The birds that sing among the pine,
And fill with songs the morning air,
Will listen for that song of thine,
That floated like an angel's prayer,
Among the silent dreaming trees-
A chant of nature's mysteries.

All beauteous things will wait for thee-
Thy soul was beauty's counterpart,
Thy muse of love, so wild and free,
Like fairy music in the dark,
Was ever heard in sweetness there-
As if with murmuring brooks at prayer.

But woods and glades and gentle flowers,
And brooks and trees will wait in vain—
And birds and bees and summer bowers-
Thou never more wilt come again,
To make the morning glad awhile,
Or cheer the evening with thy smile.

O, thou art gone-and in thy youth-
Gone to a dark and dreamless bed,-
Thy soul of Genius and of truth,
Is like a tone of music fled-
Or like a star, withdrawn by day,
Into some heavenly court to pray.

And I alone, of all the throng-
Whose hopes are weeping at thy bier-
Shall most lament thy unsung song,
Forever quenched and tuneless here;
The joy and pride thy genius gave,
Are fallen with thee in the grave.

I'll go
and bind my troubled brow
With pine and cypress pale, for me-

(For I am sick with sorrow now)
And with the amaranth for thee,
And sit in thy deserted bowers,
Or seek thy muse among the flowers.

A REVIEW OF THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF IRELAND.

BY JOHN VANCE.

MANY may be inclined to think that enough has been written, spoken, and read of Ireland-that it is a trite theme for political theorists and writers; and that some new light must spring up to guide the philanthropist before he can discover the true plan by which her people's energies may be effectually applied to their own social regeneration. One class lately imagined that they had discovered the star of Truth and Freedom, that would guide them to Ireland's salvation. They blazoned their discovery over the civilized world. The lovers of the true and the free felt the joy of delight and sympathy. They took up the note of hope that rang out its echoes from the serf-peopled Isle, and the volume of their song rolled back encouragement and praise. America stood on tiptoe in expectation, and Ireland's Liberty seemed the genius of her people's dreams. The hour approached, and the star of Ireland's salvation was announced as shining brighter. It was soon to stand over the Bethlehem of her disenthralment. The hour came-the spot was thought to be reached -but where was the star?—It was only a meteor illusion that brightened as it neared, and, with a momentary gleam, became absorbed in the denser atmosphere of earth. Ireland had been mocked-America was mocked-the world was mocked,-and when all looked to see the black atmosphere of tyranny broken up, and the light of freedom pouring in upon the hills and green fields which thousands had sworn should be free, the cloud had thicker set, and beneath its dark shade were marshalled hosts--patriots scattered and forlorn, and the "Would-be free," the dungeon's victims.

"The last sad hour of freedom's dream,
And valor's task moved slowly by."

Is it a mystery that Ireland's hour should so pass? That tyranny should thus easily re-assert supremacy? To those who have never lived and moved among Irish society-who looked on from a distance, and could only judge of facts reported through the medium of language, there may be difficulty in re

conciling the hopes excited, and the issue permitted. But with those who reflected calmly on the social condition and relations of the Irish people; and whose data of reasoning were a personal observation, and a knowledge of facts as they practically existed, and not as dressed up by warm imaginations, there exists no surprise, while other results would have been unexpected, and their realization regarded as a miracle. What, then, is the character of that social condition, and those relations to which the late results in Ireland are attributable?

The people of Ireland have no politics unconnected with religious prejudices. Here is a great feature in the social condition of Irishmen, which not only in 1848, but in 1798, and on every occasion since the establishment of the "English Pale" in the southern counties, and the "Ulster Plantation" in the northern, has operated to the perpetuation of English power and national servitude. Not one great national question has ever been agitated in Ireland, wholly independent of religious bias. To take a present, example, we will refer to the tenant-right agitation, originated and carried on especially by the Protestants of the north. Here the point at issue is a simple claim of a certain right created in the soil by the tenant's industry or capital, which he justly regards as his peculiar property, and on which he bases the right of occupancy, or, at least, the justice of a compensatory equivalent when his landlord wishes to resume possession. It may be remarked here, in addition, that the question of tenant-right includes the argument that, when the productive power of the soil is increased by the expidenture of capital or labor on the part of the tenant, it is an unjust, though common, act on the landlord's part, to come and lay a heavy tax on the tenant's expidenture or industry, in the shape of an increased rent-the law, at the same time, being so constructed that the tenant is compelled either to submit or give up the possession of his farm. This is a question, which would reasonably be supposed to lie exclusively between the people and the landlords, and with which religion could possibly have no connection. Not so, however. When public meetings began to be held, the clergy of all denominations were invited to attend. Before hopes of success can be entertained in any project, the clergy must give their countenance. Well, some of the priests attended, some of the Presbyterian clergy also appeared, at the urgent request of their people, who are all deeply interested in the matter; but not one of the reverened dignitaries or inferiors of the Protestant Established Church ever made their appearance. And why? First, they are generally branches of the landocracy, sympathising with them in their relationships and interests their fat Mammon-the Church Established and their aristocratic relations, more sincerely reverenced than the precept of that Gospel,

of which they affect to be apostles. But a second reason was, that, not only would it be derogatory to their clerical office and dignity, thus to associate with priests and presbyters, but that they would be countenancing doctrines tending to Repeal, and the strengthening of the Romish Church! The same idea too, got into the heads of an illiberal class of the Presbyterian reverends; and they too, imitated their Episcopal neighbors in refusing to appear on the same platform with obnoxious priests.

Such hateful and unchristian prejudices, and the existence of so much clerical influence over the minds, and consequently, over the actions of the people of all creeds, have done more to keep Irishmen disunited, and in social serfdom, than all other causes put together. They have prevented the spread and progress of a liberal education; and instead of allowing the spring and growth of the natural heaven-implanted principles of fraternal love, and human right, they have corrupted the one with a destructive hatred, and perverted the other by their sanction of the vilest injustice.

Till within a very recent date nearly all the common schools in Ireland were under the exclusive management of the clergy of the established Church. They appointed the teachers, prescribed the course of education, and compiled the books for reading. The teachers were frequently unfit to discharge effectively the commonest educational duties; and their chief merits were a furious zeal for the church, and the most obsequious veneration for its dignitaries. The catechism, the prayer-book and the respect due to superiors were the prominent studies to which their pupils' minds were directed; and when such persons as came under the category of superiors entered the school or were met on the road, those who did not order their conduct "lowly and reverently" (as their catechism has it) in their presence, were noted and brought to punishment. Now, it is not hard to conceive what the moral effect of such an education would be. In the first place, it taught the young mind to entertain not only a holy reverence, but an implicit dread of men who occupied certain positions. And it had another effect, in debarring children of other creeds from receiving the benefits of a common education. It caused all education to assume a sectarian form, filling children's minds with the prejudices of their parents' creed instead of training them in the principles of purely secular knowledge. Thus whatever education did exist then in Ireland was not applied to the development and exercise of the faculties of the mind, which are distinctively termed the intellectual, but was used to give a bias to those moral feelings connected with its constitution which more immediately influence human actions. Hence, the continuance of the illiberal feeling of the northern and other protestants,

and hence the deeper feeling of wrong and injustice on the part of the Roman Catholic population; and hence too, the easy perpetration of the most wicked governmental policy and aristocratic robbery. England balanced and sustained its power over Ireland by making religion and education its allies; and under the protection of that power the landlord monopoly rioted in its grasping avarice and murderous tyranny. The clergy were kept paid and proud, the people bigoted, ignorant and enslavednature's blessings and the poor man's toil yielded a harvest only for the rich man's profligacy to consume-while he built palaces and hunted after pleasures, the peasant burrowed in the mountain side or lived a life of toil and misery in huts and dwellings in which human comfort seemed caricatured and rational life debased. How could grow up into active vigor the free and independent aspirations of the soul, where toil, wretchedness, and mental enslavement were the entailed and unavoidable destiny of the people? It was delusive to hope, until other intelligence actuated the people of Ireland than they yet possess, that they would form themselves into a sudden Union and determination of purpose to achieve that independence which their minds have not yet comprehended. The present generation of Irishmen could not be sufficiently revolutionized in their modes of thought in one or two years that they would be prepared to achieve a revolution in their social condition. But it may be asked, has not the work of revolutionizing their modes of thought been carried on for the greater part of the past half century? No, it has not been so. Since the rebellion of 1798 the masses of the Irish people have become less united, and less independent in their characters than they then were. At that time the presbyterians and protestants of the north entered into the national struggle with greater determination than the native Irish population. But English policy invented a preventive for so dangerous a defection in future, of the presbyterian interests. The clergy who held the key of their people's feelings were conciliated by a Regium Donum; and a religioso politico association was originated and encouraged among protestants generally under the pretence of scriptural sanction, for the support of church and state and the supremacy of England's protestant institutions. This association during its earlier and more prosperous stages was under the management of the English and Irish aristocracy, and it was only when their purpose was effected to its full length, and the rampancy of its wanton mischiefs became too gross to be excused, that they withdrew from it their countenance, and took up a safer policy. Even the Clergy were among its members until the law made the connection less advisable; and on stated occasions they preached to their "brother Orangemen" the memories of the past and the fears of the future with greater zeal and more