It was with a view to damp this tendency to union that the Irish Lords Justices, of whom Boulter was one, had the meanness to suppress the loyal petition of the Catholics, intrusted to them to forward to George II. on his accession; and that the Government, some time after, had the boldness to annihilate, at one blow, four-fifths of the constituency of Ireland, by disfranchising the whole Catholic body. The latter was effected by an amendment made, without notice or debate, in a Bill, very harmlessly entitled-for the regulation of elections of members of Parliament;-an apt illustration of the mode in which Irish affairs were transacted; and, in more respects than one, a parallel to a late occasion, when an attempt was made to convert a Bill for the better regulation of those very institutions which the ' wisdom of our ancestors' deemed so good for the improvement of the country, into one for their total abolition !

This disfranchisement of the Catholics completed that penal code, upon the evil consequences of which so much has been said and written. It will be sufficient for our present purpose to point out that it was never looked upon in any other light than as the means of upholding that party by which Ireland was to be kept in subjection to England. The support of religion was not one of its objects. Our ancestors-men wise in their generation-never professed to understand how the temporal blessings of life could much influence or promote their spiritual welfare. But, at the time of which we speak, the relation of the two parties was rather that of the Court and Country parties in England, than of the modern Protestant and Catholic parties in Ireland. The former did not become religious, even in name, until there was a temporal purpose to be secured-until its own growing strength rendered it advisable, for the purposes of England, to set the one persuasion against the other; and thus prevent each from obeying those natural laws of affinity which, according as the ties of English connexion grew weak, would soon have consolidated them into one-too strong, perhaps, to submit to degradation. The rigour of the penal laws soon effected the wished-for differences; and as the Court party became less and less English, it became more and more sectarian.

Thus came into being the memorable system of 'Protestant 'Ascendency'-originally designed for the suppression of Irish prosperity-proposed to be continued for the opposite purpose; for it is hardly to be supposed that those who call themselves Protestants would, like the Spanish Inquisitors, make the body suffer for the good of the soul ! But as there was no religious motive in its establishment, Primate Boulter-good, easy man -betrayed none. As it was a mere name designed for the con

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cealment of its true nature the ascendency of denizens over aliens of the English party over the Irish nation-so, even at the present moment, except with some few blind zealots, whose charity to others varies inversely as their prayers for mercy to themselves, the whole meaning is in the substantive. 'Ascendency,' indeed, implies political dominion and political subjection, but no more. The adjective is merely expletive. It expresses, indeed, what was once the necessary qualification for office and favour; but as to its representing any interest of religion,―any thing more than a vague dissent from others, and what Burke calls a theological hostility' to Catholics,-it is with most as empty a sound as with a noted Orangeman, who understood the religion he professed so well, as to argue publicly and seriously, that that of the Church of England was the most tolerant in the world, inasmuch as the Liturgy enjoined a prayer for 'the good estate of the Catholic Church'-a prayer for the religion to which it is opposed!

:: The evils entailed upon Ireland were of the very worst kind. We see them in the backward state of civilisation, compared with what would have resulted from a more encouraging system. We see them in the poverty and turbulence of the peasantry-in their want of respect for the law-in their improvidence and recklessness of life-in the prevalence of religious animosity-and above all, in that political temper, which has been the effect of the false position in which the Government and the physical strength of the nation have been so long placed with regard to each other, and which is only now beginning to change under the influence of a better system. In nothing, perhaps, could we find such a clear illustration of the evils resulting from this wretched feeling as in the fact, that no measure in favour of any public interest was ever given to Ireland, during the reign of that policy, except as a concession to the fears of England. This was the natural effect of the derangement of the whole political and social system. The functions of the people and of the Government were totally at variance, instead of conspiring to the same end. That which was the proper object of both was forbidden. And hence it happened that Ireland's wrongs all arose from England's security-her gains from England's alarms. Her progress in improvement— so irregular, so peculiar-has been, in some respects, like what travellers tell us as to the motions of the Sloth, which is powerless in a season of calm, but which, when the wind blows, and the oaks bend and meet, actively pursues its way from tree to tree. Even so has it been with Ireland. The season of an English panic has ever been her time of profit. From the first relaxation of the penal laws against Irish Dissenters, upon the appear

ance of the Scotch Presbyterians in arms in 1715, down to the final abolition of the whole penal code in 1829, each change of its objects, each successive mitigation of its severities, has been the consequence of England's alarms. Scotland-America France, have each in their turn awed her into doing justice to the Irish. It was the fear of the arms of the Pretender, in 1745, that induced her to tantalize them for a moment-until the victory at Culloden-with the more mild and impartial administration of Lord Chesterfield. It was the apprehension of American influ→ ence, and the arms of the Volunteers, which compelled her to yield up independence and free trade, and restore the Catholic franchise. It was the fear of revolutionary France which induced her again to tantalize Ireland with the conciliatory government of Lord Fitzwilliam, and prompted Mr Pitt to condole with the Irish peasantry upon the great practical grievance of tithes ! It was the fear of those dangers which threatened England in every season of rebellion or of war that suggested the union of the two countries; the original object being plainly the security of England rather than the benefit of Ireland. Finally, the Act of Catholic Emancipation was a concession to the strength of Ireland herself. He who dreaded not the whole power of France, yielded to fear what had been refused to justice.

The injury which attends this mode of government is not to be told. It spoils the public temper; teaches the people the arts and advantages of agitation; establishes rivalry where there should only be emulation; fixes resentment where there should be generosity, insolence where there would be gratitude; and as it is said that mercy blesses him that gives and him that receives, so we may say of concessions to fear that they demoralize both the giver and the receiver. In truth, there is no faculty of the public mind which it does not injure. Principles of fear are notoriously the very worst on which government can be carried on, whether the fear exists in the subject,-as under a military despotism; or in the ruling power,-as in the case of Ireland in times past.

The measures themselves, too, never equal expectation. Upon this complaint in regard to those passed in the days of Grattan, he made this memorable remark. These measures were concessions 'to clamour,' says the Minister, and it is because they were felt 'by the Minister to be concessions to clamour, that they were in 'execution inadequate, in effect unsatisfactory, and in process of 'time were evaded and eluded.' In such cases, the re-action of feeling which succeeds the concession, prevents the measure from being carried out at once to its intended objects; or the circumstances have changed, whilst the concession has been delayed.

What an alteration, for example, took place in the strength, the views, the expectations, of the Catholic body whilst emancipation was under discussion! The weak had become powerful; and that which was denied as an indulgence in youth was claimed as the indisputable right of manhood.

Another inevitable consequence of this policy is the system of agitation, and the political machinery which it brings into use. The English Constitution recognises the right of the subject to petition-of Parliament to act. The intended action of the people is through the Legislature. But, in Ireland, a deviation from this principle has necessarily taken place. Here the action of the people has been chiefly upon the Legislature, through the instrumentality of public bodies of various kinds,-many of them assuming a corporate form. Delegates, conventions, committees, and associations have been in turn used as effective political engines, adapted to the exigencies of the time;-by their superior judgment, perhaps, preventing the people from running into excess-but, by presenting themselves to view, as the practical organs through which the power of the people is applied, throwing into the shade, perhaps into contempt, the legitimate principles of the constitution.

Such a state of things called imperatively for a change in the mode of treatment. The Tories, though now otherwise disposed -though now seeking to revive the mischievous ascendency which had produced so much evil-admitted this, when they sent liberal Viceroys to temper the illiberality of their Secretaries; above all, when they granted emancipation, and professed no longer to rely on Orange support. But in this they fell into the same error as their predecessors, after the independence conceded in 1782, which Grattan tells us was an experiment to accomplish impossibilities; to reconcile the ancient government of jobbers and dependents with the new spirit of the people, who had recovered their constitution, by obtaining a victory over 'that government; it was an attempt to unite the hoary decre'pitude of the old jobbing Ministry and the borough Parliament 'with the dignity, the expectations, the exigencies, and the feel'ings of what was emphatically called-Young Ireland.'

And be it remembered, that when the emancipation was conceded, the expectations and the feelings of Ireland were higher even than after the events of 1782. The Tories did not perhaps see this. But they ought to have seen it, and acted accordingly. They ought to have perceived that emancipation was sought upon the very same ground that it was refused; namely, that it would give equality, and therefore strength to the country. The friends of the Catholics, and the Catholics themselves, sought it

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for its consequences, and not merely for its titular advantages; and the Tories ought to have suited their policy to this state of things. But they never will act right at right seasons. It was the saying of a late statesman, that the difference between a wise and a commonplace politician, is the same as between today and to-morrow. So it is with the Tories. To-day they never will do what is right. To-morrow they will-because they must. It was in this state of affairs-the Emancipation Act a dead letter-the Orange system openly disclaimed, but secretly approved-the whole animal spirit of Toryism in full activity-that Lords Anglesea and Wellesley commenced a sounder policy. But the change was more conspicuous in the legislative than in the executive functions of Government. The Reform Bill improved the representation. The Church Temporalities Bill relieved the country of ten bishops, and abolished Church-rates. The grand jury system was amended. But still the main thing was wanting in a country where the executive is so prominent. Agitation was as rife predial outrage as prevalent as before. The Insurrection -Act was tried. The Coercion Bill was tried. But still the same

result. The fact was, that the liberality of these enlightened statesmen, and of the English Cabinet, was obscured by the chief instrument of the executive. Not a ray of personal conciliation ever reached the people. To them, however, is due the credit of opening the way for the downfal of the Orange system. They introduced the point of the wedge, which Lord Mulgrave has driven home.

It would be foreign to our present purpose to discuss that branch of the general policy of the present Government, which relates to its Legislative functions. The fate which has attended every attempt to improve the institutions of the country is well known. Our business is with the administrative policy pursued by Lord Mulgrave. It is to this almost exclusively that, we owe the moral improvement which has taken place in Ireland. Unassisted by the legislature, it has by its own popularity, and the increased vigour of which this admits, done more for the country than its most sanguine supporters would have ventured to predict. It has, in fact, gained the power of enforcing the laws of the land amongst the peasantry, by evincing a determination to enforce the laws of justice in every other department.

That the Irish Government should have possessed so much power, may seem surprising. But the fact is, that the executive is differently circumstanced there from what it is in any other country, with an equally free constitution. It has always been both a more visible and a more variable feature in the Irish than in the English government. In truth, the constitutions of the