say, that this unfortunate man was to be prosecuted in the same courts, and by the same form, as those that were accused of corruption under the civil law, and not under the criminal; furthermore, the sentence of the court, that was to decide upon the guilt of this man, was to be communicated DIRECTLY TO NAPOLEON, "transmis par un message à Sa Majesté l'Empereur et Roi!" This order of Buonaparte was issued when he was in Germany.

When the Allies advanced into Antwerp, they found the Mayor awaiting his new trial in prison, from which the Allies liberated him. He soon after died, his death being occasioned by anxiety, and the suffering he had undergone. What people could have any respect for such a system of administrative justice, as this fact proves to have belonged to France?

Suppose such an assertion as the following were to be made that the jury system in England is as imperfect now as it was in the days of Judge Jeffreys; that the common law now was not more improved in practice than in the days of James II. This would evidently be an ignorant want of veracity. Furthermore, if it were admitted that the common law had undergone vast improvement, and that such ameliorations had been effected (but in a very slight degree) by legislative enactment, or improved governmental power, such assertions would be equally erroneous.

What has produced this better system? Why, the improved social condition of the people, and their constant exercise of the popular right of taking an essential part in the administration of their own laws.

Let the reader open that celebrated work called the "Discourse on the Laws and History of England," by

Mr. Nathaniel Bacon, with the annotations of the learned Selden; or let him turn to the sayings of Lord Bacon; the lamentations of Oliver Cromwell; the promises of Lord Clarendon ;-he will find that part of British law, which is ecclesiastical and civil, remains pretty nearly as it then was, because the people have been debarred from taking the same part in its exercise, as they have done with the common law. However, there is, at this moment, a strong recent instance of the complete failure in the taking up a system of law, which works well in one country, and transplanting it to another where it works ill, the state of society being different.

The Executive part of the new Bankrupt Laws is a plagiarism from the commercial system regulated by the "Code Napoleon," which works admirably on the Continent, because it is exactly after the same principle (as it affects society in France) as the jury system in England. On the Continent it is a jury of merchants, somewhat answering to what was called in olden times a guild,' that decides those knotty points, which, in England, are handed over to the paid and tender mercies of the learned in the law.

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There can be no greater error than to suppose that a superlatively learned administrator of the law is necessarily a good lawgiver; for the history of ancient as well as modern times shews that the greatest improvement in jurisprudence has emanated from statesmen and philosophers, who, if they belonged to the learned profession, were not much considered at the bar or, sometimes, on the judgment-seat.

It would be gross delusion to attempt to lead the people of Ireland to imagine that any amelioration of

those ills, which Repealers set forth as weighing so heavily upon the Irish, can be effected by legislative enactment, for they certainly can never be got rid of when discussed by local legislation.

Whereas, in a more general legislative assembly, the statesman, not the lawyer, might enable the Executive in Ireland, through the means of Acts of Parliament, to adopt such a system of control and government as would suit the altered state of society in both countries, whilst it violated no essential attribute of British jurisprudence. But this question, which is altogether one of high principle and policy, can never be solved by local legislative bodies, in which party feeling casts a shadow over even the clearest points, and looks rather to what its interests dictate, than to the great ends of truth and justice.

CHAPTER VI.

Dangerous system employed by Lord Melbourne's Ministry in the government of Ireland.-Mr. O'Connell's Patriotism so called.-Doctrines inculcated in the Irish Peasantry by its Priesthood. The policy of Mr. O'Connell purely jesuitical.The Grievances set forth by Mr. O'Connell not to be remedied by Local Legislation. The Poor Law system pressed on Ireland by Sir Robert Peel, offensive to the Priesthood.Usurpation of Catholic Property, the great exciting theme of the Hierarchy and of Mr. O'Connell. - Rights of English Sovereigns forfeited under Pope Adrian's Grant, the Creed of Maynooth. States of Europe and the Holy See. - Irish Alliances with the enemies of the State.-Duplicity of the Irish Chieftains in the days of Elizabeth.-Objects of Irish Discontent the same in the reign of Elizabeth and in that of Queen Victoria.-Graces of James I.--The old Irish hostile to the Political Innovations of James I.-The Policy of the Repealers, a violation of International Law and the Right of Property. The defalcation of the Irish ruined Charles I.— Renuncini, O'Neil, Cromwell, the Council of Kilkenny.— Mission from the Council of Kilkenny to the Duke of Lorraine at Brussels.-Present object of the Repealers to exalt Ecclesiastical authority above the Papal and Temporal Power defined by the Council of Trent.

THE Opposition, by speeches within the walls of Parliament and writings without, created in the public mind a belief (which was but temporary) that if the policy of Lords Normanby and Ebrington had been continued by their successors, the Repeal question would have died away, and Mr. O'Connell's power have been extinguished.

This was curious doctrine for those who boasted that they were to govern Ireland through the influence of Mr. O'Connell; for the authority directing the affairs of that country (during Lord Melbourne's administration), was Mr. O'Connell, inasmuch as he disposed of the vast patronage within the control of the Lord Lieutenant, which ever has been a most powerful instrument with which to regulate or subdue the perturbed place-hunters of the Emerald Isle.

Mr. O'Connell caused thus to flow into a new channel this vast political influence, by which he cajoled the priesthood, and tempered the disaffection of many of the Catholic body, and like the Popes of olden days became the bright luminary—the sun that reflected light upon the satellites that moved within his orbit.

Under such circumstances, a political measure was considered admissible by the priesthood and certain Catholics of Ireland; whereas any project of the government, submitted under different auspices, became in the opinion of these persons another affair, when its merits were its only recommendation.

The error committed by the Melbourne administration was in receiving the partial and temporary adhesion of Mr. O'Connell, whilst allowing the Agitator to apply the patronage of government according to his will, without having bargained for his entire support, and also for an absolute abandonment of his personal and private relationship with the priesthood of Ireland; for it was apparent that his connexion, with both the secular and hierarchical clergy, was the base of a system heretofore regarded as the most dangerous.

However, it is easy to conceive what were the difficulties that beset Lord Melbourne's administration.