view. But when an exclusively Irish bill is sought to be carried by dint of English votes through the House of Commons, against the indignant protest of two thirds of Ireland's representatives, and in defiance of the declared will of five sixths of her people, who can find one word wherewith to answer the oft-reiterated allegation, that Ireland has not justice done her in the United parliament. These are not idle words of vague or un- | similar conditions of society, but we should shapen fear. The position of Ireland is never read the division lists with a severing daily growing more and more imperative, in its demand upon the intelligent attention of Englishmen. Those wonderful facilities of intercourse, which superficial observers only regard as so many easings of the load of national responsibility, as so many excuses for doing nothing effectual, by way of legislative amends for the past, or for aiding amelioration in its cross channel way,-have in truth created in the minds of all reflecting men, an urgency hitherto unfelt, save as a sentiment for securing to Ireland, speedily and permanently, the solid benefits of reform. Ireland's tranquillity and wellbeing has become emphatically an English question, beyond comparison the most important English question of the day. A destitute, excitable, daring, and numerically powerful people are brought to their very doors; a people taught, and unhappily with too much truth, to ascribe their misery to the consequences of England's misgoverning folly and jealousy of them; a people full of ambition to be better, rapidly growing in educated intelligence, and yet, from a variety of intricate causes, led and influenced by passionate feelings essentially different from those of Britain. Inconceivable as the infatuation of the Tories has been, in their rejection of soothing measures and their attempt to enforce injurious ones, the tone they have assumed both in speech and writing seems to'us more utterly insane. They appear to be just sufficiently aware of Ireland's feelings, to know how to offend them most thoroughly. They know that the great majority of her children are devoted to the ancient mode of faith, and they therefore omit no opportunity of lampooning and traducing it. They know that the people are with reason attached to that extraordinary man, whose career is identified with their history during the last five and twenty years, and they depute their nobility and clergy, to treat him publicly with the grossest and most disgraceful personal insult. They know that a deep and enthusiastic feeling of country is bound up with the heart of our nation, and they employ the ablest pens and the most conspicuous occasions, to pour every epithet of scorn and re To such men as Lord Ellenborough it may be given to see, that in legislating for a discontented tributary, it is better to leave its nationality something to rally round, than to attempt to cut it down continually as often as it revives; but the mass of the Tory party seem bent at all hazards on provoking and perpetuating, as far as in them lies, hatred and distrust between the countries. Nevertheless we have seen within the last session of the imperial legislature, a spirit and demeanour evinced towards Ireland, whose results, if persevered in further, must inevitably mature in the Irish mind indelible and ineradicable sentiments of interna-proach upon our country and our race. tional hatred. Situated as the two islands are, it is utterly impossible to exasperate the population of the one against the other, without doing incalculable injury to the best interests of both. But the people of Ireland must cease to have the impulses of men, ere they can regard with any other sentiments than those of the bitterest resentment, the predominance in the councils of England of a disfranchising and denationalizing policy. But what is to be the end of all this? Ireland is jealous of her nationality; the Do they imagine the condition of Eurulers of England know this, and yet they rope such, as to render the desperate experispare no opportunity of wantonly wounding ment of a dragoon government in Ireland it. Ireland is jealous of the limited propor- promising? Is the fast improving intellition her representatives bear to those of Bri- gence and sobriety of our people, calculated tain; how can they argue that such jealousy to increase the belief of its possibility? is groundless, when even this, Lord Stanley Are the hourly multiplying means of interand his three hundred abettors threaten vir- course, and the continually advancing immitually to take away, by rendering it an abso-gration of Irish into England, likely to renlute mockery? Were Lord Stanley's measure a general one, or had it proposed to adopt an undiscriminating law of registration for the three kingdoms, we might argue against the equality of its bearing upon dis der a state of convulsion on this side of the channel matter of unconcern on the other? Or is the tone of popular feeling here so "hushed in dreams of bliss and sweet content," that no anxiety or care need be enter tained on its account? Verily we think it | no wise strange, that M. de Feuillide should be able to account for the present antagonism of parties, by no more subtle theory than that the Orangists or ultra tories are thoroughly insane. We distinguish between the followers of the Inglis and Buckingham standard, and those who on many points differ from them, less on account of the actual value of the differences already apparent, than because we are satisfied they spring from a dissimilarity of moral and intellectual nature. Upon the former, argument is and must ever be little better than thrown away. They have wrapped themselves round in a mantle of fanaticism, which pity cannot penetrate or sympathy unbind. Men whose notions of future happiness for themselves, is conditioned on the belief of the everlasting misery of those who differ from them, are unable to comprehend the claim which these prefer, for equal rights in this transitory sphere. But all, who for want of due reflection allow themselves to be denominated Tories, are neither in fact nor in pretence fanatics. They can feel, can think, can feel ashamed of what is shown them to be wrong, can upon occasion rise above the paltriness of partyism, and (as for instance on the Irish Municipal reform bill,) compel even the leaders of their party to do what is just. On such men, and on a numerous class among English reformers, whose energy is apt to grow indolent, from want of the requisite freshening that reflection alone can give, reasoning is not always thrown away. To these moreover must be added numbers of the various grades of society, in England, who have never espoused decidedly, either the cause of political improvement or retrogression. When the proportion which all these taken together bear to the entire community is duly estimated, it will not appear hyberbole to say-ye are the English nation; your danger or security is staked upon the prevalence of just principles of government here; your condition must be determined by yourselves; what, in so far as the peace and prosperity of Ireland is concerned,-is that condition? There are two ways of becoming acquainted with one's aspect and condition; either by beholding the picture that is drawn of us by another, or by looking in the glass of our own consciousness. The latter, if the mirror be an honest one, is doubtless the better of the two; but then it is as fleeting as the mood of contemplation; the humour of self enquiry must return ere we regain the image; and the warning of its being needful to look must be heard, before the ascertainment of the truth can begin. For this cause alone therefore, it is very useful and desirable, that, without our will or bidding, the likeness drawn of us by another should occasionally be held up to our view. It may flatter or unduly derogate perhaps; but if its lineaments sometimes break the perilous day dream of self-forgetfulness, and unasked remind us how and what we seem to be, surely it is appointed unto us for good. It is a fact of no little significance moreover, when various accounts, separately given and coming from hands in many respects dissimilar, accord in the main. Vanity must be strong indeed,-blind even as the night, which refuses to yield up its illusory satisfaction to testimony so corroborated. People on the other side of the channel are continually falling into this easy miuded state of vague and general belief, that as the condition of Ireland is in intellectual capacity improving, it is therefore needless to take much further thought about the matter. Foreigners visit Ireland, almost every year; and they narrate what they have heard and seen; but the last thing a continental reader would infer from their accounts, would be apathy or contented ignorance on the subject among Englishmen. And most assuredly it well behoves all thinking men in Britain, to know what our continental neighbours are thus learning (through channels wholly beyond their power to direct,) to think regarding the internal state of the united kingdoms. Far from resenting the curiosity of their neighbours, or attributing sinister motives for their exposés, they ought to rejoice, that they are thus likely to be forewarned of their neighbouring weakness and danger. The world is come to that condition, wherein observation can no longer be eluded. Such as we are, we must be publicly proclaimed to be. Debility cannot be paraded on state days, to look like strength in the eyes of a foreign ambassador; for one official spy of foreign governments, there are a hundred unofficial spies of foreign nations. The people of other countries have now their envoys, to gather them information :-has England a sense of self regard or shame, and shall she feel insensible to what notions foreign countries are thus learning to form, regarding Ireland ? We are not about to enter into any detailed analysis of the work of M. de Feuillide. It is in every point of view inferior to that, which has already become so well known, from the pen of M. de Beaumont. But from its ad captandum style, | hatred of the Irish people to the principles and its piquant adoption of local and na- of that system, is reasonable and reasoned; tional phrases, which are given in English it is derived from examination and reflecinstead of being attempted in a French tion; it is maintained by comparison of the translation, it is probable that many will evils that once were, with the condition of read with eagerness and interest, the things which has more lately been. Ireetchings of the more superficial observer, land's hatred of Toryism is instinctive,— and will form their notions of Ireland as instinctive as her love of justice. There's thereby, who would have failed to go not a wound still bleeding in her frame,through the more philosophic inductions of there's not a weakness still humbling and the abler and more accomplished statistician. degrading her, there's not a memory or The leading features, however, in the two fear of evil haunting her, wherewith the portraitures are unhappily but too coinci- the curse of Toryism is not intuitively assodent with one another, and too true to fact. ciated. They saw in England the corruptIt were easy to point out inaccuracies in ing hand, but they never felt the heel. both, and to raise, were that our object, They knew the guile, but they never knew plausible doubts as to the value of testi- the insolence of power. They knew that mony so invalidated: but we are in no they were swindled annually to a large humour for carping at trifles, just now. amount; but they were not left upon the The matter is too serious for special road side as we were, naked and wounded. pleading on; too solemn to be handled as Their pride was sometimes piqued at the a mere topic of literary criticism. Ireland, rattling of the scabbard; but in Ireland for after forty years of legislative union, is many a dreadful year, the scabbard was held up to the eyes of Europe as a reproach empty. Nothing but time "the great forto Great Britain; and the slumbering giver," could have anealed these terrible jealousy of rivals and of enemies is told, recollections; and had Toryism been that in Ireland there is still a depth of susceptible of tuition, the sight of the poverty and discontent, which though at utter wreck it had made of a noble land, present tranquil and gradually subsiding and the gradual improvement already from off the face of our beautiful land, wrought therein under many disadvantages, is yet sufficient, if roused and agitated by an opposite system to that it had pursued, again, to damage if not to peril the pros- ought to have taught it. But toryism is perity of England herself. And unhappily untaught and unteachable; its own madness there is too much ground for such a tale. and threatenings within the last twelve Great improvements have taken place of months declare, that if Ireland is to be recent years, undoubtedly; perhaps we spared till she recover her strength, her ought rather say, that the way has been deadly foe must at all hazards be withheld distinctly shown, how great improvement from being again unleashed against her. may hereafter be effected. The distrust of the mass of the people if not wholly flung aside by the government, has been less odiously bespoken, and often disavowed. Popular distrust has in its turn been ready and credulous whenever it had any thing like cause. The press has in no instance been prosecuted or menaced by the government; and cordial aid has been given to the executive, by all creeds and classes, in the prosecution of real offenders. Upon the permanent establishment of this mutual confidence between the governors and the governed, all hope of political amelioration must depend; without it all other expedients failed in times past; with its suspension all that the last six years have begun to accomplish, will be uprooted and over turned also. Uprooted it must nevertheless be, if by any unfortunate event a Tory government should assume the reins of power. The The one incontrovertible and damning fact, that all foreigners attest, and justly charge against the misgovernment of Ireland by England is, that, with unbounded natural resources of wealth and elements of greatness, the country is still in an economical condition utterly disgraceful to any European state. England boasts of her enlightenment, her progress, her new developments of amelioration; she says, and not untruly, that Rome in her best estate never knew such a general temper of civilization, as they not only have long been enjoying in Great Britain, but by its example have taught other nations enjoy. Yet assuredly Rome would have burned with shame, had any province subject to her remotest proconsular sway, been found after many generations in the plight which Toryism has left Ireland in. How much stronger is the contrast, when we recollect that the two kingdoms have for nearly forty years, been more absolutely incorporated, than the free cities of Italy ever were. Rome made great and ample compensation for the homage of supremacy she exacted; as far as Ireland is concerned, England has made absolutely none; and as far as Toryism is engaged by the consistency, the obstinacy, the bigotry, and the tyranny of its nature, we are to be denied the smallest particle of tardy retribution. One example may suffice. It is well known that, with every willingness to work, the mass of the Irish labouring classes cannot obtain employment during a great portion of the year. It was made if possible more obvious than ever, by the reports of the Poor Enquiry Commissioners in 1835 and 1836, that an abundance of useful work might be created for the ablebodied population, during the intervals of their agricultural labour; work which from its nature, must infallibly open up hitherto unbroken national resources, and thus permanently promote the general improvement of the country. One item of this sort, whose effects upon general production admitted of no dispute, was a connected system of railways. The cost of their construction, though great, the people were willing and ready to bear. The aristocracy, though upon other subjects misled by their old allies into believing, that their interests differed from those of the great body of their countrymen, in this instance acted blamelessly. They united with men, whom all their lives they had been arrayed against in party conflict; they offered their lands gratuitously to government, in many instances to a very great extent; thereby exhibiting a striking contrast to the sordid and grasping conspiracies, that in every part of England the great landed proprietors unblushingly entered into, to mulet public enterprize for their own selfish benefit. Even the clergy of various sects and creeds, whom it is proverbially difficult to combine in Irelann upon any public purpose, zealously joined with the gentry and the mercantile classes in preferring our unanimous solicitation to parliament, for leave to make railroads in our own country at our own expense. To the disgrace, the indelible disgrace of the united legislature be it said, the opposition of English members was so powerful, that the government were compelled to abandon the scheme. Of course there was a pretext found other than the real one, for this miserable act of despotic and ungenerous wrong. Ireland having been long despoiled, and crushed for centuries, does not possess private capital adequate to the construction of vast works such as they have in England. But did we ask her to give us the money? Not a farthing; all we prayed was, that having no power or separate authority to contract loans on our own separate account, a sum sufficient to make a portion of those improved ways of transit we desired, might be raised in the name of the international firm, and secured directly and primarily upon our own county rates, which we offered to mortgage for the purpose. We offered further, that these rates should not merely be liable to the payment of the interest on the principal sum thus advanced, but that through them, the entire loan with interest should be raised, and paid off within a given time in annual instalments, by virtue of the act of parliament which should authorize the loan, and without any reference or discretion whatsoever being reserved to the local taxing bodies. The rates so offered in mortgage, yield upwards of £1,250,000 a year; and the entire sum proposed to be raised was but £2,500,000. Paltry and limited as this was, it was too great a risk of imperial credit in the estimation of that party, who in the space of twelve years added three hundred millions to the national debt. But the motive for both acts, however opposite, was the same. Liberty is dear to Ireland; and her amelioration, and redemption from beggary and need, would add a new fortress to the western lines of European freedom. Toryism trembles at Ireland's thus gaining a firm and assured footing; her position, her bravery, her enthusiastic temperament, her generous sympathy in every cause of enlightenment are too well understood, not to be feared and abhorred by all whose dominion they withstand. Therefore has Ireland been kept down hitherto; therefore have all the palliative designs of the Whigs been thwarted and delayed; therefore was every engine of calumny and fanaticism brought into play against church reform, against the purification of the municipal bodies, and, with more uncloaked hatred and malignity than all, against the continuance of leniency in the administration of justice, and freedom in the return of representatives to parliament. Yet never was impolicy more shortsighted, and, as the event may one day prove, more suicidal, than that which decrees physical barbarism to a great and growing people,a people already far beyond the power of bigotry and despotism to stop in their steady progress towards intellectual and moral nationalization. The fruits of elementary education are already beginning rapidly to develope themselves. Eight years ago there was not a single literary periodical in existence in Ireland; at present there are four monthly, and two weekly journals published in Dublin alone; and all of them supported with spirit and ability.* Little more than eight years ago there were not a dozen volumes printed in Dublin in the course of the year; we are certainly within the mark, when we say that on an average there have been of late four times that number. Let this go on five years longer, and Ireland will be utterly ungovernable against her will. are thoroughly informed that the resources of other lands are not to be thus locked up and chained in idleness, to gratify the antiquated caprice or trembling selfishness of a foreign faction. Of a verity, it seems high time for England to look closely into this matter. Marred as many of the popular expectations in Ireland have been, by the perversity of those who negatively controul the will of the imperial legislature, the emollient of a just and merciful execution of the laws, during the last few years, has done much to turn away her often rising wrath. The people of Ireland have had evidence that the youthful sovereign of these realms desires to rule them, not as tributaries to her English subjects, but in all respects as the equals of their Eight years ago there was not a Mecha-wealthier brethren. Their temper has ever nics' Institute, from one end of the kingdom to the other; now there are several in full operation, and if that which has been established in the capital be a fair specimen, they are eminently calculated for efficient usefulness. It is impossible to estimate the value or the consequences of all these things combined. Ireland has already won a distinguished name in science; and literature and art are fast springing into life within the popular bosom. Cotemporaneously, also, we have seen the people of their own free will, associate themselves together to withstand the prevalence of immoral habits. As far as in them lies, they are going forth to meet improvement, and planting civilization in every corner of society. The legislature alone holds out against their efforts, whenever toryism can avail to thwart and mar; and having the keys of authority in its hands, and the strings of the partnership purse, it declares by word and deed, that as it cannot prevent moral and intellectual progress, it will at least frustrate all physical improvement. Wise and philosophic resolution! And yet it may one day occur even to the bull-headedness of toryism, that if it was hard to govern a people equi-barbarized with their country, it will be utterly impossible to rule a people self-civilised, in a country kept by force in a state of stagnation. The multitude groaned in blind misery before, and it took all the hands of toryism to hold them down; in mercy to itself will toryism only imagine what the struggle will be by-and-bye, when the million eyes are open, and the million wills are frec, and the million intellects The University Magazine, the Dublin Medical Journal, the Farmer's Magazine, and the Citizen, published monthly; the Catholic Luminary twice in the month; and the Medical Press, and Irish Penny Journal which appear weekly. been a loyal and confiding one; and save among the disbanded mercenaries of an illconditioned faction, the mention of the Queen's name has, since her accession, been a rallying word in Ireland of peace, and hope, and oblivion of injuries. But a constitutional monarch, however noble-minded and faithful to her exalted trust, can only be seen through her advisers. While these are identified with the furtherance of the people's wishes even though they stand not in the foremost rank of those who battle in defence of their just rights,-in vindication of their traduced and slandered name, all the goodness of majesty is permitted to reach the people, there is no perverting or discolouring medium interposed between the nation's eyes and royalty. But let these counsellors be removed, let a bigotted and hungry party force their way to power, let them prostitute the influence of government for six months to the acquisition of an orange majority in parliament, and all the worth and virtue of the queenly heart will be intercepted e'er they leave the palace gate. Ireland they will reach no more. Mercy will be shut out, as in the good old days of decimating ascendency; and the reciprocity of kindliness and forgiveness, that was already taking root in the long suffering many towards the guilty few, will wither in the first blast of misrule. Toryism that creed and liturgy of injustice, which trampled the Netherlanders into union among themselves, and then into rebellion, can alone combine and alienate the affections of the Irish people. Toryism the brand that lit the thirty years' war-fire in Germany-the curse that drew down the fury of revolution upon France in 1789,that rent America from England, and Belgium from Holland-Toryism is ready to hazard any thing and every thing in the at |