whole 658 might be a very bad Parlia ment for the United Kingdom. [Cheers.] A member for a borough or county irt Ire land, when he gets to London, votes for meas ures for the whole Kingdom, and a member for Lancashire or Warwickshire, or any other coun ty or borough in England, votes not only lor English measures, but also for measures for Ireland, and. therefore, every part of the United Kingdom. Every county, every borough, every pal ish, every family, every body has a clear and dis.iuct and unalterable interest in a Parlia ment that should fairly and justly represent the whole nation. ' [Loud cheers.] Now, look for a moment at two or three facts with regard to Ireland alone. I have stated many facts with regard to England and Scotland at recent meet ings held across the Channel, and now lor two or three with regard to Ireland. In Ireland you have five boroughs returning each one member, the average number of eieetors in each borough being only 172. Then you have 13 boroughs, the average number of electors in each being 316; you have nine other boroughs with an average number of electors in eaclt of 497; you have, therefore, 27 boroughs, whose whole number of electors, if they were all put together, is only 9,453, which gives an average of 350 electors for each member. I may tell yon, also, that you have a single county with nearly twice as many voters as the whole of those 27 boroughs. You have only 9,453 elec tors, and your county of Cork has 16,177 electors, and that county of Cork returns two members. But that is not the worst of the case which hap pens to be in Great Britain and Ireland wher ever the torough constituencies are so small that it is almost impossible that they should be independent. Avery acute lawyer, for example, in one ot the boroughs; a very active and in fluential clergyman, whether of your Church or of ours—and when I say ours I do not mean mine, bat I mean the Church in England—half a dozen men combining together, or a little corruption occasioned by a candidate going down with a well-filled purse, rnay carry the representation of *a small borough eitiier in England or in Ireland, and a free and real rep resentation of the people is hardly ever possible in a borough of this very small size. [Hear.] But if I w'ere to compare your boroughs with vonr counties, just see how the matter stands. You have 39 borough members with 30,000 elec tors, and you have 64 county members with 172,000 electors, and therefore, you see, the rep resentatives are so distributed that the great populations have not a quarter probably of ihe influence in Parliament that the small boroughs have in their members there. And here we come to another question of great consequence. Not only are those small boroughs altogether too small for independence, but if we eorne to yonr large county constituencies we find, from the peculiar circumstances and relations exist ing between the voters and the owner of land, that there is scarcely anything of freedom of elections even in your counties. [Cheers.] I should suppose, if there were no compulsion of landowner or agent, that in at least three quarters of this island the votes of the county eieetors would be by a vast majority in favor of Liberal candidates. [Cheers.] And when lam speaking of Liberal candidates I am not now speaking merely of men who profess the sort ofliberality which just enables them to go with their party, but I speak of men who would be thoroughly in earnest in carrying out, so far as they were able, in Parliament the opinions which they were thought to represent by the large constituencies which had elected them. — [Hear, hear.J The question of the ballot, in my opinion, is of the greatest importance in Great Britaiu and in Ireland ; but it is of more importance in the counties thau it Is in the large boroughs. For example : In Great Brit liu take such boroughs as Edinburgh and Glasgow, and Manchester and Birmingham, and the metropolitan boroughs. There the number of eieetors runs up from 10,000 to 25,- 000, aud bribing is of no avail where the num bers are so large, beeause you cannot bribe thousands of men, and to bribe only a hundred or two would not secure a return at an election with so large a constituency. What you want with the ballot is tilts: In cases where the tenant-farmers vote, aud where they live upon their land without the security of a lease, or without the security of any law to give them the benefit of the* improvements they have made upon the land, they feel themselves always liable to injury, and sometimes liable to ruin, if they get themselves into a dispute with the agents or the land holders with regard to the manner in which they have exercised their franchise ; [cheers,] and* what would be very important, also, if you had the bailot, your elections would he tran quil, without disorder and without riot. Last week, or the week before, there was an election in one of your great counties. [Several voices, “In Tipperary.”] Yes, in Tipperary. Well, making every allowance that can be made for the supposed exaggerations of the writers of I the two parties, it is quite clear to everybody that the circumstances of that election —alas ! not absolutely uncommon in Ireland —were | still such as to be utterly discreditable to the j representative system. [Hear.J Aud you must j*bear in mind that there is no people in the | world that considers that it has a fair represen tative system unless it has the ballot. The bai lot is universal almost in the United States. [Cheers.] It is almost universal in our colo nies—at any rate in the Australian colonies. It is almost universal on the Continent of Europe, and in the new Parliament of North Germany which is about to he assembled every male per son of twenty five years of age is to be allowed to vote, and to vote by ballot. [Loud and continued cheers.J Now, I hold, without any fear ot contradiction, that the intelligence and the virtues of people of Great Britain and the people of Ireland are not repre sented in the Imperial Parliament. [Cheers.] You have your wrongs to complain of — wrongs centuries old, Atnd wrongs that long ago the people of Irelaml, and I Venture to say further, that the people of Great. Britain united with Ireland —[Cries of “ Never I” and inflqr ruption]—l say that the people ol Great Brit ain, acting with the people of Ireland in the fair representation of the whole nation, would long, long ago have remedied every just griev ance of which you can complain. Now 1 will take two questions which I treated upon the other evening at the dinner. One of them is the question of the supremacy ol the Church in Ireland. Why, half tlie people of England are Nonconformists ; they are not in favor of an Established Church anywhere, aud it is cer tainly impossible that they can be in favor of an Established Church in an island like this — an Established Church formed ot a mere hand ful of a population in opposition to the wishes of the whole people, j Loud cheers.] Now, take the Principality of Wales. When you go to England by Holyhead you run right through the Principality. 1 suppose at least four out of five of the population are Dissenters, and they are not in favor of maintaining the Pro testant Establishment in Ireland. Take the people of Scotland. They have seceded in such large numbers from their Established Church, although there their Church is of a very demo cratic character, they have seceded from it in such large numbers, that I suppose those who have seceded are a considerable majority of the whole population. They arc not in favor of maintaining a Church establishment in Irelaud in opposition to the view of the great majority ot your peo ple. Take the other question to which I re ferred—the question of the land. There is nobody in Great Britain—of the great town population, ot the great middle class, or of the still more numerous working class—none of them have any sympathy with the condition of the law and the administration of the law which have worked such great mischiefs in your country, but that upper class, whether in Eng land, Wales or Scotland, aud that great middle class, and that still greater working class.— Why, they are in the position that yon are in. Only 16 out of every 100 men have a vote, and those 16 arc so arranged that, in point of fact, when their representatives get to Parliament, they turn out for the most part to be no real representatives at all. [Cheers, and a voice— “ That’s Bob Lowe,” aud laughter.] Now I will tell you fairly that I think the people of Ireland have by far the strongest interest in a thorough reform of the Imperial Parliament. [Cheers.] And 1 believe that yourselves could not do yourselves, by yourselves, more com plete jastiee than you can do, fairly acting with the generous millions of my countrymen, in whose name I speak to you. [Loud aud con tinued cheering.] You have on this platform ; to-night, I believe, two members the Reform League, from London. I received, I think yes | terday, or the day before, a telegram from tiie Scottish Reform League, from Glasgow—l am ! not sure whether there has been an account of : it in the papers, but I presume it was sent me j in order that I might read it if 1 had the oppor tunity of meeting any of the working men and unenfranchised men in tins city. It is signed by John Birt, President, James Smith, Treasur ' er, and George Jackson, Secretary of the Seot ' tish Reform League, and it says : | “ The Scottish Reform League request you ! to convey to the Reformers in Ireland their I deep sympathies. They sincerely hope that | soon in Ireland, as in Scotland and England, , Reform Leagues may be formed in every town ! to secure to the people their political rights, ■ urge upon friends in Ireland their duty to pro | mote this great movement and to secure at j home those benefits which thousands of their ! fellow-countrymen are forced to seek in other i lands, where land and State Church grievances j are unknown. We also seek co-openition that i our freedom, though secured to-morrow, would | not be safe so long as one portion of the United \ Kingdom were less free than the others.” | Now there is the outspoken voice of the rep j rcsentatives of that great multitude which only j a fortnight since I saw pass through the streets |of Glasgow. For three hours the procession passed with all the emblems aqd symbols of their various trades, and the streets for two or three miles were enlivened with banners, while the air was filled with the sounds of music from their bands. Why, these men speak but the same voice that was heard in the West Riding—that was heard in Manchester—that was heard in Birmingham—that was heard in London; mid that you, men of Dublin, you never committed a greater mistake in your lives if you come to the conclusion that there are noL millions of men in Britain willing to do you full justice. [Loud cheering and some interruption, which the Chairman endeavored to suppress, j The fact is, Mr. Haughton has not been so much at political meetings as I have, or he would only welcome an exclama tion now and then which shows the vivacity and difference of the audience. [Cheers.] I am sorry that my voice is not now what it once was, and when I think what the work is which is to he done, I think it is sometimes a pity that we grow old so fast. Years ago, many years ago, when I have thought of 'he condition of Ireland, of its sor rows and wrongs, of the discredit its condition brought upon the English and Irish and British name, I have thought that if I could be in all other things the same, but by birth an Irish man, there is not a town in the island that J would not visit for the purpose of discussing the great Irish question and of rousing my countrymen to some grand and united action. [Great cheering and waving ot hats.] Ido not believe in the necessity of wide-spread and hor rible misery. I do not believe that we were placed in this island and on this earth that one man might be great and wealthy and glorylDg in every profuse indulgence, and five or six or nine or ten men suffering the abject misery which we sec too common in the world. Why, with yonr soil and with yonr climate and with your active and spirited race, I know not what this island might not do; but there have been reasons to my mind why the soil and the cli mate and the labor of your population have not produced general comfdrt and competence for all. This address speaks of friendly feeling and sympathy which I have had for Ireland during ray political career. Why, when 1 first went into the House of Commons the most promi nent figure in it was Daniel O’Connell. [Loud cheers.] I have sat by his side for hours during the discussions in that House, and have listened to observations both amusing and instructive on what was passing in discussion. I have seen him, too, more than oucc on our plat form on the Anti-Corn Law, and 1 recollect that he sent to Ireland expressly for a newspaper which contained a report of a speech which he made against!lie Corn Law when the Corn Law was passiug through Parliament in 1815, and we owe much to his exertions in connec tion with that question ; for almost, indeed, I suppose the Whole Liberal Party of Irish rep resentatives in Parliament supported the meas ures ol free trade, of which we were the prom inent advocates. [Cheers.] I know ol' nothing that was favorable to freedom, whether iu con nection with Ireland or with England, that O’Connell did not support with all his great powers. [Cheers, and a voice, “ That’s per sonal.”] 1 know nothing pleasanter, and hard ly anything more useful thau personal recol lections of this nature. Why is it now that there should be, if there be any kind of schism between tire Liberal people of Ireland and the Liberal people of Great. Britain. I don’t ask you to join hands with supremacy or oppres sion, whether in your island or in ours ; what I ask of you is to open your heart of licarts, and to join hands for a great cordial thorough working union for freedom with the great peo ple ot Great Britain. [Cheers.] Perhaps be tore 1 sit down I may be allowed to Advert to a point which lias been much commented on, a paragraph n a'speech 1 made the other night with regard to the land. I need not tell you that there are newspapers in Dublin which 1 need' not name, because I am quite sure you can find them out —[laughter]—I ant sorry to say that there are newspapers which do not feel any strong desire or any conscientious compulsion to judge fairly anything which I may sav. Among the various measures which I proposed for what 1 should call the pacifica tion and the redemption of the people ot Ire land. I have said 'that it is of (lie first import ance that the people of Ireland, by some pro cess or other, should be made, and have the op portunity of being made, the possessors of their own soil. |Great cheering.] You know perfectly well that I am not about to propose to copy the villainous crimes of 200 years ago, and to confiscate the lands of tLo proprietors here or elsewhere. I propose to introduce a system which would gradually, but •rapidly and easily, without injuring anybody, make many thousands who are now tenant fanners without leases and security the owners of their own farms in this island. Now, this is ray plan, and I want to restate it here, with a little further explanation, in order that the gen tlemen to whom I have referred may not again repeat the very'untrue, and what 1 call the dis honorable comments which they have made upon it. There are, as you know, many large estates in Ireland which belong to rich families in England—families in England not only of the highest rank, but of the highest character ; because I will venture to say that there will bo found among the English nobility lamilies of as much perfect honorablencss and worth as some of those to whom my plan would be of fered ; therefore, I am not speaking against the aristocracy or against the families, or against property, or against anybody or anything that is good. But I say this, if Parliament were to appoint a Commission, and give it say at first up to the amount of five millions sterling, and power to negotiate or treat with the great fami lies in England who have large estates in Ire land, it is probable that some of these great es tates might he bought at a not very unreason able price. [Cheers, and a voice, “Could we not get them for nothing ?”] Hear me to the end of my statement. lam of opinion thatit would be the cheapest money that the Imperial Par liament almost ever expended, even though it became possessed of those great estates at a price considerably above that which they would fetch if put up in your market to-mor row. I propose that it should lie worked in tills way. I will take a ease. Assume that this Commission got a large estate iu its possession, bought from Lord A, Cor D. We will take one farm upon it, which I assume to be worth £I,OOO, and for which the present tenant pays £SO a year. He has no loase ; lie lias no secu rity ; he makes almost no permanent improve ments of any kind, and he is not q#ite sure whether, when ho has saved a little money, ho will not take his family off to the United States. [Loud cheers and a voice, “ He will come back again.”] We will assume, if you like, that we are the Commission, and that we have got be fore ns the farmer who is the tenant on that particular farm, for which he pays £SO a year, without having;a lease or security, and which I take to be wortli £I,OOO. Now, the Govern ment, I believe, lends money to the Irish land owners for great drainage purposes at about per cent, per annum. Suppose this Com mission went to this farmer and said, “ Surely you would not have any objection to become possessed of this farm ?” “No ; not the slight est,” he would say, [laughter and cheers ;] “but how is that to be done ?” In this way, you tell the farmer : “ You now pay £SO a year, that’s 5 per cent, on £I,OOO ; the Government can afford to do these transactions for per cent., and if you will pay £6O a year for n given number of years, which any of the actuaries at the in surance offices or any good arithmetician can ealculatc—if you pay £6O a year for rent in stead of £SO for a given number of years—it may be ten, fifteen or twenty—at the end of that time the farm will be yours without any further payment.” I want you to understand how this is. You see if the farmer had been paying £SO and you asked him to pay £lO a year more toward buy ing his farm he might do it; hut the lact is that the £I,OOO the Government pays for the farm would not cost them more than £35, and, there fore, the difference between £35 and S6O being £25, would l«i the sum which the farmer paid annuajly in his rent would be paying the Gov ernment for the redemption of his farm, and this at the end of a very lew years. The farmer having perfect security that no one could turn him out if he paid his rent, and nobody could touch him tor the improvements he makes on his lands, what would ho do the next morning after haring made,that agreement ? He would speak to his wife and his big boy who had been idling abouf during a great deal of his time, he would explain all this, and there is not a stone on the land that would not be removed, there is not a weed that would not be pulled up, not a particle of manure that would not be saved, there is not a single thing they would not do with a zeal and enthusiasm, a labor and delight they had never known before, to cultivate that farm, and by the time the few years had run out, when the farm had become his without any further purchase, he would have turned a di lapidated and miserable farm into a garden lor himself and family. [Great cheering.] This story and this statement trmy be com mented on again by these newspapers.— [Laughter.) You will understand that I pro pose no forced purchase, no confiscation.— 1 would undertake to give, if I were the Gov ernment, to any one of those landlords 10 per cent, more for his estate than it would fetch in any market in Dublin or London, and I say that to do this would produce the most marvel ous change In the sentiments of the people and in the condition of agriculture in Ireland. But then I see in one of these papers—l wish we could only get these fellows before the public and see them, for I dqn’t know what these men can be who write tkese things—l see in one of the paper* they say, “ How would I like a com- mission to come down to Lancashire to Insist on buying my factories.” I can only say that if they would give ue 15 or 20 per cent, more worth they should have them to-morrow.— [Laughter and cheers.] But I did not propose that the commission should come down and insist on buying these estates. They say further, “Why should an Irishman keep his estate and not a man in England who has an estate in Ireland ?” There is this difference.— A man iu Ireland has an estate and has a house upon it. It is his ancestral home, and there are ties that attach him to it, which it would be monstrous to think of severing, but a man who lives in England, who is a rich man and never comes here except to receive his tents, and generally gets them through his hanker, who has no particular tie to the country, and only comes over here because he feels that he is a great proprietor of Inn/ in Ireland, or is scru pulous never to show his face to his tenants ; in such a ease there cannot be much of senti ment in it if he should be called upon to part with his land at a fair price. I have been charged very often, you know I have, with saying very severe tilings of the En lislt aristocracy. Now, that is not true in the sense in which it is imputed to me. I have always said that there are many men in the English aristocracy who would he noblemen in the sight of their fellow-men though they had no titles and no coronets ; there are men ninong them of as undoubted patriotism as any man in this building or Ireland, and there are men among them who, when they see that n great public object is to bo served for the benefit of their fellow-men, would make just as great sacrifices as any one of us would be willing to do. lam of opinion therefore —I may be al together mistaken, l will not believe that I am until it is proved—l am of opinion that if this question were discussed in Parliament when next the Irish land question is there discussed, and if there were a general sentiment in the House of Commons that soiao measure of the kind would be advantageous to Ireland, then I think that a commission so appointed would find no difficulty whatever in discovering noble men and very rich ineu in England and Scot land, possessors of great estates in Ireland, who would be willing to negotiate lor their transfer to the commission, and the commission, by the process I have indicted, might transfer them gradually, but steidlly, to the teuant fanners of this country. I am told that I have not been much in Ire- land, and that I do not know much of It. I recollect a man in England during the Ameri can war asking me a question about America, and when I gave him an answer that did not agree with his opinion he said, “ 1 think you never have been in America, have you?" I said, “ No ;” and he said, “ I have hceu there two or three times, and I know something about it.” He asked me if I thought the Yan kees would pay when they borrowed money to carry on the war. I thought they would, but he thought tlnvt, as I lmd not been there and ho had, his opinion was worth more than mine. I said that I knew in England several people who had been in England all their lives and yet knew nothing at all about England. [Laugh ter.] I ant told that if I were to live longer iu Ireland among tho people I should hold differ ent opinions from those which I now entertain; that I should think the small Church of a minori ty was the honest thing in the laco of tho Church of themajorlfy ; that it was not tho. fault of the landowners, but of the tenants, that everything went wrong with the land ; and that I should find that the Government and the Legislature were mostly right, and the people mostly wrong. Now, there are certain questions with regard to any country which you may settle in your own house, never having seen the country, not even upon a map. Tints you mar settle that that which is just is just everywhere, and that men, from those of the highest culture and of the most moral character, whatever their race or color, have Implanted in their hearts by their Creator —wiser much than these men—the knowledge and the love of justice. [Loud cheers.] < I tell you that since the day when I sat beside O’Con nell—nay, at an earlier day—l had considered the questions of Irclund; that In 1829, for sev eral weeks in the Autumn, and for several weeks in flic Autumn of 1-852, I came to Ire land expressly to examine these questions by consultation with all classes of tho people lit every part of the island ; and I will undertake to say that I believe there Is no other man iu England who had .more fully studied the evi dence given belore the celebrated Devon Com mission, with regard to Ireland, than I had. — Therefore I dare stand up before any Irishman or Englishman to discuss the Irish question. [Cheers. 1 I say the plans and the theories aud the legislation ol my opponent on this matter have failed deplorably, disastrously, ignomini ously. [Cheers.] Therefore I have a right now to offer to tho people of Ireland, ns I would to tho people of Great Britain and the Imperial Parliament, anew, a wise, and a just policy for the people of this unfortunate coun try. [Cheers.] I have attended great meetings in England and in Scotland during the last two months, and I think 1 am at liberty to tender to you from those scores and hundreds and thousands of men a hand of fellowship and good will. [Hear, hear.] I wish 1 might be permitted, whon Igo back, and I think from this address I am per mitted to say to my fellow-countrymen, that amid all the factions by which Ireland has been torn—amid, It may be, the errors that have been committed—amid passions that have been ex cited—amid hopes that have been blasted—amid the misery that has been endured, there is still In this Island aud among its people a heart that can sympathize with all .those who turn to them with a fixed resolution to judge them fairly and do them justice. [Continued cheering.] Gen tlemen, I have made my speech, I have said my say, I have fulfilled my small mission, and I thank you from my heart for the kindness with which you have received me, and which I shall never forget; and if I have in past times felt an unquenchable sympathy with the sufferings of your people, you may rely upon it, If there be an Irish member to speak for Ireland, you will find me heartily at his side. (The ltonora ’ble gentleman concluded amid loud cheers, hav ing spoken a little over an hour.) Tub Burning op tub Steamer llenrv Von Phul. —The Cincinnati Commercial's New Or leans dispatch of the 13th furnishes the follow ing particulars of the burning of the steamer Henry Von Phul: “Thesteamer Henry Von Phul, with 3,800 bales of cotton, was burned at 3 o’clock this morning, above Donaldson ville. The fire communicated to the cotton from tho pipe of a deck hand, and was soon under full headway. The boat was immediate ly run ashore. There were one hundred pas sengers on board, Including ladles, nearly all of whom escaped to the shore with the loss of all their baggage and clothing, many of them having on only their night clothes. One pas senger was burned to death, and several drowned. The boat and cargo were a total loss.” An editor in Illinois, says an exchange, re eently saw a patent clothes-washer. It was in tiie shape of a wheelbarrow. The revolutions of the wheel put in motion a crank that moved a plunger that pounded the clothes. The body of the box was mounted where the load is in a wheelbarrow. On the top of the box Was a Wringer. A lady can put her clothes iu her machine, pick it up and go out calling, the longer her list of friends the further she will have to'Wheel her burden, and "the better her clothes will be washed. Calling will then be of some use, and an eternal gud-übout will become a first-rate washerwoman. Bio Thing.— The Macon Telegraph is Indebt ed to Mr. Pulaski 8. Holt for a large specimen ol Spanish potato. It measured near two feet in length, and was raised by Rev. Henry Bunn, of Twiggs county. The reverend gentleman raises no common ’talers.
