CHAPTER XVI.

MORAL FORCE ALL-SUFFICIENT FOR THE RESURRECTION OF IRELAND

This chapter will be devoted to the island itself. For many

centuries it was happy in its seclusion and separation from the

rest of Europe: in these days it necessarily forms a part of the

whole mass of Japhetic races; its isolation is no longer

possible; and, in the opinion of many, it is destined once again

to become a spot illustrious and happy. The consideration of how

that lustre and happiness are to come upon it is the only task

still left us.

Whoever takes into consideration the advantages it already

enjoys, and compares its present situation with that of a

hundred years back, cannot fail to be struck with the remarkable

change for the better which has taken place between the two

periods. Ireland still suffers, and suffers sorely, and the

world still speaks with justice of her wrongs; but, in whatever

light they may appear to those who love their country, no one

can pretend that it still groans under the weight of tyranny

which has formed the burden of her history. And, while

acknowledging this beneficial change in her condition, they must

wonder at the same time how small was the share which the

natives themselves had in bringing it about, although their

activity never relaxed, and they had great and good men working

for their cause. What, in truth, did it?

The first point which claims our attention is how effectually

the moral force of what is called liberal thought dealt a death-

blow to the penal laws half a century before any of them were

erased from the statute book.

Liberal thought may be said to have originated in England,

whence it passed over to France, to be disseminated and take

root throughout Europe by means of the mighty influence then

exercised by the great nation. The chief object which animated

the minds of those who first labored for its admission into

modern European principles is not for us to consider here. There

is no doubt that this chief object was of a loosening and

deleterious nature: namely, to ruin Christian faith, to change

all the old social and political axioms held by Christendom, and

to create a new society imbued with what now goes by the name of

modern ideas. It is not necessary to point out the frightful

imprudence as well as criminality of many of those who were the

pioneers of the movement. We must only take the new principles

as a great fact, destined yet to effect a radical change in the

ideas of men of all races, a change already begun in Europe.

Liberal thought, we say, originated in England; and it would be

easy to show that there it was the result partly of

Protestantism, partly of indifferentism, the ultimate

consequence of the great principle of private judgment.

This became manifest in Great Britain, from the beginning of the

eighteenth century, and, as was previously shown, what is called

the British Constitution was the result and outgrowth of deep

political thought matured in minds indifferent to religion, of

men who were as little _Protestants_ as any thing else. But they

were deeply possessed by a sense of conservatism and moderation

in the application of the most radical principles, which later

on the fiery Gallic mind carried to their final and most

disastrous consequences.

But, in whatever garb it may have appeared, liberalism was

clearly the essence of the British Constitution, as established

after all the civil and dynastic wars of the sixteenth and

seventeenth centuries. The leaders of the English nation

happened at the time to be fully wedded to aristocratic ideas,

and accordingly they refused to recognize all the consequences

of their principles, and to see them carried out to the full.

It was admitted that the king reigned, but did not govern; that

the nation governed by its representatives; that those

representatives were created by election; that a nation could

not be taxed without its free consent; that thought, religious

thought chiefly, was free; that toleration, therefore, could

admit of no exception in point of religious doctrine; and all

the other modern principles which have at length been admitted,

though not always observed, as governmental axioms by all

European nations.

As long as those axioms were in the close keeping of English

patricians, some of their consequences were far from being fully

evolved; but certain Frenchmen, Voltaire among others, happening

to cross the Straits of Dover, returned with them, and, the

wretched government of Louis XV being not only too weak to

withstand, but even conniving at, the boldness of the new

philosophers, the French language, which was then spoken all

over Europe, carried with it from mouth to mouth the new and

fascinating doctrine of the emancipation of thought.

None of those writers, indeed, undertook to plead the cause of

unfortunate Ireland. Voltaire threw the whole of France into

agitation, nay, all Europe, to the wilds of Russia, by taking up

the case of the Protestant Calas, who was condemned to death and

executed unjustly, as it seems, for the supposed murder of a son

who was inclined to embrace Catholicity; but never a word did he

speak of the suffering which at that time had settled down over

the whole Irish nation solely for the crime of its religious

convictions.

Nevertheless, toleration became the catchword with all. It rang

out loudly from a thousand French pamphlets and ponderous tomes;

it was caught up and echoed back from England; it penetrated the

unkindly atmosphere of Russia even, and was silently pondered

over under the rule of an unbelieving despot.

It was impossible for Ireland not to derive some benefit from

all this. It took a long time, indeed, for emancipation of

thought to cross that narrow channel which divided the "sister"

islands; for, at the precise period when the doctrine was loudest

in France, the most atrocious penal laws were being executed in

Ireland, and there seemed no hope for the suffering nation.

But, toward the end of that eventful eighteenth century, the

breath of that magic word, toleration, at last was felt on the

shores of Erin. When it was in the mouths of all Europe, when

English clergymen had thoroughly imbibed the new doctrine, when

even Scotch ministers began to thaw under its genial influence,

and become "liberal theologians," how could an Irish magistrate

think of hanging a friar, or transporting a priest, or imposing

a heavy fine on a Catholic who committed the heinous offence of

hearing mass, or absenting himself from the services of the

Established Church? At last, the "Mass-rock" was no longer the

only spot whereon the divine victim of expiation could be

offered up; and it soon came to be known that, to by-lanes and

obscure houses in the cities numbers of persons flocked on

Sundays, presided over by their own Sogarth Aroon. On one

occasion, already noticed, the floor of a rickety house, where

they were worshipping, gave way, to the killing and maiming of

many; thenceforth, Catholics were allowed to assemble in public

to the knowledge of all, and, though "discoverers" were still

legally entitled to denounce and prosecute them, there was small

chance of a verdict against them.

Thus was it owing to a great moral force--whether good or bad is

not the question now--that the penal laws first became obsolete;

and Irishmen had absolutely nothing whatever to do in the matter.

Not a single pamphlet, demanding toleration, and proclaiming

the rights of religious freedom, ever, to our knowledge, issued

from the Irish press at the time. No book, written by an Irish

author, advocating the same, was ever printed clandestinely, as

were so many French books, at first appearing in Holland, or

covertly in France, with a false title-page.

When the Volunteer movement took place, toleration was in full

sway in Ireland. As was seen, the question debated in the

Dungannon Convention referred solely to the extension of the

elective franchise to Catholics; and, though this was unjustly

denied them by the majority of the Volunteers, under the

guidance of the leaders of the movement, there was no question

of any longer refusing to the native Irish Catholics the right

of practising their religion freely. This the moral sense of the

century had secured to them.

The attainment of the political franchise was also the result of

purely moral force, though it required a much longer time in its

acquisition, as it was a question, not merely of a right

individual in its nature, as all natural religious rights are,

but one affecting external society, and productive of material

results of great import.

In this the Irish were not merely passive; they launched

themselves heart and soul on the sea of political agitation.

From 1810 to 1829, the Catholic Association, which embraced men

of all classes of society, was incessant in its clamor for

emancipation. The chief object of this association being the

political franchise, it was felt by all that, sooner or later,

that privilege must be granted. Meanwhile, the secular enemies

of Ireland were not idle. Emancipation--that is the political

franchise-- they called a "Utopian dream," which they asserted

England could not grant. Was it not directly opposed to the

coronation-oath, nay, to the English Constitution? The king

himself was, and publicly declared himself to be, of this

opinion. According to your thorough-bred Englishman, the state

would rather spend its last shilling, and sacrifice its last man,

than suffer it. How many spoke thus, even up to the very day on

which Wellington, changing his mind perforce, at last proposed

the measure!

All this opposition was perhaps only to be expected; but the

strange thing was that many excellent patriotic Irishmen,

Catholics, laymen as well as clerics and prelates, were opposed

to the agitation set on foot by O'Connell and his friends; they

also thought it a "Utopian dream," likely only to bring new

calamities upon their country. They seemed not to see that the

refusal of emancipation meant in fact the continuance of the

small Protestant minority as the ruling power--the state--in

Ireland, which, owing to moral force, was no longer so, save in

theory. In fact, already the majority, that is, almost the whole

of Ireland, was an immense power. Its members were at liberty to

combine openly, to show themselves, to speak, to write, to

agitate; they were, in a word, a people, and the Protestant

minority no longer really constituted the state.

It is true that the majority of Irishmen had for centuries

continued to act unanimously in their resistance to oppression;

as was seen, they had been a people from the moment that the

English kings and Parliaments strove to coerce their religious

faith, and more particularly from the destruction of clanship.

They were truly a nation, though without a government of their

own, and for the greater part of the time bending under the most

intolerable tyranny. Religion had given them one thought and one

heart. And now that, owing to the mighty, the irresistible moral

force of liberalism, they could no longer be openly persecuted

for wishing to remain Catholics, the question arose: Were they

still to be absolutely nothing in the state? This was the real

demand of the Catholic Association, and every one ought to have

seen its importance and the certainty of success.

Nevertheless, a great number of sincere Irishmen did not see the

question in this light, and were covertly or openly opposed to

the agitation. Ireland appeared to be divided just at a

momentous crisis.

The leaders of the association were not themselves altogether

agreed as to the best mode of putting their question. Some were

for armed opposition, thinking they could beat England in the

open field. But the great originator and leader of the movement

sternly opposed so mad a proposition. He was for moral force,

seeing how clearly and irresistibly, even if unwittingly, it was

working for their cause. In spite of all adverse circumstances,

although the English party and the English nation stood up en

masse against him, although many Irishmen refused to join in the

agitation, while some of his best friends wished to risk all in

a desperate venture, he stood calm, firm, and so confident of

success, that he caused himself to be returned as member for the

County Clare to the English Parliament, before even emancipation

had given him the right of candidature. It was immediately after

this "unconstitutional" election that the boon of emancipation

was suddenly granted, contrary to all expectation and

probability, and O'Connell proudly took his seat among the

representatives of Ireland in the Imperial Parliament.

If this measure was not carried by a purely moral force, it is

hard to see how that phrase can be applied to any thing in this

world. This is not the place to write a history of that

memorable struggle. It is still fresh in the memory of many

living men. We merely draw a conclusion from what has happened

in our own time, and one which may be said to be a clear

inference from the circumstances of the case, and to which no

one can offer any serious objection. This conclusion is, the

omnipotence of moral force in gaining for Ireland so much of

liberty, of political, and social privileges, as was finally

granted her.

This victory won for the Irish Catholics the acknowledgment on

the part of England that they were a factor in the state. The

next question which naturally presented itself was, "What was to

be their exact position in the state?"

There are many answers to this, even in modern ideas. In purely

democratic countries suffrage is universal, all have a political

vote, and the majority is supposed to rule. In countries where

the government is oligarchical or aristocratic, rank, wealth,

and position, are "privileged;" the great mass is deprived of a

vote. Yet, even in those countries, in accordance with the

modern idea, blood is not every thing; a certain number of

plebeians are admitted to a share in public affairs, and their

number is greater or smaller as the struggle, which is always

going on between the few and the many, wavers to this side or to

that. Thus, in the English Parliament there is often an

"electoral" or "reform" question discussed and agitated. But the

leaders of the Catholic Association boldly advocated a question

prior to those--what at the time was called the repeal of the

Union, and is now known as "home-rule."

Must Ireland continue to be governed by laws enacted in England?

The number of her special representatives is comparatively so

small, her Catholic aspirations meet with such deaf ears in the

majority of the members, that, as long as Ireland is without her

own Parliament, she cannot be called a free country.

Moreover, according to modern ideas, self-government seems to be

admitted as an axiom; all countries have a right to it, under

the limitation of constitutional enactments, either in

"confederacies" or in "imperial states." Why should Ireland

alone be deprived of such a boon?

It is known how O'Connell suddenly grasped the question and

mastered it. His first repeal association was suppressed on the

instant by a proclamation of the Irish Secretary. O'Connell

bowed to the proclamation, and for the first organization

substituted another called "the Irish Volunteers for the Repeal

of the Union." This met with the same fate as the first. The

great agitator then took refuge in "repeal breakfasts," and

declared his intention, if the government "thought fit to

proclaim down breakfasts, to resort to a political lunch, and,

if political luncheon be equally dangerous to the peace of the

viceroy, he would have political dinners; if the dinners be

proclaimed, we must, said he, like certain sanctified dames,

resort to tea and tracts."

The "breakfasts" were suppressed, and O'Connell was arrested.

The prosecution, however, was soon abandoned, and for the moment,

despairing of success in advocating repeal, he came down to the

"Reform party," from which he obtained at first some great

advantages for Ireland--the administration of Lord Mulgrave, the

best the island had known for centuries, and the appointment of

many Catholics to high offices in the state.

It is not necessary to relate the circumstances which finally

drove O'Connell back upon his original plan, and the formation,

in April, 1840, of the "Loyal National Repeal Association."

Within a short time three million associates were contributing

annually to the national fund, and a scene was witnessed which

the most devoted lover of Erin could never have anticipated. It

would be useless to search the annals of mankind for a more

startling exhibition of purely moral force. The causes of its

failure will appear causes altogether of a temporary and

unexpected character, when we come to examine them.

But the stupendous spectacle itself was enough to impress the

beholder with the irresistible effect which it could not fail to

produce. A whole nation obedient to the voice of one man! --and

that a man who had never been invested with a state dignity,

proud only of having once represented a poor Irish county in the

English Parliament; who was eminently a man of the people,

identified in every way with the people, speaking a language

they could all understand, speaking to hundreds of thousands who

had come at his call to listen to him: at one time nearly a

million of them surrounded him on the hill of Tara.

Had a demagogue stood in his place, how could he have resisted

the temptation of using such power to effect a thorough

revolution? O'Connell had only to utter the word, and those

immense masses of men would have swept the whole island as with

a besom of destruction. The impetuosity of the Irish character

when placed in such circumstances is well known, and O'Connell

knew it better than any man living at the time. He showed

himself truly heroic in the constant moderation of his words,

even in scenes the most exciting, when a look from him might

have lashed the nation into madness.

To bring out more clearly the stamp and greatness of the man,

compare his conduct with that of the leaders in the great French

Revolution of 1793. Not one of them ever possessed a tithe, not

merely of the great Irishman's honesty of purpose, but even of

his real authority over the people; yet, what frightful convulsions

did they not bring upon the state in the days of their brief

popularity? Throughout the whole repeal movement, when millions

of people obeyed implicitly one leader, ready to do his will at

any moment, there was never a single breach of the peace, never

an attempt at outrage, never a threat of retaliation.

The only difficulty is where to bestow the greater admiration,

on O'Connell or the people; for, if O'Connell towered almost

above humanity in his never-varying moderation, with such a

powerful engine in his hands, the people offered a spectacle

which would be looked for in vain elsewhere in the history of

man, that of a whole nation swayed by the most excited feelings,

one in thought, in aims, in the bitter memory of the past,

conscious of their irresistible power in the present, yet never

yielding to passion, but dispersing quietly after listening to

the impassioned harangues of their leader, to return to their

homes and resume their ordinary occupations. Any impartial man,

who has read history at all, must acknowledge that this

spectacle is unexampled, and in itself vindicates the Irish

character from the foolish aspersions so lavishly cast upon it,

and so thoughtlessly repeated still.

One great fact was brought out by those demonstrations which

afterward appeared so barren of result, namely, the existence of

a nation full of life and energy, of a surprising vigor, and at

the same time governed by stern principles as well as swayed by

emotion. It would be idle to pretend that they were a non-entity,

save as forming a part of the British Empire, existing on

sufferance as it were, merely to add to the greatness and the

glory of the English nation. They possessed a life of their own.

That life had, as was seen, been instilled into them by their

religious convictions alone; it had lain dormant for more than a

century; and now it burst forth in the view of the world, to

proclaim that the Irish nation still existed. And this wonderful

resurrection was due to moral force alone.

Though the Irish people then appeared so different from that

humbled, crushed mass of oppressed beings, who, a hundred years

before, lay so completely at the mercy of their masters, it was,

nevertheless, the same people, and the difference was purely one

of circumstances. Had they been allowed in the previous century

to manifest their feelings, as a happy change in the state of

affairs now permitted them, they would assuredly have acted in

exactly the same manner. And this reflection tends to confirm

the opinion, several times here expressed, that the Irish people

existed all along, and that the most adverse circumstances had

never succeeded in destroying it.

Meanwhile, O'Connell was the sovereign of that nation, and one

whose power over his subjects was greater than that of any of

the kings or emperors who occupied the various thrones of Europe

at the time. Later events proved how precarious was the

authority of all those who appeared to hold the fate of millions

in their hands; the authority of O'Connell alone was deeply

rooted in the heart of his nation. From the humble position of a

Kerry lawyer, he had gradually risen to the proud preeminence

which he occupied in the eyes of Europe, and he owed it solely

to that moral force of which he was so sincere an advocate, and

which he knew so well how to wield.

But how came all the high hopes then so ardently entertained by

the friends of Ireland to be so suddenly dashed to the ground,

and O'Connell to die of a broken heart?

It seems, indeed, to be the opinion of Irishmen even, that

O'Connell's theory was faulty; that moral force alone could not

restore Ireland to her lawful position among nations; that, in

fact, he failed by his very moderation, and that the bitterness

which clouded his last days was the natural consequence of his

false and delusive expectations. Such seems now to be the almost

universal opinion.

Yet, in all his wonderful career, only one fault can be brought

against him. Yielding, on one occasion, in 1843, to the exuberance

of his feelings, "he committed himself to a specific promise that

within six months repeal would be an accomplished fact."

This promise, rashly given, and showing no result, is said to

have cooled down the enthusiasm of the people, who, from that

time, lost confidence in their leader; and to this alone is the

utter failure of the great agitation ascribed.

But there is so little of real truth in this assertion that,

when, on his well-known imprisonment, after the law lords, in

the British House of Peers, declared that the conviction of

O'Connell and his colleagues was wrong, he was restored to

liberty, the writer just quoted confesses that "overwhelming

demonstrations of unchanged affection and personal attachment

poured in upon him from his countrymen. Their faith in his

devotion to Ireland was increased a hundred-fold."

It is true that the same writer, Mr. A.M. O'Sullivan, adds that

"their faith in the efficiency of his policy, or the surety of

his promise, was gone;" but to reconcile this phrase with what

precedes it, it must not be taken absolutely. The want of faith

here spoken of was restricted to the members of a new party,

which had been organized chiefly during the imprisonment of the

great leader, the "Young Ireland party," the new advocates of

physical force against England, composed of the ardent and, most

surely, well-intentioned young men, who failed so egregiously a

few years later.

This party was the chief cause of O'Connell's failure, coupled

with the awful famine which followed soon after, and left the

Irish small desire for political agitation with grim Death

staring them in the face, and the main question before them one

of avoiding starvation and utter ruin.

Both causes, however, were purely of a temporary nature, and the

efficacy of moral force remained strong as ever, and, in fact,

the only thing possible.

The Young Ireland party could not exist long, as its avowed

policy was so rash, so ill-founded, and poorly carried out, that

the mere breath of British power was enough to dissipate it

hopelessly in a moment. Moreover, it placed itself in open

antagonism to the mass of the Catholic clergy, and appeared to

have so ill studied the history of the country that its members

did not know the real power which religion exercised over their

countrymen. They could not but fail, and their futile attempt

only served to render worse the condition of the country they

were ready to die for.

It would be enough to add here, of other subsequent attempts of

the same nature, that no real hope for the complete resurrection

of Ireland could be looked to from such abortive and stillborn

conspiracies; especially when the alliance entered into by some

of them with the revolutionary party of European socialists and

atheists is taken into account, men from whom nothing but disorder,

anarchy, and crime, can be expected. Thus, those who wish well to

the Irish cause have only moral force to fall back upon.

It is needless to do more than mention the passing nature of the

frightful calamity of famine and consequent expatriation, which

have been sufficiently dwelt upon. The Irish race has passed

through ordeals more trying than either of these; it has

survived them, and increased in numbers after all previous

calamities, as it doubtless will after this last, when God

thinks proper to abate in the people the eagerness they still

feel for leaving their native country.

All the progress made by Ireland, so far, is due, therefore,

solely to the kind action of Divine Providence, which is

generally called the "logic of events," aided by men endowed

with prudence and energy. It would be superfluous for our

purpose to detail at length several other progressive steps made

subsequently, which the mad attempt of the party of physical

force would have effectually prevented if open tyranny were as

easy a thing in these days as it once was. The establishment of

the "Encumbered Estates Courts," and the disestablishment of the

Irish Protestant Church, are the chief measures alluded to: the

first so fruitful of good to Ireland since its adoption, and the

second destined to be no less so. It is useless to remark that

physical force had nothing to do with their introduction, and

that the British statesmen who advocated and carried them

through were swayed only by that unseen power which is said by

Holy Scripture to "hold the heart of kings in its hands." Let the

Irish do their part, and Heaven will continue to smile on them.

Since it is to this unseen power that all the improvement now

visible in the condition of the Irish nation is due, it is only

natural to expect from it every thing that is still wanting. For

we are far from thinking that nothing more is to be done, and

that all to be desired has been obtained. That the nation is

still dissatisfied, is plain enough; and it must be right in not

feeling contented with the various measures for its improvement

tendered it so far. The voice of its natural leaders--of the

prelates and clergy-proclaims that there are many things to

change, and many new measures to be introduced.

The first and foremost of these is a thorough remedy for the

disgraceful state of pauperism to which the great majority of

the Irish nation is yet reduced. That pauperism was wilfully

established, and this national crime of England stands unatoned

for still. It would be unjust to say that the policy which

produced it is pursued to-day by the English Government; we

sincerely believe, on the contrary, that the state of things

which has existed for the last two centuries is seriously

deplored by many of those who, under God, hold in their keeping

the destiny of millions of men. But it is surprising that so

many projects, so many attempts at legislation, the writing of

so many wise books, discussions so many and so exhaustive of the

evil, should all result in leaving the evil almost as it stood.

If we listen to those who know Ireland perfectly, who have

either spent their lives in the country, or traversed its

surface leisurely and intelligently, it would seem as though the

old descriptions of her in the time of her greatest misfortunes

would still be appropriate and true.

"No devastated province of the Roman Empire," said Father

Lavelle, but yesterday, in his "Irish Landlord," "ever presented

half the wretchedness of Ireland. At this day, the mutilated

Fellah of Egypt, the savage Hottentot and New-Hollander, the

live chattel of Cuba, enjoy a paradise in comparison with the

Irish peasant, that is to say, with the bulk of the Irish nation."

But, as this short passage deals only in generalities, and as

there may be some suspicion of the warm nature of the writer

having given a higher color to his words than was warranted by

the facts, let us listen to the less impassioned utterances of

travellers who have recently visited the island: let us see the

Irish at home in their towns and in the country.

I. In towns and cities: The most Rev. Archbishop of Dublin,

writing in 1857 to Lord St. Leonards, on the state of his flock

in Dublin, says: "Were your lordship to visit some of the ruined

lanes and streets of Dublin, your heart would thrill with horror

at the picture of human woe which would present itself."

And in a pastoral letter, November 27,1861, he spoke of "tens of

thousands of human beings, destitute of all the comforts of life,

who are to be met with at every step in all great towns and

cities. If you enter the wretched abodes where they live, you

will find that they have no fuel, that they are unprovided with

beds and other furniture, and that generally they have not a

single blanket to protect them from the cold."

Abbe Perraud, after a thorough examination of the subject, wrote,

in 1864, in "Ireland under English Rule:"

"The poor quarters of Cork, Limerick, and Drogheda, present the

same spectacle as Dublin, and justify the sad proverbial

celebrity of `Irish rags.' Dirt, negligence, and want of care,

doubtless, go a long way in giving to destitution in Ireland its

repulsive and hideous form; but who is unaware that continued

and hopeless destitution engenders, as of necessity,

listlessness and carelessness, and that, to enter into a

struggle with poverty, there must be at least some chance of

carrying off the victory?"

A German Protestant, Dr. Julius Rodenberg, writing in 1861,

expressed his astonishment at the sight of Ireland's poverty, as

he saw it in the streets of Dublin, although he had doubtless

read a great deal about it previously. "You are in a country,"

he says, "whence people emigrate by thousands, while fields, of

such an extent and power of production as would support them all,

lie fallow."

And with respect to the progress already made, M. de Beaumont

had remarked many years before that in Ireland a certain

relative progress was quite compatible with the continued

existence of pauperism among the lower classes. "One single

cause," he remarks, "suffices to explain why the agricultural

population becomes poorer, while the prosperity of the rich is

on the increase: it is that all improvement in the land is

profitable solely to the proprietor, who exacts more rent from

the farmer in proportion as he works the land into a better state."

Since M. de Beaumont wrote, the pauperism in the cities has

assumed a more wretched and repulsive form, in consequence of

the crowding there of poor peasants who had been evicted from

their small farms and fled to the nearest city or town with the

hope of finding there at least charity.

"For the last ten years," wrote Abbe Perraud, in 1864, "there

has been taking place in the large cities an accumulation of

poor as fatal to their health as to their morality. They are

mostly country people whom eviction has driven from the country,

who have been unable to emigrate, and who were unwilling to shut

themselves up immediately in the workhouses. The resources they

procure for themselves, by doing odd work, are so completely

insufficient, that it is impossible to be surprised at their

destitution."

Dr. Rodenberg, describing the state of the poor country people

crowded in the "Liberties of Dublin," says of the rooms in which

they live: "In those holes the most wretched and pitiable

laborers imaginable live; they often lie by hundreds together on

the bare ground."

Such citations might be sadly multiplied, but those given are

sufficient as descriptive of the state of the poor Irish in the

cities. Let us now see how the peasants live in the country in

many parts of Ireland:

II. "The destitution of the agricultural classes," writes Abbe

Perraud, from personal observation, "in order to be rightly

appreciated, must be seen in the boggy and mountainous regions

of Munster, of Connaught, and of the western portion of Ulster.

"The ordinary dwelling of the small tenant, of the day-laborer,

in that part of Ireland, answers with the utmost precision the

description of it twenty years ago given by M. de Beaumont: 'Let

the reader picture to himself four walls of dried mud, which the

rain easily reduces to its primitive condition; a little thatch

or a few cuts of turf form the roof; a rude hole in the roof

forms the chimney, and more frequently there is no other issue

for the smoke than the door of the dwelling itself. One solitary

room holds father, mother, grandfather, and children. No

furniture is to be seen; a single litter, usually composed of

grass or straw, serves for the whole family. Five or six half-

naked children may be seen crouching over a poor fire. In the

midst of them lies a filthy pig, the only inhabitant at its ease,

because its element is filth itself.'

"Into how many dwellings of this kind have we not ourselves

penetrated--especially in the counties of Kerry, Mayo, and

Donegal--more than once obliged to stoop down to the ground, in

order to penetrate into these cabins, the entrance to which is

so low that they look more like the burrows of beasts than

dwellings made for man!

"Upon the road from Kilkenny to Grenaugh, in the vicinity of

those beautiful lakes, at the entrance of those parks, to which,

for extent and richness, neither England nor Scotland can

probably offer any thing equal, we have seen other dwellings. A

few branches of trees, interlaced and leaning upon the slope in

the road, a few cuts of turf, and a few stones picked up in the

fields, compose these wretched huts--less spacious, and perhaps

less substantial, than that of the American savage."

At the time of Abbe Perraud's visit, a correspondent of the

Dublin Saunders News-Letters, who was commissioned to inquire

into the condition of the peasants, gave the following reply,

which, as the abbe justly remarks, is but the faithful echo of

all the descriptions made within the last half-century:

"The inhabitants of Erris appear to be the most wretched of all

human beings. Their cabins, their patched and tattered clothes,

their broken-down gait--every thing bears witness to their

poverty. Their beds consist of a few bits of wood crossed one

upon the other, supported by two heaps of stones, and covered

with straw; their whole bedclothes a miserable, worn-out quilt,

without any blankets . . . . But there is nothing in Ireland

like the habitations which the people of the village of Fallmore

have made for themselves, who have been evicted by Mr. Palmer.

They are composed of masses of granite, picked up on the shore,

and roughly laid one by the other. These cabins are so low that

a man cannot stand upright in them; so narrow that they can

hardly hold three or four persons."

After all, F. Lavelle was guilty of no exaggeration in stating

that the hut of the Hottentot was better than that of the Irish

peasant. But, in the district of Gweedore, northeast of County

Donegal, the state of the peasantry is more deplorably wretched

still than in any other part of Ireland. At the time of a

celebrated parliamentary inquiry in to the matter in 1858, a

Londonderry newspaper stated that "there are in Donegal about

four thousand adults, of both sexes, who are obliged to go

barefoot during the winter, in the ice and snow--pregnant women

and aged people in habitual danger of death from the cold . . . .

It is rare to find a man with a calico shirt; but the distress

of the women is still greater, if that be possible. There are

many hundreds of families in which five or six grown-up women

have among them no more than a single dress to go out in . . . .

There are about five hundred families who have but one bed each--

in which father, mother, and children, without distinction of

age or sex, are crowded pell-mell together."

If from the dwellings and clothing of the peasantry we pass to

their food, there is no need of adding any thing to what was

said on this point when describing the periodical famines. One

detail, however, not yet mentioned, deserves to be recorded:

"In the district of Gweedore," says Abbe Perraud, "our eyes were

destined to witness the use of sea-weed. Stepping once into a

cabin, in which there was no one but a little girl charged with

the care of minding her younger brothers, and getting ready the

evening meal, we found upon the fire a pot full of doulamaun

ready cooked; we asked to taste it, and some was handed to us on

a little platter.

"This weed, when well dressed, produces a kind of viscous juice;

it has a brackish taste, and savors strongly of salt water. We

were told in the country that the only use of it is to increase,

when mixed with potatoes, the mass of aliment given to the

stomach. The longer and more difficult the work of the stomach,

the less frequent are its calls. It is a kind of compromise with

hunger; the people are able neither to suppress it nor to satisfy

it; they endeavor to cheat it. We have also been assured that this

weed cannot be eaten alone; it must be mixed with vegetables,

since of itself it has no nutritive properties whatever."

How long is such a state of things likely to continue? It has

already existed long enough to be a disgrace to the much-vaunted

benevolence of the nineteenth century. A sure and radical remedy

must be found for it; and, as it has been already so long

delayed, it should be found the more promptly.

It seems that the tenure of land lies at the bottom of the

question, and that respect for what are called "established

rights" offers the main difficulty. Those rights, indeed, were

founded on the cruellest wrong and the most flagrant injustice;

but as possession is "nine points of the English law," and so

long a time has passed since the land changed hands,

prescription must be admitted and let them be called rights; nor

can any man in his senses ask for a violent subversion of

society for the sake of righting an old wrong.

But it has ever been a maxim of jurisprudence that summum jus,

summa injuria; and this axiom finds its full explanation in the

present case, when it is considered that the jus is on the side

of a comparatively small number of men, for the most part

absentee landlords, while the injuria leans to the great mass of

the primitive owners of the soil. The time-honored policy of the

English Government, that all the open abuses of landlordism

should be watched over and protected with the most jealous care,

while, on the other hand, the wretched farmer and cottier is

supposed to have no rights to defend and guard, should be

abandoned at once and forever, with a firmness that can leave no

room for doubt or equivocation, if the restoration of confidence

on the part of the Irish is esteemed any thing worth.

But, if for no other motive, at least for the sake of securing

peace and order in Ireland, a remedy must be found. There is no

reason why the Irish should longer remain a nation of paupers;

and, although some may still pretend that the fault and its

remedy lie with themselves, unprejudiced men will readily

acknowledge that the fault lay first, at least, at England's

door --a fact which the London Times has conceded often and

proclaimed loudly enough.

Let British statesmen, then, devise proper means for such an end

without social commotion, with as little disturbance of private

rights as possible; for the object is an imperious necessity. It

seems that the latest law enacted with this view is not the

measure that was required; is totally inadequate in its

provisions, scope, and extent. In such a case it is always open

to legislators to introduce a new and more satisfactory measure;

and moral force will surely bring this about, provided it is

true to itself. We confess to having no scheme of our own to set

forth; but Irishmen are free, nay entitled, to speak, to write

on, and discuss the subject; and a serious, steady, but lawful

agitation of the question will surely find its true and final

solution. The last Galway election, notwithstanding the temporary

triumph of Judge Keogh, was a beginning in the right direction.

There is no need here of revolution, of what the French call une

jaquerie, of arming the populace for the purpose of violently

ejecting the great land-owners. No Irishman has ever stood for

so calamitous a remedy. The aid of the Internationalists will

certainly never be called in by the true children of Erin for

any purpose whatever. It seems that the great and holy Pontiff,

Pius IX., made this remark to the Prince of Wales, at their last

interview at the Vatican, and, according to the report, the

prince fully admitted its truth as far, at least, as he, by any

outward sign, could show.

The question is one of pure justice, to be settled within the

limits of order and law; and surely, when all admit that the

evil is so crying, that a remedy must be found, one will be

found, which, while it does no real injury to any person, will

bring comfort and relief to the most deserving and suffering

race of men--the Irish peasantry. We will soon see how.

But the Irishman is not only physically destitute; he is also

destitute mentally; and, if the first case calls for a prompt

remedy, the second is no less urgent. Pauperism and ignorance

were the two terrible engines so long worked by England for the

degradation and final destruction of the Irish race. Our readers

have seen how persistently was education, of any kind, refused

to the natives. The Universities of Dublin and Drogheda in the

fourteenth century, the cathedral schools, founded by the Anglo-

Normans, in the same age, carefully excluded the Irish from

their benefits. And, when the Reformation set in, with its long

series of oppressions, no Catholic could share in the new

foundations of the Tudors and the Stuarts without first abjuring

his religion. Penal statute after penal statute made of all the

shifts, to which the Irish were driven in order to educate their

children, so many crimes, punishable by death or transportation.

That, under such a state of things, they could remain Catholics

without becoming idiots is one of the most remarkable instances

on record of buoyancy of spirit and soundness of mind on the

part of a whole nation.

From the end of the last century the policy of England changed

completely in appearance. The foundation and endowment by the

state of the great college of Maynooth, destined for the education

of the Irish clergy, in 1795, was certainly a step on the right

road, and if only primary schools for the people had, at the same

time, been spread all over the island on the same principle of true

liberality, the old injustice on the matter of education would have

been atoned for and remedied, to a great extent.

But the Kildare Peace Society and the Church Education Society,

founded in 1839, showed that the antagonism to the Catholic

Church in Ireland was far from being dead; nay, was as rife as

ever.

Lord Stanley's National Education System, in 1831, at first

seemed of a character altogether above Protestant or infidel

proselytism. But, the composition of the various boards under

that system, and some of the measures adopted, gave evidence

clearly and soon enough that the education proposed for the

Irish was not in accordance with the true spirit of the nation,

so eminently Catholic and religious as it is. Hence, the total

failure--for such it is now admitted by all to have been--of

that system ought to have opened the eyes of all impartial

Englishmen to the necessity of starting from the principle that

Ireland is Catholic, and that the Irish are true children of the

Catholic Church. But this fact seems not yet recognized or

acknowledged by those who rule the nation, since, at this very

moment, a bill lies before Parliament against which all the

bishops of Ireland have united in raising their voice. The

queen's colleges all confess to be a wretched failure.

The injustice of centuries, then, is not, even in these free

days, when there is such a talk about educating the masses,

repaired by the English Government; and this sad fact seems to

militate against the power of moral force. However, it is but

right to remember that only those establishments are here spoken

of which are supported by state aid, and that complete freedom

of education, independent of such assistance, does actually

exist in Ireland. Have not the bishops all necessary power to

open schools of their own? Have they not even founded a

university? Does the state dare to interfere in whatever

educational establishments they think proper to set on foot?

They are now, in that regard, as free as the Catholic bishops in

the United States; and if the degrees granted by the faculties

under their control have no value in the eyes of the state, they

can easily dispense with a concurrence, which is certainly

unjustly denied, but which, even if granted, would not, in the

eyes of the Church, increase in the slightest the real value of

the diplomas they themselves approve. They can afford to wait

for the time when complete justice will be done; meanwhile they

are freer than Catholic bishops at this moment are in all

Catholic countries of Europe; and the freedom they enjoy is

entirely owing to that moral force which, we allege, is

sufficient to insure, sooner or later, all the advantages that

can be desired. When the present situation of the native Irish,

from an educational point of view, is compared with the oppression

under which they lay a hundred years ago, one cannot but wonder

how so much has been obtained, and the hope, that every thing

still wanting is sure to come by the agency of the force that

has already won so much, cannot be deemed vain and illusory.

Let not, however, what is here said be construed as advising

Ireland to stand still while schemes of education, evidently

godless, are concocted, matured, and passed into laws for their

special benefit. On the contrary, they must not only continue

but increase their efforts to cry them down, till they compel a

blind and deaf government to open its eyes and ears to a

national want and a national voice. This is what is meant by the

use of moral force.

But, can the complete remedy for pauperism and the solid

establishment and endowment of truly Catholic schools be

expected to come from any hands but those of an Irish

Legislature? Can they be hoped for as long as the destiny of

Ireland rests in the hands of an Imperial Parliament whose great

majority can have no real sympathy with the long-oppressed race?

In a word, is home-rule necessary to bring about those two great

measures, which seem absolutely indispensable for the complete

resurrection of the nation?

Our readers already know that, in our opinion, an Irish

Parliament would not be a sure panacea for the evils of the

country, particularly those of pauperism and ignorance, even

though that Parliament sat in Dublin, and was composed of

Irishmen bred and born. The evils would not be struck out

promptly and utterly, although many great improvements would

immediately follow.

Some of our reasons for being chary of confidence in the success

of home-rule have been already given. But we have also insisted

on the necessity of leaving the question open, and admitted that

Irishmen have a right to discuss it, and take whatever side they

may think proper, provided always they stand, as they are

standing, within the limits of law and order.

Surely, the Irish have a right to be fairly represented; modern

doctrines, as far as they can go, consecrate that right; and, if

fair representation is an impossibility in the present state of

affairs in Ireland, that state should be so altered as that the

Irish nation might obtain all the advantages which a truly

representative government bestows.

It is clear that the difficulty consists in the paramount

importance of the union--of the empire; and this is not the

place to discuss so large a question. It may be said, however,

that the union of the British Empire does not and cannot consist

in the absorption into one whole of the three integral parts

which compose it. England, Scotland, and Ireland, are still

three distinct national entities, each inhabited by a peculiar

race, and each race cannot, in such a political organization, be

in justice ignored, for a mere abstraction called the state.

Certainly the question is a very complicated one; and to offer a

dogmatic solution of it would be pretentious. It is better to

leave it to a future which is not far distant. What may be

insisted on is, that moral force is strong enough to bring about

a satisfactory decision, and that to resort to revolution for

such a purpose would be as fatal as it is criminal.

A right discussion of the question must make clear the fact that

Ireland is entitled to fair dealing as a component part of the

empire. Many other political organizations embraced within the

vast limits of the British power are allowed to discuss and

decide on questions peculiar to themselves, and which they are

at full liberty to pronounce upon for themselves by a wise

adjustment and concession on the part of the mother-country as

necessary to their well-being. Canada is almost entirely

independent; the Australian colonies have all their own

legislatures; it is the same more or less with all the distant

dependencies of England, yet there have been no complaints heard

so far of these late concessions threatening the union of the Empire.

But the objection is urged: "If such a concession be made to

Ireland, where can you stop? The Scotch may ask the same, and

the Welsh; one has as much right to home-rule as the other;

where can you draw the line?"

An easy answer to this is, that the Scotch have never asked for

home-rule, for the very good reason that they never had to

complain of unfair treatment at the hands of the English

Government; their special wants and desires having been always

duly considered from the moment of their union with England. But

the union of Ireland with England is not yet a century old, was

brought about perforce, and by chicanery and fraud, and from the

moment of its enactment to the present has been loudly protested

against by the Irish nation--the nation, that is, which we have

followed all through, joined in this instance by numbers of

their Protestant fellow-countrymen. A long list of pamphlets and

books might be drawn up, as showing the fact that multitudes of

Irish writers, not of a revolutionary but of a truly

conservative character, who cannot be accused of disloyalty to

England, have deplored, protested against, and clamored for the

repeal of, the Union of 1800.

Such is not the case with Scotland. But suppose it were, and

proofs furnished showing that Scotland is not fairly represented

in a Parliament which meets at Westminster, then that country

would have just as much right to see itself fairly represented,

its special wants satisfied and met, as all the other branches

of the great British organization.

Certain it is that the empire cannot be sound when an important,

a vital part of its political frame is incurably sore. Let that

sore be healed by justice, large, generous, and complete; let

Ireland be truly and really represented, in whatever manner her

representation may be carried out, and the sudden rise of the

little western isle in wealth, contentment, true prosperity, and

happiness, will redound to the general good of the whole. As it

now stands, its still miserable condition is as great and

constant a danger to Great Britain as it is a reproach and a

shame upon the maternal government which suffers the child, for

whose session it would stake its all, to continue in a state of

almost hopeless poverty, materially and intellectually, and to

struggle unaided in its efforts to rise.

If home-rule be the measure which is to heal Ireland's wounds,

it must be granted, and the voice of reason and right must rise

above the stupid clamor which says that it cannot, must not,

shall not be granted! Such expressions were common in

inflammatory pamphlets which flooded the country on the eve of

Catholic Emancipation, in 1829; and possibly many were issued

even after the granting of this (from a certain English point of

view) suicidal act of justice to Catholics.

But whatever may be the ultimate issue of the home-rule movement,

the question of education, which is so closely allied to, as to

seem dependent on it, is of such importance that it brooks no

delay. Ireland is, as it may be hoped it will ever continue, a

truly Catholic nation, and for such education must be special,

and cannot be left to the direction of a non-Catholic state, not

to use a worse expression. The result of the so-called national

system, as exhibited by the Queen's Colleges and the rest, ought

to be enough to open the eyes of real statesmen. But non-

Catholic legislators need a sense which they do not possess, to

appreciate the blunders they must fall into when proposing to

touch such delicate interests as spiritual things. Thirty years

ago, when those Queen's Colleges and schools were established in

Ireland, the Catholic hierarchy raised up their voice to warn

the British Government against so rash an attempt; for the very

few who appeared willing to give the system a trial had their

own doubts and forebodings. The warning, as usual, was not

heeded, and the consequence is, that the partisans of the system

now confess that their darling scheme has turned out a complete

failure. Yet, strange to say, they do not in the least seem to

have changed their ideas on the subject. On the contrary, they

wish to secularize education more completely than ever, and to

extend their project to the whole British Empire; though at this

moment the warning comes to them also from the Presbyterians of

Scotland, who refuse to submit to the scheme, universal in its

scope, of educating the young according to state notions and

worldly ideas.

In this the British Government only follows the lead of all

European cabinets and legislatures; for this great iniquity is

not confined to the British Isles, but is attempted everywhere,

with the evident design of taking the government of souls out of

the hands to which Jesus Christ confided it--the Church. The

Sovereign Pontiff was compelled to protest, and, as is the

custom in these days, his protest fell unheeded. It remains to

be seen whether men, who call themselves Christians, will

consent to see their children educated by secular bodies, which

are not only void of all authority over the souls of men, but

imbued, as all know, with doctrines the most pernicious and

disorganizing. The just complaint made by the Irish hierarchy is

unfortunately not restricted to their own body; their complaint

is one with that of all the rulers of the Church throughout the

world. It seems to us that there is greater hope of establishing

a thorough Christian system of education in Ireland than in any

other country, because the Irish nation will always take a more

determined attitude, and gather in a more compact and united body

around her natural leaders, the bishops and priests of God, than

any other modern Catholic nation; and, in this age, where there

are unanimity and a fixed purpose among any body of men, they

cannot fail to result in a victory over all obstacles and opponents.

Of one thing England may be sure, that the Irish bishops would

never submit to the project now on foot in England, as to do so

would be to fail in their most sacred duty; and the mass of the

Irish people is at their back. The Catholic hierarchy is always

ready to support the secular power so long as that power remains

within its province and does not step out of it to encroach on

their unquestionable domain; but, when duty calls on them to

resist, the experience of centuries is before the world, in

Ireland at least, to show how far they can carry their resistance.

In this they will stand united as one man, and it is vain for the

English Government to flatter itself that it will find tools among

them, should it foist on them the Birmingham scheme.

But a more threatening fact still is the compact union of all

Irishmen in support of their bishops, against schemes which have

already excited such bitter opposition on their part, and on

which they have already pronounced and given their solemn

verdict in unmistakable tones. If in our days Irishmen have been

so eager to uphold many projects of a doubtful character,

because those projects were opposed to England; if they have

shown in the most emphatic manner that the memory of the past is

still fresh, and that they are not yet prepared to accept the

British Government as a friend; if they have seized every

occasion, the most trifling as well as the most important, to

show that the union with England was distasteful to them--what

will be their attitude when the question admits of no doubt, and

can give rise to no apprehension in a Christian conscience; when,

indeed, they know that they stand where their duty to God bids

them, urged at the same time by their natural feelings of

opposition to a power which they detest and to which they are

irreconcilable? We do not say that we altogether approve of

their dogged opposition to England; it is only alluded to as a

fact which it would be folly, in treating of questions between

England and Ireland, to shut one's eyes to or doubt.

When such is the state of feeling, how can a scheme of godless

education hope to succeed, which, after all, requires the

consent of fathers and mothers of families? It is only natural

to suppose that the English Government, in the event of its

success, is scarcely prepared to employ such a numerous,

watchful, and determined police as shall march the children off

to school every lay by force--to schools which to them would be

prisons, presided over by jailers in the shape of instructors.

Nevertheless, the scheme now agitated by British statesmen must

culminate in some such measure, if they would have their schools

attended; and the inference is natural that education viewed

from such a stand-point becomes a design criminal and oppressive

in its nature, as well as a sheer impossibility in its carrying

out. Once again the whole British power would launch itself in

vain against the unyielding rock of as stubborn a will as ever

animated human beings, as durable and unshrinking almost as the

inner rock upon which it is built--Catholic faith.

Much space has already been devoted to the consideration of what

are here considered as the two great measures necessary and

sufficient for the complete resurrection of the Irish race--the

lifting of the load of pauperism under which they have so long

labored, and the establishment among them of a sound and

thorough Christian education; and that those measures will

undoubtedly be carried without any attempt at social convulsions,

without any violation of law and order. But, as, unfortunately,

many side-issues have been raised in Ireland of very inferior

importance, but of a nature almost exclusively to engage the

attention of Irishmen, to the great detriment of real progress,

it may be well to dwell a little longer on the consequences

which must infallibly follow from a higher state of physical

comfort and mental culture among them:

I. A higher state of physical comfort will naturally produce a

stronger attachment to their native soil and a corresponding

reluctance to leave it, as they now do by wholesale emigration.

The thought has been dwelt upon that emigration was a design of

Divine Providence, and even the first step in the resurrection

of the nation and in the establishment of its power within as

well as without. That the object of emigration is not yet fully

attained may be inferred from the fact that it still continues

on so large a scale; that it must ultimately dwindle to much

smaller proportions, if not cease utterly, is pretty certain.

This is our wish and hope: for the home population of the island

must be large enough to invest it with deserved importance in

the eyes of foreigners. Our title-page sets forth the words of

Dr. Newman, expressive of the firm belief that the time will

come when the Catholic population of Erin will be as thick and

prosperous as that of Belgium? Why should it not be so? Pauperism

alone prevents it. Let their existence be one of comfort--mere

comfort, not luxury--and there is no limit to the increase of

their numbers. In such an event Protestantism would contract into

such narrow limits that in Ireland it would become a thing unknown;

the few sectarians still abiding there would themselvesshare in

the general prosperity, and would possibly of their own accord

return to the bosom of the common mother of Christians.

The question, then, of increase of physical comfort for Irishmen

is one of the utmost importance, and, as the tenure of land is

so closely connected with it, not to this question is the term

side-issue applied. The land-question should be thoroughly

exhausted until the true solution, the real measure, which has

not yet appeared, may be brought to the surface and carried out

to the full. The land-question in all its bearings lies beyond

our competence; not so, certain reasons for believing that the

possession of land is necessary for the complete restoration of

the nation. Manufactures and commercial pursuits are of

secondary importance in a country like Ireland, which is

eminently agricultural. This should not be taken to mean that

such matters are to be neglected, and the Irish to be

discouraged in engaging in them, particularly in their home

manufactures; nor in calling for better laws to help them, at

least for fair dealing as far as legislation goes. But supposing

them completely independent and masters of themselves; supposing

not only the repeal of the Union, but even the separation from

the British organization effected, how could they hope to

compete in manufacturing skill, and science, with the inventive

genius of the American, the systematic comprehensiveness of the

Englishman, or the artistic taste of the French? Goods are

manufactured for the markets of the world, and the Irish are not

yet prepared for such extensive enterprises; and, taking the

characteristics of the race into consideration, it is doubtful

whether they will ever be successful in such ventures.

The same may be said of commerce. When are they likely to have a

navy of their own? They are still Celts, and would it be well

for them to cease to be Celts? The oceans of the globe are

covered with ships bearing the flags of many nations. Suppose

them to unfurl a national flag to the breeze, which is saluted,

wherever met, by the crafts of other civilized nations, when

would it become perceptible among the crowded fleets which

already hold possession of the seas? The broad thoroughfares of

the ocean know two or three national colors; all the others are

so seldom seen, that their presence or absence is alike

unnoticed by the world at large. Among these would the Irish be

numbered, if they engaged in commerce on their own account, and

sailed no longer under British colors.

It is for them, then, to turn their attention to the land, which

is their chief source of wealth. Let them buy it up, or gain it

by long leases, inch by inch and acre by acre, until not only

the bleak bogs and wild mountains of Connaught are again their

own, but the rich meadow-lands and smiling wheat-fields of

Munster and Leinster. Let their brethren in America and

Australia associate with them in this, and thus will they build

up again a true Irish yeomanry and nobility--for nobility has a

new meaning to-day--more glorious, perhaps, than the old one.

Poverty and rags will give place to prosperity and comfort, even

in the lowliest cottages, and mirth and glee will be heard again

in the country from which they have so long been banished.

Is such a picture a dream, and its realization an impossibility?

It is our belief that, to make it a reality, only requires

steadiness of purpose, perseverance, energy, and association.

Fifty years ago it would certainly have seemed a dream; but

matters have advanced within the last half-century, and every

thing is now prepared for such a hoped-for consummation.

II. Together with physical comfort, the culture produced by a

sound and thorough education is the second thing absolutely

necessary for the resurrection of the nation. Education has, at

all times, been of the utmost importance; in our age it is more

so than ever. It may be said that, in the opinion of mankind, it

tends more and more to replace blood. The privileges that once

belonged to rank and birth are now everywhere freely accorded to

a truly-educated man. And here, wealth, which is almost

worshipped by many, cannot altogether take the place of

education. Consequently, a great effort should be made in

Ireland to raise the standard of the intellectual scale of

society. Owing to former tyranny and oppression, the rising must

begin at the lowest grade. But the first impulse has already

been given by the Church of God, and that impulse must continue

and increase with a constantly-accelerated force.

Unfortunately, a false direction has been given it by the state.

The means which will surely defeat this action of the state have

been seen. Nevertheless, it works mischievously for the general

result; and the money paid by the nation has been and still is

squandered for a most unholy purpose, when, if properly applied,

it would be so fruitful of good.

Should the government persevere in its project, one course only

lies open before all true Irishmen; and that is, to ignore the

action of the government, and follow a plan of their own. They

have only to do what the Catholics in France would most

willingly do if the state allowed them; what Catholics in the

United States have been doing for some time, and will have to do

for some time longer--not murmur too loudly at the taxes paid by

them for educational purposes and used so lavishly by the state

without any profit to them; but with steady purpose raise funds

which the state cannot touch, devoted to an object with which

the state cannot interfere, namely, the solid Christian

education of their children under the eyes and chief control of

the Church, with competent and truly religious masters.

Let them reflect that until recently education in Christian

countries was always imparted by the Church of Christ, and that

its secularization is but a work of yesterday; that the effect

of that secularization is manifest enough in the mental anarchy

which grows more prevalent in Europe every day; that the nation

which comes back to the old system, and places again the care of

youth in the hands of religious teachers, is sure to obtain a

far sounder and more effective education than those who take for

teachers of their children men void of faith and remarkable only

for a false and superficial polish, which sooner or later will

be reckoned by all at its true value, and meet only with well-

merited neglect and contempt.

No one will deny that moral training, the first and most

important part of education, is far surer and safer in the care

of religious teachers than in that of mere laymen, whose

morality is often doubtful, and whose reputation is not of the

best. With regard to scientific teaching, the mind of the

religious is not, to say the least, lowered by the holy

obligations which he has contracted: and it is an awkward fact

for those who in a breath uphold secular education and abuse the

religious, that in former ages the men who excelled in arts and

sciences, the geniuses whose works will live as long as the

earth, were either themselves monks or the pupils of monks. A

list of them would fill many pages, and their names are not

unknown to the world.

For the mass of the people, the common level of primary

education with which so many are now satisfied may at least be

as satisfactory in its results when imparted by religious, male

and female, as when under the direction of young men and women

who have received every possible diploma which is at the

disposal of school commissioners or boards of gentlemen invested

with an office, worthy of the gravest attention, but to which

they can devote but very little time.

But the subject may be said to have passed beyond discussion.

The true and authorized leaders of the Irish in such matters,

the Catholic bishops, have already taken the matter into their

own hands; and in a very short time have covered the island with

their schools, with every prospect of a university. It rests

with the government to give or refuse its aid in imparting a

true national education to a nation which is Catholic; but, with

or without this aid, the Irish will have the means of educating

their children rightly; and the culture they receive will

favorably compare with that imparted by rival establishments

fostered by the state, whose pupils will not know a word even of

their own national history, since, in the authorized books,

Ireland has no existence other than that of an unworthy subject

of the great British Empire.

It was necessary to give prominence to what is here considered

as the most effective means of bringing about the great result

which engages our attention in this chapter. There are secondary

objects which might be treated, but which, in the final working

of the divine will, may be insignificant. For, to repeat what

has been said before, the restoration of the nation which is now

progressing so steadily almost unaided by any action of man,

however much he may indulge in agitation, is the work of God,

and before long will so manifest itself to all. Meanwhile it is

enough to assert in general terms that Ireland is entitled to

all those things which render a people happy and contented. That

wished-for state is not far off; let them continue to be active

in its pursuit. A previous chapter has already touched upon the

great means to be employed in bringing this about: _association_,

whose centre should be Ireland, and whose branches should

spread wherever Irishmen have established themselves; whose

guides should be the clergy, but its chief workers, intelligent

and energetic laymen. On this point it is desirable particularly

to be rightly understood; it is not our purpose to say that in

such a work laymen ought not to cooperate, or even to lead; with

the memory of O'Connell before us, such a thing would be

impossible; on the contrary, the external working of the whole

scheme should be placed in the hands of good, active, and

intelligent laymen. They are the proper instruments for carrying

on such a work actively and efficaciously; they form, at least

numerically, the principal part of the moral power of the nation,

and that power should be developed on a larger scale than it

has ever yet been. But the first impulse should be given by the

moral leaders, rulers of the Church. Let the nation work under

the guidance, the leadership of the men who alone stood by them

when all else had been lost, who, in fact, by preserving their

religion, preserved to them their nationality; let them work

under their eyes and with their sanction, and assuredly their

labor will not be labor in vain.

What will the final result be of such a cooperation of workers?

The formation or rather consolidation of a truly Christian and

Catholic people; a most remarkable phenomenon in this wonderful

nineteenth century! It would seem that they have thus far been

deprived of a government of their own only to win a government

at last which shall be, what is so sadly wanted in these days,

Christian and Catholic. Modern governments have broken loose

from Christianity; they have declared themselves independent of

all moral restraint; they have pronounced themselves supreme,

each in its own way; and, to be consistent, they have become

godless. Donoso Cortes has shown this admirably in his work on

"Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism." The sad spectacle

which in our age meets the eye of the Christian, is universal;

there is no longer a Catholic nation; Christendom has ceased to

exist. This is held by the statesmen of to-day to be a vast

improvement on the old social system. Medieval barbarism, as

they term it, has, according to them, met with just condemnation;

and to return to it now, would be to drag an advanced age

centuries backward, a horror which no sane man could contemplate.

Undoubtedly there were many abuses under the old regime, which

the most sincere Christian regrets, and could not wish to see

restored, or again attempted. But, its great feature, the inner

link which bound the system together, its unity under the

guidance of the universal Church, was the only safeguard for the

general happiness of mankind. This admirable unity has been

broken into fragments; each part does for itself, and thus the

world lies at the mercy of Might, and each nation goes about

like "a strong man armed, keeping his house."

Even Heeren, a writer who is strongly Protestant and liberal, is

driven to confess in his "History of the Political System of

Europe," that the reign of Frederick the Great, in Prussia, was

"immediately followed by those great convulsions in states,

which gave the ensuing period a character so different from the

former. The contemporary world, which lived in it, calls it the

revolutionary; but it is yet too early to decide by what name it

will be denoted by posterity, after the lapse of a century."

After a brief review of the various states as they existed

toward the middle of the last century, he adds: "The efforts of

the rulers to obtain unlimited power had overthrown the old

national freedom in all the states of the Continent; the

assemblies of the states had disappeared, or were reduced to

mere forms; nowhere had they been modelled into a true national

representation."

He does not see that, in order to obtain that "unlimited power,"

the rulers had thrown off the yoke of Church authority

everywhere, and that Christendom disappeared with the "old

national freedom" as soon as the key-stone of the edifice, the

papacy, was ejected from its place.

Nevertheless, he was keen enough to perceive it necessary to

call in armed force to uphold that usurped power of rulers:

"For the strength of the states no other criterion was known

than standing armies. And, in reality, there was scarcely any

other. By the perfection which they had attained, and which kept

pace almost with the growing power of the princes, the line of

partition was gradually drawn between them and the nations;

_they_ only were armed; the _nations_ were defenceless."

This great German historian carries his views further still, and

confesses that, "if the political supports were in a tottering

condition, the moral were no less shattered. The corner-stone of

every political system, the sanctity of legitimate possession,

without which there would be only one war of all against all,

was gone; politicians had already thrown off the mask in Poland;

the lust of aggrandizement had prevailed . . . . The

indissoluble bond connecting morals and politics being broken,

the result was to make egotism the prevailing principle of

public as well as private life."

Admirable reflections, doubtless, but incomplete; the

Protestantism of the writer not allowing him to perceive that,

the only sure defender of morality having been discarded,

egotism could not but prevail. Therefore does he complain, being

blind to the true cause of the disorder, that "democratic ideas,

transported from America to Europe, were spread and cherished in

the midst of the monarchical system--ready materials for a

conflagration far more formidable than their authors had

anticipated, should a burning spark unhappily light upon them.

Others had already taken care to profane the religion of the

people; and what remains sacred to the people when religion and

constitution are profaned?"

This last observation, thrown in at the end of some very sound

considerations, would have made them far more striking, had it

appeared at their head as the great source of all the

catastrophes which ensued. But it requires a Catholic eye to

take in the whole truth, and a Catholic tongue to give the right

explanation of history, as of all things else.

Many reflections similar to those above quoted have been made by

non-Catholic writers, and the defenders of the Church have

spoken with clearness and energy throughout. Nevertheless, the

evil has continued to grow more universal and more alarming,

until, to-day, no principle on which the social fabric can

securely stand is acknowledged by those who rule the exterior

world. And of what Heeren calls the violation of "the sanctity

of legitimate possession," let Poland and many other states

speak, nay, those of the Father of the faithful himself, to

whose warning voice rulers have now so long persistently turned

a deaf ear. Where are now even the fragments of that "corner-

stone" of the old "political system?"

Such is the state of affairs, not only in Europe, but generally

throughout the world, so that the Catholic Church has at length

entered fully upon that stage of her existence when she possesses

_individual_ subjects full of tender affection and devotedness,

whose number, thank God! increases every day, but not a single

_State_ which acknowledges her as its director and teacher.

Ireland may be destined to become the first one which shall

acknowledge her, and set an example to the rest. If ever she

enjoys self-government, she will surely do so, for Catholic she

is to the core, and Catholic she cannot but remain.

When it was said that home-rule would not serve as a sure

panacea for all her evils, it will be understood as applying to

the actual moment and nothing else. That it would not be a good

thing for her ever to enjoy real self-government was never in

our mind. Moral force is bringing this nearer to her; and step

by step she is learning how to walk without support. Already,

she possesses something of political franchise, and enjoys

municipal government more truly than Frenchmen do after all

their social convulsions.

There are men, Irishmen even, who pretend that she would subside

into anarchy if her destiny were confided to her own care. They

point to the constant wranglings which have been her bane for

centuries, and the "prophet" who wrote the "Battle of Dorking"

represents her, as soon as the humiliation of England left her

free, struggling painfully in the throes of anarchy. That this

general opinion of men with regard to Ireland is but too true,

was conceded in another place, yet only so far as concerned

interests which were trifling, or, at best, of no high character;

that when the object at stake is one of great importance, there

was more steadiness, unanimity, energy, and true heroism in the

Irish people, than in any other known to history in modern times.

And this reflection is certainly borne out by the issues of all

the secular struggles of the Irish with Scandinavianism,

feudalism, and Protestantism.

Surely is there in them the right material for a nation; and,

when the day comes for the country to take in hand, under

Providence, her own destiny and work it out, the "prophet" will

find himself sadly mistaken when, freed forever from the

degradation of pauperism, she is at liberty to raise her

thoughts above food and raiment; when her children, lifted by a

solid Christian education to the high level of intellectual

foresight, shall be able to discuss the great objects of their

national interests, with no question of clan and clan; then

wrangling will cease, as far as public questions are concerned,

and be merely left to matters of minor importance, or private

affairs, as with all other nations. But that concentrated energy

which has marked the race throughout that long fight of

centuries against such overwhelming odds, will still continue as

their distinguishing characteristic, but turned now to the

question of their own national welfare, and no longer to the

aversion of doom.

Then will Europe see what a truly Christian people is, for then

there will be no other left; and the superiority of principles,

of strength of mind, energy of character, naturally fostered by

deep religious convictions, will afford another proof of

Montesquieu's reflection, that "the Christian faith, which seems

to have for its object only the future life, is likewise the

best calculated to make people happy and prosperous during this."

If ever men are brought to acknowledge the fatal error they made

in rejecting the sacred safeguard which Christ left them in his

Church, it will be by looking on the example of a nation

actually existing, governed by the great principles which alone

can insure the happiness of the individual and the prosperity of

the whole people.

In all the foregoing considerations Ireland has been looked upon

as a nation full of vigor and energy; but, as this vital point

is denied by some, who bear the reputation of thoughtful writers,

it is well to establish it clearly before our minds.

Is Ireland a nation? Some say, No; others, among them Mr. Froude,

say she is divided into two nations.

The first of these assertions, that she is not a nation, is in

appearance so self-evident and true that it seems folly to deny

it. She has no government of her own; her destinies seem to be

altogether in the hands of a hostile race, which rules her by a

Parliament, where her voice is scarcely heard. She has no army

nor navy, no commerce, no treasury, not the lowest prerogative

of sovereignty. There is a green flag still somewhere with a

harp on it and a crown above the harp, reserved for state

occasions, and unfurled now and again, when a show of loyalty

and a little enthusiasm is called for; but that flag never waves

the Irish to battle, not even when fighting for England. There

is no Irish standard-bearer for it, as there was under the

Tudors, when the flag of Ulster was seen amid the armies of

Elizabeth. The name of Ireland is never mentioned in any treaty

with foreign powers; and, when the sovereign of England,

Scotland, and Ireland, signs a treaty, a convention, nay, a poor

protocol, with any foreign state, the name of Ireland is not to

be seen on the parchment, save at its head, among the titles of

the monarch. There is no Irish seal even to affix to the

document: the country is a national non-entity.

But other men, and wise men too, discover a strange anomaly in

this curious country. They hold that it is composed of two

distinct nations, and furnish excellent reasons in support of

their theory.

They talk in this fashion: "Look at the people; travel the

country north and south, and converse with them as you go. What

do you find? Unity of feeling, aims, agreement of opinion on all

possible subjects? Just the opposite! You find Jacob and Esau on

every side struggling in the womb of their mother. The quarrel

between Sassenach and Gael still goes on. What two figures can

be found more antagonistic than the Orangeman of Ulster and the

Milesian of Connaught? Yet they are both children of the same

country."

And so deep-grained is the difference between them that,

although they have lived side by side for centuries, they are

still as hostile to each other as when they first met in battle

array. The Danes, after a struggle of a little more than two

centuries, gave up the contest and became Celts. Strongbow's

Normans soon adopted the manners of the old inhabitants,

intermarried with them, and, after a lapse of four centuries,

though quarrels often broke out between the one and the other,

they were to all intents and purposes Celts, the old race, as it

were, absorbing the Norman blood, and always showing itself in

the children.

But, when will the children of James's Scotchmen or Cromwell's

Covenanters coalesce with the descendants of the Milesians? The

longer they dwell together, the farther they seem apart, the

more they seem to hate each other; and every 12th of July, 5th

of November, 17th of March, or even 15th of August, brings

danger of bloodshed and strife to every city, hamlet, and town.

Surely, this fact speaks of two nations in the country.

The question here presented is indeed a complicated one,

requiring solid distinctions in order to elucidate it; and,

strange to say, this last difficulty of the presence of two

nations in Ireland offers greater obstacles to the firm

establishment of our opinion than the first assertion, so clear

and undeniable in appearance, that there is no Irish nation!

If true nationality existed only in the externals of government,

in an army, navy, commerce, a public seal and flag, and

recognition by foreign powers, further discussion would clearly

be useless, and the subject might as well at once be dropped.

But the true idea of a nation embraces much more than this;

there is such a thing as a national soul, and all the array of

accidents alluded to above constitute only the body, or, more

truly, the surroundings. As a writer in the North American

Review (vol. cxv., p. 379) has well expressed it, a nation is "a

race of men, small or great, whom community of traditions and

feeling binds together into a firm, indestructible unity, and

whose love of the same past directs their hopes and fears to the

same future."

In this sense nationality assuredly belongs to Ireland. More,

perhaps, than among any other people on earth, is there for the

great bulk of them "community of traditions and feeling,"

binding them together into "a firm and indestructible unity;"

and who shall say that they feel no love for their past, because

that past has been clouded with sorrow? Nay, this fact makes the

past dearer, and tends all the more to direct their hopes and

fears to the same future; a future, indeed, still dim and

uncertain, and not to be named with perfect certainty, but

wrapped in mists like the morning; yet the faint flush of the

dawn is already there that shall pale and die away when the full

orb of the sun appears.

The reader may remember what was said of the unanimity so

striking in all Irishmen, wherever they may be found; that,

though private disputes may be taken up among them with such

ardor that their quarrels have become proverbial, when the

question refers to their country or their God, in a moment they

are united, suddenly transformed into steady friends, ready to

shed their blood side by side for the great objects which

entirely absorb their natures.

This feeling it is which forms the soul of a nation. Wherever

this is to be found, there is an indestructible nationality;

wherever it is absent, there is only a dead body, however strong

may seem its government, however vast its armies, however high

its so-called culture and refinement.

These reflections being kept in view, judicious men will agree

that, among Europeans at least, there is scarcely any other

nationality so strong and vigorous as the Irish. Their

traditional feeling keeps their past ever present to their eyes;

their ardent nature hopes ever against hope; misfortunes which

would utterly break down and dishearten any other people, leave

them still full of bright anticipations, and, as they seem to

weep over the cold body of a dear mother--Erin, their country--

they think only of her resurrection.

But are there not two nations among them--two nations radically

opposed to each other and incapable of coalescing? Supposing a

resurrection of the people, which of the two is to prevail--the

numerical majority, or the so far influential minority? In

either event, it is fair to suppose a new state of helotism for

the one party or the other. Is this the spectacle which the

regenerated nation is likely to present?

In speaking of the resurrection of Ireland, the old, massive,

compact body of the people, the venerable race, Celtic in its

aspirations and tendencies, if not altogether in its origin, has

always been kept in view; and that anomalous, foreign

excrescence which has so steadily refused to assimilate with the

mass, and has until our days remained "encamped" in Ireland, as

the Turks are justly said to have remained "encamped" in Europe,

has never entered into our reckoning.

The true Irishman has ever been catholic--the word is used in

its grammatical and not in its religious sense--in fellowship.

The race, as now constituted, is assuredly of mixed origin, and

large drafts of foreign population have been added from time to

time to the primitive stock, which has always been kind to admit,

absorb, and make them finally Celtic. Strongbow's Normans were

not the last who submitted to that process; as was seen, many

Cromwellians became the fathers, or grandfathers at least, of as

sturdy an Irish branch as ever flourished in the strong air of

the country.

But a comparatively small body of men has doggedly refused to

submit to this process, and continued to this day an English or

Lowland Scotch colony on the Irish soil. The future of Ireland

does not take them in, for the very simple reason that they are

not of her, they do not belong to her, they are as much

foreigners to-day as they ever were. Therefore do we admit the

existence of two nations, if people are pleased to call them so,

in Ireland, but of one nation only have we written. The only

question in regard to this second "nation" is: What will become

of them in the future? Are they, in their turn, to become helots,

after having vainly striven so long to make helots of the

others? God forbid! No true Irishman nourishes in his soul such

feelings of retaliation or revenge.

Assuredly, they will be prevented from disturbing any longer the

public order, and forced at length to respect the majority, or

rather, the mass of their countrymen. No one can object to

having such a necessary measure imposed upon them. In the many

civil discords which, for more than a century and a half, have

disgraced the north of Ireland, they have almost invariably been

the aggressors. The government openly taking their part for a

long time, they had the whole field to themselves, and what use

they made of their privilege, and how they improved their

opportunity, is known to all. When, at last, the public

authorities could no longer pretend to ignore their hateful

spirit, and began to show some signs of protecting the hitherto

much-abused majority, by forbidding those odious processions to

which the others always attached such importance, they gave

themselves the airs of a persecuted body of men, and pretended

that henceforth their lives, and those of their wives and

children, were no longer safe.

The province of Ulster being closed to them as a field of

operations, they transferred to Upper Canada the exhibition of

their blood-thirsty hatred, and on several occasions the

Catholic population of the country had to protect their churches,

musket in hand. Even in the United States they have rendered

themselves odious to the people by foisting their spirit of

strife on a land where they cannot but be strangers, and by

staining some of the streets of New York with blood, in order to

gratify their senseless animosity.

It is surely time that an end be put to such absurd and

dangerous antics, not abroad only, but at home. In the new order

of things now dawning upon Ireland, there can no longer be room

for them; and the very name of Orangeman must disappear forever

from the vocabulary of the new nation, to the joy of all

peaceful and law-abiding citizens.

That is all the persecution they need expect. Not only will

there be room for them still in the country of their birth, but

of course they will have their due share in all the privileges

of citizenship. Political distinctions between themselves and

the old race will be unknown; social distinctions will be a

question for themselves to settle. Should they show the

slightest desire of combining with the majority of their

countrymen, these latter will be generous enough to forget the

past, and perhaps the others may imitate their predecessors, the

Danes, the Normans, and even some of their Cromwellian kin, and

become, at last, Hibernis hiberniores.

What is said of political and social distinctions will hold good

also for religious tenets. Let them, if they choose, continue to

stand by their Presbyterian dogmas, provided they do not quarrel

with the majority for professing what they love to believe; but

that belief must come to an external and public profession. They

will often hear the bells of Catholic churches; as they pass

outside, if they do not enter, the strains of the glorious music

and noble anthems, resounding within, will fall on their ears;

they will see the statue of the Blessed Virgin borne through the

streets on the 15th of August, amid showers of snowy blossoms,

falling from the innocent hands of children; all this they must

endure, if it be so hard to endure it; but this is not

persecution. Even to their eyes, if their heart be not frozen by

a cold belief, the sight will bear some attractions. And if they

come to think, that what is oldest in Christianity is the best,

and that, after all, Catholicity has something in it which makes

life sweet and pleasant, it can scarcely be held a crime in the

universal Church to open her arms and receive back to her bosom

those wandering and so long obstinate children.

When will all this come to pass? Who can tell? But stranger

things than these have already taken place in Ireland, and we

are confident that future historians of the race will have to

record greater wonders still, and facts more stubborn and

difficult of explanation.

At all events, should the inflexible Puritanism of the Scotch

colony stand proof against the allurements of a motherly and

tender-hearted Church, they must at least become subject to the

iron laws of population and absorption. When the public statutes

are no longer drawn up for their special benefit, when no new

swarms of brethren come to swell their ranks, when they are

abandoned to the merciless laws of loss and gain in numbers,

then will people soon see on which side is true morality, and by

which the ordinances of God are really respected; then will many

vapid accusations against the holy Catholic Church of themselves

disappear, and the eyes of men will open to the great fact that

Ireland must be and remain one in race, feeling, and, above all,

in religion. The foreign element will have dwindled to

insignificance, if it shall not have utterly disappeared. Indeed,

it may be safely predicted that the day will arrive when the

announcement of the natural demise of the last Puritan in

Ireland will appear in the daily newspapers as a curious piece

of intelligence, not devoid of a certain interest.

Though moral force, as the agent of the regeneration of Ireland,

has been our theme all through, we would not have our readers

infer that Irishmen should adopt the do-nothing policy, and

leave to God alone the work of raising them up. The moral force

spoken of is that of human beings endowed with activity and

determination; steady and persevering in the pursuit of well-

organized plans of their own conception.

Let Irishmen lift up their eyes and behold what they might do,

did they only appreciate their strength and husband it. Dire

calamities, which God designed from the first to convert into

blessings, have scattered them over the world, and brought out

that power of expansion which was always in their nature, but

lay dormant and cramped under the pressure of terrible

circumstances. They again show themselves as that old race which

three thousand years ago spread itself all over Europe and Asia.

They now bear in their hands an emblem which they had not then--

the cross of Christ! And the cross is the sign of universality

in time and space. To that sign, since the triumph of the

Saviour on the day of his resurrection, is given the rule of the

world till the end of time. Now that our globe is known at last,

the cross must be planted all over its surface, and in this

great work the Irish race is clearly destined to bear a

conspicuous part.

In the fulfilment of that divine vocation they are dispersed,

and whatever is dispersed is deprived of a great part of its

strength. How can the disjecta membra, scattered far and wide by

Typhon, become again Osiris? Under the guidance of God, by that

great instrument of modern times, the power of association and

organization, aided by a steady, energetic will.

Ezekiel has admirably described the process in his thirty-

seventh chapter. The Lord must first speak: "Ye dry bones, hear

the word of the Lord. . . . Behold, I will send spirit into you,

and ye shall live; and I will lay sinews on you, and will cause

flesh to grow over you, and will cover you with skin; and I will

give you spirit, and ye shall live."

All this seems to be the work of God alone, yet, in the very

words of the prophet, the dry bones have their part to perform:

"As I prophesied, there was a noise, a commotion, and the bones

came together, each one to his joint."

There is the whole process; it supposes a noise, a commotion, a

rising, an assembling together, and a fitting each one into his

own joint. They possess an activity of their own, which they

must use. And the phenomenon is to take place in the midst of "a

vast plain "--two great continents--over the surface of which

the "bones" are found on every side, appearing "exceeding dry."

With what a power will that army be invested when it rises up

and stands upon its feet! We may form some faint idea of it,

when in our large cities any thing occurs to excite the interest

and warm up the feeling of that apparently inert Celtic mass.

The largest halls constructed cannot contain the multitudes who

have only read the announcement of a meeting, a lecture, or a

charitable undertaking. Such scenes are witnessed every day

along the banks of the St. Lawrence, the Hudson, and the

Delaware Rivers; by the shores of Chesapeake Bay; in all the

great centres of population dotting the Atlantic coast; in the

heart of the continent along the winding course of the

Mississippi and Missouri; and already, even in the far West, on

the spreading shores of the Pacific Ocean. The same is occurring

all over the inhabited portion of Australia and the adjacent

islands. What power, then, would be theirs did those "bones"

know how to come together each in his own joint!

How is it that we hear of no concerted action among them for

their country's sake? Is each man so busy, and lost in his own

little sphere of interest and speculation, that he cannot spare

a moment's thought for the claims of his native country? Who can

say this? Moreover, the best means of promoting their own

private interests would be to raise before the eyes of all the

status of the country with which they are naturally identified.

The truth is, each one waits for another to set the example, the

mass being ever ready to follow a lead and show its good-will.

Association is needed.

When they turn their eyes to the incessant struggle going on in

the mother-country, when they read in their own newspapers the

discussions of the Irish press, of the questions debated on the

soil most dear to them, and the agitation of the momentous

interests pending and awaiting a final decision among their

former countrymen, no doubt their feelings are strongly moved;

the hopes and fears of their youth, before they left their

native shores, are revived with renewed force, and their love

for their green island is as ardent as ever.

But is this all? Is it enough that the heart of each one is

stirred within him? Is it not for them to see that the influence

of their new name, new position, and bettered circumstances, be

brought to bear, however far away they may be, upon the great

home questions of land-tenure, education, the elective franchise,

a native Parliament, commerce, manufactures, and all matters

touching on the general welfare of Ireland? If, having become

adopted citizens of a new country, they can no longer act as

citizens of Erin, they may and ought at least to interest them

selves in these matters as far as true loyalty to their adopted

country may allow them; and this they can best do by association.

The bonds of a wise organization would give firmness and

compactness to the whole moral force of the dispersed

nationality. By association, the scattered "dry bones" would be

speedily changed into a solid array of living warriors standing

upon their feet, and the startling spectacle would astonish the

whole world, and win for the race the involuntary respect of all

who should witness or hear of it. Nothing would be easier than

to set such a thing on foot, for, although so far apart in

appearance, the ma- jority of Irish families, from the very fact

of emigration, have half of their members at home and half

abroad, joined together by an active correspondence and a

constant transmission of funds. The managers of the movement

would only have to organize for a general object, what already

is organized in fact, and direct to the common good what is now

done privately.

A word has already been said on the possible management of such an

organization: that the movement should begin at home, in the island;

that its supervision should be left to the true leaders of the

nation; and that all the workings, details, and executive part,

may be safely intrusted to the active members of the association.

The class here designated as leaders of the nation is already

known to the reader. The old nobility having been destroyed,

there is no other body which truly represent the Irish people to-day

save the clergy. This is, no doubt, a misfortune, but none the

less a fact. It offers the anomaly of clergymen meddling to a

certain extent in politics; but, in Ireland, this is unavoidable.

How does the whole body of the European Catholic clergy

understand its position in all those Catholic congresses and

unions, which are now, thank God! starting up in all Christian

countries? How do the laymen, on their side, appreciate the

share they have to take in those various movements? How do they

act under the lead of their spiritual advisers? Are any odious

distinctions ever known in those associations? Can any

misunderstanding arise among men animated with a true love for

religion? And why should not the same be true of Ireland, among

a people so full of love for country? This is what is meant when

the terms leaders and followers, clergy and laity, are here used.

Another consideration will show still more forcibly the

importance of the great measure here proposed. One circumstance

must have struck those who read the detailed reports of the

Catholic congresses mentioned above--the sudden appearance of a

large array of laymen, illustrious by their birth, wealth,

political power, or literary attainments; but, for the most part,

not so well known for their deep attachment to the cause of the

Church. A new channel of activity was suddenly opened up to them;

they threw themselves into it, and became the bold champions of

a cause to which, undoubtedly, they had been individually

attached, but of which they now became the public men. And there

is little doubt that many young men, lukewarm before, and

perhaps with nothing more than the remembrance of the Christian

education they had once received, suddenly revived in spirit and

made a solemn profession of a cause which, perhaps, they would

not have had the courage openly to advocate, did not the number

and names of the first originators of the movement encourage

them to join in it heart and soul.

Now, it is said, perhaps too truly, that the warm religious

feeling which has been all along claimed as the most striking

characteristic of the Irish race, is no longer shared alike by

all classes of Irish Catholics; that, too often, when

individuals among them rise in the social scale, and reach a

step in the social ladder from which they imagine that they can

look down upon the despised mass below, they no longer feel that

deep reverence for their religion which had characterized their

youth, and, after all, are not very different from the mass of

non-Catholics among whom they prefer to move. This class of men

has been well described by Moore in his own person, in various

passages of his "Irish Gentleman in search of a Religion."

The fact is, indeed, too true; but what is the chief cause of

it? One of the most active means of bringing about such a result

we take to be the complete isolation in which young men of the

class referred to find themselves in their own sphere of life.

There is, in fact, no motive for displaying their attachment to

their religion, and no respectable means of doing so. They do

not feel their souls moved by sufficient proselytic ardor to

induce them, of their own accord, to originate any thing of that

kind, and the generality of them have, probably, not received

from Nature the talents requisite to make them leaders in any

cause whatever. No one around them moves in that direction;

hence their apathy and consequent lukewarmness in the practice

and outward profession of their faith.

But change all the surroundings; present them an influential

body to which it is an honor to belong--a body marching openly

under the banner of the true Church of Christ and of their

country, bound together as of old--and then will it be seen

whether or not they indeed are the degenerate sons of martyred

ancestors they now appear to be.

It is indeed very remarkable that, of all countries, Ireland

seems to make the least show in those Catholic unions and

congresses now so widely spread throughout Europe. The reason

for this, perhaps, is, that there seemed less cause for their

existence in Ireland than elsewhere. But, as, in Ireland, their

object would not only embrace the interests of religion, but

likewise those of the country itself, it seems natural to think

that there they are particularly wanted.

Let the leaders of the nation, then, bestir themselves. Long

ages of oppression unfortunately have rendered them somewhat

timid and seemingly afraid of jeopardizing the important

interests confided to their care. Let them lift up their eyes

and see that the time for timidity has passed away: the enemy is

reckless and open in his attacks; their resistance must be

equally undisguised and fearless. The people themselves

understand this and occasionally display a boldness which shows

that the old heroism still lives in them; but they want leaders,

and, if the right ones are not fast to take hold of them, they

may fall into the hands of wrong-headed guides. Let the true

guides look out and see how broad are the lines which divide the

good from the evil, and that victory is sure to the stout of

heart, when backed by the serried masses of a united people.

The principle of association and the machinery of organization

must be applied to all subjects connected with the resurrection

of the country. What has been done so effectually for the cause

of temperance must be done likewise for education, for the

purchase or tenure of land, for the development of agriculture,

manufactures, and commerce, for the true representation of the

nation, for free municipal government, for the securing of a

truly Irish yeomanry and gentry, for a thousand objects on which

the future welfare of the nation depends. All classes of society,

persons of every age and of either sex, yes, women and children,

ought to be induced to take an interest in what concerns all

alike. Every possible occasion should be taken advantage of to

insure the attainment of the ultimate object. When such a work

is really entered upon in earnest, the results will be

astonishing.

This is the complete development of moral force, and, until all

these means have had fair trial, no one can say that moral force

has been fully tried and has failed.

Such a system would, we firmly believe, result in the ultimate

restoration of Ireland's rights and would surely culminate in

her final resurrection at no distant date. That the Irish would

enter with spirit into those various associations has been

sufficiently demonstrated by previous examples, particularly

under O'Connell; and it is impossible to see how surer, greater,

and speedier results could be obtained by any amount of physical

force of which Ireland is capable. What array of physical force

can the Irish muster to compete at all with their powerful

rivals, situated as they are with the chains of centuries still

binding them down, for, though the shackles may be actually

removed, their effect is still there. The very statement of the

terms, Ireland versus England, is enough to show the

hopelessness of such a combat. It is a very easy thing to

magnify the old heroism of the Irish, and cast opprobrium on the

present bearers of the name, as did several newspaper writers

recently, for not displaying the "pluck" of their ancestors who

fought against Elizabeth, Cromwell, and William of Orange. It is

forgotten that circumstances have altered considerably since

those days when the Irish possessed a regular army led by

experienced generals: restore those circumstances, and the Irish

of to-day might outdo their ancestors; at all events, there is

no reason for supposing that they would be inferior. However,

there is such a thing as impossibility, and any attempt of such

a nature, with such surroundings, must be deemed by all sensible

men not merely rashness, but folly.

In concluding these pages, the author begs to be allowed a word

as to their general character, in reply to a dogmatic and

comprehensive criticism which it is easy to foresee will be

passed on them. It will undoubtedly be asserted that an undue

prominence has been given to the religious side of the Irish

question, while its many political aspects have been left in the

background. This charge will be laid at the door of the clerical

and religious character of the writer, and may give rise to the

notion that the view here taken of the subject is not the right

one, but a radical failure.

The answer to this objection is, in brief, that no one can treat

seriously and properly of the Irish race without taking a

religious view of it. Whoever adopts a different method of

treating the matter would, in our opinion, go completely astray;

would take in only a few side-views; would, in fact, pretend to

have made a serious study of it, which he offered to the public

as such, while ignoring the chief and almost only feature.

The Irish is a religious race, and nothing else. It seems that

such was its character thousands of years ago, even when pagan.

At the time when Hanno was sent by the Carthaginian senate

beyond the Pillars of Hercules to explore the western coast of

Africa, toward the south--of which voyage the short narrative is

still left us--Himilco, brother to Hanno, was similarly

commissioned to form settlements on the European coast, toward

the north. The account of this latter expedition, which was

extant in the time of Pliny the Elder, is unfortunately lost;

but, in the poem of R. Festus Avienus, entitled "Ora Maritima,"

there are copious extracts from it, in which, at least, the

sense of the original is preserved. Avienus, after speaking of

the "Insulae OEstrimnides," which Heeren thinks must be the

Scilly Islands, goes on to say:

"Ast hinc duobus in Sacram (sic insulam

Dixere prisci) solibus cursus rati est.

Haec inter undas multam caespitem jacet,

Eamque late gens Hibernorum colit."

The passage runs almost into literal English as follows:

"Thence in two days, a good ship in sailing

Reaches the Holy Isle(1)--so was she called of old--

That in the sea nestles, whose turf exuberant

The race of Hibernians tills."

(1 Dr. Lingard, evidently perplexed by this expression, asks

himself, "What might its origin have been?" and suggests that

the name of Ierne--the same as Erin--having been given to

Ireland by the ancients, and the Greek iepa--holy-- bearing a

great resemblance to it, Avienus might have thus fallen into a

very natural mistake of confounding the one with the other. But,

in the first place, Himilco's report was certainly not written

in Greek, but in Phoenician, and Avienus seems merely to have

translated that report. Moreover, the word iepa begins with a

very strong aspirate, equivalent to a consonant, while there are

few vowels softer in any language than the first in Erin or

Ierne. Heeren does not attempt such an explanation, but concedes

that the Carthaginians, as well as the Phoenicians before them,

called Ireland the Holy Isle.)

In the time of Himilco, therefore, five hundred years before

Christ, Ireland was called the Holy Isle, a title she had

received long before: Sic insulam discere prisci. In what that

holiness may have consisted precisely, it is impossible now to

say; all we know is, that foreign navigators, who were

acquainted with the world as far as it was then known, whose

ships had visited the harbors of all nations, could find no more

apt expression to describe the island than to say that, morally,

it was "a holy spot," and physically "a fair green meadow," or,

as her children to this day call her, "the green gem of the sea."

But we have better means of judging in what the holiness of the

people consisted after the establishment of Christianity in

their midst; and the description of it given in the fourth

chapter of this book, taken from the most trustworthy documents,

shows how well deserved was the title the island bore.

From that day forth the religious type was clearly impressed on

the nation, and has ever remained deeply engraven in its

character. The race was never distinguished for its fondness for

trade, for its manufactures, for depth of policy, for worldly

enlightenment; its annals speak of no lust of conquest among its

people; the brilliant achievements of foreign invasion, the high

political and social aspirations which generally give lustre to

the national life of many a people, belong not to them. But

religious feeling, firm adherence to faith, invincible

attachment to the form of Christianity they had received from St.

Patrick, formed at all times their striking characteristics.

From the day when their faith was first attacked by the Tudors

did it chiefly blaze forth into a special splendor, which these

pages have striven faintly to represent. Before taking up the

pen to write, after the serious study of documents, only one

great feature struck us--that of a deep religious conviction;

and, after having seen what some writers have had to say

recently, the same feature strikes us still. We will not deny

that this fact moved us to write, and the task was the more

grateful, probably, because of our own personal religious

character; but we are confident that any layman, whatever might

be his talent and disposition for describing worldly scenes, who

took up Irish history, could find nothing else in it of real

importance to render the annals of the race attractive to the

common run of readers.

And is not religion more capable of giving a people true

greatness and real heroism than any worldly excellence? Men of

sound judgment will always find at least as much interest

attached to the history of the first Maccabees as to that of

Epaminondas; and the self-sacrifice of the Vendean Cathelineau,

with his "beads" and his "sacred heart," will always appear to

an impartial judge of human character more truly admirable than

that of any general or marshal of the first Napoleon. Religious

heroism, having for object something far above even the purest

patriotic fervor, can inspire deeds more truly worthy of human

admiration than this, the highest natural feeling of the human

heart; and, for a Christian, the most inspiring pages of history

are those which tell of the superhuman exertions of devoted

knights to wrest the sepulchre of our Lord from the polluted

hands of the Moslem.

But religion did not confine her influence over Irishmen to the

bravery which she breathed into them on the battle-field.

Religion truly constituted their inner life in all the

vicissitudes of their national existence; it was the only

support left them in the darkest period of their annals, during

the whole of the last century; and, when the dawn came at last

with the flush of hope, religion was the only halo which

surrounded them. Their emigration even, their exodus chiefly,

was in fact the sublime outpouring of a crucified nation,

carrying the cross as their last religious emblem, and planting

it in the wilds of far-distant continents as their only

escutcheon, and the sure sign which should apprise travellers of

the existence of Irishmen in the deserts of North America and

Australia.

Truly, those men are very ignorant of the Irish character who

would abstract the religious feature from it, and paint the

nation as they would any other European people, whose great aim

in these modern days seems to be to forget the first fervor of

their Christian origin. With the Irish this cannot be. The vivid

warmth of their cradle has not yet cooled down; and, if it would

be indeed ridiculous to represent the English of the nineteenth

century as the pious subjects of Alfred or Edward, it would be

equally foolish to depict the Irish of to-day as the worldlings

and godless of France, Italy, or Spain. The Irish patriot could

not be like them, without deserting his standard and the colors

for which his race has fought. The nation to which he has the

honor of belonging is still Christian to the core; and, if some

few have really repudiated the love of the religion they took in

at their mother's knee, the only means left them of remaining

Irishmen, at least in appearance, is not to parade their total

lack of this, the chief characteristic of their race.