English middle classes are quite sick of the O'Connell alliance, and frightened at its probable consequences. The most influential, even of the "movement" journals, which depend on the public for support, and have no direct communication with the government, find themselves obliged to qualify their support of ministers, and to denounce as odious and abominable, the revolutionary schemes of Mr. O'Connell. It is not an exaggeration to say, that England pants for a release from that

man.

The ministers cannot go on unless they draw some broad line of demarcation between O'Connell and themselves, and if they venture upon this, what chance have they of a continuing majority of even thirty-five, in the House of Commons?

At this time we write, a general impression prevails throughout Europe, that the movement ministry of England must fall very shortly after Parliament meets, if indeed it should survive until then. It is well known that at the Court of England, the English ministers are no favorites. They have thrust themselves into office, and affect to hold the privileges of servants of the king, by virtue of the will of the people. The very fact of their being in office at all, is a perpetual violation of the constitution. It is upon the yet lingering necessities of a quasi revolution

that they stand, and this they know themselves, and yet pretend to be loyal servants of the king, and men of honor! It is all but impossible, that under the present disposition of the public mind, this can long continue. The Continental Courts know this, and rejoice, for in all the important European Courts (not exceptiug that of France) the Whig ministers of England are detested. Even monarchs who succeed by revolution, do not wish to encourage it beyond the point which has served their ends. When the ministers of any monarchy continue to patronize revolution beyond the time that state expediency might prompt timid or cunning politicians to yield to its influence, it is clear that faction or folly, has turned them to something else than faithful servants of the crown.

We believe there is a disposition at the present time towards conservatism, which may be called European. The political explosion of 1830 has spent its force. Experience has produced its natural results, and the advantages of order above disorder-of government above anarchy, are beginning to be once more generally perceived, and acknowledged.

England partakes of this disposition as much as any other country, and the fruit of it will be an important modification or a complete change of the ministry.

EVERY thing indicates the speedy overthrow of the papal system in Ireland, except alone the conduct of our rulers. It is just crumbling to decay, and would, ere this, have fallen to pieces, had it not been for the external corroborants by which it is coopered up, as it were, and kept together, for the purpose, as it would seem, of exposing the presumption, and chastising the wickedness of the empyrics and the infidels, by whose nostrums its existence has been unnaturally protracted.

The late disclosures before the Carlow committee, and the various other committees appointed to enquire into the intimidation practised at the Irish

elections, have now convinced every body of the mischief of such a seminary as Maynooth for the education of Romish ecclesiastics. We know well the plausible grounds upon which it was first established, but us they never deceived. We were, from the first, convinced of their futility. The absurdity of taking popery out of an atmosphere in which it must droop and perish, and putting it into a hot-bed where it must flourish with a rank luxuriance, was too palpable to suffer us to approve, for one moment, of a scheme which yet, to many of the wise and prudent, seemed one of consummate wisdom. And results are now fast

vindicating our long expressed conviction, insomuch, that there are very few indeed who advocate the continuance of Maynooth upon any other principle than that it is established; and who do not regret the encouragement that has been given to it, as a grievous instance of oversight or infatuation.

The various controversies that have arisen of late years in this country have all had a tendency to disabuse the minds of many amongst the Roman Catholics, of the errors which they had imbibed in the church of Rome. It is not possible for a scripturally informed and awakened Protestant to behold the grievous state of spiritual bondage in which bis benighted fellow countrymen are held, without an effort for their enlargement. This effort may not always be made in the most judicious way; and, therefore, the results most desirable are not those which will always be produced; but as it is usually made with great sincerity, so it seldom fails to be attended with signal advantage.

The preacher or the writer may, for a long time, appear to be preaching or writing in vain;-at most, some half dozen apparent conversions may seem to be the only reward of his labours; but he is altogether unaware of the silent impression which has been made upon numbers who are slow to avow their convictions, and also upon numbers who give admission, for the first time, to statements of divine truth, and are only, after a considerable period, awakened to the effect which they have had in promoting their spiritual emancipation.

The blustering voice of the swaggering bigot may appear, at the time, to be omnipotent in silencing the mild apologist of divine truth, as it is revealed in the word of God. But the thoughtful hearts of many of the hearers will not fail to contrast the earnestness of the evangelist with the dogmatism of the angry inquisitor; and the instances are numerous in which the comparison has led to the happiest effects, and been the blessed means of taking numbers of our poor countrymen "out of darkness into the marvellous light of the Gospel."

There is no doubt that these results would be vastly more numerous than they appear, but for the system of

terrorism which at present prevails, and which would almost seem to be directly countenanced by his Majesty's government in Ireland. At present, to depart from the visible communion of the church of Rome, would be to court, ostentatiously, the most unrelenting persecution. The Roman Catholic who changes his religious opinions, and connects himself with the Established Church, (for he may become an infidel with impunity, provided he remain in the visible communion of the church of Rome,) will have reason to consider himself fortunate if he escape without the loss of life or limb, and can, by no means, calculate upon an exemption from the most stinging obloquy, and the most envenomed vituperation. He will be a marked man. The faithful will consider it a mark of piety to do him all manner of injury. By his defection he has dishonoured their church, and they feel as if they were establishing an additional claim to the favour of God, by the persevering hatred with which they regard him.

The enlightened Protestant people of England can form but a faint idea of the "odium theologicum" as it prevails amongst the popish inhabitants of this unfortunate island. The nearest ties of kindred suffice not to protect the individual who has renounced the Romish creed from the vengeance of his angry relatives whom his supposed heretical pravity has offended. Powerful must be the conviction, and strong the resolution, of the man, who can bring himself to encounter the reproaches of upbraiding friends, and the menaces of deadly enemies. And, when we consider the accumulated temporal inducements to stifle their sentiments, and persevere in a false profession of attachment to an unscriptural church, by which the great mass of the Roman Catholic community must be, more or less, actuated, our surprise is, that such numbers should have had the courage to avow and to act upon more enlightened views, and even to glory in the sufferings which they endured for the Gospel.

And that number is steadily increasing. Only let the system of terrorism be put down ;-only let an equal protection be extended over all the members of the community; and let it be as free for Roman Catholics to make a profession of Protestantism, as it is for

Protestants to attach themselves to the church of Rome ;-and, in a very few years, the Romish superstition will be extinct in Ireland. It is at present sustained by a systematic and terrible intolerance, such as could only be paralleled by citations from the blackest pages of the history of the inquisition. The priests themselves are conscious that there is something precarious in the tenure by which they hold their power. The spirit of the age has been making inroads upon their domain; and, therefore, it is, that they have had recourse to political stimulants, for the purpose of exciting and re-invigorating the dormant or flagging orthodoxy of their people. They plainly saw that the old accustomed theological nostrums were by no means sufficient to arrest the contagion which threatened their flocks, from the efforts of the zealous missionaries by whom they were invaded. And therefore it was, that they engrafted upon the priestly office the functions of the agitator, that, by availing themselves of the mixed religious and political antipathies of those whom they addressed, they might, by their united influences, protract the term of their tottering domination. And they have succeeded for the present. The stimulant has produced the desired effect. The almost lifeless and stiffening form of popery has been excited and agitated by a species of convulsive and spasmodic vitality, which gives it, to the superficial observer, an appearance of vigour which it did not before possess. But those who look more closely at it, can perceive the hectic flush which indicates the fever by which it is consumed, and they are persuaded that the fatal collapse will not long fail to follow the preternatural excitement.

The exposures which have taken place respecting Dens's complete theology, have had a marvellous effect in enlightening the laity respecting the conduct of their spiritual guides. We were ourselves, in some measure, witnesses of the impression which was made upon the Roman Catholic members of the parliamentary committee to enquire into the nature and working of the Orange societies in Ireland, when the adoption of that pestilent ork as a text book was first disclosed. They were literally confounded by it.

All the ingenuity and audacity of Sheil and O'Connell failed to discover any plausible justification of a system which inoculates its votaries with obscenity, while it sanctions, and almost sanctifies fraud and falsehood, perjury and murder. Sheil hesitated not to pronounce it a most detestable and disgusting work, and O'Connell has since done all that he could do, to have it discredited and disavowed as a work of authority in the church of Rome. But all in vain. The formal and reiterated adoption of it was too recent and too authentic to be disclaimed. It was taken for better for worse, as the chosen guide of the Romish priesthood in this country; and, like the poisoned shirt of Hercules, it will cling to them until they are consumed.

The oath-breaking gentry in parliament have also done much to revolt the more sensitive and conscientious of their own persuasion. The individuals are not a few, who, like Mr. Eneas M'Donnell, received the boon of emancipation with a full intention of observing the conditions upon which it was granted. They feel that their honour has been compromised by the conspiracy that has been formed against the Established Church, and even their prejudices as Romanists have not been sufficient to prevail against their feelings as gentlemen, or their faith as Christians. Popery has, hitherto, maintained her dominion, by becoming all things to all men. With the liberal she could be liberal. With the superstitious and bigoted she could be exclusive and austere. And those who viewed her under one aspect only, were altogether unable to appreciate the more than Protean versatility with which, according as it served her interest, she could vary the forms under which she appeared. But, now that she is openly detected as the patroness of resistance to the law, upon the part of an insurgent peasantry, and glories in the conduct of the individuals who employ their parliamentary privileges in direct violation of their promises and their oaths, the numbers are not few nor inconsiderable who consider that it is high time to bethink themselves how much longer they should be responsible for its iniquities, or identified with its abominations.

The footman of the celebrated Nel

a

Gwynn appeared before her one day with a black eye. Upon being questioned by his mistress how he got it, his reply was, that he fought with a fellow in the street, who had presumed to call her a —. 66 Oh," said the facetious lady, "never mind that; if you fight with every one that calls me by that name, you will have to fight with all England.” Ay, that may be," the fellow muttered as he retired, "but they shall not call me footman. So it will be with all Roman Catholics who have a character to lose. They will not endure the scorn and the indignation which the oath-breakers have brought upon the whole party. They may not, all at once, bring themselves to break off from them; but most anxious are they to slip away unperceived; and the time is not distant when the agitator, who at present counts upon their attachment, and cheers them on, will look behind him, and find himself deserted.

Indeed we do not hesitate to hazard the assertion, that nothing but the political position of Mr. O'Connell could at present enable him to withstand the torrent of odium which has been excited by his misdeeds. There are multitudes who know his baseness, and deplore his wickedness; who believe him to have been guilty of fraud, of falsehood, and of perjury; but who yet hesitate to give expression to their convictions, seeing that he plays the part of viceroy over his Majesty's ministers, and holds in his hands, in a manner, the destinies of this great empire. Glad would they be, at any reverse of fortune by which the popular idol might be humbled; but until the fickle goddess shakes her wings and fairly leaves him to his fate, they are not desirous of provoking their fate by any disclosure of sentiments which might provoke the great man's indignation. 'Tis true, he humbugged the people of Carlow, and cheated Raphael out of his two thousand pounds! But then upon his fiat depends the existence of the present administration.

"Tis

true he has violated all the courtesies of society, and applied to the brother of his sovereign epithets, by the use of which the veriest ruffian would be degraded. But then he is the confidential adviser of the Irish executive, and the favorite guest at the table of

'Tis

the representative of the king. true, he has vilified the Duke of Wellington, and denounced the House of Lords. But then he commands about forty votes, all, like himself, good men and true, and without whose aid the ministry must be constantly outvoted. Thus it is that his position is a set-off against his character; and that vices and offences, personal and political, such as would, ten thousand times over, damn any ordinary man, are only, as it were, the glittering carbuncles which ornament his factious elevation.

O'Connell is the strength of ministers, and he is also their weakness. He is the prop of their power, and, at the same time, the rock of offence upon which, it may be, before long, they are destined to break and to perish. England is every day becoming more and more aroused to the degraded condition in which the government of this great empire has been reduced, by the portentous alliance that has been formed between the unprincipled Whigs and Irish papists. The moral and reflecting people of Great Britain cannot contemplate, unmoved, the sacrifice of the Irish church, and the sufferings of the Irish clergy ;-nor will they, any longer, be consenting parties to the immolation of the blameless and noble victims which are so clamorously demanded by the minotaur of bigotry and agitation. The statements which have been made before them by our able advocates have not been made in vain; and a change has been wrought in the convictions of many who were, before, but too ready to yield to the Whigs an unsuspecting confidence, in virtue of which it may be said, that the days of a profligate ministry are numbered. The moral guilt and the political debasement of Lord Melbourne's connection with O'Connell is now seen in its true light. The parties have had "ample room and verge enough" to exhibit their real character in all its noxious and disgusting deformity. Those who have been deceived, are now disabused, and will be deceived no more. And those who, from the first, saw the foul alliance as it should be seen, are cheered by the hope that the time is at hand when their righteous efforts to withstand the evils which it threatens, will be seconded by an overwhelming