ENGLISH GARIBALDIAN AND IRISH ROMAN CATHOLICS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 319, 27 December 1862, Page 5

ENGLISH GARIBALDIAN AND IRISH ROMAN CATHOLICS.

(From the Hone JS Tews.) There was capital fun iv Hyde-park on the last Sunday of September and the first Sunday of October. Such rows! So many heads broken! The Celts of the metropolis could not have had better fighting at Belfast. On the afternoon of Sunday, September 30, it had been announced that a meeting would be held near the Marble-arch for the purpose of expressing sympathy -with Garibaldi and passing resolutions on the Pope and the Emperor of the French. A number of Irishmen, however, who had a spare afternoon, were on the spot as soon as the Anglo-Saxon '.' Garibaldians;" and fighting accordingly began abo-it 3 o'clock. First, the Irish cleared away the orators, to get things quiet. They then declared themselves disposed for controversy, and one Cornelius Casey knocked a policeman down. Next, the orators collected their friends, and cleared away the Irishmen. The battle then became general. Michael Collins, labourer, jumped forward and hit promiscuously. Timothy M'Carthy saida word of exhortation to his countrymen, and then knocked several persons down. Deely threw brickbats, and blackened eyes. Whenever irresistible Casey struck, Protestants bit the dust. Moyses, cabinet-maker, stood forward, for a moment, and the heretics cheered ; but Timothy Toomey smote him, and he fell. The gallant Toomey seems to have had an original manner of fighting. "Toomey" (said Moyses, in giving evidence afterwards in the police-court) "placed his hands on the shoulders of a man before him, and kicked out furiously. I was kicked in the ribs, and when kicked, Toomey cried out, 'Take that for the Pope.' " So the battle raged, till the rain came on and spoiled it. and a number of the champions of the Pope were taken up. They were fined, with prison in default of payment. A still more serious riot occurred on the following Sunday. The Garibaldian Committee, with great good sense, had postponed their meeting, but the " roughs" were not to be deprived of their sport. Soon after 3, a great crowd of Irish, armed with brickbats and shillelaghs, entered the park, seized a mound occupied on the previous week by the speakers, and gave wild cheers for the Pope. The opposite crowd, chiefly costermongers, young men, and workmen, attacked the Irish, and were at first repulsed. Headed, however, by some Guardsmen they returned to the fray, and drove their opponents from the mound. The police, about 400 strong, remained very passive; but every now and then made plunges into the crowd to seize some unusually daring combatant. Ffteen men were taken to the hospital, and a few rioters to the station, where, on the following morning, most of them were sentenced to fines, which, it was said, the priesthood were prepared to pay, On the Sunday following, October 12, tbere was no riot. The police had this time taken good precautions. The chief commissioner had put forth an order that no assemblage of people, to listen to speeches on "exciting topics," should henceforth be allowed in any of the parks. Cardinal Wiseman also had issued a pastoral to be read in the Roman Catholic chapels on the Sunday morning, in which he advised them, though in a very mild fashion, to abstain from hostile collisions.- Fortunately for the cause of peace, it rained a good deal. In other quarters of the metropolis there have occurred squabbles of a violent but less dangerous kind between the Irish and the v Garibaldians." At Birkenhead, however, there has been a riot which was not inferior in its ruffianly character to those in Hyde Park. In that town a debating society of youths, meeting in the school-room belonging to Trinity Church, with the sanction of the clergyman, the Rev Dr Baylee, chose one evening to discuss the questions " Whether Garibaldi merits praise or blame ? " A, mob of Irish gathered outside, and kept up much howling and hissing, but could not enter, the place being guarded by a strong force of police and special constables. Later in the evening they attacked the police with stones and shillelaghs, by Avhich several men were very severely injured. The windows of several houses and shops were broken, and other mischief wantonly done. The excitement caused in some parts of the country by the discussions about Garibaldi and the Pope has been such that the municipal authorities of several towns have thought it their duty to discountenance meetings at which sympathy with the great Italian patriot might merge into, or be mistaken for, contempt ofthe Roman Catholic religion. For instance, the Lord Mayor of London refused the use of the Guildhall for a Garibaldian meeting. In this case, however, the committee who had xuojected the meeting were resolved not to abandon it altogether. They accordingly summoned Garibaldi's friends in the metropolis to assemble at the London Tavern on the 17th of October. This meeting, which was a crowded one, passed off very quietly. Mr Western Wood, M.P., presided ; and Mr P. Taylor, M.P., Mr Samuel Morley, Mr Sergeant Parry, Mr Robert Charles, jun, Mr Montagu Chambers, Mr W. T. Malleson, and Mr Charles Reed, were among the speakers. Two resolutions were moved and carried. The first expressed profound admiration for Garibaldi and deep sympathy with him. The second declared the French occupation of Rome to be a violation of the rights of the Roman people, an infraction of the principe or non-intervention, and dangerous to the peace of Europe. These resolutions were enthusiastically and unanimously adopted. The Dublin Morning News glories in the riots in London and Birkenhead, describing them as a great service done to the Roman Catholic religion. It says—"The Irish Catholics in England are determined to stand fast by faith and country. ', They have prevented meetings being held in London, and as will be seen by report in another column, in' Birkenhead, for the purpose ftf spouting ribald blasphemy and abuse of the fioly Father and their religion. They have now, we learn by a despatch received last night, determined to make a counter-demonstration to the late Garibaldian meetings in London." The Nition calls upon its co-religionists to establish a "relief fund" for the Irishmen wounded in Hyde-park:—" Many of these poor Irishmen have been severely hurt and temporarily disabled in this struggle. Some of them are how in hospital; others, though less seriously injured, may not be able for a little time to earn bread for themselves and their children. Will the Irish people allow them to suffer destitution because of their opposition to the English Garibaldians ?" The O'Donoghue has sent a subscription to this fund, along with a letter defending the conduct of the rioters. -A similar tone is adopted by Sir George Bowyer, who has addressed a letter to the Times on this subject.