-when great numbers happen to be concerned in the result;-we say that, under such circumstances, it is quite reasonable in a journalist to consult even the vitiated taste or the culpable weakness of his readers;-it is natural enough that he, in such a case, would publish the matter that appeared likely to conduce to the sale of his paper. We quarrel not with the editors or owners of these papers for giving to the world the particulars of a prize-fight-they act but as the chroniclers of passing events; they observe and record them. We condemn them not for this, but we blame them for the extra interest which they appear to take in such matters: we blame them because they seem pleased with what they publish we condemn them because they, as directors of the national taste, have not endeavoured to turn it into a more laudable channel: we condemn them because, as guardians of the public morals, they have not sought to check the wanton career of brutal insolence, titled depravity, and vulgar ferocity.

When we see the press sanctioning-the people supporting-and the nobles of the land patronizing the recreations of the Ring'-we feel that our simple expression of disapprobation is a matter of little moment. Let our opinions, however, stand upon record: we have not disguised them: we look upon these recreations, and upon the general patronage which they receive, as forming one of the worst features in the character of our times. The practice of prize-fighting is almost peculiar to ourselves: it may be called an English vice; and, for the sake of our country, we feel sorry for being obliged so to denominate it. The advocates of the 'Science,' as it is called, have much to say in its behalf; but their arguments have never struck us as very forcible, or very likely to produce conviction.

We are told that the prize-ring is a sort of school for the development and the support of British bravery:' we are told that it is calculated to form the heroes who are hereafter to defend our homes, our property, and our rights. We learn this, and much more to the same effect; but who is

to be won by such reasoning? Our ancestors were never taught to study pugilism as a science before they marched to victory: our Irish and Scottish brethren are not the heroes or the patrons of the Fancy;' and yet we believe they have not been useless in the day of battle:-away, then, with all this idle varnishing! it can impose upon none; the prizering is simply a more open-a more popular-gaming-table: the feeling that prompts the vulgar pugilist and his titled patron is the thirst for money-the object of the one and of the other is gain. The high tone assumed by these despicable characters is ludicrous enough; but the prevalence of their sports, and the splendid support which they have received, and continue to receive, furnish rather a melancholy proof of the little progress which we have as yet made towards perfect civilization. It shows, after all, how little literature has been able to effect for the bulk of the people: we abound in literary works: we riot in wealth: we leave all the nations far behind us in the application of science to the purposes of life: yet the stranger, who might chance to hear the nature of our favourite recreations, would be almost justified in calling us a nation of plated savages-a community of lacquered barbarians-fair and polished upon the surface, with ignorance and ferocity lurking beneath.

We were on the point of mentioning executions as another species of public amusement in which numbers of our countrymen delight: there are many, we believe, who look upon exhibitions like Thurtell's or Fauntleroy's as treats of the highest order. This subject, however, is not to be sported with; he who could be merry upon such a topic must have less feeling than the monster who is said to have preserved Thurtell's skin. We have alluded, at the opening of this article, to the rat-killing amateurs; and to these we would earnestly address ourselves. To say that rational beings, that men enjoying the advantages of education, can calmly pay and sit down to see a given number of rats mangled within a given time-to hear that this has happened, and to know that it does

happen, is a matter that might excite our pity if it did not bring along with it a feeling of disgust. To these amateurs we would give a brief ad. monition: if they have wealth, we would tell them to expend it rationally if they have families, we would urge them to be cautious of giving

an evil example: if they have common sense, we would call upon them to use it if they have a respect for their own characters, we would whisper to them that the society of ratcatchers is not calculated to improve the minds or soften the manners of gentlemen. F.

WHEN men unanimously resolve to be free, no power on earth can prevent them; and it is a melancholy fact, that three-fourths of the world are in bondage, merely for want of the wish to be emancipated. Ireland has at length resolved not to continue silent under her wrongs, and to this national spirit we look with more confidence than to any other circumstance for the ultimate accomplishment of the people's rights. It is an indicative of success-a proof that Ireland deserves to be free.

are

On abstract principles we averse to all kinds of associations; they never fulfil their promises, and are frequently productive of individual and national calamities. But

Necessitas quod cogit defendit is perhaps a good political as well as poetical maxim; and we are firmly persuaded that the situation of the Irish Catholics, at the present moment, requires such a permanent body as the Association just formed in Dublin. On Wednesday, the 13th of July, the following plan of a New Association was adopted at an aggregate meeting. We give it insertion, as it is likely to become matter of history:

REPORT.

The Committee appointed by a general ballot, to consider, in pursuance of the resolution of the last aggregate meeting, 'whether there can be framed, without any violation of the existing law, a permanent body, to assist in the conducting or management of such portion of Catholic affairs as it may be by law permitted to have managed, without resorting to the too frequent holding of aggregate meetings, and, in particular, without in any way infringing on a recent statute,' have agreed to the following report:

The Committee have anxiously endeavoured to fulfil the duty imposed upon them. They have been deeply impressed, on the one hand, with the conviction, that the cause of the Catholics must retrograde, VOL. I.-No. 6,

and the calumnious imputations of their enemies increase in number, power, and effect, unless there be some permanent body, watching over Catholic interests, and taking care to maintain and preserve the station the Catholics have already attained, while it is not permitted to proceed further; and, on the other hand, we were, and are, unalterably determined not to suggest or advise any course, which could, with any degree of fair dealing or justice, be deemed any, even the slightest, infringement on the law. We are determined to obey a statute which we cannot respect, and to set to our countrymen the example of a dutiful and ready submission to that which is law, notwithstanding our conviction of the impolicy of its enactment.

We have, in fact, lately received from our Protestant fellow-countrymen such support as requires our utmost gratitude, and such advice as commands our ready and respectful obedience--we allude in particular to the advice of the illustrious noblemen lately assembled in London.They have recommended to the Catholics firmness, temperauce, and union; we place full and cordial confidence in them and in their councils, and we are resolved to merit their patronage and protection by the alacrity with which we ourselves submit at all times to the law of the land, and the zeal and activity which we shall ever display to procure a similar submission from all classes of our countrymen.

With these impressions, we have come to the determination to recommend to the Catholics of Ireland to conduct their affairs, in future, in strict obedience to the law, by managing, by means of a permanent Association, such portion thereof as has no reference to obtaining relief or redress, or any alteration of the existing code; but to reserve every thing that relates to petitioning for relief, or obtaining legal redress, or altering the existing code, to such separate or aggregate meetings, of short duration, as shall be in strict conformity with the

recent statute.

We therefore beg leave to lay before the public the following plan of a New Catholic Association, and to express our unanimous and fixed conviction, that it will not

20

in anywise violate or infringe upon any law or statute whatsoever:

PLAN OF THE NEW CATHOLIC

ASSOCIATION.

No. 1. As it is desirable that the proposed New Catholic Association should combine Irishmen of all religious persuasions, it is expressly declared that no persons professing any of the forms of religious faith, allowed or tolerated by law, shall be excluded therefrom; but, on the contrary, Christians of all denominations are invited to become members thereof.

2. No member of the New Catholic Association shall be required to take any oath, or make any declaration whatsoever,

3. To avoid the possibility of its being alleged, even by means of any perverse interpretation of the act of 6th George IV. cap. 4. that the New Catholic Association can come within the provisions thereof, it is expressly declared, that the New Catholic Association shall not assume, or in any manner, or by any means or contrivance, exercise the power of acting for the purpose or under the pretence of procuring the redress of grievances in church or state, or the alteration of any matters by law established in church or state, or for the purpose, or under the pretence, of carrying on, or assisting in, the prosecution or defence of causes, civil or criminal.

4. That the New Catholic Association shall not be composed of different divisions, or of different parts, acting in any manner separate or distinct from each other; and that there shall be no separate or distinct secretary or delegate, or other officer, elected or appointed by, or for any particular part, or authorized to act for any particular part; neither shall the New Catholic Association communicate or correspond; neither shall its constitution contain any provision for communication or correspondence with any other society, committee, or body of persons; neither shall it in any respect act in any manner inconsistently with the said statute of the 6th Geo. IV. cap. 4. 5. The New Catholic Association can and may be formed merely for the purposes of public and private charity, and such other purposes as are not prohibited by the said statute of the 6th of Geo. IV. cap. 4.

6. The first purpose of the New Catholic Association is, and shall be, that of promoting public peace and tranquillity, as well as private harmony and concord, amongst all classes of his Majesty's sub jects throughout Ireland.

7. The second purpose of the New Catholic Association is, and shall be, the encouragement and extension of a liberal, enlightened, and religious system of educa tion, founded on the basis of Christain charity, and perfect fair dealing.

8. The third purpose of the New Catho lic Association is, and shall be, that of ascertaining the number of the population of Ireland, and the relative proportions which the professors of the various Christian persuasions bear the one to the other; and in particular to ascertain the number of children of each persuasion, in a course of education.

9. The fourth purpose of the New Catholic Association is, and shall be, to devise the means of erecting suitable Catholic churches for the celebration of divine worship, and to procure and establish Catholic burial-grounds, wherein the Catholic dead may be interred without being liable to any species of contumely or insult.

10. The fifth purpose of the New Catholic Association is, and shall be, to promote all improvements in science, and in Irish agriculture, to encourage the consumption of Irish manufactures, and the extension of Irish commerce.

11. The sixth purpose of the New Catholic Association is, and shall be, to encou rage, as much as possible, a liberal and enlightened press, to circulate works calculated to promote just principles, and mutual toleration and kindness; and to vindicate the principles of the Catholics against the unjust and slanderous attacks daily made upon them.

12. The seventh purpose of the New Catholic Association will be, to prepare a detailed statement of the various charges made against the Catholics, in the petitions presented to Parliament during the recent sessions, and to publish authentic refutations of such charges in the places where they respectively originated.

13. That every person who shall think fit, on or before a day to be named, to pay the sum of one pound on his admission, shall be a member of the New Catholic Association; and after that day, each person paying one pound, and procuring one member to propose, and another to second him, shall also be a member.

The Committee having thus stated, affirmatively and negatively, the limits within which the New Catholic Association can and ought to act, deem it their duty to call the attention of the Catholics in general to those provisions of the statute of the 6th Geo. IV. cap. 4. which must restrain the sphere of the New Catholic Association, and render it necessary for the Catholics in general to seek for redress and relief through the medium of other meetings, and by the intervention of other instruments.

That most unconstitutional statute prohibits these two things:

1. The sacred right of petitioning for the redress of real and substantial grievances, in the only mode likely to be successfulnamely, by the intervention of a Committee

or Association of sufficient duration to be able to make useful, and, in fact, necessary arrangements.

2. The right of such Committee or Association giving any pecuniary assistance to the poor and oppressed, in order to enable them to punish, by the due course of law, their oppressors, it being obvious that, with out money, there can be little prospect of being able to take the measures necessary to obtain redress from any legal tribunal. Now, as the New Catholic Association cannot interfere in any way to procure redress from parliament, or the courts of law, and as the Catholics certainly suffer the cruelest oppressions, and the most unjust exclusions from the undoubted rights of British subjects, it is incumbent on them to adopt other means, altogether unconnected with the New Association, of preparing and presenting petitions to parliament; and also for preventing and punishing acts of individual oppression, and of party violence.

The petitions to Parliament must, of course, be altogether unconnected with the New Catholic Association, and must originate with, and be conducted by, general or aggregate meetings; which, as the law now stands, may be continued by adjourn ment for fourteen days, and no longer.

It is obvious that it would be impossible to arrange all the petitions necessary to be presented to Parliament during the ensuing sessions, in the space of fourteen days.

It is deemed advisable to have a petition presented from every parish in Ireland.

The country should be therefore taken separately by counties. There can, in point of law, be fourteen days given to each county separately and distinctly; but the business of petitioning for such county must be conducted by general or aggregate meetings, unconnected with the New Catholic Association; and such general or aggregate meetings can continue to sit for the petitions of each county during fourteen days, according to the provisions of

the statute.

Thus the New Catholic Association will have to attend to details in Catholic affairs, consistent with the duration of our present grievances, and with an acquiescence in our present sufferings.

The separate or aggregate meetings must and will seek for the redress of grievances, and the alteration of those matters in Church and State, by which we are oppressed.

The Committee further very earnestly recommend to the Irish people, to make the repeal of the said statute of the 6th Geo. IV. cap. 4. the first object of a petition to the legislature; and that such petition do state to the legislature the unconstitutional

and oppressive nature of that statute, and expose to Parliament the falsehood of the pretexts on which it was enacted.

The Committee further beg leave to suggest, that in the management of the future petitions of the Catholics of Ireland, care be taken to have our claims for relief brought before Parliament, and kept free from any extraneous matter, or any details on subjects of any other description, we being convinced, that the simple and single object of obtaining unconditional and unqualified relief from our disabilities, should be solely attended to as well by the Catholics themselves, as by their friends in Parliament.

The Committee have further agreed to the following resolution :--

Resolved, That the Committee of twenty-one gladly avail themselves of the present opportunity to return to Daniel O'Connell their marked thanks for the undiminished zeal and talent with which he has prepared the plan of a Report, for the formation of a new association.

Grenville Ffrench, chairman; Gormanston, Killeen, E. Preston, John Burke, O'Connor Don, Nicholas Mahon, C. M'Loghlin, James John Bagot, Daniel O'Connell, Nicholas P. O'Gorman, Wm. Murphy, Michael O'Brien, Richard Sheil, Philip Fogarty, Michael Bellew, Stephen Coppinger, George Bryan, Hugh O'Connor.-July 11, 1825.

It will be seen from the above that much extraneous matter is introduced; and perhaps it had been better if their sphere of action had been more limited. All bodies are weakened by expansion, and the more business the Association prescribe for themselves, the more imperfectly every portion of it will be done. Some of their objects, however, are quite unattainable; and, in a political point of view, absurd. Commerce, we are sure, will neither be retarded nor facilitated by any interference of the Association; and if, by

encouraging the consumption of Irish manufactures,' they mean, the domestic manufactures of the peasantry, we agree with them, though we cannot see in what way they are likely to effect it; but if they mean, as Mr. O'Connell hinted, to wear no cloth but that of the Irish loom, they will evince a strange want of prudence, and an ignorance of political economy not to be expected from persons of their information.

The first article in our Magazine

had been written before the proceed ings of the Catholics had reached us, or probably we might have entered more at large into the subject; but enough, we are persuaded, has been said to convince every thinking man that Ireland reaps as much advantage from a loom effectively employed at Manchesteras at Kilkenny; and, if any laws existed which did not make that the case, the sooner they were abolished the better. The time has passed when it was needful to put Swift's advice into practice-that of 'burning every thing that came from England but coals'-for, if England retaliated, Ireland would be in a bad way indeed.

It appears to have been forgotten, by those who talked about encouraging Irish manufactures, that, for the few yards of broad cloth Ireland takes annually from Great Britain, England pays full thirty per cent. more for the produce of Ireland* than she could import them for from other countries. The interests of these kingdoms are now the same the benefit of one is the benefit of the other and we hold the Irishman who would pay one shilling a yard more for cloth, because it was not manufactured at Leeds, a fanatic of the very worst species.

From the commencement of our publication we have endeavoured to impress upon our Irish readers one important truth-that the monster which oppresses them has many fangs, but only one head-that the penal laws are the Alpha and Omega of Irish grievances and that, by complaining of imaginary wrongs, they only divert public attention from the vital cause of their sufferings. Ireland is, indeed, a most unhappy country-perhaps the most unhappy in the world-but, remove the disabilities which affect her people, and show us, in Europe, a lovelier spot, or one possessed of so many real advantages. Let the Association, therefore, concentrate all their energy on one point-let them cease to talk idly about manufactures and absentees and hold up to the gaze of the world the chains which gall them. It is their fetters which pain

them-it is their disqualifications which make tyrants of their enemies. Remove these, and Orangemen will cease to insult, and Catholics cease to complain; unanimity will be restored, and Ireland will be happy.

The other objects of the Association perfectly coincide with the advice we ventured to give two months ago; and, though probably it is not in the power of any such constituted body to effect any of these in the way proposed, yet they must do all the good that can reasonably be expected from them under all the circumstances. They will keep their question before the public, and force that inert mass of prejudice which still exists in England into thought. They will compel the intolerant and the bigoted to examine the merits of their claims; and as John Bull, with all his faults, is rational, time and argument will convince him of their justice. It is to England the Catholics must look for emancipation; and only convince the British public that the real cause of Irish grievances is the penal laws, and they will soon strangle the faction which prevents their repeal. To this end we have laboured, and shall continue to labour.

It has been objected to the New Association, that they admit persons of all religions. This, in our opinion, constitutes one of their merits, and proves that they are not so much a religious as a national body; and we can see nothing inconsistent in a Protestant sitting down to vindicate Catholic principles. These objections have acquired some weight, in consequence of being urged by a man who was the fulsome eulogist of all the proceedings of the late Association: we mean Cobbett. Of this man's talents, as a political writer, there is but one opinion; and of his gross inconsistency and mean hypocrisy there is, in England at least, but one opinion also. The Catholics, contrary to their own notions, have profited nothing by the advocacy of this man; for he has long since ceased to possess any influence over the minds of thinking Englishmen. They regard him as a politi