1822.] The Edinburgh 
and it is in this sense, and not a 
amusing depositories of court scandal 
and frivolous intrigue, that they may 
be read with much advantage. 
The writer of the next paper seems 
to possess every requisite for render- 
ing the dry and uninviting parts of 
science palatable to the public taste. 
His hard and indigestible materials 
are served up withsuch savoury sauces, 
that we dispose of them with infinite 
promptitude. The work of M. de 
Blainville, Sur les Ichthyolites, ow les 
poissons fossiles, does not seem to pro- 
mise room for such a comical commen- 
tary as the reviewer has contrived to 
fasten upon it; but, amidst all his face- 
tiousness, there is a great deal of good 
sense apparent, and it is in a few in- 
stances only that bis well-supported 
gaiety degenerates into flippancy. His 
jocose reasoning is principallyintended 
to prove, that it cannot be determined 
from the fossil remains of fishes, whe- 
ther they were marine or fresh-water 
inhabitants ; and the results he seeks 
to establish, are, that whenever such 
remains are discovered in elevated 
sites, they are either deposits left by 
Jakes which formerly existed there, or 
are connected with appearances which 
plainly indicate their extrusion from 
the sea by voleanic agency. After ex- 
hausting on M. de Blainville his co- 
pious stores of witticisms, the reviewer 
does justice to the merits of his pre- 
sent work, and to his capacities for 
future undertakings, which, we sup- 
pose, is not intended as a further jest 
on this unfortunate foreigner, but to 
bear a literaland serious construction. 
We next arrive at the best and most 
important article of this number, con- 
sisting of a very sensible, comprehen- 
sive, and well-digested tract on the 
affairs of Ireland; which, at this mo- 
ment, involving almost every consider- 
ation which can call for the sympathy of 
the humane, the sagacity of political 
economists, and the wisdom and vigour 
of enlightened statesmen. There isno 
jJonger a moment to lose. | The frame 
of civilized society, in that wretched 
land, is sapped to its foundations, and 
threatens immediate and irretrievable 
ruin. Violence ‘and force have laid 
their coercive hands upon it in vain, 
and nothing but a speedy and total 
change of measures can prevent a 
dreadful re-action. But, seeing this, 
we despair, under the present system, 
of finding a minister with honosty and 
energy suflicient to apply the needful 
remedy ; to restore their political rights 
Review, No. 73, 323 
sto the great majority of the nation ; to 
remodel and retrench the unwieldy and 
oppressive system of church govern- 
ment and chureh exactions ; to divest 
the local administration, bothexecutive 
and magisterial, of its narrow party 
character; to carry rational education 
into the bosom of the population; to 
strike at the roots of those penurious 
and wicked excise-laws, which, whilst 
they defeat their own purpose, contri- 
bute most largely to starve the victims 
whom English charity is called upon to 
feed; these are the great heads on 
which the reviewer dwells with feeling 
and eloquence honourable to himself, 
and with force of argument and eyi- 
dence of fact which admit of no refuta- 
tion. On one point alone we feel in- 
clined to differ from his conclusions; 
and this is, when he aseribes part of 
the difficulties of Ireland to her in- 
crease of population, which, says he, 
has brought an excessive supply of 
Jabour into the market. But the ad- 
ditional individuals who bring the 
labour, bring with them also a con- 
sumption which demands that labour. 
The increase of population is a blessing 
in any country. [ft is the fatal state of 
things, of which a summary is given 
above, which, in Ireland, converts it 
into acurse. What, we ask, with fear 
and trembling, is the conduct that will 
be pursued? Is the system of terror 
to be pushed still further, and are our 
peace-makers to be still the bayonet 
and the cord? Or will common-sense, 
just policy, or, what is far more likely, 
paramount necessity, prevail, and the 
work of reconciliation and reform be 
heartily and effectually begun? This, 
we do not hesitate to say, from the 
present parliament and the present 
ministers we do not expeet; ‘they will 
not hear the voice of the charmer, 
charm he never so wisely ;” but they 
must hear the thunder and see the 
tempest, and witness the devastation 
and ruin which has even now begun, 
and to the consummation of which we 
look forward with melancholy and 
awful forebodings. 
The fourth article, after a rapid 
sketch of the state of the political 
press, since the well-remembered 
attorney-generalship of Sir Vicary 
Gibbs, makes a general and well- 
directed charge on the already discom- 
fited ranks of the Bridge-street Asso- 
ciation, or rather upon the scanty and 
dejected remains of that once nume- 
rous and imposing body, who are not 
yet thoroughly ashamed of their scp 
anc 
