OLD ENGLAND AND NEW ENGLAND. CHAPTER I. A WORD OR TWO ABOUT IRELAND, AND ITS UTILITY IN AMERICA -THREE THINGS TO AVOID IN LIFE-DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EMIGRATION AND PROCREATION-THE SHORTEST WAY OF BECOMING AN AMERICAN CITIZEN-THE VIRTUE OF AN OATHA REAL LAND OF LIBERTY-A COUNTRY FIGHTING AGAINST ITSELF THE DIFFERENT CHARGES FOR ONE MAN THRASHING ANOTHER-THOMAS FRANCIS MEAGHER-HIS OWN ACCOUNT OF HIS RETURN FROM TRANSPORTATION-THE EXACT VALUE OF PATRIOTISM-THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER-DRAFT TO BE SWALLOWED EVERY OTHER HOUR IN AMERICA-INGREDIENTS FOR MAKING A REBEL A HIGHLY-GIFTED CHAMPION. Ir would be a difficult thing to say anything new about Ireland, on this side of the Atlantic. VOL. II. B From the memorable day when, according to the old saw, 66 By the ford of Brig and Bunn Ireland was lost and won," until the present hour of locomotive celerity, when A journey to Ireland now through the Tubular Is as short as a trip to the old Norwood New Beulah. there has been little change, unless it be for the worse. We may apply to this lovely land the exquisite apostrophe addressed to that of the East, a spot "where all but the spirit of man is divine;" and there is no mistake about it. We have no intention of following up Thomas Moore's native and natural illustration that it is the "First flower of the earth, and first gem of the sea," ; yet we are willing to admit that it is one of them but why it should be called the Emerald Isle, unless it be from the greenness of so many of its inhabitants, it would be difficult to determine; for there are other islands quite as verdant, and some even more so. All this, however, is matter of opinion, not worth while stopping to talk about. It is an enchanting part of creation for the eye to gaze upon, but not equally so for the body to dwell in. The outcry of Ireland is, the misrule of England— a natural sequitur, that they who could not and cannot govern themselves, invariably object to the domination of others. The mystery, if there be any in the matter, is easily solved: they are priestridden to the highest degree, and credulous to the last degree; and then, being gifted with faith to a much greater extent than with common sense, they easily become victims of a false belief. That extensive portion of the community coming under the denomination of the lower classes, have been humbugged with an impression that they are "the finest pisantry" under the sun; and having had the cry of freedom thrust into their ears by the sophistry of oration, and the blandishment of poetry, from all their gifted speakers and writers, they hold industry at an alarming discount; and though they certainly can dig, they infinitely prefer to beg. Their defunct mouth-piece lost sight of that rhapsody of Brutus, or at all events paid no attention to it: "By heaven! I had rather coin my heart, And drop my blood for drachmas, than to wring and thus, between the priest and the orator, being "eased" of what little an ordinarily slothful nature may have amassed, they ruin their country by remaining in it, and endeavour to ruin it still more by running away from it. Their importunity may awaken, as it incessantly does, the best sympathies of the sister country, but their ingratitude blunts the very feelings which unceasing solicitation excites. That Ireland has possessed, and still possesses, some of the most gifted men under the sun, admits of no dispute; but their patriotism has ever been a huge mistake; it has never proceeded from a love of country, but from love of self; and the pursuit of a different line of conduct in all their silly movements-miscalled popular—would have solidly benefited the empire they have so often aided to dismember. From their first to their latest attempt at emancipation from that rule their forefathers originally solicited, all their movements have had individual aggrandizement in view; the most recent instance of which we shall by-and-bye refer to. If advice could be of any avail to the misguided people whom the doctrines of such advocates go so far to direct, we should impress this axiom on their memories: "Take heed of an ox before, an ass behind, and A MONK on all sides." The attempt of the Irish to ruin their country by running away from it, is becoming every day more and more demonstrated, the tide of emigration flowing on with resistless force, and its current setting in principally towards America. Alarming as the state of the last census of Ireland appeared to be, we shrewdly suspect the condition of the next one will tell a more lamentable table. The population of that large portion of Great Britain is month after month perceptibly thinned-a fact in itself bad enough; but when it is recollected that this draft of people goes to swell the numbered (not yet numberless) inhabitants of another empire, the case becomes infinitely worse. The reader is unusually astounded when he is frequently told, that the population of such or such a place in the United States has doubled itself in the incredibly brief space of ten years, and he begins to think what a procreative set of people the children of Jonathan must be; but he forgets all the while that immigration, and not procreation, is the grand contributor to this extraordinary exuberance. The extent of this immigration, and the consequences arising, and that may arise, out of it, can only be adequately adjudged by a residence in the immediate scene of action. In an earnest desire to populate their comparatively uninhabited country, the Government of the |