a thousand-be seen in the history of the notorious silk-mills of Edinburgh. That population, too, it must never be forgotten, must, if it can be reared at all, be reared by long struggle, not in shadowed forth-fitted in all its arrangements for the PEASANT COMMUNITY the present church of Landlordism having been permitted to pass quite away? Be it far from us to speak dogmatically of the future; but if, under such circumstances, | Ireland as a separate country, but in conflict with cheered on, too, by the friendly neighbourhood and the world-famous example of the English people, Ireland should remain amid Nature's activities a spectacle of stagnation and deaththen should we despair of the final destinies of man on this planet, and account the hope of universal civilization as a dream and very delusion. It is farther necessary that the people of this country be convinced that no other form of civilization-no state which does not spring from an organised peasant community—is open to Ireland, or possible for it, in its existing relations with the other parts of the world. This vital truth requires the more to be impressed, because of the impracticable and inapplicable visions which, from time to time, have been cherished regarding that country. One delusion especially has widely diffused itself-the hope, viz., of converting Ireland into a manufacturing country;-a hope so widely spread abroad, that, on the publication, a few years ago, of a work by Sir R. Kane, men's minds became astir regarding the possibility, or rather certainty, of the speedy erection of new Birminghams and Manchesters, not in one only, but in many of its favoured localities. Now, in the first place, no manufacture can be favourably placed-be the natural facilities what they may-unless amid a population skilled, or capable of speedily becoming skilled, in reference to its special purposes. Without that population, natural advantages avail little; and the difficulty of procuring it, or rearing it where it is not, may-to take one instance among have nothing to do with their special dogmata, but it ought to have to do with the existence of a church or churches: taking especial care that the church be one applicable to the state of a peasant community. It is needless to conceal that in regard of the Romish Church there are obstacles to the reception of the foregoing opinion in the minds of many of the well-meaning of our countrymen. The present writer begs to avow his opinion, with all deference, but firmly, that it is vain to expect that the Irish will ever be other than Roman Catholics. By the term ever, he of course means any visible or assignable period of historical time; and his opinion rests on the presumed persistence of manifest causes. These causes, partly in the character of the people, partly in the attitude of hostility to English Pro testantism, into which their history has led them, are, in his estimate, perfectly adequate to produce the foregoing effect; but by no means does it follow that the Irish will not reform their own church. The existing beggary of the people, their want of information, and their readiness to seize hold on religious consolation as the compensation for the ills that in their case seem very hardly apportioned, concur in the meantime in endowing the Romish Priesthood with an influence which no priesthood ought to possess; but the effect would terminate with its cause; and the spread of education by the national system, aided by that culture which comparative ease of circumstances would impress on a national character peculiarly sensitive to external impulses, would necessarily abate the influence of the hierarchy, and constitute in Ireland a church whose pretensions would be satisfied with the privilege of counselling in the spiritual concerns of the people: nor, with France in our eye, as well as the Catholic churches of Germany, can we, speaking very politically, ay that an institution thus reformed would operate as a hindrance to the advancement of a people in whose hearts it had obtained and preserved a seat. the action of advanced, experienced, and powerful England. The question amounts therefore to this -Who is to uphold the efforts to rear the new Manchester in face of the old one? How are these imperfect and tentative attempts to be upheld, in competition with the accomplished and overwhelming energy of the most perfect industrial organization the world has ever seen? Shall they be screened from competition by the barrier of monopoly? Or, in other words, is Ireland--already too poor-tobe taxed all over, for indefinite years, until it learn to accomplish what Manchester can now accomplish, as the fruit of ceaseless progress and inventive toil? Thus, and no other way, can such an end be accomplished; and is not the bare statement of the question in this light adequate demonstration of its impracticability? ?* Not all the waterfalls and rivers in the world, coupled with Mr. Hudson's railroads, will suffice to convert Ireland into a manufacturing country, unless capital on capital, to untold amount, shall first be sacrificed in the effort to bring up an inexperienced people to the habitudes and capabilities of one whose skill is a growth of centuries. Sir Robert Kane forgot that the forms and practices of accomplished industry are so essential to the construction of an industrial community; that in absence of these, natural advantages of the highest order are only useless elements; but his mistake was venial; nor knew we how very far a delusion of this sort could go, or how large a credulity may co-exist with parliamentary leadership, before both were unfolded, to the amazement of reflecting men, by the recent imaginations of Lord George Bentinck. If the minor acts of this most difficult time shall at all survive, and become known to posterity, assuredly none of them will excite stranger emotions than that a proposition to invest sixteen millions of money in Irish railways should have been gravely listened to by Parliament, and discussed as a probably remunerative scheme! Who knows not that rail The fallacies afloat regarding the effect of the UNION in destroying Irish manufactures, obtain their solution in a fact which much illustrates the foregoing argument. Doubtless the small manufactories of Ireland have been destroyed by England, and probably the absorption began about the time of the Union; but the cause was the immeuse, rapid, and resistless development of manufacturing by machinery, which destroyed wholly, and without hope, all power of competition by hand labour, or by small establishments. The same thing that took place in Bandor and among the now back lanes of Cork, happened in many districts both of England and Scotland; and the cause in all these cases was the same. The effect, of course, was disastrous to localities, but to the entire community it cheapened the article produced; and it is this identical state of affairs which now places a barrier in the way of the rise of Irish manufactures. Assuredly it is not worthy in men, who should know better, to attribute an action, so very clear and distinct, to the union of two parliaments! And if Ireland had done justice to herself, if she had developed her great agricultural resources, or been in a condition to do so, she, too, would have recognised the advantage; for she would have felt the benefits of that of which she complains. ways are comparatively useless, unless to a country whose people and their pursuits demand frequent and swift interchange of intercourse? Could even a child indulge in the foolish dream, that to create the need for that intercourse it is simply necessary to spend profound sums in enlargement of its facilities? Would a road along the flanks of Ben Lomond establish prosperity and manufacturing activity on its summit? or will railways, multiplied even ad infinitum, convert an agricultural and stationary people into a migratory and commercial one? It is vain, by mistakes or lures like these, to endeavour to shun the inevitable question. The ostrich can hide its head, but it cannot ward off the impending doom; and come that doom of a surety will, if we longer contend with ordinances that have so emphatically proclaimed their superiority to all human-at least, to all British-policy, if we see not before us a multitudinous people claiming to be recognised in their fatherland, challenging it as their right-practical foes of the peasant, and whom the peaful home, and demanding that in the British empire they alone shall not be held as aliens, not merely from the cherished place of their nativity, but, in very truth, from any place or abode within God's wide universe. you shrink from doing even yourselves? Perfectly do we recognise the truth, that the authors of this poor law hope good from it, only in so far as by the foregoing indirect action it shall render its own provisions useless; do they discern, on the other hand, that they inevitably, and without chance or possibility of reward, peril Ireland in this hope that if this single expectation gives way in a country which has already baffled and put to nought every expectation formed concerning it, they shall lose every means of touching it again-they shall sacrifice that alone, whose existence creates social power, and duty, and order, │-viz.: the surplus wealth? The Irish landlords! Does Lord John Russell know them? Even now, half fool, half tyrant, the Irish landlord would, were justice meted to him, be found to have lost every privilege, because he has abandoned all authority by trampling on every duty ;* and shall they-a class so hated and so baffled-the true POSTSCRIPT. THE foregoing Essay was written early in the year; and at that time the author did not know that the views which had been forced on him by an intimate practical knowledge of many districts of Ireland were receiving the support of one of the most distinguished thinkers in this country, The course of legislation, however, has hitherto betokened no trace of the influence of opinions of this class; but instead, two modes of action have been proposed, on which it seems necessary to offer only a few remarks, and these of the most general kind. I. As anticipated, a poor law has been brought forward, of the most sweeping description, and it seems likely it will be carried. Until now, the history of civilization contains no instance of the existence of a poor law of any higher aim than to provide for the few exceptional evils inseparable from the best-constructed organisms; in the present case it is meant to act as the reorganiser of the country-as the grand reforming or revivifying agent of the ENTIRE STATE. There is of course only one mode by which it can thus act not directly, but indirectly. It must, by its moral influence, render its own provisions unnecessary, and that moral influence can only operate on the landlords-converting them, as it is hoped, by arousing fear into willing and able social regenerators. Alas! alas! Never in the whole course of Utopian scheming was a dream relied upon more utterly baseless than this! Induce the Irish landlords by terrifying them to regenerate Ireland? Surely you must make them ABLE first! Surely you must endow them as a class with a knowledge, a virtue of statesmanship, which no such class ever had before; or if you do not, why delegate to them, and by a machinery so infinitely hazardous, did sant, as things exist, has reduced to helplessnessshall they contend with a peasantry armed with legal power, and resolutely determined, as a RIGHT and a RELIGIOUS DUTY, to enforce to realise this poor law? Think again of it, my Lord Already have you folded your hands in half-confessed despondency in regard to the task to which, in the course of providence, your energies have been summoned; and now, add to the warnings of the benevolent, but acute Prelate of Dublin, the assurance of one who knows that country well, that your scheme is a baseless chimera, and that two brief lustrums will not pass over us, ere by its direct and inevitable action this Irish landlordism, as useless in its fall, as unhonoured during its existence, shall have been swept from the face of the earth! II. In opposition to this fearful poor law, which, in sad truth, is, par excellence, the very worst measure that could be proposed for Ireland, a measure that can have no beneficial operation unless among a people actuated by those mutual charities; that respect for each other's property, and personal pride of independence, which are precisely what Ireland wants. In opposition to this exterminating act, an extensive, and, in the main, excellently planned scheme of emigration, has just been laid before the British public, under the high authority of Archbishop Whately, and other eminent names. The chief features of it are, of course, to remove the Irish peasantry to Let us be believed! We have written these hard words with unequivocal pain: it is, besides, a crime, in circumstances like the present, of no slight dye, to utter condemnation, or even disparagement, without grounds whose soundness are beyond all doubt. Well, then, of these Irish landlords in the mass-for there are bright and noble exceptions-a more useless set of functionaries does not exist amid the countless multitudes composing British society. But so far from this being a Saxon grievance, as reported ad nauseam in Conciliation Hall-verily you may select the districts in Ireland occupied by English proprietors, simply crimes, the open oppressions, of which we have seen you by the appearance of a comparatively happy peasantry. The trace Irish landlords guilty, and which pass quite current, in most districts, positively degrade humanity. In every utterly unfit for any position which could make a man deway-in feeling, in intellect, in cunning even-they are pendent on them. of the Irish race, ere it can be considered a safe, permanent, and orderly integrand, and not a mere dependency, of our mighty empire? Or is it the removal, at the expense of some of our predilections, of obstructions lying, verily on the surface of their existing condition-obstructions which, positively and inevitably, prevent their advancing along any line of civilization?,Our decision, in regard of such a question, will, to future times, be no slight indication of the character of the age in which we live. some other country, until sufficiently few shall remain to admit of the construction, in Ireland, of an English agricultural system-landlords as they are, farmers with capital, to be imported as the managers of large farms, and the peasants to contribute agricultural labourers. Now, in the first place, it must be noticed, that this scheme, as compared with ours, has one very great and obvious disadvantage; that, instead of one great deportation, which at the very worst is involved in ours-viz., that of landlords, it involves, directly and inevitably, an immense deportation of peasantry, and, III. One word, in conclusion, on another subagain, a great importation of capitalist farmers.ject. Some minds are startled by the supposed difLike the proposal offered in the foregoing paper, this one starts on the assumption of the existence of a rooted social incompatibility, to be destroyed only by the removal of one of the parties; for the idea of its being necessary to remove the Irish from their own waste but most prolific island, in search of circumstances in which food may be obtained in return for moderate labour, is too absurd to be set forth even as an economical hypothesis; we differ, however, as to the party to whom we should leave possession of that country. Ethically speaking, it would not be very difficult to determine how this question should be decided; and be it observed, that the emigration proposed disposes, in the most summary way, of the practical objection to our scheme, for it assumes that the Irish peasantry only require to be placed in circumstances not more unfavourable than the peasantry of other origins, to rise of themselves into a civilised industrial society. This being granted, then, what we earnestly demand is, the grave and manifest interest of the British nation at this momentous crisis. Is it virtually to abandon the Irish people? Is it to declare that Ireland must, in the main, be weeded FAIRER Orr when I sit begloomed, and dull and sad, A host of objects good and great, and grand, ficulty of realising such views as we have sought at present to expose. The evil, it is said, is manifest-the removal of it, easily accomplishable by absolute power; but what English minister would dare attempt to accomplish a task of so unusual a description? The greatest difficulty in finding a minister to dare such an act is in finding one to dare to say he would do it; for in this, as in usual affairs, the right way is by far the easiest and the least complex. But we need seek for no such man among dilletanti politicians, whose sin cerity is measured by their fidelity to party, and who are satisfied with as much liberalism as will glitter in the drawing room. That men capable of strong convictions are still to be found, and that they can, when the exigency demands it, trample on our miserable existing political sec tions, has been demonstrated by the ever memorable example of last year; and while some such energy would amply suffice, even for the necessi ties of Ireland, it is certainly only by its exertions, and not by the expedients of any red-tapering, that this portion of the empire can now be preserved from a most disastrous, and, perhaps, utter overthrow. 7219 For Lydia's princes sleep beneath her wise and mighty men; They once gazed on these distant hills, snow covered now as then; They, too, once gazed on this fair scene with bright and The smooth Gygaan lake reflects the blue unruffled sky; beaming eye! I sat among the countless dead to other worlds I sought- And on the grand sepulchral mounds, I knelt in solemn THE BRITISH MISSION TO OMAR ALI, SULTAN OF BRUNI-FEBRUARY, 1845. Is consequence of the Government having determined | of the Kiagge. It was surrounded by the most luxuriant to form a settlement on the island of Labuan, off the foliage, and beneath the tree was the tomb of a Malay mouth of the Bruni River, the following particulars rela- Rajah, and the graves of several chiefs. These last tive to the British Mission to Borneo may prove interest-resting places of the natives are marked by two pieces of ing to our readers. The vast resources of the Indian wood (though occasionally stones are used) from one to Archipelago have never been developed, and the late two feet in height, and placed two or three feet apart. Government, desirous of extending British interests in The earth over the grave is raised a few inches, and that quarter of the globe, despatched Captain Bethune, supported by four narrow boards, so as to form a paralleloR.N.C. B., with a complimentary letter and presents to gram. They generally appear very neat. The same Omar Ali, Sultan of Bruni. The gallant officer was also custom prevails amongst the people of Macassan, and commissioned to report upon the best locality for a also among the Bugis; the only difference is, that they British settlement on the north-west coast of Borneo. more commonly use stone than wood. At the time of Captain Bethune's arrival at Bruni, in H. M. S. Driver, accompanied by Mr. Wise, much confusion prevailed in the country. The Raja Mudah Hassim, uncle to the Sultan, and likewise his chief minister, had entered into engagements with the English, to do all in his power to extirpate piracy. By these means he had entailed on himself the enmity of a numerous body of native chieftains, who thus saw the channel through which they obtained their principal profits suddenly closed against them. The tragic results that ensued last year will prove that the fears entertained by the gentleman to whom we are indebted for this information were by no means groundless. Mr. Brook, the Rajah of Sarawak, having been appointed Her Majesty's confidential agent in Bruni, had the charge of conducting the negotiations; he was accompanied by his own gun-boat, the Driver's pinnace and | first cutter, all well manned and armed. Early in the morning, February 27th, 1845, Mr. Brooke, Captain Bethune, and Mr. Wise, started for the capital, leaving the Driver at anchor off the south-east end of Muanu Island, which lies at the mouth of the river. The soundings were regular until they approached Pulo Cherwin, where they found the channel very narrow, having been partially blocked up to obstruct the advance of an enemy. They arrived off Pulo Cherwin about noon, and anchored there. This island is connected to the main by a reef of rocks. Continuing their route, in the afternoon they came up with the boat of Panguan Bedrideen and the state barge, bearing the complimentary letter. Joining the procession, the English party pulled slowly towards the capital of Bruni. The river was about half a mile in width; the banks were in parts very lofty, rising sometimes to the height of two hundred and fifty feet, and presently sinking again to fifty. The sides of the river were occasionally perpendicular, in other places sloping gently, and covered either with dense forests, or luxuriant though rank grass. Very few houses were observed as they passed along. A mile and a half below the town was a small fort mounted with five guns. At other points there were said to be batteries with large pieces of ordnance. The course of the river for five miles below the small fort is almost straight; near it, and again at the town, the stream takes a sharp turn, The English observed a fine upas tree growing directly opposite the first range of houses, and near the footpath leading over the hills to the coal formation on the banks At four o'clock, P.M., the boats anchored near the Sultan's palace, and were saluted with twenty-one guns placed in battery on the banks of the river. Having hastily dressed, the members of the Mission proceeded to the Hall of Audience, which is about sixty feet in length, by thirty in breadth. The central portion of the floor is elevated above the rest, and seems at night as a sleeping place for a small body of men who act as a guard. At the further end of this elevation stands the throne, which resembles a Chinese bed-stead covered with a canopy. The foot-stool, about a yard and a quarter wide, is composed of a large plank of black ebony, which is very plentiful in this part of Kalamantan. Pillars rise from the sides of the raised platform, which serve to support a canopy of cotton cloth. The Sultan's house is built on piles, so that when the tide rises, the water reaches within a foot of the floor, which is so inartistically made, that the stream may be seen beneath through openings at least an inch in width. Even in their rooms at the Mission House, whenever the tide rose higher than usual, the English were in constant dread of being flooded; and this was also the case in the palace-for the place that is dignified by that name is not much better in its appointments than the houses of Panguans. It is altogether a very poor building, particularly if compared with that of the Sultan of Temate; the latter, however, receives a Dutch pension, which enables him to live in greater style than his neighbours. Having arrived at the Hall of Audience, our countrymen found the Sultan seated on the throne under the carved canopy, and surrounded by his principal Rajabs, and also by bodies of armed men. Muda Hasim sat at the foot of the throne, whilst his brother Bedrideen, having met the British at the steps, conducted them to the Sultan, who received them with affected indifference; indeed, throughout the whole interview, he appeared to take little notice of the proceedings, either through false notions of dignity, or through a natural inaptitude for business. This lethargic manner may be partly accounted for by his having been shut up nearly all his life with his woinen and slaves. The custom of his country prevents him from going out unless in state, and attended by a numerous train. His look would denote that he had some Arabian blood in his veins, having more the appearance of a Caucasian than a Malay. Muda Hasim opened the silk packet containing the complimentary letter and the translation, the latter made by Buduieen, and very beautifully copied by Pangeran Ishmael, another brother of the chief minister. The document having been read in public, a royal salute was immediately fired. Mr. Brook with his party then withdrew, each member of the mission shaking hands with Omar Ali Saipudeen and the principal Rajahs. The flags and decorations of the Audience Chamber, added to the varied colours of the dresses of State worn by the several Rajahs and persons present, gave an animated appearance to the scene; and, judging from Mr. Brook's descriptions of other receptions he had met with, every circumstance of respect attended the delivery of Her Majesty's letter. medans. There was a few years back a rich Parsee merchant, who carried on a great trade. It is reported that there are no Arabs in Bruni, although two or three hun dred are called Hajë, from having visited Mecca as pilgrims. Great respect and deference are always shown to these holy men. The few Dyaks who frequent the town come generally from the neighbouring hills for the purpose of barter, or to bring the small tribute due to the Sultan. The population may exceed twenty thousand. According to some, there are about three thousand boats in use in the town. The first night was passed by our countrymen in some degree of uncertainty and distrust, their position being by no means very secure. The town was full of chiefs hostile to Muda Hasim, and, of course, inimical to the English. These Panguans were striving to obtain an influ ence over their sovereign Omar Ali. There can be no doubt that their principal object in endeavouring to remove Muda Hasim was to break off his negotiations with the English, as they well knew, that if a good understand of continuing their piratical pursuits would be thrown overboard. Some American travellers who visited Bruni a few years before had several interviews with the Sultan and Muda Hasim. The latter appeared a little embarassed when he received their first visit, but he endeavoured to imitate, as far as possible, our European manners, and was consequently awkward and constrained. He however made tea for them, and showed his proficiency in civilized manners by not presenting them with betel. After sitting with his guests some time, he proposed that they should visit Omar Ali, and promised to accompanying was come to with the British Government, all chanee them. Two boats having been called, they were rowed to the Sultan's residence. Having mounted a ladder, they found themselves near the door of a dimly-lighted hall, on the floor of which a number of men were fast asleep. Passing this entrance they were shown into a small verandah furnished with a bamboo settee, a few chairs, and a mat. Having given them sufficient time to admire the splendour of the apartinent, the Sultan made his appearance. Being of a very inquisitive disposition, he fatigued his visiters with questions, and appeared extremely anxious to learn their names and residences, and also what business had brought them into those parts. Having at length been satisfied, he offered them tea and betel. He detained them so long that it was nearly daylight before they were conducted to their beds, which they found to consist of a common mat and pillow, with the addition of a rug spread over them. The Malays were exceedingly anxious to behold the foreigners lie down to rest, and several visited them for the express purpose. Muda Hasim came to see if they were comfortable, and then took his leave. When the British Mission had retired, the assembled multitude quietly withdrew, and two chiefs accompanied them to the house selected for their residence. The pinnace returned to the ship, and the cutter and gun-boat anchored in the river, abreast of the house in which the Mission resided. It was an edifice built like the rest of this extraordinary city, on piles of wood, with the water flowing beneath. The number of boats passing up and down the river was very great, and the population of the town appeared to be considerable. The inhabitants are principally Malays, professing the Mahommedan religion; and, as is usual in those countries, whose intellect is swayed by the prophet, the women are confined at home. The principal Panguans possess large harems. The Sultan has above one hundred fair tenants in his house, while Muda Hasim contented himself with eighty. None but the wives of the poor are seen about the streets. There are but few Chinese, perhaps on the whole not thirty; formerly they were much more numerous, but continued oppression, and the insecurity of life and property, have contributed to drive them from their favourite haunt. Some of those that have remained have become Mahom Mr. Brook had obtained a complete influence over Muda Hasim, Bedrideen, and the principal chiefs of his party; but they themselves acknowledged that their majority was very small. The situation of the English was by no means enviable; for Omar Ali might easily be worked upon to commit any atrocity. Muda Hasim's enemies, although they were not at present in sufficient force, contrived afterwards to obtain the consent of the Sultan to his murder, and that of his brother. It was this fearful assassination that led to the late operations of Sir Thomas Cochrane. So great was the insecurity, that one of the Mission wrote at the time :-" I hope all will go well; but our return to the ship I shall hail with great satisfaction; there we are in security-the anchorage is excellent, the scenery very magnificent, and our point d'appui, Palo Labuan, within view. These people (the Bornians) are not, in my opinion, sufficiently advanced in civilization for Europeans, even in the same character of members of a friendly mission from a foreign power, to treat with, except with an imposing force. The quarrels of the chiefs I look upon as no addition to the safety of our position; and, although thirty Englishmen may do wonders if attacked, yet the prospect is by no means cheering." It They were, however, undisturbed that evening. rained heavily during the night; and when they rose in the morning, everything appeared fresh; the scenery around was very beautiful, a fine river running between moderately-high hills, clothed with verdure and trees, with the country around partially cleared for cultivation. The town consisted of about three thousand houses, built on piles ranged along either bank, within a short distance of the shore. The dwellings of the Sultan and the different chiefs are each distinguished by their respective banners, which produced a good effect, and assisted to enliven a very extraordinary scene. The poor people crowded around the English, anxious to barter provisions for empty bottles, bits of iron, and other trifles. It is a remarkable fact, that whatever these people seek after, either to beg or purchase, they always prefer strength to. fineness. They are the most importunate beggars for |