HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION

TO SIXTH PERIOD,

EXTENDING

FROM THE DEATH OF GEORGE III. TO THE PRESENT TIME:

WITH

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES

OF

Distinguished Erishmen

WHO FLOURISHED DURING THAT PERIOD.

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION

TO

SIXTH PERIOD.

WE have hitherto endeavoured to preface the main divisions of this history each with a rapid, but not inaccurate sketch, of the more general characteristics and tendencies which appeared to be discoverable in the history of the times to which they had relation. We do not consider this part of our labour to be now either as desirable, or as easy to perform.

During the lapse of many centuries, it was not a matter of extreme difficulty to trace, amid numerous changes, a still slow onward tendency, which though much extended and variously interrupted, was still potentially in existence, and perceptibly advancing the growth of civilization. It was by the close observation of this tendency, that we endeavoured to understand the progress of the world, and to find a light where the authorities which we had to trust to, afford none. Of this we shall have to speak largely at a future period. We have now but to observe, that we do not think the remainder of the task before us demands any such preliminary expositions. Most of what we should have to state under the head of introduction, has been anticipated in the immediately previous period. But, in reality, the few memoirs of any importance, which now remain, are not such as to lead to these considerations, further than may well be provided for when occasion may require.

We have hitherto been engaged in the treatment of historical events and changes: our notice of persons has been rather subsidiary to such a purpose, than directly the subject of our statements. But in what remains, the case is reversed. The history of our last period must be written hereafter; for much of it has passed within the time of the existing generation-all that remains to be noticed, is the Present in substance and spirit. The same questions continue to be agitated, though under altered circumstances, and with a vast accession of animosities, mistakes, and perplexities. The long progress of social change, through ages accumulating both matter and motion, has at last arrived at a degree of breadth and acceleration wholly beyond precedent; insomuch, that the social world seems to have approached the last term of a long progression, and to offer a moral and social problem, which increases in complication and difficulty in proportion as it is more attentively and more comprehensively studied. We are

happy to feel absolved for the present, from a discussion, which cannot, as we see it, be effectively prosecuted within any compass which we have at our disposal. If we agreed with the opinions of any one great section of the public, it would be easy to refer to much able and intelligent statement; but large differences of opinion are not to be briefly asserted without the appearance of rashness or eccentricity; and we disagree with all the main great parties with which we have any acquaintance in some very important respects. We do not believe, with one great body for whose principles we entertain the utmost respect, that the social world can either stand still, or return to past states; nor do we agree with its great antagonist section as to the real direction of its progress, or its actual destination. We are strongly persuaded of much, that should not be said, without full, clear, and circumstantial proof, derived from several elementary sources, some of which we must confess to be laden with uncertainty.

It is, however, by no means difficult to say, so far as concerns us, what is the existing apparent character of the social stage at which we have arrived. In this, we may expect the assent of most observers, in whatever spirit they observe. It is evidently a period which bears the characters of vast moral, intellectual, and social transition; and attended with circumstances, some advantageous, and some the contrary, such as might be anticipated in a great period of change. Of these, the most important are too fully developed, and too obvious to demand any distinct statement here. No one doubts the effects of the railroad, or the applications of steam to motion and machinery; no one can doubt the vast accession of strength and intelligence which has been gained by the popular element of civilization—the consequent development of the democratic principle into increased energy —and the change of institutions which have followed, and must follow. However they may be understood, or in whatever spirit witnessed, these are plain facts or inevitable deductions.

It must, indeed, be more for the preservation of the form which we have hitherto found it expedient to observe, than for any special object in our present stage, that we venture a few statements under the heads of division used in the previous course of our labours. They must be brief, and therefore general.

POLITICAL PARTIES.-The great political questions which agitated the public mind in the last period, continue to exercise an increased influence upon the present. The same parties subsist, actuated by the same influences, though with objects that have undergone many and great changes. Of these changes we cannot here speak. They have been accompanied by moral and social effects, of which some may be noticed as more prominent, and as more likely to affect the future courses of events. One of these results has been a gradual communication of intelligence and political information to the lower and middle classes in Ireland; and, in consequence, though largely obstructed, a growing disposition is to be observed among the people, to throw off the delusions and prejudices which hitherto have had a larger share than will readily be admitted in chaining this country to the dust. The peasantry of Ireland continued (we do not here enter into causes) for ages without opinions or knowledge-fast bound in an

iron bond of prejudice, and only seeing through the eyes of their leaders for good and evil. They are now in all the more cultivated districts universally awakening into the condition of voluntary and intelligent agents, and either for good or for evil, beginning to think for themselves. The twilight of opinion is growing over the villages, and wherever there is to be seen an advance in the common comforts of civilized life, there will, on close inquiry, be also found an approximation to just ways of thinking, and to that first great desideratum in Ireland a rational sense of their own true interests. This more favourable condition is, indeed, sadly modified by influences of opposite kinds. There are those who would contract, and there are those who would loosen the social bond of order: there is prejudice and ignorant speculation, the nightmare of the past, and the fever dream of a visionary future. Against these and other influences far more dark, the only preservative-under providence-likely to be brought into timely operation, is the most strenuous and efficient regard to the improvement of the condition of the peasantry-a sound commercial action on a sufficient scale-the promotion of abundant and well-paid employment. To those who are destitute of the means of life, knowledge is useless, and more likely to be subservient to evil than to good. Some enlightened persons, who, (justly enough,) think that prejudices are to be dissipated by education, have not enough considered the effects it may have in the promotion of revolutionary notions. highest instruction of any populace can amount but to a trifle. There is a current in the stream of events by which all existing instrumentalities are likely to be governed, and they who do not watch its directions are not fit to guide the least of them.

The

LITERATURE. Our literature, though in a commercial sense beginning to take an independent character, is yet in spirit and substance as it should be-identical with that of the British empire. We do not feel bound to discuss it, but may just touch on a few points of present interest. The literature of the day, is, indeed, little likely to be the literature of the age: it is, strictly, in a state of transition, and this in a still more observable degree than the general form of the social state. For this many causes work together. First, the vast influx of new material, and the impulse and expansion which this has communicated to the thinking powers-many spacious fields of real knowledge have been attained, and clouds of speculation vast and illimitable—much as has been discovered, more has been fancied; and as the narrow bonds of prejudice and convention have been widened or weakened, a vague tendency to reject old forms, and look for new, is largely diffused in the mind of the world. So far, regards the department of opinion. The character of polite literature is no less affected. The same causes which have removed the barriers of opinion, have altered the standards of taste. A vast infusion of new material -new names, new objects, new notions, have had to be transfused into language-and the language of the Past has been found inadequate to give them place and form. Hence the ancient methods and normal forms of speech, and the rules of style, have been abandoned and broken through by the writers and forgotten by the critics, unless in the very few instances of a higher order of mind, in which correctness