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Blessings on thee, Joe ; blessings on thy kit ; blessings on every one like thee, that awakens the inner soul ; blessings on all true genius, that helps on its way the mighty vital life of heart that is abroad. For the so-called mythos of Pan was but the intuition of the eternal truth ; that one great soul and felloroship of harmony had yet to spiritualise, and link together the MIGHTY BROTHERHOOD

E. M.

MAN.

MY HEART IS LIKE THE BEE.

Oi! my Heart is like the Bec

For it danceth up and down
O’er each happy thing it sees,

In the country, in the town.
Oh! my Heart is like the Bee-

For 'tis ever murmuring
A low tune of quiet joy

O’er each fair and lovely thing.
Oh! my Heart is like the Bee-

For from every thing it meets,
Be it fair, or be it foul,

It sucks nothing but the swects.
Oh! my Heart is like the Bee-

For from every lowly flower
It doth bring a solace home

For the cold and wintry hour.
Oh ! my Heart is like the Bee-

For all gently it shall creep,
At the even-song of life,

To its nest, and go to sleep.
But
my

Heart 's not like the Bee-
It shall wake again, and fly
Where the sweet things never wither,

And the bright things never die.
And my Heart's not like the Bee-

'Twill be then a bliss to know, That 'twas a wise and faithful heart, TO SEE NOUGHT BUT GOOD BELOW !

R. E. B. MACLELLAN.

IRELAND AND THE IRISH.

BY A NATIVE.

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WHEN all is darkness, he does a public good who holds up a rush taper, and, even in times of greater enlightenment, there are recesses in the temple of Truth where even a feeble light is of importance. One of the worst lighted of the courts in that temple has been the political one ; and the darkest recess in that court, Irish politics. There it has been all groping--darkness that could be felt. A few farthing candles have been raised, but they have done little to dispel the gloom. Still do the most erroneous views of Ireland's policy and prospects obtain credence, and even its actual condition unknown or misunderstood. It

may seem a bold thing for an Irishman to raise his torch of bogwood amongst the patent waxlights of great metropolitan newspaper and government commissioners. But as he thinks his, although a ruder and less beautiful instrument, will throw rays to a greater distance, and enlighten a wider range, he feels it his duty to do so.

But dropping metaphor, there is really so much misconception of Irish questions, not only amongst the people of England generally, but amongst the most popular and approved writers, that though but feebly fitted for the task, I would fain be heard.

Thus Ireland is too generally spoken of as a continuous scene of anarchy and confusion, as a place where life and property are insecure, and her people as improvident, and almost incapable, and perfectly careless, of improvement. Even those writers most quoted and relied upon, both by politicians and law-makers, are often vague and conjectural in their statements of facts, and generally false in their conclusions. “ Ireland,” says Mr. Nichol, " is now suffering under a circle of evils, producing and reproducing one another. Want of capital produces want of employment-want of employment turbulence and misery-insecurity prevents the accumulation of capital, and so on. Until this circle is broken the evils must continue, and probably augment. The first thing to be done is to give security - that will produce or invite capital, and capital will give employment." Mr. Foster

indulges in the same system of circles. He tells us it is intense competition produces want of employment, that starvation, that discontent, disturbance, insecurity, and so on. “It is an unhappy circle of mischief, out of which all political disturbances have arisen.” To such plausible-looking theories, I altogether object : though they look well in print and sound like sense and philosophy, like all circles and ciphers, they are hollow and valueless. To the statements on which they depend, I would give a positive denial, and equally false are the theories deduced from them.

There is a fearful amount of insecurity of life and property here, as I shall show, but it is not such as these writers would suggest. The kind of insecurity they would have to be believed exists only in a comparatively small portion of Ireland, and there it is greatly exaggerated, and would at once disappear under wise and humane legislation. Did such exist, we want neither capital nor employment; nor our people industry, intelligence, knowledge or virtue. I put these statements in opposition to the cant phrases and stereotyped slang which are made an excuse for the enactment of coercive, and the maintenance of mischievous and oppressive, laws,—and I engage to maintain this truth.

First. I have said that the accusation of insecurity of property and disobedience to the laws applies only to a comparatively small portion of Ireland : that portion comprises parts of the midland counties of Tipperary, Roscommon, King's County, and the inland portions of Waterford, Clare, Galway, and Limerick : though ertending through so many counties, it does not contain, probably, more than 1,000,000 inhabitants. It has always been the battle-ground of Ireland, and exhibits the same mixture of races, and something of the reckless and unsettled habits, and love of change and adventure, which characterise other districts. There, first feudalism was brought into contact with clanship, and after fearful struggles partially displaced it ; and there, in after years, the naturalised Saxon combated for the liberties of Ireland with later invaders, and was himself displaced for the more ready tools of government. To these circumstances we may perhaps trace its present condi. tion. But even this part of Ireland is greatly falsified. The people are physically the finest in Ireland'; and, mentally, not inferior to any; they have all the generosity, ardour, and attachment of the Irish character, and more of independence and manliness. Under a just and kindly government they would be sure to become industrious, careful, and happy.

Of the rest of Ireland, so far as the people are concerned, there is no place on earth where there is more security : there is a degree of moral elevation and depth of religious feeling, especially in the South, rarely to be met with, which is the best of all securities ; with this there is a cheerfulness of disposition, and a power of endurance under privation and suffering, quite unknown in England. With the exception of a few petty larceny cases, which have their obvious origin in want and distress, our courts are all but idle; at neither of the four last assizes in the city of Cork were there more than six or eight criminal cases for trial, and amongst the whole but one of an aggravated character. The same is true of the county : in neither has there been business for a second jury. In the adjoining county of Kerry there is the same absence of crime of an aggravated character. There has not been a capital conviction in either for eleven years ; yet these two counties alone possess a larger population than the whole of the disturbed districts, as they are called. Such, also, is the condition of the Western counties of Connaught—although the people are the poorest on earth--of the whole of the counties of Wicklow, Kildare, Meath, Dublin, Louth, &c. : in one of these at a late assizes there was not a single case for trial. Such, also, is the condition of large portions of those counties where the sacrifice of life has been,

alas ! too frequent-even of Tipperary itself. Of the Province of Ulster I need not speak ; even the most prejudliced writers speak of it as the abode of industry, prosperity, and of all the advantages of advanced civilisation ; yet the counties of Ulster contain 2,500,000 of the population of the country----fully onethird.

It is plain, then, that, with the exception of a comparatively small portion, Ireland enjoys a high moral position, and that the general charge is false, that life and property are insecure. Of this unsettled portion I have said nothing, either in contradiction of the reports generally circulated concerning it, or in extenuation of its faults. I know the facts to be greatly exaggerated in the shape in which they are given to the public, but it would require an amount of detail altogether inconsistent with my present purpose to place them in their true light; yet, taking them at their worst and from the most prejudiced sources, they give no foundation to the prevalent opinions with regard to Ireland generally. And yet, were it otherwise, could it be wondered at? We should remember we are speaking of a country, one-half of whose population are always on the verge of destitution,-one-third, for three months of the year, absolute paupers ; without any means of supporting existence but the charity of neighbours just one degree better off than themselves. I know it is thought by some that these things are exaggerated—that such a condition of the people is too monstrous to be believed ; but, no; it is fearfully true. I will give just one case; but it is a faithful sample of two-thirds of Ireland it is from the Report of the Committee appointed to inquire into the amount of distress in the neighbourhood of Mallow, a place looked upon as rather better-conditioned than the average of our rural districts; Mallow being one of our most thriving inland towns, lying within twenty miles of the city of Cork, and possessing considerably over the average number of resident gentry; in fact, the place where any one acquainted with the South of Ireland would expect to find least distress. Here five townlands had been carefully gone over, the inhabitants personally visited, and an accurate report made out, the sum of which is--that of a population of 1,322, 721 are in a state of great destitution ; many of them living on nettles and corn kale ;—and even of the farmers, who are not mentioned in this number as destitute, few have more than will give themselves and their dependents one meal of potatoes a-day until the new crops are in. Even in the cities, and of those who are at work, thousands are unable to earn more than will purchase a sufficiency of the worst possible description of human food, without one penny to pay for clothes or lodging.

Would it be wonderful if, under such circumstances, outrage and anarchy, vice and crime should exist to a considerable extent ? But they do not. You enter one of the abodes of wretchedness by which we are surrounded, you hear neither repinings nor discontent ; the wife or mother, if there be such, gives utterance to none but sounds of trust and gratitude ; and they are neither cant phrases nor religious slang, learned by rote to be parroted forth at a fitting opportunity, but the sincere and carnest breathings of the heart. The children evince a degree of mirthfulness almost incredible undersuch circumstances; while the father, the poor drudge who has worked his day for the miserable pittance that half supports them, has enough of the mother's piety, and of the children's cheerfulness to enable him to bear his lot without repining, and to preserve him alike from despondency and vice. Surely “God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb: but He does more ; He gives to his stricken children hopes and consolations which

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