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this mysterious danger, summon an assembly of the surrounding gentry, and propose some crude resolution, which no one has the courage to combat, and which is carried with all the appearance, and all the effect too, of prompt and complete unanimity? If erroneous views and mistaken measures be adopted, where is the remedy? Who will oppose the opinions of the magistrates and gentry of the district, persons apparently best qualified to judge, and sanctioned by such an authority? These persons themselves are bound in consistency and prompted by timidity to support an opinion, adopted, it is true, without examination, but still proposed by one to whom the homage of complaisance must be paid, and meeting their own pliant concurrence. Here is one of the sources of a habit, mischievously prevalent in Ireland, (and on which, perhaps, I shall have again to remark,) of applying on every occasion of local agitation to government for assistance. The man whose property and influence and station induce others to look up to him for originating measures applicable to the evil, knows not what to do, and desires to discharge himself from all responsibility by throwing it upon the government. We shall by and by see how many motives concur in others to second such an expedient. On the whole, if an intimate knowledge of Ireland and of the temper and condition of the people be necessary to reform and improve it, the great landed proprietors must adopt a new scheme of conduct, before they can be efficient promoters of the amendment.

II. The second class which I shall notice comprises far the largest proportion of the resident gentry of Ireland. It consists of those who have small or moderate estates, whether fee-simple or leasehold. Many possess both, so as to unite the characters of proprietor and middleman. And indeed the latter description, when moving in a respectable sphere, are so incorporated and blended with the former, that they may be said to form a part of the same class in society. Their habits are similar; their manners and modes of living and thinking are alike; the origin and nature of their property, though certainly not forgotten, are not felt by them in their intercourse with their more substantial neighbors. If a man keeps a good table, and shows good cheer to his acquaintance, they will not be over-nice in examining the kind of property which supplies it. Many of them have, or have had considerable fortunes. In none of the relations of social life does any difference exist; and there are few middlemen who have for some years past supported a credit for wealth and independence, that are not connected by blood or intermarriage with some of those landed proprietors I have mentioned as forming a part of the class now under review. It must be always remembered, however, that in Ireland, a very small fortune gives its possessor a title to enter into the

better sort of society, and constitutes him one of the country gentry; and nothing is more common than for persons to marry on three hundred pounds a year or less, content to pass a life of rural hospitality and rural sport, with an increasing family, and not the shadow of a chance of augmented income.

In most parts of Ireland, but particularly in the south, some great landed proprietor has round him a circle of these lesser gentry. If he be not their patron, he is the object of their very devoted respect, and very obedient demeanor. It would be to repeat what has been said already, to describe all the influence he possesses over them, and the awe which he inspires. From him they derive their commission of the peace; to him they are indebted for seats on grand juries; to his interest they owe the occasional acquisition of a job, or, if he be connected with the government, posts for themselves or their friends. If he engages in the war of county politics, they are his active agents and partisans; and whatever views of local or of public policy he adopts, are supported with cheerful ardor; in public and in private the same adhesion is asserted to the chief of their affections, and their own characters and opinions take the tone and temper of his. Something of all this must exist in every country; and perhaps between England and Ireland the difference in this respect, (though certainly very great) is only in degree. But here one consequence results from it, I will not scruple to say, of fearful extent, by which it has produced mischiefs, inveterate, and, I am much afraid, most difficult of removal. To understand this, we must bestow some thoughts on the magistracy of Ireland; and this will soon lead us, by a too ready association, to consider the situation of the lower orders.

Magistrates are chiefly appointed from the class of gentry I have been describing. The great landed proprietor is often not a justice of the peace. Even if he be, he does not act, but usually deputes this part of his authority to his agent, or some other person, who most readily clothes himself in these borrowed plumes, which he conceives must add to his importance. That the great man in his vicinity should refer to him to dispose of the magisterial business which comes to his own door, is an honor greedily assumed and much envied. I cannot help remarking, as I pass, that great are the mischiefs of this sort of deputed power. It hides from the landlord circumstances which he is most interested in knowing, and abuses which he alone can redress. It leaves the poor man exposed to suffer from the want of time or of patience, or from the prejudices or accidental temper of one with whom he has no natural connexion, and may subject him to the operation of a sinister influence. To repeat what cannot be too frequently urged, it hinders the landlord and the man of property and influ

ence from coming into contact with the people; learning their wants, habits, and character; and finally knowing, in troubled times, the causes of commotion. It gives to the peasant the notion that he is a neglected being, disregarded by his landlord, to whom he looks for protection against injustice, and from whom he ought to dread punishment for crime.

The commission of the peace is, in many cases, intrusted to persons of scarcely any property, of little leisure, and scanty information. A property sufficient to give the possessor that stake in the country which may both impart anxiety and ardor in maintaining its tranquillity, and leave full leisure to attend to it; a li beral, educated, well-informed mind, capable of discerning, in a case of no great difficulty, what is just or what is lawful, capable of acquiring and using that calm ascendency over others which may on the one hand prevent vexatious litigation, and on the other, soothe and awe by turns into peace and order; an upright, firm, impartial love of justice, which is not merely proof against under-hand solicitation, but cowers it to a distance from which it dares not approach; these are the qualities which a magistrate ought to possess, and which magistrates do possess in that favored country, with which, by the blessing of Providence, the destinies of this are inseparably united. Happy is it for England, that the "unpaid majesty of this tribunal," as the writer of these pages has heard it styled by a tongue, on which then at least wisdom lent her charm to the fascinations of accomplished eloquence, stands to this hour unsullied and unreproached. While such a system prevails in the dispensing of justice, the true end of all laws is entirely answered; they are respected, and therefore obeyed. Laws are not framed for the mere punishment of offences, but they point out duties and impose restraints; and when these are wisely appointed and generally observed, it is pèrfect legislation in perfect practice. In England the laws are considered by every citizen as his surest protection; and he fears to violate them, not merely because he knows he will be punished, but because there is wrought into his habits and modes of thinking a reverence for that general system of conduct which upholds his own best and dearest interests. How different is the case of a country where the magistrate is often deaf, and often partial; where the "law's delay, the oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, the insolence of office," await the wretch who has travelled miles in wet and rags to seek for justice; where the dispenser of village law pronounces a passionate invective instead of a cool and dignified sentence, and furious declamation instead of

Mr. Canning's speech on the affair at Manchester, in 1819.

calm remonstrance; where often the bench forgets its dignity, the culprit, and perhaps the accuser, forgets respect; and the abused ignorant poor creature, who came a suitor, is dismissed a prisoner. It is not necessary that many such instances should happen, to produce their inevitable consequence, disregard, disrespect, contempt for the laws. A few such occurrences among a people more quick to feel than to think, more prone to resolve and act than deliberate, will be enough to persuade them, that the laws of the land are a mockery, and that in future they must trust to their own hands for what they may deem justice. I speak of what men will do, not what they ought to do. I speak of human nature uncivilised, or half civilised, it matters not which. Learn the tree from its fruits. It is in politics, as in higher matters, a rule that seldom errs. Where there is a good magistracy, as in England, the laws will be respected and observed. Where there is a magistracy of which, to talk in the gentlest terms, the same cannot be said, as in Ireland, the laws will, as in Ireland, be contemned and defied. It will at once be said, why do not government remedy the evil? The flippant question has often been asked, and is simply answered. The remedy is not within their reach. Government do not possess the gift of omniscience or ubiquity, and without such faculty cannot know the particular individuals they should appoint to the commission of the peace or divest of it. They must depend on the reports of those, who from their station ought to be best qualified correctly to inform them, of the persons worthy of being intrusted with this important office. The men of large property and influence are relied on for these reports; and if they recommend persons incapable or unworthy, government are placed in a situation the most embarrassing and difficult. If government are apprised of the abuse, the patron supports the character of his nominee, and it becomes a question of no easy solution which account is the true one. A special inquiry into such a case would be a novel proceeding, and a bold one. If inquiries of this sort were made a part of the general system of governing the country, the administration which should adopt such a course, though it would require all their firmness to pursue it with success, would certainly lay the axe to the root of the evil. But this, I believe, has never yet been done; and without this the King's Bench is the only resource. And here the abuser of justice is equally safe. The poor man cannot prosecute; and who will take up his cause against the avowed opposition of his oppressor's powerful patron, and his embattled circle of adherents?

The commission of the peace is granted in reward or anticipation of service. The individual who obtains it is prepared, in public and private, to devote his services to his patron. In his

electioneering manoeuvres the magistrate is always at his side. He assists at the registry of his freeholders; canvasses for partisans ; and enters with heat and vigor into those exasperating and distracting feuds which precede and accompany à contested election. The harsh and embittered feelings engendered there, do not terminate with the conflict. Whether in triumph or in defeat, there are corroding recollections of past opposition which survive the war, and are carried to the homes of the parties. If, as is usually the case, the leading powers are of ardent tempers, there are additional causes of excitement, and their language and tempers are learned and imbibed by their adherents. On every subject on which a trial of strength or influence can be made, the troops are mustered and marshalled, and a combat takes place. In county meetings, in presentments to grand juries, in every matter that can come under the consideration of the county, or a portion of the county, on which ingenuity can strike out a difference of opinion, the parties come into collision. Who would expect, that on the subject of erecting a testimonial in Ireland in commemoration of his Majesty's gracious visit, two electioneering parties in a southern county should meet and split on the question, whether subscriptions should be collected in the county, and sent as a common contribution, or each person should transmit his separate offering to the metropolis? It would be well if these differences stopped here, and if the sanctuary of justice were not polluted by these hostile passions. But there are districts of Ireland, in which a suspicion prevails, that it is vain for the follower of one party to hope for justice from a magistrate of the other; in which it is supposed a common and daily practice for the gentry on either side to screen the culprit from punishment, if he holds a place in the ranks to which they themselves belong, and to pursue him, with an eagerness of which reverence for the laws is not the only motive, if he belongs to those of their opponents. When the Irish peasant seeks reparation or punishment for an injury; when he is induced to forego his usual reluctance to prosecute, and desires to drag a public offender under the lash of the violated laws, if he finds first his complaints treated with suspicion, distrust, and severity, or perhaps actually discarded; if, after having succeeded in the first instance, he finds the offender treated with every clemency and tenderness, bailed for a heinous crime, and boasting of the power of his friends and the certainty of impunity; if, when the day of trial arrives, he sees direct and palpable influence exerted, and the culprit dismissed in triumph by a quarter-sessions grand jury; what must be the effect on his mind and conduct? Every feeling of frustrated hope, of disappointed vengeance, of mortifying inferiority, will be aggravated and exas

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