Page images
PDF
EPUB

much superior comfort, and the fare of the common soldier a luxurious repast. Even the present peculiar causes of distress in Ire land, would be so many sources of strength to the armies of the empire; and the destruction of the cottar system, and the dimi nution of the wages of labour, would only circle the British standard with additional crowds of willing followers. The facility, indeed, which the peculiar state of Ireland gives to military levies, is so preeminent, that it breaks through all discouragements and in the actual state of things, a very large proportion of Irish is to be found both in our army and navy. But if, even under the present system, in spite of the irritation they are taught to feel at the power which degrades them; in spite of their exclusion from military distinctions, the discouragement of their priests and friends, and the inconveniences to which they are subject in the performance of their religious duties, they still offer their ser vices in considerable numbers; what would they do, if these causes of alienation were removed, and their hearts were really and cordially with us?

That the affections of the Irish might have been conciliated by wise and benignant councils ;-that the golden opportunity, though every day receding, is not yet beyond our grasp, can scarcely admit of a doubt. Whatever might have been the hopes indulged by the visionary, at the commencement of the French revolution, the complete failure of that tremendous experiment must have blasted them and the scenes which have been since passing in Europe, are such as to give every advantage in the comparison to the British constitution. It is impossible to imagine that the Irish Catholics could really prefer the arbitrary sway of Bonaparte, or any of his subject kings, to the government of the laws of England,--if they had once been allowed to feel the full benefit of their salutary influ ence. Irritation and resentment will, we know, often precipitate a people into measures the most contrary to their interests; but a deliberate choice of this kind is inconceivable. Every principle that is known to influence human conduct, seems to assure us, that if the Irish Catholics were raised from their present political degradation, and admitted to all the rights and privileges of British subjects; if the career of honours and distinctions of every kind were fully and fairly opened to them, and they were allowed to feel the same motives of love and veneration for the Government under which they live, as their Protestant brethren,-thev would soon be found among the most loyal, willing, and powerful. supporters of the Crown and the empire. Then would Irelandindeed be united to Great Britain; and they might then, like ، the Douglas and the Percy both together, be، confident against the world in arms.

[ocr errors]

,

We have said, that some of the principal causes of the di

VOL. XII. NO. 21.

stresses

In ex

stresses of the Irish poor, and of their present discontents, are beyond the power of the Legislature directly to remove. pressing ourselves in this manner, it will be observed, that we have advanced a qualified position; and we wish the reader to attend to the import of the term directly, as contradistinguished from indirectly; because it is really our opinion, that, indirectly, Government has great influence on the causes of distress here particularly alluded to. Universally it will be found, that political degradation- is accompanied by excessive poverty; and that the opposite state of society is the most efficient cause of the general spread of comforts among the lower classes. We have little doubt, that the political degradation of the Irish poor powerfully contributed to make them adopt potatoes as their principal food; and in the curious question, whether, at a future distant period, the greater part of the population of Europe will be supported upon potatoes? much will depend upon the character of the governments in which the present convulsions may terminate. The establishment of an universal despotism, and the exclusion of the Jower and middle classes of society from all share in the government, by annihilating in a great degree individual importance and dignity, would have a strong tendency to make the poor submit to the lowest and cheapest kind of sustenance; and it is quite certain, that if they once consent to produce an adequate supply of labour on the cheapest sort of food, they never will be able to obtain any thing better. On the other hand, if the present convulsions of the civilized world should leave behind them improved forms of government, it is probable, that the decent pride occasioned by a superior political condition, will make the lower classes of society look forward to something besides mere support, and not only prevent them from falling to potatoes, but raise the quality of their food above what it is at present. The causes which, independently of soil and climate, have actually determined the chief food of the common people in the different kingdoms of Europe, seem to have been their political state, and the periods of prosperity or adversity, with regard to the funds for the maintenance of labour, which they may have gone through. And when the character of the food has been determined in any particular country by these causes, though it continues always susceptible of change, yet it changes slowly and with difficulty, and a union of favourable circumstances is necessary to produce the effect. A country which, from a previous state of general depression, had been long in the habit of living upon the lowest kind of food, might pass through a period of considerable agricultural prosperity, and feel it chiefly in the rapid increase of population, and not in an improvement of

the

the diet and comforts of the lower classes. On the other hand, a people which, from a course of favourable circumstances, had been in the habit of living upon the best wheaten bread, might, from checks to their agriculture or commerce, suffer long and severe want, before they would consent to change their diet; and the effect of such checks would be felt rather in the retardation of the population, than in the adoption of an inferior kind of food, or a different standard of comfort.

With regard to the population of Ireland, it is quite evident that it cannot continue permanently to increase as it does at prefent; but it can only be retarded, either by the operation of the two caufes before mentioned, which will give the labourer a fmaller command over the means of fubfiftence, or by such an elevation in the character and condition of the lower claffes of fociety, as will make them look forwards to other comforts befide the mere fupport of their families upon potatoes. When we confider the actual fituation of the poor in Ireland, notwithstanding fuch an increase in the funds for the maintenance of labour, as would, if they did not consist of the lowest kind of food, produce general profperity, we cannot but contemplate with difmay the flackening of the increase of these funds, if aggravated poverty alone be left to effect the neceffary retardation of the population. We must furely hope, that the cause last noticed will cooperate in producing this retardation, and, by the introduction of more prudential habits, alleviate the fevere diftrefs which will otherwife be unavoidable. But if we allow ourselves to indulge a hope of this kind, it is quite clear, that the first step towards its accomplishment must be the full and complete emancipation of the Catholics, as the radical caufe of the prefent moral and political degradation of the mafs of the Irish poor.

We are difpofed to agree very nearly with the author of the Sketch of the State of Ireland, Paft and Prefent, in what he calls the fprings of his country's misfortune, which he thus enumerates. 1. The ignorance. 2. The poverty. 3. The political debasement of the inferior orders. 4. The Catholic code. 5. The provinciality of the government. But we by no means agree with him in the relative importance which he appears to attach to each, nor in the order in which he propofes to remove them. We fhould without hesitation fay, of these five caufes of Irifh mifery, that the Catholic code, and the provinciality of the government, had produced the political debasement of the inferior orders; and that this political debasement had been the chief inftrument in producing the peculiar ignorance and poverty of the lower claffes of the Irish. If this be true, and we conceive that it can scarcely admit of a doubt, nothing can be more abfurd than what the Z 2 author

author of the Sketch afferts as his mature opinion, that without the removal of the other caufes which he has named, Catholic emancipation would not tranquillize the country; but that they without it would. To begin with the ignorance and poverty, is manifeftly to begin at the wrong end, and to labour in vain. However ardently we may wish to fpread the advantages of edu cation among the Irish poor, we cannot rationally expect the fuccefs of any general fyftem of inftruction, while the prefent civil and religious animofities remain unallayed, by the continuance of the Catholic code. The poverty of the Irifh, as we have before obferved, is an evil, the direct removal of which is not in the power of the Legiflature; and if it be true, as our author ftates, that the competitors for land offer the whole value of the produce minus their daily potatoe, there is clearly no other remedy than the removal of that state of moral and political degradation which makes them fatisfied with fo fcanty a refervation. The only poffible relief, then, that can be applied to the poverty of Ireland, is the abolition of the Catholic code, and the improvement of the government. In looking to the third caufe here ftated of the misfortunes of Ireland, the political debasement of the inferior orders, we are immediately directed to the fame quarter for its removal; fo that wherever we begin, or to whatever grievance we turn our eyes, the Catholic code, and the provinciality of the government, invariably prefent themselves as the primary and radical caufes of the mifchiefs we deplore; and without the removal of these causes, it is quite certain that no efforts of the Legiflature can effentially relieve the misfortunes of Ireland, nor make it contribute to the strength of the empire, in proportion to its magnitude, its fertility, and its population.

We have left ourselves no room to notice further the Sketch of the State of Ireland.' It contains a few juft, and many ftriking obfervations, and a defcription and character certainly highly picturesque and impreffive, of the Irish peafantry; but it is written in fo antithetical and fantastic a ftyle, and truth and confistency are fo frequently facrificed to brilliancy of language, or an affectation of candour and impartiality, that it poffeffes very little merit as a whole.

Though we difapprove of fome parts of Mr Dudley's pamphlet, we most certainly with him fuccefs in his main object. We are inclined, however, to think with the author of the Sketch, that a poundage upon rents would, on the whole, be a lefs difficult and objectionable commutation for tithes than the purchase of land.

Mr Newenham's work, we are difpofed to recommend for a quality which we always confider as very valuable,-that of containing the best information to be found on an interesting subject

little known. His reafonings and conclufions, it must be confeffed, do not always fhow a thorough acquaintance with the general principles of his subject; and with regard to facts, much is still wanting to give us a full view of the tate of population in Ireland; but, confidering the difficulty of getting information of this kind in the peculiar circumftances of the country, we really think that the industry and exertions of Mr Newenham have been crowned with a fair portion of fuccefs; and we owe him fome apology for not having noticed his work before.

ART. V. The History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade. By T. Clarkson, M. A. 2 vol. 8vo. pp. 1060. London.

1808.

T HERE are works of fo much moral worth, that it would imply a deadness of feeling in the critic, if, in reviewing them, he did not abate some part of his wonted attention to the minutiae of ftyle or arrangement. That which a deep fenfe of the importance of his fubject had withheld from the author's notice during the compofition, fhould gain only a fubordinate degree of attention from the reader. Not unfrequently, indeed, the ftyle itself will become more noble and affecting on the whole, in confequence of this neglect of rhetorical accuracy. There are beauties of style, which, like night-violets fend forth their odours, themselves unnoticed; the traveller receives the gentle refreshment as he hurries on, without knowing or asking whence it proceeds.

In this class, we do think, that the prefent publication may be included, if any work might dare to advance fuch claims. It contains the hiftory of the rife and progrefs of an evil the most pernicious, if only because the most criminal, that ever degraded human nature. The hiftory of a war of more than two centuries, waged by men against human nature; a war too carried on, not by ignorance and barbarifm against knowledge and civilization; not by half-famished multitudes against a race bleffed with all the arts of life, and foftened and effeminated by luxury; but, as fome ftrange nondefcript in iniquity, waged by unprovoked ftrength against uninjuring helpleffness, and with all the powers which long pe-. riods of fecurity and equal law had enabled the affailants to develop, in order to make barbarifm more barbarous, and to add to the want of political freedom the most dreadful and debafing perfonal fuffering. Thus, all the effects and influences of freedom were employed to enflave; the gifts of knowledge to prevent the poflibility of illumination; and powers, which could not have exifted but in confequence of morality and religion, to perpetuate

Z 3

the

« PreviousContinue »