SAMPSON'S AND LORD PLUNKET'S TESTIMONY. 119

5,000 for it. A very small majority in the legislature finally secured its passage, and that too, when among those styling themselves representatives of the people, there were 116 placemen and officers who did not own an inch of land in Ireland.

But the "Act of Union" passed. In the language of Mr. Sampson, "It was on the first day of January, 1801, at the hour of noon, that the imperial united standard mounted on the Bedford Tower, in Dublin Castle, and the guns of the royal salute battery, in the Phoenix Park, announced to weeping, bleeding, prostrate Ireland, that her independence was no more, and that her guilt-stained parliament had done herself to death."

By a system of violence, theft, falsehood and corruption unparalleled in the history of civilized nations, England forced Ireland into a union that destroyed her independence, ruined her commerce, exhausted her wealth, and left her a helpless victim at the feet of her spoiler. This charge of perfidy, treachery, and infamous theft against the English government, no one who is at all acquainted with this vilest of England's vile transactions, will presume to deny. Said Lord Plunket at the time :

"I will be bold to say, that licentious and impious France, in all the unrestrained excesses that anarchy and atheism have given birth to, has not committed a more insidious act against her enemy, than is now attempted by the professed champion of civilized Europe against Ireland-a friend and ally in the hour of her calamity and distress. At a moment when our country is filled with British troops when the Habeas Corpus Act is suspended—whilst trials by court martial are carrying on in different parts of the kingdom-while the people are made to believe that they have no right to meet and deliberate, and whilst the people are palsied by their fears, at the moment when we are distracted by internal dissensions-dissensions kept alive as the pretext of our present subjugation, and the instrument of our future thraldom-such is the time when the Union is proposed."

120 INFAMY AND CRIMES OF LORD CASTLEREAGH.

IN

XV.

N addition to the iniquitous measures already mentioned, to carry the Union, England made large promises to the Catholics, which she did not fulfil till thirty years after, and then not because she had made them, but to avert the imminent hazard of a civil war. This promise that the elective franchise should be restored to them so faithlessly kept, was the cause of untold miseries to Ireland. By the terms of the union, she was to have the same system of representation and elective franchise that England possessed. The Exchequers of the two kingdoms were to be kept separate, and Ireland was to collect her own revenues, and pay the interest on her own debt. This part of the contract was also soon broken. There was also to be a future joint expenditure, such as would be compatible with the relative ability of the weaker country. This, though unjust, because Ireland had not increased her own debt voluntarily, nor for her own benefit, England finally refused. It was also provided, that when she had a surplus revenue it could be expended to the amount of £5,000,000 in internal improvements, the liquidation of her debt, or any purpose conducive to her own interests. This was unnecessary for England would be sure to prevent any such loss to herself, either by taxation, restrictions on commerce, or in some way-she would turn her revenue so as to make it reach her own, instead of the Irish Exchequer. The whole scheme was an offspring worthy of its infamous father, Lord Castlereagh. He afterwards died by his own hand, and although it seems proper that the same hand that struck Ireland should smite him, yet the gallows would have been a more befitting close to a life so stained with every crime.

An act so evidently unconstitutional, and carried by such flagitious means, could not be otherwise than baleful in its effects. Although in its perpetration England was guilty of every perfidious act that can disgrace a nation, she did not scruple, by breaking even the poor promises she had made, to

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utter her falsehood and shame to the world. This, together with the remembrance of the iniquitous means by which it was effected, awakened the indignation of every Irishman, and makes the cry of REPEAL, now swell like thunder over the land. Besides, it is not a union except in name, for there is no common enjoyment of freedom, or equitable laws. It is a union which in its action restricts the commerce of Ireland, and thus compels her to fall behind nations she ought to precede—diminishes, and misapplies her revenue-increases her debt-loads her with taxes-paralyzes her industry, and reduces her inhabitants to starvation and beggary. One of the more immediate effects was the increase of Absenteeism. This has always been the curse of Ireland. The Irish legislature would have soon remedied it, but this union restored the evil to its former magnitude. Out of 12,000,000 acres of land, which embrace the whole surface of the island, over eleven millions and a half changed owners under English government, and some of these estates were confiscated three times in a century. A large portion of these lands came of course into the possession of English gentlemen, who, having no motive to live in a country so reduced and ignorant, increased the evil by residing abroad. Their support was derived from the rental of their lands. Their tenantry is uncared for-they have no interest in the welfare of the nation. In 1801, the amount of rents, etc., thus spent out of the kingdom, was £1,500,000. It is now estimated that ten millions, or nearly fifty millions of dollars are annually drained from the nation. Says the American Editor of O'Connell's reply to Earl Shrewsbury, "Is there any other country on the globe of similar size that can stand this ?" No-neither does Ireland stand it. Go look at her squalid huts-her peasantry, that might be the noblest in the world, in rags and filth --listen to the cry of suffering that goes up over the "Emerald Isle," from five millions of people who each day suffer the pangs of unappeased hunger, and you will see how she "stands it." An independent Parliament could remove the burdens that rest so heavily on the people, open up the resources of the country,

122

THE IMMORTAL EMMET.

and introduce laws that should aid, rather than crush, the industry of the land.

A

XVI.

GITATION is also a necessary result of the union. Men cannot be satisfied and tranquil while they remember the circumstances under which it was effected, or feel the restraints and misery it creates. But there has been no insurrection since the great rebellion, (as the English term it,) which so nearly secured her freedom, but ended in her complete subjugation, if we except the attempt of Emmet. While men have praised his spirit, they have ridiculed his judgment, in making this abortive effort. But we may not be acquainted with the nature of his plans, nor the means he possessed of accomplishing them. Noble by nature, and rich in endowments, his patriotic soul scorned the fetters of foreign despotism. He had seen his only surviving brother first imprisoned, and afterwards driven from the home of his childhood and land of his love, by English oppressors. He found himself expelled from his university for no crime but that of loving his country, and speaking words of melting tenderness over her sufferings, and words of fire against her destroyers, he could be silent no longer. He boldly asserted his own and his country's rights. Whether the act was judicious or not, we will not pretend to say.

He said, "till Ireland is free let not my epitaph be written;" and it shall not be. He offered himself up as a holocaust to liberty. He shouted one battle-cry in the ears of his countrymen, and died. They err much, who suppose he accomplished nothing. A martyr never dies in vain. Every drop of his blood will yet send forth a living man fraught with the fire of his origin. The name of Emmet at this day, stirs every patriot heart in that green isle like the blast of a trumpet. His dying words are remembered and repeated to every generation. He bequeathed his free spirit to his country in sacred trust, looking forward to that day when his emancipated nation should write

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his epitaph and honor his sacrifice. The flag of freedom shall yet wave over his ashes, and the shout of a ransomed people shake the earth that encloses him.

In speaking of that insurrection, it is but justice to remark that every Irish insurrection, though excited by wrongs, commenced only when those wrongs were inflicted with a brutality and ferocity that could not be borne in silence except by men deservedly slaves. I have not been able to speak in detail of the sufferings of the Irish people, under these long and heavy oppressions. To describe all the torments wrung from the innocent by the rack and torture-to enumerate the robbed and the slain without trial or provocation-and against each sufferer's name write his history-to portray all the burnings and desolation of villages, till the inhabitants, rendered houseless and homeless, reduced to famine, wandered like spectres in the land that gave them birth,-and speak of the tears and groans and shrieks the wronged and helpless have shed and uttered over their friends, or in their own death agony during these long and weary centuries-it would make the most damning record of national crime ever offered to the horror of man, or the justice of God.

T%

XVII.

return to the effects of the Union. England expected and sought no result but the subjugation of Ireland, and the increase of her own wealth. We are now brought down to our own century. The Act of the Union was in full operation, but the Catholics were denied the rights of other citizens. Tithes were collected at the point of the bayonet, commerce restricted, and Ireland staggered painfully and wearily on her

course.

The Irish debt at the commencement of the French war was only £2,250,000 sterling. By the time the union was effected it amounted to nearly £29,000,000. At the same time the debt of England was more than £420,000,000 sterling. It was this