IRELAND—JUDGE JEBB. TOPICS OF THE DAY.
"IF a man, or if any man, or if any other man," as CHARLES IN- CLEDON says aped BYRON, imagined that the granting of the Catholic question would per se and instanter put an end to the heart-burnings, and house-burnings, and all the other burnings, that oppression and revenge, zeal religious and zeal political, had for centuries been kindling in the Green Isle of the West, such a man had a head worse furnished with precedents than the most ignorant pleader that ever marred a case. We may go further : if it was supposed that the fires which had raged so fiercely would be extinguished in a day, a month,
i or a year, he that indulged n such a supposition was most indifferently read in the history of nations and the . philosophy of human nature. There is the insolence of recently-acquired power—the intolerance of equality where dominion had so long been exercised—to be softened down ; there are habits long indulged to be changed, customs imme- morial to be done away, the social as well as the legal relations of the people to be modified, before the fruits of concession can arrive at maturity.
Judge Jana, speaking as a lawyer, says, and says truly, "the cele- bration of a legal event is legal." No one now can doubt that the vic- tory of the Boyne was a legal event, ergo Orange processions are legal. The Irish Catholic, speaking as a man says, "if any one on the 12th of August wave an orange lily over my head, I will beat his brains out." Why ?—Not because' th'e orange lily is the badge of this or that sect of religion or politics—not because it is the memorial of a revolu- tion the benefits of which the Catholic as well as the Protestant is ready to admit, but because it is used as a sign and a token of the de- gradation of the majority of the people of Ireland. That these proCes- sions in the olden time were not very modestly gone about—that, com- mencing in insult, they for the most part terminated in outrage—may easily be supposed, from the relations and temper of the parties ; but the grand source of the irritation they caused consisted not in broken heads or broken necks, but in the contrasted exhibition of victory and triumph, defeat and humiliation. We hope they will not be renewed; we rather think they will not; and yet we cannot very greatly blame the late celebration of a day that had been celebrated so long. While the disabilities of the Catholics continued, there was something like cowardice mixed with the contumely offered to them by those annual processions. The Protestants were armed by law with the giant's strength, and they Used it like giants— tyrannously. Now that the disabilities have been abolished, the pitiful part at least of the mixture is removed. There is no longer a display of courage where there is none to oppose. The Orange flag is as hateful as ever to the Catholics, but contempt no longer mingles with his anger. We are not certain that the Protestants would not have suffered more from refraining to assemble on the present occasion than they did by assembling, even in the estimation of O'CONNELL and his followers. Their prudence would have gained them less credit than their courage has done. But having shown that they are not afraid, they must stop there. What was bold this year would be impudent the next, and it would be both impudent and ridiculous if persisted in.
As we do not view the late ebullition of Protestantism in precisely the same light as many of our contemporaries, neither can we agree with them in recommending such .desperate measures as dispensing with trial by Jury, or the proclaiming of martial law with a view to prevent its recurrence. Those who wish to tie up the "boys" from mis- chief, would do well to remember, in their zeal for decorum, that the same piniOning which prevents the abuse has a tendency to destroy the use of unruly legs and arms. Regulated freedom mug spring out of regulated despotism, but the soil is not favourable. There is another consideration which we would impress on our own countrymen. Irishmen are universally magniloquent. Catholics, Protestants, gentle, simple, all creeds, and all degrees, have, as ZACHARY BOYD says of the Man of Uz—" a good gift of the gob." We must not look for "wool" in proportion to "cry" in honest Patrick, more than in the grunting, squeaking, potato-munching, mire-loving animal with which his habi- tation is shared. It appears, on analyzing the riots of the last three weeks, that a vast deal more has been made of them than they de- served. Once let capital be freely introduced—let manufactories be established—let the people get more to do, and they will find less to say. At present everything—great, little, sweet, sour, good, bad— must be talked at, to, and about, not because it deserves such super- fluity of discussion, but because the time of the talkers is great and
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