enigma-no mystery, no concealment. This part of prophecy, then, would be not only inconsistent, and out of harmony with the other symbols and with the verbal declarations of the prophecy, but would actually frustrate its main intent. The period of time would not be symbolic of another period of time, therefore would not be prophetic, but would be literal assertion inexplicably thrust into the midst of prophetic declarations and symbols.

Those who acknowledge God's hand in all things-whether past, present, or future-will not be at a loss to discover the traces of his workings, corresponding in all points with His prophetic declarations. And those who find a difficulty in discovering this correspondence, have reason to examine themselves, and to search their own hearts, whether the fault may not be rather in them than in the objects of investigation. It is always a formidable thought to be brought into contact, as it were, with God, and to know and to feel that we, and all around us, are so in the hand of God, that everything wrought by us has a bearing upon the destinies of the universe, and the advance of the kingdom of heaven, and the manifestation of the glory of God. From this it is that we are sometimes shrinking, when we vainly imagine that we are only questioning the assertions and the systems of men. But as it is a divine verity, stable as the foundations of heaven itself, that not a sparrow falleth to the ground but by the appointment of God, and the very hairs of our head are all numbered; so also, and à fortiori too, the destiny of man, of nations, of the world, is but another word for expressing the purpose of God towards them, which he has known and determined from the beginning, and which he superintends and carries through, in order that no creature may interfere with it, and no creature share with him in these Godhead attributes. Prophecy, rightly studied and truly apprehended, ceases to be regarded as at all partaking of speculation, and becomes at once the most practical and the most sanctifying of religious occupations; a study most conducive to solemnize the mind of man in the consciousness that he is thus the continual subject of the almighty power of God, and most calculated to glorify God, by the witness borne to their fellow-men by those who are thus solemnized and acting under this immediate consciousness.

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ART. VIII.-The Quarterly Review, for September, 1843. Murray.

2. Fraser's Magazine, for August and September, 1843. Nickisson.

3. The Dublin University Magazine, for September, 1843. Curry and Co.

4. The Real Monster Evil of Ireland. By A. G. STAPLETON, Esq. Hatchard and Son.

5. The Portfolio. August, 1843. Maynard.

6. Irish Landlords, Rents, and Tenures. With some Observations on the Effects of the Voluntary System, by which their Church is supported; or, the Moral and Social Condition of the Roman Catholic Population. By AN IRISH ROMAN CATHOLIC LANDOWNER. Murray.

7. Thoughts on Traits of the Ministerial Policy. By A VERY QUIET LOOKER-ON. Aylott.

HOW to rule Ireland, so as to secure her welfare, yet maintain her dependence; so as to repress her spirit of insubordination, and yet attach her to her English governors; and so as to cause her to feel, on the one hand, how much she owes to English capital and protection, and yet, on the other hand, to encourage in the minds and hearts of her population a sincere attachment to the soil of their native country, has long been a desideratum in the science of Government.

Various have been the systems resorted to by the successive Governments of Great Britain. Prior to the revolution of 1688, as well as long afterwards, Ireland was made to feel that she was a conquered dependency. She saw her manufactures confined to her own provinces, her commerce oppressed by unwise prohibitions, her Romish population subjected to penal laws, and her sons generally made to feel that they were the descendants of the conquered. But the wise and paternal Government of the great and the good grandfather of our present Queen removed various restrictions, benefitted the coasting trade, and prepared the way for that measure of 1829 which admitted the Roman Catholics to their share of political power.

But the Irish say, "Though you repealed the penal statutes, and though you benefitted our trade and commerce, still you continued to confer power only on Protestants, and refused to open up the road to office and honours to the Catholic majority." Lord Wellesley's Administration gave the lie to this sweeping charge; Lord Melbourne's Administration exceeded the bounds of propriety, and threw the whole weight of Government patron

age into the Romanist scale; and at the very moment we are penning these lines even the Papal press is indignant, because, to prove the fairness and equity of the Government of Sir Robert Peel, a serjeant's coif has been bestowed on a Romanist barrister of second-rate merit.

Mr. Stapleton, in his admirable pamphlet, entitled "The Real Monster Evil of Ireland," has observed of these opposite systems of Government, that under the system of conciliation, both to the whole country and to the Popish majority of the popula tion, cordiality on the part of that majority did not increase. This is so true, that even the Repeal movement, which has assumed such gigantic dimensions, has grown up beneath it. It is also true, that neither during the gradual progress, nor subsequently to the complete development of the system of conciliation, has there prevailed any greater degree of internal tranquillity than during the periods when the laws were most severe, and even strictly penal. So true is this in every particular, that a calm and serious observer of Ireland and the Irish is compelled to arrive at this result, viz., either that the Irish so hate the English, and so revolt in heart against their connexion with this country, that nothing but separation, not only of a legislative, but of a constitutional and territorial character, would satisfy them; or else that there is some secret cause for this feeling of deep dissatisfaction, which has not been yet examined with sufficient care, or met by adequate and suitable remedies. For we are not to be drawn from this fact, that a system of conciliation has not subdued animosity, and that internal tranquillity has not been secured by a kind and paternal system. And if any one should feel disposed to question the accuracy of this statement, we would ask whether it was not in 1793, after all the penal laws had been repealed-after important political privileges had been conceded to the Romanists-at the time when Napoleon Buonaparte was heading an army of invasion on the opposite shores, that the moment was chosen by the haters of English rule to organize and carry into effect a fierce rebellion in Ireland, for the express purpose of putting an end entirely to the union of that country with Great Britain? And is it not now, in 1843, after the system of civil equality has been completely established, and subsequent to the pacifying and conceding Administrations of Lords Wellesley, Anglesea, Haddington, Normanby, and Ebrington, that the word "Saxon" is pronounced with bitter malice by the "Liberator!!!" of Ireland, who forges chains for those he professes to desire to free?

We are not about to maintain that the cry for repeal, for agitation, and for opposition to England, has only been heard

under such Governments as those to which we have referred. We know Irish history too well to attempt thus to deceive ourselves or others. We know that it was in 1785, under another system of government, severe and decisive, that first arose those hostile combinations against each other, which, from that period to the present time, have been the bane of society in that country.

But to what conclusion do these facts conduct us? Unquestionably to this, that neither the penal system on the one hand, nor the conciliatory system on the other, have led the population of our sister isle either to be satisfied with their Saxon governors, or to submit in peace and obedience to Saxon rule. Now we are so fully satisfied that the present state of excitement in Ireland is ascribable to secret, as well as to palpable causes, and that the hatred felt for the English and their Government by the mass of the Irish people is much more the result of the secret than of the palpable causes, that we hold it to be our duty, and the duty of all who love Ireland and desire her prosperity, to proclaim, with Mr.Stapleton, who was formerly private secretary to Mr. Canning, that the real monster evil of Ireland, the secret cause of Irish hostility, is Irish destitution. That able writer says:

"Whenever, therefore, any measure is proposed for the benefit of Ireland, the only test which ought to be applied to it, to ascertain its fitness for its end, is asking the vital question, Will it feed the people? And if, upon a fair examination, this question must be answered in the negative, then we may rest assured that, however valuable in a different state of things, it will be utterly powerless, perhaps worse, to benefit Ireland as she is."

to

"Feed the people!-Yes, it is easy enough to say, feed the people (some objector will exclaim); but is it quite so easy accomplish that object?" We admit it is not. Yet to set aside the hope, as impossible of realization, would be nothing else than to consign freland to perpetual misery, and England to perpetual weakness. But is it so hopeless as may at first appear? We think not; and as we fully concur in Mr. Stapleton's views of this portion of our subject, we shall submit them without any preface to our readers.

Mr. Nicholl, one of the Commissioners employed by the Melbourne Administration to examine into the state of Ireland, with a view to the establishment of a Poor Law, has said-"Want of employment in Ireland produces destitution-destitution, turbulence-turbulence, want of security-want of security, want of capital-and want of capital, in its turn, want of emIn this circle the affairs of Ireland perpetually re

ent.'

volve. How is its revolution to be arrested? That is the problem to which Mr. Stapleton has addressed his well-stored mind.

Before, however, he points out the only remedy for Irish dissatisfaction, he glances at the results of other efforts and other remedial measures which have been tried, and tried in vain. Roman Catholic Emancipation was so to alter the state of Ireland, that she, who had been a millstone round our neck, was to become the stone of Ajax in our hand! Has this been the case? No. Why? Because the equal possession of civil rights put no bread into the mouths of the hungry. The Elective Franchise was extended to the Roman Catholic population; and they were from that moment made more powerful than the Protestants. Did this satisfy them? No. Why? Because political power was not bread, and the Irish remained as hostile to England as ever. Then a Coercion Act was tried, and a scheme for the settlement of tithes; but the tithe scheme failed for a time, and turbulence maintained its reign in spite of the Coercion Act. But once more concession was the order of the day, and the Protestant Church and Protestant Municipal Corporations were to be offered up as sacrifices to propitiate the Popish faction. Not only were tithes to be commuted, but a portion of them it was purposed to confiscate for Romish purposes; and it was attempted even to convince Parliament that if the Irish peasantry could but see the Protestant clergy only receiving their just proportion of Church revenues, they would be the happiest and most contented of mankind. Fortunately Lord Stanley put an end to some of these deceptions, and confiscation was, at any rate, postponed. But the Protestant corporations fell before the attacks of their Romish assailants; and yet the inhabitants of those spots are now as rabid, violent, distrustful, inimical towards "the Saxons," as well as towards "the Protestants," as ever. And why? Because the people have found their pockets as empty and their bellies as unsupplied, their cabins as dirty and dreary, and their backs as exposed to the rain and the cold, as when Protestant, instead of Roman Catholic mayors, wore the chains of office.

Nor has education been more successful than emancipation; for it is idle to attempt to teach either man or child whilst suffering from the pangs of hunger; and as Mr. Stapleton truly says, "Of this we may rest assured, that every effort to raise the mass of the Irish population in the scale of civilized society must fail, unless you first feed those millions of reckless beggars, whom starvation lashes into madness, and madness into crime."

So, then, let it be admitted, for it is the truth, that both the Legislature and the Executive in this country have been foiled in