212

322

Page

Royal Chapel of the Veteran Soldiers at Chelsea ........ $79 Friends of Poor Orphan Children 41% Aged Poor Society

HOUSE OF COMMONS, April 17, 111 May 20, 182 Dr. Milner's Petition on Catho

ib.

HOUSE OF COMMONS, June 30, 238 LORDS, July 9, 241,--9

225

lic Marriages

Dr. Poynter's do.

380, 412

MARRIAGES

OBITUARY

Preliminary Chapter.-General Idea of Religion-Plan and Division of the Work.. ...... Rise and Progress of Religion from the Creation of the World

Sect. 3.-Attributes of God, and the 'State of Man before the coming of Christ, &c. &c.

Works of God-Creation of the World-Good and Evil Spirits Creation of Man -Terrestrial Paradise-State of Innocence

Sin of our first Parents -its Consequences-Original Sin-Necessity and Promise of a Redeemer-Reasons why his coming was delayed .... Sect. 2.-Select Portions of Sacred History, and other interesting particulars relative to the coming of Christ, to the end of the World

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28

Deep calamity, according to a wise remark, is a purifier of the affections. Never was the justness of this observation more clearly or forcibly illustrated than in the case of Ireland during the late awful visitation. For centuries the inhabitants of this country regarded their neighbours with distrust, and perhaps with aversion, and the memory of the reciprocal cruelties that sprung from the protracted struggle between English dominion and Irish independence, was so faithfully preserved, that, in the language of our country, a foreigner and a foe were synonimous appellations. In the eventful history of Ireland, we read of calamities similar to those of last year. Of ten has she been visited with scarcity; and famine has often swept away her population. Yet her sufferings excited but little sympathy, because they were the sufferings of an isolated people. Her children were left to languish unrelieved; their complaints were generally confined to their own bosoms; or, if they were vented, they were as unavailing as if they were heaved to the winds of heaven. At length, however, the sound of her misery has gone

forth to foreign nations, and the complaints which before the Union would have died away, for want of an intermediate organ to convey them are, now faithfully transmitted to the sister country. The collected voice of thousands, perishing in the midst of plenty, was an awful appeal to the genethat rosity of a great nation : арpeal has been as faithfully responded to as it was forcibly made; and the prophetic predictions of

our national bard have been literally accomplished,

The stranger shall hear thy lament on his plains,

The sighs of thy harp shall be sent o'er the deep,

Till thy masters themselves, while they rivet thy chains,

Shall pause at the song of their captive and weep.

land

I rejoice that the evils of Irehave at length attained a crisis. It has taught our intelligent neighbours to probe the causes and feel for the extent of our misfortunes. Yes, you have generously sympathised with our distress, and the extent of our misery served only to display the extent of your benevolence. The characteristic gratitude of the Irish people has not abandoned them on this occasion. In the warmth of their acknowledgments, they have endeavoured to rival the warmth of your generosity, and I trust that the struggle, between the kindness of one country and the gratitude of the other, has put them both in fitter tone for further conciliation.

As a portion of the British empire, you must now feel interested for the prosperity of this country-I intend not to make any deductions from the late splendid

exertions in favour of Irish suffering; but giving you full credit for an effort of humanity, that reflects immortal honour on the English nation, it must now be an obvious truth that the happiness of Ireland is identified with your own. Before the Union she might have been sunk to the lowest point of depression, without affecting by her misfortunes the destiny of England; but since that legislative measure, they are, as members of the same body, connected by a common head, and of which the pleasure or the suffering must vibrate through the entire frame. They are now wedded together for better for worse, and as that Union is not likely to be dissolved, notwithstanding the contrary speculations of the enthusiast, or the designing, Ireland must be to England the source of continual vexation, or the companion of her prosperity. While they are united, the principle of life must be circulated, and felt through the remotest member; and if any should imagine that the vigour of some might be compatible with the weakness of others, let him read the instructive apologue of Menenius Agrippa, and be wise.

Were Ireland again visited with a similar calamity, and she is exposed to it while there is no intermediate descent between the present condition of her inhabitants and starvation, I could not, without trembling, anticipate the awful consequences. It would be vain to make another experiment on your generosity.

Last year's bounty was one of those mighty exertions which must have been spent from its own intensity, and therefore requires a long lapse of time to repair its exhaustion. If, therefore, it should please Providence to afflict us again with a similar misfortune, death must be the only termination of our sufferings.

To relieve us, therefore, from the apprehension of the recurrence of these evils, and you from the painful repetition of application to your benevolence, the attention of our people should be turned to their own resources. There is a rich mine of wealth within the country which requires only to be worked to make it available to the public prosperity. But while her resources are not developed, she is exposed, notwithstanding their profusion, to the periodical occurrence of distress and famine. What does it avail the peasant that his farm is productive, if the entire of the produce is inadequate to the collected demands of rent and taxes of every description. Last year, it is true, there was a scarcity in the distressed districts; yet. that scarcity was aggravated by the exactions of some landlords; and the little that escaped the severity of the season was, in several instances,* seized and sold to satisfy the demand of war rents, rigorously exacted. This year the country is blessed with plenty, yet the blessings of

*For instances of facts of this nature,

which, if necessary, he pledges himselfte substantiate, see the excellent letters of Hibernicus, which have been published in the Courier, a writer whose sober and practical views, conveyed in correct and forcible language, are well worth the attention of all who feel interested

in the improvement of Ireland.

Providence are blighted by the perversity of man. From the depression of prices, over which he has no controul, the tenant is unable to meet his engagements; his cattle are distrained, his crops are seized, and the unfortunate peasantry of this country literally realise the picture drawn by Pope, of the English people, under the feudal anarchy of ancient times:

In vain kind season's swell the teeming grain,

Softshowers distil and suns grow warm in vain,

The swain with tears his frustrate la

bour yields, And famished dies amidst his ripened

1

fields.

While this system is persevered in, there are obvious incentives to outrage such as disgraced the country last year, until the phrenzy of the unfortunate peasantry subsides in sullen despair.

The slovenly habits of the Irish peasant have furnished foreigners with a fruitful theme of ridicule or animadversion. These have grown out of the same state of things to which the other evils of Ireland may be traced. When a certain standard was fixed for the Irish peasant, beyond which he could not ascend without exposing his property to spoliation, it is no wonder that he should be more anxious to conceal it, than to stir the jealousy and tempt the virtue of his neighbour, by the indiscreet exhibition of his wealth.

Such a state must necessarily have generated sordid habits. Besides, his tenure of his farm was not such as to awaken or reward the spirit of industry. If, in spite of these discouragements, it began to thrive under his hands, he was sure to invite an addi

tional weight of rent, and, unlike the English landlords, who rejoice in the prosperity of their tenantry, the Irish gentry, with few exceptions, jealously watching the fruits of the farmer's industry, were sure to nip the first buddings of the promised improvement.

Nec fibris requies datur ulla renatis.

3

It were unjust if I did not exempt from this general character of Irish proprietors, an illustrious Nobleman, to whom I have alluded on a former occasion, who, together with some other individuals of rank, has laid his country under deep and lasting obligations. Unsmitten with the fashionable epidemic of emigration from his country, and alive to the reciprocal relations of society, he diffuses his fortune among those from whom he derives it, cheering them by his presence, and comforting the poor by the extent of his benefactions. Whilst others waste, the hard-earnings of the Irish peasant in foreign luxury and dissipation, this Nobleman enjoys the purer pleasure of proving, by his virtues, his title to. the first rank in the country, and the gratitude of that country, and the devotion of his dependants, can best attest the praises of a man, who mitigates the sterner duties of patriotism with the more amiable endearments of social and domestic life, and blends all the generous and home-bred warmheartedness of ancient chieftainry, with all the elegant accompaniments of modern refinement.

In the series of letters which "Hierophilos" has already addressed to the English people, he has glanced at some of the most prominent causes of our misfor

tunes (1). It was not, however his object to go into a full detail of the entire, confining himself chiefly to the refutation of those who would fain persuade you that they grew out of Biblical ignorance, and could only be cured by Biblical education. What he has omitted has, however, been amply supplied in another quarter, and the conductors of the Edinburgh Review have, in the article on the state of Ireland, which appeared in their last number, made ample atonement for the past injuries they have inflicted on the religious feelings of our country.

The decidedly adverse tone of politics that runs through the northern and southern Reviews of Great Britain has, it is true, considerably diminished that influence which they once exercised over the taste of the Empire. Their literary criticism is supposed to be strongly tinctured with the complexion of their politics, and like the green and yellow parties that alternately swayed the capital of the East, the mysterious costume of their publications affords an index to their political opinions. Truth however should be Jistened to through whatever medium it is conveyed; nor should the solid reasoning of the last Edinburgh Review be resisted on account of any prejudices that may have been provoked by the peculiar opinions of its conductors.

In concluding this letter, I must express my satisfaction at the spirit of inquiry that is awakened by the condition of Ireland, and the generous compassion that is manifested for her misfortunes. I trust, that the same feelings will be kept alive until Ireland is completely united to England, not only in the cold formality of a legislative enactment, but in the kinder feelings inspired by a reciprocation of all the benefits of the State. However different the remedies in detail which are proposed by her friends, this is a common point on which there is no diversity of opinion; and should the Catholics of Ireland be at length restored, through your generosity, and that of your Government, to the bosom of the Constitution, from which they have been so long exiled, pledge ourselves that we shall not be ungrateful for that generosity, nor a dishonour to that Constitution (2).

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