controversy. Poland was without ports, and Lord Grey found more congenial employment in providing for a pensioner of the British government, by placing him on the throne of Belgium, and in chastising the insolence of the petty despot of Portugal, than in an extraordinary exercise of the power of England, which would have made her the arbiter of the destinies of Europe, restored the balance of power in the North, and placed his administration on an immoveable basis in the public mind The occasion was permitted to pass by unimproved. England and France both contented themselves with ineffectual remonstrances and intercessions, and Russia profiting as much by their neutrality now, as by their active assistance at Navarino, incorporated Poland as a part of her empire, and waited until a conjunction of. favorable circumstances might enable her to award the same fate to Turkey. The conduct of Portugal, however, afforded an opportunity for the display of more energy which was warmly embraced." The revolting cruelties and oppressions practised by Don Miguel, against those in his dominions who were suspected of holding liberal opinions, had not been confined to his own subjects. The English residents had rendered themselves particularly obnoxious, and his conduct towards them had been so insulting and oppressive, that their government determined to demand satisfaction. A fleet was accordingly despatched to the Tagus in the month of April, for the purpose of enacting redress, and Don Miguel, not being in a condition to make resistance, submitted to the terms prescribed by the British admiral. These consisted in the dismissal of certain civil and military officers, who had been complained of by the English residents, the dismissal of the judge conservate of Oporto, and the recognition of one elected by the British merchants in that city, a compensation and apology to an English traveller for interrupting him on his journey and compelling him to return to Badajos, to obtain a Portuguese signature to his passport, and a compensation of 20,000 reis per diem for the detention in prison of a person in the employ of an English ropemaker, and full satis-. faction of the claims of British subjects for certain exactions of the Portuguese authorities. This rigid enforcement of the rights f Englishmen when abroad, was in the highest degree honorable to the Grey administration, and showed a determination to extend the protection of the government to its subjects, however unwilling they might be to hazard a war for principles and interests, which though important in a national point of view, were perhaps regarded as more remote. Their conduct in this matter affords a good example for the government of the United States, which it is to be presumed, will not be lost sight of, in case any question should hereafter arise in relation to the unauthorised detention or ill usage of the citizens of this Republic, by the civil, military or naval officers of any other nation. The chief causes of embarrassment to the new administration, however, were to be found at home. The long pending controversy respecting the emancipation of the negroes in the West İndia colonies, had now arrived at that point when it became necessary for the government to take measures to carry its policy into effect; or so to modify it as to render it more acceptable to the planters. The wishes and orders of the secretary of the colonial department had been promulgated in vain; the resolutions of Parliament had produced no other effect, than that of alienating the colonists from the mother country, and affairs were brought to that crisis; that while the British government on the one hand, insisted on the colonial legislatures taking steps to meliorate the condition of the slaves, with a view to their ultimate emancipation; they on their part, wholly refused to adopt such steps, but insisted that they could only result in destroying their property, and in periling their lives, without the least tendency to improve the situation of the blacks. The responsibility of finally deciding this important question, was thus imposed upon the Grey administration, and so surrounded with difficulties was it, that it demanded their best faculties and most profound deliberation, to reconcile the demands of justice and the expectations of the British nation, with what was due to the safety of the planters and to the vested rights obtained under laws sanctioned for a long series of years by the government. After some deliberation, the ministry announced its determination to carry the system of emancipation into full effect; not suddenly, but with caution and with due attention to the education of the negroes, so as to prepare them for the enjoyment of freedom. The details of the system to be adopted, as whether compensation is to be made for the slaves, and in what mode they are to be raised from their present dependent and unenlightened state, to the condition of free agents, were not set forth; and with the exception of the declarations of the ministry, of its adherence to the policy of emancipation; and those of the colonists, of their unabated opposition to the whole scheme, the subject remained in the same state as when the Whigs came into power. 1 Another question requiring their immediate attention, was concerning the renewal of the charter of the East India Company. The time for the expiration of the present charter was fixed in 1834, but the company was entitled to three years notice in case it was not to be renewed. As a matter of form, the notice was given by order of the House of Commons on motion of Mr. Grant, and the great and important question whether, the industry of Great Britain and India is to be prevented from a free interchange of the productions of the respective countries, to gratify the cupidity of the directors and proprietors of the East India Company, is probable to be decided under the auspices of a Whig ad Ireland, too, that stumbling block to English statesmen, was most urgent in its claims upon the attention of the new cabinet. ministration. A strong feeling undertook to abolish subletting, has long prevailed throughout the and divided their estates into kingdom against the monopoly, farms of moderate extent. A and it may reasonably be pre- crowd of impoverished cotters sumed, that no Parliament repre- were thus ejected from their senting the opinions of the Eng- hovels, to exasperate the disconlish people, will consent to a re- tent of the country. No employnewal of the charter of a compa- ment was provided by the govny which has brought disgrace ernment, and the monopoly by upon the British name by the England of the commerce and misery and ruin that its oppres- manufactures of the united emsion and cupidity have inflicted pire, left them no resource but upon India. emigration-a resource of which, many from want of means, were unable to avail themselves. Besides the advantages, which the superior capital of England gave to that part of the empire, it enjoyed those flowing from the expenditure of the Irish absentees, who were computed to draw from Ireland £3,000,000 yearly for the maintainance of themselves and their families at a distance from their estates. A still larger sum (viz., 4,000,000,) was contributed by Ireland in the shape of taxes, towards the national revenue, which was mostly expended out of that island. The great naval depots, the public establishments, the government were all in England, and while in that island, there were 2,400 miles of canal, and 400 miles of rail-road; there were but 400 miles of canal in her less favored sister island. The misgovernment of that unhappy country, had exasperated the misery of the lower classes to that degree, that they seemed about to seek relief in anarchy. The union with England was at tended with two evils, which, by them at least, were deemed more than an equivalent for its advantages:-i. e., the fixing upon Ireland a church establishment, not consonant to the feelings of the country, and the removal of the government, and of the great landholders to the metropolis of the empire. By the absence of the landlords, the tenants were exposed to all the exactions of the middle men, and a subdivision of landed property was ultimately effected, which placed it in the hands of mere laborers without capital, and barely able to obtain from their small patches of ground, a scanty subsistence for their families. The island thus became overpopulated, until the landlords perceiving at length the evil, with the view of obtaining a more substantial class of tenants, Another drawback on the prosperity of Ireland, was to be found in the established church, and which was maintained at an annual expense of £1,785,000, of which £780,000 were derived from tithes. It was not, however, so much of the amount of this contribution (large as it was) that the Irish complained, as of the have produced and would have oppressive manner in which it justified a revolution; but it left untouched the great causes of discontent, the poverty and ignorance of the lower classes;-no employment was provided by government; no new manufacture established by capitalists ;— the process of consolidating the small patches of the cotters into substantial farms continued to go on ;-the abuses of the tithe system were not reformed;-the absentees remained abroad, and the government expended the public revenue, as it had always done, in England and not in Ireland. No sooner, therefore, were the disabling acts repealed, than the great political agitator (O'Connell) commenced an attack upon the union between the two countries. To those whose view only grasped the present moment, it was easy to represent the union as the great cause of distress, and, unfortunately for the harmony of the empire, there were too many proofs of the unfavorable influence of the policy of England upon the prosperity of Ireland. was collected by the proctors to whom the tithes were formed, and whose fees and expenses often quadrupled the amount of the original tithe. The injustice of making a population of which five-sixths were Catholics support a Protestant church, exasperated the minds of the poorer classes, and at the same time that by the abuses of the system they were stripped of the last farthing. In the southern and western counties the inhabitants are nearly all Catholic-in many of the counties being in the proportion of twenty to one Protestant, and in some parishes where the church exactions amount from £600 to £1000, the whole number of Protestants belonging to the parish does not exceed a dozen. As the hearers are few, the cares of the preacher are small, and sinecures and pleuralities thus form a peculiar characteristic of the Irish church. In no country in modern Christendom are the ecclesiastical abuses and burdens greater than in Ireland, and in no country is there less ability to endure them. These combined causes had produced a state of distress and discontent there, which was continually demanding relief at the hands of the government. In the vain expectation that the concession After travelling through Irewould be sufficient, the late ad- land, to rouse the country to exministration had granted Catholic ert itself in favor of a repeal of emancipation. This, however, the union, O'Connell made his produced no alleviation of the public entry into Dublin, in the evils afflicting Ireland. It re- latter part of December, 1830, moved a strong and substantial and was received with an enthuground of complaint,-a cause of siasm which indicated the popular excitement, that in itself might feeling to be with him, and The dissolution of the union, accordingly, soon became a popular topic, and large meetings were held in various counties to urge the subject upon the favorable consideration of Parliament. afforded a striking proof of the oppressive and short-sighted policy of the British government towards Ireland. The trades of the metropolis to the number of 50,000 marshalled under banners, met him at his entrance, and accompanied him to his residence with every demonstration of respect; and after an address from him against the union, separated in the most orderly manner. In the country, too, a strong excitement prevailed, and the lower classes and a majority of the middling classes everywhere, except in Ulster, were warmly in favor of a dissolution of the connexion with England. On the other hand, the nobility, the land proprietors, the more important mercantile interests, and the members of the learned professions were as strongly opposed to it; and the people of England of all parties were equally hostile to the dissolution of a connexion which they had found both convenient and profitable, and which they deemed highly important to their domestic tranquillity. The movements of Mr. O'Connell were accordingly vigorously opposed by the government; all meetings in favor of a repeal of the union were prohibited as seditious, and the magistrates of the several counties were enjoined to disperse all such assemblies. A warfare somewhat ludicrous now commenced between Mr. O'Connell and the Irish government the former proposing from time to time new associations and meetings in the place of those prohibited, until the contest was finally brought to a close by the arrest of the agitator and four of his chief coadjutors. Legal proceedings were then commenced, and the difficulty was finally adjusted by a compromise-Mr. O'Connell pleading guilty to the informations filed against him, and the government directing the judgment to be suspended. The agitation on this subject was thus checked, and indeed the absorbing interest felt by all classes in Ireland, as well as in England, for the fate of the reform bill, (which had now come before Parliament,) rendered it impracticable to keep alive any minor excitement. The distress which was at the bottom of this excitement, however, augmented rather than diminished, until it prevailed so as to resemble more a visitation of Providence, than any result of the misgovernment of man. In some of the more populous districts of the island, the most appalling pictures of famine were presented by the starving peasantry. In Dublin itself, 6000 persons were found in one parish consisting of 25,000, in a state of actual want, and in many houses full grown children were found huddled together in corners of rooms, in order to preserve the warmth of their naked bodies. In the counties of Donegal, Sligo, and Galway, more than 100,000 persons were estimated to be in a state of starvation and destitute of every necessary of life. The people on the sea coast were obliged to resort to sea-weed to eke out their scanty subsistence, and in the mountains the most unwholesome food was eagerly |