937
From Go. C. Mahon, Esy M14
IRISH NATIONALITY
IN 1870.
1870
BY
A PROTESTANT CELT.
Second Edition,
WITH
A COMMENTARY ON THE
"HOME-RULE MOVEMENT."
"Oldbuck interfered between the distressed father and his well meaning tormentors,
and informed them that he himself, as landlord and master, 'would carry his head to
And such is the temper of the Scottish common people, that by
this persons, Mr. Old-
buck gained more popularity than by all the sums which he had yearly distributed to
the parish for purposes of private or general charity."-Sir Walter Scott's Antiquary.
theme of compliance with their customs and respect for their
DUBLIN:
E. PONSONBŸ, 116, GRAFTON-STREET.
LONDON:.
LONGMANS, GREEN, READER, AND DYER.
1870.
PRICE ONE SHILLING.


IRISH NATIONALITY IN 1870.
32442
IRISH NATIONALITY
IN 1870.
BY
A PROTESTANT CELT.
୯
Robert McDonnell.
Second Edition,
WITH
A COMMENTARY ON THE
"HOME-RULE MOVEMENT."
"Oldbuck interfered between the distressed father and his well meaning tormentors,
and informed them that he himself, as landlord and master, 'would carry his head to
the grave.'
And such is the temper of the Scottish common people, that by
this instance of compliance with their customs and respect for their persons, Mr. Old-
buck gained more popularity than by all the sums which he had yearly distributed to
the parish for purposes of private or general charity.”—Sir Walter Scott's Antiquary.
1
DUBLIN:
E. PONSONBY, 116, GRAFTON-STREET.
LONDON:
LONGMANS, GREEN, READER, AND DYER.
1870.
Re-classed 4-|-33 AUM
1
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
THE first edition of this pamphlet was rapidly
disposed of. In bringing out a second, the
author wishes to avail himself of the opportunity
thus offered of replying to some of the criticisms
elicited by the first edition.* He is also anxious
to explain himself more fully upon some points
concerning which he appears to have been mis-
understood.
Some critics have hazarded conjectures as to
the author's individual opinions. The truth is,
his opinions as an individual are of no moment.
His humble name carries no weight as an autho-
rity. He would ask those who may happen to
peruse these pages, simply to consider whether
there is any force in what is said, any good ground
for his surmises, any common sense in the inter-
pretation put upon certain facts. He would beg
of Englishmen to read them, not as though they
contained the sentiments of a deadly foe, but the
* Although much gratified by the comments of the Irish Press,
the author feels it to be his duty to reply to the observations of
those who were opposed to his views, rather than of those who in
the main agreed with them.
I*
1
4
Irish Nationality in 1870.
expressions of one whose intentions are at least
honest, whose motives are pure, and whose con-
victions are sincere ; of one whose earnest desire
is first to see Irishmen acting in harmony with
each other, and ultimately the United Kingdom
bound together in firm and true friendship-the
only real union. In short, he would ask those
who differ from him, to endeavour to transfer
themselves into the position of an Irishman,
whose passionate enthusiasm is perhaps too
keenly sensitive to the wrong and sorrow of
which his country has known so much, and
England so little.
It should ever be remembered that England
and Ireland are not equal as regards political
civilization. England has been educated by a
long career of political freedom. Ireland's edu-
cation is in an earlier stage. A system of
representative government judiciously carried
out has, in its gradual development for centu-
ries, given the English people a voice in the
making of their own laws. A variety of causes
have made the case of Ireland different; so that
even at the present moment her own representa-
tives are in too many instances distrusted by her,
and regarded merely as the paid employés of Eng-
lish parties-men whose integrity cannot long
hold out against the temptations of emolument
and title, which in Ireland are rarely the rewards
Preface to the Second Edition.
5
of merit, but merely the payment for party
services.
The political history of the two countries
accounts for the most striking differences of na-
tional character, as it presents itself to the politi-
cian. The English, rendered pachydermatous by
prosperity, regard little the opinion of neighbour-
ing nations, and have the most implicit confidence
in their constitution, their institutions, their laws,
and the administration of their laws. The Irish,
rendered exquisitely sensitive by a grievous heri-
tage of political misery and suffering, are thin-
skinned as regards criticism of their national fail-
ings to a degree an Englishman cannot realize, and
have become so suspicious and distrustful in every
relation of public life, as to be almost incapable
of harmonious action. The Catholic distrusts the
Protestant, the tenant the landlord, the consti-
tuent the representative, and all distrust England
and laws made by England.
If these, the most prominent symptoms of the
Irish disease, are ever to be cured, it can only be
by their existence being frankly admitted by
Irishmen, and their cause as fully recognised by
Englishmen.
6
Irish Nationality in 1870.
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
I.
THE feeling of deep-rooted aversion to England*
which some have discovered in these pages is
worthy of notice. The question whether there
really exists among that class of Irishmen, of
whom The Standard assumes the writer to be the
spokesman, a deep-rooted aversion to England, is
deserving of investigation. There does not seem
to be any sufficient evidence of this; yet it is quite
pardonable for English writers to take this view,
for it is difficult for them to understand how ad-
miration of England and England's institutions
can co-exist with an intense dislike of England
and England's policy towards Ireland.
Although intelligent Irishmen can hardly con-
trol the outbursts of emotion with which they
speak and write of the nation which has been the
author of so many of Ireland's troubles, yet there
may be recognised among them not a few who
are able to subject these impulses of passionate
* The Standard of July 19th, 1879, says, “He [the author] speaks
the language of a class who would be exceedingly troublesome to
deal with were we forced to a collision with them, and the 'Pro-
testant Celt' is evidently the spokesman of a class. * * * There
is no treason in the pamphlet, as there is no Celtic eloquence, but
there is in every line of it the bitterest and most rooted aversion to
this country. * * * Every page of his pamphlet breathes the
worst spirit towards us and our institutions."
Preface to the Second Edition.
7
indignation to the cool judgment of reason. Such
persons admire England; they do not love her.
They are drawn towards her by the esteem and
interest called forth by those qualities which, al-
though not unmingled with blemishes, have made
her THE nation whose children have done most
honor to humanity. Far from thinking that Eng-
land's career of greatness is drawing to a close,
they conceive that her mission as a vast civilizing
power cannot really begin until Ireland is won.
If the writer judges correctly of the opinions of
his countrymen, he would say that the intelligence
which leads Irish opinion regards England with
admiration but without affection. The masses,
Protestant and Catholic alike, are now hostile to
her. This hostility is one of the influences at
present tending to produce union among Irish
parties. It is in fact the sledge hammer with
which the welding together of Irish factions must
in great part be accomplished. As "poverty makes
strange bedfellows," so common enmities make
strange allies. The foes who met in deadly strife
at Waterloo stood side by side as friends before
Sebastopol.
It may be a sad reflection, that no better means
can be devised of converting into friends those
who have long fought over the memories of
Londonderry and the Boyne, yet he is ignorant of
human nature who ridicules the power of com-
8
Irish Nationality in 1870.
mon hostility, and the common interest which it
implies.
Yet there is a way to conquer the Irish. To
win the affection of the leaders, and ultimately the
sympathy and good feeling of the masses, may be
a difficult, but it is neither a hopeless nor an igno-
ble task, for a statesman who looks to the future
greatness of the United Kingdom. Can it now be
accomplished without giving to Ireland some form
of local government, or at least without devising
some machinery for the purpose of giving defi-
niteness and precision to the hitherto vague, dis- ·
cordant, clamorous, and unheeded demands of
Ireland as regards the policy to be followed in
governing her?
This question the writer does not presume to
answer dogmatically. He merely ventures to
make a diagnosis based upon certain symptoms.
He may be compared to one who sits upon a cliff,
and who, as he looks down upon the "melancholy
ocean," and contemplates "the sea of trouble"
that has surged for centuries around his country,
watches the seething and boiling of the tide
beneath, and attempts to indicate the apparently
trifling phenomena which prove in what direction
that changing tide is going to flow,
Preface to the Second Edition.
9
II.
The writer in The Times,* who did the author
the honor of noticing his pamphlet, seems to have
misconceived the argument with reference to the
"Longfield Land Scheme." He speaks of "the
passionate indignation of the writer" at the rejec-
tion of this scheme. To retort in the words of The
Times, it is a "gratuitous and unworthy libel" on
the author to attribute his deep regret at the
rejection of this scheme to any personal motive.
The writer appeals to this Land Scheme, not
because he is blind to the merits of the Govern-
ment Land Bill, but because a comparison of
the policy of this plan with the policy of Mr.
Gladstone's Bill gives by far the most apt illustra-
* "It had always been predicted that religious equality would re-
move a chief element of civil and social discord in Ireland, and
would help to develop a sound national opinion which has long
been wanting. We rejoice to observe symptoms of this healing
process having been already commenced, and we are far from sharing
the apprehensions of 'A Protestant Celt' that it will be dis-
turbed by the Land Bill. The only possible explanation of this
surmise that we can discover, is the passionate indignation of the
writer at the rejection of Judge Longfield's scheme." And further,
According to its author, that sentiment is kept alive by an univer-
sal and inveterate repugnance to England and everything English,
of which Fenianism is but the concentrated essence.
The only
motive he thinks it necessary to assign for so uncharitable a feeling,
is resentment against 'English prejudice' and incapacity to under
stand Irish ideas; and the only tangible proof which he thinks it
necessary to give of this incapacity, is our obtuseness on the subject
of Judge Longfield's scheme, and the Fenian prisoners."-The Times,
July 5th, 1870.
Uor M
ΙΟ
Irish Nationality in 1870.
tion which can be given, at this moment, of an
Irish policy versus an English policy for the
government of Ireland. The subject is one of
such importance that it seems necessary to enter
into it at some length.
Those who have read Irish history with a view
to discover and investigate what has been the
political plan followed by the ablest statesmen
with regard to Ireland, can hardly fail to perceive
that it has been a plan of " Anglification;" that is
to say, a plan for assimilating Ireland to England,
by attempting to force upon her English laws,
customs, and religion. There are some who think
that it would have been a wiser policy not to try
to force, but gently to lead Ireland into adopting
whatever she might herself (as she advanced in
civilization) find good in English law, custom, or
religion. The English policy has been always
more or less a policy of compulsion. In this
respect, there is no essential difference between
the civil and ecclesiastical policy of Henry the
Eighth towards Ireland, and that of Mr. Glad
stone's Land Bill. This is said without the slight-
est disrespect, yet with the sincere belief that this
policy of compulsion is a mistake, and that it will
eventually fail as regards the Land Bill, as it has
failed as regards Protestantism.
It is as an illustration of the policy of compul-
sion (English), versus the policy of gentle and
Preface to the Second Edition.
I I
kindly development (Irish), that the Gladstone and
Longfield projects are worthy of being compared.
Henry the Eighth tried to push the Irish people
into Protestantism. His successors for over three
hundred years have been trying to do the same,
and they have failed. Mr. Gladstone is now try-
ing to push the Irish people into a system of land
tenure like that in England; the whole tendency
of his Bill is to consolidate farms and introduce
leases.
The Irish Land Bill in fact makes it to a cer-
tain extent penal for a landlord to let his land in
farms of less than a certain value, or for a less
term than thirty-one years. At some cost, and by
enlarging the farms on his property to the neces-
sary extent, he can escape from these penalties.
The tendency of them, however, is obvious. So
surely as the slow and almost imperceptible ac-
tion of the falling rain, the mountain torrent, or
the glacier in the lapse of time crumbles the hill-
side away, and carries the debris down the valley
and into the sea, so surely must the tendency of
such an enactment be to clear away those who
cultivate small patches of the soil.
However gratifying it may be to some to see
set in action a machinery for sweeping these small
holders from our valleys and plains, let them at
least remember that the "petite culture" of Ireland,
however imperfectly it has been hitherto carried
}
12
Irish Nationality in 1870.
out, even under the worst possible system of ex-
treme insecurity, had at least the good effect of
keeping down pauperism to an extent which,
when compared with England and Scotland with
all their wealth, seems almost incredible.
If we take the total annual value of the pro-
perty and profits assessed to the income tax in
England, Scotland, and Ireland for the year 1868,
we find it to be as follows:
England
Scotland
Ireland
365 Millions.
38
""
26
""
If it be assumed that these figures represent in
a rough way the relative wealth of each country,
then, by dividing the wealth of each nation by the
entire population of each, we get a sort of repre-
sentation of what, if it were equally distributed
among all the men, women, and children of the
country, would fall to the share of each:
England, 365 Millions divided among 20 Million souls
Scotland, 38
divided among 3
Ireland, 26
divided among 5
""
£18 each.
souls
£13 each.
souls
£5 each.
Each living soul in England would therefore (if
property were equally divided) be more than three
times as rich, and in Scotland more than twice as
rich as in Ireland. Yet how is the pauperism?
The following are the number of paupers on a cer-
tain day in
England
Scotland
Ireland
...
1,039,549 or I in 20
128,339 or
1 in 23
74,745 or 1 in 74
Preface to the Second Edition.
13
In England, there is one human being out of
every 20 receiving relief as a pauper; in Scotland,
one out of every 23; while in Ireland, although
so much less wealthy, there is only one out of
every 74!*
* When the English traveller sees the mud cabins of Ireland, and
the shoeless and stockingless children that throng around the
tourist-cars at Killarney, he sneers at Irish poverty, and thanks God
that his country is not as Ireland is. He forgets, or he is ignorant,
that although there is much poverty in Ireland, there is, compared
with England and Scotland, little pauperism. He does not please
to remember that the wretchedness and pauperism of his own
country is carefully stowed away out of sight, but that in reality
there is a great deal more of it in proportion to the population than
there is in Ireland. The occupants of small farms may be at times
pinched by honest poverty. They are not degraded by pauperism.
The Land Bill will perhaps increase the wealth of Ireland, but it
will of necessity also augment the pauperism. "Le problème éco-
nomique aujourd'hui n'est pas tant d'accroître la production, que
d'arriver á une bonne répartition." This supreme economic ques-
tion has hitherto received a better solution in Ireland than in
England. The following tables shew the relative amount of pauper-
ism in England, Scotland, and Ireland compared with the wealth
and population in each country.
The gross value of property and profits assessed to the Income
Tax, under all the five schedules, in the year ended April, 1868, (the
latest date available) was
England
Scotland
Ireland
...
Total
£365,366,419
38,933,155
26,069,397
£430,368,971
1,039,549
The number of Paupers in England was
On 1st January, 1869
On 1st January, 1870
...
...
1,079,391
In Scotland (exclusive of casual poor) the numbers were
On 14th May, 1868
On 14th May, 1869
...
128,976
128,339
14
Irish Nationality in 1870.
The writer does not pretend to say that this
remarkable result is altogether due to small
holdings, but that it is so in a very great degree
no reasonable man can doubt.*
•
It will be a different story fifty years hence,
when our small farms are swept away by the
action of the Land Bill.†
In Ireland, the numbers were at the close of the first week of
74,745
73,921
The expenditure for the relief of the poor in England was
January, 1869...
January, 1870
In the year ended Lady-day, 1868
£7,498,059
In the year ended Lady-day, 1869
£7,673,100
In Scotland, the expenditure in the year ended
14th May, 1868 was
£863,202
14th May, 1869 was
£931,275
In Ireland, the expenditure was in the year ended
Lady-day, 1868
£841,512
Lady-day, 1869
£836,553
The figures are taken from a volume of statistics compiled by the
Board of Trade, and presented to Parliament last session.-Statis-
tical Abstract for the United Kingdom, 17th number.
* The Irish are most reluctant to enter the workhouse or go upon
the rates. This is due to the proprietorial pride existing amongst
even the smallest farm holders, and is one of the most beneficial re-
sults of a system of "pétite culture." The labourer or artizan
retreats to the poorhouse and resumes his position when better
times appear. The small farmer, once he enters it, sinks from his
position never to rise again to the same level. He struggles to the
last against such a fall. That this is the true explanation of the
unwillingness of the Irish to enter the workhouse, is made clear
when it is recollected that the average cost of maintaining paupers
in Ireland is greater than in England and Scotland, which implies
that it is not by ill-treatment that they are kept off the rates.
+ In France, as in Ireland, certain causes have tended to keep
down pauperism by affecting an equable distribution of wealth.
"La répartition," says Laveleye, " qui résult des lois françaises est
Preface to the Second Edition.
15
It is true that the Premier attempts to effect this
clearance at a sacrifice on the part of his follow-
ers, which one cannot contemplate without amaze-
ment and admiration. He has induced Englishmen
to adopt a project regarded even by a foreigner
(Laveleye)* as revolutionary, in order, as time
goes on, to push Ireland into the English and
Scotch system. This appears to be the ultimate
policy of his measure, and it is one which, it is to
be feared, is as little likely to produce good results
as that of King Henry.
A certain school of Irish politicians think that
Henry the Eighth would have done better for the
happiness and prosperity of Ireland and the cause
of Christianity, if, instead of trying to push the
people into Protestantism, he had been content to
make them loyal, happy, and contented Catholics.
The same school conceive that Mr. Gladstone
would do much more for the happiness and con-
tentment of Ireland, if he did not aim at con-
solidating farms, and displacing the smaller tenant
donc plus juste et plus propre à écarter le paupérisme. Voilà pour-
quoi la France, qui est moins riche que l'Angleterre, a cependant
beaucoup moins de misère.”
* "En Angleterre, dans ce pays par excellence de liberté indi-
viduelle et de non-intervention gouvernementale, voila qu'on vote
une loi qui restreint les droits du propriétaire foncier avec si peu
de ménagement, qu'aucune législature, aucun réformateur n'oserait
rien proposer de pareil sur le continent, sous peine d'être accusé de
porter atteinte aux bases de l'ordre social."-La Question Agraire
en Irelande.-Laveleye. Revue des Deux Mondes, Juin, 1870.
16
Irish Nationality in 1870.
farmers, so that they must become either labour-
ers or emigrants; but rather sought to restore con-
fidence among the tenant class, by extending an
Irish custom which the people like, and which is
capable of vast improvement by being made at
once legal and thoroughly equitable, leaving the
size of the farm to regulate itself according to the
fertility of the soil, and other circumstances vary-
ing in different places.
It is as an indication of a policy, not as a mere
legislative measure, that the comparison between
these schemes is of importance. For this purpose
it is not necessary that the reader should be ac-
quainted with the details of each. It is enough to
know that the one (Mr. Gladstone's), at a consider-
able sacrifice of money on the part of Irish land-
lords, and a very remarkable violation "of their
principles and instincts" on the part of the English
and Scotch members, lays the foundation of a
plan, the tendency of which is ultimately to bring
Ireland under the system of leases and large
farms, and to wipe out the "Ulster custom ;"* while
* The Land Bill goes through the form of legalizing the Ulster
custom, but does not attempt to make it work equitably between
man and man. The landlord and tenant can still try to defraud each
other as successfully as ever in Ulster-a game at which the land-
lord can always, if he pleases, succeed. Thus A. B., an old man,
has a farm at £20 a year. He informs his landlord that he has been
offered £200 for the "good will," and asks his approval for the suc-
cessor (in accordance with usage). Landlord approves successor,
but informs A. B. that he means to demand £22 10s. as rent from
Preface to the Second Edition.
17
the other (Mr. Longfield's), at a less sacrifice on
the part of Irish as well as English and Scotch
gentlemen, aimed at legalizing and extending on
an equitable basis the Irish custom of tenant-
right. Recognizing this right—as in fact it is one
of co-proprietorship — it provided a simple ma-
chinery whereby the tenant could not be defrauded
of his share in the concern, and would be always
certain of getting from his landlord the market-
able value of his share as settled between them-
selves by a perfectly fair self-adjusting arrange-
ment.
In thus attempting to draw a comparison be-
tween the policy of England towards Ireland in
the reign of King Henry the Eighth and in that
of Queen Victoria, it will readily be granted that
certain differences exist. The manners of the age
incoming new tenant. The latter then says to A. B., "Very well,
but then I can only give £150 for 'good will.”” A. B. is compelled to
accept the loss of £50. He would lose more by any legal proceedings.
To the writer's knowledge such cases are now taking place in the
north of Ireland. Such tenants as A. B. do not see that the Land
Bill has done them much good. They naturally fail to see much
connection between law and what they consider justice. Landlords
can obviously kill this custom by thus advancing upon it in a quiet
stealthy way.
In speaking of the custom of Tenant Right, M. de Laveleye says
very correctly of the tenant, "Il est presque à moitié propriétaire ;'
and he adds, "il n'y'a point plus fort stimulant a travail que la
propriété,” nor, many men will think, a more certain stimulant to`
discontent than the feeling that one may be cheated out of their
moiety by a man richer and more powerful than themselves, who
simply laughs at this Land Bill.
2
18
Irish Nationality in 1870.
have improved. Ireland is not pushed with the
same rudeness. The policeman does not accom-
pany his order to move on with the same free use
of his baton. There is something polite and cour-
teous in the mode in which he gently urges Ireland
into the path in which he is determined she shall
tread. But, making due allowance for the altered
condition of the world and society at large, there
is, as has been already said, no essential difference
between the English policy of ancient and that of
recent times. It is a policy of "Anglification"
upon compulsory principles now as then.
What Irishmen desire to see it changed into is
a policy, whereby a nation which has reached a
high point of political civilization will lend a
kindly hand in assisting to bring a kindred nation
up to its level.
The very terms in every day use among English-
men regarding the political treatment of Ireland
imply strife. They imply that she is struggling
with difficulty and against opposition up the hill.
A friend may require assistance, but he does not
need to be "conciliated." The very idea of "con-
cession" involves the conception of contest fol-
lowed by yielding — of a hand-to-hand combat in
which the English enemy is to be beaten back
inch by inch. The theory which underlies what
may be called an Irish policy is totally different.
It assumes and admits that in some respects
Preface to the Second Edition.
19
England may have attained a higher point of po-
litical civilization* than Ireland; it desires that
assistance and encouragement should be offered to
Ireland, while she, after her own peculiar fashion,
endeavours to clamber up the steep ascent. It
says, "Do not push or force us into the precise
path you English tread — be content to let us go
to heaven by our own way, and politically to let us
follow our own track, provided in the main it
leads upwards to the goal of contentment, prosper-
ity, and civilization. Respect our customs, our
usages, even our prejudices; assist, educate, do not
coerce us." In order to carry into effect such a
policy, it becomes a sine quá non to find out
what the Irish people wish. Let them follow the
scheme of their own choice, if there is not in it
something absolutely vicious, and train them to
desire and ultimately to adopt something better.
It will be admitted by any fair-minded Irish-
that the failure to enforce the adoption of an
Irish policy in governing Ireland has been in a
great degree due to ourselves. We have been
man,
* That is to say, England has been longer and better trained in
the use of political power. Yet it is certain that many great social
problems have received in Ireland a more satisfactory solution than
in England. Many persons are of opinion that as regards our
Prison system, our Educational system, our Poor Law, and our
system of Medical Relief for the Poor, we are in advance of England.
Ireland no doubt has had some great boons conferred upon her, in
consequence of the principle of "fiat experimentum in corpore vili”
having been applied to her.
2*
20
Irish Nationality in 1870.
made so distrustful and so disunited, that it is diffi
cult, if not impossible, for English Members to
make out what an Irish project is. They appear
most anxious to find out our views as a people, but
they cannot. There is not one person in ten thou-
sand who consults the multitudinous Irish news-
papers, with the hope of discovering whether
unanimity of opinion exists upon any one single
Irish topic. It would probably be even more
difficult to form a generalization as to Irish opi-
nion from the varied views entertained by the
"disorganized rabble" of Irish Members diffused
through the Imperial Parliament; so that it be-
comes a subject well worthy of consideration,
whether, even though a local Irish legislature were
permitted to perform no other function than that
of a debating society, or a sort of engine for form-
ing and expressing Irish opinion in some kind of
definite and intelligible shape, it might not be of
great service in a country so circumstanced, that
Englishmen cannot find out from its press or from
its representatives what it means and what it
wants.
The author, it is true, was one of a small knot
of individuals who toiled with great assiduity to
bring the "Longfield Scheme of Parliamentary
Tenant Right" before the public, the House of
Commons, and the legislature. The little band,
of which he was but a very insignificant member,
Preface to the Second Edition.
21
were disappointed at the failure which attended
their efforts; not because the scheme of Parlia-
mentary Tenant Right bore the name of an emi-
nent individual personally unknown to several of
them, but because it disappointed the hopes that
a really new policy for Ireland was about to be
inaugurated. They had begun to hope that the
Disestablishment of the Protestant Church showed
an intention to change the policy of pushing, into a
policy of development; one which would seek to
improve, not subvert, Irish customs; fall in with,
not outrage, Irish notions. That this had been
the desire of Mr. Gladstone's Government there
can be little doubt. It has failed in this instance
to adopt a policy of development; and, at the
present crisis in Irish politics, the failure is of in-
calculable importance. It is pointed to, not so
much from "passionate indignation at the rejec-
tion of the scheme," as from the conviction that a
false step has been made by the most friendly
government Ireland has ever had; a step, it is to
be feared, not easily retraceable, and one which has
done much to convince even sober-minded Irish-
men (and there are such), that without some
different machinery from that which at present
exists, Irish projects, and an Irish policy for Ire-
land, have little chance of being either adopted or
even fairly considered.
There are some both in England and Ireland
22
Irish Nationality in 1870.
who seem to fancy that the heaviest part of the
sacrifice involved in Mr. Gladstone's Land Bill is
the pecuniary loss inflicted by it on the Irish
Landlords. There are others, among whom the
writer would class himself, who, without by any
means underrating this, yet think comparatively
little of the pecuniary sacrifice. We not unfre-
quently meet with men capable of laying down
large sums of money for what they think right;
and there are Irish landlords who, although
smarting under the idea of being compelled to do
so under what appears to them a sort of penal
statute, have nevertheless patriotism enough to be
quite capable of making such sacrifices, if they
could hope to ensure the contentment and pros-
perity of their country. It requires, however,
courage, generosity, virtue of a far higher order,
to rise superior to the "esprit de corps. of a
profession, a faction, or a great political party to
which one has been attached. The sacrifice of
cherished opinions and darling theories which
memory clings to with fondness, and which time
has rendered holy in the eyes of those who hold
them, is one which far surpasses any money sa-
crifice. The sacrifice made by the Land Bill
combines both; and there are men in Ireland who
do not fail to recognize the magnitude of these
sacrifices. But, if we may judge from the almost
universal expression of Irish opinion, they fear and
""
Preface to the Second Edition.
23
are to
profoundly regret that all these mighty sacrifices
go for nothing. With a mixture of admira-
tion mingled with keen and bitter disappointment,
which from his point of view an Englishman
cannot understand, the Irishman who is in truth
England's truest ally sees at once the glorious
sacrifice and the failure. Dazzled by the one, he
cannot shut his eyes to the other, while he ex-
claims, "C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la
politique." *
"* It is sublime, but alas! alas! it is
not the policy for Ireland.
It is true that the moral effect of such an
effort may be considerable, but it is equally pos-
sible that it may have very unexpected conse-
quences. It may convince some that England is
prepared to go great lengths really to win Ire-
land; and they will rightly urge that "where
there is a will there is a way."
* The able essay by M. Emile de Laveleye in the Revue des Deux
Mondes, (Juin 15, 1870,) on the Irish Land Question, has been much
quoted in triumph by English journalists. If, however, this essay
is considered in connection with that by the same author on the
English Land Question a month later, (15th Juillet,) it will be seen
how gloomy a view this great economist takes of the system of Land
tenure prevailing in England. When the Irish Land Bill is recog-
nised as being nothing else than a scheme, the general policy of
which is to bring Ireland gradually into the English system, it is
then obvious that the above exclamation epitomises the pith of
these two essays of M. de Laveleye, if considered together and read
by this light. The national vanity of England is flattered only by
the first words: the second essay is not referred to by English
writers.
24
Irish Nationality in 1870.
In politics, however, as in war, it is difficult to
foresee what may be the result of a brilliant disas-
ter. England as yet knows only of the noble sa-
crifice. She has yet to learn that the old blunder
has been committed, and, blind as ever to her own
blundering,* she will blame the intractable, un-
grateful, and incorrigible Ireland, for the failure
her sons foresaw and vainly endeavoured to avert.
The heroic sacrifice may bewilder some of Eng-
land's allies, so that at first they may not see the
mishap; her Irish hirelings may pretend not to
perceive it; but her enemies will not be slow to
profit by the disaster.
Although The Times is now pleased to say that
"it is absurd to describe the project of Parlia
* Even already we find such sentiments as the following in jour-
nals conducted with ability and of acknowledged liberality-journals
quite capable of applying the principle of the "development policy"
to the Indian Ryot or the Brahmo Somaj, yet absolutely incapable
of applying it to their immediate neighbours. "With the alien
Church abolished, and the Irish peasantry endowed with every
security, help, and advantage that law can give, Irish malcontents
are hereafter convicted and refuted in the sight and knowledge of
all men that are not wilfully blind and ignorant. We have put
ourselves in the right, and can not only answer but disregard those
who choose to continue accusing us of wrong. There is another and
very great advantage derivable from this measure-more certainly
derivable than any other of its advantages, including that for which
it was alone designed. Whether or not it will succeed in its main
design of improving the condition of the Irish peasantry, it makes
a settlement of the Irish Land question. If this measure does not
settle that question, no other measure can, and the evils are seen the
more clearly to be of that class which laws do little to cause, and
can do but little more to cure."-Scotsman, August 11, 1870.-
Preface to the Second Edition.
25
mentary Tenant Right as if it had been accepted
by the great mass of the Irish people," yet it is in-
conceivable that it did not perceive all this when
it produced its able and memorable articles of
May 13th, 17th, 20th, 1870, from which the fol-
lowing passages are extracted, and for which
there are not a few Irishmen deeply grateful :-
"We have already explained the nature of Sir John Gray's*
scheme. The second is inspired by Judge Longfield, and has been
received with a remarkable unanimity of approval in Ireland.".
Times, 13th May, 1870.
"This is the strong prima facie case made out for the principle
of parliamentary tenant-right common to the schemes of Sir John
Gray and Judge Longfield. It is recommended by Irish landlords
and Irish tenants, and not by them alone. Irishmen of all classes
and of all opinions — Tories, Whigs, and Nationalists
*
support it.
* * The objections to the plan dwindle and disappear
when they are fairly examined, and there remains on the other side
a remarkable concurrence of Irish opinion in its favour. There is
scarcely an independent Irish Liberal member, whether landlord or
not, who has not signed a declaration supporting it, and the organs
of Conservative opinion in Ireland are equally pronounced, although
their representatives in the House are naturally more afraid of
committing themselves. In the face of these facts, we ask those
who recognize the importance of the present question in its bearing
upon the sentiment of Nationality in Ireland, to put aside the temp-
tations of persistency in self-opinion, and to examine for themselves,
before Thursday comes, what is to be said for and against the sup-
* The projects of Sir John Gray and Mr. Longfield were identical
in this, that they were based on the principles of an Irish policy.
Each had as its object the extension and improvement of an Irish
custom dear to the people, and capable of being made equitable as
between man and man. As schemes of Irish policy they shared the
same fate when set in comparison with an English one which says:
“We English do not like your small farms, or your co-proprietorial
system of tenant-right, and at any cost we mean that you must give
them up."
26
Irish Nationality in 1870.
plementary proposals that will then be brought on for discussion.".
Times, 17th May, 1870.
* *
*
“ The next argument advanced against the new clauses was that
they involved a government valuation of rent. This objection does
not apply to Judge Longfield's proposal, but, whatever be its force,
it applies at least equally to the government bill.
Lastly, it was urged that the scheme would speedily become general.
This is but an indirect way of confessing that it meets the wishes of
the Irish people. * * * * Tried in this manner, there is not
an objection which could be raised against either Sir John Gray's
plan or Judge Longfield's which must not be condemned as trivial.
* * * * There is another reason compelling us to condemn as
a grave error the rejection of the plans discussed on Thursday.
There are twenty-three counties in Ireland outside Ulster, and re-
presentatives of twenty-two of them signed a declaration approving
the principle of these plans, and urging the government to accept it.
The organs of opinion of all parties in Ireland united in asking for
it. Why was no favourable answer given to their representations ?
Can it be doubted that if a similar array of opinion had been mani-
fested in Scotland its demands would have been granted? It is upon
this consideration that the attitude of the government yesterday is
most to be regretted. The Liberal English members followed the
government, as they have done throughout the progress of this bill,
abnegating their own opinions on a question in which their consti-
tuencies are little instructed and less interested. It is from incidents
like this that the strength of the Nationalist sentiment in Ireland is
derived; and it is because we repudiate as fatal to the welfare of
both countries the policy of separation, that we deprecate the neglect
of Irish opinion which may give it even a shadow of justification.”
-Times, 20th May, 1870.
It is necessary to apologise for the length at
which the policy of the Land Bill has been dis-
cussed in its bearings upon the question of Irish
Nationality. It has been in some degree neces-
sary to do so, not but that the policy of England
towards Ireland offers many like examples of com-
pulsory Anglification-for in truth it is a tissue of
similar attempts-but because Irishmen feel that
Preface to the Second Edition.
27
it outweighs all other questions of the day in im-
portance—that it is the question of questions for
Ireland. Upon its success, more than aught else,
the future prosperity of Ireland turns. It has
been dwelt upon also because it illustrates very
well the view which the writer wishes to put
forward, and as all the incidents referred to are
still fresh in men's minds. The whole history of
it shews the contempt with which Irish public
opinion is treated by the legislature. Black as
night was the secrecy in which this bill was
shrouded up to the opening of the session, lest
Irish intelligence should be brought to bear upon
it. It was deemed more important to keep the
Tories in ignorance of the provisions of the bill
up to the last moment, than to elicit the opinions
of thoughtful and able Irishmen upon a project
on which, more than any other, the fate of their
country is to turn. When, at the eleventh hour,
the Irish project of Parliamentary "Tenant
Right" was brought forward, it was treated in
such a fashion as to draw forth, even from The
Times, the expressions referred to.
Let any Englishman reflect a moment, and say
honestly and deliberately if his country and the
public opinion of his countrymen were similarly
dealt with, what would be his feelings.
28
Irish Nationality in 1870.
III.
It is much upon the same grounds, as illustra-
ting the difference between an English and an
Irish policy, that the writer has ventured to refer
to the treatment of political offenders in English
prisons. Here there is again a good illustration of
the antagonism between the English and Irish
view of a subject. The Englishman says:
66 In
these islands there is so much political liberty,
such unbounded political freedom, that within the
limits of the law every one who wishes to redress
a political wrong, has ample scope and verge
enough' to attain his object without breach of the
law. If, notwithstanding, he so far transcends the
limits of what is prudent and what is right, as to be
guilty of a breach of the law, we cannot but regard
him as a criminal, and once he is convicted by a
jury of his countrymen, to a convict prison he goes
along with other convicts, and as a convict let him
be treated."
6
The Irishman takes a different view. He says,
"The political offender is, I admit, a dangerous,
but he is not essentially a bad man. His liberties
may be very justly forfeited,—it may be very right
to incarcerate him-but he is not a man morally
degraded in his own eyes, or in those of a very large
section of his countrymen. His motives may have
been as pure and as good as those of the house-
Preface to the Second Edition.
29
breaker or swindler have been sordid and bad.
It is unreasonable-it is positively wrong"-he
urges, “to regard such a man as an ordinary cri-
minal, and to compel him to associate with such
persons."
Here, again, perfectly honest men on different
sides of the English Channel are found holding
different views; yet whether we Irish like it or not,
we are forced in the treatment of political offen-
ders to ignore the political aspect of their offence.
A long career of political freedom enjoyed by
England has taught that nation to regard a poli-
tical offence as a crime. In Ireland a career of
political debasement has produced a totally oppo-
site result. Unfortunately, in the eyes of many,
such offences are regarded as proofs of virtue; by
few are they considered positively vicious or cri-
minal, in the sense that theft or forgery are.
Ireland finds many other nations taking her
side, and, not unnaturally, points to the conduct
of America towards her political prisoners after
the conclusion of the greatest Rebellion the world
has ever seen. But England provokingly persists
in ignoring any political element in the offence of
Irishmen. It may be asked, Is this wise?
30
Irish Nationality in 1870.
IV.
The Disestablishment of the Protestant Church
and the disposal hereafter of its funds, will not
improbably exercise at no distant day an import·
ant influence on the question of Nationality and
local Irish Government.
It will be remembered that part of the scheme
of the Church Bill, as it originally stood, was that
the Irish Church moneys were to be applied in
support of Irish Charities. It may be observed
en passant that no much greater calamity could
have befallen Ireland than to have had this money
expended in what is ordinarily called charity. To
a country circumstanced as Ireland is just at this
moment, struggling upward from despair, striving
to rise above the meanness and degradation natu-
rally engendered in a down-trodden people, large
sums poured recklessly forth for charitable purpo-
ses would have been ruinous indeed. It is to be
hoped that a judicious mode of using this money
may be found; not in supporting Lunatic Asylums
and Workhouses, and reducing the rates for the
benefit of landlords; not in encouraging idleness
and mendicancy, and augmenting pauperism, but
in preventing them, by developing the industrial
resources of the island and by loans for drainage
or purchase, etc.—encouraging the habits of thrift,
industry, and independence, the growth of which
has been checked by bad government.
Preface to the Second Edition.
3I
Whatsoever use it may ultimately be turned to,
two things are tolerably clear concerning it.
First :-That it is Irish money, and to be expen-
ded for Irish purposes (and we may suppose as
the Irish people may themselves direct). Second-
ly :-That it will be almost impossible to prevent
it from making its way gradually and through
channels not at first easily detected into the
Imperial Exchequer (as in fact has already oc-
curred with regard to Maynooth and the Regium
Donum). Irish Members have been lately taunted
by an English Member, who said that the only
thing that drew them together was a "money-cry."
There is some truth in this, and it is therefore
not unreasonable to suppose that they may co-
operate very cordially when that cry is raised, in
order to prevent any pilfering of money which
indisputably belongs to their country. However
much they may differ as to the best purposes for
which to use it, they will stand shoulder to shoul-
der to prevent its crossing the channel. In fact,
whether it be to save it from leaking gradually
into the Imperial Exchequer, or to determine how
it is to be expended, this Church money will be-
come the means of placing before Irish Members
a neat, precise, well-defined, domestic question-
one which will every now and then cause all of them
to stand together in array against England and
Scotland, and which will force them to discuss
32
Irish Nationality in 1870.
among themselves what is the most judicious mode
of using it for the benefit of their own country.
Trifling as this matter may appear to some, it
may have a considerable effect in giving an im-
pulse to the movement of co-operation among
Irish Members, of which there were symptoms last
year, and which other causes are also tending to
bring about.
IRISH NATIONALITY IN 1870.*
"A TORY REPEAL MOVEMENT.-A section of Irish Conservatives (our
correspondent writes) are toying with the Repeal question. Some of this
party are no doubt sincere. They argue that the disestablishment of the
Church and the theory of exceptional legislation for Ireland have virtually
dissolved the Union. They profess no longer to have occasion to fear
Roman Catholic supremacy in a native Parliament. Other Conservatives
vehemently oppose the idea, believing that their position, "bad as it is,
would be worse" if the Union were repealed. The Freeman's Journal
doubts the earnestness of any section of Conservative Repealers; and the
Roman Catholic Whig party are averse from repeal in such company.
There is a movement going forward quietly to produce a demonstration
of Conservative opinion in Dublin on the subject."-Pall Mall Gazette,
May, 1870.
ONE would suppose from paragraphs like the
above, now appearing from time to time in the
newspapers on the other side of the Channel, that
the "Repeal" movement of 1870 was a matter de-
serving of notice in an English journal as a piece
of the idle gossip of the hour. Many Irishmen
think differently; and although most impartial
persons may smile at the sudden conversion to
nationality" of those who until a few months ago
strove to render union amongst Irishmen impos-
sible, yet now that "the Church" is gone now
that united action amongst Irishmen is no longer
an impossibility— the whole aspect of this question
66
*Printed verbatim from First Edition, with the addition of a few
foot-notes.
3
34
Irish Nationality in 1870.
is changed, and it becomes one deserving of the
most thoughtful and careful consideration from
all who wish well to their country.
Every Irishman, whatsoever his political creed
may be, desires to see opened for his country a
bright and prosperous future. This he hopes to
reach by one of two roads. Either by union with
England - close, hearty, intimate union-such
union, in fact, that Ireland shall share and tho-
roughly partake of the healthful political life of the
empire of which she is a part-union such as may
realize the ideal of Pitt, and lead to a genuine
fusion of sentiments and feelings, and a cordial
co-operation between the two islands; or by
another road, which corresponds to the ideal of
Grattan,* and leads to the future prosperity of
Ireland by giving to the country a local govern-
ment, more or less distinct from that of England.
Those who think this the best way to follow,
conceive that close imperial union with England is
not incompatible with local government, which, as
they argue, alone can give to Ireland that healthy
political life which is essential to the prosperity of
a country.
No doubt there may be many shades of opinion
*The reader will of course understand that the terms " repeal "
and "ideal of Grattan" are used as general terms in reference to
projects of independent government. They are not in these pages
supposed to indicate the precise schemes of either Grattan or
O'Connell.
Irish Nationality in 1870.
35
:
as to what amount of power and independence of
action should be entrusted to any detached local
government. But that is not the question at pre-
sent under consideration it is this. In what di-
rection is Irish public opinion now setting, and
is that public opinion likely to become strong
enough to make itself felt? In other words, are
we moving in the direction towards complete
fusion with England, or are there forces at work
which are directing the popular will in the other
direction-forces which are no longer antagonised
by the influences which of necessity entailed failure
upon O'Connell in the last great effort of his life?
The writer (and he conceives that a great num-
ber of Irish Protestants, his countrymen and co-
religionists, are in the same position) is not wed-
ded to either view. What he desires is to see
something of a vigorous, healthy, united, lay
public opinion kindled in Ireland. It is this, and
this only, that can reanimate the apparently life-
less body, and raise the spirit of Ireland from the
state of degradation into which centuries of mis-
rule have plunged it. It is immaterial for the
present to consider whether this great object may
be best attained by following out the idea of Pitt
or that of Grattan. The real question is, are there
not influences at work which are beyond the con-
trol of any man, tending, as regards Ireland as
elsewhere, to solve the problem that local govern-
3*
36
Irish Nationality in 1870.
ment is compatible with Imperial union? Is there
not, in short, in the movement now commencing
in Ireland, the germ of something which may yet at-
tain goodly proportions, and which certainly is not
deserving of being looked upon with the habitual
contempt with which Irish political combinations
are usually contemplated by the English public.
That there exists in Ireland at this moment a
melancholy consciousness of the degraded condition
into which public opinion has fallen, is one of the
most hopeful signs.
If we attempt to guage the intelligence of the
country by estimating the amount of literary
talent devoted to the service of the Irish press, we
find there is no lack of intelligence of a high order,
but that it is prostituted to merely personal pur-
poses, or is made subservient to the interests of
cliques and factions of the narrowest kind. "What
was meant for mankind" is given up to the selfish
interests of an individual or a party.
If we look to the bar, we find a body of highly
educated gentlemen, inferior in point of ability to
no similar body in the world. Yet the honors,
emoluments, and rewards of this great and honor-
able profession are but the payment for political
services-sops to stop the mouth of the mauvais
sujet, or bribes to get the vote of the political
adventurer-or, at the very best, vulgar attempts
of English statesmanship to cajole and wheedle
Irish Nationality in 1870.
37
the friends and followers of some one who for a
time enjoys a passing popularity.
This condition of demoralization pervades more
or less other professions and callings. The whole
country is under its baneful influence. It is
traced, at least in a great degree, to the policy
of England towards Ireland. It is largely caused
by the feeling of utter helplessness on our part,
arising from the conviction that at present the
opinions of three or four English editors would
outweigh the desires of three-fourths of the Irish
people. That all this is gradually beginning to
excite throughout this land a feeling of deep dis-
gust and of burning shame is a good symptom of
returning health; and that there should be a
craving for something like sound, strong, powerful
public opinion is the best proof that the desire
for Irish "nationality" has in it something which
will not be merely transient-passing away as
resentful passionate feeling assuredly will pass
away.
There are many symptoms, perhaps only observ-
able to those who are watching with fond anxiety
"at the sick bed of their delirious country," that
something like Irish public opinion is forming.
Reason shows signs of reasserting itself, even al-
though the delirium has not yet subsided. The
state physician may already perceive something
that is healthy not only in Fenianism, but even in
38
Irish Nationality in 1870.
that remarkable metamorphosis which has changed
the Orangeman into an Irish patriot.
Nay more-these hitherto opposing factions
have much in common, and that which they have
in common has something in it which is sound.
Fenianism, in the wider sense in which the term
is now beginning to be used, is composed of a more
or less intense feeling of resentment against Eng-
land, the result of the misgovernment of centuries.
Coupled with this hostility to England there is
something of the fire of true self-sacrificing patriot-
ism, and a determination to repel from the domain
of politics territorial as well as priestly influence.
It grapples alike with the landlord and the priest,
when either steps out of his proper sphere; it
honors each while he occupies his true position as
a good or a pious man.
The Green-Orangeism of recent growth has like-
wise in its composition a large proportion of
resentful indignation against England; a feeling
perhaps at this moment intense in proportion to
its freshness, and by no means unnatural in a
faction long in the ascendant, and now believing
itself to be betrayed. But Irish Protestants have
never been absolutely wanting in national feel-
ing and sentiment. Although their nationality
had become dwarfed and distorted by that very
pampering, the withdrawal of which they so
bitterly resent, yet there is now apparently no
Irish Nationality in 1870.
39
reason why it should not take on healthy growth;
and it seems certain from recent events, that a
large section of Orangemen no longer intend to
remain in leading strings, guided by aristocratic
leaders and wealthy landowners.
Within their own church Protestants are little
inclined to yield to clerical influence; it is their
proselytizers and lay preachers they have to con-
trol, and it is probable that the altered condition
of their church will exercise a salutary influence
in this direction, whilst the introduction of the
ballot will doubtless set them free from landlord
coercion.
Now it will be readily admitted that the detes-
tation of England and things English which these
two extreme sections of Irish faction show (in |
combination with certain democratic tendencies),
would not be very formidable were it not that
a similar feeling, in a modified but far less morbid
form, pervades Irish society to a great extent.
That which in its more intensified condition
amounts to hatred, in its dilution constitutes
dislike, distrust, discontent, dissatisfaction; so that,
if the truth must be spoken, there are few Irish-
men to be found at this moment (save those in
place, or seeking it) who have not hidden within
their bosoms a soupçon of that which in its con-
centrated form constitutes the chief characteristic
of Fenianism.
40
Irish Nationality in 1870.
This sentiment, more or less inimical to England,
is not confined to the humbler classes; it extends
to the higher intelligence of the country, and every
day finds freer expression in the various sections
of the Irish Press. It may at all events be safely
asserted, that if at the present moment there should
arise a leader, a man of intellect and of energy, who
was neither an office-seeking lawyer nor a lay
preacher, who was trusted by the people, and re-
garded not as a political adventurer playing his
own selfish game, but as one really anxious to serve
his country, such a leader, heading a national move-
ment, and marching under the banner of "Impe-
rial Union with local government," would not be
actively opposed by any section of Irish faction.
In every part of Ireland he would be like a
general advancing through a friendly country.
No difficulties would be thrown in his way. Any
serious blunder in the way of repression on the
part of England would immensely augment his
power. A famine, or an outbreak of cattle plague,
or a democratic revolution in France consequent
on the death of the Emperor, and affecting by
contagion surrounding countries, might give rise
to complications of the most serious kind.
The few who are still sanguine enough to be-
lieve that what has been called the ideal of Pitt
may still be realized, argue that all this dissatis-
* Written before the declaration of war.
Irish Nationality in 1870.
41
faction and hostility will subside under the in-
fluence of the substantial good government of
thoroughly well-intentioned statesmen; that it is
not only on the cards, but certain, that thorough
fusion between England and Ireland will be ac-
complished by well-intended legislation. On the
other side it is urged that good intentions will
not do; that no English statesman, however well
intentioned, is unclogged by English prejudice-
partly inherent in himself, in part belonging to
the cumbrous legislative assembly whose igno-
rance of Irish ideas and feelings is at once the
most powerful weapon in his hands, and the
greatest drag upon his attempts to govern Ireland
with success.
The crass ignorance of Irish ideas on Irish
subjects evinced by the bulk of English members
makes the Premier a dictator, but only so long as
he exercises his powers within the limits of cer-
tain British prejudices. The Premier is assumed
to know and understand what his followers do
not profess to understand. As a chieftain blindly
trusted he leads his men to combat, but he is
liable to desertion any moment that his supersti-
tious clansmen see an omen which, according to
British egotism, is regarded as an omen of evil.
That which causes him to be blindly followed by
his legions, equally renders him liable to be has-
tily deserted, and is at once the source of his
42
Irish Nationality in 1870.
power and his weakness in dealing with Irish
questions. It is difficult to say whether the
power or the weakness has proved most unfortu-
nate for Ireland.
Of late, Mr. Gladstone has wielded his weapon
of dictatorial power in crushing even the discus-
sion of a land-project very acceptable to Irishmen
of all classes.* He has alienated many who were
not to say warm advocates of the "Longfield Land
Scheme," by the manner in which he put his foot
upon a project originating with an Irishman of
acknowledged integrity and ability, warmly ap-
proved by the various sections of the Irish press,
and receiving the support of some of the most
esteemed and trusted among Irish members.
The Melbourne administration, on the other
hand, although avowedly determined fairly to
* The author has made no change in the text; he did not think
it right to do so, inasmuch as in the introductory pages of the pre-
sent edition he attempts to reply to criticisms on his original
pamphlet, which is therefore exactly reproduced. Otherwise, he
confesses that he would gladly alter this passage which has ap-
peared to some to be written in a spirit of partisanship almost per-
sonally hostile to Mr. Gladstone.
The writer will yield to none in admiration of the statesman who
has toiled so earnestly in Ireland's cause. England has never pro-
duced a statesman who has evinced so earnest a desire to hearken to
the wishes of Irishmen. That he wielded a weapon of " dictatorial
power" is the fault of the system under which he works. He can-
not use in governing Ireland knowledge he has no means of attain-
ing to. He cannot govern Ireland in accordance with wishes she has
no means of expressing. He erred from lack of knowledge. No
English statesman can do otherwise under the existing state of things.
Irish Nationality in 1870.
43
carry out in Ireland the principles of the Eman-
cipation Act, fell to pieces with surprising rapidity
from inability to do so-so hampered was it by
the dead weight of British prejudice.
It must not be understood that the terms
'British prejudice' and 'British egotism' are used
in an altogether contemptuous sense.
A strong
trait in the character of John Bull is the sincere
belief he has that his way of doing everything is
the best; and his prejudice and egotism arise in
great part from a generous desire to thrust upon
his neighbours those systems, the beneficial work-
ing of which he himself believes in. He falls into
the error into which the well-intentioned philan-
thropist so often falls; he wants to force others to
be religious, virtuous, clean, well-conducted, and
happy after his fashion. He forgets the simple
saying of a very sagacious man, "Every man who
succeeds has a way of succeeding of his own; and
if he tries any other man's way, he fails."
It is but a few years since an English chief
justice in Calcutta sought to enforce upon the
Indian Ryots the principles of common law,
because he failed to realise that the Indian land
law was different. An English statesman now
tries to force Irishmen, whether they like it or
not, into the English contract system, and to
stamp out all ideas of status tenancy. He abso-
lutely ignores Irish opinion as to a system not in
44
Irish Nationality in 1870.
itself vicious, but which, although perhaps adapt-
ed to a less advanced condition of civilization
than exists in England, is nevertheless in exist-
ence over a large part of the world, and which
would be so acceptable to the people of Ireland,
that the Chief Secretary's principal objection to
it is that in a short time it would spread all over
Ireland.
No doubt all this arises from the earnest con-
viction that there is nothing so good as English
common law-nothing so admirable as the pure
English tenancy e contractu, and that, nolens
volens, these vast benefits in India as in Ireland
are to be forced upon the natives at the point of
the bayonet; that they will be all the more
prosperous and happy in the long run from
adopting English laws, English customs, English
beef and beer, and English dress.
The English nation says, and says with perfect
truth, "I have had an eminently successful career
among nations;" but it adds, "I will make all
my children successful by coercing them to adopt
my way of attaining success." This coercion it is
which causes England to clash with her dependen-
cies; this it is which is ever producing a greater
alienation of Ireland from England, and which is
gradually, and indeed reluctantly, forcing it upon
the minds of many, that the English bulldog and
the Irish greyhound cannot hunt in couples much
Irish Nationality in 1870.
45
longer; that the day is not very distant when the
leash must be cut; that in fact the only real pros-
pect of promoting hearty good fellowship between
the two islands is by ceasing to have them too
closely bound together.
It will no doubt be said by some, that it is not
unnatural for Irish Protestants and Irish landlords
to turn away from England with feelings of resent-
ment, but that this will be more than compensated
for by the attachment which will soon spring up
on the part of the Catholics. This may well be
doubted. If, at the time of the Union, that great
measure had been supplemented by the Emanci-
pation Act, the disestablishment of the Church,
and a good land law, paying due respect to Irish
customs and rights, the Catholics would have been
won. But it is the unfortunate fate of English
legislation for Ireland always to come too late;
nothing seems to be done generously, and justice
is tardily extracted, either really or apparently
upon compulsion.
The Emancipation Act was admittedly carried
from fear of rebellion, and although the later acts
found able advocates in English intelligence and
love of justice, yet it is certain that English preju-
dice would never have yielded had it not been
possible to point to that Irish disaffection which
found its most distinct expression in Fenianism.
Altogether the influences which seem calculated
:
46
Irish Nationality in 1870.
to gain for England the real attachment of Irish
Catholics, seem more than counteracted by those
which tend rather to keep alive the old antipa-
thy. The absolute inability to look at any ques-
tion from an Irish point of view (as illustrated
just now by the land question, and that relating
to the treatment of political offenders), combined
with the ceaseless ridicule and unwavering con-
tempt heaped upon Ireland and the Irish by the
press of England, throw terrible obstacles in the
way of close and hearty union-obstacles which
are always being exaggerated by those who do
not wish that union should take place.
The disestablishment and disendowment of the
Irish Protestant Church is now producing the
simple and natural results which were foreseen
and predicted as certain to follow in its track.
Irish Protestants are ceasing to occupy an anoma-
lous position; they are beginning to assume what
is to them their normal attitude; they are joining
the party of progress; and the sordid and selfish
motives which, as churchmen, bound them to Eng-
land being removed, their democratic tendencies
and national feelings are beginning to germinate.
It is true that they are as anxious as ever to keep
their faith pure from any stealthy invasion from
without, or betrayal from within; ritualistic inno-
vations are at this moment opposed with a vehe-
mence that shews no lack of zeal in this direc-
Irish Nationality in 1870.
47
tion. But even already this zeal is acting on the
defensive; it seeks to resist what it is legitimate to
resist; and it is probable that it will gradually
cease altogether to act on the offensive, and no
longer strive to carry the proselytizing war into
the enemy's camp. It will find vent for its ener-
gies in supporting its own church and protecting
its members. As the theological fever, of which
the proselytizing mania is at once the most re-
markable and the most formidable symptom, sub-
sides, and gives way to a more healthy though not
less earnest expression of Protestant Christianity,
it may reasonably be expected that much of the
bitterness of sectarian animosity will pass away;
and Irish Protestants, becoming less odious to
their Catholic countrymen, will be in a predica-
ment to co-operate with them more effectively
than hitherto for the good of their common coun-
try. Religious equality will destroy the aggres-
sive character which was fostered by ascendancy,
and the Protestant minority, like all non-domi-
nant minorities, will find that it will have enough
to do to protect itself against the power which
greater numbers give, and against the dangers
which arise where a comparatively small religious
community is brought into contact with another
much more numerous. Mere self protection, how-
ever, no matter with what jealous vigilance it may
be carried out, will not in all human probability
48
Irish Nationality in 1870.
:
prevent a certain amount of union when great
political objects draw Protestants and Catholics
together. Although the language still used re-
specting their Catholic countrymen by some Pro-
testants calling themselves Christians is extremely
coarse, vulgar, and offensive, yet there is a growing
tendency on the part of Protestants to put this
down there exists in fact a much more wide-
spread feeling than Catholics are at present aware
of, that intolerant institutions and the use of bad
names, place Protestantism in a false light, and that
those Protestants most attached to their religion
disapprove of both the one and the other. In
truth, the proselytizing phase of Protestantism
is the only part of it absolutely hateful to mode-
rate and intelligent Irish Catholics; and when it
dies a natural death, there will no longer be any
insuperable obstacle in the way of harmonious
action between the two religions.*
* An attempt has here been made to show that Protestantism,
when shorn of its proselytizing outgrowths, will cease to be odious
to Catholics. In a similar way it is possible that before many
years Orangeism may cease to be anything like so obnoxious to
Catholics as it is at present. The educated Catholic laity of the
present day are not enraged by a Protestant advocating the prin-
ciples of "civil and religious liberty," provided this is not accom-
panied by insolent taunts, assertions of superiority, boasts of victo-
ries and so forth. It seems not improbable that, just as from natural
causes the proselytizing parts of Protestantism will die out, so will
the vain-glorious boastings of Orangeism. The contempt and ridi-
cule of one's friends are very powerful weapons of destruction. No
institution which becomes contemptible in the eyes of its own sup-
porters can long survive. It will probably be so with Orangeism,
Irish Nationality in 1870.
49
Within the confines of the Roman Catholic
Church of Ireland the disestablishment has pro-
duced a perhaps unexpectedly rapid yet not unex-
pected change. While the Establishment lasted,
the lay and clerical elements of the Church of
Rome in Ireland made common cause against a
common foe. The Catholic laity, with that
chivalry which forms so striking a feature in Irish
character, stood by their clergy for better or for
worse, while their church held a position of in-
feriority. The Catholic laity, from affectionate
consideration for a slighted priesthood, yielded an
obedience to their clergy so complete that it may
be said that all moved together as one man.
There existed within the Roman Catholic Church
of Ireland little if any of that salutary antagonism
between the lay and clerical elements, which, with-
in certain limits, is productive of much good—an
antagonism whereby each exercises a beneficial
now that religious equality has been established. It should be
remembered, that hitherto pure Orangeism owed its power in a
great degree to the fact that almost the entire of Irish Protes-
tantism to a certain extent rallied round it. Many Protestants,
who were unconnected with Orange lodges and even disapproved
of Orange demonstrations, at least had sympathy with it. This
outlying portion of Orangeism, for it might be regarded as such,
is already becoming detached.
On the last 12th of July Orange violence and declamation
expended itself more against England and English coercive legis-
lation than in the usual assaults on Irish Catholics. Animosity
against England took the place of sectarian animosity. The "Pro-
cessions Bill” —not the Pope-was the object of the attack.
4
50
Irish Nationality in 1870.
control over the other, and the real interests of
religion are not endangered, but promoted. In
fact, Catholic Ireland might be pointed to as the
only country in the world in which clerical in-
fluence was uncontrolled by something of lay
public opinion. It was obvious enough that when
the common foe was withdrawn, when religious
equality was established, this abnormal condition
of things would disappear; and that, in obedience
to the influences which direct mankind elsewhere,
Ireland would cease to be exceptional, and an
opposition to the priests, more or less vigorous,
would grow up on the part of the laity.* Few,
however, expected that this would take place
so rapidly as would now seem to be the case.
* The author has been much surprised at the way in which some
persons have misunderstood this passage. They seem to fancy that
the author expects, indeed hopes, that the Irish Catholic laity will
gradually come into direct conflict with their priesthood. He has no
expectation of any such result-most assuredly he does not desire it.
He conceives that everything is against it. English misrule has not
been without some good effects in forming the national character of
Ireland. Affliction has its beneficial action on the character of a
nation as on that of an individual. Irish national character has
been so moulded and fashioned by the hand of sorrow, that it has
become of a deeply devotional and religious cast. To England's
oppression it is due that in the darkest hours of Ireland's trouble the
Catholic priests stood firm by their people: by their conduct, as well
as by their words, they taught their flocks, “your people are my
people, and your God my God." In no country in Europe probably,
certainly in no part of the British islands, are the poor so well in-
structed as in Ireland in the fundamental truths of Christianity, as
professed by their religious instructors. It is not to be supposed
that such a priesthood will be met by actual hostility on the part of
Irish Nationality in 1870.
5 I
In so far, therefore, as the disestablishment of
the Protestant Church may tend to put a stop to
aggressive proselytizing warfare on the one side,
and to develop lay Catholic public opinion on the
other, its effect will be beneficial upon hitherto
opposing Irish factions; its effect, however, on the
conduct of the English government towards Ire-
land may be regarded with more suspicion. It is
to be feared that England, true to the policy of
centuries, will strive to govern Ireland by faction,
and that the "Protestant garrison" being sent
adrift, a union will be effected between our
English rulers and the still powerful heads of the
Catholic Church, who, fearing the development of
lay antagonism, will, like Tarquin or Dermot
MacMurrough, seek foreign aid. There are al-
their laity. A❝ salutary antagonism " between them is something
very different. In so far as they are intelligent and cultivated men,
whose calling, as well as the singular devotion and purity of their
lives, gains for them the love, admiration, and obedience of their
flocks—the Irish Catholic priesthood will exercise a great and legiti-
mate power. Should they now seek to drive their followers to the
polling booths like sheep, this would be felt to be an attempt to
exercise a power not legitimate, and it will be resented. Ultra-
montanism, in the sense in which it is generally understood by
Protestants, as meaning the abuse of spiritual power for temporal 7
ends, is indeed a phase of clerical power quite distinct from that on
which the strength of the Irish Catholic clergy really depends. It
is-in truth an influence tending to weaken the bond which holds the
Catholic clergy and laity together: it exists more or less in every
church, and it is well for that church in which it is kept in check
by the temperate conduct of the laity. The antagonistic forces at
play in a compensating pendulum, when properly adjusted, make
the clock go all the better.
7*
52
Irish Nationality in 1870.
ready signs which seem to indicate that such a
course is not unlikely to be followed by whatever
party may command in the House of Commons.
Should it once become clear to the Catholic
people of Ireland, that the heads of their church
are really untrue to the national cause, and that
they are willing to form a liaison with the English
government, in the hope of maintaining that power
which was hitherto freely accorded to them by
the laity, from motives at once generous and
chivalrous, it is obvious that their political in-
fluence will be lost for ever; and it is tolerably
certain that any such combination would be met
by a union of Protestant and Catholic laity such
as would be irresistible.
However impossible it may appear to some
just now to conceive that the Protestant and
Catholic laity of Ireland could cordially co-ope-
rate, it may be regarded as little short of certain
that they would most heartily join to oppose the
united political energies of England and Ultra-
montanism. *
Catholics who, however devout, have asserted
their political independence, will be very well
fitted to enter into friendly relations with Pro-
*The writer uses the term "Ultramontanism" in the sense in
which it is understood by Protestants, not as opposed to Gallicanism,
but as already defined-implying an abuse of spiritual power for
the attainment of temporal objects.
× This mion may not take ple front in
Х
-
1886)
if it does the Fire this tant Court of heland
will certail MAC Mor
Mar it was in 1870.

life.
Irish Nationality in 1870.
53
testants whose religious fervor has ceased to
expend itself in the guerilla warfare of prosely-
tism, and whose zeal, undiminished as it may be,
has taken the direction of elevating and purifying
that form of Christianity which its followers in
Ireland have hitherto professed much more than
practised.
Another hopeful symptom, as regards the de-
velopment of public opinion in Ireland, has been
the character and grounds of the opposition
offered to the Government Land Bill: that is to
say, the opposition shadowed forth in the criti-
cisms of some leading Irishmen, and in the Irish
newspapers. There was upon each side an un-
questionable disposition to rise above the mere
question of the interest of the landlord or the
interest of the tenant, and to look at the subject
rather with a view to discover what was best for
the country at large. The Irish Church Establish-
ment had stood for years as a great boulder in the
middle of the stream of public opinion, dividing it
in twain. It cleft the Irish nation asunder into
sects. Its removal rendered union possible—nay,
even probable. Just at this moment the curse of
well-intended but misguided English policy comes
upon us.
True to the doctrine "divide et impera," the
Irish Land Bill is planted as a breakwater so as
to divide the stream once more. Again the na-
54
Irish Nationality in 1870.
tion is to be cleft asunder-but this time into
classes. England wishes to leave Ireland as
thoroughly as ever a nation divided against itself.*
True, she repulses the Irish landlords so as to drive
them off embittered with resentment, but she does
so in such a fashion as to render it almost impos-
sible for them to act harmoniously with their
tenantry. She deals with them so as to make land-
lords and tenants natural enemies, even where
friendly relations have existed. She scouts and
offensively rejects from the House of Commons
any project likely to make the landlord and
tenant work together as co-proprietors in a com-
* Both The Times of July 5th, and The Standard, July 19th,
1870, complain of this passage.
The former says, "It is a gratui-
tous and unworthy libel on the English people to assert that Eng-
land wishes to leave Ireland as thoroughly as ever a nation divided
against itself, and that Mr. Gladstone's Land Bill is a terrible
blow struck against union amongst Irishmen." The author frankly
admits that he regrets having used these expressions, now that he
sees the interpretation put upon them by English journalists. He
everywhere endeavours to draw a line between English intelligence
and English prejudice. He here speaks of England as a whole,
moving in obedience to certain instinctive impulses not thoroughly
reasoned out. It would be an unworthy libel to apply these words to
the intelligence of England. It would be as false as absurd to bring
any such charge against Mr. Gladstone or his government. The
writer's disapproval of the policy of Mr. Gladstone's government has
been already stated explicitly enough; he does not mean to accuse
either England or England's statesmen of malice aforethought.
Although grieved at their inability to conceive what an Irish policy
for Ireland means, he does not for a moment doubt the sincerity
of their good intentions; but the masses can only judge from
results.
Irish Nationality in 1870.
55
mercial undertaking, having a common interest
in its success, and a friendly feeling towards each
other arising from this interest.
It is in this point of view that the Government
Land Bill has a great national importance. It is
a terrible blow struck against union amongst
Irishmen. Whatever merits it has (and it is not
without merits) sink into insignificance when it is
recognised as a means of putting asunder these
two great classes; or, at the best, of attempting to
smother mutual animosities by holding a lash
over the combatants. The Land Bill says,
Hold, I command you both-
The first who strikes makes me his foe ;"
but a truce thus enforced has no tendency to
generate friendly feelings between hostile parties.
That all this has been seen and deplored as a
national calamity by every section of the Irish
press is, as has been already observed, a very ex-
cellent symptom. Let us hope that before it has
time to do its work of disunion, it may at least be
supplemented by some other measure more in
accordance with Irish notions, and less likely to
prove fatal to Irish nationality.
Every Irishman who, however much he may
love his country and value the finer qualities of
his countrymen, has, nevertheless, candor enough
to admit that their faults are many and serious,
is sensitive about having these faults laughed
56
Irish Nationality in 1870.
at by a stranger. He is apt to be hurt even by
friendly criticism, and galled by that which is un-
friendly but he is absolutely maddened when,
blushing with inward consciousness of the de-
moralized condition of his country, he hears the
national character aspersed and ridiculed by the
very persons who are the authors of its demorali-
zation; when he sees it dangled before the eyes
of Europe and the world as something contempt-
ible, pointed at as something monstrous and un-
natural, sneered at as something despicable, by
those whose well-intended legislation has render-
ed it depraved, and made it a by-word among
nations.
Of all the influences which are now at work,
English prejudice, as it finds expression in the
columns of the English press, is that which makes
it appear most hopeless that thorough fusion of
Ireland with England can take place. It
may, in.
deed, be regarded as the most powerful of the
influences tending to repel Ireland from England.
It is alike offensive and repulsive to the humbler
as well as the higher intelligence in this country—
to the Catholic as to the Protestant-to the Whig
as to the Tory-to the Orangeman as to the Fe-
nian. It calls forth in reply alike the incoherent
ravings of the violent, and the wretched drivellings
of the feebler portions of the Irish Press. It is an
influence not to be controlled by statesmanship
Irish Nationality in 1870.
57
or guided by reason. It will only cease to exist
when the "nation of shopkeepers" feels that to
prosper it must be civil. The courtesy of the
gentleman would make allowance for Irish over-
sensitiveness, and would win good feeling; but
the civility of the shopkeeper, in whose neighbour-
hood a rival establishment has been opened, will
not.
Moreover, even in this matter of civility,
John Bull may again be late for the train, as he
has so often been already.*
If we add to the various repulsions and attrac-
tions which have been imperfectly sketched in
* This passage is one which, but for his resolution to reproduce
the first edition unaltered, the writer would be glad to omit, as
somewhat out of harmony with the tone he has throughout desired
to adopt. But with respect to the substance of the accusation, so
far from withdrawing it, he feels his inability to state it in terms
sufficiently strong. When the Irish accuse the English of hating
them, they adduce as evidence not so much the acts of the English
government as the language of their newspapers. Deeds are re-
strained by prudence, but good or ill-will springs promptly to the
lips. The English people seem to be quite unconscious of a fact
which strikes foreigners so much, that M. Emile Montegut said, years
ago, in the Révue des Deux Mondes, that the tone of the English
press towards Ireland would be enough of itself to set two nations
by the throat in deadly quarrel. A footman to a beggar, a gang-
master to a prisoner at whom he had a spite, would, for a certain
hard insolence of manner, be mild comparisons. The writer is glad
to say that of late an improvement is discernible, which, for the
sake of both nations, it is earnestly to be hoped will continue. He
may add that he does not wish to involve the whole press of England
in an indiscriminate accusation. The Spectator, though giving from
time to time hard enough knocks to Ireland and Irishmen, has
always shown that sympathy which springs from intelligence.
For deficiency in the "courtesy of the gentleman," the most con-
spicuous has been The Saturday Review.
?
58
Irish Nationality in 1870.
these pages, (and which all act in the direction of
Grattan's solution of the Irish problem) the im-
portant consideration that the House of Commons
is now thoroughly wearied with Irish topics, and
that every day it becomes more evident that some
means must be devised for lightening the labours
of the House, it seems not improbable that any
moderate proposal for the management of Irish
affairs, which would not interfere with the unity
or integrity of the British empire, would receive
considerable support in England.
The English public cannot much longer tole-
rate that the transaction of Irish business should
so much interfere with the House of Commons
in the discharge of its other duties; and this dis-
position to do anything reasonable, in order to
prevent the way being constantly blocked up by
the Irish coach, may soon be greatly developed
by sending to the House of Commons some well-
selected bores—such as might readily be chosen
just now-bores happily uniting the pig-headed
pertinacity of the old Tory, with the incessant flow
of gabbling folly said to be the natural gift of
those born on Irish soil-the whole harmoniously
blended with some of that impudence which
cannot be put down, and of that Saxon courage
which knows not when it is defeated.
Great is thy power, oh Silence! yet greater still
is that of obstinate and verbose importunity-
Irish Nationality in 1870.
59
the power of the weak against the strong, the
power by which the spoiled and peevish child at
once rules and takes vengeance on the parent who
has spoiled him; the power, alas! the only power,
by which Ireland has ever been able to work ef-
fectively upon England. The unanswerable logic
of Burke, the glowing eloquence of Grattan, more
recently the impartial justice and sound political
economy of Longfield, have proved powers feeble,
indeed, in comparison with the ceaseless whine of
discontent, and the reiterated menace of revolu-
tion. Such is the training that has demoralized
public opinion in Ireland; yet the taunts and
sneers of those who are the authors or at least
accomplices in this demoralization never cease to
assail her.
Under such circumstances, one would think
England would act wisely in inclining to meet
any well considered Irish national movement
in an open and friendly spirit. She would draw
Ireland towards her, by conceding in a graceful
manner those measures for which she would re-
ceive no thanks if they were wrung from her after
protracted agitation.
Mankind, when freed from the baser motives of
self interest, have a natural tendency to ascend
-to be led onward and upward by the purer and
nobler aspirations which actuate human conduct.
It is true, they are easily led aside from what is
60
Irish Nationality in 1870.
high-minded and unselfish, by temptations which
tell upon the meaner part of their nature, in obe-
dience to the simple natural law which makes
men follow their own interests. The loftier as
well as the more contemptible influences act upon
Irishmen as upon other human beings. These
natural laws are not suspended in Ireland any
more than the law of gravitation, although many
Englishmen, who are not keen-sighted enough
to penetrate, even for a moment, the dense mist of
prejudice with which they are surrounded, would
have us believe that everything in Ireland is ab-
normal. With every respect for English intelli-
gence, and unbounded admiration for the finer
traits of English character, it must be admitted
that English prejudice still seems to believe "that
a Celt hath not eyes; that a Celt hath not hands,
organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; or
that he is fed with the same food, hurt with the
same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed
by the same means, warmed and cooled by the
same winter and summer, as an Englishman is."
Until these notions are removed from the minds
of Englishmen, and of those Irishmen who, al-
though residing for centuries in Ireland, are as
ignorant of Irish history, feeling, sentiment, as
though they arrived here but a week ago, no
hearty union can take place between the two
countries.
Irish Nationality in 1870.
61
To interpret with anything like truth the bear-
ing upon the future of recent political changes,
we must assume that Irishmen are men-subject
in the main to be actuated by the motives which
act upon other men; if not warped and biassed by
special circumstances, they desire peace and pros-
perity for their country; if there is not a cause
for division, they are not incapable of harmonious
action. They envy and admire the grand politi-
cal life of England, and they long for something
of the same for Ireland. They yearn for a public
opinion purified from the blighting influence of
priestcraft* and proselytism, and soaring above
the pettiness of faction, as the pure spirit of Christi-
anity does above the contemptible narrowness of
sect. It matters not whether this comes to us
after the project of Pitt or that of Grattan. But
if it should turn out that, in obedience to certain
* The term “priestcraft” is not limited to any creed. It means
simply an improper use of clerical power in the attainment of
wordly objects, or the furtherance of political ends. The writer does
not scruple to condemn such practices, whether they are found to
exist amongst the Catholic, Anglican, or Presbyterian clergy. A
certain section of the clergy of all denominations is opposed to pro-
gress and fear innovation. In the warmth of their opposition, they
are occasionally induced to use spiritual weapons too sacred to be
employed without profanity for such a purpose. A Scotch writer
tells us that "Mr. Gilfillan, the well-known Scottish poet, has fur-
nished him with evidence of a clergyman debarring from the com-
munion of the Lord's Supper those members of his flock who used
machines for winnowing corn." Wind, he argued, was raised by
God alone, and it was irreligious for man to raise it by artificial
means. Common sense condemns such an exercise of clerical power.
62
Irish Nationality in 1870.
forces which man cannot govern, we are drifting
towards the alternative of the latter, then it is
time for patriotic men on both sides of the Chan-
nel to determine how much of independent
government may be wisely given to Ireland, and
yet retain for her the enormous advantages of
close Imperial Union with the greatest nation of
the earth.

APPENDIX TO THE SECOND EDITION.
"But, sir, let me ask is not the more natural course to go to the Irish
people themselves, and find out from them what is the cause of their dissatis-
faction?
The people of Ireland say that they are not governed
according to their own wishes, or feelings, or requirements, but according
to the wishes or prejudices of the people of England. They say that they
have no effectual control over their government, which is controlled by
England, and that measures admittedly just and suited to Ireland are
abandoned because the government of the day is obliged to conform its
measures, even those that regard Ireland alone, to the views, often ignorant,
and to the narrowest prejudices of Great Britain."-Speech of the Right Hon.
Wm. Monsell, M.P., July 26th, 1867. Hansard's Debates, vol. clxxxix.
FOR Some time past in Ireland it has happened
that two parties, whose motives are essentially
different one from the other, have been appa-
rently pursuing the same objects. To the eyes of
the casual observer, indeed, their objects have
been the same. It appears to the writer that this
is the case amongst those who now seek for that
form of local government for Ireland which has
been styled "Federalism." One section of those
entering upon this movement do so because they
conceive that they see in it a means of raising an
agitation tending towards a Repeal of the Union,
and ultimately leading to a separation of Ireland
from England! The other, and the writer ven-
tures to think the more important section-at
64
Irish Nationality in 1870.
least as regards intelligence looks favourably
upon this movement, because they see in it a
means of making Ireland contented, and thus of
avoiding Repeal, and ultimate separation.
A somewhat similar phenomenon might have
been observed at the "Amnesty Meetings" some
little time ago.
At these assemblies there sat
side by side men aiming at distinct, indeed oppo-
site objects. An extreme party demanded the
release of the political prisoners in a fashion which
forced it upon the conviction that they did not de-
sire their release. To them it was a more impor-
tant object to clamour, and demand an amnesty in
such terms that it absolutely could not be granted,
so as to make the agitation a means of widening
the breach between England and Ireland-a means
of intensifying anti-English feeling. The release of
the prisoners would have been a disappointment to
them.
*
Alongside of these, who were it may be sup-
posed fewer in number than might have been
imagined from the noise raised by them, were
many who sought the release of these prisoners as
a genuine measure of mercy. Admitting that they
had been in error, they solicited pardon for them
without seeking to justify their conduct. Granting
that the liberties of these prisoners had been justly
forfeited, they could not but recognize that it had
been excess of zeal on the part of those who had
Appendix to the Second Edition.
65
struggled with more earnestness than discretion,
which, to say the least, accelerated the important
measure conferring religious equality upon Ireland.
Apparently the whole assemblage desired the same
thing—an amnesty. In reality it was not so; and
had it been possible to induce Englishmen to un-
derstand the true position of affairs, and to have
promptly released the prisoners, at the same
moment suspending the Habeas Corpus Act in
Ireland, as security for their good conduct, the
extreme party would have been discomfited, the
more moderate would have been gratified, and
in a great measure loyalized.
At this moment it would seem as if there was
a somewhat similar combination of opposing ele-
ments amongst those engaged in the "Home Rule"
movement. There are Tories talking of "Repeal,"
who remind one of the old woodcutter in the fable
who called on death: if" Repeal " suddenly start-
ed into existence at their call, they would shudder
and say,
"Not yet." There are Republicans (a
party which looks with unshaken confidence to
the furtherance of their views through English
blundering) who talk of "Federalism," in the
expectation that the measures adopted to repress
or cry down the movement may increase the
strength and numbers of those desiring separation.
There are others who ponder upon the question of
local government for Ireland, believing that some
5
66
Irish Nationality in 1870.
well-concerted measure of this kind will be alike
beneficial to England as to Ireland—that thus the
union of the countries may be made secure, and
each reap advantage from the result.
What Ireland needs above all things is rest
-repose. It may be said, then, what folly to
raise this new standard of agitation at this time!
It would be wrong, it would be almost crimi-
nal to raise it, if there was a reasonable pros-
pect of getting the much needed repose. The
whole country appears to feel instinctively that
the Land Bill will not give it rest. The writer can
conscientiously say that he has not been fortunate
enough to meet with any reflecting Irishman who
expects that it will. The tone of the Irish Press-
liberal, conservative, and national alike—and the
general restlessness of which the "Federal" move-
ment is in truth the expression, are evidence in
the same direction. Hence, in a great degree, the
origin of the new movement-up to the present
undefined and shadowy in its form, but every day
assuming a more distinct shape, and becoming
more deserving of consideration.
The Church Bill removed the monster bribe
which held an influential body of Irishmen bound
by a golden chain to an English party. The
measure unquestionably tends to promote social
harmony among Irish factions-to unite them
among themselves. Good feeling towards England,
Appendix to the Second Edition.
67
If
however, does not seem to have been promoted by
either the Church or the Land Bill, for the simple
reason that each of these measures nearly lost as
much in one way as it gained in another. In short,
discontent with England may be considered as a
constant quantity, while union among Irishmen
is on the increase. It is clear that the more
Irishmen become knit together, the more formid-
able Irish discontent becomes, the more necessary
is it to remove any just cause of discontent.
once rendered contented, no matter how united
among themselves, England will have no reason
to fear them: their interests are her interests.*
But if united among themselves, and exasperated
against England by the persistent thwarting of
what has been called an Irish policy for Ireland,
they will be equally a source of trouble and danger,
whether their representatives meet in Westminster
or in College Green. Too much importance is
probably attached on both sides to the place of
meeting. The gradual development of harmonious
relations among Irishmen, unaccompanied by any
corresponding growth of good feeling towards Eng-
* It is often asked, "What guarantee can be offered that, if an
independent Federal Government were given to Ireland, complete
separation would not ultimately be demanded?" The only guaran-
tee worth having lies in community of interests. The slight con-
dition of dependence of the smaller on the larger state would be
more than counterbalanced by perfect internal freedom combined
with protection. Ireland, if freed from what she feels to be practical
oppression, has no temptation to separate. Any other guarantee is
worthless.
5*
68
Irish Nationality in 1870.
land, is the real danger; and the writer states with
profound regret that, so far as he can collect the
opinions of his countrymen, such has been the
result of the legislation of the last two sessions. It
is an inexpressibly sad duty to have to make such
a statement, especially when it is accompanied by
the conviction, that never before was the press of
England or the British House of Commons, and
above all its leaders, aroused to make such
unparalleled exertions, nor did they ever so well as
now deserve the thanks of the Irish people for the
time, the thought, the untiring energy devoted
to the consideration of what is best for this coun-
try. They fail to win the good feeling of the
Irish-not from lack of desire to do their duty
boldly and fearlessly, nor from lack of intelligence
in the ordinary sense, but from lack of imagina-
tion. They cannot place themselves in the posi
tion of the people they have to deal with. They
cannot realize the strange, the universal distrust
which pervades every relation of political life in
Ireland.
"Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes,"
is so accurate an expression of her feeling towards
the English legislature, that even although the
Pope himself should take part in its councils,
the Irish people would accept with distrust any
measure emanating from it.
Neither can the English bring themselves to
Appendix to the Second Edition.
69
admit that the faults of Irish national character
have been in a great measure engendered by the
treatment received at their hands. England and
Ireland are to each other, as Mrs. Hardcastle to
her son Tony Lumpkin,* but it is more flattering
to the national vanity of England, to think that it
is the naturally depraved nature of the boy that
is at fault. He is a Celt. He is incurable. The
spots cannot be washed off the leopard. Professor
Huxley has done something to dispel this illusion,
and by his straightforward honest words has gain-
ed the heartfelt thanks of many an Irish Celt; but
what can he do against such men as Froude, who
deliberately apply the flattering unction to the
soul of England-that she is not to blame in this
matter of Ireland's degradation?
If we look back over the period which has elaps-
ed since the potato famine, and consider the
changes which since then have passed over Ire-
land, and especially the results of the legislation
of the last few years, we find, as the writer con-
*" MRS. HARDCASTLE. [England.] 'Is this, ungrateful boy, all that
I'm to get for the pains I have taken in your education? I that have
rocked you in your cradle, fed that pretty mouth with a spoon !
Did I not work that [strait !] waistcoat for you to make you genteel?
Did I not prescribe for you every day, and weep while the recipé
was operating?'
* * *
TONY. [Ireland.] 'You had reason to weep, for you have been
dosing me ever since I was born.
* Ecod, mother, all the
parish says you have spoiled me, and so you may take the fruits
on't.'"
DorM
70
Irish Nationality in 1870.
ceives, evidence of the following state of things.
Firstly, that Ireland has made great progress in
material prosperity; secondly, that the intelli-
gence of the country has been much developed by
education; and thirdly, that the chief cause of
Irish disunion has been removed, and that its re-
moval is producing its natural result, with a rapi-
dity startling even to those who considered this
result as quite certain to follow in due time. Ac-
companying those changes, there has not been
any corresponding growth of friendly feeling to-
wards England; indeed it is to be feared that in
this particular the movement has been retrograde.
Among the humbler classes this increased anti-
pathy is the result of coercive legislation. Besides
actual measures of a coercive kind, the unnecessarily
severe treatment of the prisoners arrested under the
Habeas Corpus Suspension Act (and who had never
been submitted to trial at all) has greatly intensi-
fied this feeling. There can be little doubt that
the outburst of crime, which raged like an epide-
mic in Ireland last year, was in part the result
of the injudicious treatment of these prisoners.*
They were sent forth from captivity so exas-
perated by the treatment they had received, that
* It is not intended to assert that these men were guilty of agra-
riau crimes. There is no evidence whatever to justify any such
conclusion. What is meant is that their treatment tended to deve-
lope and diffuse throughout the country an atmosphere favourable
to the spread of the "infection of lawlessness."
Appendix to the Second Edition.
71
they became, as it were, foci for the spread of the
infection of lawlessness. This has subsided, and
will disappear. The anti-English feeling which is
creeping up into a higher stratum of society is
much more to be dreaded, and will be cumulative.
It is to be traced to a different cause. It is partly
due to the fact that a more extended education has
made the Irish Catholics better acquainted with
the past history of their country, and of course
made them better able to understand and resent
the contemptuous treatment of the English le-
gislature and the taunts of the English press;
while the Church and Land Bills have evoked
much dissatisfaction on the part of Protestants
and landlords. The causes, however, may for
the present be disregarded, except in so far as to
comprehend that their action will be partly tran-
sient, as in the case of a boy who has been flogged
for obvious misconduct; partly permanent, as in
the case of one who is submitted to an enduring
punishment, inflicted as he conscientiously believes
unjustly* or without sufficient cause. It should
also be borne in mind, that the latter affects for
the most part the wealthy, influential, and intelli-
* We may waive altogether the discussion of the justice or in-
justice of the Church and Land Bills, for our purpose it is enough
to know that a considerable section of Irishmen are convinced that
they have been treated unjustly—that their ideas of justice have
been violated by an English House of Commons, almost irrespec-
ive of party.
72
Irish Nationality in 1870.
gent classes. It is the facts only which are of con-
sequence; and those who think with the writer
that they are correctly stated, will ask how is it
that a people better fed, better housed, better
taught, richer, and more united than they have
been, should be as British subjects less contented?
The answer is, that circumstances have caused
their voice to be practically unheard, or if heard,
unheeded, in the legislative assembly which pre-
sides over their country. The bulk of Ireland's
representatives are almost of necessity the mere
tools of English party. The intellectual energy
of Ireland is corrupted by temptations too strong
for flesh and blood to resist. The very highest
intelligence in Ireland, if standing aloof from the
influences of English party, fails even to obtain
a hearing for what has been called, in the earlier
pages of this pamphlet, an Irish policy for Ireland.
Irish representatives have no choice but to adopt
an English policy-a policy of compulsion-al-
though it is true they are left free to adopt either
a Whig or Tory phase of such a policy. In other
words, every Irish question must be viewed by Irish
members from an English standpoint; any Irish
member who does otherwise is a mere nonentity.
In point of fact, an Irish constituency has no real
opportunity of electing a member representing
its views. That is to say, it has no candidate
in the field who can be considered as really the
Appendix to the Second Edition.
73
exponent of its views. Any Irishman advoca-
ting an Irish policy for Ireland knows that he
becomes a cipher on entering the British parlia-
ment. All candidates adopt an English policy,
and the constituency only has the opportunity of
selecting a Whig or a Tory exponent of a politi-
cal scheme not acceptable to it. The circumstan-
ces of the country only give the voters an oppor-
tunity of selecting what appears to them the least
of two evils.
What Ireland dislikes is an anti-Irish policy for
governing her; and she frets and fumes because
she has no power to alter this, and is practically
limited in her choice to whether that policy which
she distrusts and detests, is to be carried out ac-
cording to the ideas of an English Whig or Tory
party. This is the root of Irish discontent. To
her a representative form of government is, under
the present system, representative only in name.
The peculiar position which the Irish members
occupy
in the House of Commons not merely
prevents them from advocating Irish measures
in an Irish spirit, but it demoralizes them politi-
cally, and exasperates their sectarian differences.
The English conservative party are supported by
a body of Irish conservatives; the English liberals,
by the liberal section of the Irish representatives;
but the Irish members do not really sympathise
with the English parties, to whom they are nomi-
74
Irish Nationality in 1870.
nally attached. There is no community of feel-
ing between Ulster Orangemen and English
country gentlemen, or between English Dissenters
and Irish Catholics: the Irish members are now
attached to the English parties whom they support,
not so much by identity of political principles, as
through the sympathy of common antipathies.
The accession of a liberal or conservative govern-
ment does not mean that Ireland is to be
governed in accordance with the views of Irish
liberals or Irish conservatives. Of this both the
English and Irish members of the respective
parties are fully aware. Ministries may change,
but Ireland is still governed in accordance with
the prevailing ideas of the English middle classes.
The sole practical object of the Irish representa-
tives is the temporary monopoly of government
patronage. To secure this they must retain
their seats in parliament, and their seats are won
and held by humouring to the top of their bent
the prejudice and folly of the most ignorant of
their constituents. Successive English ministries,
well aware that the opinions of their Irish sup-
porters will never be embodied in practical legis-
lation, give unrestrained liberty to government
candidates; Irish candidates, freed from the moral
responsibility of carrying their professions into
action, are lavish of their promises to their sup-
porters, and reckless of their insults to their
Appendix to the Second Edition.
75
opponents. Secure in the belief that they incur
no moral or personal responsibility for their
speeches, however extravagant, because England
at once disregards Irish public opinion and re-
presses Irish disorder, our Irish representatives,
to secure their contingent reversion in official
plunder, promise what they do not mean
mean to
perform, and lavish threats and insults which
they dare not to make good. The Irish parties
rail on at each other, like angry fishwives in the
presence of a policeman. The parliamentary
principle of government by a majority is neutral-
ised, when a minority, well aware that the opi-
nions of the majority are disregarded, is persis-
tent in an opposition which would otherwise be
hopeless. Thus
Thus year after year Irish parties
continue unchanged, fight over the same battles,
repeat the same unnecessary formulas, yell out
the same antiquated war cries. The minority,
reluctantly submitting to the decrees of the Eng-
lish people, yield not an inch to the majority of
their countrymen; the majority after every poli-
tical victory pursue with unabated enmity their
unyielding opponents. The nature of the parlia-
mentary regime in Ireland is such that the Irish
are deprived of constitutional government.
From this it results that, as in England at this
moment the great economic difficulty is to face
the fact, that while wealth is pouring in ever-
76
Irish Nationality in 1870.
1
increasing streams into her coasts, yet the dark
tide of pauperism is ever gaining on her shores ;
so in Ireland the great political difficulty lies in
this, that while on the one hand prosperity, intel-
ligence, and social harmony are daily increasing,
the black tide of discontent against England flows
on, and yearly becomes a greater danger to the
integrity of the United Kingdom.
The writer is obliged with reluctance to confess
that he does not believe that time or good inten-
tions will be sufficient to meet the difficulty. He
conceives that, somehow or another, Ireland must
obtain a hearing as to the political plan to be
pursued in governing her; and although not
impossible, he considers it would be nearly so to
frame any scheme for effecting this without some-
thing of a local legislature, or at least one more
or less detached from that of the sister kingdom.
In other words, the fact must be recognized that
England and Ireland are not, politically speaking,
of the same age, nor are they fitted to be ruled by
a legislative assembly in which the notions of the
elder brother vastly predominate, and those of
the younger are not heeded.
So long as Irish members are diffused among
the other elements of the House of Commons, no
Irish project can assume any definite form or
shape. If once Ireland could be made really
sensible that she, through her representatives,

Appendix to the Second Edition.
77
was able to originate political reforms for her
own government, independently of the over-mas-
tering will of England, all would be well. At
present it is not possible to evolve from the chaos
of the mixed assemblage any scheme of Irish
(developmental) policy, which is distinctly the
reflex of the wishes of the Irish people.
-
The whole history of the world shows that
when one country is practically governed by
another, it is a government upon compulsory
principles exercised by the stronger. England
has improved upon this system with reference
to her more remote dependencies: it is for ob-
vious reasons much more difficult to do so nearer
home. It can hardly be doubted that some pro-
ject must be struck out for doing it as regards
Ireland.
It is said by some, why not let the Irish mem-
bers hold meetings among themselves in London,
and, having arranged their Irish policy, act to-
gether as the Scotch do? There appear to be
serious objections to such a system, wherever the
members banded together are actuated by feelings
of resentment and discontent; and if Irish members
really represented Ireland at present, this is what
would happen. In order to enforce their views,
they would be obliged to menace the government
of the day. The lever in their hands must be a
threat to thwart imperial policy, if their spe-
78
Irish Nationality in 1870.
cial project be not adopted. A "caucus
caucus" of
Irish members, in any considerable number,
acting in this way, could after a most per-
nicious fashion dictate the policy of England.
A "caucus” of this sort would, if envenomed by
discontent against England, be a "thwart disna-
tured torment to her," as Ireland is at this mo-
ment. Moreover, as regards the country which
the members composing the "caucus " represent,
they would be no better than a band of conspira-
tors. A "caucus" is a mob-an assemblage de-
bating without responsibility of any tangible kind
-no speaker in the chair-no reporters present
-no divisions the results of which come before
their constituents. It exercises no salutary in-
fluence on the public opinion of the country, nor
can public opinion or the intelligence of the press
be brought to bear upon it with any good effect.
It is useless as an organism for assisting the de-
velopment and growth of sound opinion. It
fails to perform one of the finest functions of
a legislative assembly, that of giving political edu-
cation to the individual citizen. Ireland's political
education in this respect can hardly be said to have
yet commenced, and it is certain that it can make
little progress on the present system.
present system. Those who
say,
"Wait, give Ireland time to learn a little more
of the serious duties of citizenship," virtually urge
that we shall sit shivering on the bank, and not
get into the water until we know how to swim.
Appendix to the Second Edition.
79
The most sanguine must admit that Ireland will
have difficulties to go through at first, but procras-
tination does not lessen the difficulties of the first
steps in the education of a neglected youth, or a
demoralized state.
Although Federal states have commonly been
republican, yet the ablest writers on the subject
admit that there is nothing absurd in the idea of
a Federal monarchy. On the contrary, there is
something almost approaching to ideal perfection
in the scheme so happily described by an Ause
trian orator of "a kingdom composed of kingdoms,
a throne of thrones, a crown of crowns."
Where, as in Ireland, circumstances of race, in
some slight degree the surrounding aspects of
nature, and, most of all, political treatment and
political training of the worst kind, have made us
mentally and physically different from our fellow-
subjects, it is obvious that there is a want of homo-
geniety with England, which it is difficult to meet
in any other way than by some scheme of federa-
tion. For these islands it is probable that the
sort of confederation known to writers on inter-
national law as a 66
supreme Federal Government"
would be found best. That is to say, one in which
the Imperial Government and the Local Govern-
ment will be co-ordinate with each other-each
being sovereign in its own sphere.
There does not appear to be any insuperable ob-
80
Irish Nationality in 1870.
stacle in dealing with Ireland as a county is
dealt with, on principles so extended that she
should not only administer but make the laws for
the guidance of her own affairs, and the expendi-
ture of her own money. Her legislative power
as far as concerns her internal affairs should be
perfectly independent, otherwise, however inde-
pendent it might gradually become in practice, it
would be merely municipal in fact. Permit
Ireland to legislate for and support such institu-
tions as are peculiarly her own. Permit her
to look after and pay for her own poor, her
own lunatics, her own criminals, her railroads,
her harbours, her fisheries, her land, her educa-
tion, etc. while other matters of common im-
port should be managed by the Imperial Parlia
ment. All laws affecting the validity of marriage
or relating to currency-any law of bankruptcy
or insolvency—should be made by it. The trans-
fer of goods from one country to the other should
be free, and therefore of course all duties of cus-
toms should be imposed by the Imperial Parlia-
ment. No law should be passed to give any advan-
tage to an Englishman over an Irishman, or vice
versa. There should be guarantees for perfect re-
ligious equality. All questions of peace or war, of
foreign or colonial policy, should be regarded as
imperial. A legal tribunal, as in America, should
decide to which branch of the legislature any dis-
puted or doubtful question should be assigned.
Appendix to the Second Edition.
81
ویر
It would of course be impossible to succeed
in having any form of local parliament on any
principle except a community of imperial posses-
sions and imperial debts. To repudiate any por-
tion of the national debt as an Irish debt would
be unfair, as England has brought all her Indian
and colonial possessions into the common stock.
If the civil and economic relations of these
kingdoms be alone considered, it will generally
be admitted that the act of union was conceived
in a spirit of justice towards Ireland. As regards
religion, it was absolutely unjust. Politically it
was incomplete. Had it been otherwise, it is not
at all probable that England and Ireland would
stand against each other as they do this day.
Ireland now looks for assistance to the party of
progress in England, in order to modify and com-
plete a union so imperfect in its political aspect
that it cannot long hold together in its existing
condition. The girth will some day burst if it is
not slackened. The work of seventy years ago
must be either perfected or undone. The intel-
lectual strength of Ireland is at length gathering
itself together, in order to aim at accomplishing
the former alternative. The English party of
inertia may possibly offer such resistance that the
latter will become inevitable.
To Mr. Gladstone and his cabinet Ireland owes
a deep debt of gratitude for having grappled with
6
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82
Irish Nationality in 1870.
the injustice of sectarian ascendancy. It may be
that the statesmen who have conferred upon Ire-
land the blessing of Religious Equality are also
destined to forge the swivel still wanting to render
the union politically perfect.
Those Irish Celts of whom The Standard flat-
teringly says the author is the spokesman, are
not likely to prove forgetful of what has been
done. Ingratitude at least is not an Irish fault,
although expressions of gratitude may be with-
held, from consciousness that there are obstacles
to Irish progress still to be removed, and though
the rising emotion of thankfulness may be
checked by a contemptuous sneer at the "new
Irish grievance." Let it be remembered that
Ireland's grievances should be England's also.
Irish disaffection it is which is England's weak-
ness and England's danger. This it is which com-
pels every Englishman, who has courage enough
to look facts straight in the face, to admit that
England no longer holds among nations the posi-
tion she is entitled to. Why is it that such power-
ful and touching sentences as these of Sir H.
Lytton Bulwer fall on ears that dare not hear?-
"But if, on the verge of horrors at the mere thought of which
Christianity and civilization shudder, it is deliberately determined
that the morality of Great Britain is to be that of a man who will
see a fellow creature drowned rather than run the risk of wetting
his feet to save him-if, standing in view of an immeasurable cala-
mity about to afflict the world, we are wrapped up in an unchange-
able resolve to remain mute and motionless, without making an
Appendix to the Second Edition.
83
effort, without saying a word to avert it, I cannot refrain from
expressing my mournful apprehensions that the day is not far dis-
tant when God will withdraw from us a power we have not known
how to use worthily; and that a policy so calculated to excite dis-
gust by its selfishness and cowardice, will be as fatal to our future
interests as to our past renown."
There are, doubtless, Irishmen who exult in
the thought that Ireland is the cause of this ;
who, in their resentment for the past, glory in
the helplessness of the empire of which, alas, they
have never been taught to feel that they are cit-
izens. But there are also Irishmen who grieve
over it in all sincerity-who are hopeful enough
to believe that Ireland may yet be won, so that,
far from rendering England impotent, they may
go forth together on the mission of civilization,
and stretch forth their hands to stay the mad
career of bloodshed and of war.
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2 April 1886
PRINTED BY B. D. WEBB AND SON,
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