over the mass of mankind; and we trust we need not prove that this influence is as triumphant in the church, as in the senate, or the court of justice. We do not say that the Irish clergy should be first-rate orators, for, however desirable it might be, a sufficient number of such orators could not be found; what we should chiefly insist on would be, the most brilliant diction that the understandings of the hearers would bear, and impressive delivery. Brougham is a cipher to Charles Phillips, in regard to influence over juries; and yet what is Charles Phillips to Brougham, in regard to learning and capacity? The congregations which throng after Irving, and what are called popular preachers, although the sermons of these preachers are generally less palatable to the passions, less in harmony with the Scriptures, and less powerful in argument, than those of unpopular ones, abundantly prove what might be accomplished by flowery, impressive preachers in Ireland. The lower orders have quite as much of this "itch of the ears," as their betters. We conscientiously believe that a Protestant clergyman, possessing the oratorical powers, not of Mr Canning, nor Mr Brougham, but of Mr Phillips only, would speedily fill his church with Catholics in any part of Ireland; and that a sufficient number of such clergymen would in no long period of time give a death-blow to Catholicism in that country. From the natural eloquence of the Irishman and the wealth of the Irish Church, it could be no difficult matter to find a sufficient number of young Irishmen to educate for the purpose; and these might be combined with a judicious selection from the great body of the English Clergy.

But while eloquence should be a sine qua non, the conduct of the clergy should be exactly calculated to give the utmost effect to it. Their religion, at the outset at least, should be chiefly delivered from the pulpit, and out of it they should be indefatigable in endeavouring to endear themselves to their Catholic parishioners by familiarity, and acts of assistance, sympathy and generosity. There would be the influence of a Protestant government and Protestant landlords to aid such a clergy, and if they failed of success, it would be at least against

all the laws of foresight and calculation.

One invaluable benefit such a clergy would be sure to produce, if they did not make a single convert. They would kindle such a blaze as would at any rate consume the worst parts of Catholicism. They would create such a competition for hearers, such a spirit of examination in the people, such endeavours on the part of the Catholic Church to meet them with equal talent, and such willingness in this church to conciliate its flock by concessions, as would infallibly effect a very complete reform in the Catholicism of the Irish peasantry. If they accomplished this, they would accomplish a very large share of all that we desire. We wrangle not for names and forms. Let the Catholic Church endure as long as Ireland endures, and let its followers be as numerous as they are at present; only let it abandon its tyranny, cease to interfere with civil rights and duties, and be merely, what it ought to be,-a teacher of the Christian religion.

To these, as the most important topics, we have directed our whole space; there are two, or three others, however, which we cannot pass entirely in silence.

The law in Ireland, which incites the landlord to subdivide his land as much as possible, and to make the labourer nearly independent of both master and himself, in order to multiply votes, has been reprobated by both sides of Parliament, as an instrument which contributes very largely to the evils of that country. Now, when this is the case, and the nation at large is anxious to support Parliament in anything that has the benefit of Ireland in view, why is no attempt made to change this law, which is thus left without defenders? The question presses itself the more forcibly upon us, because the law is, in principle, highly absurd, unjust, and dangerous; and because it might be easily altered, so as to become an excitement to the landlord to increase the size of his farms. With regard to occupiers, let the votes be taken from the petty ones, and given to those who occupy not less than fifty acres. The tenant of fifty acres, might give 1 vote, of 100 acres, 3,-of 150 acres, 5,of 200 acres, 8-&c.

The maledictions which are heaped upon the poor potatoe are wholly un

and depravity, if they have not already reached it. We must proceed upon mathematical principles, and proportion the power to the effect that it is meant to accomplish. The evils that we have pointed out are demonstrable; their existence is scarcely denied by any one, and we would, without deigning to clap a single bandage on the surface, carry our knife to the root at once. We recommend, no doubt, great measures; but they are barely proportioned, in magnitude, to the evils which, in our poor judgment, will yield to nothing else, and we are perfectly convinced that they are practicable-that all parties concerned pos ́sess ample means for carrying them into effect, if the will be not wanting. For the willingness of England and the Church, so far as they are interested, we will venture to answer; but who shall answer for the landholders of Ireland?

To these landholders, we will once more address ourselves. We will tell them, that they are, in a very great degree, morally accountable to God and their country, for the good conduct and well-being of those who live on their estates-that the terrible mischiefs which the jobbers entail on their humbler tenants, flow primarily from themselves-and that a very large portion of the distress, ignorance, depravity, turbulence, and guilt of Ireland, lies at their door. We call upon them to shew themselves as a body, to follow the splendid example which has been so lately set them by the English landholders, and to say, WE AND

OUR OCCUPIERS ARE ONE, AND WE WILLSTAND OR FALL TOGETHER. Let every man take his own estate in hand, and let them at once begin the great, magnificent, and glorious work, of giving food and clothing, peace and purity, and freedom and happiness to their country. Parliament and the British nation will go hand in hand with them, to furnish assistance, and sweep away difficulties, and, at the last, to confer those honours on them which the completion of their noble undertaking will deserve. If they will still do as they have done, we most devoutly hope, that, at any rate, the fearful mass of infamy which the present state of the peasantry of Ireland must fix in some quarter, will at last fall where it ought, and operate in the proper manner.

To Government, Parliament, and the Nation at large, we need not say much in the way of excitement; and yet the singular characteristics of the question respecting Ireland, and the vast importance of this question, do not seem to be very generally comprehended. We are eternally burning incense to liberty, and throwing sarcasms on what we are pleased to call the slavery of other nations. We call foreign governments, despotisms, execrate them, and make the bondage of their subjects a matter of misery to ourselves. With what sleepless solicitude have we watched the progress of events in the Peninsula, Greece, and South America! How laboriously have we toiled to render to the inhabitants of these parts counsel and assistance! And how ceaseless and bitter are our groans over the present condition of Spain and Portugal! Yet the great mass of the people of Ireland-one-third of ourselves are actually at this moment subject to a slavery, different, perhaps, in name and form, from that of other countries, but as harsh in its operation, and as destructive in its consequences, as that of any. This immense portion of us is deprived of the freedom of the press, the liberty of conscience, and the right of free inquiry and discussion, not by mere injunction and threat, but by positive punishment, which amounts to the loss of character and bread, if not of existence; and it is ground to powder by tyrannical, bloodsucking sub-landlords, on the one hand, and a rapacious, despotic, blinding, and disaffected Catholic priesthood, on the other. In our rage against the NAME of slavery, we are, like madmen, placing the whole of our West Indian possessions in imminent present danger, and rendering their ultimate loss to us certain, merely that we may promise to the wellfed, well-used negro-the negro whose situation, with regard to substantial well-being, is at least an hundred fold better than that of the poor Irishman -that freedom, which we declare he is now utterly unfit to possess, and which, till his whole feelings and habits are changed by Christianity and civilization, it is certain he never can possess, without perverting it into the means of his own ruin. And yet we are so enamoured of the REALITY of slavery, that the Irish land-jobber, in comparison of whom, the West India

planter is humanity itself, is not to be spoken against; and the appalling mental, and bodily bondage, which the Romish Church spreads and perpetuates in the very vitals of the state, is not to be molested on any account. We boast of our constitution and laws -of our security in person and possession-and yet the loyal and wellprincipled country inhabitants of Ireland are continually exposed to robbery and butchery. We can shudder over the idols of the Hindoo, but the darker idolatry of the Irishman must be religiously respected; we must deluge the whole earth with Bibles and Prayer-Books, Ireland only excepted; and, while we regard it as a duty to endeavour to make proselytes to our religion everywhere-while we are even, at great expense, providing religious instruction for the negroes, merely to make a Quixotic attempt to prepare them for freedom-we make it a matter of state policy to discourage attempts to teach the genuine truths of Christianity to the barbarous Irish peasantry, although they have actually incorporated pillage, devastation, and butchery, with their system of religion. If the Attorney-General, or the Society for the Suppression of Vice, prosecute a blasphemous work, the wrath of the whole nation is to be directed against them; but not a finger must be raised against those who prohibit the great body of the people of Ireland from reading the Scriptures, and almost all other useful publications. And while the state of Ireland is discussed without ceasing-while almost every day teems with projects for the benefit of that wretched country, the only bold, comprehensive, and decisive measure that is proposed, viz. Emancipation,is bottomed upon disputed abstract principles-is confessedly incapable of removing the evils of Ireland, and is demonstrably calculated to render the Romish Church still more powerful and active, and to aggravate and perpetuate the terrible mischiefs which this Church showers upon the great mass of the Irish people. Shame alone,

and not inability, restrains us from doubling the length of this appalling catalogue of inconsistencies; and yet, in committing them, we scorn the commands of interest, as well as those of character and duty. Here is a population of seven millions, which we have under a monopoly; it at present consumes comparatively nothing, and, by a little exertion, we might raise it to the rank of our best consumers;-here is a large portion of the empire, which at present pays comparatively nothing into the Treasury, we might, by a little exertion, make it pay additional millions annually,― and we seem loth to make this exertion, although we are constantly sighing for increase of trade, and lamenting the amount of our debt, and the weight of our taxes!

We-" Fly from petty tyrants to the throne"--we turn with scorn from party leaders-men who can only think and speak of the crimes and sufferings of Ireland, to make them subservient to their own wretched ambition, and we address ourselves to the sober, disinterested, practical, sterling good sense of our country. The principal evils under which Ireland groans are visible, clearly defined, and even, with regard to their existence, free from controversy. We say that they are susceptible of remedy-that they may be not only palliated, but effectually removed. We say that the jobbers can be destroyed-that rents can be reduced-that farms can be increased in size that the surplus population can be drained off-that tithes can be commuted-and that the great body of the Irish people can be taught the genuine principles and practice of Christianity; and we say, moreover, that this can never be done by the system that is at present pursued. Can no Irish landlords be found among those who so loudly bewail the sufferings of their country, to stand forward and call their brethren together, to enlist them in the good cause? And can no honest, independent Member of Parliament be met with, to speak the