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THE STATE OF IRELAND
The Morning Cmionille. — There
can lie no doubt that matters in Ire
land are assuming a very serious
aspect. That which, a fortniirht nun.
was a partial and comparatively in
significant mob demonstration, has
beeu gradually almost dignified into
the gravity of a popular movement.
We use the word popular, as dislin-
guisnea frotn national, because 3
" national" movement that cannot be
called, to which the opinions oft he upper
classes, together with a distinct and
powerful section of the peasantry, are
firmly opposed. We have repeatedly
shown that the population of Ireland
is divided in such a manner as to
render union between its parts for any
anti -English, indeed, for any specifi
cally national, object, utterly impos
sible. Whether this fact be for evil
or for good, there it stands, and it
cannot be got rid or-, people do not
retain and get rid of their generic and
historical characteristics, according
as they are born on one side or the
uiuci ui a terrain geographical line;
and, therefore, when the Protestant
gentry of Ireland, or the Presbyterian
peasantry of Ulster, are invited to
join a movement of which the essence
consists in sympathy withthe Roman
Catholic Celts of Cork and Kerry,
they do not require any argument
about the malter; their instinct
and feeling tell them that such a
line of conduct would be unnatural
and suicidal. The consequence of this
necessarily, is, that a specifically I
Irish movement must be more than i
democratic— it must be Jacobinical 1
and anti- Protestant— that is, it must '
be directed against the whole fabric
of society now constituted in Ireland,
and especially against the possessors
of property in land ; audit must also
aim, almost as direcilv. nt =
' _/!»» nana-
j ference of all influence in the country
i to the Roman Catholic part of the
population ; whether that transference
be to be effected by tlie extermina
tion, the banishment, or the political
servitude of tiie defeated party. To
suppose that an "Irish" government,
founded on the forcible expulsion of
British authority, could afford to leave
any kind of influence in the hands of
the Anglo Protestant part of the
population, is plainly absurd -, a re
bellion in Ireland cnuld not, there
fore, possibly wear a national cha
racter, in a. comprehensive sense ; nor
could a successful rebellion produce
the establishment of a national go
vernment, on the basis of the present
national organization, as may be the
case with almost any one of the new
revolutionized scales, where -tlie pro
perty and intelligence, the aristocracy
and the students, have led tlje Van of
the revolutionary movements.
But though the revolutionary move
ment cannot be " national" in Ireland,
it may be " popular ;" and wTtile it
is, of course, less formidable, as re
gards power, in consequence of this
peculiarity, it is infinitely mure
dangerous as regards character, means
objects, aud Leudcttcies. A similar
movement in Scotland would possess
far tuore chance of being successful,
but neither to England nor Scotland
would it matter, nearly so much,
whether it were successful or not
society in both countries might go on
pretty much as before, after a modi
fication or change of the present
political arrangements. But in Ire-
laud a revolution would he the most
fearful aud calamitous event which it
is possible to iinagiue ; no human
being could calculate its complicated
and portentous effects, it might in
deed, be said of the British Empire in
f such a case, with far more truth than
! of France after her first revolution,
' that it would be ' blotted from the
map of Europe," and its component
parts would enter on an unprecedented
career of convulsion, anarchy, and
terror. We put this strongly, wishing
not to excite or terrify by the des
cription of bugbears, but in sober
earnestness to lay before the British
people very clearly the real state of
Irish affairs, and to force them, if
possible, to concentrate their atten
tion and energies upon it.
We do not intend to recur to the
n 11 act IDn nf 1 k A r\ a 1 , rt > -. C O -irvn M - X
ur vijv. Ul VJT U >C I 4 1 U ! C I J I
in bringing the issue heLween them
and the rebels into a court of law ; it
is sufficient that they have done so ;
the die is cast ; and it becomes the
duty of every loyal subject of the
Queen to back, by every means in his
power, the authority of the Queen in
suppressing an audacious and (it may
be) formidable rebellion. There
must be no halting or half measures
now ; as Mr. Mitchell himself says,
either he and his coadjutors, or the
British Government must be
" put down ;" and accordingly
vvery man, every horse, every shil
ling, in this country must be placed,
at the service of the Crown,
if necessary, to settle this matter
at once and for ever. It is time
to show (hat if our government
be weak against chronic anarchy, it is
strong against open war ; if it be long
suffering towards sedition, it is deci
sive against rebellion ; if it have
nrnvpri Ifcplf fn flfnnd liAnn.ivaklit
1 tinguished among the monarchies of
Europe by the calmness of its attitude,
and the absence of excitement anddis-
content among the great mass of its
subjects, it will also be distinguished
from the rest by its steady resolution,
and its vigorous action when obliged
to act. If constitutional law will not
do, we must have something stronger;
at all hazards, at any price, the thing
must now be " put down," and that
quickly, or England is disgraced in
the face of the civilized world. Aus
tria is losing Lombardy, and Prussia
Poland, in tbe first place because they
had a bad cause in those coilntries,
but chiefly because their own systems
at home were rotten and feeble, and
where the heart beats faintly there
is no vigour in the extremities.
But when Switzerland once saw
the standard of insurrection raised
within her borders, and an attempt
made to carve a separate nationality
out of her dominions, strong iu the
support of her people, she rose iu might
and " put it down." And so must wht
do ; we know that we are in the tight,
for we represent in Ireland the cause
of constitutional liberty and of ra
tional reform ; we ara the meditators
between the hostile sectious of the
Irish people ; we are protecting those
who cling to their allegiance in that
country, and who constitute the elite
of its population, from the horrors of
a religious Jacquerie; and we are
maintaining ttie fionour, and great
ness, and integrity of an empire to
which tho world is looking as the
model of free institutions, the asserter
of liberty, and the bulwark of peace
and order. Nothing is more certain
than that we can do our business with
facility in Ireland, if we choose to do
it with all our might; but the slightest
vacillation or neglect now would he,
we will not say fatal, hut
pregnant with the most per
nicious consequences. There are
numerous classes of " waverers,"
whom any symptoms which might
appear to promise suocess to our
enemies, would induce to declare
against us, and their adhesion lo the
rebellious cause would add tenfold to
our trouble of suppressing it, It may
be as well for all parties that matters
are brought to a crisis ; if it be now
shown decisively that the British
Government and the loyal part of tlff
Irish population are able and deter
mined to suppress completely and
Anally all attempts at insurrection, the
minds of the people will, we trust, be
diverted permanently from political
agltatinu (which rests on the hopes of
victory) to those measures of social
reform which we are anxious to in
troduce, and to which that agitation
forms the chief remaining obstacle.
mardiaaaa and Dea-tits.— The number of
marriages which were celebrated in Geelong
for 1647 were — iu the Church of Engird,
11 ; Established Church of ScotLauii, 14 ;
Oburch of Rome, 20; making a tQialol"
foity-fivo marriages (exclusive uf Wi'sleyan
marriages, tbe return of which embraces the
whole province) in twelve months for Gee-
long and district. Iu Melbourne t ie num
ber of Marriages fur 1847, 281, or nearly
seven times that of Gculong. In Mulbcuirno
tlie RQio'iut of deaths for that nerioAi u-im :tni
Iu Gcelou£ 45.-
—Gedony ridveWifcr.
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