this was not the "final adjustment" which the British ministers contemplated.

The government of England had acted, in the whole of the negotiation with Ireland, with the calmness that belongs to the practised gambler. Obliged to yield, no more was surrendered than could possibly be avoided. Yielding by written compact, no more was granted than was called for by the strict letter of the grant. And soon was it discovered, that in the heat of the moment, and battling for abstract principles, many matters of detail, most important, had been omitted. In many of these, principles of great importance, perhaps of the essence of sovereignty, were involved, and the contest must be again fought, before these would be relinquished. Although the right of their own judicature had been reserved to the people of Ireland, and although the statute of George I. had been repealed, Lord Mansfield asserted his right, as a British Judge, to decide an appeal from the Irish courts. Lord Abingdon, in the House of Lords, introduced a bill into that body, declaring the western sea which surrounded Ireland to belong to the king of England, and that the British Parliament had the sole right to make laws to regulate the commerce of Ireland; and to be classed with these were the navigation resolutions of Mr. Pitt, providing that all the navigation laws then in force, or which might hereafter be established in Great Britain, should be enacted by the Irish legislature. The proofs were now exhibited, beyond contradiction, that the pacification of 1780-82, was a shameful piece of duplicity and treachery, and that an advantage had been taken of the confidence of the people of Ireland, most dishonest and unworthy.

The conviction, so unpleasant, that they had been duped, tended again to excite the minds of the people. The volunteers, now numbering a large proportion of the population, met frequently to discuss the position of the country, and exerted all the influence that could be brought to operate on the crown, to purify as far as possible the Parliament, and remedy the evils which had been so carefully kept from their view. There is nothing to which men of any class or condition submit with so much reluctance, as the confession that they have been deceived. A people naturally confiding, and conscious of the rectitude of their purposes, instantly became most irritated and chafed when they made this discovery. A spirit of opposition to government at once began

to exhibit itself,-a spirit that was cherished by the ministry of England, as one of the means by which their great end was yet to be accomplished. The rivalry and jealousy of parties was most artfully kept alive. All felt that revolution was threatened, and the ministry knew that it could be easily suppressed, either by active measures at once, or by the more noble means of doing that even-handed justice, which was all that was asked. But neither of these plans was to be adopted. Ireland was to be made the slave of England. New fetters were to be forged, that should bind her forever to the foot of the English throne. There she was destined to remain,—the slow torture should work its baneful end, and the sun of Ireland, obscured for ages, should seem only to have emerged from its bed of dark clouds, to light her sons to their last and darkest bondage.

Their

Too well did these insidious measures operate in Ireland. Goaded on by many influences, the people rose in rebellion, and the outbreak of 1798 will long be remembered. Fearfully did the myrmidons of the British crown wreak its vengeance upon that unhappy people. No virtue was too lofty to save, no position too low for their vengeance. subtle arts penetrated the privacy of families, and their spies worked their way to the hospitable board, to betray the incautious host to his cruel and heartless oppressor. When the poor peasant no longer exposed himself on the highway for butchery by the hired soldier, a Reynolds and Armstrong were found to betray those, whose prominence made them objects of punishment; and the best and noblest blood was poured out, as a libation to freedom, by her most gifted

sons:

"Alas! poor country,

She could not be called their mother-but their grave."

Numerous causes had contributed to produce a want of organization among the volunteers. Pre-eminent in their bold character, this lofty attribute only made them more exposed. Well disciplined troops, completely armed, contended with an undisciplined, unarmed mob. Parks of artillery mowed down hundreds of peasantry, with as little danger as if practising field exercises on a day of parade. Ireland sunk under this unequal conflict, and long were her sons doomed to remember its horrors, in the fate that was visited upon Emmet, Sheares, and their martyred brethren.

The period had now arrived when England could accomplish without opposition, the fixed and unalterable determination of her ministers in relation to Ireland. That union which the Irish patriots had indignantly rejected, was now to be forced on the nation. To ensure the passage of this iniquitous measure, no means were left untried. Corruption worked its way through all classes of people. The hired agents of the British government were, by the power it possessed, made representatives of the people, with no other purpose than to betray them. Bands of soldiery surrounded the Parliament House, to confirm the boldness of the daring and guilty apostates, who were ready to barter away the liberties of the people they had sworn to protect. Castlereagh, a fit tool for such purposes, was chosen the chief minister in these awful proceedings, which were to end in the annihilation of a nation. Although the times were full of peril, and the stoutest heart might have yielded beneath the accumulated sorrows that were heaped upon it, still a few, a chosen few remained, who had come to pay the last and fitting ceremonies to the expiring glory of their country. Well might they be there as mourners, for the occasion was one well calculated to rend the soul of the patriot. The die had been cast, and the high hopes, the cheering illusions, which had gilded the seeming triumph of 1782, were dissipated and gone. The union of Ireland with England was now, at all costs, to be accomplished.

"The speaker" [says an eloquent writer, describing the last sitting of the Irish Parliament, when the Union was adopted,] "rose slowly from that chair, which had been the proud source of his honors and of his high character; for a moment he resumed his seat, but the strength of his mind sustained him in his duty, though his struggle was apparent. With that dignity which never failed to signalise his official actions, he held up the bill for a moment in silence: he looked steadily around him on the last agony of the expiring Parliament. He at length repeated, in an emphatic tone, 'As many as are of opinion that this bill do pass, say aye.' The affirmative was languid but indisputable, another momentary pause ensued,-again his lips seemed to decline their office,-at length, with an eye averted from the object which he hated, he proclaimed with a subdued voice, 'the ayes have it.' The fatal sentence was now pronounced,-for an instant he stood statue-like; then, indignantly and with disgust, flung the bill upon the table, and sunk into his chair with an exhausted spirit. An independent country was thus degraded into a province. Ireland, as a nation, was extinguished."*

* Barrington.

We come now to the consideration of that branch of our subject, which involves an examination of the commercial resources of the Irish people, and the deadly effect which has been produced on these from the legislation of successive British Parliaments. In 1835, out of 19,441,944 acres in Ireland, 12,125,280 were cultivated,-4,900,000 uncultivated,-2,416,664 unprofitable. In 1821, the population amounted to 7,767,401, an increase of 965,574 in the course of the ten years preceding, equal to 14.19 per ct. In England and Wales, mortality is calculated at the rate of 1 death in 59. We have no exact data from which to calculate the mortality in Ireland, but we have the authority of the excellent writer from whom we have derived much of the statistical information contained in this article, for saying, that "in Ireland population increases almost as fast as in England, and mortality diminishes in its rate."* We have the concurring opinion of every enlightened and impartial tourist and traveller in Ireland, for the assertion, that the soil of Ireland is of the finest kind. The testimony of Arthur Young, on this subject, is at once so strong, and in itself so free from doubt or cavil, that it may well be given as authority.

"There are people [says this intelligent observer,] who will smile when they hear, that in proportion to the size of the two countries, Ireland is more cultivated than England, having much less waste land of all sorts." "Natural fertility, acre for acre, is certainly in favor of Ireland."

"In at least 18 out of 32 counties, [says another writer,] there are tracts of land which, for the most part, are not to be surpassed in natural fertility by, perhaps, any other land in the world. And to an equality with these, it is certain that a vast proportion of the remaining bogs might easily be brought." †

The natural productiveness of these lands cannot be better shown than in the fact, that, in that country, owing to the unhappy condition of the people, agriculture, as a science, has found but little encouragement. The wretched system of landlord and tenant that prevails there, is a bar to all improvement. A large proportion of those who cultivate the earth, do so merely for the naked subsistence it affords them, and the surplus goes to the landlord. Keep out of view other causes, to which we shall presently refer, and it is clear that

* Progress of the Nation, by G. R. Porter. London. 1836. + Newenham.

the farmer, who is thus circumstanced, finds no leisure, if, indeed, it could be expected that he would have the inclination, so to systematize his labor, that the earth would yield the full measure of its produce, if properly cultivated. The ill consequences of such a system, has been seen, felt and remedied, perhaps altogether, in England and Scotland. In Ireland, its continuance is productive of great wretchedness. Out of 108,608 males, 20 years old, occupying land in Ireland in 1831, 87,819 came under the class now described.*

Since the legislative union between the two countries, there has been some abatement of the severe suffering which had afflicted the people, but very little of peace within their borders, or any thing to cheer the gloom which this national extinction was calculated to produce. So complete had been the ascendancy which, by this measure, the crown of England had acquired over the liberties and fortunes of the people of Ireland, that enterprize found no inducement to venture forth, and devise plans for the relief and benefit of mankind. It was not left for the people of Ireland to suppose, that, if once established in a career of prosperity, the British government would hesitate to destroy what had been reared with much capital and labor. The reckless administration of Britain, actuated by a blind cupidity, had not hesitated to adopt measures which would ruin their manufactures, destroy their commerce, and drive them to the desperate expedients of men who were not permitted to earn an honest livelihood. Even though the hand has only been stayed, and, for awhile, has rested from the infliction of new or sanguinary measures, a state of comparative peace has, to some extent, induced the active and energetic to take advantage of this pause, and engage in the prosecution of those enterprizes, upon the success of which the happiness and influence of a nation so essentially depends. But the result of these experiments serves only to show what Ireland might do, and might become, if her people were independent and happy. Give her the same advantages which are enjoyed in England and Scotland, and a people would then arise to the support of the British crown, as powerful in peace as they have been efficient in war. Give to those who cultivate the land in Ireland a system,-give them laws,-make their possession, not a badge of servitude, but an interest in the soil

* Porter.