IRELAND.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:1
SIR,—Perhaps, in the present state of affairs, you may think it worth while to place before your readers the following passage, taken from a letter of Sir Walter Scott, dated April 4th, 1825, and addressed to his son, who was then in Ireland :—" The Catholic question seems likely to be carried at last. I hope, though I doubt it a little, that Ireland will be the quieter, and the people more happy. I suspect, however, that it is laying a plaster to the feet while the head aches, and that the fault is in the landholders' extreme exactions, not in the disabilities of the Catholics, or any more remote cause." Such an opinion, ex- pressed by so acute an observer of men and things, a Tory by birth and conviction, may help to satisfy some who fear that the landlords in Ireland are now receiving less than justice, and to encourage those who are patiently hoping that in due time the Irish Land Act will prove the true remedy for Irish discontent.—I am, Sir, &c ,
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