good in directing their attention to the paramount and urgent necessity of improving the material condition of the people. Clear-headed, resolute, strictly upright, abhorring injustice, and with strong sympathies for a suffering and long-oppressed race, he possessed and exercised vast influence in promoting measures for putting down disorder, in restraining the oligarchy of Orange potentates, and in securing for the poorer classes their rights; and, in these respects, he was not merely the official exponent of the will of the Government, he not seldom determined its action. Yet perhaps it was his remarkable faculty for despatching and managing public business that chiefly assured him the high place he held in the councils of the Administration. Such was his power of concentration'we quote the words of Sir Thomas Larcom, his worthy successor- that he could fix the whole force of his mind on any 'subject of discussion, to the utter exclusion of any other;' and, as in addition to this great gift, he had strong sense and astonishing industry, it is not surprising that he conducted the government of Ireland, in its details, in such a manner that he made his mind and character felt in all parts of it. Passing from this general view, we may say that the policy and acts of the Normanby Administration were determined almost wholly by Drummond in three particulars of real importance. Before his time the constabulary force of Ireland was badly trained and organised; and, as it was exclusively composed of men belonging to the dominant religion, it was at once unpopular and inefficient. Drummond wrought a complete revolution in this system. He placed the constabulary under a régime, dependent ultimately on the Under-Secretary, and, in the first instance, on experienced officials, by which it was admirably managed and disciplined; and he took care that it should be thrown open to all Irishmen, irrespective of creed. He converted this force,' wrote Sir Thomas Larcom, into 'the most efficient police in Europe. It became under his hands an almost perfect machine, which, like a delicate musical instrument, responded at once, from the remotest part of Ireland, to his touch in Dublin Castle.' On the services of the body thus remodelled by Drummond, and on its tried and untarnished loyalty, it is not necessary for us to comment. Suffice it to say that the prompt suppression of the late abortive Fenian insurrection is due, in a great degree, to its efforts; and that the Catholics and Protestants who fill its ranks have happily been long undistinguishable from each other, except by individual merit and bravery. To Drummond, moreover, in a great degree, belongs the credit of two valuable reforms made 6 at this time in the administration of justice. He established the mode of prosecuting offenders at Quarter Sessions by responsible officials, one of the best features of the system in use in Ireland for carrying out our Criminal Law; and he abolished and steadily refused to restore-a precedent always since followed the invidious practice once common in Ireland of challenging juries on the part of the Crown, in criminal trials, in a peremptory manner-an expedient previously often employed by Orange law officers and their subordinates to keep Catholics excluded from the jury-box. Finally Drummond, more energetically perhaps than any one at the Castle in these days, brought the weight of the Government to bear against the evil power of Protestant ascendancy, and threw its influence on the side of humanity and care for the Irish peasantry. His celebrated letter to Sir William Verner, if somewhat violent and even indiscreet, reveals the honourable and salutary dislike he felt for the arrogant Orange faction; and it was he who, filled with real knowledge of the state of the landed system of Ireland, and of the miseries it was entailing, announced fearlessly to the Irish landlords what has been called well the potent aphorism,' that property has its duties as well as its rights.' Such was Drummond in his official life; he is entitled to rank among the statesmen who have laid down plans for the improvement of Ireland, on account of a project which, though not carried out, was a comprehensive and bold design for promoting the welfare of that country. From early youth he had before him the phenomena of the social state of Ireland; he had studied attentively the relations between the owners and the occupiers of the soil, and the masses of poverty dependent on them. More firmly, perhaps, than any public man he had appreciated one cardinal fact in the condition of Ireland at that time-that the swarming millions of her poorer classes were year after year becoming more indigent; and he insisted strenuously on the necessity of an attempt, by special legislative measures, to raise them out of their deplorable wretchedness. Until this were done, he continually urged, all other reforms were merely superficial; what prospect could there be for a country where society rested on a chaos of pauperism? In addition to the Poor Law then being introduced, he thought that one means of solving this problem was employing under the encouragement of the State, and with a view to broad national objects, a large amount of the labour of Ireland in carrying out, on a general plan, the new and extraordinary modes of locomotion then being commenced in Eng land and the Continent. It was with him a settled conviction that Government should directly develope a system of railin Ireland for the purpose of giving a lift' to the popuways lation; and he foresaw, moreover, with rare sagacity, that, in the peculiar circumstances of the country, and regard being had to the general good, this was the only way that promised to make railways in Ireland successful, in a commercial or national point of view. The Cabinet having favourably entertained his representations to this effect, a Commission was appointed in 1836, charged with reporting on the best method to be adopted for making railways in Ireland, on the direction and nature of the proposed lines, and on various miscellaneous matters, the principal object being to secure a railway system at once remunerative and beneficial to the country and the State, and at the same time to supply an incentive to the industry of the labouring population. The project was warmly received in Ireland; and Drummond, though overwhelmed with work, became chairman of the Commission, his associates being, for the most part, men of eminence in scientific or public life. Our space will not allow us to dwell at length on the labours of this Commission, one of vast importance, as events have shown. It published two of the ablest reports that have ever been presented to Parliament, and of these Drummond was the principal author. As is well known, the Commissioners recommended that two main lines of railway should be made from Dublin to Cork with a series of branches, and from Dublin to Navan with a double branch extending to Enniskillen and Belfast; and they showed, from carefully chosen data, that these would meet the requirements of the country, and would form the basis of a more complete system. They recommended too, that these main lines should be constructed under the supervision of the State by private speculators alone if possible, and, if not, with the assistance of loans secured on the countries to be traversed, the great feature of the scheme being, that the chief railways of Ireland were to be laid out, as a whole, under the control of the Government. It may be affirmed that the Commissioners' Reports exhausted all that can be urged for giving the State a right for directing the course of those monopolies of locomotion, trunk railways; indeed, the arguments on this subject have been seldom if ever so ably put. Drummond, however, never lost sight of the object which, with him at least, was paramount to all others, how railways in Ireland could be developed so as to secure employment for the labouring classes. The portions of the Reports that describe the condition of the poorer Irish, their past history, their relations with the State, and their claims on it, are wholly from his pen, and form a résumé remarkable for its clearness and power, and still more for its generous sentiments. Unfortunately the recommendations of the Commissioners, although approved by most thinking men, were destined never to come to a result. They were denounced by the Tory Opposition in Parliament, were characterised as reactionary and foolish, and were condemned by the capitalists and projectors who believed that Ireland, if abandoned to them, would be a prolific source of gain. The event has been not a little curious, and has verified several of the predictions of the Commissioners. Private enterprise, almost unchecked, has been permitted to make the railways of Ireland; and, after millions have been idly squandered, the system, viewed as one of locomotion, is very imperfect and illdesigned, while several lines are absolutely bankrupt, several yield no dividend or a nominal one only, and hardly any are really prosperous. As we write, owing to the energetic efforts of Lord Clanricarde and Mr. Monsell, a Commission has actually been appointed to inquire to what extent the railways of Ireland can safely be purchased by the State, the Government being composed of the party that thirty years ago declared that the scheme of Drummond was impracticable and unjust! The time, however, was now approaching when the career of Drummond was to come to a close. His frame had always been rather delicate; the severe labours of the Irish survey, and frequent exposure to cold and wet, had seriously injured his constitution; and before he became Under-Secretary for Ireland he had had several attacks of illness. His spirit, however, was one of those that endeavour to overcome infirmity; and heavy as his official duties were, he had long defied and baffled disease. But the intense work of the Railway Commission, added to his customary business at the Castle, proved too much for his vital powers, and in the summer of 1838 alarming symptoms made their appearance. For a time they were conjured away by repose and a short tour on the Continent, and he returned to his office in Dublin in autumn, comparatively restored, though still far from well. In the following spring he was constantly engaged in collecting facts and evidence for a Committee, obtained at the instance of Lord Roden, to inquire into the conduct of the Government in Ireland, one of the attacks made by the Orange faction on an Administration whose even-handed justice it was unable to VOL. CXXVI. NO. CCLVIII. N N comprehend or tolerate. The principal witness examined was Drummond. He was questioned and cross-questioned during a fortnight, and the result was a triumphant vindication of his own conduct and that of his chiefs, in the judgment of all impartial persons. After this his health declined rapidly, and on the 15th of April, 1840, he died at the age of forty-three, having beyond question fallen a victim to over-exertion in the cause of Ireland. The Heads of the Cabinet and his official superiors paid a just tribute to his talents and virtues in grateful expressions of regard and esteem; and he was deeply mourned and lamented by friends by whom he had been known and loved from youth. Yet the most touching testimony to his worth was the regret felt for him in the strange land for which he had sacrificed a noble life, and which he had made his adopted country. At his own request he was buried in Ireland. The funeral was attended by an imposing array, representing the state and rank of the capital; and it was accompanied by multitudes of the poorer classes, who knew they had lost a real benefactor. To this day the memory of Drummond is dear to the hearts of the peasantry of Ireland as that of one of the few who have used the power of the State in their interests; and it may be said that among the honoured men, 'whose dust, alas, is Irish earth,' it would be difficult to point out a greater worthy. ART. VIII.-Hansard's Debates. London: 1867. THE 6 trust, in this hour of acclamation be too intolerant of those, a small but perhaps an increasing number, who hesitate to admit that she is in stable possession of her sovereignty on the field of Reform. True it is that, as the Session of 1867 drew towards its close, nine at least out of ten among such men as customarily canvass politics greeted one another with some such exclamation as this: Well, thank God, it is done with at last!' True it is that the House of Commons, in the weariness of despair, raised its pace to full gallop, and seemed even to ride roughshod over the rights of its members to propose amendments as it came near the closing stages of the Bill. True it is that a Government which has executed with success a summersault which might put Blondin to shame, reassures its followers by observing that at any rate it has settled the question. Settlement, conclusion, ending; what pleasant words, in cases where |