vindication of our natural rights as men, and our just privileges as subjects. The conflict in his country's cause has, in itself, no terror for the Irishman. The maturity of life has reached me in the struggle, but yet my step is firm, and my arm, too, is not unnerved; so that I should not feel any personal deficiency to deter me from joining in the battle's roar in the cause of my country. But I have been bred in the doctrines of dutiful submission to the constitution; andthose who have acted with me, and have grown into age around me, have participated in the same sentiments. The speculation is, therefore, so far safe, which reckons on our submission. But I am not without my perception of passing events and instigating causes. Yes, coming events do cast their shadows; and I behold many circumstances which enable me to anticipate the future history of Ireland. The rising generation is not as submissive as their fathers were. It may not be equally safe to treat us ill, as it is to ill-treat them. The rising youth of Ireland appear to have their pulses beating with better blood; and I have remarked, more than once, that, while I myself was tranquil, the eye of youth, scarce reached beyond childhood, was glistening with indignation at the history of the six centuries of misgovernment which this country has endured. This fiery youth, with hotter blood boiling in their veins, is accumulating fast around us. Whilst we of the old day live, we can, and will restrain them; but, when the grave has closed upon those who have been nurtured in submission, and trained in the toils of patient entreaty and constitutional prayer-when we are removedoh may England-for her own sake, for the sake of humanity, and, above all, to turn off the evils which even a successful struggle must inflict upon Ireland-may she learn to be wise in time, and to be just, while she may be so with dignity and pride! May she never force-for she cannot otherwise do it-Ireland to imitate America!

"Perhaps it is not generally known-indeed, I believe it is almost entirely forgotten-that Wales was once the Ireland

of the English Government. Listen to what the evil was, and how simple and efficacious was the remedy. I read the words of Burke:- My next example is Wales. This country was said to be reduced by Henry the Third-it was said more truly to be so by Edward the First; but, though then conquered, it was not looked upon as any part of the realm of England. The old constitution, whatever that might have been, was destroyed, and no good one was substituted in its place.'-(Oh, how like Ireland!) The care of that track was put into the hands of Lords Marchers'- (Primate Boulter says, that in Ireland they were called Lords Adventurers) -'a form of government of a very singular kind—a strange heterogeneous monster-something between hostility and government.' Here Mr. O'Connell laid down the book for a few moments.] I differ from Mr. Burke in many political opinions, but how sincerely do I thank him for the characteristic force of his language! Here, indeed, is the true description of the Irish government. Here is an epitome of Irish history. We have it in one short sentence. I love to repeat it A strange heterogeneous monster-something between hostility and government.' I resume my quotation:The manners of the Welsh nation followed the genius of the government-the people were ferocious'-(they say we are so); 'restive'-(we certainly are so); savage'-(they accuse us of being so; they treat us like brutes, and they are asto-. nished, forsooth, that we do not meet that treatment with the grace of French dancing-masters ;) and uncultivated. Uncultivated! Why, they have passed Acts of Parliament to make it a felony to educate Catholics at home, and a premunire for Catholics to be educated abroad; and, then, there have been beings found among the English, base enough to accuse us of being uncultivated; who-but I have interrupted myself. I'll read the paragraph without breach or stop:-The manners of the Welsh nation followed the genius of the government; the people were ferocious, restive, savage, and uncultivated-sometimes composed, never pacified. Wales, within itself, was in perpetual disorder; and it kept the frontier of

England in perpetual alarm. Benefits from it to the State there was none. Wales was only known to England by incursion and invasion.' (Substitute turbulence and insurrection, and what have you, but the sometimes composed, never pacified state of Ireland ?) I resume Burke's speech:Sir, during that state of things, Parliament was not idle; they attempted to subdue the fierce spirit of the Welsh, by all sorts of vigorous laws.'-(See what servile imitators the Peels, Eldons, and Liverpools of the present day are!) They prohibited, by statute, the sending all sorts of arms into Wales.'-(Liverpool has done the same over and over again to Ireland.) They disarmed the Welsh by statute.'-(Peel has done the same, with equal virulence, to Ireland.) They made an act to drag offenders into England from Wales, for trial.'-(Judge Johnson's case proves that Lord Eldon has sanctioned an act of similar atrocity.) Mark I pray you, the next paragraph :— By another act, where one of the parties was an Englishman, they ordained that his trial should be always by English.'-(There is an instance of horrible English injustice for you!) But, observe, such another act, and, if possible, an act of greater atrocity is in force to this hour in Ireland. For it is a law to this moment, that, in all issues under the Popery laws-and nine-tenths of all the landed property in Ireland are so at this very hour; I repeat it, (ana I may say it deliberately, as a lawyer,) that nine parts, out of ten, are still affected by the Popery laws-it is enacted, that in all such issues, the juries shall be composed solely of known Protestants. It is not enough that the Protestants take the oath, and swear that the sacrifice of the mass is impious and idolatrous. That will not do. The Protestant, to be a juror, must be free of all possible submission to Popery. He must be in the words of the law, a known-that is, an undoubteday, that is, an Orange Protestant. Mr. Peel's glory, is his Jury Bill. What a mockery in a man who opposes any relaxation of the law! I return to Burke:-To find what the effect of these prohibitory statutes was, and to those precedents-all this while, Wales rid this kingdom like an

incubus; that it was an unprofitable and oppressive burden, and that an Englishman, travelling in that country, could not get six yards from the road without being murdered.' The march of the human mind is slow, Sir; it was not until after two hundred years, discovered that, by an eternal law, Providence has decreed vexation to violence, and poverty to rapine. Eldon, Liverpool, and Peel have not discovered it to the present hour; but it was discovered in England in the reign. of Henry the Eighth; accordingly in the 27th year of Henry the Eighth a statute was passed, giving Wales all we ask—a share in the British constitution. I read from Burke the result-would that all England would listen! From the moment, as by a charm, the tumult subsided; obedience was restored; peace, order, and civilization followed in the train of liberty. When the day-star of the English constitution had arisen in their hearts, all was harmony within and without.' Such is the first case I cite-such is the first fact I adduce to establish my assertion, that tranquillity can be produced by a mere act of justice. The next instance is also given by Burke; it is the county Palatine of Chester. There the same evils existed, while the inhabitants were kept out of the pale of the British constitution. There the same remedy, an act of justice, was applied, and the same traquillity and good order ensued.

"The next instance given by Burke is, the county Palatine of Durham. That county had also long lain out of the pale of free legislation; and it was, during all that time, a scene of turbulence, disorder, and crime. The same identical remedy was applied-the privileges of the British Constitution were participated by the people of Durham, and all was peace, and harmony, and tranquillity. Having cited these cases from Burke, I proceed to the well-known story of Scotland. For a century, the English Government endeavoured to subdue the stubborn attachment of the Scotch to Presbyterianism; and with the point of the bayonet to enforce, as they have at tempted in Ireland, the English Act of Parliament, to fashion Christianity. They enacted pains and penalties, and enforced confiscations; erected gibbets, and made the scaffold flow with

human blood. But did they convert the Scotch Presbyterians? No; they were just as unsuccessful with them as they then were, and have been since, with the Irish Catholics; and, like the Irish, the Scotch only clung the more firmly to their religion, because it was persecuted by English injustice. The Scotch, indeed, did not put up with the system of persecution as patiently as the Irish had done. They broke out often into open and avowed rebellion. They brought into the field horse and foot; and, when they could get it, some artillery They were often defeated, but they were never subdued. Scotland was then what Ireland is now-the weakness of England. Domestic dissension in England did all the time look to the aid of Scotch malcontents, as perhaps some turbulent agitators in England, at this moment, may cast an eye upon Irish dissatisfaction; and, certainly, at that period, the foreign foes of the British Government availed themselves of the weakness induced by the unsettled state of Scotland, as they now speculate upon the apparently composed, but unpacified state of Ireland. At length, however, the proper remedy was applied to Scotland, the persecution ceased, the Scotch attained, not mere toleration for their creed (what we require,) but its actual establishment in the State, which we disclaim. But what were the effects of justice and conciliation to Scotland? She became tranquil, and peaceable, and industrious; an ornament to British literature-the best strength of the British throne, and a main pillar of British power and independence."

In the most unruly portions of Ireland, the provincial meetings were held without danger; and the good order and regularity displayed justified the confidence placed in the common people. They had learned how to transact public business, and felt a pride and self-satisfaction in the consciousness of their conducting these affairs in that business-like manner which is frequently arrogated, but sometimes forgotten, in higher places.

"The people," says Mr. Murphy, "rose at the order of the Association. Never was there seen a more majestic move

ment.

In Waterford, South Monaghan, Westmeath, they