s family in flames,
or dragged from his bed by military ruffians, to be hanged at his own
door!

Forgetting then the many causes of discontent with the people of England
which existed in Ireland prior to the year 1782, I shall call the
attention of this country to only those transactions which have taken
place since that time--and indeed to many of those transactions it would
not be necessary to advert at all, were it not for that minute and
elaborate detail which has been made of them by a well known public
character in a late publication,[1] for the purpose of proving that
Ireland deserved what she suffered--that she has been always sottishly
discontented and basely ungrateful. But I call on Englishmen to judge
impartially for themselves--nor let the confident assertion or bold
recrimination of an accused man pre-occupy their decision on the merits
and the sufferings of an unhappy people.

It will scarcely be denied at this day, that the people of Ireland did
right in calling for the independence of their legislature in the year
1782, and in pressing that claim on the British minister, until he
yielded to its force.--It is admitted that Ireland, on that occasion,
while she armed herself to repel the foes of Britain, while her
population poured to her shores to resist the insulting fleet of the
enemy, and preserve her connexion with the empire, acted with the proper
and true spirit of a brave and loyal people in calling on the British
Parliament for a renunciation of that claim to rule her which was
originally founded only on her weakness, and was supported by no other
argument than power. While this then is admitted, let it be remembered,
that they who opposed this just claim of Ireland to be free, must have
been the advocates of a slavish system--and that the people of Ireland
might fairly entertain doubts of the sincere attachment of such men to
her cause.--Let it be remembered, that the men who said to a country
struggling for the legitimate power of governing for itself, "You have
no right to make your own laws--you are materials fit only to be
governed by strangers," were not men in whom that country, when she
succeeded in the struggle, could place much confidence. In fact, she
did not confide in them. It was thought necessary to watch attentively
the measures of men who had reluctantly assented to the manumission of
their country, and who were believed to have such a deeply rooted
attachment to the principles