confiscation of property, exile, imprisonment, and death; adds, in his usual clear and forcible language "Let no man now pretend to be ignorant of the sources of those fitful flames of desolation and of death which are ever bursting up from the volcanic bosom of unhappy Ireland. You talk of bringing over your legislation to allay them-you might as well legislate to arrest the eruptions of Vesuvius, or to extinguish the lava which boils in the burning bosom of Etna. There is a monster, like him who was fabled to be buried beneath the Sicilian niountain, who spreads his giant length. and breadth beneath all the deep foundations of that unhappy land, and manifests the heaving efforts of his existence only by his ceaseless strivings to convulse, to agitate, and to inflame. What peace can we expect in such a state of things as this, when confiscation, exile, imprisonment and death-the very horrors of war, are incorporated in the very framework of man's social existence? When men, who ought to be the ministers of Christ instead of taking the leaves from the tree of life to sweeten the bitter waters of contention, evoke, as it were, the demons of discord to poison the streams which should flow pure and unsullied from the fountain of living waters:' where religion, that blessing which God has given us to heal the wounds of human sorrow, to still the storms of human passion, and to renew and to regenerate the apostate heart of man, is made, in the hands of its ministers, an instrument to rankle every wound, to exasperate every passion, to ulcerate, to fester, to gangrene into death the natural corruption of the guilty human heart. Who can be surprised at the excesses of the deluded peasantry of Ireland, when the very crimes of the unhappy people are enumerated amongst the virtues' of the authoritative standard of their spiritual guides; when the deeds of guilt and darkness, which are reduced to horrid practice over the drunken debauch of the midnight assassin, are debated in principle in the sober mornings of religious conference among the priests? * We cannot wonder, if those dark and guilty purposes which are cherished in the ear of the confessional, are sometimes let out in the imprudent effusion of the intemperate public orator?" But we have seen enough of the dismal fruits of Popery, whose leprous touch has blasted the prospects, and paralysed the energies, and fatally infected with its contagion, that noble island, whose natural fertility and extent of pasturage would render her indeed, under the sanctifying, civilising influences of pure Protestant, principles, "Great, glorious, and free,First flower of the earth and first gem of the sea." But so long as the intolerable incubus of Popery is permitted to feed upon her stamina, and revel undisturbed upon the costly banquet of human souls and human freedom, she cannot but remain a monumental wreck, a trophy of the grinding tyranny of Papal power, and a solemn warning to all other nations of the inevitable disasters universally attendant upon Popish ascendancy. The functionaries of the Vatican doubtless rejoice with no small feelings of triumph at the prostrate position of Ireland, and the evident tendency of events to consummate her moral ruin. But we may be permitted to weep over the infatuation which, regardless of the living testimony of history, the awful warnings of unnumbered martyrs, who had passed gloriously to their rest through the flames kindled by the bigotry, and superstition of infallible' Rome, and turning a deaf ear to the kind and faithful admonitions, and patriotic advice of thousands and thousands more, who knew what Popery was, and foresaw but too clearly the unavoidable consequences of throwing scorn and contempt upon the pious measures of our ancestors, and destroying barriers raised for the endangered security of the throne and the altar of the land; opened madly the flood-gates of Popery upon the country, and placed in the hands of sworn enemies weapons with which to pierce and shatter the boasted and perfect constitution of Great Britain. But we are told by some that Ireland is tranquil,* that she never before enjoyed such security and tranquillity as she did could a Lord Lieutenant of such exalted liberality of sentiment as Lord Normanby, who could issue orders for the removal from the muster-roll of magistrates a gentleman against whom in *"We have heard much of late about the tranquillity' of Ireland, and the pacifying effects of Lord Normanby's 'liberal measures.' Let the following extract from parliamentary returns speak to the boldness and falsehood of these pretences: In 1836 the committals for crime were 23,891 Being, in one year, an increase of 3,507 ! But if the committals had increased, the convictions had decreased, shewing increased difficulty in executing the law, and the augmented want of dependence on juries, &c. In 1836 the convictions were In 1837 they were only Shewing a decrease amounting to 18,110 out of 23,891 committals. 10,529 out of 27,398 committals. 7,581 Again: the proclamations issued by the Lord Lieutenant for the apprehension of criminals in 1836-7 numbered 520 But of the reward offered in these, there were only claimed 19 Leaving unclaimed altogether no less than 501 !! So that even money, in that poor country, cannot procure evidence. Thus does combination elude justice. This is not, however, the only mode of viewing the state of Ireland. the discharge of his duty, the breath of slander never uttered an accusation of partiality, and with the same breath give directions for an invitation to the vice-royal dinner to be sent to the seditious agitator of Ireland! The tranquillity of Ireland consists entirely in the absence of open rebellion in arms. In every other respect she is distracted and convulsed from the centre to the circumference, while a withering and blighting blackness pervades her length and breadth; a darkness gross and palpable, not of that description which broods over lovely landscapes and soft and peaceful glades, but gloomy, lurid, sepulchral, athwart which if a beam of sunshine pass, it is but to reveal objects loathsome and revoltinga darkness revelling in the garniture of the tomb, the decay of humanity, and the putrescent processes of corruption. As soon might you compare the rude blast which heralds blackening skies and bursting storms with the noiseless breath of the Siroccoas well compare the bleak gust of winter, which howls across the foaming deep, scattering desolation and dismay, and strewing every shore with the shattered fragments of stranded navies, to the soft and balmy zephyr of summer, which bears upon its wings nothing but fragrancy and delight! Tranquillity, indeed! when murder stalks with impunity in broad daylight-when the domestic hearth of the innocent drinks the blood of its owner, and the ruthless noonday assassin dyes his hand alike in the life-blood of the peer and the peasant. How long shall the soil of Ireland, saturated with the gore of her bravest and most peaceful children, ery to heaven for vengeance upon the guilty perpetrators and abettors of such horrifying crimes? Popery is emphatically, as we think no attentive observer will deny, the perpetrator, the criminal, at whose door these untold enormities must be brought. But what shall we say of the criminality of those, who with the It is necessary, not only to regard the number, but the nature, of the crimes committed : In 1836, out of the 23,891 crimes, 620 were murder. In 1837, out of the 27,398 crimes, 722 were murder. Being an increase in one year of 102 murders-that is, an increase of 17 per cent. But it must be remarked, that in the ten most Protestant counties—that is, in those counties where the number of Protestants and Papists are sometimes almost equal, the homicides committed in 1837 did not equal in number those committed in the Popish county of Tipperary alone! In Fermanagh, a county in which the inhabitants are almost exclusively Protestants, only one murder out of the 722 was committed. The same may be said of Londonderry. We trust that these few facts will speak out plainly to the people of England as to the tranquillity' of Ireland, and as to the unchangeable nature of persecuting Popery."-Protestant Magazine. power to check these atrocities, and consequently the responsi bility attaching to the possession of such a power, culpably neglect their duty, and instead of exercising the legitimate influence they wield to stem the torrent of iniquity, virtually abandon the wretched victims of Popish bigotry and cruelty to their fate? What shall we say of those who, possessed of power to punish, fondle and caress the fomenters of discord and the chief instigators of turbulence and animosity, who coolly bluster out a senseless lying boast of the tranquillity of the country, and strive to hide, by every artifice and manoeuvre common to base and little minds, the real and fearfully alarming state of disaffection and avidity for rebellion, into which their impolitic and criminal mal-administration of privilege, patronage, and influence, has fomented the fettered slaves of a ferocious priesthood? But what are the remedies for these multiform but unigenerated evils most likely to prove successful in ameliorating the condition and giving a healthy tone to the moral and social character of the population? We do not shut our eyes to the fact that the abject misery, vice, and destitution, and the increasing redundancy, of the Irish poor, could not fail to find a preventive check in a well-digested, well-arranged, and well-administered legal provision for the poor; and, to a certain extent, we are inclined to recommend the pamphlet of Mr. Revans.* But this, though important, and a step which every honest man who loves his country and feels the humiliating shame and sorrow which the present deplorable condition of Ireland must engender in the loyal and patriotic breast, would not radically effect the evil. The root of Irish misery lies beyond the reach of legislation; legislation may do much to soften the condition and improve the moral position of the Irish, but she can apply no healing balm to the gangrened wound which feeds upon her vitals; it is Christianity, and Christianity alone, that holds possession of the potent efficacy to medicate the bitter waters of her misery, hush the heaving tempest of her internal feuds, and allay the raging fever of her malady. The Established Church is a powerful instrument for the civilization of Ireland and the improvement of the moral character of the people. The pamphlet of Mr. Colquhoun on this subject is worthy the most attentive perusal. The labours of a Christian ministry, in short, are the only means that Without hazarding, at present, any opinion upon the intrinsic merits or demerits of the Irish Poor Law, which has become a law since Mr. Revan's work was written; we believe that its working has already disappointed the expectations of its best friends. appear, to our minds, at all likely to prove permanently remedial. Let the Irish Church be strengthened instead of weakened; let her capabilities be extended to the utmost limits of the noble field of Christian exertion which lies before her; let her clergy be multiplied and their hands strengthened, and we should not fear the result. But so long as the minds of the people are kept in Egyptian darkness, and the light of the glorious Gospel of our Lord and only Saviour is systematically excluded from their hearts by the self-deifying tyranny of Popish priests, and the number of the Protestant clergy is confessedly inadequate even for the Protestant population, how can we expect that civilization and order can be restored, or the inhabitants cease to be lawless and depraved? The Word of God must be planted in every corner of the land, care taken to provide the blessings of a Scriptural education to the children, and mental cultivation and moral enlightenment to the adult population. Mr. Mahony, a most intelligent solicitor, in his evidence before the House of Commons, in 1832, with regard to the civilization of Ireland, says "I have recommended the rigid enforcement of the law, so as to compel all ranks of clergy to reside at their sees, or at their parishes; for, in a country such as Ireland, where absenteeism is an acknowledged evil, in the moral and political sense of the word, I consider the moral influence of such a class of well-educated gentlemen, such as the clergy are, to be above all price; for, though the Protestant clergy may not extend their religion, they must extend civilization where they reside." Mr. Blake, a Roman Catholic, says-" That the Irish Church has great power of promoting the interests of education among the people." Mr. Barrington says" There are many parts of the county of Cork in which there is no resident landford; none but the Protestant clergyman." Major Bunn says "The Protestant clergy are resident clergy: it would be a great loss if they were driven to leave the country." The Archbishop of Dublin says "I have observed a sort of nucleus of civilization formed by the house of a clergyman, who is, perhaps, the only gentleman within a considerable distance, and frequently the only one at least who takes care to afford instruction, promote cleanliness, encourage the progress of the arts of life, improve the domestic habits of the parishioners, and relieve their bodily wants. I have heard innumerable instances of the charitable exertions of the Protestant clergy, even of those who are commonly regarded as the most bigoted against the Romish religion; I have found them active in relieving the temporal wants of Roman Catholics, and liberal to them in many cases even beyond their means." Major Bunn says-" The clergy A A |