Page:An Ulsterman for Ireland.djvu/54

AN ULSTERMAN FOR IRELAND

That every people should mind their own business, and are best fitted to mind their own business; and that the people of Ireland, of whom your petitioners,are a few, are quite willing and well fitted to mind theirs.

That since the 1st of January, 1801, Ireland, the native land of your petitioners, has been, to its sorrow, degradation, and misery, "incorporated" with the British Empire.

That this incorporation wa=; legally effected by a certain grievous act of your honourable House, called "an Act for the Union of Great Britain and Ireland"; and in reality by the systems of assassinage, incendiarism, and subornation, which your honourable House has always sanctioned as its means for the extension of English dominion.

That since the incorporation aforesaid, in the name of the act aforesaid, and by means of armed troops regular, and of police, spies, placemen, and others (the means which your honourable House has always approved for the sustentation of English dominion), divers persons, calling themselves successively, the 'Imperial Government,' have, to the utmost of their ability, and under the sanction of your honourable House, abused the native land of your petitioners for the sole benefit of the English, and the complete misery of the Irish people.

That the accumulated evil-doing of those persons aforesaid has at length necessarily inflicted upon the native la d of your petitioners famine and pestilence unprecedented in the world.

That your petitioners are ignorant of and indifferent about the intentions of these divers persons aforesaid, forasmuch as they are all of necessity incompetent to govern the native land of your petitioners, which really needs to be governed; and forasmuch as those of them whose intentions 44