cal institutions for the Bedouin Arabs, the degraded Chinese, and the yeomanry of England? Could any thing but anarchy and wretchedness be anticipated from so total a departure from the lessons of experience; so blind a forgetfulness of the difference between such different races and situations of mankind? Yet this is precisely what the Whigs have done. They have given the same sovereign powers to the impassioned Catholic cottar, guided by his priest, and execrating the Protestants, as to the sober English yeoman, inheriting from a long line of ancestors attachment to his King and country. They have swept away the old bulwarks equally in Popish Ireland as Protestant England. There never was such infatuation. Supposing it to be all true what they have so long and so strenuously maintained, as to the degradation in which the Irish were kept by the Catholic code, that only makes their conduct the more inexcusable, in so suddenlyinvesting them with irresistible sway. If it be true, that they have only ceased within these few years to be slaves, it was surely the height of madness to invest them at once, while still burning with servile passions, with the last and highest privileges of free

men.

The consequences have already developed themselves, and they have struck with dismay the very authors of the Reform Bill. The Globe tells us that there are sixty-seven members supported by O'Connell, standing for the Irish cities and counties, and that a great majority of them will to all appearance be returned. Mr Sheil boasts that the repealers are already forty strong, and daily receiving accessions of strength; a force quite sufficient, by throwing itself into the scale when nearly balanced, to subvert the empire. The Ministerial papers are daily firing signal guns of distress for the effects of their own healing measure. On their darling allies, the Radicals, they have opened with unexampled fierceness: for them, in gratitude for their past services, they have invented the epithet of "the Destructives," which Tory malignity never yet thought of; and on these their leading journal has lately opened those floodgates of slang and abuse, which a few months ago were bestowed exclusively on the

Conservative party. It is Ireland which has produced this consternation in the Ministerial ranks. They were fully warned, a hundred times over, during the progress of the Reform Bill, that this consequence would infallibly result from sweeping away all the barriers of the constitution in Ireland; but to all these warnings they were utterly deaf; with obstinate resolution they forced through the whole dangerous clauses of the revolutionary measure, and they now confess that the empire in consequence is on the verge of dissolution.

So absurd, vacillating, contradictory, and yet obstinate, has been the conduct of Ministers in Ireland, that they have contrived to accomplish what would a priori have been deemed impossible, viz. the union of Catholics and Orangemen in one common opinion. That common opinion is detestation of them and their measures. The Protestants, with reason, look upon them as the worst enemies Ireland ever saw; as the original authors of the fatal admission of Catholic influence into the House of Commons; as the patrons and rewarders of the greatest enemy to the peace of Ireland that time has ever produced. The Catholics regard them as men who have betrayed them into measures which they now punish them for pursuing; as having set the country on fire by the promised extinction of tithes, which they are now supporting with the whole military force of the empire. In the universal obloquy which they have acquired, the supporters of the Union itself have rapidly and alarmingly decreased, and a portentous union of Catholics and Protestants taken place, to support the severance of the island from British dominion.

O'Connell has treated the Government, as all men deserve to be treated who, for party purposes and the maintenance of power, surrender the independence and spirit of freemen

he has turned upon them with indignation. Loaded with their honours, he has spurned them with contumely; rising from their caresses, he has turned from them with loathing. The English newspapers have been for the most part afraid to print, even in these days of general license, the volley of abuse with which he has assailed those who lately loaded him

with honours. The leading feature, says he, of Lord Anglesey's government, has been the immense quantity of blood which has been shed during its continuance; more lives have been lost in one year of Whig rule, than in fifteen of Tory domination.* The present Ministers deserve to be-No! we will not pollute our pages by the filthy abuse which the first-born of their revolutionary affections, the leader of the Irish bar, pours out upon his loving benefactors. We have always opposed, and fearlessly opposed, the present Ministers; but we should deem ourselves disgraced if we applied to them the epithets which they have received from their revolutionary favourite.

But the matter does not rest here. If their domestic dissensions led only to the exposure of the monstrous alliances which the present Ministry had formed to uphold their fortunes, they would be rather a subject of ridicule than lamentation. But, unfortunately, graver and weightier consequences have followed in the train of this monstrous alliance. All Ireland is disgusted; the hatred at the Ministry is not only universal, but it has involved Great Britain in the obloquy. There can be no doubt, that the union of England and Ireland is more seriously endangered by the unparalleled folly and recklessness of the present Ministry, than by any thing else that has ever occurred. O'Connell openly boasts of this. Hear his own words:

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"Mr Sheil's conviction, as to the necessity of repeal, was produced by the conduct of the British Parliament; and the administration of Lord Anglesea, Stanley, and the Attorney-General, shewed that, without repeal, it was impossible to do any service to Ireland. (Hear, and

cheers.) He was proud to think that the

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enemies of Ireland were no longer to be distinguished by their religion, but by their servility (Hear, and cheers.) Orangemen, Methodists, I Presbyterians, can now be ranged amongst the patriots

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patriots were to be found men of every persuasion, while the vilest and most servile, the veriest lickspittle'-(it was an unpleasant word to use, and which he should not pronounce in a public assembly, if he could find one equally expressive of the class he was describing)-but that filthy word particularly applied to the Catholic portion of the herd of slaves who were the most bitter and malignant enemies of Ireland. (Hear, and cheers.)"

In these circumstances, the salvation of the empire hangs upon a rally support the repeal of the Union, thread. If the Irish members genethere is no concealing the fact, that in the present distracted and divided state of parties in this country, they may soon be able to dictate it to any administration.

One only resource remains to hold together the falling members of the empire. The great and noble Orange party of Ireland are still firm to their duty, and the integrity of the British dominions. Calumniated, maltreated, injured as they have been by the liberal measures, both of the present and the preceding Cabinet, they are yet firm in their allegiance both to the British crown and the British legislature. But let us not throw away our last chance. This brave and patriotic body may be driven to desperation; a drop may make the cup overflow. They are assailed by a reckless and desperate Catholic faction, strong in numbers, able in guidance, reckless in intention; men whom no bloodshed or conflagration will intimidate, no public suffering deter; who will pursue their own ambition, careless though the ruins of the empire were to overwhelm them in the attempt. This terrible body has been headed, patronised, and flattered by the government of England, during the whole struggle on the Reform Bill, and nothing but the triumph of that measure has cooled the alliance, or made them sensible of the desperate danger which they ran in the attempt. Such combination, a little longer persist

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be able to state this fact, that person, who tendered a vote to his son in Tralee, was the Methodist preacher of that town. (Cheers.) Amongst the Irish

memberment of the empire. But let us not be mistaken; the least removal of it would lead to an union of IS oidero. 197, 19795

all parties against the British union, and infallibly sever from England the right arm of her strength. It is by supporting, with all the might of England, the Orange party of Ireland, and by such a measure alone, that the crown of Ireland can be kept on the head of the British sovereign, or the independence of the British empire maintained. The Catholics will never cease to desire a severance, because it would lead, they hope, to a Catholic Prince and a Catholic government, and the resumption of the whole estates, both civil and ecclesiastical, to the Catholic proprietors. Her Revolutionists will never cease to desire it, because it will at once occasion the formation of an Hibernian Republic, in close alliance with the great parent democracy, and place the agitators at the head of affairs. Her Protestants alone are prompted by every motive, human and divine, by kindred interest, religion, and loyalty, to resist the convulsion; and hitherto, through evil report and good report, through support and injury, they have stood firm in their faith. What madness if the affections of this great body, the sole remaining link which holds together the empire, is lost in the flattery of revolutionary passions! But that must be the consequence if the present vacillating system is persisted in, and the tried support of the Protestant union is lost in the vain attempt to conciliate its Catholic enemies.

In a succeeding Number we shall pursue this subject, and lay before our readers, in support of the same views, some quotations from the splendid speeches, with which, in the midst of the vacillation and revolutionary measures of Government, the Protestant leaders have supported the common cause of the British empire and the Protestant religion. But we cannot resist the satisfaction of adorning our pages with one extract from a brilliant speech lately delivered at Cork by Mr Cummins, at a great meeting of Conservative gentlemen; which places in a striking point of view the close analogy, on which we have often enlarged, between the proceedings of the Cabal Administration in the time of Charles II., and our present infatuated rulers. "My Lord, we have passed through most important

changes, and if I just allude to the passing of the Relief Bill-to the repeal of the Test Acts-to the remodelling of the Constituency of the Country, believe me I do it not now to cast a needless censure on any of those who advocated these measures -which I consider full of danger to the country-but for the purpose of pointing out, soberly and advisedly, what I deem the only hope of safety for our much-loved country; namely, a union, on moderate principles, of all men of all parties who have really the welfare of the nation at heart; and I shall endeavour to illustrate this by a brief reference to a former part of our history, respecting which I cannot wonder that some of the wise and wily politicians of the day would fain have us to consider it an old almanack-I allude to the period when the Cabal of the Second Charles laid their schemes for the destruction of the British constitution. It is not a little remarkable, that the measures they resolved upon to effect this object, were, first, the relief of the Romanists from all disabilities-and, secondly, the levelling of all distinctions between religious sects and parties; and the grand political step they deemed necessary for that purpose, was, forming an alliance with France, and provoking a war with Holland-(hear.) Yes, Gentlemen, they were jealous of the existence of a consistent Protestant neighbour-(hear.) If, however, the inglorious issue of that war were the only result, we should not now refer to their disgrace; the poison of their principles worked at home-the seed sown by them sprang up, and in the ensuing reign drove the unfortunate Stuart line from the throne of England-(hear, hear.) But, my Lord, what then saved the country? A union of Whig and Tory upon sound Conservative and Protestant principles. To this re-acting power-to the Conservative society of that day, we owe the glorious settlement of 1688-(hear, and loud cheers.) Let us then seek the same result nowlet every man in the country, who loves our unrivalled constitution, unite to preserve its blessings-and while we are equally removed from indifference in our moderation, and from violence in our firmness, let our grand leading principle be, ‘Hold fast that which is good'-and as far

The gibbets of your fathers Shall wave you to be free

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Now flout our skies again; Prick up your hairy standards, Come, take a roll and fling, And bray, while ye may,

While your dust is on the wing, "Ee-eeh, ee-eeh, ee-eeh, ee-aw!

Down, down with State and King!"

You need no College pedants

To reason in the cause; Your brains are in your free-born heels,

Your strength is in your jaws :With horrible noises loud and long, The steeples down you'll bring, As ye bray, night and day,

(And the chapel bells shall ring,) "Ee-eeh, ee-eeh, ee-eeh, ee-aw!

Down, down with Church and King!"

On many a gallows-tree;)

Where Murphy and great Emmet swung,

The Judges all shall swing;

As ye bray, night and day,

(And the Newgate birds shall sing,) "Ee-eeh, ee-eek, ee-eeh, ee-aw! Down, down with Law and King!"

The divine voice of Freedom

From east to west shall sound, Till neither Parson, Judge, nor Lord, In Ireland shall be found :Then, then, ye long-eared lawgivers, How College Green shall ring, As ye bray, night and day,

(And Dan shall be the King,) "Ee-eeb, ee-eeh, ee-eeh, ee-aw! Down, down with every thing!"