wrongs, heavy to be borne and hopeless of redress-to justify popular movements partaking of a revolutionary character, or at least to excite any very warm sympathy in their behalf. We often boast of our own Revolution as based on a mere principle,-a principle contained, if not in a nut-shell, at least in a tea-cup, yet it may be more than doubted whether exactly the same history would have had to be written of the Revolution if that principle had been the sole point of issue, instead of crowning, as the apex of a pyramid, the long accumulation of wrongs and resentments of which the enumeration swells the greater part of the Declaration of Independence. We trust that we have said enough, and shown enough, to commend the cause of Irish repeal to the heartiest sympathy of every reader, whether regarding it in the theoretical point of view of a principle, or under the more practical aspect of a substantial and intolerable grievance, from which a nation claims most justly the right to be relieved. The light in which all these results of foreign rule must be regarded by the native eye, the feeling they must awaken in the native heart, it cannot need a word of ours to make more obvious or striking. Connecting themselves as they naturally do with all the traditions of the earlier atrocities of the English domination, in one unbroken chain of consistency in oppression-an oppression modifying only its forms and modes under the moulding influences of varying circumstances, yet ever essentially the same, the same in that hostile rapacity of the spirit in which it has its origin, the same in that result of national desolation in which its true nature stands revealed-they serve to give a pertinency and an uninterrupted modern application to even the worst and the oldest of the past records of English tyranny and Irish suffering. The sentiment, therefore, above spoken, the feeling -of national hostility of English rule, which tradition taught from the days when the highways were strewn with the dead green in the mouth from the grass on which perishing hunger sought to prolong life, experience confirms and renews when it points to the fact of one-third of the nation still starving on charity in our own day. Like causes, like effects-like effects, like causes. The two distant points of time become

bridged by the sad analogy--the two widely separated pages of history blend together in a sickening identity of horror. It is like the constant recurrence from time to time, throughout a long and intricate piece of music, of the same original theme that constitutes the pervading basis, the common animating idea, of the whole; take it up whenever we will, amid a vast variety of mingled sounds that peal upon the ear, we can always, alas! distinguish the same moan of starving agony, the same curse of despairing hate; the same, except that God help poor Ireland!they would almost seem to be worse in our day than ever before.

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The principal obstacle existing among us, to that earnest and cordial sympathy which we desire to stimulate, with the noble effort she is now making for the vindication of the first and simplest of a people's natural rights, is the idea that its success would be followed by the erection of a Catholic Church Establishment. The main bulk of our population being Protestant, among whom the number is not small whose primary religious passion is simply no-popery,' "-this idea arises naturally enough from the fact of the vast popular predominance of that religion in Ireland; and is stimulated to a positive degree of dread and distrust from the great zeal with which the Catholic clergy have entered into the present movement, as well among the higher ranks of its hierarchy as throughout the common mass of the parish priesthood. But every such design or desire is repudiated in the most emphatic manner. The spirit of native patriotism, involving naturally a corresponding hostility to the foreign rule, which is so deep-seated a sentiment in the Irish heart, pervades the priesthood no less strongly than any other portion of the population,—and for the best of seasons, obvious enough. Accustomed, too, as they are to habits of close intercourse and sympathy with their flocks, they could scarcely be expected to escape a close participation in a popular feeling at once so general and so strong-a course both natural and honorable, rather than justifying either censure for its own impropriety or distrust of its purity of purpose. As ministers they do not cease to be men, as priests to be patriots. And if more is needed in their defence against this prejudice

-of which the expression is frequently to be heard-it is contained in the ground on which Mr. O'Connell met the imputation in the case of an Irish bishop who was censured in the course of the debate above referred to:

"I also regret that Mr. Guinness should have thrown out censure against a revered and dignified friend of mine, the Right Rev. Dr. Feeny. He was certainly guilty of no harshness in his censure, but he thought it would have been better to have avoided it, at least as he confessedly had not read the speech of that venerated prelate. He showed his reasons in it for coming forward. He stated that he was driven to act as he had done from the poverty and distress that surrounded him, and from his knowledge that that distress was gradually and daily increasing and augmenting. He saw no hope of remedy, and no prospect save increasing absentee ism and misery; and as a Christian prelate, desirous to relieve that distress, to clothe the naked, to feed the hungry, to banish sickness, and to open the prisonhouse, by giving the means of employment to the poor by the restoration of the Irish gentry, and obliging them to spend their rents in Ireland, he felt bound to come forward for the Repeal. These were his reasons for coming forward to support and countenance the repeal agitation; and it was somewhat symptomatic of the times to see an Irish prelate presiding at such a meeting. He knows little of human nature who does not know how the gale blows when, not a feather, but a flag of that kind, is held up to show its bearing and its strength."

And so far as concerns the danger of the institution of a Catholic connection between Church and State, on the ruins of that Protestant one which it would, of course, be one of the first, as it would be one of the best, acts of an Irish parliament to destroy, Catholicism in Ireland is so strongly committed, as well as wedded, to the principle of religious freedom, for which it has so long been contending, that there is nothing to be apprehended, in this age of the world, from that ground of alarm. On this point, O'Connell's great Dublin speech furnishes two passages, so emphatic in their pledges, as well as so fine in themselves, that, notwithstanding their length, we are induced to quote them characteristic as they also are of his style of eloquence :

"I know there are objections raised against the Repeal. It is said that there would be a Popish ascendency, and that you are afraid of that ascendency taking place. But it is admitted, though the fact is endeavored to be explained variously, that the Catholics of Ireland stand in the position of having in the midst of persecution been three times restored to power; and I defy any man to tell the name of a single individual whom they persecuted in their turn. I will give up the Repeal cause if any one names a single individual who was persecuted by them [hear, hear]. How well has a modern historian said in speaking of the Irish Catholics :- They have exhibited the strange instance unknown to any people on the face of the earth-of having never been accused of persecuting a single individual. I belong to those people. I am a descendant of them. Their feelings live in me, and I pronounce their voices from the grave. I pronounce the declaration to be contemptible, the assertion that they ever shall or would persecute [cheers]. But you have another and a still stronger objection. I have been pressed with the argument, that if the Union be repcaled it would re-establish Catholic ascendency. But before I go to that I would ask, would you not have the House of Lords to protect your interests? Would not nine-tenths of the members of the House of Lords be Protestants, or I should rather say nineteen-twentieths of them? You would then have a vast Protestant majority in the House of Lords to meet any attempt made to establish Catholic ascendancy, and you would also have the strong arm of being right, and of your enemies having the wickedness of being degradingly wrong, and I know of no magic in politics like that of being right [hear, hear]. But would you have no protection in an Irish parliament? Have we in this city shown any indisposition to elect Protestants? On the contrary, we have sought them out and requested that they would consent to be put in nomination [hear, hear]. We looked for Protestants high in character and station, and we felt proud in having them elected. We offered the selection to many more Protestants than those who were kind enough to accept it; but besides, from the Protestant parts of Irewould have in any event a considerable land you would get great strength. You Protestant minority, and if any attempt was made to treat you unfairly, oh! how would not the eloquence of the honor ble and learned gentleman opposite [Alderman Butt] declaim against it. I would go far to hear his vivid eloquence burn

ing and scathing those who proclaimed liberality and afterwards violated their professions [hear and cheers]. This is the band that drew up a petition in favor of the Protestant Dissenters of England. That petition was twice passed unanimously on the private committee. It was passed unanimously in the Catholic Association, and it was afterwards carried unanimously at an aggregate meeting of Catholics held in the Clarendon-street chapel, where its adoption was proposed by a Capuchin friar. That petition was presented to Parliament with 800,000 signatures attached to it, and within three weeks after its presentation the Protestant Dissenters of England were liberated [loud cheers]. You would, I repeat, have a strong Protestant minority in Parliament, and you would also have a power ful Protestant population out of doors. But the age of persecution is gone by. Look to Belgium, where at one time the most atrocious persecutions were carried on-where the sanguinary Alva slaughtered the Protestants, and where the equally sanguinary Desonoy and Vandermerk slaughtered the Catholics with no less fury on the other side. But what is her present condition? With no more than 200,000 Protestants, out of a population of four millions, has she enacted any persecuting law, or made any religious distinctions? If there be a people on the face of the earth attached to religious observances, or absorbed in religious duties, they are the Belgians. In fact, a people more entirely devoted to religious observances than the Belgians does not exist; and yet have they injured a single Protestant? Have they destroyed any of the rights of their Protestant fellow-countrymen? No; blessed be God! they have, on the other hand, established the most perfect religious equality. In their Parliament there were four priests, and when M. Du Thieux, the Minister for Home Affairs, proposed a grant for building a Protestant place of worship, it was carried by a majority of forty to four; while three out of the four priests voted for the grant, and only one of them against it--showing, that though he had individual prejudices, they did not reflect on those who took a different view from him. Yes-the time for prejudices is gone by; and the man who wants the bayonet and the law to enforce his opinions, admits, from by-gone conclusion, that his arguments are not in themselves sufficient to enforce conviction. It is alleged, as an argument against the Repeal, that we would seek to appropriate the church revenues in a different manner from that in which they are at present ex

pended. I avow it [hear, hear]. Remember that I respect vested rights. There is no man shall, with my consen, or with the consent of the Irish people, lose one particle of that which he now enjoys. I claim but the reversion. But you may tell me that Protestantism wants that reversion for its support. Is that to be your argument, that reason, scripture, and authority, are insufficient for its support, but that it must have money to maintain its existence? I will not say a single word that could irritate the slightest religious feelings; but I will merely observe that if that be your argument, I trust I will be permitted to exult in the religion that I myself profess. You took away from my religion the money and the temporalitics; you deprived us of our churches; you prostrated our monasteries and temples; and yet religion survived. It took shelter in hovels and caverns. The wealth, the lands, and the temporalities, were taken away; but was the Catholic religion put down by it? Its hierarchy survived [hear, hear]. It has still its four archbishops and its twenty-three bishops. It has its deans, vicars-general, priests, friars, monks, and nuns in thousands. You may liken it to a column of Palmyra in the desert. Tempests howl around it-the elements discharge their fury against it—its ornaments, its polish, and its gold may be taken away, but still it stands a noble monument of lasting greatness, unshaken in its solid foundation [great cheering]. No; do justice to your own Protestantism

say that Popery has survived, being stripped of its temporalities-say that truth must surely be equally vivacious and equally long-lived. Do yourselves justice, or else concede to me manfully that you want the assistance of state power and the support of state wealth. Avow that, and the argument is at an end, but it will still be not the less conclusive on the necessity of Repeal."

And the following is the other extract, being the conclusion of his speech:

"I am not here for sectarian purposes. I have at my side a Church of England gentleman, Alderman O'Neill; I have also at my side a Presbyterian friend, Mr. M'Clelland; here we stand together, Protestant, Presbyterian, and Catholic, the evidence of our social condition-the evidence of our future unanimity. If I thought that I was so lost to all feelings of propriety and decorum as to be capable of saying one word in disparagement of the religious convictions of any man in

the community-however widely his doctrines might differ from my own-I would give up for ever the struggle in which I am engaged [hear, hear, and cheers]. But intolerance and bigotry are hourly disappearing under the influence of increased enlightenment, and sure I am that happier days for the cause of true religion are in store for all the nations of the earth. There is scarcely a country in the world where a man is now persecuted for conscience sake Indeed, I believe, that with the exception of two Protestant states, there is not a spot in the civilized universe where a difference of religious belief is regarded as a justification for oppression. I allude to Sweden and Denmark. In Denmark, some Baptist missionaries have, as I am informed, been cruelly persecuted; but I know of no other place where such practices of tyranny are permitted. I do most firmly believe that, according as irritating topics of religious discrepancies are passing away, a spirit of true, unalloyed devotion is springing up in the hearts of men-an evidence to the truth of this assertion may be found in the fact, that more attention is now paid to the performance of religious duties than in by-gone times. The ordinances of religion are more universally respected than of old. Chief Justice Doherty expressed this sentiment a few days since in the Court of Common Pleas, if his words be rightly represented, and Í have no doubt that he was warranted in advancing that assertion. If you go into any house of worship in the city, you will find it more crowded than in former days. I have the words of Chief Justice Doherty for alleging that this is the case with respect to your Protestant places of worship; and in my own church this happy revolution is so conspicuous that the faithful who now throng around the altar rails to receive communion on the Sabbath day are greater in number than the whole congregation used formerly to be. This proves incontestably that a greater attention is paid in modern days to the ceremonials of religion than it was formerly our wont to concede; and indeed I am glad of this, for I hold it that outward forms have a beneficial effect, and I think that we should enlist the heart as well as the head in the cause of religion [hear, hear, and cheers from all sides]. Yes, bigotry has vanished from the land, and intolerance, persecution, and oppression, its hateful attendants, have also disappeared from amongst us. We no longer detest each other in consideration of our respective tenets; but, under the sovereign influence of enlightenment and Christian charity, a fellowship of feeling is springing

up in our hearts, and the day has arrived when we may all combine, as of one accord, for the benefit of our lovely country. The sun in his travels shines not upon a land more picturesque in its features, more beautiful in its scenery, more unbounded in the richness of its natural endowments. The purest of crystal, the brightest of green,' are lavished on her fair domain. Who is he that can contemplate without emotions of the most profound admiration her splendid harbors, her noble estuaries, her fertile plains, her verdant valleys, her majestic mountains, over whose rugged sides gush vivid waters with a constancy which almost resembles eternity, and a power and impetus which (but how the thought falls in the phrase!) are capable of turning the machinery of the world. Blessed with a climate the most genial and benign, and inhabited by a people the most gallant, hardy, generous, virtuous, and temperate of any on the face of the earth, what is there too splendid, what too magnificent to be achieved by such a country? Heaven is my witness, that in looking for this mighty boon, I seek it not for the benefit of any particular class or section of my fellow-countrymen, but in the name and for the sake of all Irishmen [cries of hear, hear, hear]. I would not accept of the Repeal, fondly though I aspire to it, unless I got it with the co-operation and approbation of the great mass of my countrymen, for I never set my heart upon a party triumph; and 1 am alone incited to the present contest by my devotion to the cause of liberty and my indomitable love of fatherland [immense cheering]. Oh! my heart bounds and my spirit exults when I contemplate the joys which are in store for my country. Yes

"The nations have fallen, but thou art still young,

Thy sun is but rising, while others are set, And though slavery's gloom o'er thy morning hath hung,

The full noon of freedom SHALL beam round

thee yet.""

over their

The repeal in Ireland is generally, though not universally, opposed by the landed nobility and gentry. This is chiefly caused by the object openly avowed by O'Connell, of curtailing the power of the landlords tenantry, by giving to the latter a certain fixity of tenure in their leases of their farms, on terms to be equitably adjusted by law. This would certainly be a bold and powerful blow against the aristocracy of the country; and one of which it cannot be denied that it proposes to trench in some degree upon

the sanctity of the principle of property. It would curtail the present right and power of the landlord to do as he pleases with his own. When we reflect that there is no country in the world in which the land is held in larger masses in fewer hands-that in a population of nine millions there are not probably twenty thousand owners of a square foot of the earth's surface-that this power of the landlords over the tenantry has been used with great severity as a means of extortion and oppression, and that the period is yet comparatively recent when at least four-fifths of all this title was acquired by the grossest spoliation of mingled force and fraud, so as to rest on a very rotten foundation of original moral right-these apprehensions of the landlords, of an agrarian tendency of domestic legislation, are scarcely surprising. O'Connell is at heart-nay, as openly as any British politician can be

a republican. The repeal movement, as represented in the person of its great leader, combines with its one primary object other principles also, which tend to introduce the democratic element into government, through the parliamentary representation, in full purity and vigor, namely, the ballot, universal suffrage, equality of representation, and the absence of property qualification for membership of parliament. With none of the Irish landlord's fears that a truly popular Irish parliament would disgrace itself by even retorting upon him any similar process of spoliation like that to which he himself owes his possession, yet such a change in the agricultural policy of the country as that of the proposed "fixity of tenure," adjusted on wise and equitable principles, we would joyfully hail, as not less clearly within the rightful competency of government, than beneficial to the country at large. And certainly the prospect which the success of the repeal movement would open, of a much earlier and more energetic progress to the cause of republican reform, not only in Ireland, but, under the contagious influence of her example, in the rest of the United Kingdom, adds no slight force to the other reasons which already so powerfully address American sympathy in its behalf.

Of the probability of its present success, without recourse to physical force, it is not easy for us to judge. The resolute and confident language in

which it speaks on that point for itself, implies an assurance of the means for its own accomplishment, from which we derive a hope going beyond, as we must confess, any distinct perception of our own, as the mode in which this is to be wrought out,- -so long at least as the present ministry and the present parliament continue in power. By going on with his present system of agitation, till it shall include the zealous and avowed adhesion of the large majority of the people-(at the last date the number of enrolled repealers was upward of two millions)—and by conciliating and uniting all parties and sects upon it as a measure of common nationality, O'Connell may indeed be able, in conjunction with the accumulating domestic difficulties of the Tory government, to oust the ministry and dissolve the parliament. In a new parliament, and from a liberal, perhaps a Radical ministry, the main body of the Irish members, united on this point as their first sine quâ non of party cooperation, might indeed obtain the repeal, on the federative principle,—that is to say, with a domestic parliament for local legislation, and a superior imperial one for the government of foreign affairs and those of a common national concern. This latter, indeed, would seem to be the most probable direction of the movement. Obviating as it would the objection of the dismemberment of the empire, or the denationalization of any portion of the United Kingdom, it would afford a basis on which the whole Irish people might be brought together; while it would present nothing very seriously objectionable to the people of England and Scotland. We should be glad to see such a first introduction of the principle of which our own constitution affords so admirable a model; and should take it as an earnest of the progress it is destined to make, until the system of great confederations of small democracies, with distinct distribution of powers, shall be generally adopted as the mode of national organization throughout republicanized Europesatisfied as we are that it affords the best, if not the only permanent mode of combining widely-diffused individual liberty with central power and energy for the management of foreign relations.

O'Connell's theory of the mode in which repeal is to be carried into effect