nspiracy--O'Connell as Leader of the Catholic
Party--The Clare Election--O'Connell in the English House of
Parliament--Sir Robert Peel--George IV. visits Ireland--Disturbances in
Ireland from the Union to the year 1834, and their Causes--Parliamentary
Evidence--The "Second Reformation"--Catholic Emancipation--Emigration,
its Causes and Effects--Colonial Policy of England--Statistics of
American Trade and Population--Importance of the Irish and Catholic
Element in America--Conclusion.

[A.D. 1800-1868.]

It is both a mistake and an injustice to suppose that the page of Irish
history closed with the dawn of that summer morning, in the year of
grace 1800, when the parliamentary union of Great Britain and Ireland
was enacted. I have quoted Sir Jonah Barrington's description of the
closing night of the Irish Parliament, because he writes as an
eyewitness, and because few could describe its "last agony" with more
touching eloquence and more vivid truthfulness; but I beg leave, in the
name of my country, to protest against his conclusion, that "Ireland, as
a nation, was extinguished." There never was, and we must almost fear
there never will be, a moment in the history of our nation, in which her
independence was proclaimed more triumphantly or gloriously, than when
O'Connell, the noblest and the best of her sons, obtained Catholic
Emancipation.

The immediate effects of the dissolution of the Irish Parliament were
certainly appalling. The measure was carried on the 7th of June, 1800.
On the 16th of April, 1782, another measure had been carried, to which I
must briefly call your attention. That measure was the independence of
the Irish Parliament. When it passed, Grattan rose once more in the
House, and exclaimed: "Ireland is now a nation! In that new character I
hail her, and bowing to her august presence, I say, _Esto perpetua!"_
period of unexampled prosperity followed. The very effects of a reaction
from conditions under which commerce was purposely restricted and trade
paralyzed by law, to one of comparative freedom, could not fail to
produce such a result. If the Parliament had been reformed when it was
freed, it is probable that Ireland at this moment would be the most
prosperous of nations. But the Parliament was not reformed. The
prosperity which followed was rather the effect of reaction, than of any
real settlement of the Irish question. The land laws, which
unquestionably are _the_ grievance of Ireland, were l