IRELAND has long been in the condition of a man labouring under a troublesome and complicated disease, which has been rendered dangerous by the quackery which attempted to cure it. Her real evils were far from being deeply-seated or irremediable, but they have been made truly formidable by the mistakes of the conceited mountebanks who prescribed for her. A fertile soil, navigable rivers, commodious and sheltered harbours, a genial climate, and a position upon the globe most happily adapted for commerce with the east and west, in the hands of a people of extraordinary quickness and energy, and favoured by the protecting marine of the greatest empire on the face of the earth, have failed to secure for Ireland the advantages, either social or national, which would, assuredly, have long since been realized by almost any other civilized race of men. Why is this? Partly because of the national temperament, which disposes our people less to accumulate than to enjoy ; partly, because of those differences of race and creed, which discriminate, and range off into hostile factions, those whose united efforts might otherwise have been combined for their common good. We are, comparatively poor and miserable, because we have not only been indifferent to our real interests, but more intent upon annoying each other, than upon objects which might contribute to the national improvement. Papist and Protestant, native and sassenach, these are the spell-words of that unhallowed incantation by which our poor country has been turned from a land of prosperity and peace, into one of adversity and discord. And the question for the statesman is, by what means, compatibly with the security and the well-being of the nation at large, an efficacious remedy for the evils flowing from this unhappy state of things is to be found?

The writer, whose pages are at present before us, and to which this paper

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will have reference, is one of those clever, flippant speculators, whose abilities are rated at the very highest by themselves, and who are never prevented, by any distrust of their powers, from pronouncing, ex cathedra, upon questions the most difficult and complicated, and respecting which, a wise reserve would well become more capable inquirers. The whole state of Ireland, past and present, is open to his exploring glance, and for every evil, both moral and political, by which it has at any time been afflicted, he has, or would have had, an infallible specific. "Fools," we are told, "rush in where angels fear to tread." And ready reckoners in politics, like the present writer, whose presumption is the only guarantee of their competency, are furnished with pointed and antithetical prescriptions for every imaginable disease under which the body politic may labour, compared with which the regular physician must hide his diminished head, as one whose antiquated theories are thrown completely into the shade by the new lights of his more imposing rival.

The designation is a happy one by which he characterises the "extreme gauche" of the repeal party. He calls them "the Finn ma Coul school of Irish politics." In return, we would characterise that to which he belongs as the Della Cruscan. It is one in which sound is substituted for sense, and glitter of antithesis for depth of thought or weight of argument. The "speciosa vocabula rerum' constitutes the thin disguise with which that party conceals their hollow plausibilities. Commonplace, in a holiday dress, tricked out in sentimental liberalism, is the ordinary habit in which writers of this class "fret and strut" their hour upon the stage of public life, inflated with all the self-importance of those who are puffed up with half knowledge. They are great finders of "mares' nests," and advertise their discoveries with a char

obsolete, and that the other continues to prevail; thus, in that important particular, identifying as one a people who were before so miserably divided? No. Looking back upon events, we all see that it was providentially ordered that darkness and barbarism should give way to light and civilization; that there was a moral law by which the one should decrease, and the other should increase. But what would have been the sapient policy of the quid. nunc or the mountebank, if such an animal existed at the time, when the strife was at its highest? He would recommend a compromise between the systems; and thus not only arrest the civilizing influences which were on their march, but stereotype into an incorrigible permanency the waning barbarism which was upon its departure. Nor would the strife be even then extinguished. Whatever remained of the one system would still be at internal war with whatever was permitted of the other; and any concord which might result, would be rather that of constrained and unnatural accommodation, than of spontaneous and harmonious agreement.

Here the experiment has been made, and the success has been complete. The Brehon law has disappeared—clanship and chieftaincy have been superseded by magisterial authority-and the Pale embraces the whole of Ireland. Is this a course of things which we would willingly have reversed? Could we easily reconcile ourselves to any project by which the better system would be let or hindered, or its progressive development prevented? Assuredly not. And may we not derive a light from what has been accomplished already, by which we should be securely guided respecting much that may be hoped for in future? As far as the nations are yet divided, it is, we may be sure, from an antagonism of principles-the one or the other of which must ultimately prevail. Our wisdom would be to discover which it is most desirable should prevail, and to take especial care that by no narrow or perverse policy the expansion and prevalence of the better principle be counteracted.

How do the nations now stand related to each other? They are no longer in the relation of master and slave. They are no longer in the

relation of conqueror and conquered. Every disabling statute has been repealed, and the Irish Roman Catholic has taken an erect and independent attitude, and been received within the portals of the constitution. He stands differenced from his brother Protestant, or his brother Englishman, only in the article of religion.

We are not here to dispute about creeds; but we must be permitted to advert to the political fact, that the majority of the people of this country are under the influence of a superstition which perverts or obstructs the influence of the Gospel. Judging from analogy, what would be the duty and the interest of a wise and righteous government in such a case? To make an alliance with that superstition, by which it might be confirmed in its pernicious ascendancy, in the hope that, by the aid of its priests, the people might, in civil matters, be rendered more obedient? No. The wise and the righteous ruler will seek by no disabling statutes to restrain the free profession of religious opinion; but neither will he extend his aid to give a permanency to a degrading superstition beyond that to which it may be providentially predestined. He will abstain cautiously from all intermedIdling with it. He will let it alone; thus leaving it to the operation of those natural causes, by which, in an age and country like our own, it is divinely ordered that the circle of light should gradually gain upon the circle of darkness. He will take care to secure for that enlightened establish ment, which has been incorporated with the state, all its proper advantages. He will use his best endeavours that its offices are filled by none but those who are likely to reflect credit upon them; and that its divine commission is divinely executed, in that spirit not only of earnestness and zeal, but of peace and love, in which it was said, "Go, preach the Gospel to all nations." He will take care that the education of the rising generation shall be, as far as possible, under their influence, and that as much as possible may be done to aid in the inculcation of the lessons they are commanded to teach, by authority, by encouragement, and by example. Acting thus, he will best contribute to the development of that better system over which

it is his privilege to preside, while he has the satisfaction of witnessing the gradual decay of that antagonist system to which it was opposed, until it melts from a substance to a shadow, and, finally, "like the baseless fabric of a vision, leaves not a wreck behind." It is our fixed persuasion, that if this course were pursued, the Brehon has not been more completely superseded by British law, than would popery, as it is at present professed, by that mild and enlightened form of scriptural Christianity which is enshrined in the articles and the forms of the Church of England.

Whether this course has ever been pursued, the reader needs not to be informed. The writer before us rejoices in the liberalism by which it was set aside. The following is his resumé of the merits of Lord Stanley, when chief secretary of Ireland :—

"He was the first Irish minister who smote the orange party to the ground. Lord Wellesley and Mr. Plunket had failed in the attempt to crush the orangemen. In putting an end to the orange processions, and vigorously directing the whole force of the executive against those illegal societies, he accomplished one of the greatest advantages that Ireland has received.

"He was the first Irish minister who took means to prevent the packing of juries. Lord Morpeth and Sir Michael O'Loghlen only trod in the route which Lord Stanley had struck out.

"He established the system of national education on a wise and equitable basis, and boldly confronted the unreasoning bigotry of the fanatical clergymen of both religions. By this measure he extinguished the system of proselytizing, that had been the bane of society in Ireland.

"He was the first Irish minister who grappled with the evil of an overgrown church establishment, and though he did not go so far as was desirable, he considerably reduced the number of Protestant bishops, and brought the esta blishment within more reasonable dimensions.

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Perhaps more than any other minister he devoted his attention to the physical resources of the country. Under his auspices the Irish board of works was established the means of intercourse between various parts of the country were improved and enlarged, and the Shannon navigation was taken up by government.

"He was the first Irish minister who VOL. XXII-No. 131.

did not allow the Irish bench or bar to bully him. When Baron Smith's conduct was brought before parliament, the speech of Mr. Stanley was read with dismay by the Irish judges of the right

sort.

We will not dwell upon the painful topics which this extract suggests, nor do we cite it for any other purpose than that of showing the animus of this writer, as well as the spirit of the legislation which has prevailed for the last twenty years.

With respect to the orange processions act, as that is upon the point of expiring, it will not be necessary to say many words. It was exclusively confined to the assemblages of the loyal, who were thereby prevented from the customary demonstrations on the days consecrated to the memory of those events to which we owe the security of our religion and liberty. We do not deny that it was regarded with mortification by one party, and with an insolent and malignant joy by the other; and so far the writer before us is justified in panegyrising its noble author. But Lord Stanley himself may now be of opinion that his act would have been quite as effectual, if it had been less exclusive, and that he would not have less deserved the character of an enlightened statesinan, if its provisions and penalties had been directed against all processions, of whatever party, which had a tendency to create disturbance.

With respect to the jury arrangement, the instances are, alas! too numerous and too flagrant in which it has worked ill. We believe that no honest man of any party will now be found to say, that partizanship has not prevailed in the jury-box to a degree unknown before; and that offenders notoriously guilty of the most atrocious crimes have escaped the due reward of their deeds, because of an accomplice who refused to consent with his brother jurors in bringing in a righteous verdict.

The national education system, for which Lord Stanley is again lauded, is now very different from what he intended it should be. It has failed miserably, in that important particular for the sake of which chiefly it was established-namely, as a means of united education; and all the evils have been realized which those who objected to it predicted as its inevitable conse

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quence. The efficient control of the education of the country has been taken out of the hands of the clergy of the Church of England, and transferred to those of the clergy of the Church of Rome. With what effect for the peace of the country, and the security of British connexion, let the present agitation for the repeal of the union tell. The Romish priests are almost to a man repealers. One of the ablest of their prelates is an avowed and determined repealer; and has declared it his fixed intention to congregate the children of his communion into his chapels, and to suspend all other instruction, until they shall have been taught by his priests to resent as a national indignity what is called the baleful act of union. Is this, or is it not, sowing dragons' teeth? From such instruction and such instructors what prospect is there of tranquillity or order? Yet

such are the hands into which the system for the training of the youthful generation in the way they should go has been placed! And for a system thus pregnant with the seeds of irremediable evil, the noble secretary for the colonies is be-praised, as one who was above the narrow notions which prevailed before his day, and who saw beyond the hood-winked mortals who had consented to leave the education of the people as much as possible in the hands of the established clergy!

We perceive that some wretched national schoolmasters, who attended at repeal meetings, have been dismissed. But if nothing further be done, this is mere mockery. Will their patrons, the popish priests, by whom" they were appointed, be deprived of their power? If not, nothing has been done. It is idle to pretend to dislike the fruit, while we persist in culti

vating the tree. In all this, we fully acknowledge that a writer who hates the Established Church, and who regards it as a monster grievance,

must see much to commend. To such a man, the injurious contumely with which its clergy have been regarded must be a matter of supreme delight. But we doubt whether the noble lord to whom he is indebted for this high satisfaction, just now regards his finished work with the same unmixed complacency. He cannot but see that it has worked ill-at least very diffe rently from what he intended; and our belief is, that, with his present experience, the noble lord would be as slow to commit himself to such a measure, as those for whose especial behoof it was intended are eager to avail themselves of it as an instrument by which the work of faction, in its worst form, may be more effectually done, than by any other which could be placed in their hands.

Nor could it be said, when this measure was passed, that the people were slow to avail themselves of the advantages of the more scriptural schools. The contrary was the fact. We have looked with some care into documents which throw a light upon this subject which cannot mislead, and we find, that from 1811 to 1824, the, increase in the number of schools in which scriptural instruction was not given, was something less than threefold that in schools of a scriptural character, something more than thirteen fold. So utterly baseless was the assertion-so perseveringly and unscrupulously made that the Romanist population were unwilling to receive instruction in schools in which the Bible was read. We grant that the Romish priests were very adverse to