THE MONTHLY CHRONICLE; A NATIONAL JOURNAL OF Politics, Literature, Science, and Art. VOL. VI. LONDON: LONGMAN, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS, PATERNOSTER-ROW. THE MONTHLY CHRONICLE. LORD POWERSCOURT ON THE STATE OF IRELAND. The Merits of the Whigs; or, a Warning to the People of England: drawn from the Evidence taken before the Committee of the House of Lords which sat last Session to inquire into the State of Ireland as respects_Crime. "Ex uno disce omnes." By a Member of the House of Commons. London: Fraser, Regent Street. 1840. As we propose to devote a considerable space to the examination of this pamphlet, we shall enter with the least possible delay upon the performance of the duty which we have undertaken. The writer of an article in Fraser's Magazine for last month informs us, that the pamphlet is the production of Lord Powerscourt; and as the pamphlet and magazine are both published by the same person, we suppose that we are justified in believing upon such authority that his lordship is the avowed author of the work. As, however, it is generally known that Viscount Powerscourt is now the son-in-law, having during his minority been the ward, of the Earl of Roden, who procured the appointment of the committee in question, and as Lord Powerscourt himself has no very special or personal interest in the subject, we think it may be fairly taken for granted that the pamphlet now lying before us has been put forward at the request, or at least under the inspection and with the approbation and assistance of Lord Roden, and that it therefore contains all that can be said upon that side of the case. It is evidently intended as a full exposition of the views and principles of the majority of the Lords' committee upon the subject in question; and we are happy in having at last an opportunity of entering upon a complete consideration of the entire of that important matter which is contained in the evidence taken before the committee; but "of which matter" the noble viscount very justly observes, that "the British public, at present, have certainly no idea whatever, as the evidence is so voluminous, embodied in so inconvenient a form, and encumbered with so much extraneous matter, as to render it impossible that it could receive on the part of general readers that attention which it deserves." To supply this defect in respect to matters "which are calculated most materially to open the eyes of our fellow-countrymen upon this side of the Channel to the real state of things in Ireland, as well as to the various causes and real authors of that state of things," the noble author of the pamphlet has thought, that it would "not be altogether unacceptable to those in whom is vested in reality, if not the sole, at least an overwhelming preponderance of power in the state," to bring the contents of the Report before them in a more concise and tangible form. In this appeal, which we suppose to be addressed to the people of England, we cordially unite, and once more beg leave to express our gratitude to the noble viscount for having thus boldly, however tardily, challenged the friends of the present Government to a complete investigation of the whole of this important subject. The principal topics to which attention is called in the pamphlet, appear to us to be the following: First. The sources and causes of crime in Ireland. |