1831.] Europe at the Commencement of the Year 1831. 125 



Sea for an impassable ditch ; with the most compact and vigorous popu- 

 lation on earth to man this mighty fortress ; with Fleets for her outposts, 

 invincible by human force ; with the power of sending a force on the 

 wings of the wind to attack any kingdom of the earth on the most 

 vulnerable side ; what necessity can we have for a Standing Army ? 

 When all our colonies are fatal to European life, ho r shall the pretext 

 be advanced, that we require this army for our colonial possessions ? It 

 is notorious that a militia raised in the colonies, of men seasoned to the 

 climate, and acquainted with the habits of the natives, and the face of 

 the country, is the only description of force that common sense would 

 think of using. The hideous mortality of the British troops in the 

 West Indies should have long since taught us, on the mere ground of 

 humanity, the senselessness of giving the defence of the West Indies to 

 the raw recruits of England. 



We are not to be told that the state of Ireland requires a standing army. 

 Our answer is, that the Irish yeomanry would be more than equal to put 

 down any papist insurrection ; that it put down a papist insurrection be- 

 fore ; and that from its cheapness, its constitutional nature, and its adap- 

 tation to the circumstances of Ireland, it is of all forces the fittest to 

 put down Irish disturbance. To advert to other points. 



The burnings have been repressed for the moment in some degree; 

 but they have not been put an end to. The capital condemnations have 

 neither deterred the incendiaries, nor detected the principals. It seems 

 unquestionable that there are some individuals, at least, of wealth, be- 

 hind the curtain, and neither public justice nor private security will be 

 attained until those criminals, tenfold more guilty than their wretched 

 tools, shall have fallen into the hands of the law. The state of Ireland 

 is the next that forces itself on our contemplation. That country exhibits 

 a scene which must make the members of the late ministry cover them- 

 selves with sackcloth and ashes, if they were capable of either shame or 

 repentance. The " healing measure," the " measure of unanimity," the 

 " infallible conciliation," has turned out to be a firebrand, as every 

 friend of the protestant religion and constitution told the Duke of Wel- 

 lington, Sir Robert Peel, and the rest of the Cabinet. They were told 

 as distinctly as words could tell them, " You are blindly holding out a 

 premium by this Emancipation, to a gang of disturbers, who live by 

 disturbance ; youi measure is actually alienating the whole respectable 

 portion of Ireland, taking the sword out of the hand of the protestant, 

 and stimulating the rude passions, and brute ambition of every low mob- 

 hunter, broken-down political gamester, and characterless hanger-on upon 

 the skirts of life in Ireland. Do you expect to conciliate such men as the 

 Irish demagogues by concession ? You might as well extinguish a mid- 

 night conflagration by thrusting fuel into the hand of the incendiary. 

 You might as well turn the robber or the cut-throat into an honest 

 man, by shewing him gold, or throwing the object of his hatred and 

 revenge into his power \" 



But we find it next to impossible to give any man credit for the sim- 

 plicity of believing that this measure would produce any fruits, but 

 those which it is producing at this hour. Ignorant as ministers might 

 be, we could not imagine them ignorant enough for that. Yet on what 

 grounds the offence was committed, we will not even conjecture. The 

 mystery is one of bosoms that we disdain to fathom. There let it lie, 

 among the dreams of baffled politicians : and lie only to embitter the re- 



