SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

HISTORY.

A Memoir of Ireland. Native and Saxon. By Daniel O'Connell. M.P. Vol. I.- 117S-1660 Dolman.

TRAVELS.

Narrative of a Journey to Kalat. including an Account of the Insurrection at that place in 1840; and a Memoir on Eastern Baluchistan. By Charles Masson. Esq.

Bentley.

MR. O'CONNELL'S IRELAND.

THE object of the author and of his work is thus stated by himself-

" I have long felt the inconvenience resulting from the ignorance of the

English people generally of the history of Ireland. • • " We are come to a period in which it is most important to have these mat- ters inquired into and understood. To prove the inquiry, and to facilitate the comprehension of the facts of Irish history, I have drawn up the foregoing memoir. I have arranged it by its chronology, in such a manner as to bring out in masses the iniquities practised by the English Government upon the Irish, with the full approbation, or at least entire acquiescence, of the British people. I am very desirous to have it unequivocally understood, that one great object of mine is to involve the people of England in much—in very much of the guilt of their Government. If the English people were not in- fluenced by a bigotry, violent as it is unjust, against the Catholic religion on the one hand, and strong national antipathy against the Irish people on the other, the Government could not have so long persevered in its course of in- justice and oppression. The bad passions of the English people, which gave an evil strength to the English Government for the oppression of the Irish, still subsist, little diminished, and less mitigated."

To accomplish his object, Mr. O'CONNELL divides Irish history into certain epochs ; the first extending from the invasion of Snicevonow, in 1172, to the year 1612, when the subjection of the island was fully accomplished and the Irish nation received into allegiance ; the last embracing the time between the grant of Catholic Emancipation, in 1829, and 1840. On each of the epochs into which the author subdivides this long space, he writes a " Memoir" ' - in which the spirit or alleged spirit of the acts and animus of the English is compendiously displayed, and afterwards supported or attempted to be supported by a series of " Observa- tions, Proofs, and Illustrations." The Proofs and Illustrations, limited in this volume to the period between 1172 and 1660, consist of extracts from authors, and contemporary documents ; and, in the first period, refer to the cruelty of Englishmen towards the native Irish and to the Government's denial of law ; in the reigns of JAMES and CHARLES, to the confiscations and extortions practised under legal forms ; and during the time of the Parliament, to the military slaughter and devastation of CROMWELL. The Observations for the most part consist of the interlarded exclamatory comments of Mr. O'CONNELL.

The Proofs are professed to be drawn from Protestant, or from English and Protestant authorities : and in a nominal sense they generally are, but the rule is not always observed ; an anonymous pamphlet, a narrative by a foreign Catholic priest, and some Catholic apologies, together with LINGARD, are pressed into the service. In the documents he uses, Mr. O'CoivivELL exhibits no critical discri- mination; "all's fish that comes to net." An obscure or party pamph- let, a certain manuscript in the University of Dublin, which no one could discover from his mode of reference, and Royalist writers biased against the Commonwealth, are just as good to him as state papers or the most impartial and reputable author. By a something more than art, he so arranges his matter that the careless or ignorant reader may suppose the devastation consequent upon the Irish rebellion of 1641 was a gratuitous tyranny, originating in a wanton and greedy wickedness. Some objections, too, may be raised against the fairness of his statements and quotations : but one thing aimed at by his extracts may be admitted—that the Irish people during the period treated of (1172-1660) were subjected to every evil that can afflict a nation, the conjoint yet separate evils of despotism and anarchy ; the capricious cruelty of individuals aggravated by the feeling of superior race ; extortion and robbery under forms of law ; military violence, murders, and devastation arising from an irregular and partisan warfare, inflamed by religious hatred; and lastly, the terrible vengeance of CROMWELL, representing the English hatred of Irish Popery and the English horror of Irish treachery and crime as displayed or believed to have been displayed in the Protestant massacre of 1641. We will even go further, and admit that a more exciting case than is contained in the volume before us might readily be got up, and in less space, by the display of more care and judgment in the selection of facts, a less mock-pathetic spirit in commenting on them, with a more cautious exhibition of unscrupulous nationality, and a less ridiculous interference with the printer.* A few facts of atrocity more or less, when every one admits and regrets the pervading atrocity—a few particular examples more or less of misrule, when the majority of influential people are doing all that circumstances permit them to do in remedying the con- • The volume is continually interspersed with every variety of type, from Italics to the largest capitals ; often without any necessity for typographical emphasis at all, and always producing the effect which emphasized mouthing does in a player. The following is a fac-simile from the conclusion of Csox- WELL'S despatch on the taking of Drogheda- " Could any one imagine that human nature could be so destitute of all that belongs to humanity, or to religion, as to be capable of calling such cruelty 'a marvellous great mercy ?' Oh, it was truly an English mercy 1 But there is more ; for this is the conclusion of Cromwell's despatch :- ' I WISH THAT ALL HONEST HEARTS MAY GIVE THE GLORY OF THIS TO GOD ALONE, TO WHOM INDEED 6 THE PRAISE OF THIS MERCY BELONGS. For instru• meats they were very inconsiderable to the work throughout. • 0. CROMWELL. "

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sequences of that misrule, and raising Ireland to a level with England—are of little consequence. The proper mode of dealing with the general fallacies and false conclusions of Mr. O'Con- xnu.'s views is by a denial of his charges against England and the English—by an endeavour to show that the miserable condition of Ireland, during upwards of seven hundred years, has arisen partly from the nature of things, partly from the character of the times, and partly, we allow, from the pride of superior race— originating, however; in the inferior civilization of the aboriginal Irish, with all the vices which barbarism brings in its train. To do this, it will be necessary to take a brief survey of the history of Ireland for the period treated of; when we think it will be found, that much of the misery of Ireland has not arisen from English "antipathy," but from causes that would always under similar social conditions have produced a similar result, and that some of their sufferings are traceable, whether criminally or not, to the Irish themselves. A national prejudice against the Irish we may broadly admit, without inquiring into its causes ; and it would be idle to deny that many unprincipled individuals in Ire- land, as elsewhere, have endeavoured to advance public confusion for their own profit : once for all admitting these things, we shall confine ourselves to very general points, the essence as it were of the subject.

Discarding the arrangement of Mr. O'CONNELL, we divide the history of Ireland from 1172 to 1660 into three epochs ; the first embracing the period from 1172 to 1612 ; the second from 1612 to 1641 ; the third from 1641 to 1660, or some years earlier. During the first of these epochs, the social condition of Ireland was such that omnipotence could not have prevented the evils it laboured under, except by changing its social condition or the nature of things : its oppression in the second stage was owing to the tyranny of the Government, under which England and Scotland equally suffered though in a less degree : in the third, the devasta- tion of Ireland primarily arose from the conduct of the Irish, how- ever it might be aggravated by popular misconception, panic, and anger.

The state of Ireland during the first period (1172-1612) was one of anarchy unexampled in the history of the world. The source of the evil was seen by the Duke of WELLINGTON, when he used his celebrated and well-abused expression " that Ireland had only been half conquered." Called out of the country before be could settle it, HENRY the Second, as MooRE has remarked, gave not to Ire- land the benefit of his genius ; nor, indeed, was the country reduced to a state of submission, beyond the territory actually held by the English. The extent of this territory varied considerably with varying circumstances ; but even so late as HENRY the Eighth, a minor part of Ireland only was in submission to the King. A re- port in the second volume of the State Papers published under the Authority of his Majesty's Commission, which Mr. O'CoNtima. quotes without understanding its bearing, exhibits a graphic picture of the disorganized state of the country.

IRELAND UNDER HENRY THE EIGHTH.

"Here followeth the names of the counties that obeys not the King's laws, "and have neither Justice, neither Sheriffs, under the King:— "The county of Waterfford. "The county of Corke.

"The county of Kilkenny.

" The county of Limeryk.

" The county of Kerry.

"The county of Con aught. " The county of Wolster.

"The county of Carlagb.

" The county of Urjell.

" The county of Meathe. " Halfe the county of Dublin.

" Rolfe the county of Kildare. "Rolfe the county of Wexford. "All the English folke of the said counties be of Irish habit, of Irish " language, and of Irish conditions, except the cities and the walled

"towns.' [A fact opposed to English "antipathy " to the Irish.]

Here followeth the names of the counties subject unto the King's laws : 'Rolfe the county of Uryell, by estimation.

" Rolfe the county of Meath.

" Haffe the county of Dublin. " Rolfe the county of Kildare.

" Halfe the county of Wexford, "All the common people of the said halfe counties, that obeyeth the " King's laws, for the more part be of Irish birth, of Irish habit, and of "Irish language." "And fyrst of all, to make His Grace understands that there hyn more than "60 countrys, called Regyons, in Ireland, inhabited with the King's "Irish enemies : some region as big as a shire, some more, some less "unto a little ; some as big as halfe a shire, and some a little less ; where "reigneth more than 60 chief captains, whereof some cal!eth them- " selves Kings, some King's Peers in their language, some Princes, "some Dukes, some Archdukes, that liveth only by the sword, and " oheyeth to no other temporal person, but only to himself that is "strong: and every of the said captains maketh war and race for him- self, and holdeth by sworde, and bath imperial jurisdiction within his "rome, and obeyeth to no other person English or Irish, except only to "such persons as may subdue him by the sworde." "Also, there is no more than 30 great captains of the English noble folk, "that followeth the same Irish order, and keepeth the same rule ; and " every of them maketh war and peace for himself without any licence " of the King, or of any other temporal person, save to him that is "strongest, and of such that may subdue them by the sword."

In such a state of society, with a dominant and an inferior race, (for, without intending any disrespect to the Milesian character or the present race of Irishmen, the success of STRONGBOW and his handful of adventurers is conclusive evidence of the Irish infe- riority in the qualities which then constituted superiority,) con- stant warfare was sure to take place. In the absence of all parti- cular facts, the critical historian would at once pronounce that the

evils of feudalism and of savage life would combine together,—the warfare and blood-feud of septa, coupled with the raids and mur- ders of outlaws, brigands, and private brutality ; violence begetting violence, and atrocity atrocity, till the situation of the early colonists in North America, harried and massacred by the Red Indians, and

harrying and murdering in return, is the nearest approach that his- tory suggests to the condition of Ireland during nearly five centuries. One of the great complaints of Mr. O'CONNELL is that the Irish did not receive the benefit of the English laws : their operation was re- stricted to Englishmen, to five Irish "families," (septa is the proper

term,) and to certain foreign settlers. That HENRY might have made a better arrangement is possible : sitting at ease in the nine- teenth century in leisure criticism on the past, any one can see that succeeding governors might have done well in theory to give an expansive and contractive power to the English law in proportion as part of the country was submissive or in revolt. But, practi- cally, the charge is ridiculous. Submission is the first principle of protection. The Spaniard might as well have complained that he had not the benefit of Moorish law, or the Moor of Gothic : the Irish, in the language of the time, were " beyond the pale,"—in other words, enemies, and enemies of the worst kind; not strong enough to wage a " great war," and by inspiring national fear rouse the Government to a great effort, yet too strong to be thoroughly subdued by the " plantations" with which they were in contact. At this time of day, no one would attempt to vindicate the principle of the devastating war—submission or starvation—by

which Ireland under ELIZABETH was finally subdued. But it

is a recognized mode of warfare, which was extensively practised both before and after that age, and often wantonly, without the

excuse, as in the case of ELIZABETH'S captains, of being the sole

means to a great end. The Scotch and Welsh wars on a small scale, the English and French wars, or indeed all the Continental wars, upon a somewhat larger scale, are examples in point ; the

Thirty-years war in Germany, and above all the atrocious devasta- tion of the Palatinate by LEWIS the Fourteenth, are more modern

examples. That it was lamentable, every one will allow : but what are the workings of all wars but lamentable ? And the charitable inquirer after truth will be more apt to attribute its causes to the character of the time, exasperated by the feuds of upwards of four centuries, the atrocities perpetrated throughout that period, and the despair of politicians to establish order by any mild remedy, than

to the bloody and brutal feelings of the English towards the Irish. The second period (1612-1641) comprises the tyrannical proceed- ings of the first STUARTS ; proceedings which were entirely those of

the Government, and exercised upon all their subjects pretty equally according to their power. England had to struggle for civil and religious liberty, Scotland chiefly for religious ; in Ireland oppres-

sion took the form of an inquiry into titles with a view to confis- cate masses of property. Of the different Lords-Deputy, STRAF- FORD was the greatest and most despotic. As a ruler for a country

like Ireland, he was not ill qualified, had he been supreme, or served a less wretched and needy master. Under his stern but sagacious

sway, the country enjoyed a peace and an approach to a material prosperity it had never attained before ; all which things are left unnoticed by Mr. O'CONNELL. But STRAFFORD'S dealings with the titles exhibit an insolent despotism of the most offensive kind; and, strange to say, this is the most powerful part of Mr. 0•CON NELL'S book. Although only touching pecuniary matters, the calm and steady oppression of STRAFFORD is more exciting than the nar-

ratives of slaughters, murders, devastations, deaths by famine, or stories of hunger feeding upon human flesh, which form the staple of Mr. O'CoNxEnr.; whether it is that the reader sees these horrors are concomitants of a state of social warfare, or feels though he may not perceive the reasons we have gone over, or that there is some- thing more exasperating to our nature in the insolent exercise of power than in the effects of open violence. Mr. O'CONNELL, however, should have stated, what he must have known, that, so

far from the English people upholding STRAFFORD, his tyranny

in Ireland was punished by death. His Irish misgovernment

was a leading part in the impeachment. Mr. O'CONNELL

ought also to have learned, if he did not know, that Ireland was the grand topic of the leader of the impeachment. It would be inconvenient to occupy our columns with much quotation, but the reader who will turn to that great effort of

English oratory, PYM'S reply to STRAFFORD'S defence, will find that Ireland and the tyranny inflicted on the Irish was the " head and front of the offending " ; that Ireland is mentioned throughout in terms coequal and coordinate with England; whilst in his pas- sage on law be thus answers STRAFFORD s argument that Ireland was a "conquered country." " The law," says Prat, addressing the Peere, "is the safeguard, the custody of all private interests. Your honours, your lives, your liberties, and estates, are all in the keeping of the law. Without this, every man bath a like right to any thing; and such is the condition into which the Irish were brought by the Earl of Strafford. But the reason which he gave for it bath even more mischief in it than the thing itself. They were a conquered nation! There cannot be a word more pregnant and fruitful in treason than that word is. There are few nations in the world that have not been conquered ; and no doubt but the conqueror may give what law he pleases to those that are con- quered ; but if the succeeding pacts and agreements do not limit and restrain that right, what people can be secure ? England bath been conquered, Wales bath been conquered, and by this reason will be in little better case than Ireland."

" What had been is unknown " : there seems little doubt that the great leaders of the patriotic party were disposed to do "justice to Ireland" if Ireland would let them. But within six months of the execution of their tyrant, the sad event, too well known in history as the Irish rebellion, burst out. The insurrection, the plunder- ing, and the losres of the English settlers, Mr. O'CONNELL faintly

admits, though in a way not to be understood without previous knowledge ; their dispossession and flight he passes over ; their mas- sacre he denies, on the authority of LINGARD. This is not the place to settle the point of exaggeration, or dispute the conclusions of LINGARD, on the authority of three contemporaries, CLARENDON, TEMPLE, and MILTON ; but extenuating reasons may be offered for the subsequent warfare of the English. The fact of the rebellion is clear ; it took place at a time when England had just done a great act of " justice to Ireland" ; its tendency was to assist the regal master and prompter of the Irish tyrant in destroying the liberties of England ; it was accompanied by the loss and dispos- session of the English settlers; and the English people implicitly believed that very many thousands of their Protestant countrymen had been massacred by the Irish Papists ; whilst to these things was added the hatred of Popery, which the fires of MARY, the threat- ened Armada, the massacre of St. Bartholomew, the Gunpowder Plot, and the unceasing intrigues of Popish emissaries, ever on the side of arbitrary power, had excited. These feelings revived, and we will say naturally revived, the pride of race, and the fear and hatred fostered by the bloody contentions of nearly six hundred years. They were further stimulated for eight years longer by a partisan civil and religious war, when CROMWELL the avenger came to conquer, and to " abuse the rights of conquest," but, as respects cruelty, to a less extent than has been displayed by many generals under less provocation. We may again instance the Thirty-years war, the conduct of ALMA in the Netherlands, the devastation of the Palatinate, with the religious wars of France and the common wars of Italy. For not seeing and allowing for all this, we attach little blame to Mr. O'CONNELL. The structure of his mind and the habits of his life unfit him for historical research, and still more for historical criticism: nor would it be an easy task for the philo- sophic historian to balance the share of guilt between all parties. But there are certain misrepresentations for which ignorance can- not be pleaded. The following is of this nature— "It has pleased the English people in general," says he in his preface, "to forget all the facts in Irish history. They have also been graciously pleased to forgive themselves all those crimes ! And the Irish people would forgive them likewise, if it were not that much of the worst spirit of the worst days still survives. The system of clearance of tenants at the present day, belongs to, and is a demonstration of that hatred of the Irish people which animated the adrice of Sptnser and the conduct of Cromwell." Mr. O'CONNELL cannot but know that the " system of clear- ance" is a system which always obtains at a certain point in a na- tion's advancement, and is merely an economical sign. The small tenants were dispossessed in England when large aldings became more profitable ; and gave rise, with other causes, to the English Poor-law. The Scotch Highlanders were " cleared" in a similar way, although a family-tie was superadded to a national one on the part of their landlords. This sort of reckless assertion may pro- duce a momentary effect when a demagogue is addressing an igno- rant rabble, but is misplaced in an octavo volume claiming the character of history. In a literary point of view, the book is contemptible ; nor would it have been entitled to attention but for the name on the titlepage. As a compilation, its merit is readableness and clearness. On these points it is entitled to the praise of cleverness and skill, especially as regards the extracts; though these qualities are conjoined with a critical indifference to the matter quoted, and the readableness is considerably furthered by the smiling variety of the author's own lucubrations. We have already intimated the character of the book as regards matter. Its manner is very indif- ferent. In trying, apparently, to subdue the speaker to the writer, Mr. O'CONNELL has completely failed; becoming flat instead of measured, and often degenerating into fustian. This gives an air of turgid exaggeration to some parts and of canting insincerity to others ; and it frequently defeats the historical aim of the book, the author's exclamatory commentaries turning pathos into bathos, and inducing the reader to smile at the narration of very mourn- ful narratives. Even in passages of a more racy character, Mr. O'CONNELL seems to fall very much below the grade of his best speeches; as if his powers of producing effect were paralyzed by some mysterious influence—which is, perhaps, the nature and no- velty of a book. The space of a volume is probably too limited for so large a subject and so long a period, by one in the habit of pouring out his thoughts without regard to tangible length. He is curt rather than condensed, and strength is out of the question. Take a few examples.

- CROMWELL AND THE ENGLISH, WITII A MORAL INTERPOSED.

Cromwell gorged himself with human blood. He committed the most hideous slaughters ; deliberate, cold-blooded, persevering. He stained the annals of the English people with guilt of a blacker dye than has stained any other nation on earth.

And—after all—for what ? What did be gain by it ? Some four or five years of unsettled and precarious power! And if his hideous corpse was in- terred in a royal grave, it was so, only to have his bones thence transferred to a gibbet 1

Was it for this that be deliberately slaughtered thousands of men, women, and children ? Female loveliness, and the innocent and beautiful boy—aged but seven years [and rising three feet six inches 1—of Colonel Washington ? It has often been said that it was not the people, but the Government of England, who were guilty of the attempts to exterminate the Irish nation. The observation is absurd. The Government had at all times in their slaughter of the Irish the approbation of the English people. Even the present Adminis- tration is popular in England in the precise proportion of the hatred they ex- hibit to the Irish people; and this is a proposition of historic and perpetual truth. But to the Cromwellian wars, the distinction between the people and the Government could never apply. These were the wars, emphatically, of the English people. They were emphatically the most cruel and murderous wars the Irish ever sustained.—(Pages 320, 321.) We have scrupulously avoided touching upon details, for there would have been no end to the task. But the " beautiful boy" of Colonel WASHINGTON, like the " beautiful maid" of Mr. LISTON, is too richly comic to pass without a comment. Our readers see the direct charge brought against CROMWELL : what will they think of Mr. O'CortaELL's historical accuracy, when they are told that CROMWELL had no snore to do with the " slaughter " than Mr. O'CONNELL himself! It was not even committed by his troops, but took place some years before CROMWELL went to Ireland; and, to cap the accuracy, the " beautiful boy " (supposing that there is any foundation for the tale) was not Colonel WASHINGTON'S, but a child he was trying to protect. This is not even ignorance on the part of Mr. O'CONNELL, but a total indifference as to what be as- serts if it seems likely to answer a momentary purpose. His au- thority has told the story as we tell it now, at page 303. Yet this creditless bookmaker presumes thus to criticise one of our greatest historians—

DANIEL O'CONNELL ON DAVID HUME.

Notwithstanding all this, for considerably more than a century after the Restoration, the Catholics of Ireland were set down as wholesale murderers, and were charged with murdering 50,000 Protestants on the 23rd of October 1641. And this atrociously false calumny was reiterated in books and pam- phlets, in speeches and sermons and acts of parliament ! The arch liar, Hume, the man who of all historians is least to be relied on—for throughout his his- tory scarcely one fact is stated accurately—has given great circulation to this enormous falsehood : and he is the more criminal, inasmuch as shortly after the appearance of the volume of his history containing the reign of Charles the First, documents were furnished to him demonstrating the utter falsehood of his account of the alleged massacre. But all in vain. The immoral infidel adhered to his falsehood, as it gave a greater interest to his fictitious history.

TREATMENT OF THE IRISH.

There ;—there never was a people on the face of the earth so cruelly, so basely treated, as the Irish. There never was a faction so stained with blood, so blackened with crime, as that Orange faction, which, under the name of Protestant, seeks to retain the remnants of their abused power, by keeping in activity the spirit which created and continued the infamous penal persecution of which I have thus faintly traced an outline.

It would be worse than seditious, nay actually treasonable, to suppose that such a faction can ever obtain countenance from you, Illustrious Lady, the Queen, to whom the book is addressed,1 destined, as I trust you are, at length to grant justice, by an equalization of rights with your other subjects, to your faithful, brave, long-oppressed, but magnanimous people of Ireland.

THE THREATENED FUTURE.

The Precursor Association declared in the name and with the assent of the Irish people, that they might have consented to the continuance of the Union, if justice had been done them ;—if the franchise had been simplified and much extended—if the Corporations had been reformed and continued—if the num- ber of Irish Members had been augmented in a just proportion—and if the tithe system had been abolished and conscience left completely free. But on the other hand, these just claims being rejected—these just demands being refused—our just rights being withheld, the Irish people are too nume- rous, too wise, and too good, to despair, or to hesitate on the course they should adopt. The restoration of the National Legislature is therefore again insisted upon; and no compromise, no pause, no cessation of that demand, shall be allowed until Ireland is herself again.

One word to close. No honest man ever despaired of his country. No wise enemy will place his reliance on the difficulties which may lie in the way be- tween seven millions of human beings and that liberty which they feel to be their right. FOR THEM THERE CAN BE NO IMPOSSIBILITY. I repeat it—that as surely. as tomorrow's sun will rise, Ireland will assert her rights for herself, preserving the golden and unonerous link of the crown— true to the principles of unaffected and genuine allegiance, but determined, while she preserves her loyalty to the British throne, to vindicate her title to constitutional freedom for the Irish people.

In short, Ireland demands that faction should no longer be encouraged; that the Government should be carried on for the Irish people, and not against them. She is ready and desirous to assist the Scotch and English Reformers to extend their franchises and consolidate their rights—but she has in vain in- sisted on being an equal sharer in every political advantage. She has vainly sought EQUALITY—IDENTITY. She has been refused—contemptuously re- fused. Her last demand is free from any alternative—

IT IS THE REPEAL!

O'CONNELL ON BRITISH DISTRESS.

What the Sovereign and the Statesmen of England should understand is, that the Irish people feel and know that there cannot happen a more heavy misfortune to Ireland than the prosperity and power of Great Britain. When Britain is powerful, the anti-Irish faction in this country are encouraged, fos- tered, promoted ; Irish rights are derided; the grievances of Ireland are scoffed at ; we are compelled to receive stinted franchises, or none • limited privileges, or none 1—to submit to a political inferiority, rendered doubly afflictive by the contrast with the advantages enjoy ed by the people of England and the people of Scotland. The Tory Landlord class—exterminaters and all—prime favour- ites at the Castle, countenanced and sustained as the nucleus of that anti-Irish faction which would once again transplant the Catholics of Ireland to the remotest regions, if that faction had the power to do so ; and which actually drives those Catholics to transport themselves in multitudes to every country out of Ireland.

The worst result of British prosperity is, the protection it gives to the hard- hearted and bigoted class among the Irish Landlords. It is also of the utmost importance that the Sovereign and Statesmen of England should be apprized that the people of Ireland know and feel that they have a deep and vital interest in the weakness and adversity of England. It was not for themselves alone that the Americans gained the victory over Burgoyne at Saratoga : they conquered for Irish as well as for American freedom. Nor was it for France alone that Dumourier defeated the Austrian army at Gemappe : the Catholics of Ireland participated in the fruits of that victory.

At the present day it would be vain to attempt to conceal the satisfaction the people of Ireland feel at the fiscal embarrassments of England. They bit- terly and cordially regret the sufferings and privations of the English and Scotch artisans and operatives. But they do not regret the weakness of the English Government, which results from fading commerce and failing manu- facture. For the woes of each suffering individual they have warm compas- sion and lively sympathy ; from the consequent weakness of the Govern- ment party they derive no other feelings than those of satisfaction and of hope- - Of the spirit and purpose of this book it is impossible to speak with too great severity. Supposing it to produce any serious effect at all, (which may well be doubted,) the only effect would be to exasperate England and to excite Ireland, and that at the best for an object (Repeal) which most people feel to be ridiculous and the writer himself must know to be impossible. From the facts ad- duced by persons well capable of judging, Ireland, amidst all the distress of her masses, is making general though Blow advances towards better habits and the formation of a more extensive mid- dle class; whilst on this side of the water there is a general dispo- sition, without regard to party, to keep down her Orangemen, and to give her people every opportunity of raising themselves— for it is silly to suppose that any thing but their own efforts can raise a people, or that nations can be changed extempore. The surest mode of checking this feeling and consequently stopping the progress of Ireland, is by violence and turbulence without a reason or an end: the great source of British feeling, against the Irish character is (to speak mildly) its uncertainty, its want of reason, and its pas- sionate wildness for causes disproportionate to the passion. Even if the facts of this book were all as fair as we believe some of them to be coloured and one-sided, and Mr. O'CONNELL'S conclusions were all as sound RS we believe them to be questionable, no useful purpose could be forwarded by putting them forth with a commen- tary of foul-mouthed abuse or insolent rhodomontade. The very form of the effort, which renders it powerless, throws still more sus- picion on the author. Could all this have circulated among his Irish followers, one might conceive an effect and concede an object, though that object should only be the produce of bad feeling. But this cannot be admitted to be the aim of the author or the end of the book; for the mass of his followers cannot read his volume, and the few who could read it cannot buy it. Its perusal will be chiefly confined to Englishmen or the higher class of Irish- men—to those whom Mr. O'CONNELL calls " enemies of Ireland" ; and such is the general scope and animus of the volume, that con- tempt alone will keep down irritation.