have been over and over again brought into the House
of Commons with a view to its settlement, and over and over again
they have been cushioned or silently withdrawn. If the question can
be satisfactorily settled, why let it be so, and let us conciliate
the people of Ireland by wise and honorable means. The subject of
the Irish Church must also be considered. I hold in my hand an
extract from the report of the commissioner of the Dublin
_Freeman's Journal_, who is now examining the question. It stated
what will be to you almost incredible--namely, that the population
of the united dioceses of Cashel, Emly, Waterford, and Lismore is
370,978, and that of those only 13,000 are members of the
Established Church, while 340,000 are Roman Catholics. If you had
read of this state of things existing in any other country, you
would call out loudly against it. Such a condition of things, in
which large revenues are devoted, not for the good of the many, but
the few, if it does not justify Fenianism, certainly does justify a
large measure of discontent. I am aware of the difficulties in the
way of settling the question, owing to the fear of a collision
between Protestants and Catholics; but I think Parliament ought to
have the power to make the Irish people contented."

This speech, I believe, affords a fair idea of the opinion of educated
and unprejudiced Englishmen on the Irish question. They do not know much
about Irish history; they have heard a great deal about Irish
grievances, and they have a vague idea that there is something wrong
about the landlords, and something wrong about the ecclesiastical
arrangements of the country. I believe a careful study of Irish history
is essential to the comprehension of the Irish question; and it is
obviously the moral duty of every man who has a voice in the government
of the nation, to make himself master of the subject. I believe there
are honest and honorable men in England, who would stand aghast with
horror if they thoroughly understood the injustices to which Ireland has
been and _still is_ subject. The English, as a nation, profess the most
ardent veneration for liberty. To be a patriot, to desire to free one's
country, unless, indeed, that country happen to have some very close
connexion with their own, is the surest way to obtain ovations and
applause. It is said that circumstances alter