350 NOTES OF THE MONTH. 



gild the reputation of their country. Would England stand as she 

 does, feared and respected, were it not for the blood of brave men? 

 Yet individuals who, in a single moment of honest enthusiasm, have 

 acknowledged the veteran's claims, are the first to begrudge him his 

 hard-earned reward. They would resume with one hand what they 

 gave with the other. A grateful reflection to the sailor and soldier, 

 in the hour of battle, of what he may expect from the gratitude of his 

 country ! Thank heaven, the feeling of the British people is not to 

 be measured by the contracted, heartless theories of financial specu- 

 lators. They would suffer much before they would rob the veteran 

 officer of his reward. The time has not yet arrived when he must 

 make the highway his home, and shew his scars for bread ! 







The Bill introduced by Lord Grey, for the Suppression of Disturb- 

 ances in Ireland, is the only measure of the present administration 

 we have looked upon with misgiving. It is truly a fearful step to 

 take against an already oppressed and insulted people. We will 

 acquit ministers of wantonness ; we believe them to be actuated by a 

 sense of necessity ; yet who can contemplate the frightfully despotic 

 measures now in progress, for the entire prostration of a portion of 

 our fellow subjects, the total alienation of their guaranteed rights, 

 of their very political existence as a people, without a feeling, an 

 ominous feeling of sorrow, for the awful responsibility which Minis- 

 ters have undertaken? We hoped that those detested symbols of 

 Irish legislation, the branding-iron and the gibbet, had passed away 

 for ever that the more enlightened system of conciliation and re- 

 dress, was about to be adopted in its stead ; for never, we are bold to 

 say, never will Ireland be what she ought to be, by affinity and cha- 

 racter, the right arm of this country, until every system of persecu- 

 tion be banished from the councils of her rulers. 



The people of Ireland have been governed for ages with a rod of 

 iron ; wrong after wrong have they endured, until, goaded into mad- 

 ness, they have risen against their oppressors. Their exertions to be 

 free have only rivetted their chains. They have been hunted down 

 on their own hills, and shot like wild dogs. No justice have they 

 ever had at the hands of their conquerors mercy has been a mockery, 

 a word unknown to them. Their national faith has been interdicted, 

 and a creed forced upon them which they abhor. By the enactment 

 of diabolical laws, has the son been incited to rebel against the 

 parent, the servant to betray his master arid then, when resistance 

 has increased to outrage, when despair is roused into retribution, 

 we lift our hands and eyes, and marvel how the blood-thirsty villains 

 can so ungratefully repay their merciful owners. We repeat that 

 we lament, deeply lament these measures, which nothing short of 

 actual rebellion can justify. Any temporary means would have been 

 preferable, until the whole extent of the intended redress could have 

 been developed. An inhuman system of tyranny never has supported 

 itself long in any civilized country ; insult is no balm for injustice. 

 The spirit of defiance engendered by the latter, the former will not 

 be likely to quell. 



