The Express.
London, England, 1847-05-21 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING,

Ireland, when she was divided between two great
parties: her fate will be more lamentable when
teased and distracted by fragments of fascicles.
The mere statement of the present condition of
Irish politic might excite e smile, it the matter were
not too serious. It is a bad thing that there should
be so much discoed, and narrowness of view amongst
the Irish politicians, at the very time when seem ap-
proach to unanimity would be highly desirable. Mr.
&ma O'Bettex has got a entail faction of the repeal
party ; Mr..l. O'Connem. (evidently Oiling a game
of his own) has another fraction ; the first appears to
have the support of the repeal press; the second seems
labouring to make a pard-pretre, by means of which
he may sustain himself against the assaults of his
rivals. Meantime the wings and intelligent liberals
stand aside, idle and apathetic ! We regret to learn
that they have not been making vigorous preparations
for the corning general election. Do they intend to
take no active part in the momentous politics of
the present time ? Will they leave Ireland
to be preyed upon by petty factious ? Will they
allow Mr. SNIVII O'Batxx and Mr. Raw O'Cot-
NELL to hack and tear the popular interest in that
country as they please? Will they permit faction to
' run
Ireland ?away with the political power belonging to

The liberal party in Ireland most turn over a new
leaf. Its leaders have been too apathetic and indif-
ferent. The whig nobility and gentry have of late
years by no mean sustained the position which they
held prior toemanoipation. We do not wish to in-
quire into the causes of this repugnance to public life
on the part of many of the most intelligent liberals in
Ireland. We may say, however, that many of them
might have been excused, disagreeing as they did
with the mode in which the popular politics of the
country were conducted. But we think that, on
the whole, they have been too fastidious. For though
it may be very wrong to truckle to popular
dictation, to hold aloof from contact with the
mass is till more so. " Public duty," says BUMP.,
" demands that what is right should not only be made
known, but also should be made prevalent." There
are amongst the Irish whig party many men of high
birth, and of accomplishments equal to their station,
admirably calculated for making right views on Ire-
land known, although not in the same degree
oapable of making those ideas prevail in the
society into which they are thrown. They are defi-
cient in a.ggressive energy. Those strong qualities
which gain the lead in politics, and which give men
ascendancy over others, are mach wanted amongst
the leaders of the Irish whigs and liberals. We
want to see amongst them more men of resolu-
tion and moral courage, and fewer liberals of mere
sentiment and conventional politics. The popular
party of that country must not be allowed to waste
itself in wretched faction, in visionary specula-
tion in building castles in the air, and in frivolous
absurdities. Let us take a pregnant example of the
injury done to Ireland by the want of judiciously
conducting her popular politics.
Mr. Sitrrn &Bantu accused England the other
day of having delayed emancipation for twenty-nine
years. We leg leave to tell him is reply, that
the measure of 1829 was delayed more by Irish folly
than by English prejudice. From 1823 to 1829 the
Irish Catholics managed their cause judiciously, but
for the previous twenty-three years, never was any
cause more miserably conducted. Prior to the Union,
it was as much as DRAT EAN could do, to make them act
with common sense. One party of them was for abas-
ing the whole body before Lord CLARE, and another
was for an alliance with the United Irishmen! The'
violence and fanaticism which many of the prominent
catholic' displayed ; the manner in which Mr. GRAT-
TAN and his friends were traduced ; the preference
subsequently accorded to Sir FRANCIS BURDETT and
his peculia; school by some of the catholic leaders ;
the ridiculous, &climax that arose out of the veto ques-
tion ; all these causes helped the airrendasey to retain
its power. Many Mends to the esthetics were dis-
=and became quiescent. Many enemies to them
rampant. The folly, at times, of the popular
party supplied fruitful topics to special pleaders and
clever casuists like Lord LDON and the Mr. PEEL of
twenty years ago. The fourth volume of " Burke's
Correspondence, and " Grattan's Memoirs "by his
son, contain abundance of illustrative matter on this
subject. Ennarr's rebellion in 1803 ; the agrarian-
ism, relining into anarchy, of 1808, and bursting forth
again at intervals; the constant bickering* and
quarrels between the catholic leaders ; these things
warrant us in saying that emancipation was delayed
more by Irish folly than by English prejudice.
The present state of the popular party in Ireland
forcibly reminds us of the Catholic Leiden, in 1815.
We are canted back to the days of Mr. SCI7LLY and
Dr. DaomoooLe; of the late Lord FFRENCH and MR.
BURSET. We see energy misdirected, talents ill
cultivated, the practicable disregarded, the impracti-
cable worshipped. We bear, indeed, of principles,
and we witness some desultory vigour, but we do not
perceive that " presiding principle and prolific
energy," of which a great moral philosopher speaks as
constituting the true idea of political on. But
this state of things mu not be allowed to continue.
The liberal party 111 Ireland must be re-constructed
on a basis which will secure for the people of that
country the benefit of a vigorous, concentrated, and
effective union of its political resources. The time is
peculiarly favourable to exertion, and the opportunity
mast net be allowed to pass disregarded. The mares
of the Irish peasantry and the middling order of so-
ciety have lost their confidence in the organisation
to which they have been for some years attached.
None but Mr. O'Cormau himself could possibly re-
store that organisation ; and even if he were again
endowed with health and youth, it is not probable
that he could (or perhaps would) do so in the present
state of Ireland. " moi ! " said Loots
XIV. " Agitation— 't is Il" Mr. O'Commu might
have mid with more truth.

The democratic party in Ireland has lost its faith
and its self-reliance. The fact is confessed, and is
denied by none but visiosaries, and interested stipen-
diary declaimers. In no country could democracy be
so =safely relied on as a permanent source of po-
litical power as in Ireland. The moral force of true
political democracy has never been known in that
country—its masses have always been led on by
others—they neva could fall back upon their own
strength. The state of the country now is peculiarly
favourable to the judicious and combined exertion of
pawns animated with common purposes—inheriting
and professing common principles of action. The
whig and liberal party in Ireland poseurs
far more moral power than its rivals et the
ascendancy or the revolutionary school. It
is only upon whig principles that Ireland
can be governed, let *rho will be in Downing-street.
The tory party In Ulster entertains views width no
British minister will patronise—the idea of protestant
ascendancy has been flung aside. Sir Jamas GRA-
HAM told Mr. SHAW that it had gone for ever. The
aims of the ultra-popular party are as much out of
date as protestant ascendancy. The orangemen and
the " Insh confederates" are fifty years behind the
she ! They are both intensely local and retrospective.
yep await the coming or another CIAMHITS HERM
IKIHD•II34 4 gather Wotet Tome! Recollections
the freding-abool, sad visions of a ?tench fleet at
gantry Bay flit torus their morbid memories, and
distempered fancies. Their dreams are very dreadful
—and their politics, as might be expected, are each
staff as dreams are made of!"
The liberal* in Ireland meet become more active,
and they have no time to lose. Let them be pre-
pared in time with candidates of character, of
steal worth, and of fitness for the struggles of public
life. They must not allow their friends to be disown-
fited at the hustings by want of timely preparation
and judicious malts. We repeat, that if the
moss of the Irish be not rigorously taken in
hand, the island will be represented by petty cliques
and coteries, without any common porpoise of action.
Above all, we earnestly urge those, who, from fasti-
dious scruples, and from certain personal antipathies,
have refrained, from public life, to give up their
indifference and apathy, and resume their proper
places in the ides of Ireland. The cause
to which many of them are attached by here-
ditary feelings demands their assistance. What
is that cause ? It is the cause of civilisation
and of social progress; of equality between
religious creeds, and of education diffused through
the community. It is not the cause of social mono-
poly and of religions aleendancy, like the tory ; it is
not the cause of visionary, ideas and practical mischief
like the pseudo-nationalism of the ultra-popular party.
Social reform and liberalism mast become identical in
Ireland.
But the Tory party in Ireland threws every obstacle
in the way of reform, and the conyulsiou, not
the improvement, of society must be the result