TOPICS OF TILE DAY.

THE OBSTACLE TO IRELAND'S IMPROVEMENT.

PERHAPS the most instructive feature of the O'Comism.. mani- festo against the Queen's Speech, is the shadowy, unreal nature of

most of its long list of grievances. Some are undeniably real, and grievous—as the anomalous ecclesiastical institutions, the compli- cation of rates, and such like : but by far the greater number are were show grievances, which will not stand the test of examination. For example, the result of the late census is appealed to as show- ing that misery is reducing the population of Ireland; whereas it merely shows that the previous enumerations, less accurately and less conscientiously made, had exaggerated the amount of the population. Again, Mr. O'CoNNELL complains that at the Union Ireland was obliged to give up two-thirds of her Representatives,

while Great Britain did not give up one. It is obvious, that in framing an Imperial Legislature, two things had to be considered,—

the most advantageous number of the whole body ; and the relative proportions in which the two incorporating nations were to contribute to its formation. Had Ireland retained as many Members in the Imperial House of Commons as it possessed in its own, an addition must have been made to the English Repre- sentatives, in order to preserve the just proportion between British and Irish Members ; and that might have made the total of the House too numerous. Whether the balance were preserved by diminishing the Irish Members or augmenting the English, was a matter of indifference. Either way, the Irish nation gained power. Instead of having an isolated Legislature, curbed by a Royal veto exercised by Ministers who held their offices by the tenure of pleasing the English Parliament in which Irishmen had no voice, Ireland obtained the power of nominating a strong minority in the House which made and unmade Ministers. In adding this multi-

tude of palpably bad reasons for Repeal to his few specious ones, Mr. O'CONNELL has acted like a lawyer with a desperate cause, stating all kinds of pleas in which he has no confidence, thinking there may be a chance of the judge or jury attributing more weight to some of them than he does himself.

There is another bad characteristic of this manifesto : like all Mr. O'Connell:a effusions, it rakes up the past with an inveterate

spirit. It aims at keeping alive an hereditary feud between two races. The Union at the close of last century is called the con- summation of the crimes perpetrated against Irelandby England for

centuries before—crimes which Mr. O'CONNELL vows are unpa- ralleled for atrocity in the history of mankind. This pertinacious effort to keep alive animosity,the causes of which belong to the past—

which have faded into the shadowy realms of tradition—is impor- tant on account of its connexion with a feature of the Repeal meet- ings which has been noticed by intelligent strangers. If the inte- rest seemed for a moment to flag, it but needed the introduction of an allusion to " the Saxons," and their oppressions of the Irish, to revive the spirit of fierce and earnest attention. The untangible nature of so many of the O'CorneELL grievances, and the strong and general feeling of hostility to England which would seem to pervade the Irish race, throw important light on the nature of the Repeal agitation. The desire for Repeal is not the less strong and operative that the reasons alleged in support of it are futile, and that it would be a measure incapable of pro- would seem to pervade the Irish race, throw important light on the nature of the Repeal agitation. The desire for Repeal is not the less strong and operative that the reasons alleged in support of it are futile, and that it would be a measure incapable of pro- ducing any one tangible benefit. Shadowy and unreal in itself, it has obtained possession of the national imagination, and may be all-powerful in controlling and directing the actions of the nation. If the Irish race loath the Union with England, however shadowy and fantastical the reasons why they do loath it, their conduct will be determined by them, just as the conduct of old Pagan nations was determined by their belief in the monstrous fictions of their mythology. The one great source of the difficulty in dealing with Ireland, is the utter want of amalgamation between the English and Irish races. To rule a people, public men must in the main feel and be- lieve with that people, or affect to do so. The popular leaders in Ireland have their power for good entirely neutralized by the exist-

ing hostility of race. Even O'CONNELL and the priests, omnipotent

though they appear to be in swaying the popular will, are powerful only so long as they swim with the stream—flatter and comply with that will. It were too much to expect from average human virtue, that men should abdicate their power because they are subject to a limitation in the use they must make of it ; and therefore Irish leaders go on making bad worse, strengthening the passionate pre- judice to which they in the first instance yield with hesitation and reluctance.

The danger resulting from this state of the Irish mind is but too real and apparent. Britain will not concede a repeal of the Union ;

and notwithstanding the great advance of the Irish since 1782 in numbers and discipline, they cannot force Britain to concede it. Even in the event of war, though the disaffection of Ireland

would be a certain and serious evil, still it would not be fatal; for if Ireland has grown in strength and discipline

since 1782, so has England. But an evil may be great without being inevitably fatal. And during the continu- ance of this state of affairs in Ireland, it is impossible to apply any adequate remedy to the great and undeniable suffering

which exists there. Even the organized and comparatively peace- ful agitation of O'CoNNELL is operative only as a means of pre- venting practical legislation for Ireland. It can only be upheld by the Irish Members insisting upon impracticable schemes in Par- liament, or by absenting themselves from the Legislature to agitate at home. Their tenure of authority depends upon their showing on all occasions a disposition to spite and thwart " the Saxons." And were the O'CoNNELL organization dissolved, matters would be not one jot less hopeless. It is true what O'CONNELL has said, that there has been less of agrarian and other outrage since he taught the Irish to move for political objects and en masse. Were the existing organization resolved back into the lawless anarchy out of which O'CONNELL brought it, the spirit of hatred to English rule would remain strong as ever, seeking vent in incessant desultory out- rages. And it is extremely questionable how long O'CONNELL may be able to preserve discipline among his troops. Mr. WILLIAM CONNOR'S attempt to elicit from the Repeal Association a resolution against paying rents until their object be attained, may only be the beginning of insubordination. The tactics of all agitators has been to tell the mob, that under certain circumstances they would approve of its wild fury. By dwelling ostentatiously on such themes, they keep wild thoughts alive in the minds of the populace. This serves the purpose for a time, till new candidates for popularity come forward and say, " You talk, but we will do." In this manner FEARGIIS O'CONNOR for a time withdrew the masses of the manufacturing districts from more cautious leaders ; and in this manner, WILLIAM CONNOR, or men like him, may take the reins out of O'CONNELL'S hands in Ireland.

Sooner or later—by the death of O'CoNNELL, or by his dethrone- ment from his unprecedentedly prolonged popular sway—the im- practicable organization of the Repeal party must relapse into the wild chaos out of which it was formed. But the animosity of race, which lent it power for a time, will long survive, to thwart and baffle the attempts of statesmen to give peace and prosperity to Ireland. So long as it continues to exist, Ireland will be a thorn in the side of England ; a strong position which she dares not evacuate lest it be occupied by enemies ; a province entailing trouble, anxiety, and expense in peace, and weakness in war. And so it must remain until the races be amalgamated.

The process of fusion must, under any circumstances, be the work of time; but it may be accelerated or retarded as Ministers act judiciously or the reverse. The incompatibility of races is always caused in a great measure, if not entirely, by difference of national traditions and daily pursuits, from which two sources men's minds are stored with ideas. Every thing that brings Irishmen to view life and its concerns in the same light as English- men, helps to make Englishmen of them. The introduction of capitalist-farmers, by such a fixity-of-tenure bill as Mr. Saes- MAN CRAWFORD contemplates—the opening up of the country by improved means of communication—well-regulated emigration, to adjust the balance between population and the present available resources of the country—the growth of capital under the in- fluence of these measures, and the consequent natural extension of manufactures and commercial enterprise—would gradually make the daily avocations of all classes of Irishmen the same as those of Englishmen. The abolition of the distinction between privileged and unprivileged churches—a distinction practically coextensive with that between races—and the establishment of an Executive as well as a Legislative Union between the two countries by sup- pressing the provincial Viceregal form of government—would ac- celerate the transformation, by removing institutions which almost appear framed to prevent the Irish and English from forgetting that they are different races. An extended system of secular education would be the most efficient complement of these eco- nomical and political measures. Whether elementary instruction were given in English, or as some recommend, in Irish, the effect would be the same. Every educated Irishman is and must be de- pendent upon English literature for amusement and information ; for an Irish literature, if such a thing ever existed, belongs to past cen- turies : it is dead, and can no more satisfy and nourish the minds of an existing generation, than fossilized birds, beasts, and seeds, could satisfy and nourish their bodies. And men whose minds were formed under the influence of the great thinkers of England would be Englishmen in their thoughts—as O'CONNELL and their other leaders already are, who may sometimes address to them a few sentences of " Irish Gaelic," but can only think and speak of politics in English.

All these measures, fitly adapted to each other, ought to be set in motion simultaneously. Even in that case, their operation would be gradual—slow. Till they took effect, Ireland would re- quire to be governed as it best might be—as emergencies rendered necessary : but every year would bring it nearer to the condition of England ; making it more and more easy to administer the laws ; developing by a sure though silent process a spirit of British loyalty in Ireland ; emancipating the Irish from their hordes of trading speculators in agitation.