"Wild oats in the College won't want to be till'd, "In the Parliament House, quite alive, shall there be Full of rooks, as before, Daly's Club-house you'll see, Give Pitt, &c. "Our Custom House quay full of weeds, oh! rare sport! Will give us free leave all our goods to export, When we have got none at home for ourselves, Sir! Says an Alderman-' Corn will grow in your shops, 6 'That's true,' says the Sheriff, for plenty of crops Give Pitt, &c. "Ye brave loyal Yeomen, dressed gaily in red, This minister's plan must elate us; And well may John Bull, when he's robbed us of bread, No doubt the influence employed to carry the Union was overwhelming; the Cornwallis Correspondence proves the fact conclusively. Perhaps the frank reply of the Irish Senator to questions innocently put to him by a constituent may exemplify the morality of the time :-"Are you, sir, about to vote for the Union ?" "I am." "What, sir, would you sell your country?" "Yes, sir, and very happy am I to have a country to sell." P But, my friends, you perceive that neither eloquence nor poetry, prose nor verse, could avert that great measure which the social and political state of Ireland, the state of Europe, and of the world, made almost inevitable. And now we may fairly ask ourselves, if we have lost something, have we not gained much? Look around upon the nations of the earth. France, swept by revolution, and held down by military power; Italy, torn by civil war; America, deluged with blood; while the free and glorious monarchy of England proudly rests in security and peace upon that which is the sure foundation of strength, the affections of a free people. We have gained that with which, in a measure, we ought to be content, provided we use the opportunities which are left open to us. It is a vain thing to complain of the past. Wise men do not busy themselves about that which cannot be remedied or changed, but rather look forward to that which they can mould for their own benefit, and for the good of their country. The business of the virtuous citizen, the business of the true patriot, each in his own walk, is to perform the duty assigned to him according to the order of Providence; not to mourn for that which cannot be undone, but rather to use the power which remains in this country, and it is vast-political, moral, and social-for the purpose of securing whatever is most beneficial, whatever is most useful, whatever is best calculated to raise and elevate (I will not say to civilize) the people of this country. They possess all the virtues, all the talents, all those natural gifts which, if well used, are calculated to make this old and famous kingdom more famous in connexion with the free kingdom of England than it would be if separated from it-a victim of social confusion, intestine war, political anarchy, ending in connexion with some foreign power, which would only use its superiority to crush the liberty which it hypocritically would profess to grant. Therefore, our duty is to be thankful to Almighty God for the great blessings we enjoy; to rejoice that we live under a sovereign whose every thought is favourable to the happiness and liberty of her people; to rejoice that we have a Constitution which establishes freedom of opinion, freedom of religious belief, freedom in the unrestricted use of the Scriptures, in the assertion of our opinions, whatever they may be; and which, at the same time, secures to us those political rights for the purpose of our using them-not abusing them; using them in combination with every good man in the kingdom, who will unite in the promotion of the welfare, prosperity, and happiness of our beloved country.* *See Appendix B. APPENDICES. APPENDIX A (PAGE 174). BUSHE'S WIT.-Another specimen of Bushe's wit has been given me by a friend, who preserved the story from oblivion. During the debates upon the Union, Mr. Duquerry, K.C., took a very desponding view of the prospects of the country, in the event of the Union being carried. He was a very eloquent man, and had a voice superior in sweetness even to Bushe or Blackburne. On one occasion, having made a speech of the above character, Toler stood up to reply to him, upon which Duquerry immediately quitted the House, and Toler exclaimed-"He is gone, 'Most musical, most melancholy!'" Bushe, who replied to Toler, said, he had not done justice to himself or Duquerry, in not quoting the first line of the distich "Sweet bird, that shuns the voice of folly." APPENDIX B (PAge 203). I have been reminded by Sir B. Burke, that the Mace of the Irish House of Commons is now at Antrim Castle, an honoured heir-loom. The last Speaker, Mr. Foster, a determined anti-Unionist, refused to surrender "the bauble” to any but the constituted authority, by whom it had been intrusted to his keeping; and consequently it has descended to Mr. Foster's grandson and heir, the present Viscount Massereene and Ferrard, K.P. |