-POLITICS AND POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
- "Fhe most valuable work ‘in this class, 
and, indeed we do not hesitate to pro- 
noance it one of the most valuable works 
hich have appeared in the course of the 
present year, is Mr. Newernuam’s 
“< View of the National, Political, and 
Commercial Circumstances of Ireland.”— 
Of the magnitude and importance of the 
subjects of which Mr. Newrennam treats, 
our readers will be best able to'form an 
estimate from his own words. 
“6 The Eastern possessions of Great Bri- 
tain,” says he, “ are confessedly valuable in 
a high degree} so also are her possessions in 
the Western parts of the-world, , But, coa- 
sidered as sources of imperial strength, they 
are indispatebly upon the whole inferior to 
Ireland. The supplies drawn from the for-/ 
Mer, may appear, to certain descriptions in 
the -British community, far more desirable 
than those which are drawn from the latter. 
But if the view be disinterestedly extended to 
the whole aggregate of the real means of im~ 
perial energy, it wili doubtless be acknow- 
isdged, that the supplies of the East, and 
those of the West, industriously augmented 
to the utmost, must ever fall infinitely short 
o? those which Ireland, if wisely and’ solici- 
tously governed, might become capable of 
yielding. ‘The prosperity of her eastern set- 
tlements, and her western colonics, may de- 
cline ; yet Great Britain may thrive. These 
distant dependencies may even cease to be 
parts of the British dominions; yet Great 
Britain and Ireland, firmly united, and saga- 
Ciously and impartially governed, wita all 
their various sources of wealth and strength 
fully disclosed and skilfully improved, may 
still constitute a floyrishing and unvanquish- 
ableempire. But if the prosperity of Ireland 
be suffered to decline, Great Britain, what-- 
everothers may think, will hardly find an- 
adequate compensation for the effects of that 
declension on her own prosperity. If the 
real value of the former be not practically 
evinved, the British empire as a belligerent 
power, will ever appear in a paralysed con- 
dition toall who can discern, and justly esti- 
rate its Native means of strength. And if 
ever Ireland, unfortunately, cease to be an 
integral part of that empire, Great Britain 
will probably soon cease to be an independent 
nation; or, at least, to use the words em- 
ployed by Davenant, on the same subject, a 
hundred years ago, and when the state of 
Ezrope was much more favourable to the in- 
dividual existence of England as an indepen- 
dent nation, than it now is, the sum of af- 
fairs willbe in danger. -The prosperity of a 
country, which annually purchases manufac. 
tures from Great Britain, and rude produce 
from her colonies, to the amount of eight 
millions sterling; and which may acquire 
the means of purchasing infinitely more—of 
a-country, which now begins to supply Great 
Britain annually with near one million bar- 
~ 
rels of grain, and with other necessary pres 
visions to the amount of upwards of &hree 
millions sterling ; and which certainly might, 
with vast advantage to both countries, be 
-rendered competent to supply as much as 
Great Britain could require—of a country, 
from. whence the seamen of the empire are 
chiefly ted—of a country, whereof the trade 
now. annually employs 1,200,000 tons of 
British shipping, yielding to their owners near 
two millions sterling ; and which might give 
employment toa vast additional number—of 
a country, from whence two millions of moe 
ney, at least, are annually drawn by absentees 
residing in England; and whereof the expeng. 
diture conduces to swell the public revenue 
of the latter, and’ to give, extraordinary en- 
couragement to the industrious therein-—of. a 
country, which adds near six millions. to the 
revenue of the empire; and which unquess 
tionably might be made to addy, at no distant 
period, as much more—-of a country, actually 
encumbered with a public debt ameunting to 
upwards of seventy millions; for the greater 
part of which Great Britain is responsible—of 
a country which must, yearly, remit two mil- 
lions, in the shape of interest, &c. to-public 
creditors in Great Britain ; and which, probably, 
may be obliged to remit, at least, one fourth 
10re ;=—finally, the prosperity of a country. 
which furnishes at least. 400,000. hardy 
and intrepid soldiers and seamen, for the 
defence. of the. empire; and which, with 
a rapidly increasing population, might fairly 
/ 
be expected to furnish, if requisite, many; 
many. thousands more—ought surely to excite ~ 
a much greater degree of solicitude, on the 
part of the ministers of the crown, than the 
prosperity of any, or, perhaps, of all the fo- 
reign appendages of Great Britain: nay, as 
great a degree of solicitude as the pros- 
perity of Great Eritain herself can be 
deemed to demand. That every addition 
to:the wealth of Ireland must, eventually, 
operate in augmenting that of England, is a 
truth which has long been received as. indis= 
putable among intelligent men, and which a 
multitude of substantial facts: conduce to 
place beyond the sphere of controversy. The 
different manufacturers, the merchants,. and 
ship-owners, of the latter have already had 
ample practical proo!s of it. To promote, 
therefore, the prosperity of Ireland, is, in 
effect, the same thing as to promote that of 
England. In truth, icmight safely be affirmed, 
that, under existing circumstances, a spirit of 
industry and enterprise ought to be much more 
munificently encouraged in the former than 
in the latter.. In Ireland, that spirit is still 
in its infancy : in England, it has’ acquired 
sufficient strength. Every natural advantage - 
of England has been rendered productive : 
many of the natural advantages of Ireland still 
remain in a comparatively unproductive state. 
Ireland is, as yet, far from that point of inter= 
nai improvement and. proportionate national 
wealth which England has reached. Capitals 
may be actually employed with much greater 
profit | 
