evil. Measures ought to be taken for compelling Irish landowners to live as much on their estates as British ones do. It is unpardonable that they enjoy an exclusive exemption from serving their country as magistrates, &c., when such baleful injury flows from it. On the utility of establishing poor-laws, facilitating the draining of bogs, and assisting emigration, we need not enlarge. The cry of open treason and rebellion is at last heard, and a systematic, unremitting struggle for producing civil war and dismemberment, is at last seen in the heart of the United Kingdom. This is the case, when England has made it almost a part of the law of nations, that whenever any portion of an empire rebels against its government, foreign powers have a right to interfere and make it independent. That England,which assisted to dismember the Spanish empire, the Turkish empire, and the kingdom of the Netherlands, which is even now calling for the separation of Poland from Russia, and which has been so long teaching revolution to continental nations, has now a vast integral part of her dominions labouring to divide itself from her and gain independence. If war break out in Ireland, what will be done by other countries? Will America send no arms and money? Will France send no troops, and abstain from interference? Will the free Belgians afford no succour? Let England be assured, her example will be imitated, and the first blow of the Irish rebel will be powerfully supported by a host of foreign negotiators and enemies. Never did she act with such incredible imbecility as she has just done touching the Belgians; the latter had no better pretext for demanding independence than the Irish have; and in their case she has established a precedent which will justify foreign nations in dismembering her on the first appearance of Irish or colonial rebellion. Of course, it is of vital consequence to remove every thing calculated to lead to insurrection and rebellion in Ireland. It is very evident that, if the Repeal Question be tolerated, it will be constantly used to fill the people with hatred of Britain, and incite them to struggle for independence it will keep them in readiness to be come rebels at the first favourable Let it not be imagined that this Repeal Question will gain no advocates in the better classes. A considerable part of the press, even in Britain, will soon support it. The leading men of Ireland, as the history of the Catholic Question proves, are remarkable for any thing rather than consistency; and those who have seats in the House of Commons to dispose of will soon make converts amidst them. The next election will send into the House a strong body of Irish repealers, and it may be safely assumed that they will be supported by the Humes and Huntsthe low British party. After this election, the House of Commons will constantly contain a large party favourable to the Repeal, and its effects on the press and the community at large may be easily divined. It is clear to all that the Repeal is not advocated from upright and patriotic motives-that the traitors, both lay and priestly, are actuated by the very worst feelings of malice, revenge, cupidity, and tyranny; and seek to sacrifice Ireland, as well as Britain, to these feelings. It is equally clear to all, that the agitation of the Question must constantly have the most baleful effects on all the best interests of Ireland as well as England, and that its success would have the same. The traitors demonstrate that their real object is Irish independence; and other bad feelings, of the Catho the Question is therefore manifestly highly seditious and treasonable. It irresistibly follows that the advocacy of the Repeal should in all forms be rigidly prohibited by law, and that Government should at once bring forward the law, and especially before the dissolution of the existing Parliament. This would be far more efficacious than the power at present exercised by Government of suppressing public meetings; it would reach the press and public speeches, no matter how delivered. Government ought to possess the power we have named for at least a certain number of years longer. Effective measures ought to be resorted to for keeping the control of elections from the demagogues and priests. This is not more necessary in other respects than it is to prevent Irish members from being the bane of their country. The law for prohibiting the Repeal from being discussed and advocated would be here highly serviceable. Laws of limited duration for disabling itinerant candidates-restricting the demagogues from taking part in any election save that of the place or county in which they regularly dwell,-and prohibit ing the priests from interfering with and appearing at elections, are called for. All factious clubs and associations for influencing elections should be suppressed; so long as the demagogues and priests retain their election power, Ireland will be disaffected, convulsed, and in danger of rebellion. The Repeal treason is a Catholic matter, got up for the exclusive benefit of Catholicism. This religion is now taking a character which ought to array every government against it. It was the great cause of the French and Belgic revolutions, and it is strenuously labouring to dismember the British empire. It is furnishing ample demonstration, that the destruction of its overpowering ascendency is essential for giving the empire peace and security. On the score of self-preservation, the duty rests on Government, of exerting it self to create what we have repeatedly advocated a balance of Protestants in the Catholic parts of Ireland. This would not only neutralize the power, but soften the bigotry, lics. The Protestant Colonisation Society, judging from what we read in the public prints, seems admirably calculated for promoting it; therefore we strongly recommend it to the support of every friend of Ireland and the empire. If the labours of this society be successful-and we are sure they will if properly conducted-its example ought to be in a certain degree followed by Government. It would be politic and unexceptionable for the latter to establish in the Catholic parts, on the unproductive land, colonies composed of equal numbers of Protestants and Catholics, and bound, in regard to both religions, to proper conduct. Amidst other things, this might be made a valuable means of diffusing agricultural knowledge. The bodies of Protestants thus formed could be easily enlarged by the landowners and clergy. And once more we say, the Church ought to be put into the most efficient state possible. We now ask, who does the Church plant on her land? She has the means of placing in every parish a clergyman and a few Protestant laymen. If a new distribution of her property be on the eve of being made, we trust that, in Ireland, the most important point will be attended to, of making it a means for creating a Protestant flock, however small, in every parish. Every landowner, in a comparatively short space of time, could have on his estate a due proportion of Protestants; he could give to himself tenants on whose votes he could depend, to the Church a flock, to the crown loyal subjects, and to the empire security against treason and dismemberment. The conduct of the landowners is unpardonable. We devoutly wish, that both ruler and subject would lay aside their theories and prejudices, and examine this matter with the attention it deserves. If it must be so, let the past history of Catholicism be wholly forgotten, and its conduct of the present times be alone regarded. It has just attempted to destroy the free institutions of France, and the government has been compelled to cast it off in order to preserve them. It has just been a leading agent in revolutionizing and dividing the king dom of the Netherlands. We need not point to its acts in Spain and Portugal. At this hour, it is, without being able to plead a single grievance, labouring to involve Ireland in rebellion, for the purpose of tearing the empire to pieces. Conciliation has been tried, and found ruinous. This religion is at this moment proving, as strongly as it ever did prove, that it will not blend with others, or be other than the inveterate enemy of a Protestant government. It is as essential for the British Government, as for the French one, to use every means for reducing its power. The means which France has not, Britain possesses in abundance. The latter, through the clergy, church-lands, and landowners, could soon bring this power within due bounds, by establishing a balance of Protestants every where, without encroaching on the just rights of the Catholics. It must be done; all other means have been found fruitless: and the choice before Government is the comparatively trifling difficulties it would produce, or continued convulsion, and Irish rebellion, and the loss of Ireland. It is especially incumbent on the clergy to reflect deeply on this, because, from the feelings which prevail touching Church property, it is easy to see that they must either attach flocks to their property, or lose it it seems scarcely possible for them to preserve it in any other manner. Ministers might at least use influence and remonstrance with the landowners. The Treasury papers are urging that the Papist priests ought to be taken into the pay of the State; and we fear they are doing it at the bidding of their masters. What benefit could be drawn from such a measure? Their past declarations abundantly prove that the priests would not in return suffer the Government to interfere with their appointment and conduct; the measure has always been hateful to the mass of the disaffected laymen. Did State-payment in France and Belgium, Spain and Portugal, place the Catholic priesthood under the control of the civil ruler, and reconcile it with Protestantism and free institutions?With such payment the Irish priest would be as independent of the State, as hostile to the Church, and as anxious to retain his despotism as he now is. It would not improve in the least his spirit and objects; on the contrary, by making his flock jealous of him, it would incite him to still worse conduct. It would add to the disaffection and turbulence of the laymen, for the only part of them not hostile to it is now loyal and tranquil. If, therefore, Ministers propose the measure, we hope it will be firmly resisted. Let it not be forgotten that the priests are now in inany places kept under a certain degree of restraint by their dependence on wealthy Protestants; and that the partial loss of their flocks in person or favour would, to a considerable extent, annihilate them, and place them under Protestant influence. A State provision would destroy this restraint, and keep them in being and independence under any loss of followers short of the whole. It is essential for her own benefit that England should prevent the influx of Irish labourers, by providing employment for them at home, and enabling them to emigrate to the colonies. They pour into her on one side, and from this alone her own are compelled to pour out of her on another. It is a general and true remark amidst English labourers, that they are driven out of their own country by Irish ones. The latter do not come to spend their days in her, but they remain for a time, and then return, or are sent home with their feelings embittered against her; this operates greatly to feed the disaffection of the mass of the Irish people. They not only in their own persons cause an enormous portion of the lower orders in England to be disaffected; but by their coming to her, and the feelings they create, they form a prolific source of disaffection to the native English labourers. It is essential for English and Irish union and loyalty, that the labourers of the two countries should no longer be kept in continual conflict for subsistence. A great means here would be the establishment of poor-laws in Ireland. In our judgment, it would yield the latter incalculable benefit. It could scarcely fail of raising wa ges, the standard of living and consumption; and in proportion as it should do this, it would increase employment, trade, and manufactures. Property would reap more benefit from it on the one hand, than injury on the other. Ireland must remain comparatively destitute of domestic trade until her working classes are made consumers. Indigence and misery must be removed, or disloyalty and turbulence cannot. Not only are the people kept constantly in the former, but they are almost annually visited by famine. At this moment, it is said their supply of food will fail long before harvest. Without reference to any thing save peace and good feelings, it is a matter of State necessity that the law should furnish the labourer with subsistence in his hour of destitution. Both to govern and enrich Ireland, it is of the first consequence to raise the standard of living amidst her poorer inhabitants. We must bestow unqualified praise on the vigorous conduct of Government in preventing agitation. We trust it will be firmly adhered to. If wider powers be necessary, let them be without delay asked for and granted, especially such as may be requisite for reaching the leading traitors, lay and clerical. On the possession and vigilant exercise of the most ample powers by Government, depends, not only the integrity of the empire, but every thing dear to Ireland. Lawlessness and agitation must be sternly kept down, or Irish penury and wretchedness must continue and increase. Let every friend of Ireland bear in mind, that she can only gain capital, manufactures, subsistence, security of property, prosperity, and freedom itself, through the possession of almost boundless authority by Government. This extraordinary authority must, however, be of limited duration, and it must be distinctly understood that it exists to create the elements of freedom and peace; the exercise of it must be combined with incessant efforts to give society the form, feelings, and circumstances for rendering it unnecessary. Passing from subjects to rulers, they also must be restricted; an authority, jealous, severe, and sleepJess, must be exercised over them, or Ireland must be lost, and England must be plunged into ruin and tyranny by revolution. Not the Irish demagogues and priests-not the English radicals and revolutionists, but the Ministers and Legislators of the empire have been the great cause of placing Ireland and England in their present condition: they have created the means for enabling the demagogues and priests, radicals and revolutionists, to labour with effect. For the last fifteen years the Whigs and their publications have been regularly preaching up general revolution. Nations were to overthrow their governments, empires were to be dismembered, and colonies were to gain independence. If rebellion shewed itself in any quarter, it was lauded and encouraged in the most outrageous manner; it was vehemently called for where there was tranquillity. At home the choice was declared to be, compliance with Whig demands, or revolt and revolution; you must concede this and that to your colonies, or they will throw off your yoke-you must remove Catholic disabilities, or have an Irish rebellion-you must change laws and institutions, or have revolution! The same conduct is still exhibited. The Belgic and Polish revolutions, as well as the totally different one of France, are furiously applauded-revolution is loudly called for in Germany, Spain, and Italy and Ministers are labouring to produce it in Portugal. At this moment the Treasury papers are declaring that there must be reform in England, or revolution. The people of both Ireland and Britain have thus been familiarized with the idea of rebellion and revolution; they have been taught to love them as things of the first purity and worth in all cases, and to regard them as means to be resorted to for enforcing compliance with any claims they may think good to make. Those of Ireland especially have been led to deem their independence a sacred right, as well as the grand essential for bettering their condition. All this has produced the practical change in the law of nations, to which we have already referred. Under the grand principle of "non-intervention," Ministers intervene to give independence to the Belgians and Poles, and to stir up rebellion in Portugal; the principle, as it is practised, really means that the great powers shall form a kind of Holy Alliance, for intervening to make rebellion successful in every quarter. There must be a radical change here, or it will be idle to think of governing and retaining Ireland, or preventing revolution in England. If the continent is to be kept in convulsion, rebellion, and change of rulers, fomented and eulogised by the Cabinet, Legislature, and Press, think not that the United Kingdom will escape. If France is to be exalted into a general "Liberator"-a tyrant to stalk through the world for the purpose of establishing universal liberty, flatter not yourselves that she will overlook Ireland. Theoretic definitions, touching right and claim to revolution and independence, will be of no avail; the plea of tyranny urged by the Irish traitors will be held as good as that of the Belgians or Poles; the old French and Spanish Liberals proclaimed the English government to be a tyranny, and no small number of the inhabitants of England have long proclaimed the same. Whigs and Tories, Ministers and Legislators, must combine to teach the principles of peace, order, and obedience; they must convince the inhabitants of the United Kingdom, that changes are only to be sought by constitutional means, and for constitutional objects. The law of noninterference between ruler and subject, must be restored and firmly maintained; and instead of joining in a mad crusade to envelope the Continent in revolution and anarchy, every effort must be used to keep it in tranquillity and order. Let it never be forgotten, that England has as much cause to tremble at revolution as Austria, or any other power. In combination with this general revolutionary instruction, the people of Ireland have been regularly taught to ascribe every thing wrong in their condition to English tyranny and misgovernment. The old penal laws have been declaimed against, as matters wholly unprovoked. The Catholic disabilities, which in their origin had no reference to Ireland, and which were contended for by the English people from motives purely defen sive, have been railed against as things of persecution and oppression to Ireland. The Whigs-the Broughams and Plunketts-have constantly charged Irish suffering on the disabilities, and imputed the worst motives to those who defended them. Whig and Tory, Minister and Legislator, have incited the Irish people to regard England as a despotic oppressor, themselves as the most perfect of human beings, and their penury and misery as matters created solely by English rulers. Radical change must be made here. The Cabinet and Legislature must speak truth plainly, severely, and unreservedly to the people of Ireland: they must assure them, that if they proceed in destroying themselves, under the hope of having impossibilities performed for them by England, their hope will not be realized that they are the parents of their own sufferings-that they will have nothing beyond impartiality granted them-and that they must exert themselves, as the people of England and Scotland are compelled to do, or remain as they are. Who created the Catholic Association? In reality, the Whigs and Liberals. The atrocities of this body were connived at by the Irish Government, and defended by the Whig Opposition; Peers and Legislators made themselves its members, patrons, and protectors. The present English Lord Chancellor, and keeper of the King's conscience, placed it above the constitution and laws, and was its furious champion; the present Irish Chancellor lavished unmeasured panegyric on the Papist priests in the midst of their labours to produce crime, disaffection, and convulsion. Every thing was done by these men and their coadjutors calculated to make the Irish Catholics hate England and the Protestants, trample on the laws, and regard guilt, insubordination, and treason, as praiseworthy matters. Because Lords Brougham and Plunkett were supporters of the Catholic Question, they decided it ought to be advocated by crime and lawlessness; because they are hostile to the Repeal one, they decide it shall be put down by unsparing despotism. But their will is not law, and their opinion is not an infallible dog |