580 Treland.in i826. [Dee. 
money in; producing combinations and results, which theyprivate adven- 
turer will not, ‘undertake, because they will, not repay him) for his) outlay. 
‘Any thing, every thing, in short, is eulogized and forwarded, except the 
only thing that,ever did produce, national ,gneatness-+equal laws;\iequal 
justice, and leaving eyery man. to his own resources,:\) The last4rohe of 
a nation in delirium has been an. outcry for the poor Jaws+sadesivesto , 
oppress a, population already. surcharged by the wariéty and extent of dts 
non-productive consumers, with a rent-charge, af two or threevmillions 
a year to be taken, from the wages of mdustry, and to be spent) in providing 
for all, who can find no market for their labour :—and this,: too; popula- 
tion that cannot, afford to pay one direct, tax: to) the;support :of the 
government !! 44.3 Jadtuynte 
InIJreland, the march of opinion is more unsteady than in countries 
less divided by faction. The revolutions of popular sentiment,are; subor- 
dinated to trifling events, and as these act upon passions -heated)/aud 
inflamed they engender reactions, whose violence can scareely'be' appre- 
ciated or conceived at adistance. If the progress of the emancipation 
has been interrupted, and occasionally retrogrades in England, in.Iveland 
parties exist in a constant state of libration,—ebbing and flowing with 
every trifling change, both of internal and external politics. In such a 
state of things, the indecision and vacillation of the Governmentyis 
perhaps more injurious than a steady persistance in even the worst mea- 
‘sures. Let me not, however, be misunderstood, as asserting that the 
existing Government is not a necessary step in the progress of events, or 
‘that Lord Wellesley’s administration has not been uniformly, aiming ,at.a 
better order of things, or has not been. productive .of great incidental 
good. That he has put some restraints on the violence of the domimant 
faction, and that he has tempered, by the royal prerogative,of mercy, 
the cruel rigour of fanatical magistrates, invested with the, power, of 
almost summary transportation, has alone been, a, vast practical amelio- 
ration in the condition of the people. To Lord Wellesley the Irish are 
“under deep obligations. His situation is one of difficulty, of fatigue, 
and of mortification. Not to have accepted of it, or now to abandon it 
in disgust, would be to re-deliver the nation into the hands of the ascen- 
dancy party. It may be, that he has his own private ends to,seek m office ; 
but so, too, would his enemies : and powerful indeed must be the motive, 
and important the end, which retains him in the bonds of place, if his 
determination to remain is unbacked by some. strong perception of 
public utility. The mere love of lucre must be as nothing to one, whose 
whole life has been marked by an indifference to money. But enough 
of this ungracious theme. The administration of Lord Wellesley has 
done, and will do, much good to the country; but it is necessarily 
attended by this evil, that it cannot but exasperate the passions of the 
parties opposed to each other, by the uncertainty and irregularity of its 
acts. To-day something occurs to raise the hopes. of the Catholics ; 
to-morrow some act of the Orange portion of the Government fills, th 
with despair. To-day the Orange-men are cowed, and furl their party 
flag; to-morrow, dressed in its favourite flowers, their, insolent 
banner is advanced, in defiance of Law, the Parliament, and the King. 
This is harassing to the administration, which, taunted by its opponents, 
and laudably jealous of its authority, is distracted between the. para- 
mount necessity for preserving the public peace, and the steady pursuit 
ofits favourite object, that is—the rendering both, parties practically, equal 
pip 
