only fresh calamities. Two new war cries, Protestant and
Catholic, animated the old feud between the Englishry and the
Irishry. The Revolution came, bringing to England and Scotland
civil and spiritual freedom, to Ireland subjugation, degradation,
persecution. The Union came: but though it joined legislatures,
it left hearts as widely disjoined as ever. Catholic
Emancipation came: but it came too late; it came as a concession
made to fear, and, having excited unreasonable hopes, was
naturally followed by unreasonable disappointment. Then came
violent irritation, and numerous errors on both sides. Agitation
produced coercion, and coercion produced fresh agitation.
Difficulties and dangers went on increasing, till a government
arose which, all other means having failed, determined to employ
the only means that had not yet been fairly tried, justice and
mercy. The State, long the stepmother of the many, and the
mother only of the few, became for the first time the common
parent of all the great family. The body of the people began to
look on their rulers as friends. Battalion after battalion,
squadron after squadron was withdrawn from districts which, as it
had till then been thought, could be governed by the sword alone.
Yet the security of property and the authority of law became
every day more complete. Symptoms of amendment, symptoms such as
cannot be either concealed or counterfeited, began to appear; and
those who once despaired of the destinies of Ireland began to
entertain a confident hope that she would at length take among
European nations that high place to which her natural resources
and the intelligence of her children entitle her to aspire.

In words such as these, I am confident, will the next generation
speak of the events in our time. Relying on the sure justice of