X. The Case of IRELAND set at rest: addressed in a Letter to the Rt. Hon. R. PEEL, M.P. By W. FIRTH 161 XI. Statistical Illustrations of the TERRITORIAL EXTENT and POPULATION, COMMERCE, TAXATION, CON- OXII. The Plagiary warned. A Vindication of the DRAMA, the STAGE, and PUBLIC MORALS, from the Plagia- I. Administration of the Indian Government under the Marquess of Hast- II. Improvement and Embellishment of the Metropolis. By Sir W. Hillary. [Original] III. The late Duke of Richmond on Annual Parliaments and Universal IV. A Letter to Mr. Wilberforce on Impressment. V. On the Causes and Mitigation of Pestilential Fever, &c. By T. Fors- VI. C. Brinsley Sheridan on the Greek Revolution. Second Ed. VII. Letter to Lord Melville, with a Plan to raise British Seamen. IX. On the general Principles and present Practice of Banking, &c. By SKETCH OF IRELAND, IN 1824: THE SOURCES OF HER EVILS CONSIDERED, AND THEIR REMEDIES SUGGESTED. BY SIR WILLIAM HILLARY, BART. AUTHOR OF "AN APPEAL TO THE BRITISH NATION ON THE HUMANITY AND POLICY OF FORMING A NATIONAL INSTITUTION FOR THE PRESERVATION OF LIFE FROM SHIPWRECK" AND OF "SUGGESTIONS FOR THE IMPROVEMENT AND EMBELLISHMENT OF THE THERE is not perhaps any subject more calculated to make a deep impression on the human mind, than the contemplation of an ancient, a brave, and a high-minded people struggling with adversity; but the impression becomes infinitely more powerful, when we view that people perishing from want in the midst of abundance; an increased population, with an increase of wretchedness; with all the bounties of heaven and the abundant fruits of the earth, in appearance, lavished on them in vain. Such is, such long has been, Ireland. According to their history and their traditions, they were the earliest civilized people of the west; certainly, one of the first who received Christianity. Blessed with a luxuriant soil; placed in a happy temperature of climate; situated most favorably for commerce with every quarter of the globe; inhabited by a brave, ardent, and intelligent people: this country, for many succeeding centuries, has been stationary in misfortune, whilst all the surrounding nations have been advancing in prosperity and civilization: for six hundred years treated as a conquered people, alternately the prey of civil dissensions or religious persecutions; of partial insurrections or open rebellions; horrible burnings, barbarous murders, martial law, and numerous executions. To produce such an accumulated mass and succession of miseries, almost without interruption through so many ages, there must have been some great and radical defect; and clearly to ascertain the nature and extent of that cause, is the first step towards removing the evil. Variously has this, at different times, been explained. The arbitrary domination of the Conqueror was long held to be the primary cause. When the religion of England was changed by the Reformation, and Ireland remained Catholic, difference in religious opinions and the attendant persecutions and confiscations, were, and long continued to be, regarded as the paramount evil to these have been added, the charge of supposed disaffection to the government, imbibed during the French Revolution; and more recently, the plausible doctrine has been advanced, that a superabundant population is the root and foundation of those calamities which Ireland now endures. But, without any great depth of penetration, a doubt may arise, and it may perhaps be permitted to put the question; when one country has remained under the domination of another and more powerful state for fully six hundred years, and during the whole of that long period has uniformly been in a state of anarchy and misery; whether this lasting evil may not have had its origin, rather in the errors of the system pursued by the governors, than in any inherent and hereditary defect in the people? Ireland, divided into many petty states, disunited amongst themselves, was partially subdued by Henry II.; and, after long and sanguinary contests, was annexed to the English monarchy; yet why, in the lapse of time, did not the two people assimilate with each other? For more than three centuries, all were Catholics: the English had intermarried with, and settled amongst them; but the Irish never were confided in, never had equal laws and equal rights; they were goaded into resistance;-that resistance was called rebellion, and was put down by force of arms: confiscations followed, accompanied by further oppressions; and, these oppressions becoming intolerable, renewed insurrections followed, as a matter of course; and thus, through these means, the finest parts of Ireland had become possessed by new owners. When a change of religion in one nation, and a tenacious adherence to the ancient faith in the other, opened a new scene of discord, in the lapse of time, the great landed estates of the country again changed possessors; and instead of the former distinctions of the invader and the invaded, Catholic and Protestant became the rallying terms of discord, bloodshed, and confiscation. That kingdom next became the field of battle, on which the contest between James 11. and William III. for the British crown was decided; and all the insolence of the conqueror, and the unsubdued animosity of the defeated party, added fuel to the already violent flame which consumed the land. So far, perhaps, all are agreed; but all who bore part in these struggles, and their sons, and their grandsons, have been swept from the face of the earth; new generations have arisen, and with them, it were but reasonable to have hoped a new order of things would have followed. It is unjust, illiberal, and impolitic, to be for ever recurring to those miserable discords of former centuries, in vindication of all those privations and evils which afflict Ireland at the present day, Scotland has been as much torn by civil and religious dissensions her national church, in some essential points, differs as much from that of England and Ireland, as the Roman Catholic does from either; yet in Scotland, these causes have long ceased to operate as sources of discord. It is more wise, more dignified, and will sooner bring us to the happy results at which it is the interest of all to arrive, that the recollection of these past animosities should be buried in oblivion, except when recurred to as established facts recorded in history, and held up as a beacon and a warning to avoid the errors into which our forefathers had fallen. Take Ireland as she is; make full and ample allowance for the indignant and angry passions of a goaded people, and call not their struggles by the name of disloyalty: in the field and on the ocean, they have continually and bravely sustained the fame and the glory of the country, and profusedly shed their best blood in her cause. Protestants and Catholics have emulated each other in this respect. Are, then, the evils which harass and ruin that fine country, beyond the reach of human aid? Cannot the enlightened statesmen of the present day supply any remedy for these lamentable evils? Is it, indeed, true, that an abundant population is at last discovered to be the paramount misfortune; that the salvation of Ireland can alone be effected by her depopulation? There is something startling in the very proposition. A numerous people were once thought to be the strength of a nation; and we must have clearer arguments than have yet been deduced from Ireland, before we can be convinced it is in the ordinary and regular course of nature, that the redundant population of that country, is the originating and predominant cause of her present misery. A few centuries ago, Ireland was thinly peopled; and she was in a state of anarchy and wretchedness. Her inhabitants increased, and her miseries did not diminish. She is now still more populous, and still in misery. The fact is, that, whether thinly peopled or populous, Ireland, taken as a nation, never has been happy, never prosperous, since her first invasion by Henry II. How, then, does this superabundant population bear out the reasoning of those who ascribe to it the present misery of Ireland? They assert that there are hundreds of thousands in a state of actual starvation; that these hundreds of thousands are willing and able to work, but cannot obtain employment. But are they in a starving state from an actual scarcity of food in the land? On the contrary; whilst half a million sterling was collected in England, to keep these unhappy people from perishing, |