Page:My Life in Two Hemispheres, volume 1.djvu/103

 The Nation from the beginning had preached the duty and need of a foreign policy for Ireland, and here was a signal foreign policy. Strength comes to the strong, and help to the successful. Every fibre of the Irish nation was moved to sympathy, the more liberal Irish Whigs who afterwards became Federalists, brought the case of Ireland before the House of Commons, and demanded if the wrongs they specified were not redressed how could they justify themselves in resisting a repeal of the Union? The leader on this occasion was Smith O'Brien, who had hitherto no relations with the National Party. His speech was weighty with facts, made poignant by fairness and moderation. Ireland, he insisted, was made poor, and kept poor, by exceptional treatment. She was overtaxed in violation of the terms of the Union. The public establishments she formerly possessed had been gradually transferred to London. There did not exist a single naval dockyard in a country rich in safe and capacious harbours, and the navy estimates for the current year which amounted to six and a half millions, only proposed the expenditure in Ireland of ten thousand pounds. In a country where four-fifths of the population were Catholics all the great officers were habitually Protestants. Belgium and Canada had revolted chiefly against the unjust distribution of patronage, but nearly all the heads of departments in Ireland were Englishmen. The Established Church and the land code disclosed other wrongs, and the Poor Law was framed and administered in complete contempt of Irish opinion. The debate lasted for eight nights, and produced a profound impression in Ireland, but a majority of the House of Commons were of opinion that there was no need for inquiry. The movement of opinion did not rest here. The Irish peers who were Whigs held a consultation, and demanded reforms and concessions to placate the country. Even the English Whigs were moved; a party manifesto—revised by Lord John Russell, was published in the Edinburgh Review, proposing to extend the franchise, reform the land code, subsidise religious education in Ireland, and assemble the British Parliament in Dublin once in three years.

O'Connell's speeches grew in intensity as the movement spread. At Mallow, in the county Cork, he made a declara-