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that they are secure either of school or Bible. When one thinks of their own happy boys at home, bounding free on the green, and breathing the fresh air of heaven-or of the little fellow that climbs a father's knee, and asks the oft-repeated story of Moses or of Joseph-it is a sad thing to look in through the eyelet of a cell-door, on the weary solitude of a child spelling its way through the Bible. It makes one sick to hear men sing the praises of the fine education of our prisons. How much better and

holier were it to tell us of an education that would save the necessity of a prison school? I like well to see the life-boat, with her brave and devoted crew; but with far more pleasure, from the window of my old country manse, I used to look out at the Bell Rock Tower, standing erect amid the stormy waters, where, in the mists of day the bell was rung, and in the darkness of the night the light was kindled; and thereby the mariners were not saved from the wreck, but saved from being wrecked at all. Instead of first punishing crime, and then, through means of a prison education, trying to prevent its repetition, we appeal to men's common sense, common interest, humanity, and Christianity, if it were not better to support a plan which would reverse this process, and seek to prevent, that there may be no occasion to punish."

We do not propose the institution of these schools by Act of Parliament. Benevolent men in different localities can easily arrange their establishment without statute. They might be incorporated with union workhouses and the Poor Law; but they will be more useful and more popular if they arise from the spontaneous contributions of subscribers in the several towns; for it is one of their greatest recommendations that they do not make paupers of the young people who attend them,

but in some respects leave them dependent on their industry, and teach them habits of perseverance. From the schools at night the pupils go forth, not to be contaminated, but to reform others. They become juvenile reformers, instead of juvenile paupers. They acquire a liking for neatness and comfort, and try to extend them to home. They are often little missionaries, going up with the elements of good that they have acquired to the citadels of vice. They have friends in the camp of the enemy; and, when they plead for virtue, it is the pleading of a child-of a brother or a sister. But the most miserably poor are not necessarily vicious: and the return, at nightfall, of their once neglected children-now fed and clothed, and taught and happy-to the home of a desolate and widowed mother; or a sickly and disabled father, may be one of the few and the brightest pleasures still remaining to a scaithed yet a feeling heart.

There is a higher class of arguments by which the establishment of these schools might be enforced-arguments that are not expressed by figures, and cannot be weighed against gold; but we have confined our remarks, principally, to the cost of crime, the limited probability of reforming criminals, the obvious source from which the great majority of convicts spring; and the necessity of cleansing the source, as the surest plan, and the only efficient plan, of reducing the cost, the extent, and the consequences of crime.

ARGUMENTS FOR THE REPEAL OF THE UNION.

BY JOHN O'CONNELL, M.P.

1. On the point of possible disagreements be- | for fear of a difference of opinion between them, arising tween two mutually independent parliaments-the one in Great Britain, the other in Ireland-as to peace and war, Mr. Speaker Foster (Speaker of the Irish Parliament) thus remarked, during the discussion, in the year 1799, of the first proposition of the Legislative Union:

"As to peace and war, it is to be recollected that the sole and absolute power of making either rests with the executive. It is the King's prerogative. But from the balance of power to which the British constitution owes its great excellence, the executive, though vested with power to act by declaring war, is forced to apply to parliament for means to carry it on, and, therefore, must consult their opinion. Suppose the British parliament to approve a war, and that of Ireland to disapprove, the only difficulty which this difference of sentiment could create, would be, that the one who disapproved might withhold its supplies until it could be induced to acquiesce. It could not, by the refusal, stand clear of the miseries, and hazards, and losses of war, because the king's declaration involves it equally with Britain." Theory, and theory alone, says that the separate parliaments may disagree. But there is no one argument you can apply as showing a consequent necessity of consolidating them, that will not apply much stronger for the consolidation of the two houses in each; and the same arguments will all farther apply, with equal strength, to consolidate the two houses with the king, for fear of the national concerns being impeded by disagreement. Thus your arguments will end in the absurdity, that you must consolidate the three estates of cach kingdom into one,

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from the exercise of their free judgments; that you must abandon the glorious constitution of a mixed government which you now enjoy, and adopt that of a single monarch, or single power, wherever it may rest, either in a monarch, an oligarchy, or a republic. But practice, which is a more steady guide than theory, tells you the reverse. In points of peace and war, the Irish parliament has never, even during centuries, differed in opinion with the British; though its power to do so has ever been as unlimited, and equally free, before as since the constitution of 1782. No! interest is a sure guide to nations; and it never was, nor ever can be, the interest of the smaller number to differ from the larger-of the weaker to differ from the more powerful on such a matter; and it is no rash prediction to say, that good sense, and even necessity, must soon reconcile the differing body, if unfortu nately such an instance should occur.

"But, if we look into the principles of the British Constitution, we shall find there abundant reason not only to reject arguments of such a theory as would consolidate the legislatures, but even not to adopt such measure were it practicable. That constitution was not the work of one man, nor of one age: it has gradually softened down in the course of centuries into that per fection we now have-more by the collision of circumstances than by the efforts of human wisdom or foresight. That collision has imperceptibly formed a balance in its constituent parts, which, by the power of mutual checks, keeps each within its bounds, and preserves the whole in its true perfection.

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That balancing check is the true principle to which it owes its preservation-destroy it, and the whole is gone! Is it wrong, then, to look for similar good effects.

from the same balancing principle in the connexion between the legislatures of the two islands, as in the con

nexion between the component parts of each legislature?"

2. To the objection that "Repeal of the Union would lead to the establishment in Ireland of the Catholic, as the State religion, and of Catholic ascendency," we shall answer in the words of a document of the Repeal Association drawn up three years ago by a Catholic member of that body; and assented to and adopted by the Committee, and by the Association itself.

"Against the assertion-that Repeal would lead to Catholic ascendency, there is a guarantee in all the declarations and acts of the Catholics of Ireland. Petitions, addresses, declarations, resolutions, speeches, every coneervable vehicle of human thought and human purpose, that have been adopted by even a section of that body, have uniformly, where at all referring to religious matters, declared our desire and demand for that entire liherty of conscience, which consists not merely in the permission to each man to worship his God in the face of day in the manner that he thinks best, or in opening the way to public station and employment, but in the entire abolition of all manner of compulsory payments by the members of one form of Christianity to the pastors, teachers, and support of any other. The Catholic prelates and clergy of the second order in Ireland have availed themselves of every opportunity to record their coincidence in these sentiments with the laity of their communion, and have continually added a declaration that they would not consent to be connected with the State. History is much too replete with instances of the erils that such connexion occasioned to the Catholic Church, to make us desire to see the cause of those evils brought into activity again. We, Catholics, are bound then by our convictions, we are bound by our most solemn and thousand-fold repeated declarations, never to week for religious ascendency, and never to accept it were it even offered; and we should be utterly faithless, and for ever disgraced, if we ever shrunk from the strictest interpretation of those engagements.

"The Protestants of Ireland wou have the additional guarantee of a nearly altogether P testant House of Lords, and of the influence of the imme se proportion of territorial influence which is in the hands of the members of that creed.

"They would farther have the guarantee of what takes place in Catholic countries abroad. In most of them, indeed, the Catholic religion is the religion of the state: but has been made so by no new enactment, being a matter of old institution. But in none of them is there any species of political exclusion whatsoever on account of difference of faith; and if the Protestant inhabitants have to pay towards Catholic purposes, inasmuch as a portion of the produce of the general taxes in those countries is devoted to such purposes by the government, they have at least the comfort of knowing that their Catholic neighbour, enjoying no exemption from taxation, pays equally indirectly with them, but fully as much towards Protestant purposes, the government making ample allocation for these last, as well as for the former. Regenerated Ireland would go a step beyond this; and having in her adversity made experience of the voluntary system, and found it admirable in ensuring zealous clergymen and attached flocks, would retain it in her prosperity, and set a brilliant example for the world's imitation."

To the foregoing we shall only add one remark. So great is the aversion of the vast majority of the Irish Catholics to any species of State connexion or State support for their Church, that it would be the most perfect insanity in any government to make a proposition having that tendency, as they would thereby incur odium and most determined opposition in Ireland, as well as in Great Britain.

3. To the objection that Irishmen are unfit to govern themselves, we do not condescend a reply. 4. To that which predicts our ruin if charged with the expenses of separate maintenance, we reply in our answer to the objection as to possible differences between these Parliaments in matters of finance.

The questions on which such differences may be supposed likely, are two, viz.: that as to debtarrangements, and that as to proportionate contributions to the expenditure of the empire.

We shall surprise some of our readers by the statement we are going to make; but it is, nevertheless, true. Ireland contributes beyond her due proportion to that part of the general imperial expenditure which is exclusive of the charges on the National Debt. How she pays towards the latter we shall subsequently consider.

The following are the respective payments of the two countries, exclusive of the charges on debt.We are constrained to take the year 1844, as being the last for which we have a distinct account of Irish expenditure. (See Acct. No. 3, at page 21, of Sess. Paper 652, of 1845.)

EXPENDITURE OF THE UNITED KINGDOM, YEAR 1844, (ended January, 1845.)

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returns), the largeness of the effort made by Ireland to contribute towards the general expenditure (clear of debt-charges) will be duly appreciated.

There is nothing to prevent her existing rates of contribution to that purpose being maintained in case of " Repeal." An international treaty could bind her to do so; and her only stipulation would be, that the monies thus levied should be spent at home, as far as the external emergencies of the empire might permit. In plainer words, that no portion of her revenue should be drafted over to England; but, if not wanted for state purposes abroad, should be spent for purposes of that description in Ireland.

5. As to debt-charges, her present payments under that head are specified in the annual finance accounts, only in so far as regards that portion of the debt which happens to be due to parties resident in Ireland. On their account, about £1,400,000 of Irish revenue (representing a capital of nearly forty millions) was disbursed in Ireland in the year 1844. But after discharge of this and the other items of State expenditure in Ireland, a sum of about £300,000 was remitted to England out of the same Irish revenue; and was there applicable to the debt-charges payable in that country. Ireland, therefore, contributed altogether about £1,700,000 to the total of twentynine millions required for the public creditor in that year.

In the article in the January number, already referred to, will be seen the reasons why Ireland should not be held accountable for any large proportion of the debt. She has, however, been made to pay all she could; as every shilling of her revenue-contributions that can be spared from the State-expenses in Ireland is, as we have before said, drafted over to Great Britain. The following will show to what an extent this drain has proceeded:

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Now (the duties being the same, as we have premised), the respective returns, instead of being, as now, about as 9 to 1, would, if the people of the two countries were in anything like an equally prosperous condition, be in or about the proportions of the population, viz., as 21 to 1. This would add seven millions to the payments of Ireland on the above items alone!

The increased prosperity of the country would enable her to bear Income, Assessed, and Land Taxes, did the exigencies of the empire demand it; as well as to increase her payments on the Excise Duties. It is unnecessary to delay with a specific calculation of the united increase, sufficient being said to indicate its largeness.

The probability of it can scarce be doubted. It is because the general population of Ireland are at present too poor to consume a large amount of taxed articles, that the returns on those articles are small. The commonest experience of human nature tells us, that the moment a man finds himself better off than before, he enlarges his circle of comforts; and the increased quantity of tea, sugar, or other taxed articles with which he begins to provide himself, tells with beneficial effect upon the public revenue.

7. Sufficient, we trust, has been said to indicate the principles on which a fair arrangement might be come to, and be permanently established between the countries. It is quite obvious that the going any farther into details would be unnecessary trouble, until the principles are assented to. It must also be obvious that the objection as to our inability to maintain, unassisted, our own Government establishments, even in an enlarged

Remittances from the British Exchequer to the Irish, state, are conclusively met.
and vice versa, from 1800 to 1845 :-
From the British to the Irish Exchequer, £7,495,862
From the Irish to the British,............... 36,785, 453

Balance of Irish Remittances,19,289,591
Parliamentary Paper 652, Session 1845.

6. Were the Union repealed, the terms of contribution, both as to debt and other expenditure of the empire, would, of course, be arranged by treaty. The great object of Ireland is not so much the saving of expenditure as the having that expenditure made in Ireland. For this purpose, until such time as, by the natural effect of an operation progressing even now, sufficient stock should be transferred to the Irish account to bring up the Irish debt-payments at home to their due amount, it might be arranged that her payments in the other items of State-expenditure -as, for instance, on that of the Navy (in Irish harbours) should be increased to the full amount of the sum, that, under the present arrangements, is inevitably drafted over to England.

Now, as to the increased means of payment. The Duties of Customs, Stamps, and Post Office

Writing in the hurry of Parliamentary avocations, it is not easy-indeed, not practicableto bestow patient and efficient revision on this argument in all its parts. However, on a very hasty review of what we have written in the present and the two last numbers of this Magazine, we are aware, indeed, of great imperfections, and want of sufficient connectedness, but not of omissions of any matters with which we had engaged to deal.

8. The Editorial comments on our last article require a few additional lines, even at the risk of being tedious.

With regard to the alleged prosperity of Belfast, the Editor does not seem to be aware that it is comparative—that is to say, that Belfast is prosperous in comparison with other parts of Ireland; but not absolutely. In the report of the Hand-Loom Weavers' Commission, a few years ago, Mr. Commissioner Muggeridge says that, "in common with all who have attempted the 'inquiry' before him, he could not state whether the linen trade were flourishing or no;" and among several testimonies many conflicting,

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but all pervaded by the same dubiousness-the following are given relative to the linen trade generally:

9. Mr. William Kirk, a member of the linen committee of the county Armagh, says 'I think the linen trade is increasing.'

"Mr. William Miller, a member of the linen committee of the county of Antrim, states-There has been an increase in the linen trade of Ballymena within the last seven years, but nevertheless there has been, generally speaking, a decrease in the linen trade of Ireland during the same period.'

"Mr. Edward Sproule, a member of the county Tyrone committee, states-that the linen trade of Ulster is not so extensive as it was twenty years ago.'

"Messrs. William Orr & Sons, linen manufacturers at Lougbgall, county Armagh, writes- We consider it decreasing in many particulars, and that the Scotch are

taking a great deal of it from us.'"-Mr. Muggeridge's Report, Hand-Loom Weavers' Inquiry.

Mr. Moncrief: All the capital of all the manufacturers in Belfast would not equal one large capitalist in England.''

The very controversy which Mr. Muggeridge states to exist in the North itself, on the subject of the alleged manufacturing prosperity of that part of Ireland, is an unfavourable sign. When a branch of industry is really flourishing in any country, it is generally known and admitted-not guessed-so to be. The following on this subject deserves attention-coming from such authority: "The extent of this (the linen) manufacture stands in sach relief from the usual absence of all manufacturing indestry in Ireland, that we frequently attach to it a degree of importance, and an idea of absolute magnitude that it does not really possess. Thus we often hear the linen manufacture spoken of as being the staple of this country, whilst wool and cotton are in return the natural manufactures of the sister kingdom. In reality, however, Ireand is almost as much behind in this as in every other branch of industry. The town of Dundee alone is considered to manufacture as much linen as all Ireland, and Lae relation which the manufacture of flax bears in the three kingdoms, is exactly shown in the following table, which is extracted from the Report of the Factory Inspectors for 1839, since which period no sensible alteration has taken place.

much for the present condition of the linen trade. We purposely omit the year 1845, lest the falling off should be attributed to the general distress of Ireland, which began in that year.

EXPORT TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES FROM IRELAND.

VALUE OF

Linen Manufactures... And Linen Yarn

over.

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10. The other editorial comments we must hurry The Editor says there is absenteeism in Scotland, yet she prospers. It is, however, much less in degree than in Ireland—as there are few of her great proprietors who do not spend some part of the year on their estates. And if she be prosperous in the Lowlands, it is well known that, in the Highlands and in the Isles, Irish distress has a melancholy parallel. The remark, that there is distress in France and Belgium, although they manage their own affairs, does not affect our argument—which was not that home-legislation would prevent, but that it would mitigate such a calamity as the present. Neither Frenchman nor Belgian were reduced so low as to be solely dependent upon the potato.

11. The argument that, as York does not demand a Parliament, Ireland should not, cannot have been brought forward in seriousness. We could furnish a pendant to it-viz. if general legislation for a large empire is best managed by a single body meeting in London, the less difficult and less extensive interests of the various muncipalities throughout the empire could be best managed by the single Corporation of London.

12. We do not object-far the contrary-to the advantage the Editor takes of our admission, that an Imperial Parliament could (if it would) do much of what we expect from a home-parliament

"In England there were 169 mills, worked by 4,260-amongst other things, cause our monies to be horse-power, and employing 16,573 persons.

"In Scotland 183 mills worked by 4,845 horse-power, and employing 17,897 persons.

In Ireland 40 mills, worked by 1,980 horse-power, and employing 9,017 persons."-Sir R. Kane's " Industrial Resources of Ireland."

spent at home, &c. &c. We deliberately made the admission. We would be glad to see ourselves deprived of that portion of our argument for "Repeal," which depends on the want of active good will on the part of the United Parliament. But the Editor's own good and high feeling deceives him. These things will not be done.

It is to be remarked, that manufacturing industry had a better chance in the North than in any other part of Ireland; as there was not that And now hastily concluding, we have to express seetarian division and mutual aversion among the a sincerely felt gratitude for the opportunity given, Farious classes of the population there, as in other at some risk, for even this imperfect statement of provinces. The Protestant colonists of Ulster the Repeal case. This instance of fairness is all had no penal laws to restrict and hamper their the more appreciated, as it was entirely spontaindustrial energies. The following table from neous, and, we regret to add, entirely unpathe Annual Finance Accounts does not speak | ralleled.

NOTES ON MR. O'CONNELL'S ARGUMENTS.

We have placed figures to the different para- to Mr. O'Connell, Senior, that ever assembled graphs in Mr. O'Connell's argument for the pur- anywhere; and we give very considerable credit pose of more convenient reference.

to the statement. There can be no doubt that it was a Parliament swarming with borough-mongers, and the county constituency was very narThat Parliament was elected by a small

No. 1 is an extract from an address of Mr. Speaker Foster's, in the Irish Parliament of 1799 one of the most corrupt Parliaments, according row,

minority of the nation, dependent on England for physical support, and by no means likely to come to any serious difference with that country on questions of peace or war. Mr. Speaker Foster was doubtless one of "the envy of surrounding nations" men. He speaks of checks and balances in the constitution, as a watchmaker does of springs and wheels in a gold repeater. The machine, however, has been greatly changed since the day of his Speakership, and his authority is not now of great weight. The power of peace or war, like every other power, is virtually vested in the House of Commons. The purse is kept in that House; and no king will declare war against his enemy without a well-replenished purse. According to Mr. Speaker Foster's argument it might be advisable to increase the number of checks and balances, by still farther sub-dividing the empire; and in that case it would be quite possible to have the Lothians maintaining a war with Holland, and Fifeshire observing an armed neutrality. Even in the United States of America, under a federal form of Government, the peace or war and treatymaking power is vested in one Legislature; and the various States are obliged to obey the orders of the Congress.

save money by the arrangement. We believe that there are errors to be rectified in the Irish finances; but they are subjects for an account.The rough outline of the statement may be given briefly. For no part of the charges on the difference between the British and Irish debt, at the date of the Union, should Ireland be responsible, That balance should be struck off the general responsibilities of the firm, and carried to the private account of Great Britain. For the balance of the debt, and the current expenses-exclusive of interest on the special debt of the senior partner in the firm-Ireland must bear its share. We do not ascribe the slightest value to Peel and Goulburn's estimate of the tax-paying capabilities of Ireland; and for the purposes of honest accounting no such estimates are necessary. The people of Britain must meet their special debt by special payments, and the general pay. ments should be made from taxes common to the three divisions. Our views in favour of direct taxation leave us no great difficulty in settling the accounts. Considerable sums will always be raised by indirect taxes; but we believe that even in the next Parliament a considerable amount of indirect taxes will be commuted for immediate payment. Mr. O'Connell's estimate of £400,000 for duties paid in England or Scotland on goods used in Ireland is too small. We have before us a note of the duty-paid goods imported into Belfast last year; and although we have not cast up the precise sum, yet it strikes us that the amount there alone is not much short of the sum stated.

5. This paragraph belongs to the same class with the 4th, and needs a similar answer. If there be any blunder in the Irish accounts they are not irretrievably closed. They have been settled with the prudent and common foot-note,

2. Mr. O'Connell meets the fears expressed for Catholic ascendancy in Ireland by repeating some resolutions of the Repeal Association in favour of the voluntary system. We are not chargeable with discourtesy to the Roman Catholic Church in saying that the voluntaryism of its Irish members can only be circumstantial. They cannot be Voluntaries, in the ordinary meaning of the term, on principle. They could not, for example, denounce the connexion between Church and State as anti-scriptural and sinful; for in the great majority of Roman Catholic countries that connexion subsists, and even the Roman Pontiff errors excepted;" and if "errors" be estais ex officio a temporal monarch. In reference to blished they can be rectified. Many of our the statements respecting the endowment of Pro- readers are unprepared, we believe, for the statetestant Churches in Roman Catholic countries, ment, that nearly £40,000,000 of the debt is held we can only say that such endowments do not in Ireland, and that the amount is gradually and exist in Italy, Spain, Portugal, or Austria. In rapidly increasing; although the circumstance France there are Protestant endowments; but does not show a wasting, but an accumulating there a Protestant congregation cannot be formed process connected with Irish capital. Ireland without permission from the authorities; and Mr. does not want money, but enterprise, to complete O'Connell will, we believe, agree with us in say- her railways. ing that men should have liberty to worship when and where they please without permission of the Mayor. We refer to the subject because it has been introduced by Mr. O'Connell.

3. The answer to this objection is deservedly short. We did not advance the objections, and are not responsible for their character; but we can only say, that, if Irishmen be unfit to govern themselves, they must be still more unfit to govern

us.

Yet for years they maintained, with aid from Scotland, the Whig Ministry in power, against the will of England; and all our great measures, in recent times, have been carried against majorities of English Members.

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We need scarcely remind Mr. O'Connell that we could easily produce a larger balance of remittances from Scotland to England than he quotes from Ireland to England; but we endeavour by some means to bring back the money again, and are not absolutely unsuccessful. Ireland has all the elements of prosperity belonging to Scotland, and has no argument for a repeal of the Union that is inapplicable to this country.

6. The great object with Mr. O'Connell is to have national money expended in Ireland. Our object, on the other hand, is to have the national work done wherever it can be accomplished most efficiently and cheaply. The result of both 4. We do not suppose that Ireland would neces-objects, in this case, comes to nearly the same sarily be ruined by the expense of a separate thing. Mr. O'Connell requires naval yards and maintenance; but we do not observe how it would military depots in Ireland; and because, for a

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