who had just returned them in the belief that they were really the unflinching advocates of retrenchment and reform which they had professed themselves to be. We recommend to the electors of those places-and there must be a large number of them-whose members were missing on that division, and to the constituencies of various other places which are at present virtually unrepresented, because nobody has seen or heard any thing of their members, to inquire what these industrious, and attentive gentlemen have been about all this time?-Spectator.

SCOTCH MEMBERS.

27

racters, and must redeem themselves by no com.. mon effort.

and spirited print, destined, we hope, to tell truth, [The above is from the Glasgow ARGUS, a new and keep alive public spirit in the West, sicken and wane as it may in the East.]

MR. COBBETT IN PARLIAMENT.

IRISH COERCIVE BILL.

Cobbett has been received with great attention, and makes a good figure in the House. ingham, in the first number of his Parliamentary Mr. BuckReview, whilst describing the debate on the appointment of a Speaker, gives the following charBefore the division on Mr. Hume's motion re. acteristic observations made by Mr. Cobbett, which specting Sinecures, the friends of the Ministry you what, Mr. Ley, (the Chief Clerk,) you may are not reported in the newspapers :-" I'll tell were offering 6 to 1, that the minority would depend on it, that when we vote the Speaker into be under a hundred. Their dismay is inconceiv- the chair, the people of England will say, 'There able; being heightened by the knowledge, that now, look at him! There is Mr. Manners Sutton; about 100 Members left the House without vot- he is the best man among 'em-the best of the ing. The list of the majority is to be published, batch-they couldn't find a better in all the House. and so, we trust, will that of the runaways. What a pretty set, then, they must be themselves! Their conduct is, if possible, still more disgrace- Ay, ay, Mr. Ley, they'll say as the farmers say— ful than that of those who, in the teeth of re..As is the sample so is the sack;' and a pretty iterated pledges, voted, upon the broad and ge- sack it must be to give such a sample as this!' neral question, (no special case,) for upholding This reminds us of the anecdote of the honest plain sinecures. The latter are like Rob Roy-honest | French deputy, sent to the Convention from a rerogues; they do not pretend to be better than mote province, who, on looking earnestly round on they are. But our sneaking equivocators, who his fellow-labourers, many of them lawyers, was would serve both God and Mammon, what have asked what he thought of them :-"I think," he they to say for themselves? Says one, embarrassing predicament in which Mr. Hume's us.' "The replied, "there are a great many scoundrels among motion has placed many of the Scotch pledging Members, almost exceeds belief." Not in the least; we can perfectly conceive how awkward a time-last night in the House of Lords, for "the more THE measures which Earl Grey brought forward server feels, when his conscience is set at variance effectual suppression of local disturbances and danwith his interest. These gentlemen frisked back gerous associations in Ireland," will create an extraand forward like shuttlecocks, between Ministers ordinary sensation throughout the kingdom. Noand Mr. Hume, begging them, as a certain part of thing like them, nothing even approaching to them, the body might be supposed to entreat two stools, in despotic character, has been known to Irishmen not to draw themselves asunder.-In vain! Mr. since the memorable year of 98. On proposing Hume stood firm to his purpose-Ministers were mince matters, or understate their extreme severity; them to the House, Earl Grey did not attempt to inexorable-and these worthies, too cowardly to he allowed (like Charles X. when he promulgated play either the parts of honest men or knaves, his famous Ordinances) that they were measures sneaked away, like chidden curs, with their tails at variance with the spirit of the Constitution; but between their legs. Now that they have recover- then he insisted that they were absolutely necesed from their first consternation, they begin to sary, for that such was the present condition of a prate about Mr. Hume's "impracticability," and large portion of Ireland, that the ordinary law of their own "discretion." It is possible that Mr. the land was a dead letter, and life and property in Hume may have brought forward his motion for made out a strong case-a case calling for the daily, nay, hourly, jeopardy. His Lordship, we grant, the sole purpose of embarrassing Ministers. We would not attempt to extenuate his conduct, did we ment; but he did not prove, or attempt to prove, promptest and most decisive attention of Governbelieve that he acted from pique, although some that Ireland was in a state of broad, open, daring Ministers, and particularly the underlings, have rebellion, and we know nothing short of this can given him ample cause. But we maintain, that justify a Government in having recourse to meawith his motives these gentlemen have nothing to sures whose first and most prominent feature is, do. The plain question-"Sinecures or no sine- that they are not only at variance with, but actualcures?"-was submitted to them: the country was ly abhorrent-deeply, incurably abhorent to the entitled to know whether they adhered to their Constitution, and every known law of the realm. previous ample professions; and they have shrunk opposition to Government. They are placed in a We do not urge this point out of any splenetic from the test. Let us have their names by all peculiarly embarrassing position, and deserve the means: and let their respective constituencies most lenient consideration. They see plainly (what, keep an eye on them. They are suspected cha- | indeed, no one can deny) that Ireland is in a most

distracted condition; that what with repeal agitators on the one hand, and the miscreant factions of the Whiteboys, &c., on the other, she is, from north to south, a threatening moral Vesuvius. Government see this, and in their wish to meet the difficulty with becoming energy-to grapple with it like men of mettle, it is scarcely to be wondered at, though lamented, that their zeal gets the better of their discretion, and that they over-act, rather than under-act, their part.

Of one thing, however, Government may be certain, and of this one thing they cannot be too soon assured, for if we mistake not, it will shortly be thundered in their ears from every quarter of the kingdom. They must proceed, without a moment's delay, to conciliate Ireland with as much zeal as they have now coerced her. Their liberal measures must, at least, go hand in hand with their despotic ones. The olive-branch must be held out at the same moment of time with the sword, or even their Irish Church Reform will not save them, for it bears no proportion as an act of grace, to their present proposition as an act of severity. It is but as Falstaff's halfpennyworth of bread, to his monstrous tavern bill for sack.

We repeat, then, (and as men interested in the welfare of Ireland, we have every right to insist on it,) that since Ministers have shewn such an ardent desire to coerce Ireland, they must now show equal desire to conciliate her. They must teach her to respect, as well as to fear them. They must purify her grievances at the fountain-head, and not content themselves with damming up the numerous disturbed waters that flow from such a source. They must not be radicals in despotism, and bit-by-bit Reformers in liberality. Such conduct will never do; and the spirit is now at work throughout Ireland, which will convince Ministers that we speak but the bare, literal truth.-Sun.

with a keen sabre; it is short work, but not reputed sweet.

We shall next week enter more fully into the examination of this measure of mild martial law, as Lord Grey calls it. At present, suffice it to say, that the Premier's exposition is eminently old womanish. He says he was disappointed as to the healing ef fects of the Relief Bill, and therefore gives up all notion of pacifying by the redress of grievance. This reminds us of the angelic lady, in one of Miss Austen's novels, who resolved never to think well of any one again, because a fair friend deceived her in a little affair of matrimony. Let the Irish be of good cheer. Mighty instruments require mighty hands. Sancho Panza armed cap-a-pee in Barrataria, was not dangerous. The scheme is unworthy of statesmen, and will break down by the fault of its authors.

Lord Grey makes one important admission-that the Magistrates are not to be trusted with extraor dinary powers, as they are commonly tainted with faction; and does not this fact fully explain the want of respect for the laws which is laid to the charge of the people ?-Examiner.

CONFIDENCE IN THE MINISTRY."

SOME of our readers have been rating us for a want of due confidence in the Ministry. We, doubtless, repudiate the profligate maxim in politics, that all public men are alike. We know the value of consistency; and we appreciate the difficulties of preserving it through the various changes in our eventful times. Liberal principles are professed; Anti-Reformers have turned completely round, and have become the friends of improvement. There are not a few men, now high in power and office, who, as every one remembers, agreed with the Tories in sneering at Reform, and in upholding a rotten system of representation, though they were In our report of proceedings in Parliament, will utterly opposed to them in every thing else. Among be seen the plan of Ministers for the pacification of these men the present Premier is not to be classed. Ireland. The best that can be said of it is, that it af- He was a Reformer forty years ago;—he has been fords the Irish an excellent opportunity of procur- one, we believe, ever since. To say that such a ing for themselves the blessing of transportation man is no more deserving of public confidence than from their wretched, misgoverned country, by the the late Lord Castlereagh, would be to assert what simple procedure of taking a walk before or after our honest convictions clearly contradict. But, as sunrise. The whole thing will be nugatory? there we belong to no party but that of the nation; as will be much vexation upon its first operation, but we are not under the slighest obligation to extentit will soon break down, and no case has been made ate the delinquencies of the Whigs, or to exaggerate out for it. Indeed, on the contrary, Lord Grey states, the blunders and political profligacy of their oppon that by sending a special commission into Clare, ents, we claim to ourselves the right to examine supported by a strong force, peace was restored, the acts of Earl Grey's ministry, and to applaud or and that the same course in Queen's County was stigmatize them according to their character and attended with the same success. Here is evidence probable effect. Though we are by no means disthen, that the powers at present in the hands of posed-very far from it indeed to view the policy Government are available for the restoration of and practice of the present Government with a sastranquillity. The Duke of Wellington thought the picious temper and a jaundiced eye, still we dare measures hardly severe enough, and wanted something more than the mere suspension of the Habeas Corpus; the suspension, doubtless, of the corpus without the habeas, which he looks upon as an impertinence. Lord Brougham, who, though personally as peaceable a man as may be, has a pretty notion of setting the sword at work in the hands of others, claims, as he has a good right to do, his share in these disastrous counsels. He argues that the greatness of the infringement on liberty will prevent abuse, and that the powers will terminate the sooner for being so sharp. The same consolation holds good when a man's head is to be taken off

not place a blind confidence in any Ministry. We cannot applaud measures which, had they emanated from a Tory Cabinet, would have been designated as arbitrary, because their promoters are members of a Whig and a Reforming administration. With every disposition to think well of a body of men who have been in a great degree instrumental in carrying the Reform Act, we consider it absolutely necessary to watch them closely-to warn our readers of any symptoms of backsliding which appear in their policy, and the practical working of their system of government; and we regret to say, that the manner in which they opened their Parlia

freely and zealously lend them our aid. During the struggle on the Reform Bill, we refrained from opposition, when there was no little ground for itbecause we would not, in ever so slight a degree, endanger the successful termination of their great work. We refrained for the sake of the people of England, whose cause they were fighting; not for the love of the Ministry, whom we only know as the faithful, or negligent and treacherous servants of the people. We are not bound to change sides with them.-Spectator,

mentary campaign, was such as to induce the preg-seemed to be the very aim and intent of Ministers, nant suspicion that some of them were lukewarm, at all risks, to irritate the men who lead the Irish if not treacherous, to the popular cause. It will not democracy. We have heard no one reason assignsoon be forgotten, that their very first act was to ed for this inconceivably indiscreet conduct, except place Mr. Manners Sutton in the Chair of the House the fear, which we have above alluded to, that to of Commons. Was not that a suspicious circum- divulge their scheme of Church Reform would stance? Did it not appear very like a truckling have been to alarm their Conservative allies-who attempt to conciliate, by most paltry means, the really seem to have been taken in on this ocvirulent foes to popular rights? The mode in casion. Up to Tuesday night, therefore, when which it was managed, too-the negotiation of the Lord Althorp proposed bis extensive and poministry with their plausible candidate was such litic measure of Church Reform, we maintain, as to create distrust in the minds of many of their that the Ministry had not acted in such a manwell-wishers. The election of an Anti-Reforming ner as to deserve the confidence which has been Speaker was their first act; now for the second. demanded for them. It is difficult to imagine how For some time previous to the opening of Parlia- they could consistently be supported both by Sir ment, it was understood that overtures had been Francis Burdett and Sir Robert Peel on Irish quesmade to the leading Anti-Reformers. The regular tions. The support of the Tories injured them more organs of the Ministry in the Press had assumed in public estimation than it benefited them on the an altered and most offensive tone on many of the division. The effects of the suspicion thus engenderpopular questions of the day. With respect to the ed in the public mind will not be easily or soon alaffairs of Ireland, it was given out that an "impos- layed. We have stated some of the same reasons ing attitude" was to be assumed, the standing which have caused us to view with distrust, and to army was to be strengthened,-martial law was to scrutinize with some severity the plans and appasupersede the Constitution, and the old Tory rent policy of a Cabinet whose measures we would measures of coercion, and violence were to be re- gladly support and applaud. In carrying through sorted to by the Reforming ministry. But it ap- every scheme of reform and retrenchment, which is peared that doubts were entertained as to the con-worthy of the authors of the new Charter, we shall currence of the Reformers in such measures as these; and the Ministry were therefore constrained to beg for assistance from their Conservative opponents, in the well-grounded confidence that it would be joyfully accorded. We maintain that these overtures afforded strong, and just cause of suspicion against the Ministry. Why did they distrust their Reforming majority-that majority which represented the opinions of the great mass of the people of England? When the day arrived for the opening of Parliament, matters assumed a still darker aspect. Not one word of conciliation dropped from the lips of the Ministerial organ, the proposer of the address in the Commons. Every sentence breathed defiance and severity. The Members of the Cabinet, who spoke during the debate, said nothing to mitigate or to neutralize the stern announcement of the coercive measures which they declared to be forthcoming. They did not deny that the Habeas Corpus Act was to be suspended, and the right of trial by a jury of their countrymen denied to the Irish criminals. They talked vaguely of the conciliatory measures which were to follow; but, contrary to all-even to Tory precedent-they maintained a stubborn silence as to the extent or nature of those measures. Were they fearful, that if they had proclaimed their scheme of Church Reform, they should have lost the votes of the Conservatives, when the division on the address came to be taken? If such was the case-if their object was to triumph over the Radical and Repeal minority-to show how great a superiority of force they could command, we can style their con duct as little better than a piece of desperate and dangerous bungling. An insurrection might have broken out in Ireland upon the receipt of the King's speech, coupled with the speeches of the Ministers and their partisans on the first night of the session, The risk of such a calamity was not trifling; especially when we consider, that the highly wrought and inflammatory addresses of Mr. O'Connell and the Irish Members-full of fearful forebodings and fierce denunciation—were certain to accompany the announcement of the intentions of Government. It

WAR WITH IRELAND.

WHEN we styled Mr. Stanley the Secretary at War with Ireland, it was not without presage of the extremities to which his distempered counsels were hurrying on the Ministry. More powers and more powers will be demanded, till no powers remain. The defeat of all the resources of a mighty Government is in process. The demonstration of what cannot be done against a people is about to be worked out; and to make the example the more decisive, it will be shown that no scruples of justice or humanity have withheld the employment of the sharpest means. The Council Chamber is now the Armoury, and the whole science of Government consists in the distribution of bullets and bayonets. These are the instruments with which Irishmen are to be penetrated with a love of laws and institutions. It is the old regime; and there are circumstances, such as those of Poland, in which it may succeed to extermination, but those circumstances are happily not ours. With barbarians, a barbarous policy is effective-the instruments are hard, and relentless as the directing power; not so those with which the Government of a highly civilized people will have to do. What the eye does not see the heart does not rue; and there are always men ready to lay down vast plans of violence, but the subordinate actors seldom or never

acquit themselves of the villany of their parts. If it were in the nature of things that the men who act in fields of strife, could be as ruthless as those who plan in council chambers, humanity would have far sharper struggles than are in store for it. Tyranny has no hesitations, no scruples in theory, but it falters and breaks down in the practical part. A Stanley in meditation would no more be a Stanley in action, than a Stanley ordering his dinner would be capable of killing a sheep.

Napoleon observed, that in war, the moral force is as two in three to the physical; and in civil war, or the rule of violence, the proportion must be much greater. The moral force is, however, precisely that which our Ministers leave out of their calculations. They have no notion of any other forces than those which Lord Hill commands. The savage, reasoning like Mr. Stanley, when he misses his mark, says, "the more powder, the more kill," he quadruples the charge, and he bursts the gun. So it will be with the Secretary, and all prudent men will stand clear of him. He is going to show the futility of force in its uttermost application; and this fine example is to be made, forsooth, for the better subordination of a people. The King, in a speech which has occasioned more dissatisfaction and alarm than any since the days of the Stuarts, is made to ask for additional powers to control and punish in Ireland. The great cause of discontent is admitted in the recommended reform of the Church; but he wishes "to control and punish" the symptoms of the confessed vice, the results of long abuse, long and insolent denial of its existence, and refusal of redress. To this late day the admission of the great grievance has been deferred, and it comes forth with breathings of vengeance; but is there justice "to control and punish," where there was not justice sooner to redress? Has the Government of England been as long patient of disturbance, as of the imposition of the sinecure church? No; it is said the extraordinary prevalence of outrage is new, but the grievance of the church is old; to punish men no time is to be lost, no means withheld; the correction of institutions whose vices depraved men, is a reluctant act of the last necessity. But injustice for its dignity-for injustice has a dignity as well as royalty, and maintained, too, at cost-requires some object whereupon it may show its power while making a concession. Thus, when the Catholic Relief was granted, the suppression of the Association which had effected it, was made a preliminary

condition.

could we cite, without making our journal a mere register of the misdeeds of the Irish Courts. The sword of justice has been in Ireland, but never have the people had the handle of it; they have experience of nothing but the sweep of its blade; and when they have endeavoured to wield it for redress, the edge has been drawn through their hands. Mr. Stanley declares it is the purpose of his colleagues to make law respected and Govern ment feared, before it is beloved in Ireland; and that Parliament is bound to invest Government with those means of coercion which are absolutely necessary.

Vain, foolish, wilful man! this is a dogma ef sheer tyranny. The fear of law and Government is the hate of law and Government, unalter. able while the fear exists. There is no fear of a protective and beneficent power, except in the conscious criminals, whose conversion to love of the justice menacing their guilt can never be looked for. Gesler was a Stanley when he stuck his hat on a pole, and commanded that the Swiss should bow down to it. He designed making the law respected and Government feared, by com pelling obedience to a tyrannical law hated by the people. There is no such thing as the conquest of opinions; and are the destinies of millions committed to the popinjay who imagines so vain a thing? He may bring about the shooting of the bodies of the Irish, but will this incline their hearts to the laws? he may take away all show, all signs, all forms of justice: and will they learn to value the negation, will they worship the vacant niche.Examiner.

OPINIONS OF THE PROVINCIAL JOUR-
NALS ON THE IRISH COERCIVE BILL.

THE EDINBURGH PAPERS.

Sorry are we to find the liberal portion of the Edinburgh Press, (save the Chronicle,) not silent merely, but zealously advocating the odious Irish Bill, and sneering at "shallow, ignorant, factions grumblers," who cry out against sinecures and pensions. The Mercury is but too apt to be turned about by winds (side winds) of doctrine; but it does grieve and amaze us to find the Scotsman, (in its palmy days the people's advocate,) keeping a steadier eye Whig-ward, than to constitutional principle, and entirely losing sight of the duty of an independent journal. The Times itself denoun ces one bad provision of the Irish Coercion Bill. The Scotsman conceives military tribunals much more handy and clever for Ireland at present, than the established constitutional courts, or than

his Majesty's Government British public spirit detests them; and the Times, foreseeing how things must go, accordingly denounces martial law with all the impetuous energy by which its heartiest articles are characterized. Recomending a tribunal of men of some knowledge, and some temper, sent by special commission, it says:—

It is said that justice cannot be enforced in Ire-trials by special commission, and so it seems does land, it is therefore designed to take away justice; the law is not respected, and, to improve the case, law is to be suspended! Such would seem to be the plan of our sages. The truth is, that the Irish have never been made to know justice except in its visitations. To tedium have we persevered in laying before our readers flagrant instances of the partial administration of the laws in Ireland, but not one hundredth part of the cases which have fallen under our observation have we cited, or

"We are well persuaded that the substitution of a tribunal, such as that just mentioned, for the fearful one of boy soldiers,-against which latter, not merely the discriminat.

(From the Carlisle Journal.)

The Government plan for coercing Ireland has been introduced into the House of Lords, and we can have little. hesitation in pronouncing it "bloody and brutal." It is a Bill for suspending all law in Ireland, except the law of the sword; and the speed with which it is progressing through the House of Lords, as compared with the progress of the Reform Bill, is tolerably indicative of the temper and feelings of their Lordships. This is the only business worth noting in the Peers. In the Commons there has been an awkward indication on the score of economy. A motion, moved by Mr. Hume, that sinecure places in the army and navy are unnecessary, was opposed by Ministers, and rejected by the House! This looks ill.

ing sense, but the prejudices, passions, and habits of a free | to obey the law the man, whom years of misery and de people, revolt, as did the Roman spirit against the name of gradation have driven to despair, rebels-in a voice of outKing,”—we are, we say, convinced that a permanent Spe- breaking indignation he demands justice-he is put offcial Commission of three judges, with, or even without a told that he must be bound hand and foot first, and then Special Jury, and moveable, at a day's notice, from place to his oppressor will take his demand into consideration! Fie! place, would be an expedient more befitting the dignity of Fie! public justice,-more awe-inspiring to wrong-doers,-more effective as a test of crime,-more favourable to the reputation of the Government that is to say, at once formidable and less unpopular—than any other that could be proposed for the existing emergency in Ireland. If Government, more over, were at a loss for authentic and valuable information from the seats of disorder, from what source so pure, or through what channels so undisturbed and certain, could intelligence be communicated as those vigilant, learned, acute, and experienced persons-familiar with the state of the country, and with the characters of men,-skilful to sift the truth, and to appreciate its value when discovered,-men whom there is no prize to tempt beyond the love of justice, and whom assassins and incendiaries have never yet dared to threaten? For our parts, we cannot believe that when his Majesty's Ministers shall have well considered this question, they will continue to prefer a bastard and inefficient martial law for the trial of non-military offences, to hundreds of forms and modifications of which our constitutional tribunals are so susceptible, and which may be so easily, and with such pacifying effect on the public mind, had recourse to on the present emergency. The other features of the Bill, though we like not some few of them, might be allowed to pass; but, in the name of God, let us not copy, until the last extremity, the most disgusting of all the tyrannical manœuvres of Bonaparte, the infamous " Military Commissions," and under a Whig aud a reforming Government!

(From the Glasgow Free Press.)

Let no one be deceived by the present cry about Irish outrage. Ireland was in a ten times more convulsed state a twelvemonth ago, than she is at this moment, and yet there was no cry for "additional powers" then. No! It is only when the people are in a position to force Ministers upon courses of extensive practical reform in our domestic affairs, that this story of Irish insurrection is vamped up, to divert public attention to a different object, and afford a pretext for perpetuating every oppression and abuse.

(From the Inverness Courier.)

All the other proceedings of Parliament, during the week, sink into insignificance, when compared with the exposé made by Lord Grey on Friday evening, relative to the disturbed state of Ireland. The Government measure (which was read a first time nem. con., and was to be read a second time on Monday) is one of terrible coercion-a total suspension of the fundamental laws of the Constitution. May it not be apprehended, that the very extremity to which the measure goes-particularly as Ireland is not in open rebellion-will exasperate and not allay; and, instead of eradicating, strike deeper the root of disaffection? Additional strength might be added to the magisterial, constabulary, and military force in Ireland, and a few demagogues might be put down, without suspending the Constitution, and placing whole districts under the ban of martial-law and despotic power. At all events, we deeply regret that Lord Althorp's Bill, and the other remedial measures proposed for Ireland, should not have had time to manifest their effects, before the last resource was adopted.

(From the Hereford Times.)

(From the Cornwall Royal Gazette of Feb. 23.) It must be admitted that nothing but a case of extreme necessity could justify the severity of the measures proposed districts of Ireland, but whoever has marked the fearful by Government for restoring tranquillity to the disturbed progress of crime in that country for the last 12 months must readily allow that it affords an ample justification to those rigid enactments. Every civil Government is bound to preserve, at all hazards, the lives and property of its subjects. But will the measures of Government, vigorous as they are, prevent the perpetration of crime? We fear the answer is too obvious that they will not. To some extent, we have no doubt, they will be efficacions; but by no means to the total prevention of the atrocities against which they of the law as the avenger of evil, but will not extirpate the are directed. They will, undoubtedly, assert the supremacy evil itself. Coercive measures do not reach the springs of action. They attack abuses which lie on the surface of society, but cannot check the workings of its under-currents; they may subdue the evil, but can accomplish no positive good. We hope, therefore, that remedial means, framed in the most comprehensive spirit of philanthropy, will speedily follow the adoption of the harsher mode; and that the resentments which may be called up by the measures now under our notice may be permanently allayed by the blessings resulting from more generous legislation, and an improved condition of society.

(From the Liverpool Mercury.)

The Ministers, in seeking for increased powers, have dispensed with the usual preliminary of a previous inquiry into the existence of the evils for the prevention or cure of which the constitution is to be temporarily suspended. Un less, however, they succeed in proving, to the satisfaction of Parliament, that the measure they propose is absolutely indispensable, and that the notoriety of the frightful state of Ireland is sufficient to supersede the necessity of any formal inquiry, which would be attended with considerable delay; unless they can establish this fact, we hope and believe that a Reformed House of Commons will not grant them the extraordinary powers which they declare to be necessary as a preliminary to the pacification of Ireland.

(From the Bolton Chronicle.)

When the Ministry themselves acknowledge that it is unconstitutional, and only justified by the strong necessity of the case, the people may rest assured there is little in it at all conservative of the principles of liberty. Earl Grey, The Irish nation have defied the laws, or, rather, have in his speech, has given the ministerial justification for rerendered them nugatory. The sanction of those laws must sorting to this severe measure; and, certainly, if the lawless be enforced; and, therefore, the Prime Minister of Great state in which his description depicts the peasantry of IreBritain is about to place Ireland out of the pale of the Con-land, is not the effect of long-practised injustice, but exists stitution to suspend the civil, and to subject her to the military law. This is a fearful and terrible alternative! Should not full and ample redress have preceded this awful step? or, at all events, should not redress and the power of punishing the infringer of the law have been collateral measures? But the Irish people must be instantly forced

in defiance of equitable legislation, then it will be obvious that the powers of the law must be strengthened. We are not, however, satisfied with the ground-work of Lord Grey's plan. We do not acknowledge that the catalogue of crime he has arrayed before the Parliament are the effect of gratuitous lawlessness. That life and property have become