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166

BROUGHAM'S AND DISRAELI'S OPINIONS.

Mr. Burke exclaimed (of the Irish Establishment), "Don't talk to me of its being a Church! It is a wholesale robbery."

XXXVIII.

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sense.

ORD BROUGHAM, in 1838, called it "an anomaly of so gross a kind, that it outrages every principle of common Such an establishment kept up for such a purpose, kept up by such means, and upheld by such a system, is a thing wholly peculiar to Ireland, and could be tolerated nowhere else. That such a system should go on in the 19th century— that such a thing should go on while all the arts are in a forward and onward course-while all the sciences are progressing-while all morals and religion too-for there was more religion and morality than is now pretended in all parts of the country that this gross abuse-the most outrageous of all, should be allowed to continue, is really astonishing. It cannot be upheld unless the tide of knowledge should turn back."

Disraeli said most eloquently, in 1844: "That dense population in extreme distress, inhabited an island, where there was an Established Church which was not their Church, and a territorial aristocracy, the richest of whom lived in distant capitals. Thus, they had a starving population and an alien Church, and in addition, the weakest executive in the world. That was the Irish Question. Well, what would honorable gentlemen say, if they were reading of a country in that position? They would say at once-the remedy is revolution. But the Irish could not have a revolution; and, why? Because Ireland was connected with another, and more powerful country. Then what was the consequence? The connection with England thus became the cause of the present state of Ireland. If the connection with England prevented a revolution, and a revolution were the only remedy, England, logic illy, was in the odious position of being the cause of all the misery of Ireland. What then was the duty of an English minister?

SIR ROBERT PEEL'S AUTHORITY.

167

To effect by his policy, all those changes which a revolution would do by force. That was the Irish Question, in its integrity. The moment they had a strong executive, a just administration, and ecclesiastical equality, they would have order in Ireland, and the improvement of the physical condition of the people would follow." Disraeli thus sums up my argumentand I could cite no higher authority on such a subject.

The present Sir Robert Peel, in a letter to the Times, April 15, 1862, says that his father distinctly stated, “that in passing Catholic Emancipation, he acted on a deep conviction that the measure was not only conducive to the general welfare, but imperatively necessary to avert from the Church, and from the interests of institutions connected with the Church, an imminent and increasing danger, so that in truth, emancipation was granted in order to save the Irish Church."

In 1782 and 1793, England did relax somewhat of its despotic rule over Ireland. The attitude of the Irish volunteers frightened England into the first alleviations of the penal laws; and in 1793, the elective franchise was granted to Irish Catholics -but under circumstances disgraceful to England, and insulting to Ireland-this will appear by consulting "Newenham's View"-a Protestant, and therefore, not a partial authority in this case. "There is not a fault or deficiency in either the people or the country which may not, in a great measure, be traced to the misgovernment of England." The late noble Dr. Doyle said to his countrymen: "These are your vices—the faults of long and grinding oppression, which render many so base and vile, that the rights of man are denied to you, and less regard paid to your wants and wishes, than to the wants and wishes of any other people on the earth." Says Review: "If Irishmen are accused of idleness, what in the ordinary course of nature can be expected when industry and improvement have been systematically discouraged? Often have we, as an English traveler, asked the Irish peasant, why he neglects such and such an improvement, on his land? The answer uniformly has been, "If I did it, my rent would be raised."

168 CRIME IN ENGLAND AND IRELAND COMPARED.

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XXXIX.

ET the Reviewer find the convincing commentary on his words, in the herculean achievements of Irish labor under the genial influences of free Institutions in the United States. No man ever saw an Irish workman in America, who was not ready for a job. To show that the policy of England has always been to discourage enterprise in Ireland, I could quote a score or more of discriminating writers. Davenant, long ago illustrated the truth on this point. He argued, that England ought to give “to the planters of Ireland, all encouragement that can possibly consist with the wellfare of England, for it is an outwork of the seat of empire, here."

Sir William Temple, certainly a very able political writer, says: "Had it not been for circumstances, prejudicial to the increase of trade and riches, in a country which seems natural, or at least, to have ever been incident to the Government of Ireland, the native fertility of the Irish soil and seas in so many rich commodities, improved by a multitude of people, and industry, with the advantage of so many excellent havens, and a situation so commanding for foreign trade, must needs have rendered this kingdom (Ireland) one of the richest in Europe, and made a mighty increase, both of strength and revenue, to the crown of England."

XL.

[S it not strange then, that there should be less crime in Ireland, pro rata, than in England, while the crimes of dishonesty and fraud, I find in the Criminal Returns for 1854, to stand thus ? Convictions for 1854

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EARL GREY-PITT-MACAULAY.

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In March 30, 1835, Earl Grey said "that the Established Church had not only failed to propagate the Protestant religion amongst the Catholics of Ireland, but that it had been most injurious to the true interests of religion, amongst the Protestants themselves." Macaulay said of Pitt, that "he was the first English minister who entertained a really sanguine intention of benefiting Ireland, upon a footing of equal laws, equal rights, and equal liberties." But he failed. In his speech in 1785, on introducing the first commercial relaxations, he said that," the species of policy which had been exercised by the government of England, in regard to Ireland, had for its object, to debar the latter from the enjoyment of its own resources, and to make her completely subservient to the opulence and interests of England; that she had not been suffered to share in the bounties of nature, or the industry of her citizens, and that she was shut out from every species of commerce, and restrained from sending the produce of her own soil to foreign markets."

"Where," said Sir Charles Wood, "could they find any country, under any system of Church establishment, be they Catholic or Protestant, where a rich Church, with a small congregation, was maintained at the expense of an overwhelming majority, belonging to a different persuasion? . . . Why should they not at once strike at the root of the evil, and determine upon a different appropriation of the revenues of the Irish Church?"

"The principle laid down by Lord John Russel was, that Church property was appreciable to all such purposes of general utility, as Parliament in its wisdom might determine." And yet it has not been done.

I

XLI.

CANNOT better, perhaps, bring this long Book to a close, than by paying my tribute to the greatest Irishman of his age-a man whom I knew and loved so well. I extract from

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O'CONNELL'S ARRIVAL AT GENOA.

my Private Diary an account of his death and funeral obsequies, at the old city of Genoa, where I had the honor at the time to represent the United States in an official capacity:

On the evening of the 6th, on his way to Rome to spend the winter, Daniel O'Connell landed at Genoa, to pass but a single day. At any period, he would have been received in Italy with every demonstration of respect, for he was there regarded as the protector and advocate of eight millions of oppressed Catholics, in a distant and beautiful island, which has been sanctified by the faith, and made dear by the sufferings, the poetry, and the wit of its people. But at that time, many unusual circumstances conspired to give to his journey through Italy all the splendors of a great triumphal progress. During the previous six months, the journals of Italy had been filled with the sufferings of Ireland; and when the name of that devoted country was heard by an Italian, he lifted his eyes to Heaven, and thanked his patron saint that he was not born under British sway. To be a British subject was once, in their estimation, to be born to rule, to conquer, and to be free; now, to be a Briton, is to die by the lingering tortures of famine. Sad indeed must be the state of Ireland, when an Italian thanks God, or even a saint, that he is not born there. Besides, O'Connell was dying on the eve of a great day for Italy and for the Irish people. While his soul was passing to the future state, the bells of all the churches of Italy were sounding their holy chimes, to call the pious and the humane to their altars, at the command of Pius IX., to offer their prayers and their alms for the relief of that distant, suffering people. In Genoa, it was known that the great Catholic Liberator was dying; and when the population streamed up in dense masses to the churches, in obedience to the command of the Pontiff of Rome, they seemed like solemn processions for the souls of the departed.

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XLII.

'CONNELL'S health had felt the first shock a year before. (I received all my information from his youngest son, who was with his father on his journey, and closed his eyes when he was dead.) In the early part of winter he began to fail so rapidly, that his friends were alarmed, and they prevailed on him to visit Italy; believing that, in a serener climate, he would again recover, in some measure, his former vigor. Attended by his youngest son, his family physician, his Irish confessor, and his most confidential servants, he set out for Italy. But the journey was deferred too long. He was taken down in Lyons, and it was feared he would not be able again to leave his bed. But through the aid of a skillful French

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