minuter inquiry, to have originated in clanship, and in a conviction, common throughout Ireland, of the claim which all relations have to protection, however grievously they may have offended against the law. Examples of this, I think, I have already given, when speaking of the assizes at Ennis. Some facts, however, which came to my knowledge in Longford, were strongly indicative of a determination to set law at defiance; and of a disposition to regard all men as martyrs, or, at least, as injured persons, who had been brought, by crimes, however heinous, within the operation of the law.

"I will adduce two instances. A stranger to that part of Ireland, and a Protestant, was servant in the house of a magistrate; and he robbed his master to a considerable extent. This man, though a perfect stranger, was screened by the peasantry during a long period, and was received and entertained on no other passport than as being in danger of being overtaken by justice for having robbed a good master-a magistrate. Another example is still more striking. An individual, moving in the upper ranks of life, named Luke Dillon, was tried some years ago for rape committed under most aggravated circumstances, the object of the crime, too, being in his own sphere of life. Sentence of death was commuted to banishment for life, and Luke Dillon appeared to be forgotten. A man, however, one day appeared in this neighbourhood, and gave out that he was Luke Dillon, returned from banishment, and setting the law at defiance. The man was a swindler -not Luke Dillon; but he judged—and he judged correctly—that by pretending to be this individual who had suffered under a sentence of the law, and who wished to set it at defiance, he should receive protection, and be enabled the easier to exercise his swindling propensities."

It was no hard matter for the Popish bishops to work up the bad passions and lawlessness of such a people against tithe property; and so we find a precious Tipperary tenant interfering with the property of his landlord, and actually putting a force on his disposition and private intentions:

"Here, as everywhere else in the south, I heard the strongest objections to tithe in any shape; and a curious instance came to my knowledge, of the determination of farmers to get rid of tithe. A farmer agreed to pay 30s. an acre for a certain quantity of land; the landlord being bound to pay tithe and all other dues. On rent day the tenant arrives, and, before paying his rent, asks what tithe the landlord pays? Why do you wish to know that,' says the landlord, what is it to you what tithe I pay? You pay me 30s. and I take tithe and every burden off your hand.' I know that,' says the farmer; but I'll not only not pay tithe myself, but your honour sha'nt pay it either.' The tenant offered the landlord his rent, deducting whatever tithe he, the landlord, paid; and the rent is, at this moment, unpaid."

We might, in corroboration of what we have said in our review of Mr. Croly's pamphlet, adduce many remarks of Mr. Inglis on the fatal influence of the priests:

"I am sorry to be obliged, in this place, to record a fact, to which I could not have given credit on any evidence less conclusive than that of my own

eyes. The Roman Catholic chapel is newly erected, and is yet unfinished : and I was told, that the anxiety to obtain funds for its completion, gave rise to the enaction of some curious scenes at the door. I went there about ten o'clock; and I certainly did witness a scene of a most singular kind. The gates were shut, and four men stood by. One had a silver salver, to receive the larger contributions: two were provided with wooden ladles, for the copper offerings; and these they shook in the ears of every one who approached and one man, the priest, stood just within the gate, armed with a shillelah. No one was admitted who did not contribute! I saw a man attempt to pass without contributing; and I saw the priest push and buffet the man, and, at length, strike him several times with his stick, and knock his hat off his head! This is no matter of hearsay; I saw it: and I saw from thirty to forty persons kneeling outside of the gate, on the high road-poor persons, who had not a half-penny to spare. To be more and more sure, that this was the cause of their remaining without, I gave some halfpence amongst them, and saw them admitted."

"The influence of the Catholic priesthood is seen on all occasions excepting those in which the guardianship of money is concerned; and it is to be regretted, that this influence is not always well exerted. Every one who knows anything of magisterial business in Ireland, or who has had opportunities of attending assizes or sessions, well knows that this influence is frequently exerted, in cooperation with the peasantry, against the law; and in screening criminals from its operation. A hundred instances of this are on record. I know a case in the county of Longford, of a man being put upon his trial for abduction-when the priest volunteered to give the man a character; and yet, the individual tried had been concerned in two other cases of abduction: and it came out, on a cross-examination, that these facts were perfectly known to the volunteering priest.

"I do look upon it as most important to the civilization and to the peace of Ireland, that a better order of Catholic priesthood should be raised. Taken, as they at present are, from the very inferior classes, they go to Maynooth, and are reared in monkish ignorance and bigotry; and they go to their cures, with a narrow education, grafted on the original prejudices and habits of thinking which belong to the class among which their early years were passed."

Mr. Inglis is shrewd enough to have observed that the priests, by going too far, have brought themselves below the public opinion of even their savage flocks, and that their power is on the decline:

"The influence of the Catholic priesthood in this neighbourhood is great; but from all that I could learn, and from conversations I have myself held with the lower classes, I have some reason to think it is on the decline. An instance occurred only a few days before I left Tipperary, in which a Catholic priest, who attempted to interfere in a fight, was set upon by both parties, and treated with very little reverence."

He also is sharp enough to see that the payment of their reverences by the state would not (if they did not themselves surrender it into the hands of the demagogues) abate their influence, their dangerous influence, over their flock:

"Mr. O'Connell's proposition, respecting the allowances to the Roman Catholic clergy, created a great sensation in this part of Ireland: the priests generally affirmed their hostility to the proposal; but I should take the liberty of greatly doubting whether that hostility would be very obstinate, in case of the proposal being actually before them for acceptance or rejection. Some are of opinion that its acceptance would be a death-blow to Catholicism; but this opinion must not be taken up too hastily: so long as dues are exacted by the priest, for the performance of those offices upon which the people consider their title to heaven to depend, so long will the priest receive these dues; and so long, therefore, will a large portion of influence be retained."

"Galway contains several nunneries-two of them very large establishments; and there are also three friaries. The mention of this word, suggests to me an observation of some importance, connected with the question as to the question as to the payment of the Roman Catholic clergy by government. It appears to me to admit of no doubt, that if, by way of disarming the Roman Catholic clergy, government were to adopt some proposition of the kind once submitted in parliament, it would be absolutely necessary to act up to the letter of that proposition in the Emancipation Bill, by which the settlement of friars is prohibited. Otherwise, whatever influence the Roman Catholic clergy lost, would be but transferred to the friars, and nothing would be gained by the measure."

Our traveller is honest enough to bear the following testimony to the Protestant parochial clergy of Ireland. The fact he records we know to be of common occurrence; and we are aware, that until the people were maddened up to the deep, savage, useless, unwarrantable, and to themselves injurious, hatred against a body of men, who have, in almost every instance, proved their best friends, they have highly respected, loved, and trusted to them.

"I was happy to find the Protestant clergy of this part of Ireland greatly respected; and this respect is evinced in singular ways. From time to time, considerable emigration has taken place from this part of Ireland to America; and it is not unusual for remittances to be sent home from the colonies, by those who have emigrated, for the use of their poor relatives. Now, it is a curious fact, and a fact that consists with my knowledge, that Catholic emigrants send their remittances to the care, not of the Catholic priest, but of the Protestant clergyman, to be distributed by him among those pointed out. The same respect for, and reliance on, the Protestant clergyman, is evinced in other ways. It is not at all unusual for Catholics, possessed of a little money, to leave the Protestant clergyman their executor, in preference to their own priest, or to any other individual."

We might extract, had we space, some curious and some amusing matter from these volumes; we might show therefrom how little the great and good O'Connell is respected in his own country, and how he and his CLAN are looked on as the worst specimens of middlemen, the exactors of high rents, the doers of little or no good, and the most inveterate of all county-jobbers. We might show how the tourist is (however unwillingly) forced to admit that absenteeism is not in itself that mighty element of Irish evil that it is accounted: and that in the past and present state of the country, the middlemen instead of being injurious, could not have been done without.

Mr. Inglis, in sundry places, has, we believe, had occasion to remark how the Board of Education has played into the hands of Popery; as, for instance, in Galway. Let us see what he says:

"In the town of Galway are several extensive schools-two of them receiving aid from the new Education Board. I cannot think the funds of the Education Board are legitimately applied in supporting the nunnery and monk schools. I understood the principle of the board to be, that there was to be no preference of one religion over another; and that the schools were to be so constituted, that Protestant and Catholic might be able to join conscientiously in their support. But here, in this nunnery school at Galway, are all the paraphernalia of Popery: the building is a convent; the teachers are nuns, with beads and rosaries; the chapel has all the accompaniments and distinguishing marks of Catholic chapels of the most Catholic countries; and it does appear to me utterly impossible that Protestants should countenance schools of this description."

We have now, we think, made out our case, even from the shewing of the tourist himself, that he has mistaken the symptom for the disease, and that the want of employment, &c. &c. are but the results of the blight of Popery, whose deadly influence is not only evident in the facts recorded in the extracts we have made, but in other natural consequences; for he observes, that just in proportion as the town or country is popish, just so are the ignorance and want of desire for information in the people. For instance, in Galway, where the Protestants are not one to a hundred:

"No regular bookseller's shop is to be found in this town, containing between 30,000 and 40,000 inhabitants; there are shops, indeed, where books may be ordered, and where some books may be purchased; but the demand is not sufficient to support a shop which sells books solely. I need scarcely say, that the town contains no public or circulating library."

Well, we come northward, and approach a more Protestant place:

"Sligo has no manufactures. The linen trade scarcely exists. There are three breweries, and one distillery; but the distillery is not at work.

"There are two Protestant churches in Sligo; a fever hospital, dispen

saries, a mendicity society, a gaol, handsome, like all the new gaols in Ireland; and no fewer than three libraries,-one, a public subscription library, and two circulating libraries. These were the first libraries I had seen since leaving Limerick.

66

Religious and political animosity prevails to a considerable extent in Sligo. This I have generally found to be the case in Ireland, wherever there is not an overwhelming majority on one side. The Conservative, and Protestant population of Sligo, and the surrounding country, is largeof which there is a pretty strong evidence in the fact that the only newspaper published in Sligo is high Tory."

"I found at Sligo a considerable change in the dress and manners of the people. Here I could not discover any traces of Spanish origin. The women were no longer seen with the hoods of their cloaks thrown over their heads; nor were the men seen with huge top-coats, as in the more south-western parts. The women wore caps and bonnets; and the girls nothing on their heads. There appeared to be much love of dress among all ranks."

Then we get on further, and reach Enniskillen :

:

"I found it (says he) one of the most respectable-looking towns I had seen in Ireland and its population by far the most respectable-looking, that I had anywhere yet seen. I speak, of course, of the lower classes; and I make no exception of either Dublin, or Cork, or Limerick, or any other place. I saw a population, the first I had yet seen, without rags; I saw scarcely a bare foot, even among the girls; there was a neat, tidy look among the women, who had not, as in other places, their uncombed hair hanging about their ears; and the men appeared to me to have a decent, farmer-like appearance.

tant.

"The county of Fermanagh is Conservative and considerably ProtesIt will, no doubt, be deemed a curious fact, that the parish in which I rested a few days, Magher-Culmoony,-a parish fourteen Irish miles long, and several broad,—contains not any one place of worship of any denomination, except the parish church. It is doubtful if there be another example of this in Ireland, or I might perhaps add, in England either."

Now, how comes it that there is this superior comfort, and neatness, and prosperity? Mr. Inglis will not tell us that the land in Fermanagh is better than the land in Limerick or Tipperary ;*

• Mr. Inglis, in the hasty and loose way in which he writes, leaves out of sight and estimation the different acreable measures by which land is leased, and according to which rents are paid, in Ireland. As his book is intended to give information to Englishmen, (for surely our two months' tourist will not presume to say he can instruct Irishmen,) he ought to have stated, as he journeyed, that here the land was let by statute, here by plantation, and here by the Cunningham acre. As for instance, he, while travelling through the county Cork, may observe that a moderate acreable rent is there demanded, namely, 18s. 6d. ; well, he goes into Tipperary,