both-it has been the habit of my life to do so. For the present Constitution I am ready to make any sacrifice-I have proved it. For British connexion I am ready to lay down my life-my actions have proved it. Why have I done so? Because I consider that connexion essential to the freedom of Ireland. Do not, therefore, tear asunder to oppose to each other those principles which are identified in the minds of loyal Irishmen. For me, I do not hesitate to declare, that if the madness of the revolutionist should tell me "You must sacrifice British connexion," I would adhere to that connexion in preference to the independence of my country; but I have as little hesitation in saying, that if the wanton ambition of the Minister should assault the freedom of Ireland, and compel me to the alternative, I would fling the connexion to the winds, and I would clasp the independence of my country to my heart. For his country he was ready to do any thing. That Noble and Learned Lord had said that every man would clasp to his heart the independence of his country. For his own part he (Mr. O'Connell) was convinced that though it might not assuredly happen in his time, still he was equally sure that the continuance of the Union would lead to the separation. He proposed the federal continuation of the connexion, that so the two countries should be a protection to each other —that as Ireland required to export linen, England should export manufactures to Ireland. He proposed, and it was one of his chief objects, the restoration of the Irish Parliament. It was entire now in its law it only wanted the Constitution of the House of Commons. Should they make it a question to arrange the representation-they had the power-let them place it on the basis of the reformed Parliament, and the Irish people would sanction it. This was what he prayed for. He had shown, then, that Ireland was entitled to her independence-he had shown the effects of the Union-he had shown the utter incompetency of the British Parliament to legislate for Ireland. The Union was not a compact, but it was carried by a train of crime which was unparalleled; the financial terms were unjust-destructive to Ireland, and ruinous to this country. He had shown that the legislative terms were equally unjust, and rested on the same machinery. He had shown the effects of the Union, as depriving Ireland of her Constitution, and the people of the means of existence ! He had shown that the English labourers and artisans had suffered by the poverty of Ireland; and he had shown what would be the probable consequences of the continuance of the Union were those which would tend to effect a separation. He had shown and suggested to the House the facility with which the connexion between the two countries might be placed on a basis of right and justice. We had been unable to govern Ireland to our own satisfaction; for during two-thirds of the period since the Union, we had set the law at defiance and had ruled Ireland by a despotism; we had not made Ireland prosperous, and in the name of Ireland he called for the restoration of her national Legislature. The Honourable and Learned Gentleman concluded by moving for a Select Committee, to inquire and report on the means by which the dissolution of the Parliament of Ireland was effected; on the effects of that measure upon Ireland, and upon the labourers in husbandry and operatives in manufactures in England; and on the probable consequences of continuing the Legislative Union between both countries. The Honourable and Learned Gentleman sat down, after having spoken for five hours. The motion was seconded by Mr. FEARGUS O'CONNOR, when whether, at that late hour of the night, he should proceed to reply to the Honourable and Learned Gentleman's speech. He was ready, if the House wished it, to go on; but as he must of necessity keep the attention of the House for a considerable time, he would wait their decision. The call for adjournment was almost unanimous, and the further debate on this question was postponed till the following day. WEDNESDAY, 23d. On the 23d, Mr. SPRING RICE having moved the order of the day for resuming the Adjourned Debate, proceeded to address the House as follows: : Though fully sensible that upon no other occasion could any Honourable Member have stood more in need of the indulgence of the House than he did at present, yet that conviction should not induce him to trespass on their time by any lengthened prefatory observations, for the purpose of bespeaking that indulgence. He felt deeply the responsibility which he had assumed in taking on himself the duty of replying to the speech of the Learned Member; at the same time it was a responsibility which was connected with the performance of duty; and even though he should personally fail, he might receive some consolation from a consciousness that he might not shrink from the performance of his duty. [Cheers.] The question which was now before them could notbecause it ought not be met by a simple negative. But before proceeding further, he had to express his regret-he did not make any complaint that the Learned Member who made this motion was not now in his place. [Loud cries of Hear.] It had been intimated to him that his absence was occasioned by indisposition, and therefore he did not complain of that absence; but he referred to it for the purpose of stating at the outset, that whilst there was no question which he should have thought it necessary to agitate, and no observation which he should have made in his presence, which he should not feel it his duty to agitate or to make in his absence, so also the Learned Member and his Friends might rest assured that he should not utter one single observation in his absence, which he should not have been perfectly ready to make in his presence. [Loud cheering.] He had said that this question could not be met by a mere negative. The question was one in which they were called upon, not only to negative the Learned Member's motion, but to affirm and to record an opinion of their own. [Cheers.] The first notice which the Learned Member himself gave raised distinctly the question and the expediency of repeal. If he thought it politic to change the day originally fixed, he was still perfectly free to have discussed the real question on its own intrinsic merits. He did not choose to do so; but he had substituted another proposition for that to which he was pledged, and which he had solemnly announced to the House. He had kindly afforded them a commentary on his motives for substituting the one motion for the other; since in a written document, which he had given to the world, he had stated, that there are many, very many men who would vote for a Committee of Inquiry, who would not vote for a Resolution or a Bill. He (Mr. Rice) trusted that even in this Parliament, which contained necessarily many Gentlemen who might not have been long or deeply versed in the science of Parliamentary Tactics, there was no one individual weak or blind enough to allow himself to be seduced by so vulgar and so worn-out a deception. It was in reference to the consequences in Ireland of votes given to-night, that he took the liberty of warning D those Honourable Members who were more immediately connected with the representation of Great Britain, what must be the effect of their support of this motion. Honourable Gentlemen, who represented English counties, cities, and boroughs, were as much charged with the maintenance of Irish interests, and the protection of Irish rights, as if they had Irish constituencies at their backs. The inference drawn from a vote by any British Member in favour of this Committee, however they may guard themselves by protesting against the general principle of repeal, will be in Ireland, that such a person, Member for a British county-though God forbid any such should be found!—or Member for such a city or town-though here again he felt confident that such would not be found-voted for the Committee, and therefore is a decided repealer. On the other hand, it would be urged in this House, that Gentlemen, in voting for a Committee, merely affirmed the necessity of inquiry. "I ask," says the Honourable and Learned Mover, "for nothing but inquiry. If your opinions are adverse to mine, you ought the rather to vote for inquiry, because an acquiescence in my motion will enable you to confute me, and prove me to be in the wrong." [Laughter and cheers.] He had often heard this most fallacious argument used, and as often as he had heard it, he had felt convinced of its sophistry. But the Learned Member had himself supplied them with a most instructive commentary, in the form of his own motion. An honourable gentleman, not now a member of this House, but who was, he believed, a petitioner at its Bar, on the 24th of January, when standing as a candidate for Dungarvan, addressed the constituency of that town in the following words : : The question of the repeal of the Union occupies, at present, much of the public mind of Ireland; and, in my opinion, the representatives of the people would but ill discharge their duty if they did not take that subject into their serious and early consideration; and, with this view, I shall certainly vote for a Committee of the House of Commons, to inquire fully, fairly, and impartially, into the merits of this important question. 66 Here, then, was a gentleman standing before his constituents, who unreservedly declared his readiness and determination to support a motion which, he (Mr. Rice) presumed, was tantamount to the motion in the Speaker's hands; unless, indeed, the inquiry now sought for was not to be full, not to be fair, and not to be impartial. Now, what was the commentary of the Learned Member for Dublin on that proposition? The Learned Member characterizes Mr. Barron's address as being as gross an attempt at delusion as ever was made;" [Loud cries of Hear] and he adds, addressing the electors of Dungarvan, "that it really is an insult to their understanding to suppose that they can be taken in by so flimsy and futile a deception." He then closes by stating, "The fact is, that, as à politician, Mr. Barron was always despicable." [Loud laughter and cries of Hear.] How then could he be called on to discuss that very question, so designated and so stigmatized, and proposed too as it was by the very same individual whose commentary upon it had been so conclusive, and whose condemnation had been so unqualified? But it would perhaps be said that the inquiry now sought for differs from the full, fair, and impartial inquiry which was recommended in the address of Mr. Barron. It did indeed differ from that proposition in some respects; but the principle of both was the same. All the flourishes with which the motion had been introduced touching the events of past times, were but so much dust which the Learned Member had endeavoured to throw in their eyes to blind them. The question was not the history of past times, but the real interest of the people of Ireland, and of the empire at large, in the year 1834. The next part of the Honourable and Learned Gentleman's motion recommended an inquiry "into the effects of the Union upon the labourers in husbandry, and operatives in manufactures in England." Now, if ever there was a silly attempt at political angling, if ever it was attempted to put a wretched bait upon a crooked pin for the purpose of fishing for minnows, [Laughter] the present was one. There was one point which he was bound to notice, in reference to which he particularly regretted the absence of the Learned Member, because it was one personal to himself, and he therefore regretted being compelled to give a reply to his accusation except in his presence; but, as he had already stated, he would not on that account either add to or withhold any portion of his argument. The Learned Member had charged him with having been guilty of disingenuousness towards him or towards the House in his mode of proceeding on this subject. He complained that Papers which he called for in the last Session of Parliament were not produced till a certain period in this; whereas, Papers which he (Mr. Rice) called for were produced and were immediately printed. The Learned Member called for his Papers at a period in the last Session at which they could not be prepared or produced; the order expired with the last Session, and was necessarily renewed in the present; and, contemporaneously with that renewal, he (Mr. Rice) gave directions to have certain accounts prepared which were necessary as explanatory of his (Mr. O'Connell's), and were necessary also in support of the argument which he intended to maintain upon this question. The Learned Member's Papers were the first completed, and were, consequently, the first laid on the Table; and, in point of fact, there was no necessity that any Papers, except those called for by the House, should have been presented. He (Mr. Rice) might have presented his Papers, or he might have withheld them, unless specially ordered; but, lest Honourable Members should complain that they had not been allowed access to the documents upon which he founded his arguments, he moved for the Papers which he had ordered to be prepared. He laid them on the Table, not because he, himself, wanted the information which they afforded, for he possessed that information already; but he did so because, if there were any fallacy in his arguments, or any misrepresentation in his statements, other Gentlemen might have the means of correcting or of commenting upon them. [Cheers.] He much feared that he should have on this occasion to trespass at very considerable length on the attention of the House, and be compelled to weary them with details. But in the consideration of a question like the present, everything depended on evidence. He was delighted at the attention given to the speech of the Honourable and Learned Member during the whole of last night; let it go forth to the public-let it be understood in Ireland—that this Imperial Parliament listened with unwearying patience and respectful attention, during a period of time almost without example, to the statements made by the Learned Member. He hoped, therefore, that this question was likely to be discussed with calmness, and with an absence of all party feeling and of all personal |