capital in land in Ireland, by men who, if society were better arranged, would not hesitate so to vest it. I think, therefore, it would be the duty of the Legislature to open wider the prospect of usefully employing capital in Ireland; to give greater facilities and encouragements to the investments of capital; to hold out inducements to men to settle in that country, by preparing for them a quiet and well-ordered population.

"But these preparations cannot be made by the natural force of things, but to produce them it is necessary that the Legislature should interpose. Again, there are a great many persons, some of whom I know personally, and many by character, who are at present absent from Ireland; men of limited fortunes, who are invited by the luxuries and ease and the improved state of society in foreign countries to be absent. If those persons were threatened with an assessment upon their property, such threat would urge them upon one side, whilst a better system of society existing at home would invite them upon the other; and those two causes thus operating, would, no doubt, produce the effect of leading those men both to dwell at home, and to invest capital in that country which they now desert.'

There is another benefit, no less important, to be derived from the introduction of poor laws in Ireland, which the politician and the Christian are equally interested in obtaining for my unfortunate country, and that is, the associating together of Protestants and Catholics in the holy offices of charity, and in fulfilling the commands of our Blessed Redeemer by administering to the necessities of our fellow-creatures, no matter the form of religion which they have been taught. The instance detailed at questions 4500 and 4501 of the evidence shews the value of such spiritual communion.

"There is one more view of the question as to the necessity of immediately introducing poor laws, which, however desirous I may be to compress these pages, I cannot avoid adverting to; it is the rapid, the frightful, the appalling-physical as well as moral-degeneration of the poor of Ireland. Dr. Doyle stated to the Committee (and thousands can corroborate his assertion), that "at a period within his recollection the labouring men in Ireland were much more manly-much more strong-much more animated, and altogether a better race of people than they now are. I recollect, when a boy, to see them assemble at public sports in thousands, and to witness on such occasions, exhibitions of strength and activity which I have not witnessed for some years past, for at present they have not either the power or the disposition to practise those athletic sports and games which were frequent in our country when I was a youth. Moreover, I now see persons who get married between twenty and thirty years of age; they become poor, weakly, and emaciated in their appearance; and very often, if you question a man and ask him what age he is, you will find he has not passed fifty. We have, in short, a disorganized population, becoming by their poverty more and more immoral, and less and less capable of providing for themselves; and we have, besides that, the frightful, and awful, and terrific exhibition of human life wasted with a rapidity, and to a degree, such as is not witnessed in any civilized country upon the face of the earth.

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"4529. If human life be wasting with that rapidity, how do yon account for the circumstance of the population being augmenting with a greater rapidity than that of Great Britain ?—I do not think that the wasting of population in the manner described is a very considerable check to the multiplication of the species; because, when a child is taken away, or an old or a young man dies, there is room, as it were, made for another; and as we find that in countries sending their children to found colonies, that such drain for the purpose of colonization, if there be no other check, instead of diminishing augments the population of the mother-country, so in like manner that waste of human life, in the manner that it takes place in Ireland, does not retard the multiplication of the people. However, the children begotten by the poor in that state of society to which the question refers, become of an inferior caste; the whole character of the people becomes gradually worse and worse; they diminish in stature; they are enervated in mind; the whole energy and character of the population is gradually deteriorated; till at length you have the inhabitants of one of the finest countries in the world reduced to a state of effeminacy which makes them little better than the Lazzaroni of Naples, or the Hindoos on the coast of Malabar." ! ! ! * '

Mr. Martin admits, (and the admission is an important one in all its bearings,) that, since the Union, a progressive improvement has taken place in Ireland, as regards the landed gentry, the farmers, the merchants, and the traders and shopkeepers. In fact, the wealth of the church and of the landed proprietors has been prodigiously increased by the extension of tillage; but the mass of the peasantry have meanwhile been only sinking the lower into abject and helpless poverty. From this, Mr. Martin remarks, no suppression bill, no coercive measures, no cutting down of the over-grown church, no amendment of the grand jury laws, no modification of the law of tenant and landlord, no absentee tax, no repeal of the Union will relieve them ;—although, with the exception of the last, and of the temporary measures for repressing brigandage and predial agitation, each of these measures would be of important benefit. But that which alone will draw together the bonds of civil society in Ireland, and make the property of the absentee effectually tributary to the general prosperity of the country he has deserted, is a legislative provision for the relief and employment of the labouring classes.

After disposing of the objections against such a measure, Mr. Martin, in his fourth chapter, briefly explains the modifications in the system of settlement, assessment, and relief, which he deems desirable, in application to Ireland. He proposes, in the first place, to make birth the sole ground of settlement; and, to carry the law into effect, suggests that a general registration should take place throughout the island. Secondly, the rate or

* Evidence before the Select Committee, 4th June 1830.

assessment should be levied, not, as in England, upon industry, but upon real property, and be kept distinct from county, highway, or church rates. Thirdly, to guard against abuses in the administration of relief, no money should be paid to the pauper.

'Ireland contains 5,000,000 acres of reclaimable bog land, is in want of roads and canals, &c., and by having large houses of industry built in every city, corporate town, or barony, abundance of labour can be provided for those who must merely receive in return bare subsistence. The plan of the house of industry at Liverpool, which is capable of containing 1,500 paupers, is well worthy of adoption; taking care to have a large piece of land with each establishment, and dividing the house into an asylum for the aged and maimed, and a temporary shelter for the houseless and destitute.

'In cases where a large family are thrown out to die in the ditch, or to beg their way through the land, if the parents can find daily work, but are unable to support their children, let the children be taken in to the school house; if the husband be unable to support the wife, or the wife unable to support herself, let her be taken into the workhouse; and if the father be still unable to get employment, let him also be provided with work and food, but on no account let there be an addition to wages while the pauper can get employment; he must either enter the house of industry in toto or not at all. The efficacy of this plan has been tried in various parts of England, and abundant testimony can readily be had as to its good effects.'

pp. 47, 48. These suggestions are highly deserving of attention, not merely in reference to Ireland, but as respects the administration of the English poor laws.

Mr. Martin has, with commendable discretion, forborne to touch upon the delicate point, how far a portion of the church property may be made available as a fund for the employment and relief of the poor. This was, unquestionably, one of the purposes to which the tithe was originally consecrated; and the Church and the Poor were for many centuries co-partners in the proceeds. The existence of an Ecclesiastical Establishment, without either a civil or an ecclesiastical provision for the poor, is not merely an anomaly, such as no civilized or semi-civilized country exhibits; but carries, on the face of it, the proof of a breach of trust,-involving an unjust and anti-Christian robbery of those who were the wards of the Church, and whose rights were reserved in the original grant upon which her own tenure is founded. It is no excuse to allege, that the aristocrasy has plundered the Church, which has plundered the poor; that the spoiler has been herself spoiled. Wherever an Ecclesiastical Establishment exists, the Church will be found either the antagonist and counterbalance of the aristocrasy, or its creature and tributary. A church established means, in effect, a clergy in bondage. The robbery committed on the Irish poor may, per

haps, fairly lie at the door of the aristocrasy, though done under cover of the Establishment; but the fact of the robbery, wherever the guilt may lie, is palpable; and wherever the property is found, it ought to be made to yield up something by way of restitution, in spite of the interested and hypocritical cry of Spoliation.

Art. VI. A Concise View of the Succession of Sacred Literature, in a Chronological Arrangement of Authors and their Works, from the Invention of Alphabetical Characters, to the Year of our Lord 1300. Vol. II. By J. B. B. Clarke, M.A. 8vo. pp. 770. London, 1832.

THE original design of the Authors of this work was, to continue the Succession of Ecclesiastical and Theological writers to the period when printing was invented, about the middle of the fifteenth century. In the Volume before us, the work is concluded, and terminates with the year 1299. For this deviation, the present Author assigns reasons which his readers will scarcely fail to regard as valid ones, when they shall have accompanied him in his progress through the catalogue of Writers who lived in the thirteenth and the preceding century, in which but few names worthy of being noticed are to be found. William of Sandwich, Radulfus Bockingus, and Elias of Trickyngham, cum multis aliis, were writers from whom neither instruction nor pleasure could be obtained; and Mr. Clarke may well be excused from the unprofitable labour of transcribing their names, and marshalling their valueless productions. We should not, indeed, have found fault with him, if he had continued the succession, through the later periods, by a selection of principal writers, without drawing from the obscurity in which they have so long reposed, so many neglected and forgotten Authors. The principal writers of whom and their works an account is given in the present volume, are Augustine, Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, and Theodoret. To these fathers, one hundred and forty pages are appropriated; and over the remaining pages, amounting to six hundred and thirty, are spread the names of about thirteen hundred authors. From such a catalogue, but little of instruction or of interest can be expected by a general reader, whose obligations to the Author will therefore arise from the value of the information conveyed in respect to the more celebrated writers. Many have heard and read of Augustine and Chrysostom, who are scarcely acquainted with the subjects of their works, and to whom the sketches and analyses contained in these pages will supply a sufficiency of instruction, to enable them to understand the nature of those productions to which they are indebted for their celebrity. Mr. Clarke's work is rendered less inviting by the catalogue form in

which so much of this part of it appears; but, as a useful guide to the student, it could not be superseded by any other extant book in English Literature.

We much doubt, however, whether this or any other work will excite to the study of the Fathers, in such manner as to revive any thing like a general attention to them, even among divines themselves. For the neglect into which they are fallen, many reasons may be assigned. They are no longer the only, or the principal sources from which the materials of theological learning can be drawn; and other and better guides to direct the studies of the inquisitive, are now every where at hand. The disuse of the Fathers was a natural consequence of the freedom acquired at the Reformation from the despotism of the Romish Church, the usurpations of which were, in many instances, and to a great extent, associated with the authority of their names. To that proud elevation, they can no more be raised. Questions of the last importance to mankind, will never again be settled by a quotation from Jerome, or an appeal to Cyprian. Every error, every delusion, every corruption of Christian doctrine, may be traced to the Fathers. And it was on account of the corruptions and the deceptions which they originated and extended, that their authority was maintained. Their real excellences were never of primary consideration in the times when they were most venerated. By their depression, much has been gained to the cause of truth and liberty. An acquaintance with them, however, may now be of great advantage to those who possess the leisure and the means of using them. Among them, unquestionably, are to be found some of the noblest monuments of zeal and knowledge, eloquence and holiness; and of such of them as may be most profitably employed as affording excitements to devotion and religious duties, so pure and elevated, the notices before us are of much value.

It is well observed by Mr. Clarke, that the Greek writers are on every account to be generally preferred, being more free from doctrinal errors, and less pledged to the support of ecclesiastical dominion, than the Latin. A Dissertation on the Use of the Fathers, was designed as an Introduction to the Work before us; but the size of the book has induced the Author to reserve it. Several works of this kind have already appeared. That of Daille is well known, though now but little read. But, as Mr. Clarke would necessarily adapt his Dissertation to the present state of theological literature, and to readers in these times, its publication might be a real service to the cause of sound learning. The use of the Fathers to which Mr. Clarke would excite, would certainly be a cautious one. 'It is well,' he remarks, that we are emancipated on points of doctrine from the authority of even the pure 'Fathers.' p. 68. And, again, p. 81, Those Protestants who authority of the Fathers upon points of doc

⚫ still stickle for the

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