Glasgow Courier. — 1846-04-18 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

CELTIC RAVINGS. The newest solution of that pretended modern mystery, "the Irish character," has been discovered by the Nation. Turbulence and supineness' a desire of revolution and an apathetic submission to "slavery "—all the paradoxical mixture is made clear by the fact that the Irish are a potato-eating race. Why so simple a root should operate like laughing gas at one time and opium at another, or why the swallowing of potatoes should fill the head with party politics, or the mysterious connection which exists between eating an esculent and shooting an esquire, is not clearly explained. The Nation, however, has no doubt but that the murphies" are the cause of the " Maguires," and . .  the recruiting serjeant's promise of beef and broth does not so soon secure for him the starving labourer as the potato swells the ranks of Captain Rock. The same writer specu. . . . . „  lates to the effect that John Heki and the New-Zealanders  succeed in battle owing to the circumstance that they are "lined with pork ;" and that the Hindoos are submitted to the strange process, for so many millions, of being "kicked by the beef-eating British like a foot-ball from one end of India to another," because they eat rice; and are therefore more suitable material for foot-balls. These speculations are ingenious, but are not quite so valuable in the present bent of public interest as the account of the effect of potatoes in Ireland:—  "Where's the use of talking of liberty to a wretch that luxuriates in lumpers ? Are not all manly appeals lost upon a scoundrel who lives with his pig, like his pig, and every way but the way he should live—ow his pig-t "Who degrades human nature? "The contented lumper-eater. "Who raises beyond endurance the rent of land? "The landowners. "A lie—a lie! 'Tis the contented lumper-eater. "Who stains our land with cowardly, behind-the-hedge murders? "The infamous contented lureper-eater. "This pig-like imitation of a man degrades human nature by his sordid, unholy content with trash that never was intended for him; brings up children as pig.like as himself, and teaches them that, if they have luntpere, they have all that man should have!" Our readers will be surprised to learn that landlords are shot by "contented' eaters of potatoes, who decline the novel species of lodging, namely—" on their pigs," so kindly pointed out by the Notion. If Irish content arms itself with an unregistered gun at nights to beat round the hedges for a shot at a stray justice of the quorum, we should think that Irish disturbance would be even preferable. To be a contented man, the "lumper-eater" above denounced seems the most turbulent of human beings. But the charges against him are not concluded—  "This is the villain who will take the land over any man's bend, at any price; who tempts the needy, greedy, robbing jobbing gentry—their Honours'—with any rent; and drives decent men, who will eat like Christians, to quit their native land, and go to America, or elsewhere. "This is the wretch who provokes all sorts of violence and out. ; who brings all men down to his own level—the level of a swine; who will not endure to see any man live better than be; who is always crying, ' Lord help us,' and dare never help himself —vermin who provoke, and who, in some sort, excuse every act of tyranny, from the desperate cowardice with which they seem determined to endure it." Although this writer manages to dress the very little truth he tells in a manner the most ridiculous and least likely to effect any good, yet it is impossible to deny that the beginning of this last extract is too true. Cobbett's opinion about potatoes, which the Nation expands with the addition otso much nonsense, was correct to a most melancholy extent. The necessities of the present race of Irish landlords compel them to obtain the highest possible rent; the necessities of the peasantry compel them to offer an amount of rent out of all possibility of being paid, that they may find a place to lay their heads. In such circumstances of course the highest bidder will be declared the tenant, and he who eats only potatoes will be a higher bidder 'than the repot am:Awned to live even in a state ap.