125,000 men, which England
maintained in Ireland at the time the Act was passed. What the amenities
of the last three years of the eighteenth century cost Ireland we may
judge from these figures: in 1797, while the hangings, burnings and
torturings which brought about the insurrection of the following year
were in an early stage, the national debt of Ireland was under
$20,000,000; three years later that debt amounted to over $130,000,000.
It is profitless to pursue the subject further. We may close it by
saying that hardly can we find in history a story more discreditable to
our common humanity than the conduct of England towards Ireland during
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The French Revolution wrought a salutary change of heart in the
governing class in England, for it must in justice be added that the
tyranny of this class was as keenly felt by the "lower orders" in
England as in Ireland itself. It is fairly certain that only the Reform
Bill and the change of sovreigns which shortly followed prevented an
insurrection of the peasants and servile classes in England which would
have outdone in horrors the French Revolution itself. The Reform Bill
was the final surrender of the baronial class in England; a surrender
rather apparent than real, however, since most of the political and all
the social power in the land still remains in the hands of the
same class.

[Illustration: O'Connell's Statue, Dublin.]

Through the salutary fear which was inspired by the horrors of the
French Revolution, and perhaps through a certain moral awakening, the
governing classes in England came to a less vicious mind in their
dealings with Ireland. They were, therefore, the more ready to respond
to the great national movement headed by Daniel O'Connell, with his
demand that Irishmen might all equally enjoy civil and political rights,
regardless of their form of faith. In 1829, as the result of this great
movement, the Catholics were finally relieved of the burden of penal
laws which, originally laid on them by the Tudors, were rendered even
more irksome and more unjust by Cromwell and William of Nassau,--men in
other things esteemed enlightened and lovers of liberty.

Thus the burden of persecution was finally taken away. To those who
imposed it, the system of Penal Laws will remain a deep dishonor. But to
those who bore that burden it has proved a safeguard of spiritual purity
and faith. The religion of the indigenous race