THERE are two islands lying to

the north-west of Europe, of which the soils and climates differ widely, but whose inhabitants have in character and position even less in common. The first is called Great Britain; and though its soil be various and often sterile, and the prevalence of inhospitable winds frequently blight the best hopes of its rural population; and though its inhabitants are subject to periodical misfortunes, the result often of classlegislation and the necessity on the part of its governors to play fast and loose with noisy factions,-it stands before the world the shrine of Liberty and Order, the temple of Public Honesty, and the emporium and presiding goddess of the commerce of half the globe. Within four hours' sail of the nearest, and twenty-five or thirty of the farthest port of this thriving country, lies the other to which we refer-Ireland.

Her soil is much richer: her people, in point of stature and physical strength, rival, perhaps surpass, those of the neighbouring island. But she is neither the shrine of Liberty nor the emporium of Commerce. Still less can she be regarded as the temple of Honesty. Visited by the showers and dews which, gathering above the Atlantic Ocean, come floating on the wings of the west wind, she was meant by nature to be the garden of the seas.

She is

a house of mourning, and the temple of Crime and of Want. Great part of her rich soil lies uncultivated; her fields are small and ill-sown; her gentlemen are embarrassed; her cottages are huts; the religion of her people is a monstrous sham; her peasantry are either mendicants or freebooters; and she is held under the government of England by the power of the sword. She is to the sister kingdom what the gaol and poorhouse are to a thriving province.

The history of England, if we trace it from the dark ages to the present hour, may be compared to the chequered life of a Christian born in sin, but brought within the shelter of the Catholic Church, who has been often wayward and rebellious, but in energy of will and

self-developement, not less than in knowledge of God, has made progress. The danger and temptation threatening the present generation is similar to that which assails such a Christian. It is to be feared that the talents, energy, self-knowledge, and self-developement, which have been reared and fostered under the hand of God, will be directed henceforth permanently-as too often, till misfortune or the voice of invitation called back the wandering will, they have been given in times pastaway from the standard of obedience. A sad end to so much honour. The energy, the talents, and the selfcommand, will in such an event pass away; God shall send them a strong delusion that they shall believe a lie.' Each class bent on the attainment of its own ends, and all indifferent to a sense of Christian duty, the nation will reel to and fro like a drunken man, and be a picture of astonishment and pity where she was once the mirror of virtue.

The history of Ireland is analogous to the life of a Christian born in sin and brought only nominally within the shelter of the Church; who has been since infancy the sport of ignorance and the prey of passion; who remains unloved by his fellowmen, and is proportionately unhappy; but in whose downcast countenance and frequent longing for a nobler life may be recognised the germ of virtue. Such a man, in order that he may repent, requires two things besides the sorrow which brings remorse: the knowledge of a distinct line of duty,' and 'hope,' that he may be enabled to follow it. sorrow which brings remorse has fallen upon Ireland, but the knowledge of her duty, and hope to cheer her in its performance, are yet to be supplied to her.

The

What Ireland might have become had she retained her independence of England it is not easy now-and it would be quite useless-to conjecture. One assertion, however, seems to be a safe one. She has never been, she never could have been, and she never will be, a greater object of pity than she is at present, and has been these four years past. More

over, being still in subjection to the British crown, it is the duty of her rulers, if possible, to interfere and to change this state of things. And, still further, God having been so bountiful to her, not only in respect to soil and climate, but in the gift of the finest natural harbours and navigable rivers upon the face of the globe, it seems impious to assert that she is placed beyond the compass of hope.

We have hazarded these remarks by way of preface, in order that, starting from the admitted fact that England is, in a moral point of view, deeply in Ireland's debt, we may be able at once to account for her past neglect in failing to discharge the obligation, and suggest such measures as, in our own estimation at least, seem to hold out the prospect for both countries of better results for the future.

If we look for a true representation of the state of the United Kingdom, social and economic, in the Imperial Parliament, we shall scarcely find our expectations realized. Sir Robert Peel and his followers represent a policy which has no name, no meaning, no direct object, and, apparently, no end. Lord John Russell and the gentlemen on the ministerial benches keep us, in regard to their purposes, almost as much in the dark.

Their

Irish members have no Irish policy; and the Protectionists, though bent on the destruction of free trade, are undetermined as to the method of attacking it in its stronghold. In fact, the House of Commons presents to view a number of factions, but no policy. We used to see there two parties, Tory and Whig; we now behold a heterogeneous number of English, Irish, and Scottish gentlemen, possessing a very large amount of aggregate intelligence, but doing for the amelioration of the people - especially for the Irish — almost nothing. A far better medium through which to look for

what we require is offered by the newspapers. There we see fairly reflected the state of the nation; and are taught that two interests, each of which depends upon the prosperity of the other, are at deadly feud. The agriculturists desire to sell at a largely remunerating price; the manufacturers wish to buy at the lowest possible amount of outlay. Both bring their wishes to act upon their views respecting Ireland. The one asks, in apparent astonishment and with undisguised warmth, Are you mad enough to think of raising the price of an Irishman's food?' the other exclaims, in horror, 'Would you depreciate the value of his labour?' It is a remarkable fact that neither party seems to entertain a notion that both calamities may be avoided; that it is possible to give to an Irishman cheap and abundant food, while at the same time you afford every encouragement for the developement of his industry. The state of parties and of the nation may, therefore, be summed up as follows.

At present the manufacturing interest having come off the victor, and the importations of foreign corn during the year having been so vast as to confound all previous speculations, we hear a cry-and a pretty loud one-of agricultural distress. Well-meaning men, accordingly, stand aghast: mischievous men wait anxiously the progress of the session. Mr. Disraeli sounds the trumpet in Buckinghamshire of unjust burdens on the land; the Marquis of Granby holds out hopes of protection; Mr. Cobden threatens revolution; and Sir Robert Peel, weighing the chances of a change of tenantry, takes steps, with an elaborate air of generosity, to put his farms in order. Meanwhile the funds seem to be approaching par; the cotton-market languishes (so much so that mill-owners, many of them, work short time, and are reduced to fabricating fine in place of coarse wares); a smaller quantity of the raw material in hand, though smaller in amount than has been known for several years, is expected to supply the weavers for a longer space of time. The Times, with all this, cries Prosperity,' and points, as its consequence, to another speculative mania. The balance of

trade has turned steadily against us, gold being much dearer on the Continent than in the London moneymarket; there is a rumour of the enlargement of the franchise and of the reduction of the army; but for Ireland, not one word of consolation, except from parties peculiarly interested-a -a proposition for a return to protection. That remedy, it is said, and not without justice, has been weighed in the balance and found wanting.

In the midst of this excitement a gentleman of considerable ability, and still greater notoriety, has spoken in public to the Irish portion of his constituents upon the state and prospects of their country. The member for Manchester visited Ireland, and on his return home made a speech. The Times newspaper protested that there was neither anything very new in the information which he had collected, nor anything very original or distinctive in the schemes which he proposed. Mr. Bright, therefore, took an early opportunity of making another speech. As a good introduction to the developement of our own policy, let us examine into this gentleman's latest assertions, and weigh impartially the worth of his opinions.

After reminding his audience that the Irishmen in Manchester amounted to 60,000 or 80,000, and noticing the criticisms to which his former speech had been subjected, Mr. Bright proceeded to unfold those principles which he believed to be essential to the restoration of the condition of Ireland.'

I said, if I recollect right, that for thirty years past the Imperial Legislature had had laid before it, time after time, a statement of the actual condition of the Irish people; and I brought it as a serious charge against the Constitution of this country-against the aristocratic form of our Government-that all these statements had passed unregarded, and that the condition of Ireland had scarcely, until recently, excited any real solicitude on the part of either the Ministry or Parliament. An influential organ of the Whig party in the Scottish metropolis brought another charge against me, which was, that I was fostering that want of self-reliance which has been charged against the Irish people, when I blamed the laws and institutions under which they lived; that I taught them, in fact,

to look to Parliament, and to changes of law, for improvements in their condition which they might effect for themselves. Now, my object was this-to take away from all those who have done evil to Ireland that subterfuge under which they have constantly sheltered themselves, that there is something in the race and religion of Irishmen which makes it impossible for that country to prosper. (Cheers.)

We have here two very important assertions 1st. That the neglect of a truly Irish policy is attributable to the aristocratic form of our government; 2d. That there is nothing in their race or religion which makes it impossible for Irishmen to prosper. We beg of our readers to bear in mind these two confessions; and without making further comment on the first than to say that to the democratic nature of a reformed Parliament, not to the aristocratic form of our Government, is attributable the neglect of which Mr. Bright complains; and without dissenting from the second, further than to observe that religion and race have something to answer for in respect to Ireland's sorrows, we will hold Mr. Bright to his two conclusions: the one that Parliament can frame laws for the benefit of Ireland; the other that if such laws be framed, and good opportunities be given to Irishmen to advance their fortunes, such opportunities will be taken advantage of, and such laws meet with obedience. Referring to the remarks of a Scotch newspaper, Mr. Bright proceeds :—

But I should like to know upon what the Irish people are to rely. I am as much for self-reliance as the editor of that paper; but I have stated before, and state again, that the Irish people are not the possessors of Ireland; that the country is not theirs-that the land is not theirs; that it has been purposely, and systematically, and by law, prevented from becoming theirs; that Irishmen are wanderers and beggars in their own land; that the raw material of a nation's industry, the soil, is in chains, and in chains of law, and therefore to rely upon that as a source of industry is impossible. And, further, I have shown that if by any means there is any industry, and any productiveness, there is no security for the reward of industry, and therefore no stimulus for the exertions of the people. (Loud cheers.) To tell the literal fact with regard to Ireland, the soil of that country has been, for two or

three centuries past, in the possession of the enemy. The present possessors of Jand are the successors of those who were the possessors of it through conquest and through confiscation (loud cheers); and the laws of this country-of the Imperial Legislature, and of your Legislature, when it was under the power or the corruption of ours-the laws which have prevailed in Ireland from that time to this have made it impossible for the Irish people to become possessors of the soil of their own country. In fact, it is in the possession of those who have necessarily been regarded-if I may quote the very notorious expression of a very notorious individual- -as 'aliens in blood, in language, and in religion.' (Cheers.) Now, we will not go back to these bygone days two or three hundred years ago, and pretend that the acts of those days can be reversed, but I do assert that it would have been possible for the Legislature to have taken such precautions with regard to property in Ireland that there would have been a complete amalgamation of the two nations long before this; and if you could not have given to Irishmen a common faith, which is by no means necessary, you might long ago have given them a common interest in the redemption of their common country. (Loud cheers).

Here again we have some very important assumptions: 1st. The soil has been in possession of the enemy (it is a man of peace, a patriot desirous of amalgamating the two nations, who uses this expression!) and is in chains of law. 2d. There is no security for the reward of industry, and therefore no stimulus for the exertions of the people. 3d. It is no use going back two or three hundred years and pretending that the acts of those days can be reversed; but, says Mr. Bright, 'I do assert that it would have been possible for the Legislature to have taken such precautions with regard to property in Ireland that there would have been a complete amalgamation of the two nations long before this; and if you could not have given to Irishmen a common faith,' &c. Good: though it would appear from his regret as regards amalgamation that Mr. Bright has a lingering notion that Irish horrors are attributable partly to Irish race. However, let that pass: Mr. Bright is quite right, both with respect to property and as regards the discouragement of industry. At the same time he might have re

membered that the Legislature has corrected the first evil, though it leaves the last untouched. Indeed with respect to property, Parliament has gone too far; for it gives power to a creditor to force on the sale of all the estate, although he should hold a mortgage only over a small portion of it. However, let this pass also. We hold Mr. Bright to his two confessions that there is every discouragement to Irish industry, and that it is highly desirable to amalgamate the two nations.

The following facts, taken from the Report of the Land Commission, are as important for this paper as for Mr. Bright's speech :

:

Now, the facts or figures I give I take principally from the Report of the Land Commission presided over by Lord Devon, as the most recent authority, and probably that most to be relied upon. They state that Mr. Griffith, the great public valuator, and the best authority on Ireland at this moment, says, that 3,755,000 acres of land are totally neglected which are capable of a high degree of improvement; and they state that these acres, nearly 4,000,000, only yield upon an average a gross produce of 48. per acre, while they are capable of being made to yield profitable produce to the amount of 61. per acre; which would be an increase on the whole of from 751,000l. to 22,500,000l. per annum. And the Report states that this result can be obtained not only without any permanent loss, but with a very large permanent gain. Now, the whole acreage of Ireland is little over 20,000,000; and here you have one-fifth of the island lying waste that could be profitably improved. I leave out of view a very large amount of waste land, which, it is decided, would not pay for draining, subsoiling, and so forth; but then beyond this, the Report states that out of 13,500,000 acres of land in Ireland now cultivated, 10,000,000 are so badly cultivated, and in so bad a condition, that it would pay to expend 81. per acre in draining and subsoiling. Now, 81. per acre on 10,000,000 acres comes to the enormous sum of 80,000,0001. sterling -a sum so large we can scarcely form an accurate idea of it. Now, within the last thirty years it is said that Great Britain and Ireland have sent abroad, in loans to foreign Governments, something like 150,000,000l. sterling, a great portion of which has been sent abroad for very unworthy purposes, and a great portion of which will never come back again. How much of that 150,000,0007. might, and in all probability would have

The suspicions that exist between the tenants and proprietors are such as make it impossible that there should be harmony and progress in that country. (Hear, hear.) The cultivators are poor, they are unskilful. Under the pressure of recent circumstances they are leaving the country by every vessel, and carrying 'with them whatever skill they have, and whatever small property they have saved from the wreck of their fortunes. In fact, the export of Ireland consists now of Irishmen. (Hear, hear.) And they do not go abroad to found flourishing colonies, to live in amity with the present country; but whenever they set their feet on a foreign soil, there stands a man in whose breast rankles a feeling of hostility to this country. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) That which is true now has been true for seventy or eighty years at least, for it is upon record that Lord North himself expressed his sense of the injury which Irishmen in America had done to England; for their courage and their hostility against this country, united, in the War of Independence, was the main cause of the first and signal successes which the American forces achieved. (Cheers.)

Mr. Bright next proceeded to remind his audience of the amount of money borrowed by Irish proprietors; from which fact he drew the following logical conclusion: That capital having been already wasted by the owners of the Irish soil, and America having grown great under the auspices of free institutions,therefore what Ireland requires is not capital but free institutions.

With respect to which we have to remark, that Ireland is at this moment in possession of such institutions, though doubtless from her want of capital, and consequent poverty, it is the Queen's army alone which protects property.

Upon Emigration, the Poor-law, and Protection to Agriculture, Mr. Bright shall speak for himself:

If the land of Ireland were free, if it

were capable of subdivision, if the people who have capital there could purchase land freely as they can purchase potatoes or corn, or household furniture or cattle-my honest conviction is that at this moment there is not population enough in the agricultural districts of Ireland fairly to cultivate the soil of that country. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) There were paupers in Ireland before the Poor-law, and they were kept out of the charity of the farming and peasant classes. Under the present law they come, of course, a heavy burden often upon the farmer, but they come also as a burden upon the landlord, which they did not before; and the effect of that Poor-law, grievously as it is felt in some districts, will be, through a very rough but necessary process, to bring the landlords of Ireland and the Government of this country to look closely to the condition of Ireland, and honestly to set themselves to a remedy. With respect to the enormous pressure of the poor-rates, it is not the fault of the House of Commons that this heavy pressure was not, in some degree, relieved, because the House of Commons did pass an amended Poorlaw last session, with a clause that limited the amount of rates to 5s. in each electoral division in a union, and to 7s. 6d. in the union. It was the House of Lords that rejected that clause, and if the rates in Ireland now are 10s., 15s., or 20s., in any union, it is the fault of the House of Lords, who are great proprietors in that country and in this, and is in no degree the fault of the Government or of the House of Commons. But there is another proposition now made for the advantage of Ireland, and that is the reenactment of the Corn-laws. (Laughter.) This surpasses in audacity, probably, any of the other propositions. It is made by a body of coronetted conspirators against the food and the industry of the people of the United Kingdom. (Loud cheers.) We have no standard to measure the height of the folly, and the plummet cannot sound the depths of the depravity of those men, in asking that the Imperial Legislature should make food scarce and dear in a country which has been a spectacle to the world for four years past, for the intensity of agony and of famine which it has endured. (Cheers.) Who is this Lord Glengall, and who are these men who are uniting with him for this audacious object? What do the people of Ireland owe to the landlords of Ireland? They have made the laws for Ireland for generations past. In both houses-first in your own Parliament, and since the Union in the Imperial Parliament-the laws have been those which they have assisted to make,