more than usually disturbed. Driven by want, and goaded by oppression in ten thousand various and maddening forms, they nightly devastate the country, commit depredations, and sometimes are guilty of murder. This is one evil, and this is the one chiefly insisted on by Ministers; but there are others, which are really the things felt, though not openly complained of. Among other things, the agricultural population have determined to pay no tithe. Mr. Stanley, in his wisdom, commenced a campaign in favour of tithe. He levied it at the point of the bayonet. He employed police, troops, judges, and lawyers, to enforce it. He ruined thousands, and exasperated the whole population. As the tithe was levied by force and arms, so was it defended. Is it wonderful, that when, in warlike guise, you strip the poor of their hard earnings, they should resist you in the same way? Is it strange, that when you shew, that the law has no moral power, that it is strong only by physical force,-is it strange, we ask, that the people should cease to venerate the law, and withdraw from it the allegiance which, by habit, they are accustomed to pay to it? In Ireland such has been the conduct of the Government; such has been the result. A law hated by the people has heen backed by force; and by force it has been successfully resisted. The parsons who have insisted on their tithes have been shot; the army employed to collect them has been foiled; the judges appointed to hang and otherwise punish no-tithe-payers, have been disappointed of their prey; and the police are no longer supreme in Ireland. Added to these two evils, there is another existing, in the opinion of the Government; though this also is not insisted on. The people gene.. rally are politically excited. The grievances under which they have so long suffered are marked out for destruction; the sweeping besom of Reform is about, by the people, to be passed over the Church of Ireland, and all the monstrous emanations from that portentous establishment. These three classes of evils (for so the Ministry and the gentry of Ireland consider them) now existing, the Ministry are at their wits' end to put them down. And without any explanation respecting the malady, without any statement as to the cure proposed, they come to the Legis. lature, and demand of them at once confidence and increased powers. The answer to this demand was, that before any increased powers were given, the ills complained of should be explained; before harsh measures were resorted to, the real grievances of which the people complained should be abated. The history of Ireland contains many instances of powers being given, and being exercised; it contains more of grievances abated,―of the legitimate demands of the people being satisfied. In place of declaring war against a whole people, a people, too, whom all persons allow to be grievously abused,-why not, it was asked, try the more mild and soothing plan of abolishing the ills complained of? For example, try the effect of putting down the tithes, and the tithe campaign; substitute for an inefficient and insulting police, one which the people could confide in, and one which they would assist; let the people elect their own magistrates, and they will have confidence in the administration of justice ; destroy all distinctions between Catholic and non-Catholic; do away with the Irish Church,-a church maintained only for the clergy, and not for the people; establish a system of education, and a more equitable taxation; and then, if all these things fail, ask for additional powers, and demand of the people's representatives unbounded confidence in your intentions. But these things would not fail. Whitefeet would, by this system, be effectually suppressed, and good order firmly established, where anarchy has for centuries been predominant. This plan, however, does not meet with the approbation of his Majesty's Ministers; and why not? The answer is plain; and however painful it may be to speak as we are about to speak, the answer shall be unflinchingly given. The real grievances of Ireland arise out of the Protestant Church establishment, and the plans that have been adopted to maintain that establishment. But the Ministers do not wish to get rid of this gigantic burthen; they cling to it; they love it; they will attempt any thing rather than overturn it. They have had recourse to subterfuge to attain their end. What, in the present disturbances, they peculiarly dislike, is the avowed enmity to the Established Church, and the means adopted to abate that nuisance. They did not dare say this, however; they therefore had recourse to an artifice. They insist on the outrages of the Whitefeet; they paint in terrible colours, the disturbances created by these lawless depredators; they pretend that they desire powers to put down these evil doers, and they thus endeavour to frighten the English people. In their. plans, however, these Whitefeet are forgotten. The efforts of the Government are directed against the non-payers of tithes; their increased powers are directed against church and political agitation. The House of Commons would not thus see the conduct of the Ministers. They were still determined to have confidence in the reforming Ministry; and they voted confidence in them, and a determination to give powers before abating grievances, by a majority of 301 to 65. These two symptoms of the old malady, which men vainly fancied was cured for ever, were followed by two others equally significant. Lord Althorp, on being asked whether he intended to abolish the taxes on knowledge, answered in his usual manner: He was extremely desirous of doing away with these taxes; but he could not say whether he could do so, because the quarter's Revenue had not been ascertained. Put this answer in juxta-position with the next step of His Majesty's Ministers. They could not determine to abolish the most mischievous tax which is now levied from the people, because they did not know the state of the Revenue: but they could resolve to maintain a parcel of Naval and Military sinecures, come what would, be the situation what it might of the Revenue. Are not these significant symptoms? Is there not much unworthy artifice in this mode of dealing with the people's demands? The Ministry, moreover, say that they intend to do nothing respecting the Corn Laws; they have given an ambiguous answer respecting slavery; and very openly hinted that no reduction in taxation will take place. If this be all that we are to obtain from a Reformed Parliament, we have laboured hard, and for many months, for very little purpose. One word as to the composition and temper of the House of Commons. The last division of 232 against 138, on Mr. Hume's motion to reduce Military and Naval sinecures, gives us hopes that, on questions of economy, the people's demands will be attended to; that time will destroy the prestige which now exists respecting the present Ministers; and that the representatives of the people will not long be cajoled by the shifts and artifices daily employed to deceive them. Although this be our opinion of the majority of the House, there is much in its composition to create disgust; many having found their way into that assembly, possessing not one quality required in the legislators of a great nation. Much, by far too much, of the old leaven remains. Dandies, emptyheaded coxcombs, insolent aristocrats, yet form too large a portion of the legislature. It would be invidious to mention names; but to any one who goes into the People's House, there will appear to be a strange assembly of idle loungers, of mere youths, and dangling boys of fashion, congregated behind the Speaker's chair; youths whose fit place would be some strict seminary of useful instruction, where they might learn something beyond the "nice conduct of a clouded cane;" and some twenty years hence be enabled to come to some rational conclusion upon the great matters on which they now, so improperly, are called to decide. To any one who will go into the great Council of the Nation in a sedate and sober spirit; who feels the immense responsibility which the office of a representative necessarily imposes; it will appear a matter of serious lamentation, of deep and bitter regret, that our destinies, our whole well-being, and the well-being of the many millions under our dominion, should be trifled with in this awful manner; and should be suffered to depend, in any degree, upon the whim and fancy of a parcel of insolent, idle, ignorant, school. boys. When we consider, that the most powerful minds the world ever saw, have, day after day, night after night, spent their best energies in endeavouring to understand and solve the many difficult questions which the science of legislation involves; when we know that, after all their efforts, their knowledge has hitherto been imperfect; that the science which they have endeavoured to frame is imperfect also; what shall we sy to the wisdom of those who select, for the practical application of this difficult and perplexing science, a host of ignorant youths, possessed even of very few kindly or generous feelings? Assuredly the People have had little to do in the affair beyond that of permitting it. It is to be hoped that the time is not far distant, when all this rubbish will be, utterly and for ever, swept from the legislature of the people. cessors. Although there is a large portion of the House, nearly one half, who have never before been within its walls; still, the tone and temper of the present House resembles strongly, too strongly, indeed, that of its predeAt present, the new, and better disposed part of the members, are somewhat dashed by the impudent old leaven which sets the fashion, and apparently guides the estimation of the House. This will not long be the case. The demands of the people must quickly be attended to; the feelings that, out of doors, find favour, must be predominant within ; and the high tone of morality, which the mass of the people admire, will be adopted and admired by their representatives also. At the present moment, however, it would be difficult to find any public assembly in the kingdom, (the House of Lords excepted,) in which the tone of the morality is worse; in which the arguments employed to guide their understandings are so vulgar; and, in conclusion, in which the emotions which are predominant are so utterly selfish, mean, and contemptible. The better men of the House ought to rise up in indignation, and at once introduce a higher and more dignified morality, a more wise and instructive mode of argument. The House must not permit the present empty set, who guide its councils, to predominate after the fashion which has hitherto prevailed. THE WISHING-CAP. No. II. A Flight to the Cape. Inferiority of all other hunts to the Lion-hunt. Character of the Lion vindicated. Dr. Johnson caught wild. Inquiry into the reason of the existence of Lions. Nature's love of Pomp and Show. An awkward question for our friends in America. National Symbols in need of Reformation. Terrible mistake of Napoleon. * THE perusal of a jovial ballad upon a "Lion-hunt," in a late publication, has made us wish to be in Africa, and see one for ourselves; and accordingly, we have been there. We saw a variety of other animals, such as cameleopards, quaggas, and Dutchmen ; partook of a breakfast of honey with our friend the Cuculus indicator; and had a sight of the Spirit of the Cape, and the gentler Ghosts of Vaillant and his Narina. As we go winged, we of course go as the crow flies," straight to the mark, or, to use a more apposite simile, as Mercury in the ancient poets, with his Winged Cap, goes over land and sea on his messages; so that, if travellers had had proper eyes in their heads, they might have seen us skimming along, now like a pigeon, and now like an albatross, over France, the coast of Italy, the Mediterranean, Barbary, and the Desert. It was bitterly cold in crossing the Channel and the Alps; and we cannot say we felt much warmer, when we dipped down among the orangeries and the waters of the Riviera. The southern part of the Mediterranean was the place. In the desert, we saw, beneath our feet, a host of pillars of sand, moving along in a burning and fiery twilight, like the spirits of Dom-Daniel. The Spirit of the Cape faced us in a very grand manner towards our right, as we entered Caffreland, frowning high up in the air, just as Camoens beheld him on his return from India; but we declined his acquaintance; and closing our pinions, descended into the vineyards of French Corner, where we took refreshment and a dance with the goodnatured family of M. du Fresne; some of the most pious, and at the same time most pleasant people we ever met with a perfect model for those who would show a truly religious sense of the bounties of God's creation. A "Lion-hunt!" How grand is the sound, and how it raises in our estimation those who engage in it! How it seems to open to us at once all the romance and wayfaring universality of the times we live in ; and throws back into a domestic and tea-drinking nothingness the experience of the last century! And how poor, or to-be-deprecated, sound all other kinds of hunting in the comparison, the "stag-hunt,”-inhuman; the "hare-hunt," ditto, and sneaking; the "fox-hunt," vulgar and squire-archical. A "tiger-hunt" is something; but the sportsmen get up on elephants, out of the way. The "lion-hunt" is the thing. It is Homer come to life. Those who have been parties to it, have lived epically. Only think, reader :-let the Almanach des Gourmands talk as it will of its "Jury of Tasters ;"-let Mr. Ude and Mr. Gunter boast as much as they please ;-let the aristocratic historian record the exploits of the young gentlemen, who tossed up a slipper of Ninon's into a ragout; Ephemerides, or Occasional Poems written in Scotland and Southern Africa, by Thomas Pringle. but here is a gentleman among us, Mr. Pringle, who has tasted lion ! He thinks it " insipid," and cannot recommend it. At what a disadvantage does this tone of indifference, this superiority to a lion-chop, put all of us, who have never risen above beef and mutton! Of a similar grandeur compared with our home-feelings, and begetting a doubt within us whether most to admire its superiority to our amusements, or to be grateful for the natural every-day air with which he speaks of it as a commonplace, is the description of the hunt in Mr. Pringle's verse; as, for instance, where, in language no loftier or more assuming than if he were talking of a badger, he says, "But tighten your girths, and look well to your flints, Who does not feel that the lion is in his neighbourhood, when he hears these two natural epithets? And, yet, who does not, at the same time, feel an alarm, unknown to the gallant writer, when thus told of the necessity of tightening his horse's girths, and looking well to his flints? One of the huntsmen is down, and fairly under the lion's paw; yet the poet has no greater alarm for him than he expresses in the following jovial couplet: "Bezadenhout, up man! 'tis only a scratch You were always a scamp, and have met with your match." 66 To have been under a lion, his paws on one's breast, and his great visage panting and looking round him; and yet to be told it was only a scratch!" This is "coming to the scratch" with a lustre ! We shall not repeat, however, the details of a sport which has been so well described in the verse and prose of this gentleman, and by so many other writers. We shall content ourselves with bearing testimony to their accuracy, and with saying how glad we are to see the character of the lion for courage and magnanimity vindicated by the latest of our fellow-travellers. Some mechanical-minded persons, out of an idle jealousy of the poets, (the best of all observers,) would fain have had us believe of late years, that the lion was a sneaking fellow, no better than a cat. They triumphantly desired us to notice how he watched, cat-like, for his prey ; how idle he was, except when roused by hunger; and how quietly he could walk off before a score or so of men and dogs, after standing and looking them in the face, and considering their presented muskets. Unquestionably the lion has a relationship to the cat; just as a great man has to the little people among his species. He also holds a man in his mouth, (a very terrible sight!) just as a cat does a mouse. But he does not sport with his prey! He is not cruel; not willing to get his pleasure out of one's pain. He watches, it is true, for his prey; but so would Jenkins, if he were an outlaw with nothing to eat, and a boy was going by with a leg of mutton. So would "Jenkins," do we say? So would the most dignified Doctor or the greatest Saint among us. Suppose that Dr. Johnson, or the Bishop of London, or even our Gracious King William, had, by some accident, grown up in the woods, without education or speech, and been caught, and called Sam or William, the Wild-Boy; and suppose he had been brought to town in a caravan, and had got loose about six o'clock in the evening, having had nothing to eat all day, and a man were going by with a dish of turtle from the pastry-cooks! Conceive the eye with which Wild Sam would stand looking from behind the caravan door, for fear his master should see him; and then the shout with which he would bolt forth upon the turtle, gab. |