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they express the feelings which accurate observation of his
course in it has produced on their minds. To wait till the
peace is formally published is unnecessary; we all know what
it is.
I remain, Sir, yours, &c.,

21st April, 1856.

ONE OF THE PEOPLE.

Advertiser

the advocate of patriotism.

COMING EVENTS CASTING THEIR SHADOWS
BEFORE.

To the Editor of The Morning Advertiser.

SIR,-Although it is, of course, absolute folly for any one to pretend to say what the issue of the Peace Conferences will be, and quite as absurd not to recognise in what is going on in Paris a higher hand than any merely human one, there are still very important considerations for every party to the proposed treaty, which it will not do for journalists to neglect or ignore. But alas! it has always happened lately that our press-free, as it is called-has in great part failed us when most required; and now we have the astonishing spectacle presented to us at this imminent crisis of affairs, of only one of our powerful daily Morning journals calling and keeping the attention of its readers to the real bearings of the question, and to the vastness of the interests at stake. One need hardly say that it is the Morning Advertiser, which alone does this great duty to the public; The Times, while the Times, Post, Herald, and Chronicle, and the rest of Post, Morn the less influential papers, have, with an absurd reserve, shorn ing Herald, and Morn themselves of their patriotic strength, and of the power they ing Chroni might have had to benefit the country, by preserving a ridiculous silence on the whole subject. They seem not to be aware how a few powerful articles approved of, as they would be, by the general sentiment, would strengthen the hands of Lord Clarendon, and give weight, even in the cabinet of Emperors, to our just demands. If the rather dilettante successor to the Bonaparte prestige and name is encouraged to make a delusive clap-trap shout of peace herald in the promised accouchement of the Empress, and thus make a sort of clever point in the eyes of a versatile metropolis, and if the real interests of the people of both countries are sacrificed to such a

cle shorn of their patriotic

strength.

COMING EVENTS CASTING THEIR SHADOWS BEFORE.

gingerbread achievement, this nation will have mostly to thank its press and their submissive silence for the results.

251

and foreign

the Morn

wires set to

It is owing to this characteristic boldness and sound judgment Provincial which you have displayed, as compared with the other journals, journals that we cannot take up a provincial or foreign paper in which quote from we do not see quotations from its columns, when there are ing Advernone from those of its contemporaries. For, how, if they neglect tiser. to do the work of journalism, and either from fear, favour, or ill-timed reserve, fail to comment on the subject which is uppermost in every one's mind, can they expect to be read with care, interest, or confidence? It is not only quotations from the Morning Advertiser that we find in all the papers, but the Telegraph telegraph wires are set to work every morning as soon as your work with columns can be purchased, to convey to the country and abroad, the voice of and as far on the way to America as they can, the leading views Morning and intelligence which you furnish, while the same attention is Advertiser. seldom afforded to the other papers. Some may claim as the reason for this the earlier and exclusive intelligence of the Morning Advertiser; but it seems to me to be equally owing to the boldness and guaranteed impartiality of its leading views, which make it the scientific expression-if one may be allowed the phrase-of the voice of the people.

the

peace for English

patriotic

men.

But however this may be, there are certain obvious indica- Projected tions of the nature of the projected peace, to which it would be most unpatriotic for Englishmen to shut their eyes. If peace is made now, the people of this country will be burthened for many years with a most cumbrous system of expensive government. In times of peace the tendency of society is to add to the habits of luxury and ostentation, which render the condition of so many of the people that of slavish indigence. The foundation of sound religion, as well as of political science, is to be laid only in an approach to a more just equality of condition than prevails just now. And the present rulers of kingdoms and rival empires may rest assured of this,—that if by a feigned peace Timely they secure an extension of their lease of power for a term of warning to

rulers and

years, they only contrive a means of rendering their fall, and governors. the cession of their ridiculous pomp and state, more signal and aggravating to themselves. The Russian power, to which they in fact defer, by a peace formed just now, is a creation of that peculiar kind that, if suffered to continue at all, it will certainly encroach cither openly or insidiously on its neighbours. There can, therefore, be no assured peace nor rest for the world, till

Russia

shuts up a

of the

world's

the Russian idea is overcome, and till the absolute power of a single despotic will be prevented from shutting up so vast vast portion a portion, or indeed any portion at all, of the earth's surface from the free access of men of all nations. We have not yet conquered Russia a hair's breadth, but rather given her a glory and standing for her obstinate resistance, which she will know well how to use for the future and continued enslavement of a Europe which has been submitted to her arts.

surface against nations.

England

receding to a second

No one should doubt that this is her aim, and that unless we resist her now we prepare for ourselves a perilous subjection of our liberties and even property to her control. By peace England does unquestionably run the almost certain risk of imrate power. mediately receding to the rank of a second-rate power, and we shall, probably, before long see Paris, as the centre of European civilization, directed in its fashion and policy by inspiration from St. Petersburg, while London ceases to have almost a distinct individuality. The silence of so much of our Press, which shows how little they are in communication with, or give expression to, the wishes and thoughts of the nation, makes this danger more imminent, arguing an indifference in the people which they certainly are very far from feeling. We can Great King only say again, Heaven be thanked we have one independent dependent journal.

Thanks to the king

dom of the

for one in

journal.

I am, Sir, yours, &c.,

12th March, 1856.

ANTI-PAX.

PAPISTICAL DISTURBERS OF THE DEAD AND
THEIR JUST CHASTISEMENT.

THE CATASTROPHE IN CORK.-LOSS OF NINETEEN LIVES.

ONE of the most appalling and terrible accidents which proand terrible bably have ever become matter for detail in a newspaper, and

Appalling

accident

over a corpse.

certainly the most disastrous that has occurred in Cork, as regards the loss of human life, within the memory of the oldest person living, took place on Saturday night in this city, shortly after the hour of twelve o'clock. At that time, and for some hours previously; "a wake" was being held on the body of a child about two years old, the son of a man named Patrick Sullivan, a cooper, residing in a place called Penrose's-lane, a lane running off the North Main-street, and connecting the

* Against the peace.

latter with Duncan-street. We believe there are few but those whose hard lot it is to live in the wretched lanes which branch off either side of the North Main-street, who have the slightest conception of the misery, the squalor, and unmistakable signs of dilapidation and decay, which encompass the visitor on every hand. With breadth scarcely sufficient to admit more than a single passenger, and much too narrow to permit of two persons walking abreast, the houses dirty, dingy, and apparently for many years past going rapidly into decay, generally rise to the height of three stories on either side of those miserable alleys. In the front room of an upper story in Penrose's-square, the friends of the father of the deceased child assembled on Saturday night to the number, it has been stated, of forty or fifty; and, after visiting the place yesterday, how they succeeded in finding room for such a number in a space so utterly disproportionate, it is difficult to understand. It is stated that the usual kind of entertainment which is provided on those occasions was being indulged in; when suddenly one of the visitors exclaimed that "the floor was sinking." Sullivan, the father of the deceased child, who was standing with his back against the door, said "that could not be, as there was not there sufficient to bring it down." He had scarcely uttered the words when, without further warning, crash went the floor, and one appalling, terrific shriek from all assembled, showed that they fully realized the dreadful fate that awaited them. Down came the living weight, crushing and smashing everything that interfered to arrest its fearful descent, and carrying the first floor completely away, the entire mass of human beings, men, women, and children, timber, beams, bricks and mortar, and whatever articles of domestic furniture the house contained, were all precipitated on the basement story into one hopeless, inextricable mass, in which the dead, the dying, and the comparatively uninjured lay piled on each other to the depth of five or six feet. A cry of horror arose from those whose faculties were not A cry of completely paralysed, which was quickly taken up by the persons outside, and an alarm was at once spread that the unhappy inmates were all destroyed. Constable Cary and two of the men belonging to the Tuckey-street station were quickly on the spot, and a vigorous effort was made to force the door and lower windows, but the pressure from inside offered a resistance that could not be overcome. A ladder was procured, and on opening one of the upper windows, a picture of human suffering and

horror arose and

general

alarm was

spread.

Mr.
Maguire,
M.P., and
others

render
valuable

aid.

agony and death was presented, which it is utterly impossible to describe. By this time a large body of the police force had arrived, and a number of active and intelligent citizens were also present and rendered valuable assistance. By a vigorous exertion the door and lower windows were forced, and steps were promptly taken to rescue the sufferers from the mass of rubbish, bricks, mortar, and other materials in which it might be said they were literally embedded. In directing and personally assisting in this work of mercy, efficient and valuable assistance was rendered by Sub-inspector De Gernon, chief of constabulary in this city; Mr. Maguire, M.P., the mayor; Doctors Sandham, Callinan, and Allen, together with Headconstables Crowley, Roe, and Constables Carey, Meagher, Phelan, and a large number of constables and civilians. When the bodies had been extricated, and conveyed into the street, it was found that eight were actually dead, and several others expired before medical aid could be applied. A considerable proportion of those in whom even a glimmering of life appeared were taken to the North Infirmary, where, having been previously made aware of the catastrophe, Drs. Bullen and Finn were prepared for their reception, assisted by the medical residents of the infirmary, Messrs. William Roche and Rice. At an early hour yesterday morning it was acertained that the entire number of persons killed amounted to nineteen, of whom six remained at the North infirmary, five had been removed to the Bridewell, and eight had been taken to their various homes by their friends. It has been ascertained that there are other nineteen persons who are more or less wounded, some of whom remain at the North Infirmary, and others are treated in their own homes.

Amongst the wounded are, in the North Infirmary, Catherine Rourke, Hester Cahill, Mary Buckley, John Barry, James Regan; in Coleman's-lane, Johanna Macnamara, Margaret Macnamara, Patrick Nagle; in Philips's-lane, Thomas Hennessy, Thomas Swayne, Margaret Hennessy, Daniel Gamble, Abby Dempsey, and John Dempsey.

Having thus stated the names of those who were rescued from their perilous position, happily without loss of life, this may be a suitable place again to mention, that by those who were present in Penrose's-lane on Saturday night, the highest testimony has been borne to the zeal exhibited by Mr. De Gernon on this occasion, who stimulated his men more by the force of

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