they were beginning to be afraid of the rising power of Ireland in this great nation; that they saw here eight millions of Irishmen by birth, and, perhaps, fourteen millions by descent, and that they knew enough of the Irish to realize that the Almighty God blessed them always with an extraordinary power, not only to preserve themselves but to spread themselves, until, in a few years, not fourteen but fifty millions of descendants of Irish blood and of the Irish race will be in this land. (Great applause.) According to those who thus surmise, England wants to check the sympathy of the American people for their Irish fellow citizens; and it was considered that the best way to effect this was to send a learned man, with a plausible story, to this country; a man with a single power of viewing facts in the light which he wishes himself to view them, and put them before others; a man with the extraordinary power of so mixing up these facts that many simpleminded people will look upon them as he puts them before them as true, and whose mission it was to alienate the mind of Americans from Ireland to-day, by showing what an impracticable, obstinate, accursed race we are.

Others, again, surmised that the learned gentleman came for another purpose. They said: "England is in the hour of her weakness; she is tottering fast and visibly to her ruin; the disruption of that old empire is visibly approaching; she is to-day cut off, without an ally in Europe; her army a cipher, her fleet nothing according to Mr. Reade, a great authority on this question-nothing to be compared to the rival fleet of the great Russian power now growing up. When France was paralyzed by her late defeat, England lost her best ally. The three emperors, in their meeting the other day, contemptuously ignored her, and they settled the affairs of the world without so much as mentioning the name of that kingdom, which was once so powerful. Her resources of coal and iron are failing ; her people are discontented, and she is showing every sign of decay. Thus did some people argue that England was anxious for an American alliance; for, they said, "What would be more natural than that the old, tottering empire should seek to lean on the strong, mighty, vigorous, young arm of America?"

I have heard others say that the gentleman came over to this country on the invitation of a little clique of sectarian bigots (laughter) in this country. Men who, feeling that the night of religious bigotry and sectarian bitterness is fast coming to a close before the increasing light of American intelligence and education, (applause) would fain prolong the darkness for an hour or two, by whatever help Mr. Froude could lend them.

But I protest to you, gentlemen, here to-night, that I have heard all these motives assigned to this learned man, without giving them the least acceptance. I believe Mr. Froude's motives to be simple, straightforward, honorable and patriotic. (Applause.) I am willing to give him credit for the highest motives, and I consider him perfectly incapable of lending himself to any base or sordid proceeding, from a base or sordid motive. (Applause.) But as the learned gentleman's motives have been so freely canvassed and criticised, and I believe, indeed, in many cases misinterpreted, so my own motives in coming here to-night may be, perhaps, also misinterpreted and misunderstood, unless I state them clearly and plainly. As he is said to come as an emissary of the English Government, so I may be said, perhaps, to appear as an emissary of rebellion or of revolution; as he is supposed, by some, to have the sinister motive of alienating the American mind from the Irish citizenship of the States, so I may be suspected of endeavyoring to excite religious or political hatred.

Now, I protest these are not my motives; I am here to-night simply to vindicate the

HONOR OF IRELAND IN HER HISTORY.

I come here to-night lest any man should think that in this our day, or in any day, Ireland is to be left without a son who will speak for the mother that bore him.

FROUDE UNFIT FOR THE TASK.

And, first of all, I hold that Mr. Froude is unfit for the task that he has undertaken, for three great reasons: First, because I find in the writings of this learned gentleman that he solemnly and emphatically declares that he despairs of ever find

ing a remedy for Ireland, and he gives it up as a bad job. (Laughter.) Here are his words, written in one of his essays a few years ago: "The present hope," he says, "is that by assiduous justice, (that is to say, by conceding every thing that the Irish please to ask) we shall disarm that enmity, and convince them of our good will. It may be so; there are persons sanguine enough to hope that the Irish will be so moderate in what they demand, and the English so liberal in what they grant, that at last we shall fling ourselves into each other's arms in tears of mutual forgiveness. (Laughter.) I do not share that expectation (renewed laughter); it is more likely they will push their importunities until at, last, we turn upon them, and refuse to yield further. And there will be a struggle once more; and either emigration will increase in volume until it has carried the entire race beyond our reach, or, in some shape or other, they will have to be coerced into submission." "Banish them or coerce them;" there is the true English speech. "My only remedy," he emphatically says, "my only hope, my only prospect for the future of Ireland is: Let them all go to America; have done with the race; give us an Ireland at last, such as we have endeavored to make, for seven hundred years, a desert and a solitude; or, if they remain at home, they will have to be coerced into submission."" I hold that that man has no right to come to America to tell the American people and the Irish in America that he can describe the horoscope of Ireland's future. He ought to be ashamed to attempt it, after having uttered such words.

SECOND REASON.

The second reason why I say he is unfit for the task of describing Irish history is, because of his contempt for the Irish people. The original sin of the Englishman has ever been his contempt for the Irish. It lies deep, though dormant, in the heart of almost every Englishman. The average Englishman despises the Irishman- looks down upon him as a being almost inferior in nature. Now, I speak not from prejudice, but from an intercourse of years, for I have lived among them. I have known Englishmen, amiable and generous themselves, charm

ing characters, who would not, for the whole world, nourish, willfully, a feeling of contempt in their hearts for any one, much less to express it in words; yet I have seen them manifest, in a thousand forms, that contempt for the Irish which seems to be their very nature. [A voice-"True!"] I am very sorry to say that I can not make any distinction between the Protestants and Catholics of England in this feeling. I mention this, not to excite animosity or to create bad blood or bitter feeling; no, I protest this is not my meaning; but I mention this because I am convinced it lies at the very root of this antipathy and of that hatred between the English and Irish which seem to be incurable; and I verily believe that, until that feeling is destroyed, you never can have cordial union between these two countries, and the only way to destroy it is, that by raising Ireland, through justice and by home legislation, she will attain such a position that she will enforce and command the respect of her English fellow - subjects. Mr. Froude, himself, who, I am sure, is incapable of any ungenerous sentiment toward any man or any people, is an actual living example of that feeling of contempt of which I speak. In November, 1856, this learned gentleman addressed a Scottish Assembly in Edinburgh. The subject of his address was: "The Effect of the Protestant Reformation upon Scottish Character." According to him, it made the Scotch the finest people on the face of the earth. Originally fine, they never got their last touch that made them, as it were, archangels among men, until the holy hand of John Knox touched them. On that occasion, the learned gentleman introduced himself to his Scottish audience in the following words: "I have undertaken," he says, "to speak this evening on the effects of the Reformation in Scotland, and I consider myself a very bold person to have come here on any such undertaking; in the first place, the subject is one with which it is presumptuous for a stranger to meddle. Great national movements can only be understood properly by the people whose disposition they represent. see, by our own history, that Englishmen only can properly comprehend it. It is the same with every considerable nation that works out its own political and spiritual life through

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tempers, humors and passions peculiar to itself, and the same disposition which produces the result is required to interpret it afterward." Did the learned gentleman offer any such apology for entering so boldly upon the discussion of affairs? Oh no! there was no apology necessary; he was only going to speak of the mere Irish.

"ONLY IRISH."

There was no word to express his own fears that, perhaps, he did not understand the Irish character on the subject upon which he was about to treat; there was no apology to the Irish in America the fourteen millions-if he so boldly was to take up their history, endeavoring to hold them up as a licentious, immoral, irreligious, contemptuous, obstinate, unconquerable race-not at all. It was not necessary-they were only Irish. If they were Scottish, then the learned gentleman would have come with a thousand apologies for his own presumption in venturing to approach such a delicate subject as the delineation of the sweet Scottish character, or any thing connected with it. (Laughter and applause.) What, on the other hand, his treatment of the Irish? I have, in this book before me, words that came from his pen; and I protest, as I read them, I feel every drop of my blood boil in my veins when the gentleman said: "The Irish, they may be good at the voting booths, but they are not good to handle a rifle." He compares us, in this essay, to a "pack of hounds." He says, "To deliver Ireland; to give Ireland any meed, would be the same as if a gentleman, addressing his hounds, said: 'I give you your freedom; now go out, and act for yourselves."" That is, he means to say that, after worrying all the sheep in the neighborhood, they would end by tearing each other to pieces. (Laughter.) I deplore this feeling. The man who is possessed of it can never understand the philosophy of Irish history.

Thirdly. Mr. Froude is utterly unfit for the task of delineating and interpreting the history of the Irish people, because of his more than contempt and bitter hatred and detestation in which he holds the Catholic religion and the Catholic Church.

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OF THE