This is the day which has...
The Times, 1824-05-11T00:00:00

This is the day wliich has been fixed by Lord ALTHORP for his motion upon the general state of Ireland. The subjetot is a fearful one. It relates to a country of which, under the most favourable circumstances, no more apposite description has ever been given than in the answer to the follo,f ing question-" Was Ireland quiet when you leftit ?" "0eil, yes, as quiet AS GUNPOWDER." If one were to be askei3 off hand to account for the never-ending disorders of that line country, at once the most u nsettledl in Europe, and; except China perhaps, the mnost unchanged on earth, it. might be alleged witli somzie aplearance of reason, that the evil was perpetuated by a stubborn repugnance in the nuli.rg power to look deep enough into the bosom of society for the roots of what appeared upon its surface, andl by the con sequent habit of legislating under a mistake of effects for calmes. There is no denying the truth wlhiclh has been br tlight home to us every day more forcibly than the day pyreeding, that Ireland, so far from keeping pace with the pr, gress of her sister island, has for many years be,vr. receding as England has advanced. In all those poijnts which the people of this country might be supposed to consider the tests of national progpe- rity, Ireland has undergone a retrowression the most palpable and grievous. The relative niumber of Protes- tants to Roman Catholics has rapidly diminished-the numnber of gentlemen, as compared with the poor-the amount of revenue, as compared with the expenditure-the number of the loyal, as contrasted with those who are not. On the other hand, the modes, the principles, and agents of coercion, have mnltiplied beyond a2 precedent. Penal laws and military force have attained in Ireland to a melan- choly vigour. Now, violent means, such as insurrection acts and armies, are in the nature of theia applicable to no other enl than merely to the repression of a disease which struggles for utterance. To seek the mischief in its source, or to provide for its extinction, has, excepting the two attempts of the tithe bill, and the burial bill just now coming into activity, never formed a perceptible ingredient of the system of Irish legislation. At no periodl has the animnosity of sect against sect, or of indigence against every species of possession, prevailed with more fury than at this moment in Ireland. We are told by some of the Mlinisters, that great things have been done for the Irish, and that they " ought not" to be discon- tented. lVho is the best judge of that? If the people are (liscon tented, it is a plain proof that more must be done than has been. Who, in his sober senses, will hope, by a speech, to arguesix millions and a halfofinen oit of theirfeelings? The samne MIinister affirns that the Catholics of Ireland embrace but the peasantry and poverty of the land. This is an unfair statement. There is a Popish aristocracy, and an old and reveredl one, though thinly scattered throughout Ireland; there is a gentry, and an active and afRuent mercantile body, though dating its origin from no earlier period than the first relaxation of the penal laws, some- thing more than forty years ago; there is a priesthood mighty in zeal and ascendency over their flocks-a peasantry almost innumerable. Miany well-meaning men of other persuasions fancy that ve can now retrace our steps in transacting with this most powerful body. No-we can neither retrace our footsteps, nor arrest them: we must be friends with our Cdtholic fellow-subjects-we can no longer afford to be in hostility -with them; nor can Irelantl be longer governeA by giving the Catholics only fair vords, and the Orange interest a monopoly of all the other good things in existence. The attempt to rule Ireland by a local Covernment, the several members of which arc designe( tbr so many checks upon each otler's movements, is a shamefil proof of incapacity in the counsels which gave birth to it. Among them the country suffers a death like that of being torn to pieces by wild horses. TIhe expedient, as it ought to do, has wvlolly failed. IVe feel with Lord ALTHORl, that therc exists no chance of amendment but in a solemn inquiry by Par- liament itself into the nature, the causes, and appropriate remedies, of that dreadful condlition to which fortune or folly has reduced a miserable nation. Mean- time a 4neasure has been resorted to, we suspect, for the sake of deadening the menaced attack by Lord AL- THORP. Mr GOUr.BunRS has given notice of a committee, whichl is to intit its inquiries into the expediency of conti- nuing or withidrawving the Insurrection Act in the southern counties! The House of Commons, we trust, will not be satisfied with any skin-deep applications, where the whole constitution is diseased. Let,however, the committee even on Mr. GoULBURN's plan he granted, and if it be not a packed committee, if any able and independent members be found upon it, then, indeed, we.shall be much amazed, at their consenting to tie up their hands, and confine their investi- gation within the narrow boundary sketched for them by the Irish Minister.