voice in
constant insurrection and disorder. I have said that Ireland is a
country of many wrongs and of many sorrows. Her past lies almost in
shadow. Her present is full of anxiety and peril. Her future depends on
the power of her people to substitute equality and justice for
supremacy, and a generous patriotism for the spirit of faction. In the
effort now making in Great Britain to create a free representation of
the people you have the deepest interest. The people never wish to
suffer, and they never wish to inflict injustice. They have no sympathy
with the wrong-doer, whether in Great Britain or in Ireland; and when
they are fairly represented in the Imperial Parliament, as I hope they
will one day be, they will speedily give an effective and final answer
to that old question of the Parliament of Kilkenny--"How comes it to
pass that the King has never been the richer for Ireland?"

FROM THE SPEECH ON THE IRISH ESTABLISHED CHURCH

(1868)

I am one of those who do not believe that the Established Church of
Ireland--of which I am not a member--would go to absolute ruin, in the
manner of which many of its friends are now so fearful. There was a
paper sent to me this morning, called 'An Address from the Protestants
of Ireland to their Protestant Brethren of Great Britain.' It is dated
"5, Dawson Street," and is signed by "John Trant Hamilton, T.A. Lefroy,
and R.W. Gamble." The paper is written in a fair and mild, and I would
even say,--for persons who have these opinions,--in a kindly and just
spirit. But they have been alarmed, and I would wish, if I can, to offer
them consolation. They say they have no interest in protecting any
abuses of the Established Church, but they protest against their being
now deprived of the Church of their fathers. Now, I am quite of opinion
that it would be a most monstrous thing to deprive the Protestants of
the Church of their fathers; and there is no man in the world who would
more strenuously resist even any step in that direction than I would,
unless it were Mr. Gladstone, the author of the famous resolutions. The
next sentence goes on to say, "We ask for no ascendancy." Having read
that sentence, I think that we must come to the conclusion that these
gentlemen are in a better frame of mind than we thought them to be in. I
can understand easily that these gentlemen are very sorry and doubtful
as to the depths into which they are to be plunged; but I disagree with
them in this--that