MAGAZINES. able to write even in my study; for the subject. How far this was the case in the present instance I leave you to judge from the following ex tract: The system according to which freeholders are created in Ireland has had a insert lives in all leases, freeholders are THE Monthly Magazines are all becoming quite aristocratic-quite beyond the reach of nine-tenths of the people. Three shillings and I have, it is true, promised you a sixpence cannot be spared by every few remarks on the intolerant raving very powerful influence on the splitting of man who would wish to indulge in of the Hatton-garden divine: but the farms and the increase of population. The reading, and yet this is the price of poor intemperate creature is unworqualification of a freeholder is the same in Ireland as in England-a clear forty-shilthe New Monthly' and the 'Lon-thy of notice, and any allusion to lings interest for life; but as it is customary don.'-Perhaps they are worth the him, in your Magazine, would only in Ireland, and fortunately not in England, money,' as an Irish pig-drover tend to resuscitate that popularity to would say, as talent is now an exwhich Irving's own native lead has, at created by thousands in the former country, least six months since, sunk into the pensive commodity, and very diffi- Stygian pool of forgetfulness. without being actually possessed of any proAt perty whatsoever. Thus, when an Irish cult of procuring. This may be another time, perhaps, I may adduce landlord wishes to extend his political intrue, for all I know; but it appears this son of the kirk as an instance of fluence, he immediately sets about subdivery strange that the proprietors Scotch liberality; but at present Ividing his estate, and lets it in small patches, of the Dublin and London Maga- decline the unworthy task of break-frequently not exceeding the size of a potatoezine' can afford to sell their work ing a butterfly on a wheel-of intro- garden, to cottiers for life, who thus become invested with the elective franchise! for ONE SHILLING only, while it ducing a modern Knox into Christian In consequence of this system, Ireland has society. I have much better food for evidently displays at least quite as become a perfect freeholder, as well as pauper my critical palate before me-the warren. In some counties a very near apmuch talent as its cotemporaries, be- two last Numbers of the Rival Re- proach is made to the system of universal sides a copper-plate engraving, exe- views-the Edinburgh and Quarterly. suffrage; and that system has been procuted in a style not hitherto found ductive of the very results which every man to embellish Magazines. The porof sense might have foreseen would, in trait of my little friend, Sheil, in the circumstances of the case, necessarily the Number for the present month, flow from it. The landlords have exerted is a most accurate likeness of the enthusiastic Irish orator: it is, in fact, the man himself, lit up with genius, and drawing inspiration from that Heaven to which his eyes are turned. The engraving is certainly worth more than a shilling. The contents of the second Number display a more happy mixture of light and serious articles than the first; while it evinces the same talent, and the same advocacy of Ireland. Unlike the NEW MONTHLY' and the London,' it is not stuffed with extracts from newspapers, but is, from beginning to end, what a Magazine should be—original, useful, and entertaining. The article, 'Robert Emmet and his Cotempo. raries,' is of such importance, that I will, on the first opportunity, transfer it to my pages. The following is also deserving of attention: RORY O'ROURKE, ESQ. ON THE RIVAL REVIEWS. MY DEAR EDITOR,-Your request has come too late. I find it impossible to contribute more than one article this month to the Dublin and London.' Mrs. O'Rourke has just been confined of her tenth son, and, what with nurses and doctors, and squalling and crying, I am un Both are specially dull and uninteresting; and, as an Irishman would say, it is hang choice between them.' The crack article, however, of each, in consequence of this that I now sit is on the affairs of Ireland, and it is that is, about one-sixth of the whole lished at least five thousand times before. These reviewers, like superannuated spiders, having exhausted the thread of their own resources, are obliged to avail themselves of the labour of others, and appropriate to their own use what of right does not belong to them. In doing this, however, we have a right to expect candour and judgment; and those who are employed to cook up such articles should possess at least a few qualifications; among others, a slight knowledge of themselves to secure and extend their political influence; and they have, in this reperfect and thorough command of the ocspect, managed so skilfully as to get the cupiers of their estates; who are, in point of fact, just as much under their control as their own body servants.' I believe this one sample is sufficient to show what kind of an article Scotch Reviewers can write on Ire land. The blockhead had not read your first Number, or he would not have collected together so many facts without proofs; and that he read nothing but Mr. Wakefield's very inaccurate work is quite apparent from the strange assertions contained in the above short extract. How a freeholder with a house and one or two acres of land is without any property whatsoever, I leave reviewers to prove; but I must tell this stupid fellow that an Irish potatoe-garden is of very undetermined dimensions, not unfrequently containing ten, twenty, and thirty Irish acres. You, my dear Editor, have already demonstrated that the cant about superabundant population and small farms is mere nonsense; and, had this northern sage examined the list of voters at the different contested elections, The impartiality evinced by Mr. Wakefield admits not of a doubt, yet the interests of truth oblige us to say that his work, so often quoted and relied on by the Edinburgh Review,' abounds in error. -ED. he would have found, in place of universal sufrage, that not one-tenth, nor even one-twentieth, of the people are freeholders; nay, that two-thirds of those who absolutely are freeholders do not register their leases, and that this is a subject of universal complaint among the Whigs of Ireland. In Sligo, in 1818, one-twentieth of the freeholders were not registered: so much for the pauper warren which Ireland has become. As this writer has dealt so largely in generals, I must request of him to let me know, by post, the name of any one landlord who subdivides his whole estate, and lets it in small patches. Until I hear from him, I must be lieve that he has stated what is not true. I know Ireland somewhat better than any Scotchınan in Edinburgh; and I never yet saw any thing like an inconvenient subdivision of farms, for the purpose of creating freeholders. If the reviewer visits Mr. White's estate near Dublin, he will see fortyshilling freeholders perhaps more numerous than on any other estate in Ireland; and I defy him to point me out, in Great Britain, cottagers more independent or comfortable. Not, however, to waste your time, I shall only tell Sawney, that, if the estate of Earl Fitzwilliam was divided in the manner he states, it alone would give more freeholders than are to be found at present in the whole island. Those who suppose these fortyshilling freeholders to be obsequious instruments of their landlord's ambition know nothing of them; for they have never failed to evince a spirit of independence, and love of popular rights, not found in more wealthy voters. The truth is, Englishmen judge the Irish peasantry by their own; and forget that the system of letting farms, in both countries, is quite different; for, while the English farmer and labourer are tenants at will, always in dread of their landlord's caprice, the Irish farmer and cottier have comparatively long leases; and, if freeholders, they can act independently of their landlord; for, in spite of him, they can retain their holding during their own or some other person's life. The one, therefore, is almost uncontrolled, while the other is absolutely fettered. With admirable consistency this Scotch economist, and advocate of free trade, recommends certain restrictions to be imposed on landlord and tenant. It should be enacted,' says the reviewer, that every princi pal tenant, who presumed either to sublet or subdivide the whole or any portion of his farm, without a clause authorizing him to do so being inserted in his lease, or without the consent of his landlord, previously asked for and given in writing, should, by doing so, forfeit his lease.' I would wager a dozen of old port against a quart of potheen that Jeffrey himself is the author of this dull article. Every thing in it indicates the contracted hand and narrow intellect of the lawyer. Only think of a man's lease being null and void, unless he previously asked for' the privilege before he obtained it! What would you think of an Act of Parliament to prevent the tradesmen of London from letting any part of their houses to lodgers?—and yet, where is the difference between a house and a farm? Both are taken for the advantages they are likely to yield, and the tenant must be the best judge of the means by which he shall procure these advantages. Leave landlords and tenants, whether in town or country, to themselves; and depend upon it their conflicting interests will produce better results than any positive law. Speaking of the law which makes under-tenants responsible for the head rent, the reviewer questions whether 'Morocco or Algiers sanctions any more flagrant and shameful abuse!' Why the same law is acted upon every day in the week, in every town in Great Britain as well as Ireland; and, though it frequently occasions much individual misfortune, I know not how it could be remedied without producing evils greater than those incidental to the present system. Having now shown the incapacity of this writer for the task he undertook, I shall not dwell on the remainder of the article. I perfectly agree with his observations on tithes, and should give him every credit for them were they his own; but, having already read them about five hundred times in different speeches and pamphlets, the reviewer, I hope, will excuse me if I withhold praise which he certainly does not merit. I do hope that my countrymen will, from this day forward, place a proper value upon those hollow friends who, in advocating Catholic emancipation, represent them as the most turbulent and savage people in Europe. The Quarterly Review," which appeared in nearly the same week as the Edinburgh,' is quite as dull as usual. The Life of Hayley' is pleas ingly written, and the review of Campbell's Theodric' just. There is a capital essay on Rail-roads, and a lame puff of Washington Irving's works; but the remaining articles are dul in the extreme, unless we except that on the Church in Ireland, which, indeed, is a bold attempt at justifying an existing abuse; but the evils of tithes paid to parsons without flocks are too glaring to be defended by sophistry or special pleading. What think you of a writer in this age of political economy who has the hardihood to put forth such reasoning as the following?— 'Suppose tithes to be a remuneration for the services of the clergy: suppose them to be contributed from some quarter: who are properly the contributors? Certainly the proprietors of estates. But who are the proprietors ? By a vast and overwhelming majority, the Protestant nobility and gentry. If therefore in Ireland the Protestant establishment be maintained by contribution, it is maintained by Protestants. But in truth, as we have already shown, the Protestant establishment is maintained by the landowners of neither creed, but by its own property. Neither doos the Roman Catholic tenant, whatever may be his notions, contribute any thing to its support; he stands precisely in the same situation with every Protestant tithe-payer; he takes his land with the reservation of one-tenth as the property of the tithe-owner, whether this tithe-owner be lay or clerical: his relation to the incumbent is in this respect simply that of a debtor to his creditor; it is an affair purely temporal: the impropriator may, like the Duke of Devonshire, be a lay rector, or, like the incumbent of a parish, be a minister of the church; in each case the tithe must be paid, because it is the property of the individual who claims it. All the chief landholders in Ireland are Protestants, the greater part of the tenantry is Roman Catholic. Is it deemed a hardship upon the tenant that he is to pay rent to a Protestant landlord? If not, why is he to be commiserated because, having carried into his barn the property of the clergyman, he has to pay for it about a third of its value?' Passing over the facts, as having no connexion with the argument, what kind of a blundering fellow is this? Does he not know that parsons will not accept earth and stones for their tithes that they must have corn, hay, and potatoes; and that these are produced by the capital, sweat, and labour of the Catholic tenant? Leave the land there for ages, and what will it produce?-haws and blackberries: very unsubstantial diet for a modern After this will any man be so stupid or so perverse as to say the Catholic farmer does not contribute to the support of a Church which affords him neither spiritual nor temporal assistance? But the unjustly treated Catholic pays more than the tenth of his annual produce to this plethoric Church: he builds the edifice, erects the steeple, purchases the minister's surplice and the sexton's gon, remunerates the parish clerk, and keeps the house of God' in repair. Nay, more, he is taxed to pay for the communion bread and wine used by orthodox Protestants! The parson is no sooner satisfied than in walks his clerk; and when he is dismissed the churchwarden enters.A succession of plagues thus beset the poor man's door; and, while his hard-earned substance goes to satisfy their rapacity, a mercenary scribe in some London Review insults the common sense of mankind by asserting that the Catholic peasant of Ireland contributes nothing of his own to the Protestant establishment. Church rates are, at all events, taken out of poor Paddy's pocket; and it required more than usual effrontery in this scribe to make the statement he did with these facts staring him in the face. This article may be justly called 'the last dying words and declaration of ecclesiastical monopoly in Ireland.' Tithes are not only an oppressive impost, but an impolitic one, for they act as a bounty on idleness, while they tend to impede national improvement. In the times in which we live, they are a tax upon industry, upon enterprise, and upon agricultural skill. Is a man intelligent and industrious-does he by agriculture reclaim a tract of land, and make it productive of corn, he is visited and harassed by the tithe proctor; does his neighbour, through want of inclination or of skill, keep his farm in pasture and unimproved -he is exonerated from the burden of tithes.'-JUDGE FLLICHER'S Charge to the Grand Jury of Wexford in 1814. All former arguments are renewed, and no common industry displayed in bringing forward new ones: but all will not do; the interested veil of sophistry is seen through, and those that run may read. I care not about residents or non-residents. The Protestant minister is without followers, and how can the people regard him as a disciple of the meek and lowly Jesus' when he does not scruple to fatten on the labour and industry of those who neither require his services nor believe in their efficacy? The Irish Protestant seems to be aware of this, and, contrary to the reviewer's opinion, pays his tithe with the utmost reluctance; while the Presbyterian of the North will prefer losing ten pounds in litigation sooner than quietly submit to the demands of the parson. Where is the proof,' asks the reviewer, that the insurrections in Ireland are to be traced to the tithe system?' I answer in the wellknown fact that, in every commotion during the last seventy years, parsons and proctors were the objects of Whiteboy vengeance; and I can tell this very silly writer that had it not been for tithes we should never have witnessed systematic opposition to the laws in Munster. I will admit that tithes, obnoxious as they are, were never the first provocatives to insurrection. To land monopolists, and the growing taste for large farms, I attribute that evil; but to the Church is certainly due the merit of protracting the servile war; for, while comparatively few had to complain of cruel landlords, or dreaded being turned out of their farms, all felt the evil effects of tithes and church rates; and, therefore, we uniformly find these placed on the devoted list, that all might be stimulated to activity, by having constantly before their eyes the name of that from the destruction of which every man anticipated some personal benefit. Tithes, therefore, though not a paramount, have been an extensive evil, which served, like certain cutaneous diseases, to irritate without maddening. If, as the reviewer asserts, the land instead of a Tithe Composition Bill, proprietors pay the Church, why not, enact a simple law, which would give one-tenth of the rent, and not of the produce, to the parson? Let the legislature do this, and no party will have a right to complain.-The tenant will then see exactly what he has to pay, and the minister will be remunerated without being suspected of demanding too much; and I would even give him the same power as the landlord to compel payment. There can be no doubt but that the price of land is lower now than it would be if tithe-free; and I assure you I have no wish to see the aristocracy put in their pockets what undoubtedly belongs to some Church: but, until the measure I recommend is carried into effect, you will have nothing but tithe-battles both in Ireland and England. In the latter country these obnoxious imposts are enacted with a severity and pertinacity unknown in the former. I pass over all the fine compliments paid by the reviewer to the Protestant clergy as a thing of course, and certainly felt not a little surprised on finding not one slap at popery in the whole six-and-thirty pages: but, as a proof of his impartiality, he excluded from the catalogue of publications, which, like sentinels, stood guard at the head of his article, every one of those works upon the subject which alone deserved notice. In vain I looked for Captain Rock or Dr. Doyle's Letters. No, no, these would not serve his cause, and, therefore, he mostly supplied their place with anonymous pamphlets. The Bishop of Limerick, indeed, is introduced; and, though I look upon him as a very amiable prelate and worthy character, I must say he appears to me a very simple and credulous man. his countrymen will read the following, quoted by the reviewer, without a smile : Few of MEMOIR OF RICHARD SHEIL, ESQ. We believe the greater number of our readers will feel gratified by the choice which we have made of an engraving for our present Number. Of Mr. Sheil the people of England have read and heard enough to render them at least somewhat partial to him. In Ireland, where his talents have been more fully developed, and his principles better understood, his character naturally stands higher. Amongst his countrymen there is but one opinion as regarding him ;-he is the subject of every man's praise-he is the favourite of every class, from the simple peasant who reads of him at a distance, to the professional acquaintance who takes his seat before him in the court,-from the noisy news-distributer who tempts you with his grand speech,' to the smiling merchant or the friendly peer, who may stand in mute delight beside him, while the walls of the edifice that shelters them are echoing back the sound of his inspiring eloquence. Mr. Sheil's family and connexions are highly respectable: he numbers, we believe, among his relatives some of the wealthiest and most influential characters in the South of Ireland. These matters, in the eyes of the multitude, are of some moment, although the subject of this memoir, in all probability, looks upon such things as of little importance. He that has earned distinction for himself has no need of calling upon his entombed ancestry for their support-he that has succeeded in securing the applause of a nation is not compelled to resort to the narrow circle of his kindred for a character. In cases like the present the honour is conferred, and not derived the man of genius renders the house to which he belongs illustrious -he founds as it were a new dynasty; and the world, in tracing the history of his race, looks slightingly upon all that went before him larships or fellowships are to be con- eloquently did he sustain their cause. Mr. O'Connell, with all his talent and all his influence, was opposed to him; and those who witness the friendship now subsisting between these distinThe friends of Mr.Sheil had destined guished individuals will read with a him from an early period of his life to feeling of surprise the bitter harangues the profession of the law. Whether of 1813. That they have been reconin this they consulted his inclinationciled is well for their suffering counor taste is a question which we are trymen: a sense of common wrong, not prepared to answer: we have we believe, first led them to forget heard, however, that some of his re- their differences ;-they united, and latives felt extremely uneasy lest, in ultimately succeeded in leading along his anxiety to snatch a leaf of with them all that was distinguished Daphne's deathless plant,' he should or pious, or talented, in the entire neglect the more useful matters un- Catholic community. Previous to folded in the pages of Coke and this reconciliation, Mr. Sheil and the Lyttleton. This extreme tender- members of his party absented them. ness-this over-anxiety for the sup- selves in a great degree from the posed interests of youth-has been a Catholic meetings. He appeared constant source of annoyance to principally engaged between the many celebrated characters. The duties of his profession and his parent or the friend imagines himself literary pursuits: he produced, in acting a most benevolent part at the rapid succession, Bellamira,' The moment that he is actually rendering Apostate,' and 'Evadne,' all of which the object of his care truly misera- were successful. He has been indeed ble. What is still worse for him, if one of the most fortunate dramati he lives he usually finds that all his writers of his day. The tragedy of labour has been literally thrown Damon and Pythias' is said to have away. The young wings of Genius been a joint concern: it is an intewill not bear to be tied down-the resting production, however. pride of a growing intellect will not allow itself to be crushed-the free mind will expatiate in a world of its own: thus it has been in every age; and, we believe, Mr. Sheil's case cannot be adduced as an exception; for we have been told that in the stolen moments, in the little intervals of his severer studies, he planned and finished his first, and probably his best tragedy, Adelaide.' Mr. Sheil was called to the bar in the year 1814 for some years previous to this he had taken rather an active part in the politics of the time; he had spoken at many public meetings, and was always listened to with admiration, not merely on account of his youth, but for the beauty of his diction, and the general soundTrinity College has the honour of ness of his reasoning. The first cirnumbering Mr. Sheil among her chil- cumstance, however, which gave a dren: he appears, however, in speak- decided stamp to his political chaing of that very ancient and very useless racter, was his spirited reply to the establishment, to evince but little of then celebrated Dr. Dromgoole. The filial affection or attachment: he enter- Catholic body was at this period died the place expecting little, and he vided into two contending parties— obtained nothing. Indeed it is a spot the Vetoists, or those who were willin which a Catholic youth, however ing to compromise with the ministalented, can never acquire distinc- ters; and the Orthodox, or those who tion: he may be remarkable for his insisted upon unqualified emancipaapplication to his studies-he may tion. Mr. Sheil, by his reply on the excel in his occasional compositions-occasion alluded to, identified himhe may be most exemplary in his ge- self with the former: they marked neral conduct; but the moinent scho-him as their champion, and ably and On the establishing of that very celebrated body, The Catholic Association,' at the rooms in Capel Street, Mr. Sheil, with his accustomed spirit, came forward to unite with the bulk of his countrymen in the call for freedom. It seemed as if he had brought to the cause a new heart, such was the ardour and the earnestness with which he spoke and acted whenever the members assembled. After the great leader' himself he is the person to whom the growth and celebrity of that association may be ascribed; and, if that association has succeeded in conferring benefits on the country, to Mr. Sheil a portion of that country's gratitude certainly belongs. We shall conclude this imperfect sketch by observing that those who know Mr. Sheil intimately join in stating that his character in private life harmonizes most admirably with that which he has established in public. As a lawyer he is gradually, we might say rapidly, rising as a tragic poet he has not many superiors as an orator we think he has few equals as a man he stands without reproach. LONDON: J. Robins and Co. Ivy Lane, No. 7. Or, The Chieftain's Weekly Gazette. PRIVATE MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN ROCK. CHAPTER VI. TRIUMPH OF MY FAMILY FROM THE THE annals of Ireland, from the year 1189 to 1509, are nothing more than the history of the Rocks; for during this period insurrection and discord never assumed anything beyond those predatory contests in which my family delights. We have always excelled as sharpshooters, but were never known to succeed in regular movements; for, though indestructible, as our name imports, we have seldom been found in close columns or phalanx firm.' In looking over the historians of this period we are forcibly reminded of the time in which we live; for between both there is a strange similarity. Discontent, and insubordination, reigned then as well as now; and the same reply was given by Government to the complaints of the people-namely, "This is not the time.' Ireland had then her Orangemen, though under another name; and Munster had her Rock, though under another title. There was, it is true, no Catholic disqualification, but Irishman and enemy were synonymous.* The history of this period is greatly misunderstood; and very wrong conceptions respecting it have gone abroad. The English are uniformly described as polished and high-minded invaders; while At the battle of Knocklow, in the reign of Heary VII. when the Earl of Kildare, assisted by the great O'Neal, and other Irish chiefs, gained a victory over Clanricard, Lord Gormanstown, in the Arst insolence of success, turning to Kil. dare, said We have slaughtered our enemies; but, to complete the good deed, we must proceed yet further, and cut the throats of those Irish of our own party!' -Surely Rock was wanted in such times as these. SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 1825. the Irish, we are told, were barbarous, undisciplined, and weak. Now what is the fact? Does not every thing concur in showing that Strongbow and his followers were mere freebooters, impelled by love of plunder, and indebted to Irish treachery for success? They were received as guests, and protected by their host; while the monarchs of the country considered them so insignificant, that they disdained a quarrel with them, and renewed their private hostilities while the Welsh adventurer was revelling in Dublin. The slightest effort would have crushed them; but this was not made, and the absence of the attempt is attributed to Irish cowardice. PRICE TWO PENCE. bracing the English laws. Silly men! there was then nothing attractive in them; and Britons, compared with Irishmen, were mere slaves. The former were the serfs of barons, while the latter were independent followers of a chieftain chosen by themselves. The elections of their rulers were gratifying and popular, and an equality of rights was universal. Justice was administered by an independent judge; they paid no tithes; and the will of the monarch was wisely limited by depriving him of any control over the finances of his kingdom. Ga. velkind + then prevailed, and a better proof we cannot have of popular government; for this system completely destroyed all mono. The English authority, during poly, and secured the poor man those three hundred and twenty from any dependence on the rich. + years, was, in every sense of the At this time no inconvenience atword, circumscribed within very tended this method; for there were narrow limits; and that they were few enclosures: pasturage was the only permitted, by courtesy, to re- practice of the country; and our main in the kingdom, is evident ancestors knew so little of agrifrom the fact that, whenever they culture, that sickles, or reapingpresumed to pass their prescribed hooks, are of very modern invenlimits, they were quickly chased tion; and they yoked the horse to within the pale. Nay, they paid the plough by his tail. So attached tribute, under the title of Black were they to this method, that proMail,' for the liberty of remaining hibitory statutes were passed in in the country; and more than one vain; the fines in 1612, for disof my ancestors enacted this proof obedience, amounting to eight hunof dependency at the very gates of dred and seventy pounds, being a Dublin. The Irish never attempt- penalty of ten shillings each on ed, nor ever desired, the expulsion 1,740 ploughs. What laws could of the English, or they could have ac- not effect fashion soon accomplishcomplished it at any time in twenty-ed; for the farrier's knife proved four hours. They were a martial people; and, like a cat with her prey, delighted to amuse their pugnacious propensities with the strangers, whom they regarded as harmless and insignificant opponents. 6 Latter historians have ascribed the feelings and institutions of their own times to the people of this period, and then wondered at the obstinacy of the Irish in not em death of any one of the sept, provided for + Gavelkind was a practice which, on the the redistribution of the land, that each man might have an equal share proportioned him. the land was fa rly divided; every man There could be then no paupers, for obtaining an adequate portion, while he was prevented from disposing of it. Middlemen and buckeens were unknown, as well as proctors and quarter-sessions; so that, if it were not for the English intraders, my family would have continued in hopeless obscurity. |