that are proposed, lest, in our attempts to cure the disease, we give the patient a new and more dangerous disorder. I rejoice, therefore, to see the following sensible and patriotic observations, in the charge of the Recorder of Birmingham to the Grand Jury of that town:—
Outrages like those committed at Manchester, or at the Middlesex House of Correction, have raised in the minds of many such a storm of indignation against all persons of Irish extraction, that I dread lest the feeling should degenerate into a war of races or creeds, the results of which could not fail to be highly detrimental to the interest of liberty all over the world; and I would warn you that it would be most unjust to treat all our fellow-subjects who have come from Ireland as disaffected, or to consider that all who profess the Roman Catholic religion are engaged in treasonable practices, for we have seen the strongest resistance made to adverse forces by native-born Irishmen, and we know that all the heads of the Roman Catholic Church have denounced in the strongest terms the acts of the conspirators who have come from other countries to disturb the peace of these realms.[1]
These are wise observations, and I wish the Ministers of State who have lately spoken in public had uttered sentiments equally forbearing and equally fair towards the Queen's Irish subjects.
I shall now proceed to make my observations on the state of Ireland, and, for the sake of convenience, I will divide this letter into three parts.
The first part will treat of the material and physical condition of Ireland.
- ↑ Times, Jan. 9, 1868.
