to the safety, perhaps to the very existence, of the British empire, for Ireland is its vulnerable part. We may innocently tell the enemy so; he knows it already, and though Britain may be vulnerable in Ireland, wounds there would not be mortal. Whether emancipation is granted or refused, the Catholics, who have property, will certainly not join an invader; and they who are called the Wild Irish, (an appellation, which, to our shame, is but too appropriate) as certainly will. What care they about seats in parliament, offices in state, or, for all which could possibly fall to their share in this distribution of blessings, the privilege of giving a vote? We have invaded and conquered them, but we have conferred no benefits* upon them to atone for the evils of invasion and of conquest; after the lapse of six centuries, the remembrance of those evils is undiminished, the wounds themselves are, as it were, fresh and sore, and the desire of vengeance has continually been aggravated. With the tenacious memory of barbarous genealogists, they trace back their descent from the petty princes and lords of the country, and the possessions and the power of their forefathers are the impossible objects for which they

are ever ready and eager to rise in rebellion. This hope, too, is strengthened by a more stinging desire. The history of their martyrs in the late troubles, is faithfully preserved among them; there is not a more powerful, nor deeper-rooted instinct in the human mind, than the appetite for just vengeance; and the vengeance for which they are longing appears to them with the character of justice, because they, equally with their opponents, remember the cruelties which they suffered, and forget the provocation which they gave. For the honour of human nature, let us hope that these crueltięs may never. be left upon record, lest the atrocities of the French revolution should be outdone, and Robespierre cease, upon comparison, to be an object of hatred and of horror! But these things are remembered among them, and will be remembered, till the good we do to this unhappy race shall outweigh and efface the evil which we have done. This good is not to be obtained by Catholic Emancipation. There is butone remedy for all moral and political evil, and that remedy is knowledge; is it to be produced by upholding and encouraging a church, of which the main principle is ever to keep its subjects in ignorance?

England, indeed, may contemplate the sister-country with sorrow, and painfullest shame, and deep humiliation, but not with fear. The time of danger is gone by. A French army, with the lying invitation of liberty upon their banners, would once have been joined by men, formidable for their talents, and virtues, and enthusiasm. Some of these have expiated their errors by death, others are living peaceably in America,--men to be blamed for these errors only, and fit to be the ornaments of any country, except their own. It was in these men that the strength of the united Irish lay; in Fitzgerald, and Tone, and Emmett, and the republicans; men no otherwise connected with France than as they, most erroneously and unhappily for themselves, considered France to be the upholder of all free and enlightened principles. In those days, too, the very means which were pursued to crush disaffection, would have ensured the success of Hoche, if he had accomplished his landing; for " oppression driveth wise men mad," and thousands, who would now bear arms in defence of the British government, would then have broken out in insurrection against the unendurable tyranny of martial law, and a system not less insolent and inhuman than that, which has entailed upon Alva the curses of all posterity. Those days are over, and the present leaders of the disaffected party have manifested their baseness, by becoming the wretched agents and flatterers of Buonaparte; danger, therefore, from them is at an end. An inya

ding army would now be joined by the populace, not by the people; and long before the populace could be disciplined, or even tamed, so as not to be mischievous to their allies, any force which could be landed there would be outnumbered and subdued. It is our interest and our duty to conciliate the Irish; it is our wish also,---but not from any thought of fear: and were it otherwise, they who press upon us the necessity of this policy, by attempting to intimidate the government into concessions, argue * in a manner which neither tends to dispose a government to conciliate, nor a people to be conciliated.

It is not a little curious, that while part of the falling administration declared themselves hostile to Catholic Emancipation upon these grounds, some of the members of the new ministry were known to be friendly to the measure. Mr Canning had always avowed this opinion; but, like Mr Pitt, conceived it neither prudent nor constitutional to press the measure upon his Majesty, who would not be persuaded to understand the words of the coronation oath in any other meaning than that for which they had so carefully been framed. Lord Castlereagh too, who transacted the private bargains of the Union, was understood to have pledged himself to the Irish Catholics upon this subject. On the other hand, Lord Erskine, connected as he had always been with the Foxites, reasoned on this occasion with the Crown; and the same sentiments were held by Lord Sidmouth and his friends, who,

though the least powerful, were the most popular part of the discarded administration.

Elated with so unexpected a victory, the triumphant party committed a dangerous error in the division of the spoils, by conferring upon their new Chancellor of the Exchequer, the place of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, for life. The late administration had given away no places for life, which their enemies invidiously accounted for by observing, that some of their leading members were already pretty comfortably provided for in that way. But it was in fact part of that system of reform which they were slowly beginning. This practice, and that of granting offices in reversion, squandered the patronage of the crown, without in any degree increasing its power; when, therefore, the House of Lords rejected a bill for the prevention of the latter abuse, and Mr Perceval commenced his ministerial career by setting such an example of the former, they manifested a selfish disregard for the real interests of the crown, and offended the people in the most imprudent of all ways, by insulting their sense of propriety, and setting the public feeling at defiance. The new opposition opened their war upon this fair ground. The House of Commons was of their own making, and in making it they had exerted the influence of the treasury, beyond the usual bounds of discretion and decorum; their partizans therefore were numerous, and on this question they were joined by the independent members; so that the ministry suffered a defeat, and Mr Perceval accepted the sinecure chancellorship during the King's pleasure.

The debates which ensued were of a more disgraceful character than any which that House had ever before witnessed. The opposition were exasperated at their unexpected fall, and the success of rivals whom they despised; the ministry were provoked by the violence with which they were assailed; anger produced anger, abuse was answered by abuse, and accusation by recriminating charges. It reminded us of the first scene in the Alchemist; and good men began to fear what might be the effect upon the people of thus uncovering the nakedness of a government, whereof, from these mutual reproaches, the Duessa of Spenser seemed to be a prophetic personification. A new election gave the ministry a secure preponderance, but the temper of both parties remained the

same.

There were two other parties in the House of Commons, each more important, from its influence with the people, than from its numbers, and each daily acquiring more strength in public opinion. That which is denominated the Saints, or the Evangelicals, was one. At the head of these was Mr Wilberforce, a man of great natural and acquired endowments, and deservedly eminent for having, during so many years, attempted, and at last accomplished, the abolition of the slave-trade. This alone would have given him a deeper hold in the hearts of his countrymen, than any of his contemporaries have acquired; but he derived also great influence from being considered as the head of the Calvinistic churchmen, and from the reverence with which he was regarded by the orthodox dissenters. The principle of this party was to assist the existing