the system of tithes in that country should be extinguished, not in name only, but in substance and unequivocally." The country at large continued its passive resistance to the levying of tithe. It was in truth the only resource left for its adoption. When the institutions of a country do not leave in the hands of the people a sufficient control over their (nominal) representatives, and, through them, over the executive, the people's wisest plan, when aggrieved, ever is, by such a passive resistance as the Irish have offered to the collection of tithes, to weary out its oppressors. Now, the institutions of Ireland have hitherto given no such power to the people. Under the old system of elections, it would be mockery to speak of their control over members of Parliament. Under the new, their effective control over the British Parliament is, in the very question at issue, and perhaps in that alone, still doubtful. When the incorporating union of England and Scotland was effected, that church to which the majority of each nation belonged, was in each recognized as the established church, and its safety was secured by the articles of union. When the incorporation of Great Britain and Ireland took place, the effect was to bolster up the weakness of the established church, by merging its opponents in the more numerous British Parliament. By this means even Catholic Emancipation, when at last it was tardily granted, failed to give due weight to the adherents of that church. It is possible that, even in a reformed Parliament, the parti sans of the English, or, more properly, the enemies of the Romish Church, may be numerous enough to frustrate the efforts of the friends of Ireland; and the suspicion which this fact is calculated to awaken in an Irish breast must be confirmed by the evident wish of Government to truckle to the present Establishment. Ireland's hold upon the legislature is feeble enough; but her relation to the executive is absolutely and unequivocally servile. By an act* passed in the forty-seventh year of the reign of George III., modified and continued by several subsequent acts,† all "improper persons" in Ireland are forbid to retain arms in their possession. By "improper persons" are meant all who have not, after making affidavit of the number and description of the arms in their possession, and of their belief that they are entitled to keep arms, obtained a license at Quarter-Sessions, and been registered in the books of their respective baronies: and also all persons who may at one time have been thus registered and licensed, but who have changed their place of residence without renewing their application. These licenses may be withdrawn by the bench of justices at any sessions, or adjourned sessions, without any cause being assigned; and all arms must be delivered up by the parties from whom the licenses have been withdrawn, within forty-eight hours after notification. Any justice of the peace may grant warrant to search the house of unlicensed persons, suspected to have arms in their possession; and the bearers of the warrant, if refused admisssion, or not admitted" within a reasonable time," may force an entry. All offenders against this law are liable to have their arms seized; and to be condemned to pay a fine of £10, or be imprisoned two months for the first offence, to pay £20, or remain in prison four months, for the second. By the same act, all blacksmiths whatever are prohibited to exercise their profession without taking out a license and registering themselves * 47 Geo. III. sec. 2, c. 54. + 50 Geo. III. c. 109; 4 Geo. IV. c. 14; 10 Geo. IV. c. 47. The words of the act, in the manner above described. It is declared that every blacksmith act" Such were the provisions made for disarming and keeping down the people by Castlereagh and Wellington; and these iniquitous regulations have been continued by an act introduced by the reforming ministry towards the close of last session, and hurried through both Houses of Parliament with a haste that contrasts strangely with the usual snail-pace of their legislative proceedings. On the back of this, they have clapped an to restrain, in certain cases, party processions in Ireland," which declares all processions for the purpose of celebrating or commemorating any event connected with religious distinctions, unlawful assemblies, and the persons present guilty of a misdemeanour. The same rulers maintain in Ireland a regular army of twenty-five thousand men, an orange yeomanry upwards of thirty thousand strong, and an armed police of some seven thousand men. It is necessary to keep all the facts here recapitulated in view, in order to appreciate at their full value, the inuendoes of the Chancellor and his Lieutenant. The Irish nation, after more than a century of unexampled suffering, venture to remonstrate against a burden hateful alike in the eyes of God and man. They shew that if relief be not granted them, they can quietly slip it off their shoulders; and the first step of those whose duty it is to guard and maintain their rights, is to 1 and 2 W. IV. c. 47. strap it more tightly on. Aware of their weakness, and the overwhelming force that may be arrayed against them, they oppose a passive resistance, a resistance entirely within the limits of the law. It is true that a conspiracy to defeat the law is punishable, but that conspiracy must be proved-legally proved. Now, under these circumstances, what is the language held by our rulers. "You have been oppressed, and we are going to rivet your chains. You are weak and disarmed, we are powerful and armed cap-d-pie. It is in vain for you to remain quiet. We will declare your stillness contumacy. We will declare your crowded meetings illegal. We will suspend your habeas corpus act, and then you are at our mercy." What is this, but to force men into rebellion whether they will or not, in order to obtain a pretext for punishing them? In the title of this paper, we have alluded to the persecution of the Presbyterians under the last Stuarts. The parallel betwixt their case and that of the Irish Catholics in our day is complete. In Scotland, as in Ireland, the quarrel between the Government and the people originated in an attempt on the part of the former to maintain a church establishment which the latter believed to be unwarranted by divine truth. The justice or injustice of that church's claims to belief and obedience is not here the question. The oppression consisted in violating the freedom of men's minds, by enforcing an external submission to an authority not essential to the preservation of the public peace, and against which the inner man revolted. In Scotland as in Ireland, the measure adopted by the people was not resistance, but merely allowing the law to take its way. They did not conform, but they allowed the penalties to be exacted. The very same methods which have been taken by Ministers to weaken the hands of the people and to strengthen those of Government in Ireland, were adopted by the counsellors of Charles Stuart. In the sum.. mer of 1655, orders were issued for seizing arms in the southern counties of Scotland. On the 25th of March, 1667, a royal proclamation ordered all the arms, gunpowder and ammunition, (except the walking swords of gentlemen) in the southern and western counties, to be delivered up at certain central places; empowering the sheriffs to fine all persons who did not obey. So close is the resemblance between this ordinance and the Irish gunpowder act, that imported arms and ammunition are directly pointed at. On the 2d of April, 1661, the king's life-guard was formed; the first instance of a standing army in Scotland. In the month of May, 1678, measures were taken for raising additional troops; and, shortly afterwards, a packed Parliament made a grant to the King for their maintenance. In December of the same year, the final arrangements were made for organizing a militia of horse and foot; and to complete the parallel between these forces and the Orange yeomanry, it is evident, from the letters of the Privy Council, when preparing to suppress the rising which terminated at Bothwell Bridge, that the rulers dared not call out and arm the regular constitutional horse militia, but only the wealthier heritors of those counties where prelacy had some hold. The cess granted in the year 1678, was a tax imposed for the support of Episcopacy, and was met by the Scots exactly as the Irish now meet the imposition of tithes. One stroke, and our picture is complete. The Privy Council, finding that neither the violation of the subject's constitutional rights, nor the irritating frequency of search-warrants could sting the people to rebellion, began to attach the penalties of that crime to passive non-conformity; and in their proclamations, declared the act of meeting out of doors, although solely for the purpose of public worship, seditious, and rebellious. This last drop made the cup overflow. The people crowded together for defence and redress; and their lordly oppressors, triumphing in the success of their machinations, cut them down, and rode jollily rough-shod over them. To this parallel, we earnestly intreat the attention of his Majesty's Ministers. We know that they would repel with scorn the imputation of wishing to oppress the people, or tyrannize over conscience: but we cannot look to Ireland without feeling convinced that they are pertinaciously doing both. We know how far human passion can blind men, once drawn within the vortex of a system, to the character of their own acts. We know that Nathan's "Thou art the man," is the only appeal that can awaken men from the flattering delusion of passion, set upon the attainment of a desired object. And therefore we adjure Lord Grey and his colleagues, by their love of their country's peace and power, by their regard for their own fair fame, when they have looked at the hideous image of Episcopalian tyranny in Scotland, long enough to feel their minds filled with loathing and detestation, to turn their gaze inwards, and scrutinize their own conduct in Ireland. We know what their answer will be. Like the rest of mankind, when convicted of having done wrong, they will have recourse to palliatives, and seek to sin on. They will say that the oppression of Ireland by others has so maddened the people, that it is dangerous to let them loose. They will point to the outrages of Whitefeet and Blackfeet. They will hint at the Catholic's desire to ride in turn on the necks of his oppressors. Again do we point to Scottish history, and bid them read the present in the past. The pretensions of the Catholic church to control the civil power were never one whit more extravagant than those of the General Assembly in its high and palmy state in 1640; yet has it trampled upon the rights of citizens since its restoration in 1688? Even the Whiteboy outrages are not without a parallel in the history of the times of our persecution.* The explanation of this is to be found in Fletcher's statement of the numbers of idle, houseless desperadoes then to be found in Scotland. Those who resisted the government for righteousness sake, and those who were enemies to all law, had no nearer connexion than that of inhabiting the same country. If the peasantry learned to look with a tolerant eye on plunder and outrage, it was the fault of that Government which classed in one category of crime, and pursued with equal relentlessness, the most virtuous and the most vicious of mankind. When the night of storm and confusion passed away, when law again asserted its supremacy, and patriotism was no longer classed with murder and robbery, the natural healthy moral sense of our peasantry revived. And so will it be in Ireland. Place the Irish Catholic on a footing with the rest of his Christian brethren. The day is passed when priests of any creed could make men tools of their ambition. Give Ireland just laws, give her sons their native and due rights, and all will soon grow worthy of them. In the character, not of partisans or flatterers, but of real friends, we again demand the attention of ministers to these considerations. There was a time when men (falsely we believe, but still plausibly,) might speak of insinuating first one amendment and then another, until Vide Wodrow, folio edition, 1772, p. 25, "Murder of two soldiers at Newmills"and same author, passim for robberies and outrages upon the curates. a political principle was insensibly established. When the power was in the hands of freedom's enemies, there might be some sense in seeking to steal a march upon them. These days are gone Whoever holds power in future, must do so by an open avowal of his principles, and by acting up to them as closely as he may. Personal affection and esteem may conciliate a small band of adherents; but the profession and enforcement of those principles to which the mass of the people are attached, can alone secure national confidence and esteem. That mystery which is the strength of the despot, is the weakness of a free government. Its implement is the will of the people; and that works freely only where there is perfect confidence. To the present ministers, doubt is weakness and timidity is destruction. In the enchanted hall, of the poet, "Be bold" was the legend of ninety-nine doors, "Be not too bold," only that of the hundredth, It is no ordinary stake for which we now play it is the loss or preservation of Ireland. We confess that the maintenance of an incorporating union seems to us desirable. Ireland has capabilities, and England has capital. The counties of Down and Meath are the bleaching fields of Manchester; Queen's County and Kildare, the provision grounds of Liverpool. By the aid of steam, the two islands are virtually made one. Where the local situation is so close, and society so intertwined by mutual employment and services, one government and one law is an advan tage of no ordinary nature. If Ireland separate from us, our fleets must walk the waters comparatively crippled. But it is the feeling of a community of interests alone that ought to retain the Irish people united to Britain. If this feeling do not exist, the maintenance of the Union will only weaken and destroy the happiness of both. One step on the part of Ministers will determine this eventful question. Their faltering in their grand scheme for settling the tithe question towards the close of last session gives us hopes; but the language of Brougham and Anglesea is of evil augury. The welfare, the might of Britain depends upon their resolution. If they choose amiss, a more mortifying character with posterity than even that of tyrants awaits them. They will be spoken of as men who rashly grappled with a task to which both their want of knowledge and weakness of character rendered them inadequate. Their pigmy stature and their worthlessness will contrast ludicrously with the magnitude and importance of the events, among which they are mixed up. They will be the flies in amber, the Tom Thumbs of history. PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. In these unpoetical times one is forced to fall back upon the outpourings of the first five-and-twenty years of the century. That was the age of poetry. The clear stream rushed out, gurgling and sparkling, now in tiny jets, now in a broad impetuous flood, now calm and majestic, anon rippling and fantastic, now murmuring like a rill which "to hide its chilly bubbles in the grass." Every day almost brought forth a new poem, and the greedy public gobbled it down, and looked agape for the next. Scott pleased us with his clear fresh pictures of hill and dale, his easy jingle, his interesting adventures, and his heroes, the faint shadows of those forms which were to become pal. runs |