It is not an easy task to make Protestants of the humbler classes, espe cilly those who had been enrolled as Orangemen, understand the justice of the laws by which they conceive themselves aggrieved. Meetings in commemoration of the achievement which saved the empire are illegal; meetings in anticipation of an event which is to achieve the empire's ruin are pronounced conformable to law! Meetings of hundreds to celebrate the triumph of civil and religious liberty are prohibited, because some Roman Catholics took offence at them! Meetings of hundreds of thousands to effect a change which would imply the overthrow of all liberty, the extirpation of Protestants from Ireland, and the dismemberment and final prostration of the British empire, although every man in the country attached to British connection looks upon them not only with indignation, but with a lively sense of alarm, are permitted, nay, government has been at the expense-an expense surely for which the parties convening such meetings ought to be made liable -of protecting them, or protecting the public peace which they threaten, to insure a quiet issue to their parades and reviews of physical force! Such is the distinction made by modern law between retrospection and anticipation! One might say the distinction is the reverse of what it should be. The retrospect of the Orangemen had for its object an accomplished factin its spirit there was the guarantee of permanence. The anticipation of the repealers has for its object a convulsion yet to be its essence is a spirit of change. Should its purpose be attained, England must cease to be a nation. It is not easy to make men little conversant with the subtleties of law, and the difficulties by which legislation is embarrassed, to understand the justice of the law which makes such a distinc tion as Protestants complain of. The utmost which the friends of order can do, is, to induce submission to it; and it is a state of things much to be de precated, and such as demands the inost serious attention of men in power, that the classes in Ireland upon which, in the event of a civil war, the issue of the struggle will be dependent, even while they obey the laws which here impose new, and, as they think, injurious restraints upon the meetings of loyal men, complain of them and protest against them, nevertheless, as severe, and unjust, and partial. We certainly would not have Orange processions revived; but in a country where a law so alien to the spirit of the British constitution as that for their prevention has been passed, one would expect to see the balance kept in some sort even by a corresponding law passed against demonstrations in favour of repeal. If this may not be, some better arrangement should be made to restore confidence to the subjects of Great Britain in Ireland, who desire the maintenance of British connection, and to keep them steadfast to their principles and their party until at least the impending danger be overpast. The danger of division among Protestants ought not to be regarded as a chimera; nor, under existing circumstances, would it be wise or honest to conceal it. A system of propagandism seems to have been organized, against which measures of protection should be taken. Paid emissaries, there is much reason to believe, are active and insidious in the endeavour to inspire discontent in the great Protestant body. Presbyterians are exasperated against the Established Church, rendered more offensive in their eyes by the imputation to it of tractarian Romanism: the discontents of the poor are inflamed, and their cupidity tempted by dazzling promises as to the change which is to be wrought in the condition of farmers and tradesmen; and, on the other hand, the fears of all Protestants, especially females, are wrought upon by mysterious intimations of a danger near at hand. Those who say, that the Protestants may be de The following notice of such influences is taken from the Newry Telegraph of June 17: "In Kenary, near Charlemont, resides a pensioner, called a Roman Catholic, being also a repealer. This person lately applied to several of his neighbours, who are mostly Protestants, urging them to become repealers—i. e. to subscribe to the repeal rent. All his arguments, however, were unavailing. Among the recusants was another pensioner, a Protestant. On the night of the same day pended on, and that the emergency, whenever it comes, will find them ready, do not take into account the agencies which are employed in detaching them from their duty and their true interest. Times and circumstances are greatly changed since the periods upon the remembrance of which sanguine men place their reliance. Influences to divide and dismay, open and secret, are far more powerful than they ever were before-Protestants are exposed to them unprovided of the defences which had in old times afforded them protection-bonds which united them into a compact body have been some loosened, some broken-that confidence in the wisdom, and power, and justice of the British government which sustained them against the artifices and assaults of enemies has been mournfully weakened. If it be desirable that Protestants, under such circumstances, be kept together, it is wise to think of means by which the efforts to disunite them can be counteracted. Upon the means, or the best means, of effecting this great good, we wish those would reflect who have ample knowledge of the state and resources of the country. For our parts we offer no suggestion. This much, however, we may venture to say, the objections usually offered to the adoption of obvious means of defending and uniting loyal men, are with us decided arguments in favour of it. We speak of the re-embodying the yeomanry. That an objection should be urged and should prevail ayainst such a measure in Ireland, is proof that we are in a most unsound state of political being. Nothing can be more accordant with the spirit of our constitution than the maintenance of a yeomanry force; nothing can show that the principles of our constitution are forgotten more clearly than the objections which are successful against the expedient of calling out such a body for the defence of the country. The yeomanry of Ireland ought never to have been disembodied; and it would be a great good, if the difficulties of these present times influence a careful government to reconstruct that constitutional force anew. It is said that the circumstances of Ireland are so dissimilar from those of Great Britain, that they forbid the employment of a force which in England may be used with advantage. On the contrary, the dissimilarity of circumstances would create a necessity for its employment. In Ireland it is said, a yeomanry would be mainly composed of Protestants. It would so, because the repeal army is mainly composed of Roman Catholics. The circumstances of Ireland are these:-about a million and a half of its inhabitants are resolute to maintain British connection; about five millions are said to be determined on effecting a separation from England, total or partial. It would clearly be madness to recruit the yeomanry from this disaffected multitude. It is little less than madness to leave the well-affected a multitude, when they might be made powerful as an organized body, simply because they who desire the downfall of England, and the few who are willing to be their instruments, object to the employment of what they call a party force. It was one of the complaints against the yeomanry of former years that they were composed of Protestants, in many instances of Orangemen. The answer was, that in those days a force so composed was the only one which could be relied on. A remarkable instance in point was furnished in the case of a corps commanded by Mr. Sharman Crawford. Every individual, with, at the most, a single exception, under his command was an Orangeman! He was not himself a member of the Orange institution; he was, perhaps then, as now, of politics which forbade his joining that body; but he wished to have a corps of loyal men, who would not betray the cause which they swore to serve. He deliberately made or acceded to a rule, that every candidate for admission into his corps should pass through the scrutiny of a ballot; and, as the inevitable consequence, his corps consisted exclusively of Protestants—or on which the parties were solicited, and refused, threatening notices were put under the doors of each, commanding them to leave the country immediately, or else; stating at the same time that they had had an opportunity of becoming repealers, but that they had refused," &c. &c.j ORANGEMEN! The practice thus sanctioned by the adoption and approval of so ultra a liberal as Mr. Sharman Crawford was an answer and a refutation in advance to all that has been urged against the employment of a Protestant yeomanry. But it need not be exclusively Protestant. Whereever Roman Catholics, favourable to British connection and of known loyalty, would join the force, they should be welcomed, as indeed they have been welcomed, even in times when it is pretended the force was exclusive. If all Roman Catholics cast themselves "into the repeal movement," or suffer themselves to be deterred from opposing it, such a state of things which makes manifest the necessity of concentrating in yeomanry corps the strength of the loyal, supplies, at the same time, an explanation why these bodies are exclusively Protestant. In a word, the yeomanry force is strictly constitutional; the objections urged against the calling it out furnish a reason the more why the state should return again to the old ways of the constitution, and organize and arm loyal subjects to maintain them. Our space is exhausted; topics, and thoughts, and wishes still continue to crowd upon us; but "to those who think, we have said enough-to those who feel, we are afraid to say more." ENGLISH NOTIONS OF IRISH AFFAIRS. DEAR MAC SHANE-You are somewhat surprised at the proceedings of the British government in regard to Irish affairs, and you desire to know what the people in England really think of the state of Ireland. I shall tell you all about this as well as I can, but you must not expect to hear any thing reasonable when I am telling you of general impressions. No man who has lived thirty years in the world and looked about him, will hope to find truth in public opinion about occurrences of the day. It may be that public opinion comes right in the end, but if it does, it blunders along through a vast quantity of prepos terous notions before it arrives at that end. Men of passion or of subtlety are generally the guides of public opinion, and such men are generally wrong. Either they are the dupes of their own desires, or they wish to dupe others into becoming the instruments of these desires. Show me a man with large gifts for forming and swaying public opinion, and I will show you a man whom it is dangerous to trust in regard to public matters. I say this without any imputation upon their sincerity Burke has said, even the lamp of prudence may blind a man if it shine with unnatural lustre; how much more those lights of genius which more generally attract the public admiration, and give a man influence in guiding the opinion of the multitude! But to quit moralizing and come to facts:-five-sixths of all the people in England who are worth five hundred pounds and upwards, think the Irish a very dangerous sort of people at all times, and more particularly at present; and they think that at all times it is very meet, right, and prudent, but more particularly at present, to have a strong force in Ireland to overawe the rebellious in spirit, or to crush rebellion if it break out. This feeling however is not connected, as many of you in Ireland might think, with any especial fear or hatred of the Irish people, or with a desire of domination. In short, it is connected with no strong feeling whatever, but simply a sentiment arising from some sense of dignity, and some habit of precaution in regard to all that is strange and not well understood. Of this tolerably general feeling of the middle and upper classes in England regarding Ireland, you will of course find nothing in the newspapers, because it is their business to deal not so much with the actual as with the prominent. Of as the poet sings; and as Edmund all the sentiments and actions--the "For he is oft the wisest man Who is not wise at all," thoughts, words, and works of men— but a very small part indeed thrust themselves forward into public observation, and it is with this small part alone that the public journals have, or ought to have, any thing to do. Yet it is this unexpressed, feeling of society which mainly influences the votes of the great mass of members of parliament. It is only the more prominent few who are mainly guided by such reasonings and impressions as are publicly stated and maintained in parliament, or at popular meetings, or in the press. These few are, whether consciously, or unconsciously, public performers, and must study their parts accordingly. They lead in one sense, but in another sense they follow. Their course is under the control of public events as they happen to arise and to arrange themselves, and the deep, effectual under-current often runs in a different direction to that which is at the top, and under direct public observation. If the feeling of the British nation were consulted, there is no measure however strong which government might think fit to propose for the security of the friends of British connexion in Ireland, that would not be eagerly welcomed. But the feeling of the British nation is one thing, and the affectation of the British House of Commons quite another. The distinction between the reality of British sentiment and that which men venture to profess in the House of Commons is growing broader every year. It is the vice of the time to eschew genuineness, and it is impossible to hinder this vice from having its practical effect; but it is well to mark the difference between events which have their foundation in the national conviction or the national prejudice, and those which flow from a spurious parliamentary affectation. It was this affectation which carried the Roman Catholic emancipation bill. Whether that measure was theoretically right or wrong, it was a measure from which most assuredly the national sentiment of Great Britain revolted; but as by far the greater part of the eloquence and ingenuity of public speaking and public writing had been on its side, it became the affectation of the House of Commons to regard opposition to it as a mark of prejudice or thick-headedness, and so it was carried. It belongs to the character, the posi tion, the history, and the temper of the present prime minister to refer every thing to the House of Common's standard. I do not find fault with this I merely state the fact. The minister will never correct any error. of the house, if it commit an error, by throwing upon the subject the light and heat of the national sentiment. If Sir Robert Peel, after reading those strong expressions, stated that he was authorized by her majesty to say that such were also her sentiments upon the same subject; and there the minister left the matter, and has left it. He has directed none of his eloquence to the excitement of a feeling of indignation against the conduct of Mr. O'Connell. It was not so during the former repeal agitation, when Sir Robert Peel was leader of the opposition. Not very long after the speech from the throne which denounced the O'Connell agitation in Ireland, the honourable and learned gentleman thought fit to hint at the propriety of reducing the interest upon the national debt, and talked with bitter derision of "the cant of national faith." This roused Sir Robert Peel. He said that "he rejoiced to hear the honourable and learned member for Dublin avow his political creed, because when they came in a few days to the consideration of the repeal of the union, they would bear in mind under what auspices and with what views the measure was proposed;" and he then proceeded in the following more than usually emphatic strain: "Oh, all ye who have interest in the funds in Ireland-oh, all you Protestants who hold lands in Ireland, learn by this timely declaration what your fate will be when you shall have been delivered up to the tender mercies of a popular assembly, returned by the influence and adopting the principles of this man, who makes a jest of national honour, and talks of the cant of public faith. I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word.' "The question of the repeal of the union has been decided by that preliminary declaration. Who that had any thing to lose would not draw the inference, that if such slender pretences could be brought forward to justify the violation of national faith, there could be no security for any property of any description !" In this way did Sir Robert Peel, when leader of the opposition, animate the public sentiment against the repeal agitation. His silence as minister, combined with the evidence afforded, or supposed to be afforded, by the military preparations in Ireland, has led many to conclude that he has something so serious to disclose, that until every thing is ripe for its announcement, he is unwilling to be drawn into remarks which might tend to reveal his secret too soon. It is needless to repeat for the hundredth time that the English do not understand the Irish. It is not probable they ever will. When the English hear of prodigious meetings renewed from time to time, they cannot help believing that the people who thus assemble must have some definite purpose of good for themselves, to be attained at the expense of England. They cannot understand that all this trouble could be taken for the mere sake of display, or the glorification of a popular leader. "What do the people want?" say they; "what do they expect to gain by these multitudinous assemblages? We knew what our people wanted when they assembled in riotous disarray last autumn. They wanted a fair day's wages for a fair day's work; but when they found that going about in a riotous matter did not bring them any nearer to the point at which they aimed, they abandoned their tumultuous proceedings." Thus do the English talk; and it is in vain that one hints to them that such meetings may take place without any distinct object on the part of the people thus assembling. It is in vain that one tries to explain that the very love of mystery-the not knowing exactly why they are wanted to make such formidable demonstrations, and therefore fancying something much more important in the matter than there really is-may be the very reason that such multitudes assemble. The mass of the Londoners eagerly caught at the bold assertion of "The Times""Ireland is on the verge of rebellion." It was the very thing which had been occurring in an indistinct manner to their minds for some time previously, and they rejoiced to find it proclaimed in plain terms by their favourite journal. For some days after this you could not hint to any London citizen of credit and renown that you did not apprehend rebellion in Ireland, without exciting his contempt, and some degree of indignation. He deemed it an |