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النشر الإلكتروني

SOUTHERN QUARTERLY REVIEW.

No. XI.

JULY, 1844.

ART. I.-Ireland in 1834. By HENRY D. INGLIS; author of Spain in 1830, etc. In 2 vols. London.

THE position occupied by the Irish people at this day, is second, in its moral and political consequences, to no other question now discussed in the civilized world. The early history of that people, though certainly, to some extent, mixed with legends and fables, is yet full of important information. Even in the rude ages, religion and learning were cherished in the Isle of Saints, and the Irish apostles went forth to teach the world and evangelize their brethren, as in more modern times the Irish patriot has been prompt to advocate with his pen, and defend with his life, those institutions of freedom which his ancestors enjoyed, but the memory of which alone was left him for admiration in the land of his nativity. Succeeding ages have done little to advance in that land learning or religion. Years of misrule have rolled on, till they have almost blotted out even the footprints where freedom once trod. A mistaken and cruel policy has separated the people of Ireland, in all their affections, from the crown of Great Britain; and a nation, characterised by high and generous impulses, bold and chivalrous to a degree that often bordered on rashness, ever mindful of kindness, and equally tenacious of wrong, has been tortured into a relinquishment of fraternal feeling, and forced to reVOL. VI.-NO. 11.

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gard the crown of England, as the fruitful source of its suffering: the Union, as a mockery of justice, synonimous with the usurpation of its most valued rights and privileges.

Acts of tyranny, in despotic governments, are made to bear the semblance of justice. Even in the most debased and lawless, there is an innate and living principle, which makes them seek some apology or justification for deeds of cruelty. The reign of terror in France, the most horrid page in the history of the world, boasts not one tyrant who did not seek to propitiate that public opinion, which ultimately cast him, loaded with crimes, into the sea of blood, with which that country was flooded; and the propagation of freedom was the sacrilegious, but bold pretext, by which the actors in that fearful drama sought to palliate, if not to justify, the most terrible crimes. Not so, however, with England, in her conduct towards Ireland. There never has been even an apology made to the spirit of refinement, which is at work throughout the world, for excesses that can only be defended upon the principle that "might makes right,”—a principle that, in these days, finds no advocate, and one which the English people have themselves twice disclaimed; a disclaimer sealed once with the blood of a crowned king, and a second time by compelling his successor to abdicate his throne. We affirm again, that no excuse, no reason, has ever been given, for the severe and cruel conduct of the British government towards the people of Ireland. The hired press of Ministry may, indeed, at times, earn the wages of sin, in concocting a series of false and incredible statements, attempting to substantiate these, not as the circumstances which originated, but which now justify the continuance of the severity of which we complain. Even if these were to be admitted as true, is it not equally true that gross injustice is done to a people, towards whom you exercise a most arbitrary and despotic system of government, and when the effect of that misgovernment is exhibited in disaffection, and perhaps in popular outbreak, the effect is confounded with the cause, and the existence of laws justified by a reference to riots, which would never have occurred, if such laws had not been enacted. But we go further, and affirm, that there has never been, at any time, an occasion for the passage of any of the laws of which we complain, the enactment of which is a disgrace to the British government, and their operation the greatest human curse that ever

befell any people. In the most dark and portentous periods of English history, the people of Ireland exhibited a degree of steady and unwavering devotion, that must have satisfied all, except those who remained wilfully blind and cruelly ungrateful. When the unfortunate Charles I.,-unfortunate in his counsellors, more unfortunate in the false bias which had been given to his judgment on questions of prerogative and regal power,-stood in his own kingdom assailed on all sides, his own subjects deserted him, but the people of Ireland remained, even to the last, faithful to him,-a fact that did not escape the attention of Cromwell. The massacre and siege of Drogheda will testify to distant ages, the deep suffering which Ireland had to endure; and the general mourning which his cruelty caused throughout the land, should have consecrated, in the memory of his son, the people who had been decimated for the manes of his father.

"During five days the streets of Drogheda ran with blood; revenge and fanaticism stimulated the passions of the soldiers; from the garrison they turned their swords against the inhabitants, and one thousand unresisting victims were immolated together within the walls of the great church, where they had fled for protection. From Drogheda, the conqueror led his men, flushed with slaughter, to the siege of Wexford. Wexford was abandoned to the mercy of the assailants. The tragedy so recently acted at Drogheda was renewed. No distinction was made between the defenceless inhabitant and the armed soldier; nor could the shrieks and prayers of three hundred females, who had gathered round the great cross, preserve them from the sword of these ruthless barbarians." *

No gleam of sunshine, however, was permitted to dissipate the gloom and sorrow, which seems to have made this unhappy people all their own. The accession of Charles II. was, indeed, hailed by them as an auspicious event, that would be the beginning of a new and happy era. They were mistaken, however; and, after the lapse of centuries, we still open the page which informs us of the grounds on which their expectations were based, and wonder why they were not realized. Every where in the kingdom, save here, did the cavaliers find reward for years of exile and suffering; but, in Ireland, although the soldier of Cromwell had dispossessed the rightful owner during the Protectorate, no relief was afforded the Irish patriot, who had lost his all, in the support of the king whom he was bound to protect.

* Dr. Lingard.

To be restored to what had been lost, when the cause of the loss was well known, was but the dictate of justice. It was a high duty from man to man. It was a solemn duty from such a son, to such supporters of his father. Not satisfied, however, with cruel neglect,-not contented with his sin of omission, he was guilty of a high sin of commission. Not only did this unprincipled monarch neglect to restore to those who had lost their possessions by their devotion, that which was rightfully their own, but acting with the criminal intent of conciliating those who had murdered his father, he accomplished his purpose by excluding the Irish sufferers from even being heard in his courts, and made the profession of their religion not only a bar to their hopes, but the forfeit of their lives. The laws passed during his reign, for the government of this unhappy people, were acts of war against the Almighty Being, who made his creatures equal, and never gave power but to hold his vicegerent responsible for its abuse. These laws boldly set at defiance every rule of right conduct that has been implanted in the bosom of man, and seem to have entailed a just punishment on him who, holding in his hands the abundant means of good for his fellow men, has been handed down to posterity as the victim of licentious passion, the high priest of profligacy, the patron of the grossest lewd

ness.

Time, that makes us forgetful of the griefs which have darkened life, could not bring its opiate to the Irish. If they could forget, their masters seemed determined that they should not be thus happy. When the keenness of suffering induced by political disfranchisement, became deadened with the acquiescence in its stern requirements, new measures of annoyance were devised. When ingenuity could be no longer taxed for devices of torture in secular things, its power was tried even in the suggestion of pains that would reach to the world above. Not even the solace of religion was allowed the unhappy. The religion of the father was forbidden to the son. The churches were despoiled and closed. The strong safeguard which education af fords government was rejected, and the most inaccessible places were the only resorts where the young and growing population could learn the rudiments of education, or be taught the principles of morality and the laws of religion. These iniquitous measures brought with them their proper auxiliaries in hordes of spies, who hung over the land like

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