t subject; and that is, that at different periods, opposite systems have been tried in Ireland, and that invariably the system of concession and indulgence has been immediately followed by an ebullition of more than usual atrocity and violence. The first of these instances is the great indulgence shewed to them by James I. That monarch justly boast ed that Ireland was the scene of his beneficent legislation; and that he had done more to its inhabitants than all the monarchs who had sat on the English throne since the time of Henry II. He established the boroughs; gave them a right of sending representatives to Parliament; and first spread over its savage and unknown provinces the institutions and the liberties of England. What was the consequence ? Did the people testify gratitude to their benefactors? Did they prove themselves worthy of British freedom, and capable of withstanding the passions arising from a representative government? We shall give the answer in the words of Mr Hume. "The Irish, every where intermingled with the English, needed but a hint from their leaders and priests to begin hostilities against a people whom they hated on account of their religion, and envied for their riches and prosperity. The houses, cattle, goods, of the unwary English were first seized. Those who heard of the commotions in their neighbourhood, instead of deserting their habitations, and assembling for mutual protection, remained at home, in hopes of defending their property, and fell thus separately into the hands of their enemies. After rapacity had fully exerted itself, cruelty, and the most barbarous that ever, in any nation, was known or heard of, began its operations. A universal massacre commenced of the English, now defenceless, and passively resigned to their inhuman foes. No age, no sex, no condition, was spared. The wife weeping for her butchered husband, and embracing her helpless children, was pierced with them, and perished by the same stroke. The old, the young, the vigorous, the infirm, underwent a like fate, and were confounded in one common ruin. In vain did flight save from the first assault: destruction was every where let loose, and met the hunted victims at every turn. In vain was recourse had to relations, to companions, to friends: and connexions were dissolved, and death was dealt by that hand, from which pro tection was implored and expected. Without provocation, without opposition, the astonished English, living in profound peace, and full security, were massacred by their nearest neighbours, with whom they had long upheld a continual intercourse of kindness and good offices. "But death was the slightest punishment inflicted by those rebels: all the tortures which wanton cruelty could devise, all the lingering pains of body, the anguish of mind, the agonies of despair, could not satiate revenge excited without injury, and cruelty derived from no cause. To enter into particulars would shock the least delicate humanity. Such enormities, though attested by undoubted evidence, appear almost incredible. Depraved nature, even perverted religion, encouraged by the utmost license, reach not to such a pitch of ferocity; unless the pity inherent in human breasts be destroyed by that contagion of example, which transports men beyond all the usual motives of conduct and behaviour. "The weaker sex themselves, naturally tender to their own sufferings, and compassionate to those of others, here emulated their more robust companions in the practice of every cruelty. Even children, taught by the example, and encouraged by the exhortation of their parents, essayed their feeble blows on the dead carcasses or defenceless children of the English. The very avarice of the Irish was not a sufficient restraint of their cruelty. Such was their frenzy, that the cattle which they had seized, and by rapine made their own, yet, because they bore the name of English, were wantonly slaughtered, or, when covered with wounds, turned loose into the woods and deserts. "The stately buildings or commodious habitations of the planters, as if upbraiding the sloth and ignorance of the natives, were consumed with fire, or laid level with the ground. And where the miserable owners, shut up in their houses and preparing for defence, perished in the flames, together with their wives and children, a double triumph was afforded to their insulting foes. "If anywhere a number assembled together, and, assuming courage from despair, were resolved to sweeten death by revenge on their assassins, they were disarmed by capitulations and promises of safety, confirmed by the most solemn oaths. But no sooner had they surrendered, than the rebels, with perfidy equal to their cruelty, made them share the fate of their unhappy countrymen. "Others, more ingenious still in their barbarity, tempted their prisoners by the fond love of life, to imbrue their hands in the blood of friends, brothers, parents; and having thus rendered them accomplices in guilt, gave them that death, which they sought to shun by deserving it. "Amidst all these enormities, the sacred name of RELIGION resounded on every side; not to stop the hands of these murderers, but to enforce their blows, and to steel their hearts against every movement of human or social sympathy. The English, as heretics, abhorred of God, and detestable to all holy men, were marked out by the priests for slaughter; and, of all actions, to rid the world of these declared enemies to Catholic faith and piety, was represented as the most meritorious. Nature, which, in that rude people, was sufficiently inclined to atrocious deeds, was farther stimulated by precept; and national prejudices impoisoned by those aversions, more deadly and incurable, which arose from an enraged superstition. While death finished the sufferings of each victim, the bigoted assassins, with joy and exultation, still echoed in his expiring ears, that these agonies were but the commencement of torments infinite and eternal. This dreadful rebellion left consequences long felt in Irish government. Cromwell, the iron leader of English vengeance, treated them with terrible severity: at the storming of a single city, 12,000 men were put to the sword; and such was the terror inspired by his merciless sword, that all the revolted cities opened their gates, and the people submitted trembling to the law of the conqueror. The recollection of the horrors of the Tyrone rebellion was long engraven in the English legislature: and it produced, along with the terrors of religious dissension, the severe code of laws which were imposed on the savage population of the country, before the close of the seventeenth century. An hundred years of peace and tranquillity followed the promulgation of these oppressive laws. That they were severe and cruel is obvious from their tenor; that they were in many respects not worse than was called for by the horrors which preceded their enactment and followed their repeal, is now unhappily proved by the result. The next great period of concession commenced about the year 1772, soon after the accession of George III. The severe code under which Ireland had so long lain chained, but : quiet, was relaxed the Catholics were admitted to a full share of the representation; the more selfish and unnecessary parts of the restrictions were removed; and, before 1796, hardly any part of the old fetters remained excepting the exclusion of Catholics from the Houses of Lords and Commons, and the higher situations in the army. Did tranquillity, satisfaction, and peace, follow these immense concessions, continued through a period of thirty years? On the contrary, they were immediately followed by the same result as had attended the concessions of James I. A new rebellion broke out; the horrors of 1798 rivalled those of 1641; and the dreadful recollection of the Tyrone massacre was drowned in the more recent suffering of the same unhappy country. The perilous state in which Ireland then stood, imperfectly known at the time even to the government, is now fully developed. From the Memoirs of Wolfe Tone, recently published, it appears that 250,000 men were sworn in, organized, drilled, and regimented; that colonels and officers for this immense force were all appointed; and the whole under the direction of the central committee at Dublin, only waited the arrival of Hoche and the French fleet to hoist the tricolor flag, and proclaim the Hibernian Republic in close alliance with the Republic of France. With truth it may be said, that the fate of England then hung upon a thread. Napoleon, and the unconquered army of Italy, were still in Europe; a successful descent of the advanced guard, 15,000 strong, under Hoche, would immediately have been followed up by the invasion of the main body under that great leader; and the facility with which the French fleet reached Bantry Bay in February 1797, where they were only prevented from landing by tempestuous gales, proves that the command of the seas cannot always be relied on as a security against foreign invasion. Had 40,000 French soldiers landed at that time in Ireland, to organize 200,000 hot-headed Catholic democrats, and lend the hand of fraternity to their numerous coadjutors on the other side of St George's Channel, it is difficult to say what would have been the present fate of England. The rebellion of 1798 threw back for ten years the progress of the indulgent measures so long practised towards Ireland; but at length the spirit of clemency again resumed its sway; the system of concession was again adopted, and the last remnants of the Irish fetters removed by the liberal Tory administration of England. First, the Catholics were de clared eligible to any situations in the army and navy, and at length, by the famous relief bill, the remaining distinctions between Catholic and Protestant were done away, and an equal share of political influence extended to them as their Protestant brethren. What has been the consequence? Has Ireland increased in tranquillity since this memorable change? Have the prophecies of its advocates been verified as to the stilling of the waves of dissension and rebellion? Has it proved true, as Earl Grey prophesied it would in his place in the House of Lords, Defluit saxis agitatus humor; The reverse of all this has notoriously been the case. Since this last and great concession, Ireland has become worse than ever. Midnight conflagration,dastardly assassination, have spread with fearful rapidity; the sources of justice have been dried up, and the most atrocious criminals repeatedly suffered to escape, from the impossibility of bringing them to justice. An universal insurrection against the payment of tithes has defied all the authority of government, in open violation of the solemn promises of the Catholics that no invasion on the rights of the Protestant church was intended; and the starving clergy of Ireland have been thrown as a burden upon the consolidated fund of England. At this moment the authority of England is merely nominal over the neighbouring island; the Lord Lieutenant is less generally obeyed than the great Agitator, and the dictates of the Catholic leaders looked up to in preference to the acts of the British Parliament. In despair at so desperate a state of things, so entirely the reverse of all they had hoped from the long train of conciliatory measures, the English are gi ving up the cause in despair, while the great and gallant body of Irish Protestants are firmly looking the danger in the face, and silently preparing for the struggle which they well know has now become inevitable. The result of experience, therefore, is complete in all its parts. Thrice during the last two hundred years have conciliatory measures been tried on the largest scale, and with the most beneficent intention; and thrice have the concessions to the Catholics been followed by a violent and intolerable outbreak of savage ferocity. The two first rebellions were followed by a firm and severe system of coercive government; as long as they continued in force, Ireland was comparatively tranquil, and their relaxation was the signal for the commencement of a state of insubordination which rapidly led to anarchy and revolt. The present revolutionary spirit has been met by a different system. Every thing has been conceded to the demagogues; their demands have been granted, their assemblies allowed, their advice followed, their leaders promoted; and the country in consequence has arrived at a state of anarchy unparalleled in any Christian state. What makes the present state of Ireland and the democratic spirit of its inhabitants altogether unpardonable, is the extreme indulgence and liberality with which for the last fifty years they have been treated by this country. During the whole war, Ireland paid neither income-tax nor assessed taxes; and the sum thus made a present of by England to her people, amounted at the very lowest calculation to L.50,000,000 sterling. She shared in the full benefit of the war in consequence of the immense extent of the demand for agricultural produce which its expenditure occasioned, without feeling any of the burdens which neutralized its extension in this country. No poor's rates are levied on her landholders; in other words, they are levied on England and Scotland instead, and this island is in consequence overwhelmed by a mass of indigence created in the neighbouring kingdom, but which British indulgence has relieved them from the necessity of maintaining. The amount of the sums annually paid by the Parliament of Great Britain to objects of charity and utility in Ireland almost exceeds belief, and is at least five times greater than all directed to the same ob jects in both the other parts of the empire taken together.* Yet with all their good deeds, past, present, and to come, Ireland is the most discontented part of the United Kingdom. She is incessantly crying out against her benefactor, and recurring to old oppression rendered necessary by her passions, instead of present benefactions, of which her democratic population have proved themselves unworthy by their ingratitude. Notwithstanding all the efforts of her demagogues to distract the country, and counteract all the liberality and beneficence of the English government, Ireland has advanced with greater rapidity in industry, wealth, and all the real sources of happiness, during the last thirty years, than any other part of the empire. Since the Union, she has made a start both in agricultural and manufacturing industry, quite unparalleled, and much greater than Scotland had made during the first hundred years after her incorporation with the English dominions. It is quite evident, that if the demagogues would let Ireland alone-if the wounds in her political * The following is a statement of the principal sums annually paid by Government to the Charities in Dublin : Carry forward, L. 126,524 + Imports into Ireland from all parts, in 1801 and 1825. Cotton manufactures, entered by the yard, In 1801. 44,314 yards. 375,000 lbs. 1,200,000 lbs. 376,000 bushels. 16,000 cwts. 7,454 tons. 315,000 tons. In 1825. 4,996,885 yards. 2,702,000 lbs. 4,065,000 lbs. 535,000 bushels. 131,000 cwts. 17,902 tons. 738,000 tons. Aggregate value of produce or manufactures of the United Kingdom, as distinguished from Foreign or Colonial merchandise, exported from Ireland :-In 1801, L.3,778,000. In 1825, L.9,102,000. Tea entered for Home Consumption in Ireland. It is important to keep in mind, that during the first of these two periods, the system were not continually kept open, and the passions of the people incessantly inflamed, by her popular leaders, she would become as rich and prosperous as she is populous -that, instead of a source of weakness, she would become a pillar of strength to the united empire—and instead of being overspread with the most wretched and squalid population in Europe, she might eventually boast of the most contented and happy. The revenues of the Church, against which so violent an outcry has recently been raised, have for long been collected with unexampled forbearance by the Irish Protestant clergy. From the papers laid before Parliament, it appears, that while the tithe, as collected by the English clergy, on an average, amounts to a twentieth, that drawn by the Irish hardly amounts to a fortieth of the produce. Recently the proportion has daily been growing smaller; and at last it has, in many parts of the country, been totally destroyed. Individual cases of harshness may have occurred, which are not surprising, considering the long continued vexations to which the clergy have been exposed by the Catholic tenantry; but, upon the whole, their dues have been levied with a degree of moderation of which the Christian church affords few examples. We are decidedly friendly to a Commutation of Tithes, and their imposition as a burden on the landlord directly; but we are so, because we are convinced it would ameliorate the condition of the clergy, not because there is the slightest chance of its relieving the distresses or lightening the burdens of the culti vators. We would avoid the unseemly spectacle of the parochial clergyman contending with his flock; and relieve both parties from the extremities to which they are now reduced-the one of starving, or levying their dues in kind-the other, of suffering their cattle to be distrained, or incurring the spiritual censure of their Catholic director. We would put an end to the disgraceful sale of distrained cattle, in which an insulated clergyman, supported by the armed police and the military, is to be seen on one side, and 50,000 infuriated Catholics on the other. But while, for the sake of peace, and to avoid the painful collision which now exists, we would strongly advocate a commutation of tithes, nothing can be clearer, than that the condition of the tenantry will by such a change be rendered much worse than before. Extravagantly high as rents now are in most parts of Ireland, they would become still higher if the tithes were laid on the landlord, and no deduction from his demands were permitted on the score of tithe to the rector. Irish landlords, or middlemen, who exact four, five, and six guineas an acre for potato-land, will soon let the farmers feel the difference between a lay and an ecclesiastical holder of the tithe. They will no longer get off with a fortieth part of the produce in that payment—a tenth will in general be rigidly exacted. Whatever is done with the tithe The duty on black tea was only 4 d., and on green tea 63d., while in the second it was cent per cent. Hence, the increased consumption is indicative of much more than a proportionate increase of wealth. Coffee entered for Home Consumption in Ireland. In 1792 40,000 lbs. In 1822 265,000 lbs. |