the Prophecies, and who taught the peasantry to believe that they would be fulfilled? Why, when invectives were daily showered upon the Protestants, were not those held up to public scorn and indignation, who led the ignorant peasantry to believe that the extermination of the Protestants, the destruction of the Protestant church, and the realization of Captain Rock's projects, were on the eve of taking place? Mr Goulburn publicly lamented that the people of this country and Parliament had the most imperfect idea of the horrible state of Ireland; why then did he not, as a sacred duty, denounce to them the instigators to the atrocities, as well as the instruments by whom they were perpetrated? A sad and portentous system of concealment touching causes, has been for some time adopted by men in power, with regard to Ireland. Not many days since the public prints informed us that some persons had been executed for the murder of the Franks family, and that they died solemnly protesting their innocence. On the very day on which we trace these lines, the same prints inform us, that, from admissions which these men made in a memorial to a nobleman, and from words which they were overheard to address to each other during their trial, their guilt could not be doubted. The reasons why these wretched men were thus sent before their God with a lie in their mouths, are abundantly obvious. The fact is sufficient to freeze us with horror, and alas! such facts are not rare in the history of Irish executions. The persons who could thus send them may be called priests-teachers of the Christian religion-for a name is easily given; but if they be not wretches who ought to be driven from society-if they do not more richly deserve the halter than their dupes deserved it-then common sense is regulated by geography, and it becomes stark staring madness in Ireland. So long as the men who could distribute Pastorini's Prophecies among the peasantry-who can seduce the felon to spend his last breath in horrible guilt, for the purpose of exciting hatred against the Protestants and the Protestant government-so long as these men hold despotic authority over the peasantry, in the character of Catholic priests, it will be everything but impossible to instruct and

reform the peasantry. It is not, perhaps, to be expected, that the government can obtain any influence in the nomination of the Catholic clergy, but it will lack one of the principal things that it ought to possess, so long as it shall be without the power to silence for ever, as spiritual teachers, such of them as become the firebrands of sedition, and the panders of wickedness. It is one of the most striking and revolting of the numberless incongruities which Ireland exhibits, that while the peasantry are placed under the operation of the Insurrection Act, those who gave them motives are almost wholly free from restrictions the Romish clergy teach and act as they please, and the Catholic Association spreads its sickening slanders, falsehoods, and incitements to rebellion, throughout the country, without molestation or rebuke. This system must be changed; for while it continues, the execution of the most guilty of the assassins and incendiaries will be only one degree short of murder. If the operation of the constitution must be suspended in Ireland, at least let the effects fall impartially. Let the leader be bound, as well as the follower. If, after all, there must be one kind of justice for the ignorant, and another for the enlightened; at any rate, when the dupe is hanged, let his deluder be disabled for making any more victims.

By rendering the Protestant clergy as efficient as possible in numbers, spirit, and ability; and by purging the Catholic priesthood of its worst members, (if this be not now possible, it ought to be made so,) and restraining this body from intermeddling with other than religious matters, we think that the middle-aged and aged portion of the peasantry might be led to receive willingly religious instruction. If these were secured, there would be hope of the remainder. Gain parents and masters, and children and servants will follow. But to pretend to be anxious for the religious instruction of the peasantry, and to be at no pains to provide such instruction for parents, heads of families-those who are the teachers and guides of the young;-to affect to make the child of twelve religious, by making him read without explanation a few chapters of the Bible, while you suffer those who are to instruct and lead him

after that age to remain depraved barbarians, seems to us to be anything but wisdom, and to promise anything but benefit.

In what we say touching the clergy of the established church, we have an able ally in Sir John Newport. Notwithstanding the Whig and Catholic partialities of this most respectable individual, he is continually prompting the government to render the clergy as efficient as possible. He does this indeed in the way of question and remark, and in the worst manner possible for rendering it effective; but nevertheless his opinion on this point, when his character and creed are considered, is of very high importance, in whatever manner it may be delivered. He is we say it with the deepest regret-almost the only individual in the whole legislature who does thus prompt the government, and who will say a syllable on the matter. The proposition to teach the children of the peasantry to read and write, is received with shouts of approbation; but no one can cheer the proposition, to teach morality and genuine Christianity to the parents.

We must not forget to say, that we regard the commutation of the tithes, to be essential for procuring a hearing for the clergyman. Whatever may be his character, if he have to collect these from his Catholic parishioners, there will always be sufficient animosity between them to render his ministry useless.

Our next grand object would be, to amend the form of rustic society in Ireland, and to form a channel, by which the feelings and opinions of the upper classes might flow upon the peasantry. We would select an individual for the Lord-Lieutenant, who should enjoy, what the Marquis Wellesley does not, and never will, enjoy, the confidence and esteem of the landholders of the wealth and intelligence of Ireland. He should, in addition to his other qualifications, be attached to agriculture, and perfectly skilled in the structure of English village society. Instead of quarrelling with the landholders on party and personal grounds, he should endeavour to win their favour by every conceivable method;-instead of shutting himself up in the Castle to dream of his own importance, he should spend a large portion of his time in visiting

different parts of the country, to make himself acquainted with its localities and the state of the inhabitants-to scatter the seeds of civilization-to bring into fashion its curiosities, lakes, and scenery-and to ingratiate himself with the lords of the soil, and lead them to make their country the scene of summer attraction and festivity. He should strain every nerve to allure back the Absentees, and to prevail on the landholders to adopt the English mode in managing their estates. His grand objects should be the abolition of the jobbers, and the multiplication of good-sized farms, with a view to the creation of a substantial, intelligent, well-principled yeomanry. The absence of such a yeomanry in Ireland is a national grievance of the first magnitude, and the energies of the government could not be better employed than in endeavours to form one. A Lord-Lieutenant, by patronage, official appointments and recommendations to honours-by granting government aid in the making of roads, canals, drains, &c. for the improvement of estates, and by various other means-might constitute himself the leader and the bond of union of the landlords, in re-modelling society among the peasantry. Every one who knows anything of human nature may easily conceive what effects the repeated visits of the Lord-Lieutenant would have even in the most barbarous districts of Ireland. How greatly would it animate the good, and discourage the turbulent!-How beneficially would it operate on local authorities, and on all who have power over the peasantry !-How many petty abuses and evils would it silently destroy !-How much would it contribute to the subduing of party madness!-What money would it cause to be expended among the country people, and how powerfully would it work in promoting civilization !-How mightily would it tend to correct vicious opinions, and to circulate the principles of loyalty and genuine religion!

And how irresistible would the interest, favours, and appeals of the Lieutenant be over the landholders and gentry, with regard to the bettering of the condition of the peasantry!

Ireland wants a Lord-Lieutenant like this-a rich English nobleman of the old school; a man free from party trammels and party spirit; concilia

tory, hospitable, and generous; well versed in the management of a large estate, and perfectly competent to put a country population into the proper form and condition.-Ireland, we say, wants a Lord-Lieutenant like this, and not a hackneyed politician. A large part of her principal evils cannot be reached at all by legislation, and the remainder of them can only be acted upon by it when the landlords shall be combined into a body (we say body, because we fear they will never accomplish much so long as they act singly) to give it direction and effect.

A numerous, respectable, and intelligent yeomanry, or, in other words, a proper and natural number of large farmers, would do more towards INSTRUCTING the peasantry, than all the schools that can be established; and they would do more towards keeping the peasantry IN ORDER, than the Insurrection Act, or any law that can be framed. Such farmers frequent fairs and markets weekly, read the public prints, mix with the respectable traders and other residents of towns, and thus become acquainted with the habits and opinions of their superiors, whom, according to the laws of nature, they endeavour to imitate as far as possible. The labourers are under their control, are constantly or frequently in their houses, apply to them for advice, copy them as far as they are able in everything, and thus learn from them what they learn from the higher classes. The labourers learn from the farmers what is of far more importance to themselves and the country at large than a knowledge of the arts of reading and writing-they learn good conduct, domestic management, just opinions touching right and wrong, and the rules of civilized and social life. The farmer's eyes are constantly upon his labourers, their bread is in his hands; he thus possesses ample ability for compelling them to practise instruction, as well as to hear itfor restraining them from vice, as well as crime and his own interest prompts him to the continual exercise of this ability.

The present state of the Irish peasantry is one of the most extraordinary things that the world exhibits in this age of civilization and refinement. The trade, occupation, bread, and consequently conduct, of every man who lives on an estate, are directly, or in

directly, in the hands of the owner of that estate. None but those who have been familiarized with English farmers and cottagers can conceive the degree of awe which actuates them in regard to their landlords. What will his landlord say? is the common exclamation, if any of them happen to be guilty of misconduct; and—I dare not from fear of my landlord,-is the general reply, if one of them be tempted to do what he thinks will excite his landlord's displeasure. The English landlord's influence does not slumber. We have ourselves seen farmers deprived of their farms for frequent drunkenness-for leading immoral lives-for being bad cultivators;-and we have seen a farmer compelled to marry a girl whom he had seduced, by his landlord's placing the marriage before him as the alternative to the loss of his farm. This operates in the most powerful manner, in preventing vice and crime; and in giving the best tone to what may be called, the opinion of the rustic world. The Irish landholders might if they pleased exercise similar influence over those who live on their estates; they might if they pleased only let their land to men of good conduct and character; and they might enjoy the same mighty means of controlling their tenants. Instead of this, a large portion of those who occupy their land know nothing of them, are perfectly independent of them, and care not a straw for them. Putting out of sight laws which can scarcely be executed, these occupiers are subject to no authority and influence whatever, save those of the jobber and the Romish priest. Yet these landlords are not barbarians-men ignorant of, and without the means of becoming acquainted with, their interest and duty. They are persons of rank, education, and wealth, who see the world, and who mix with the English landholders. The contrast between themselves, and a large portion of those who occupy their land, fills us with reflections which we shall conceal; but we cannot refrain saying, that it would be far less infamous for a man to suffer his domestic servants to be prostitutes and pickpockets, than for him to suffer his land to be occupied by rogues and assassins. The whole of that portion of the Irish population which is demoralized and brutalized-which almost daily commits crimes that can

not be paralleled in any other country, and which the utmost exertions of the government cannot keep in order-might be speedily placed under the most effectual surveillance and control, if the landlords would only do their duty.

With regard to the instruction of the peasantry, the influence of the landlords might be almost irresistible. Let a man be the sole landlord of those who occupy his land, and let him only demand moderate rents, and his wishes will seldom be disobeyed by his tenantry. The Irish landlords are principally Protestants. If the term proselytism be out of fashiom, we will say nothing of it, whatever we may think; but at any rate we may be permitted to assume, that they wish their tenants to be instructed in those points of Christianity which are free from controversy-that they wish them to know correctly what the Protestant religion, the Protestants, and the Protestant government are-and that they wish them to live on reasonably friendly terms with the Protestants. They might gratify this wish-they might destroy the pernicious influence which the Romish priests exercise in matters not religious-they might rend the veil which these priests spread over the eyes and understandings of their tenants-and they might prevail on their tenants to hear, examine, and judge, and to become acquainted with the truth in fact, if not in doctrine. We are very sure that the words of a good landlord, in regard to what is just and reasonable, will never be address d in vain to his tenantry-to men whose bread his nod can take away.

So long as the adults of the peasantry shall be without a sufficiency of able, active, zealous, religious teachers -as the aged and middle-aged, the parents and masters, shall be barbarous and depraved-as moral and enlightened masters shall be wanted to take the children under their control from the time that these leave school until they reach years of discretionso long will the schools for the children produce very little benefit. We say this with reluctance; we would willingly sail with the stream if we could, but we cannot do it without closing our eyes to some of the most obvious truths that society exhibits.

The schools, however, will be of
VOL. XV.

some service; perhaps they will operate the most beneficially, in personally interesting the nobility and gentry of Ireland in ameliorating the condition of the peasantry. Men do not love defeat. After commencing an undertaking, they will make sacrifices for its success, which nothing could have wrung from them previously. Perhaps the man who begins by interesting himself in a school, may end in lowering his rents, enlarging the size of his farms, and employing his influence in aid of the Protestant clergy. We will place one or two hints touching the schools at the service of the Committee.

It will, we apprehend, be readily conceded to us, that, as we have already said, the instruction of the peasantry in the arts of reading and writing is but a secondary object in the eyes of the legislature and the country. The grand object is, to teach them the distinction between right and wrong; to convince them that sedition, tumult, and rebellion; perjury, robbery, and assassination, are matters of both infamy and guilt. It unfortunately happens that religion cannot be taught in the schools-that ministers of religion must not enter them—that the Protestant clergy cannot catechise the vast majority of the children-and that authorities have no power to compel the Catholic clergy to give religious instruction to this majority. If no remedy be provided for this, the schools must miscarry altogether in their main object. We would advise that a book should be drawn up under authority for the use of the schools, which should comprehend the rules of morality and good conduct, and those principles of Christianity which are free from disputation.

This book should not be confined to generalities. It should dwell expressly on the prevailing crimes and vices of Ireland; it should dilate specifically on the murder of the Franks' family and the other murders-on the perjuries, houghings, and burnings, and point out their enormity in the eyes of God and man. It should speak of illicit distillation, lawless combinations, the refusal to pay rents and tithes, and, in a word, of the whole conduct of Captain Rock and his followers. We say again, that it should treat expressly and specifically on the prevailing crimes and vices of Ireland,

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for children will not give application to general precepts. It should not merely dwell on the criminal nature of the atrocities, but it should appeal to the spirit and pride of the children, with a view of rendering these atroci ties the objects of shame and scorn; it should speak of the past and present great men whom Ireland has produced, kindle the flame of emulation, and, as far as possible, rally round its object all the best partialities and prejudices of human nature.

The book should of necessity be silent respecting the Protestants, but it ought not to be silent respecting England and the English government, It should enlarge on what England has in late years done for Ireland-on the repeal of obnoxious laws-the remis sion of taxes-the encouragement of trade the late subscription; and it should shew how anxious the government, Parliament, and the whole English nation are, to do everything in their power that the benefit of Ireland may call for. It should shew that England and Ireland are parts of a whole; and that not only duty and interest, but innocence and honour, demand that the inhabitants of the two countries should regard each other as brothers.

The book might state the rules of integrity and general propriety, which the lower orders of England and other countries observe towards each other, and towards their superiors. It might detail the laws of honour, and the feelings and customs which govern the upper classes. Its more important portions might be illustrated and enforced by extracts from the Scriptures.

We merely wish to give a general idea of what the book should be, and we have said sufficient for the purpose. We may add, that it should contain nothing of a party nature, either religious or political. Against the use of such a book, no honest man could set his face, whatever might be his creed; and we fervently trust, that the opinion of the dishonest will have no weight whatever in a question of so much importance. Either give to the peasantry that instruction which their conduct imperiously calls for, or do not delude the nation by pretending to instruct them at all.

To make the children thoroughly acquainted with this book, both in spirit and application, should be the

leading object of the schools; all other things should be regarded as secondary matters. This would be a work of some difficulty. The schoolmaster is too often the object of dislike and derision to his pupils; and his tasks and lectures are generally disregarded in those things in which he cannot enforce attention and practice. He can compel them to practise his lessons touching reading, writing, and arithmetic; but in matters of mere opinion and belief, or that only relate to future conduct, his power is exceedingly small, and the prejudice of his pupils causes his exertions to be of very little value. We fear that on this point his efforts would be rather counteracted than aided by the parents. We would therefore advise, that the gentry, accompanied by both the Protestant and the Catholic clergyman, should at stated periods visit the schools, and carefully examine the children, touching their knowledge and understanding of the book. In doing this, they should dispense as much instruction and excitement as possible, in the shape, not of long formal harangues, but of familiar and kind conversation. Prizes should be given to those children who acquitted themselves the best, and the day should be concluded with a cheap school-feast. If the visitors gave the parents a friendly call at the same time, it would only be the work of an hour, and they would find their account in it. If the great only knew how powerfully and beneficially their kind notice acts upon the lower orders, they would be much more profuse of this notice than they now are, even for the sake of selfish enjoyment.

We would recommend the Committee to pay particular attention to the instruction of the girls. The heart of woman is by nature far better than that of man. Woman is the most docile-her affections are the most easily won-she is the most readily inspired with horror of crime-the sins to which she is prone by nature are not those which desolate Ireland-and she is in that wretched country far less exposed to temptation than the man. Teach the rustic belles to scorn men of vice and crime, and the rustic beaux will soon cease to be such men; give good principles and feelings to the wives, and they will soon flow to the husbands. But it is with regard to children that the instruction of the