keen curiosity and concern the extraordinary condition of such a land-a land fertile as any in Europe; blessed with a climate so genial as to clothe it in perpetual verdure; eminently fitted by its compactness, its geographical position, its fine rivers, and unsurpassed havens, for commercial enterprize; offering in its immense extent of water power, as well as in its possession of native fuel, and its vicinity to the great coal districts of England, Wales, and Scotland, an ample field for manufacturing industry; swarming with a peasantry who, when employed and superintended out of their own singular territory, are perhaps not equalled by any laborers in the world for vigor of body and endurance of toil; and above all, connected with such a kingdom as Britain, its people subjects of the Imperial crown, represented in the Imperial parliament, enjoying the high examples of English energy and Scottish perseverance, having free access to all British ports, sharing British privileges in every nation allied and friendly to England, carrying with them the prestige of British greatness to foreign climes, and living, now at all events, and for no inconsiderable time, under the same administration that in Britain has permitted, if it has not caused a mighty extension of resources, and an unparalleled accumulation of wealth; always exempted from numerous taxes which burden the people of the neighboring isle; and never so governed since the union at least as to hinder their agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing prosperity any more than these were hindered in England; while at the same time the population of this favored country so presses on the means of subsistence as to be forever at the point of starvation; while its rebellion is daily dreaded, and the demagogue's lies sink deeper than sacred truth into the hearts of its wretched multitudes; while murder stalks abroad by its highways and hedges, not only in darkness but at noon day, and the voice of justice is drowned amid the howl of faction and fanaticism; while myriads of acres, that might be rendered more fruitful than the richest plains of industrious Scotland, lie barren as a desert, and provisions of every sort are exported in vast quantities by a still famishing people; while mendicancy and rags are the proverbial features of the land, and the peasant's cabin is hardly so comfortable as the wigwam of the Indian; while the failure of a single article of food induces the horrors of mortal famine; and moneyed capital, usually so adventurous for gain, stands aloof, in trembling suspicion, from the lawlessness of starvelings who would find their wants supplied by its employment among them; and the proprietors of the soil,-among whose deficiencies lack of love for their native land is not one, whatever their maligners may say notwithstanding-are compelled, by the fear of assault and assansination, to go into exile, instead of residing and discharging the duties of landlords on their hereditary domains! What can be more painfully interesting than the condition of such a country? What more curious and important phenomenon can be presented for explanation to the philosophic student of history and government?

But especially at the present time, does the state of Ireland urge itself on the world's notice. Crowds of her population are dying of hunger and of pestilence hunger-bred; the cry even of Irish party is well nigh overborne by the wail of suffering; the selfishness of political charlatanry is made to vail its face in presence of the earnestness of despair; our shores are thronged with thousands of fugitives from the famine, and those not the lowest of the peasantry, but such as have funds and strength to emigrate; our alms-houses and hospitals cannot contain half the poor creatures who in fleeing from one plague have been overtaken by another; our compassion has been roused, and we have shipped across the ocean a pittance of food rather in token of our feeling for Ireland, than as a substantial relief to her misery; the heart of sympathy is opened wide, and the hand of succor extended by the British people to men who have long regarded them as natural enemies, and been industriously taught to calumniate and hate them; and finally, the green Island is now extensively mourning, albeit partially rejoicing, over the close of that man's mortal career, who, endowed with astonishing skill to wield at will the fierce democracy, exerted it so long and so signally for evil and for good that we cannot help regarding his demise at this critical season as the turning point of his country's destiny. Henceforth she must either be trodden down by English armies till all traces of her nationality are obliterated; or, in the exercise of rational enterprise and unperverted common sense, she must gradually ascend to the high position she ought to hold as a safe, worthy, and powerful portion of a free state.

pros

While, however, the condition and prospects of Ireland (especially at the present time), are fitted to interest the world at large, there are certain communities whom they must naturally affect with peculiar solicitude. The communities referred to are Great Britain, the Papal States and America. In Britain's case, many grave, anxious, home-felt inquiries must arise. Nay; they must force themselves on the British people as truly alarming. Englishmen may ask, and no doubt do ask, are not our national perity and our position among the powers of Europe now actually at stake? How can we maintain our national credit, while we are called upon to feed additional millions of paupers, and these too so determined to fleece us that, amid all their distress, they trifle with the work we furnish to them, and proclaim their right to eat the bread of idleness? Has the period really arrived, when we must contemplate the necessity of abandoning Ireland to herself as utterly unmanageable-of dismembering our empire-establishing an enemy at our very gates, and affording harborage to every threatening invader? How long are the inhabitants of England and Scotland to rest quiet under the apprehension that taxes, already enormous, may become altogether intolerable, because Irishmen will live and die beggars, rather than learn to avail themselves of the riches of a country, that might easily sup

port twice or thrice the number of its present population? Are Irish recklessness and outrage never to have an end? Will peace and prosperity ever smile on that unhappy land? Must the counsels of our senate be evermore engrossed and distracted by Irish complaint and clamor? Must numerous armies, continually be kept up, not to defend Ireland against aggression from abroad, but ourselves against her turbulence? Are her unsurpassed resources to be perpetually suppressed by the folly, indolence, selfishness and indocility of her people? Will she ever become, in truth, what she is in name-our sister island-or is she constantly to remain the chosen theatre of anti-British plotters and demagogues-the wayward fondling-the "little curly-headed, good-for-nothing, and mischief-making monkey," of England's rivals and very good natured friends? Do Celtic and Saxon blood positively abhor amalgamation? What can be the causes, and what will be the cures of Irish restlessness and misery?

In Rome's case, the questions relating to Ireland should be, and probably are, at this moment-will the majority of Britons erelong adopt the opinion, that the Romish faith has really something to do with Irish discontent and wretchedness? Now, that O'Connel is gone, will the Irish priesthood accept of a state endowment, and thus become tributaries, dependents, tools of the British minister? Shall the Papal power now begin to wane or to wax in the Isle of Saints? May we soon expect that Victoria, who was educated in liberal principles, will pay a visit to the Eternal city, merely to gratify curiosity of course, and be introduced by her Puseyite chaplain, to the present liberal Pontiff? Does not Prince Albert, who paints and plays, desire to hear the choir of St. Peter's, and copy the frescoes in the Sistine chapel; and may not such recreations be at least as excusable by the British nation as slaughtering deer by hundreds in Germany, or hares and birds by thousands in the glens of Atholl? Or, peradventure, on the other side, may it not come to pass that the judgments of heaven shall teach Irish Papists righteousness, and so reveal to them the mystery of iniquity-unveil to them the harlot of the Seven Hills, whom they have hitherto worshipped as a goddess? Or, again; will hunger and disease drive, in fast growing multitudes, the Catholic peasantry of Ireland across the Atlantic, and thus hasten our dominion over the great western republic which, reposing in its security and strength, dreams not of designs entertained by a petty potentate, who nevertheless is leagued with powerful despots, and claims, as Christ's vicar, all authority in heaven and on earth.

And, without dwelling farther on the probable anxieties of Rome, we are brought to think of the questions respecting Ireland, that ought to engage our own attention at the present conjuncture. Perhaps the most momentous of these is suggested in the preceding paragraph. May not Romanists become in process of time the numerical majority of our citizens? And are men who feel affili

ated by the secret system of their church, who are isolated by her exclusive claims, subjected, or rather abjected to priestly rule, and whose devotion is founded on ignorance-are such men fit subjects of a commonwealth so free as ours, and conferring so many precious trusts? How long would our institutions stand, if more than half of us were Papists-and how many years must elapse till, if Ireland's distress and disaffection continue to prevail, the myriads of her immigrant sons and daughters, added to our annual German supplies, shall have turned the scale of population in favor of popery amongst us? May we not, by-and-bye, find it expedient so far to depart from our free principles in self-defence, and recommend to England the furnishing of some other asylum for her troublesome and dangerous subjects than the United States? May we not some day be compelled to adopt a tariff restrictive of importation in case of such deleterious commodities as popery and pauperism? And besides all this, is it not becoming in us, who regard ourselves as champions and ensamples of liberty, to acquire, if possible, accurate notions of British administration in Ireland; more especially as she complains of British oppression which we once experienced, and which we shed our blood to shake off? How has she been oppressed? Is she so oppressed still? What can we do what ought we to do for her pacification and prosperity? Is there no other oppression at which she does not, perhaps dares not openly murmur? In a word, as before, what are the causes, and what will be the cures of her restlessness and misery?

There is one extraordinary fact connected with our country-a fact that must forcibly strike all foreigners, and that constitutes a main element of our national stability. While in those European kingdoms where the popular voice can find utterance, there are parties declaring a direct opposition to the existing forms of government, there is not an American citizen who does not profess unqualified preference for our democratic institutions. In England there are, on the one hand, many avowed republicanstens of thousands who admire and covet our civil freedom; and not a few, on the other, who dread and denounce even the degree of freedom which Englishmen enjoy. In France there are legitimists-lovers of the despotism of Polignac and Charles the Tenth; Buonapartists-lovers of a military empire; Philippists-lovers of a not very limited monarchy; and republicans-lovers of a democracy like our own. Even in less favored lands; in Prussia, with its lately obtained and narrow constitution; in Austria and Russia with their arbitrary sovereigns; nay, in prostrate Turkey herself, there are doubtless secret murmurers, and souls eager to escape from bondage. But in the United States all are confest republicans. Has any one ever known an American, like the Israelites of old, who would have a king, although, in Heaven's wrath, they were warned of his exactions and their own degradation? Now this universal attachment to a republican form of

government must dispose us to infer, without hesitation, that the only remedy for Ireland's unhappiness is a revolution in the British empire, and the establishment of a commonwealth in the British isles. Are we, however, prepared to say that nothing short of this radical change can be wrought in behalf of Ireland? Is American philanthropy content to keep silence; aye and until England shall appear willing to discard that constitution of which her statesmen boast as the goodly growth of a thousand years? Is it not our duty, on the contrary, to reason in the mean time, respecting Ireland, as liberal minded Englishmen would do, and to contribute our mite of advice, without insisting on their approval of our democratic polity?

We trust that these preliminary observations will not be deemed impertinent to our subject. We wish them to be borne in mind, as we proceed, to speak-1st, of Irish character; 2d, of Irish his tory; 3d, of Irish land; and 4th, of Irish religion.

Although it may be impossible to trace the many influences which have stamped a distinct mental and moral character on each of the great human families, yet that such distinction of character exists is no more to be denied than are their differences of outward feature and complexion. In the character of individual nations, the primary peculiarities of various races are frequently blended. Countries may be conquered and colonized like Ireland; or they may peacefully fall under the same dominion like England and Scotland; and thus, in process of time, from intercourse and intermarriage, a permanent variety of mankind may arise, exhibiting new characteristics both of body and of mind. At first, however, and especially in cases of conquest, repulsive forces must obtain to retard commixture; and even after the lapse of ages we may find pure descendants of the indigenous people-pure descendants of the invaders-inhabitants combining the qualities of both, and even where the distinctions of race have been most scrupulously upheld, we shall still meet with certain modifications of character resulting from that communion which mere juxtaposition necessitates. Such is the case with the present population of Ireland. Not to enumerate its more minute divisions, it comprises the Celt and the Saxon-the pure Irishman, the Englishman, the Scotchman, and various mixtures and modifications of the three. These varieties are distinguished each by its own characteristics, while over all there is diffused a certain Hibernian hue that marks them out as dwellers in the Emerald Isle. That portion of the population with which chiefly we shall have now to do is the Celtic. Yet, as we pass along, we must notice the other sections also; and particularly that resemblance which we have described as pervading the whole.

No subject is more popular with the Irish people and their admirers, and, we must add, with those who make the condition of Ireland the stalking-horse of party, or the source of gain, than the laudation of Irish character. The Irish peasantry are the finest