Page:The Irish Parliament; what it was, and what it did.djvu/36

 would be as virtuous as any on earth. It is their nature to be so. They are not born an avaricious, griping, plundering gentry; but the very reverse—noble, generous, and independent. It is only the most vile Government that makes any of them otherwise. It is the despicable panders of an external administration; who come over here and blow upon their characters, and tamper with them and taint them; and then, when they go back to England, stigmatise them for the very taint which they themselves had given, until they have made the name of the Irish Parliament almost a synonym for corruption."