HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Signal, 1886-11-5, Page 2TOE HURON SIGNAL. FRIDAY, NOV. 5, 18886.
A Power!1t1 Plea fbr an Irish
Parliament.
See. tar. Maine. /vewa.e.s w the Wesley-
an homages' eaderae. Ilaudellea. Leelases
in 411aMeasttr • ren nevem assuwe*
Ise "tae eas..a.-
The audience that greeted Alex. Burns,
D.D., LLD., the well-kauwa Methodist
=I:and edutativaist, in Menem'.
Fraley evening, was a meet re-
spectaUe use in every way. A.e.si4.r
alae numbs': had driven in from the
country. Mayor Horton occupied the
chair. Os the platform were Ven.
Ar.hdise°. Elwood, Father Lam, Rev.
G. R. Turk, Rev. G. F. Salton, Judge
Doyle, M. C. Cameron, M.P., and W w.
Campbell.
In iutitdociug the lecturer the char -
man said he thought it was due to our
enterprising citizen, Mr. Goo. Acbesuu,
►tut he .buuld be 1 on the
oumfurtable and commodious hall be had
built. Applause. Even although it
was not oumpleted, and hurriedly pre-
pared for the meeting that evening, yet
it pretended a must creditabie appear-
ance. He thought the town was under
an obligation to Mr. Acheson for his en
t.rprise. (Applause. The subject of
the lecture was Hume Rule. He did
nut need toes anything un that que.-
tIu ►'_Ysr He hae..uisething.bo.t
it illy at home, as his wife
practised it. (Laughter. • Dr. Burns
had daliverel the lecture in ether places,
and high had been bestowed
upon il. Ho had much pleasure in in-
troducing the lecturer.
Dr. Burns, who was warmly greeted,
spoke fur about two hours and a quarter.
The lecture was • perfect magazine of
historical fact. We intend to give the
address in full, but will hare to carry
halt of 1t over until next weak.
The applause at the was
loud and long continued. During the
'vetoing, tco, the applause was frequent
and rapturous. Tne general verdict was
that the speech was one of the ablest
public addresses ever delivered in Gude
rich.
Judge Doyle, in moving a vote of
thanks, said :—I tbink all will agree
wren me treat a ennui= nest on tree
Home Rule question het beret upon this
community touiggbt. Hat. you ever
heard a nobler sddes's, or seen a more
zealous or patriot.c son standing up3°
the platform and pleading for his coun-
try ? (Applause.) We would need to
crises the ocean, and see the great leader
of the land League to match the specta-
cle. The reputation of the lecturer has
gone beyond this country. Wherever
the English language is kuown he also is
known as one of the noble and eloquent
defeuden of his country's boner. (Ap-
plause.; 1 will content myself with
moving, with greater satisfaction than I ,
ever moved before, a vote of thanks to
the gifted and petriutic lecturer of the
..mine. (Applause.)
Ven. Archdeacuu Elwood seconded
the motion. He said : —I feel most
thankful for the words the lecturer has
uttered hen this evening. The expres-
sions with regard to Home Rule are the
thoughts and feelings I have ever had.
(Applasse.) Pocr Ireland, I love her
.. still ! She has had many disadvantages.
and I do pot wonder, when she has been
----east down and trodden under foot for
years. I will love my native country to
the end of mydays, and when I die I
think the word "Ireland.' will be found
engraved op my heart. (Applause.)
Dr. Burns, ,n reply. mid :-1 really
like to think and talk about Ireland and
Home Rule. I believe every wl,rd I
as;, and I think that when England will t
coma to herself and do justice to In I
land, she will gather to herself many
$bousa»ds of as brave fellows u ever t
_-_shouldered a gun or entered • breach.
(Applaua.) Let England trent Ireland t
as Jamas did, when he said he would
treat them as men, and • more loyal and ; i
devoted people it would be impossible t.. ' •
find in the Empire. God save Ireland.
• Applause.) !.
L[. TURF •
Mr. President, fell.
;adies and gentlemen : it is with feelings a
of pleasure that I rias to address ynu to-
night, on a subject so dear to my own
heart : my natty lend, dear old Ireland.
You will excuse me if I appear to be
didactic, or giye you an outline of Irish ►
history this evening. I was reared in i
Ireland; I never saw • historyof Ireland
there. If you are in Irisman, you C
never. w one at school. You mayhave
been instructed in the history of Greece -`
or Rome, but not of that of your own
country. Go into the Irish schools,
colleges or universities, and there is n..
history of lrele d to be read. Some .4 the
histones touched upon Ireland; but they
only touched open it, and nothing mon.
Then are Inohnien whose cheeks becane
resettled with the red, white and blue ;
they blush, turn pale, and have the
bloom ; they reflect • color which pris-
matically lies !.etween the indigo and
the green, with a heavy sb•ding .1 the
green, when they are taken for Irish-
men. Thank ti,..l 1 hare not one drop
of each unpatriotic blood in my veins,
and when 1 think or act for my reentry.
my blood courses with a kindlier cur-
nnl And this is specia;ly the ease c'
•ince our native land s ,n rorrow, and ( a
te some extent made • byword among c
the nations by her chronic discontent. c
Her harp is et present ..0 the willows. j v
Her children can't help being moved by
her , and her tears, and with
r,
ardent hope- they g i y baleen to he a ls'
for sooty legidat. ei as will enable her to w
sterol erect as an imp..rtaa.t constituent ta
of the great empire of whit•* she forms a tb
part. Feeling that she is placed in a Ik
Wee position before the nations while
deprived of the essentiate . t liberty, he m
would sot be worthy of freedom who
would sot use Moth pen and voice in
removing the last restriction on his
ceenuy s liberties, that she might onee
revs. breathe the air of unchallenged
freedom, the air .d our own loved Cense
de. of distant Australia, of the grand
Ilopstibe on our border -all children of
tfag . mother ; the air that has ez•
rigia the sheets n1 Britons 'may -
where, seed inspired their soul.. snakiest
them sing ea they only ma sine, "Keit-
saw never shall be slaves." lousess
have seas that song for m.es Zilia
mutual, foetdly f•acyiag that it
ed them ;1or they sesame the flesh that
have so keen riled the waves, and seder
the Vetere husk they hev. (limbed the
deep sad dermad the leeks of Brifaia
bee Shoulder to skeaider with the
mea of R.eoymed. sed Beoaoskbere
they have knight their the battles of the Ere -
pin, and blood has onmsooea
many a telt for the .seabliehmeat of
Bntsia's iatessste, or the ealaegmoat of
human liberties. On every maimed
buck on ma and shore, in every arm of
the service have our shove
the stuff of which heroes were nude, and
wheu after Tr•talgar or the Nile, es the
shades of evening would close o'er the
shattered, bet victorious dere, and the
exultant tan would again break forth
between decks, making the e.t. deo walls
of old England echo agate with
"Hide nritaa•ta. kirita•ata rake the wit a
Britons •ever shall be slava,"
i cannot help thinking that our country-
men were always embraced in those
"Bretons," and were by their brave
comrades in arms considered as nosed
constituents in that trinity of heroism
that has provoked both the envy and
the admiration of the world I have
said that my country was in sorrow.
Poverty and deep seated destitution
reigns for and wide. The greet mass of
the people have nothing to lire for.
They turn their faces westward and k.ag
for the day when woe favoring future
mry enable them to purchase a steerage
passage to happy Amonca. Or they
settle down at last with sickened heart
and wasted frame, till some charitable
instil I,
death kindly comes to their release. It
is not • pleasant task to enlarge on the
poverty of one's family, and were my
responsible for that desti-
tution, 1 would draw the curtain, enter
the hut, and read to the inmates the
Book of Proverbs, or Franklin's Max-
ima But who will stand up tonight and
say that indolence or thriftles.oese van
explain the squalor ur wretchedness of
this part of the empire ? A lazy Iri•b-
nan is • rum aria ; an t or
thriftless I rarer still. Their
own little patch tilled, he betakes him-
self to the field of his more
neighbor, an absentee probably, and
earns what he can till his services are no
longer needed. His little crop being
gathered, he crosses to England or the
Continent, .pending probably his last
shilling for his passage, but hoping to
carry back a pound or two (nom the 6el
of FMttee Germany or England
10 tide him over the winter. What i
the family at home? There are thou
sands and thousands of families in Ir..
land that hem the beginning of the
year to the end of it never taste meet --
either beef, pork, mutton, veal or poul-
try. They raise these for more fortunate
tables. Eggs and butter are to such
almost a luxury, as indeed is anything
that can be taken to market, as most of
the product of bctb labor and soil is
taken to pay for the little patch of land
where stands the hovel that pretends to
shelter its pitiable inmate& Potatoes
or porridge with buttermilk, and now
and theft herrings, which luckily are
cheap, would be thankfully taken every
day in the year by ten of thousands of
as brave fellows as ever furled • sal or
shouldered a musket. I lived long *cough
in Ireland myself to see what one fail-
ure of the potato crop could do, and I
know that by no fault or crime et thein
their circumstances are d in
the extreme. I myself have seen an
Irish harvest reaped by men at six pesos
a day and women at four pence. To talk
about dissipation being the sues of their
poverty would be simply
The dissipation of Ireland is not among
the lower classes ; dissipation implies
money. I am satisfied that no peasantry
in Chnatendom has been so o pressed as
nun, and that is the I tes-
imony of every man who has visited
reland and penetrated iuto the depths
of her misery. I could quote sothori-
tes all night, but reelect one, thz 1 ..I
man who new how low, pagan civilize -
ion could Imre its children, who spent
years among the Asiatic populace, both
n India, China and the Isles of the Sea,
nd who wrote from Ireland $ little
while before he made his last trip to the
oudan : "I must say from all account.,
nd from my own observation, that tae
tate of our fell in the
parts 1 have named is worse than that of
ny people in the world, let alone Eur-
ope. I believe that these people rice
made as we are, that they are patient
beyond belief, loyal, but at the same
itue broken-spinted, and desperate, by -
ng on the verge of starvation, in places
n which we would not keep our
cattle. The Bulgarian. Australians,
hitless and Indian. are better off
ban many of them are." That is
the statement of no lees a personage
than the famous Chinese Gordon, who
lately gave his life for the pacification of
the Soudan. a man whose faith in God
made him a hero,and whoeelife was freely
..ffered for the sake of his fellow men.
His statement has been fully corrobor-
ated by the most noted Englishmen of
the day—by Bright and Gladstone, by
the corespondents of the leading London
journals sent to Inland for the express
purpose of contradicting, if possible,
these tales of suffering and sonow.
They have been confirmed by the most
noted Irishmen Alen, by the Duke of
Wellington and Lord DuRerin ; also, to
our shame, by travellers from other
iuntries, by Italiana, Germans, French
rid Russian., wh3 with ..ne voice de-
bate that "no picture drawn by the pen-
ia, none by the pen, can possibly con-
ey an idea of the sad reality. Then is
t, country on the face of the earth
here such extreme misery elide as in
reland " e subject is .o it
The not attractive,
1
e turn away, and search for the cause or
uses of leech a state '.f affairs. is it
• peel:4e 1 the roil ? the climate 1 or
e 1? The people when trans -
erred to other lands Nand amongst the
at thrifty and suooeasful. The s,il,say
some,' is over tazed,the population is too
dee..." That tsnn.d los 1 four t
a moment. 4.venl reentries in cum- .
pantive.imfort are much mon desesly a
populated, and the meet reliable &ashore i
lies affirm, (Dr. t'isyfair, for instance,+ c
that Ireland could support coeshoetably
twenty to twenty -eve milli pergola
We turn to the gooe
vernment es -
try, and an satisfied that t lies all 1
the tenable, see that a govere meet M t
the p.» 4. of theins pimple
the pple
might make ;retiredn as the very a
retae .f the Lord, sad rodeos a peeN*
happy as the day u long sod ..ny ag
their ova mssdow larks. That btii s
elm to the real subject of my address,
helped and her right to self•gw•rimwwt.
Remember that the gaieties has 'tithing
to do with separation from the Empire.
Hoene Rules no seats i. nes separa-
tion. To that I shall refer hereafter. It
may be takeo for treated that every peo-
ple have /he right to say how they shall
bspruned, ad that melees, perhaps,
in the suss (if .asiviliaed tribes, self-gov-
ernment Is the meet satisfactory covers -
meat. The hordes of proof nate on him
who denies the principle. But the pan•
siple has been repeatedly alirmed by
Britain regarding other nations, and now
fora ho=g time toacking her owe volumes,
Canada and Austral.. England acted
on that principle honed in the Common
wealth. She did it ague when at the re-
volution the Stuarts were superseded by
the house of Orange. Today the British
people claim the right to say bow they
shall be governed, and whether by •
hereditary or an elective executive. 1
know ret oo Bntish writer worth quoting
who, would dotty this. It is one of the
curiosities of great men that our own
Edmund Burke, [the an of whoa Mac-
aulay says. "In am itude of oomehen-
N..a and richt-roes of 1p .e was
superior to every orator, ancient and
modern," and who Johnson said was
"the first man in England,"; even he
denied that England could change her
term of gra ernment, affirming that ,f
they ever bad the right they had sur-
rendered it to William •ad Mary in 16119,
and in pro.•f of this he quoted the act,
which reads, "The Lords, spiritual and
temporal, and Commons de, In the name
of the people aforesaid. must humbly and
faithfully submit themeelves, their heirs
and posterity forever. ' In mitigation of
such nooses.. I bag you to remember
that it was written by that prince of
orators and statesmen in the shadow of
the horrid excesses of the French revo-
lution. What right bas one
to bind its heirs and posterity forever ?
But, as I said, England herself has al-
ways acted cn the principle of Itbety,
and her children are surcharged with it.
Our own Tum Moore wrote :
"From Albion Ant. whoa, ancient .brine
Was furnished with the Are already.
Columbia caught .he boon divine.
Aad lit • flame like ♦lbtoa's.stsedy.
The splendid girt thea Gallia took,
And like • wild Bacchante miming
The broad aloft. its sparkleta snook.
As she would set the world • blouse."
Lea the meta of Frames returned frees
the American revolution they fancied
they had nothing to do bet to de
dare • republic, and to spread republican
principles through Europe, and they
doodled England and Europe with their
isflamm•tury literature. IFraaee to a
little while was in blaze. The crowned
heads all th.eught that the days of
monachy were numbered, and began to
form alliances to suppress the aloud of
liberty. A ciresl•r from the Emperor
of Germany, of Jul , 1791, invited the
principal powers of Lorops to warn the
French nation that the
"would unite to avenge any further
offences agent the liberty, the honor
and the safety of the king and his fami-
ly, that they would employ every means
of terminating the scandal of a usurpa-
tion founded on rebellion, and of which
the example was dangerous to every
gt.r.rnment." These menarche bound
t' to hold their troops in readi-
ness to take the field. England however
positively refused to join the powers on
such grounds, and Pitt affirmed that
England simply acted on the defensive
in 1793. Several were held
afterwards by the great powers — at
Aizla Chapelle in 1818, at Troppeu and
Leybach in 1820, and at Verona in 1822,
and in every congress Britain opposed
the ' of other states to pre-
vent • people from changing its form of
, affirming even the right of
revolution ,,r with her own
historic d t. The Duke of
Welltagtoo, England's envoyat these
, declared the reusal of his
tto participate Many such pro-
ceedings. To the credit of the grand old
empire I quote these illustrations of her
bio love of liberty. Had the
other nations acted as she did then every
nation in Europe would now enjoy con-
stitutional riphta As it was then so it
is today. Lovers of liberty the world over
sent their convratalatioos to the peerless
statesman who d our coun-
try's rights, as a true E , while
tottenng tyrants, and tumbling auto-
crats, with their liveried lackeys, who
would gladly see liberty -toying England
sunk in the depths of the sea, all at once
diacoveted • wcndrous love for the
British Empire, and declared with omi-
nous shakes of the head that thee saw in
the t of iretau ' s liberties
entire separation, and the d:sme:-iber-
ment of the Empire. They are almost
ready to offer their services as chief
mourners at the obsequies, and their
lachrymal glands are already suffused
for the occasion. 1 judge my muse by
the character of the sympathisers.
Amenea, Britain's eldest daughter sent
gennine congratulations, and had 1 been
in Gladstone's place i would rather have
her sympathies than that of all the
crowns and coronets o-1 transatlantic
brow&
it is worse than useless to confines to
govern Ireland as .he has been governed.
No people worthy of liberty would submit
to present vicious system without an
emphatic, fervent protest In all free
countries the will of the majntity is law.
In Ireland the will of the minority rules,
and as a matter of course that minority
sands • moat vigorous protest against
any change. In free countries the great-
est good to the greatest number is the
object of all legislation. it Ireland the
interest of the minority, an
oligarchy rehy hoI,ng foo - hit!?. of the land
of the country. controls the_ leytisla-
ti. n. In plain English, the land of Ire-
land is mostly held by foreigners who
were invited over from flcdland and
England to take estates, confiscated
by the Cronin because their owners would
not abandon the faith of their fathers,
they had been reared,
ir kir faith in which
because theyshowed a reatleseneaa
nd retrellion against the inigeitoua 1..s
opened open them. Ireland has been
anted with its land system and its reli-
gious strifes. Every sere in Ireland hes
bees confiscated on peeved. no better
hen those reenti.00ed. Through whole
tele e.,ngseatio.s and ejections oar ronn-
rysen have heeoms the hewers of wood t
seed drawees of water for other nations,
ad the mitten of Irela.d tonight ars the f
dieseedeats of the rightful wain of rho
hems of the 'wintry Let es kook M a
how of the treei.cauoos aged their cease
etelooes. When Pups Adrian 1Y is Ilan
imosd • bu1 giving Keary 11 entire right
sad authority oe the ialaad, on euad,tiva
that he compelled irtreey Iris► family to
pay to Ro.a the austral possum of see
peoez, the whole was sper4U7
seised and before the end of the 13th
oentury,wit► the eaeeptien of Debits sad
Hie maritime town., was divided among
tee Eaglis► families. A ample of them,
fitto.gbow and Loy. had shills show of
right by marriage; the rest was bare-
faced plunder. The lends were parcelled
out among their tenants of English or
Norman race, eapelhog the natives or
driving them into the worst parts of the
country by an incessant warfare. Tree.
fourths of the inhabitants of Inland to-
day are the descendants of those dine-
hsrtted natives, and I am safe in sying
that scarcely a decade has passed .toss
the 13th century that has not sees au
effort to noon their oountry. You can
.•silt' imagine the state of affairs in Ire-
land then—the real owners turned adrift
whale fureignerm cud i,uponed tenants
owned and tilled the oil. That will
explain the fact that nearly all the trou-
ble in Ireland had been on land ques-
trune. But English laws wen at once
introduced, although by express stipula-
tion with Henry II., they were to have
the use of their own. A form of govern-
ment was established somewhat similar
to that of England. The Eau -satin was
• Lord Deputy, sedated by • council of
judges, barons and prelates subordinate
to that of England. The 14th and 15th
centuries were • succession of struggles
and outrages, of barbarous laws barbar-
ously executed. Of course in every
ase, the rebels were the rightful owners
of the country -the ignorant "Irish ene-
my" as they were officially designated,
who could not graceful) reoogctthe
e quity of being kicked u off their own
farm, and theta charged an exorbitant
rent for the use of it. The laws of that
period would make a Zulu blush, and it
Is no exaggeration to say that the natives
had no rights but to be abused and tram-
pled cn by alien usurper. All the of-
fices of state were closed against the
ln.h. In 1356 it was decreed that no
one born in Ireland should bold • com-
mand in any of the towns or oastleo. No
Irishman could be inducted into a living.
The colonists were 1 to take
the laws into their own hands against
the Irish. To trade with them was fel-
ony. But bitter and destructive as wen
the struggles between the natives and
these Anglo-Norman usurpers, they were
mild compared with those that followed
• the introduction of the religious elements
Meatier coria ts. The Reformation,
fee Germany and England had
been by repeated strictures on
the ebmelt and clergy spread in these
countries with great rapidity, and
the Protestant religion was en long
the religion rel England. In the
days when the Church was unit-
ed and wealthy, rich in lands,
houses, *ems sad patronage, it fell
into the sins at the centre of riches and
luxury both nn the continent and is
Kugtaod, and was severely criticised by
the purer spirits within iia cwt fold as
well as by open enemies. This is simply
• matter of history. But the Church is
Ireland had never been troubled with
the souses and . that had de-
graded the !perch in England and on
the continent. The Irish priests .oro a
hard working, poorly paid class of
mea, who throne!) all the long night
of terror from Henry II to Henry
VIII had kept the fires of religion
burning ou the alters. They had shared
the fate of their outraged people, and
no dialectical skill or regal authority
could make either prie.t or people doubt
the divinity of the church of their fath-
er& Henry having confiscated the re-
ligious houses of England and eloped
them by force, turned his attention to
Inland Thea was enacted under the
guise of religion • faros that was an in-
sult to realms and all that in any age
r i i.; i w i rsligicn, an outrage on
t6• p., ..t i i of Protestantism.
Aa attempt to smup the religion of a
people by act of parliament, which mim-
ing interpreted : Government putting a/
premium on hypocrisy. The English
liturgy was ordered by royal proclama-
tion, as the King was afraid to summon
a parliament. But neither Henry nor
his succe.wr, Edward VI, could bend
the Irish pecpk, and se intense was the
feeling on the act of uniformity, that.
for the time, the native Celt and the
•nglo Norman made common cause
against it. They merged their land
troubles in the preeence of this orer-
ahedowing wrong. The accession of
Eiinboth only rendered Irish matters
worse. The pricy of coercion in relig-
ion was carried even further. The Ilcok
of Common Prayer was substituted for
the Mass ; all subjects were bound W at-
tend the Protestant church, and every
other was declared illegal. In England
this had been done without any marked
friction, and why not in Ireland 1 The
Protestant religion being true, was it
not the Queen's duty tea see that the
people should, willingly or unwillingly,
areept 1 Like med,ciae, it might in the
mouth be hitter, but the result would
justify the treatment. That might be
good reasoning in ordinary therapeutics,
but when you approach • matter that hn-
yolves the judgment and the affections,
it is the veriest heresy. in religion you
must satisfy the judgment, and the
moment you attempt to coerce the soul
you provoke a prejudice that even truth
may find hole. That unhap-
py onntee was pursued by Eiizabeth, and
it aggrw1rated lea the calami-
ties and the dissatisfaction of Ireland. t
The Protestants of Ireland were so in.
significant • minority among the Anglo-
Norman colonists, as well as among the
natives that Hallam, in his Contitntio.a,- o
al History of England says that "their
Church was a t without sub -
awl hoar, led .viwaiae. le Imbed `ant
like mistime is linked .8... treat
Maisfnasriaq cities resolve and employ
the evt•a.d ; it is etarvati a or eagle."
nos it seatiaaed t►r'u gk the relies of
the Tedura and the Staarte—a Protest -
last parli.areet legisl•tieg simians the
r people, the pimple ie tura risme easiest
them oppreme a All priests were beeWt-
.4 the realm. The ekiel .hisser .f Deb -
lea were imprisoned fur Meehan to attired
the Protestant ekarele. Rewards were
given for the discoof the Papist
clergy -i:30 fcr • bishop; £70 fur •
.,Mmou ma. ; £10 for an usher.
Nobody could bold property in trust fur
• Catholic. Juries in grub os. such
'netters must be Protestants. Catholics
must nut serve urn grand juries. Nu
Papists to vute at elootIons. In the
reign of Georg. 11 (Ira -1700) au
Papist could be a bernsler. It • bar-
neter married • Parfet he was wondered
• Papist and subjected M all penalties
as suck. No Papist to weeny a Protes-
tant ; any priest celebrating suck a tear -
nage to be hanged. During all this time
there was not the .lightest rebellions in
lnlaud. Iu 1715 and 1745 while Sc -,t•
land and the north of England were up
in ands, out • man stirred tet Inland.
Thee. faction all taken from I'rusestaat
authorities ; yet my U ser (needs pre-
tend to winkle why the more Irish•
Mau doss nut lure England as be
should. Both England and Protestant-
ism were disgraced by the horrid code
that irritated our countrymen into what
they are today. The t of
Ireland contained not • solitary man of
Irish blood in either hoses till near the
reign of Hoary VIII. In 1641 the Hoene
of Commons imposed an oath that uo
Clatholic could take. After the Revolu-
tion both Houses of Parliament were
saddled with the same iniquitous condi-
tions. In 1715 the Roman Catholics of
Ireland were deprived of the franchise,
which was not restore* for eighty gran.
These statutes the Cathodic.
as • political factor, and the ,marvel is
that there followed not • total teacher.
both of f•tth and hope. The first real
relief that came to lrela►td was on the
uocaswn of the American Revolutiuu
all the troops that could be spored were
sent to America until there were only
3,000 left in Ireland. American pews -
titers were hovering round the coast. An
act was paved to rase a Protestant
militia, but utterly felled as the treasury
was empty. In self defence the promi-
nent gentlemen and trade guilds made
a gall to arum, and ere Wag 60,000 mei
were enrolled. Under the pressure of
the American war, sus the Irish voles -
teen, several of the uajeM trade restric-
tions than bad crippied Ireland were
removed, Gratian est Burke doing
greed work for their •.entry. Their
I were beaked up by a
volunteer fur.. of over 100,000 men and
200 pieces of cannon Yet .hat was
asked by our country in this extreme
crisis in English history? Simply this—
"That Great Britain and Ireland an.
inseparably united under one sover-
eign, and that "the King with the con-
sent of the Lords anti Common of Ire
land are the only power sumpetemt to
enact laws to biod Ireland." Such was
the wording of the motion introduced by
Grattan in 1780. Yet that motion was
withdrawn as mere than the English
party in the parliament would steed. In
February, 1782, two hundred delegates
of the marched to the Pro-
testant chureb of Dungannon, iu their
full , and parted thirteen
tin favor of legi.lative iode-
pe.deoce. A similar meeting was
held in Dublin. The Bntish pertia.oent,
through the influence of Fox is the Coom-
Moaa, gratated the repeal cf the Poy•
uiag'. Act that 1 the Irish
gement from the English Council to
which it had been subjected since 1494.
But while securing freedom to Make
their own laws, they at the sane time
adopted the ant pasted after the resolu-
tion by British 1 which
required every member of both
Houses to subscribe to the declar-
ation against transubstantiation before
taking hi. meat. Of course no Catholic
entered such • parliament. Still Ireland
had • parliament of her own then, and it
is amusing to hear an opponent of Home
Rule ask the question, "Why did not
Irishmen govern themselves when
they had the chane ' The man
who could ask such • question could
never have reel the history of that par-
liament. In no renes of the cargo was
it a body. Inland was
four -fifth. Catholic, hat not • Catholic
sat in parliament. Of the 300 menthe's,
only 72 were really returned by the peo-
ple. 123 sat for nomination boroughs,
and 1 only their patron., 53
peen directly appointed thew legisla-
tor and could secure the election n( 10
others. foo Commoners nominated 91
members, and .mtrolled the election of
4 others. Several times was the erten•
don of the elective franchise to Cfetholice
introduced in the of volun•
leers during the early years of that par-
liament, but in every case it had to be
withdrawn. The qualiCcations of voters
read, "That every Protestant possessed
of de. But why multiply words ex-
planatory of the horna mockery. Four-
fifths of the inch people were political
ciphers. Irishmen have never had a
chance to proven themselves. The most
stirring and eventful period in Irish his-
tory is the 18 years of whet has been
called Grattan's parliament which ter-
mina/ed in the inion in 1800. i have
said that during the Amenan Revolu-
tion the volunteers played an important
pan in secering the repeal of the Poy-
ning'. Act. and liberty to the Inch per.
lament. Bat the meetings of the rohun-
een in different parte ,'1 the country,
and their d,seuteiow .of national stain,
awoke them fully to their right.,
and fanned into game the spirit
f liberty. Altho.gh at first they
were almost exclusively Protestant,
.till as Catholics gradually enrolled r
jeete, a college of shepherds without
sheep ' H. add. : "Scares any pins
were taken either in the age of Elizabeth
nor iodise in t age. to win the
people's convictions, or to eradicate their n
superstition, except penal statutes a:d t
the sward." 1)r as OnMwin Smith pits
it : "Ry the strong mei mrchy of the Tu-
dors, the co0Ngnest of Ireland was COT..
piloted with ciroumatanase of cruelty ant t
6cient to pest undying hatred in the e
breasts of the people. instead of the t
form of continent it took that of comfier* t
inn, and was waged by the intruder .1
with the ern. of legal chicane. in the a.
nn
orof eviction it has lasted to the pre- ■
tag limas sed his . i s. Ina as suss&
hag symbol W a
parliament whit* had en interest M
Ireland beruaJ their peerng.e, their
e rtytti.it«, sed their pleader. Met the
eptrtt of Mealy wow abroad, and Mire
to decree new means fur making ais males
heard. This was specially the merle
the north, whim* pudgiest! the "N .the
ern Whir 01116." The limited trishaws
appear no. also, and as they have bete
meet grossly misreprwwotedc I .hall
give the basis of the snooty. it was es,
gunned un the year 1791, and the follow.
leg is the requiaitin. waling • meeting ie
the Town House of Bulf.st, in the ale.
( Mains of January, 1711'4: --"We have
agreed to f.,ria an assueiiti..n to be veiled
The Society of United Irishman, sag
we do pledge ourselves to out .,eatri
and mutually to ooh other, that we Intl
steadily supl.urt 10.3 eodesror by all
mean to carry tutu effect the following
reelew.tw :—
' 1. It.•..Ivad, that the weight of
English intimate./ o . it government of
this country is so ,creat as to require •
.[ramal ion among all tAr pe.y,fe .f
/rduwf,unt" rmin.tstg that balano. whmoh r
e..euti.l a. the preservation of our liber-
ties, and tiara exteni.em ..( our o•ommerce.
11. That the sole aoaetttutentel mode by
which this Hidden/no can be opposed i.
by • coo eta and radical reform of the
Lion O( the people in parlia-
ment. 111. That no reform m practical,
et6..cious or just, which .hall not in-
tend* lriahta.0 of every religious per-
suasion " "Gentlemen - -es ,nem and Iriak-
twn we hare long lamented the de-
g radmog state of slavery and oppresioa in
which the great mato icy M our y -
inert, the Roman Catholics an held, nor
hare we lamented it in silence We
wall to see all dratinctioeu on account of
religion abolished --all narrow partial
vesxmms ..1 policy done away. Ws anx-
iously wish to see the day when every
/redrawn shall be a citizen -- when
esthetics and Protestants, equally in-
terned in tbetr oountry'. welfare
pousseing equal freedom and equal
pnvdeges, .l all be cordially united,
cud .hall learn to look upon meth other
as brethren, the children of the sane
G•.d, the natives of the same land, and
whet, the only strife among them shall
he, who shall serve their country bast.
Tease, gentlemen, an our
and thew, we -are oxuvinced, are yours.
We therefore request a reneral meeting
of the principal inhabitants at the Town
Have, on Saturday next, at noon, to
mender the propriety of b
parliament in favor u1 our Roman Cell -
olio beetbren." That call was signed by
the names of 53 Protestants, and no
Irishman need be ashamed of that call
tonight. A similar call itad been made
in Dublin, signed by a well-known Pro-
testant. The pledge would be an excel.
loot one ler Irishmen to take today.
Belfast saw another society called the
"Friends of Parliamentary Reform,"
started the following year. Its princi-
ples were almost identical with time of
the United Irishmen. Papers were
started to aid the cause, and some of
them, The Northern Star, of Belfast, for
instance, were imprudent and comprom-
ised men who had no sympathy with re-
bellion. Bat I need not dwell here.
The officers of all thew societies were
denounced as traitors, and in many oa.es
executed. IN 12 Presbyterian ministeri
who had the home of laboring in the
cause 5 were executed; 6 priest. shared
the same fate. Rat the agitation of this
period was almost entirely by Protwt-
ents, insomuch that Lord Plunkett called
the outbreak of 1798 "a Protestant re-
bellion." As might have been expected,
exdesa.s followed the persistent refusal
to redress , martial law was
proebiw.ed, battles were fought, and
over 138,000 troops were all Inland when
the Union was effected. Pitt's lung
cherished scheme of $ union of Great
Britain and Ireland seemed necessary
and feasible in the demoralized condi-
tio..of the country in 1799. Yet nothing
could have been more revolting to the
Inst people,, Protestente and Catholics
nuke, and umongat the bitterest opptm-
sets of the measure were the Protestant
n obility and the Orangemen. Some
vary signiticent proofs of this could be
furnished.
(rungs l.ud.e, No. 882, at Newton -
harry, February, 1800. Resolved—
"Tbat ( ought to coma for-
ward as Orangemen and Irishmen to
declare their sentiment against a legisla-
tive union which Ines or at any other
time would be of the most fatal and per-
nicious etn.equence to the real liberty of
Ireland." Emetoru B[arrr, Muter.
T...
c. Nu.. 7140 and 785, Dublin,
Mach ltith, 1800. Resolved "That
the Coueri.t.tien of 1782 under whish
our oountry has advanced to 'manners,
with . rapidity, is that which,
as geuteu, to defe.d,
and
(hanwill inviolablywe bars maintainsworn, and we are
to co-operate with all our
fellow -subjects in every legal and proper
met6td to oppose an destruotive • meas-
ure." 1. C111ItLER Secretary.
Lodge 391, Wattle Beidge, Co. Fer-
managh, 1st March, 1800. Re.olyed—
"That strongly attached to the coamtitu-
tion sof 1782, a settlement ratified in the
most unequivocal tanner, so far as the
faith of nations is binding, we should
feel ourselves criminal were we to re-
main silent, while an attempt i. nude to
extinguish it—That impressed with every
loyal sentiment towards our gracious
Sovereign, we trust that the measure of
the legislative union, which is cemetery
to the sense of all Orangemen and of the
neon at large will be relinquished.
John Moore, Master.
Orangemen were more prnnouooed
than Catholics. Protestant copor-
none petitioned agonise it. 700,000 pe-
titioned against, 7,000 for it When
un . n was first presented in the Irish
t the house was equally div-
ided. As time Inah parliament con-
sisted of 300, and Ireland was lo have
tray 100 members in the British parlia-
ment, 200 wnnld drop nut. It was found
t the 85 boroughs Chus dropping net
ere all held by private owner.How;
mostw
( them members of the! Upper o ;
heir support of the odious noes/Hires
wag
bought f.or £15.1810 a piece, and over
116.000,000 was added in the national
ebt. in oddities' ei this, 48 patents of
n used ability were fur the same ignoble
purpose. The union was then greatly tar
ed in the Ina* parliament, and the best
lime that probably could be said of that
body s, that had as it was, it eontaieed
hendred men who were not for saki.
• fourth clause in the inion hill pro -
fled that "all members sof the tolled
and were found to he intelligent,
w
honorable and patriotic, the feeling be- tn he
tame general among the that
it was an intolerable outrage on humao
ghts and • reflection ..n P t
hat their Catholic should
o
be s treated. Then arose •
t which i em happy to say hies d
continued to this day among the Pro- u
estants of Ireland for the removal of
very dmaslnl,ty from the Catholics and ri
he reform of the absurd land law. of 1
he country Tho.. eighteen years pen -
well a galaxy 1.1 se pure patriots, end •
powerful orators as history can fur Th
Bet the Durham outbursts of vi
•
garliere
meals
the ung
1801, I
lead.
exudate
bots esti
read the
hese at
Irak
tion.
ins sit
the lee
shite •
had see
meet r
ties.
A
The
affair it
En
ager. w
and lib
for tht
great c
thins(
mast 1111
who b
empluy
cent ry
Weal
alone
only c
was Mi
ing iu
mereia
things
He
men of
"Su
in ycu
has cul
can to
teeth,
me.
n0 On
cheer,
Moret,
de hole
g. as you
tion.
Wel
by 6
Moret
should
and pt
1 .
was •
eyes,
cache
iy. a
d ren.
:ne tat
• Dale
told n
ii;; th
mud
gtmu
mems
I.
man.
tread,
to eh
tube
wt
eoud
prett
band
and
but s
by hi
ince
some
door
to in
ry at
lli
me.
?err
trio
e*lie
self
Yet
incl
Nal
in h
ton
sent
ing
mer
rep
The
sup
the
sot
.a
k ni
cep
nej
riled
net
er
Ph
we
o1
ex
t
1
ir