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long subsisted, will gradually disappear; and proprietors in Ireland, as in other countries, will inhabit their country, when their country becomes inhabitable." Ubi bene, ibi patria" is a maxim not altogether unreasonable; and, surely, if in any circumstances it is entitled to toleration, it is in that land where the greater the patriotism and virtue, the less chance is there of social comfort and rational happiness. To the absentees themselves we would willingly appeal with every invocation that can bind the conscience or awaken the heart. But the appeal were worse than idle, it would in fact be injurious, by pointing to effects and disengaging the attention from causes. In the present condition of affairs, absenteeism is a necessitated evil!! In the absentees it is less a crime than a misfortune; and with respect to the government it is so far from being a justification of its acts, that it has become a pregnant and a pointed conclusion of

its ignorance of all sound principle, or its heartless indifference to all those interests which the unhappy destiny of" the most unhappy country under heaven," has committed to its charge.

THE END.

LONDON:

IBOTSON AND PALMER, PRINTERS, SAVOY STREET, STRAND.

OF

SIR JONAH BARRINGTON's

HISTORIC ANECDOTES OF IRELAND

DURING HIS OWN TIMES,

WITH SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE UNION;

Illustrated by Delineations of the principal Characters connected with those Transactions, curious Letters and Papers in fac simile; and numerous Original Portraits, engraved by the elder HEATH.

To be completed in Ten Numbers, in Royal 4to.
Price 12s. 6d. each.

PRINTED FOR HENRY COLBURN,
NEW BURLINGTON STREET.

UNFORESEEN circumstances, over which the Author had no influence or controul, had altogether checked the progress of this Work, suspended the publication of its latter parts, and left them on the Publisher's shelves unadvertised and uncirculated.

This temporary relinquishment had given rise to unfounded and injurious reports of its suppression; an object which never was for one moment in the contemplation of the Author, nor sought for, or even suggested, by the Government of England.

On the contrary-the lamentable and unimproving march of Ireland from the period of the Union having fully proved the deceptious prospective given to that fatal measure by its mistaken or corrupt supporters, and exciting a novel interest and grave reflections of vital importance to the British Empire, the Author had determined to seize upon the first available opportunity of fulfilling his engagement to the friends and patrons of the Work, by its completion.

Those friends were not confined to one party. They were mingled in all they comprised several of the highest orders of society-many who held, and some who still hold important stations in the Government of both countries;-and the commencing parts of the Work having been honoured by the approbation and encouragement of His present Majesty and other Members of His Royal House, it was with deep regret the Author found himself, from a succession of causes, for several years unable to fulfil his intentions, and gratify his own laudable ambition, by compiling into a compact Memoir, the most important Historic events of Ireland. In many of those he was himself a not unimportant actor. He possessed also the advantage of individual intimacy or acquaintance with the most celebrated personages of all parties; without which, and the fidelity of a contemporary and independent pen, the delineation of their characters and the record of their conduct, if not lost for ever, would have descended to posterity with imperfect details and an ambiguous authenticity; -or have left a wide chasm in a highly interesting epocha of British History.

The fallacious measure of a Legislative Union,-the progress of which from commencement to consummation the Author energetically resisted-has proved by its inoperative or mischievous results, the justness of that resistance. And he now, in common with many of the most distinguished of its original supporters, deeply deplores its accomplishment. But established by lapse of time-confirmed by passive assent --and complicated with some beneficial, and many political and financial arrangements, its tranquil reversal seems to have passed feasibility. Yet as an hereditary friend to British connexion-the Author hopes, by the revival and completion of this History, to open wide the eyes of Great Britain to the present dangers of Ireland-to draw aside the curtain of ignorance and prejudice by which her history has been so long obscured-to compare her once rising prosperity with her existing miseries-to discover the occult causes of

HISTORIC ANECDOTES OF IRELAND.

their continuance and the false principles of her misrule-to display her sacrifices for England and to unmask her libellers in both countries.

Developments such as these may rouse the Legislature to probe her wounds to their depth-to employ her labour-to succour to foster-and to rule her on the broad principles of a steady and philanthropic policy-and to relinquish for ever that system of coercive Government, which an experience of many centuries has proved to be destructive of almost every thing-except her crimes and her population.

The British people should also learn that the absence of the ancient Nobles and protecting Aristocracy of Ireland,-drawn away by the Union from their demesnes and tenantry to the Seat of Legislation, and replaced only by the griping hands and arbitrary sway of upstart deputies,-increases in proportion with the miseries and turbulence of the lower orders; and that the luxuriance of vegetation which clothes that capable Island, has, through the same causes, become only a harbinger of want, or the forbidden fruit of a famished peasantry.

It should therefore be the object of every pen and of every tongue, to render the Union as innoxious as its paralyzing nature can now admit of; to recall the proprietors of the Irish soil to a sense of their own security and their country's welfare; and thereby strengthen the ties which should bind the two nations together, in equality, prosperity, and affection

on the firmness and durability of which species of connexion depends, not only the constitutional security of England herself, but perhaps the political existence of both countries.

Such is the Author's view in the completion of this Work. The obstacles to its progress are surmounted, and its publication is now in the hands of those who will spare nothing to render it worthy of its object, and ensure a lasting and beneficial record to the United Empire.

It is fortunate for Ireland, and disastrous to her calum

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