ing in Ireland. What then hinders the Irishman from doing the same? Not the government of the country surely; not any oppressive and benumbing injustice to which he in particular is subjected; for the government is the same to all. All bear the same burdens. All enjoy the same privileges. There is a fair field and no favor. Most true, every office in the protestant church, and one or two which have very close connection with the protestant monarch of the British empire, cannot be held by catholics. But does this mighty repression of aspiring blood really prevent Tom, Dick, and Harry from thriving? Is Denis Doolin, the grocer, doing no good because he is cut off from the hope of ever being Lord High Chancellor of England? or is Pat Flannigan the tailor," going all to the dogs" because his son, now at Maynooth, has no chance of becoming Archbishop of Canterbury? Platform bawlers would have us believe-and multitudes hastily do believe itthat the Saxon in Ireland is a privileged being; a member of a high and sacred caste; petted and pampered into prosperity; a planter among negroes; a Brahman among Pariahs. But after all, is this not true? Not one word of it. It is as great a lie as ever was swallowed. There is nothing earthly to interfere with the prosperity of Irishmen more than that of Englishmen or Scotchmen in Ireland, except-what? What can it be, if not the character of the Irish people themselves? The conclusion is irresistible. We have more than once drawn the attention of Irishmen to the fact. The argument was unpalatable because unanswerable. Popular leaders would, therefore, evince more wisdom and honesty if, instead of stirring up their ignorant countrymen to hate, annoy, and banish every Saxon adventurer on Irish soil, they told them to go and do likewise; to imitate the thriving strangers; to rely upon themselves; to manifest the same energy and perseverance in industry and improvement that they have long done in clamoring; and to demand justice, if they have it not already, on the score of unsuccessful though prudent and pains-taking exertion, rather than on the ground of an assumed supereminence in generosity and worth. To try and to fail would be an argument of weight; but till that is done the industrious and independent inhabitants of England and Scotland will not be easily convinced that bad government is, now at least, the sole cause of Ireland's distresses. Mr. O'Connell's favorite motto was "Hereditary bondsmen! know ye not, Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow?" This is true; but the most efficient blow the Irish can strike for themselves is to help themselves, in place of apathetically trusting to the omnipotence of Acts of Parliament, whether passed in Westminster or College Green. Does not the fact, therefore, of a fine race in a state of semibarbarism, furnish the key to the Rev. Mr. Kelly's difficulties, although he is probably too patriotic to perceive this? Does it not satisfactorily explain the anomalies and contradictions in Irish character? At all events we shall find that this fact taken in conjunction with the civil polity under which the Irish live-that the singular combination of semi-savagery in manners and in modes of thinking, with high civilization and great freedom of government, affords a solution-and, we believe, the only intelligible solution of the great Hibernian national enigma. Put four unbroken bloods in your fine modern chariot, and you need not be astonished if harness and carriage, and horses too, are considerably worse for the experiment. The space assigned to us in this number does not permit us at present to enter more minutely into the subject of Irish character. We shall do so in our next. Meanwhile, as we have just been speaking of energy and perseverance in honest industry, we will conclude this article by adverting to some instances which prove that Irishmen are wofully deficient in this particular. The case of envying and not imitating-vilifying and not encouraging the spirit of the Scotch houses, is one on which we do not need to dwell much farther than we have done. Nothing can be more irrational or like a nation of grown children, than the attempt to suppress a system that furnishes a good and cheap article to the poor man, and constrains dealers to deal fairly, to check their appetite for exorbitant profits, to cast aside their indolence, to keep pace with the progress and enterprise of the age, and to regulate their traffic in such a manner as to accommodate the needy, and at the same time to secure for themselves an equitable return. It is the nature of a rude race to dread improvement when brought in by strangers. It is the mark of a civilized one to seize upon improvements whencesoever they come. Although there is grievous error in such conduct, yet we can sympathize with men, who, being thrown suddenly out of employment by useful innovations, combine to destroy them by violence; but to resist innovations which, temporarily reducing the gains of a very few, are manifestly for the immediate and permanent benefit of the many, is an act of barbarism. It carries us back to the woods and wilds. Had the Scotch system been invented and applied by an Irish catholic, nothing would have been said against it. But because it was of extra Irish growth, therefore it must be denounced and, if possible, overthrown. In a country like Ireland, where laborers abound and the people are poor, persons of capital are naturally led to introduce new modes of industry, in the hope of obtaining cheap labor, and if their productions are suitable, a ready sale, where moderate prices are an especial object of desire. Accordingly, some years since, a large factory was projected at Cork, if we mistake not, and as Irish mechanics could not be found of sufficient skill to erect the machinery, Englishmen were engaged. The company, we believe, was English also. But the enlightened natives, looking on the employment of strangers, and those strangers Saxons, in a work which they themselves could not accomplish, as an interference with the notable doctrine of Ireland for the Irish, actually destroyed the works, and the projectors were compelled to desist! Suppose, however, that the works had been completed and the Englishmen discharged, what would have been the result? Every one acquainted with Ireland can tell. At first, spinners, or other operatives, would have been found, and the concern would have proceeded until they had acquired some skill, and then, after all the trouble of teaching them, they would have combined for extravagant wages and short time; never reflecting that the success of one such factory would lead to the establishment of others, and open an increasing field for honorable labor, but acting on the selfish, indolent, rapacious principle, of much pay and little work. No matter should they have earned double the sum to which they had hitherto been accustomed; here was a new mine of resources, and they must make the most of it. Such a state of things reminds us of a crafty Indian guide, hired to conduct a party through the forest, and when he gets them fairly involved, skulking away till they are obliged to promise him an additional and unreasonable reward. We could adduce many instances in which what we have stated as the probable fate of the Cork factory has really happened. Indeed it is the general rule. But we will simply refer to the characteristic difficulties-the absurd expectations, the knavish idleness, the almost idiotical recklessnesswhich have so sorely embarrassed the British government in their endeavors to alleviate Irish misery. Employment in road-making was provided for five hundred thousand heads of families, implying the support of more than two millions of souls. The work was neglected. Travelers stopped in amazement to look on myriads of human beings amusing themselves along the highways, seemingly playing at paviers! Farmers abandoned necessary rura! occupation, and fishermen destroyed their own boats that they might appropriate the public money by trifling on the roads. Any method of subsisting appeared preferable to honest toil. The alarm arose that the land would lie untilled, and a people, boasting so loudly of contentment and intelligence, were dismissed from macadamizing because they would neither labor nor think. The idea of extortion and fraud in a case like this-of extortion and fraud, practised not by a few, but by five hundred thousand men, is eminently characteristic of a barbarous people-cunning, selfish, gregarious, and whose thoughts are yet incapable of extending themselves to the promotion of general prosperity, but centre in individual gain. It is well that we can plead non-civilization for such an exhibition of human character. That half a million of starving men, with as many starving families dependent on them, should, instead of taking work thankfully, gratefully, and performing it conscientiously, leave the work undone and pocket the price of it, is an affair so monstrous, that we could neither credit nor explain it except upon the ground for which we are contending. It is vain to argue that the people are incited to such conduct by the misrepresentations of others, who ascribe all distress in Ireland to British misrule, as if the Imperial Parliament had passed a bill enacting that potatoes should be diseased, and these dumb occupiers of the soil had been obedient to the law! It is vain to say that the Irish peasantry have been persuaded to believe, that, at the present crisis, they shall only receive their own from Enlgand, if they are fed without laboring. It is true-these misrepresentations have been boldly made, busily propagated, extensively believed, and, by good, honest, well-informed understandings, heartily execrated. Why deepen the horrors of famine by the agitation of such questions-why risk the lives of men by anything that can tend to check and disgust benevolence? But apart from the folly and malignity of demagogues, this fact remains as a stubborn proof of our position, that persons-who can be cajoled into a course of this kind, in spite of pervading wretchedness, whereof the natural effect is to humble, and of an evident strong desire to relieve it, whereof the natural consequence is gratitude-ought hardly yet to claim the honors and the trusts which they so eagerly demand. Another proof of defective civilization was the spirit of destruction of which queen Victoria so justly complained in her speech from the throne at the beginning of the present session of parliament. That famishing men should destroy food, and unemployed laborers the implements gratuitously supplied to them for the execution of work which they knew to be created expressly for their sakes, is surely more like the rudest of our species than the finest peasanty in the world. There is about it a senseless, mischievous, unmanageable rage, resembling that of a bad-tempered child whom kindness farther spoils, and coercion alone can restrain. We are quite aware, that injustice or misfortune, or the bitter fruits of misconduct, will sometimes make a rational man mad; but this affair is so much of a piece with the usual Irish recklessness, that we can only regard it as a natural, though aggravated ebullition of national character. It does not militate against our former statements, that all this public outrage may not have interrupted the exercise of domestic and neighborly kindness; for otherwise the parallel which we have drawn between the Celt and the Indian would fail. As we go or we shall take care to give Irishmen due credit for their excellencies. But we will not cloak their defects. To talk, then, as many do, about the embarkation of capital in Ireland-we mean in the south and west of the island, the provinces of Munster and Connaught-while such explosive manifestations and extravagant ideas prevail, is little more reasonable than to recommend the erection of a dwelling place on the verge of a volcanic crater. The example of Ulster has often been urged on the rest of Ireland. What is it that has rendered Belfast one of the most flourishing towns in the three kingdoms? Simply this, that the Belfast people are quiet, industrious, enterprising. They do not perpetually harangue on the by-past glories of Tara and Clontarf, or the wisdom of Ollamh Fodhla, who, it is said, was contemporary with Solomon, and the prowess of Brian Boru who, in his old age, routed the Danes-they do not eternally clamor about English perfidy, and rake up all the injuries (which have been many) suffered by Ireland since the days of Henry II., and idly cry for acts of parliament to make them wealthy-no, they mind their business; they help themselves; they demonstrate by substantial bales of yarn and webs of cloth, that it is quite possible to thrive and be happy even in Ireland. Let other Irishmen make trial of the same plan, and give it time to work; let the peasantry, by their peacefulness and moderation, encourage capitalists to occupy their waterfalls, erect manufactories, line their quays with shipping, and reclaim their waste lands; let such cities as Cork (which possesses the finest harbor in Europe) mend their manners, and take a lesson from the chief town of Ulster; let these things be done, and-Irishmen may depend upon it-the Green Isle will become really "Great, glorious and free; First flower of the earth, and first gem of the sea." Nay more, she will then easily obtain from parliament all that she wants, and one of those wants will not be "Repeal." FLOWERS-IN CHILDHOOD, AND AGE. BY MRS. L. H. SIGOURNEY. The flowers were beautiful to me I whisper'd to them, in their beds, I bow'd to kiss them where they grew, On lip and cheek the diamond dew Impearling leaf and spray. The bud, on which no eye had glanc'd Seem'd as a sister to my soul, |