on was
an honourable action. You took the country at first by force and
fraud. We have, and always had, a right to regain what belongs to us,
by any means in our power. We have never expressed affection for the
English Crown. We have never affected loyalty. We have been open,
honourable enemies, and have always said we were biding our time. We
are accused of fraud, of duplicity. Never was any accusation so
ill-founded. I can refer to a hundred, aye, to a thousand utterances
of my countrymen which clearly set forth the sentiments which animate
every single individual Irishman. These settlers are not Irishmen.
Their best friends would never claim for them Irish nationality. Most
of them came from the South-west of Scotland, where the most rigid and
bigoted Presbyterianism flourished. Their creed, as well as ours,
forbade any intermarrying. Separate they were, and separate they
remain. You might as well try to mix dogs and cats. And the attitude
of the two races is mutually antagonistic--exactly like dogs and
cats. They have led a dog and cat life from the first, and if the
Scots have thriven while the Kelts have made little progress, it is
because the Scots have been favoured by the English Government, which
is composed of Teutons like themselves. Let the Scots stick to
England. It suits them, it does not suit us. The Welsh don't like you
either, but they have not the pluck to spit it out. They will tell
Irishmen what they think, and it is not flattering to England. They
are quite as bitter as Irishmen, and, like them, look on England as
the biggest humbug, hypocrite, and robber in the world. I never heard
a Welshman speak well of England, and I have spoken with scores of
them. Now, we have a religious difference with England, which Taffy
has not.

"We claim that our nation is more talented than stupid England, more
sparkling, more brilliant. But we also say that as we are more
sentimental, and as sentiment is to us a matter of life and death, we
cannot develop our industries, we cannot do ourselves justice, while
subjugated by England. Freedom is our watchword. We want an army, a
navy, a diplomacy of our own. We do not admit that England has any
right to control our action, and we defy any man to prove that any
country has a right to dictate our laws. Independence must come in the
long run. Everything is tending in that direction. We may not get Home
Rule at present, but we _shall_ get it. Then we shall be able to
repo