which, including Dublin, would be kept quiet by garrisons, say one million, which gives still four millions to account for. Now every body who has ever been in Ireland must know the great item which women and childen form in its population, and I am sure that I shall not be considered to have overrated their number if I put it at fiveeighths: out the four millions, must in this case come two and a half, which brings it down to one million and a half; and from this I take for old and infirm, sick, and such as are required of necessity to attend to agriculture, &c., half a million; so that we have for O'Connell's army of Repealers one million, instead of eight! Now I admit this is large, indeed; but then it must be remembered that it is not united, but dispersed over the three provinces; nor is it half armed, nor could it be brought together, nor could he feed it if it were-no, nor onetwentieth of it. In fact, I doubt very much if 25,000 men could be kept together in one body in a state that would make them formidable as opponents to a much smaller number of well-disciplined troops, wanting, too, that most destructive arm in war, cannon, a very quick equaliser of numbers, when well served against a disorderly mass. I am not, therefore, afraid of the issue of a contest, should it ever unfortunately come to this; and I think that there are very few, be they English or be they Irish, who doubt the power of Great Britain to crush revolt, however formidable a shape it may assume; but all will dread the results of the strife. To Ireland it would indeed be dire-great loss of life-great destruction of property; she would retrograde in civilisation, and every thing which constitutes the prosperity of a nation,

which a quarter of a century of subsequent peace and order would not remedy; all commerce would be checked, if not entirely suspended; and, perhaps, there are many who are ignorant of the extent of the traffic carried on at present between the two countries. The following return of imports from Ireland into the port of Liverpool, in one branch of trade only (live stock), for four weeks in September last, which happened to fall under my observation, will give some idea of this. It is as follows:Cows, 11,876; Pigs, 12,216; Sheep, 26,529 : and could not Glasgow, probably, furnish a similar, if not a larger, return; and which, since the completion of the railway to Edinburgh, is likely to increase ? Then, again, Bristol ; are not her imports large in this trade from Ireland? with the means, too, of transporting the stock by the Western Railway to all parts of the country; and be it remembered, also, that the great staple of Ireland, corn, comes over all duty-free. How this may be affected by the loss of that protection which the Corn-law League is trying to have removed, is a matter for the serious consideration of those who have the interest of the Irish producers at heart; the members of it, no doubt, see in perspective nothing but prosperity to all parts by the success of their undertaking, the first effects of which would, I apprehend, be increased distress in Ireland, if nothing worse ensued from it. Those public journals, however, who are in the habit of lauding the acts of the late Government, support the League, and therefore it is probable that O'Connell and his followers also wish it success. But, if a free trade in corn were to take place through the efforts of this society, I should not be asto

nished to find him, notwithstanding, holding up the law enacting this to the indignation of the Irish, as an act of selfishness on our parts, passed without any care as to how it might operate in regard to them, and, therefore, one more reason why they should have a domestic legislature to prevent oppression: and do those who have this expression so often in their mouths really think their nation oppressed? Have not the Roman Catholics perfect freedom of worship? are they not capable of holding all employments, civil and military, except some three or four places? cannot they exercise all professions and callings whatsover? are they not protected equally with their Protestant fellow-subjects as to the possession of property? is there any penal law whatever by which they might be injured? If not, where is the truth of the assertion? Once, indeed, they were oppressed, for the laws against them formerly were a disgrace to the Statutebook; and I am surprised that the history of their extreme harshness does not make the people more alive to the difference of their present position: we ourselves were not always free. If we look back to the time of the Tudors and Stuarts, we shall find that the nation suffered much tyranny under their rule: but should we be justified in calling ourselves an oppressed people now, in consequence of what our forefathers may have suffered? Both nations have struggled for freedom, and have gained it; but the difference between the English and Irish is this, that when we obtain a good, we take the best mode of making it available; whereas, the Irish, if I may be allowed to use the expression, lay their gain aside, as a benefit to be cultivated when something which they are

told is better shall have been obtained by them, unless they can use it as a means of obtaining this ulterior object. No doubt many of the laws which relate exclusively to Ireland might be revised with advantage: but our own are not perfect; and there are some common to both nations which I have often thought might be changed beneficially. I allude to those which regulate public meetings of the people. What harm would the liberty of the subject receive if those great masses, which have so often been brought together in Ireland, and in England also, were prevented from assembling? If, instead of such congregations, it were ruled that, in future, meetings should be limited to the size of what a union of parishes under the Poor-law might amount to, this surely would afford ample means for bringing forward any grievances which might have to be complained of. I may be told that large meetings demonstrate more forcibly the wishes of the people: but these would equally, I think, appear from a general meeting of unions; and if it were also enacted, that no one not paying rates and taxes within an union should be allowed to take any part in its proceedings, one benefit would at least be gained-a check to the trade of travelling demagogues.

There is also another subject, which doubtless will be considered the mode by which the union between the two kingdoms may be best protected. The Crown and Parliament have each given their opinion, in the strongest manner, as to the evils which a repeal of it would bring upon both countries, and the latter has more than once expressed its fixed determination to support the crown

with all its power to resist a disruption of it. Why then should O'Connell be permitted any longer to tell the Irish people with impunity, "That which the three estates say shall not be, I tell you shall be, and I will bring it to pass !" Would he be allowed to establish a subscription, and to hold public meetings to effect an alteration in the succession to the crown? all know well enough the consequences that would ensue in case of such an attempt. If then Parliament is sincere in the view it takes of the ills which would arise to us all by a Repeal of the Union, why should it any longer delay to afford that protection to our present connexion with Ireland which would follow an enactment awarding the highest penalty of the law against any one who might in future be guilty of striving to dissever the kingdoms? It may be said, this would be driving the Irish into rebellion: but I think the proper way to look at it would be as driving the Irish and O'Connell to respect the arrangement; and if in trying to effect this they are brought to resist that which his conduct has made a necessary law, we and they must stand to the consequences. One thing, I think, is quite clear: that permitting him in future to proceed in the same line of conduct as that which he pursued last year would be very unfair to the people of Ireland. It would tend to strengthen the delusion under which they labour as to his power to carry into effect the promises, which he has so often made to them, to give them back their Parliament. I believe there are many who are of opinion that a decided step of this sort has been too long delayed. I am not one of those. It appears to me that Government is in a better position now to come to Parliament, for any