be openly avowed the independence of Ireland would be proclaimed-and, as Greece has been wrested from Turkey, and Egypt become virtually an independent state, under the guarantee of protecting European powers, England would find the principle upon which she has acted towards other nations, turned against herself, and be compelled to submit to terms of dictation, which would erect an angry and insulted neighbouring country into a rival state, and reduce her, from her present lofty pre-eminence, to the condition of a fourth or fifth-rate power amongst the governments of Europe. To such contingencies we may, at present, be very blind. Prosperity may have dazzled our eyes, so that we cannot see, or understand, these things. But others see them, and are looking with a malignant eagerness for the time when they may come to pass. France sees them-Austria sees them-Russia sees them they are thoroughly understood by the more subtle spirits at Rome; and greatly are our rulers self-deceived, if they suppose that they are not ardently desired, and earnestly looked forward to, by multitudes, in Ireland. To those who know this country well, nothing seems more astonishing than the ignorance of its actual condition evinced by our rulers. They seem utterly unconscious of the materials of sedition that are accumulating around us, or of the efforts of the sanguinary enthusiasts of Repeal to stir up bad blood, and to keep alive national discord. We some time since called our readers' attention to a series of publications, entitled "The National Library for Ireland," and great was the astonishment and indignation excited by the evidences these afforded of a systematic design to organize the people for a general insurrection. We have had occasion to wade through much of the seditious writing which preceded the outbreak of Ninetyeight, and we deliberately aver, that it was loyalty itself, in comparison with the effusions which now pass unpunished, and which are circulating through the length and the breadth of the land. In these, as our readers may have seen, every sentiment which should animate a good subject is outraged every principle which should guide and actuate an honest man, and a Christian, is set at nought. The oath of allegiance is scoffed at in open and wicked mockery and scorn; an universal rising against the English government, when the people feel equal to it, is enjoined as a solemn duty; the traitors of Ninety-eight, who perished on the scaffold, or in the field, are deplored as patriots, and exalted as martyrs; the introduction of a French force, to aid in overthrowing the English authority, is advocated and eulogised; assassination is openly recommended-there is no mincing the matter. Michael Reynolds is loudly praised, because he offered to assassinate Thomas Reynolds, the celebrated informer; and Samuel Neilson is severely censured, because, when an opportunity presented itself, he did not stab him through the heart! All this, in publications levelled to the capacity of the lowest vulgar, and circulating, not by tens, but by hundreds of thousands, and the influence of which is not confined to the actual purchasers, immensely numerous as they are, but extends to all those who flock together to hear them read, as they are, by thoroughly drilled and disciplined incendiaries, in every county-town, and village in Ireland! Thus it is that treason is fashioned into primers, and sedition converted into spoon-meat for the elevès in the new schools of normal agitation. The writers of them are no common men. They evince powers beyond those of most ordinary traders in sedition; and evidently could write so as not to offend the taste of a higher class of readers, if their object was not to make an impression on the lowest classes, upon whom the rough and the bloody work must chiefly devolve, in the coming revolutionary contest. This it is which gives a peculiar significancy to these political "tracts for the times," by means of which the most rancorous disloyalty has found a tongue, and the foulest forms of treason have become "household words" in Ireland. The producers of these deleterious stimulants are under no terrors whatever that they will be disturbed in their vocation by any process of law. As things are ordered at present, the risk bears no proportion to the profits. It would be regarded as a most wanton invasion of liberty, if these panders to the passions and prejudices of a misguided multitude were prevented, by any disagreeable process of law, from ministering to the furious anti-national hatred, which threatens the country with civil war. It is at once a pleasing and a profitable pursuit. On a former occasion, the emissaries of sedition, Dr. Madden's heroes, pursued their vocation at the risk of their lives; but now, instead of danger, there is not merely safety, but popularity-instead of loss, there is gain. The rebels of "98" counted the cost" when they threw themselves and their all into the revolutionary contest. Poor fel. lows! they lived before their time. Did they exist in our day, they would know how to turn their patriotism into a gainful trade, and to derive wealth and consideration for the liberation of Ireland. Of the former, as compared with the present crisis, it may be said, that then the supply of seditious literature created the demand; now the demand creates the supply. For years preceding Ninety-eight, able, but misguided men laboured strenuously for the dissemination of doctrines by which the realm became disordered. At present a disordered realm and an insane craving for political excitement, operate as a bounty upon the production of these seditious publications, which outrage every principle of loyalty and virtue! But we will be told that "the schoolmaster is abroad," and that the remedy for all this is to be found, not in any enforcement of penal laws, but in the ameliorating effects of education. "See," say our opponents, "what the National Board' is doing, and wait awhile until the effects of their present measures begin to appear." Upon the "vexata questio" of national education, we shall not now permit ourselves to enter, having already expressed ourselves fully upon that subject. But we should have much more confidence in the nostrum proposed, if the educated themselves were not amongst the ringleaders of the movement by which all the evils we so earnestly deprecate may be brought to pass. Was the late Mr. O'Connell uneducated? Are the Romish prelates uneducated? Is the accomplished editor of The Nation newspaper uneducated? Are the " Young Ireland" party-Smith O'Brien, Barry, Meagher, Mitchell-uneducated? And if they be, when will the masses arrive at the intellectual eminence which they have attained, and which has only increased their nationality, and given a superadded intensity and determination to their resolves for the Repeal of the Legisla tive Union ?-a measure which Mr. Holmes, the father of the Ulster Bar, assures them is nothing but an act of legislative spoliation and wickedness, without the slightest moral obligation whatever, and not endurable longer than by force of arms it can be maintained! Talk of education, indeed, in such a ferment, and at such a crisis! Were the individuals who declaimed against the Legislative Union, at the period when that saving measure became the law of the land, uneducated? Was Plunket, or Saurin, or Curran, or Ball, below their most gifted cotemporaries in intellectual attainment? No; they stood at the top of their class; and we blame them not because a proud nationality rendered them oblivious for a season of the advantage of that act of imperial incorporation upon which the safety of the empire depended. No doubt, afterwards, many of them were led to entertain more enlightened views; and we doubt not that the period will come, when all who survive of the present advocates of Repeal will have altered minds upon that subject. But it is the veriest idiotcy to talk of education producing any sudden change upon excited individuals, with firebrands in their hands, and combustible bodies scattered profusely around them. Before it can begin to take any effect, the incendiary may be the victim of his own conflagration; and the light which would show him the delusion under which he laboured, may flash from the very fires which he had kindled, and the ravages of which he would be wholly unable to control. Thus it was with the educated revolutionists of France. The guillotine, which they had employed against those whom they deemed traitors and oppressors, soon dripped with their own blood; and the retributive justice of an avenging God appeared almost as conspicuously in their punishment, as human wickedness in their crimes. But it is not merely folly-it is miserable mockery-to look at such results as any compensation for the evils, both present and prospective, which the in cendiary publications to which we have referred, are bringing, and must continue to bring, upon Ireland. The prospect before us is, undoubtedly, one of deepening gloom; and did we not trust in a graciously overruling Providence, despondency would settle upon us. The factious no longer fear any discountenance from those who are placed at the head of affairs. They rather claim connexion with, and expect favours from them. Dr. Madden, the material of whose writings constitutes a great part of "The National Library," has already obtained high official station in that dependency of the British crown where his principles can do most mischief; and this must operate as an encouragement to others, to whom it would seem to say, in very intelligible English, "Go, and do thou likewise." What an edifying spectacle is now being exhibited, in the rupture of parties, hitherto confederate, and whose sentiments found, in The Nation newspaper, a common exponent? Both are ardent and gifted Irishmen-both are pledged and devoted to the prosecution of Repeal. Of both it may be said, that a Repeal policy has taken possession of their minds, more as an impassioned sentiment, than a moral conviction; and England, as a domineering foe, who has basely plundered the nation of its rights, is regarded with as rancorous a hatred as could be prompted by the most indignant scorn.Wherein, then, it may be asked, do these champions of popular rights differ? In this: Mr. Mitchell would unfurl the oriflamb, and make preparation for immediate war. Mr. Duffy would rather "wait a while," and see whether something more favourable than can at present be discovered in "the signs of the times," may not present itself, before actual hostilities are resolved on. Mr. Mitchell utterly loathes the aristocracy, as renegades or traitors; and regards the middle classes as little better than corrupt or blundering jackasses, without a particle of patriotic fire. Mr. Duffy, although he deplores the degeneracy of both, is desirous of trying them a little longer; and a keen presentiment of the inconveniences that might arise from a process of law, called an action for sedition, has rendered him curiously guarded in criticising the effusions of his patriotic friend, and causes his admiration to wait upon his prudence, while he excises from them what his tact teaches him may be regarded, by the legal authorities, as an extra quantum of sedition or treason. But if any one supposes that Mr. Duffy is one whit more regardful of the authority of British law, or one atom more reconciled to the authority of British rule, than Mr. Mitchell, he would do that talented gentleman great injustice. The difference between them is merely a difference of time. It is not a question of principle, but one of expediency. pediency. Both are prepared for a bloody struggle, if it should be necessary, for the recovery of the nation's rights. But the one considers it premature to hazard such a struggle just now; while the other is prepared, at all hazards, to make war to the knife upon the landlords, and would, forthwith, set about accumulating the materiel for an army, training the peasantry to the use of arms, and instructing them in the tactics by which they may be rendered invincible in their mountain-fastnesses, when they are contending against the hated Saxon, for the freedom of their native land. Now, what is to be said of all this? That the individuals whom we have named are both sincere in the profession of their respective views, we fully believe; and we are prepared to accord to them the respect which no political differences have ever caused us to withhold from the honest and the single-minded. But what is to be said of the government which can tolerate such seditious ravings?-which can leave a credulous and excitable people exposed to such moral and political contagion? And then, when the laws have been practically violated, tematic contempt for which is thus freely and extensively circulated, which can make victims of the wretched dupes, who are consigned to expatriation or the gallows, while the instigators of the crimes for which they suffer are unmolested in their pernicious calling, and suffered to derive consideration and opulence from the deleterious products upon which their ingenuity is employed? We deliberately say, that they are beneath the scorn of the fabricators of a sedition with which they do not dare to grapple; and that while the source of crime is thus regarded as sacred, no thing effectual can be done to remedy the evils by which our poor country is disordered. That the act recently passed, and at present in operation in some of the disturbed counties, can operate no radical cure of such disorders, we frankly declared in our last number. We designated it as an act less calculated to afford protection to the innocent, than to convey a warning to the guilty. It was a deplorable thing to see a British government reduced to the miserable alternative of asking. leave of the leaders of the faction in Ireland, to introduce just so much of extra-constitutional rigour into the administration of the law, as, while the ribbon conspirators laughed at their proceedings as a mockery, might take away from themselves the reproach of conniving at wickedness, the continued impunity of which was exciting the indignation of the empire. That this law would be very promptly called into action by the Irish authorities, we very well knew, because Lord Clarendon is an honest as well as a very able public functionary, whose eyes, we believe, are fully opened to the awfully disorganized state of Ireland. That the juries, both grand and petit, would do their duty, we firmly believed, because the gentlemen of Ireland have never, on any great occasion, shrunk from any peril, but have boldly confronted public odium and personal danger, when the good of the country required it at their hands; and our expectations have not been disappointed. Whatever could be done by means of such an enactment, has been done. But has the plague been stayed? Has the Ribbon confederacy been broken up? Are the gentry one whit more safe than they were from the arms of the assassin? No such thing. Some convictions have taken place, but they do not constitute ten per cent. upon the amount of the murders. It was very carefully provided for in the act, that no nocturnal disturbance should be given to the miscreants, who may assemble in their lodges by night to decide upon the fate of the obnoxious individuals by whose activity some of their fraternity may have been brought to justice. That would be an infringement of the rights of the subject. Their den is to be regarded as their castle; and while they are thus left free to plot against the lives of others, a hair of their heads may not be touched with impunity; and the functionary who should dare to invade the sacred privacy of their committee-room, would soon find himself in a difficult case, a hundred pens and a hundred tongues denouncing him as an enemy to public liberty. "Can these things be, And overcome us, like a summer cloud, We have already repeatedly stated that the day of Repeal, dies illa," may come, without any of the agencies by which it is at present ostensibly sought for. It may be, not wrung from England, but forced upon Ireland. As to the "bubble, bubble, toil and trouble" of the faction by whom it is at present aimed at, we hold them of little account. Before a steady course of wise and vigorous policy, they would dissolve into thin air, "vox et preterea nihil." The humbug of Old Ireland, and the fierce, impracticable extravagance of Young Ireland, might be equally disregarded by the statesman who took his stand upon constitutional princi ples; and while he remedied every real grievance, resolutely determined to maintain the articles of the Union. But the minister who, for party objects, makes an alliance with the fac tion of the country against the landed interest, and the superstition of the country against the Established Church, is the most dangerous enemy to the integrity of the empire. He it is who gives importance to the Repeal movement. He it is who, by unwise concession, diminishes the centripetal, and increases the centrifugal forceby the due equilibrium of which an harmonious connexion between the two countries can alone be maintained. And should the hour of separation come-as come, assuredly, it will, if our course of policy be not alteredsuch a calamitous result will not be ascribable to O'Connell, or the priests, or Young Ireland, or Old Ireland, but to the degree in which faction shall have triumphed over principle; and the very system of government become itself the machinery of agita tion which can only find its perfect consummation in the dismemberment of the empire. Thirdly, dry half a pound of Davy's powder between a couple of warm plates. And fourthly, pay the washerwoman's bill. Serious thoughts of becoming a reformed character, if I come back alive, and joining the "Go-to-Church-threetimes-of-a-Sunday Society." 24th.-Early train to Ballybrophy. Second class-hard seats, but choice company, viz.-A police head-constable, a Holycross farmer, vigorous on the tenant-right question, and a Methodistical miller-all with their nostrums to save the country. Policeman says matters will never be right till parliament establishes a power of sarch, and fixes a more liberal scale of constabulary allowances. Farmer declares landlords to be the root of all evil; and miller traces everything to the worship of the golden calf,' while he insists that Christian men and women ought to be fed on bread and oatmeal-gruel three times a-day. That is the way to bring down the golden calf, not to talk of setting up the golden hopper. Ballybrophy.-Eleven miles from VOL. XXXI.-NO. CLXXXII. CHRISTMAS. . Roscrea; but called, in time and faretables, "The Roscrea Station." Is that quite fair of the said tables? Arrived there in safety, which we thought surprising, considering that we ran twenty miles an hour part of the time. Landed in a slough, called a road; for making a hundred yards of which, without hiring three hundred men to do it, a servant of the company had his brains dashed out with spades and pickaxes, a month ago. "A striking proof (observes tenant-right man) of the eagerness of the poor people in this country to get employment;" yea, forsooth, and likewise of the consequences of their not finding it "For Satan finds some mischief still Obliging navvie offers to conduct me to the scene of the murder for sixpence. Dare say he knows it, but decline his offer. Omnibus to Roscrea, with civil coachman and saucy cad; latter official dubbed "agent" in these parts. Drop him (not sorry for it) at Borris-inOssory, a lugubrious town on the borders of Queen's County, and just where Tipperary opens its jaws. No unapt Porta d' Averno. Proprietor, Duke of Buckingham-an hereditary absentee, who can boast of more dungheaps than flower-gardens, and more beggars than both. Inhabitants, in general, seem badly off for soap, and not disposed to patronise the Irish Glass Company. Many of them bareheaded, probably because their hats are doing duty in the windows. Brown paper also, and wisps of straw, in general requisition. No small joy in the neighbourhood, at a report that the Duke must sell his Irish estates, to pay his English debts; in which case, speculation has it that Peter Kinshela, a baker in the street, will be Duke of Borris-inOssory. So. Mem.-Peter's bread is baked Roscrea Hotel.-What is an hotel, or hostel?" An inn," saith Samuel Johnston, simpliciter. An inn (saith Irish practice) where neither host nor N |