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law nor justice for them. The only liberty they enjoyed was the liberty to pay rack-rent, to kiss the rod that scourged them, to worship the taskmaster, and to peacefully starve after, amidst the abundance produced by their own labor. A beautiful constitution, indeed, and proud we should be to have it, with our desolate harbors, our millions of acres of waste lands, and our millions unemployed; our merchants bankrupt; our farmers, if left the name, beggars; the best, the bravest of our countrymen rotting in heaps on the shores of the stranger; the remainder, for the most part, gaunt spectres, flitting over the richest, the loveliest land on earth; the country covered with the ruins of levelled villages; the ruthless exterminator, protected in his savage onslaught by the "horse" and foot of this blessed constitution in the enforcement of his rights against everything which Christianity, if not a mockery, makes a duty ; candor and truth made treason, love of country a felony; the seven-eighths of Irishmen deemed unworthy of credit on their oaths, and at every elbow a spy or informer, under the bland name of a detective-such characters as Plautus, with a master-hand, delineates. The seal of faith, under which friends correspond with friends, and confidingly pour into each others' souls the secrets of their hearts, is every day unblushingly broken, and which to violate would make even the barbarian shudder; the whole country a garrison-tens of thousands, horse, foot and artillery, ingloriously watching the convulsions and writhings of the starving victims of misrule, lest the slightest symptom of disaffection should go unnoticed or unpunished; millions, in a word,

of our children, kinsmen, neighbors, all our countrymen, consigned to their coffinless graves; mothers, through rabid hunger, devouring their own children, and children hanging from the breasts of their dead mothers, and all the while my Lord Lansdowne boasts, in the face of an astonished world, of the happiness of the Irish people living under such a constitution, and congratulates himself and his noble colleagues on the more than celestial manner in which they had discharged their duty to Ireland. Let us, Sir, leave this beautiful constitution to those who enjoy it, and combine, as Christians should ever combine, heart and soul, to save, if possible, our country. There is no need for disputing about what the malice of men has made for us, แ a mockery, a delusion and a snare." Let us unite to make the name a reality, to make fiction truth, and give a substantial being to what has hitherto been to us the poisonous, blighting shade of an upas-tree. It would be a pity, Sir, to keep such men as Messrs. O'Connell and O'Brien asunder. Their every sympathy is with their native land-their hearts beat responsive. Why should not their energies be linked together for the regeneration of that country to which they both are so warmly and so devotedly attached. Let the past be generously forgotten and forgiven, and let the future be a cordial, united effort to lead the Irish people onward to a peaceful triumph. I here, Sir, merely echo the sentiments of every man, lay and ecclesiastical, with whom I have lately conversed on this subject. All declare for a reunion of Repealers, because disunion has made us the pity of our friends and the scorn of our enemies; be

cause every man who hates Ireland and writes against it, dreads and protests against this union; because disunited we exhibit to the world, and especially to the Government, our weakness, and thereby tempt them to use the favorite weapon of the tyrant-coercion; because disunited we cannot aid them to carry out any good intentions, if they have any, in favor of our country; because Heaven, whose law is union, order and peace, never yet blessed disunion; because, in a word, they believe that union alone can save the country from convulsion, from civil war, * * [MS. unfinished.]

ROMAN CORRESPONDENCE.

ROME, January 1, 1848. My Lord, I received your Lordship's kind letter after I had set out on my road to the Eternal City. This was the reason that impeded me from answering you ere now. I regretted very much not to have been able to visit Derry. I am, however, extremely grateful to your Lordship for your kind invitation, and I would, I am sure, have been delighted with the North, had I had time to enjoy your hospitality, but the winter was advancing so rapidly that I thought it necessary to get to the South, lest at a later period I should be impeded altogether from travelling. Here in Rome I find all things quiet. The Pope is well, and going on calmly and determinedly with his reforms. The great bulk of the people are with him; but there are some who are greatly adverse to any changes, and there is a small but violent faction which would drive things to extremities. This faction is very active; they have all the newspapers, and they expressed the greatest delight at the destruction of the Catholics of Switzerland. They are as bad as the old French demagogues, or as our own Orangemen. They will give the Pope a thousand times more trouble than the Austrians; however, I trust His Holiness will be able to keep them in order. If they once get the upper hand, we shall have sad work in Italy. I

dare say the English agents are encouraging this faction. They are bad enough to do anything. Lord Minto is still in Rome. There is do doubt but that his object in remaining here is to open diplomatic relations with Rome. How far he will succeed is as yet uncertain; but if Parliament revokes the old laws against communications with the Pope, I dare say an ambassador will be sent immediately. The English here are most busy in circulating the usual calumnies against the Irish clergy; they even carried their accusations to the Pope. After my return from Ireland, His Holiness sent for me and questioned me on the matter. I explained everything to him, and he remained perfectly satisfied. He is warmly attached to poor Ireland. The object of the English appears to be to destroy that sympathy which the famine of last year excited everywhere in favor of our country, and at the same time to poison the minds of the authorities here in such a way as to dispose them to hand over the Irish clergy to the tender mercies of state management. I think they will not succeed in Rome; but they have bribed all the newspapers of Europe to propagate their lies. Well, we must console ourselves with the promise of our Saviour, Beati estis cum vos calumniari.

I believe Lord Minto attempted to speak to His Holiness about the College question, but the Pope stopped him, and said that that was a spiritual matter, which was between himself and the Bishops. His Holiness appears quite pleased with the decision he gave.

I believe I did not express myself sufficiently clearly in my last regarding the pastoral; what I meant was

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