ever the objects of Orange perse- Meanwhile the Union took place. Maynooth was in full operation. Its inmates-the sons of cotters and small tenants-drank in the lessons of charity, which Dens and Builly communicate; and formed their manners, and tastes, and political opinions upon such models as their professors might submit to them, or they themselves create one for another. By batches at a time, moreover, they went forth, ordained ministers, to act, first as curates, and by and by as successors, to the wellbred, well-educated, and somewhat aristocratic priests, of whom the And the field into which they entered rapidly diminishing. was precisely such as men of their views would have wished for. The Irish parliament had already decreed that though Roman Catholic gentlemen should be incapacitated from sitting in the legislature or holding office in boroughs, or, indeed, filling numbers were crown, Roman Catholic freeholders should be eligible to vote at all parliamentary elections; and the more to increase the peril of the measure, the standard of qualification was fixed at forty shillings. Now the Maynooth-bred priests were not slow to perceive that this arrangement, of which selfishness was at the root, opened for them a wide avenue to power, and they at once took advantage of it. They soon contrived to get the whole body of forty-shilling freeholders under their control; and that war for supremacy between Popery and Protestantism began, which has hitherto gone in favour of the attacking party, and seems now, as far as Ireland at least is concerned, to be drawing towards an issue. Whatever Maynooth may have done towards supplying to Ireland an enlightened and pious priesthood, it is past dispute that from that source there has issued forth a body of the most untiring and influential agitators that the world has ever seen. These soon found a leader for themselves; and, under the judicious management of Mr. O'Connell, the Catholic Association was formed. It is worthy of remark, too, that on questions of general policy, the Roman Catholics invariably espoused the liberal, or levelling side. The Catholic Association, for example, professed to seek but one end, namely, the repeal of those acts of parliament which denied to the professors of the Romish faith a full participation in the privileges, as well as in the rights of the constitution; but, somehow or another, it invariably came to pass that their representatives threw the weight of their influence into the Whig scale, and that they were not in any instance called to account by their constituents for so doing. Was this the mere result of gratitude on their parts - of gratitude towards a party which ever since it went into opposition, had systematically supported their claims? We will not say that so generous a sentiment was alto ment gether wanting; for the Irish are a grateful people-at least for the moand especially so provided they entertain a lively expectation of favours to come. But another motive was decidedly at work. Gradu ally, though by a process which it requires no very acute powers of vision to observe, Popery has allied itself with the democratic principle; not here alone, but all over the world. And although we either did not observe this, or succeeded in reasoning oneself into a disbelief of the fact previously to the year 1829, the events of each succeeding season have more and more vouched for it; and it is now admitted as freely in Prussia and even in Austria as in Great Britain. The great measures of 1829 and 1832 are yet fresh in our recollection; and every thinking man must, we conceive, be convinced, that the one was but the legitimate offspring of the other. By admitting Roman Catholics into parliament, the Tory party threw into the scale of their rivals a band of the best disciplined and devoted supporters which a faction could desire; and these, when the proper moment came, fought the Whig battle. Who were they that carried the Reform-bill in the House of Commons? Not the members for England and Scotland, but the Irish members, a set of men whom the priests patronised, for whom the priests toiled, spoke, voted, and canvassed from the very altar; whom they forced, in spite of the best resistance of property and intelligence too, into their places. Was Maynooth answerable for this? answer, undeniably. We Maynooth educated the priests who, professing to follow O'Connell's guidance, have, in point of fact, used both him and the Whig cabinet as their tools; and these same priests it was that sent to parliament, in 1832, a body of men, who, aided by Mr. Plumptre, and other leaders in the opposition to the Maynooth grant, carried the Reform Bill. So much for the skill and dexterity wherewith Popery fights its own battles, making use, as ages come and go, always of the principle which bids fair the best to sustain it; yet seeking ever the self-same end, namely, an ascendancy over the minds of men, and the consequent subjection of all civil government to and gallantly had he resisted the arrangement which has stamped that year with a sad celebrity: and though we must ever lament that he should have placed himself then in the front of the battle-of a battle waged not alone against his party, but against his own public character-we should be ashamed of ourselves were we now incapable of admitting, that what he did he did for the best; that he yielded to a necessity which he believed to be resistless. Indeed, it is both ridiculous and absurd to charge such men as Sir Robert Peel and the Duke of Wellington with desiring any thing, by their acts and words as public men, except their country's good. But can we find the same excuse for him now? We think not. There was no necessity for the mea sure of which he avows himself to be the author. Nobody looked for it, nobody expected it, and least of all from him. Measures for the dif fusion of a liberal education throughout Ireland we all anticipated that he would propose; but that he should preface them by such an act as this, was about the last event in the drama of politics for which we were prepared. For, what is he doing? Casting oil upon the waters? Smoothing down the asperities of party spirit and religious prejudice? Quite the reverse. He has stirred a tempest on all sides, amid the fury of which the wreck of his own cabinet is the least of the evils that will occur; for it does not matter what his next step may be, all parties will look upon with distrust, and his own especially, wronged and insulted as they imagine themselves to be, will shrink from it angrily. measure on the There is nothing to be said in de fence of this unhappy score either of necessity or of expe diency. We do not deny, that the it sort of education heretofore bestowed upon the alumni of Maynooth may have been calculated to narrow rather than to enlarge their views of men and things; neither can we question the reasonableness of the wish which would urge the government to improve it. But has this wish been up the spiritual tyranny of the priest- permost in Sir Robert Peel's mind? hood. Is he bent on creating in the minds We are not going to charge Sir of the young men who shall, in fuRobert Peel with having wilfully beture, aspire to minister at the altar trayed the constitution in 1829. Long of Romanism in Ireland, such habits of thinking as shall induce charity in their sentiments towards their Protestant brethren, and an earnest desire to impress the same high lesson on their flocks? Then, in the name of common sense, why does he keep them where they are, subject to no control, except that of their immediate superior-liable to no inspection, except by the Roman Catholic hierarchy-breathing, day and night, an atmosphere of exclusiveness, and imbibing, at every lesson, draughts from a fountain which is not famous for the sweetness of the waters which it sends forth? Was this wise towards a country circumstanced as Ireland is, looking at the arrangement from the most favourable point of view? And when we go farther, where are we? Sir Robert gets no credit, either from friends or foes, for having acted through any such high sense of right. Both parties, in this country, believe that his single purpose is to render Ireland more manageable in his own hands than it might otherwise be; and both parties are convinced, and we confess we are of the same way of thinking, that if the movement stop here, his failure will be signal. If Sir Robert Peel had been a great statesman, instead of the mere minister of expediency, he would have acted upon a far more comprehensive plan than the present. True wisdom dictates the getting rid, as much as possible, of the miserable jealousies which keep Protestants and Papists apart, especially in Ireland. True wisdom would have, therefore, done what, in 1795, had been suggested. It would have either extended the foundation of Trinity College, Dublin, or established and endowed one or two new universities, to the honours and emoluments of which all men might have aspired, without any invidious questions being asked, as to the form of Christianity which they followed. True wisdom, when this was done, or the vote for doing it carried, as carried it must have been, would have withdrawn, without scruple, the grant from Maynooth, which, throughout twenty years and more, has been continued by a species of fraud. For and abhorrence in the mouths of the whole Protestant population of the empire; and if half the tales that are told concerning the moral training that goes on there be true, it deserves to be spoken of in no other terms. And now, passing over the sophistry with which the measure has been defended and its manifest tendency to exasperate the feelings of the two great parties in Irelandpassing over, too, the demonstrations that have been made against it on this side of the channel-passing over the palpable truth that this grant to Maynooth and the form of making it strike at the root of the principle on which the school system of education in Ireland is carried on, there is one question which we must take leave to put to the premier,— out of what fund does he mean to draw his resources for the maintepeople of England never speak exnance of a seminary of which the cept with loathing? Is it for this that we submit to the burthen of an income-tax-a tax to which our Irish fellow-subjects are not liable? Are you going to take our Protestant money-money which we, not the Irish, pay in the shape of assessed taxes, and to maintain and educate therewith the teachers of a religion of which we do not approve? We tell you that if you do you will live to repent it. For the boon, if a boon it be, is an Irish, not an English one, and by Irishmen, in some shape or another, and not by Englishmen, common honesty requires that it shall be paid for. The way in which we expressed ourselves at the opening of this paper will shew that we are neither blind to the wrongs which Ireland has suffered from her connexion with England, nor reluctant, as far as may be, to redress them. Among these wrongs by far the heaviest of all was the forcing upon her of Popery, of that same Popery which it is the obvious tendency of the Maynooth bill to perpetuate and ultimately to establish. Now we cannot consent, because our forefathers erred long ago, to perpetuate the error, even though the Irish people them selves desire it. We have no objection to treat our popish fellowsubjects as brethren. We will share with them freely all the privileges of the constitution, and throw open to them schools and colleges where they may learn more than is taught either by Cardinal Bellarmine or Dr. Delahogue. But we will not do them so much injustice as to re-establish among them, in a position of power and political influence, that church against the encroachments of which every other government in Europe, except our own, is struggling. Neither can we give our assent to arrangements which, unless they be preparatory to some such settlement, are worse than useless. What are we to gain-what is Ireland to gain-by increasing either the numbers or the condition of such priests as Maynooth has hitherto sent out, and must continue to send out, so long as they shall be forced to depend for their subsistence afterwards upon the vo luntary offerings of their flocks? Nothing. You must still look to the peasant class for recruits to your tonsured army, and experience has not taught us that a peasant priesthood, however highly educated, is any where, unless liberally provided for by the civil government, to be trusted. On the whole, then, we cannot but regard this peace-making measure of the Conservative government as a signal failure. It has done nothing, it never will do any thing, towards conciliating the class that are to be benefited by it, or withdrawing their attention from other things. The Repealers accept it as an instalment, and laugh in their sleeves all the while; for they not unfairly calculate that, through the indignation which it has excited, both here and elsewhere, in the breasts of Protestants, it will facilitate rather than impede the final triumph of the cause which they advocate. Mean while, there is universal distrust in the Conservative camp. All confidence in public men is shaken; and the general feeling seems to be, that, though matters may go on smoothly during the continuance of the present parliament, a terrible crisis awaits us. Let us hope that it is not so; and, better still, let us be prepared. Since the preceding pages went to press, Mr. Ward has proposed his amendment, which Sir Robert Peel resisted, and the House of Commons threw out. Be it so; yet we confess, that as far as our perception of right and wrong goes, we really do not understand the morality of the proceeding. The minister who did not scruple to assent, a few years ago, to the plunder of one-fourth of the Irish clergyman's property, in order to give it to the Irish landlord; and who has no hesitation now in robbing, by act of parliament, the Protestant people of England and Scotland, that he may have wherewithal to endow permanently a Roman Catholic college in Ireland, need not, one would think, be very tender about applying the remaining funds of the Irish Church to any purpose which may seem to be desirable. He has not a shred of principle on which to rest his present obstinacy; for the principle, if partially conceded by the Whigs, has been altogether given up by himself. Moreover, our readers need not trouble themselves to speculate largely about this matter. The Irish brauch of the United Church is doomed. A Conservative government has signed its death-warrant, and Sir Robert Peel, if he be prime minister a few years longer, will do the office of executioner. London:-Moyes and Barclay, Castle Street, Leicester Square, IMPARTIALITY in politics is a virtue for an honest party man to see clearly and truly through it is very difficult. But it is not at all certain that impartiality in politics is a virtue at all. In a free country, ruled by a representative government, and where a regular opposition in parliament is a part of the constitution, it is by no means clear that what is so often denounced and written against as party spirit is not really one of the bulwarks of the liberty of the people. But, be this as it may, there is an obvious distinction between denouncing the opinions of a man and undervaluing his talents. One may be necessary; the other cannot be. This distinction we shall here observe in commenting upon contemporary statesmen and orators. They will be praised or blamed, according to their abilities and powers; not on account of the opinions they hold. A chivalforbearance between those men themrous generosity secures this mutual selves, who respect the talents of each other while strenuously opposed in politics. We see no reason why the same rule should not be observed by public writers; and with this brief VOL. XXXI. NO. CLXXXVI. preface we approach the consideration of the leader of the Liberal party in the House of Commons. LORD JOHN RUSSELL, like his great rival, Sir Robert Peel, depends for his parliamentary influence upon his proficiency in the art of managing his audience. He does not aspire to, or at all events does not attain, those high flights of rhetoric, or declamation, or poetical embellishment, which, with the aid of other commanding qualities, go to form the characteristics of the professed orator. In these departments of the art of public speaking, he is excelled by many of his own supporters, - by Mr. Macaulay, by Mr. Shiel, and even by Lord Palmerston; but there is no man on the Liberal side of the House who exercises so much general influence on the opinions or conduct of his party, no man on that side whose views on all questions are listened to with more respect and expectation by the House generally, than are those of Lord John Russell. In this kind of popularity he certainly stands next to Sir Robert Peel. The traits and characteristics of Lord John Russell are not so marked to a superficial observer as are those of Sir Robert Peel. The tenour of his political life has been more uniform, and he has not filled so large TT |