committce would be enabled to give employment to able bodies in times of want and distress, if that money were employed, whether in public works or by the owners of land in useful improvements, I have no doubt but lands which are now enclosed would rise very much in value, the quality of the tillage be considerably improved, and that of agricultural produce greatly altered for the better; so that, in fact, every thing which constitutes property in Ireland would gradually become better and more valuable than it now is, or than it ever will be under the present system.―pp. 17, 18.

In carrying the principle of this illustration into effect, Ireland would appear to be a gainer to an extent which, arithmetically considered, would be equal to the difference between forty-five millions sterling, the amount of the value of her present landed produce, and one hundred millions sterling, which, upon a moderate calculation, would be the natural income derivable from the same land. This result is calculated on the amount of acres in Ireland, which is 17,190,726, and the average produce is estimated only as high as five pound the acre. If it be said that this calculation takes in a great quantity of bog and other unreclaimed land, the answer may readily be returned, that in the opinions of engineers (Mr. Nimmo for instance) best calculated to form a judgment upon such matters, any bog is capable, by manure and tillage, and due management, of being rendered the most fertile land that can be submitted to the operations of the farmer. So that in case justice was done to the whole soil of Ireland, it would be, according to Mr. Martin's reasoning, fully able, without any aid from manufactories, fisheries, or mines, to afford food and employment for not less than fifty-one millions and a half of human beings!

Here is a field of unbounded dimensions for the profitable employment of capital-why then does not capital flow into Ireland? Dr. Doyle's answer, in the spirit of which our author heartily joins, is the best, for it is the truest, which could be given to this question: "Men," he says, "who have money to spare, will not take it to Ireland at present, because of the unsettled state of that country, because of the nightly outrages, because of the want of character of the common people. The great object, then, would be to prepare a quiet population, to take the lower orders out of the condition in which they are placed, and secure them from every temptation to disorder. This object would be accomplished, and it would be triumphantly so, because the existence of an assessment of Irish property would call home the absentees, and induce them to adopt the best and most convenient system for themselves.

Mr. Martin refers to one powerful motive why a system of Poor Laws should be established in Ireland, as speedily as circumstances will permit. Dr. Doyle, he tells us, only speaks the sentiments of every man of experience in that country, when he represents, as he has, before the Select Committee on the state of the Irish poor,

that the physical condition of the latter has visibly degenerated from what it recently was.

I recollect (observes this learned and spirited prelate), when a boy, to see them assemble at public sports in thousands, and to witness on such occasions, exhibitions of strength and activity, which I have not witnessed for some years past; for at present they have not either the power or the disposition to practise those athletic sports and games which were frequent in our country when I was a youth. Moreover, I now see persons who get married between twenty and thirty years of age; they become poor, weakly, and emaciated in their appearance; and very often, if you question a man and ask him what age he is, you will find he has not passed fifty. We have, in short, a disorganized population, becoming by their poverty more and more immoral, and less and less capable of providing for themselves; and we have, besides that, the frightful, and awful, and terrific exhibition of human life wasted with a rapidity, and to a degree, such as is not witnessed in any civilized country upon the face of the earth.-p. 22.

Such are the principal motives which call for the establishment of Poor Laws in Ireland; and with respect to any objections which may arise against this measure, they never occupy our attention but for a short time. It is usually said that these laws tend to increase population. Well, but population increases without them, and that too with a vengeance, for whilst the population of Ireland doubled itself in three-and-thirty years, England took one hundred and fifty to perform a similar exploit.

Poor Laws, say the timid, tend to lower wages. Their power in this repect may be extraordinary; but if they can take off a jot from the wages of the labourer in Ireland, they are gifted with a power which no human penetration can discover. Then, when it is said that the Poor Laws demoralize the population, let it be asked if the English poor, the very victims of those laws, are not patterns of morality compared with those of Ireland, who have been so well secured from all such malignant influence? Mr. Martin, however, is not satisfied with this negative argument, but enters into an elaborate citation of authorities, to show that the evils attendant on the execution of the Poor Laws in this country, do not naturally follow from the principle of securing a wholesome provision for the destitute poor; but are altogether the result of mal-administration and perversion of the facilities afforded by them. Other objections, somewhat of a minor nature, are noticed and disposed of by Mr. Martin, chiefly by quotations from the powerful evidence of Dr. Doyle, and he then proceeds to detail the plan of the Poor Laws which he would wish to see established in Ireland. The following are the heads of the project :

1st. The law of settlement is the first thing to be determined on in establishing a legal provision for the poor, and as the complicated bastardy

laws in England have tended much to increase litigation in England, it would certainly be far from desirable to introduce those laws into Ireland.

2d. Rate or assessment should be levied in Ireland on wealth, not as in England on industry.

The parishioners, of every religious denomination, should assemble in vestry (and what a blessed mode it would be of eradicating sectarian feelings) and elect a committee, including the clergy of every persuasion, and the two senior magistrates; the committee would appoint applotters and the holdings be valued at a minimum rate; but in order to make the rate a tax on the property of the rich, all lands and houses under a certain value, to be rated to the landlord solely, and above that fixed value the rate to be divided between the landlord and tenant or occupier of the farm or house; a clause to be inserted that the rate must be bona fide paid by the landlord, and not constitute merely an agreement in the lease.

3d. Mode of administering the rate. The greatest evil of the English system of poor laws, as shown in the preceding chapter, is the administration of relief. To guard against this in Ireland, there should be no money paid to any pauper. Ireland contains 5,000,000 acres of reclaimable bog land, is in want of roads and canals, &c., and by having large houses of industry built in every city, corporate town, or barony, abundance of labour can be provided for those who must merely receive in return bare subsistence. The plan of the house of industry at Liverpool, which is capable of containing 1,500 paupers, is well worthy of adoption; taking care to have a large piece of land with each establishment, and dividing the house into an asylum for the aged and maimed, and a temporary shelter for the houseless and destitute.

In cases where a large family are thrown out to die in the ditch, or to beg their way through the land, if the parents can find daily work, but are unable to support their children, let the children be taken into the school house; if the husband be unable to support the wife, or the wife unable to support herself, let her be taken into the workhouse; and if the father be still unable to get employment, let him also be provided with work and food, but on no account let there be an addition to wages while the pauper can get employment; he must either enter the house of industry in toto or not at all. The efficacy of this plan has been tried in various parts in England, and abundant testimony can readily be had as to its good effects. It may be necessary to add, that the house of industry should be placed under the grand jury inspection, and the Lord-lieutenants of counties should be constituted honorary inspectors, with a distinct understanding that a minute attention to the state of the houses of industry in their respective counties was one of the most essential branches of their responsible office.

No honest man, we think, can read the evidence contained in this able and truly candid statement, without feeling that the utmost danger to the safety of the State is involved in the neglect on the part of our government, of the facts and recommendations it presents.

We cannot dismiss this subject without recurring to the speech of Sir Robert Peel. Of the style of that speech, we cannot, we are sorry to say, express our approbation. It is far too ambitious.

We never suspected Sir R. Peel of shining talents; we always considered him an active, pains-taking, useful man of business, doing the work he had to do in a workmanlike manner. While he confines himself to the sphere for which nature intended him, he will always be respectable; but from some parts of this production, it is, we fear, but too evident that he has a desire to addict himself to eloquence, notwithstanding the many beacons erected to warn ordinary men from so dangerous a course. We hope and trust he will not persevere. He may rest assured that if he had been born to be an orator, he would have found it out long ago. Let him not mistake rant for energy. Let some friend inform him, that when he describes men in red coats defending a mountain pass against others in blue, as "rolling back the fiery tide which the exulting valour of France poured upon the heights," he is invading the province of the rhapsodist, and transgressing the laws of taste as well as of gravitation. Such things may pass without observation in the hurry and excitement of an extemporaneous reply; but when a man comes down to the House of Commons with a concocted speech, and afterwards publishes that speech, he challenges an examination of his pretensions-he says, in fact, "Look what I can do."

Let Sir Robert Peel, above all things, desist from the vicious practice of every now and then trying his hand at a joke. Those who read the following passage, and who remember the brilliant wit and graceful play of fancy with which Mr. Canning used to delight the House, will not think that he has found a happy imitator in the Ex-secretary, who is evidently not at home in the department of Parliamentary pleasantry:

I may, if I choose, range myself under the standard which has been erected by the Right Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Tennyson), the member for Lambeth. But really, Sir, the device which he has chosen for his shield is so little inspiriting, that I am forced to hesitate. If his war-cry had been, Down with the Bill!" or, "Trial by Jury!" or, "Stand by the Laws!" or, " The British Constitution or Death!" one might have partaken of the enthusiasm of your leader, and followed him at all hazards. But when the leader has chosen such a very unromantic motto,-when his standard is merely inscribed, That this bill be read a first time on this day fortnight;"-when he rallies his followers with the sage advice, “ Let us wait a little," Come, tarry awhile with me," I have self-possession enough to resist his appeal.-pp. 43, 44.

This is bitter bad-it is in the true crassa Minerva strain. Sir Robert is a scholar, and ought to know that mediocrity in wit comes within the statue of non concessere columnæ.

ART. X.

1. Polish Tales. By the Authoress of " Hungarian Tales. In 3 vols. London: Saunders and Otley. 1833.

2. The Wondrous Tale of Alroy; The Rise of Iskander. By the Author of "Vivian Grey," and "Contasini Fleming," &c. &c. In 3 vols. London: Saunders and Otley. 1833.

3. The New Road to Ruin; a Novel. By Lady STEPNEY. 3 vols. London: Bentley. 1833.

In

THE work which we have placed in the first rank in the above catalogue of titles, deserves in every respect the distinction which such a preference implies; for we find in these powerful tales the same vigorous genius, the same eloquence and accuracy of style, and the same judicious and skilful arrangement of plot and selection of character which, so strikingly characterize the Hungarian Tales of Mrs. Gore.

As we have before us the mighty task which nine solid volumes comprehends, we shall be excused, we are sure, by the reader, in plunging at once, in conformity with the highest authority on such occasions, in medias res-into the business of the scene. The opening tale of Mrs. Gore's work is entitled, “The Confederates of Lubionki," and is replete with scenes of deep interest. The story is briefly this :-In the year 1763, the young Count Cyclenske, after having made the tour of Europe, and resided for a long time in England, returned to the province of Mazonsze, to take possession of his estate of Wodarodko. Being an enthusiastic lover of his country, he is determined to ameliorate, if possible, the condition of the serfs and bondsmen on his estate. He imagines he has but to enfranchise them, and that, as if touched by the wand of an enchanter, they will be instantly turned into a free, happy, and industrious peasantry, like those he had seen in merry England; but never for a moment reflecting on the wretched and degraded state which they had been accustomed to. He arrives at Wodarodko, accompanied by a French cook and valet, together with an English groom and a Swiss porter. He gives a grand fete, at the conclusion of which he comes forward and presents the deeds of enfranchisement to the inhabitants of the six villages comprising his estates; after which they disperse, some to spend the night in riot, and others to confederate in order to throw off the yoke of Russia. This scheme of freedom displeases the better farmers, who, by the laws of Poland, are free-born and noble, and who heretofore possessed entire control over the serfs. They judge, and truly, that instead of bettering the condition of the serfs, the change will render them still more wretched, by making them idle,