Star.
London, England, 1831-01-11 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF TAR JOURNALS.

CH aoxicr.x.—lt is especially observable, that these country agri-
culturists, fu distant from the seat of Government, exhibit a shrewd dis-
crimination of the political character of Members of Parliament. They
nominate Mr. Hume from his terrier-like qualities against the barn ver-
min, and Lord King, as a good Mar prelate with the Bishops, to pre-
sent their petitions to the Legislature. Verily, they are wiser in their
generation than their fore-fathers, who could not separate religion from
ftlatianity, or the tithing of Priests from the service of (ion. These
remarkable State Paupers are proofs of the revolt of the Laity ; twenty
years ago every inhabitant of these parishes, if asked to sign soda protests.
would have been seised with tits of horror. Blasphemy was the text word
of the Clerical discourses when, the divine right of tithes war questioned.—
Now every steward's rent dinner, every tithe dinner, when the Parson has
I turned his back, betrays the popular feeling against the Levitical impo-
sition. The health of the Incumbent is always heartily drunk a second
time at the date dinner, when he has left the mom, the most aged and
hoary headed farmer justifying the compliment by the acute observation
—" I never knew • new one who waa'nt a wain than the dead one."
We were informed a few day. since by a magistrate of one of the mid-
land counties, that a parish meeting was recently called to swear in spe-
cial constables. It was fully attended, but no special constables volun-
teered r the conversation was long and significant on the state of the
country, ; the farmers terminated the meeting, declaring, that they
wanted no additional civil force, but " rents lowered and down with the
tithe I" We have hard that at a large dinner party of country gen-
tlemen, ISO mike from the metropolis, the table-talk lately dis-
cussed the probable futare value of English and Irish tithes. The
company differed, and it TM agreed to take the sense of the guests, by
. "a mockisuction," the bookseller's mode of aseenaining the value of joint

stock, by bidding, among themselves. Three months' purchase was bid
fur Irish Tithe, seven months for English Tithe, and no advance !
The Archbishop of Canterbury may in vain compose Forms of
Prayer, on account of the troubled state of certain Districts; they will
not compose the troubled spirits of the untied and restless agricul-
tural patience. We know that these evangelical prescriptions for the agri-
cultural distress originating in political causes, expose religion to derision
and contempt ; the agriculturists treat them, we are well informed,
as the old impious farmer observed to the Pariah Parson, who
read the prayer for rain in the great drat, " I'll be caned
if the dry prayer is of any use till the shifted." The
land-owner, and the tenantry, and the labourers, will go on to hustle the
Vicar and the Rector ;to pay them off in kind—to let them gather the
parsley and sage, and take the tenth calf which the oow herd bas slily
held by the tall while sucking, lest it should grow too fat for the parson.
The thinking and reading farmers, of whom than are now Maiming
numbers drinking at the fountain of the " Damien of Knowledge,"
will reflect an the muses of this deplorable state of thing., and will vary
the prayer (after that including all conditions of mat " Lord I' open
the eyes of the Boroughmongers, and incline their hes;ts to emancipate
the nation without further trouble or cenvuhion."

Trans.—We have said before now, that the grimness of Ireland
must be redressed, and they are many. Ths subletting act, designed
for the common welfare of landlord and tenant, has been so acted upon
by the almost simultaneous, but unforeseen abolition of the 40s. free-
holds, and by the literal, though not reasonable construction of some of
its clauses, as to open up and overturn a great number of pm-existing
contracts, and to work wide and unheard of misery amongst the ejected
poor. That act must be powerfully modified, and we trust will be so
instanter. A great land-proprietor of the county of Kilkenny is said,
but it is only on hearsay that we have learned it, to have enforced that
law extensively against a numerous body of under-tenants on his estate.
It is this gentleman whose trees were lately destroyed in his own
presence. If he can contradict the above report, we shall willingly insert
hie refutation of it. The Vestry Act of Mr. Goulburn is a tremendous
evil. It yes to any
two or more Protestants in a parish the uncoil.
trolledright of levyin so far as we are informed) whatever sums they
may thin fit, for re , or beautifying, or flog, or otherwise
altering their pariah churc and of compelling the Catholic parishioners,
who have no interest in the application of the money, to pay it by a
peremptory assessment! This we conceive to be a monstrous abuse of
law,—a cruel violation of the very first principle of British liberty, which
gives the subject avoice in the employment of his own money.Thlagriev.
ance ought at once to be redressed. The church of Ireland is far too richly
endowed, in proportion to the number of Protestants. The Catholic
clergy ought to be connected with the State, by a maintenance adequate
to their wants. During the interval that elapses before any extensive
Willem of reform can be perfected, let the Tithe Composition Act, which
works so well, be made einepuleory on the parochial clergy. The Dr.
Butler, who was lately visited by a crowd of menacing petitioners for the
reduction of his tithes, is, we understand, one of those who never would
compound with his parishioners. The poor of Ireland must be more
tenderly treated, by having funds provided out of the land, either
as wages for their labour. or as support for them in town-
ling idleness. England, as well as Ireland, demands, this improve-
ment in the Irish law. The immense assessments made on Irish coun-
ties must be taken out of the hands of those notorious job-masters, the
1 grand jurymen : 800,0001. per annum has been raised by them on the
people. and wasted the Lord knows how. These are some, and we be-
lieve
the principal wrongs at which Ireland may fairly murmur, and
the continuance of which, now that they are known, must, in the nature
of things, make proselytes to the O'Connell plot. Let Parliament de-
feat his manteuvres at one greet blow ;—let it examine what ought to
be done, and do it without another year's hesitation ; —let it " be just,
and fear not."
POST.— The Lord LientenarTlPP--t Ireland, following the example of
his calumniated predecessor, is performing his duty most manfully.
Nothing but the undaunted attitude he has so commendably assumed
can save Ireland, discomfit her teal enemies, or restore her to that state
of tranquillity, of which, by the infamous wiles of faction, she has been
so long and so lamentably deprived. The restless agitator, the cease-
; less brooder of mischief, having projected a new scheme, whereby he
I imagined he should be able to evade the law—namely, the formation of
a new Association, the Marquis of Anglesey,with a promptitude that does
him honour, issued a fresh Proclamation on the day following that on
which the meeting was held, prohibiting the meeting of any such Aso•
ciation—a measure not only of the utmost propriety, but of the moot
absolute necessity. Tide new association of conspirators lattally put.
ported to be foe the prevention of unlawful meetings, he the posed.n
and exercise of the right of petitioning and for the mamma of gelomm
cee• but the veil was too slight and flimsy to disguise the rural do.
sign. They have indeed themselves inadvertently admitted the Ws.
chievous intent of their plan; for it came out at their meet.
lag that emissaries were to be sent into the provinces,
under the fallacious garb of of peace, while common sense
will easily discover that the teal iob was to organise a system of de-
termined Wstility to the existing order of things, with the view of ef.
fecting a rebellion against England ; and there can be no doubt that if
permitted to proceed in their present insidious course, they would be
enabled to inflame the mind.of the deluded multitude to such a degree
as shortly to venture upon as insurrectionary explosion throughout the
country. Upon all these considerations we cannot too highly applaud
the measures to which the wise foresight of the Irish Government have
caused them to resort; and upon the due execution of them we rest our
best hopes of the safety of Ireland.