Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1844-07-05

J, oi tne country where lite has not an hour,
. purchase. These fearful crimes, published
throughout Europe, are sources of shame and
s humiliation to many who would be proud of
> their country
r And are those stories we read in news
papers, are they true p said De Bourqueny.
, uhhappily, they are too true. Thele is
much to say in palliation of resistance to
laws, which often seem arbitrary, and are
f always severe but nothing can excuse the
bood-thirsty spirit that deems murder the
f recompense Of any WRONG, real or imagn-
, ary.
There is a point never could UNDER
stand said De Bourquenv, nor have cv-
cr heard any one attcmptto explain. Why
arc these people, who seem so sangninarv
and rcvcngcful at home, abroad, so totally
the opposite What is there in the air OF
ireland that converts the gay, dashing fellow,
we know him here, into that barbarous mon
stcr, who shoots a man as he would "A mad
dog 2
Nor will YOU ever understand it, my dear
Colonel said the Count, till You know
something of lrisI, claracter-thr sirangcst
human compound that ever was formnd-so
fail Of seeming contradictions, and yet so
perfectly harmonious
Do your novelisls instruct one on this
head?'
i fear not mucI,,' said I, to whom the
question was addressed.
Say rather not at ALL intcrposnd the
Count Never was there a land which has
so little reason to be graceful to its chroni-
clerS; never was a country so DETAINED by
its dcscribers'
Come, come, Count said I, yon sure
~ forget one, whose grateful stories Of her
country have done great and good service to
! It's causc-whosG porraiture of character is
beautifully true and correct, and who has in
vested even the quiet monotonv life in the
middle classes Of society, with the strongest
interests, and elected the traits of people
by touches the most delicate and beautiful
I 'Thc authoress you alIude to has done all
I this, and moro. She has never, while depic-
I ting her counlrvmcn, descended to any undue
taitery OF hist high qualities, still less dcractcd
| from his real merits for the sake Of effect
No monsters Of crime or virtue have flowed
from her pen-content to paint from the life,
she presents the portrait without cxaggrra-
| t'O' VI "liN hiIi'. ilt'N WIN value HlONllu
and exciting events, or incidents of highly
wrought power, may deem these things tame;
but the truthful will live wien these wild en-
crescenccS of eyuberant fancy have witherch
to decay. never meant to incndc her in
my ccnsurc. What would condemn is the
habit OF yonr writers to seize on certain traits
small and insignificant lreqnen,ly-and by
these endeavor to convey portrai,ure Oithc
people. The same spirit of conquest that
brought the advenillrer over to Ireland to
burn, and STAY, and enact forfeiture of the
soil, has made his successor, the Anglo
llibernian, derive his profit of the people, bv
exhibiting them IN false and unnatural light.
The very same tyranny is as conspicuous in
the one case as in the other. The Irishmen
was the ilcot, whose drunken gambols should
anus" the pamprrcu appetite of his ruler
his butioonry was the stock il trade of every
farce writer-his laundering wit, the staple
of every jest against him. Expressions,
which caught their character and feeling from
being the transcripts of thought in his own
native language, were rdiculri for their alb
surdity and the very poetry of his nature
made sarcasm against him.
How little do they know of Ireland and
its people who regard the strong current of
native drollery and humor as the basis of the
national character. No people of Europe
have more strongly marked the features of
melancholy in their temperament than the
Irish. 1t is the characteristic ofthcir nation
al literature, of their music, of all their ra-
dliIons: their gestures, their idioms, their
uSares, all brtrav his. But it snitcd well the
insolcnt pride of the conqueror that then
shoue amuse him at the feast, whom he had
vanqushed in the field. The Jest which
broke IN bitterness from sorrowing heart,
was received as the mr,hul offering of one
who felt no shame in his degradation. What
other impressions have your dramali,ts or
tale writers ever conveyed than this and
even when they have cndeavored to clolhc
noble sentiments and honorable feelings in
the dress Of national idiom, what has been
the rcSult-has the sheer or the scoT been
less Sir Lucius O'Triggcr was intcnded
by Sheridan to represent a man of HIGH and
honorable molives-his pccuIiaritrs, such as
| they were, dwelt on to elicit favorable i'm
preston of his frankncss and candor: and
even his passion for duellng 1.-THE most repre-
henslbe trait about him) was painted more
as the vice of an age than of Il people. Yet.
how is he invariably represented, and how
would any deviation from such standard
be received by the pubicl The polroon,
Acres, the wretchcd mixture of insufrrable
concet and cowardice, is less the Bullo of
the piece than the Irish gentleman. An
English standard Was set up, to which every
thing must conform in morals, in manners
and in taste every deviation from which
was stigmaizcd as Irish, and being Irish, as
vulgar. The native eloquence of her speak.
crs was pronounced bombast-thc glowing
imagina,ions and teeming iancies of her ora
tors were a lest and gbe among her more
cold-lempered neighhors: all this one might
ioraive or forget, but how pardon the whole
sale calnmny that held whole people up to
scorn-that conld find no other features 10
describe in nation than the reckless merri-
mcnt, which momentary excitement threw
upprrmost, AS the volcano flashes in (itfnl