be very considerable indeed; and equally plain, that its expenditure in London would entail a severe loss on this portion of the empire. The following return was handed by the present Master Lyle to the Committee of the House of Commons, in 1846:

A Return of the Number of Students, Barristers, and Attorneys admitted into the Hon. Society of King's Inns for the last Twenty Years, commencing Hilary Term, 1826.

It would appear from this return, that during the above period of about twenty years, 1,162 gentlemen were called to the Irish bar, 2,049 were sworn in attorneys and solicitors, and 1616 gentlemen were admitted students to the Society of King's Inns. The total amount of fees paid by these gentlemen, as a necessary qualification for admission to their professions, was about £100,000; each student paying, in round numbers, £16, each barrister £32, and each attorney, for entrance and admission, about £23. Now this large sum, being on an average £5,000 a-year, received by the Benchers of the Society, is necessarily expended by them in this city. Mr. Lyle further stated, in reply to a question, whether he could give the Committee a statement of the expenditure of the Society for the last ten years, that it varied during that period from

£6,000 to £9,000 a-year, while in the year 1838 it amounted to so much as £11,554, these additional sums being derived from other sources of income.

Again: at present it is necessary for a gentleman seeking admission to the Irish bar, to serve six terms in some one or other of the English Inns of Court. This has been often dwelt on as a peculiar hardship on Irishmen. So early as the year 1682, Richard Laurence, in his "Interest of Ireland," published in that year, writes as follows:

"I might also insist upon the expense this kingdom is at, in educating the sons of most persons of quality in the Inns of Court and Universities in England and foreign countries, which is computed to cost this country at least £10,000 per annum."

(No inconsiderable sum at that period.) Nor has this evil been diminished since then. Mr. Barry, during his examination, was asked by a member of the Committee,

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Taking into consideration the necessity of living absent from their own homes, and living here, where they have not perhaps the same conveniences as in Ireland, the additional expense to the candidate for the Irish bar is considerable?—It is enormous-comparatively speaking, enormous."

Now, if the expense which a young man incurs during a residence of one year and a half in a dissipated metropolis, is, to use the words of Mr. Barry, "comparatively speaking, enormous," a residence for three years, which for the future would be the necessary period of probation for the candidate for the bar (so as to enable him to practise, even in the Assistant Barristers' Courts), must be doubly expensive; in other words, whereas the loss to the country has heretofore been the expenditure incurred during a year and a half's residence in London, the loss for the future would be that of three years' expenditure.

The professional income of the Judges would likewise form an important item in the calculation. Taking their salaries at the reduced rate of remuneration recommended by the committee, it would amount to over £59,000 annually, as follows:

Add to this sum, the annual salaries of the Commissioners of Bankruptcy and Insolvency, the Masters of the various Courts of Common Law, the Taxing Masters, Examiners, &c., &c., and some idea may be formed of its amount and importance.

There are also about seven hundred gentlemen practising at the Irish bar, and taking their professional income on an average to amount to £200 a-year; £140,000 would form the next item in the computation.

Next in order, and by no means the least in importance, would come the members of the profession of attorney and solicitor; then the numerous clerks and officials attached to our courts; and so on, through the various grades of professional persons engaged in the practice of the law, until having gone through the entire category, we arrive, by the simple process of addition, at a grand total. Whatever the amount would be-considerable, without doubt-the entire, with perhaps a trifling amount as an exception, would be lost to this country, and to an almost incalculable extent affect Ireland in her trade, her commerce, and her manufactures; in fact, circulate through and paralyse every branch of her industry.

We have thus far sought to draw the attention of our readers to this important question; we have endeavoured to show that the removal of our Courts of Law would be a flagrant breach of a national contract, and an open violation of the law of nations. We have shown that such a measure would, from the dissimilarity between the two nations in condition and character, be impolitic, and attended with inconvenience, while at the same time a gross injustice would be inflicted on this country, by carrying into execution a measure which would act as a drain on our industrial resources, and increase the pernicious effects of Irish absenteeism.

We have not attempted to set forth, with any degree of accuracy, the total loss which would ensue, even in a pecuniary point of view; we have merely attempted to point out considerations worthy of attention, and leave it to the common sense of our readers to deduce

those conclusions which must inevitably follow. Day by day we see our institutions annihilated, our public offices removed, and Ireland a victim to the policy of centralization; and this, almost without an effort to stay the sacrifice. At times we are ignorant of the contemplated change, until we are awakened to the reality by having to deplore our loss; at others, lulled to a fatal security by misrepresentations and promises invented for the occasion, are thereby induced to forego our rights-the change is carried out and perfected, the promises are utterly forgotten. It is our duty then, to provide against the former evil by watchfulness, to defeat the latter by exposing the futility of all promises. An equivalent may, perhaps, be offered as a temptation to the Irish bar to abandon their national honour-if so, let it be indignantly refused. Shall the names of Flood, Grattan, Curran, Plunket, and of Bushe, and a host of other illustrious fellow-countrymen, be forgotten? Shall the scenes of their efforts be effaced? Shall the courts that resounded with their eloquence be closed, or occasionally exhibited to some curious stranger, as a monument of Ireland's degradation and Ireland's fall? Shall the future historian of our times exclaim with the poet,

-Quid non mortalia pectora cogis

Aura sacra fames?

Shall the Irish bar become a consenting party to their own dishonour? No! There still, we hope, exists amongst us, enough of that spirit by which our forefathers were actuated, to enable us to resist with success, so unconstitutional, so injurious, and to ourselves, so dishonourable a catastrophe.

ART. II. THE TENANT LEAGUE v. COMMON SENSE.

IT has been said, and we believe with truth, that some men are always boys; and for our parts, we think it might with equal correctness be asserted, that some nations are never to be wise. Age succeeds age, generation after generation passes away, and the later is not more calculating, or more thinking, than the earlier; thus the great round of life goes on, producing but a continued series of

failures, or a long catalogue of fruitless aspirings. Nations, like individuals, have their peculiar and distinctive weaknesses or vices; and varied and multifarious as those weaknesses may be, there is not one, in the whole melancholy list of errors, so destructive to prosperity or happiness, whether of man individually or collectively, as the disposition to trust too easily the professions of plausible, designing, loudtalking grievance-mongers. We know well that when men are aggrieved, or, which is the same thing, fancy themselves so, they are in general but too willing to lend a ready ear, and give an active support to him who asserts he is their friend, and will save them, if it be possible, from the evils to which they consider themselves exposed. We are well aware, that in all ages and all countries, designing and knavish men have not scrupled to trade upon the ignorance of the masses, or to rise by means of the popular voice, and by adopting the popular cry. Amongst all the nations of the earth, we are acquainted with none that has been so often deceived and misled, by following the incitings of false friends, as the Irish. Dissensions and misunderstandings, falsehood and recrimination, meanness and treachery, double dealing and political scoundrelism, public dishonesty and open corruption, these, all these, have, in an unparalleled degree, marked the conduct and the policy of the majority of those, who have, from time to time, acted as the leaders of the Irish people. Never thinking for themselves, the people have been either the dupes or the slaves of those who have usurped their leadership. No experience of those leaders' deception has been sufficient to make them guarded; no open or discovered villany has been clear enough to undeceive them, and thus, the very perfection of their own unsuspecting minds, has been the chief cause of their misery and their degradation. We ask any thinking man in the community to look back upon the past history of our country: we ask him to consider that history gravely, calmly, and dispassionately, and to name then the chief causes which have conduced to place this country in its present position; and for our parts, we are quite satisfied the answer must be, that in most cases, the causes of our misfortunes can be found in the folly of the people themselves. They have ever aimed at the impracticable, and have in general looked but to the end, without taking time to bestow a moment's serious reflection upon the means by which that end