only of late that its situation has awakened the public attention, and that the severity with which it has been treated, and the cruelties to which it was exposed, have been deemed worthy of full and candid consideration.

It may be asked, what purpose can it serve to recal these grievances to our recollection, or to refer us to so afflicting a period of Irish history? In this I have two ends in view, nearly allied to the object which it is designed these pages should promote. First, to shew how unjustly Ireland has for a long time been treated, and thus to unfold some of the causes which have retarded its improvement: and, secondly, to shew how much should be done by way of retribution for a country so long neglected.

The first of these particulars needs little illustration. It can never be unseasonable to place before our eyes circumstances, which, however disgusting, have nevertheless been real; and which, though now known only by historic records, have produced effects that will be felt for ages. It is to the period to which Mr. Hume refers, and to a few centuries subsequent to it, that we are to trace many of the sources of that complication of misery and wretchedness at which the people of this country wonder.

Indeed, there has been something singularly. unfortunate in the fate of the native Irish: cir

cumstances in close succession, since their first connection with England, have occurred to vitiate and depress them. Over some of these circumstances the government of this country had little controul; though many of them have certainly been occasioned by the policy avowed by the ministers of Queen Elizabeth, which is expressed in the following words. "Should "we exert ourselves in reducing this country

to order and civility, it must soon acquire 66 power, consequence, and riches. The inha"bitants will be thus alienated from England;

66

they will cast themselves into the arms of "some foreign power, or perhaps erect them"selves into an independent and separate 66 state. Let us rather connive at their disor"ders; for a weak and disordered people never " can detach themselves from the crown of England."*

66

The second object which I had in view, in this short sketch, was to shew how much it behoves Britain to do for this country by way of retribution. What has been done to ameliorate the state of the Irish? Doubtless much; but it may be said, that little has been accomplished, compared with what should have been done. We talk as if we were astonished at the ignorance, the wickedness, the cruelty, and the intellectual degradation of the people of

* Leland's History of Ireland, v. iii.

Ireland, whilst we forget that the profligacy, the rapacity, the nationality, and bigotry, of our fathers contributed directly or indirectly to the production of these evils; whilst the wise policy, the patient and benevolent exertion of their descendants, have done little to remove them. It is easy for the numerous tribes of our little politicians to say, that there is a radical difference in disposition and genius between that people and ourselves, that they have a strong inaptitude to the pursuit or attainment of moral excellence, that all our measures for their improvement must be fruitless, and that public order and future allegiance among them, can only be maintained by the arm of power. This is the language of prejudice and ignorance; it is the conception of narrow minds, who are incapable of taking a comprehensive view of a subject. For it is education, it is a free government, it is religion and moral instruction that form the national character; and it becomes us seriously to inquire, whether these blessings have been enjoyed by our neighbours and fellow subjects, or whether some of them, at least, have not been withheld. It is certain that we are their debtors to a very large amount, and that much must be done before we can quit the score of justice and begin that of generosity. This will appear farther in the sequel.

CHAP. VI.

THE PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION IN IRELAND-REMARKS ON THE STATE OF MORALS AND RELIGION, BEFORE THIS PERIOD.

THE mere establishment of forms of religion and of civil government, however pure in their nature, and beneficial in their tendency, can be of little avail to the general happiness of any people, unless they have been previously prepared for their reception, and unless the adoption of them be the effect rather than the cause of their improvement. It can contribute little to the good of the people, that in states the most corrupt, where the multitude are grossly stupid and ignorant, revolutions take place in infinite succession: these changes only give them new masters, whilst they leave their condition marked with the same unvaried supineness, the same apathy to noble and vigorous exertion, the same melancholy and hopeless degradation. There has been a revolution in France as well as in England; but the one has secured the liberty and independence of the

subject for ever, while the other has produced a power which attempts to destroy the dearest remains of all that claims the sympathies and affections of man, and threatens with its gigantic force to bring the whole world again into bondage. It was not because the French people wanted philosophers and patriots, men who sincerely wished the renovation of the state, and the happiness of society, that their chains have thus been rivetted; but the multitude was ignorant: they had more of the senseless forms of popery than of the pure morality of that religion whose name it assumes; they had more of the blind fanaticism of a revolutionary phrenzy, than of the popular enthusiasm of a nation already beyond the power of thraldom, because they determine to be free-already in the enjoyment of liberty, because they are capable of appreciating the inconceivable advantage of that liberty at which they aim.

Are we then to conclude, that unless a people be somewhat enlightened, all forms of government, whether civil or religious, are in point of utility to them alike? This were perhaps granting too much; since it is more probable that a free government, if, indeed, such an institution can in such circumstances long exist, will improve the condition of the people sooner than one of an opposite description. It is per