MR. DANIEL O'SULLIVAN, THE LATE MAYOR OE CORK.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 14, Issue 703, 26 July 1869, Page 4

MR. DANIEL O'SULLIVAN, THE LATE MAYOR OE CORK.

(From the Daily Telegraph, 12th May.) Yestebday afternoon the Mayor of Cork went out of existence like a damp gquib. At a quarter to three o'clock, be was the most prominent man in the kingdom—ten minutes later, he was an obscurely successful butter merchant, '•and none so poor to do him rever ence." When the House met at two o'clock for the special purpose of abolishing his civic and seditious highness, everybody was asking everybody else what the renowned potentate would do—just as, during a great Continental crisis, we ask each other what will be done by the Emperor Napoleon or Count Von Bismarck. By the time that the House rose at a quarter past three o'cl >ck —in so im portant a matter we must be scrupu Jously careful about minutes —Daniel O'Sullivan, Esquire, Mayor of Cork, had departed inro the limbo of turbulent obscurities; and the single duty that now remains for his friends is to offer up fervent political prayers for the repose of his civic soul. It is rather disappointing, we confess, to gee mortal grandeur undergo so sudden an eclipse. The whole country expected that the House of Commons, yesterday afternoon, would present a scene which might be tragic or might be ludicrous, but would certainly be the reverse of tame. Despite the re port that the great chief magistrate had placed his resignation in the hands of Mr Maguire and The O'Donoghue and had burthened these gentlemen with the heavy task of "vindicating Jiis personal honor," there was a vague expectation that he would appear at the Bar of the House to defy the tyranny and the might of England. The Solicitor-General for Ireland and Mr Sergeant Ballantine, impressive in their official garb, were in the lobby ready for the performance of their constitutional duties. Appalling pic tures were painted of the deeds which would be done by The O'Sulllivan—we cheerfully ennoble him, for tin nonce, with the definite article —when he should stand face to face with his foes. It was suggested that he might express patriotic contempt for the Common of England, or even treat Mr Speaker with as little ceremony as he had shown to his fellow-magistrates. Thanks to these fearful anticipations, long before the members were through the brief but inevitable exercise ol legislative piety, the House was filled in every part." To the Peers', the Speaker's, and the Strangers' galleries, there was as great a rush as to the pit of a theatre on a first night; and, so long as the House was dealing with the formal business, the excitement remained unabated. But precisely as a theatrical manager might advand to the footlights and announce that hard necessity forced him to delay the appearance of an exciting drama which an eager crowd had come to witness, so Mr Maguire killed the feverish anxiety of the legislators by reading a letter from the culprit. The epistle was very remarkable Addressed to "My dear Mr Maguire," it set forth the interesting fact, that, acted by the most patriotic motives, the writer had resolved to release the Government from the emharrassmeni of his official existence. Mr O'Sulli van thinks that, were the Bill of Pains and Penalties read a second time, the Irish Church Bill would be seriously endangered, and a grievous blow given to those constitutional privileges which protect **the humbler classes of tin community" from "an arbitraty ad ministration and violation of the law." So, in order that the House of Lords may have no excuse for refusing to abolish "Protestant ascendancy," and Mr Gladstone no chance of playing the part of Cromwell, Mr Daniel O'Sulli van lays down his civic honors, and retires into the privacy of his buttery with the dignity of an Cfißiar. To the announcem >nt made by Mr Maguire, The O'Donoghue added that, by last night's post, Mr O'Sullivan would write to the Town Clerk of Cork, formally tendering his resignation. What must be the effect of such an intimation, we clearly stated on Monday. The Prime Minister at pnce rose to state that, since the Dis abilities Bill had been directed against Mr O'Sullivan, not as a private person, but as Mayor of Cork, the Government would not now proceed with the meaSUT& At tke same time—observed

Mr Gladstone — ; there must be the most ample guarantee that Mr O'Sullivan's resignation would not be followed by his re-election ; and to guard against such a contingency, the Go vernment would not withdraw the Bill, hut would merely postpone for a month the order of its second reading. If, four weeks hence, Mr O'Sullivan should not have again become Mayor of Cork, the Bill, we presume, will be withdrawn. If, on the contrary, the sweets of his martyrdom should be followed by the glorious reward of reelection, then, of course, Mr O'Sullivan must finally undergo the process of legislative extinction. Bat there is not the slightest reason to believe that he will again ourt the "fierce light that beats upon" the civic chair. As Mayor of Cork, Daniel O'Sullivan is no more. Requiescat in pace. To rhat pious sentiment Mr M'Carthy Downing would bitterly add, "And mercy be to his soul!" since, in accents which expressed boundless contempt for an Irishman who could thus make submission to a Saxon Government, the honorable member exclaimed that, after having tendered his resignation, Mr O'Sullivan had not the slightest chance of again being called to preside over the muuicipal glories of Cork.

The Government and the country may be heartily congratulated on the harmless, not to say ludicrous, issue of as embarrassing a transaction as any English Ministry has recently been required to face. That the Mayor of Cork should be stripped of his civic honors was inevitable. No English Government coul 1 afford to overlook words of sympathy with assassination spoken by the chief magistrate of the second city in Ireland. Least of ali could such words be unheeded, when in epidemic of agrarian crime seems once more to have broken out in two Irish counties, At the root of man\ >f the evils which afflct the Sister Isle is ths fact that, in such counties at Tipperary aud Westmeath, and with respect to the crime of murdering landlords, the sentiments of the Iris!) oeasantry are thoroughly depraved Until the life of a landlord shall be safe in Westmeath as in Berkshire, it must be vain to expect that capital will be invested in Ireland as readily as in England ; and, until the advent of that day, it must be a mere dream ro fancy that the Irish people can fully share in the prosperity of their Eng lish neighbors. The depravity which sees no sin in agrariau murder may -xist only in a small part of Ireland ; hut such is the rigor of economic laws, that for the sins of even a small pari the whole of the country may suffer. For the wives who are widowed and the children who are made fatherless by the hand of the Irish assassin, a >errible vengeance must fall on the heads of thousands who are innocent ot • he fell deed. For the guilt in which ihey ha\e no share, crowds of cottiers, with their wives and their children, must make dire atonement in the misery which they have to end.;re so l»ng as English capital shuns their soil as a timid voyager a plaguestricken city. Hence, the chief service which any Government can do to Ireland is, by the mercifully strong hand of the law, to teach the peasantry if Tipperary and Westmeath that ciimes of violence ami bloodshed, or the incitement to such misdeeds, will be punished with pitiless rigor. While the English Government obstinately refused to redress the most flagrant of Irish wrongs, it may have been impossible to teach so hard a les son ; but that evil day has come to an end. As Mr Bright has said, for the first time since the union of the two countries we have now a Parliament which is prepared to render the most ample justice to Ireland. For the first time during that period we have also a Government which can ~ff >rd to repress the least symptom of disturbance in Ireland with a relentless, and therefore with a merciful, hand, tlence, the case of the Mayor of Cork has been of signal value to the Irish people. By proclaiming that all the legislative powers of Parliament would bo employed to punish Seditious speech at the very moment that they were sweeping away the chief remaining itadge ol conquest, the Ministers of the Crown have conveyed to the Jrish people the all-important message, that for the future an unexampled readiness to redress political evils will be accom-

panied by an equally resolute determination to punish an/ breach of the law, whether committed by men holding positions of authority, or by the humhie st peasants. All the Irish members might have been expected to applaud that message; but Mr Maguire and some of his fellow representatives had so far forgotten the responsibilities of their position as to become the apologists of a man who, in words made all the more disgraceful by their trimming reserve, had preached the doctrine of sedition and murder. Such members of Parliament are more fatal enemies of their country than the most stubborn Tory who votes against every clause of the Irish Church Bill, and who would place Ireland under martial law rather than reform the land tenure. Although the Bill of Pains and Penalties is now withdrawn, neither the introduction of that measure, nor the debate to which it gave rise, has involved the slightest waste of time. In the fact that a seditious Mayor cßi be robbed of his power for mischief only by a special act of legislation, we Ivve detected a grave anomaly in our political system; but tint system is full of such anomalies, and the custom i 9 to deal with each case as it rises into prominence. Mr O'Sullivau's offence has proved that, at the call of necessity, the Government, with the support of the Legislature, can promptly strike down, even those offenders who are protected by the privileges of popular election, and that object has been attained without any encroachment on electoral usages. The Irish people must see that Mr O'Sullivan's method of defying the English Government is utterly hopeless, and that the Ministry had no sooner acted than it succeeded. In resolving at last not to brave that Government, Mr O'Sullivan has acted on admirable advice, which no doubt came from friends who perfectly understand facts and Irish feeling. Even if no further legislation should be attempted, the itidelible record of the House of Commons, and the effect of the submission announced in the words of the law-breaker himself, will read a much-needed lesson to Ireland —will, in fact be more instructive and more directly available than any of the precedents that have recently been hunted up. In the fullest shape, the objects of the Blli have been attained; while from a grave and most difficult duty the Government has been relieved by Mr O'Sullivan's prompt and abject performance of the " happy despatch."