contributed to give one of the most brilliant on the historic rolls of England. The Political Unions-the hardy offspring of the Association-worked the vessel of Reform into the haven of liberty.

The leaders of the Association had two objects in view-to attach the people to themselves, and defeat the Government. The first was to be effected by rendering actual services to the people, by giving them that protection, which Government was established to afford; the second, by a merciless exposure of the system upon which the Administration acted. All classes were aggrieved-to all, the prospect of redress was held out, and the wisdom of the course proposed for that purpose demonstrated. Men naturally looked to the body which really extended to them the advantages of government. They smarted under insult-it promised to remove it. They conplained of general distress-it took the honest and rational modes to national prosperity, by extinguishing national dissensions. Former Boards had failed, because no direct interest was offered to the people. The fault was now completely avoided. Protection of the people was the great object. If an Orange magistrate was guilty of an oppression, the facts were instantly investigated, and a lawyer and attorney sent to bring him to justice, If a Catholic was killed at any of those unfortunate processions in the north of Ireland, the execration and contempt of civilized Europe were poured out by the Association upon the head of the government which upheld this murderous system; but, at the same time, lawyers and reporters were despatched to the place of trial; and though justice might not be obtained, the feelings of the murdered man's children or brothers were soothed by the sympathy of their country. If a judge, placed formerly on the Bench for his Orange principles and ignorance of law, attempted any species of oppression, the torch of exposure was at once held up to his conduct by the Association. A petition also was presented to Parliament, and the talons of Brougham were soon in his body. These efforts were not confined to individual concerns. General abuses were dragged, notwithstanding their struggles, into

the light of day. The corruptions of religion and justice were demonstrated. Oligarchical rapacity was assailed in all its forms of plunder, whether tithes, grand juries, or church cesses. The hand of jobbing was seized in the pocket of the peopleit was caught in the fact, and held there until the world saw it. The whole system, with its brood of insurrections, midnight outrage, and murders, was exposed. Accordingly, the people, who are subjected by their condition to the far severest form of this government, rushed round the body that they felt took the proper course for the removal of the manifold political, social, and religious oppressions that smote them. Placed on the very edge of the great wheel of subsistence, and, therefore, exposed to the strongest repulsive force, it requires but a slight jar in the revolution to fling them off altogether, and leave them to be crushed by the machine. Long, regarding Government as their enemy, the moment the Association shewed the will and power to protect them, they took their allegiance and placed it in its hands. It was with unmitigated astonishment the world saw those excluded, by express statute, from power, possessed of all the real power of the kingdom, obeyed with a promptitude that the most iron despotism could not produce and levying taxes, that were paid with a zeal which confounded the Chancellor of the Exchequer. They saw men, incapable of some of the meanest offices in the state, launching the undiminished thunderbolt of its authority at the head of every oppression—sucking into the centre of a mighty organization the, whole of Ireland.

The strength of Government was withered. Its throne in the affections and respect of the millions-of which the material throne is the mere, and not very permanent type-was occupied by another. Notwithstanding some instances of the precipitation and want of decorum, incident to a popular assembly, which marked its rival, there was yet such a fine display of judgment, evidenced by the desired results-viz., the perfect concurrence of the people in the measures of the Association, and the almost unbounded extent of its authority— that the deliberations of Parliament began to be subjected to

comparisons which were not likely to redound to its credit, while it made the most childish complaints that the forms of its committees were stolen-as if the assumption of these forms would not have been truly ridiculous, but for the power to which they adhered.

The next step was to shame the Government-to render it impossible for any prudent, pious, or honest man, to place confidence in it. This was done simply by detailing its conduct Government sought every means of quarrel. It sent its reporters from London to the Association. The proceedings were read every morning by the Attorney-General; but as Government could not avow that the statement of truth was injurious to it, the Ministry licked its chops in vain. Meanwhile, the ground was cut from under its very feet, without the means of resistance. Its incapacity was demonstrated to the world. The gross and wicked perversion of the ends for which it was instituted were shewn. A legislature, sacrificing the majority to the minority, violating the rights of conscience, robbing, oppressing, and insulting in the name of God, could not stand comparison with a body that only demanded impartial justice and the liberty to worship God according to their consciences. The diviner feelings of men were awakened. The great names of freedom and honour were on the side of the Association. The unjust measures of Parliament were contemptible beside those of its rival; and the star of its oratory grew pale before the volcanic blaze of an eloquence fed by the feelings of seven millions. The very partisans of the ministry grew ashamed of it. It was vain to calculate on its instruments. They would not butcher their fellow-creatures for its pleasure. A noble contagion reached the army; and the very chance of a contest, as soon as that became ascertained, was at an end,

The general shame and contempt were not confined to home, they spread abroad, but under a different form, and deeply wounded the British character. In almost every quarter of the globe, the oppressions of Ireland became the subject of discussion; and as their gigantic figures rose round the crater of the Association, the name of England was made the sub

ject of scorn and open contempt. In France, Austria, Italy, Germany, in the United States, Canada, South America, the Colonies, and India, the most humiliating allusions were made. Even at an official dinner in Mexico, Mr. Ward, the British Consul, was taunted with the conduct of his country, and compelled to protest his individual condemnation of it, while he censured the introduction of the subject in such a place. The glorious characteristic of England-her freedom-was decried. There was not a country of the new or old world in which an Englishman durst talk of English liberty "Look to the Irish Catholics," was the answer. Foreign despotisms exulted at the extinction of that quality which had raised us above the rest of the world; for, take away our liberty, and what are we? In commerce itself there is nothing dignified, abstractly considered. It is the science, the enterprise, the courageall the fruits of liberty-that shape the honourable character of the British merchant, and convert the trader into the civilizer and benefactor of mankind. As our wealth, so do our strength and glory arise from our freedom. What but the fine free spirit of the people has created our armies, before whose unconscious independence even the chivalry of France has gone down! What constitutes the glory that, for a "thousand years," has illumined the British flag, and kept it so long afloat over the ark of human liberty, and, consequently, of virtue and happiness-that, in the veins of every free state, at present existing, the blood of our example and spirit runsthat, by reflection from us, arose in the west a noble luminary which, in its turn, has become the parent of glorious systems!

It having been decided, upon a most profound view of society, that opinion and passive resistance were to be the means of change, all was modelled in accordance with that principle. There was no contrariety in the end or the means-a system, the essence of which was publicity, was unanimously adopted; the proceedings were not only open, but made open; they were forced on men's notice, and courted attention in a diversity of ways; every thing secret, every thing anonymous, was repudiated :-it was driven forward, by letter, by pamphlets, by books, but above all by the

the combined energies of the press and public meetings. The Morning Register was established-the first example of a regular reporting establishment in Ireland. Next came the Freeman's Journal; at that period not so efficient as the former, but afterwards as powerful an advocate as popular liberty ever had in this country. The Evening Post devoted its columns and excellent talents to the cause. We believe, too, some

able documents were drawn up by its editor. The provincial press was filled with the debates of the Association. England, at length, began to be heated by the mighty conflagration. Either for approval, which was rare, or for haughty condemnation, the London journals quoted the speeches, commented on them, and, as they grew in importance, sent ther own reporters to Ireland. Thus, a thousand mirrors were held up to the Association. It was of no consequence whether the comments of the London journals were condemnatory or not: they produced attention; and few came within the eddies who were able to extricate themselves. Men began by furious oppositions, and concluded their denunciations by becoming attached to the body; it was impossible to tear away the poisoned shirt—the nails and pins of prejudice were drawn out by the irresistible attraction of justice. The cause was so plain-the system opposed, in principle so monstrous--in practice, so full of cruelty and danger-that it only required exposure. In the bosoms of Orange families the seeds of the Association were sown; the young men, in the spring-tide of that honesty and generosity which belongs to youth, felt the finest strings of the heart vibrate unconsciously to the "sweet influences of liberty." An internal revolution was effected: and, had not this been checked by the first suppression of the Association, in our opinion, the two great parties-if we may call one containing seven-eights of the kingdom-might have then been easily welded together.

The next great part of the system of general discussion, and one that was attended with considerable effect on the Association itself, was the meetings that were constantly holding through