O'Connell on the Maynooth Grant.

New Zealander, Volume 1, Issue 20, 18 October 1845, Page 3

O'Connell on the Maynooth Grant.

[From the Armagh Guardian.] At a Monster Meeting, the first of a new series, held at Dundalk, on the first of May, Mr. O'Connell expressed himself as follows, upon the Endowment of Maynooth College. Justice to Ireland. — "It is a moral crime (quoth he), and I trust the day will come when it will be considered a legal crime to assert that any power on earth ought to have authority to make laws for Ireland, but the Queen, the Irish House of Lords, and the Irish House of Commons— (cries of hear, hear.) You who interrupted me, a while ago, said well that we should have no compromise. No; we will not take any instalment a. a satisfaction for the debt. I will take all I can get for the Irish people, and I will ask tor the rest the moment afterwards-— (cheers and laughter). Give me, I will say, six-peuce in the pound of my debt, and I will look out afterwards for the other nineteen and six-pence— (laughter). Folly of attempting to conciliate. — " Ministers, amongst themselves, said they would take away from us the repealers, but they said c How will we take them away ?— oh, we will give a spoonful of honey to Maynootli college '—(cheers and laughter). And there is an old proverb that you will catch more flies with a spoonful of honey than with a ton of vinegar, (laughter). They were using the vinegar hitherto, and they at length sent it to us in a vinegar cruet on two legs, Attorney General Smith— (laughter). But said they, we cannot catch any flies with the vinegar, and will now try the honey. Well, the honey was very good, and from my heart I am delighted that Maynooth got it ; but I can tell the government this for their comfort, that they are just as near catching the flies, as if they had used nothing but vinegar — (cheers). Neither compliment nor gratitude due.— "Be it remembered that not a single Roman Catholic of the I millions of Catholics that are to be found iv Ireland petitioned for that increase in the Maynooth grant — (hear, hear). Not a single petition was presented for it ou behalf of the Irish Catholics. For ray own part, 1 did not so much as say, ' Ah, do be so kind as to give it us,' (laughter). Not the least compliment j did we condescend to ask at their hands. Nobody asked them for it. Rationale and reward of the Grant. — "They did , it of themselves, of their own free will and accord ; j and why do you think ? I'll tell you. For a reason I they had— (laughter). That reason was a deepsounding oue, a long one, a loud one. The same bird which discoursed them so eloquently at home, spoke also in America, and in a place which has been called after the Irish idiom of O'Regon— (laughter). • Ore gon !» shouted the American bird — • Mayuooth !' cried the bird in London, and between both birds we managed to pluck some leathers of our friends iv high places ; but we are not one bit the more reconciled to the wild geese on that account— (hear, hear, and laughter). Cheering- prospect of England's distress and Ire' land's opportunity. — " Are you aware that Peel has acknowledged we cannot be put down by force— (hear). Yes, he has distinctly admitted that Repeal agitation cannot be put down by force, and he is right. We will never give way, (cheers) we will bide our time in tranquility of soul, and take our opportunity when it comes. Things cannot remain as they arc. Before three months elapse, England may be in a war. Good luck to her, in that war if she does justice to IreUud first. I will not pray at all on the other side of the question, (laughter) for it js past praying for. There is no knowing how soon some vicissitudes in the fortunes of England may achieve everything for us, and take my word for it, that if there be a war withiu the next three months or so, you will be walking up to Dublin before Christmas next, with small sticks in your hands, just for the purpose of seeing what an Irish Parliament looks like — (cheera and laughter)."