that so long as he continues in the religion of "the neighbours," he must continue in the habits of "the neighbours;" he would find it as easy to renounce one as the other. This singular peculiarity of the Roman Catholic peasantry seems to arise, in a great measure, from the prostration of their individual intellects; they are carefully taught from infancy, that the greatest virtue is an act of implicit faith, and that the essence of all religion consists in laying aside the exercise of their own judgment, and submitting all things to the judgment of others. This system has been the great engine employed by the priesthood to chain down the minds of the peasantry, so as to prevent their thinking for themselves on the subject of either religion or politics. The Protestant population, however, who are not under this absurd and mischievous principle, have been rapidly improving, while the others are still in identically the same state as that of "the mere Irish," at the time of the conquest of this country. Now, the result of these two systems is apparent at once, when we look on those districts of Ireland that possess a Protestant population; such districts, well farmed by these steady people, become thriving and respectable-are free from disorder and disturbance-require neither police nor military-demand no legislative interference, and, therefore, present alike to the eye of the philanthropist and the statesman, the object of his noblest desires, a peaceful, happy, and thriving country. The northern districts of Ireland are an interesting illustration of this, as distinguished from those of the south and west. The general appearance of the country, the thriving industry and the quiet and peaceful habits of the population all, make it the garden of Ireland; and although every other county in Ireland, has been visited with Insurrection Acts, and every other province with the Coercion Bill, and although almost all the military force of the island is garrisoned in the other provinces, still this favoured district has continued exempt from all, and has proved ever peaceful, and prosperous, and loyal, because PROTESTANT.

Now, we do maintain that it is the duty, and highest policy, of all good governments, to bring the state of the

VOL. IV.

rest of Ireland to a state similar to that of the province of Ulster, and that if the British government and British public desire to see this island prosperous, peacefu!, happy-if they desire to remove the very fountains from which flow all the bitter waters of strife, and disturbance, and agrarian insurrection--if they wish to eradicate the evil and vicious habits of the peasantry, so as to make them industrious, and peaceful, and loyal, they must raise them in the scale of moral beings; they must give them the right and power of thinking and judging for themselves; they must free them from the shackles which priestcraft has forged for their minds, they must, in short, dash away, for ever, that unwieldy incubus of Popery which is pressing upon the peasantry, and while it weighs down their mental faculties and levels them with the dust, degrades them to a state little removed from the beasts of the field.

IV. This relative state of the two classes which form our population, leads to the consideration of another fearful evil entailed by our Irish Popery, upon this country. We allude to the virulent and unrelenting spirit of annoyance and persecution which is shown towards the Protestants of the lower orders, and which has led so many thousands of that excellent and loyal class to emigrate to the American world.

On a late occasion we entered, at length, upon the extent and the causes that induced such multitudes of the Protestants of the lower orders to sever all the ties that bound them to home, and kindred, and country, and seek, amidst extensive and trackless forests, for "happy homes and altars free." We shall therefore now only touch on this melancholy emigration so far as it is affected by the spirit of Popery in this country.

Unfortunately, the very virtues of the Protestants of the lower orders, their loyalty and their industry, have proved the sources of their saddest misfortunes, for they have drawn down upon their heads the hatred of the disaffected, and the envy and cupidity of the idle and dissolute. In the first place, those several cabals, or clubs, to which we have already alluded as being generally under the

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perhaps burned, or his cattle houghed; till step by step his fears increase, and he becomes impressed with the impossibility of remaining in this country with safety; he thus resolves to emigrate, and his virulent persecutor obtains the object of his desires by getting possession of the vacated holding. Thus has a system of persecution, begun by the Popish peasantry against the religion of the Protestants, proceeded still further, and, being found available for personal and political purposes as well as religious, it has been exerted to an extent that promises ere long to compel the whole body of Protestants of the lower orders to emigrate. No man can conceive the extent of their sufferings, or the bitterness and sorrow of their feelings-no man can form an adequate conception of the untiring perseverance with which they are annoyed and persecuted-no man can imagine the extent to which the spirit of religious animosity is virulently and unceasingly on the wing to irritate and insult their finest religious feelings, unless those who mingle themselves among the lower orders of Protestants, and learn by personal knowledge the state of their feelings, and the nature of their sufferings: the universe has not more interesting examples of "suffering, affliction, and patience."

This state of affairs appears to us inconsistent with the happiness and prosperity of any country; for no people can be said to be either prosperous or happy, when one portion thus becomes victimized to the ignorance, or superstition, or turbulence of the other; and it is beyond question the duty of all good government to put an end to such a state of things. This is particularly true with respect to Ireland. When a very large portion of those outrages which darken the face of the land, and require such special legislation on the part of our rulers, can be traced to this very spirit of unwearied persecution on the part of the Roman Catholic peasantry, stimulated by the reiterated harangues of the altar, against the Protestants of the lower orders, much of the external work of persecution might be suppressed by the vigilance of government; but no vigilance of even an Argus could stifle the system of petty

annoyance and unceasing insult, that embitters the existence of that interesting class to which we allude. There must be an effort made to enlighten the ignorant and superstitious peasantry, and to emancipate them from the odious principles and practices of priestcraft.

The Protestants of the lower orders who are thus the victims of Irish Popery, and are thereby compelled to emigrate in such vast multitudes, are, beyond question, the most valuable portion of the population. The industrious habits that have always been cultivated among them, and the large quantum of useful and practical education and knowledge for which they are remarkable, have enabled them to rise far above the native peasantry in worldly matters: they have become comparatively wealthy, and have therefore become a valuable portion of the state, not only for their industry and their comparative wealth, but also for their consumption of the manufactured produce of the country; for, although considerably inferior in point of numbers to the Roman Catholic population, of the same grade, yet they, by their industry and their consumption, are of tenfold more value to the state; they both produce and consume to a far greater extent. Now, when we reflect that it is this industrious and steady and valuable class that is daily suffering under the untiring and persevering persecution of the other, to such an extent as makes them glad to sever all the ties that bind them here, and to seek in other climates a peace and a home that is denied them in their father-land, we shall feel that it is a great political evil which it becomes the wise and good to essay to remedy. Even the mere political economist cannot fail to see the danger of so great an emigration of this industrious and wealthy population as that which is the result of this evil system; for the chief portion of what may be called the agricultural capital of this country, we mean that amount of capital which circulates among the farmers and the laboring population, and which rears the stock and tills the ground, is in the hands of those very Protestants who are thus forced to emigrate indeed so great an influence has the emigration of this class already had on many parts of the country, that by the removal of their capital, there has been

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a very important injury to the agriculture and farming of the country, and it has, in some districts, been sadly and sorely felt.

This matter will appear still more important in a political point of view, when we farther consider that those Protestants, who are thus the daily victims of an undeserved persecution, or, as the softened language of the day would style it, "intimidation," are the most peaceful and loyal portion of our rural population. They have never yet been known to be implicated in any of those agrarian disturbances, and insurrections, and nightly outrages, which characterise the other peasantry; but they have ever invariably identified themselves with the law, and with the government, and with England, and especially with the landlords and all the rights of property. The Protestant population have never forgotten their ancestry, and, remembering that their forefathers were of Scotch and English race, they identify themselves with them, and take a becoming and honest pride in their descent, and, still holding the same religious principles, and the same language, and the same names, and the same customs, they desire to be fully identified with them, and to be regarded as one and the same nation. It is thus, that while the Roman Catholic peasantry execrates the very name of England, and deems hostility to her name, and opposition to her laws, and a desire for separation from her influence to be the highest virtues, the Protestants, on the other hand, deem it the object of the highest ambition to be identified with her; and loyalty to the British crown and British connection, steady attachment to, and support of, the laws and constituted authorities, and an unshaken fidelity to the landlords, are ever deemed the highest VIRTUES among them, and he who most excels in these things, is the most admired and applauded among his fellows; and yet, this, aye! this is the class, this loyal, peaceful, industrious, English-like class, that are the victims of that execrable system of annoyance, and disturbance, and intimidation, that is compelling them to desert their country in search of more peaceful regions and happier climates. The time is fast approaching when England will weep over their loss: they were ever true and

faithful to her interest, and when the Roman Catholic priesthood has more matured their plans of separation from England, and when that Protestant population, which was the right arm of her power in this island, shall have been driven in this piecemeal fashion from our shores, England will discover that the emigration of the Protestants was the first fatal step to the complete separation of these islands.

We cannot dwell longer on these subjects at present, but we cannot conclude without repeating our conviction that there is no peace or happiness for Ireland, and no security for the British empire so long as Popery is the religion of this country. Hitherto it was to a certain extent quiescent, its powers had not as yet been concentrated, its leaders, THE PRIESTHOOD, were not fully prepared, but now their plans are ripening fast, and all things are tending to the great consummation of their wishes. A separation of Ireland from England! Living as we do in the midst of all the tortuous workings of this system, and witnessing its effects upon the ignorant, and superstitious, and mindless peasantry, we feel that there is one and only one mode of preventing the mere mass, the numerical mass of population being wielded by the priesthood for their own selfish ends, and that is to lessen their dangerous and unnatural power over the people, by educating, enlightening, proselytising the people. We have recommended this as a great national work, which it is the highest policy of England to forward by all the means in her power, and we have done so on political considerations. We have purposely omitted all considerations of the question in its religious bearings, and we feel convinced in our inmost souls that unless some such effort be promptly made, we shall soon lose the only opportunity offered of fully identifying the two islands; for we advocate extended proselytism in order to restore peace and tranquillity to this distracted and faction-torn countryto prevent the effusion of the best blood of both islands—to destroy the approaching empire of the priesthoodto maintain the union of these countries, and prevent the dissolution of this noble empire.