and we would simply enlarge the provisions of that act, and the same powers which were conferred upon the vestry in cases of disease, we would confer in cases of destitution. Thus, there would always exist a resource, in the event of any afflicting emergency; and that resource would be in the hands of those by whom it would not be likely to be abused. The vestry appoints a committee by whom cases of distress are looked after and examined. Upon their recommendation relief is either extended or withheld. Their local knowledge must be of great avail in enabling them to discriminate real sufferers from impostors; and the unistake with which their secretary, Mr. Revans, charges the commissioners, could not, by possibility, be committed, of counting the same beggars twice in their transit through different stages of their progress. It would, also, enable them to apportion, accurately, not only the degree, but the kind of relief that might be afforded, and to make it, according to the condition and character of the sufferers, something approaching to a punishment in one case, and something approaching to a reward in another. The drunkard, the idler, the profligate, the nocturnal disturber, should not, surely, be considered in the same light, or put upon the same level, with the worthy and industrious man, whose bread failed him only because of some calamity which could neither be foreseen nor prevented. A parish vestry, consisting of respectable householders, would be able to look into these things; and no small experience of our countrymen in that capacity, has abundantly satisfied us, that a prompt and efficacious system of relief might, in that way, be established, in which local and even personal knowledge would guide and regulate general humanity. But this, we admit, would not augment Whig patronage, by giving rise to a travelling commission, the members of which are largely salaried at the public expense; neither would it answer the ends of those who have a secret desire to make the very process by which poor laws are sought to be got rid of in England, the means of introducing them into Ireland! It would simply relieve existing distress, and that, in such a way, as would enable those by whom the relief was given, to distinguish between the rule and the exception we do not mean by the exception, that any should be excepted from relief, by whom it was, in reality

required; but only, that the manner of giving it should be such as to mark the sense of the committee as to the nature of the case, and operate, as much as possible, in the way of prevention.

We are told of districts of the country which are periodically visited by famine, and where, upon an average, the peasantry are, for thirty weeks in the year, without employment. Now this can only arise from a distempered state of society, which no sane individual can seriously maintain could ever be remedied by a poor law. A poor law upon the principle of that in England, would nourish rather than correct the evil. If hands exist, at present, in those districts, in greater abundance than they can be employed, under circumstances in which existence can scarcely be maintained, we may be sure that they would not exist the less, if a compulsory provision was made for their gratuitous subsistence; and that, in such a case, they would have a tendency to multiply, until they spread far beyond the limits of that provision, whatever it was, and which, if it would keep pace with them, must be constantly increased, until the funds for the employment of productive industry were ompletely exhausted. Is this a course of procedure which a wise and benevolent man would recommend, or which ought to be adopted bya provident statesman? We think not. We think that a particular case of that kind requires a particular remedy; and that the object of the legislature, in applying such

remedy, ought to be, rather to bring that part of the country into the condition of those parts where such extraordinary casualties do not and cannot occur, than adopt a process which must have a directly contrary effect, and serve to bring other more prosperous parts of the country into a state of poverty and destitution. But our wise state physicians would reverse all this. They would remedy all our evils, by turning the healthy parts of the country into the same condition as the diseased, instead of converting the diseased into the same condition as the healthy parts of the country.

There is, however, one feature of this subject which has not been touched upon by any of the writers to whom we have referred, and which requires to be attentively considered, by all who would arrive at sound conclusions; and that is, the degree in which the pauperism and the popery of Ireland are connected together in the

relation of cause and effect. We know well how blockheads and levellers will exclaim against the introduction of such a topic. We can admire, also, the good taste with which it has been pretermitted by Professor Butt, who is well convinced of the demoralizing effects of popery, and of the degree in which it contributes to what may be called the barbarization of Ireland. He may have apprehended that his admirable appeal to the sympathies of his readers on behalf of the physical distresses of his forlorn countrymen, would have been less effective, had he coupled it with a topic so calculated to agitate and enflame. And he was right. The particular object which he had in view, required not the discussion of a matter which could scarcely, by any dexterity, be treated of, without producing exasperation. And yet it is as certain that the question of an Irish poor law cannot be wisely argued without profoundly considering that question, as it is, that the physical sufferings of the people can only be efficaciously and permanently relieved, by raising them from their state of moral degradation.

Perhaps, upon the surface of the habitable globe, there does not exist a race of men with nobler elements of natural character than the Irish. They are gentle, generous, brave, affectionate, faithful hospitable, and grateful. And by nothing is the woefully perverting influence of popery more deplorably manifested, than that these noble qualities are often converted into their opposites, by a system which has set itself in baleful opposition to the interests of society and the influence of the gospel. An amiable and excellent woman,* now no more, once observed to the writer of this paper, Well, I really believe, when the Irish are bad, they are the very worst of bad men, it is so unnatural to them.” A beautiful truth! arrived at by the sure short cut of instinct, when it might be passed unnoticed upon the broad highway of a proud philosophy! And until our poor people become amenable to the dictates of a better creed, it is our opinion that human regulation can do little towards their real amelioration.

66

To surround with comforts a human being who has a constant tendency to

The first wife of Richard Shiel, Esq. Rolls in Ireland.

lapse into filth and misery, would, really, be little better than decorating a dunghill. The first thing to be done is, to inspire the disposition which may cause comforts to be desired; the second, to enable those who are thus inspired to attain them. Indeed, if the first object were accomplished, almost every thing desirable would be done; because the cases would be very rare in which individuals, having a real desire to better their condition, would be left unprovided. If we were able to subtract from the amount of Irish wretchedness, all that arises from vice, all that arises from idleness, all that arises from an indolent acquiescence in a state of things which, in more civilized England, would not, for one moment, be patiently endured, we are persuaded that the mountain would be so sensibly reduced, that, if it were not diminished to a mole-hill, it would, at least, appear not to be that enormous and unmanageable thing that nothing short of a miracle could remove. And our complaint against most of those who have written on the subject of an Irish poor law, is, that while the latter of the two objects above alluded to, is sedulously sought after, the first is, either ignorantly or contemptuously disregarded. Before we can relieve Irish misery we must remove the causes of Irish misery; and these causes exist not only in the circumstances of the people, but in the people themselves. It will be in vain to improve their circumstances, while they themselves continue degraded; but, once remove their degradation, and let their self-respect be increased, and see how rapidly their circumstances will improve, and how little they will require the aid of legislation.

But once, again, we would earnestly impress upon our readers, that nothing, absolutely nothing, has as yet been done, which could serve as a ground-work for any system of poor laws, having for its object the lasting improvement of the people. The report of the commissioners, Mr. Revans discredits, and Mr. Nicholls sets aside; and there exist between these two gentlemen, both of whom agree in their condemnation of the report, opposition, and discrepancies important points, which separate them wide as the poles asunder. Take the

upon

M. P., and niece to the late Master of the

sources. Their apathy could only be awed and overpowered by intense appeals to the stronger passions of our nature, or soothed and attracted by descriptions of a state of life presenting a marked contrast to their own. Hence poetry turned to contemplate nature, as she might be supposed to exist primitive and unsophisticated, and imbued with the refinement of the age, sought to preserve the fidelity of the picture, without coarseness unpleasing minuteness.

or

To the reader who may be disposed to look on these views as mere speculations, we would suggest that a strong confirmation of them may be found in the past and present state of our poetic literature; during the past age fervid, glowing, and impassioned poetry, was undoubtedly the most popular, while most of our late writers seem disciples in that school, which unites reflection to description, and interprets the language between the heart and nature. It is in this form alone where the power and beauty of rural scenes are heightened by the philosophy, that "finds tongues in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything," that pastoral can now exist and please. We cannot leave the subject without adverting to the beautiful models-" Michael," the Female Vagrant, the Brothers, and many of the tales in the "Excursion," which Mr. Wordsworth has furnished of it.

The Greek pastoral poet possessed a source of interest, independent of that which all appeals to man's innate and instinctive love of nature must have, in the beautiful mythology of his country, imparting, as it did to his fictions, almost the sanctity and mystery of religion. Fauns and nymphs, beings of a nature superior to man's, circled the dweller in the country on every side their voices spoke in every rural sound; their forms gleamed from every thicket, and their spells stole over his heart in every scene of beauty or sublimity. Conscious that "millions" of these " 'spiritual creatures" kept watch and ward around him, he would tread down all evil desires, scorn all low pursuits, and seek, by pure sentiments and deeds, to

become worthy of their society. The mode of life in which he was engaged, was dignified by the remembrance, that these beings whom it was now his duty and his pleasure to adore, were once men engaged in the same pastoral avocations as himself. In the glorious youth of the world, ere care or disease had marred its perfect harmony and beauty, they had passed their happy days in hopes that were not disappointed, love that feared no change, and joy that knew no termination but with life itself; if that could be called termination which was rather the birth of a more blessed existence the herald to summon to yet nobler offices. Their old homes were still haunted by them still did they watch over the fortunes, and guide the conduct of their successors in them; for, to this end, says the old mythologic poet, were they appointed.

Διος μεγάλου δια βουλας εσθλοι, επιχθονίοι, φυλακες θνητων ανθρωπων πέρα εσσαμενοι, παντη φοιτωντες επ' αιαν. Nor were these the only celestial spectators of earthly scenes. The mightiest of the gods did not disdain to leave the ever-verdant bowers of Olympus, for the glades of Arcadia, or the steep of Etna. The Thunderer himself had laid aside his terrors to woo an earthly maiden; Diana had visited Endymion amid his sheep, and Venus followed the fair Adonis through the dangers of the chase. Beautiful fables! shadowing forth with no dim and indistinct type, man's quenchless longing after something purer and loftier than earth can give, to fill the heart-links in the golden chain, that, binding together earth and heaven, still amid all his darkness and wanderings kept the old Pagan moored to an eternal world.

The most interesting, to our mind, of the old pastorals, are those founded on the ancient mythi-the Hercules, Helen, Castor and Pollux of Theocritus-the runaway Cupid of Moschus, and the Lament for Adonis by Bion. This last is one of the most beautiful relics of antiquity. The legend seems in every age to have been a favourite with poets-it is the subject of one of the most exquisite trifles in the whole range of Greek poetry by Theocritus;