610 IRELAND AND HER COMMENTATORS. 



hitherto in rendering any scheme for the amelioration of Ireland's 

 burdens sufficiently plausible to warrant general support. No English- 

 man has done so. But of all men who have volunteered the erection 

 of a substantial system of relief, the author of the volumes entitled 

 " Ireland in 1834," has laid the most permanent groundwork, and 

 that simply by stating unvarnished truths. 



We are of opinion that Mr. Inglis' publication will speedily remove 

 that supine feeling we have deplored. Those who have extenuated 

 their criminal indifference to the well-being of millions of their fel- 

 low-men, because of the lack of correct knowledge, are now deprived 

 of that excuse. The long-exercised habits of inquiry which enabled 

 Mr. Inglis to secure the approbation of the British public in his 

 former works, and the aptitude therein abundantly evinced of his 

 capability of seeing things with other eyes than those of ordinary 

 tourists, pre-eminently qualified him to execute the volumes under 

 the head already quoted. He has succeeded as far as success was 

 practicable. Erroneous inferences he has certainly occasionally 

 drawn ; but those inferences were, perhaps, unavoidable, from the 

 circumstance of his committing the result of his first impressions at 

 once to paper. But his work is invaluable as a manual of facts in- 

 disputable facts told without bias, passion, or prejudice, and pre- 

 sented to the philosopher and statesman in a shape of fourfold the 

 worth of all the commissioners' reports ever published on the same 

 subject. If political theorists err in future in divining a remedy for 

 the ills of Ireland, their errors will be attributable to other causes 

 than those that have hitherto afforded excuse for their blunders. 

 Ireland is unquestionably a paradox in many respects j but Mr. Inglis 

 has demonstrated that she is an enigma of much less difficult solution 

 than the majority of speculators on nations have supposed. 



The importance of the subject warrants us in appropriating a more 

 than ordinary space to its consideration ; but our remarks must, never- 

 theless, be comparatively brief; because a less than total transference 

 of nearly all Mr. Inglis' facts would not be sufficient to elucidate the 

 numerous difficulties with which the question is beset. 



Mr. Inglis landed in Dublin, of which he speaks favourably as to 

 its architectural beauties ; and, we are surprised to find, echoes the 

 hacknied fallacy of Sackville-street being as fine as any street in 

 Europe. There are a score of streets in London much finer, and Re- 

 gent-street contains the materials of half a dozen such. Sackville- 

 street, viewed from Carlisle-bridge, looks very well, but it lacks 

 many of the attributes of a great commercial thoroughfare. The 

 shops are neither many nor splendid, and the hotels, of which there 

 are numbers, can hardly be discerned from private houses. Nelson's 

 pillar, situate in the middle, and much resembling the York monu- 

 ment in Pall Mall, is a very ambiguous ornament ; and, with the ex- 

 ception of the Post Office, which is really a handsome structure, we 

 are unaware of any peculiar beauties of which Sackville-street can 

 boast. It is the widest street we ever saw, and hence, we suppose, it 

 is pronounced the finest. For our own parts we think it is eulogized 

 more for fashion's sake than its own merits. However, this is a ques- 

 tion of very minor importance one way or the other. Speaking of 



