Page:A letter to the Right Hon. Chichester Fortescue, M.P. on the state of Ireland.djvu/95

 delay, and the interests of Ireland must not be postponed to suit the convenience of any political party.

We cannot, therefore, accept the Bristol stone offered us by Lord Stanley as a real diamond.

If we are determined with Lord Stanley, and in conformity with the declarations of Lord Althorp, to resist the Repeal of the Union as the dismemberment of the Empire, we must make that Union the union of the two nations, as well as of the two legislatures. If we do not postpone executions, we must not postpone redress of grievances. If we are prompt to enforce implicit obedience, we must be prompt to lay the foundations of permanent peace.

We cannot indeed accede to the proposal for the Repeal of the Union, started by the Catholic clergy at Limerick, and supported by a great number of their body. There can be little hope in these days that an Irish House of Commons, meeting in Dublin, would act in harmony with a British House of Commons meeting at Westminster. They would, in all probability, act on views of vengeance, arid a very narrow-minded nationality. They would very soon confiscate all property held by Englishmen, and even by Irishmen who would not renounce their residences in England. England would resent these acts. In short, a single session of the Irish Parliament would probably produce eternal separation between the two countries.

Yet even from the Limerick Declaration some hope may be derived.