482 



not lagged behind. 



Scotland are far better educated than 

 the peasantry of England, and they of 

 Wales are to the full as much ;~and, in 

 both places, they exceed the English 

 in the neatness of their dress, and the 

 substantial furnishing of their cot- 

 tages. They may not, indeed, have 

 quite so much of mere animal enjoy- 

 ment ; bnt their garbs and tlieir deport- 

 ments bespeak a good deal more of the 

 higher feelings of man. The English 

 peasant loiters away tlie morning of 

 his Sunday in attending to the battles 

 of dogs and badgers, or smoking his 

 pipe and drinking his ale, with the 

 same smock-frock upon his back, and 

 the same slouched pelt-covering to his 

 head, that are worn through the week ; 

 and thinks that all is made up, tliat his 

 comfort is complete, if his " misses 

 has got a bit of summat nice for din- 

 . ner." Not so with the Scots and the 

 Welch ; they must have their Sunday's 

 coat, and appear fine at church. With 

 them there are no brawls, no rows, no 

 bufFettings, and no bloodshed. They 

 are sober and industrious races of 

 people, and have both desire and capa- 

 city for rising in the world. 



Among the higher ranks in Scot- 

 land and in Wales, there are parties ; 

 but then they are the parties of Eng- 

 land, and they never proceed to any 

 hostile length. The Scottish ins may 

 be as servile as ins can well be, and 

 the tongues of the outs may be a little 

 violent ; but matters never go farther. 

 The friends of those who are in place 

 never think of forming Tory Lodges, 

 and taking unlawful oaths ; and a 

 'Scots Whig would turn from you with 

 disgust, if you should propose to him to 

 enter into any bond like that of the 

 United Irishmen. 



Here then are two instances, — one 

 of a hostile country, and another of a 

 country which has beea conquered, 

 both merging in that country to which 

 they are united ; and, not only follow- 

 ing that country, but all but leading 

 her in improvement and civilization. 

 Is it not singular, then, that we should 

 have another country, which, after 

 having been partially conquered, and 

 then united to England, should, in the 

 great mass of its people, still remain in 

 absolute and avowed hostility ; that we 

 should have the lower classes as poor, 

 as ignorant, as abject, and as indiifer- 

 ent about their own comforts, or the 

 lives of their neighbours, as though 

 tliey had never been visited by a civi- 



Topic of the Month. [ Jufy 1 , 



The peasantry of lized man; and that we should have 



parties in that country, actuated by the 



most deadly hatred, and apparently 



which 



unconnected with every thing 

 agitates the political world on this side 

 the channel. 



This fact is singular in itself, and it 

 must be left to the historians of future 

 times to explain its causes, as well as 

 to account for that singular disposition 

 upon the part of the people of this 

 country, which induces them to lavish 

 their money and their praises upon re- 

 mote pilgrimages, and doubtful con- 

 versions, while Ireland presents at the 

 door a more melancholy spectacle of 

 moral ruin and physical wretchedness 

 than is to be found among avowed an<l 

 acknowledged barbarians. We send 

 bibles by the ship-load, and missiona- 

 ries by the gross, to the Calmuck, the 

 Mongul, and the Hindoo; and, if we 

 can but coax a wanderer of the steppe 

 of Issem, or a dweller upon the banks 

 of the Jumnah, to accept of a bible, or 

 call himself by the name of Christian, 

 we offer up thanksgiving in all the 

 churches, and try to redeem the man 

 from the clutches of Braniah or 

 Vishnoo, at the rate of many thousand 

 pounds a-head. If, too, it should hap- 

 pen that one or two are immolated to 

 the great idol of Jaggernaut, or two 

 or three widows throw themselves 

 upon the funeral pile, by the side of 

 the Ganges, or Norbuddu, we are all 

 in tears and in horror. But, somehow 

 or other, our zeal slackens, and all 

 feelings are blunted, when our eye 

 lights upon the " green isle of Accun." 

 VVe labour to convert infidels in all the 

 four winds of the heaven ; but we 

 think we have done enough for the 

 Christianizing of Ireland, if we make 

 them pay for the repairs of churches 

 which are never used, and pay tithes to 

 persons who never officiate. We 

 know not how our saints would look if 

 the mufti, and pundits, and bonzes, 

 were to turn round nponthem and say, 

 " If you will infuse into men that mild 

 spirit which you say belongs to your 

 religion, then why do you not begin 

 with it nearer home ? Why come you 

 to us, who seek you not, while part of 

 your own country is the prey of so 

 much wretchedness? If, then, you be 

 satisfied with the reward without the 

 labour, what security have we, that, 

 when once you have got a footing in 

 our country, you will not display the 

 same heartless avarice? " Pidl," in 

 the language of that book by which 



you 



