Martinsburgh gazette. [volume] (Martinsburgh, Va. [W. Va.]) 1810-1825, 1824-08-26
REFLECTIONS Or THE STATE
OF LIZ ELAND Sc

1t has been observed by Dir Hume,
that there is, in human stlairs, an en-
tremc point Of depression, from which
they naturally begin TO ascend la an
opposite direction. We think ta,s OBJ
servalion must soon be verified in the
case Of Ireland. The excess Of misery
in which the people Of that unfortunate
country are now involved, the magnitude
of their numbers, and their growing
iierccuess and desperation, will. at NO
distan. period, compel that attention TO
be paid to their claims for a redress of
grievances, which has heen so long de-
! nied to Inc calls of justice and humeni-
| ~. Ever since the era of the Conquest,
Ireland has, few short intervals only
excepted, been subjected 10 military
regime. Laws of the most revolving and
sanguinary description have been enact
ed and vigorously enforced. Instead Of
investigating and removing the causes
| disorder, the rulers Of ireland have
generally coatented themselves with en-
| deavoringto suppress them by force
TIE gibbet and the bayonet--thosc so
vereign and iniallble specifics Of weak
and vindictive legislators--have been
kept in state of incessant activity, and
the whole country has been outraged
and disgraced by the ceaseless recur--
renee of bloody and barbarous execu-
tons. But has this harsh treatment
eradicated, OF, at all assuaeed, the evil
passions of the people' Has it made
them orderly, industrious, and submis-
siyes Let the late instruction acts,
and the inhuman atrocities now perpe-
trating in Limerick and the adjoining
! counties, answer these questions OPP
! preston and ulisgovernmest are not the
means by which the government of any
country can be secured. Feace and
prosperity do not spring from.the sword.
The experience of four hundred years
must surely convince every reasonable
person, that the system on which tho
| government of Ireland has been, and
still 10 conducted, is radically vicious
and unsound. During the whole of that
period, murder has followed murder,
and insurrection has succeeded to insur-
rection, in one continuous and uninter-
rupted series. There are no verdapt
spots--no cases--in this moral WASTE
Whenever the struggle between opprss-
sion and revenge has ceased, the rival
parties have employed the treacherons
and delusive tranquility that followed to
whet their angry feelings and passions,
end have never failed TO rush with new
fury into their unnatural and parricidal
contest. The incentives to crime have
been suffered TO gather strength and lux
uriance--to scatter their seeds and
+ spread their roots on all sides; and
crime has, in consequence, become
more prevalent than ever. Oppression
| produced outrage; and outrage was
I alleged as sufficient reason for inerea-
sing the severity OF the law. This, again,
occasioned fresh outrages, and gave to
revenge deeper and a deadIier dye.
-White-boys, Oak-bovs, Steel-boys,
Peep Of day-boys, Carders, Caravats,
Thrashers, Ribbonmen, sc. SC. have
al! been guilty of ;he very same excess
ses that are now perpetrating, and with
out lettering others by their fate, have
each, insuccession, expiated their crimes
upon the s,aHoldl
Is this system never 10 have an end'
Are not the numberless victims that
have been sacrifice not centuries
of national degradation, distraction and
civil war--snoush to convince the Par
Lament of England, that coercion, that
mere brute force, is not the means by
which the tranquility Of ireland can be
established on solid basis, The Irish
are not gratuitous ruffians. There is
nothing either incurably bad O. vicious
in their character--thev have the same
feelings and affections as tire people of
England. 1t is the circumstances in
whichthey are.placed--their squalid and
abject poverty-their gross Ignorance,
and the violence that has been done to
rights, feelings, prejudices, and opin-
ions, that have rendered them cruel,
savage, and vindictive. The enemies
of Ireland do not pretend to saw that
the present discontents have originated
in political motives. Catholic aud Pro-
testant, Wing and Tory, seem 10 have
been equally the object Of popularyen-
geance. The present is, in fact, real
6etium scribe an Instruction of an
oppressed and starving peasantry against
police officers, landlords, middlemen,
orangemen and against
all, in a word, whom they consider as