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as Masters of Families, as Protestants, as descended from British Ancestors, as Country Gentlemen and Farmers, as Justices of the Peace, as Members of Parliament;" and "A Letter to the Dublin Society on the Improving of their Fund, and the Manufactures, Tillage, &c., of Ireland." Strange to say, both these productions were almost as rare as the one to which we have called the attention of the reader, until the former was reprinted for gratuitous distribution, and may now sometimes be found upon our stalls. The copy which we have seen is one of the original edition, at present in the library of the Dublin Society. It has bound up with it the letter to the Dublin Society, which does not appear, as neither does the preface, in the reprint. Many of our readers may have seen it referred to, with considerable interest, by the gentleman who wrote under the title of "The Times Commissioner," as containing many valuable suggestions which, even at the present day, might he acted upon with advantage. One of the resolutions which he proposes for adoption is

"That we will, as Protestant gentlemen in Ireland, do all in our power to bring over our countrymen from the delusions and ignorance they are kept in by their Popish priests, as the greatest cause of their misery."

And had the government or the gentry of that day been only duly sensible of the importance of such an object, and followed the advice so ably and honestly given to them, how different would be the present aspect of Ireland!

The following observations are scarcely less applicable now, than they were then, to the distracted state of our unhappy country:—

"It is but too well known to the world, and too much felt by ourselves, that this poor kingdom is divided, or rather torn in pieces, by two religions; and, which is ever the consequence of the other, into two opposite factions in the state. It is true, the terrible contes s that arise from hence, and which, after spilling oceans of blood, laid waste our country, are, I hope, pretty well over, and, humanly speaking, can never disturb us more; for though there is a

superiority of one side as to numbers, yet the advantages of arms, strength, and power, is so entirely on the other, that there is not the remotest prospect of dangers from that quarter. However, it is certain that our continuing thus divided, has had very mischievous consequences to the kingdom in general, as it lessens our natural weight and strength, and makes us as spiritless and inactive as a paralytic body, when onehalf of it is dead, or just dragged about by the other. It often puts me in mind of the poor Italian in London, who had a little twin brother that grew out of his breast, whom he carefully nourished and cherished, being sensible that when his brother died, he could not long survive him; and I have often considered the Catholics and the Protestants in this light, who are closely united, and must as inevitably flourish and decay together. With the utmost regard to the welfare and the general good of Ireland, I must say, that whilst our religious differences subsist here (at least on the foot they now stand), we can never be a thriving or a happy people; and that therefore, until the state thinks fit to interpose further than they have yet done, and order proper methods for converting the poor natives, every Protestant gentleman should use his endeavours to that good end, by his influence and authority, by familiarity and favour, by persuasion and reasoning, and, where they can read, by dispersing proper books and tracts among them."

Having described the vast drain of money caused by the necessity for supporting their own enormous ecclesiastical system, both at home and abroad, and also the vast loss of labour, equivalent to wealth, occasioned by their numerous holidays, he thus proceeds—

"But this is not the worst; for it is certain that our priests, with their old thirst for the blood of heretics, were the chief authors of the dreadful Rebellion and horrid murders in 1641, which swept away near two hundred thousand souls. destroyed our houses and towns, and kept us to this day without peace, or people, or trade; whereas, had the happy condition Ireland was then in continued till now, we should have been one of the most thriving nations in Europe. I am sorry to say that the guilt of the Popish priests herein is too confest and evident to want any proofs; for the world has seen it fully and undeniably charged on them in a number of histories and memoirs of those times; and I believe no Papist who has read

them can doubt this fact. Indeed the encomiums given by Pope Urban the Eighth's Bull (dated May 17, 1642), to those murderers of heretics, is in itself so glaring an evidence of this miserable truth, that there is no occasion to dwell upon a thousand others which can be produced for it. It is certain that they had also a great hand in all the troubles of '88, and the slaughters, and ravage, and burning of houses which it occasioned; and though both these fatal events tumbled, like ill-contrived mines, on their own heads, who set them on fire, and proved an increase of the Protestant interest, yet the nation has not yet recovered the loss of blood and spirits occasioned thereby."

It is surely to be lamented that a genius so rare was not employed upon the production of other works, by which, in his day, he might have achieved for himself a high reputation, and which an enlightened posterity would gladly recognise as worthy of perpetual remembrance. But, while he was a great benefactor to arts and literature, it was more by drawing forth the powers of others, than by exhibiting his own.

That he should have shrunk, in his own day, from giving publicity to conjectures and speculations, of which copious examples are to be found in the preceding pages, is not at all so surprising as that he should have ever embodied them in a readable form, and taken so much pains, by passing them through the press, to give them a permanent existence. They could not be read then as we can read them now, by the light of events; and must have appeared the hallucinations of a crazy visionary, rather than the deeply-pondered forecastings of a most penetrating understanding. And, as there was no class upon whose sympathy he could calculate-no "fit audience," not even "a few," by whom his speculative imaginings would be gravely entertained. he shrank, with the instinctive sensitiveness of genius, from the ridicule which his published lucubrations would be sure to provoke

"And back recoiled, he knew not why, Even at the sound himself had made."

That he judged erroneously in some particulars, may be fully admitted; and that whimsical and eccentric no

tions are to be found mingled in strange confusion with his most felicitous thoughts and conjectures, is undoubtedly true. Nor can this surprise us. On the contrary, it is just what might be expected. Dr. Madden had more of Democritus than of Heraclitus in his composition. He was the laughing philosopher, who blended pleasantries with his wisdom; and could at one time be as sportive and volatile, as he was, at another, erudite and profound. But, that he should have been right in so many particulars; that the then future course of history in Turkey, Russia, France, and England, should have been by him, in its leading features, so clearly foreseen; that he should have intimated, with an emphatic distinctness, terrible convulsions in France, at a time accurately synchronising with the French revolution; and that very change in the system of the papacy which is now being realised, as far as circumstances will permit of it, by Pius the Ninth-all this, surely, indicates not only a very profound knowledge of human nature, and a very extensive acquaintance with public affairs, but what is, perhaps, rarer still, a healthy action of all the faculties, unperturbed and unclouded by faction or prejudice, and a calm serenity of contemplative observation and reflection,

"Above the arrows, shouts, and fears of men,"

of which we know no more signal example.

It is not a little curious, that while he speculated so freely respecting every other country, he has no anticipations respecting his own, in which he was, at the same time, strenuously labouring to lay the foundations of future prosperity? Was it that Ireland then, as now, presented a problem to the politician and the philosopher, the solution of which was not easy? It certainly did exhibit an aspect from which it would have been very difficult to divine the future. Liberty secured, and the constitution preserved, by the slavery of a nation, and the triumph of a faction; the penal laws in full force; a whole people prostrate; a privileged few ascendant, and this ascendancy party contented to be mocked by the forms of constitutional government,

and exulting in a species of legislative bondage! Who could tell what the end was to be? Who could declare what would become of this fantastic structure, when the inert masses on which it was built should become instinct with motion and life-when the breath of the agitator should summon into activity the slumbering energies that had so long been spell-bound? Who could then foresee distinctly what would now seem such an inevitable result? And if that end was visible to Dr. Madden's mental ken, the time was not propitious for any such disclosure of his views as would have alarmed the jealousy of our rulers; who would fain keep this country in as great subjection to England, as the Popish were to the Protestant party in Ireland. The then recent examples of Swift and Molyneux, afforded but lit

tle encouragement to any one who might be disposed to speculate upon his country's independence. And he, therefore, wisely contented himself with doing what he could, by aiding, both with his purse and his personal influence, in every project by which Ireland might be advanced in social and intellectual improvement-while he indulged the bent of his genius, as the reader has already seen, in those conjectures respecting foreign states, which are marked by such prophetic shrewdness; a liberty which he could not take nearer home, without alarming the fears, and provoking the jealousies, of many amongst the great and powerful; and probably drawing down upon himself a suspicion of Jacobitism, or, of being a mover and contriver of sedition, and an enemy to the settlement at the Revolution.

OUR readers are requested to take notice that, by an error of the press, pages 563 to 578, inclusive, will be found to occur twice in the present number.

WITH reference to an article in our last number, in which (at page 387) the Chevalier Bunsen is represented as taking a prominent part at the great meeting of the Evangelical Alliance in London, we are requested by the Rev. Robert Wood Kyle, who acted as one of the secretaries on that occasion, to state, that the Chevalier Bunsen, though present at the public meeting in Exeter Hall, was never recognised as a member of the Alliance, nor was he present at any of the meetings where members only were admitted.

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