O'Driscol't Views of Ireland 



.sanguinary shacUng; their generosity 

 and hospitality, their faithfulness and 

 talent, and peculiar genius. Even their 

 love of country is more fully developed 

 in the female sex, and wears a more 

 decided and nobler aspect. Women, in 

 their happy seclusion, arc less exposed 

 to have their finer feeling depraved or 

 destroyed in the miserable traffic of low 

 and sordid interesfs which engage the 

 life of man. They yield theniselves 

 more easily to kind and generous 

 affections, and sooner free themselves 

 from the trammels of party prejudices 

 and sectarian antipathies. 



Hence it is that in Irehind, though 

 there are thousands of men, who, since 

 the days of Cromwell, have been born, 

 and fed, and have flourished, and been 

 happy with the fulness of the soil, and 

 are yet foreigners in the land of their fa- 

 thers and of their children, and without 

 one kindly or generous feeling towards 

 the beautiful island of their nativity, or 

 the fine race of men who claim them as 

 their countrymen and fellow-citizens; 

 though there are such men, there are 

 few such women. The natural love of 

 country, so amiable, so valuable, could 

 not be so long in making its home in 

 the female heart. The women of Ire- 

 land are all Irish. 



PUBLIC POLICY. 



We do not think that all the evils of 

 Ireland are summed up in the Catholic 

 question. When this measure shall be 

 carried, much will yet remain to be 

 done lor the safety and tranquillity of 

 that country. Its effects will, no doubt, 

 be eminently beneficial. After some 

 time it will subdue the tone of insolence 

 assumed by ignorant and vulgar Pro- 

 testants, as a privileged party. It will, 

 |K'rhaps, induce the Catholic gentry to 

 take a greiiter interest in public affairs. 

 And, alluring them, by degrees, to come 

 forth from out of the mire of mere pcr- 

 suaal indulgences, it may teach them, 

 that there are higher enjoyments in life 

 than luxurious living, and tli<-(piict and 

 safe sensualities which wealth affords. 

 It may ron.se them from their slate of 

 Epicurean carelessness and contempt 

 for the general weal ; and this morbid 

 inass may yet blush with a now and 

 healthful circulation. 



But it is to the poor and the |)Ga- 

 Mntry that a wise system of policy n)ust 

 direct its measures. Here is the seat of 

 the disease. We do not say that the 

 repeal of the disrjualiljfing laws will 

 have no effect upon it. We think it 

 will have a very salutary one. A« iar 



619 



as it goes it is a wise and necessary 

 measure; but it is not sufficient; the 

 gangrene is too deep ; and, as it was pro- 

 duced of old by the combined action of 

 a great number of pestilent causes, so it 

 will yield only U\ the application of 

 various and ijowerful remedies. 



Tlic condition of the peasantry must 

 be inrpiired into. They must be re- 

 lieved from the oppression of tithes and 

 church rates ; care must be taken for the 

 cheap and efficient administration of 

 justice; the utmost attention must be 

 paid that the poor be educated by such 

 instruction in letters, and in moral and 

 Christian truth, as may be communi- 

 cated by a cheap but sound and efficient 

 form of teaching. Induyfry should be 

 promoted, emigration facilitated, and 

 manufactures enconragerl. All this is 

 wanting in Ireland. And without this 

 the solid strata of society will be ex- 

 posed to frequent and violent shakings, 

 if not mingled by some dreadful explo- 

 sion in one awful mass of ruin. 



SOCtAL CONDITION. 



Ireland is nearly in the situation in 

 which France was previous to the revo- 

 lution, or perhaps in a worse one. A 

 population crowded to excess, without 

 employment, and almost without food. 

 It seemed to be the policy of the state 

 that war and agriculture should form the 

 staple of that kingdom. It is dangerous 

 to tamper with the staple of any coun- 

 try. But the peace has utterly de- 

 stroyed the twofold staple of Ireland. 

 What will the government now do with 

 this people^ for whom they first provided 

 a staple, and then took it away? 



The highlandcrs of Scotland and the 

 Irish peasantry, as they are one race of 

 men, so they arc alone arnl above all in 

 the day of battle. There is a hardness 

 of sinew, and firmness of heart, like the 

 living rock of their own nioimtains, 

 wlii«;h belongs to them alone. The sol- 

 diers of England |)ossess a moral power, 

 and an nnl>en(lin<f stciadl'ustness, which 

 places them at)ove the warriors of the 

 continent; but they do not rush to bat- 

 tle with the k<i'n <lelighf of tlio Irish ; 

 they do not shed their blood as water ; 

 they do not mock at death. The High- 

 lander has been disciplined into more 



.sobriety of feeling than the Irishman; 

 but both display in the field of battle a 

 power which rises into granih ur and 

 Kublimity in its scorn of human efforts, 

 and its contempt of danger an<l suffer* 



nig; — a power before which, when well 

 led, there 's nothing on this solid globe 

 which must not bend and be bioken. 



The 



