Nor was the enthusiasm abated during his stay. Wherever he moved, he was similarly attended-wherever he visited, he was received with equal rapture. His most trivial sayings were remembered the most ordinary civilities treasured up with gratitude. It was not confined to one party, one sect, or one district. All were on this subject united. Addresses flowed in from all quarters of the island, most loyal in feeling and expression, and everywhere carried with perfect unanimity. Even the newspapers, disunited as they by their very nature are, coalesced on this one topic-they were, indeed, compelled to do so. Many on this side of the water were perfectly astonished at all this. They could not conceive the warm-hearted disposition of the Irish-they knew not the peculiar causes, which occasioned that disposition to be more fully developed than usual. The King came to a people who had never been accustomed to unite in a popular expression of satisfaction-the joy of one political party there being regarded with aversion by another-and now that they found a common cause in which both could join, without yielding their own views that they found an opportunity on which they could meet in the amity which is longed for by all parties-they gave the fullest loose to their delighted feelings, and vied with one another only in shewing devotion to the Monarch, whose presence was the harbinger of mutual conciliation. And besides, royalty has always been popular in Ireland. Their early histories, to which those among them who are most proud of their na tionality, turn with antiquarian gratulation, are filled with details of regal splendour and devotedness to the cause of kings; and the last struggle in which the majority of Irishmen fought in civil combat, was in favour of one who could claim scarce any merit but that A thousand years the royal throne Republicanism never had a footing there. In the unhappy disturbances which marked the conclusion of the last century in Ireland, the Jacobin emissaries had succeeded somewhat in grafting their abominable opinions upon the discontented party, but they never were seated deeply even among those who rose in actual rebellion. They never liked the mummery of committees, local, general, particular, sectional, of directories, visible or invisible, of primary assemblies, or fraternizing conventions, or the other bloody buffooneries, which at that time were generating in France. They cared not for the pigeon-holes of Abbe Sieyes or the jargon of his disciples,indeed they did not understand them. The original leaders, it is true, thought that their followers would fight for the principles of republicanism; but, by woeful experience, they found they had misunderstood the feelings of those whom they had seduced to their ruin. There are other reasons which conduced to the general good humour in Ireland, that will readily present themselves. Every body who knew any thing of the country, predicted it from the moment the King spoke of his intended visit. But on the writers for the Whig party, the enthusiam of Ireland appears to have burst with terrifying astonishment. They to a man, from the scowling Scotsman, who bellowed forth his amazement with more than usual brutality of intonation, down to the pert prating Cockney scribbler in the Examiner, were thunder-struck, and recovered from the first trance of stupid wonderment to rail against that country, which had been a regular commonplace of panegyric, as long as they thought it a standing pillar of disaffection. But their praise and blame just proves the same thing, that they are completely ignorant of the real state of Ireland. In that country there are no Whigs; and the name of Radical is unknown. The feud there is between Protestant and Roman Catholic, and both unite in utter scorn of the Whig faction. The former party being at all times loyal, must of course despise that malignant faction; -the latter, though the furtherance of their political viewsrequires that they should make use of the assistance of the opposition spouters, set no value upon them in any other point of view. They well recollect, that it was a succession of Whig Parliaments and Ministers that imposed the rigorous penal laws, which were removed on the accession of a Monarch surrounded by Tory counsellors, and they know that if at present the great body of the Tories is adverse to Emancipation, it is not froin any dislike or hatred towards them, but from a dread that the church, which they love, should suffer in its interests, and they are well aware, that the Whigs, having no such feeling, being indeed men who would not care a farthing whether Church and State were sacrificed or not, provided their own base ends were answered, clamour now for the repeal of laws, which are but a small remnant of the code enacted by their political ancestors, merely with the hungry hope of attaining place by so doing. The Whigs flattered themselves, however, that the attachment of the Roman Catholics was of a more tender and personal nature, -that they were prepared to go through thick and thin, with all the dirty work of the party, that they were ready at all times to insult the King or annoy his Government, whenever it pleased their being answered in the negative, he paid the money himself, exclaiming, with much indignation, "Sure it would be a pretty thing to have the King under an obligation to the like of a turnpike-man." There are many similar stories, as may be seen from the Irish papers. A gigantic fellow rose upon the shoulders of a crowd in Dame-street, and bawled out with stentorian lungs, within a few feet of the King, "God bless your honest face! Here's half a million of us here ready to fight the radicals for you at the wind of the word!" A more delicate proof of attention was given by the immense crowd who followed him to the Phoenix Park. They checked at the gate, and refused to proceed, exclaining that "they would not tread on the grass," until the King told them not to mind it. High Mightinesses of Whiggery to call on them for such purposes; but they are now undeceived. Indeed, the apathy of the Irish with respect to the Queen, in spite of all efforts to rouse them in the cause of her whom God sent among us as a national humiliation, and of course a source of triumph to the Whigs, might have startled them; but the reception of the King has given them final proof that they have no hold on Ireland. Hence come the Jeremiades about the servility of the Irish; and the Sardonic efforts to laugh at the manner in which they so warmly expressed their zeal. A great chapter is torn for ever from the Whig volume of grievances. It will not do any more to talk about the "unfortunate condition of that fine country," of the "natural feeling of aversion the Irish must have towards the English Government;" nor to describe Ireland " as a country that can be held only by the application of firelocks to the breasts of the inhabitants," nor to hint that it never can be happy or harmonious until The famine shall be fill'd, and blest the maw of the ravening retainers of opposition. All that is gone by-all proved as fabulous as the wings and tails which were of old reckoned as characteristic marks of Irishmen. Indeed, if the King's visit did no other good to Ireland than to shew that she may be visited with security by those whom the ignorant in England are taught to believe she regards with aversion*-that the stories of the personal hatreds and antipathies of the two great parties to each other are mere falsehoods-that the people are not in that state of incivilization, as the readers and writers of such books as the Edinburgh Review (a work by the way containing, under the pretence of advocating what it calls the cause of Ireland, more false, insulting, and ignorant libels on the country than any other that could be named,) have pictured them to their imaginations, it would be a fair subject of national gratification. * The Marquis of Londonderry is commonly insulted by the Opposition with his measures while in the Irish cabinet. It is a never-failing topic of vituperation. But see how his conduct is appreciated on the spot. He was hailed with enthusiasm by the crowd on the street, and his speeches loudly cheered at a dinner party, consisting of people of all sects! Here is another fine Whig common-place demolished. We pity poor Sir J. Newport. Lord Sidmouth also, anti-catholic as he avowedly is, was treated with the highest respect and attention by all parties. It is hardly worth while to advert more fully to the calumnies of the Whig and Radical press, (for it is very hard to distinguish one from the other) against Ireland. The cause is obvious. The loud testimonies of Irish loyalty have sufficed to change the Irish from a fine" to an “ unmanly" people: and the fermentation has been as rapid as Doctor Lushington's transition from mourning to mirth, from the coffin to the bridal chamber. But had we room, we should examine some of the tirades. They were abundantly amusing: Cobbet, for instance, with that intrepid disregard to fact, which distinguishes that bright and shining light of reform, forged a collectionofridiculous encomiums on the King full of blunders and bombast, and gave them gravely as extracts from Irish papers, and proofs of Irish dull servility. The Traveller was jocose (it is fact, reader-the Traveller was jocose) on the warm language of the Irish addresses, which its cold-blooded writers accused of folly in a Babylonish dialect, the stupidity of which was the most helpless thing imaginable. The reporters of the Times sent over columns of calumnious mendacity, almost equalling the egregious lying of that paper in the transactions connected with the Queen. The gentlemen of the press, indeed, did not behave in many instances as they ought. They assumed airs of vast consequence; and manifestly looked upon themselves as a very superior caste. Even the reporter of the New Times, one of the best conducted papers in the empire, wrote over to his employers that some of the people introduced to the king were not fit company for him, for a three guinea a-week reporter to a newspaper! The thing of course is too absurd to require contradiction. And another gentleman of them, for forgetting his situation so much as to interfere at a public dinner, was shewn that the Hibernian way of noticing such conduct was to fling the offender out of the room, where, perhaps, he at his leisure regretted that he had forgotten what country he happened to be visiting. It is infinitely of more consequence than the ebullitions of Whig anger, to consider what effect the Royal visit, and VOL. X. the conciliation it occasioned, will have upon the great question which agitates Ireland-Roman Catholic emancipa tion. We are of opinion, that it can operate with respect to it only in one way. The Protestant objection to the measure is founded not on any ill will to his brothers of the Roman Catholic Church; for in fact both parties mix in the most unrestrained intercourses of private friendship in Ireland, without any of that bitterness which we find sometimes so pathetically lamented by writers on this side of the water; but a conviction, grounded on past experience, that as long as the Roman Catholics retain the antipathy to the established church which they have always displayed when in power, it will be unsafe to trust them with offices which might be turned to the injury of that establishment. If at any time that spirit shall depart from the Roman Catholics, Protestant opposition to the measure would instantly cease. Such, we know, is the prevailing sentiment with respect to it in Ireland. For our part, we wish that all Ireland dwelt in unity, but that even the hem of the mantle of the church should not be touched but with vene ration. Whenever the measure can be carried without danger, we wish it carried, and not a moment sooner; but we may hope that such a time will speedily arrive. We repeat, that the Royal visit to Ireland has been gratifying to all good subjects, and we add, that the King could not act more wisely than to visit, at least annually, the various parts of his dominions. This ancient kingdom would receive him, if not with such loud-voiced joy as our enthusiastic neighbours, yet with proud demonstrations of that deep-seated affection for himself and his family which pervades the Scottish nation. His father was the first king since the expulsion of the Stuarts, who reigned over us as an undivided people; but George the Fourth is the first who came to the throne with a title acknowledged by every party in Scotland. To him is transferred the steady allegiance of the adherents of the house of Brunswick, and the warm and chivalrous devotion of the partizans of the exiled family. Wherever he goes he is sure of receiving proofs of attachment. If his personal appearance is sufficient to 2F give the lie to the infamous caricatures of a city, which contains a hundred thousand strumpets; and as many more of the other sex, just as much sunk in the habitual commission of crime. These are of themselves a formidable crowd; and they are the people who form the multitudes that hallooed for the Queen, or treated his Ma jesty with affronts. That they are sufficient to keep the real majority of the Londoners from expressing their opinions, by the terror of bludgeon or brick-bat, is bad enough, but that THE PEOPLE should be accused of sharing in the vulgar brutalities of this vile body, is not to be endured. Let the King appear among his subjects in all parts of the empire-let him, as it were, appeal to them who truly are the people, and he will find that so far from their making common cause with the polluted crowd of the base creatures of whom we have spokenthat they detest their proceedings, and, in spite of all the arts used by the great and little vulgar to corrupt them, they are sound to the very core. That they are in a word Britons of that stamp, who do not forget that the Sacred Volume, which still is worn in their hearts, teaches them to "FEAR GOD AND HONOUR THE KING." 1 WORKS PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION. LONDON. The Rev. T. H. Horne's Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, will be ready in the course of October next, in four large volumes, 8vo., each containing not less than 650 pages, closely but handsomely printed, with fifteen plates of maps and fac-similies, besides numerous other engravings inserted in the body of the work. The delay in the publication has been occasioned, partly by the accession of new matter, (amounting to considerably more than one-third) and partly by the author's desire that the supplementary volume (of which a limited number of copies only is printed,) may appear at the same time, for the accommodation of purchasers of the first edition. This supplementary volume will comprise the whole third volume of the new edition, besides all such other historical and critical matter, as can be detached to be useful, together with all the new plates and fac-similies. Vol. I. contains a full inquiry into the genuineness, authenticity, and inspiration of the Holy Scriptures; with refutations of the infidel objections lately urged against them. Vol. II. treats on Scripture criticism, and on the interpretation of the Scriptures, with select lists of the best books on every subject therein discussed. Vol. III. contains a summary of biblical antiquities, including so much of Greek and Roman antiquities as is necessary to elucidate the Sacred Writings, together with a geographical index of the principal places mentioned in them. Vol. IV. comprises historical and critical prefaces to each book of the Old and New Testaments, and three indexes-1. Bibliographical 2. Of matters-And 3. of the principal texts cited and illustrated. Shortly will be published, The Village Minstrel, and other Poems. By John Clare, the Northamptonshire peasant, with a fine portrait. The MS. of another Tragedy by Lord Byron, is said have arrived in London. In the press, by Mr Percy Bysshe Shelley, a Poem in honour of the deceased poet Keats. Lord Ronald, the Lay of a Border Minstrel, a Poem in eight cantos. Dione, a Poem in eight cantos. Expedience, a Satire, Book I. Sibyl's Warning, a Romance. By Edward Ball. In the press, a Historical Romance, in four volumes, called the Festival of Mora. By Mrs Sidney Stanhope, author of Montbrazel Abbey, &c. A new edition of the Art of Preserving the Sight Unimpaired to extreme old age, and of re-establishing and strengthening it when it becomes weak; with observations on Spectacles. By an experienced Oculist. Nearly ready for publication, in 4to, a Series of Coloured Engravings, from ori. ginal Drawings taken on the spot, by James Wathen, Esq., illustrative of the Island of St Helena; with wood-cuts and a brief Historical Sketch of the Island. A Dictionary of French Homonymes; or, a new Guide to the Peculiarities of the French Language. By Mr D. Boileau. Mr Elmes's Lectures on Architecture, recently delivered at the Russell, Surrey, and Birmingham Institutions. Speedily will be published, Bonterwek's History of the Literature of Spain and Portugal, translated from the German. A third volume of Kirby and Spence's Entomology is in a state of great forwardness. A Practical Treatise on Diseases of the Liver, and on some of the affections usually called Bilious, comprising an impartial estimate of the merits of the Nitromuriatic Acid Bath. By George Darling, M.D. Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, &c. By Sir R. K. Porter, Vol. II. which completes the work. A Translation of Telemachus into La tin. By Mr French, late of the University of Edinburgh. Travels in Palestine in 1816. By S. S. Buckingham, Esq. 4to. with engravings. Preparing for publication, a Bibliographical Dictionary of English Literature, from the year 1700 to the end of the year 1820. By Mr T. H. Glover. A new edition of Mr C. Johnson's Es say on the Uses of Salt in Agriculture and Horticulture. Dr Forbes's Translation of Laennsc on Diseases of the Chest will shortly appear. Mr Henry Phillips, Author of the Pomarium Britannicum, has just issued Proposals for publishing by subscription, in two vols. 8vo., The History of Cultivated Vegetables; comprising their Botanical, Medicinal, Edible, and Chemical Qualities, their Natural History, and relation to Art, Science, and Commerce. |