exempt--the monopoly of trades and arts by the system of legal apprenticeships-the appointment to the numerous lucrative situations, dependent upon the corporate offices; in short, all those branches of civic and parochial patronage, which go to make the consequence and influence of such small municipal governments." Then on every manifestation of disquiet follows the grand specific-the bayonet-" Martial Law, and the Insurrection Act having been in force 14 years, out of the 24 that have elapsed since the Union. It would take a whole page to enumerate the various forms and names, under which this one sole specific for all the evils of Ireland has been administered, viz.-Peace Preservation Acts, Seizure of Arms Acts, Constabulary Acts, &c. &c. &c. &c. &c. But, as Dr. Ollapod says -'rhubarb is rhubarb, call it what you will,' and there is no disguising, by any change of name or phrase, that the bayonet is the sole active ingredient in all these various formulas." We know, too, that it has been applied so barbarously, that the brave Abercrombie gave up his command in Ireland, disgusted at the cruelties he could not prevent or punish. "When some

of these outrages were stated by Lord Moira in the House of Lords, a Noble Minister, in denying the truth of the statement, said that "the people would resist and resent, if it was so.' The people took the hint."-We cannot complete the subject-but enough has been said to prove our position. The latter quotations are from Moore's "Memoirs of Captain Rock" -a work calculated to be of essential service to enslaved Ireland. Argument had long been displayed on her side with irresistible force-in this little work we find it concentrated, and mixed with such exquisite humour, as to form a most fascinating book. It ought to be in every politician's hands. It will be; and it cannot fail to hasten Catholic Emancipation. Judging from the past it clearly proves that

"As long as millions shall kneel down
To ask of thousands for their own,

While thousands proudly turn away,
And to the millions answer " Nay!”
So long the merry reign shall be
Of Captain Rock and his family."

SIR-The sentiments which you are reported to have delivered in the House of Commons on the motion of Mr. Hume, relative to the Church Establishment in this country, induce me, though a stranger, to take the liberty of addressing you; and as I agree in opinion with you, that the best, if not the only effectual mode of pacifying Ireland, improving the condition of her people, and consolidating the interests of the empire, would be found in a union of the Churches which distract and divide us, an expression of my views, who am a Catholic Bishop, may not be unacceptable to you.

A person well acquainted with Ireland, would not find it difficult to shew, why the efforts lately made to better her condition have been fruitless, and why every benefit conferred on her by the Legislature, or through the bounty of the English people, has had no corresponding effect. The whole frame of society amongst us is disorganized, and the distrust, apathy, fraud, jealousy, and contention which prevail universally, as they derange the public will, and prevent the mutual co-operation of all classes, must necessarily prevent the country, whilst they continue, from deriving advantage from any partial measure, or emerging from its present depressed, if not degraded, condition.

This state of the public mind and feeling is unquestionably produced by the inequality of the laws, and still more immediately by the incessant collision and conflict of religious opi

nions.

The Irish Parliament excluded and continued to exclude the British Constitution from the great mass of our people, first through bigotry and a fear of the Pretender; afterwards through the less worthy motives of religious intolerance, and selfish monopoly: that Parliament is now happily extinguished, and the present legislature can have no other motive for continuing the ancient system, than a desire to preserve the integrity of the Empire, which it fears would be endangered, if a nation, with a people and resources such as ours, were united, rich, and powerful.

Such considerations should doubtless have their weight with a Statesman, and their is no man holding the helm of British interests who might not with reason hesitate as to the propriety of the course which he should proceed in with regard to Ireland. But the Government, Parliament, and all the reflecting portion of both countries agree in thinking, that the state of Ireland is intolerable, and that a material change must be effected in her condition. How this change can be produced, no man is prepared to say with confidence; but the apparent impossibility of discovering an adequate remedy for the inveterate and almost incurable diseases under which we labour, may in the end be the cause of applying to us the most, if not the only effectual cure.

One of the principal Secretaries of State has said in his place. in Parliament, that every means of tranquillizing Ireland had been tried, Catholic Emancipation alone excepted, and to that measure he was not then prepared to yield his assent. The head of the Government, in the Upper House, has deliberately declared, that in his opinion, the admission of the Roman Catholics to the privileges of the Constitution would only aggravate the evils of the country. These personages are manifestly at a loss how to conduct the interests of Ireland. They must be aware that the whole body of the Catholics are impatient, that their pride and interests are wounded, that disaffection must be working within them, if they be men born and nurtured in a free State, and yet enslaved. These Ministers of the Crown must know, that the mind of a nation fettered and exasperated will struggle and bound, and when a chasm is opened will escape by it in a torrent like lava from the crater of a volcano.

They must see the rising greatness of France, and of the United States; the growing empires in South America; the character of those wars which are approaching, as well as the dispositions of six millions of the King's subjects; and they must have their misgivings as to whether they will be able to weather the coming storm. They are themselves preparing fuel for the flame in Ireland; they are educating the people without providing for their distress, and thus putting the sharpest weapons into the hands of men, who, as they learn

to eradicate them at once

remove them entirely is difficult would be dangerous and perhaps not possible. The whole business of reform must be left to the zeal of enlightened pastors, to public opinion, to the inquisitive and critical spirit of the age, and to Time, so apt to destroy his own works, and to root up weeds which he himself has planted." "At all events, one obvious reflection presents itself to console the benevolent and truly christian reader, whose expansive heart embraces all mankind, and who of course wishes rather to enlarge than to narrow the conditions of pardon and the pale of salvation. Of all the abuses here enumerated, not one in the opinion of an enlightened protestant, can touch the essence of christianity; not one can obscure the splendor of the Divine perfections; not one can affect the mediation of the Redeemer, or obstruct the action and efficient operation of the three prime and allenlivening virtues of faith, of hope, and of charity. On the contrary, most, if not all, may be attributed to a well-intended, though an ill-directed zeal-a fault, which of all the failings incidental to human nature, undoubtedly deserves the greatest indulgence. With this reflection ever uppermost in his mind, the most zealous protestant may traverse Italy with composure, bear its abuses with temper, treat a monk or even a friar with civility, and still consider himself as in a christian country."

CHARACTER OF THE ITALIANS.

Having seen what Mr. Eustace says of the religion of the Italians' let us procced to his view of their general character: "Never, surely, were any portraits more overcharged and more unlike the original, than the pictures which some travellers have drawn (at leisure apparently) and given to the public, as the characters of the Italians. If we may credit these impartial gentlemen, the Italians combine in their hearts almost every, vice that can defile and degrade human nature. They are ignorant and vain, effeminate and cruel, cowardly and treacherous, false in their professions, knavish in their dealings, and hypocritical in their religion: so debauched as to live in promiscuous adultery, yet so jealous as to murder their rivals; so impious as scarcely to believe in God, yet so bigotted as to burn all who reject their superstitions; void of all patriotism, yet proud of the glory of their ancestors; in short, wallowing

the people; they have shewn on some occasions an overweening anxiety for emancipation, at the expence of what the Priesthood and the other classes deemed the interests, if not the principles, of their religion; hence they are looked on with suspicion, and can no longer wield the public mind. The men who have purchased properties in land-who have lent their money, acquired by industry, on mortgages, those who are engaged in commerce, or in the liberal professions, are, with a few silly exceptions, on the side of the people. These are men of literature or of trade, and therefore if history and experience can be credited, they are bold, ambitious, fond of justice and of freedom-from such men the Government, should it persist in its present course, has only to expect defiance or open hostility.

Such is the view which this country must present to the eye of a British Statesman, and when he turns from it and says he knows not what to do, he professes his incompetency to guide the public Councils.

In such a state of things it behoves Parliament to apply to itself what the Roman Senate used to say to the Consul or Dictator in times of peril, Curit, ne quid respublica detrimenti patiatur, and I have little doubt, if your sentiments were adopted by it, but that Ireland could be tranquilized, the union of the countries cemented, peace and prosperity diffused, and the Empire rendered invulnerable.

These results cannot be attained by Catholic Emancipation alone, still less by those futile measures which are now in progress; if the mind of the nation be not well-directed, and the public will made to co-operate with the Legislature, the disease may be repressed or shifted, but no renovating principle of health will be infused into the frame of society.

Catholic emancipation will not remedy the evils of the tythe system, it will not allay the fervour of religious zeal-the perpetual clashing of two Churches, one elavated, the other fallen, both high-minded, perhaps intolerant; it will not check the rancorous animosities with which different sects assail each other; it will not remove all suspicion of partiality in the Government were Antoninus himself the Viceroy; it will not create that sympathy between the different orders in the state