mployment
and better wages at all seasons to many thousands of her sons.

Such are some of the grounds of my hope that the deepest wretchedness of
this unhappy country has been endured--that her depopulation will
speedily be arrested, and that better days are in store for her
long-suffering people. Yet Conquest, Subjugation, Oppression and
Misgovernment have worn deep furrows in the National character, and ages
of patient, enlightened and unselfish effort will be necessary to
eradicate them. Ignorance, Indolence, Inefficiency, Superstition and
Hatred are still fearfully prevalent; I only hope that causes are
beginning to operate which will ultimately efface them. If I have said
less than would seem just of the Political causes, of Ireland's
calamities, it is because I would rather draw attention to practical
though slow remedies than invoke fruitless indignation against the
wrongs which have rendered them necessary. Peace and Concord are the
great primary needs of Ireland--Peace between her warring
Churches--Concord between her rulers and landlords on one side and her
destitute and desperate Millions on the other. I wish the latter had
sufficient courage and self-trust to demand and enforce emancipation
from the Political and Social vassalage in which they are held; to
demand not merely Tenant-Right but a restitution of the broad lands
wrested from their ancestors by fire and sword--not merely equal rights
with Englishmen in Church and State, but equal right also to judge
whether the existing Union of the two islands is advantageous to
themselves, and if not, to insist that it be made so or cease
altogether. But Ireland has suffered too long and too deeply for this;
her emancipation is now possible only through the education and social
elevation of her People. This is a slow process, but earnest hearts and
united minds will render it a sure one. If the Irish but will and work
for it, the close of this century will find them a Nation of Ten
Millions, with their Industry as diversified, their Labor, as efficient,
its Recompense as liberal, and their general condition as thrifty and
comfortable as those of any other Nation. Thus circumstanced, they could
no longer be treated as the appendage of an Empire, the heritage of a
Crown, the conquest of a selfish and domineering Race, but must be
accounted equals with the inhabitants of the Sister Isle in Civil and
Religious Rights or break the connection without internal discord