The power wielded by the authorities in Ireland is not
sufficient to secure the safety of the Queen. The visit of the Sovereign, recently promised, has been indefinitely postponed : all the ad- vantages, therefore, which were so obviously derivable from the Royal presence have been abandoned, avowedly in consequence of the violent intimations put forth by some of the chief agitators, who feared so legitimate a rivalry in attracting the multitude. Whether this defeat of power is due to deficiencies in the law, or to indecision in the enforcement of the law, the admission equally calls for some ulterior steps.
Nor is it the sole evidence that a new action is needed. The last effort at something like vigorous legislation to keep down rebellion, the Sedition Act, is worked with promptitude and firmness ; but the perverted state of mind which exists among a considerable number of the more inflamed politicians in Ireland only serves to multiply the crop of felons as they are picked off by the operation of the law. The enforcement of the act, like that of so many others in Ireland, has degenerated into a bitter but ludicrous game between the officers of the law and the officers of the anti-law. The writers and the printed copies of the Irish Felon and of the Nation undettrepeated seizure in the midst of a half tragical half farcical tumult at the newspaper-offices and , the police-court ; for in Ireland, your great historical tragedy is pretty sure to attain its climax in the theatre of the police. The sport is a monstrous burlesque on the boy's play of" King Cello" —a game of bravado, dodging,s, and capture; highly exciting to the parties engaged, but not very manifestly conducing to the dignity or influence of the law. Particular felons, no doubt, may be caught ; but it is in a man- ner which stimulates rather than suppresses the Irish taste for imbroglio; and in the mean time the larger preparations for re- bellion proceed without check. The organization of clubs has been improved, and seems to have been extended over a considerable portion of the country. It is a species of organization so utterly antagonistic to any central authority deserving the name of Go- vernment, that even the late revolutionary Government of France was compelled to put it down. A country whose population has been organized into secret clubs is in a condition absolutely in- compatible with civil government ; and the true political organi- zation can as little be restored without a dissolution of the false, as one chemical compound can be converted to another without a reconstruction of its elements. The members of the two Houses of Parliament who have called upon Government for a more energetic vindication of the law, and especially for the forcible suppression of the clubs, have pointed out a measure as obvious as it is urgently necessary. The reply of Ministers, however, that the subject of the memorial " constantly occupies the earnest attention of her Ma- jesty's Government,' is disheartening. We all know what offi- cial people, especially Whig officials, mean by " attention " to a subject ; but " constant attention" is alarming for the pro- tracted deliberation which it implies—the more so as such very slight signs of action have heretofore resulted from the said " constant attention " : what would be said if Mr. Braidwood, instead of going forth with his engines, were to answer a demand to put out a great fire, by saying that the conflagration was oc- cupying the "constant attention" of the Fire Brigade?
