1828.] Lord Wellesleys Administration in Ireland. 57 



effect has that bill produced ? It disgusted the ecclesiastical pride of the 

 Catholic clergy, who refused to solicit the permission of the Protestant 

 clergy to do that which they deemed the natural and inalienable privilege 

 of every Christian under heaven ; and since the passing of the bill, we 

 believe, not a single instance has occurred, in which the usual service 

 was performed at the interment of a Catholic ! But it has done more ; it 

 has suggested to the association, the idea of establishing burial grounds 

 for themselves, which they are now doing in Dublin, thus perpetuating, 

 even in death, that separation which has existed amongst Protestants and 

 Catholics while living. His administration has also produced Petty Ses- 

 sions and a Constabulatory Force. Both wholesome measures, but daily 

 falling into suspicion. And, lastly, his administration produced that act 

 by which the expression of public sentiment is restricted and impeded. 



We think it follows, that Lord Wellesley's administration has not been 

 merely negative : that the evils it has done have left their effects behind 

 them, and that the good is at the mercy of the next empiric who takes 

 the tortured patient in hands. It must be remarked, too, that the friends 

 w r hich his moderation raised up for him, received none of his protection, 

 but were abandoned to the calumnies and vengeance of a faction while 

 his enemies, who secretly betrayed and publicly traduced him, were 

 suffered to proceed with impunity. These are facts for history we but 

 sketch : and in consigning to the temperate verdict of his country the 

 last five years of his lordship's life, we think we have not given an undue 

 importance, or an exaggerated colouring, to the events embraced in that 

 period. We have simply stated the leading features we are not partisans 

 enough to conceal or heighten a single truth. 



NOTES FOR THE MONTH. 



The month has passed over, without producing any thing definitive 

 as to the affairs of Turkey. The official despatches received up to the 

 29th ultimo, (November) the contents of which have been rather 

 sparingly promulgated look like war : but still, like war, undertaken 

 with something of a rebuked spirit, and less of suddenness and deter- 

 mination, than was wont to distinguish the Ottoman policy. Since the 

 date of the official intelligence, some reports have circulated of a 

 proposition for a peace : but this news wants confirmation. 



For ourselves we find it still difficult to be persuaded, that the 

 conclusion of this affair will be otherwise than pacific. We do not 

 believe that the Turks will be so mad as to rush into a war, which can 

 have no other result even their blindness., we should think, can imagine 

 no other result to it than their destruction. In fact, their ruin is the 

 event that the opponents of war among ourselves, are apprehending: there 

 is no creature wild enough (even in the fury of party) in England, to 

 suggest the possibility of their success. Be the event, however, what it 

 may, the JUness of the course adopted remains unaltered : if the deci- 

 sion were to occur again, we believe that England could take no other 

 policy than that which she has pursued. If we will have the benefit of 

 a free and liberal policy in the relations and communications of nations, 

 we must be prepared now and then to undergo the trouble of insisting 

 upon that policy, with those whose interests, or passions, would lead 



M.M. New Series. VoL.V. No. 25. I 



