1823.] 



you profess to be guided, " the beam" 

 of injured Ireland " out of your own 

 eye," and then we shall have at 

 least some ground for hoping, that you 

 mean well to other nations. Such 

 might be the language of the wise men 

 of infidel nations, and we know nothow 

 it could be got the better of by the 

 good Christians among us ; unless they 

 were to say, that they are so fully 

 charged with this zeal, that the bolt of 

 it bounds away to a distance in spite of 

 them: that their illumination, like 

 Herschel's great telescope, enables 

 them to see mighty things in moons 

 and distant worlds, but it is wholly use- 

 less as to helping them either to keep 

 their steps clear, or read the plainest 

 book at home. 



There is another thing very singular 

 in the case of Ireland : the soil is more 

 rich, and her climate more genial, 

 than the soil and climate of England, 

 and yet a great part of her population 

 have at this moment to be fed out of 

 English charity. Not only this, butfrom 

 the very counties where the greater 

 part of this charity has been given, 

 there has, along with hunger and 

 misery on the part of the people, been 

 a constant exporting of provisions. 

 Where this is the case, something 

 must be wrong. If the soil be barren, 

 it may be improved ; and, if the cli- 

 mate be ungenial, it may, to a certain 

 extent, at least, be ameliorated ; but, 

 where the earth teems with (ruitful- 

 ness, and the air is balmy and health- 

 ful, and yet man is in misery, there 

 must be something wrong. There is 

 no avoiding one or other of these con- 

 clusions: first, that the Irishman has 

 neither the desire nor the capacity of 

 taking advantage of tiie bounty of na- 

 ture ; or, secondly, that there is some 

 power by which he is prevented. 



Now that Pat, with all his faults, (and 

 faults he has williout doubt,) is a lazy 

 animal, none who know him will ven- 

 ture to say. Indolence forms no part 

 of his character. He will brawl, or 

 bluster, or fight; and, at particular 

 times of the moon, he will assassinate ; 

 but, in every form and phasis, he is 

 active and restless. When he comes 

 over to this country, we find that he 

 undertakes the very hardest of labour, 

 and undertakes it cheerfully. He is 

 not, therefore, in want because he will 

 not work; and, though he feel the 

 wliole elfect of the misery which is in- 

 llicted upon his country, he i.* not 

 answerable for a single iota of the 

 cause. Thus pressen a weight upon 



Erin and hei' Wi-ongs. 483 



bim which his own hand never im- 

 posed ; and, if fhat weight were re- 

 moved, ho would soon be as comforta- 

 ble as the peasant of the other isle. 



The grand question is, by whom, 

 and in what manner, is this weight ap- 

 plied ? Preliminary to this, however, 

 there is another question: What is the 

 weight itself? And here the answer 

 may be stated in a very /few words. 

 The Irish peasant, by some means or 

 other, is not permitted to enjoy the 

 fruits of industry : he finds that, la- 

 bour how be will, the profits of that 

 labour are not to himself or to his 

 family; and, under such circumstances, 

 it is not in the nature of things that he 

 can be industrious. That " delay of 

 hope which maketh the heart sick," is 

 never so severely felt as when the 

 father of a family sees that, toil as he 

 may, and pinch as he may, that family 

 cannot be comfortably fed or lodged, 

 and that no provision can be laid up 

 for them. It is to this, unquestiona- 

 bly, that all the misery and degrada- 

 tion of the poorer Irish is to be 

 traced. This is the perennial spring 

 whence the party-men draw the abet- 

 tors and the victims of rebellion ; and, 

 if this could be dried up, we should 

 soon have them reduced to the same 

 harmless state ivith the dissatisfied 

 and disappointed great in Britain. 



They who would attribute the mise- 

 ries of the lower classes in Ireland 

 either to religious, or to political 

 causes, betray like ignorance of the 

 first i>rinciples of human nature, and of 

 the parts of the particular cure. They 

 have neither the data upon which a 

 judgment is to be formed, nor the ca- 

 pacity of using those data if they 

 were given them. The peasantry of a 

 country, or especially an illiterate pea 

 santry, never maim or murder each 

 other upon religious or political 

 grounds. There required a power of 

 combination, and an impulse of ambi- 

 tion, which do not belong to such a 

 peasantry. 'I'he more nearly that man 

 is assimilated to the lower animals in 

 cultivation, the more nearly does he 

 approach them in his motives of ac- 

 tion. The lion does not rend the kid 

 because man is her sovereign, or 

 because slic belongs to another 

 church, but because her flesh satisfies 

 his hiuiger; and, if that hunger 4ii(l 

 not goad him on, she might l>ro\vse 

 tiio very thicket fJKit shcllc^r.s him, 

 without his giving himself the smallest 

 trouble al)out the matter. As little do 

 the lions of the desert invad* the ter- 

 ritory 



