20

IRISH INSURRECTION SUPPRESSED

polis, and announced their intention of overawing our free parliament by an immense parade of physical force. They were warned that this was very foolish and very wrong; that it would not be endured by the nation, or be permitted by the government. They declared, however, that they would persist in their intention of holding a meeting of two hundred thousand men, who would bring a petition with more than a million of signatures to the doors of parliament. The greatest general of the age is understood to have counselled that they should be allowed to execute their terrible design, by marching along London Bridge, Blackfriars Bridge, and if it pleased them, Waterloo Bridge, displaying their numerical strength on one side of the river Thames, and their oratorical skill on the other; but that they should not be allowed to return by Westminster Bridge as an organized multitude, to beset and besiege the British parliament. Troops were kept ready in concealment at proper stations, and a visible volunteer army of special constables displayed the strength of British loyalty, very far out-numbering the ranks of the disaffected. The leading agitators were very

BY TIMELY RESISTANCE.

21

quietly delivered from the burden of their petition; and that enormous roll of real and fictitious names was conveyed to its destination without broken bones or bloodshed, on the 10th day of April, 1848.

Thus, at a very critical period of the history of Europe, a vain-glorious attempt at insurrection was suppressed at once by wise and decisive coercive measures. But who can tell what might have been the consequences to England and to the world, had this beginning of strife been allowed to gather strength at home and from abroad, and to pursue its destructive course unresisted?

A sister insurrection in the sister island, by a similar timely and effective application of force, was crushed in its first stage in the garden at Ballingarry, of that Irish widow, from the midst of whose cabbages the principal revolutionary hero, clad in green, crawled away like a caterpillar. And who can tell what would have been the effect of allowing such verdant and valiant men at arms to increase and multiply, to hatch their mischief undisturbed, to swarm and flutter in a fully developed Irish rebellion?

22

CAN THE DEFENCELESS

How much more blood would in that case have been shed? what rapine and misery would have ensued?

It has been said that those who do not resist will be preserved, as it happened in Pennsylvania. It may be so in some cases; but they are far too few to warrant such a conclusion, in opposition to the usual course of unopposed wickedness, as regards individuals and nations. It may well be questioned whether we are warranted to expect a special and miraculous interposition of Providence for our protection, if we make no preparation and exertion for our own defence. We are rather to believe, that if our cause be just, our strenuous efforts in conformity with the great law of self preservation will be crowned with success, than that in withholding them altogether we shall be preserved by a miracle. We may not trust to weather the storm without the help of the mariner, to enjoy the harvest without the labours of the husbandman, to win the victory without the skill and courage of the soldier.

But indeed the opinion we have been considering, if it calculates that the lives of the

EXPECT TO BE PRESERVED?

23

inoffensive may be preserved, cannot contemplate victory. It implies surrender; it opposes to the cupidity and violence of bad men no forcible obstacle. It suppresses no insurrection; it defeats no invasion. To the lust of power and persecuting bigotry of a Philip of Spain, to the towering ambition and tyrannical usurpation of a Napoleon Buonaparte, to the dark conspiracies and blood-thirsty designs of insurgents and revolutionists it would have presented a passive, quiet, defenceless England; and we presume it would accept as an equivalent for the calamities of war, with the hope of victory, the consequences of defeat, by allowing the wicked to triumph, and to take our all. Life might possibly be saved by this method of abandoning our country to its domestic and foreign foes. But are we sure even of the preservation of our lives by such a system? The Spaniards, whose armada was destroyed by the British navy, and wrecked by the tempest, and from whose captured ships those ancient instruments of war and of torture were taken, that are still exhibited in the Tower of London-those Spaniards invaded, plundered, betrayed, and barbarously murdered the gentle

24

SOLDIERS AND SAILORS,

natives of Peru. Do not base ruffians attack defenceless women? Do not pirates, who make all sail to avoid the ship that shews her gallant trim and floating battery, watch for and pursue unarmed merchant vessels, sailing peaceably on the open sea, seize their cargo, sink the vessels, manacle the crew, and land them on some desert shore, or throw them slaughtered into the deep? Does the submissive weakness of slaves or captives save them from the lash, the chain, the cruelty, and the crimes of their oppressors? On the contrary, is not unjust tyrannical power most abused when least resisted, and when unoffending weakness allures the bad and the strong?

And are we to view in the odious light of transgressors our soldiers and sailors, who disregard blood and wounds, who bear the brunt of battle, risking their own lives in defence of our lives and liberties and happiness? Were those victories for which our best naval and military officers have received honours and rewards, only public wrongs? Is Christian England-is Christendom in error for supposing that armies and navies are not necessarily bands of robbers and murderers?