246 THE MINISTRY, THE ARISTOCRACY, AND THE PEOPLE. 



is now condemned to a poverty little short of actual starvation. The 

 case of Ireland affords a striking example of the baneful consequences 

 which result from allowing a pauper population to depend upon the 

 contributions of a voluntary charity; for the hordes of beggars with 

 which every part of the country is overrun, not only encourage all 

 kinds of superstition, but propagate the most mischievous political 

 doctrines or delusions, the influence of which, although imperceptible, 

 is not therefore the less powerful and dangerous. Every man who 

 is ejected from his farm, or who is unable to procure settled labour, 

 must, as a matter of necessity, become a common beggar, and thus 

 there exists a vast and daily increasing mass of vigorous men, who, 

 with feelings embittered by their own sufferings, are ready to join in 

 any attempt, however criminal, and however desperate, which pro- 

 mises to afford them present relief, or at least to satisfy their ardent 

 desires of revenge. But the destitution of the labouring class in 

 Ireland is not only the cause of the general misery and insecurity 

 which prevails in that country, but also exercises a most direct and 

 pernicious influence over the condition of the working classes through- 

 out the whole empire ; so that if even the British people were insen- 

 sible to the feelings of humanity, and the considerations of justice, a 

 regard to their own interest must compel them to admit the necessity 

 of doing something for the Irish poor. Great numbers of Irish la- 

 bourers, flying from the misery which everywhere meets them in 

 their own country, are flocking into the united kingdom, and must 

 soon succeed in reducing wages to an amount basely sufficient to 

 supply the indispensable wants of nature ; and is there a man who is 

 prepared to contemplate the mere probability of our own working 

 classes being reduced to the degraded situation of Irish labourers, 

 although we believe this catastrophe to be inevitable, unless some 

 system of poor laws is established in Ireland. 



Deeply impressed with these considerations, we did fondly hope 

 that ministers, whatever else they neglected, would have directed 

 their especial attention to Ireland, and would have felt it to be their 

 first duty, not only to devise means for putting an end to the dis- 

 orders which prevailed in that country, but also honestly and fear- 

 lessly to search into the causes from which these disorders sprung, 

 and to employ every possible effect for the speedy removal of such 

 causes. But we fear that the Church Bill, and the appointment of a 

 committee to inquire into the propriety of establishing poor laws, 

 are, so far as respects Ireland, destined to be the only fruits of the 

 first session of the reformed Parliament. We deeply regret that such 

 should be the case, for there is no question connected with our do- 

 mestic policy which can less bear to be tampered with than the situ- 

 ation of Ireland, and ministers are grievously deceived if they imagine 

 that the Coercion Bill has produced real and permanent tranquillity; 

 and they may rest assured that it will never do so, unless followed 

 up by a full redress of their grievances, the continued existence of 

 which gives to that bill the aspect of a tyrannical attempt to put 

 down those just remonstrances which such grievances must and ought 

 to excite. We earnestly hope, however, that if ministers see another 

 session of Parliament, they will repair the capital error, and even 



