TOPICS OF THE DAY.
IRELAND AND SIR ROBERT PEEL.
Sin ROBERT PEEL'S two speeches on the state of Ireland may be regarded as the most important occurrence of this session, or indeed of many past sessions. Not for their qualities as speeches : on that side, though very excellent on that too, they are very in- different to us; ingenious words which do not spring from any earnest meaning, and are not to end in any action, being of all human products the plentifullest at present, and the most worth- less,—not to say (as we might) far worse than worthless, posi- tively noxious, unwholesome in a high degree to every human virtue, and fast becoming a mere offence and affliction to all serious persons. But as a foreshadow of coining facts for Ireland, these words, of such a man, are of moment to every British citi- zen; and to the considerable class of British citizens who, this long while past, look with despair on the red-tape doctrines and imbecile performances alone prevalent in official quarters as to this affair, they come like a prophecy of better things, inexpres- sibly cheering.
For it is a. fact, however little it may be surmised in Down- ing Street at present, that a new condition of affairs has arrived for Ireland and us; that an old condition of affairs has, as it right well deserved to do, fallen irretrievably dead,—lies there, by due course of nature, prostrate in ruin, inanition, and starvation ; from which it will never rise alive, and in which no official gal- vanism (with rates-in-aid, and grants of ten millions, and grants of the twentieth part of one million) can prolong much further its hideous counterfeit of life. Some honour to the statesman,— great and peculiar honour, such as his contemporaries cannot any of them claim,—who admits this fact ; accepts it in its alarming undeniable magnitude ; and is prepared to deal with it, to rally the valour and intelligence of the British nation against it! This we account important news. A man in high position, more ac- quainted with officialities and all their intricacies and details than any other man, and whose words are liable to be demanded of him as deeds, informs us that the time for paltering with Ireland, by palliatives, by makeshifts, and routine tinkerages, is past : that we must quit the region of commonplace officialities altoge- ther in regard to Ireland ; strip ourselves bare of those frightful long-accumulated cobwebberies, and coils of red-tape, which tie us up hand and foot, and shut out the light of day from us -- that we must front this Irish monster with real human faculty, if we have such; look into him eye to eye, practically grapple with him strength to strength, and either conquer him or else be devoured by him.
To that alternative, Sir Robert cautiously but distinctly inti- mates, we have now come. Vain to think of palliating this Irish monster, intimates Sir Robert; vain to try feeding him by Indian meal, or rates-in-aid : he will not feed, he has a stomach like the grave, the whole world cannot feed him! Besides, in sad truth, why feed him; what is the use of him when fed ? Sir Robert does not ask this latter question ; but tragic fact, in the hearts of all men that have humanity, and do reverence the awful being of man,— very loudly asks it. This miserable monster, unless he can radically change himself and become a new creature, ought to wish to die. In sad earnest it is so. Brutalities, like Irish society as founded on the late potato, or on the present Downing-Street tinkerage and rate-in-aid, ought not to be allowed to live under the title of human. In the name of Adam's united posterity, and for the honour of the family, they are called to become new creatures, unspeakably improved in various essential respects, or else to die, and disgrace the light no longer! Alive, by Indian meal or the re- generated potato, no human heartcould wish this Irish monster. Let him become an unspeakablyimproved monster ; let him at least learn to feed himself, be taught to feed himself, which is the primary stage of all improvement, and first renders improvement possible ;—let him become human instead of brutal, or else die. The universe, if he could hear its eternal admonition, perpetually solicits him to do the one or the other. The universe—the potato being dead—has now happily brought it so far that he must do the one or the other! For which stern mercy all pious men, and good citizens of this world, are bound to be thankful. The condition of Ireland, we often enough hear, is frightful ; and certainly it is far from, a charming condition to anybody just now. It is in fact our English share of that "General Bank- ruptcy of Imposture," which the events of the last year all over Europe have very loudly announced,—somewhat unexpectedly to some. What the fall of Louis Philippe, and the street-barri- cades of Paris, have been to Europe the ruin of the potato has been to us. Frightful enough ; yet not without some consola- tory features. If" Imposture," official routine, grimace, red-tape, and „Parliamentary-eloquence, were really insolvent,—unable to perform the task of guiding men, and able only to perform the scandalous make-believe of it,—the sooner that fact was ren- dered public, and put into the gazette, it will be the better and not the worse for all parties! The truly frightful element in the condition of Ireland, for a good while past, has been the official manner of dealing with its condition. The official theory, so far as one could see was that nothing specially new had occurred in Ireland ; that Ireland had indeed lost the potato, but through the blessing of Heaven would perhaps get it again; for the rest, that Ireland must be dealt with as heretofore,—kept from revolt by Attssrney-Generals and armed_ police, and kept from starvation by Indian meal, (mingling the due modicum of soot or " work- house test " in it, to make it disgusting enough,) till once the po- tato returned, after which times would perhaps mend a little. This was the official theory, reduced to practice with great frank- ness, in a more or less magnificent manner, extending to tens of millions or to tens of thousands, according as the circumstances, as the English nation's strength of purse and strength of faith (both rapidly declining, as was natural, in such an enterprise) would permit. To maintain 50,000 armed policemen, horse, foot, and artillery, for the tranquillizing of a sister island, which you had to keep alive with Indian meal at the same time, did seem rather anomalous to the English mind. The poor English mind has immense practice in anomalies, is everywhere quite used to anomalies, and is of thick-skinned nature withal ; nevertheless there are things a little strong for it,—and the thickest-skinned mind does feel money oozing from its pocket. The finest peasantry in the world,—are they in sad truth to become a finest human pheasantry ; fed all winter, regardless of expense, that in summer you may have the satisfaction, with your fifty thousand keepers, of shooting them ? The world heretofore saw nowhere such gigantic sportsmanship ! In fact, it has long been a thing—to keep silence upon ; no polite speech being possible about it. And the Duffy Trial—with your Attorney-General, and all the learned wigs, and best-trained official intellects of Ireland, struggling, toiling with the enthu- siasm of Kilkenny cats, these five months, to ascertain by the ut- termost exertion of their law-wit and official machinery, Whether a man has a nose upon his face ? and unable hitherto to ascertain it, finding it doubtful hitherto ;—this also is a thing to be silent upon : this,—which indeed lets us see a little into the soul of the whole abomination, and how a "throne of iniquity," and throne of lies, has long peaceably established itself in that wretched section of God's earth, and dominates everywhere, unquestioned there from sea to sea, till at last by blessed death of the potato, and by other blessed helps, it has now fallen bankrupt,—is a sight to create unutterable reflections ! How long placid commonplace is to continue its paltering with such a perilous immeasurable business for us all? that is, and has been more and more emphatically of late, the question with every thinking man. And sure enough, inhere be any truth in alma- nacks, if this is indeed the year 1849, and from side to side of Eu- rope, "Imposture," impotent speciosity, and the reign of red-tape do lie hopelessly" bankrupt," doomed to inevitable swift abolition, let what result soever follow,—this question of "How long?" is profoundly interesting For it means, What chance have me, inexpressibly favoured by Heaven with some respite, and space for repentance and amendment, to escape conflagration and destruc- tion? Time presses, the continually advancing peril presses : shall we use our time, shall we squander and misuse it? Ireland is fright-. ful ; the vanguard of an England, of a British Empire, ripening daily towards unfathomable issues, which the highest wisdom, and heroic virtues, and manful veracities, such as have long been asleep among us, will be required to deal with : Ireland is fright- ful; but Ireland is by no means the frightfullest. A chief Pilot of the Nation steering his ship, on these terms, in such a condition of the elements, he is properly the frightful phaenomenon. "Star- board, larboard!" there stands he, in his old pea-jacket, with his old official equanimity, Foreign-office lantern hung ahead ; and steers and veers, now clear of the Disraeli Scylla on this hand, now of the Cobden Charybdis on that ; and thinks the sea is a little knotty, and squalls are out ; but hopes confidently the weather must mend, asks you meanwhile by the look of his eye, If the steering is not good ? The unhappy mortal! and smoke is issu- ing from every port-hole ; and before long, with this steerage, there will be news for him and us! Such a phsenomenon of a steersman, he, I say, is the alarming one. Placid commonplace, and the thing is not " common " ; the thing is huge and new, and springs from the foundations of the world ; and will not have be- come "common" till after strenuous generations have spent them- selves to subdue it for us ! New seras, changed circumstan- ces,—universal Bankruptcy of Imposture, beneficent Doom of the Potato,—do actually come; the world's history, since its creation, is that of their coming. Recognize them ; look with man's eyes into them ; they too can be dealt with, they too are blessings of the Supreme Power. Look with poor pedant spectacles into them ; recognize them not., pass on as if they were not, they will make you know that they are ; they will grind you to pieces if you do not get to recognize them, and to conquer them too ! The routine steersman, in this extremely unusual condition of the ship, he—what shall we do with him? The French papers said last year, he felt the fatigues of office dis- agree with him, and was about to "retire from public affairs a tout jamais." "A tout jamais, for ever and a day," said the French editors ! He really ought to consider it ; and we. For the time is most uncommon, singular as any we have had these thousand years or more : and really, if England have a distinguished con- structive talent, equal to conquering the ugliest jungles yet met with ; and be, as somebody has sulkily said, " the biggest beaver in this sublunary creation,"—we may ask with considerable interest, Is this gentleman in pea-jacket, then, who steers in this extraor- dinary manner, is he the living emblem, solemnly selected re- presentative, practical focus, and working overseer of your Eng- lish constructive faculty ? The consummate flower of what you can do in the constructive line, at present, is this You have had Cromwells, Longshank Edwards, Henry Plantagenets, Wilhelmua Conquestors ; not to mention Arkwrights, Brindleys, Shakspeares,
Samuel Johnsons : and this is what, in the progress of ages, you have finally got to ? This; and, buried under continents of tape- thrums, dead traditions, and long-accumulated cobwebs, you cannot find a better than this ;—and it is the year 1849; and "Imposture," everywhere in open bankruptcy, is rushing towards the Abyss ! Does the idea, if not of suicide, at least of calling in the lawyers and settling your earthly affairs, never occur to you ?
Sir Robert Peel's speech we take as a prophecy,—and otherwise, or in the form of a project or practical proposal, at this vague in- cipient stage, we are not called to consider it ;—sure prophecy that the baneful disgraceful empire of red-tape and imbecile routine, in this matter, has become intolerable to gods and men, and is to end before long : that whosoever pretends to govern England or Ireland henceforth, must look out for other methods, or prepare to take himself away—the sooner the better.! Truer message, we venture to say, or more beneficent and indispensable, has not been uttered in any Parliament this long while past. In the name of all that is real and not imaginary in England, we joyfully accept the omen ! C.
[The reader will not have needed the initial "C." to identify the author, whose signature is stamped on every line of this con- tribution. We would only point to a remarkable conjunction of circumstances in regard to its subject. Not only does it present the most recluse of our philosophers coming forward to bear the testimony of perennial history in aid of the most practical states- man of our day, but it presents the biographer and vindicator of Cromwell concurring with the four quarters of Ireland in bailing the dawn of statesmanship after the dark age of that unhappy island. England and Ireland, Ulster and Munster, O'Connell and Cromwell, the House of Commons and the Hero- worshiper, are in conjunction in the House of Peel ! Is it an omen ? does the Member for Tamworth act under a spell?]
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