The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1822-05-06 00:00:00

ST.4TI OF IRELAND.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE BRITISH BREW
•
SlR—it is the mitrortune of years, experience, end
observation, to make those who possess any tolerable

ing around them, thou they who content themselves
with saying, .“ it is no Aline of our's—'-'
Ku on it• own way 4'

.. .
11:ns apathy is or advantage which is denied to
theuud.ernigned, 'sail it is hoped, Sir, will excuse
tins intru.ion ,bpmrfspectable Jove,.
. . Fer many months we have seen helped* that im.
*often* part of the British empire, a prey to on in.
Snrrection, indefinite in everiitipeci but in that of
. its atrocities.
From no quarter *hie) it.iospedistely concerns,
possessing authority or influence, hove we heard of
soy aseetjuss been held, or inquiries instituted, for
the purposes' of developing the amass, and for aiding
Government nu taking the necessary measures for
*heir Peemsuerititemoval.
If this course of proceeding be right, the Noble-
.
etteo Ofigailand; •ho haveso.recently called their
tensisepitigetherio itch. noble mansions—who Isar
- lIIPINCY entered into their grievances, and
hare masted *lir rents to meet the depressed
haw lifitti.stsdtkijiave acted most erroneoustit%,'
The Noblemen and great landed proprietors ei
Xlet and 'lye 'mostly in Ltintfou, and are ',44/0, O'
time misuses. From their silence sod awe 4
Mote itt:ltante, we cannot avoid :inCerring, that
tArsir are ollopinion, it is the 'business of Gofers*
tnent to ensure to them the safety or their pro..
toestitlisli good order among *the peasantry
!Shinning classes, to effect an amelioration in their
wretched condition, and render them more timenabgt
to the laws. With the greatest deference to their
superior judgment, if they expect this reformatio4
to be thus effected, they expect what there is room
to doubt no Government ever did or can achieve.
That Goverument should exert its best eaeryes in
so -necessary a work, is certain ; and he must be a
isisnisc who would doubt it for a moment. The con-
vection of this certainty will arise from the question
imy man may put to himself—What are the effects
.1 the constantly perturbed state of Ireland ? A
hooey expenditure of the national wenitgati procure,
bp militaty force, short intervals of tranquillity ; •
defcit in the Irish revenue, to be provided for by
Gmeterament; the ruin of all those advantages
mhich Door, has destined the country to confr
wit) itself and on the empire. How many millions
Iles it cost, for the last forty years, to put down the
various insurrections? And what has the empire
for the sum, but the moral certainty of increasing
Os i !Ito change shall be effected ?
Llut the general sentiment is happily now become
iclop4ifled *lO the wise deteriniostiou of Govern-
meal to. pat an end to those evils; and nothing is
eliew.t stdentty wished for by every sound thin.keri4
Csiarut (hest tis see good order and traftqaillity
14,estahlistrdxin Ireland, and the retpiis
mutual., ought to subsist

• f
What can be ft.'
than the certainty,
curdings, and tattli.
oornal ; the rradVr,
the alternative of

policy
rwerd the benig
.r kingdom, pod
lent it never held.
, that the Nobility
fished order in the
and the laboaring
reforming them
,obility, Gentry, and

lift! father of his
who cultivate his
providence and
,Red to fulfil a duty
,tch over their cup-

lolheta to habits of
nit oppression, and
ins. In the exact
lions is the safet♦
.he ce►tainty of his
luitous, the, are
of lug prospaair,y,

interest with ins-
the lower orders

raised from barbarism
to- eiviitzsile\ 1, 'Ad ' fe'ndered snot-rut members of
society. "Peter the Crest studied this art, and
civilized himself that he might civilise his HA.-
intim" Bat every nation of Europe furnishes
precedents. .
In the better days of the Netherlands, the lord,
or landed proirierair, was the civic preceptor of the
smiles, and liAlady of the females. Industry, good
order, and a tessoinible share of the comforts of
life, hovered fused the dwelling of the labourer.
The pencil of ral of the Flemish painters has
le
perpetuated m y of those churning scenes; that
of the elder roeghel most frequently. France
licted.ou the sass principles, and to the itistruc-
lion of the children of the lower classes the Nobles
paid particular Attention; anticipating, as it were,
the great truth delivered by Lord Bacon : " Few
lays wilt be necessary where the children of the
lower CillinPlg 'WI be instructed and reared in
hishits of indtuitrw and good order." The French
manner of addressiog a labourer, or servant, este-
Wished above this time, 1.560, obtains to this day,
isetd sheers the urbanity which they thought it
right to observe t.swards this useful class—Mon ami
faits, eeci, melt a. nifaifes ;eta.
sut catalog uct.ter bowie, was it the enacting of

...r.

c-

made an English pesesatry, let me be
say, 'better couducied. more peic7,
and'isiiire'Dostiee table, than
answer, ,No ; mid the proof Or the,ne.
..
Jrpetsti on my asorrtion. area of
the girglish N4ifemeti
..tin each other iii prornoliiiilhe-gOoti order,
the comforts, and decency of their peasantry, and
in rendering them eneristiiiii With the laws. The
humblest individual eins ko some respect a Magis-
trate, holding lornielfbousid to aid in their execu-
tion, and prevent their infraction : the offence was
net;her connived at, nor the offender spared. lie
was regarded as an enemy to the commonsyrospe-
rity, and under on'arder from the nearest Magis-
trate, he was handed user to justice by his very
neighbours.,
Till within a feW years the conclusion of the
King's Speech froM ihe'"thrime, to the Peers and
Commons, at the close of every Serbiou, ran of
this tenor :--
" My Lords and Gentlemen, I am happy to ratio* you
flat tAbe fahipers armee tertialatire labours IN the capital,
to the end that yon say return to yoirr tespeetioe erodes,
sad by your *Stier exassitts;;l I.i.stilltiVel attest am to
the eortilart rase, liewants, forms:irig dawn.
epressl situ goad order sod ,Sett flee the laws, on obit\
ilepeesis ate poste sad prosperity o she British Empire."
The,,English Nobility and Gentry faithfully fol.
loWeSi op the illoarrious vices of the Sovereign.
Bot Iwo shill laudable conduct of this distinguielied
class Do longer exist ? Facts prove the contrary.
They ore found on their estate, in the. bosom of
teusuta and peasantry. fur aim months '• of the
yew, many of them six hundred miles from the
apsfit.:
..,yytiat Food ix the state of the interior
if they substituted absence and agency fur their
Illuential'preseiice? Would there be no rustic orlri
tor to harangue his fellow-men on the
.necessity
Of breaking doin'ibe'eliiitinction of ratil4.iilltrfiti
the.juseice of the Agrarian law ?
FrOm the ttinitia(atoted. it is evident tat
actDalioperintendenorof those to whom the miters
of things has 'consigned the core of the peasantry
and latiouring clinweri is absolutely indispensable,
nor without it will even the law, avail. What are
they if not acted upon, but So mane pages of let-
ter.press in the statute-book ? They no not profess
to teach civic morality, but to pueilib the infniction
'of it. They justly excite a fear to trarisgress, which
but too often generates a cunning to evade
them. They can ''neiilier remove ignorance, use
eradicate vicious habits. To effect these desirable
ends, aseasuris cnly are adequate. They must be
instituted end peisre.eted. in by the Nobility and
landed peoprietora,lrie sti:pported by Government!
and enforced bi)disissiii,:ia the spirit of the Coto
etiolation. •(!

Ive tines not d,
years remember w

Every ono will admit that good conduct, like vire
tue..oughtlhallso.odepted for its own take. But
will the hod the recractory act on the prin.
ciple ? Never, till you take measure. cognisable to
his muses, to make it priAtable to hint. -Do not
he content with rendering vice hideous to the lower
• 1 oases speculatively, but practically prove to them,
ty the experience of what they use to fed from the
Wasomasiou of seime, that it is injurious to their in.
Witt, st.d that too ire armed with poiri4 tp
isgoysh Alit BLyliseCood reward the well-disposed.
Whether the Neibleosen anti landed proprietors
or frplitod Nig. ewer, argon the work in hood of
mOolditirg the pegmatite's sail Labourstag classes to
habits of industry and. good .der, may be fairly
doubted from thetrienoial returns of issurrection.
Probably such a work has been hitherto imprecii.
cable. The religions -difference, the penal laws,
the power and emoluments of the country lewd*.
Lively vested in a few, the great majority stripped of
every right and of their property, aliens iii the land
of their forefathers, had kindled and enflamed that
spirit of party and division which destroyed all con.
fidence, and felt no repose but in mutual exter-
mination. Hence the cruelties which have always
marked the insurrectionary movements bear the
stamp of their originating causes, and prove what
has been said by a French author—" Man reduced
to a state of desperation by treatment, contempt,
and wretchedness, is the must ferociouti of till ani-
mals." Bat these insurrections hove been more
frequent attire the Union, and for thy best reason.
On the passing of that measure. whatever virtue,
talent, isiflnenee, or respectability. which the
nation possessed, was immediately withdrawn, the
Nobility and great lauded proprietors. for die most
pert, gaoling the country, and leaving their mgropt
to remit to them in England the produce of their
estates, with an injunction, on the demise of the
leaves, to set the lauds in Loge tracts to.opuleut
tenants. Here let the eye of sensibility, drop a tear
on the forlorn state to which ibis country
was reduced. The peaaantry and labOuring ;lasses.
smouutiog to three million., ahouclotied is their
ignorance rialto their passions. itgotiOted by their
miyery, without any control, eroteetino, good ex.
ample, or appeal to the hotroissity of ;bow who de-
nied their affluence from the 'Weld and toil of their
half starved bothY.s. To the emigration, .the
Frepeltitobles iv justly imputed the bonoursof the
laerslition. and more than one author remiti4a on
this dmillsction of their duty with some severity.—
" Leta nation," says one of them, " be drained of
the virtues and talents which adorn it, can you
wonder if the dregs shall ferment and petrify,'
spreading their noxious coatogion through every
class and over the whole territory ?"
Lord Redestiales speech on the passing of the
Insurrection and Suspension Habeas Corpus Acts
for Irelitud; h of too much importance to his
omitted. His Lordship spoke nearly to this effect :
" I will vote for the Bills, in the hope that they will
put down the insurrection ; but something more
must be done to prevent the recurrence of those
dirgracefid outrages. Till Ireland shall have a
ie./admit Nubility and Geutry. who will attend the
Quartet Sessions mud see the laws extcuted, and

'~=-

ptrniatiently..Zablished in Ireland,
or thlt rutwatconliflence which a
tit t* reo the two countries. Wha
)iumiliatirkg to British feeling that
shot till those horrors, burning,. cm
d'sre,
.fgure in eery foreign door
olt ignor tof tile cnvect, reduced to
;oliar odium the Odin on British polic
i
lo • - ,
,• . ty thing conspires to furor
meolitilv of tranquillizing the sister
among the solicitudes of Govevocni
Ostrom so important a place.
It ml:st be remarked, however, t
land G tea-, the most distinguish
Siete, s nt) between Governoseut I
eiliams ; and hence the work of
lir natural! cbliolyes on the Nobili
landed °proctors.
The Itrd of the 'oil is the ;robin
lenentryond of the peasantry w
estate; eider the order of Ciod'e
the nature of things,- he is charged
towards Arm : he es bound to watt
dtret, to *press theft vices, to train
toed ordeal, to protect them again,
render thole subordinate to the lag
pataportiostiof these laudable eeerti
ails lierven and property, land the
/*tome. Far from being grate
obligatory; they are the measure I
and cannot be separated from his i
plainly. By no other :wane have
Merely monarchical state been mist