land-upon elements which past events have been silently but surely moulding into fitness for this very influence must be such as in their inevitable consequence, whatever may be the immediate instruments, by which it may be effected, ultimately to bring about repeal. That the greatness of the British empire cannot survive such a separation, is true; but who is there that does not perceive that other causes are at work to undermine that greatness. Our prediction may be a bold onebut time will tell whether our speculation is altogether vain. It is not for mortals to attempt to read the counsels of the future; and while we cannot help thinking that we see afar off in the very verge of the political horizon, the coming of the revolution that will give to Ireland self-government, we do not think that there is any man who can predict aught either of the character of that revolution, the effects by which it may be followed, or the agency by which it may be produced. And yet when we thus venture to look upon the distant future, and hazard, perhaps, too daring conjectures, with regard to the events that are yet reposing in its obscurity-thoughts will rise in our mind, with all the vividness of life, and what may be but the dreams of imagination will sometimes shape themselves into indistinct speculations of something that may come to pass. There was a time when Ireland's church was pure, and her faith was apostolic, and her government was domestic, before England, with foreign government, had forced popery on her people. If, in the progress of events and who, alas! will venture to say that this is a wild apprehension-if, we say, the spirit of anarchy shall tear the constitution of Britain, and infidelity trample on her religion-is it a crime in an Irishman to dare to hope that, from the wreck of the convulsion, his country may once more be as it was in the ancient times? a We do not altogether yet despair of the safety of Britain. She may yet pass through the sore peril by which her constitution is tried, and her existence as a nation is endangered. The loyalty of the land may yet rally round the altar and the throne-but unless it does so quickly, it will be too late to save either the church or the monarchy from destruction. Revolution or no revolution is now the great political question that agitates the nation-it is the only one that is really engaging attention, no matter what shape it may assume, or under what disguise it may be presented and how that question may be decided, the most confident can hardly venture to pronounce; and we confess that to our minds it seems within the range of possibilities that, if indeed the days of British greatness be numbered, in the convulsion that may rend the empire asunder, the Irish nation may rise upon the ruins, and maintain a proud position of civil and religious independence. But these are speculations in which it is useless to indulge. They are, however, we confess, speculations which the aspect of events often forces on our minds. And yet, perhaps, they are not altogether useless. If we contemplate the remotest possibility of such an event, this but increases the necessity of Protestant union and Protestant exertion; these speculations on the remote destinies of our country-of what may be her position in the latter days, bring with them sterner and more practical considerations of the duties that are before us. If the British empire be broken up in the wildness of the revolutionary frenzy, the Protestants of Ireland have no hope but in themselves. But we would desire to elevate their efforts by the grandness of the conception that should animate them. To them may be entrusted not merely all that is dear to themselves, but the destinies of their country. Our hearts cannot bring themselves, even in thought, to abandon Ireland to be the eternal slave of debasing superstition. We do not, we cannot believe, that it was without an object her Creator endowed her with so many advantages, and implanted in the breasts of her people those amiable and noble qualities which appear amid all their crimes and follies as the elements of high and generous virtues. No! Ireland will yet throw off the thraldom of Rome-and whether it be the pleasure of Him who ordereth all things, that her emancipation should be effected under the parental government of Britain, and by the mild ministrations of a scriptural church, or accomplished by the fearful agency of revolution, and the mighty move ment of great masses of her people, in either case, the Protestants of Ireland must be prepared to bear the post which Providence may assign to them, and to which their high duty may call them. But we must return to Mr. O'Sullivan, although in all that we have said we have done little more than comment upon the text that he has supplied us. The uncertainty of the country's prospects he urges powerfully as the motive for Protestant union. We have turned a moment from the gloomy contemplation of the present condition of the country, to brighter visions of what may yet be her lot; it needs some such relief to the eye that is called to look upon the black picture of Ireland's present state-the majority of her people sunk in abject degradation bound in the fetters of spiritual thraldom, and banded together in a foul and dreadful conspiracy against property and law-this is the most appalling feature in her social state-still more appalling, when we recollect that government has ceased to offer any opposition to that conspiracy, and that direct encouragement is held out to the defeat of the authority of the law. "Our adversaries ask," says Mr. O'Sullivan, what grievance have we to complain of in what do we suffer wrong? As if the graves which cover the honored remains of many martyred ministers of our religion, had covered also the memory of their pious and charitable lives, and of the inhuman murders by which they suffered death, they ask us, what are our grievances. As if the frequent aspect of many of their afflicted survivors, driven from homes where their free charities can no longer protect them-where the law does nothad dulled the feelings with which we contemplate the destitute condition of pious men driven forth from the competence which had rewarded meritorious exertion, and condemned, in their mature or declining years, to seek, among comparative strangers, some humble employment which may give them sustenance for their families; they ask us, what are your grievances? They ask us what are our grievances, when the confidant of the ministry boasts, that he must have government countenance in his war, active and passive, against the property of our church; when men who have supplicated to be placed as tenants on the lands of a Protestant proprietary, who have been told the conditions of occupancy, (that a certain sum is to be paid as rent to the lay proprietor a sum also, under a different name, to another claimant,) when these men, having obtained their desire, accepted the conditions, and poured out the overflowing gratitude of hearts that seemed as though they never turn round with defiance on their benecould adequately express their feelings factors, and proclaim that they will not observe the conditions of their agreement; that they will, if it must be, break the law will destroy life but will not hold to the conditions of their tenancy, wiH not surrender the lands upon which the despised obligation was laid, because their conscience demands that they prove false to their engagements. Conscience! who has sounded the depths of this mysterious conscience, or noted the under-currents by which it escapes from God's law and man's reason? And who is so weak as to believe, that when this conscience can bring power to back its principles, the claim of the lay Protestant will not be treated with precisely the same disregard as now manifests the character of the Romish church in its justice towards ecclesiastical creditors? "But I pass over these and such matters of complaint as are symptoms of the great evil, rather than independent grievances, and answer; our complaint is this-there is in Ireland an extensive and well orga nised conspiracy to extirpate Protestantism; and the conduct pursued, by a party powerful in the state, towards Protestants and towards the enemies of British connexion, is calculated to strengthen it; and we complain that the disfavor by which Protestants are discountenanced if not dejected, the capricious demeanour of government towards their adversaries, now curbing, now caressing, is eminently calculated to inflame an evil purpose, and encourage and facilitate the most destructive and criminal projects: yes, even though they involved an attempt at more fatal power to nurture what is worst, and to destroy what is good within us, than that discipline of combination and outrage in which multitudes in this unhappy country have been trained." The speech from which we have made this last extract, the second in the volume, contains one of the most powerful chains of close political reasoning that has ever, perhaps, been presented to the public. It was delivered at the Conservative Society, on the 9th September, and earnestly do we recommend its careful perusal to every one desirous of forming a fair opinion on the real state of Ireland. It contains historical statements, collated evidently. with care, and we may venture to add after examination, with accuracy. Indeed, to this latter quality a remarkable testimony is borne, by the fact, that not one of them has ever been contradicted. To this instructive point Mr. O'Sullivan, on another occasion, thus directs attention : delivered in Dublin, we must remind our readers, that their object was to inculcate the necessity of Protestant union, and surely, since the period of their delivery the necessity has not diminished. Every hour is making it more imperative on Protestants to be united, and yet we do not know that the mind of Protestant Ireland is alive to the emergency. The publication of these speeches has recalled our attention to the great efforts that were made at the period of their delivery— but why are not these efforts now renewed? Where is the Conservative Society? All parties are agreed as to the necessity of the formation of Proall are ready to admit the necessity, testant Associations, and yet, while but few appear ready to act on the conviction; and to join in an attempt to establish them. There never was a period when so much might be effected by a judicious appeal to public opinion. Over and over again, have we cautioned the "I beg leave before submitting the Conservatives against abandoning to their enemies the imposing appearance motion, which it is my intention to propose, to congratulate your lordship and of being the popular party-it carries the Society on the increasing favor with with it all the waverers and the unwhich the affairs of Protestants are re-thinking-possunt quia posse videntur garded; a result attributable, humanly speaking, to the moderate, I trust I may say Christian spirit, in which our proceedings are regulated, and to the indisputable veracity of our statements. It should not be left unrecorded, as it has not escaped general notice, that the statements of Protestant grievances and perils which have, from time to time, emanated from our Society, remain to this day uncontradicted. Those who know the grounds of our complaints and our adversaries' prudence, will not see in this any matter of surprise; but it is not less fitting that we should take note of confessions implied in the silence of those who oppose us, than that, when they are bold enough to make denials, we should be ready to meet them with new arguments or the citation of additional evidence. is still more true as to parties than individuals. The strongest party that do not show their power, will soon become weak; ours is the national cause, the cause of the nation against a faction; let us act like men who felt they had this lofty vantage ground. But the policy of Conservatives has been far different; they have left their enemies to allege uncontradicted, that the people were with them, and by doing so, they went far to send them with them. The voice of the majority, or the supposed majority, must always carry with it more or less weight; there is no way in which you can so effectually paralyze opposition, as by persuading each opponent that he stands alone. And this is just the process by which in Britain the sound and conservative majority of her people have been awed into inactivity, or even acquiescence, by the noisy turbulence of the disaffected minority. It must be put an end to. A grand and vigorous demonstration of all that is sound-hearted in the country, must force conviction that the good old Before we pass from the speeches cause has still many supporters left. "It should be observed, also, that the testimony borne by our adversaries' silence is corroborated by their intem perance. Our statements have provoked them to indulge in personal abuse, they have not goaded them into hazarding a contradiction." How much was effected by the appeals to the people of England, upon some of which, contained in this volume, we next proceed to comment. Thus in a spirit of honest exultation speaks Mr. O'Sullivan, at Bristol :— “Mr. Chairman-Gentlemen-I wish I could, in suitable terms and they would not be unsuitable if they adequately represented my feelings speak my sense of the favours we have received since we appeared in this country on behalf of the persecuted Protestants of Ireland. "Had we listened with credulity to the discouragements addressed to us, we should not have undertaken a task which was represented hopeless. It was said by our enemies, England will not add to her embarrassments by protecting the church in Ireland; she will feel danger near enough to her own, and will not augment it by undertaking a cause in which she does not feel a lively interest. Representations of this character did not dishearten us. England, we said, has already made her election. She has incorporated the Irish church with her own. A compact has been made: Ireland surrendered legislative independence England promised powerful and benevolent protection; and, even if the difficulties which demand her succour greater than they are, we firmly believe that the English are not a people who will revoke a promise, and violate an engagement, because the keeping it is attended with inconvenience. On the faith of this assurance we obeyed the wishes of the Protestants of Ireland that we should lay their case before you. That we should be received with good will we were confident; but our most sanguine expectations have been surpassed by the warmth of your fraternal and encouraging reception. Henceforth, perhaps, the enemies of Protestantism in Ireland may be more chary of predictions that you will disregard your engage ments." were Let us see what was the complaint which, on behalf of the Protestants of Ireland, our advocates were commis sioned to make to the British people. It was thus stated by Mr. O'Sullivan, at Liverpool : "Our complaint, generally stated, is, that there is in Ireland a conspiracy, extensively organized, having for its object to extirpate Protestantism, and effect a separation of Ireland from Great Britain; and employing as its instruments perjury and murder; employing these foul agents with a caution and skill which ensure their producing pernicious effects,-rapid emigration of Protestants, general insecurity, general alarm, estrangement of the great mass of the people from all respect for the laws, ascendancy of a reign of terror, under which human instincts, thoughts of mercy, natural or acquired regard for justice, become paralyzed, and the midnight legislator issues his dread mandate with a certainty of being obeyed, and with a discretion which retains Ireland under his sway, while not provoking, by too loud a cry of blood, and too extended a scale of atrocities, the indignation and vengeance of England. "We complain that a conspiracy like this should be suffered to waste and pervert a people; and we complain, that, after legislation has practised upon it for more than sixty years, it should still be pronounced a mysterious system;' that it should be so styled, not by the rash or the timid, or those who have been termed the friends of religious exclusion, but, as you heard it stated, by the Chief Justice of Ireland, one whose eminent intellectual qualities have been universally acknowledged, and whose political predilections have been of that kind which are termed liberal, and which were supposed to be in unison with, or at least not opposed to the principles of the late administration. On such testimony you are assured that the system of outrage which has afflicted Ireland for sixty years remains to this day a mystery." And after an eloquent and powerful exposition of that fearful state of society, produced by the blighting influence of this terrible confederation-a state of society in which the violation of the law is protected by the sympathies of a perverted population-he then continues, "Is the British constitution fitted for such a state of things? Is it wonderful that it has not had power to penetrate the conspiracy which opposed it? In truth, as has been frequently admitted, it has been almost universally our condition in Ireland, that while having the British constitution in name, we have, in fact, been thankful for repeated suspensions of it, and that we must often be contented to submit to the restraints of an Insurrection Act, or be exposed to the horrors of an insurrection. But, it should be observed, that it was not alone because of the defective instrumentality of the constitution, the confederacy for crime in Ireland remained so long a mystery, but also because it may have suited the purposes of some in high places, to co-operate with the agents in the nefarious system, in covering it with secrecy. It is said that concealment of our disorders and excesses has been studied; and that even the patronage and power conceded to men in authority to aid them in upholding law, have been, in Ireland, profaned to the culpable end of keeping concealed from the public eye the flagrant excesses which had not been repressed or punished. I hold in my hand the testimony of a writer-not a Protestant, nor the friend of Protestantism-not a Tory, or the approver of Tory rule, but a Roman Catholic, I believe a Jesuit, whose object seemed to be exclusively to advance the interests of his religion, and to co-operate with her friends; but who, in a moment of indiscretion, disclosed a fatal truth to the disadvantage of his Whig supporters. Thus Mr. Plowden wrote of the Bedford Administration, which oppressed Ireland during part of the years 1806 and 1807: -They betrayed an uncommon anxiety to suppress the magnitude of the evil (the prevalence of insurrection in Ireland) from the eyes of the public; and for that purpose resorted to the hacknied expedient of bribing the periodical publications into silence or misrepresentation. To some of the more independent papers in circulation, they offered the publication of the government proclamations and advertisements, on condition of their admitting no article in their paper which should set forth fairly the actual situation of the Threshers in the western counties. Government was doubly anxious that the English public should believe that there was neither complaint nor cause of discontent remaining in Ireland. It was their pride to be thought capable of keeping the country in complete tranquil lity without resorting to martial law or the suspension of the habeas corpus, which their predecessors had always insisted upon as imperiously necessary for that purpose: The proposal of government was rejected; and some true and very alarming reports of the Threshers were brought before the public.'" The Whigs of the present day have ventured on a bolder and a more profigate course to attain the same end. They have taken means to prevent the conviction that might expose the false hood of their boasted tranquillity. It was easy to accomplish this, by leaving to juries, composed of the members of this dreadful conspiracy that pervades the country, the trial of their accused confederates and accomplices. Our readers are aware that the opposition to the church is generally as cribed to the efforts made by her ministers to disseminate the Bible among the people, and our adversaries allege that these efforts were unprovoked. It is only to correct a misstatement I would observe that the fact was not so. Far more creditable had it been to the ministers of our church in Ireland, had we, at all times, endeavoured to win souls from an unscriptural system-more creditable had the impulse which of late years roused us to exertion not been provoked by the bold assaults of adversaries. This, however, is the truth-Dr. Doyle not incorrectly dates the commencement of our exertions from the year 1824. At that time, for at least two years, the artifice and energy of the church of Rome had been employed against us. In the year 1822, controversial sermons were preached in the city of Dublin, of such a character, that the Dublin Evening Post, a journal at that time the organ of the Roman Catholics, was constrained to describe those of one Romish ecclesiastic as pestilent and abominable incentives to blood;' to call upon the authorities of the church of Rome to prohibit them, and to confess that they had aroused the fiend of theological rancour. In this year too, and while such sermons were sounding in or under perusal in their men's ears, hands, (for they were printed, and extensively circulated,) was made public the astounding truth, that there was a conspiracy extensively organized, having for its object the extirpation of Protestants, and the effecting a separation from heretic England. The year following, 1823, was the era of the Hohenlohe miracles, at which you might smile in the security of your happy land, or on which you might calmly moralize with compassion for human beings in a state in which such things could seriously interest them; but we looked on with an earnestness not wholly free from alarm, and when we remembered the ecclesiastical incentives to blood, the abominable conspiracy brought imperfectly to light, the pernicious interpretations of prophecy which unceasingly stimulated hope and enterprise, and heard of miracles, in which |