d. At the present day, it is to be feared that most impartial men
would regard Ireland, in the event of a great European war, rather as a
source of weakness than of strength. More than seventy years have passed
since the boasted measure of Pitt, and it is unfortunately incontestable
that the lower orders in Ireland are as hostile to the system of
government under which they live as the Hungarian people have ever been
to Austrian, or the Roman to Papal rule; that Irish disloyalty is
multiplying enemies of England wherever the English tongue is spoken;
and that the national sentiment runs so strongly that multitudes of
Irish Catholics look back with deep affection to the Irish Parliament,
although no Catholic could sit within its walls, and although it was
only during the last seven years of its independent existence that
Catholics could vote for its members. Among the opponents of the Union
were many of the most loyal, as well as nearly all the ablest men in
Ireland; and Lord Charlemont, who died shortly before the measure was
consummated, summed up the feelings of many in the emphatic sentence
with which he protested against it. 'It would more than any other
measure,' he said, 'contribute to the separation of two countries the
perpetual connection of which is one of the warmest wishes of my heart.'

"In fact, the Union of 1800 was not only a great crime, but was also,
like most crimes, a great blunder. The manner in which it was carried
was not only morally scandalous; it also entirely vitiated it as a work
of statesmanship. No great political measure can be rationally judged
upon its abstract merits, and without considering the character and the
wishes of the people for whom it is intended. It is now idle to discuss
what might have been the effect of a Union if it had been carried before
1782, when the Parliament was still unemancipated; if it had been the
result of a spontaneous movement of public opinion; if it had been
accompanied by the emancipation of the Catholics. Carried as it was
prematurely, in defiance of the national sentiment of the people and of
the protests of the unbribed talent of the country, it has deranged the
whole course of political development, driven a large proportion of the
people into sullen disloyalty, and almost destroyed healthy public
opinion. In comparing the abundance of political talent in Ireland
during the last century with the striking absence of it at present,
something no doubt ma