EES 
1826.] New Parliament. 1} 
safe,’ is a tone for English Bishops to assume, not for us. Prevention is 
better than cure. We are for conciliating the sister nation, not for 
estranging—for uniting, not for fighting. But if the Catholics be eman- 
cipated, their next step—notwithstanding all disclaimers —will be to in- 
sist upon the transference of church-property. Aye, there’s the rub. 
But you have that property in your own hands, and can dispose of it for 
your own adyantage, and not theirs. How—take it from the Protestant 
establishment ? Yes ; what need of a Protestant establishment, without a 
Protestant church? Ireland is essentially and politically Catholic ; and 
Catholic let her continue, if she will ; but you need not surrender the tithes. 
Provide for her clergy, as well as for the Protestant-few, liberally ; but 
apply the rest for the service of your own crippled and sinking state. 
With a free and freely-chosen Parliament, also, might every other 
grievance under which the country labours, be speedily removed, be- 
cause particular interests would no longer prevail over general ones. 
We have an absolute confidence in the upright sense and resolute justice 
of our unbiassed and unbought countrymen. Then might we hope to get 
an unfettered and thorough revision of the laws—see something like con- 
sistency and efficiency, and applicability in penalties, celerity and 
equality in the administration, and speed and certainty in the execution. 
Then, too, might we at last discover what 7s the common-law—no longer 
be compelled to trust to the wavering, feeble, or overburdened memories 
of successive judges; and in reality, as well as in phrases, separate the 
legislative from the judicial function. Then at last might we see the 
uncleanly cobwebs and incumbrances of obsolete forms swept away, and 
justice conducted in a direct and business-like manner, freed from costly 
expenses—suited to the actual demands of the times, and intelligible and 
satifactory to all who are concerned. Then might the labyrinths of our 
Courts of Equity be —no. Then, too, would the Poor-Laws be no longer 
suffered to be perverted into an instrument of oppression, instead of kind- 
ness and sympathy. Then should we see landlords, and manufacturers, 
and merchants left to make their own bargains, and the consumer buy at 
the best market. Then, to crown all, should we see the energies of a 
free people, uncramped, burst into full life and vigour—the high-born 
poor looking to their own exertions, instead of hanging on the public 
urse ; and the low-born poor, we trust, living on the fruits of their 
labour, and substituting beef and beer for potatoes and water. 
THE TRAVELLER AT THE SOURCE OF THE NILE, 
‘In sunset’s light, o’er Afric thrown, 
A wanderer proudly stood 
Beside the well-spring, deep and lone, 
Of Egypt’s awful flood ; 
The cradle of that mighty birth, 
So long a hidden thing to earth 
He heard its life’s first murmuring sound, 
A low mysterious tone ; 
A music sought, but never found, 
By kings and warriors gone ;, 
He listened—and his heart beat high— 
That was the song of victory ! 
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