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country. He writes now in opposition to self interest, to call forth the unbiassed opinions of the public, in order to show that Irishmen are not to be seduced by a golden bribe, against their country, and that they cannot be reasoned out of justice by the glitter of a name.

It is right, however, to observe, that as "out of evil often comes good," Lord Cloncurry, one of our present privy council, is the unwilling cause of the following work, as it was at his request it was written.

Having said so much on the Prize Essays, it is well to say something of the extraordinary period at which they appear.

If we look to Europe, we see threatened measures bringing better hopes to Ireland! If we look to England, we behold enlarged views of policy already inducing her sons to make common cause with Irishmen! If we look to Ireland, however impoverished and misruled, we see all classes beginning to know and feel, that the cause of their country is not that of faction or party, but of pure justice and unconquered freedom.

Viewing the state of the empire at large, we have arrived at an extraordinary time. A new era has arrived! The Reform Bill has passed. The effects of misgovernment, however, remain in full force! The boroughmongers still surround the throne the spirit of ascendancy_yet continues to madden the sons of intolerance. The Tory principles of the lords are still unchanged; and unfortunately for themselves, the conduct of the Whigs, in reference to Ireland, has belied their boasted professions. Notwithstanding the announcement, that Tithes were to have been abolished, the Establishment still possesses its gorgeous wealth! The laws yet require revision, and their administration demands impartiality. The power of the few against the interest of the many, is still exerted through the corn laws, thus making food dear while labor is cheap.

The fundholders still exercise their corrupt influence to crush the poor, and to perpetuate the monopoly of the rich. There is plenty of money, but it is in the hands of Jews and jobbers; whilst millions are pennyless and starving! There is sufficient capital, but it is diverted from its natural channel: being used against, instead of for the people. Vote. by ballot, short parliaments, increased suffrage, and abolition of oaths, are still required. The commodities essential to the existence of the industrious classes, are taxed to a most enormous extent, whilst the extravagancies and luxuries of the rich are not taxed in due proportion. Plurists and sinecurists are still gorged with the property of the nation, public pensioners are yet fattened on the vitals of the poor. The national debt of 800,000,000%. with its annual charge of 28,727,4137., and the customs and excise taxes at 40,059,9837. (see report from House of Commons, 10th Feb., 1831), still press down the vital energies of the empire. Ten millions at least, in the shape of tithes, church rates, &c., are still drawn from Great Britain and Ireland, to support an establishment, having no compassion for the people, and deserving no sympathy from them. In a time of peace, more soldiers have been required to keep down domestic complaints, than were required for centuries to crush foreign invasions.

Every thing (unless an increase of the franchise, by Reform), has been yet done to preserve and increase unjust monopoly-every thing remains to be done calculated to better the main body of the people.

Thus the result of a long night of bondage still continues to enslave the British empire, and even yet, unless a mighty moral regeneration quickly takes place, England will not survive the coming

storm.

Ireland, it is true, has felt in common with England, all the evils already named; but she has

also felt others peculiarly her own. These have been produced by Absenteeism, and the miscalled "Union," as we shall show in the following Essay. From those a long train of other evils has proceeded --the absence of local regulations—national laws -domestic nobility-home trade, and native legislation. Those in their turn have produced other effects still more appalling-Subletting Act-Disfranchising Act-Church Rate bill-Tithe Preservation bill, and the absence in Ireland of innumerable laws in force in England, calculated to raise the English laborer even above the Irish tradesman! To these we may add the importation of secretaries, under-secretaries, and others, to regulate our concerns, who know as little of Ireland and its people, as they do of Japan or China.

Nearly two years since, in the concluding lines of the following Essay, the author asked: "Will, then, the present ministry-can the present ministry make the Union work well for Ireland? If not, the fate of that measure is decided, and the eternal God, if we can judge of human events, by the constant marks of his hatred, seems to have decided, that Ireland will have a native reformed legislature to govern her people, after his own heart, and to bind them really in the bonds of unity and love." Have, then, the present ministry made the Union work well for Ireland? Let the state of Ireland answer that question: where is the peace, the improvement, the amelioration that has been since felt? Where is the comfort or happiness that has been secured for Ireland! Where is our Jury bill, our equal taxation, and our representation with that of England? where is our liberty of the press, or our right of meeting? where are our 5,000,000 of acres reclaimed, or our tithes abolished? Nothing soothes the people under such privations, but the anticipated benefits of native legislation. The court is forsaken-the squares are abandoned--our national buildings are uninhabited

our trade is a blank-our commerce is a name-our manufacture is a ruin-our agriculture is a shadow

our custom house is a skeleton, and our public establishments are forsooth, consolidated, to enrich England, and to pauperise Ireland!

Answer, ye grave sages, who fret and grieve when the Repeal of the Union is mentioned, where will all this end if Ireland be allowed thus to continue! If the hopes of the people are to be blasted-if their energies are to be paralised? and if all their resources are to be entombed in the grave of misery and want, what may the government expect? Answer, ye ministers of the God of justice; you fathers of the starving orphans, and only solace of the dying widows, can you reconcile eight millions to starvation and famine in a land of plenty? View the state of things, and say can such a state long continue? Are we to complain only of the effects, and not require the removal of the cause?

The nobility and great landed proprietors in Ireland complain, that they cannot be paid their enormous rents, whilst their excuse for being absentees, "that they can live cheaper abroad," ratifies their own condemnation! The Irish merchant, overpowered by superabundant wealth abroad, and indescribable misery at home, falls a sacrifice to bad debts, or a prey to all-devouring competition. The employer, in order to support himself and family, extracts the labor of the mechanic, with nearly the last drop of his blood, to make up the deficiency of his profits! The artisan, suffering not merely from low wages, and scarcity of work, but from dear food, must perish at home, or transport himself to a foreign land, in order to preserve existence! The shop-keeper, from small sales, limited capital, high rents, and oppressive taxes, lives only by charging 50 per cent. above the just value of his commodities, or by deteriorating the article which he sells! The once wealthy farmer, by tithes and rack-rents, is reduced to an impoverished cottier; and the cottier, in his turn, by the operation of the Disfranchising, or Subletting act, is made a mendi

cant! The once respectable tradesman is next transformed into a laborer; the laborer becomes a pauper, and the pauper is thrown upon a merciless world, unnoticed and unknown, unless starvation places his name upon the murdered records of his country.

What an awful picture does Ireland present? How lonely, wretched and miserable her people? How my heart sickens at the sight? How my soul is horrified at the fearful anticipations, if something substantial be not quickly done to remove such want and woe? Here despair, insolvency and ruin have fixed their dread abode. Here poverty, pestilence, and famine are doomed to destroy their unnumbered victims, if the voice of justice, of national honor, and of starving millions be not heard and obeyed without delay.

We may be asked, "does not something else produce this dreadful state of things, besides the Union?" We answer, that in our work on the Population and Territory of Ireland, we have shown all that Ireland and her people want to ensure their prosperity-but we have also, in our humble opinion, proved, that these wants are caused by the want of paternal government, and in this Essay we shall undertake to prove, that this cannot be restored to Ireland but by a Reformed Parliament in Ireland!

Under such circumstances, what should we do? We should be faithful to ourselves, and true to our country. Every Irishman, of whatever creed or condition, should unite in the bonds of brotherhood, and endeavor, by every legal and constitutional means, to change this wretched state of things, by getting back the right of self legislation ! We should for ever banish division from

our

land, dissensions from our shores, and follow national union, harmony and peace. Whilst we should continue loyal and constitutional agitation, we should obey the laws; we should reason with,

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