360 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND. 



ganisation, has produced energetic men, and great spirits of 

 all kinds, how much more would this have been the case 

 if the national strength had not been violently repressed ! 

 That which, among an oppressed people, has not attained 

 beyond a transitory light, would, in a freer atmosphere, 

 have become a bright and lasting flame. 



The English attribute an enervating influence to the 

 Catholic religion. This assertion may also be in some 

 respects well founded ; for it is true that in general 

 the Protestant nations of modern Europe exhibit a 

 steadier and more decided character than the Catholic ; 

 but it has not always been so, and even at the present 

 day it is not an absolute rule. Spain and Italy, in arrear 

 at the present day, preceded Holland, England, and Ger- 

 many, in civilisation; and I do not see that Catholic 

 Belgium, and to a certain extent France herself, are much 

 inferior to most Protestant countries. 



A patent and undeniable fact, besides, replies to these 

 imputations. For some years past a large emigration of 

 Irish has been going on to America. As soon as they 

 put foot upon that new soil, where they are no longer 

 subject to the restraint of England, but free to exercise 

 their characteristic activity, these demoralised, degraded, 

 and improvident beings become changed, and take their 

 position among the most industrious citizens of the United 

 States. Even their fanaticism, about which so much is 

 said, disappears when their religion is no longer perse- 

 cuted. When permitted to enjoy religious liberty, they 

 become tolerant of others, and voluntarily free themselves 

 from that exclusive domination of their clergy which they 

 so eagerly embrace upon their native soil. All the pre- 

 judices in the world cannot countervail this incontestible 

 fact, w^hich is confirmed and strengthened every day ; 

 for it is not a matter relating to a few individuals only, 



