THOMAS CARLYLE ON THE STATE OF IRELAND. (From the Spectator.)

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 354, 13 September 1849, Page 3

THOMAS CARLYLE ON THE STATE OF IRELAND. (From the Spectator.)

Sir Robert Pc l'§ two speeches on thes f ate of Ireland may be regarded as the most important occurrence of this session, or indeed of many part sessions. Not for their qualities ac speeches ; on that side, though very excellent for that too, they are very indifferent to us ; ingenious words which do not spring from any earnest meaning, and are not to end in any action, being of all human products the plentifully at present, and the most worthless,— not to say (as we might) far worse than worthless, positively noxious, unwholesome in a high degree to every human virtue, and fott becoming a mere offence and affliction to all serious persons. But xi a foreshadow of coming facts for Ireland, these words, of such a man, are of moment to every British citizen ; and to the considerable class of British citizens who, this long while past, look with despair on the redtape doctrines and imbecile performance! alone prevalent in official quarters as to this affair, they come like a prophet of better things, inexpressibly cheering. For it is a fact, however little it may lie surmised in Dowuing-street at present, tint a new condition of affairs has arrived for Ireland and us ; that an old condition of affairs has, as it right well deserved to do, fallen irretrievably dead,— 'ies there, by due course of nature, prostrate in ruin, inanition, and starvation; from which it will never tise alive, and in which no official galvanism (with rates-in aid, and grants of ten millions, and grants of the twentieth part of one million) can proloug much farther its hideous counterfeit of life. Some honour to the statesman,— great and peculiar honour, such as his contemporaries cannot any of them claim,— who admits this fact ; accepts it in its alarming undeniable magnitude ; and is prepared to deal with it, to rally the valour and intelligence of the British nation against it ! This we account important news. A man in high position, more acquainted with officialises and all their iutiicacies and details than any other man, and whose words are liable to be demanded of him as deeds, informs us that the time for paltering with Ire" land by palliatives, by makeshift*, and routine tinkerages, is past : that we must quit the region of common place official it ies altogether in regard to Ireland; strip ourselves bare of those frightful long accumulated cobwebberies, and coils of red tape, which tie us up band and foot, aud shut out the light of day from vi ; that we must front this Irish monster with real human faculty, if we have such ; look into him eye to eye, practically grapple with him strength to strength, and either conquer him or else be devoured by him. To that alternative, Sir Robert cautiously but distinctly intimates, we have now come. Vain to think of palliating this Irish monster, intimates Sir Robert ; vain to try feedingbim by Indian meal, or rates-ia-aid : he will not feed, he has a stomach like the gravt, the whole world cannot feed him 1 Besides, in sad truth, why feed him ; what is the use of him when fed ? Sir Robsrt dors, not ask this latter question ; but tragic fact, in the hearts of all men that have humanity, and do reverence the awful being of man,— very loudly asks it. 1 Tb s miserable monster, unless he can radically change himself and become a new creature, ought to wish to die. In sad earnest it is so. Brutalities, like Irish society as founded on the late potato, or on the present Dotrniug-street tinkerage aud rate-in-aid, ought not to be allowed to live under the title of human. In the name of Adam's united posterity, and for the honour of the family, they are called to become new creatures, unspeakably improved in various essential respects, or elie to die, and disgrace the light no longer 1 Alive, by In lian rncal or the regenerated potato, no human heart could wish this Irish monster. Let him become an un. speakably improved monster ; let him at least learn to feed himself, be taught to feed himself, which is the primary stage of all improvement, and first readers improvement possible ;— let him become human instead of brutal, or else die. The universe, if he could bear its eternal admonition, perpetually solicits him to do the one or tke other. The universe — the potato being dead — has now happily brought it so far that be must do the one or the other 1 For which item mercy all pious men, and good citizens of this world, are bound to be thankful. The condition of Ireland, we often enough hear, is frightful ; sad certainly it is far from a charming condition to any body just now. It is in fact our English share of that "General bankruptcy of Imposture," which the events of the last year all over Europe have very loudly announced,— somewhat unexpectedly to some. What the fall of Louis Philippe, and the street bairicades of Paris have been to Europe, the ruin of the potato has been to us. Frightful enough ; yet not without some consolatory features. If '* Imposture" official routine, grimace, red-tape, and Parliamen aryeloquence, were really insolvent,— unable to perform the task of guiding men, and able only to perform, the scandalous make believe of it, — the sooner that fact was rendered public, and put into the gazette, it will be the better and not the worse for all parties ! The liuly frightful element in the condition of Ireland, for a good while past, has been the official manner of dealing with its condition. The official theory, so far as one could see, was that nothing specially new had oc» curred in Ireland ; that Ireland bad indeed lost the potato, but through the blessing of Heaven would perhaps get it again; for the rest, that Ireland must be dealt with as heretofore, — kept from revolt by AttorneyGenerals and armed police, and kept from starvation by Indian meal, (mingling the due modicum of soot or " work «house test" m it, to make it disgusting enough,) till once the potato returned, after which times would mend a little. This was the official theoiy, reduced to practice with great frankness, in a more or less magnificent manner, extending to tens of millions or to tens of thousands, according as the circumstances, as the English nation's strength of purse and strength of faith ( both rapidly declining, as was natural, in such an enterprise ) would permit. To maintain 50,000 armed policemen, horse, oot, and artillery, for the traoqutll.zing of a sister island, which you had to keep alive with Indian meal at the same tune, did seem rather anomalous to the English mind. The poor English mind has immense practice in anonnlies, is everywhere quite used to anomalies, and is of thick-skinned nature withal ; nevertheless, there are things a little strong for it— and the thickest-skiuned mind does feel money oozing from its pocket. The fioest peasantry fn the world— are they in sad truth to

become a finest human pheasantry ; fed all winter, re gardless of expense, that in summer you may have this satisfaction, with your fifty thousand keepers, of shooting them ? The woild heretofore saw nowhere such gigantic gportmanship ! In fact, it has long been a thing — to keep silence upon ;no polite speech being possible about it. And the Duffy Trial— with youc Attorney-General, and all the learned wigs, and bt-9t-tra'ned official intellects of Ireland, struggling, toiling with the enthusiasm of Kilkenny cats, these five mon'hs to ascertain by the utmost exertion of their law wit unl official machinery, Whether a man has a nose upon hii face ? and unable hitherto to ascertain it, finding' ie doubtful hitherto; th's also is a thing to be silent upon s this— which indeed lett us see a little into the soul oE the whole abomination, and how a '• throne of iniquity,' and throne of lies, has long peaceably esUbliihed itself in that wretched section of God's earth, and dominates everywhere, unquestioned there from sea to tea, till at lait by blessed death of the potato, and by other bleised helps, it hat now fallen bankrupt,— \z a sight to create unutterable reflections ! How long placid is commonplace to continue its paltering with such a perilous immeasurable business for us all ? that is, and has been more and mere emphatically o( late, the question with every thinking man. And sure enough, if there be any trulh in. almanacs, if this is indeed the year 1849, and from side to side of Europe, '« lmposture," impotent speciosity, and the reign of red tape do lie hopelessly bankrupt, doomed to inevitable swift abolition, let what result soever follow, this <tu.et.lion of " How long?" it profoundly interesting ! For it means, What chance hay» vre, inexpreisedly favoured by Heaven with some respite, and space for repentance and amendment, to escape conflagration and destruction ? Time presses, the continually advancing peril presses : shall we use our time, slull we squander and misuse it ? Ireland is frightful ; the vanguard of an England, of a British. empire, ripening daily towards unfathomable issues, which the highest wiidom, and heroic virtues, and manful veracities, such ns have long been asleep among vi, will be required to deal with : Ireland is frightful ; but Ireland is by no means tbe fiighfulhst. A chief Pilot of the Nation; steering his ship, on these teuns r in such a condition of the elements, he is properly the frightful phenomenon. " Starboard, larboaid Il'I 1 ' there stands he, in his old pea-jacket, with his old official equanimity, Foreign Oifice lantern hung ahead— and steers and veeis, now clear of the Disraeli Scjlla on. this hand, now of the Cobden Charybdis on that ; and thinks the sea is a little knotty, and squalls are out ; but hope* confidently the weather must mend, asks you meanwhile by the look of his eye, If the steering is not good? The unhappy mortal I and smoke it iisuimj lrom every porthole ; and before long, with, this steerage, there will be news for him and us ! Such a phenomenon of a steersman, he, I say, is the alarming one. Placid commonplace, and the thing is not "|common;" the thing is huge and new, and springs from the foundations of the world ; and will not have become "common" till after stienuous generations have spent themselves to subdue it for us I New »ras, changed circumstances,— universal Bankruptcy of the Imposture, beneficent Doom of the Potato,— do actually come ; the world's history since its creation, i* that of their coming. Recognize them ; look with, man's eyes into them ; they, too, can be dealt with,, they, too, ure blessings of the Supreme Power. Loo Iwith poor pedant spectacles into them : recognize them not, pass on as if they were not, they will make you know that they are j they will grind you to pieces ;i you do not get to recognise them, and to conquer them too I The routine steersman, in this extremelj unusual condition of the ship, he—what shall we do> with him ? The French papers said last year, he felt tbe fatigues of office disagree with him, and was about to " retire from public affairs a (out Jamais. " A taut jamais, for ever and a day," laid the French editors I He really ought to consider it ; and we. For tbe time is moit uncommon, singular as any we have bad these thousand years or more : and really, if England have a distinguished constructive talent, equal to conquering the uglieit jungles yet met with ; and be, as somebody has sulkily said, " the biggest leaver in this sublunary creation,"-*we may ask with considerable interest, is this gentleman ia pea-jacket, then, who steers in this extraordinary manner, ib he the living emblem, solemnly selected representative, practical focus, and working overseer of your English constructive faculty h The consummate flower of what you can do in the constructive line, at present, is this ? You have had Crornwells, Longshank Edwards, Henry Plantagenets, Wilhelmus Conqueims j not to. mention. Arkwrights, Brindleys, Shaksj cares, Samuel Johnsons s and this is what, in the progress of ages, you have finally got- to? This; and, buried under continents of tape-thrums, dead traditions, and long accumulated cobwebs, you cannot find a better than this ; — and it is the year 1849; and " Imposture," everywhere in open bankruptcy, is rushing towards the Abyss! Does the idea, if not of suicide, at least of calling in the lawyers and settling your earthly affairs, nsver occur to you ? Sir Robert Peel's speech we take rs prophetic— and otherwise, or in the form of a project or practical proposal, at this vague incipient stage, we are not called to consider it ;— sura prophecy that tha baneful disgraceful empire of red-tape and imbecile routine in this matter, has become intolerable to gods and men, and is to end before long : that whosoever pretends to govern England or Ireland henceforth, must look out for other methods, or piepare to take himself away— the sooner the better! Truer message, we venture to say, or more beneficent and indispensable, hai not been uttered in any Parliament this long while past. In the name of all that is real and not imaginary in England, we joyfully accept the omen I C. [The reader will not have needed the initial '< C." to identify the author, whose signature is stamped on every line of this contribution. We would only point to a remai kab-le conjunction of circumstances in regard to its subject. Not only does it present the most recluse of our philosophers coming forward to bear the testimony of perennial history in aid of the most practical stateiman of our d*y, but it presents the biographer and vindicator of Cromwell concurring with ibe four quarters of Ireland in hailing the dawn of statesmanship after the dark age of that unhappy island. England and Ireland, Ulster and Munster, O'Connell and Cromwell, the House of Commons and the Heroworshipper, are in conjunction in the House of Peel ! It is an omen ! does the Member for Tamworth act under a spell ?]

Mr. Jam's Douglas, chief factor of the Hudion'g Bay Company, had received the temporary appointment ot Governor of the proposed settlement at Van* couver's Island. The Olympic Theatre, in London, was totally de. stroyed by fire on the 27th March. The scenery, properties, &c, were to have been insured ths day after the fire took place. The building wai insured for £3000 ; but the loss, owing to the above circumstance, amounted to £2 JOO. The Fbancitisb. — The London Timei declare! tha houiehold suffrage must be conceded before parliameu tary reform can end. A. lignificant avowal io mgh ft quarter.