HUMBUG OF THE BAR. 



preserves this island from the rash and furious convulsions of all despotic 

 countries : nor is it too much to affirm that to the system of poor-rates alone 

 is it owing that London has never witnessed the ferocious massacres of Con- 

 stantinople and Madrid. When it is known that the agriculture rental of 

 Ireland amounts annually to the sum of sixteen millions sterling, it is appa- 

 rent that a small charge upon the soil would tend greatly to remove the 

 poverty, sedition, and revenge which now exist in the unfortunate sister 

 kingdom. 



The grand source of Irish discontent the tithe system is also left with- 

 out material alteration, for a commutation of tithes is a mere removal of the 

 burthen from one shoulder to another, and whether exacted from the land- 

 lord or the tenant, the amount is virtually rendered from the soil already 

 overburthened by a starving population ; and unable to be further ex- 

 hausted for the maintenance of a priesthood with whom an immense majo- 

 rity of the people have no community of feelings, habits, or belief, A sys- 

 tem of commutation is an evasion which cannot now stem the torrent of re- 

 sistance to the oppressions of the church. 



The proposed measures of coercion are decidedly objectionable. At this 

 period of the world in the midst of the intelligence of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury, and but a day after the revolutionary triumph of the people of France 

 it is amazing to find an enlightened and patriotic government, in other re- 

 spects, venturing upon the annihilation of all constitutional liberty, by the 

 erection of martial courts, the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, an un- 

 limited power of search, and a curfew bell the badge of slavery in the most 

 dark and brutal annals of this kingdom. The attempt by such means to 

 subdue unanimous millions, recals to us the spectacle of Xerxes throwing 

 chains upon the sea. We regret the measure as an " untoward" blunder of 

 well-intentioned men, and trust with confidence to the power of public 

 opinion for the prevention of scenes which in former times would have dis- 

 solved for ever the connection of these islands. 



HUMBUG OF THE BAR. 



" No money returned" 



PLAY BILL. 



AN honest lawyer is one of those hazardous miracles that would 

 damn a play ; under unfortunate circumstances, " my rascally attor- 

 ney" is as indispensable a phrase, as " my impertinent tailor ;" but 

 who ever heard of " my blackguard of a barrister ?" Who disputes 

 the honour of the bar ? Surely Mr. Serjeant Such-a-one is an ho- 

 nourable man ! 



" So are they all all honourable men." 



But the bar holds itself out not only as an honourable, but as a 

 liberal and learned profession : let us investigate its title to these 

 three characteristics, first, putting it as a proposition, that honour 

 opposed to honesty, becomes disgrace ; learning applied to the sub- 

 version of truth, worse than ignorance ; and liberality at the expense 

 of justice, knavery. 



The advocates of ancient Rome were not mere hirelings to them 

 the term client meant something more than a customer, or a custo- 



