purpose not to be fully displayed until the season ripe for its development, is not, with sufficient accuracy, made known, but that it contemplated something very different from obtaining an assurance of pauper employment and subsistence, is thoroughly understood. We would beg to ask Mr. Scrope how many petitions have been presented from the people of Ireland, in favor of the measure he advises ? What parishes have forwarded such supplicatious? How many farmers, and labourers, and ejected tenants, unable to find land or employment, have signed them? The ecclesiastic most popular in the church of Rome, in Ireland, was well known to have been favorable to the enactment of a measure similar to Mr. Scrope's. What weight was attached to his wishes and recommendations has been made deplorably manifest. Can our author say to what extent his well-known earnestness to procure a poor law for Ireland, was aided by general respect for his opinion, or counteracted by distaste to the measure he perseveringly recommended? In a word, can he say, judging from their respective success, whether the opposition of Mr. O'Connell, or the advocacy of Dr. Doyle, was most in unison with the sentiments of the Roman Catholics in Ireland ? It is the purposed end of the land-tax to remove "the feeling of deep hostility to the law, and to British connexion." Is it reasonable to acknowledge Mr. O'Connell "the organ of the popular feeling in Ireland"-to acknowledge him also, the impracticable opponent of a poor law, continuing, notwithstanding such opposition, the organ of opinion; and to say that the measure to which he is most decidedly opposed, will conciliate the opinion of which he is the organ, and appease all hostility to England? It may be said, in behalf of Mr. Scrope's measure, that former experiments, made in conformity with the wishes of the people, have signally failed, and that it would be wisdom now to try something which, at first, they may account unwelcome. It is, we believe, a recommendation of Mr. Edgeworth's, never to give a child what he cried for; grant him, said this practical observer of childhood and its caprices, any other indulgence, but steadily refuse

him what he hopes to compel from you by clamor. On this principle, perhaps, it is expected that an evil spirit in Ireland, may be laid by granting to the people what seems for their good, and what is plainly against their wishes. But we tell Mr. Scrope that Ireland has outgrown the stature when the legislature of the nursery could rule it.

There is one characteristic uniformly discoverable in the structure of those associations which have shed so much blood, and wrought so much debasement in Ireland; and occasioned, in Mr. Scrope's pamphlet, a burst of such eloquent and unsophisticated rejoicing, from which, we think, he ought to have derived some little instruction : they consist exclusively of Roman Catholics. Whatever be the name in which they, for the time, exercise authority, their regulations so carefully exclude all but "the faithful," from participating in the peril and glory of the enterprise they have in hand, that in no single instance has a Protestant been admitted to their confidence. It may be said that the combinations existing, principally, in Roman Catholic districts, there were no Protestants of the humbler classes to join in them. A question, however, occurs: why were combinations thus localized? Why have there been none of similar power and purpose in Protestant Ulster? There the population is more dense than in any other province of Ireland—the rent of land is not lower

the wages of labor not higher than it is in most parts of Ireland, lower than it is in many, how happens it that no combinations have been formed to defeat the law, and to protect the afflicted peasantry. Tenants, in considerable numbers, have been dispossessed-rents have been, in some, perhaps in many instances, exorbitant-employment for labor has been in some seasons inadequate-and yet, in Ulster, the law is obeyed, and life and property are secure. We do not, at present, enter into inquiry why this is so: but our opinion of Mr. Scrope's competency to the task he undertook, is not raised by finding that he has not even adverted to the tranquillity of Protestant Ulster, and to the abstinence, voluntary or compelled, of Protestants in every other part of Ireland, from outrage and combination.

But, in other parts of Ireland, there are no Protestants to combine! This is not the truth. The Roman Catholic Association is no bad witness on such a subject, and we are enabled to quote, from Mr. Wyse's history, its decisive testimony. In the census ordered by that body, to be taken by the Roman Catholic clergy, it was directed that the number of the Protestants should be ascertained. The census was not completed; but, taking into account the purpose it should serve, we may fairly conjecture that the returns were not those which would report most favourably of the amount of Protestantism. Looking, then, to districts in which combinations against law, have become powerful, we find in the returns, as given by Mr. Wyse, of fourteen parishes in the diocese of Kildare and Leighlin, the number of Protestants to be 12,078; of five parishes in Ferns, 3487; of eight in Cork, 6873. A little more than a fifth of the whole population had been reported, not including, as Mr. Wyse "the parishes of the great towns," an exclusion, we may add, very pertinent to the occasion-and the result gave, according to the report,

informs us,

and the selection of Roman Catholic priests for Munster, 39,047 Protestants, 40,985 for Leinster. Supposing this census to contain returns from the third part of Munster, and the fourth of Leinster, which a reference to the general population returns will show to be pretty nearly the truth, we have Roman Catholic evidence that, excluding the great towns, the third part of Munster contained, in the year 1828, 39,047 Protestants; the fourth part of Leinster, 40,985. Can it be maintained, that there were not multitudes of Protestants to join in lawless confederacy, if they had the will and the permission to become confederated? In Leinster, it appears that, excluding the great towns, where the proportions approach much more nearly to equality, the Protestants were to the Roman Catholics, as one to less than eleven. Shall it be said that such inequality in numbers, was, in itself, sufficient to prohibit Protestants from engaging in combinations from which they were to receive a necessary protection, in many instances, we grieve to say, a protection the more necessary because

they were Protestants? Reason and common sense forbid. No-there was a more criminal cause of their exclusion.

"About four years since," said Major evidence before a Parliamentary CommitWarburton, Inspector of Police, in his

tee, in 1825, "a system of organization was introduced into two baronies in the county Clare, which has continued in operation from that period. It is called the Ribbon system, and is to be distinguished from those disturbances which are occasioned by the transfer of lands and by other local causes. The objects of the conspiracy entered into by Ribbonmen, are to establish the Roman Catholic church, and extirpate Protestantism, and to separate Ireland from Great Britain, and as an inducement to the people to unite with them, they have promised, that, when successful, they will establish a kind of agrarian law, and make an equal division of all the property over which they shall have acquired dominion. The propagators of the Ribbon system avail themselves of any local disturbances for the purpose of introducing their own principles; and it is invariably found, that where disturb their desultory character, and are methoances are of long continuance, they lose dised into political organization."

Such is, in substance, the testimony borne by a most competent witness, and, if space and time served, we could confirm it by strong corroboration, and show, to any who needed information, that every confederacy by which the authority of law has been, of late years, overcome, is exclusively Roman Catholic in character, and has, as its end and object, the extirpation of Protestantism, and separation from England. And can any rational man be persuaded that he can defeat or break up such a combination by effecting one of its purposes, and furnishing it with means which may be used for the advancement of the other.

We would not have it supposed, from our treating with so little ceremony the puerilities of Mr. Poulett Scrope's brochure, that we are insensible to the importance of adopting and devising measures by which the condition of our poorer fellow-countrymen may be ameliorated. We have uniformly declared our sentiments as favourable to all such measures, and

have not abstained from expressing, perhaps in too unmeasured terms, abhorrence of the oppressions which have reduced men below the level of their kind, and left them exposed to the influence of such temptations as have fearfully demoralised the great mass of the population of Ireland. Nor would we disguise our persuasion, that the evils which affect Ireland are such as must be remedied by management as well as by legislation-by domestic, still more than parliamentary exertions. We are not of those who believe that a benevolent government could consistently compel a refractory population to be at peace, and then hand over a defenceless multitude to taskmasters who would renew the cruelties which had aforetime goaded, or assisted in goading them to insurrection. We believe that the mistakes and misdeeds of landlords and agents have contributed much to produce those evils under which the country groans, and we would desire to see the legal wrongs of the people redressed, at the same time, that the giant power of confederacy against law was reduced to submission. But, cries our author, how is the combination to be broken? how is Ireland to be governed? Not, he adds, by Protestant ascendency, and courts-martial; for they "have been tried in vain for half a century, and matters have only been made worse." This “half a century" was an infelicitous selection of time, as it was precisely the period occupied in the work of undermining Protestant ascendency -that is to say, it was precisely the period in which, whatever may be said of courts-martial, the power of Protestant ascendency was not tried, or was tried only as sappers and miners try the fortress against which they are employed. To speak correctly, it should be said, that the period during which Protestant ascendency was declining, was the period in which courtsmartial, and the disorders which called for them, were most painfully frequent. But let this pass, and let it be conceded, that matters have been made worse during the fifty years in which Protestant ascendency has been declining, and in which the government was perpetually contrasted with itself, compensating the vice of weak indulgence with the right

of extreme severity-balancing connivance with courts-martials-and_rather alarming and astonishing than subduing, by efforts, which were not the indications of constitutional vigor, but seemed as the throes and convulsions of liberated but long obstructed energies. Let it be admitted that such caprices of severity and forbearance are not the influences by which a growing or a mature organization against law could best be counteracted; but let it not be argued that therefore a wise and steady exercise of authority must be without success. Above all, let it not be inferred that, therefore, nothing remains but to court committees of assassination into a favourable acceptance of measures which would increase the power of faction, would disgust and alienate nearly two millions of loyal Protestant subjects, and, because of the spirit in which they were brought to pass, would cover the name of England with indelible disgrace.

But again the question recurs, how is Ireland to be governed? how would we govern, were the power committed to us? We will not say, with legislators of high renown, that we are not in the cabinet, and think it right to preserve our cabinet secrets until we can put them to good use; but we will say, what, no doubt, the reader will rejoice to hear, that our space is limited, and we cannot commence an essay on government which we have no prospect of bringing to a speedy conclusion. Instead of a manifesto, we conclude with an advice, by which, we hope, if Mr. Poulett Scrope ever be appointed to preside over the affairs of this land, he, and we through him, may be benefited.

We would say, then, to the members of his Majesty's government who may feel a strong desire to bestow peace on Ireland; first, count the cost of your undertaking, and ascertain whether you are able to effect your purpose and willing to pay the price. If you are virtually, as well as in name, the government of Ireland, suffer no confederacy to remain in existence by which your power and the power of law is perpetually baffled and overcome-a confederacy which is far more formidable than the armed authority of the state, and which will

be acquiring more influence over the people, and will be becoming more reluctant to abdicate and dissolve in proportion as it extorts from the legislature concessions which loyalty and desert had never succeeded in obtaining. If you be truly a government, have no divided empire with such a power-bear no such brother near the throne-endure not, from subjects of the crown, insult and injury, for which, in olden time, England would encounter the world in arms. On the other hand, if you feel that the confederacy is, as many think, mightier than England-at least too strong for England to put down-and if you are satisfied to be styled a government, and to Occupy what was once thought the place of power, in presence of an adversary by whom you are overawed, whose frequent outrages you have no ability to punish, and whose projects, whatever they may be, you have not skill or strength to disconcert-then, for the sake of all that is valuable here and in England, enter betimes into parley with an enemy who has ceased to be in rebellion by having obtained success-learn what he will be satisfied to accept, and consider whether it is not more than you are willing to concede. Let there be a final settlement. It was the maxim of a skilful man of the world, in his intercourse with the dispensers of court favor" take what you get, and keep grumbling." While you adopt an indirect policy in your diplomacy with the power which has overthrown law, this maxim may be employed against you. Concession after concession may be thrown away, and grumbling, not conciliation, been its consequence. Every

grant may be followed by a murmur, "this I take, but it was not this I wanted." Be wise, therefore, in time, and before you relinquish a valuable possession, be sure that it will be graciously acceptedaccording to its value. In short, you should halt no more between two opposite opinions and two inconsistent procedures. If the combination which rules in three parts of Ireland, consist of subjects, reduce them to obedience, and bestow upon them all the blessings which a well-ordered government should provide. If it consist of enemies, make terms with them, and determine according to their demands and your abilities, whether it shall be war or peace. But, at whatever price, do not leave Ireland to linger in the state in which she has too long been afflicted: do not look on inertly, when the poor are cruelly, although legally oppressed-and then dwell with complacency on the thought, that assassins have afforded the protection which was not found in you-rejoicing with Mr. Scrope in a false trust that landlords and tenants may be, “by mutual annoyance, harassed into mutual accommodation." This would be a trust most false and most pernicious; if it be acted upon, there is no hope for this country, except in the overthrow of those who criminally indulge it; and England, elevated as she is, may yet have cause to rue the hour when, with a crooked and vacillating policy, she abandoned the maxims of evenhanded justice, and condescended to employ, in the attainment of her ends, such disgraceful instruments as the tumults of an exasperated people and the fears of a forsaken gentry.