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thing. Such a representation as I should like to see, emanating
from our exiled countrymen all over the earth would be of infinite
use in placing the true merits of the Irish case before the whole
civilized world. The black crime committed against Ireland in
1800, and its disastrous consequences, should be made to ring
through the globe, and the statement of our rightful claim should
be rendered co-extensive with the falsehoods of our enemies.
Let it not be said that in seeking the repeal of the Union we are
seeking the dismetnberment of the empire. On the direct contrary,
union itself is the real dismemberment. It disjoins the affections
of the countries. It makes their relative positions those of the
robber and his victim. Let no man tell me that such a union is
essential to the security of Her Majesty’s throne. No true friend
of the throne would assert that its security is in any degree depen-
dent on a measure that outrages Irish feeling, and that plunders
Ireland to such an enormous extent as to cause her rapid depopu-
lation. To take such ground as this is in effect to place the safety
of the throne in direct antagonism to the honour and prosperity
of Ireland. Such were not the views of Grattan nor of Foster,
who both conceived that the destruction of the Irish Parliament
would weaken the zeal of the people in resisting invasion.‘ In
truth, if we were to suppose among our sovereign’s councillors
some traitorous statesman, professedly anxious for the stability of
the British empire, but secretly plotting its overthrow, could such
a statesman more effectually labour for his evil object than by
placing or retaining Ireland in a condition which holds her out
to the world as so crushed, so despoiled, so misgoverned, as to
keep the vast majority of her inhabitants in a state of chronic
discontent, and to render foreign conquest, in the estimation of
many persons, a. more question between one tyranny and another?
Now, the Union does all this. It is a denial to Ireland of the
rights which Providence appears to have bestowed upon her. The
late Robert Holmes, in a thoughtful and able pamphlet, has the
following words: “The powers of independent existence seemed to
be marked in her (Ireland's) structure in such bold characters by
nature, that it required the unceasing efforts of an active and
malignant policy to defeat the obvious purposes of creation.” Mr.
Holmes was right. The Creator has bestowed upon Ireland, in
her physical structure, in her geographical position, in her natural
facilities of supporting a hardy and industrious population, in her
fertile soil, in her harbours, which lie open to the commerce of the
world-in all these things the Almighty has bestowed upon Ire-