been subjected to a twofold persecution--that of semi-barbarism, and
that of civilization also. The atrocities of the hybrid freebooters
that invaded her shores in the twelfth century, were not more
revolting than those which characterized her rulers six hundred years
subsequently, when they were engaged in founding educational
institutions, and printing whole cargoes of ten-penny Bibles, for the
purpose of pandering to the whims of the age, and doing honor to the
spirit of the royal Pacha who moulded his creed to his lusts, and
left his rottenness a loathsome legacy to his successors. Yes, the
wonder is, that she has survived all this, and, instead of falling
into the vortex prepared for her, now stands with her uplifted arm,
awaiting the propitious moment, when she can deal a final and
irresistible blow to the ingrate that, in days of yore, she had
warmed into intellectual life on her own hearthstone.

If there had been anything in the climate, soil, people or
geographical position of Ireland, to operate against her prosperity
as a nation, or calculated to retard her progress in any connection
whatever, there might be some misgivings in relation to the causes of
her poverty and degradation; but as the most reliable political
economists, and even those unfriendly to the Irish name and race,
admit that no such drawbacks exist, we look, of course, to the system
of government to which the country has been so long subjected, as the
source of all the evils that have so cruelly and pertinaciously beset
it. McCollough, Wakefield, Foster, and other English writers, bear
the highest testimony to the richness of its soil, the salubrity of
its air, and its other great natural advantages. Its harbors, bays,
lakes and rivers are among the finest in the world, while its
neglected mineral wealth is presumed to be all but inexhaustible. In
addition to this, it is stated by Dr. Forbes--one of the Court