GLEANINGS FROM THE WRITING-DESK
JOHN CORNELIUS O'CALLAGHAN.
"I am an Irishman, hating injustice, and abhorring with my whole soul
the oppression of my country; but I desire to heal her sores, not to ag-
gravate her sufferings. In decrying, as I do, the tithe-system, and the
whole Church Establishment in Ireland, I am actuated by no dislike to the
respectable body of men, who, in the midst of fear and hatred, gather its
spoils. On the contrary, I esteem those men, notwithstanding their past
and still, perhaps, existing hostility to the religious and civil rights of their
fellow-subjects and countrymen..... What I aspire to, is the freedom of the
people,...which can never be effected, till injustice, or the oppression of the
many by the few, is taken away. And, as to religion, what I wish, is to
see her freed from the slavery of the state, and the bondage of Mammon;
...her ministers labouring, and receiving their hire from those for WHOM
they labour;....that thus religion may be restored to her empire, which is
not of this world, and men once more worship God, in spirit and in truth."-
Dr.Doyle.
"He (Doctor Johnson) had a kindness for the Irish nation, and thus
generously expressed himself (in 1779) to a gentleman from that country,
on the subject of an UNION, which artful politicians have often had in view
-Do not make an UNION with us, Sir; we should unite with you, only
to rob you.""-Boswell's Life of Johnson.
"Adieu to that Union so called, as 'lucus a non lucendo,' a Union from
never uniting; which i,n its first operation, gave a death-blow to the
independence of Ireland, and, in its last,may be the cause of her eternel
separation from this country. If it must be called a Union, it is the unic
of the shark with his prey; the spoiler swallows up his victim, and thus
they become one and indivisible. Thus has Great Britain swallowed
the parliament, the constitution, the independence of Ireland, "-Spec
of Lord Byron in the House of Lords, April 1st, 1812.
The more Irish officers in the Austrian service, the better. Our
troops will always be disciplined. An Irish coward is an uncommon cha-
racter; and what the natives of Ireland dislike even from principle, they
generally perform through a desire of glory!"-Memorandum found in the
papers of Francis I. Emperor of Germany, after his death, August 18th,
T. O'GORMAN, 35, UPPER ORMOND-QUAY.