but a college with only ideal advantages, mere possibilities of influence and evangelisation,-what was that to Walpole, or to the slumbrous prosaic nation over which he ruled? A generation later, indeed, that Utopia in the Summer Islands, had it been planted, might have been of use to England; but there have been few statesmen in our island of more generous temper than that of the Jewish king, who was satisfied that there should be peace in his time. Berkeley returned in 1732 to England, his hopes over, so far as the New World was concerned, his deanery gone in the Old World, his money spent, and the cares of a growing family upon him. Had he but contented himself with pleasant Derry and his £1100 a-year, as any other philosopher would! But here our Idealist stands alone among philosophers, and in a very small minority even among men. One friend he had who understood and appreciated the man. Queen Caroline, herself advanced from Leicester Fields to the full glory of St James's, lost no time in doing what a queen could do to compensate him for his failure. But even queens in England cannot do everything they will, and it was two years before Berkeley was provided for. At the end of that time he became Bishop of Cloyne, and returned for the remainder of his active life to his native country, henceforward to employ all the powers of his intellect for its advantage, and to spend, in comparative obscurity and unceasing beneficent genial work, the latter half of his days.

Nothing can be more curious, especially at the present moment, than the incidental light thrown upon the Ireland of a century ago by the life of such a man. It would be difficult to conceive anything more unlike the Ireland which plays so large a part in the political world to-day. At that time nobody had so much as begun to think of the rights or wrongs of

the nation, though it possessed that highest of supposed advantagesan actual Parliament of its own. We have already said that in Bishop Berkeley's own character there is so much of the traditionary Irishman that it is difficult to avoid identifying him with the country in which he was born; and yet everything in his biography, as in all contemporary works, goes to prove how entirely distinct was the native race from the English colony which ruled and represented it. The Irish are not much more to Berkeley than were the Red men whom he had so longed to preach to. They occupied, it would seem, a position not dissimilar. They were savages, to whom a benevolent protecting colonist was kind, teaching them the first principles of social economy, and elementary rules of prudence and self-interest ;-and whom a bad colonist was correspondingly hard upon as upon an abject and inferior race. The schemes that were current in the island for introducing manufactures and industries of various descriptions-the great society which distributed flax-seed and lent tools, and coaxed the pitiful barbarian into helping himself, bear all the character which attend the bringing in of civilisation in the savage corners of the earth. Paddy himself, our old witty well-beloved friend, does not seem to have had any existence when Bishop Berkeley wrote the 'Querist,' or when Chesterfield set up an anxious and short-lived ViceRegality at Dublin, and Mr Prior, the "dear Tom" of Berkeley's letters, established his society. At that day he was a wild aboriginal man, no gleam of his natural genius having yet shone through his uncouth guise-as unlike the Paddy brought into knowledge (we suppose) by Miss Edgeworth, as is the factious and irrepressible Irishman of the moment. And certainly, if it were wanted to prove the beneficial action which a Protestant bishop might exercise in such a

country, no better example could be found than that of the Bishop of Cloyne. When thus settled permanently in his own island, Berkeley devoted himself to its interests with all the enthusiasm of his nature. Probably his episcopal work was not very engrossing. The year after his installation in his bishopric the 'Querist' was published in Dublin. Its object was a general exposition, not of the wrongs, but of the vices of Ireland, with many practical suggestions for their remedy, one of which was the establishment of a national bank. Industry, cleanliness, content, and that honest work which is in so many cases to the Celt as to the savage rather a curse than a blessing, are what he recommends and urges with perpetual iteration.

"Whether there ever was, is, or will be, an industrious native poor or an idle rich?" is the first question in the Querist; and on this he rings the changes with infinite variety and wealth of illustration. "Whether the bulk of our Irish natives are not kept from thriving by that cynical content in dirt and beggary which they possess to a degree beyond any other people in Christendom? Whether the creating of wants be not the likeliest way to produce industry in a people! And whether, if our peasantry were accustomed to eat beef and wear shoes, they would not be more industrious? Whether Ireland alone might not raise hemp sufficient for the British navy? Whether the upper part of this people are not truly English by blood, language, religion, manners, inclination, and interest? Whether we are not as much Englishmen as the children of old Romans born in Britain were still Romans? ... Whether, if drunken ness be a necessary evil, men may not as

well drink the growth of their country?

.. Whether there be upon earth any Christian or civilised people so beggarly, wretched, and destitute as the common Irish? ... Whether there be any country in Christendom more capable of improvement than Ireland? Whether my countrymen are not readier at finding excuses than remedies? Whether it be not a new spectacle

under the sun to behold in such a climate and such a soil, and under such a

gentle Government, so many roads untrodden, fields untilled, houses desolate, and hands unemployed? Whose fault is it if poor Ireland still continues poor?"

This last pregnant question has been handed on to us like so many of the others, and does not seem much nearer a reply now than in Bishop Berkeley's day. But it is curious to see this perennial question approached from the side of national compunction and a desire to mend. To think that neither a national bank, nor the distribution of flax and hemp seed, nor the promotion of manufactures in general, should have brought any cure to the distracted country, would probably have much perplexed the ardent philosopher, thus reasoning with his own people with all the heat and vehemence of an anxiety bordering on despair. Some time later he treated the same subject in a still more remarkable and individual way, addressing, under the title of A Word to the West,' an eloquent remonstrance and exhortation to the Catholic priests of Ireland. Among all the remarkable productions of his genius there is none more remarkable than this. Indeed, Berkeley's fame as a philosopher has but obscured the singular exertions in the most practical of all fields of public labour which would of themselves have distinguished any other man. The way in which he addresses "your reverences," with a dignified respect and full acknowledgment of their influence, has been but too seldom emulated in Ireland. We are told in his biography that the priests returned "their sincere and hearty thanks to the worthy author" in the 'Dublin Journal,' "assuring him that they were determined to comply with every particular recommended in his address to the best of their power." The kind of advice thus given by the Protestant Bishop, in his acknowledged eminence as at once a sage of the highest reputation and a man

experienced in the world, to the homely priests of a country a thousand times poorer and more wretched then than it is now, will be seen from the following extracts:

"Be not startled, reverend sirs," he begins, "to find yourselves addressed by one of a different communion. We are indeed (to our shame be it spoken) more inclined to hate for those articles wherein we differ, than to love one ano. ther for those wherein we agree. But if we cannot extinguish, let us at least suspend our animosities; and, forget ting our religious feuds, consider ourselves in the amiable light of countrymen and neighbours. Why should disputes about faith interrupt the duties of civil life? or the different roads we take to heaven prevent our taking the same steps on earth? Do we not inhabit the same spot of ground, breathe the same air, and live under the same government? Why, then, should we not conspire in one to promote the common good of our country? We are all agreed about the usefulness of meat, drink, and clothes; and, without doubt, we all sincerely wish our poor neighbours were better supplied with them. Providence and nature have done their part: no country is better qualified to furnish the necessaries of life, and yet no people are worse provided.

Whether it be from the heaviness of the climate, or from the Spanish and Scythian blood that runs in their veins, or whatever else may be the cause, there still remains in the natives of this island a remarkable antipathy to labour. You, gentlemen, can alone conquer this innate hereditary sloth. Do you then, as you love your country, exert yourselves.

"The house of an Irish peasant is the cave of poverty-within you see a pot and a little straw; without, a heap of children tumbling on the dunghill. Their fields and gardens are a lively counterpart of Solomon's description in the Proverbs. . . In every road the ragged ensigns of poverty are displayed. You often meet caravans of poor, whole families in a drove, without clothes to cover or bread to feed them, both which might be easily procured by mo derate labour. They are encouraged in this vagabond life by the miserable hospitality they meet with in every cottage, whose inhabitants expect the same

kind reception in their turn when they become beggars, begging being the last refuge of these improvident creatures. . . . The Scythians were noted for wandering, and the Spaniards for sloth and

pride. Our Irish are behind neither of these nations, from which they descend,. in their respective characteristics. 'Better is he that laboureth and aboundeth in all things than he that boasteth himself and wanteth bread,' saith the son of Sirach, but so saith not the Irishman. In my own family, a kitchen - wench refused to carry out cinders because she was descended from an old Irish stock.... At the same time, these proud people are more destitute than savages and more abject than negroes. . Having long observed and bewailed this wretched state of my countrymen, and the insufficiency of several methods set on foot to reclaim them, I have recourse to your reverences as the dernier resort.

...

Raise your voices, reverend sirs, exert your influence, show your authority over the multitude, by urging them to the practice of an honest industry, a duty necessary to all and required in all, whether Protestants or Roman Catholics, whether Christians, Jews, or Pagans.

When so many circumstances provoke and animate your people to labour, when their private wants and the necessities of the public, when the laws, the magistrates, and the very country calls upon them, you cannot think it becomes you alone to be silent. or hindmost in every project for promoting the public good. Why should you, whose influence is greatest, be the least active? Why should you, whose words are most likely to prevail, say least in the common cause?

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Perhaps it will be said, the discouragements attending those of your communion are a bar against all endeavours for exciting them to a laudable industry. To this it may be answered that, admitting these considerations do in some measure damp industry and ambition in persons of a certain rank, yet they can be no let to the industry of poor people, or supply an argument against endeavouring to procure meat, drink, and clothes. It will be alleged in excuse for this idleness, that the country-people want encouragement to labour, as not having a property in the lands. There is small encouragement, say you, for them to build or plant upon another's land, wherein they have only a temporary interest.

To which I answer, that life.

itself is but temporary; that all tenures are not of the same kind; that the case of our English and the original Irish is equal in this respect; and that the true aborigines or natural Irish are noted for want of industry in improving even on their own lands, whereof they have both possession and property. ... A tight house, warm apparel, and wholesome food, are sufficient motives to labour. If all had them we should be a flourishing nation.

“But admitting even, for the various reasons above alleged, that it is impossible for our cottagers to be rich, yet it is certain they may be clean. Now, bring them to be cleanly and your work is half done. A little washing, scrubbing, and rubbing bestowed on their persons and houses, would introduce a sort of industry, and industry in one kind is apt to beget it in another. Indolence in dirt is a terrible symptom, which shows itself in our lower Irish more perhaps than in any people on this side the Cape of Good Hope. I will venture to add, that, look through out the kingdom, and you shall not find a clean house, inhabited by cleanly people, and yet wanting necessaries. That same spirit of industry that keeps folk clean being sufficient to keep them also in food and raiment.

"If you have any regard (as is not to be doubted) either for the souls or bodies of your people, or even for your own interest or credit, you cannot fail to inveigh against this crying sin of your country.... Were this but done heartily-would you but be instant in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort,' such is the ascendant you have gained over the people, that we might soon expect to see the good fruits thereof.... It stands upon you to act with vigour in this cause, and shake off the shackles of sloth from your countrymen, the rather because there be some who surmise that yourselves have put them on. Right or wrong, men will be apt to judge of your doctrines by their fruits. It will reflect small honour on their teachers if, instead of honesty and industry, those of your communion are peculiarly distinguished by the contrary qualities, or if the nation converted by the great and glorious St Patrick should, above all other nations, be stigmatised and marked out as good for nothing. . . . Many suspect your religion to be the cause of that notorious idleness which prevails so generally among the natives of this

To

island, as if the Roman Catholic faith was inconsistent with an honest diligence in a man's calling. But whoever considers the great spirit of industry that reigns in Flanders and France, and even beyond the Alps, must acknowledge this to be a groundless suspicion. In Piedmont and Genoa, in the Milanese and the Venetian States, and indeed throughout all Lombardy, how well is the soil cultivated, and what manufactories of silk, velvet, paper, and other commodities flourish! which I might add, that the person whose authority will be of the greatest weight with you, even the Pope himself, is at this day endeavouring to put new life into the trade and manufactures of his country. Though I am in no secret of the Court of Rome, yet I will venture to affirm, that neither Pope nor Cardinals will be pleased to hear that those of their communion are distinguished above all others by sloth, dirt, and beggary; or be displeased at your endeavouring to rescue them from the reproach of such an infamous distinction.'

It is unnecessary to apologise for quoting so largely from this extraordinary appeal at a moment when Ireland and its affairs are again in the ascendant, and when so graphic a picture of its condition a hundred years ago, and the relations then existing between the priesthood and people, is thus presented before us. The Bishop dwells upon these relations with the most unhesitating distinctness. He has no doubt of the power of "your reverences" to effect what reformation they please in the race so dutifully subject to them. Perhaps so strange an address was never written by a dignified ecclesiastic in one Church to the priesthood of another. candour and honesty and generous meaning seem, if we may trust the biographer of Berkeley, to have been understood and appreciated by the body to whom it was addressed. They are said to have acknowledged in the 'Dublin Journal' that "in every page it contained a proof of the author's extensive charity; his views are only towards the public good; the means

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he provideth are easily complied with; and his manner of treating persons in their circumstances so very singular, that they plainly show the good man, the polite gentleman, and the true patriot." How far these sentiments came from the heart it is of course impossible to tell, or whether there might not be some among their reverences who found the heretic Bishop's advice impertinent and uncalled for; but nevertheless there it is, as curious a memorial of the age and the man as could well be found. Notwithstanding Berkeley's philosophical understanding, his liberal mind and friendly ways of thinking, and experience of the world, it is evident that he looked upon the penal laws respecting Roman Catholics as a matter of course, unalterable, and founded on everlasting justice; just as he speaks with imperturbable calm, and not the slightest appearance even of a doubt as to the righteousness of the arrangement, about the slaves in the plantations. These simplest rules of natural justice did not, it is evident, in the smallest degree affect a mind so open, so generous, so full of regard for his fellow-creatures. This is one of the mysteries of humanity which it is the most hard to elucidate. We are far from taking up the extreme side of those great questions, or of going wild, for instance, with rapture on that most doubtful and insoluble problem of negro emancipation, the practical difficulties of which are immense. As a question of expediency or even possibility, it is perhaps as far from solution as ever it was; but in theory there no longer remains a doubt on the subject. This, however, it is clear had never entered Berkeley's mind. A hundred years is no such great matter in the world's history; but all the material changes that have been effected since then reckon small enough in comparison with the revolution which has been wrought in all our

estimates of things and modes of thought. Berkeley takes slavery for granted with the utmost calm, just as he takes it for granted that it is in the natural order of things that a priesthood, to whose influence he appeals as supreme over a whole nation, should be "obnoxious to the laws," and the communion in general lie under the "discouragements" to which he alludes so placidly. And yet he could not take for granted the existence of a stool or a table! What are our vulgar novelties of gas and penny-post, and the rest of our modern stock-in-trade, in comparison with the extraordinary revolution of ideas which has placed, in this respect at least, by mere dint of time, the mass of men who never think at all, on a height unattainable by one of the greatest thinkers and best men of his age!

The last great public undertaking of Bishop Berkeley's life has a whimsical aspect, which in fact it derives (according to the strictest rules of his own philosophy) from our eyes alone, being in its nature and effect upon the time a very serious matter of the gravest importance to the world. This was the discovery and promulgation of tar-water-grand sovereign panacea for every evil under heaven. The curious enthusiasm of the man's nature, and scorn of all secondary restraints such as the fear of ridicule, or the blame of interfering with the business of others-comes out most distinctly in the fervour and persistence with which he thrusts his nauseous draught down the world's throat. It cured himself, he tells us, of "a nervous cholic" which "rendered his life a burden to him;” upon which he began, with his natural energy and hopefulness, to try it upon his neighbours; and having worked a variety of cures in Cloyne, immediately judged it his duty to make known the marvel to his country and mankind in general. He addressed himself to this sub