As regards Ireland, another bold measure has been suggested for that
country; without giving any opinion upon it, I cannot help asking why we
should not be as bold in peace as we were in war. Must we wait until

"The news is, sir, the Voices are in arms;
_Then indeed_--we shall have means to vent
Our musty superfluity?"

"Without raising one shilling out of the Exchequer," says Lucius (see
_Morning Post, Jan. 31st_), "boldly apply the national credit to relieve
the national distress; at once authorize the Bank of Ireland, or a bank
to be created for that purpose, to issue twenty or thirty millions in
aid of the landed proprietors; secondly, for the judicious encouragement
of emigration, transplant those who cannot earn a subsistence at home to
a comfortable settlement in our colonies, and to promote such mercantile
or other undertakings, let the notes issued be made legal tenders for
all payments whatever, and let the entire soil of Ireland be pledged for
their ultimate security." Far be it from me to give any opinion on what
is best to be done for Ireland, but certain I feel that what is here
proposed and suggested regarding an Atlantic and Pacific Railway could
not interfere with any plan Government might think right to adopt for
the regeneration of Ireland, unless indeed by greatly facilitating all
emigration plans and permanent employment.

But, independently of all this money question, "there is the strongest
obligation on the government of a country like our own, with a crowded
population and unoccupied continents under its command, to build as
it were and keep open a bridge from the mother country to those
continents." Let us reflect that "the economical advantages of commerce
are surpassed in importance by those of its effects, which are
intellectual and moral. It is hardly possible to overrate the value, for
the improvement of human beings, of things which bring them in contact
with persons dissimilar to themselves, and with modes of thought and
action unlike those with which they are familiar. Commerce is now
what war once was--the principal source of this contact. Commercial
adventurers from more advanced countries have generally been the first
civilizers of barbarians, and commerce is the purpose of the far greater
part of the communication which takes place between civilized nations.
It is commerce which is rapidly rendering war obsolete, by strengthening
and multiplying the personal int