cause the patriotic ardour of many to wax cold, if they could shelter, under the plausible pretext of neutrality, their constitutional antipathy to political conflicts. Solon saw, that if this spirit was to be indulged, the destructives would have it all their own way, when any vital question arose, upon which the parties were nearly equally divided. He therefore proclaimed the infamy of the man, who, in such a case, hesitated to take a decided part; and he did so with the perfect conviction that the law of opinion which he thus brought to bear upon the conduct of his fellow citizens, while it affected to regard all with equal impartiality, would, in reality, be felt to act upon ten Conservatives, for one Destructive; and would, therefore, operate as a stimulant to the indolence and the remissness of the one, while it would be scarcely felt in imparting any additional vigour to the industry and the activity of the other. There could not, in a democratic state, be a more truly conservative regulation. Only let it be supposed in force in this our day, and where would we have to look for the men who would be, according to Solon's law, notati infamia? Would we have to seek them in our lanes and allies, or in our streets and squares? And if the regulation was effectual in quickening into activity the political virtue or energy, which luxury or timidity or constitutional indolence had caused to slumber, where would such an effect be most distinctly visible? Amongst the high or the low? Amongst the greasy artizans, or the more opulent and respectable classes of the people? Surely no one of us can for a moment entertain a doubt upon such a subject, when we look through our city and see that if only one third of those who either are, or might have been qualified to vote at the late election had duly exercised their constitutional privilege, the Conservative candidates would have been elected by a triumphant majority, if, indeed, they were not returned without

a contest.

And if something similar, in its effect, to Solon's law-a sense of duty, or a law of opinion, or a feeling of danger, do not rouse our indolent Conservatives into action, and make each and every of them feel, that he is called upon to aid, individually, with all his might, in the momentous contest that is at present raging, and upon the issue of which depends our present and future prospects, fatal in

deed may be the consequences of their remissness or infatuation.

Perhaps, since the world began, no country was ever placed in the precise position which is occupied this moment by the British empire. The recent elections in England have demonstrated a truth, of which we required no such confirmation, that the people are indisposed to heady or revolutionary courses; that they are well-affected to the monarchy and the church; and that, if left to the natural impulses of their own plain, unsophisticated English feeling, and sound good sense, no one of our national institutions would be endangered. Whence, then, arises our danger? Strange to say, from the quarter from whence it could least be suspected to proceed. In other unhappy countries, a maddened or deluded people have forced revolution upon the government; in ours, an unprincipled and desperate government are forcing revolution upon the people. All the influence of the monarchy has been exerted for its own undoing. The prerogative has been strained almost to breaking, in pulling down the pillars of the constitution.

Happily, as yet, without effect. The people are withstanding the madness and the wickedness of their rulers. The drunken and infuriate rider is doing what he can to force the horse down the precipice; but all his efforts have as yet proved insufficient to overcome the noble animal's instinct of self-preservation. He cannot, however, with safety, be left much longer to struggle, by himself, with his frantic master, who, if he be not speedily deprived of whip and spur, will use them until the animal is driven, in sheer desperation, to make the plunge by which both must be destroyed. Is this, or is it not, a fair representation of the position of the country at the present moment? And if it be, can we remain passive spectators of such a struggle, and yet persuade ourselves that we do our duty?

Wise and good men there are, from whom, upon any subject, it would pain us to differ, and who have expressed a confident opinion that her majesty was well advised, in continuing, upon her accession, the present administration. It may be so. When the Times, the Quarterly Review, and, beyond either, in our estimation, the Standard, says so, we are slow to dissent from such a judgment; but, nevertheless, we are compelled to say, that it docs appear

to us to have been a measure by which the monarchy was placed in imminent peril, and by which all the instincts of loyalty, and all the prestige of a young female reign, were not only left with out their natural rallying point, but pressed into the service of radicalism and revolution. That she should have kept them in place because she found them there, or because it was agreeable to precedent so to do, appears to Us an insufficient justification of a course of proceeding by which all that we hold valuable was so seriously compromised; and indicates, we confess it, to our seeming, a partiality in the persons of those to whom she has given her confidence, to courses which cannot be even passively countenanced without danger. That it by no means indicates the predilections of her majesty, we firmly believe. It was not to be expocted, from one of her age and sex, that she should have set her own opinion, whatever it may have been, in opposition to that of the experienced individuals to whom she was in the habit of looking up for counsel and for guidance. Upon them devolves the responsibility of the policy that has been adopted, be it for evil or for good. And our opinion has been freely expressed, that the monarchy has been compromised by its adoption.

All the aid, however, which the revolutionists have received from the influence of office, and the use of the Queen's name, has been as yet insuthciènt to enable them to accomplish their objects. The good sense and sound principle of England has been aroused, and they have felt themselves constrained to acknowledge an influ ence which they never suffered them selves to believe could have arisen, as it has to defeat their machinations, Bat we would impress upon our friends that what has been already denɑ, will be to no efect, unless it be followed up by measures having for their object the eculete exposure and utter de cat of the Whigsradical charletanry by which the empire has been all but ruled. Te gy ministers are 87 is power-dha st... have the our of the Qboca—de widzi dance of offess

at their disse They are not the now mer such cr restures to reliquisa, the sigest *** *ccomp.sh. g. other by VIE**、£Rs*g W sert stanowring,

Let it not be supposed that many amongst them are not conscious of the prodigious mischief that has been already the result of their counsels. They know it well, and they tremble for the consequences. They feel too surely that they would be painfully reminded of their misdeeds, if England only enjoyed a few years of quiet and security, under a wise and a righteous administration. Where," she would ask, "is my internal tranquillity, my colonial aggrandisement, and my continental estimation? How comes it that my stability is now dependant upon every breath of popular feeling? that foreign states laugh to scorn my authority? and that my distant possessions have become so troublesome, and my tenure of them is so precarious, that they are almost less a benefit than a burden?" Think you not, Conservative reader, that those who have reduced Great Britain to this condition, have need to be apprehensive of those stern interrogatories? Can they calmly contemplate the awakening of this mighty empire, as a giant refreshed with sleep, without misgivings lest they should be called upon to render an account of their stewardship, and a secret consciousness that their malversations, and their chicaneries would be detected? Depend upon it they are too thoroughly "children of this world," not to be "wise in their generation;" and there is no expedient which the most unprincipled cunning can suggest, which will not be resorted to for the purpose of deferring their day of reckoning before the enlightened British people.

We would, therefore, fain prepare our friends for the sleight-of-hand by which the thimble-riggers will make as though they changed their policy, and seem to fall in with Conservative courses. We have already seen symptoms of an attempt on their part thus to deceive their royal mistress; with what success we are not prepared to say; bat, most earnestly do we deprecale the success of day such attempt upon the Conservative wisdom and vince of England. Can, we would asă, anything but evil resu't from an

me, so matter under what pretexts it may be formed, with the bon 3-slaves of CConce who is basat nothing better than the Quad-süre of the Irish press * *0% lus they are printed be cast of that dependance upon him.” Infect. But can they se čas y call

Time was, when they might have formed an alliance with the Conservatives, without involving them in disgrace. There was a period when they were as yet unsuspected of any designs against the church; when it could not be predicated of them that they would lend themselves to schemes by which the constitutional functions of the House of Lords would be paralyzed, and the sovereign himself degraded into an alliance with the jacobinism by which his throne might be subverted. Then, indeed, a connexion with them, whatever it might imply of danger, would not have involved any degradation. If they were not altogether "sans reproche," they were not so ut terly contaminated as to be altogether loathsome. But now, reeking from the embraces of O'Connell, to be taken into close alliance by men who have ever had a shrinking horror of any contact with the mendicant incendiary, "'tis too horrible!" We cannot allow ourselves to contemplate the possibility of a junction so monstrous and revolting. No. The day has gone by when such a thing was possible. The Lich field House compact has put an end, for ever, to any such project. If that compact is to stand, the parties committed to it are pledged beyond retractation to courses by which the church and the monarchy must be perilled. If it be not to stand, what security can the violators of it give that any other compact will be observed longer than suits their personal convenience?

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Let, therefore, the Conservatives prepare themselves for a sturdy and vigorous opposition; and let no overture from the O'Connell hacks tempt them to depart one iota from the straight line of rectitude and honor. Let them not be so solicitous for victory, as tenacious of principle. Let them hold in mind that the House of Commons is but the arena upon which the political combatants engage in the eyes of the people of England; and that the impression made upon the spectators, by the one side or the other, is that which must ultimately determine the issue of the contest. In this view, when principle is fully brought out, when nefarious mal-practices are exposed, when flagitious mispolicy is reprehended, although the divisions in the house may be against the Conservatives, such defeats are often equivalent to victories. The public mind is

enlightened; the public indignation is aroused; and a heavy retribution will speedily be visited upon a guilty administration. Let the Conservatives only be duly solicitous to elicit the truth, upon all the important questions which must arise between them and their adversaries, and they will soon feel themselves endued with a might and an energy that cannot be long resisted. Let them fritter down truthlet them compromise principle - let them descend to a contest of equivocation and subterfuge, and "the thimbleriggers" will soon prove their superior dexterity in the use of such weapons, and will have abundant reason to rejoice at having dragged their adversaries, from their vantage ground, down to their own level, even if they should not triumph over them in argument.

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But, we will be told, it is not so important to consider how the Conservatives are to conduct themselves while they remain in opposition, as how they could carry on the government should the sovereign call them to her councils. In that case we do think their path will be very plain. Safe reforms, practicable retrenchments, an earnest pursuit of the national interest, and an honourable adherence to national engagements these should, and no doubt would, constitute the leading features of their system, in the conduct of public affairs; and there can now be little doubt that, if favoured with the countenance of the sovereign, they would soon have support enough to carry into effect every necessary arrangement. Does any one now hesitate to believe, that an appeal to the country, they being in the government, would not give them a majority in parliament? No one, we venture to affirm, could so far stultify himself. There is no Whig-Radical who does not feel in his heart, that nothing but their continuance in power, and having the late dissolution in their hands, could have saved the faction from annihilation. They are not men upon whom such experience will be thrown away; and, assuredly, if Sir Robert Peel were again premier, they would not wantonly provoke another dissolution. He would, therefore, meet no serious obstruction from them, in any measures which he might deem indispensible for the public good. Every day would add to the number of his friends, and increase his claim upon the confidence of the country. As a

statesman it is idle to talk of any of his adversaries as "simile aut secundum." As an orator they are even still farther below his mark. As an honest man, having the well-being of England sincerely at heart, and whose noble fortune places him beyond the tempta tion of office, we will not insult him by a comparison with the needy and miserable tricksters, whose tenure of place is the combined result of a poverty both of purse and principle; and of whom even the most charitable can hardly help entertaining the belief, that they would serve his satanic majesty with as much zeal as they serve our most gracious Queen, if a similar amount of pay and of patronage was to reward their dutiful allegiance.

No. There would be no difficulty whatever in carrying on the government of the country, if it pleased her Majesty to devolve upon Sir Robert Peel the pleasing duty of constructing a new administration. The elements of a conservative cabinet are abundant, and the time has come when they would not appeal to the nation in vain "for a fair trial." We do not apprehend that the experiment will be immediately tried. We are not sufficiently behind the scenes to know how far the determination of the sovereign will sustain the present ministers against the indignation of the honest portiou of the people. Such we know to be their boast; we know not how far they may be borne out in their boasting. But well we know that if their ground of confidence failed them in the sovereign, they would have but little to trust to in the country. They have, at length, been found out. Their tenure of office has long since enabled every observing man to perceive the danger of their policy, and to ascertain the utter hollowness of their pretensions. Who, but the silliest and most stupid of mankind, or the open or secret enemy of the weal and the honour of England, could desire any longer continuance of power to men in whom personal have ever predominated over national considerations? who have endangered Canada, convulsed Ireland, tarnished the character, and compromised the dignity of the country, by an uncalled-for and pitiful interference in the domestic concerns of foreign states, and who seemed, in all things, so to conduct themselves, as if they deemed that nothing great or effectual could be accomplished, until they had

exalted the profligacy and the miscreancy of the country upon the ruins of its property, its respectability, and its virtue.

But how is Ireland to be governed? "Ay, there's the rub." That is the crux in politics by which all our statesmen are perplexed. And yet, to us it appears a matter of no insuperable difficulty, if it were only looked at fairly, and undertaken in a proper spirit. We can fancy the surprise with which this statement of ours is regarded by the mountebanks and the nincompoops, to whose lot it had fallen to be more or less concerned, for the last twenty years, in the business of Irish legislation. But we say, advisedly, nevertheless, that had the case of Ireland been truly understood, it might have been long since provided for in such a way as to become the most tranquil and contented portion of the empire; and if even now, at the eleventh hour, our senators were influenced by sound views, and, setting aside party considerations, were resolved to consult for the good of the country, and for that only, a change for the better would soon take place in the aspect of Irish affairs, by which the hopes of revolutionists would be confounded.

Our misfortune has been, that a thorough knowledge of the country does not seem to have been deemed necessary, as a qualification for legislating for us, by almost any of the wise men to whom our destinies have been entrusted for the last fifty years. Ireland seems to have been regarded but as the chess-board upon which they played their game of political finesse. That their antagonists for office should be checkmated, seemed their only lookout; and no move which had not for its object the promotion of their party or personal ends, would seem to them deserving of any serious consideration. It is not wonderful, therefore, that the interests of the country were overlooked or neglected.

Will any one now contend for the profound wisdom, or the disinterested patriotism of the declaimers for emancipation? Will any one now stake his character for political sagacity, upon predictions which have been all falsified by the event; or affect to deny that those apprehensions have all been realized, for entertaining which honest and farseeing men were stigmatised as insane drivellers or political alarmists? We believe that day

has pretty well gone by; and it is now pretty well understood, that the mea. sure, or the series of measures, which bestowed upon a barbarous and a bigoted people, such a plenary indulgence of political power, as has, literally, made the pauperism paramount above the property of Ireland, were all crudities in legislation, the results of passion, or prejudice, or party spirit, or want of foresight; by which, in reality, the great bulk of the people have been as little benefitted, as the country has been convulsed, the church oppressed, and the landed aristocracy degraded. We believe the instances are very few, indeed, in which these acknowledgments would not now be made by those who were, at one period, loud and confident asserters of the superior efficacy of that conceding policy, by which the government, for the last half century, has been characterised; and who, if the same measures were to be passed over again, would not rather sacrifice their right hands than be consenting parties to their enactment. But, they say, what can we do? These measures have passed; they cannot be recalled. We must now make the best we can of them; we have but a choice of evils; and we are not quite sure that the evils would not be diminished, by advancing to the extreme line, whereever that may be, of concession, than by stopping at any intermediate point, without the slightest prospect of being able to restrain the onward impulse of an ardent, a powerful, and an ambitious people.

Those who use this language, deliberately shut their eyes to what that onward impulse inevitably leads. Are they prepared for a repeal of the union? For, "to that complexion things must come at last." At last-did we say? Let only the municipal corporations be conceded, and nuclei of popish agitation, nurseries of sedition, be thus established in the country, and the repeal of the union will be demanded with a vehemence, which the conced ers of emancipation, at least, would find it difficult to withstand. The "onward impulse," which our soft and conceding politicians, would encourage, would, thus, eventually, and in no long time, lead to the dismemberment of the empire. Are they prepared for that? Because, if they are, it would be better to concede that measure now, and let the countries, in the name of God, be quietly and amicably separated; than have it, by and by, torn from us by po

litical violence, under circumstances, which can only beget and aggravate national hate and exasperation. To concede, because concession is easier than resistance, because to continue in the downward progress implies less vigour than would be required to retrace our steps, is the characteristic of cowards, as well as of fools; and we must away with such miserable shifts and expedients, if we would not be utterly undone, as well as degraded in the eyes of enlightened Europe.

But let us look at the actual state of the case, at Ireland as it really is, and see whether, in good hands, its condition should be considered hopeless. Its property and its intelligence are decidedly Protestant and Conservative. Of its Roman Catholic population, we believe a considerable majority are well disposed to live in peace and amity with their Protestant fellow-subjects, and to continue in all things amenable to the existing laws. Notwithstanding the precepts of the priests, and the example of the leaders, we believe that a great many of them are with difficulty reconciled to the flagrant breach of solemn engagements. Ireland has now been three years under the Mulgravising process for three years has Daniel O'Connell exercised a virtual sovereignty over the country; he has made judges; he has recommended revising barristers; he has nominated and removed magistrates; he has appointed the law officers of the crown; he has had the patronage of the police; he has commanded the influence of the Roman Catholic priests-all this openly; and what his secret, underground influence has been, is only known to the ribbon societies, who look up to him as their great chief, by whom the country they love is yet to be vindicated from British thraldom, and made, indeed—

"Great, glorious, and freeFirst flower of the earth, and first gem of the sea.' Well, notwithstanding all this, see what a struggle we were able to make at the last election. It will not now be denied, that all the power and influence at the command of government, was put into requisition to secure the triumph of the popish and radical members. It may, perhaps, hereafter, be proved, that efforts, somewhat unconstitutional were made with that object. But let that pass. And can it be denied, that government were put to their utmost shifts, to procure even