ended, or annulled."[588] It will
be remembered that the original colonists of America were principally
Englishmen, who were driven from their own country by religious
intolerance; yet no sooner had they established themselves in their new
home, than they commenced to practise even more fearful persecutions on
others than those from which they had fled. There was one honorable
exception; the Roman Catholics who fled from persecution in England,
never, even in the plenitude of their power, attempted the slightest
persecution, religious, social, or legal.

It will be seen, then, that the first emigrants to America from the
British dominions, could not have had any special attachment to the
country they had left; that, on the contrary, their feelings were
embittered against the mother country before their departure from her
shores; and after that departure she did nothing to allay the
irritation, but much to increase it. For several centuries after the
arrival of the "May Flower," the number of emigrants from England and
Ireland were, probably, tolerably equal, and by no means numerous. It
was not an age of statistics, and no accurate statistics can be given.

The disruption between the States and England, or rather the causes
which led to it, re-opened whatever feelings there may have been against
the mother country, and at the same time increased its bitterness a
hundredfold. The tide of Irish emigration had set in even then--slowly,
indeed, but surely; and it will be remembered that the Irish in America,
few though they were, became the foremost to fan the flame of rebellion,
and were amongst the first to raise the standard of revolt. The States
obtained a glorious freedom--a freedom which, on the whole, they have
used wisely and well; and even their bitterest enemies cannot deny that
they have formed a powerful nation--a nation which may yet rule the
destinies of the world. Let us endeavour now to estimate in some degree
the influence of Irish emigration on American society. If the history of
Ireland were written in detail up to the present day, fully one-fourth
the detail should comprise a history of the Irish in America. Never in
the world's history has an emigration been so continuous or so
excessive; never in the world's history have emigrants continued so
inseparably united, politically and socially, to the country which they
have left. The cry of "Ireland for the Irish," is uttered as loudly on
the shores of the