robes!

tower, arrayed in his ecclesiastical But, if there be a surplus population, ought there to be laws, to give encouragement to those who breed and who do not work? Ought such immense sums of the public money to be given to pensioners of all ages and of both sexes, that they may live in a state of ease and plenty upon the labour of others? Ought there to

Alas! my Lord, how little do Englishmen, of the present day, know about the means by which the thing called the Reformation was effected! They did not dislike the religion of their fathers. It took a good three quarters of a century of the cruelest of persecutions, to make them submit to have been sixteen hundred thou

sand pounds given to the poor Clergy of the Church of England? MALTHUus and all his hardhearted crew, tell us, that to give the labourer parish relief, is to encourage him to breed children whom he cannot support. How comes this argument never to have occurred to those who gave the sixteen hundred thousand pounds to relieve

that order of things, which transferred the Abbey of Wooburn and the Priory of Tavistock, from the church into lay hands. My Lord, little do the people in general know, and yet they ought to know, that the bayonet and the halter were the great converters. But is there one out of a thousand that dreams of such a thing, as that German and Italian hire- the children of the poor Clergy lings were brought over to assist of England ? Was not that also in the enterprise? Yet they a "premium for population," as ought to know it at this time, when it is called? Yes, and for popuEngland and Ireland are tasting lation, too, who never would work. of the natural and ripe fruits of Not a word do we ever hear the famous Reformation.

Coming back to the subject of enclosures. Great improvements upon Bagshot Heath. But, my Lord, go down to Bagshot, and into all the parishes lying round that Heath; and there any intelligent farmer will give you a detail of the ruin and misery which those enclosures have produced; a detail enough to wring the heart of any man of feeling. And what have your Lordship and your Committee to oppose to canses so powerful and so destructive as these? The Oundle Plan? And what have the MALTHUSES and SCARLETTS and Scotch Economists to propose as the means of counteracting these causes? When you talk of an increase of population, you forget the probable half million of small farm-houses and of cottages that have been swept from the face of the earth by this funding system.

about this increase of population: it is the labourers only that you find to be too numerous. It is they only that you fear to see increase; and, while we have this outery against the over populousness of the labouring classes, not a syllable do we hear, in the way of grumbling, against giving nearly six millions of pounds sterling a-year to what is called a deadweight. It is reasonable and just, that those who have really and truly served the country in arms, and served it to some effect, should have a provision made for them. But, is it wise, is it just, that if, for instance, an officer marry and have a family children, the country should be saddled with the keeping of his wife and children after his death! It is thought dangerous to give a labouring man a little relief, lest he should marry and breed children. But it is not

of

without materially affecting every part of the kingdom. That it may take place soon; that it may be just in its principles; that it may be productive of peace, cordial union, and strength and security, is the anxious wish of

thought dangerous to give six mil- tem approach very nearly to that lions a-year, or thereabouts, part of the West Indies, in point of of which, at any rate, must tend | discipline; but in Ireland some to increase population. To say great change must and will take nothing about the numerous stand-place; and it is impossible that ing army; to say nothing about such change should take place, the monstrous disadvantage of having an establishment of married parsons, can it be wise or just to bestow these six millions in this way? Amongst all the misfortunes of England, none is greater than that of having so many thousands upon thousands of married people maintained out of the public money, and breeding children who, it must be evident to every one, never will work. They are not only not bred up to work, but they are bred up in the firm JOCELYN-SCHOOLS. belief that they have a right to be maintained by the public.

Your Lordship's
Most obedient, and
Most humble Servant,

WM. COBBETT.

For mending the manners and saving the souls of the Irish.

I HAVE before me a printed report relative to these SCHOOLS. They are called the schools of the" LONDON HIBERNIAN SCHOOL SOCIETY." But, this is a stupid name. The head man of the concern appears to be the EARL OF RODEN, who has, indeed, recently been holding meetings in Ireland, in person, for the purpose of promoting the object of the Society. He is what we may call the acting man of the house; and, as his name is JOCELYN, and he is also the head of all Jocelyns, I shall call these, the JOCELYNSCHOOLS.

Would I sit in that House of Commons and hear all this talk about a surplus population; hear all this talk about checking the breeding of labourers, and not say one single word about these expensive encouragements to the breeding of idlers? I certainly would not; and, though I may hope in vain, I still will hope, that some man will be found in that House to put this matter in its true light, and to produce an alteration accordingly. Abuses go on for a long while with impunity to those who are the cause of them, but they do not go on for ever. Great military force keeps people down, but it does not pay the debts of a State. The labourers of England, being contented enough upon the score of religion, having always at hand some itinerant knave or other to cajole and entertain them, might probably go on a long while in their rags, hunger and thefts, of all The Jocelyn-school people sent of which there are great abun- over two Missionaries, a fanatic dance. The Rev. Mr. COLLETT of the name of NOEL, and a might possibly live to see the sys-crafty thick-skinned Scotchman,

Now, as to the real object of the Jocelyn-Schools, it is evidently to convert the poor Catholics to be Protestants. I shall have more to say about this object, and about the motives to it, another time. At present I have to record a Debate, the very best I ever read.

of the name of GORDON, a teach them obedience to the laws, Captain of the Navy! These men by teaching them to walk in the went to Cork, got a large meet- ways of God. In England the uting together, and opened their most anxiety prevailed for the recommission. But, they met; the ligious amelioration of Ireland, and and his friend had come amongst merits, not only of their inten- them, not with any idle anxiety to -tions, but of the two religions, were fully debated; and, if there ever were a triumph more complete than all others, the "religion of our fathers" gained that triumph here. The Scotchman was not spared. He had the lash well laid upon his thick skin. I have inserted the whole of the debate; and I shall return to the subject very shortly.

Defeat of the Missionaries of the LONDON HIBERNIAN SCHOOL

SOCIETY,

gratify a profitless curiosity, but for
the improvement of the moral na-
ture of the people, to which they
were solicitous to contribute their
humble exertions.
this great country ought to feel that
there could be no object more worthy
of their aimable solicitude than the

The ladies of

In the City of Cork, at a Grand Meeting of the Ladies' Auxiliary Bible Society, held in the County Court House, Cork, September the 9th and 110th, 1824.

instruction of the female portion of the community. Upon the virtue of a woman much of that of man depended, and the religious habits of the sex could not fail to exercise a salutary influence. The population of the county amounted to seven hundred thousand people, of whom it was just to presume that one half were females; and it was deplorable that out of that vast body so few enjoyed the benefits of education. In the promotion of this great work, they would evince a true and geTHIS Meeting was summoned for nuine sensibility. How many there the purpose of hearing the Hon. Mr. were who shed tears over works of NOEL and Captain GORDON, who are fictitious woe, and who failed to exMembers of the London Bible So- tend their emotions to any instance ciety, and have come to Ireland for of practical benevolence. They the purpose of promoting the objects should be influenced by a higher of that Institution, The Court-house motive than ordinary tenderness, was crowded with Ladies, and a and should draw their humanity

splendid and numerous assemblage of the Gentry of the County and City of Cork. JOSEPH DENAE FREEMAN, Esq. having been called to the Chair,

The Hon. Mr. NOEL said, that he had recently arrived in Ireland, and saw, with a feeling of deep anguish, the wretchedness, and the moral and physical degradation of the great body of the population. They exhibited a hideous and appalling spectacle. Their habitations were

from the sacred springs of scriptural religion. He had heard with pain, that out of the whole of the sum contributed by the ladies of Cork, for the diffusion of the holy writings, one sixth had been raised by a subscription at a ball. Religion should do more than fashion. Benevolence ought to be less a matter of taste than of duty. The Hon. Gentleman proceeded with great ability to enforce the necessity of founding education upon the basis of religion,

receptacles of filth, and their minds and of dispensing the Scriptures were utterly destitute of religious among the poor. Their first object instruction. The calamities of should be to make the people Christians the country, the spirit of violence -Christianity was the best gift that and tumult, and all the fatal con- could be conferred upon them, and sequences incidental to it, might its only source was in the sacred justly be referred to the absence word of God. The reading of the of religious education, which would | Scriptures had been opposed by prejudice, by scepticism, and by profli-posed to interrupt the proceedings, gacy. Experience had proved that had an opportunity of attending a as the virtues of the people of Eng- public meeting, to which however land arose from their familiarity they did not condescend to come; with the Scriptures, the vices of other but when a meeting was held for the

purposes with which they had no concern, and the Ladies of Cork were assembled to hear two Gentlemen from the English Bible Society, certain persons showed a singular alacrity in thwarting their proceedings. However, if they were heard, it was froin courtesy, and not upon any ground of right. He applauded the sentiments and language of Mr. Noel and his associate, in their great and good work. For his own part, he wondered how any man who believed

countries had arisen from their being denied the use of that holy light. The honourable Gentleman described the horrors of the French Revolution, which, he said, were to be referred to the spirit of impiety which was allied with ferocity. That revolution had been prepared by the mock-philosophy which made the holy writings the theine of blasphemous derision. Education without religion would prove rather an evil than a good, and he strenuously deprecated any system of instruction in the Scriptures could withhold which was not associated with the them from the people. Almost in perusal of the holy writings. In the very first passages of that holy them the poor would find true faith, book, and in the commencement of and the principles of genuine mora- the history of mankind, God had lity, illustrated by the light of heaven: given intimation of his will that his and those men were the enemies of word should be taught. He referred the happiness of their fellow-crea- to several texts, from which he artures, who sought to deprive them of gued that Abraham, Moses, and Dathe only real source of virtue here, vid had received the same injunctions and felicity in the other world. They to teach the law from the Bible; and could not do a work more acceptable that in the New Testament the same to God than by the propagation of principle is inculcated in the passages his word, and it must be a matter of relating to Timothy. The darkness. high gratification to them, that while that covered this country could not they were advancing the spiritual be removed, except by the general interests of their fellow-creatures, perusal of the word of God. There they were securing their own eternal was no other mode of rescuing the welfare. The Honourable Gentle- people from their hideous superstiman sat down amidst loud applause. tion. How disastrous was the igno

Captain GORDON, of the Royal Navy, rose after Mr. Noel, and spoke to a similar effect. He appealed especially to Scotland, (his own country) as an instance of the noble results of a moral and religious education, and referred to some passages in the Scriptures to show the impropriety withholding them from the people. Mr. DWYER Tose, and asked whether he should be permitted to make some observations in reply?

of

The CHAIRMAN said that the Meeting was private, but after some discussion on the right to speak, desired Mr. Dwyer to write a resolution if he wished to propose any.

Mr. KENNY said this was a Meeting in a great measure private, and that the gentleman who seemed dis

rance and barbarism that prevailed in Ireland, when a mother permitted her child to be trampled to death by a wretched man, who pretended that he was armed with divine authority, and had the power to perform miracles.

Mr.SHIELasked whether he should be allowed to make a few observations on what he had heard..

The CHAIRMAN said, if, Sir, you are a friend to the Society, you are entitled to speak.

Mr. SHIEL said, then, Sir, in one sense I am a friend to the Bible Society, and I shall evince it by an act of substantial friendship, in venturing to give you some honest, though it may possibly be mistaken advice.(Laughter, and cries of "Go on.")

2

Mr. SHIEL said, that when the for- Mr. Noel had pathetically lamented mer meeting was held, to which a the physical degradation and utter

wretchedness of the Irish people, and attributed both to the absence of scriptural education. Without comparing him to an empyric who would fain apply his own favourite remedy to every disease, he should remind him that the misery of Ireland arose from a vast variety of causes. He had just come from a country whose prosperity was the accumulation of

gentleman had adverted, he was not in Cork, and that upon that account he ought not to be considered as an overweening intruder upon their deliberations. They should not shrink from discussion, if it was carried on in a fair and mitigated spirit. The meeting was called private, but it exhibited singular evidence of privacy in the numbers by which it was attended. It concerned the public-a a thousand years. On the other great national question was involved hand, the wretchedness of Ireland in its proceedings, and it was the was the product of many centuries of right of every individual to remon- calamity. Mr. Noel had started at strate against a system by which the the contemplation of that wretchedinterests of the whole community ness-he, who was familiar with the were affected. He should studiously luxuries of the English cottage, naavoid giving offence to the religious turally shrunk from the miseries of sensitiveness of the ardent and lovely the Irish hovel. He would ask, whetheologians whom he saw assembled ther the vast diffusion of wealth, the around him. He regretted that some extent of commerce, the number of observations had fallen from those manufactures, and the equality of who preceded him, which reflected the people, had produced the riches upon the Creed of the Irish people; and the happiness of England; or at no time were controversial dis- whether her unparalleled greatness putations well calculated to promote was all owing to the reading of the the real interests of Christianity, Scriptures without note or comment? and they were peculiarly ill-adapted Had centuries of iniquitous misrule to the fair auditory whom he had accomplished nothing in the work risen to address. The religion of a of misery, of degradation, and of woman ought to be an impassioned guilt? If the Hon. Gentleman were meekness, and that sweet spirit better acquainted with Ireland, he which was typified by the dove, would soon perceive that it is upon the should spread its wings upon them, higher classes that his religious labours -while he entreated their forbear- ought to be bestowed. This amiable

itinerant would, in the course of his sacred peregrinations, soon discover that it was not in the smoke of the hovel, but in the blaze of the banquet,

ance, and that pity for human error that was akin to the love of heaven, he should take care not to abuse their indulgence. He had heard Mr. Noel with pleasure. He had that the precepts of the gospel ought given proof of high intellectual at- to be enforced-he would endeavour tainments, and there was in his zeal to impart the practical spirit of an internal evidence of sincerity. In christianity to the barbarous aristocraone sense only, was he an impostor, cy of Ireland, to civilize them into by practising a delusion upon him- pity-toconvince them that their wretchself. The Honourable Gentleman, and ed serfs are made of the same flesh and his Caledonian associate who had ma- blood as themselves, and belong to the nifested so much anxiety for the great brotherhood of men. With what spiritual welfare of the Irish people, indignation would he not behold and who was not only a Scotchman the system of merciless exaction but a Captain, deserved much praise adopted by the Irish landlord, which

for the motives which had induced is so widely at variance not only their religious excursion. The nau- with the principles upon which the tical Divine had combined the enthu- English proprietor deals with his siasm of his profession with the cha- tenant, and with the habits of his racteristic sagacity of his country. own great country, but utterly repug.