a plausible story to this country-a man with a singular power of viewing facts in the light in which he wishes to view them and put them before others; a man with the extraordinary faculty of so mixing up these facts, that many simple-minded people will look upon them, as he puts them before them, as true, and whose mission it was to alienate the mind of America 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 evidently approaching; she is to-day cut off, without an ally in Europe. Her army a cipher; her fleet-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 as 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?" and Mr. Froude's mis

sion, according to these persons, seemed intended to prepare the way for such alliance.

I have heard others say that the gentleman came over to this country on the invitation of a little clique of sectarian bigots. 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, 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 attention. I believe Mr. Froude's motives to be simple, straightforward, honorable, and patriotic. 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 proceedings, from a base or sordid motive. 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 has been said to come as an emissary of the English. Government, so I may be said, perhaps, to appear as an emissary of rebellion and 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 endea

voring to excite religious or political hatred. Now, I protest these are not my motives. I come here tonight simply to defend 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.

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 has solemnly and emphatically declared that he despairs of ever finding a remedy for Ireland, and he gives it up as a bad job. 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, by conceding everything 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 will grant, that at last we shall fling ourselves into each other's arms in tears of mutual forgiveness. I do not share that expectation. It is more likely that they will press their importunities till we turn upon them and refuse to yield further. There will be a struggle once more, and either the emigration to America will increase in volume till it has carried the entire race beyond our reach, or in some shape or other they will again have to be coerced into submission."

Banish them or coerce them! There is the true Englishman speaking. My only remedy, he emphatically says, my only hope, my only prospect of a future for Ireland is, let them go to America; have done with the race altogether, and give us an Ireland at last such as we have labored to make it 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 this gentleman has no right to come to America to tell the American people and the Irish in America that he can cast the horoscope of Ireland's future. He has acknowledged his inability and unfitness for this task in the words I have just quoted.

The original sin of the Englishman in his dealings with the Irish people and their history is his contempt of them. The average Englishman despises the Irishman, looks down upon him as a being almost inferior in nature. This feeling may not be expressed, but it lies deep though dormant in the hearts of most Englishmen, even though they be unconscious of its existence.* I make no distinction of English, Catholic or Protestant. I speak from the experience of intercourse, and I believe the feeling to be common to all. I know many Englishmen, amiable, generous, charming characters, who would not cherish such a feeling consciously, nor express it for the whole world; yet I have seen it come forth from them in a thousand forms, as if it were their very nature. 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 seems 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 by raising Ireland, through justice and by home legislation, that she may 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 towards 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 Influence of the Reformation on the 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 amongst men-until the holy hand of John Knox was laid upon 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 under