244 THE MINISTRY, THE ARISTOCRACY, AND THE PEOPLE. 



punishing, and restraining crimes, which, although they violated 

 the very first laws of civil society/ might be traced to that system of 

 misgovernment, and oppression, under which Ireland had so long 

 groaned. It would be madness to suppose, that the Coercion Bill, 

 would ever have been supported by such large majorities in the 

 House of Commons, or submitted to by the country, except on the 

 understanding that the government of Ireland, was henceforth to be 

 conducted on liberal principles ; and that while existing laws were 

 to be maintained, not a moment was to be lost in modifying, or 

 repealing those enactments originally unjust in themselves; or by 

 their known consequences, productive of incalculable evils. Had 

 not those members of the liberal party, who supported the Coercion 

 Bill, acted upon such an understanding, they would have been 

 guilty of the most shameful inconsistency ; for every one of them 

 professed, to hold it as a first principle, that misgovernment was the 

 great source of all the evils which afflicted Ireland. 



We are firmly convinced, that at least, the liberal portion of the 

 present administration, while determined to maintain the supremacy 

 of law, and justice, in Ireland ; was not less determined to institute 

 a fearless, and searching inquiry, into the numerous grievances, of 

 that unhappy country : and to provide means for their effectual and 

 speedy removal. But whatever were the intentions of ministers, 

 how lamentably deficient have been their performances; and, can 

 the most zealous, and partial advocate of government, deny, that the 

 Irish Church Bill, even in its original and unmutilated state, was 

 but a poor and paltry equivalent, for measures whose severity ex- 

 torted, even from the Tories, something like disapprobation. Even 

 in so far as respects its peculiar object, the Irish Church Bill is very 

 deficient, and can only prove acceptable as the commencement of a 

 still more extensive and efficient Reform ; although under existing 

 circumstances, we think it would have been much better to have 

 gone at once to the root of the evil, and to have placed the Irish 

 Church, at least prospectively, upon a footing which might have 

 satisfied its liberal friends, if not those who were altogether opposed 

 to its existence. It is impossible that the Catholics, while they form 

 the vast majority of the Irish population, can now rest tranquil or 

 satisfied, while they are compelled to contribute directly, to the sup- 

 port of a religious establishment, which they regard with abhorrence: 

 and, if there exist, on the part of England, any desire that the 

 legislative union between Great Britain and Ireland, should be 

 maintained and strengthened, the direct taxes, raised in behalf of the 

 Protestant church, must be abolished, and that very speedily. The 

 true friends of the Protestant religion in Ireland, will act wisely, if 

 they sanction, and advocate a church reform ; which by the com- 

 mutation of tithes, the abolition of the other church imposts, and a 

 fair, and judicious distribution, of the ample revenues of the church, 

 may place the Protestant establishment in a situation, which may 

 command the respect, without provoking the hostility, of its nume- 

 rous and formidable enemies. Let no man go away with the false 

 impression, that such a reform, can only be the work of time ; it 

 must be commenced in good earnest, and that immediately, if it is 



