IRELAND.
The progress of Ireland in material prosperity was obvious, and a source of gratulation to the empire. The moral progress of the country did not keep pace with its temporal advancement; in this respect the predictions of its best friends in parliament and in Great Britain were not fulfilled. Agrarian outrage was as common as in previous years, and the murderous riband conspiracy still dealt out slaughter, and held the good and peaceable in terror without any proper attempts on the part of government to put it down. The following remarks of the editor of the Annual Register were as true and just as they were pertinent and expressive of the facts:—“Many of the homicidal crimes in Ireland arise from motives which must be found in every society, and which therefore are not to be accounted as a peculiar reproach upon the natural character. Many of these foul deeds would not deserve any especial record, were it not needful that they should be noticed simultaneously with those more horrible assassinations perpetrated under the influence of a secret tribunal which has for generations been the curse of that unhappy land. Although the national prosperity of Ireland for some years back has been such as to alter the aspect of the country, it will probably take many years of content and good government—perhaps the passing away of more than one generation—to purge the land of the monstrous organization which keeps all men in dread.”