WHAT IF MR. O'CONNELL HAD PURSUED A DIF- FERENT COURSE
SINCE 1840?
Wass Sir ROBERT PEEL took office, two courses were open to Mr. O'Cosittzw, and his party : they might, seeing that the Minis- ter's English majority rendered any immediate effort to outvote him hopeless, acquiesce in the necessity of his government, and endeavour to get as much good out of it as possible ; or they might, on the other hand, endeavour to make it impossible to govern Ireland, and so force him to resign. Mr. O'CorutzLz has seen fit to adopt the Latter course : has Ireland lost or gained by it ? The "conciliatory" policy of the Whigs had brought the Irish into a temper which would have admitted of the application of remedies to the social evils of the country, bad the Whigs had any remedies ready. Ireland under their rule rendered willing obedience to the Government : they turned its ternporaty good humour to no permanent improvement of condition; and this enabled them with the more confidence to prophesy that it would not continue to obey a Tory Government. There was a predisposi- tion in Ireland to expect nothing but oppression from a Tory Government, and consequently a predisposition to insubordination. O'Commes one object has been to keep alive and embitter this spirit of disaffection—to convince the Iritsh people that nothing was to be hoped for at the hands of an English or Imperial Legislature— that Repeal of the Union and a Domestic Parliament were the only panacea for the ills of Ireland. He has not sought for good and Just legislation, or for impartial administration of the laws, at the hands of the PEEL Ministry : he did not wait to see in what spirit it would govern. He assumed that its spirit must be oppressive and Anti-Irish ; he has enjoyed its difficulties and its mistakes; he has distorted and misinterpreted all its actions, in order to make good the theory with which he started. He has laboured inces- santly to awaken in his countrymen a despair of justice from Eng- land—to revive traditional animosities which bad been hushed up— to excite a burning desire to break the connexion with Britain. He has done his utmost to make good the Whig prophecy that the Tories would find it impossible to govern Ireland. At best, all that he could possibly gain by such a course was to drive PEEL to resign, in order that the Whigs might come in again, and enable him to drive his bargain with the new Ministers—to rebuke, like Prospero, as lie has done before now, the storm himself had raised. To attain this end, he has undone all that Whig "conciliation" had effected. He has thrown the social condition of Ireland ten years back. In reviving Irish hatred of England, be has provoked an English spirit of distaste for Irish politics, which may easily become disregard for Irish rights. Ile has overshot his mark, and brought on a military occupation of Ireland by the Government. He has postponed, till a period which it is impossible to conjecture, the establishment of peace and prosperity in Ireland. He has ren- dered the future of his unhappy country more dark and despond- ing than ever. Ireland is now a more perplexing problem for the legislator than it was in 1830.
Had O'Cornsar.r. adopted the alternative line of policy, how dif- ferent might have been at this moment the condition and prospects of Ireland! The Parliamentary supporters of the late Ministry are a numerous and powerful minority. The section of the Ministerial party which would prefer to govern Ireland upon the old system of the Orange ascendancy is small in number, and inconsiderable either in talent or influence. At the time of Sir ROBERT PEEL'S acces- sion to office there was every inclination in Parliament to enter- tain any practical measures that might be proposed for the benefit of Ireland. Out of Parliament this feeling was still more decided. The Whig majority in the constituencies had been converted into a minority, not because public opinion bad undergone a change, but because all confidence in the Whig leaders had been lost. Mr. O'Costazer, and his party might have taken advan- tage of this state of affairs—might have assumed a position in Par- liament independent of but not in organized hostility to Ministers, and have brought forward deliberately-matured measures for the benefit of Ireland. They might have submitted to the Legislature a Poor-law for Ireland, better adapted to the actual circumstances of the country than the existing abortion ; they might have intro- duced a bill for amending the relations between landlord and tenant ; they might even have obliged the Legislature to entertain a pro- posal for an equitable settlement of the irritating Church question. To these and kindred measures they could have commanded a more respectful and dispassionate attention in their character of inde- pendent Members than even as part and parcel of a Ministerial majority. They might safely have reckoned upon a larger minority in support of all their proposals than the Free-trade Members in support of the repeal of the Corn-law, and a less united and per- sonally-interested opposing majority. Some of their measures they might have been sure of carrying; and with regard to the others, they would by temperate discussion have been maturing public opinion on both sides of the Channel. The actual gain for Ireland in the way of good legislation would have been great ; but infinitely greater would have been the gain from the political edu- cation of the Irish people, by fixing their attention on questions of practical utility, and exercising their faculties in discussing them.
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