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bellion, who was accountable if not the infamous government which, at the time, ruled the destinies of Ireland? I ask you, are the Irish people accountable, if from time to time the myrmidons of England have been let loose upon them, ravaging them like tigers, violating every instinct of Irish love of land, of Irish purity, of Irish faith? Is it not a terrible thing that, after all these provocations, which they deliberately put before the people, in order to goad them into the rebellion of '98, and so prepare the way for that union of 1800 which followed that, Mr. Froude says: "Several hot-headed priests put themselves at the head of their people." There was a Father John Murphy in the county of Wexford. He came home from his duties one day, to find the houses of the poor people around sacked and burned; to find his unfortunate parishioners huddled about the blackened walls of the chapel, crying: "Soggarth dear, what are we to do? where are we to fly from this terrible persecution that has come upon us?" And Father John Murphy got the pikes, put them in their hands, and put himself at their head! So you see, my friends, there are two sides to every story.

My friends, I have endeavored to give you some portions of the Irish side of the story, basing my testimony upon the records of Protestant and English writers, and upon the testimony which I have been so proud to put before you, of noble, generous, American gentlemen. I have to apologize for the dryness of the subject, and the imperfect manner in which I have

treated it, and also for the unconscionable length of time in which I have tried your patience. On next Tuesday evening we shall be approaching ticklish ground:-"Ireland since the Union;" Ireland as she is to-day; and Ireland, as my heart and brain tell me. she shall be in some future day.

LECTURE V.

IRELAND SINCE THE
UNION.

MR. FROUDE opens his fifth and last lecture by stating that the Irish left the paths of practical reform, and clamored for political agitation. Now, I am quite as much opposed to political agitation as Mr. Froude. I regard it as an evil, distracting ren's minds from the more important and necessary duties of life, withdrawing their attention from business, and the sober pursuit of industry, creating animosities and bad blood between citizens, affording an easy and profitable employment to many a worthless demagogue, and frequently (in fact, in most cases) bringing to the surface the worst and meanest elements of society. But we must not forget that political agitation, with all these drawbacks, is the only resource of a people who endeavor to obtain just laws from an unwilling government. What were the struggles of the seventeenth century in France, Germany, and the Low Countries, with which Mr. Froude sympathises so deeply, but politi

cal agitation, deepening into the form of armed revolt, in order to extort from the various governments just measures of toleration and liberty of conscience. For these and such as these, Mr. Froude has words of admiration and sympathy, although the people in arms were really innovators, seeking to destroy a state of things established for ages; but for the Irish, merely standing on the defensive against an innovating and revolutionary government, and seeking to preserve, not freedom, for that was already gone, but land, life, conscience, and their ancient creed, this learned gentleman has no words but reproof, condemnation, and disdain. In 1780 the Irish people, mostly the Protestant portion of them, labored for the repeal of certain laws, restricting and annihilating the trade and industry of the people. Was England willing to grant this measure of justice? Was she only anxious, as Mr. Froude says, to remedy every evil as soon as it was pointed out? I answer No, and my proof lies here; that free trade, as it was called, was extorted and forced from the government by the presence of fifty thousand armed Volunteers, who planted their cannon in the streets of Dublin and attached to each gun the significant label "Free Trade or " If every measure of just legislation was only to be obtained by such means as these, the country would of necessity be kept in a state of perpetual revolution. What wonder, then, that the Irish thought with Henry Grattan, that it would be better to have their own parliament, free and independent of that of England, to legislate for the

wants and interests of their own country. Thus we see that the action of 1782 was the result, not of the love of the Irish people for political agitation, but of Ireland's well-founded conviction that she never could expect or obtain just and salutary legislation except from her own parliament, free and independent. It is true that this independent Irish parliament failed to realize the hopes of the Irish nation, and Mr. Froude accounts for it by saying that the Irish are incapable of home legislation. I say that the cause of this failure lay in the fact that the parliament of eighty-two did not represent the nation at all. Nearly three millions of Irishmen, the vast majority of the people, were unrepresented. They had not even a vote for a single member of that parliament, which represented about half a million of Protestant strangers, English and Scotch, who had recently settled in Ireland. But even these men were not fairly represented, as the constitution of the parliament will prove. The House of Commons was made up of three hundred members. Of these only seventy-two were elected by the people. The rest represented rotten or nomination boroughs, and were the mere nominees, and consequently the agents, of certain great lords and extensive landed proprietors. Had the nation been represented they would have solved the problem of home rule in favor of Ireland, despite the corruption which must always be found in large assemblies. The Irish people knew this, and loudly proclaimed that the parliament should be reformed on the basis of a truly national representation;

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