A single glance at the history of all political events will prove the influence which orators and authors have in every age exercised over the feelings of the populace. In our days, therefore, when the means of communicating ideas are so abundantly multiplied, it can scarcely be matter of surprise that authors should almost wholly direct the opinion of the public. When human societies were first formed, one bold and vigorous individual, with determined grasp, seized his club, and the crowd trembled with awe: the feeble exclaimed "How strong he is! he is in the right! we must follow him!" In modern times an author prints his high-sounding phrases on liberty, independence, republics-and endeavours to persuade his docile readers that in those magic words may be regained the paradise lost. The stupid crowd instantly exclaim-" How well he speaks! he is in the right! we must follow him!"

Governments at length perceived the fatal influence of such writers by the result, and adopted measures wholly at variance with their interests. By establishing a censorship of the press, and by prosecutions, they added interest and zest to the writings against which their authority was directed. And yet nothing can be more easy than to counterbalance the influence of such false doctrines, which carry along with them their own refutation. Develope their principles in a clear and positive manner, and the credulous mob will begin by distrusting their apostles, and end by despising and forgetting them. At a time when every body reads, it is not suffi cient merely to be in the right: the ability to prove that right is also necessary. It were a great mistake to attribute the success of licentious dissertations to the truth and gravity of the cause. On the contrary, this success, so fatal to all legal institutions, is due only to the consummate artifice of the writers, to the specious quackery which, both in public and in private, they practise on the passions of the weak, and still more, to the incapacity displayed by the majority of their adversaries. The latter, almost wholly belonging to the upper classes of society, were for a length of time contented with their legitimate rights, and neglected altogether the pursuit of important acquirements. The higher ranks have, in fact, but recently commenced their march with the age, and for that reason have but few representative organs; whilst the lower ranks have for ages been labouring to overturn social order, and have prepared themselves for the decisive struggle by cultivating a thorough acquaintance with the most flimsy sophistry. In every country, for one organ advocating the preservation of social order, ten may be found in favour of its destruction. This arises, not from any want of justice in the cause, but rather from the absence of talent to place it in its proper light before the multitude, and to defend it against seditious insinuations. The people hear and read the words-natural rights, independence, liberty, equality;-words in reality without meaning, but grateful to the ears of those who are ever disposed to adopt the chimeras which flatter and unbind their passions.

. Natural right is another term for the right of the strongest. This was the sole right acknowledged by brute nature; but man once released from that savage condition, natural right ceased to exist, and was replaced by social right. To insist on the principles of natural

right, and at the same time to pretend to social rights, is a contradiction, or in other words, an absurdity.

What is the meaning of the word-independence? Of what nature can that society be, every member of which is independent? The notion is utterly at variance with the idea of a society founded on the authority of the laws. In such a regular and legitimate society everything is dependent, because every individual consults the common interest by sacrificing his independence to the unity of the law and the constituted power. Independence, therefore, is in fact licentiousness-anarchy-disorder.

And liberty-that piercing shaft of the liberals--what is it in reality? Is it the brute condition of nature? Is it a state of savage independence? Is it the right to overturn all established order, and to substitute individual pleasure in place of law and authority? Poor human beings! how woefully are you misled by an equivocal and undefined sound!

And last of all, equality! You, who call yourselves philosophers, liberals, children of nature! Have you studied nature? Are you acquainted with her divine laws? Look around, and say where is to be found that equality which you so presumptuously and so madly preach. Inequality multiplied to infinity pervades the system of nature, and to that source is due the grandeur of the universe. Inequality brings into contact the various substances contained in space, and thus renders them nearly perfect. Equality in nature would be eternal death, annihilation; as equality in society, without contact, without relative degrees of excellence, would be the death-the annihilation of society and of civilization.

The advocates of these imposing ideas, and the dealers in these sounding phrases are fond of quoting, as an argument drawn from fact, the prosperous condition of the United States of America. But how feeble is such an argument! As well might they attempt to prove that the entire season will be fine, because the weather is fair to-day.

The geographical position of the United States favoured the introduction of a system of equality, and perhaps the same cause will for some time longer preserve the system unchanged. But as soon as an alteration shall take place in the relative position of the surrounding country-as soon as the population shall have increased in proportion to the extent of the soil-as soon as the interests of individuals shall clash together, as well as those of states-as soon as the foibles and the passions, which are the natural consequence of aggrandisement and opulence, shall have begun to exercise their influence the chimera of independence and equality will vanish, and the Americans, conformably to the ideas already explained, will establish one or several monarchies, in order to save themselves from anarchy.

THE WAR OF TERRY ALT.

PUBLIC attention is now so much occupied by the engrossing question of Reform, that the alarming state of the west of Ireland has been quite overlooked by the people of England, or, at least, regarded with a degree of apathy that is unpardonable, when it is considered that three of the principal counties of Connaught were virtually, if not actually, in a state of rebellion. It is true that the term rebellion has been carefully avoided in speaking of the late disturbances, and there are many who would make us believe that they were solely the offspring of a dispute betwixt the tenantry and their landlords. Yet we, who are not capable of drawing such nice distinctions, cannot but think, that when the laws of the realm are set at defiance, the magistracy devoted to destruction, the King's troops openly resisted, and the authority of some unseen power implicitly obeyed, we can scarcely deem rebellion too harsh a term for such a state of affairs.

In England the impression exists, that the insurrection in Clare was caused by the scarcity of food, attendant on the failure of the potato crops, and the inhabitants of Great Britain hearing that a famine was dreaded in Mayo and part of Galway, naturally concluded that hunger and want had incited the peasants to acts of rapine and cruelty. With this belief, they answered the call upon their charity in the most benevolent manner; thousands of pounds were subscribed in behalf of their famishing fellow-subjects, and it was fondly hoped that, the sufferings of the poor having been alleviated, the country would relapse into a state of peace. But, to the astonishment of every one, such was not the result of their generosity. The poor were fed, yet still were the daily papers disgraced with narratives of murders and outrages committed in Clare, and what had at first appeared to be the mere ebullition of popular feeling, gradually assumed the form of an organized insurrection. The truth is, that the inhabitants of Clare, the south of Galway, and part of Roscommon, have not the plea of famine to adduce in extenuation of the cruelties they have committed; for it is well known to those who have been on the spot, that they possessed abundance of provisions, and that never were the market prices of their staple article of food, the potato, lower than they have been this year. In Mayo, Sligo, and the north-western districts of Galway, especially in Connamara, and other tracts on the borders of the ocean, the reverse was the case; the potato crops had failed; the country, barren as it is, produced nothing to counterbalance this deficiency; even the sea had ceased to yield its wonted supply of fish; and the wretched inhabitants had nothing to look forward to but famine, and its usual concomitant, disease. Yet they submitted with resignation to their lot; they raised not their hands against the Government to which they looked for assistance, nor did they infringe the laws that afforded them protection; they appealed to their countrymen and to the British for assistance in the hour of need, and nobly has the call been answered. Notwithstanding the jobbing, the peculation, and the maladministration, which generally absorb a large portion of the pecuniary gifts made to the country, ample supplies reached the suffering districts, and by the judicious arrangements and indefatigable exertions of a few independent and disinterested gentlemen, who undertook to distribute

the funds, the poor have been relieved, and the famine averted, whilst an unusually abundant harvest this year precludes the possibility of the distress recurring in the next.

It is not our object in the following pages to enter into further details relative to the late scarcity in Ireland, but we wish to dispel the illusion that the insurrection is attributable to want, and we trust that we may be enabled to explain the real causes of the disturbances, as well as to describe their results. We have chosen the United Service Journal as the medium of conveying our remarks to the public, as we consider that it should receive not only all communications on military subjects, but also all communications from military men, and in the present case so large a portion of the British army is employed in overawing and apprehending the disaffected, that we feel confident we need offer no excuses for giving a short sketch of the late campaign against the Terry Alts. In tracing the origin and progress of Terry Alt's system, we are sensible that we must make some avowals rather humiliating to our national pride, but it is better to acknowledge our faults at once, than to allow others to tax us with them: we have no objection to confess the failings of our countrymen whilst we stand on our native sod, but woe be unto the Saxon who would dare to coincide with us, for we would instantly change our position, and become the warm defender of their errors and their follies. Like the Doctor and his wife in the Medecin malgré lui, we will not allow a stranger to interfere in our domestic quarrels, and, in the words of the injured dame, may exclaim

"Je veux qu'on me batte!"

As our first confession, we must observe, that although the newspapers have been filled with recitals of the outrages perpetrated in Clare, yet that not half those that were committed have been recorded in print. Hitherto it has been supposed than an Irish murder was always used by the printer's devil to fill up the chasm in a column when no better intelligence was to be had; but, alas! of late, murders have followed in such rapid succession, that it is no longer necessary to buy them at a penny a line; there is no room for the authentic accounts that are transmitted for insertion. But we are digressing. We have to treat of a race of beings who bid fair to vie in posthumous reputation with the Rapparees, Croppies, Peep-o'-day Boys, Carders, Threshers, Whiteboys, Rockites, and other votaries of Liberty in past times, and it is doubtful whether any of the associations above-named, have better claims to a dishonoured memory than the Terry Alts. As the county of Clare is the land

"That first cradled their fame,"

we must state, for the information of such as may be ignorant of its position, that it is the western county of Ireland: its bold western shores are washed by the surges of the Atlantic Ocean, whilst the waters of the Shannon and Lough Derg insulate it from Limerick and Tipperary. The Bay of Galway forms a large portion of its northern frontier, and the remainder is divided from the county of Galway by a range of hills, miscalled mountains. This tract is peculiarly wild; the bogs and moors on the highlands offer no inducement for the settlement of civilized beings within its bleak region; and this district, U. S. JOURN. No. 36. Nov. 1831.

Y

although speckled with populous villages, has hitherto been only resorted to by the gentry occasionally during the shooting season. Clare is, therefore, shut out by natural boundaries from the rest of Ireland; and it is rather curious to observe, how the tide of insurrection, checked westward by the ocean, and eastward by the Shannon, poured its stream through these mountains into the plains of Galway and Ros

common.

The secluded position of Clare, whilst it necessarily contributed to keep the peasantry beyond the range of the march of intellect, likewise freed them from the baneful influence of those enemies to Ireland-the agitators. With many of the vices attendant on a state of semi-civilization, the inhabitants of Clare likewise retained many of its virtues; they cherished a strong attachment for those ancient families, whose ancestors had ruled over their forefathers in former days. In the O'Briens they beheld the lineal descendants of the hero of ancient Irish history, Brien Boroimh: the Macnamaras, the Sons of the Sea, likewise recalled to their memories a race of ancient princes: the Fitzgeralds, though of Norman extraction, had proved their identity with the soil in many a battle under the banner of the Desmonds, and might be considered as ancient Irish; and many other families in their respective districts were likewise regarded with reverence and affection by a people, whose language and ballads, rich in legendary lore, contributed much to foster the love of bygone times; but the Agitator came, and the tie which bound landlord and tenant, the link of affection that had connected them for ages, was severed for ever!

As a natural consequence of their ignorance, the people of Clare were completely under the control of the Roman Catholic Clergy; and we have a proof how strangely religion and immorality were blended together in the ideas of the peasantry, when we find that the formula of the illegal oath, administered by the Terry Alts to their proselytes, and enjoining a willing acquiescence in deeds of horror, was headed with the sign of the cross, and commenced with an invocation to the Holy Trinity, "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost!"

The influence of the clergy enabled Mr. O'Connell, in 1828, to gain that seat in Parliament which eventually led to the enactment of the Catholic Relief Bill. To the proceedings of that period, strange as it may appear, must be traced the origin of the discontent which has blazed forth in the west, and it is on that account we recur to an event which must still be fresh in the recollection of every one. The agitators on this occasion had ample opportunities for the exercise of their oratorical powers, and they availed themselves of the moment, by exerting all the force of their vulgar rhetoric, to alienate the peasants from their landlords. They said that the poor had a right to the land, of which they were only tenants; that the gentry were tyrants, and their most decided enemies; and that they ought to form themselves into bodies, and agitate-agitate-agitate-until they obtained their rights. Can it for an instant be asserted, that men of undoubted talent could have uttered these sentiments, and not have felt that they were sowing the seeds of rebellion in a fruitful soil? Was it likely that the subtle poison which they so successfully infused in the minds of the people, could be counteracted by any antidote that their former