Page:The life and death of the Irish parliament.djvu/9

 The Patrician Senate ruled with wisdom, as provinces of the Empire, what are now splendid kingdoms. How did "the Commonwealth of Kings" govern? By incorporating in their Empire the countries they subdued; by imparting their laws and customs to the people they vanquished; and by converting discontented enemies into cordial friends and fellow-citizens. I ought to add, they not only established their laws in the new country, but also their national sports and amusements.

Thus, as we roam over Europe, we discover memorials of the Roman people. We may read their policy in the fragment of the arch, in the broken column, the ruined aqueduct, or in the scattered remains of the amphitheatre or the circus. At Nismes we may even now behold a model of the once mighty Rome; and we can comprehend the wise and sagacious policy which multiplied and ramified, while it secured and perpetuated, Roman civilization, authority, and power.

In our old law books it is prophesied that the Saxon race are destined to overspread and christianize the earth; and, in partial fulfilment of the prophecy, we behold, in distant regions, fresh settlements growing into kingdoms, and spreading our laws, our language, our liberties, and our religion. How are these mighty results obtained? In the same way as in the ancient Roman Empire by freely imparting to the new country all the freedom possessed by the old, and thus consolidating an union of hearts and affections.

We can, therefore, easily apprehend the principle of policy upon which England would be likely to have acted had she conquered Ireland namely, that of attaching the Irish people to the English rulers, by establishing a community of laws, and by bestowing upon the new acquisition all the rights and liberties enjoyed by the older country. But, of