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ten or spoken by Irishmen. The judgment, therefore, thus passed on his description amounts to this-one Irishman declares that another knows nothing of Ireland. As to reasoning from facts, the world, we imagine, will think with us, that an Englishman or Scotchman is as capable of doing it as an Irishman. Our own experience enables us to say, that it is no pleasant matter being led in this manner by one Irishman into the fire of another; and that it is doubtful whether any thing can be safely be lieved which Irishmen say of their country.

But the Irishmen who describe their country, do not content themselves with attacking the descriptions of each other, through the immolation of the English and Scotch writers who unwarily repeat what they promulgate. They assail each other, front to front, in the most murderous manner possible. In the last Session of Parliament the state of Ireland was brought under discussion, and a number of the most respectable Irish members of all parties declared that a large part of the population was involved in extreme penury and suffering. Mr G. R. Dawson-what an incomprehensible person he is!-boldly, and with his wonted vehemence, denied the truth of this, and asserted, that the people were in reasonably comfortable circumstances, and had nothing worthy of notice to complain of. Scarcely any thing is stated of Ireland by one Irishman, which is not contradicted by another; and almost every Irishman who describes its condition, declares, that his description is the only true and perfect one; and that all others are worthless fictions. If nothing is to be believed of Ireland, save what Irish writers and orators concur in, nothing more is known of its actual condition at this moment, than is known of the North Pole. The misfortune is, that these writers and orators, according to their own evidence, eternally substitute one error or defect for another; their labours lead us only to this conclusion, that the state of Ireland is a thing wholly above description.

Matters, we regret to say, are much the same with the Englishmen who describe England. During the last Session of Parliament, the prices of corn were notoriously below remune

rating ones, and the farmers complained loudly of loss and suffering: the Legislature was assured, by evidence on petition, that the wool-growers, the shipowners, the silk manufacturers, the glove manufacturers, those employed in the production of lead, kelp, &c. &c. were enduring great losses and privations, and that pauperism prevailed in many quarters to a la mentable extent. Nevertheless, Ministers, in the King's speech, indulged in congratulations on the general prosperity of the country: it required innumerable readings of the speech to convince us that this was reality. The shipowners and silk manufacturers declared to the House of Commons, that they were distressed; Mr Huskisson, Mr Grant, Mr Goulburn, and other members, declared to it that they were in great prosperity. At this moment, large portions of the community complain that they are in grievous suffering, while the Treasury papers protest, that not only the community in general, but these very portions of it, are in the most prosperous condition. The government scribes have long enjoyed notoriety of a particular kind, and their present exploits far surpass all their former ones. If a body of men be brought to the verge of bankruptcy, one of these creatures, at the nod of Mr Goulburn, Mr Vesey Fitzgerald, or any other master, exhibits his brazen front, and swears before heaven and earth, that they are in the most flourishing circumstances. The most opposite descriptions are given of almost every thing; even conflicting conclusions are drawn from such official documents, as might be expected to preclude by their nature all diversity of opinion. If we seek information touching the circumstances and character of any division of society-the operation of any lawsystem or institution-the feelings and manners of the population-in a word, any matter, one set of describers gives us an elaborate statement, which another set protests is a mass of falsehood. We cannot find sufficient unanimity on any subject to justify evidence; and we are almost compelled to exclaim-facts have vanished from the world, and England has become to its own inhabitants an unknown country!

What may be properly called the Travels of the Gentlemen of the Press,

are of a nature to inspire inveterate incredulity touching the literary la bours of travellers. We are always much enraptured when we see a London newspaper announce, that it is dispatching" a Gentleman" to some foreign land, to report on passing events, or on a tour through the English counties, to describe their condition. Our rapture flows, not from the hope of information, for we resolve to disbelieve all that the "Gentleman" may write; but from the certainty that a plentiful and delicious feast of amusement is about to be placed before us. If a Gentleman of the Press traveller fall infinitely below all others in furnishing correct information, he far surpasses them in amusing his readers. The most witty and humorous novel-writer can scarcely bear comparison with him, on the score of creating laughter. He is an animal, who from nature or avocation-we suspect the latter cannot see any thing as it is, or give to the most manageable lie the air of probability. When we say that he makes the truth appear to be an impossibility, we need not say what he makes of fable. The easy toil and unlimited leisure of the voluntary traveller are not his; the iron chains of a master bind him to time and quantity of labour; by a certain packét or post, he must transmit a certain number of sheets; and these sheets must be filled with "news"-with matter which will be comprehended and relished, not only by the general readers of newspapers, but by the readers of the particular paper which employs him. Whether he see or not, he must describe; whether he know any thing or not, he must supply information; and his description and information must be of a particular kind, though they be directly the reverse of what he sees and knows to be the reality.

If the Gentleman of the Press be in a foreign country, the direful necessity which rests upon him compels him to profess to do what it is impossible for any human being to do. A stranger to the language, and destitute of sources of information, he shuts himself up in his lodging, and, in his offhand task-work manner, describes the force and operations of distant armies, the feelings and conduct of all classes of the people, and the most secret intentions and measures of the govern

ment, with minuteness and confidence perfectly amazing. His events, and anecdotes, and sketches of character, far excel any thing that romance-writers have hitherto ventured to trace. He gives such horrible accounts of this ruler or that-of one party or another-that his pot-house believers fancy, as they read them, their porter tastes of blood, and their tobaccosmoke smells of gunpowder. The unhappy Cockney lights upon them at the eating-house during dinner, and his visage assumes a lachrymose expression absolutely heart-breaking. He cannot finish his meal; he stands aghast at the occasional clatter of plates, fearing it proceeds from the chains of some tyrant; and he broods over the awful news for the rest of the day, until he utterly wastes the materials on which his calling employs him. The newspaper gives the "Gentleman's" marvellous narrative-the next packet brings a complete official refutation of it, but nevertheless he heroically writes on. The war which the course of events makes on him renders him furious; and then his ravings, diatribes, denunciations, predictions, and delineations, become to all but his petrified Cockney readers ludicrous beyond conception. At the termination of his adventures abroad, actual occurrences complete the falsification of every thing he has written.

If the Gentleman of the Press make a tour in England, he lands, perhaps, from a steam-vessel in the dusk of the evening at some seaport, which he leaves by the six o'clock coach the next morning. He is an utter stranger in the place, and he knows nothing of shipping or mercantile affairs; nevertheless, by some method comprehended in the arcana of the Press, he in this single night becomes better acquainted with the place than its oldest inhabitant. He sends to his paper a flaming account, shewing that shipowners are in circumstances precisely the reverse of what they state, and proving that they are ignorant of their own affairs, and incapable of managing their own business. Having demonstrated them to be liars and dolts, he oracularly settles an intricate question of state policy, by promulgating that prohibition is a part of free trade. He then describes the state of trade, the peculiarities of the place, and the character of its inhabi

tants as authoritatively as though he possessed some knowledge respecting

them.

The most experienced farmer has to walk through his own fields again and again before he can form an estimate of what they will producé; and after the most careful examination, his estimate is frequently an erroneous one. The Gentleman of the Press is an extremely different person. Riding on the coach-top at the rate of eight or ten miles an hour, and having probably never before seen a field of corn, he perceives at a glance how much every acre will yield to a bushel, not only in the part through which he passes, but throughout the country. Passing in this manner through some half-dozen villages, he is enabled to perceive, without asking a question, the precise state of pauperism in the whole district; he sees clearly that the complaints of landlords and farmers, touching their inability to supply their labourers with employment, are utterly groundless. Against such an authority the evidence of parish-books is of course worthless. The state of the hedges, farmsteads, and land, demonstrates to him that the farmers are in great prosperity, and that their allegations to the contrary are wholly false. From the conversation of two fellow-travellers he discovers the peculiar disposition and characteristics of the inhabitants of the whole shire; by seeing at intervals, at a distance of some hundreds of yards, a few straggling labourers, he is enabled to describe accurately the bodily size and strength of the whole population; and in glancing at the mode of manage ment followed in a field or two, he is made intimately acquainted with the mode followed throughout England. He finds that the landowners are utter strangers to their own interests, and that the farmers are totally ignorant of their own business. Then the inventions and schemes he puts forth in the way of improvement are positively incredible. The solemn, pompous, oracular, dictatorial tone in which he gives his absurdities is in perfect keeping with them, and to the lovers of merriment he furnishes the most delicious treat imaginable.

When two newspapers publish accounts of the same place at the same time from their "correspondents," the "Gentlemen" operate on each other

in an excessively unlucky manner. A few weeks ago, the "correspondent" of one of the London morning papers represented the silk trade at Manchester to be in the most flourishing state. This took place just after the London silk manufacturers had held their public meeting; and the "correspondent" protested that their complaints of stagnation were utterly false, and that the trade in general was brisk in the highest degree. This supernaturally gifted person, who had no connexion whatever with the silk trade, and who dated himself at Manchester, was far better acquainted with the state of the trade in London, Macclesfield, Congleton, &c., than the manufacturers resident in these places. A week or ten days afterwards, through some unhappy discovery, the same "correspondent" notified in his paper that at Manchester the silk trade was very heavy, the manufacturers gave out a greatly diminished quantity of work, and the workmen were only partially employed. Here was a torturing confession. Almost on the same day the Manchester "correspondent" of another London morning paper announced the silk trade to be so amazingly prosperous at Manchester, that the manufacturers were sending to all parts of the country in search of additional hands. Correspondent" here smote and exposed "correspondent" in a way truly anti-christian. In the following week the first-named "correspondent" proclaimed that the silk weavers had struck, because their masters sought to reduce wages. This was a deadly stab in the very vitals of his rival. The heads of the press, we suspect, then discovered that these proceedings, so amusing and edifying to the public, were endamaging their reputation, and placing the secrets of the press in danger of exposure; and in consequence they put an end to them. We suspect this, because both the "correspondents" were afterwards wholly silent touching the Silk Trade in their accounts of Manchester.

How barbarously have the Irish "correspondents" of the newspapers dealt with each other!" Your accounts," says one of them to his paper, meaning thereby the accounts written by himself," have made here a deep impression-they are acknowledged to be the only true ones-the stuff published in the other papers is really

abominable." Then the "correspondent" of another paper cuts up these accounts in the most savage manner, and protests that the reverse of them is the truth. Each rails against the newspapers for imposing those falsehoods on the public, which, amidst them, they fabricate.

What we have said, makes us read the published descriptions of both foreign countries and our own with a bias to disbelieve every thing. We frequently read with much pleasure; we sometimes think if it be invention it is very pardonable; we are anxious to be informed, but still our incredulity is unconquered. This incredulity towards the generality of such descriptions makes us attach the greater value to the few, on the fidelity of which we know we can rely. From one of the latter we are about to make some extracts. A gentleman of great experience and respectability in the mercantile world, an active and accurate observer, and in whom much reading is combined with extensive knowledge of men and things, lately visited the United States of America; and his journal has been placed in our hands, with permission to transcribe any part of it that may be calculated to interest our readers. It was never intended for publication, and of course it was not written to serve the author's interests or ambition, or to benefit this party or that party: it is an unvarnished statement of what he saw and heard. We commence our extracts without farther preface.

"New York, June 16th, 1828. The steam-boats or ferries across the river are well managed. Steam-boats are the glory and comfort of this country, and they display much that might be imitated in England. They come up to floating wharfs at all times, the exact height of the vessel, so that children and cattle go in and out with perfect ease and safety. They are double boats, the paddles working between, so that the great commotion so dangerous in the Thames is avoided. At one ferry they are obliged to give you a good boat in five minutes for two cents, or one penny; but the steamboats charge four cents or twopence, * and they arrive so frequently, that you need never wait five minutes. How different is all this from the danger to person and baggage, and the exactions and insults of the watermen met with on the Thames!"

The authorities of the City of London might here, we conceive, draw some useful instruction from Jonathan.

"In a steam-boat, I had had some conversation with a decent-looking man, who, with five others, buys cattle in Ohio for the New York market. He had then 500 on the road; I saw them, and they were very fine cattle, in both shape and condition. They travel 600 miles in sixty days, and lose about 100 lbs. in weight each on the journey. They cost four dollars per 112lbs. in Ohio, and sell for from seven to seven and one-half dollars in New York; thus leaving a very good profit. The consumption of New York is from 400 to 500 head of cattle, and 500 to 600 of sheep per week. Were it not for Ohio, the market would be an ill-supplied and dear one; in the last fall meat was twelve to thirteen dollars the cwt. The butchers bleed their cattle almost to death previously to slaughtering; as the people like their meat as white in cooking as possible. My informant thinks that the Ohio cattle will not go down the Welland canal to Montreal, as they cannot bear shipboard."

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Notwithstanding that the trade of New York is very dull, the revenue arising from the customs for the first quarter of 1828, is 4,188,935 dollars. All the newspapers are advertising for mechanics, weavers, labourers, &c. People here say, that while England is receiving the worthless emigrants of Ireland, they (the Americans) are receiving a valuable mass of English emigrants, driven from home by the usurpations of the Irish ones. This I fear is too true; 140 vessels arrived at New York during the month of May, and they brought 4100 passengers."

Jonathan is in the right, and he has great cause to rejoice that things are in such a lamentable state in this country. The declaration made during the last Session of Parliament by Mr G. R. Dawson, that the Irish labourers did not deprive the English ones of employment, and throw them on their parishes, displayed ignorance, which no one could have expected to find in even the humblest government office. The lower orders in London are Irish to a very large extent; and the case is the same in many other large places. We see it announced, that one town or another contains 20,000 or 40,000 Irish inhabitants, which, not many

years ago, scarcely contained one. It cannot be doubted that there are some hundreds of thousands of Irish of both sexes permanently established in England and Scotland. Now, did they bring their employment with them from Ireland, or do they merely do what the English would not do? The reply must necessarily be in the negative; and of course the only conclusion before us is, they deprive the English labourers of employment, and compel them to apply for parish relief, and to emigrate. The matter is above doubt. In late years, Irish labourers have spread themselves throughout Eng land, and have established themselves in great numbers in every place of magnitude; in the same time, vast numbers of English ones have been compelled to emigrate or receive parish relief from obvious inability to procure employment. Those who, in the teeth of this, will maintain what Mr Dawson asserted, must be much deficient in either intellect or honesty. Even the Irish who merely come for hay time and harvest, and then return to their own country, add much to pauperism in England. The English labourer was wont, by obtaining good wages for himself and employment for his wife, to provide in these seasons what would enable his insufficient winter earnings to support his family. The Irish labourers, by keeping down wages, and preventing his wife if not himself from being employed, disable him from doing this; and in consequence, in winter, when work is scarce and wages are bad, he is constrained to have parish relief.

The influx of Irish labourers brings various grievous evils on England. We willingly admit, that the people of Ireland possess many fine qualities, but, nevertheless, we must believe our own eyes and ears; and, without pretending to speak of those who remain in Ireland, we must say, that the por

tion of them who visit this country possess many evil qualities as well as good ones. One lamentable characteristic of the lower Irish, male and female, is, a residence in England will not improve them. They bring with them a ponderous load of barbarism and vice; and neither good example, nor good wages, nor any thing else, can induce them to throw it from their shoulders. Those who have been long established in and near London are about as filthy, ragged, and vicious, as they were when they left their native island. It is a curious illustration of human nature, that Irish vices have, even in our courts of justice, been, by their impudence and invincibility, almost converted into virtues. If English labourers are brought before the sagacious magistrates of London for being drunk in the streets, and engaging in savage rows, these magistrates know not how to reprobate and punish them sufficiently; but if Irish ones appear on a similar charge, it is made matter of amusement, and almost treated as though they had an exclusive privilege to indulge in such conduct.* Drunkenness is condemned in the English, as an odious and destructive vice; in the Irish, it is only laughed at as a half-innocent, half-laudable love of whisky.

Not only does this influx of Irish labourers injure the body of English ones most grievously in their general circumstances, but it establishes among them examples of the worst description. It converts our mobs to a great extent into Irish ones, and causes the lower orders in our large places to consist in a great mea sure of beings distinguished for dirt, rags, ignorance, and bad morals. It tends powerfully to give us a labouring population of Catholics. If it continue to be what it has for some time been, it must produce a deplorable change in the general circumstances

The manner in which police cases are often reported in some of the London newspapers is highly disgraceful to the country. Justice to the public and the individual demands that they should be reported with strict accuracy and proper decorum. Instead of this, a large part of the reports is frequently pure fiction. The reporter puts speeches into the mouths of those who appear before the magistrate which they never utter; and he does this to cover them with ridicule, for the amusement of the readers of his paper. This is not the worst. He, in his ribaldry, holds up good feelings to contempt, and justifies, or even lauds the worst vices, by making heroes and martyrs of the profligate. This is more especially his conduct in regard to the Irish. No matter what shameful deeds they may be charged with, he turns it into burlesque, and intimates, that it is mere harmless eccentricity.

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