DEVOTED IRELAND.

By my worthy learned Friend Counsellor O'DADY, with some cursory Remarks, by B. JANSON.

My motive for writing is to relieve a devoted, persecuted, and important class of the community of part of the sufferings which they so patiently, for nearly these three centuries, under the existing torturing laws, have endured. One, amongst a great many others, was the landed property, which was, as it is justly remarked in point of injustice, to be equalled by nothing but the horrors of the slave trade; in point of humanity superior to it, and in point of impolicy greater than the slave trade in Africa. Your tortures will scarcely be credited, not only in England, but by the surrounding nations also, namely, that in Ireland there exists a set of middle-men, or drivers, or taskmasters, between the tenant and landlord, who really and literally cultivate the soil; and who have it in their power to distrain or seize at their discretion, for all their respective rents upon the same farm. As an illustration of this statement, Counsellor O'DADY put the following parallel: -By A he would represent the head-landlord; by B, C, and D, the first, second, and third, middle-man; and by E, twenty occupying tenants. Suppose then a case, in which A let the land to B for 90l. per annum; B to C for 750l.; C to D for 8501., and D to E, being twenty occupying tenants, for 9407. per annum. Under the existing law, all these occupying tenants were liable to distress, for all these rents, though the land was originally let for 901. The ruin and distress, which it is thus in the power of these middlemen to produce, is incalculable. An occupying tenant may be made to pay all the land is worth, and yet another person may come upon him for another rent due before that which he had contracted to pay. Counsellor O'DADY had produced a very excellent striking pamphlet upon that subject, whose intentions were to have a considerable number circulated at his own expense, disdaining to make a profit of what he means as a grateful acknowledgment to the constitution of England; the only tribute now in his power to give to his oppressed country, and to expose the wretchedness of the peasantry of that devoted land.

Mr. O'DADY, after questioning the impolicy of allowing every derivative lessee who underlets, the power of distraining and of levying distress, he proceeds to state the

consequences which flow from this, in an eloquent and impressive manner. Let us meet him or his agent, says he, on the demised premises when the reserved rent becomes due, and then let us mark his career under lawful authority. On such an occasion, it is impossible to convey any atlequate or distinct idea to any one who has never witnessed the scene of the successive emotions of anxiety, alarm, despondency, turbulence, and revenge, which pervade the minds, and rise in visible characters on the changing countenances of husband, wife, children, and relations, who generally attend to await the issue. Whilst some of the drivers are chasing the poor man's cows, sheep, and swine, from field to field, with hurrying vengeance, others are employed in loosing the horses, perhaps from the harness of the plough, or the usual labours of the season, whilst the lettered tribe among the gang are taking an inventory (easy task!) of the little household goods with which the sooty hut is furnished. Having, at last, after many a run, succeeded in huddling together the whole stock, the mournful procession then advances towards the common pound. The father, in sullen silence, suppressing his own tears, to set an example of fortitude to his lamenting and heart-broken wife, pressed by their little ones, half-naked and hungry, alternately to give them food, and answer their innocent, sometimes most agonizing enquiries. Having arrived, at last, with the dismal cavalcade, and impounded the forlorn man's cattle, they then set off loaded with imprecations and curses, leaving to the wretched cultivator of the soil the painful task of feeding his own cattle, as a matter of necessity, and without the smallest recompence. If, as it sometimes happens, the poor man's own exertions are able to procure as much, on the spur of the moment, as will not make it necessary for the landlord to sell more than a part of the chattels, then he returns to his farm with feelings of some satisfaction; but he is far from being tranquilized; he knows that the respite will be only for a few short, very short months, already numbered. Distracted by the recollections of his late sufferings, and the anticipation of future misery, he takes the desperate resolve of renouncing all law, and of saving the wreck of his property. In furtherance of this plan, he makes his little arrangements, and sometimes succeeds in effecting his escape at night, with whatever he can take, unknown to the landlord. So the heart-broken son of ERIN bids adieu, perhaps for ever, to the scenes of his youth, and relinquishes the hope of having his bones repose with those of his forefathers. O wretch

ed sons of Erin! O pitiable Irishman! driven from your homes with insults, violence, and outrage, by bloodhounds and pitiless armed ruffians, called middle-men, or task-masters, your hardships have now lasted for near three centuries, since seven-wifed Harry set up for a reformer. Tell me, would you not be better treated among the Iroquois or Illinois? O Christianity! O Reformation! pray, what may be your crime, to have heaped upon your devoted heads all those torturing inhuman laws of Queen Elizabeth? One's blood chills in reading them. Ah! but you are. Roman Catholics; you have persevered in the religion of your forefathers, in spite of all those excruciating persecutions and tyrannical laws; you have borne them with patience and resignation, and it is hoped you will continue to act thus, till it shall please the Almighty to deliver you out of the hands of your task-masters, as He delivered the Jews out of the land of Egypt. Like the children of Israel, you are kept in bondage; but you have Mr. Grattan, who is your Moses; and the Rev. Dr. D-g-n is Pharaoh; the middle-men are the task-masters. The former may, by the help of Almighty power, bring you through the Red Sea of all your tribulations; the Rev. Dr. (alias Pharoah) would willingly make you brick manufacturers, without straw, to all eternity, if he could, and drive the task-masters, or middle-men, to lay a cat-onine-tails on your bare backs; and, I dare say, all the plagues of Egypt could not make him relinquish his 50001. per annum; (because he has undervalued his soul to that price,) he would find his sorcerers to imitate them.

An ingenious author has compared your Irish people to the flying-fish, described by the naturalist, as the most inoffensive creature of all the fishes;, being of a most delicate taste; all the other fishes pursue him as so many enemies, in order to devour him; when pursued, he flies out of the water; for according to the said naturalists, he can keep himself up in the air, as long as there remains any moisture in his finny wings; when above water, or out of his native land, harpies, sea eagles, gulls, hawks, and all birds of prey, dart upon him, in order to devour him. Sons of Erin, you have been well compared to the flying fish; they have taken away from you your Parliament, your native soldiers, and surrounded you with strangers; all harpies and birds of prey, ready to devour you. If you fly out of your native land, another set of harpies are for ever insulting and hooting you, like wild beasts, they nickname you, as we do the wild Illinois,

یر

Iroquois, &c. of America; you are the wild Irish! They want nothing of you but your flesh and blood, to be spilled in Portugal and Spain, and your purse. Those industrious hard-labouring men, who fly out of their native soil to the Sister Country, to earn a few shillings by hard labour, industry, and sobriety, are there scouted, despised, and insulted; why? because they are Irishmen, and always suspected to be Roman Catholics. A few weeks back I bought a small lot of fish at Billingsgate; some men offered themselves to carry it home. I was told by one, pointing at another, not to give the job to that man, because he was an Irishman; I replied that I would give it to that man, for the very reason that he was an Irishman ; I had some d-n your eyes bawled out at me: but so we set off, and the man in our way inquired if I was a Roman Catholic; I answered in the affirmative; directly he began crossing himself almost all the way: at the end of our journey, I gave him sixpence for the job.-" By St. Patrick," he said, "you are a good master; God bless you. -I am very glad to have met with one friend in this country."

The character which Guthrie (page 402) gives to the Irish, is ungenerous, disgustful, and untrue; however it corresponds nearly with the character he gives to all nations, except his own.

The Irish nation is now suing for emancipation, from the obnoxious laws issued against them at different periods since about 1536, with vigor. In reading those different inhuman laws, including the coronation oath, it seems that hell was let loose, not only to assist in manufacturing those patent shackles, but in fixing an indissoluble knot upon it, in order to perpetuate them until the end of time. "What!" says one of their agents, in his intolerant speech, "What! shall we repeal all the statutes that have been enacted for the protection of the Protes"tant Church, since the reign of Q. Elizabeth to the period of the Revolution? This went to annul the act of UNI"FORMITY, the Test and Corporation Acts, the coro"nation oath, and in short every bulwark erected since "the Reformation." All this seems an indissoluble knot indeed; it seems to be the mysterious knot of the oracle of Delphos, which, seemingly, no mortal hand could untie, until Alexander the Great came, who drew his sword, and cut it asunder.

*Uniformity is for ever lost, when once separated from the Church of Jesus Christ.

Without being endowed with a prophetic Spirit, I have openly foretold the fate of Catholic Emancipation; yea, after the large majority in the House of Commons, and the near approaching equality in the House of Lords; all was a mathematical calculation; if a vote could have been divided and subdivided into fractions, seven-eighths of a vote would have thrown the glimmering emancipation overboard.-C'est comme un feu follet, Jack in a Lantern; the

1

yet pet more you run after it, the farther it removes ;

yet petitioning should never be given up, for evident

reasons.

Be patient, Irish Nation, as you have been until now; obey your Superiors, listen to your Pastors, and all will be well; their counsel is the word of God; the day of your delivery must come, when it shall please the Almighty to deliver you; sufferings are the trophies of all good Catholics: it is better to be persecuted than to be a persécutor.

The following ingenious Parallel of the TONGUE with the Image of Jesus Christ, never before published, was presented to me in manuscript by my worthy and learned Friend, Dr. M'CARTAN, Author of that learned, ingenious, and inimitable work, called THE CHRISTIAN ALPHABET; consisting of, 1st. An Evidence of genuine Christianity:-2d. Its ever unchangeable Identity:-3d. Its Resemblance with the Human Frame. Price 8s. Sold by all Catholic Booksellers, and at No. 18, Pavement, Moorfields.

"

THE TONGUE of Man is the image of the WORD of God, called Verbe in French, that is Jesus Christ.

First, as words are representations of things, so the Tongue, by which all things are said, is the image of the WORD, by whom all things were made.

If fiery Tongues were the image of the third divine person, speaking by the Apostles, why should not the fleshy Tongue of man be the image of the Word of God, made Flesh, and speaking by himself? Since the Tongue of man appeared the fittest corporeal representation possible of the Word of God, considered as Man-as Godas God-man-Teacher-Prophet-Lawgiver - King or Head-Spouse Mediator-Priest - - Physician

Vic

tim - Consoler-Judge, &c. &c. as we are going to prove by so many analogies.

No. II.

G