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A tablet giving its history and the name of the founder is being in readiness, as a fixture for future ages. A wellfed priest was walking about, ready at any notice to perform any religious duty, within the pale of his conscience, for the good of the family.

"The walks, the beach, and the foaming sea-the tower upon an eminence-the all-manner of shaped angles and triangles, added and superadded to the main body of the house-the place where it stands, and the person who designed it-all taken into consideration, make it a house and spot quite different from all others. I lingered, and looked, and left it as I found it, and can no more describe it than before I saw it.

"A lunch was before me at my return into the house; the long table was in the dining-room, around which are seated, when O'Connell is at home, a goodly number of his children; and sometimes thirty-six grandchildren have been seated together there, with priest and guests, partaking of the bounties of this hospitable board.

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While enjoying my bread and cheese, the threatening clouds began to drop rain: it was now twenty minutes past four. I had a wild mountainous walk of five miles before me, and the wind was howling tremendously among the bleak mountains. I said to the housekeeper, 'I dread the walk, my feet are blistered, and should the storm increase upon the mountain, as there is no place to lodge, what shall I do?" It will be bad for you,' was the reply of this fixture in female form, as she showed mne out of the house. I said, 'Should you ever visit New York, I will do as much for you, if you will call on me.' My fate was now fixed; I was out and the door was shut, and never did the bolting of the prison gate of a condemned culprit grate more harshly upon the ear, as the turnkey shut him in,' than did the closing of this door of the Agitator,' when its last echo died on my ear. It was then the Repeal' of this union of wind and rain was the pitiful cry of my heart. The rain and wind were in my face, and the wild mountain before me. When I could face the storm no longer, I turned my back, and endeavoured to walk in that way. A poor woman and her basket were sheltered under the wall, and she cried out,And why, ma'am, are ye out in this stawrm? and sure why didn't ye lodge at Darrynane?' 'Because they did not ask me,' I replied. And sure they wouldn't turn a stranger out on the wild mountains in such a stawrm as this?' And sure they did,' was all I could

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Poor Mrs. Nangle at Achil fares still worse, for she is

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abused very roundly, although the mission is spoken of in terms of the highest praise. Mrs. Nangle, we verily believe, supposed Miss Nicholson to be a very improper kind of person, when she found her wandering alone through a strange land; and, in the position occupied by herself and her husband, may not have been anxious for intimate communications with the strange American female from Molly Vesey's lodging-house, even fortified as she was by letters from respectable persons in America, of whom Mr. and Mrs. Nangle could know little.

Of another mission belonging to the Presbyterian Church, and of Mr. Crotty, a converted priest, she thus speaks :

"Met an intelligent police-officer and his sister; and in the morning visited the school, taught by a Roman Catholic, and supported by the Home Mission. It is in themselves with what books they had, which were few its infancy, its funds low, and the children supplied and defaced. I sat in the school-room till eleven, waiting for the scholars to assemble; and, with much urging, teacher is a learned man; but the appearance of his persucceeded in hearing two girls attempt to read. The son told that a schoolmaster's salary in Ireland is a poor inducement to plod through the declensions and conjugaattracting. The Testament is kept in school, and the tions of a Latin Grammar. The whole together was not teacher observed, It is read by all who wish to read it, and the others omit it.'

"Mr. Crotty, the Presbyterian clergyman, who employs the teacher, says he can do no better in the present state of things. Poverty sits brooding on everything here. A Church of England curate, a Presbyterian clergyman, and Romish priest, divide the town among them, leaving a scanty pittance to each of the labourers. rough adherent to those principles he once denied. Mr. Crotty was once a Romish priest, and is now a thoHe certainly has done honour to the change he has made, if

the voice of his neighbours weigh anything; for the Catholics all spoke kindly of him as a peace-maker, wishing to do good to all, and given to hospitality.'

We have derived much pleasure from Miss Nicholson's book. Many of her statements we personally know to be true. Others that seem severe are to be ascribed to her habits of thought; but her work is worth a cart-load of such absurd books as Kohl's, which brimfull of blunders, was nevertheless much praised, and widely circulated.

POLITICAL REGISTER.

THE GENERAL ELECTION has come and gone application of this language to any party in without leaving the world wiser by its advent. Britain. And those who believe that they are We find, indeed, an array run up of Protec- struggling for a right may be assured that they tionists, Peelites, and Liberals, which gives the injure greatly their own prospects by these latter a slight majority; but what is meant by diatribes. It is clear, however, that the Irish these party designations we know not, unless to Repealers cannot all be counted with the Cabinet. be a "Peelite" implies the non-existence of intel- It is difficult to tell their precise number. We lectual faculties sufficient to guide a man in can easily ascertain the proportion of five-pound forming an opinion regarding the expediency of notes paid into Conciliation Hall; but we do not any case to be a Protectionist at present is to know that every note represents an earnest man. stand in the position of the lock that was put on Nominally, we believe the number to be thirtythe stable door after the steed was stolen; and seven-really we apprehend the number of those to be a Liberal is to support Lord John Russell's whose principles would be in any respect troubleCabinet. In the latter and the larger classifica- some to the Government will not exceed twentytion, on that presumption we have an enormous five. There is a very small section of Irish memfiction, or we may say, perhaps, a conglomeration bers who style themselves Conservative Reof small fictions put forward to prop the Govern- pealers, for the sake of convenience. ment until Parliament assemble. Any person with one foot on sea and one on land. They find may perceive that the Irish Repealers cannot be this position convenient at an Irish hustings. counted amongst the Government votes. These Anywhere else it would sink them between two gentlemen denominate this Ministry the "Star- stools. There, it supports them in spite of their vation Government," without, we must add, in natural gravitation. They are like the heated strict justice, any sound reason for the reproach-Indian corn turned out of ship at Cork and elseful term. The exertions made for Ireland since where, to be sold to pay expenses. Any party, the harvest of 1846 should have prevented the we presume, may have them for the freight to

They stand

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The precursors are understood to be gentlemen in the transition state towards repeal. Some of them have, however, denied that they can be said to “precourse" in this form, and we should not be surprised to find the classification more than sanguine. As it stands, the minority of Irish members consist of repealers, and repealers not yet fully formed. Nominally, they would take 49 from the liberal votes in Parliament; but as the unripened will likely enough go with the government on trying questions, we reduce the restive Irish members to 37; and we may give the ministry the advantage to be procured from a farther discount of 12, leaving 25 Irish votes on whom no liberal whipper-in could put the slightest reliance, but which will not be given against the cabinet on any of those questions where its existence can be in danger. We refer to these matters merely to show that no great reliance should be placed on the bulletins of the London morning papers. The moral strength of the Irish members is not, we fear, improved by the elections. At Waterford, Mr. Wyse and Sir II. W. Barron have been defeated by Alderman Meagher and Mr. Daniel O'Connell. The latter gentleman's talents are not yet developed; and the Alderman would be a more formidable person, were it by any means possible to make him his own son; but as that transmigration cannot take place, we do not expect any great effort to astonish the House from the senior member for Waterford. The election for Dundalk, a small borough on the northern border of Leinster, produced an equally strange result with that for Waterford. Mr. M'Cullagh, a gentleman of considerable literary reputation, connected with the government, was defeated by Mr. M'Tavish, who, "unknown to fame" or 66 even to local influence," seems to have stepped into the seat on the strength of one principle. He was a Scoto-American, favourable to the repeal of the Union, and on that sole qualification, so far as we can learn, was elected. There may have been in these, and in other contests, influences operating on local feelings to produce results which parties at a distance cannot comprehend, and which are nevertheless quite intelligible to the voters themselves. Thus we find the London papers deplore the ejection of Mr. Macaulay from Edinburgh, and will only be con-soled by the election of Mr. M'Gregor at Glasgow. Edinburgh is disgraced, and Glasgow is honour ed, according to the London press; yet Mr. M'Gregor and his colleague were unquestionably elected at Glasgow for those very reasons that induced the rejection of Mr. Macaulay at Edin

burgh. It is quite possible, therefore, that we may under-estimate the moral strength of the new Irish members. The Meaghers, M'Tavishes, and Reynoldses, may restore the days when the genius of Curran, and Grattan, and Burke, cast lustre over parliamentary debates; and they may bring to the work of legislation an invaluable stock of honesty and earnestness. In these respects we may be doomed to experience a most agreeable disappointment; but in one alone can we, with our present advices, suppose that Ireland has really gained from the general election. It has brought members into connexion with their constituencies on the question of the Tenant Right. They have practically learned the opinion of the electors; and we understand that a majority of the Irish members have promised to support legislation of a just and efficient character on that subject.

The Scottish elections left parties very nearly in the position occupied by them previous to the dissolution of Parliament, so far as any man, looking merely to the returns and their classification, would suppose; but there has been a great change effected in some Scotch constituencies. In Roxburghshire and the Haddington burghs, Liberals have been substituted for Conservatives. In several other burghs, independent men have been substituted for the recorders of votes. Edinburgh has undoubtedly made the principal change, and it requires explanation. No constituency values more highly intellectual qualifications than that of Edinburgh. Literature is one of its staple productions; and all its other staples, with the exception of " Edinburgh ale," are more or less intimately associated with, and dependent on, literary pursuits. There can be no doubt that Mr. Macaulay, who writes Lays of Rome," and brilliant papers, stands far higher in the literary world than Mr. Charles Cowan, who merly makes the paper on which they are printed. The difference is all that exists between the boy who blows the bellows and the organist. Mr. Cowan makes no pretensions to genius and literary talent. Mr. Macaulay needs to make none, because his claims are freely admitted.

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The difference between their supporters is equally remarkable. Mr. Macaulay's defeat has been styled a piece of Free Church revenge; but the leading lawyers in the Free Church were at his back on the hustings. It has been called a Radical movement; but the literary Radicals are set down on his committee, and amongst his supporters. It has been said that "the bray of Exeter Hall followed him to Edinburgh;" and we are certain that this 'most unjust, uncourteous, and impolitic phrase lost to him many votes; but a number of the leading friends of Exeter Hall forgave him, and voted for his re-election. We have been told that the Excise Reform Association carried Mr. Cowan into Parliament; but this body, however zealous, cannot account for the majority. They also endeavoured to carry a Conservative, who, with the support of his party, polled less

that on all cognate questions a member of the House of Commons should not claim, and cannot be allowed, freedom of discretion.

than one-half of Mr. Cowan's votes. Then it may the electors had already decided. The false be said that the successful member instituted a grounds taken by Mr. Macaulay left the majority careful and active canvass, continued over a of his constituency without an alternative, unless long period; and thus ingratiated himself into they were to become their representative's serfs. the good opinion of the electors; but this is They were bound to refuse a renewal of his trust, not the case, for he was later in the field than Mr. or be disgraced. They made the refusal; and, Macaulay, and we believe did not canvass a by the Liberal party press of England, they have single voter. To this point, therefore, on all been abused with such hearty earnestness that ordinary principles, the result of the election seems the blow must have told. Mr. Macaulay's posiinexplicable; but in our August number we tion may be stated, as we understand the matter, stated that the Whig coterie were over-using their in a few words. He told the electors that a cerinfluence, and would be mortified by the results of tain question was of the utmost importance; that more than one election, if they persisted in their he held regarding it specified views at present, on perpetually intermeddling with, and dictating to, which he expected to be re-elected; but that, on constituencies. In provincial towns, the same this same question, he might adopt diametrically tendency to choose for, and dictate to, the electors, opposite opinions, and would not, in that event, which has long existed in Edinburgh, had been promise to resign his seat, but would employ in manifested. Repeatedly during the recent elec- the Legislature the trust committed to him by the tions it has appeared that Provost so-and-so, with people of Edinburgh for the promotion of opinions one or two satellite Bailies, have been to London, which, in the meantime, they and he alike deemed as witnesses on a Railway Committee, and made, prejudicial. His election, in such circumstances, as an additional piece of business, an arrange- would have indicated a thorough absence of selfment for the borough. When a good bargain respect in the Edinburgh constituency. If the could be struck at home, there was no inducement elected are to stand so stiffly on the dignity of to seek a purchaser in England. When that their office, may not the electors be allowed to could not be effected, the constituency were driven place a proper value on their privilege, without like black cattle to the London market. We by exposure to all those taunts that have been inno means assert that the tendency to dictation is discriminately and thoughtlessly hurled at the exclusively Whiggish. Even parties who thought Edinburgh constituency. The result of that they were acting patriotism, in their anxiety to election was the practical enforcement of the avoid the Whig snare, instead of calling a meet-principle stated in our last number, the principle ing of electors to consider by whom they would be represented, actually wrote off to Manchester for a man. And their Manchester correspondentsthe debris, we believe, of the triumphant and dissolved League-instead of replying that they would not aid in a hole-and-corner sale of a constituency, furnished the man in this, as they may have done in other cases. In Edinburgh the electors rebelled against the dictation of a small, though "respectable," Whig coterie. They selected one of themselves, and left their "natural leaders" to learn the amount of their own inherent strength. They chose a representative whom they trusted, and rejected one whose brilliancy was his chief recommendation. Mr. Macaulay is a victim to the anti-pledge-giving mania. He stood out for the dignity of his calling. He would neither tell the electors what he would think one, two, or three years hence, nor promise to resign his seat if he thought differently then from the opinions that he had now formed. The question was the probable endowment of the Roman Catholic priesthood in Ireland. At present Mr. Macaulay was opposed rather to that measure. Hereafter his views might, as he confessed, be changed. He could not, therefore, pledge himself always to oppose this contemplated step. It might possibly be presented to him in a shape that would alter his present convictions. The course in that case was clear. He should have intimated his willingness to resign whenever his opinion on that topic should be decidedly changed. He refused to make this concession. He insisted on the dignity of representation, and the right of the representative to deliberate and consider a topic on which

The Glasgow contest arose on similar grounds. One of the former members retired. The other entered the last Parliament as a voluntary, and yet voted for the Maynooth grant. The result was, that two gentlemen, one of them the late Secretary of the Board of Trade, and the second the Chief Magistrate of the City, were elected, because the majority of the constituency believed them to be trustworthy, and were determined to avoid dictation from a small coterie of good enough Reformers of all abuses except the great abuse of doing in a back parlour what only should have been done in the City Hall.

This determination to be independent has more or less characterised most of the borough elections in Scotland. A feeling has arisen that Government influence is unsparingly used in many cases to promote or prevent the election of certain candidates. In other boroughs the working of small cliques, who plotted, planned, and negotiated to transfer the representation, as if it had been a bank management or a railway secretaryship, naturally in their gift, has been accidentally exposed. The influence of Government through the Whig coterie of Edinburgh, or of small local factions, whose vanity and even grosser purposes are subserved by "making the member," will always prevail until the electors deem their representation of sufficient value to be provided for with one tithe of the care that they would exercise in selecting a light porter.

We find, for instance, that in Glasgow there

are said to be eighteen thousand qualifications. | nearly one-third of the Scotch, are new men. In

England the proportion is very great. They are therefore powerful, and must be cautiously criticised. At one time Mr. O'Connor was particularly pungent, but latterly his agitations have taken the shape greatly of home colonisation, and we really need a few men in the House of Commons who will advocate the claims of men against sheep, deer, and muir-fowl, to a portion of this habitable earth in exchange for payment. Mr.

Some of them may be held by females. In other instances different premises may be held by the same individual. It is, however, obvious that the constituency should number thirteen thousand to fifteen thousand persons; the largest in Scotland, where there are no voters except on the qualification of the Reform Bill-no freemen, and where, consequently, the electoral bodies are numerically smaller than in England. The Glasgow election was, however, decided by four thou-Thompson is an eloquent popular speaker; but sand votes. Four thousand individuals asked enrolment as voters, but they were too late for the last contest. Other six thousand value the electoral privilege at less than half-a-crown; and will not even take it for nothing, which they might do, since in Glasgow the shabby fashion seems to prevail of allowing the candidates to pay the expense of registering their supporters-a small bribe, certainly, compared with the expenditure in many English towns, but still a bribe of two shillings and sixpence.

The English elections presented a few returns, calculated to overset altogether the calculations and equanimity of trading politicians. Ministerial newspapers declared that official personages would always be selected from the representatives of small boroughs, because Lambeth, the Tower Hamlets, and Nottingham, preferred private gentlemen to members of the Government. Mr. Hawes had represented Lambeth for several Parliaments. General Fox considered himself secure in the Tower Hamlets. Sir John Cam Hobhouse confided in Nottingham as heritable property. All were disappointed. Lambeth preferred Mr. Pearson. The Tower Hamlets were quite decided for George Thompson. Nottingham said Feargus O'Connor. The officials were displaced by men who are not likely to be officials. The Government was beaten by the oratorios. Desks fell bencath platforms; and the popular constituencies are said to be incapable of returning official men. The saying is adopted to excuse defeat. It is thought wiser to cry that popular constituencies are fickle, and will not tolerate official men for their members than confess that these popular constituencies are antiministerial. That, however, is the fact of the case. The Tower Hamlets would not object to George Thompson as under-secretary for the colonies in a government conducted on George Thompson's principles. Lambeth and the Tower Hamlets are Radical and perhaps Voluntary, while the Government is neither Radical nor Voluntary. As to Nottingham, it may be difficult to describe its sentiments; but whatever they may be, it seems determined to take its own way.

It is always dangerous to predict the fate of new members. They are casting their fame, if they have any, into the crucible again, and it may be turned out in a dimmed and damaged state. It is particularly delicate at the present moment to say a single word that might disparage this class; for they are strong in the House. Nearly one-half of the Irish returns, and

so have been others who were never distinguished in the House of Commons when they got there. He will have to fight a stiff battle with a prejudiced audience on some of his favourite topics-a struggle that needs nerve. Mr. Pearson is, we presume, a good man of business, necessarily acquainted with city corruption.

These three new members are counted amongst the Liberal supporters of the ministry by an error, or rather by the want of a column, which applies to many other members. This deficiency is one cause of the difficulty which exists in ascertaining the precise strength of parties; because one can scarcely say how many members classed as Liberals may ultimately vote.

The spontaneous election of Mr. Villiers for South Lancashire, and Mr. Cobden for the West Riding of Yorkshire, in the absence of the former gentleman from the hustings, and of the latter from the country, have told most emphatically the opinion of these great constituencies. Whether Mr. Villiers will abandon his old supporters of Wolverhampton, and Mr. Cobden prefer the West Riding to Stockport, are questions to be solved. In whatever way they decide two seats have to be filled. They will be eagerly sought by some of the gentlemen who are left out. It has been said that the blacksmiths of Wolverhampton intend to correct the error of the fashionables of Bath. But the character of the men who will occupy the blanks left by these double returns must depend greatly on the choice of seats that those gentlemen may make for whom constituencies contend in rivalry, like cities for the birthplace of Homer.

There are two lines of policy open for the Cabinet. One presents coalition with the Peel party, hinted at in the appointment of the Earl of Dalhousie, and a resolute stand on reforms accomplished, along with some sewerage acts. Another is the open, onward road which would secure for them the hearty aid of all the men who are at present classed as their supporters. We feel assured that they will adopt the crooked path: it is so much a matter of habit and repute with them. And yet it is a troublesome path of one of divided honours only and certainly double danger. Any advantage attainable by a union with the ruins of the late government would be more than balanced by the consequent coldness of many of their professed friends. Good votes are often given by those who are miserably annoyed to find a fixed quantity of good patronage divided amongst too many recipients. They know arithmetic, sufficiently to perceive that

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thereby these chances are reduced in value fifty | Hume thought the existing establishments of per cent. People feel a fall in the market of that England and Scotland might be preserved so amount on all their stock of patriotism. They long as they continued to be useful, and should cannot be supposed to approve the policy by which only be removed when, like the Irish church, they it has been caused. They easily invent faults. became useless. We remember that the Scottish They are enlightened to enormities on the part church was deemed and called a nuisance some of their old friends that never seemed more than ten years ago. Since that date it has sustained venial transgressions until they were placed be- an Exodus of one-half of its numbers, and more neath the microscopic influence of disappointed than one-half of its strength; but, like many hopes. A coalition would therefore seem to be plethoric patients, it seems to have improved by not advisable. The Whigs should insist on a 'bleeding." We cannot exactly comprehend connexion and repudiate a coalition. They the grounds on which men stand at present in should claim from their old foes the benefit of a relation to this question, especially in Scotland; "surrender without terms." They must remem- but we see whether they are to be led by events. ber that Sir Robert Peel becomes daily more un- Can any sane person imagine that the great Irish popular respecting gold and banking-but some Episcopal establishment and the small Irish Presof them share his principle on that question. byterian establishment will fall alone? Is it Well, then, they should remember that he is conceivable that the Voluntary principle can be pledged to one thing which they cannot promise long adopted in Ireland, and repudiated in Bri-the preservation of the Irish Church. He is tain, under the same government and by the pledged to that as deeply as a statesman can be same legislature? Yet let us not conceal facts. bound to any policy; but even here again we do There has been much moral cowardice displayed him wrong, for has he not claimed that freedom in that respect already. Earnest endeavours of discretion, and renewed his connexion with have been made to wrap the future up in a double Tamworth on the condition which abrogates all robe of mist-its natural and an artificial darkpledges and dissolves all promises? So, then, we ness. Those who talk of cutting down the Irish, think a coalition probable. Peel stands with and saving the English and Scottish establishclean hands. He is ready for any party or any ments, either do not consider the tendency of policy. The Sir Dugald Dalgetty of politics he measures, or wilfully mislead their hearers. The strikes hard, and will strike faithfully too-where abolition of the Irish must lead to the removal of there is promotion to be obtained. the English connexion between Church and State. We think that opinion may be taken and treated as a fact. There may be a few years between the events-two or three-but they cannot be many. The Irish connexion of Church and State is, we think, in this danger. The leaders of all the political parties say, "You should endow the priests." The people reply, we shall not endow them. That we take to be pretty clearly the language of the election. Statesmen, we believe, agree in understanding the oracle's response to have that meaning. matters cannot continue in their present state. There is no inconsiderable party in the Senate favourable to the removal of the Irish establishment. They offer the alternative in the demand of justice to Ireland; as an alternative it will be put—and we believe carried, yet it cannot be carried alone. The example of Ireland would be contagious. The recent debates on the new Bishopric bill were not calculated to strengthen the church. They exposed blemishes existing without any effort for their reform. The funds placed at the disposal of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners had not been employed to enlarge the small livings of curates in the same proportion, that they have been expended in erecting palaces for bishops. This policy will strengthen the church, when politicians, finding that the people will not permit one of their plans for pacifying Ireland to be adopted, propose another. And thus the Voluntary principle may be near its adoption at the moment when discarded in committee rooms, and disavowed at the hustings; it seems to be an outcast from decent political society.

THE VOLUNTARY QUESTION has been placed in a very remarkable position during the election. Voluntaryism everywhere has been shunned like the plague-spot. Candidates whose opinions in its favour were notorious avowed them in the mildest form. Their Anti-State Churchism was of the mildest and most deluted proportions. They would not on any account hazard a vested interest. With them the benefices of the present generation of holders were to be perfectly safe. They had determined to displace no human being from honours and profits already secured. Even these mild opinions were only to be enforced when a convenient opportunity occurred. They were quite willing to carry them into operation if that could be done without contention. They had not the slightest objection to the application of their own views, if the public, and especially that portion of the public who oppose them, were quite agreeable. One section of the elected wore their opinions more tightly respecting Ireland and the Irish Church. That part of the case they considered to be quite clear. They would not endow the Roman Catholic priests, and they would not maintain the existing establishment, but convert its funds, as benefices became vacant, to charitable and educational purposes. Such is the progress that Voluntaryism has made. The last-named set of representatives are in the most inconsistent position on this subject. They are willing to practise Voluntaryism in the poorest land amongst the poorest people, and continue the churches of the poor for the use and benefit of the rich in England and Scotland. Even Mr.

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