ones, it is said, supply the Army, Navy, and State, while the fools take to the Church. Under a system of religious surveilance like the establishment in England, fools can eat up fat livings as readily as wise men, which is about all that is expected of them, and there are always poor students enough, to preach and drudge by way of duplicate, for the crumbs that fall from the "living" table. Why, the poor peasants, are not only without political and social liberty, but also religious. The Establishment guards the "errors of faith" among the tenants, as strictly as the lord keeps their franchise and freedom from the contamination of self-action. I remember spending one Christmas day at Petersburgh, Virginia, where the slaves-yes! the very negro slaves have three neat little churches, all of which I visited from curiosity, and they were filled with the gaudiest, jolliest, and evidently the most happily disposed religious congregations I had seen for a long time; and they were allowed to sing, shout and pray, after any fashion and creed that suited them best-no penetrating committee of churchmen nor watchful masters, asked whether they were Methodists or Baptists, or whether they were celebrating the Nativity or the Declaration of Independence. But in England, let a little half-conscientious knot of dissenters congregate by themselves, and how quickly the remonstrance of the "Established" Pastor, and interested master, comes thundering in upon them. A regular espionage is kept over each man's hearth and altar, and he knows the penalty of continued transgression after remonstrance. To be sure there are wide exceptions-but I speak of an immense class, who are as ignorant as they are servile; and as stupid as their clog-boots. The church opinions of the tenant are as useful to the lord as the political, for Church and State prop each other, by trick of patronage and oppression-like two huge pillars set wide apart at the bottom, and pressing together at the top. The people, either by neck or heels, hang compressed at the top, or lie under the bottom of the pillars, while the lords of land, and lords of wealth take all the free and open space. Some may be disposed to ask, why don't the people, the tenants, and all the oppressed cut clear, and leave their homes. The answer is, there is no place-no occupation to flee to. The land-the wealth, and all the means are secured to a few, and the many must take what is left them. There is no loop hole of retreat. They must fly the country to get rid of its conditions; and how are they to do this even if they would consent to flee from their cradles and graves. They are slaves, and their condition is permanent; it is in accordance with the spirit and wish of their masters, the aristocracy, that they should remain down. Their extreme serfship and poverty, heightens the splendor of the other extreme by contrast. Signs are, that a commercial aristocracy is springing up, which, having more

money, which is available means, than the landed proprietors, will break up the latter system, its entails and hereditary privileges, and thus revolutionize society. But if this were so, I believe the extremes of condition would still be worse. The money aristocrat has ever been a greater tyrant than the landed lord. His sphere of action is in the crowded cities, where his flocking serfs have fiercer competitions to battle with, and increased expense for every article of livelihood. The money aristocrat guides himself upon the element that floated him into notice, and will lose no opportunity of increasing its store. He has no rest upon the honor of birth nor dignity of titles, while the lord of the soil, counting upon these, pursues the temporary necessity of his serfs -with less rapacity than the other. Beside the lords of the soil are not fools--while they behold this formidable foe to their power, stalking into place, they themselves turn to, court alliance with it, and become doubly tyrants. Of all sciences yet developed, that is profoundest and most needed, that will destroy the oppression of one, and ameliorate the conditions of the other extreme of society. I feel keen regret and shame every day, that we are a nation holding slaves, that my mouth must be comparatively sealed, where otherwise I might speak out to these vaunting philanthropists of the old world. But if we have a cause for shame; so have they-and English serfs have cause for indignation.

CAPACITIES OF IRELAND FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT.

BY C. CHAUNCEY BURR.

"WHAT would become of Ireland if she were free ?” “What would she do without England?" "What would be her fate if left to govern herself?"

These are questions that travel round this country with all the grace and gravity of gospel missionaries-stereotyped on the lips of grave senators, and so running downward through the various defiles of political demagogues and caucus-wire-pullers, to the last remnants of human handicraft-the beardless dispensers of tape and bobbin-until one would almost imagine himself suffering the pains and penalties of a pandemonium of British spies and shop-keepers.

Perhaps I shall not make much headway if I answer the questions. For these people, who get all their learning out of the newspapers, are very wise; and as disputatious, withal, as the fanatic from the low countries, who wished to argue with Dr. Martin Luther, "up to hell fire inclusively." The doctor says, "When I saw his ignorance, I said, would it not be better to dispute over some cans of beer?" "

But our American Irish-haters will not be put off with some cans of beer. They have so much faith in the governing qualities of England--in the political wisdom of "the elder branch of the family," as the complimentary Daniel Webster calls her-that they can see nothing but annihilation and endless ruin for Ireland, if she were deprived of the merciful fostering care of England. The stereotyped lies and misrepresentations of the English newspapers, about Irish character and Irish capacity which have been circulated immemorially through the American press, have been greedily taken up by a voracious religio politico faction in this country, until hatred towards Ireland has become the religion and vernacular politics of many of the most ignorant and bigoted classes of American citizens. And so a love of England grows continually in the bosoms of these sour, foggy-headed Irish-haters. And so are they becoming worse and worse American citizens year by year. We talk of foreign

influence, of the danger of so many foreigners here; but the only real danger is in foreign character, whether native born, or imported. Five millions of Irish republicans would be a less evil in this country than a single dozen of these un-American, antirepublican, English-admiring bigots, who have filled our very atmosphere with an inquisition that insults the stranger on our shores, burns down his churches, and drives him into despair, and sickness of heart in our midst at the very name of Liberty and Democracy. These anti-American Americans are the real pests of our country. The splendid creed of the American declaration they deride. The great American doctrine that all nations have a right to, and are capable of self-government they denounce with as hearty a contempt as "my lords” in Parlia

ment.

These are the people that want to know what would become of Ireland when she is free?

Well then, let us forget what she now is, what England has made her, and look at her natural resources for independence and national prosperity. Let us see in what way Ireland can be dependant upon England. Let us see also how far England is dependant upon Ireland, for her "increasing luxuries," nay for her very existence as a great power in Europe. If it be in our power to forget, for a while, the crimes of England, we shall find it a pleasant task to look at this beautiful Island, so rich and varied in every natural advantage for national happiness.

By its geographical position it is the natural commercial depot of western Europe for all the trade of the east. This is well enough understood by all parties. Then she has the most fruitful soil of western Europe, varied with every degree of elevation that renders it most favorable for all kinds of agricultural produce, with the most inland districts traversed by rivulets and streams; having also the largest river of the three kingdoms, all situated in a mild and uniform climate, where the dews of heaven fall gently on all parts, as if to make it the peculiar abode of happiness and freedom.

Then the geological structure of the country is alike remarkable for variety and richness, with rocks of slate, quarries of limestone and granite, iron ores, sand-beds and coals, the most extensive in those islands. The iron ores of Leinster and Connaught are said to average even above those used in England. Then there are extensive mines of copper, and rich veins of lead stretching all the way through Wicklow, Wexford, Cork, Down, King's county and Clare.

Then Ireland possesses unlimited capabilities of water power. The banks of the Shannon, the Lee, the Liffery, the Blackwater, the Boyne, or the Bann, invite every variety and extent of machinery; where factories for the manufacture of flax, cotton, or

wool, might work incessantly in the midst of a greedy market. And what is best of all the raw material might all be found at home. Wool especially could be had at their very doors in unfailing supplies. Ireland has over two millions of acres of the first pasturage, at an elevation of 800 feet above the level of the sea. What a wool-growing country it might become!

Then to all these natural advantages for national independence and wealth, we must not forget to add her fisheries, which have been called "a girdle of gold encircling the island."

Ireland has eighteen maritime counties out of her thirty-two; and it is estimated that at least " 120,000 heads of families might be profitably employed in working these inexhaustible sources of wealth."

But notwithstanding these exhaustless treasuries with such facilities of transit, the soil is poorly cultivated, the mines are unworked, the rivers and streams flow idly on to the ocean, and the richest land in the world is crushed into beggary. England must manufacture, and Ireland, with immeasurably rich resources, must be only her market-place. Hence there was an English law to crush Irish manufactories. There was a penalty upon industry, and upon the investment of Irish capital, which stopt at once many thousands of spindles, turned many thousand Irish men and women out of employment, put a seal on the mine's mouth, and still sits by the water's side, like a foul witch, frightening honest industry from his path!

It is estimated that Dublin city alone sends several hundreds of thousands of pounds annually to Newcastle and Whitehaven, while under the soil of Leinster, according to Sir Robert Shane, the total quantity of pure solid coal, 63,000,000 of tons. We see here how effectually English law has broken up, in Ireland, the natural relation of town and country; a policy that would impoverish and destroy any country on earth, even were it peopled by men as pure and faultless in habit as the angels of God in heaven.

In this case of coals we see what is true of nearly every article of consumption in Ireland--of food, clothes, and furniture; the cities and towns are made the channels through which the country is drained of its wealth. The city's trade is only the robbery of the country. That is just what Ireland gets from England.

Ireland's independence would re-establish that natural relation between her town and country, by which the city's wants are made the country's wealth. That alone would save the country. An Irish Republic would at once re-establish the legitimate trade of its "old strongholds, such as Dublin, Ballingary, Kilkenny, Carrick, Loughrea, and Limerick, by unfettering the soil and the