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prove that every trade, pursuit, and profession, has some physical disease connected with its exercise; and it is not too fanciful to assume that something analogous may prevail in the moral world. A great part of Lord Clarendon's public life has been spent in fulfilling the functions of ambassador at the Court of Spain, and in frustrating the tracasseries of an intriguing Camarilla. It is just possible that the noble Lord may have contracted a slight taint from his constrained familiarity with finesse; and although, now, in a totally different sphere, he may inadvertently slide into ancient habitudes, and seek to obtain, by tortuous diplomacy, what might be instantly won by simple directness. Something of this feeling is, we think, perceptible in the Orange matter, which we will shortly state to our readers. Quiet English and Scotch housekeepers can hardly conceive the alarm and excitement that convulsed Ireland in the first half-year of 1848; the people of Dublin especially were in dire dread of massacre and pillage, and the prudently extensive preparations of the Government to put down insurrection, increased the fears of the community. Loyalists, as in the olden time, came forward to tender their support to Government, and among those loyalists were many who proclaimed themselves to be Orangemen. Lord Clarendon with perfect propriety, as we think, accepted the proffered good-will and possible services of all who expressed their zeal to uphold the Executive; and not a particle of blame is justly imputable to the Lord Lieutenant for encouraging every one to rally round his Viceregal throne. We have no doubt, however, as to the effect of this encouragement upon some over-zealous leaders of Orange associations; and that the dangerous demonstrations of strength by means of public processions, derived a seeming countenance from the previous good understanding between the Government and the Orangemen. It should also be borne in mind that a temporary Statute entitled the "Party Processions Act," had been suffered to expire. Such were the circumstances which ushered in the anniversary of the 12th July 1849. It was pre-arranged that an Orange procession which was to take place on that day, should march on its way to Lord Roden's, through a pass named Dolly's Brae, where some thirty-five years previously a Roman Catholic widow's son had been killed in a vile party contest. The widow, as the rumour runs, had left a dying injunction, that no Orange procession should ever be permitted to pass that way, and upon

the principle involved in the vetitum nefas-the Orangemen made it a point of false honour to pursue the interdicted road. It was known that this Orange movement would be resisted, and that the Orange processionists would meet in arms, so as to combat effectually a threatened array of armed opponents. These menacing matters were made known to the Government, who acted with a strange mixture of precaution and imprudence. They ordered a large military force to sustain a large police force, and for what? why, to protect a large, armed, Orange procession, which the law officers of the Crown now declare to be illegal! The consequences of this absurd proceeding were calamitous. A squib was let off, it is not clear on which side-and a general melee commenced, in which Orangemen, Ribbonmen, Police, and her Majesty's troops were all engaged-lives were lost, injuries were inflicted, and houses were wrecked and burnt by the Orange party. To our thinking, all this mischief might have been prevented by a plain notification of the Government, that tumultuous assemblages of armed persons, whether Orangemen or Ribbonmen, would not be allowed-and that the police and troops should be employed to give effect to the Government prohibition. What could the rabid Ribbonmen think when they saw an Orange procession headed by the police and the Queen's Dragoons, but that the whole affair was patronized by public authority? Suffice it to say that murder and havock certainly took place, and instead of putting the ordinary tribunals in motion to vindicate the law, the Government dispatches a Mr Berwick, Q.C., to enquire into a thoroughlyknown, and exceedingly bad business-and to report thereuponwhich the learned gentleman did in a very courtly fashion, by casting blame upon almost every party except the parties actually in fault-namely, the law advisers of the Government, who, by their forensic folly, and solemn see-saw, had occasioned all these mistakes and atrocities-mistakes of the magistracy, and atrocities of the Orangemen and Ribbonmen. The truth is, that for some thirty years past it has been the policy of the two great parties that divide the state, to strengthen themselves respectively by means of public meetings, and to facilitate this object the lawyers have contrived to mystify the true doctrine as to what constitutes the legality of a public meeting. According to the soundest construction of British constitutional law, large assemblages of persons are unlawful, except those meetings are convened by a proper, law

ful authority. It is not the conduct of a public meeting which evinces its legality-it is its constitution. This is the true test of the legality or illegality of a public meeting; and to the neglect of this test by eminent crown lawyers, much of the disorder which has harassed England, as well as Ireland, may be truly ascribed. By what lawful authority were the mutually infuriated multitudes of Orangemen and Ribbonmen assembled in the neighbourhood of Dolly's Brae-and why did not the Irish Attorney-General discover that the intended meeting was illegal, before blood was spilt, and horrible outrages perpetrated by a frantic mob?

To avenge all the evils thus incurred, the Government has thought proper to dismiss Lord Roden and two Messrs Beers from the magistracy—and for what special guiltiness, as magistrates, we are utterly unable to comprehend. We have always thought the only justifiable ground for removing a magistrate from the roll, was the full proof, before a competent tribunal, that he had wilfully and corruptly swerved from his magisterial duty. Now, we cannot find that any such allegation was established in the Court of Queen's Bench against Lord Roden or his colleagues, and therefore we demur to the equity of Lord Clarendon's proceeding, even though sanctioned by his Chancellor's counsel. The Whig scribbler in the Edinburgh Review dispatches the subject after a very flippant fashion-" In removing Lord Roden," says this great sage, "the Government have fulfilled their duty and done their part. But here their power ceases. The fate of Ireland is in her own hands." Not quite, most learned Theban; for, if so, what is the use of a clever Lord Lieutenant, with some fifty thousand troops and constabulary? We maintain that it is the bounden duty of the Government, whether Whig or Tory, to preserve the public peace, and to visit disturbers of the peace with proper penalties, adjudged by due course of law. These things have not been done; and the inference is that the Government has been pro tanto culpably remiss, and should earnestly endeavour to mend their ways.

We should perhaps apologize to Scottish readers for dilating so largely upon an Irish theme; but as we are desirous that Highland subjects should attract attention in Ireland, we deem it but fair to familiarize Scotland with important Irish topics.

207

THE TERMINATION OF VICE-ROYALTY IN IRELAND.

We of course are disposed to make a strong stand on behalf of the dignity, importance, and influence of the newspaper press; but we confess it never struck us that the editor of the Times was the de facto Minister of the British empire; and that poor Lord John was only an honorary Premier, doing his little drudgery in Downing Street and in the House of Commons--but in reality subject to the sway of a penner of paragraphs, who wields his quill sceptre in Printing-house Square. The Queen, to be sure, has an ostensible Cabinet of counsellors, who eat and drink at each others' houses-discussing savoury dishes and State affairs; but they, after all, are but shadows of substantial power, hovering round the Crown, whose distinguishing favour, and quarterly pay, they are so happy to enjoy! But what shall we think of the invisible, ungazetted statesman, who undertakes to rule the British empire, without the pomp of place or the sweets of salary-and such an amateur First Minister is the editor of the Times! Talk of Burleighs, or Pitts, or Cannings-mere pettifoggers at the Councilboard or in the Senate-vulgar functionaries, ruling by means of speechifying and red-tape; and actually shewing themselves to the public, so as to be the known servants of the Crown! We have abolished all these antiquated absurdities; and therefore, be it loudly proclaimed that the Government of this great monarchy is henceforth to be carried on by a supreme scribbler, who concocts oracular leaders for the Times. 'Tis true that nobody can positively say who, or what he is; but all the better for mystery may prove more potent than personal identity; and the abstract perfections of an imperceptible editor may realize more reverence, than if we beheld him brandishing an unideal pen, dipping it in an actual ink-pot, and then tracing the blurred MS., which, when turned into type, is to rule the destinies of the world!

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We have been led into this sportive strain of speculation by an article in the Times, on the subject which heads our present lucubration. We are aware that the old adage about "two of a trade," will be thrown spitefully in our teeth; but we must nevertheless whisper our persuasion that, the editorial merits of the Times are prodigiously over-rated. The concern is essentially a trading one, enjoying a monopoly every day more gainful, and which thrives

by the prostration of just principles, not by the fearless advocacy of truth. By a strange coincidence too, its riches will prove its ruin, for having attained a matchless circulation by its literary ability, and admirable arrangements for filling up every newspaper requirement-it is now become almost a mere advertising medium, so much so that, even eight pages of supplement cannot suffice without encroaching enormously upon the perusable part of the Leading Journal! Thus wrongs have some developed tendency to remedy themselves; and the readers of the Times will, at no distant day leave its columns to the scrutiny of advertisers, whilst readable information is sought for in other newspapers. However, that day is not yet come; and the Times is par excellence, literary and political lord paramount wherever paragraphs have power. And this brings us to the notice of the unseemly mode which the Government, Whig or Tory, have adopted of giving the first annunciation of great public measures—not from their high official positions, not from the Treasury Bench, but through a leading article in the Times—the privileged editor making a chuckling avowal of his familiar knowledge of State secrets. Now our impression as to this new fangled practice is very unfavourable. We hold that no Ministers of the Crown are justified in hinting through the channel of irresponsible journalism, that public measures of great importance are sanctioned by the executive, and yet permit them to be unavowed by persons in authority. A case in point has just occurred; apropos of the facilities for intercommunication between England and Ireland, by means of the Tubular Bridge over the Menai, the Sir Oracle of the Times, is instructed to inform the Parliament and people of the United Kingdom, that the Earl of Clarendon is to be Ireland's last Lord Lieutenant, and that Vice-regal domination is to be no more! The whole matter is announced and dispatched with the flippant mock-majesty for which the sham Jupiter Tonans of the Times has rendered himself so remarkable

Assumes the God,

Affects to nod,

And seems to shake the spheres !

We have no doubt of the great fact which the Times surreptitiously divulges; but why did not the leaders in the two houses of Parliament employ a proper dignity of disclosure, instead of allowing their "secret" to ooze out in the leaders of the Times? The

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