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ART. XI.—1. Fifteenth Report of the Inspectors General on the General State of the Prisons of Ireland in 1836. Printed by order of the House of Commons: 1837.

2. Tables of the Number of Criminal Offenders, during the year 1836, in England and Wales. London: 1837.

3. A Return of Outrages reported to the Constabulary Office, Dublin, as having occurred during the five months commencing with September, 1836. Published by order of the House of Commons: 1837.

4. Ireland under Lord Mulgrave. 8vo. London: Ridgeway, 1837.

HE question, now so much debated, as to the improvement

TTM alleged to have taken place of late, in the moral condition

of the Irish people, is one, upon which every Englishman ought to take pains to form a sound opinion, in proportion as he sees the manner in which facts are more than ever distorted by the heats of party. He should make an effort to lay aside for a moment the prejudices which party connexion or party misstatements may have created,-to disentangle himself from the net of newspaper assertions, and contradictions, every day traversing each other, and judge for himself, upon examination of authentic evidence, as to the truth or falsehood of the alleged improvement, as well as the soundness or unsoundness of that particular policy to which it is attributed. If a generous man, he must exult over the decrease of outrage and disturbance,-the progress of civilisation and peace, amongst his fellow creatures; but if only concerned with the immediate benefit of his own country-he must still rejoice according as he perceives the great interest which England has in the welfare of Ireland. Without entering into questions of commerce or trade-of mutual benefit in peace or mutual assistance in war-estimated by the fact that the population of Ireland now exceeds a third of that of the whole United Kingdom-he must see, both in the aspect of political parties, as well as in many late political events, convincing proofs of the extent to which a reciprocity of interest is at least generally felt to exist. He will recollect too that it is to one memorable Irish question, peculiarly treated, that we must chiefly ascribe the steady growth of that liberal party which is now in the ascendant, but which, were it not for the vigour, from time to time derived to it

from that fertilizing source, might not even yet have attained its present lofty position. Nor can he fail to discover, in the successive fall of cabinet after cabinet, on that and other Irish questions, a further indication of the great influence which Ireland, whether for good or for evil, is likely to possess in future over the national affairs-an influence which may even determine the principles on which the whole Government of the country is to be permanently carried on. In proportion as he discerns the magnitude of England's interest, and Ireland's influence, must he see the policy of rendering the one as available, the other as salutary as possible.

The two countries are in fact now so closely connected; that the condition, no less than the temper of the one, mnst sensibly affect the condition and temper of the other. The same lifeblood circulates in both. The same pursuits-the same hopes and fears, or nearly so, actuate both. For our part we rejoice that it is so; because we are confident that those political principles will triumph which are to render Ireland a blessing rather than a curse to England—a source of strength from the voluntary cooperation of attached fellow-subjects-of profit, from the growth, not the destruction, of those wants, which belong to wealth and prosperity.

That there exists in Ireland a very large amount of criminal offences-more perhaps than in any other country in Europe-is not denied. It would indeed be impossible to have eradicated in a few short years, that which has been the slow growth of centuries. The Tories would even wish it to be believed that crimes of all kinds are still as prevalent as in their time. An admission of the contrary would attribute merit to Lord Mulgrave; and this they never will concede, though they can only withhold it, at an enormous deduction from their candour and consistency. But that a great improvement has taken place, is a very simple fact, which we could at once dismiss, were it not advisable to devote some previous consideration to the general features of that dark system by which outrage and disturbance have been promoted, and of that more enlightened policy under which, as we shall presently see, they have been so much diminished.

It is the more important to do so, since the language of the present Tories, as well as their conduct respecting the Irish Corporation Bill, has completely identified their views with those of their predecessors in times past. The very same design betrays itself now, which prevailed centuries ago, and which has ever characterised the treatment of Ireland. When Lord Lyndhurst, acting as the mouth-piece of the Tory party, with a strange forgetfulness of himself, pronounced the Irish to be aliens, in all those respects which are usually ties of union between nations,

and upon that ground urged the refusal to them of a measure similar to that granted to their English and Scotch fellow-subjects, he did no more than re-echo the language, and enforce the sentiments of those ancient statutes by which the Irish people are designated aliens-by which reference is made to English rebels but Irish enemies and all the interests of Ireland legislated for, as if wholly foreign to those of England. There is a very striking coincidence, too, between the language of the Tory leader and that of James I., who, when the Catholics complained of his suddenly sinking them into a minority in the House of Commons, by the creation of forty new boroughs, had the boldness to tell them they were a body without a head: you would 'be afraid,' he said, 'to meet such a body in the streets; a body without a head to speak! Nay, half a body... what a mon'ster was this... a very bugbear!'And again, alluding to the creation of boroughs, you that are of a contrary opinion 'must not look to be law-makers; you are but half-subjects, • and should have but half privileges!'

Such was the quaint and insolent language of this despotic pedant to his Catholic subjects in the seventeenth century; and the same in purpose was that addressed by the organ of the Tories to the Irish nation in the nineteenth century,-long after it had been received into perpetual union with England as one country, and after the boldest man of the age had retired before that same headless portion of it at broad noon-day!

This historical parallel, when taken in connexion with the avowed principles on which so many other members of the same party also attempted to justify their rejection of every measure destined for the equal treatment of Ireland, at once shows that the present designs of Toryism are identical with its past practices. There cannot, indeed, be a doubt but that, were the opportunity favourable, the action would be still farther suited to the word; that the retrograde tendency which showed itself partially in 1834, in a return to the Orange system, would be followed again to the full length; and that the feeling which dictated the worst policy of England in times past would dictate its continuance in time to come. Let us now see what that system was, for the revival of which the Tories evince so much longing.

England had but one object in view the total subjection, the commercial annihilation of Ireland. For the attainment of this, all the constitutional laws, the whole spirit of government in the latter, were peculiarly designed. For this it was that an attempt was first made to disqualify the Irish for equality, by refusing them the privileges of the English; and then, as cir

cumstances changed, to oppose the natural growth of Ireland's strength by the concentrated force of a small party. Neither the object nor the means were ever defended on principles of justice. The end was deemed expedient, and was supposed to justify the mode by which it was reached. The expression wasthat the conquest was to be completed-not, indeed, a conquest in the original sense of acquisition alone, but in that of violence and spoliation also! Instead of seeing that the prosperity of Ireland would best serve the interest of England, were it only as increasing the market for her manufactures, it was thought best to crush her as a rival, and deliver her up, bound hand and foot, as a slave, to those whose assistance was requisite for effecting this stern purpose. But is it not strange that, when that which was once the primary object had-by the union and the abolition of all commercial differences-ceased to be any object with England, there should be a disposition, on the part of Englishmen, to retain the system which had produced so much evil-to keep in movement, for the benefit of a small band of Irish, that machinery which was originally designed for the advantage of England alone? Nothing could have been more short-sighted than this wretched policy. One of an opposite kind had marked the progress of Conquest from the East. The Romans invariably gave their institutions to the vanquished. The Conqueror governed the Normans and English under one law. The same principle was adopted by Edward in the reduction of Wales. But there the rule of strength was alone laid down for the reduction of Ireland. The Irish were then, as now, looked upon as unfit for British institutions, and removed as aliens beyond the influence of British law. So far from the Irish being unwilling to have the English laws, they even sought to purchase them. Edward I. consented to a proposal of this kind, ‘Provided always,' to use the words of his reply, that the general consent of our people, or at least of the prelates and nobles of that land "well affected towards us, shall uniformly concur in their behalf.' But the great Lords of Ireland,' says Sir John Davies, had informed the King that the Irish might not be naturalized, * without damage and prejudice, to themselves and the Crown.' Many are the subsequent instances, too, that might be adduced in the reigns of the Edwards and Henries, of like attempts, similarly frustrated, by those whose selfish interest it was to make the Irish appear disqualified for liberal or civilized institutions. So early do we observe the growth of that mischievous ascend

* Hist. Tracts, SS.

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ancy, which even still finds its apologists in many great Lords and Prelates of our time.

Davies's remarks as to the practical effects of oppression on the Irish character are striking: This oppression,' says he, did, of force and necessity, make the Irish a crafty people; for 'such as are oppressed and live in slavery are ever put to their 'shifts-Ingenium mala sæpe movent-and, therefore, in the old 'comedies of Plautus and Terence, the bond-slave doth always act the cunning and crafty part. Besides, all the common 'people have a whining tone or accent in their speech, as if they did still smart or suffer some oppression. And this idle'ness, together with the fear of imminent mischiefs, which did continually hang over their heads, have been the cause that the Irish were ever the most inquisitive people after news of 6 any nation in the world; as St Paul made observation on the 'people of Athens, that they were an idle people, and did nothing but learn and tell news.' *

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When Sir John Davies thus pointed out the evil of treating Ireland on a different plan from England, and rejoiced over the change of system which had been accomplished after James I. came to the throne, he little thought that that change would, as to its expected effects, prove but a nominal one; that the same spirit would continue in a new shape; and that, the original intent remaining unaltered, analogous means would be used for its attainment. Hence, when the Parliament had been paralysed by the creation of forty broughs-when the country had been scourged by successive confiscations-when every act of violence had been tried, and the growing sympathy between the new race of proprietors and the nation at large rendered its subjection a task of increasing difficulty, recourse was had to the notable expedient of placing all the power and emoluments of office in a small English party. Primate Boulter-a man who, in the days of Popery, would have done honour to the hat of a Cardinal-was selected as the instrument for carrying this new scheme into effect. The anxiety with which he watched the growth of national union is curiously exemplified in one of his letters relating to Wood's patent. He says, 'I find by my own and other enquiries, that the people of every religion, country, ' and party here are alike set against Wood's halfpence, and that 'their agreement in this has had a most unhappy influence on the 'state of this nation, by bringing on intimacies between Papists and Jacobites and Whigs, who before had no correspondence ' with them.'

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