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PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 

 PROCEEDINGS IN THE ATHEN^UM. 



October 31st. — Mr. Purdon stood forward this evening, the 

 patriotic and enthusiastic advocate, to call attention to the condition 

 of his native country, Ireland. 



In the commencement of his lecture on the Resources and Capa- 

 bilities of that island, he observed, it is but natural to ask, how can 

 it be that Ireland should remain for nearly seven hundred years a 

 part of the British dominion and be still unreclaimed ? still worse 

 than semi-barbarous ? Are we not surprised that when England 

 is spreading far and wide, into other climes, the civilizing — the 

 moralizing — the Christian influences of her benign institutions, that 

 Ireland should still continue to exhibit so large a portion of her peo- 

 ple in a state neither improved in manners nor amended in morals, 

 nor subdued to Christian mildness and a more tender regard for the 

 happiness of themselves and their fellow creatures ? We may in- 

 deed ask where does the fault lie : but what English statesman will 

 answer the question ? What single statesman on this side of the 

 channel has any experience in Irish aifairs ? The best of our pub- 

 lic men know little more of Ireland than its geography ; perhaps 

 not more than its longitude and latitude. Indeed it might be ques- 

 tioned whether British statesmen knew even the geography of Ireland; 

 for if they did they would be likely to profit by her capabilities and 

 resources : then would many a wearying financial calculation be 

 prevented by a wise appreciation of the natural wealth of despised 

 Ireland ; for were Ireland properly governed and judiciously con- 

 trouled — were her wastes cultivated — her rivers opened — her mines 

 worked — her harbours defended — her fisheries encouraged — her 

 manufacturing materials employed, and her agriculture in demand, 

 then Great Britain would find revenue enough to prevent the neces- 

 sity of such petty savings as deprive her bravest defenders of their 

 well-merited rewards, and her honest and useful artizans of that 

 bread which is so sweet when eaten in independence, the fruit of 

 honest labour. 



In proceeding to account for the condition of Ireland, the lecturer 

 attributed it, firstly, to misgovernment, or rather non-government : 

 tlie rule of that island had been frequently entrusted to persons who 

 were not merely ignorant of the proper mode of governing Ireland, 

 but were unacquainted with government altogether; and these indi- 

 viduals had been so frequently replaced by others equally unfit for 

 the task, that the country never enjoyed, for any continuance, one 



