g concurrence
in the views of the Irish party, to affect that a change had come over
the spirit of English legislation towards Ireland, and a sincere desire
grown up to confirm her in the possession of "every privilege not
inconsistent with the stability of the empire." Mr. Grattan was induced
to see the Viceroy in private, and submit to his Grace his intended
declaration of rights. Without conceding the slightest alteration in his
plan, the great leader was evidently impressed by the conciliating tone
of the Duke, and, with a generous credulity, led to believe in the most
favorable dispositions of the Government towards Ireland. The measure in
itself was so strong and so decisive that the Duke could not say how it
would be received by his party. He had no time to ask for instructions,
for Parliament was to assemble on the day but one after; and thus was
he driven to a policy of secret influence,--the origin of that school of
corruption which ultimately was to effect the doom of Irish nationality.

I am sorry to be obliged to impose upon my reader even so much of a
digression; but the requirements of my story demand it. I wish, as
briefly, of course, as may be, to place before him a state of society
wherein as yet the arts of corruption had made no great progress, and
in which the open bribery of a subsequent time would have been perfectly
impossible.

This was in reality a great moment in Irish history. The patriotism of
the nation had declared itself not less manfully than practically. The
same avowal which pronounced independence also proclaimed the principles
of free trade, and that the ports of Ireland were open to all foreign
countries not at war with England. It is humiliating enough to contrast
the patriotic spirit of those times with the miserable policy of popular
leaders in our own day; but in the names of the men who then swayed
her counsels we read some of the greatest orators and statesmen of our
country,--a race worthy of nobler successors than those who now trade
upon the wrongs of Ireland, and whose highest aspirations for their
country are in the despotism of an ignorant and intolerant priesthood.

The Duke of Portland was not ill suited to the task before him. A man of
more shining abilities, one who possessed in a higher degree the tact of
winning over his opponents, might have awakened suspicion and
distrust; but his was precisely the stamp and temperament which suggest
confidence; and in his mode