aside, procured his enlargement; which took place in grand procession, and with every circumstance which could mark his triumph over the government. Numerous were now the accessions to repeal. Demonstration after demonstration took place, which marked the progress which it was making in the public mind. Many believed, that by no stretch of power, could the career of the demagogue now be arrested; and when, in almost regal state, he took his place in the Rotundo, to receive the declarations and addresses of the deputations who came from various parts of the country, to tender to him their congratulation and confidence-we had almost said their homage and allegiance— the scene was one of the most imposing that could be imagined, and might well be called the very apotheosis of agitation.

It was while he was in prison that poor Smith O'Brien declared himself an out-and-out repealer. The delight of the imprisoned Agitator at this accession, was quite unbounded.

"On being visited by Smith O'Brien (who had joined the Repealers at the commencement of the prosecutions), he took him by both hands, saying, 'I think it was Providence that raised you up to us in our need; I look on your adhesion as indicative of what Providence will yet do for us.'

"Mr. O'Brien's junction at this crisis was of very great value to the Repeal cause. O'Connell said that 'he did the best thing at the best time.'"

2

Alas, poor man! what does he himself now think of the course upon which he then adventured? We shall not hazard a conjecture. May God give him the grace of repentance, and render him a fitting subject for a degree of clemency for which, if he be not indeed demented, and be guilty of the high crime for which he stands committed, he can have very little claim!

But he only attempted to carry out into act, the lessons which he learned from precept and example. As to the moral force theory, he, as well as every other man who was not positively a simpleton, knew that it was a great moral humbug-a masque, behind which the batteries of treason were to be erected, and concealed

carefully, until the time came, when they might be opened with effect upon hated enemies. Meanwhile money was to be gathered in-measure after measure was to be extorted from government, by which, the loyal and peaceable portion of the community were to be discouraged, and the seditious increased and strengthened; an organisation was to be perfected, by which a unity of action would be given to the masses-by which their powers of mischief would be prodigiously augmented; and then, let any accident, such as foreign war, internal distraction, financial derangement, or commercial distress,embarrass England, and it would soon be seen how rapidly the moral would develop into physical force; how soon petition and remonstrance would be superseded by the musket and the pike: and how rapidly the barricades would be formed, and the forces arrayed; who would attempt, at least, by strife of arms, and at the cannon's mouth, to win, what they would call "Justice for Ireland."

At present, the evil has been arrested. The outbreak of rebellion, which was premature, and therefore feeble, has, for the present, been suppressed; but let no one suppose that the danger is overpassed. Of many parts of Ulster, and of most parts of Munster and of Connaught, it may, with perfect truth, be said,

"Incedis per ignes, suppositos cineri doloso."

How long is this state of things to last? The government have now the power of putting down treason and sedition with a high hand; and if they neglect to avail themselves of their opportunity, or, by mistaken measures, show that they do not know the quarter in which the danger chiefly lies, not only will present dangers be greatly augmented, but unborn ages may have to deplore their folly or their infatuation.

We wish not to give utterance to a single sentence by which the cases of the unhappy men who are still to be tried for their offences, might be prejudged. But of the measures which should follow their acquital or conviction, if the Union is to be preserved— that is, if the empire is not to be dismembered-we may, briefly, be permitted to put on record our deliberate convictions.

All agitation for a Repeal of the Union should be made highly penal. We say not how this should be done : that, it is the province of the legal functionaries to determine. But stringent measures should be taken to guarantee the inviolability of the Act of Legislative Union; and any agitation which contemplated its dissolution should be regarded with the same vindictive sternness as would be exhibited towards those who sought, by force or fraud, the overthrow of the monarchy, or the deposition of the queen.

This, it will be said, would be a strong measure. Granted. But is it or is it not, one which the case requires? Will any lesser measure be sufficient to take the country out of the chronic agitation by which it is periodically convulsed; and to make a preparation for those healing processes by which it might be rendered peaceful and prosperous, contented and happy in itself, and a blessing, instead of a curse, to the empire? Is there any other mode by which it is possible to provide against the severance of Great Britain and Ireland?

We will not here stop to argue with the babblers, who contemplate Repeal as a final measure, by which the union of the countries would be consolidated, while the union of the legislatures would be divided. If he be not an idiot or a driveller who entertains such a chimera, he must be worse. Is it entertained by any of her majesty's ministers? Is it entertained by any one of the least personal consideration in either houses of parliament ? Do they not know that a divided legislature must soon lead to a divided empire? Do they not know

that if Ireland were severed from the British crown, England herself would be undone? Did not the unhappy man, Mitchel, who has been expatriated, under the recent felony act, for his offences, declare that his mission, as he called it, was not so much a Repeal of the Union, and a separation of the countries, as the destruction of the British empire? These were the words of a monomaniac, and for which he has already paid the penalty. Granted. But a monomaniac may sometimes speak God's truth; and he was wiser, in that respect, than our rulers, if they suppose that Repeal, if accomplished, would not lead to separation, and that separation would not place in most perilous jeopardy every interest and every possession of the British crown.

A word or two we had intended to say respecting the Protestant repealers. But we will suppose that they have been already sufficiently admonished by the signs of the times. It is not, surely, a season when they should associate themselves with the seditious, in demanding organic changes. For some of them we entertain great respect; and feel persuaded that they are qualified to work out, in many particulars, much good for their country.

But

we trust their own good sense, aided by reflection upon recent events, both at home and abroad, will yet, if it have not done so already, inform them that the course upon which they have adventured is both dangerous and impracticable, and so far from being the forerunner of prosperity, would but lead to distraction and anarchy, in Ireland.

To what guidance is Ireland now to be consigned? By what influence is she to be directed? Directed she must be. As well might the tottering footsteps of helpless infancy be left to struggle unaided in their embarrassed course, as the people of Ireland be abandoned in the helplessness of their ignorance, indolence, and wretchedness, to their own unassisted guidance. They have been rescued the country, thank God, has been rescued from the attempts of the republicans and revolutionists ; we have been preserved from the control of that wicked party whose declared object was confiscation, and the overthrow of all existing institutions; whose avowed instrument was terror. To whom, then, are the people of Ireland to be consigned ? Is there any class in existence-can any class be created or can any existing class be so modified as to be peculiarly adapted, from their position and influence, to spread among the people that knowledge, energy, and self-reliance which can alone raise them from their present degradation, and place them in the manly attitude of independence?

The inquiry is one which derives peculiar importance from the present juncture of our affairs. We wish distinctly to be understood as not being about to enter, in this article, into any review of the recent attempt of a few bad men to add the horrors of civil war to our other miseries. It is not while our indignation is yet strong against the traitors, still less while the penalty of their treason is awaiting them, that we could most efficiently, or most becomingly, discharge that duty. But it is notorious, that when the daring of the rebel leaders had at length approached its climax when, from within the cells of Newgate, and from the hills of Limerick and Tipperary, they called the people to arms-that then, at the eleventh hour, and not until

then, the Roman Catholic priesthood actively interposed, and added their persuasions to the sterner influences of the soldiery and constabulary, to save the people from the destruction which was awaiting them. "And now for these courtesies they must need have moneys." It is more than rumoured, that it is in contemplation of government to make large concessions to the Roman Catholic priesthood, as an acknowledgment for the past, and a retainer for future services. And it is not a little ominous in support of this rumour, that just at this juncture we should have the colonial secretary directing that the Roman Catholic prelates should take precedence next after the Protestant prelates of equal degree (a Roman Catholic archbishop, therefore, before a Protestant bishop)-and also directing that they should be addressed by the same appellations that are accorded to the prelates of the Church of England. We have, too, the home secretary speaking of the necessity of glebe-houses for the Irish parishpriests. And we have her Majesty's representative in Ireland, requesting Archbishop Murray to submit to the consideration of the Pope, the most important provisions regarding the Irish government colleges. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland puts himself in communication with the pope, not as a temporal prince, (a character to which he has just now very slight pretensions) but as a sovereign pontiff, claiming spiritual control over her Majesty's subjects in Ireland. He acknowledges him in this capacity-" As I entertain," he says, "a profound veneration for the character of the pope, and implicitly rely upon his upright judgment, it is with pleasure that I now ask your grace to submit these statutes to the consideration of his holiness." These statutes he states