try, sunk property and intelligence, far below their due level, but it has given birth to a new system of political opinions, and has also called into activity a new class of politicians. It has returned to parliament men, who never even in their dreams of ambition, would have fancied such an elevation for themselves; and it has produced a systematic and an universal co-operation between the priests and the radical leaders, to govern the country by the agency of peasant voters.-Every individual therefore who is not. altogether regardless of the tranquillity of the country, and who is not prepared to surrender its government to mob and priestly sway must now look forward with the utmost anxiety and apprehension, to the result of this new system of policy,-advocated by this new class of legislators.

CHAPTER I.

IRELAND AS IT IS UNDER LORD MULGRAVE.

The revolutionary opinions now so prevalent in Ireland, and the agitation which has been so assiduously kept up to carry them into operation, are chiefly attributable to the compromising policy of the whig government. It is true that the seeds of them were long since sown, but Lord Mulgrave's government has, in a most eminent degree, caused them to bloom and blossom forth in full and rank exuberance. Let us now examine how far the practical results of his administration have atoned for the disorganizing and dangerous views of radical and priestly legislation, which his policy has, in so eminent a degree called into life and activity, and let us see how far it has contributed to tranquillize Ireland, and to consolidate the union between the countries, by rendering the people happy, obedient to the law and attached to England, and its unparallaled constitution.

It was, some time back, the fashion of the radical press, to boast of the tranquillity which Lord Mulgrave's government had effected in Ireland; but the daily accounts that come up from the country, of outrage and of murder, have rendered the Mulgrave tranquillity a scoff, and a by-word of derision. At no

period within the recollection of the writer, have revolutionary principles been so prevalent, and so openly avowed; at no period was hostility to England so sedulously inculcated; and at no period did the country exhibit so frightful an aspect of disorganization, of lawlessness, and of crime. When, therefore, we

effected by Lord Mul

examine the boasted tranquillity, grave we shall find that he has not only rendered the country far more turbulent than it was before, but that turbulence has even assumed a far more formidable character. There may have been times of greater actual crime, the prisons may have been more crowded, and the criminal calendar more loaded, but there never was a period of such systematic intimidation, and of crime. Opposition to the law not only prevails throughout the country, but that opposition is regularly organ ized into a system, a fact even admitted by himself.

Every effort is made, on the part of the government, to conceal the great extent of the enormities actually committed; and Mr. O'Connell and the priests, now that the castle seems to be under their dominion, endeavour to preserve the semblance of a hollow and treacherous tranquillity, to hold the peasant as the slip holds the blood-hound, till it is time to loose him at his preybut their efforts are in vain, the excitement which both parties feel it essential to keep up, for the attainment of their respective objects, defies even the semblance of tranquillity; and the frightful scenes of outrage and of murder, with which the press daily teems, are as the showers of ashes from the crater which proclaims the fire that rages within, and which if providence prevent not, may herald the overwhelming eruption that is to follow.

Even in the very capital of the kingdom, murder has been committed in the public streets and in the open day --houses are broken into before night fall, their furniture smashed to pieces, and their inmates brutally assaulted. The operative dietates the law to his employer, and a combined and formidable system of intimidation is the present order of things, both in the city and in the country. If a tradesman works below a certain priceif the master should employ a workman whom the combinators do not sanction, violence, perhaps murder; is the result; the master is controlled and intimidated by those to whom he gives bread, and the operative is not allowed to follow his occupation, according to his own estimate of the payment he should receive-he is compelled to be idle, unless he can exact the amount of wages which the combinators have laid down. This species of combination, and intimidation, is, at the present time, infinitely more alarming, and more dangerous than ever-being as it is, connected with the general system of revolutionary movement, that is so actively kept up for ulterior purposes. It is no longer, as formerly, a combination of workmen to extort higher wages, but it is a combination connected with revolutionary principles and objects.

It seems now the policy of the agitator, seconded by the priest, in accordance with some new political arrangements of their own, to put down the combination amongst the tradesmen, that was at a former period pre-eminently excited and encouraged by Mr. O'Connell himself, and which he may again excite, under a less subservient government. It it is on the operation of the law that we should rely for the suppression of illegal associations. If the principle be once admitted, that

the law is to sleep, and that tranquillity is to be preserved by priests, and radical leaders, we then constitute these men the masters of the country; besides, it must be suspected, and it will soon be evident, that their assistance has been obtained by some degrading policy of the government, which will give them increased power, and render them more formidable disturbers, when it suits their policy.

The country never was in so deplorable a condition, as it is now, ribbon societies are more general, and more regularly organized, and violence, intimidation and murder, prevail in every part of the country.—The landlord lives in fear, and in danger, the peasant is his master; he dictates to him the steward he is to employ, the labourer he is to hire, the rent he is to charge for his land, and the tenant that is to occupy it; should any of these demands be refused, the harvest is not gathered in, or it is trampled down and destroyed; the cattle are houghed, and the haggard, the barn, perhaps the dwelling-house itself, is consumed. If a disorderly servant be dismissed, if an insolvent tenant be made to give place to another, if the landlord should look for a more advantageous letting of his ground, threats of violence and assassination are proclaimed in the most public manner, written notices are posted up, public rumour echoes the threat, and the victim selected for destruction is either publicly murdered in the open day, or his house is attacked at night, and himself, and generally his whole family, brutally beaten or butchered.

The very landlord himself has been murdered in his own field in the noon-day, in the midst of his workmen, and evidently with their privity and concurrence,